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shehimin · 3 months ago

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Edgaring time!

Tutorial on how to make your own responsive Edgar :D I will try to explain it in really basic terms, like you’ve never touched a puter (which if you’re making this… I’m sure you’ve touched plenty of computers amirite??? EL APLAUSO SEÑOOOREEES).

If you have some experience I tried to highlight the most important things so you won’t have to read everything, this is literally building a website but easier.

I will only show how to make him move like this:

Disclaimer: I’m a yapper.

Choosing an engine First of all you’ll need something that will allow you to display a responsive background, I used LivelyWallpaper since it’s free and open-source (we love open-source).

Choosing an IDE Next is having any IDE to make some silly code! (Unless you can rawdog code… Which would be honestly impressive and you need to slide in my DMs and we will make out) I use Visual Studio!!!

So now that we have those two things we just need to set up the structure we will use.

Project structure

We will now create our project, which I will call “Edgar”, we will include some things inside as follows:

Edgar

img (folder that will contain images) - thumbnail.png (I literally just have a png of his face :]) - [some svgs…]

face.js (script that will make him interactive)

index.html (script that structures his face!)

LivelyInfo,json (script that LivelyWallpaper uses to display your new wallpaper)

style.css (script we will use to paint him!)

All of those scripts are just literally like a “.txt” file but instead of “.txt” we use “.js”, “.html”, etc… You know? We just write stuff and tell the puter it’s in “.{language}”, nothing fancy.

index.html

Basically the way you build his silly little face! Here’s the code:

<!doctype html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Face!</title> <link rel = "stylesheet" type = "text/css" href = "style.css"> </head> <body> <div class="area"> <div class="face"> <div class="eyes"> <div class="eyeR"></div> <div class="eyeL"></div> </div> <div class="mouth"></div> </div> </div> <script src="face.js"></script> </body> </html>

Ok so now some of you will be thinking “Why would you use eyeR and eyeL? Just use eye!“ and you’d be right but I’m a dummy who couldn’t handle making two different instances of the same object and altering it… It’s scary but if you can do it, please please please teach me ;0;!!!

Area comes in handy to the caress function we will implement in the next module (script)! It encapsulates face.

Face just contains the elements inside, trust me it made sense but i can’t remember why…

Eyes contains each different eye, probably here because I wanted to reuse code and it did not work out and when I kept going I was too scared to restructure it.

EyeR/EyeL are the eyes! We will paint them in the “.css��.

Mouth, like the eyeR/eyeL, will be used in the “.css”.

face.js

Here I will only show how to make it so he feels you mouse on top of him! Too ashamed of how I coded the kisses… Believe me, it’s not pretty at all and so sooo repetitive…

// ######################### // ## CONSTANTS ## // ######################### const area = document.querySelector('.area'); const face = document.querySelector('.face'); const mouth = document.querySelector('.mouth'); const eyeL = document.querySelector('.eyeL'); const eyeR = document.querySelector('.eyeR'); // ######################### // ## CARESS HIM ## // ######################### // When the mouse enters the area the face will follow the mouse area.addEventListener('mousemove', (event) => { const rect = area.getBoundingClientRect(); const x = event.clientX - rect.left; const y = event.clientY - rect.top; face.style.left = `${x}px`; face.style.top = `${y}px`; }); // When the mouse leaves the area the face will return to the original position area.addEventListener('mouseout', () => { face.style.left = '50%'; face.style.top = '50%'; });

God bless my past self for explaining it so well, but tbf it’s really simple,,

style.css

body { padding: 0; margin: 0; background: #c9c368; overflow: hidden; } .area { width: 55vh; height: 55vh; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%,-50%); background: transparent; display: flex; } .face { width: 55vh; height: 55vh; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%,-50%); background: transparent; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; transition: 0.5s ease-out; } .mouth { width: 75vh; height: 70vh; position: absolute; bottom: 5vh; background: transparent; border-radius: 100%; border: 1vh solid #000; border-color: transparent transparent black transparent; pointer-events: none; animation: mouth-sad 3s 420s forwards step-end; } .face:hover .mouth { animation: mouth-happy 0.5s forwards; } .eyes { position: relative; bottom: 27%; display: flex; } .eyes .eyeR { position: relative; width: 13vh; height: 13vh; display: block; background: black; margin-right: 11vh; border-radius: 50%; transition: 1s ease } .face:hover .eyeR { transform: translateY(10vh); border-radius: 20px 100% 20px 100%; } .eyes .eyeL { position: relative; width: 13vh; height: 13vh; display: block; background: black; margin-left: 11vh; border-radius: 50%; transition: 1s ease; } .face:hover .eyeL { transform: translateY(10vh); border-radius: 100% 20px 100% 20px; } @keyframes mouth-happy { 0% { background-color: transparent; height: 70vh; width: 75vh; } 100% { border-radius: 0 0 25% 25%; transform: translateY(-10vh); } } @keyframes mouth-sad { 12.5%{ height: 35vh; width: 67vh; } 25% { height: 10vh; width: 60vh; } 37.5% { width: 53vh; border-radius: 0%; border-bottom-color: black; } 50% { width: 60vh; height: 10vh; transform: translateY(11vh); border-radius: 100%; border-color: black transparent transparent transparent; } 62.5% { width: 64vh; height: 20vh; transform: translateY(21vh); } 75% { width: 69vh; height: 40vh; transform: translateY(41vh); } 87.5% { width: 75vh; height: 70vh; transform: translateY(71vh); } 100% { width: 77vh; height: 90vh; border-color: black transparent transparent transparent; transform: translateY(91vh); } }

I didn’t show it but this also makes it so if you don’t pay attention to him he will get sad (mouth-sad, tried to make it as accurate to the movie as possible, that’s why it’s choppy!)

The .hover is what makes him go like a creature when you hover over him, if you want to change it just… Change it! If you’d rather him always have the same expression, delete it!

Anyway, lots of easy stuff, lots of code that I didn’t reuse and I probably should’ve (the eyes!!! Can someone please tell me a way I can just… Mirror the other or something…? There must be a way!!!) So now this is when we do a thinking exercise in which you think about me as like someone who is kind of dumb and take some pity on me.

LivelyInfo.json

{ "AppVersion": "1.0.0.0", "Title": "Edgar", "Thumbnail": "img/thumbnail.png", "Preview": "thumbnail.png", "Desc": "It's me!.", "Author": "Champagne?", "License": "", "Type": 1, "FileName": "index.html" }

Easy stuff!!!

Conclusion

This could've been a project on git but i'm not ready and we're already finished. I'm curious about how this will be seen on mobile and PC,,, i'm not one to post here.

Sorry if I rambled too much or if i didn't explain something good enough! If you have any doubts please don't hesitate to ask.

And if you add any functionality to my code or see improvements please please please tell me, or make your own post!

#edgar electric dreams #electric dreams 1984

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infiniteglitterfall · 6 months ago

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the worst part about the i/p discourse

it's NOT the posters of Nazis with the swastikas on their flags replaced by stars of david. or the pages and pages of blood libel conspiracy theories in instagram posts about why local pride organizers are such big meanies. or the newfound insistence that jews just exaggerate and make up antisemitic incidents to smear the pro-palestine movement....

it's the fact that every. single. time. i try to post anything about any of these things, i end up in a rabbit hole SO DEEP IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO THE BOTTOM.

Yesterday, I saw a --

YOU SEE? I went to Reddit for a second to find the link to the post about the Melbourne protest this week that had people carrying the Nazi-star-of-David posters. But first, I saw a post that began, "All I see on social media and the news is more and more attacks. Who beat up a Jewish family here, who stabbed a 1 year old in front of a synagouge. Those are two examples, I've lost track of all of the other ones."

and I was like, SOMEONE STABBED A ONE YEAR OLD IN FRONT OF A SYNAGOGUE?!?!

And I started to look that up. AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Two days ago, I saw an article about Cincinnati Socialists setting up a table at North Kentucky Pride without asking, it sounds like, to hand out flyers saying the war in Gaza was Netanyahu's "Final Solution" for Palestinians. Cincinnati Pride organizers alerted the NKY Pride organizers, who kicked them out.

I was like, "okay, well, let's see what Cincinnati Socialists say about it." Then I discovered that their instagram not only "names and shames" the two Cincy Pride organizers and one NKY organizer. Which led to the Cincy ones getting so much harassment and violent threats that they resigned....

But also has a related post that goes on for pages and pages of pure blood libel.

So then I sat there fact-checking all their blood libel and finding out that not only was it untrue and impossible, but half the stuff they referenced didn't even exist.

Then I ended up fact-checking things in the "article" that they'd clearly used as their source. Fact-checking things I found while fact-checking those.

Trying to write a Facebook post about how fucked up it all was. Giving up on the Facebook post after several hours because it made more sense to write it on Tumblr, or at least to write it on Tumblr FIRST.

Then I'm also looking at the post they made "naming and shaming" the organizers, which is like... "the Cincy ones are partners! two days after Hamas's incredibly violent and brutal massacre, one of them changed his profile picture to a photo of them honeymooning IN ISRAEL two years ago! they did it through some group that COVERS A LOT OF THE COSTS FOR HONEYMOONS IN ISRAEL!!!!" and "the other one went to a protest of Hamas's massacre!!! with a sign saying to free the hostages!!!"

oh no. the fucking horror. truly how did these genocidal monsters even end up on the pride organizing committee. this is a shanda scandal.

then I'm responding to people's comments, trying to talk them down from horrible positions. telling people things like, "I know it's asking a LOT, but if people could grasp the idea that "going to Israel for your honeymoon" ISN'T "committing genocide," it would be really great. Or that wanting the hostages freed is actually something that both Israeli AND GAZAN protests have called for, and it's only Westerners who are opposed to it. Or that in fact, saying you "Stand with Israel," a few days after an incredibly brutal attack that burned multiple towns to the ground in one day, killed entire families and their pets, an attack which Hamas has promised to repeat "again and again and again" till Israel is violently destroyed... is opposing that attack, NOT calling for genocide."

then i'm like, "oh, i should edit these images to show the correct info, and i can explain that I drew arrows and added the correct info!" so then i'm doing that and working on writing alt text, and holy shit??? how many fucking hours??? did i spend on this?????? just because i read a frigging reddit post that linked to an article about it?????????

and like. i can go through and debunk all that shit in the comments. (and did. i responded to every single comment that believed this shit.) but ultimately, everyone who pulls this shit has way more reach than I do.

just. like. THAT'S ONE ORG IN ONE PLACE. And it was bad enough that I persevered and finished debunking it and commenting on it today and started telling people about it. Do you even know how many more of those I've seen?! How many I would see if I looked for them on purpose?!

The tsunami of deliberate disinformation is SO FUCKING BAD. All of it is SO FUCKING LAYERED. In any single bullshit post, there are SO MANY horrifically bad and wrong assumptions. So many of them are DESIGNED, BY HAMAS, to lead people down the path to "All Zionists should die! Israel should be violently destroyed!"

There were so many comments on a "Free Palestine Melbourne" group's instagram post (Sydney? Could've been Sydney) asking, pointedly, how many Jews are Zionists. What percentage of Jews are Zionists, again?

One (1) had a response telling them it doesn't matter what the percentage is, no percentage would justify collective punishment of Jews.

The rest all said things like, "Too many."

It feels like constantly being lied to. Just constantly being lied to about things I have looked up and verified myself from solid sources, now and in the past, by people I counted as my community.

Then just now I opened Instagram because I hadn't taken screenshots of a couple of the pics I wanted to add. And I'm hit with these:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by jewsinschool (@jewsinschool)

instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jewish on Campus (@jewishoncampus)

instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jewish and Proud (@jewishpridealways)

instagram

Then some brighter posts (including one of a baby bat!!) and then a post which sums up a lot of what I'm feeling right now.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jess Cook (@jessicagcoook)

instagram

It's like, yes, that, plus the uncomfortable sense that some people are getting thisclose to going, "Most Jews are Zionists anyway, so YEAH, I DO think most Jews deserve to die."

#antisemitic tropes #blood libel #depressing discourse #fuck hamas #long post #wall of words #Instagram

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salpho · 5 months ago

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Current plans (rambles and ideas) for the DCTL redrawn project

First off, I just came up with that title on the spot and it works super well so I'll stick with that probably pffh. Follow the tag if interested in participating !! Anyways, here's my rambles.

I wanna do some more research on Chris Hastings. Fellow Bendy wiki staff have pointed out that he adapts the books rather than illustrate them, which I didn't realise had any difference beforehand. Basically means directing stuff like backgrounds, setting, etc from my knowledge. They sourced this user that seems to know a thing or two about him and his work, along with getting an early copy of the graphic novel. I'll do proper research and make a seperate post soon for this.

Moving onto the project itself, I've got some jumbled thoughts I'll try and make sense of-

I'll reread DCTL to understand the book properly, all work going foreward from there

Design work will start after this, all characters will have set, universal designs based off of canon, official (such as meatly's word), book descriptions and more, such as racecoding (I'll do justice for Thomas and Norman) and time period. I'll likely be designing them alone, but I may listen to other participant inputs and ideas to make sure they're the best they can be.

This novel will be drawn from scratch !! We won't base or reference anything off of the original graphic novel, we'll only be using the original DCTL book and its word.

Every page will act as a "map part", basically having one artist do an entire page/pages. Some may want to collaborate with others (such as one person doing the backgrounds with the other doing characters) for their pages which is more than welcome.

Newer/less skilled artists are more than welcome to offer to participate, please don't let your skill level or own perception of your art discourage you !! I'd love to give you all a chance.

I may be pinging those who said they'd be happy to participate once I make the call post. Once ready to make that post, I'll be starting a discord server for communication. This will also include a google doc or something similar so we can get full quality pages from everyone rather than compressed images from the app.

The project's novel will begin with foreword. This will include background for why it was started, clearly state it was made as a protest against the original graphic novel, Mike's view of minorities in fiction and will also state it was made because we care and love this series, and want it to do better. It will credit and link to the artist who drew the original and explain why we believe the artist was mistreated and should've had more time and pay. Stuff of that sort.

Every page will have the artist's signatures/@'s in the margins, and the novel will have a glossary of all who participated.

Things may change, we'll see, but these are the rough plans I've got so far. Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas as usual !!

#dctl redrawn #dreams come to life redrawn #batim #bendy and the ink machine #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #bendy #dctl #dctl bendy #bendy dctl #dctl graphic novel #bendy dreams come to life #dreams come to life #dreams come to life graphic novel

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u-reblogged-a-scam · 2 months ago

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Do not donate your money to, or reblog any posts from, @/sublimedestinybird bc they are a scammer. Take down any of your reblogs if you haven’t already done so.

Ok so I'm usually certain of my claims when I accuse people of being scammers, but there are a few times I'm not 100% sure if I'm right

This is one of those times

So, like those other times I was unsure about an OP, I'll share what I found that caused me to doubt their validity, and I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself if you still feel confortable enough to support them. And if I’m wrong about this one, please let me know and I’ll take this down.

It started when I saw this in my inbox:

I received this ask today, which triggered my suspicions for reasons I’m not entirely sure how to pinpoint; after receiving dozens of daily messages from real Palestinians over the past week or so, this ask just didn’t feel… genuine? Ig? Idk how to explain it, but when you get messages from both real people and scammers alike, tend to notice when something isn’t right.

But like many people who tend to share scams without knowing they’re scams, I don’t like the idea of ignoring a cry for help in the event that it turns out to be real, so I did what I usually do when I’m unsure if an ask is real or not: I looked into the OP

In this case, I used reverse image search to see if OP’s pfp could be found anywhere, and lo and behold, the pfp led me to another tumblr post, where that person received an ask very similar to the one I got, from “pleasantcollectionlove”, and they couldn’t tell if they ask was a scam or not. In the notes of said post, someone else confirmed that the person who sent the ask was, indeed, a scammer, and they used the same pfp that OP is currently using

So, that would mean these two scammers are one and the same, right?

Well, normally it would (scammers tend to stick to one pfp; not always, but man, have I gotten familiar with certain selfies over the past few months), but I didn’t wanna rely on that alone, so I kept looking. While looking for exact matches for the pfp through RIS, I also found a Twitter account with the same pfp; this person is also asking for money, though the reasoning for the money is notably different that what OP provides in their own posts:

It should also be noted that the Twitter account has been around since last August, while OP has only been posting on this blog since September

Does this mean that OP stole the pfp from the Twitter account of someone who honestly needs help? Are OP and the Twitter user the same person? I honestly don’t know, which is why I said at the top of this post that I’m uncertain about this one

However, what I am certain about is a common red flag I recognized that hasn’t proved me wrong yet: the link in OP’s linktree (in their pinned post) leads to an empty PayPal account. If you’ve seen/been tagged in any of my previous call out posts, you know that empty PayPal accounts are ALWAYS included in online scams like this. In this case, the PayPal belongs to “Luciamkira”; this could be OP’s name (or at least the name they actually use for their personal PayPal), but then who’s “Aska”?

This might very well be a scam, which I believe is the case, but whether or not you decide to donate or share the post on the chance it might be real is up to you

If you’ve seen any of my previous posts, you know what I’m going to say next: Never trust a donation post linked to an empty PayPal account unless said link has been verified by a trusted source

Here’s an additional resource to help you spot the red flags of scams moving forward:

And here are some posts that go a little more in depth about the scammers that have been repeatedly spotted:

Tagging as many people in the notes of OP’s fundraiser post as I can; if anyone who sees this can reach out to those in the notes I didn’t tag and let them know this is a scam, that’d be really helpful not just for me, but for them as well

@ibontheweirdwitch @not-a-bot735 @sexywafflecuh @issues-oclock @velesej @alittleprincex @katie-wants-donut @alwaysmellowkryptonite @starsalot @shhoup @darklylovely @dontstoptalkingaboutpalestine @sunnysidefries @fangpunk @sunny-satellites @moonmothbroth

#donation scam #possibly #scam alert #scam warning

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zkylearnstherope · 6 months ago

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AvGeometry [An Analysis]

Disclaimer: This is a very short Analysis for Animation vs. Geometry by Alan Becker. I am not a geometer, (according to Merriam-Webster, a person who specializes in geometry) this purely for fun.

First of all, I will NOT explain everything in the video. I will just focus on answering a few questions to which I found the answer for. I also have some conclusions at the end.

I will leave the in-depth explanations of everything to those YouTubers. Also, I have linked my sources using hyperlinks.

So, let's get into it- shall we?

Let's start with-

Which version of TSC is the main character for this one?

If you read my AvPhysics Analysis, you would realize that I named the TSC with the cowboy hat TSC_0 of Universe D.

Since the start of the AvGeometry video, I immediately realized that this is NOT the same guy from AvMath, since he didn't show signs of aggressiveness with phi Φ.

He's more curious versus the guy in AvMath who attacked Euler's Identity immediately. This is also the same guy who spawned in AvPhysics, TSC_0.

I think this MC is a TSC from a different Universe. I will call him TSC_0 of the AvG Universe.

Now you might ask yourself, why did I gave him the 0 designation?

Because the video ended with another TSC knocking at the point.

Now, you might argue, that this is not a perfect loop because there is a line below the point. While the start of the video, doesn't have that line.

You are right. Again, if you read my AvPhysics Analysis, I said that the TSCs in there are not stuck in a time loop.

It's just an infinite cycle that happens to different versions of them. Everyone spends only a short amount of time inside the singularity.

So the next TSC to arrive will not be TSC_0 but TSC_1.

How did TSC and phi Φ beat that Boss?

To start, let's define a few things. Click the hyperlinks to view my source.

Polyhedron - is any three-dimensional figure with flat faces that are polygons. They intersect at straight, linear edges. The edges themselves intersect at points called vertices.

Tetrakis Hexahedron - It is a Catalan Solid with 24 isosceles triangle faces and 14 vertices. It is the d24 die. It is also a 3-dimensional polyhedron, not 4D.

Now, first of all, the Boss is not 4D. It is two Tetrakis Hexahedrons overlapping each other and rotates at different speeds.

Platonic Solids - a convex polyhedron that is regular, in the sense of a regular polygon. These are also 3D shapes. There are Five Platonic Solids

Note that this not the original image from the website, but I rearranged the rows to highlight my points. I also added the dice names, incase you're more familiar with DnD.

In fighting the Boss, TSC and phi Φ started with lines that has 2 vertices or points. Then they slowly moved to the Platonic Solids, eventually defeating the Boss using a dodecahedron.

The Boss had 14 vertices vs the dodecahedron that had 20.

Now, I can't really say why more vertices is superior. It could be structural integrity, or the idea that the universe's topology and shape, references the shape of dodecahedron.

Or, that the golden ratio is the length from the vertex to the center of the dodecahedron, and is also the ratio of the diagonal of the pentagonal face as demonstrated in the video.

The Hyperdodecahedron and Singularity

Hyperdodecahedron aka 120-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid.) It is the 4-dimensional analogue of the regular dodecahedron. It has 720 pentagonal faces and 600 vertices.

It's basically 4D dodecahedron.

According to ChatGPT, in higher-dimensional geometry and theoretical physics, singularities often refer to points or regions where certain physical quantities become infinite or undefined.

Here's how I see it. If that yellow dot is indeed a singularity, the only explanation I could come up with, is at some point, the hyperdodecahedron's infinite insides would shrink to a single point in its 4-dimensional space.

Fractals

Now I think these are fractals by I cannot be sure. Also, I couldn't get a definite answer as to how fractals would be relevant to singularities.

What I got from ChatGPT were related to the event horizon instead.

That irregularities of the event horizon might have fractal patterns or exhibit fractal characteristics in its shape when examined at a different (smaller) scale.

The visual and structural complexity of the event horizon evoke fractal-like qualities.

Now, this Analysis is a lot shorter, and also inconclusive. I did try my best. My brain is now mush.

#ave fan made #ava salad fest #alan becker #animation vs geometry #animation vs education #animator vs animation #avg second coming

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axreliono · 2 months ago

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an island lost at sea

Chris Feistl x Daniel Van Ness

For the @narcosfandomdiscord's monthlong event, ft prompt #16 from Book of Locally Sourced:

Fanwork that mimics a bottle episode, so the entirety of it takes place in a relatively mundane setting

Warnings: Language, mild mortal peril, incredibly light angst, set during S3 (specifically ep2)

Word count: 5.7k

A/N: This feels so silly but I absolutely had to write something for these two. Vanfeistl you will never leave my brain. Posting this at almost 3am so if it's bad... no it's not.

AO3 link:

- fic under the cut -

MINUTE -1

“Hey.”

It was far beyond the point at which Chris found he could still focus on his work. With the announcement earlier that everything was fucked and over before it had even started, it was a miracle he’d not walked out the door right then and there. Instead, he’d sat at his desk, mulling over Peña’s words for hours, trying to find reasoning, some kind of way out, any loophole, until everyone around him had left and taken the last of his hope with them.

“Hey.”

Everyone, that was, apart from Dan. Chris hadn’t told him what had happened. He was sure Dan would be over the moon at the news, which would only leave Chris to suffer alone. That was a worse fate than the one he’d landed himself in already, and so he had decided to say nothing, just silently packing away his things as fast as humanly possible, throwing open files and unlidded pens into his bag like his life depended on it.

“What are you doing?”

“Packing up. Going home.” Maybe in more than one sense. The job was done; what else was there to do? The Cali team was dissolved permanently. The career criminals they claimed to fight had won with nothing more than a handshake. Some deal. He slung his bag over his shoulder and bolted for the elevator, ready to be out of here and away, somewhere he could actually think.

Footsteps followed him across the empty office floor. The space was lit only with the dim glow of computer screensavers and lamps carelessly left on here and there.

“Hey, man, talk to me. You’re acting weird.”

Weird didn’t begin to cover it, but Chris kept his lips sealed shut, pressing the button and watching the numbers go up.

“Seriously.”

Chris whirled around to stare at him. “Seriously, back off.”

The elevator chimed and the doors opened. Chris stepped inside, expecting that to be the end, with Dan watching from the other side hesitantly. The doors started closing, peace almost in reach, only to be interrupted as Dan ducked in, the doors slamming shut behind him.

“What is your problem?” Chris hissed. He was too tired for this bullshit.

Before Dan could explain himself, the elevator juddered, leaving both of them stumbling. Then, it stopped dead. The two of them stood in silence, staring at each other, waiting for it to spring back to life and start moving again. Instead, the red light illuminating the buttons died.

Perfect.

MINUTE 1

Dan reached across and hit the bell button, and a piercingly loud alarm burst to life, filling the tiny metal box with its wailing.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” Chris asked, plugging his fingers into his ears.

“I panicked, okay?” Dan said, hitting it again. The sound didn’t stop. “Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? To get someone to come and help us?”

“Okay, well, who in the office can save us?” Depending on the answer, they’d either be fine or utterly fucked.

Dan just stared at him, saying nothing. Chris mentally worked through the office, trying to remember who was actually around and only coming up with images of empty desks and logged out computers. Realization dawned on him slowly but surely, and his heart sank. Unless someone was in the toilets, or sitting in a side room with the lights off like some kind of freak, they were alone. Every other fucker had been sensible enough to leave on time, probably lured out by Duffy and Lopez’ promise of goodbye commiseration drinks. Which meant they were trapped in an elevator in an entirely empty office.

“Shit.”

Chris started banging on the doors, to no avail. Dan dug his fingers into the seam of the door, leaning back and straining as he tried to pull them open. They didn’t budge.

“Hey!” Chris yelled as loud as he could, but the sound was lost in the blaring of the alarm.

“I really don’t know if that’s the best solution to get us out of here,” Dan drawled, though the bite wasn’t as powerful as usual. He was hunched over the button pad, wincing as he scanned each one, as if there would be some magic opening code if he just looked closely enough.

“Like you’re doing better.”

Dan whirled around, looking incredulous. “This is your fault.”

“How is this my fault?! You must’ve fucked up the doors jumping in at the last second! Why are you even in here? You’ve never used this elevator in your life. Are you that desperate to piss me off?”

“Hey, fuck you, man.” Dan said, stepping away from the corner. “You’ve been in a bad mood for hours. Did you think I wouldn’t notice you spent three hours staring intensely at a blank document like you were trying to light it on fire with your mind? And tapping your pen like you were trying to bore a hole in the desk?”

“And so you follow me into an elevator?” Chris folded his arms.

Dan ran a hand over his face, sighing deeply. “Can we get the fuck out of here?”

Chris didn’t think so. They’d set off the alarm and nobody had come - not yet anyway. If there was anyone to come. Dan had tried the doors and stared at the instructions. Chris walked over, digging his nails into the gap on either side and pulling as hard as he could.

“I already tried that.”

Chris fell back, surprisingly out of breath. The doors didn’t even have a scratch mark, not a single sign that they’d been pried at, not moved at all from their original position, jammed solidly shut. Okay, so there was no way out of this shitbox metal cage they’d managed to trap themselves in. Fine. Surely there was another way out. Surely these elevators were designed for incidents like this. Maybe that panel on the roof…?

“I’m going to climb on your shoulders,” Chris said, rolling up his shirt sleeves. The hatch would likely have as little give as the doors, but it was better than wasting away in this stupid elevator until someone deigned to return to the office, likely tomorrow morning.

“The fuck you are.” Dan took a step back, looking at Chris like he’d grown an extra head.

“There might be a way out through the roof.”

“What, so we can scale the elevator cables like we’re spies in some action movie? We’ll still have to pry open a different set of jammed doors once we’re on the other side.” Dan looked Chris up and down in a way that suggested he did not believe they were getting up those cables. It would’ve been hurtful if it wasn’t true.

“We’re competent DEA agents. Surely we can work our way out of a trapped elevator.”

“Barely. And clearly not.”

Chris stared at him. His features were contorted into a hard, cold expression, not a single hint of hope mixed in with the despair he was trying so hard to conceal underneath. His hands had definitely started to shake, and despite his even tone, his words were getting harsher and more clipped with every minute that passed.

“You weren’t joking. You’re actually afraid of elevators.”

Dan didn’t meet his eyes this time.

“Oh my fucking god.”

Not only was he trapped in this elevator, he was trapped with someone potentially minutes away from a full-blown breakdown. The day just kept getting better and better.

“Are you fucking stupid? Why the fuck would you follow me in, then?” Chris snapped. He immediately felt guilty for how scathing his words sounded even to him, but everything felt like it was amplified ten times over in here, intensified by the fluorescent lights overhead and echoing off the mirrored walls. “You in love with me or something?”

A heavy silence fell over the two of them, punctuated only by the blaring of the alarm, persistent as ever.

“Actually fuck off,” Dan said, turning back to the keypad.

Chris watched as he pressed all the buttons in order, none of them reacting at all, nothing inside changing, and sunk to the floor. Maybe that was that. Maybe this was just his fate, the perfect cherry on top to an already shitty day. Dan eventually gave up, giving the keypad a final whack before joining him on the floor, curling in on himself in a ball.

“The elevator isn’t going to collapse in,” Chris said, though as soon as the words left his mouth, he wished he hadn’t said them. He had no real confirmation the universe wouldn’t immediately try to prove him wrong.

“And you know this how?”

Chris didn’t have an answer to that.

“You’re convincing yourself as much as you’re convincing me,” Dan said, a hint of smugness crossing his face, briefly extinguishing the fear.

“I am not,” Chris backed up. He wasn’t taking shit from a guy who chose to take stairs instead of the elevator every single day.

Dan just shrugged, shifting back into his corner. So he was perfectly able to cope when it came to jabbing at Chris, it seemed. “If we die in here, at least I’ll be able to say I told you so right before impact.”

Chris buried his head in his hands. This was going to be a long evening.

HOUR 1

The alarm died after an hour of assaulting both their ears, but with the near-deafening tinnitus that followed, it may as well have stayed on. All it meant was they were trapped in silence, and anybody who came into the office from this point forwards would never know they were in here. Chris had tried to think through every option, every possible outcome that could happen depending on what they decided to do from here, and came up with no better answers than to sit and wait. At the very worst, people would be in in the morning. Fucking with the mechanics anymore would only risk sending them to their deaths. So, with no feasible way out and his mind slowly dying off in the now silent, empty elevator, he started walking from end to end of the claustrophobically small box, bored out of his mind and succumbing to stress with every minute that passed. The elevator was exactly three and a half steps by five steps, he’d discovered. The numbers were now seared into his brain, not that they would help him at all.

“Please stop that.” Dan said quietly. He had his head resting against the wall of the elevator and his legs folded underneath him, as far as they’d go into the corner. It didn’t look anywhere approaching comfortable.

“Stop what?”

“Pacing.”

Chris stopped for a minute, and took a deep breath in, wooziness washing over him. He couldn’t be entirely sure he had been breathing properly at any point during the last hour. His reflection watched him from the mirror, already dishevelled and exhausted-looking. It could’ve been the harsh fluorescent lighting overhead, but Chris doubted it. He was wasting away in that office long before he walked in here. If he wanted to file reports and listen back to recordings all day, he may as well have been put on basement duty and locked away with all the evidence.

“Are you going to explain what the hell is up with you?” Dan said, pulling one of his knees up to his chest. “Or are you going to stand there all evening?”

“I’m quite enjoying standing,” Chris said, turning away from the mirror. “Getting my daily exercise in.”

“You could’ve got that easily if you’d taken the stairs,” Dan mumbled, furrowing his brows, but he no longer had the alarm to drown out his words and hide behind.

“Well, I didn’t, and for some reason, neither did you. So you better get used to the idea of sleeping here tonight.”

Dan was looking more and more weary with every second that passed. “You couldn’t pay me to fall asleep in here.”

Chris just sighed and turned back to pacing, unable to stop the nervous energy from rising up in him the second he gave it room to breathe. He didn’t like feeling helpless; his entire job was searching for answers and hunting them down until they came to fruition. In here, he had nowhere to go and nothing to work off. He wasn’t used to hearing his own thoughts. It had been a long time since he’d last let himself sit alone with them, and he was not about to start again now.

“Chris-”

The elevator suddenly let out a long, drawn-out creaking noise, almost a cry of pain. Both of them froze, eyes meeting each others’ in the split second before the elevator dropped suddenly, before jolting to a stop again. Chris let out an admittedly undignified scream, stumbling to grab onto the handrail as his stomach dropped from beneath him. He missed and tripped forwards, barrelling into Dan, both of them crashing into the wall and causing the entire box to shake. Chris looked up at Dan, their faces much closer than was comfortable. He’d gone white as a sheet, one arm grabbing onto the handrail as tightly as possible, the other curled protectively around Chris’ torso. Chris could feel his face heating up with every second that they were in contact, but he couldn’t bring himself to move in case the entire elevator collapsed under him.

“Oh fuck,” He whispered, heart jumping into his throat. Trust them to get themselves into this shit. “Oh shit.”

“I don’t want to die in this shitty evil metal box with you,” Dan said simply, voice quivering. “This is not what I had in mind.”

“Is my company that terrible?” Chris joked, but it fell flat in the silence between them and in the shaking of his own voice. There was only so much bravado could do to salvage a situation like this, after all.

“Can you be serious for one second? Just because you’re being pissy about this stupid Cali decision doesn’t mean we’re free to die in this elevator.” He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut as if the conversation was physically paining him. “Jesus christ.”

Chris stared at him. So he knew all along and said nothing? Acted like it was all fine and to be expected, and that this wasn’t the blow of a century, the humiliation of the entire department that hot on the heels of such a big success with Escobar, they were giving up on Cali over nothing?

“You might not get it because your biggest ambition in life is paperwork and your own comfort,” he snapped, tearing himself out from Dan’s hold and backing away, “but I don’t know how to stand back and watch as the biggest cartel in the world hands over the keys for nothing more than a slap on the wrist when everything I’ve worked towards for years now, trying to painstakingly take them down, gets burned to cinders in an instant.”

Dan didn’t say anything in response, staring him down with that slightly pained expression of his, which told Chris nothing more than he’d just let his stupid big mouth run away with itself. The elevator creaked in agreement.

“My life isn’t over,” Chris clarified, turning away to look back in the mirror, more so convincing himself than Dan at this point. “I care about more than just this stupid job.”

“Sit down before you bring the entire floor down with you,” Dan said quietly.

Chris had the sinking feeling he’d crossed a line somewhere along the way, but he didn’t know when or how to even begin to fix it, so he just sat down in the far corner in silence, resulting to tapping his hands against his knees instead of pacing, in case he really did bring about their untimely deaths.

“Do you have to do that?” Dan watched Chris’ hands, frowning deeply.

“You get to pick one; the pacing or this.”

Dan sighed, like maybe. “Fine.”

Not sure where he went wrong, and still waiting for the inevitable moment that the elevator came crashing down around them, he kept tapping like their fates depended on it.

HOUR 2

“Can you please stop announcing every hour that passes?” Dan gritted out, burying his head in his knees. “This situation is depressing enough as it is.”

Chris shrugged. “It’s like keeping tally marks in prison. Gotta keep my eyes on the prize.”

“There are no prizes for dragging out every godforsaken minute in this place.”

Chris turned to him. It had been almost a full hour since the elevator last made a noise, and they had yet to fall through the floor and splatter across the reception floor, but they had equally not got any further along in getting out of here. He was really starting to doubt that anyone was ever coming back to the office, and had now got to the stage of truly wondering if the universe was personally conspiring against them specifically.

“You never answered me earlier,” he started. Dan looked up with a quizzical expression. “The piss question.”

The other man’s face went suddenly slack with horror. “Please tell me you’re not about to piss right now.”

Chris tried and failed to stifle a laugh. “I’m not. You just never gave me your answer, and now it’s actually pertinent.”

Dan looked defeated. He shuffled forwards, bringing his knees away from his chest. “There is never a socially acceptable time to piss in a trapped elevator.”

“Even if you got in to go to a bathroom on another level? Even if we’re stuck in here for 6 hours?”

“This is why I don’t take the elevator,” Dan muttered to himself.

“To avoid philosophical conundrums?” Chris pulled a face. Dan tried to reach across the elevator to swat at him, but missed by a few centimeters, instead just throwing his arm across the room. “Look, what else is there to talk about in here?”

“I already tried asking you things,” Dan said simply, withdrawing back into his corner. “Instead, you choose to talk about this.”

Chris sighed. He still hadn’t worked his way up to any kind of apology, but the air between them had cleared a bit in the last hour, probably helped along by the knowledge that they weren’t seconds away from perishing in here.

“You knew why I’d been acting off,” Chris’ tapping got louder and more desperate, echoing off the metal walls. “One minor screw-up, not even close to the shit that went down with Escobar, and it’s over. Why even hang around here? We may as well pack up and go home if we’re going to let them pick their own punishment. I don’t get it. No matter how many times I’ve raked over it, I can’t understand why they’d pick this of all the options.”

Dan was watching him with one of those indecipherable looks of his again, somewhere between concern and pity. Chris wasn’t sure he liked it. It made his skin itch.

“They agreed a surrender deal with the Colombian government. There’s nothing we can do to interfere with that.”

“They’re some of the most powerful figures in Colombia. Don’t act like they don’t have all the connections needed to force their way out of this mess entirely unfairly but entirely unscathed.”

Dan ran a hand through his hair, some of the dark strands coming loose and hanging over his forehead. He looked so different in here, in the dim light, blazer abandoned and tie hanging loosely around his neck. More like the man he’d caught glimpses of in the corners of dark bars and rowdy office parties, more like the man he was always trying to provoke out of that impenetrable shell of his. The atmosphere between them was always shifting; it was hard to pinpoint where it would go next when the ground beneath their feet had never quite been steady. They never talked about it, of course, but “back to normal” felt less like the truth every time it happened. Everything managed to lead to something new with them. The prospect usually excited Chris, but here, trapped in this lift with no way out and no next step in sight, it terrified him.

“I’m not happy either,” Dan said simply. “I do give a shit, you know? This is just as much of a blow to me as it is to you. You know the last thing I want is to be sent home, let alone empty-handed. But what do we do? I’m not going to meddle with an entire government. We don’t have the same power as the CIA.”

Chris snorted. “The DEA always gets their slice of the pie, too, you know.”

“So maybe we will this time, too. But my point stands; that isn’t up to us two. We’re nobodies.”

Chris knew he was right. He wasn’t in any position to make decisions like that; he was barely more than an admin lackey at this point. He might’ve been a respected detective in Arizona, but here, he didn’t even have a partner, let alone enough power to oversee these kinds of decisions.

“They’re not even going to have their businesses confiscated,” Chris said quietly. “I can understand them not wanting a repeat situation of Escobar, but Cali pales in comparison to the shit he got up to. Why give them so much?”

“Quiet doesn’t mean dormant,” Dan warned. “They keep a lot under wraps, I’m sure. Doesn’t mean people don’t suffer, definitely doesn’t mean people wouldn’t suffer if they were provoked.”

Chris shifted around, turning to the wall and trying to picture the pinboard in the office splayed across the room. “Gilberto owns enough legitimate businesses to get into bed with politicians. That’s his entire social circle. One of them has got to be involved.”

“Do we know anyone specific? Anyone connected to higher government?”

Chris shook his head. He couldn’t visualize the whole board. “Not without the files.”

“Well, funnily enough, I don’t have them. So now what?”

Chris opened his bags. He’d just sort of thrown things into it in a huff. There were a few files, a few loose sheets that had slipped out of them, too. Mainly the financial stuff Eddie had faxed over after Cornerstone. But maybe, deep within encoded transactions and offshore accounts, there was something, one name or company or link that’d expose the entire thing. Fuck Peña and his instant dismissal. There was something here, Chris just knew it. He just had to find it. He spread the files across the floor, crawling between them on his hands and knees in case the entire thing came falling down.

“Some office,” Dan joked, watching but not making a move to get involved.

“It genuinely isn’t half bad. Get me some tape and some red string, and we’d be set. It’d be quieter than the main office.”

Dan quirked up a single eyebrow. “Not to mention how tiny it is in here, the lack of computers, the fact that we can’t get out and the ever-looming threat of falling two stories.”

Chris couldn’t say much in response to that. “Okay, fine. Fair point.”

It wasn’t the best setup, that much was true, but it was a distraction from his wandering mind, and a welcome one at that. Another hour in silence would kill him off, and he was already starting to feel the effects. Dan shuffled over to him, turning to try and read the files before sitting himself down next to Chris and reaching across to help him unpack the files. Just like that, the last of the tension in the air was gone, both of them wordlessly sorting through the paperwork he’d abandoned as useless earlier in the afternoon, positioning banks together into stacks, handing each other papers of interest, all with a silent agreement and occasional one-word clarifiers or accidental brushes of their hands, moving in perfect synchronicity. The files slowly emptied, dispersed across the floor, forming a mosaic of evidence, but it still didn’t add up. Without more information, without feet on the ground and eyes in the sky tracking when, where and how they were getting all this through, it was useless. No matter how they pieced this together on the elevator floor, no matter the order or the theories, it wouldn’t change the course of events, and the intel would sink to the bottom of a drawer somewhere to gather dust.

Chris bashed his fist into the side of the elevator. Dan only had time to shoot him a concerned look before the elevator juddered, making an ear-splitting creaking noise.

“Chris…” Dan warned, backing up very slowly.

Chris was immediately back in his own corner, hugging his body against the metal walls as tightly as he could. “…Sorry?”

Dan was clinging to the handrail so hard, his knuckles were turning white. “Please, please just sit back down.”

Chris mushed all the files into one big, messy pile, sheepishly shoving them back in his bag before carefully inching back down into a sitting position again. So much for that. They were no further ahead and only closer to an untimely death. What a waste of time.

“Look, you’re not wrong to be doing this,” Dan said. It was uncanny how much he seemed to be able to read Chris’ mind nowadays. Chris wasn’t sure how to feel about it yet. He wasn’t used to being an open book - most people saw him as a noisy but ultimately empty vessel, and that wasn’t such a bad thing as far as he saw it. “This data is useful. We can keep track of the accounts from the office just fine.”

“But what’s the use of that without people to pin actual crimes on? They’re just a bunch of numbers.” Chris buried his head in his hands. He was tired of this shit now. He just wanted to be home, where he could sleep off the terrible day and try again tomorrow.

“All we need to do is find one case. One example of laundering, drug money going through a legitimate business,” Dan explained. “Catching just one of the four leaders in breach of their deal could send the entire thing up in flames.”

Chris froze. He slowly lifted his head to meet Dan’s unwavering gaze. He didn’t seem at all rocked by this information.

“What?”

“They have to cease all illegal operations, right?” He gestured to the file poking out of Chris’ bag. “Maybe it’ll be harder to catch them doing that on the ground, what with their airtight security and eyes everywhere, but we find one dodgy transaction from the comfort of our computers, and we have all the ammunition we need to start the manhunt again.”

It took all of Chris’ energy not to jump up to his feet right there and then. “Laundering in Panama, undeclared offshores in Gibraltar…”

“Financial crimes are still crimes.”

Chris couldn’t stop himself from grinning. They’d found it. A key out of this clusterfuck. Sure, it relied on a lot of luck and good fortune that never seemed to be on their side, but it was something.

“See?” Dan flashed him a smug kind of half-grin. “Not worth throwing your shit around over, after all.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Chris felt a little breathless at the prospect. “We have to get the hell out of here.”

“Well, yes, hasn’t that been your aim from the start…?” Dan started, but Chris was already rising slowly to his feet and tiptoeing as gently as he could towards the door. “What are you doing?”

“Getting us out of here.”

Dan backed up into his corner again. “Absolutely not. You’ve got us into enough shit in this death box already. Get away from those!”

Chris was trying to pry open the doors again, with just as little success as the first time around. “Get up and help me.”

“And if you send us falling to the ground?”

Chris shrugged. “I’ll buy you a nice headstone.”

Dan looked at him for a second, face crinkled up in distaste, before he eventually pulled himself up using the handrail, looking far beyond disappointed. “You won’t be alive to buy me one, asshole.”

Chris rifled through his bag. Surely there was something in there that could pry these doors open. A particularly thin pen? A stray mouse mat? Anything? His search was cut short, though, as Dan brandished something shiny in front of his face. Chris backed up to take it in. A shoehorn, in all its metal glory.

“Why do you own a shoehorn?” Chris said, excitement causing him to immediately bypass the ‘thank you, I owe you my life’ or the ‘how did you know exactly what I needed?’ . Dan rolled his eyes.

“Do you want it or not?”

Chris took it, slotting it between the doors. “Grab the scissors from my bag. We’ll need some kind of counter action, right? Torsion or some shit?”

“Stop pretending you have any idea about physics.” Dan reached in. “These are going to snap instantly.”

Chris just waved him over. “You get the top of the door.”

Dan sighed, positioning himself on the other side of where Chris was crouched and reaching up to jam the scissor blades into the gap, his arm digging into Chris’. God, this elevator was far too small.

“On three.”

“This won’t work.”

“Two. One. Now.”

Both of them strained against the doors, the elevator rattling as they pulled at them. There was a non-zero chance this sent them both on a quick trip down to the first floor at full speed, but Chris was just about ready to lose it. It was about time they got the fuck out of here. The doors creaked and strained, small dents in the metal appearing but no real gap appearing between them. It looked like it wasn’t going to work. After all that, they might actually be stuck here overnight.

Suddenly, the shoehorn in his hand started bending, and the smallest gap, only a centimeter at maximum width, opened up. Chris reached into his bag with his free hand and jammed it with a fountain pen, then moved around to start prying it open with his fingers.

“It’s going to crush your hand, you fucking idiot,” Dan yelled, grabbing the shoehorn and placing it right under the scissors, pulling the other door away from Chris’ fingers until he was red in the face. The doors kept denting, not moving any further, until they suddenly flew open, throwing both of them into the walls at the side before the entire box shifted down again before jolting to a stop.

Chris stared at Dan, gasping for breath and dizzy. Dan looked no better off, eyes squeezed shut and sweat beading on his forehead. Chris dared to roll over and peer out of the newly opened door, waiting to be met with the dark inside of the elevator shaft, and instead staring out onto the reception. He looked down. They were maybe three inches above the ground at most.

“Dan…”

Dan slowly opened his eyes, then quickly darted forwards to take in the scene. “You’re fucking joking me.”

The day wasn’t done with them yet, though. Before either of them could say another word, none other than Stoddard walked right through the front door, humming to himself, only pausing when he saw them sprawled across the floor of the lift, both staring up at him.

“Hi?” He said, looking them up and down.

“Hello.” Dan said, as if everything was completely normal. Chris could barely bring himself to grunt a greeting.

“Are you guys… okay?”

Chris nodded, letting his head collapse to the floor. “Yeah, yeah man. So fine.”

Stoddard just stood there, still staring at them. Chris just wished he’d fuck off already, but he didn’t have the energy to say that. Instead, he forced himself to his feet, dusted himself off and stepped out onto solid ground. He’d never really valued fresh air quite as much as he did now, inhaling like it was his first breath in 26 years. Dan followed him out, looking about as frazzled as he felt.

“I… gotta go pick up some files.” Stoddard said slowly, still watching the two of them suspiciously.

“Party over?” Chris asked.

He shook his head. “I’m just going home.” He stared at the lift expectantly, then back at Chris and Dan where they stood in front of the doors. Chris could have explained what had happened over the last two or so hours to him, to warn him off the inevitable failure he was about to experience, but in his exhausted, elevator-fevered brain, he just stepped out of the way.

“After you.”

Stoddard shot him a final, poorly-concealed, concerned look before stepping around him and up into the lift, dented doors and all. Chris wasn’t sure whether he was just unobservant or if he truly did not care anymore. He couldn’t bring himself to care, either. He turned to Dan.

“So? Shall we get started?”

Dan was watching some unfixed spot on the horizon, clearly in a world of his own. Chris jabbed him in the ribs, and he jumped, finally making eye contact.

“Yeah, alright. But we are taking the stairs this time.”

Chris took one last look at the lift as the doors inched shut behind Stoddard, wobbling the whole time. “Obviously. I’m never getting in that piece of crap again.”

“I’ve been telling you this all along,” Dan said, lips quirking up at the corner.

“Well, I’m sorry, okay? Stairs stay on top. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Is that what you want to hear?”

Dan’s mouth quivered as he clearly tried to repress a smile. He nudged Chris in the arm, though not with enough force to be convincing. “Ass. Come on, then.”

They headed towards the stairs, climbing up them like their entire futures depended on it - because maybe they did - as the distant sound of a familiar alarm ringing to life followed them up.

DAY 0

#narcovember #narcovember prompt roulette #narcos #chris feistl #daniel van ness #chris feistl x daniel van ness #vanfeistl if you will #chraniel if u hate me #narcos s3 #day 16 #book of locally sourced

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radfemfox5 · 1 year ago

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LOL that guy you were arguing with a few days ago changed his entire blog. i think you radicalized him LMFAOOO

here's him still malding about your argument: https://www.tumblr.com/mommabearlaciii/732929534465359873

It's been 3 days, honey. Why are you acting like a martyr? Please move on. Get a job. Or a hobby.

This is doubly hilarious to me because he warns others not to waste their time speaking to radfems while wasting multiple days seething about our conversation, to the point that he changed his whole blog...

Guess I have to address this in its entirety since he won't shut the fuck up about it. Buckle up, gyns.

For some added context as to why I immediately assumed this was a troll when I saw his post, this is what his blog looked like:

Jeez, I thought, what a terrible troll. It was so on the nose as to be comical. I soon realized that he was anything but a troll.

I was incredibly tame in my response to his insanely misogynistic post, to the point where I chided myself afterwards for not going harder on him.

In retrospect, being "civil" with him was the best way to go, as my reblog is simple, concise and clear: woman = female. That's literally it.

In spite of how simple my comment was, he still went on an unhinged rant mere minutes after I pressed reblog. It's honestly not worth reading, but for the sake of transparency I'll include screenshots.

Honestly, I was shocked to see how quickly he typed this whole thing out. Rage must increase your typing speed.

It's pretty funny to me that someone whose blog name used to be "adult human female" got so incredibly mad at me for stating that women are female. Shouldn't you agree with me, if you think trans women are female? Hm.

Following this, I wasn't planning on interacting with him again. I left a one word reply and thought that would be it. He kept replying with questions, which devolved into an extremely long exchange in the replies that had some interesting moments. Like him elaborating on why he believes trans women become female, which boils down to "amalgamation of female-approximate traits = female."

Source for his claim that sex is a bimodal distribution between two poles? No clue.

Basically this:

The graph he provided in lieu of a source:

I'm confused about this graph for multiple reasons, namely, the fact that it conflates sex and gender. Mostly, I'm confused about the extremities. Are the people on the far left of the graph "ultra female", and people on the far right "ultra male"? It's complete nonsense, not to mention that he doesn't provide a link to the source this graph is from, it's a commentated screenshot of a tweet with the graph.

Looking into it, the graph comes from a blog post by a transgender real estate agent. I would not consider this a reliable or credible source whatsoever, especially when the post goes on to say this:

You heard it here first, folks, having a small penis means you're less male, and a larger clitoris means you're less female. That makes total sense. I was half expecting them to include this image:

Back to the post: I attempted to explain to him that being in the female range of a specific trait doesn't mean you're female, without much success.

Speaking with him felt like trying to capture a feral cat. It was like I kept having to appease him with treats to keep him from hissing and scampering off. I've never had this feeling when speaking to any other trans person on this webbed site, they usually either block me immediately or have a conversation and then block me when they realize I actually have valid arguments to make. It was definitely a new experience for me. I have screenshots if anyone cares enough to see the full thing.

He did end up realizing I wasn't as complacent as he thought, and blocked me after leaving another beautiful essay in my DMs. The post that pushed him over the edge? The one where I made fun of the breastfeeding fetishist nominal.naomi. Why? Because I implied that males are ugly slobs that can't take pictures. Lol.

It's funny that this interaction seemingly got him to reconsider his time on Tumblr, to the point that he did a complete 180.

You know what, I'll take it. Some of his posts unintentionally call for gender abolition and acknowledge gendered labour inequalities. Sure, he reinforces gendered stereotypes while doing so, but at least he's saying something.

If I can get a misogynistic lesbian fetishist to change his entire blog to regurgitate basic feminist talking points and think he's owning Le TERFs... That's probably the funniest thing to happen to me here.

To be clear, that doesn't make him any less violent towards women he disagrees with.

To conclude: This entire exchange has made me realize that I don't have that many serious posts on this blog compared to my previous blogs. I'll start working on some more serious posts. If you gyns have any suggestions for subjects I could discuss in more of a serious or analytical tone, feel free to shoot me an ask or a DM.

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nofuneralplease · 9 months ago

Text

Awhile ago on Twitter I saw a peterick manip that I had a lot of fun pulling apart, and part of the fun is that I found out there was some pretty interesting history behind it. In the spirit of trying to use this blog more and being able to write a whole lot more over here I wanted to go into the whole thing in more detail.

Behold! If you're familiar with the Olde Internet and making horribly filtered graphics- things of this nature are very easy to identify. But since I see a lot of people both younger and older than me not spotting it, here's some tips. Different quality of images, different or nonsense light sources, etc. If it seems to good to be true, honey, it probably is- or whatever! But where did these images come from?

This photo is a composite of Patrick Stump (with Albert Maysles) at the CosmoGIRL! Born to Lead Awards on Nov 13, 2007 and Pete Wentz (with Ashlee Simpson) at Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Party on Feb 9, 2008. Here are both the original images and it overlaid at 40% opacity. I'm not still entirely convinced I found a photo of the right angle of the Pete and Ashlee kiss, but it has to be the same event.

Pete was the easiest to date his look and find. The hair length, the "adventurous" hat, the blazer- it all feels pretty typical of that era and his many photo ops with his now ex-wife. I was able to immediately find it by looking for images of Pete and Ashlee at events from 2008, but I wouldn't have needed that much precision to find it...

(See them peeking out from the bottom of this screenshot of the Google results for "Ashlee Simpson Pete Wentz Kiss")

Finding Patrick Stump however took atleast an hour because I had so much confidence his look was from early 2008. Jokes on me! On top of the event being pretty unknown it was actually from late 2007 and now I've seen so many photos of Patrick from those two years I can date specific haircuts down to the week. I'm deeply unhappy about this development.

Now someone might be asking: why the fuck was Albert Maysles hanging out with Fall Out Boy?

If you aren't familiar with the late Albert Maysles he was an American documentary filmmaker best known for the films he made with his brother David. Famously the Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter (1970) and often referenced and parodied documentary Grey Gardens (1975) which is more than I'm able to explain right now .

It was reported by Rolling Stones, MTV News and Indiewire (which I've pulled the below quotes from) that Albert Maysles had expressed interest and was in the process of making a documentary of Fall Out Boy and potentially Decaydance as a record label? Whatever happened to this project, I don't know! I occasionally look for information about it and find a lot of dead links/ends.

However, it is pretty interesting! And a neat piece of history I wouldn't have learned about if I wasn't trying to figure out how a peterick manip was made.

#God I hit the photo limit let me see if I can reblog it and add more #Fall Out Boy #Patrick Stump #Pete Wentz #Albert Maysles #Photo Detective

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ktempestbradford · 2 years ago

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UPDATE: He's home and tweeting.

UPDATE: Ekpeki is on his way back to Nigeria.

This tweet says that he was denied entry to the US and was sent back yesterday. I don't think he's yet in Nigeria, which is why no one has heard from him so far.

Original Post

SFF Community, some of you may be aware of the situation regarding author and editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. If not, the short version is that he flew into LAX on Thursday to attend the NAACP Image Awards Friday and has not been heard from since landing.

Obviously, people are concerned about this. Ekpeki is Nigerian, here on a famously fraught to acquire visa, and US CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) doesn't have the best reputation for treating brown people like humans.

CPB took his phone and that's probably why no one has been able to communicate with him. And some friends of his claim they contacted CPB and got confirmation he was detained by them, but no updates since. I've seen lots of people calling for action and contacting US electeds.

I don't think that will work. Unlike when Ekpeki got the visa, putting pressure on Congressbeings isn't likely to have an affect here because it may be that he technically broke the rules or at least ended up on the wrong side of not very well spelled out rules.

The "best" scenario is that CPB sent him back to Nigeria, though why he's been out of communication so long is a mystery to me. (If anyone has insight, please share.) Here's what may have happened, pieced together with what I'm seeing on Twitter.

Ekpeki initially got his visa to attend WorldCon in September. The B1/B2 visa is for business purposes and tourism and is valid for 2 years(?) but it doesn't mean you can stay in the US for those whole two years. It means you can come in and out for that time.

When you enter, you get a stamp telling you the date you must leave by, though you can leave before then. And as this article explains, sometimes the entry stamper will default to 6 months, as that's the longest, or specify a shorter timeframe.

After WorldCon, Ekpeki wanted to stay in the US to attend World Fantasy a few months after. Not a problem. At the time he indicated that he planned to stay the full 6 months, go back to Nigeria, then come back for ICFA. The timing of all this likely changed when he got the Image Award nomination.

Regardless, he went back to Nigeria for a week, I believe (this is fuzzy and my sources aren't good, so I welcome corrections) before coming back to the US. And this is where I think he made a mistake. Again I point to the article I linked above.

Twitter user DuertoD pointed out something called Visa Carouseling, where a person leaves the US for a short time to then come back and get another 6 month stamp. It's apparently not really allowed to do that. (He goes into a bit more detail here.)

The thing I don't know is whether this is stated anywhere in the documentation. As in, do they say you have to be gone for a certain period before coming back explicitly? Or is it one of those fuzzy things that are up to whoever is working the desk you get to that day?

At any rate, DuertoD also pointed out that Ekpeki said publicly he intended to stay the whole 6 months and also that he had to buy a return ticket he "wouldn’t need", meaning that when he entered the US the first time the US thought he was leaving on a certain date, yet he didn't.

I do not know the details of when that return flight was supposed to have been. From what I gather talking to folks, open-ended stays on this visa are not to the US gov't's liking.

Complicating this whole thing is that a group of trolls have been stalking and harassing Ekpeki for a while now and I know they were aware of him going out then coming back into the country. It's entirely possible they maliciously reported him.

It's entirely possible that CBP wouldn't have noticed or cared on a normal day, but did once they'd been alerted. Also entirely possible they wouldn't have cared if they'd been alerted if Ekpeki wasn't Black, or Nigerian. There's a whole constellation of annoying possibilities.

The reason I said that I don't think getting Congressbeings involved will help is that, in the end, CBP may be entirely within the law to have detained him over concerns of Visa Carouseling. And his rights, such as they are, are very limited from what I understand.

I've heard that there are some efforts by a lawyer to help out, and that may be why Ekpeki isn't already tweeting that he's been sent back to Nigeria (which would be a "best" case at this point… cuz being in CBP custody as a Black person is cause for concern).

In this case, it may end up being a sad but not tragic outcome for Ekpeki. Others who've been flagged for this have been barred from the US for a time, and maybe that will be the case for him.

Thinking to the future, I'd like to see SFF community entities do some work around this whole US visa process and how we can help writers and editors from marginalized groups and countries navigate this better. For now, I hope we find out soon that Oghenechovwe is okay.

If I have any of the details or legal stuff wrong, please let me know! I want to spread good information and will update this post accordingly.

ALSO NOTE: The trolls I mentioned have been all up in the twitter replies and may come here as well. Do Not Engage With Them. They find harassing and provoking people fun and exciting. Block or ignore.

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ddaome-kr · 4 months ago

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🏃‍♂️Suffix -하다

click the read more for a more detailed explanation :) Here's the link to our instagram post!

When you learn Korean, you may come across the word “하다” a lot. However, you may find that sometimes it works as a verb by itself while others seem combined with other words.

하다 is usually used as a verb, meaning “to do something”.

나는 매일 운동을 한다. (I exercise every day.)

나는 어제 공부를 열심히 했다. (I studied very hard yesterday)

To translate more literally word-by-word, the sentences above would look a bit more like “I do exercise every day” or “I did study very hard yesterday”.

However, you can also combine -하다 as a suffix to nouns to make various verbs and adjectives. Basically, -하다 can make nouns into something that has the quality of a verb, which can become a predicate.

Examples for -하다 verbs: 비행하다, 공부하다, 노래하다, 집중하다, 사랑하다

Examples for -하다 adjectives: 건강하다, 순수하다, 중요하다, 유용하다, 가난하다

(check the images above for each meaning and pronunciation!)

So what is the difference between a verb and an adjective in Korean? Well, adjectives, or 형용사, in Korean, aren’t very similar to adjectives in English, which usually refers to words used to describe nouns. In Korean, 형용사, or adjective describes the state or condition of the subject. If you check the meanings for the -하다 adjectives in the images above, you will notice most of them start with “to be”, which is the main difference between the verbs.

A commonly known adjective would be “예쁘다”, which means “pretty” (to be pretty). While both can be conjugated and act as predicates in a sentence there are some key grammatical differences, which is why in Korean we differentiate these two parts of speech. For example, adjectives cannot combine with the word ending -ㄴ다 (present tense ending).

Example:

나는 공부한다. (I study) (O)

나는 예쁘다 (I am pretty) (O) / 나는 예쁜다 (X)

-하다 not only combines with nouns but can also be combined with adverbs or onomatopoeic words, and sometimes other words as well. It even combines with certain dependent nouns too!

하다 as a verb also has many more meanings than just doing something, and it is an extremely versatile word. It can mean “to make” or “to dress/wear” in certain contexts, or could even refer to causation. It’s also used as another auxiliary/assistant verb (보조 동사), usually as the form -게 하다, which makes causatives(사동 표��). However, these are more advanced uses and aren’t the focus of this post, but perhaps in the future we can dive deeper into the various uses of the word “하다”.

Additionally, if you are an advanced learner and know quite a lot about Korean grammar, you may be questioning whether -하다 itself is a suffix or -하- is the suffix while -다 should be seen as a simple ending (종결어미). After all, when you conjugate -하다 words like 공부하다 into 공부하니, 공부하여, you will find that -하- is the suffix adding the new meaning while -다 is just the ending for the base form.

According to 국립국어원(the National Institute of Korean language) -하- is the suffix that makes nouns into verbs while -다 is an ending, but sometimes dictionaries such as the 표준국어대사전 mark it as -하다 (the whole) as a suffix which can be a source of confusion. Since I didn’t want to explain too much about the grammar behind the conjugation of endings, I simply referred to the suffix as -하다 in this post. Of course, this distinction does not have much use for foreigners learning Korean but may be an interesting tidbit for advanced learners or native speakers who are interested in advanced grammar!

Thank you for reading! Please leave a like and reblog if you enjoyed :)

#study korean #learn korean #한국어 #korean #한국어 공부 #한국어 배우기 #language #Korean grammar #grammar #korean langblr

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anendoandfriendo · 1 year ago

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Some New Guidelines on Askbox Accusations/Callouts Since We Have Had This Happen Twice in Our Life Now

...and would like it if it didn't happen again.

[The "Weird It Happened Twice" meme. It's Doofenschmirtz from the TV show Phineas & Ferb stating "If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice." while looking very confused or disconcerted over two image frames.]

Okay so like, here's the thing: if you tell us "X user is Y identity and that's bad," and you give us zero other details we will simply call you a cop and tell you to fuck off.

If you can detail to us "hey, I think you may not have known this. X person is part of Y movement. Here are links Z, A, V, and U along with their web archives detailing how X user is acting and here are links T, B, I, and O to add additional context. Here are links to articles C, F, R, P, and K plus their web archives describing how this is a hate movement that X user is a part of," then maybe we will listen to you.

We might vent about anti-endogenics being bigots for example but we aren't going to like, send specific callouts about specific anti-endogenics or whatever and invade peoples' spaces telling them to not talk to that person or reblog without sourcing our claims that the person or system is anti-endogenic because that would be fucking rude at best. The person we are sending the accusation to may not even know about it!

In addition:

If we are going to be entering someone's inbox to tell them X person is part of Y movement then articles/posts C, F, R, P, and K plus their web archives cannot just be random vents directly from us unless the vent contains pertinent information. We are allowed to be mad, but you probably want to know we are serious about what we are claiming. We expect the same of you.

Regarding the above: this does mean we do not want to hear "and if you support Y then I hope you die in a fire," or similar on a serious discussion post. A vent post might be a much better option for that language. Please see the previous point about vent posts.

"A lot of people accept D bigoted thing in Y community therefore it is a hate movement" nope, wrong! By that logic everyone in your rather benign but possibly uninformed community is actually part of a hate movement down to the last person who does not use the "right" language around you. We hope you realize why this is a very bad path to go down and it is one we are personally trying to heal from.

Screenshots do not count if something is supposedly publicly available where a link would suffice. Unless it is either about something horribly and-or urgently dangerous or we have directly asked you about it, we really do not want to see your personal beef with anyone as seen through the screenshots of DMs/PMs.

Please expect us to fact-check your statements if and when we manage to find the time/energy/motivation to do so. We may not get back to you immediately or even ever but that doesn't necessarily mean we have done nothing either lol.

Hopefully this will make it clear what our standards are when it comes to looking into movements, people, organizations, and groups we know zero information about.

If it is not: we are essentially asking you to put together a cohesive argument defending your opinion the way we were taught (mix of formal and informal with a hint of critical-synthetic thinking). We are not asking for your inferences about what the words in the DSM mean or your assumptions about what a particular group of people are like. We want you to use your resources to do your own research and then explain the most basic, most important points to us along with the footnotes to turn those inferences into an opinion with weight behind it.

For example: if the DSM V says "associated with" trauma when it comes to DID, and you take that to mean a causative relationship, we have some very bad news for you when it comes to science. And here's an extra source for good measure for all of the hateful sysmedicalists out there who believe DID is the only way to be plural and/or that endogenic systems cannot have DID.

Therefore, anything that even infers that DID is proven, beyond a doubt, by specifically trauma and only trauma will be seen to us as anti-science. The DSM says "associated" and we can speculate about the reasons why all day. Speculation still isn't the same as scientific inquiry. How about, instead of letting your hatred over some systems not being the same as you get in your way, you go and do some anti-saneism advocacy in your local neighborhood so systems can exist in public spaces without discrimination?

We are not putting a double standard on anyone, this is the same reaction most people would very reasonably have if you screamed the word fire in a movie theater and there was no actual fire.

-----

Now that this is all cleared up, we can confidently state as follows:

The biggest elephant in the room since we see discorse pop up about it once in a blue moon and it is also the reason we had to bring back the "don't be a cop and assume we are pro- or anti- anything just because we reblog from someone we don't even know" post: we do not know what a radqueer transid is and do not fucking give a shit for the most part. Preliminary conclusions tell us we are likely to be staunchly against anything that is transhateful; that we see no difference between transbodic versus aldernic or chronosian and transage as even if people try to assert there is a distinction, we just don't see it we guess; transspecies and transgender when they are opt-in (and the key phrase IS, in fact, opt-in) are fine we think; and that everything else is on thin fucking ice at best. As soon as you hear a word combined with another word and it's anything besides derogatory you start assuming we are pro-whatever-the-fuck-this-is. We can see this debate going on in our periphery and the hostility and vile attitudes all around is making it fundamentally unsafe for us to say we don't know or do not have enough information. We have seen how groomer accusations go down when it comes to LGBT queer people. Stop it. If these people are just trying to exist in peace we don't want a part in the harassment. If they are harmful then we will find the proof of it one way or another but you are not going to be sending unsubstantiated claims and ad-homniem attacks to our askbox. C'est la vie — keep it on your blog and shut the fuck up if you cannot calmly substantiate your claims while bringing it up to us.

The same goes for random fucking statements like "well I guess I should just die then lmao," about anti-psychiatry stuff. Especially if you are pushing yourself into our notifications and making that sort of claim, and especially if there is nothing in the text stating as such. You are the one who is barging into our space and making umprompted accusations and the onus/burden of proof is on you, not us and not anyone else.

This is also the reason that we tend to lean more pro-ship than anti-ship to be honest? Saying "we don't give much of a damn," is not accurate in the slightest but is also the best phrasing we can come up with for this one unfortunately. We simply think that a lot of folks were not taught media analysis skills one way or another. While the curtains may actually just be blue, we also do not think people should get to say "the curtains were just blue," until they can understand how rhetoric works. This is the mystery "second time," we had this happen to us and it was when we were back on our old (probably termed by now tbh) account @/thatoneweirdhumanisback. It was the same as before but with the added annoyance of this particular system having asked to be our "friend" not more than a month ago. That by itself felt incredibly manipulative weather or not it was intended.

Just because we come to a decision or conclusion that you do not agree with does not mean that we did not listen and if you imply that, you are essentially using the same tactics our abusive former-stepmother used to accuse us of "misbehaving" and being an immoral person for the supposed "misbehavior". We sincerely hope you understand why that is not a great look. Please look up the acronym DARVO and the term gaslighting if you do not. If we see even a hint that is the direction any conversation is going you're getting an immediate block. It isn't a moral judgement on you, it's for our own safety (and possibly yours too if that is how you handle your interpersonal relationships generally — we also get like that when we have a sense we have lost control of our life and we hope you get better if that is truly your situation).

If you are going to send us an accusation about another being in our askbox or DMs and your own emotional investment leads to a failure to follow these guidelines, we're also probably going to block you on sight for that as well. That is not something we want to get involved in. That tells us you are clearly incapable of basic decency at the time the message was sent.

We also hope it is obvious why the same result will occur if you do this in reference to us but if it is not clear that also tells us you are clearly incapable of basic decency at the time the message was sent and in addition you're...probably also pulling something out of context. If we are venting we probably won't be giving any nuanced thought to something. If we are not venting, we think scrolling around our blog for five or so minutes will make it a little more clear to most people how we generally act and react. If someone or somesys didn't even bother to do that they probably aren't worth our time anyways.

Basically, this is a very long-winded way to tell you to not ask us about our opinions, interject and try to influence our opinions (particularly if you are using shame and guilt in doing so), or debate us unless we have openly and clearly invited you to do so.

Guidelines and our opinions (the opinions listed here or elsewhere) can and always will be subject to change dependant on new information we find to be credible.

Find a different blog to satisfy your bloodlust writhing need for hatred.

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misscaptainbear · 2 years ago

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A while back I wrote a blog on how I'd make a soulslike using retro hardware, I'm gonna repost it here :D

Yeah, so the twitter post where I first explained my idea was my most liked/shared post by like a factor of ten. Since there was so much interest, I figured I might as well make a mockup in Unity. Look what you made me do.

Here’s a link to the build, and the controls are detailed on that page too. For the full effect, I’d also recommend using JoyToKey or a similar program to convert controller inputs to key presses, because I was too lazy to implement key rebinding for a mockup. See the itch.io page for suggested bindings.

Also, if you (yes, you!) want to continue this work, the zip file for the build also contains inspiration art, models, game data, and source code. It’s low polish code and almost nothing is systemic, but maybe it’s a springboard for someone who wants to push this project farther. I’d love to see it. The work that I have the rights to (i.e. everything except the inspirational art) is hereby released in the public domain.

Findings

Animation

The first and most noteworthy thing I’ve discovered while implementing is that there were more animations than I anticipated. Like, I figured there’d be a lot, and there were more than that. As of right now, there are 532 player sprites, each at 100x100 pixels, giving us roughly 6.4 mb of sprite data. (assuming indexed image format and smartly cropping fully alpha 8x8 blocks)

Bruh

One of the things we could to further shrink these is to run-length compress them, and also reuse tiles. I considered writing a python script to go over all 8x8 tiles within all sprites, and saving them in a massive lookup table. Then, it would go through all sprites again, replacing the tiles in the sprite with any similar tiles. This would mean, say, the thigh tile from one animation might be the cloak in a different frame if the pixel colors and shapes were sufficiently similar. However, I decided not to because it doesn’t actually have any savings on modern hardware, only on tile based renderers.

I could have also hand deleted specific entire frames of animations and reused similar enough ones - just by eye - but I also wanted to include all of the animations in the data that I distributed, just for the sake of it all being there for anyone who might need it, for whatever reason. I think these techniques might get the total data down to 50-60%, but that still means a ton of data just for the main characters sprites.

I could also cut the animations in half by simply making the character designs so that the left-facing animations can be reused for the right-facing animations, but I felt that put a lot of constraints on enemy design and combat readability, so I didn’t pursue that either.

Turns out tons of animation variants work better on skinned 3D models (which is why I’m pitching my next souls game on the Nintendo 64. Hit me up Bandai Namco!) I chose to do one player model with no costume changes and just a boring sword. Any variants like clothing, weapons, or equipping a shield would have completely blown the animation data budget.

Framerate

You’ll also notice the game runs by default at a low framerate, 15 frames per second (The quality can be changed with the - and + keys during runtime if it causes discomfort). I did this for two reasons. One, it made the animations, which run at a consistent 10 frames per second, feel much more in line with the sprite movement and the camera rotation. Plus, it might accurately simulate the game running on actual hardware; making the game run a quarter at SNES framerate might be required for the “high-fidelity graphics” on show here. (Who knows if the hardware would actually allow that without awful artifacts though, ha). But throttling framerate is a tried and true tactic for better visuals.

Environment

Another thing that surprised me is the amount of reuse on environment assets I was able to get. I was ready to put together a bunch of textures for the walls and floors, but I finished up what I wanted to achieve and found I’d only used 20 64x64 textures. I think the real game would benefit by focusing on unique tilesets to give each zone or level a special feel, and I think that’d be within the budget of a real game.

Environment took about 20 textures total

I also quickly abandoned the differing-heights-of-walls idea I talked about in the first blogpost. The requirements of the way walls are rendered described in the post made certain arrangements of walls impossible, and those were kind of the only level designs I wanted to use. That’s confusing, here’s some drawings to explain what I mean. Basically, having shorter walls in front making a visually tiered level with hedges that obscure the walls behind them just isn’t possible using that technique.

The rendering technique causes gaps where there would be walls behind walls.

While we’re on the topic of environment, I guess I skipped over the way we’d have to z-sort sprites to allow walls to layer correctly over them, and for sprites to draw back to front. That’d be a performance issue too probably.

Palette and Rendering

One of the big wins I had was the palette I set up, I felt it was super moody and conveyed the tone I was going for. It felt muddy and sad and tired. It had pops of blues and greens, but even then they muted and melancholy. To achieve this look, there were three mechanisms here. First, all the sprites and environment textures were palletized to those colors. Then, in-game, I used a fog effect to fade the world to black. Finally, a post processing shader took any pixels outside the gamut and palletized the final game render, so every pixel displayed is within that palette.

The palletization is most noticeable in gradients, where it slightly changes the tone of colors. In a cool retro way, I think.

To create the sprites, I was kind of forced to do it by rendering 3d models (blender files included in the data!). This was due to time and money. As mentioned previously, I would have loved to dress up in costumes and downscale, pixelate, and rotoscope real pictures, but that costs stuff. Also, I’m sure hand-pixelled sprites would absolutely look more appealing, but like I said above, there were just so many animation sprites. The upside to hand authoring is you can have more control of implied movement during animation, and therefore probably fewer frames. All said, I don’t dislike the rendered results, it has a bit of a Diablo 2 look to it, but I wish I had been able to experiment with different techniques, mostly for fun.

I remember loving to see these render breakdowns in gaming magazines and websites back in the day

I think if I had lower-resolution-better-looking sprites, fewer animations using the techniques described above, and designing levels so as to not have to z-sort sprites, it just might be able to run on SNES. Just maybe. A commenter mentioned it might actually run on GBA, and I could see it being possible. Shoutout to the most impressive 3D gba game ever.

One final design note I liked: The ducking mechanic was inspired by Super Mario World. I felt that was a nice homage, and there wasn’t enough buttons for more soulslike interactions like parrying, so it felt like it was a good choice with some mechanical depth with the limited inputs I had available. And, this game being simpler is alright by me - we are theoretically in the realm of before King’s Field.

Summary

So there it is. I said I didn’t have time to implement it, and I did anyway. This is all your fault.

But for real, I really enjoyed tinkering with this, and I’d love to see anything that gets made out of this idea. Hoped you enjoyed reading this!

#soulslike #soulsborn #dark souls #retro games #retro inspired #snes #gamedev #indie dev #game design

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anykindofmusic · 29 days ago

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Artist Review 1

Artist Review 1: Illustrator Rebecca Mock’s GIF works and Brandon Tauszik and his GIF series on "Barbershop"

Find and post images, links, video or other information about each artist.

Create a short bio about each artist.

Compare and contrast their use of the GIF format, identifying similarities and differences.

Choose one work from each to describe in detail and explain why you picked it. (Use your own words. If you chose to include text from an article you should make it clear what text this is and note your sources.)

Ensure you post written response for both to receive full credit. thinking about the their creative approach to making, themes and ideas they investigate with their images.

Rebecca Mock is an illustrator, animator, and also a comic book artist. Her works have been featured around numerous covers and also the amount of clients she has worked with are major in the industry. Such as Playstation, HBO, and The New York Times among many others. Her work moves from cartooning, to illustrations and finally GIFs. The usage of colors is an important feature because her color palettes are vibrant that work well with the environmental works she creates and also how well-crafted her stories are. Even with the cartoon illustrations the lines she utilizes create life for these artworks.

Rebecca Mock, Downward Dog

The GIF above is a yoga themed activity that caught my attention not only because of the differentiation but also to how well it works. The artwork is so simple yet so lively and colorful with the brush strokes included and the values that were added. Another detail I enjoyed was how you don't need to see the faces of the people presented in the artwork because with the hairs you can get enough from the narration.

Brandon Tauszik is an artist that bases himself in images that allow the world to see the lives and submerge themselves into these different universes that coexist in our world. His works focus around GIFs, photography, and film. Each of these categories reflect his artistry and ability to tell stories with his art. The clients that have worked with him have been The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and TIME. His series on Barbershops in Oakland, or Tapered Throne allow the world to read and see their experiences through the usage of Brandon Tauszik's camera along with a few words coming from the barbers themselves.

Brandon Tauszik, Dre (2015)

The following artwork above from Brandon Tauszik comes from the Barbershop series that he used GIFS and testaments from the barbers themselves to tie into the artwork. I chose this specific GIF because of how simple it can be, yet the story is still visible and readable. It's just a GIF that presents a factor to human life, the simple motion and the expression on his face is truly wonderful. The testament he had beside the GIF from Dre was also a story he had given Brandon Tauszik which although it is based on a barbershop he adds so much to the artwork. The body language allows us to also read into the frame, all of these details are open for the audience to observe and also admire the beauty.

Comparisons and Similarities: Between these two artists, they both have excelled in demonstrating beauty and narratives with their artworks. Rebecca Mock's pieces are usually surrounded by a picked out palette that help build in the atmosphere and the feel of the artwork. Brandon Tauszik uses a filter for his barbershop series which still allows the audience to feel and live in the frame that he's carefully captured. For similarities, I believe both of these artists can bring life to their artworks, especially with GIFs. Although they move, they still replay that moment that was created in time for the audience to experience. Lastly, for comparisons Mock and Tauszik use composition in order to tell a story. Whether it be a simple gesture, such as breathing and a slight movement both succeed in this matter.

Sources:

https://folioart.co.uk/illustrator/rebecca-mock/Links to an external site.

https://rebeccamock.com/IllustrationLinks to an external site.

https://brandontauszik.com/Links to an external site.

http://taperedthrone.com/Links to an external site.

https://pulitzercenter.org/people/brandon-tauszik

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bills-bible-basics · 5 months ago

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All of My Page Content is Free to Share https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/all-of-my-page-content-is-free-to-share/ Dear friends, as many of you will already know, for many years now, I have encouraged my online friends to share my work. I have likewise made the rules for sharing my work very clear for many years now as well. But for those of you who may not be aware of my particular sharing rules, because you are a new friend, or perhaps because you have simply forgotten them, allow me to share the following with you for your clarification: 1. If you wish to share my images, KJV Bible Verse Lists, poetry or BBB article announcements, then you must do it the HONEST and PROPER way by using the "Share" link or button, "Retweet" button, or "Retruth" button ONLY. On Facebook, for example, you will find it located next to or underneath each image or text message that I post. I think it depends on what kind of computer or mobile device you are using. 2. Please do NOT download my images from my page, or from any of my albums, or from any other social networks or online sources, and then re-upload them to your own timeline, page or albums. There are some very specific reasons regarding why I request that my work ONLY be shared the PROPER way, as noted above. a. --> It ensures that there is a link back to my page, or else back to an actual page on the Bill's Bible Basics website or blog. In my view, when people break that link back to the place of origin, it is not fair -- and it is dishonest -- considering how many thousands of hours I have invested in creating my currently 7,000+ graphics over the years. Please understand that this is NOT just about giving credit to whom credit is due -- as some people seem to think -- as I more fully explain in the following points below. b. --> It ensures that all of my BBB article links and KJV Bible Verse Lists links are properly transferred to your timeline or page, if there are any listed with my post. As I have mentioned many times before, please understand that my graphics are just the icing on the cake, and are meant to lead my friends and followers to a deeper study of God's Word, by following the links that I provide with each image. In short, if you download my graphics, and then re-upload my images to your own timeline, page or album, or to some other social network in which you personally participate, then any links I provide with my posts will be lost, and your friends will lose the advantage of the deeper Word studies which I provide with each of my images. c. --> I sometimes update my graphics and make better, improved versions of them. If you download and then re-upload my images to your own timeline, page or album, or to some other social network, you will keep older versions of my graphics in circulation, which I obviously do not want to happen. Also, as I just said, by doing that, you also break any associated links I may have included with the graphic. Some people seem to think that uploading my images to their own albums is okay, because all of my images contain my website URL. However, the truth is that we have all grown lazy, and most folks will not take the time to manually type out a URL they see in an image. They prefer easily-accessible, clickable links. Not only that, but unless the graphic is an ad for one of my articles or series, the URL that is on the graphic will only take them to the main page of my website. It will not take them to the actual graphic where they will find article and KJV Bible Verse List links which are directly related to the graphic in question. But there is more. Many of my older graphics display my OLD website domain name. That is, endtimeprophecy .net. For those of you who may not know, I owned that domain name -- as well as endtimeprophecy .org -- for sixteen years. However, for reasons which I explain in articles such as "Tradition or Truth? Old Wine or New Wine?", I relinquished ownership of those two domain names a number of years ago, and have since been using billkochman.com as my only website URL, and Bill's Bible Basics as my only website name. However, the problem is that after I gave up ownership of endtimeprophecy .net, some unscrupulous individual -- or possibly a group of individuals -- bought up the EPN domain name, and for years now has been using the name Endtime Prophecy Net, and the URL endtimeprophecy .net, to sneakily lure people to a website which advertises a hotel chain. On the top of the page, it looks like a very old version of my Endtime Prophecy Net website, but none of the links work. But on the bottom of the page, they have listed a pile of links for their hotel chain. As I mention in the aforementioned article, my efforts to get them to stop such dishonest behavior failed. So, the point is this: If you have any of my older graphics in your online albums, and if those older graphics still happen to have "endtimeprophecy .net" on them instead of "billkochman.com", whether you realize it or not, you are directing your online friends to a bogus website which has absolutely nothing to do with our Christian faith. Sadly, I know for a fact that this is still happening, because even recently, I have seen some of my older images floating around on Facebook with my old domain name on them. So that is another good reason why you should only be using the "Share", "Retweet" or "Retruth" link or button to share my graphics. That way, you can be sure that you are sharing the latest versions of said images. That is, if you are getting them from my BBB website, from my BBB Blog, or from one of the eight social networks in which I currently participate. To reiterate, if you come across any of my graphics online which still have "endtimeprophecy .net" on them, please do not share them. Thank you! Be Honest! Please Don't Cheat, Alter or Steal! Sadly, as some of you will know, for years now, some people -- other Christians, no less -- have used my images in ways in which I do not approve. I freely offer my graphics to all of my online friends. All I ask in return is that you have the decency to NOT alter them in any way -- particularly by not removing my name and website URL from them, or by chopping them up and using parts of them -- and that you share them the PROPER way, by using the "Share", "Retweet" or "Retruth" link or button. Please don't rob others of the blessing of this vast treasure of God's Word, by stealing and altering my graphics, so that people cannot find my timeline, or the Bill's Bible Basics website, or the Bill's Bible Basics Blog. If you are going to share them, share the originals exactly as I create them. Now, if you are not willing to follow the previous simple rules -- which should be easy to do for any honest Christian -- then please do NOT share my graphics at all. I am very serious about this. Some of you have no idea how long and hard I have worked at this ministry for so many years. I am not a spring chicken anymore. Despite the fact that I am growing old, I still work long hours here, and this ministry has taken a serious toll on my health, particularly on my eyes, back, lungs, head and stomach. In recent years I have gotten DVT -- Deep Vein Thrombosis/blood clots -- twice because of it, as well as Acute Bilateral Pulmonary Emboli -- blood clots in all four nodes of my lungs -- and have been hospitalized for sixteen days total, due to the long hours I sit here working on this ministry. So please, show some respect by following the rules. Thank you in advance for your honesty! GBY for respecting my wishes. And thank you for sharing my work. I really appreciate it. There is only so much that I can do to get it out to as many people as possible. So your assistance by honestly sharing my work is a real blessing to me, as well as to others. https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/all-of-my-page-content-is-free-to-share/?feed_id=191080&All%20of%20My%20Page%20Content%20is%20Free%20to%20Share

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