#so I added an invisible piece of art at the top of the screen because things with art to them tend to actually be correctly formatted? We'll

[nikkiissleepy]

Stacky Hacks

How to stack

To start stacking, you need any of the basic bun hairs and the Silent Whisper bows. Note that the Fallen Feather suit hasn't returned on TW/CN since it debuted 2 years ago, so grab it while you can!

If you don't want to keep the bun hair in your hair stack, you start stacking by equipping the bun hair, then clicking on the bows twice. The bows will not show on Nikki and the item will not show as equipped - this is normal. Go back to the hair section and equip the hair you want to use to start stacking, and it will replace the bun hair. Then, click the bows again. This time they will show on Nikki, most likely broken and melted into the ground, but the item itself will not show as selected. This is fine. Select the hair you want to stack - this will not show as equipped or on Nikki. Go back and click the bows again. The broken part by her head should disappear, and your stacked hair will appear.

To stack another hair, select the bows again, then the hair you want to stack (invisible at this point), and then the bows again to make the stacked hair show up. You can keep going until you're satisfied or the game breaks.

If you want to keep the buns in your hair stack, during the start of the process click on the bows only once after selecting the bun, then proceed normally.

Stacked hair dyeing

While layering different coloured hair can look very cool, if you want all your hair in the same colour so it looks more cohesive, you need to use all dyed hairs with the dyes activated. So, no awakened, collab or common items, i.e. hairs that can't be dyed normally, can be dyed through stacking. The colour of the last equipped hair is applied to all the other hairs in the stack.

This can break very easily (it broke for me when i made a stack and then did some dress stacking, any hair i added after that didn't change the colour of the previous stack) so it can help to have a plan starting out and using only solid dyes but it's also fun to experiment, especially with gradient hairs! The recent memory collection hair for example applies edge gradients on all the stacked hairs.

What else can stack

The only things that can't be stacked are hair ornaments, lenses and lipsticks. Dresses can be stacked with more dresses or even tops and bottoms, shoes can be stacked, headwear can be stacked, wings can be stacked (VIP Leonid wings look so cool with the original and awakened stacked...).

Just equip the hair -> select the bows twice -> equip a new hair -> equip a dress -> select the bows once -> equip another dress -> select the bows once, and continue to keep stacking more.

It works similarly for other categories. Handhelds especially benefit from this, because if you stack the same handheld it fixes permanently to Nikki, even on poses that don't usually allow handhelds.

Stacking foundations is a little different - for those, start the glitch (bun, bows twice, new hair) and then select the bows once and you can immediately start stacking foundations without needing to go back and forth with the bow. When you're done stacking, select the bows again so they're unequipped.

Be careful with this though, because every foundation stacked adds extra blush and Nail Salon reset doesn't always work with this.

Resetting glitched parts

The obvious way to fix stacked pieces not going away even after using delete or infecting your main screen set is to just close and reopen the game, but if your net sucks ass like mine and takes forever to reopen the game there's another way!

All you need to do is melt all the stacked items and then go to Nail Salon. Just click twice on all items that you've stacked, more times if necessary - just until the items break and collapse to the floor. Then go to Nails -> Nail Art to open the Nail Salon edit menu, then return to the dressing menu. Nikki should be free of the horrors! If you missed any parts last time they'll still be here, you can just repeat the melting and nail salon visit to fix those too.

It can be easier to identify stacked items by using the delete button first and then just melting whatever is still partially visible, but the delete button can sometimes not work and cause issues instead, so use at your own risk, especially if you've got a lot stacked. If all else fails, just close and reopen the game.

Note that doing the Nails method keeps the stacking glitch active - meaning you don't have to restart from the bun, you can just pick your base item, then bows, and stack from there.

Specifically for the bow melting into the ground, if you go to 3D Studio and back it will disappear, or just switch to a 3D background. You can also keep selecting items and it'll eventually go away.

Things to Avoid

Saving the glitched sets - it's not possible to save stacked items and it's probably best not to try.

Selecting the same hair twice - unless you want to melt it to reset the glitch, this is usually a bad idea and can break the dye stacking. Doesn't apply to different colours of the same hair, those give cool colour variations when stacked and are fun to try.

Returning to home screen without resetting the glitch - actually go for it. Everyone deserves to experience a little Nikki breaking.

Credits and Resources

Most things stacking I learned from people on the official discord server sharing tips and tricks (special thanks to LadyNaty, Adlers and Kami for the video guides). There's also this video and this doc that helped me get started. A Reddit user also shared this post of cool hair combos.

[graveyard-in-the-void]

--- The Jumping Devil --- (Me:  I have no inspiration. Me: Listens to “Jumping Devil” by Living Tombstone. Me: I have inspiration. One day I will explain why I love little Henry so much. Dumbass gremlin bitch. BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY!)

- - -

It was all over the news. Horrifying reports of a killer on the loose. A Serial Killer, with absolutely clear intent. They called him the Jumping Devil. Why? Because he himself called him that. Letters arrived at the police station, were found on the street, cut out of little pieces of newspapers. Parts of the first letter were from the reports of his first murder. “As of yet, there has been no clear pattern established. Everyone is urgently asked to stay inside during these hours and stay clear of any suspicious people on the road. The current investigations-“ The TV was muffled audible from Henry’s bedroom, where he sat and stared at the ceiling, grumpy. He was basically locked inside by his parents. Life was so unfair. He wasn’t scared! He could take care of himself! Bored he held up his plastic gun and shot pellets at the ceiling, accepting that they rained back down, right on his face. No, he wouldn’t stay inside. The city could beg him as much as it wanted. His parents didn’t need to know anyways. Grabbing his bag that he kept in his room always, he gently opened the window by a little bit and then laid down, the lights out, his eyes closed. This was routine. The door opened, his mom entered to check on him and give him a kiss on the forehead- standard too. And then? He was good to go. Crawling out of the window, quietly, he suppressed an excited giggle as his feet hit the cold ground. Freedom! Quickly he made his way along the house, somewhat careful to not be in direct line of sight. Joyful, he took a deep breath. The air was wonderful and it was so SILENT! Music to his ears. Yeah! Now nobody could tell him anything! The world was full of possibilities! The world was- “Hey, kid!” A raspy, low voice almost made him jump. Panicked he turned to see a guy slowly step into the weak light of a faulty lantern. And what a guy it was! He must have been seven feet and a half, more than- five times his size! Surely! It was almost impossible to see anything about his face, aside from his glinting, aggressive eyes and the glint of his cigarette. “What are you doing here on the streets?” “Uhm- I- I lost something and I- d-didn’t want my parents to find out…” No, this WAS intimidating, he wouldn’t lie. This man was much, much more intimidating than he ever imagined another person to be. Even scarier than his dad when he was angry. Oh god, what would this man look like when angry?! Slowly he approached as Henry stumbled backwards. “… shouldn’t be on the streets so late. Bad folks is around to this hour. Especially since recently.” Steady he moved forward, easily being quicker that Henry, grabbing his wrist tightly, causing the boy to cry out. “L-Let go of me! You can’t just- do this! I’ll go home in a bit!” “What did you lose?” Quietly he asked. “I’m not telling you!” Even more impatient the man repeated his words, his raspy tone turning a tad louder. “What did you LOSE? I can’t and won’t let you-” A third, very sharp and cold voice joined. “Let go of the child, right this instant.” They both snapped around seeing a police officer standing there, his gun drawn. Henry made a noise of relief. “P-please office, I just want to go home-“ Slowly the giant man let go of the boy, who promptly rushed to the officer’s side, hiding a bit behind his leg. The police man’s voice turned a whole deal softer as he shortly glanced at Henry. “Is everything okay there?” The stranger spoke up, his voice shaking. “Listen, office, I- it wasn’t- I didn’t try to-“ “You shut your mouth.” Instantly his voice turned cold again. “Slowly on your knees, keep your hands where I can SEE them. Around at this hour, grabbing a child that quite clearly isn’t yours and it is “not” as you’re trying to say? You come with me.” Surprisingly, despite his size, the guy seemed to have tears in his eyes as he slowly went down. “I swear, I was trying to-“ “Better be quiet buddy, everything you tell me now can be used in the court of law. I will call for backup and then you can explain all the way what you were TRYING to do before I arrived. You probably know what it LOOKS like, don’t you? I have nothing but disgust for people like you. Aren’t that confidence when you aren’t writing your little letters mocking the police, huh? I wonder what we will find on you.” The large man was looking down, but as he looked up, for a split second, he saw something shiny beside the guard. The boy beside him spoke suddenly up. “A knife.” “Wh-?” Before the guy could even turn a little he was hit right in the throat, pierced cleanly through then taken back out. The boy was so young, he had to jump both to get the knife in and out, yet did it with a surprising efficiency. When the officer collapsed, he stepped closer to the body, using the clean part of the corpse’s shirt to clean his weapon, before looking at the guy in front of him, who had fallen back in shock. “If you scream or come any closer, I will scream. And I will say it was you. And you know who they’ll believe.” Letting go of the knife, he smiled. “What’s your name?” “M-Malcolm-?” “Cool! I’m Henry. You know why I tell you that?” The man shook his head, mortified. “B-because you will kill me next…?” Puzzled Henry looked at him, then broke out in laughter. Oh, he was trying HARD to keep it down, but it was almost impossible. “Dude. You’re… a billion times stronger than me! Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.” He twirled on the spot, stepping away bit by bit. “I am telling you… because nobody will ever believe you! And I think that’s funny! I think I like you!” The boy laughed again. “Look at you. What can you do? If you stalk me to gather evidence, then… oh buddy boy, the FBI will have a field day with you! And the prison system. You know.” “H-how can you… y-you’re TEN!” Malcolm’s poor mind wasn’t able to handle this. “I am twelve!” Instantly the kid snapped at him. Apparently he hit a nerve. “And I am very mature for my age!” “You just-“ “I just killed a man. And I killed more before. And I will kill more after! Do you know how FUNNY this is? They come to me like I am some sort of great mystery box! But there’s a jumping jack inside, all in there is a little jumping devil that gets them every time! Now they will be MAD though. We killed one of them.” “WE?!” “Well, you were here too!” He snickered. Slowly Malcolm had made it onto his feet, shaken to the core. Henry hummed. “I wouldn’t go out at night anymore, friend. It’s dangerous outside. Especially looking like you. You’re one mask away from every Slasher killer ever! I’m surprised you’re not called Jason or something. Hah!” The man was rubbing his face, tears gently dropping from his eyes. He just saw a man die. “I- I’m- you- this- w-what did you even lose…?” Suspicious Henry looked at him. “… are you senile?” Then he paused, looking at the corpse. “Well, I guess my knife. I hate leaving it behind. Tell you what, if you bring it somewhere I can find it, I’ll take you as my new playmate. Maybe you CAN prove that it was me! Someday. In a few years. But you can’t do that if you’re dead! So…” He leaned over. “… how about we play a game. If you bring me the knife back where I can find it, I will take it as you taking up the challenge. Then I won’t kill you if I see you on the streets randomly at night, okay? If you don’t and I catch you snooping, I will stab you when you least expect it! Or maybe worse!” Boastful the boy rose up. “I got away with so much. It is almost getting boring. Please bring the knife and put it on my route to school somewhere. It would be fun!” And with that, the boy skipped away, humming satisfied. Leaving behind more terror than ever before. Until next time.

[chaoticevilbean]

Four In One : Chapter Three

Training went extremely well for the teens, though Shiro seemed to be slowly losing the will to live and Allura was confused at some of the more... interesting conversations that occurred. Coran wasn't there, busy keeping the ship running smoothly. Only one incident occurred, and that was when Keith underestimated how big Lance's steps were in the invisible maze and he walked right into a wall. After that, Keith was far more careful with his directions and began instructing Lance to slide his foot forward until told to stop, then move to stand in that spot.

Allura called for a break somewhere after Lance won his fourteenth game of lasertag, which was being used as "long-range training". Pidge told Shiro that it was really just a game of "see how long it takes for Lance to find you" after his third win in twelve doboshes. Apparently, flying made you an easy target, but so was having wings out at all, and hiding in one place made it easier for Lance to aim, but moving around made you stand out. The last game, Shiro was out in twenty-six ticks for taking to the skies and trying to shoot everyone down as fast as possible (Lance technically got the shot, but Shiro was out of it for a few doboshes because of the four lasers that hit his chest). Pidge snuck up on Hunk and hit him, but Lance had been scoping his best friend out as well and seen her, and took his opportunity to strike after she shot. Keith almost won, but Lance was actually just luring him in. The emo was supposedly too loud.

"Time for lunch, pala-"

"Lance, drop the gun! I will tase you!" Pidge interrupted Allura in order to rush out of the training room, with Hunk and Keith in tow. Space Dad™ was once again sacrificed for the greater good, otherwise known as the teens' benefit. Allura ignored Shiro's pleas for help and Lance, who was bearing down on his prey with a slightly manic grin in place, instead making a beeline for the kitchen.

Lance strolled in ten doboshes late, whistling a tune as he made himself a plate of pink and orange food goo that looked like bunch of Twixx yogurt. Shiro limped in after him a few ticks later, a haunted look in his eyes. The other humans ignored him, continuing to discuss where the f-bombs would go if they were used in the Lord of the Rings series, Extended Edition. Coran seemed intrigued as to what the story was about, especially since Alteans apparently are just like Elves. Allura was looking between Lance, who had joined in the conversation as soon as he sat down; Shiro, who was eating seemingly out of habit alone; and the rest of them, who were acting as if this was all normal.

Just to be clear, it wasn't.

Lunch came and went rather quickly, though Shiro took his time to finish, knowing that as soon as the group went to the training room, they would finish long-range practice. AKA Lance's dominion. AKA the time to say your prayers, write your will and die. But Coran's stern gaze kept him from taking too long, so the team was back in the hallways in under a varga.

"Alright," Shiro called out as soon as the final game ended. Pidge looked at him from where she had collapsed dramatically on the floor, relieved that they were done. Hunk and Keith both audibly sighed from their own 'death' spots, Lance's gun still trained on Hunk's chest. "Since we seem to be getting better, it's time for close-range fighting. Grab your weapons and we'll get the ring set up. Don't forget your new armor."

The teens rushed to grab their new weapons, those that had them. Coran had adjusted their armor's settings so they could switch to outfits that better fit close-range combat. With glee, each kid pressed the buttons to change.

Keith's armor became light, scale-like plates, layered on his shoulders and chest and back. His legs had similar plating but with smaller pieces. Armguards spread from just below his wrists to just before his elbows, scale-looking as well, but elongated and with more pointed ends near his elbows. His wrist guards connected to fingerless gloves and the armguards with more flexible material, something a bit like leather. The boots were sturdy, with thick soles and protected toes. All of the materials were colored to accentuate Keith's red-hued wings and were smooth despite the plating.

Hunk's armor was much thicker, meant for protection and strength. The chestplate was thick, covering his back, front, shoulders, and a little more on the edges. His legs were fully covered in only slightly lighter pieces, and his arms matched. The boots were thick and stocky, with grooves and near minuscule spikes to allow for better grounding. The armor looked like stone, brown except for a few gold and light brown highlights. Small spikes protruded from the shoulders, elbows and knees, an extra and probably unneeded defense.

Pidge's was far lighter than the others. Varying shades of green, made for quiet movement and small spaces, the material provided padding on the joints and chest. The gloves fit perfectly to her hands, thin enough for full movement but thick enough to give her some protection from sharp objects and heat. Her boots were padded on the sole, but as light as the rest of her armor. All of the greens were arranged in such a way it looked like the shadows of some foliage.

Shiro's armor was befitting his leadership status, black and white and gold. It looked like a modern version of what ancient knights wore on Earth, complete with a gold-embroidered black cape. The armor fit Shiro perfectly conforming to him easily despite the metallic material. A few spikes were strategically placed along his left arm, and his metal one was without any armor at all, though Pidge quickly began babbling about making an upgrade on the tech so it would match the color scheme at least.

Lance's armor was the one that gave them all pause, Pidge even stopping in her talk to stare at the change.

A cape of cerulean hung from his shoulders, attached to two straps that crossed in an X over his chest. Bands of a flexible blue metal wrapped around his biceps and forearms. Small rings of the same metal clung to his knuckles, slim-fitting. A thin material of an almost clear creamy color connected the bands and rings, patterned with small scales by light blue lines. Dark blue trousers cut off at halfway up his calves, the waistline melding seamlessly into the straps on his chest with a belt of chains sewn in to avoid jangling. No shoes formed on his feet; instead, there were bands on his ankles and toes, with the connecting fabric the same as on his arms.

"Where's your armor, Lance," Hunk asked, moving around his friend in a circle as if there would be more to the outfit when he did. Lance was just as shocked as the others, though one look at Coran's knowing smile and he could guess the reason behind his sparse clothing. Two down, five to go. Coran knows all.

"Um, Coran, are you sure this is a good idea?" Shiro looked at the Altean in concern. All of the outfits were both stylish and functional, but to those who didn't know what Lance's wings looked like, the Blue Paladin's armor was severely lacking in the functional department.

"Of course, Number One," Coran chirped, turning on his heel to swiftly walk over to the control room. "I'll start on simple simulation as a warm-up, and we'll go from there!" The words left no room for argument, and they all rushed to put on their helmets. Matching their armor patterns, Keith's was shaped to seem like a dragon's head, covering all of his head except his face. A thin transparent screen that was shaped like a small flame extended over his right eye, meant for transmissions. Hunk's helmet was similiar, though a bit thicker on the top and looked like a mass of stone and rubble mashed together. The screen was for him was shaped like a clip-art mountain. Pidge's helmet was a wreath of cording, wrapping around her forehead and clipping to her ears. The vine-like green pulled her hair out of her face, and a leaf displayed information. The back of her head had a bit more covering, 'leaves' adding protective surface area. Shiro's was as traditional as the rest of his armor, the helmet's visor was modernized with high-tech eye pieces that shined gold. Lance's helmet was more like a crown, a band of the blue metal on his arms encircling his forehead under his hairline. The scale-patterned fabric hung down in strips on either side of his eyes and all around his head, connecting with another band that Lance clipped on around his throat. A teardrop-shaped screen hung down from the top band, directly in front of his eye and looking almost like a jewel.

The simulation started quickly, a few gladiators rising from the floor. Most of them had swords, though a few had simple guns to test how well they could take down a long-range opponent via close-range attack. Shiro, Keith and Pidge had their regular weapons, while Hunk and Lance's bayards shifted the moment they switched to their armor to close-range. Hunk had a large club, meant to cater to his strength. Lance had a rapier, the blade perfectly weighted to his hands and light-weight to provide speed.

The team lunged forward instantly, taking down the gladiators with ease. The next level started once they finished, not giving them a breather. Shields were activated and deactivated as they attacked and protected each other. Lance noticed that the group was gravitating towards him as the levels passed, due to his armor, or lack thereof. As much as the sentiment was nice, he knew that they needed to stop and spread themselves out equally. He needed a plan to show them he would be okay, and when a large group of opponents rose a little ways away from the others, but close enough to him, he struck. With a large warcry, Lance charged forward, drawing the attention of everyone on the field. Ignoring the worried calls of his Space Flock, the teen cut through the gladiators, dodging their retaliating blows with his flexibility.

"Are you guys gonna fight like we did before or are you gonna keep worrying about my lack of safety? Cuz I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I hold the record for most injuries regardless of attire!" Lance teased the others as he finished off the last two in the group, receiving only a small cut on his upper arm. He wouldn't even need a bandage. Hunk caught on first, slipping back into their normal routine easily. Pidge, Shiro and Keith promptly followed, Lance rejoining the team's formation.

Falling into the rhythm of battle was simple and effortless, and Lance found himself moving solely out of muscle memory as the robots used the Galra tactics they were programmed with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lance was nervous to finally join the Garrison. He was able to find his dorm room easily and had unpacked in a matter of minutes. Now, he simply waited for his roommate to arrive. Malosi Garrett was the other name on the little plaque, and Lance had been bored enough to translate the name. Apparently, Malosi was 'strong' in Samoan, but that told him little about the boy he was going to share a living space with. Was he called strong because he was bold, or because he was physically strong, or something else entirely?

The questions ground to a halt as the door suddenly opened, a large bag the first thing Lance saw. Right after it was a boy with a yellow headband and dark skin, broad-shouldered and tall.

"Oh, hi!" The boy hastily dropped his bags onto his bed, turning to face his roommate just as fast. "I'm Malosi Garrett! It's nice to meet you! Well, I mean we technically haven't met yet because I don't know your name, but I think this counts as meeting. Sorry if I'm rambling, you probably think I'm a dork. I'll just get to work on unpacking." Words tumbled from Malosi's mouth faster than water through a strainer. Lance was struck by how low this dude's self-confidence was and how much he reminded Lance of his brother Marco. He chuckled softly to himself, before standing and walking leisurely over to Malosi.

"Anything I can do to help, mi hermano?" Malosi looked over at him, and a beam was quick to overtake his features.

"Sure thing," he said, and that was that. The two of them finished unpacking after longer than Lance had taken, but less time than it would've taken Malosi alone. He had brought a lot of recipes and scraps of projects and medication for his anxiety. It was almost noon when they were done, and both of them decided to wait a bit before using the communal kitchen that they shared with three other rooms to make lunch.

"Thanks for helping me," Malosi told his new friend, pulling his phone out and staring at the screen, though his eyes frequently glanced back at Lance.

"No problem, mi hermano," Lance assured, using his new title for the other teen.

"But it wasn't 'no problem'," Malosi challenged. "It took a lot of time, and you didn't have to do it."

"Where's all this coming from, mi hermano?" Lance inquired. "You're definitely worth any effort, a hunk like yourself."

"I'm no hunk."

"Yes, you are. You're name is literally Strong. You have to be a hunk. It's like, the law or something." Malosi looked up from his phone in surprise.

"You translated my name?"

"I was bored, and I wanted to know what Malosi meant. But now I think I'll call you Hunk, so you know how guapo you are."

"You don't need to do that, loʻu uso," Malosi blushed.

"Too bad, Hunk. You, mi hermano, are no longer allowed to think so lowly of yourself. Confidence is key," Lance chirped to the newly dubbed Hunk. After a moment, Lance added, "What does loʻu uso mean?"

"It means mi hermano," Hunk grinned.

The two were inseparable after that, and Hunk asked Lance to groom his wings after only a week together, around the same time Iverson pulled him aside. Lance assured Hunk that his hidden wings was not distrust, but a different, private reason, and quickly suggested his roommate "groom" his hair. Hunk never pushed the subject, taking his friend's word.

Neither of the duo ever judged each other, not even when Hunk said he was going to grow his hair out so he could try braiding it, or when Lance asked his brother in all but blood to help him put on makeup. Their bond never strained or stretched, not over school breaks or when one met someone new and hung out a bit less. Pidge's presence only added to their bond as they both tried to add the other boy to their mini-flock, not that either would admit to doing so.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The last gladiator fell and a small bell sound rang through the arena, drawing Lance from his thoughts. Hunk was the one to swing the final blow, and Lance whooped at his best friend's success.

"¡Bien hecho, Malosi, mi hermano!" Lance crowed, dropping his rapier and jumping on Hunk's back with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, which is to say a lot. Well done, Malosi, my brother! Hunk's arms immediately came up to hold Lance's legs, now giving him a piggyback ride.

"Faʻafetai lava, loʻu uso e! Sa fai sina malie!" Hunk chuckled. Thank you, my brother! It was a little fun!

"Lo fue, ¿no? ¡Y eras muy guapo cuando aplastaste a ese robot!" It was, wasn't it? And you were very handsome when you smashed that robot!

"Anyone want to translate whatever that was?" Pidge butted in, her hand raised like she was a student in a classroom. Hunk smirked at the smaller paladin.

"Lance and I are bilingual and I taught him Samoan and he taught me Spanish, so we sometimes talk to each other in our native language. Usually we're alone, but I guess Lance got excited. Ain't that right, aulelei?"

"Yeah, lo siento, guapo." Lance rubbed his neck sheepishly, before turning to see the even more confuzzled looks of his companions. He sighed before translating. Yeah, I'm sorry, handsome.

"I congratulated Hunk, he said thank you, we said the training was kinda fun, and I told him he looked handsome. Aulelei means beautiful and guapo means handsome. We like calling each other that."

"What about Malosi?" Shiro asked. "That didn't sound like it was Spanish."

"It's not," Hunk confirmed. "My name is Malosi, whi-"

"Hold up, I thought your name was Hunk?" Keith all but cried.

"Yeah, and you thought my name was Taylor because that was my nickname in class," Lance quipped. The silence following caused him to turn once more to look at the Red Paladin, only to see him as red as his title.

"You thought his name was Taylor, didn't you?" Hunk deadpanned. Keith nodded as he stared at the ground. Shiro was attempting to hide his amusement, but Pidge didn't, instead full on cackling.

"But I guess since Lance has pretty much always called me Hunk, it makes sense that most people would think that's my real name," the Samoan continued, as though Lance wasn't currently dying of laughter on his shoulders. "Malosi is my actual name. It means 'strong' in Samoan."

"So you two call each other beautiful, handsome, strong and hunk?" Shiro clarified, brow furrowed. The duo affirmed this, before Hunk jumped back at the two Alteans that were suddenly right beside them.

"What is this Spanish?" Allura asked excitedly. "I thought humans were the only native sentient species on Earth?"

"We are," Lance spoke slowly, "but we have multiple languages because of we have multiple different cultures and countries. I'm from Cuba, so I speak Spanish as my first language, and Hunk is Samoan. The language that we all collectively use is called English, and it's the only one in the universal translator you aliens use. Hunk learned Spanish and a bit of Swedish because he likes IKEA stuff, and I also know Samoan, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, German, and I'm trying to learn Russian, Altean, and Galran. And maybe Balmeran, if I can get a communication to Shay."

"He's one of those super linguists that learn every language they can and therefore understand most people," Hunk interjected.

"I know Italian, too," Pidge huffed out, still catching her breath from the laughing she did.

"I'm Japanese."

"I know some Korean," Keith inputted, obviously trying to draw away from his younger self's mistake.

"Amazing," Allura breathed. "I didn't know humans were so diverse! And why is it you learned so many languages, Lance?"

"I learned Samoan for Hunk; Italian for Pidge; Korean for Keith; Japanese for Shiro; Chinese for the little Chinese place that's near my house in Cuba with the sweet family running it; German for my friend Sophia; Russian for Dominic, my sister's husband; Altean for Allura and Coran and so I can read some stuff in the library; Galran for Keith and missions; and Balmeran for Shay because we're trying to keep in touch." Lance ticked off the languages, seemingly unaware of the turmoil in all but the Yellow Paladin. The Cuban boy had always learned whatever he could to make his friends feel better, and Hunk had seen it firsthand when Lance had semi-successfully made a traditional dish he had heard his roommate mention when he was homesick. It wasn't the best, but it was enjoyable all the same.

The others had no experience with the Lance that learned his friend's language and made their favorite dishes as best he could and once helped Hunk figure out what his first tattoo was gonna be.

"Lance, I don't even know Galran," Keith mused, still wrapping his head around the fact that he was twice on the list and he was more Texan than Korean or Galran.

"But you're still part Galra, so I want to be prepared for when you learn it or when you need to translate something you find about your heritage."

"I'm done!" Pidge declared, walking away. "I'll be working on some coding before dinner! Come get me when Lance stops being so quiznacking good! First he finds a way to let us groom him, then he shows himself as a self-sacrificial idiot, and now he's somehow learned every language! When will it end?" Pidge kept loudly muttering to herself as she left the room. A few ticks after her absence, the team busted out laughing, Shiro and Keith leaving to shower and Hunk to start on dinner. Lance waited, gesturing for the Alteans to do so as well.

"What did you need, my boy?" Coran queried once the others were definitely out of earshot. Lance hastily closed and locked the training room doors, turning to face the advisor and princess nervously. With a deep breath, Lance pushed his wings out, spreading them just a bit. With the size of his wings, it was still easy to see all four of his wings when he stretched.

"Oh, Lance, those are beautiful," Allura gushed, calmly striding over to his side.

"They are indeed, my boy," Coran marvelled. "I don't fully understand why you would hide them."

"Well, they're impossible," Lance explained, beaming at the praise. "On Earth, some mutations are strange and not as accepted as others. Shiro's scales would be one, though it's rather small so people wouldn't make such a big deal. Pidge's and Hunk's would be considered beautiful more often than not. Keith's would definitely get people in an uproar. Wings like mine would make me an outcast in a tick. My town was accepting of me, and my family never once treated me badly, but I've heard enough stories of people with big mutations getting attacked to risk it."

"So, I take it you're planning on telling the others?"

"Yeah, and I was hoping you could help." The Alteans looked at each other, smiled, and turned back.

"How can we help?"

[harrisonfletcherqut]

Week 10 - Assignment 3 Development Progress

Supermarket Slugger is wheeling its way into a very playable state. I’ll break this post down into a few sections to show where the game is at.

Art / Visuals

I’ll talk art first since it’s what has been worked on the most so far. This week I’ve been hard at work making assets for the game, mostly environmental props. The layout isn’t finalised but here is how the new environment is looking so far:

Obviously, the map is much bigger, but there are the same amount of enemy spawns and overall, the environment is a similar layout to what was in the first version, just larger and far better looking. I don’t have a comprehensive list of all assets and props planned but I do have plenty of potential ideas. Here’s a few:

Butcher / meat section

Slurpee machine

A shorter fridge with the door on the top. I have no idea what that’s actually called.

Plants and floor signs

Signs for naming different sections of the map, hanging from the ceiling (this would need some kind of slight parallax effect to look natural)

A display for Dingles’ Chips, where all the cans are sold out.

So far I have an entry gate but I’m planning on an exit gate as well and will have these open up when enemies walk through them.

A shopping cart section.

In the development post for the first version of the game I talked about the issue with using characters with a different view angle than the environment. As can be seen in the image I’ve decided that the new environment won’t have props with half the traditional angle and half a bird’s eye view. I do want to update the player and enemies with better sprites that fit the environment but that is a big undertaking and will likely take the same amount of time as all the environment props.

Gameplay & Design

So far, I haven’t gone too deep into extra ideas and have mostly focused on fixing what was already in the game and implementing features that I had already planned but missed last time. There are also little tweaks to gameplay here and there that I would just implement as I thought of them since they were easy. For example, I made it that the shopping cart enemy can actually kill the normal enemies when they plow through the level. Going from first thought to implementing it took about a minute or two and simple changes like that all together go a long way to making the game play better.

There is one feature that was not planned for the original game that I now feel will be a necessary addition – a third enemy. So far only two enemies exist, and one of them is only seen on screen for a maximum of three or four seconds. To me it became somewhat boring to play with only one main enemy and I feel after a minute or so of game time the player should be surprised with a boss type enemy to throw down with. I’ve decided that this should be a larger enemy that throws bits and pieces of garbage and empty boxes and cans at you.

In my opinion the most important thing right now (apart from the swing mechanic) is the new environment. The old environment gets boring FAST and I wanted to ensure the new level was large enough to not get bored of so quickly. To go along with the new environment, I’ve zoomed in the camera to move with the player and stop at the map boundaries. In the original game I had no idea how to implement this since I had everything on different layers and introducing a moving camera broke everything. I found out that I was implementing this completely wrong and that everything in the environment should be on the same layer, just with different Z-orders to move them behind and in front of each other. Already I think this has made a huge difference in gameplay feel. It also brings anew challenge in that the player can’t see everything on the map at once, and is more inclined to move around the map.

Bugs and Issues

One issue that still hasn’t been fixed is the pathfinding for enemies. The reason enemies get stuck on objects frequently is because there’s nothing telling them to navigate around, only a collision detection to stop them from walking through an object. Something I didn’t actually notice until recently was the pathfinding behaviour tools in GDevelop. Tom is looking into this soon and will implement it if it works. For the previously mentioned swing mechanic, the only things I’ve done to try and fix this was simply doubling the size of the swing hitbox and making it more forgiving when facing multiple enemies. So far, the system is actually identical to the system that fires chips out of the can. A large invisible square is spawned on the left click and moves forward for about a second until a timer runs out and deletes it. Originally the box would delete when in contact with an enemy, but this became a problem when facing multiple enemies, as the box could only take out one at a time. Changing these simple elements made the swing mechanic far more responsive but unfortunately, it’s still too difficult to use in game effectively. I don’t actually know what the problem is with this, as in my head it SHOULD be working perfectly. Sometimes the mechanic works well, other times it fails completely and gets the player killed. Tom had a look at this but also could not figure out the problem. Once again this is a major entry on the priorities list.

There was also an unintentional “feature” of the original game where you could shoot and swing at the same time essentially making you an unstoppable killing machine to anything in front of you. I wasn’t even aware of this until Tom played the game, and I likely never would have attempted it which does show the value of playtests and the things they can reveal. Tom went ahead and fixed this issue and cleaned up the spaghetti platter that was my event system.

Goals for Next Week

The update I plan to have finished by next week is big and is a major improvement over the original game. So far, I think I’m on track to finish it before playtesting starts. About half of the environment props still need to be made, and many more features need to be implemented.

Thoughts On the Textbook and Influence

The most influential element the textbook (Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton) has had on the game is where I’ve been implementing risk vs reward mechanics. Mostly this has been with where powerups will spawn. There will be three locations for powerup spawns. The first of these being randomly around the map in the line of sight of the shopping carts. Secondly, the self serve section will have a powerup spawn regularly. This section is a small enclosed area with an enemy spawn inside of it, so its a dangerous risk to go, as the player will be able to get swarmed on both sides with no escape. Thirdly I’ve also decided that either the shopping carts or the un-made third enemy will drop a powerup on death. If the player wants to avoid these enemies, they can, but they’re risking losing out on a powerful reward and a significant increase in score points.

Another section of the textbook I’m taking a lot of inspiration from is the section on fun and accessibility (chapter 11). I’ve tried to keep controls as simple as possible, without adding any unnecessary complications. Another goal is that any player can very quickly pick up the game and understand it and have fun without needing to play for any significant amount of time. Though we haven’t had any official “blind” playtests yet I’ve tested it with a few friends who enjoyed it and found the game fun with just the right amount of challenge. If what we have so far is already fun then I’m confident the final product will turn out well in that regard.

References:

Fullerton, T. (2019) Game design workshop: a playcentric approach to creating innovative games. AK Peters/CRC Press.

[riotatthemovies]

Angel Fist (1993)

From Director Cirio H. Santiago the man who made sooooo many action movies on the super cheap in Manila for producer Roger Corman.  Cirio H. Santiago is more famous for TNT Jackson and Firecracker which are even more similar than they should be with later made and even dumber Angel Fist.

The plot is.. I think.. it's not easy to pay attention to... is a competitive martials arts figure is killed when she witnesses a UN delegate being murdered by ninjas. Her sister is played Cat Sassoon who is a detective and also a martial artists. Cat goes to the Philippines trying to infiltrate the underground world  to find her sisters murders which leads her into a martial arts tournament and a rebel terrorist organisation... you know like most murder mysteries do.

Here we show the very obviously dumb and sexis male just added in to spice things up. Does our tough as nails femme fatale hook up with him somehow... spoiler.. yes she does and fucked if I know why.

What makes this movie different from movies like Firecracker is not much (there are scenes that are direct remake scenes) but the odder choices of cast. I was attracted to this ball of cheese because the involvement of Melissa Moore. Melissa was basically a comedic scream queen from classic like Sorority House Massacre 2, Invisible Maniac, Vampire Cop and most know as the nympho cop from Samurai Cop. She is a super tall blonde bombshell that looks much less fake then many of her scream queen peers. She always seemed legitimately cute and funny. She is now a figure for the kentucky derby due to her love of horses... which is odd yet suiting for her beauty,  She is not in the movie much but when she is she is actually pretty good. For someone who did not do action films her scenes were pretty good and she gave it her all. NOW this maybe just because everyone else looks clumsy and dumb but regardless I give Melissa cred for stepping out of her element. I mean she does fight a guy with a buzzsaw at one point. 

Look he legit went after her with a buzzsaw... Melissa you are badass.

This movie does boast itself as if it's a Cynthia Rothrock level action flick and film it is filmed honestly like one it sure is not one. Especially when you watch the main actress Cat Sassoon. It says on the cover of this movie that she was World Karate Champion... aaaaand I'm thinking that is a lie. Cat Sassoon was the daughter of world famous hair mogel Vidal Sassoon.  She was married off at age 15 to an Italian film producers son while already severals into model around the world. I have looked or her martial arts credits online and as of yet have found nothing but that could be because it is just shadowed in her starlet life and tabloid fame. She would later appear in Blackbelt 1 and 2 and not too many years later pass away of a drug overdose at 33 years old. Cat was 22 when Angel Fist was being made and she looks much older. You spend most of the movie looking at her plastic surgery and odd makeup choices. At some points with the poor film quality it makes her make up job look like she is in accidental black face, NOW may I say I am not her to shame her but her style is so distracting as it makes you not notice how sloppy her martial arts are, it even distracts you from the multiple nude group shower scenes and her top less fight scene (that again is very much like in Firecracker). 

Oh look Ariana Grande joined the deadly martial arts tournament.. no thats Cat Sassoon. That doesn't seem like regulation gear, but what do I know?

It feels like Cat Sassoon could have been something... like her presence on screen was aaaalmost there but then something went horribly wrong. When looking up her life that ended tragically and lived on the edge it sort of makes sense of many burned out flashes in the pans or tabloid celebrities that attempted and failed to become real actors. After the lowbrow cocaine fueled B movie scenes of the late 80s / early 90s not everyone cashed in their chips and got to settle down like Melissa Moore did. Melissa co starred with legendary porn star Savannah in the horror comedy Invisible Maniac and if you look her up you will find another young whirlwind life that ended very sadly from the pressure and illusions that being a star can bring.

The violence , the set pieces,the ridiculous dialogue and plot are all there but play second to the marketing of these ladies and mainly the confusing lead. It's a very low brow action movie that is worth seeing for the spectacle of it. Again its super similar to several 70s exploitation movies but in 1993 they made an action movie that ended up as an exploitation movie solely by mistake.

[dipulb3]

LG G1 OLED TV review: Tough to improve on near-perfection

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LG G1 OLED TV review: Tough to improve on near-perfection

For years OLED TVs have delivered the best image quality available with display technology that has remained largely unchanged, but LG promised something even better for 2021. The G1 has an all-new panel not available on any other TV LG sells. The company calls it Evo and says it achieves higher brightness and improved color. My verdict? Yes, it’s slightly better than before but even in a side-by-side comparison, it was difficult to tell the difference.

Like

Best picture quality we’ve ever tested

Slightly brighter than previous models

Beautiful slim design perfect for wall-mounting

Don’t Like

Expensive

Image quality improvements over cheaper OLED TVs are minor

I set up the G1 next to the CX, the best TV I reviewed in 2020, measured both and watched a variety of TV shows, movies and games. The G1 was indeed a bit brighter than the CX but color was nearly identical, as were other aspects of picture quality like video processing and uniformity. Both looked spectacular, however, and in most material I really couldn’t say one looked better than the other.

Now playing: Watch this: LG G1 TV review: Can OLED picture quality get even better?

8:56

The main advantage the G1 has over the CX and pretty much every other OLED TV is its unique design. This TV is made to be wall-mounted — quite literally; it doesn’t even come with a stand! If you want to put it on a piece of furniture, as shown in the images in this review, you’ll have to pay $100 extra for LG’s little side legs. And that would be a shame, because something this thin should really be on a wall.

New for 2021 LG has improved its already best-in-class gaming features by adding picture modes especially for games, as well as a convenient menu that shows all gaming info and adjustments in one place. There’s a new remote and a new smart TV homepage, too. The more affordable C1 shares those features with the G1, however.

At this point, the G1 is the best TV I’ve ever tested — by a nose. I have yet to review its competitor from Sony, the A90J, which also promises a brighter panel, or any other high-end TVs like Samsung’s Neo QLED models, so that title might not last. But for people who don’t have money to burn, the extra picture quality of the G1 probably isn’t worth the extra money over mainstream OLED models like the CX or C1.

Get to know the LG G1 series

It comes in three sizes and costs a bundle: 55-inch ($2,200), 65-inch ($3,000) and 77-inch ($4,500). 

It differs from the less expensive C1 series by offering fewer sizes (the C1 has 48-inch and 82-inch options too), that Evo panel and the slimmer, wall-mount-centric Gallery design. The C1 also lacks a far-field mic for hands-free voice and a Next-Gen TV tuner, both relatively minor extras included on the G1.

OLED display technology is fundamentally different from the LED LCD technology used in the vast majority of today’s TVs, including Samsung and TCL’s QLED models.

The best LCD TVs I’ve reviewed so far scored a 9 in image quality, while OLEDs TVs like the G1 have scored a 10. High-end LCDs (especially with HDR) are brighter than OLEDs, but the picture quality on OLED TVs, including that of this G1, is superior overall.

All OLED TVs are more subject to both temporary and permanent image retention, aka burn-in, than LCD TVs. We at CNET don’t consider burn-in a reason for most people to avoid buying an OLED TV, however. Check out our guide to OLED burn-in for more.

Throw it at the wall

A TV doesn’t get any more minimalist than this. Like many sets these days the G1 is pretty much all picture when seen from the front, but it’s the side view that sets it apart. It measures just 0.8 inches deep and is designed for nearly flush wall-mounting. And as I mentioned at the top, it doesn’t even come with a tabletop stand: If you want a stand mount, it will cost $100 extra.

The G1 comes with a wall-mount bracket inset into a cavity on the back for a practically flush mount.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Here’s what it looks like flush against the wall.

Sarah Tew/CNET

This TV’s design is wasted if you don’t wall-mount it. LG includes a custom bracket in the box and instructions that make it easy to slap up yourself if you’re at all handy — although I’m guessing most people in this price bracket will hire somebody to do the job. Thanks to an inset on the back of the TV the wall mount doesn’t add any extra depth, allowing the G1 to hug the wall and present a very slim profile. Channels are built into the TV’s back to run cables through, for a cleaner installation behind the TV. LG recommends using molding to hide cables on the wall itself. Note: I didn’t mount it myself in my test basement, but I’ve mounted plenty of TVs before and this one seems like it would be a simple job.

LG’s redesigned remote still has lots of buttons and motion control.

Sarah Tew/CNET

LG revamped the remote a bit. It kept my favorite features, namely the scroll wheel and motion-tracking, while slimming it down slightly. The biggest difference is the shortcut keys at the bottom: four for streaming services and two more for the built-in voice assistants, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The former wasn’t yet available on my G1 review sample, but LG says it will be soon. 

The G1 is also equipped with a far-field mic (not available on the C1) so you can simply say the wake word to get the TV to respond, no remote required. It responded just like I’d expect from a smart speaker to my “Alexa” commands.

Based on my experience with the CX, both Google and Alexa can do all the usual assistant stuff, including control smart home devices, answer questions and respond via a voice coming out of the TV’s speakers (yep, both voices). Basics like “What’s the weather?” works as you’d expect, complete with onscreen feedback. The G1 also works with Apple’s AirPlay 2 system, just like many other TVs, allowing my iPhone to share photos and video to the screen from the Photos app and mirror my Mac and phone screens. 

LG’s webOS menu system got a facelift for 2021 — and I’m not a fan. Gone is the small, unobtrusive overlay at the bottom of the screen that lets you keep tabs on what you’re watching. Instead there’s a full-screen homepage, similar to Roku, Fire TV and Android TV. But it has fewer apps and more, well, junk. The top two-thirds of the screen are devoted to the weather, setup tips, a search window and a Trending Now section with a random collection of TV shows and movies. Below that is an app row and, further down, sections devoted to inputs and particular streaming apps. In general it feels like a hodgepodge with too much going on, and most systems are simpler and easier to grasp.

The new homepage takes up the entire screen.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Features galore, state-of-the-art connectivity

LG says its Evo panel, available only on the G1 this year, uses a “new luminous element” for more precise lighting. The construction of the OLED pixel itself is different, with new materials for red and blue and a new green layer, all of which have narrower wavelengths compared to the pixels used on other OLED TVs. 

Key TV features

Display technology OLED LED backlight N/A Resolution 4K HDR compatible HDR10 and Dolby Vision Smart TV Web OS Remote Motion

Otherwise the G1 has the same image quality features as the C1, starting with the new Gen 4 a9 processing chip that adds scene detection and upgraded object enhancement over last year’s version. Both the G1 and C1 also have a 120Hz refresh rate. The entry-level A1 OLEDs, meanwhile, have a more basic a7 processor and 60Hz refresh rate. 

Just like last year, LG’s OLED TVs’ picture settings include a Filmmaker Mode. As promised, it turns off the soap opera effect for film-based content (yay) but so do many other modes in the G1. While plenty accurate, Filmmaker Mode is also relatively dim so I ended up using Cinema and ISF Bright for most critical viewing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

All of LG’s recent OLED models (except the A1) include the latest version of the HDMI standard: 2.1. That means their HDMI ports can handle 4K at 120 frames per second and variable refresh rate (VRR, including NVIDIA G-sync and AMD FreeSync), as well as enhanced audio return channel (eARC) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM, or auto game mode). That means they can take advantage of the latest graphics features available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. New for 2021 is a Game Optimizer mode that puts all of the TVs’ gaming-related settings in one place; see below for details.

The selection of connections is otherwise top-notch, though it no longer supports analog component video. There’s also a dedicated headphone or analog audio output and another for IR blasters, which could ease some installations.

Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2

Three USB 2.0 ports

Optical digital audio output

Analog audio 3.5mm headphone output

RF (antenna) input

RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)

IR blaster port (minijack)

Ethernet (LAN) port

Sarah Tew/CNET

Picture quality comparisons

With its slightly better picture and a couple of other minor improvements the G1 beat the CX, my previous picture quality champ, in side-by-side comparisons. According to my measurements and eyeballs, however, the brightness difference was minor enough to be invisible at times, and just about every other aspect of picture quality was virtually identical. Both TVs looked a tad better than the less expensive Vizio OLED. 

Dim lighting: The G1 performed like a champ with the lights down low — and so did the other two OLED TVs in my comparison. I checked out The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey on standard Blu-ray, and they all appeared more or less uniformly excellent: perfect black levels in the letterbox bars and deep shadows of Bilbo’s living room during the dark Dwarven chant (36:58) and plenty of details in the shadows and clothing of Thorin and company. I couldn’t see any real advantage of the G1 with this kind of theatrical situation in standard (non-HDR) material.

Bright lighting: For a TV billed by LG as an improvement in brightness, the G1’s measurements didn’t really stand out. Yes, it did measure brighter than last year’s CX by 129 nits in the most accurate HDR modes, but that’s not a huge leap and proved tough to discern in most program material. I was also surprised that the C9 I reviewed from 2019 was brighter at maximum light output and basically the same in its accurate mode. As usual, any high-end LCD is much brighter. 

Light output in nits

TV Brightest (SDR) Accurate color (SDR) Brightest (HDR) Accurate color (HDR) TCL 65R635 1,114 792 1,292 1,102 Sony XBR-65X900H 841 673 989 795 Vizio P65Q9-H1 768 629 1,305 1,084 Samsung QN65Q80T 664 503 1,243 672 LG OLED65G1 377 334 769 763 LG OLED65CX 377 290 690 634 LG OLED65C9 (2019) 451 339 851 762

I asked LG’s representatives whether my particular review sample’s brightness was typical of other G1’s and they said it was. As always, different sizes and samples can produce variations.

LG OLEDs of recent vintage have a setting called Peak Brightness that boosts the light output for SDR sources in Cinema and Expert modes. The idea is to increase contrast for brighter viewing environments while maintaining the superior color accuracy of those modes. As with most TVs, the brightest mode for HDR and SDR (Vivid on the G1) is horribly inaccurate. For the accurate color columns above on the G1, I used ISF Expert Bright (Peak Brightness: High) for SDR and Cinema mode for HDR — I recommend G1 owners do the same to get good color in bright rooms.

All recent OLED sets are still plenty bright enough for just about any viewing environment. Yes, they do get quite a bit dimmer than LCDs when showing full-screen white — a hockey game, for example — but even in those situations they’re hardly dim. The G1’s screen preserved black levels and reduced reflections very well.

Color accuracy: LG claims better color with the new Evo panel but according to my measurements and eyeballs, it’s tough to spot any difference. Color on the CX was excellent and the G1 was basically the same. An LG rep told me that the G1’s white color could look more pure, like in a hockey match, but I didn’t see or measure any differences in full-field white/gray (ones that weren’t due to very small differences in grayscale after calibration, at least). 

Watching The Hobbit was mostly the same story, although at times greens, like the grass and hillsides of the Shire (12:24), appeared a bit more greenish and less yellowish on the G1. It was a subtle difference at best, and again I didn’t see or measure any difference in green test patterns, but it could be due to the new panel. Maybe.

Color on the G1 was nonetheless extremely accurate both before and after calibration. The warm tones of Bag End’s interior and Bilbo’s skin were inviting and intimate, and outside his hobbit hole the green of the grass and trees in the golden hour sun, and the red and blue circular doorways on Bagshot Row, looked brilliant and natural. The same could be said for the other OLED TVs, however, and none delivered significantly better color than another.

Video processing: LG goes to great lengths to tout the improvement of its processing every year, but watching various material in the best picture settings the CX and G1 looked largely identical to me. 

Motion handling on the G1 is excellent and a touch better than the CX. Under TruMotion, the new Cinematic Movement setting (the default for Cinema mode) served up 24-frame cadence with a very slight hint of smoothing, improving on last year’s too-smooth Cinema Clear setting while preserving 600 lines of motion resolution. 24p purists who want no smoothing at all will opt for the Off position (the default for Filmmaker mode) and suffer the low motion resolution, while tweakers will appreciate the fine granularity of the User De-Judder mode to dial in the right amount of smoothness; anything four or lower introduced some judder to my eye, conveying a sense of film rather than soap opera effect. De-Blur settings of five or higher deliver the full 600 lines of motion resolution.

User also opens up the OLED Motion Pro menu with three levels of black frame insertion that further improve motion resolution, with 800 lines in Low and a full 1200 in Med and High. The latter introduces flicker, unfortunately, and all three are a bit dimmer than Off, but if blur really bugs you then they’re worth experimenting with. One improvement over last year is that engaging OLED Motion Pro no longer totally crushes shadow detail — it’s a bit worse but still very good. Still, I’d choose to leave it off and sacrifice some motion resolution for maximum light output and shadow detail.

Uniformity: Like all OLEDs I’ve tested the G1 was exemplary in this area, with no significant brightness or color variations across the screen and nearly perfect image quality from off-angle. Compared to the CX I did see a bit more color shift toward magenta in extreme angles with full-field mid-bright and brighter test patterns, but it disappeared when I moved closer to on-axis and never affected the image from a normal viewing angle.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Gaming: The G1’s superb image quality carries over to games, and some of its biggest 2021 features upgrades are gaming-related. The new Game Optimizer is the name of both a picture mode and a full menu system. The latter offers all-new tweaks including four game genre modes: Standard, FPS mode (said to boost shadow detail), RPG mode (to boost contrast) and RTS mode (said to enhance mid-grayscale areas). There are also sliders labeled Black Stabilizer (for adjusting dark areas) and White Stabilizer (for bright areas), as well as the OLED Motion Pro setting described above (LG says it’s particularly useful for games) and the Reduce Blue light setting (said to be easier on the eyes).

I started my test in standard mode with settings at their defaults with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla at 4K/60Hz and HDR running through my distribution amp so I could compare against the other TVs. Conducting a nighttime raid, the G1 looked most similar to the CX and the Vizio in its standard mode and all three TVs looked excellent, with the G1 delivering a touch better shadow detail already. Switching to FPS upped details even further but washed out the image a bit much for this cinematic game — although I can see it being useful in an actual FPS game if you want to reveal lurking enemies, or a very dark HDR game like Ghost of Tsushima. The RTS setting did boost midtones at the expense of some contrast, while RPG looked quite close to standard, if not as impactful to my eye. In any case it’s cool having these extra adjustment options, and I liked that they each get a dedicated menu.

Next I connected my Xbox Series X directly to the G1 to test advanced video features. VRR worked as expected, significantly reducing tearing in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, and I appreciated the prominent toggle and indicator in the Game Optimizer menu that assured me VRR was engaged. Another slider labeled Fine Tune Dark Areas is available to address the issue of VRR looking too dark. I headed deep into a crypt where VRR was crushing shadows a bit — cranking up that setting, as well as the Black Stabilizer, helped. The flipside is that doing so spoiled black levels and washed out the look of the game, so (as a card-carrying contrast fiend) I’d avoid using it unless it really hurts your gameplay.

I also tried 4K/120Hz on Gears 5 and Star Wars: Squadrons, but the extra smoothness and framerate were difficult to discern in most cases. I appreciate that some games, like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, showed a splash screen indicating that 120fps was active, but most did not. I looked for confirmation in LG’s display menu but, unfortunately, it doesn’t have any. Samsung’s new 2021 Game Bar, on the other hand, does indicate 120fps.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Buried within Game Optimizer is another setting labeled “Reduce input delay (input lag)” with two options, Standard and Boost. The former, which is the default for any game, serves up an excellent lag number similar to past LG OLED models: just 13.1ms for both 1080p and 4K HDR sources. Engaging Boost cuts lag even further, to just under 10ms for both. The catch is that Boost is only available for 60Hz sources, so you can’t use it with 120Hz games or VRR. And no, I don’t think many humans would notice the extra 3ms of lag.

HDR and 4K video: It’s with HDR that you’d expect the G1’s brightness advantage to be most visible, but watching the 4K Blu-ray version of The Hobbit, differences were again very slight. Highlights like the sky behind the elven king as he turns away from Thorin (7:59) or the window in Bilbo’s study (9:06) measured slightly brighter on the G1 than on the CX according to my light meter but without measuring it was tough to see the difference by eye, even when compared side by side. Highlights on the Vizio appeared visibly dimmer than either one, for less HDR pop, but the differences were much narrower between the two LGs.

Color was likewise pretty much equally spectacular on the LGs and a step behind on the Vizio, which looked a bit duller in Bilbo’s garden and the blue sky for example (13:25). Any color improvement afforded by the G1’s new panel tech over the CX was less visible with HDR than with SDR.

I also checked out some of the most revealing HDR content around: the montage of images from the Spears and Munsil 4K HDR benchmark. Again the G1 was superb and better by a slight margin than the CX, but the G1 failed to really distance itself. Most scenes looked very similar between all three, from the crashing waves to the sunsets to the flowers to the objects on black backgrounds, and in most cases when I saw a difference it was the Vizio lagging a bit behind the other two. Spot measurements revealed mildly brighter highlights on the G1 but I couldn’t tell the difference without measuring.

The benchmark also has a 4,000 nit montage to test content mastered at that level and; again, both LGs looked very similar. They outclassed the Vizio, which looked somewhat flat in some scenes in comparison.

Picture settings, HDR notes and charts

CNET is no longer publishing advanced picture settings for any TVs we review. Instead, we’ll give more general recommendations to get the best picture without listing the detailed white balance or color management system (CMS) settings we may have used to calibrate the TV. As always, the settings provided are a guidepost, and if you want the most accurate picture you should get a professional calibration.

Before my calibration for this review the Cinema and preset was the most accurate, excellent in terms of grayscale and gamma with just a slight reddish cast (but still within my error target of delta 3). Since I now target a 2.2 gamma for my reviews dark rooms it was closer than ISF Expert Dark or the new Filmmaker modes, which both target gamma 2.4/BT 1886. ISF Bright was basically identical to Cinema, but I reserved that for brighter rooms.

For my calibration I tweaked the two-point grayscale to remove the red cast, reduced light output to my target of 137 nits and increased brightness two pips to help with shadow detail (while still keeping perfect black levels), but otherwise I left well enough alone. The grayscale and color were already so accurate on my LG-provided review sample that I didn’t need to touch the multipoint system or the color management system.

SDR dark room settings:

Picture menu:

Select Mode: Cinema (User)

Aspect Ratio Settings: 16:9 (Just Scan: On)

Additional Settings menu:

Brightness submenu:

OLED Pixel Brightness: 48

Contrast: 85

Screen Brightness: 52

Auto Dynamic Contrast: Off

Peak Brightness: Off

Gamma (Adjust Brightness): 2.2

Black Level: Auto

Motion Eye Care: Off

Color submenu:

Color Depth: 50

Tint: 0

Color Gamut: Auto Detect

Fine Tune menu: 

Color Upgrade: Off (no other adjustments)

White Balance menu:

Color Temperature: Warm 49 (no other adjustments)

Clarity submenu:

Sharpness: 0

Color: 50

Tint: 0

Super Resolution: Off

Noise Reduction, MPEG Noise Reduction: Off [for low-quality sources, some users may prefer to enable noise reduction]

Smooth gradation: Off [for low-quality sources, some users may prefer to enable]

Cinema Screen: On [may be grayed out depending on source]

TruMotion: Cinematic Movement

Reduce Blue Light: Off

SDR bright room setting [all default except for below]:

Picture Mode Settings: ISF Bright Room

Brightness menu:

OLED light: 100

Peak Brightness: High

HDR Notes: HDR Cinema and Filmmaker mode were very similar, following the electro-optical transfer function — how the TV converts data to a specific brightness — quite closely and better than Cinema Home, but Cinema was about 70 nits brighter so it’s my favorite of the three. Game Optimizer is best for gaming thanks to its processing but quite blue; for the best color accuracy for gaming you should adjust the color temperature control (Color > White Balance > Color temperatureW45).

Color checker was slightly more accurate than on the CX from last year but not great, and HDR Color Checker was worse. As usual with OLED the set covered P3 HDR gamut very well. The G1 measured brighter than the CX or the B9 from 2019, but the C9 from 2019 actually measured brighter in its least accurate and basically the same in its most-accurate settings. Once again the TV automatically detected and engaged the “HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color” setting designed for HDR sources.

TV software/firmware version tested: 3.10.29

Geek box

Test Result Score Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (SDR) 377 Average Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.18 Good Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 0.40 Good Dark gray error (30%) 0.42 Good Bright gray error (80%) 0.33 Good Avg. color checker error 0.80 Good Avg. saturation sweeps error 0.79 Good Avg. color error 0.94 Good Red error 2.22 Good Green error 0.64 Good Blue error 0.46 Good Cyan error 0.97 Good Magenta error 0.98 Good Yellow error 0.36 Good 1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass Good Motion resolution (max) 1200 Good Motion resolution (dejudder off) 600 Average Input lag (Game mode) 13.10 Good HDR10 Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (10% win) 769 Average Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 98.91 Good ColorMatch HDR error 5.25 Poor Avg. color checker error 3.29 Average Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 13.10 Good

LG G1 OLED TV CNET review c… by David Katzmaier

Portrait Displays Calman calibration software was used in this review. 

How We Test TVs

[hydecurator]

Must-See TV: Sotheby’s Sale (Episode 1)

https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/masters-week-1?locale=en

I’ve discovered a new form of engrossing pandemic-era online viewing. This week is my favorite week for January sales. Late in the month, various auction houses and dealers in New York host Masters Week. This year, despite a global pandemic, Sotheby’s outdid itself and watching the first of the sales today was, at times, edge-of-the-seat thrilling. 

In a normal year, like the start of last year, I like to go down to New York on the weekend before the sales and preview the lots. The galleries at Sotheby’s and Christie’s are hung just like a museum. The walls are sometimes painted to enhance the paintings and the lighting presents them at their best. The only difference is that the labels include auction price estimates. It’s a form of glorious window shopping for me. I dream of what I could buy for the collection, if.... It is also an educational experience for me. For this is the week when scholars and curators of European paintings, sculptures, and drawings come to town from across the country, if not the world. You never know whom you might bump into in the salerooms. Often you can overhear or join, if you dare, an interesting discussion about the attribution, quality, or associations of a work up for sale. One thing to bear in mind is that not everyone agrees with the attributions of the auction house experts. Last year, I tagged along with my former professor, David Stone, as he dissected the Old Master drawings on offer at Christie’s. He introduced me to a curator from The Morgan with whom I discussed some Hyde drawings. All useful networking.

Christopher Easton (English, Exeter), Anglican Communion Cup, 1582, silver (6 3/8 in.). Chicago, Loyola University Museum of  Art, Martin D’Arcy, S.J. Collection. 2013-05. Photography by Michael Troppea.

I tend not to attend the actual sales, which happen during the week. I have never myself bid at auction. When at the Loyola University Museum of Art, I really wanted to acquire a Protestant communion cup to contrast with the museum’s Catholic chalices, I had to commission an agent to bid for me. The auctions were in England and it took us two attempts to secure one. My agent, Wynyard Wilkinson, had to drive to opposite ends of the country to see the pieces and then bid for them. We were ultimately successful at a sale held by a small regional auctioneer, whom many collectors simply overlooked. 

Today, there were a number of works I was interested to follow. The first six pieces were sold by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. The museum has decided to refocus itself towards Modern and Contemporary art. Over the last few years, they have steadily sold off works that fall outside those parameters. Deaccessioning collection pieces is permitted under rather strict guidelines. The rules have been eased a little during the pandemic because of how badly lockdowns have effected museums’ incomes but, in general, a museum should only deaccession works that fall outside their mission or, are duplicates not of exhibition quality, or irreparably damaged. The funds generated should only be used to acquire more art. 

The Master of 1518 (Flanders, active 1518), Adoration of the Magi, early 16th century, oil on panel (17 7/8 by 13 1/2 in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot. 1. Photo credit: Sotheby’s.com

The Albright-Knox should be quite pleased. Four of the six pieces, among them the one illustrated here, sold for a total of $3,163,100. Some of that is commission for Sotheby’s, but still, the museum got roughly $2.5M to put towards new pieces of Modern and Contemporary art. 

Had I been able to go down to the city and stroll the galleries, I may have seen or heard from others why two of Buffalo’s pieces didn’t reach their reserve prices. Were the reserves too high? Did collectors and curators not think either their quality or their attributions were quite right? Perhaps, they just weren’t to anyone’s taste. Selling at auction can be a gamble. You need at least two people, who really want a piece, to bid it up. The museum could wait to see if tastes and the market change, or it might negotiate a private sale after the auction.

At a normal sale, the auctioneer stands at a podium at the front of the saleroom. Major pieces hang on the walls and each piece is brought to the front, in turn, as the bidding takes place. For today’s sale, however, the auctioneer was in a room in New York on his own, watching screens linked to salerooms in New York, London, and Asia. In those rooms, in place of rows of bidders, there were tiers of Sotheby’s staff, standing physically distanced, holding telephone receivers to their ears. They spoke to invisible bidders, and, when instructed, called out a price, raised an arm, or simply shouted “Bidding.” 

“What’s so gripping about that?” you ask.

I have learnt to sit towards the back in saleroom to take in the scene. Admittedly, I see only the back of bidders, but, unlike in the movies, you really do have to make a pretty obvious gesture to catch the attention of the auctioneer. You’re not going to accidentally buy a Picasso by absent-mindedly tugging at your ear or scratching an itch. Salerooms are busy, and surprisingly noisy, places. People come and go freely; quite a few chat away about all sorts of things unrelated to the sale. The auctioneer is a combination of master of ceremonies and instigator and coaxer. Unlike a conductor, he has no score. He doesn’t know, for sure, how the sale will go, or from which direction the bids will come. He has to monitor the bidders in front of him, the bank of staff manning telephones to the side, and a screen, suspended from the ceiling, indicating online bids. And what has always captivated me about an auctioneer at work is that whereas a conductor keeps time, the auctioneer makes time. Time in a saleroom is surprisingly fluid and flexible and that was masterfully on display today with this online sale.

Today’s auction was sponsored by Bulgari. Sotheby’s staff in New York wore Bulgari jewelry. In the midst of bidding, the auctioneer drew attention to the glint of a jeweled bracelet on one staffer’s wrist, to glistening earrings, a stunning brooch, or an eye-catching neckless on another’s. He introduced the models to us by name and title. The staff making bids were called out too. Alex in London, by the by, was a year ahead of me at undergraduate. A fun fact I learnt, of no earthly relevance to the lots, is that there are two English Georges in the New York office. Thus the auctioneer made time, created moments in the seeming onward rush of bids for Sotheby’s staff to coax the bidder at the end of the telephone line to keep in the race. In this extra moment there’s still a chance, for that lucky final bid that will clinch it. 

Adding to the drama, at least on my computer screen, was a clever engineer’s manipulation of windows. Salerooms came to the fore and were relegated in time with the bidding. New York outbids London. Here’s Asia jumps in. Two sale rooms are stacked, one over the other, as bids are batted back and forth. At times, it got as thrilling as Wimbledon or the New York Open. Tennis for a Tiepolo.

Sandro Botticelli (Italian,1445/5-1510), Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, n.d., tempera on poplar panel (23 by 15 ½ in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot 15. Photo credit: Sotheby’s.com.  

The sale of Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, was breathtaking in the sums bandied about, but actually quite sedate in execution. Bidding started at $70M and increased at increments of $2M, topping out at $80M ($92.184,000 with commission). Even though it is extremely rare for such an archetypal example of early Renaissance portraiture to come on the market these days, there obviously aren’t too many collectors or institutions with the wherewithall to bid for one. 

Much more exciting was to watch the bidding for one piece that started at $450,000 and reached $1.65M. With commissions, etc., it cost its new owner over $2M. Before the auction, Sotheby’s had posted an sale estimate of $700,000-$1M. The bidding for a small Dutch work, measuring 10 x 7 1/2 inches, began at $30,000 or so, breezed past the upper estimate of $90,000, and finally came to a breathless stop at $390,600, including commission. I’ll tell you what these two works were and why I was interested in them in Episode 2 of your must-read Hyde blog.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch,1606 – 1669), Abraham and the Angels, 1646, oil on panel (6 ¼ by 8 ¼ in.). Sotheby’s sale, New York, January 28, 2021, lot 9. Photo credit, Sotheby’s.com.

One mystery I can’t explain is the unexpected withdrawal from the sale of its star lot, no 9, Abraham and the Angels by Rembrandt van Rijn, Sotheby’s had hyped it with a promotional tour around its international salerooms and online (https://www.sothebys.com/rembrandt). But oh-so discreetly, referring only to its lot number, the auctioneer announced at the start of the sale that number 9 had been withdrawn. More to come on that, I hope and expect. So, keep reading your Hyde blog!

[craigedwardgiven]

Moving Video Call Backgrounds

Animated Backgrounds in Video Calls & Virtual Meetings

Overview

Coworkers have been asking me how I get animated and moving backgrounds (and foregrounds) in my video conference calls and virtual meetings. So, I’ve created this article to give an overview of the process and tools. For this article’s background example I chose a video that won’t get me into copyright trouble. Its background is a recording of the city gates of Amnoon. And its a scene I recorded while playing the game Guild Wars 2.

The method to create this effect is layering. In oversimplified terms, the background is the bottom layer. In my example I used a video instead of a static image. Layered on top of the background is the output from my webcam. And finally, the very top layer is a graphic with some text. I combined all these layers using the free software tool OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) and output that as a single video feed.

Since I’m not actually “broadcasting” or streaming (OBS is primarily for Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live, etc.), I need something to convert the broadcast into a useable format. Therefore, I’ve installed the OBS plugin VirtualCam, which makes the OBS output look like a webcam to other programs. Instead of selecting my actual webcam as the input for my video-conferencing software, I set it to the virtual device named “OBS-Camera.” This technique works for Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, Jitsi, and GotoMeeting. I’ve done so much testing that some of the results are fading into a memory fog. So, I’m only “mostly positive” that it will work with Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and Discord. The only “failure” I distinctly remember is for my doctor’s tele-medicine product, and that was because it would not let you choose an input device.

OBS is just one “link” in the chain of tools used to create my desired output, and each software tool runs on a fairly beefy computer (see the end of article for details). Below is more detail on each link in this chain of tools. They are presented in a logical sequence: from the source to the destination. Along the way I’ll also mention some alternative tools that I’ve experimented with, since they may suit your needs better. And at the end of the article is a collection of miscellaneous notes, tips, and tricks.

The Chain of Tools

Environment

I’ve arranged my environment to improve the image and audio quality I can produce. I’ve added lamps and baffles to diffuse, bounce, direct and control the temperature (color) of the lighting. Not only of my face but also of the background (so it’s easier for the computer to cleanly “remove” my real background). For audio I do the same to optimize conditions: I set the timer on my air conditioner so it cools the room beforehand, and automatically turns off just prior to the start of the next meeting. I then turn down fans and other background noise. I’ve also covered the glass (bordering our front door) with a decorative overlay so the dog is oblivious to the comings and goings in our neighborhood. And finally, I close the office door if the grandchildren are visiting.

Audio hardware

My primary microphone is a dynamic mic with a cardriod sensitivity pattern (i.e., it minimizes off-axis and extraneous background sounds and focuses on just my voice). It’s a Samson Q2U in a Rycote InVision USM shock mount on a Gator Frameworks boom and stand. The mic can be connected via USB, but I’m using an XLR cable to a Zoom H6 acting as my computer’s Audio Interface. The Zoom H6 lets me mix multiple audio inputs, directly monitoring the mic, control gain, enhance the audio (e.g., volume compression), etc.

video hardware

Built-in webcams typically produce terrible video (grainy, choppy, dark, and low resolution) and at the wrong angle. Dell is notorious for their “nostril” cameras, which are mounted below the screen. Therefore, I began my journey with equipment already at hand. For video I used an iPhone XS Max because it has an awesome camera. To make my iPhone act as a webcam, I used Kinoni’s EpocCam app and PC software. To hold the phone at the proper height and angle, I used a Ram Mount X-grip with an extension arm and custom base (a glass brick filled with decorative river stones). A wireless Qi charging pad from Anker was stuck to the back of the X-grip to supply continuous power.

Although the iPhone was a high-quality solution, I wanted a dedicated webcam because I kept forgetting it was still mounted above and behind my monitor. Not only did I keep leaving it behind, it was also inconvenient to use the phone, as a phone, in this configuration. Although the cameras on iPads and Touch iPods are not as good as recent iPhones, they could be a dramatic improvement over the built-in webcams you’re using. And EpocCam works with Android devices and on macOS as well, as well as other competitors that I’ve heard of from other users.

Before for buying a dedicated webcam, I also experimented with other “normal” cameras configured to work as webcams. One option was using the HAYOX capture device to convert HDMI output to USB input (e.g., when connecting a GoPro HERO8 Black in a Media Mod “cage”). But the latency and low-light performance was poor. I also converted a security camera I had on hand (the Wyze Pan Cam) into a webcam by applying a special firmware change. This was purely out of curiosity since the camera has an extremely large field of view that makes it undesirable except for the most desperate of users. You also lose the Pan/Tilt/Zoom controls and Infrared features, so it’s now restored back to its “security camera” configuration. And I can feed it into OBS as a secondary camera view using an iPad connected with an Apple HDMI adapter—it’s pretty cool, but not particularly useful for virtual meetings.

None of the above experiments compared to the performance of a dedicated webcam like the Logitech Brio (which is what I’m currently using). The less expensive Logitech C920s, C922, and StreamCam are also great alternatives. And I’ve craved pricer upgrades such as the HuddleCam HD or an Alpha-series Sony mirrorless camera (e.g., the wallet-busting a7S III). But those are more suited to professional streamers and media influencers that broadcast for a living.

The final piece of hardware equipment I have is a “green screen” (for chroma keying). I would NOT recommend it for most users, and I only use it for special situations. A lot of the software that I mention below can be used without it. Green screens can be tricky to set up because they must be evenly lighted (no shadows or brighter areas) and can “splash” a green glow onto the subject if the light angles or distance are wrong. And when the screen is far enough back from your position, then it has to be humongous to still fill the camera’s FOV (field of view)! I use the Valera Explorer 90 and even at this size it is a challenge to position so that it fills my webcam’s FOV. I wish it came with other color screens (chroma blue, neutral gray, and white), and I may make some by hand if the vendor doesn’t add them. I had originally contemplated a retractable ceiling-mounted backdrop that pulls down like a movie-projector screen. But I went with the Valera since it collapses easily and is small enough to store out-of-sight in a closet corner. If I were a professional streamer, and had a larger office/studio, then I’d probably go for a fixed screen (like this massive 8x8 foot backdrop) or perhaps a wall covered with special chroma green paint.

Software

I use multiple software programs to create the video feed used in virtual meetings. And the combination changes based on the look to be achieved. If I’m using a static image as my background, then no additional software is needed. Both Microsoft Teams and Zoom include excellent features that do background replacement.

A more complex composition, like my example video above, uses a few more tools. Let’s look at the layers (from front to back) and the tools used for each. In the foreground is a graphic with text that provides additional information. The broadcast industry calls this a “Lower Third” (or L3) since it typically appears at the bottom of the screen. In my example video above, my L3 is actually positioned in the upper right corner. It was created using the free art program Paint.NET but any graphics software (CorelDraw, Photoshop, Procreate, etc.) could be used. I save my L3 graphics in the PNG format since it lets me save images with transparent backgrounds. But also because PNG does a superior job of compressing mostly solid, non-gradient colored shapes and text, which is what most L3s are.

Both L3 examples above have a section for a ticker (scrolling text). This text is layered over the L3 and comes from, and is configured in, OBS. The ticker is a “Text” layer with a “Scroll” filter added. Below is a screen shot from OBS for an AFK (Away From Keyboard) screen. At the bottom (second pane from the left) is the SOURCES pane and it shows the two layers that make up the preview being displayed. The bottom layer is named “Please Stand By TV” and it pulls in the background image. On top of that is the ticker: a layer named “AFK Text” which contains the “I will be back in just a moment” message (including settings for placement, color, font, size, speed, opacity, etc.).

For my example video at the top of this article there is a middle layer, which is me via the webcam. In OBS this is a “Video Capture Device” layer type. However, there is a software component that sits between the Logitech Brio and OBS. The “Logitech Camera Settings” application lets me adjust and optimize the camera’s video. I adjust saturation, white balance, contrast, etc. to match the background (whether moving or static). For example, if it’s a sunny beach scene then I would set the white balance to a warmer golden cast, increase the contrast, and bump up the brightness so it matches the scene. I also adjust my office lighting so that the shadows fall in the same direction as in the background. If the background is of a thunderstorm at sea, then I would match my image with a cooler white balance (i.e., a subtle blue cast), a darker exposure, and less contrast. I’ve also taken the opposite approach, and selected backgrounds that already match the lighting in my office. With more believable backgrounds (like a photo of an office or kitchen versus the cockpit of a spaceship), the matched lighting has been realistic enough to cause people to think I was actually in those locations!

In addition to the camera’s utility software, OBS can also apply filters, and adjustments, and LUTs (adjustment Look Up Tables). A LUT is customized to both your specific camera and to your specific lighting conditions. To create a LUT, you first capture an image from your camera, which is taken under set lighting conditions. Then use a photo (or video) editing program to make adjustments to the captured image until it looks best. The adjustments are not applied directly to the captured image. Instead they are put on a separate layer, and you’re viewing your image through the adjustment layer. (Think of it as if you were painting on a pane of glass that is sitting on top of a photo.) Next, you replace, cover, or hide your captured image with a LUT reference table (original and unmodified). The LUT table is now sitting below those same adjustments. The results are flattened (the layers combined) and saved to a PNG image. This file is a custom LUT that can be applied to your camera’s output so all video gets the enhancements. Below is the before-and-after for a Wyze Pan Cam, a camera that’s optimized for security monitoring, not image quality. As you can see it adds a terrible yellow cast to the video, but with a custom LUT applied, the colors are much more natural.

For an animated, moving background I’ve been using YouTube videos. Yep, it’s just that simple! In OBS this is a “Browser” layer and would be positioned at the bottom. If your videoing or photographing your own (or when choosing someone else’s) backgrounds, be mindful of the angle. In a meeting, your webcam is at eye-level while seated! So choose/take photos at that same height to create more natural backgrounds.

Picking a good background is a balancing act. If it’s too plain, then the artificial outline—the edge where the computer cut you out from your real background—will be very noticeable. A bit of detail and texture in the background helps to hide that outline. If the scene is too busy and detailed, it becomes distracting and you blend with it instead of being in front of the background. In real TV studios they use a “hair light” to ensure distinction and depth—to make the person stand out from, instead of blend into, the background.

When removing and replacing your actual real-life background, you want it to be plain and as uniform as possible. A blank wall would be excellent. This helps the computer distinguish your outline from the background. Angle your lights and use baffles (I use foam core boards) so that the light falls on your face and shoulders but not on the wall behind you which are slightly darker. To prevent “hot spots” and deep shadows on your face, bounce the light off the walls instead of pointing lights directly on yourself. This will soften and diffuse the lighting and create a more appealing appearance.

While on the topic of texture and detail in background images, it’s important to not go overboard. Some software cannot cope with an image that is too intricate. I had a photo of the interior of the NASA space station. The original was too complicated for Microsoft Teams to even display. Also, you don’t want to overload the software by having it to constantly downscale large images. And photos from modern cameras and phones are massively oversized compared to a computer screen. They are so large they can crash your software. To prevent big images from slowing down or crashing my software, I proactively resize my backgrounds to “Full HD” size—that is, 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall. (This is also the size that MS Teams would reduce a background image to, so it saves the time and effort required to convert it every time,) And while I’m cropping, sizing, and enhancing backgrounds, I will also flip them so the incoming light in the image matches my actual lighting. For example, a background photo may have a window (with incoming light) that is on the left. I will flip that photo so the window is on the right-hand side, like my real-life window.

While we’re discussing software limits, don’t load too many backgrounds into your meeting software! I learned the hard way that MS Teams will crash if you have over 100 custom backgrounds. I now keep all my custom backgrounds in their own folder and only copy about 75 to MS Teams at a time. Below is a script I use to replace old custom backgrounds with a set of fresh “finished” images.

DEL /Q C:\Users\Craig\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads\*.jpg COPY /Y C:\Backgrounds\Finished\*.jpg C:\Users\Craig\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads\

Tips, Tricks, & Notes

Use a wired ethernet connection when video conferencing. It’s not only faster, but also more reliable and stable than WiFi.

The Zoom H6 can be used with an iPhone/iPad, even without AA batteries! When the H6 boots up, select PC (instead of iPAD) as the connected device.

Video processing can be intensive and requires a computer with sufficient capabilities. My Windows 10 PC has a Core i7-7700K at 4.2GHz, 32GB of RAM, a Samsung 850 Pro 512 SSD, 4 Toshiba 7200RPM 500GB drives in a RAID 5 array, an ASUS Prime Z270-AR motherboard, an Anker 10-port powered USB3.0 hub, a 1000 watt Corsair power supply feeding dual video cards, and a Corsair Hydro H100i liquid cooling system to supplement two case fans to keep the whole thing from burning itself out. This computer sits next to a window air conditioner that counters all the heat coming from this PC, the monitors, and accessories. Before the AC was installed the office could reach 80°F even in the dead of winter with all the heating vents closed.

[mercyofficial]

out of the dark

summary: Sombra's two favorite things are making new friends and exposing corporate corruption, and today she intends to do both.

notes: inspired by this art by @greyopal! i love these two so much ahhhh, and im definitely gonna write more for them!

ao3 link

Her printer has to be the slowest in the world. She shelled out a thousand dollars for this machine and it’s been taking ten minutes to print like, seven files. Sombra always keeps a hard copy of her work until it’s finished. Then she burns it.

  Some people use paper shredders, but Sombra can’t stand the thought of leaving a trace. That eye is constantly in her head.

  The files are pulled up on her computer screen, glowing a dim blue. Risky (what if someone were looking through the window?), but she wants to admire her work. Vishkar may not be anywhere near as good at helping people as the public thinks they are, but they do have excellent computer security. Nothing is impenetrable, though, not to Sombra - especially not corporate corruption.

  Grabbing the ink-dampened paper, Sombra quickly flips through the pages, ensuring all had printed correctly. They’ll be locked inside a file cabinet (protected by three alarms and fourteen different kinds of computer-controlled encrypted locks) until she’s finished with them, and then she’ll burn everything in there and change the locks. Sombra never writes a password down, too risky. Besides, if I forgot one, I could probably hack into my own system, she thinks with amusement. Although that’s probably not a good thing, maybe she should beef up. Talon won’t be pleased if she asks more money for security - but she’s a valuable asset . So they’ll pay up. Always do. Maybe she should ask for a horse ranch, claim it’s vital to her work. Or seventy copies of the Linkin Park discography and hide them in Reaper’s room.

  Snickering at her own jokes, Sombra throws the files in the cabinet and shuts the door, which automatically locks. She doesn’t bother to grab any extra equipment on the way out the door to catch her flight. Her internal cyber-enhancements will suffice for this job - well, job isn’t exactly the right word. This is more of a personal project. She isn’t exactly expecting resistance, anyway.

  Will the files be enough to sink the company? Of course not. If (and probably when) she publishes them, they’ll be a PR disaster, but there’ll be a few firings and some monetary loss and some tearful, paid off citizens going on about how much Vishkar has done for their community and how they know they can learn from their mistakes, and ten days later the company will have three new major contracts.

  They are enough to make a new friend, though. And Sombra loves making new friends.

  ----------------

  She’s parked herself in a cyber cafe near Vishkar’s headquarters, in a corner, giving the security a once-over. She already has the blueprints, and in particular, the on-location apartment of her soon-to-be new friend. This was not going to be difficult. Nowadays, companies are so focused on keeping out hackers that they neglect physical security. With that in mind, her stolen translocating technology, invisibility camouflage, and, of course, laser gun, will practically guarantee her unlimited access to a building if she’s careful. And Sombra is always careful.

  Her target is Satya Vaswani, aka Symmetra (Symmetra, symmetry, subtle, much. Sombra spent a few minutes eye-rolling when she read that one.) A top Architech at Vishkar, and seems to truly believe her company is making the world a better place. Naive, but Sombra can’t be too annoyed with her. They’re quite alike, after all, if she thinks about it: impoverished with a difficult childhood, an aptitude for technology that got them out of the slums, and willing enough to commit crimes for their aims.

  That’s where it ends, though. Satya had been plucked from the streets by Vishkar and made their golden girl, but Sombra had joined gangs and fought everyone and everything tooth and nail for what she has now. Satya wants to improve the world. Sombra just wants to control it.

  Though, considering Vishkar’s methods and that Symmetra cooperated with them, they might be similar that way, as well. Although she did have to note, Symmetra went along. Who knows what Satya gets up to in her free time? Sombra can’t help but giggle. She doubts a secret rebellion. From what she’s read and seen of the girl, she seems like a rule-follower, regardless of what the rules were.

  These might change that, though , Sombra thinks, glancing down at the screen displaying the files she’d hacked directly from the CEO’s laptop a week or two ago.

  Sombra had thought about going after the CEO himself. The files she has won’t sink the company, but they’ll sink him , and she’s sure he’d do whatever she asked to keep himself afloat. But what Vishkar’s doing strikes something in Sombra, because they’re hurting those like she had been, orphans on streets who don’t have the talents she has to get themselves out. Sombra wants the men in charge of Vishkar in prison, at least, if she can’t get them dead. And they won’t be any help if they’re in prison or hell.

  But, in Satya’s case, Sombra seriously doubts she knows what’s really going on at Vishkar. Maybe she really should call it naivety, to not realize, but she has a feeling it isn’t - Satya seems like she really does just want to make the world a better place, and may be doing some unconscious selective noticing to accomplish it. Sombra can empathize with that. And not only does she want a new friend (the leading manipulator of hard light tech? a force ), but maybe she’s taking a small liking to Satya. And it would probably be better finding out your life’s work was nearly pointless because of corruption in private, rather than from national TV the next morning, with reporters hunting down every bit of contact information you have.

   It’s a weekend night, and the clubs are full as Sombra makes her way to the headquarters. The multitudes of people on the street make it easy to slip around to a back entrance, go invisible, and take out the security guy with a nerve strike to the neck. Touching her cybernetic fingers to the locks, programs she’s already tested on locks just like this one spring to life, slipping into the bugs and wires and feeding the codes back to her. She drops a translocator in a bush for safety and sneaks in, again going invisible just long enough to reach the nearest security camera. Within seconds, her custom applications have thrown a bug into the system that’ll feed the cameras endless ten-second loops. With luck, the person watching the security cameras will be like most corporate employees who watch security cameras - bored and playing the latest hot app instead of paying attention.

  If not, and she senses any alarm, she’s pretty sure she gave herself enough time to get to the security room and place a well-aimed laser blast at his chest before he notices her. Won’t kill him, but he won’t be happy. Which doesn’t matter to her, of course. Sombra doesn’t go out of her way to kill. As long as he’s out of her way, she doesn’t exactly care.

  Now Sombra really books it, dashing through the hallways using the blueprint she memorized, only occasionally pausing to confirm a direction or go invisible to let some politely-laughing businessmen carrying briefcases walk through. She decides to take the elevator, figuring her invisibility will last long enough to make the ride if someone gets on. Vishkar’s headquarters are gigantic , a sign of the company’s power, but luckily they aren’t exactly tall. Dashing into the hallway where the elevators are, she clicks the up button and slips in, consulting her blueprint once more before pressing 7.

  As it’s night, the headquarters aren’t busy, so Sombra isn’t bothered - and once she gets off at floor 7, there’s even less people. Even if she hadn’t already hacked into Satya’s calendar, Sombra seriously doubts that she wouldn’t find the Architech in her room. Satya didn’t give off a vibe of friendliness, and a look further back into her calendar, with events meticulously added and color-coded and lacking any color for “fun”, confirmed this.

  Sombra smiles slightly as she strolls along the hallway - there’s another similarity to her little list. She herself certainly isn’t against going out to a club and flirting with a girl or guy or two of each, but relationships of any kind are off the table. The whole “hacker on a one-woman crusade to take control of the world” sort of prevents that, and friends are just going to want stuff in the end. Her closest companions are probably frequent Talon mission mates Reaper and Widowmaker, and when the people you’re closest to are a literal wraith and a blue ballet-dancer-turned-assassin, you probably don’t have many friends.

  She gets to Satya’s door. It’s a simple, sleek white piece of work, computer controlled with some great security. Unless you’re Sombra, of course, in which case it takes a few touches and a click. It would have been even easier if she could have just ripped the passwords from Satya’s computer, but the other woman didn’t seem to write any passwords down, either. I wonder if she’s as paranoid as I am, ha. Sombra activates her invisibility and drops a translocator before entering the keycode and opening the door with a soft whoosh. She steps inside, and it closes behind her with nearly no sound.

  The room is stark, all white and pale blue with not much customization. It’s quite beautiful and modern, or at least Sombra thinks so. She doesn’t have as much time to explore as she would like, because apparently Satya also doesn’t believe in bedtime and is sitting on a ledge, next to her window. Presumably, she was enjoying the admittedly quite excellent view of the night sky before her door mysteriously opened, though she doesn’t seem to be panicking. Sombra takes her time, making sure the door has locked them in and all the alarms are disabled before plopping down on the cushion across from Satya and making herself visible.

  “Hola, amiga,” she chirps, resting her elbow against the window and giving her a bright smile. Satya looks unamused. Sombra had thought she was quite pretty from the television interviews she’d seen (and the secret selfies she may have examined when going through the contents of Satya’s phone), and the woman is even more beautiful up close, dark brown eyes giving Sombra a once-over before lifting back up to meet Sombra’s own.  

  “I would ask who you are, but I doubt you intend to tell me.”

  Sombra giggles. “Ooh, you’re astute! No, I don’t. I know who you are, though, Satya. Quite a name you’ve made for yourself at Vishkar, yes?”

  Satya frowns. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I will not be bribed. Or undermine the company, so don’t even try.” Sombra notices something, in her right hand, presumably some device used to alarm someone who will make life far more irritating for Sombra. She leans over, quick as a flash, placing her hand over the other woman’s own and grinning right in her face.

  “Oh, I don’t need to get you to do it. They do enough of that themselves. I’m just interested in, oh….. informing you.”

  There’s a slight pause, and then she feels Satya’s fingers, slowly, one by one, remove themselves from the button. Sombra snatches it out of her hand, but Satya doesn’t react, except for her suspicious frown deepening as Sombra leans back.

  “I’m listening.”

  Sombra smiles. She’s played this game, a thousand times before. Steal incriminating files, sneak in, show them to the right person, and bam! A lovely, helpful new friend. Sombra may not have any close friends, but she certainly has a lot of them.

  Sombra slips off the cushion and walks over to the table, beckoning for Satya to join her. Warily, Satya gets up, quietly walking over a wooden chair and seating herself in it, expectantly.

  “Just wait a moment.” She pulls up her screen through her gloves, clicking through to her files as Satya watches. She looks slightly irritated, probably because much of Sombra’s equipment, from her invisibility to the screens she’s using right now, are quite blatantly stolen Vishkar hard-light technology (the translocator was from the talking gorilla, she hacked the blueprints of that chronal thing he made for the annoying Brit and quite ingeniously redesigned them, if she does say so herself). She seems about to say something, but just then Sombra finds the files she was looking for, pulling them up. “Look through them as you wish, I’m sure you know your way around this sort of screen.”

  Satya looks at her. Just for one second, and Sombra’s not sure what the other’s trying to read from her face before Satya turns back to the screen and tentatively touches a finger to it. She’s a fast reader, Sombra can tell from how quickly she’s flipping through them - files directly ripped from the company computers, newspaper reports and pictures put next to each other that line up in highly suspicious ways, reports of what the corporation has told Satya to do and what papers to get, but then the part she doubted Satya had known, added parts of what exactly the company intended to do with those files.

  It’s damning, and Sombra can see Satya’s life falling down around her pretty face.

  She gets to the last file, and Satya pauses, for another long second, eyes moving across the screen, before slowly removing her finger from it and dropping her head into her hands. One look had obviously been enough. Sombra jabs a finger at it, a “missing” financial report clearly showing the Vishkar executives spending money that was supposed to go to the Rio housing facilities on a luxury jet.

  “You see, Satya? Vishkar was lying to you all along.”

  Satya doesn’t move. Or speak. Or cry. Sombra is not actually sure she’s breathing.

  She’s quiet for a very long time.

  It makes Sombra nervous, being here for this long. It’s risky. Whenever Sombra goes to make new friends, they don’t shut down. They snark, they scowl, they plead, they try and act superior, and she loves it. But Satya is silent, processing what Sombra has shown her, and Sombra, for reasons unknown to even herself, decides to wait.

  Finally, as Sombra watches, Satya stands up and walks over to a counter where a blue bag is sitting. She reaches inside the bag, and takes out two things - an extremely official-looking Vishkar license and a cellphone. Calmly and without saying anything, she proceeds to drop the license on the floor and crush it with the heel of her boot. Sombra nearly jumps from loud cracking noise, as Satya methodically sweeps the pieces into a corner with said boot and picks up the cellphone.

  “Hello?” She sounds far more put together then Sombra thinks she would in this sort of situation. “Yes, it’s Satya. I thought I should inform you that I’m feeling very sick right now, so I won’t be able to attend tonight’s meeting…….No, no, it’s alright, I just need some more rest. Mm-hmm…...Thank you for your concern. Goodbye.”

  The cellphone drops on the counter, and Satya turns back around. Sombra looks at her.

  “You’re not going to tell them I’m here?”

  Satya’s hand tightens into a fist. She’s angry, Sombra realizes, not broken or whatever stupid trope one would usually expect. Angry enough that tears are beginning to leak from the sides of her eyes – not noticeably, but they’re there. Sombra thinks she looks very pretty crying, but also decides that this is not the time to mention so. “I trust you more than….than I trust them, at the moment.”

  Sombra stays quiet, as Satya walks over the the window. She’s pacing now, around the room. The files are still pulled up over the table, floating there, winking, purple little puzzle pieces that line up to make something terrible.

  “We were supposed to be doing good.” she mutters, each word clipped, teeth sounding clenched. She whirls around to face Sombra, turning her gaze on her. Sombra flinches involuntarily. She is not one easily scared, and Satya’s anger is not that outwardly expressed. But her eyes have a silent, terrifying intensity.

  “Why are you showing me these things?” she asks, boring holes in Sombra’s eyes with her own. “What do you want from me?” That’s another similarity, Sombra thinks, because from the tone in Satya’s voice she’s asked that question many times, albeit probably with a different tone of voice. Everyone always wants something from you, when you’re good.

  Sombra doesn’t smile, like she usually would. But business is business. “I’m publishing them, see. I dislike Vishkar as much as you probably do now - and you probably have more puzzle pieces than me. But these’ll get you thrown in prison too, most likely. All I want is a favor, every so often, if I need it, and then I’ll wipe your name and incriminating info from the files when I publish them.”

  Usually, when she makes these sort of offers, the person hesitates. She’s had people refuse or try to take her out then and there, thinking prison is better than being beholden to an (in their minds) insane hacker. Satya does not hesitate.

  “Fine.”

  Sombra raises an eyebrow at her. “Eager, are we?”

  “I want to make the world a better place. That is all. I cannot do so from in prison, but I can out of it, and for that I can afford a few favors to you - especially as you are the one opening my eyes to reality in the first place. I do not think you are a bad person, and I doubt you’ll ask me to do anything too terrible.”

 That deserves a slight laugh. “Oh, now there’s a first! You should hear what other people have called me in the past. So, you will leave?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, no need to give me contact information. I’m sure I can find you.” Satya doesn’t appear to find that amusing, sadly, already pulling out a laptop. Sombra closes her screens, standing there. She’s quite tempted to ask Satya what exactly she intends to do now. But it’s getting light, now, and she’s already been here far, far too long. She’s about to melt away into the shadows, but then Satya, still looking at her laptop screen, speaks.

  “What should I refer to you as?”

  “Pardon?”

  “If we’re going to be working together in some form, I would like to know what to call you.”

  Sombra shouldn’t tell her.

  “Sombra.” Then she vanishes.

  -------------------

  Sombra gets out of the building, no problem, as expected. But she can’t forget those eyes of Satya’s, so brightly intense even right after watching her world fall down around her. Though, to be fair, Sombra doubts the woman suspected nothing even before the files. She’s a smart one.

  She edits the online copy of the files on her plane ride home, the one set to be sent mysteriously to several top reporters with instructions to publish as soon as possible - as promised, taking out all references to Symmetra or Satya Vaswani. It’s not difficult, there’s not really that much. Just enough to be threatening.

 Her hard copy in the file cabinet, with the incriminating info, is what she spends four hours staring at. It’s irrational, she knows. Satya could be useful. She should keep her leverage.

  She can’t stop thinking about those eyes, though.

  All Sombra has ever wanted was control. But Satya…...Satya wants to do good, so, so badly. If someone ever got into this apartment…..

  She glances at her computer. She hacked Satya’s laptop, of course, and her recent browsing history is running through the screen. Satya must have opened two tabs before she went to sleep. One was a normal search for the word sombra. The other was a search, in a private, untraceable browser, for “overwatch recall”.

  Sombra burns the files.

[thelibraryfanfiction]

Chapter Six

The children’s section of the library that was filled with more than just picture books. It had brightly coloured, small seats perfect for children, a few stuffed animals and a few board games there. It was a place that was meant to entertain and delight but I had never seen someone look so miserable while sitting in the children’s section of the library.

Ian was sitting there, with Maggie in his lap, trying to teach her how to play connect four. She was a little young to get the concept of trying to get four tokens of the same colour in a row, but she seemed to like placing the coins in the slots of the top and watching them fall.

She was enjoying herself. But Ian was not.

I could see he was trying to hide it from his daughter, but he was obviously upset and I desperately wanted to know why. But more than that, I wanted to make him feel better. I wanted to see him smile again.

It seemed wrong that he should look so unhappy when his daughter, who he so obviously loved and adored was in his arms.

She squealed in delight when she found the button that caused all the coins to fall from the board onto the plate beneath it. Hearing his daughter’s delight, Ian cracked a crooked, bittersweet smile that did not reach his eyes.

I could see he was trying to be happy for the sake of his daughter but he was seriously upset about something and it showed.

The door to the library opened and I looked through the bookshelves to see Jemma strut through the library. Her high heels clicked against the floor as she looked around. I ducked behind the shelf so she wouldn’t see me.

Eventually she spotted Ian and Maggie over in the children’s corner and approached them, “Maggie. Let’s go home.” She demanded.

She didn’t even say hello.

Ian looked up at her, his eyes watery, “Can I just have one more minute with her?” he practically pleaded.

“No.” she snapped, “I have an appointment at three.”

“Da, da, Daddy.” Bumbled Maggie as he clung to her father.

The expression that came across Ian’s face was absolutely heart breaking and my heart went out to him.

But Jemma had no such reservations as she leaned down and practically pried her from his arms with caused Maggie to bawl.

Ian was left sitting there, practically blinking back tears as Jemma carried a screaming Maggie out the door. As soon as they left, I watched as Ian’s lip trembled before he covered his eyes with his hand for a moment.

I could see he was fighting back tears as he dabbed at his eyes and attempted to right himself as he sat there. It broke my heart to see him so upset. To see how much having his daughter taken away from him hurt him. It was both touching and sad.

Placing the last book away from my stack of put-backs, I resolved to do something about it. He was so sad that I doubted I could do anything to make him smile, but I at the very least wanted to distract him.

He didn’t see me approach as he was too busy trying to hide the tears that had fallen down his face. I announced my presence by taking a coin and dropped it into a slot, the clanging of it sounded around the library and seemed to startle him.

He looked at the game for a moment, seeming confused before he looked up at me.

His beautiful blue eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill but despite that, he still tried to smile at me. A sad smile that didn’t touch his eyes and only lasted a second, but it was there none the less.

I smiled back briefly, a smile that was full of sympathy and that I hope conveyed some sort of understanding for what he was going through.

Turning back to the game he seemed to deliberate for a moment before he very slowly took a coin and dropped it down into a slot, effectively starting the game.

When he looked up at me again, my smile was genuine as I sat down, though he was looking at me with an unreadable expression.

We played the game in silence and with each move, a smile tugged at his lips, always threatening to break into a true smile, but it never did. But just that hint of happiness was enough for me. To know he was sad before and to know I was the reason he might be feeling just a little better.

                                            …

Maggie was perhaps the most loveable child I had ever met. I held her against my hip as we walked around the library.

Every time she saw a ‘Please Be Quiet’ sign, she would put her finger to her lips and say “shh” just like the sign did. It was adorable.        

We ended up playing a game of hide a seek between the bookshelves with both Ian and Maggie hiding while I searched for them. When I found them, Maggie screamed in delight before she put her finger to her lips and made the “shh” sound again.

Eventually we sat down in the children’s section and I read to them from one of my favourite fantasy books ‘Into the Land of the Unicorns’ until I noticed that Maggie had fallen asleep in Ian’s lap.

I stopped reading and smiled at her, she looks so cute and peaceful.

“What?” asked Ian, obviously wondering why I had stopped.

“She’s asleep.” I whispered.

He looked down in surprise at his daughter resting peacefully against his chest, “We must have tuckered her out with hide and seek.” He summarized.

I smiled in response.

“Her mother will probably kill me for screwing up her sleep pattern.” He sighed, a dark look creeping into his eyes.

“She had fun.” I reminded him, quick to move off a subject that would cause his good mood to sour.

“Yeah.” He agreed, “That’s the main thing.”

He then turned to look at me with that same unreadable expression. I noticed more and more these days he was looking at me like that. As if I was a piece of art that he didn’t quite understand but still liked to look at anyway.

I didn’t know what to do when he looked at me like that so I simply smiled and said, “I should probably get back to work.”

“Alright.” He agreed, “I’ll let her sleep a bit longer while I look for a book.” He told me.

I nodded in understanding before I headed back over to the reception desk where James was waiting.

“Oh there you are!” he said as soon as he saw me, “I was being harassed by a pair of Kardashian wanna-be’s would couldn’t understand why a library doesn’t have magazines.”

“Dear god, that must have been horrible for you.” I commented dryly.

“Well it wasn’t as fun as what you were doing, playing happy families with Ian Harding.” He told me.

“I was hardly playing ‘happy families’, we were just hanging out.” I dismissed.

“Oh please,” he scoffed, “You looked like you were modelling for an adoption agency catalogue.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled at him just as Ian came over to the reception, Maggie was still asleep, her head resting against his shoulder as he placed a book on the counter top.

“Aw, they’re so adorable when they’re sleeping.” Commented James as I scanned in Ian’s book.

“It’s probably just because they’re quiet.” Replied Ian.

I smiled as I handed him back the book and he smiled back as he turned to leave, Maggie raised her little head and said, in a tired sleepy voice, “Bye Clara.”

“Aw,” cooed James.

I couldn’t help but smile at Maggie as I waved ‘goodbye’, she was just too adorable.

Watching them go, I turned to James who was smiling at me smugly, “What?” I asked.

“Happy families.” He grinned.

“Shut up.” I dismissed before I got back to work.

                                           …

“You will never guess who I did a screen test with today!” said Barbara excitedly as she heaved herself up onto the counter as I making dinner.

“Who?” I asked with mild interest.

“Sam Hueghan.”

“Who?

“Sam Hueghan! Jamie from Outlander.” She reminded me.

“That’s the show about the time traveller and the Scottish people yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“They have like a lot of sex in that show.”

“So?”

“So? You’ve seen that guy naked! Wasn’t it weird meeting him and knowing what he looked like naked?” I asked pointedly.

“Honestly, I didn’t think about it.” She shrugged.

I shuddered as I stirred the pasta sauce I was making, “I could never do anything nude. I wouldn’t want so many people knowing what I looked like.”

“Hey, if I was a guy and had a body like his, I would never wear clothes.” She commented.

I laughed, “I’m sure a lot of women would thank you for that.”

“You can’t tell me you don’t think Sam Hueghan isn’t sexy?” she demanded.

“He was fine… I mean, I like his accent and everything.” I shrugged.

“Ah huh. But your more into nerdy guys who like books.” She guessed.

“Well, yeah.”

“And who have black hair.”

“Okay?”

“And blue-grey eyes.”

“Stop it!” I said, finally realizing what she was up to.

She grinned wickedly, “How is Mr. Harding?”

“He’s fine.” I said, refusing to meet her gaze.

“Don’t you mean ‘damn fine’?”

“You sound like James.”

“James, I love that boy. The three of us need to do coffee sometime.” She mused.

“By coffee you mean tea right?”

“Obviously. Tea is better.”

“And the Brits don’t know how to make a decent cup of coffee.” I added.

“That too.” She agreed as she jumped off the kitchen counter.

                                              …

“One, two, three!” we chanted.

On the count of three, both Ian and myself, holding Maggie’s hands, lifted her off the ground and swung her through the air. She cried out in delight, kicking her little legs in excitement. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw the joy on her face as the three of us then went over to the children’s section to try and choose a picture book for Maggie.

“Oh my god, I loved this book growing up.” Said Ian as he pulled out a book from the shelf.

I turned and looked over his shoulder to read the title, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’

“Yeah. I loved it as a kid.” He smiled.

“That’s adorable.” I commented.

“What was your favourite picture book as a kid?” he asked curiously.

“They don’t have it here because it’s an Australian book. But it was called ‘Possum Magic’.” I told him.

“And what was it about?”

“It was about this possum that became invisible and he had to eat different Australian foods to become visible again. Things like lamingtons and vegemite sandwiches.” I explained, “As a fat kid, it just really spoke to me.”

“You were a fat kid?” he asked, sounding chocked.

“Oh yeah.” I smiled, “I even went to fat camp.”

“Ok, what is fat camp? I heard about it, but I don’t even know what it is.” He said, sounding interested.

“It’s basically a camp for obese kids that shows them how to eat healthy and gets them doing fun activities outside for like exercise like rock climbing and horse riding. It was based on the premise that most fat kids sit inside and play video games all day, eating unhealthy things.” I explained.

“Is that what you did?”

“God no. I sat inside and read all day. Completely different.”

He laughed.

“Daddy! Hungry Caterpillar!” said Maggie as she pulled a book from the shelf and brought it over to her.

“We have this one at home baby,” he told her gently.

“Oh the Hungry Caterpillar. Yet another children’s book that spoke to me.” I joked wistfully.

“I’m sensing a theme here.” He commented.

I laughed and he seemed to smile at the sound.

The three of us went over to the reception so he could borrow a picture book for Maggie and a novel for himself.

Stepping behind the counter I scanned the books just as James came gliding through the door, practically bouncing with excitement.

“Big news!” he declared as he ran over to the reception.

“Your late.” I said dryly as I placed the books on the counter.

“Did you not hear me?” he demanded, “I have big news!”

“There are a stack of put backs you need to do.” I said pointedly.

“Let me try this again,” he began, seeming to get annoyed, “B-I-G N-E-W-S.” he spelled, chanting like a cheerleader, “Big News!” he cheered, throwing his hands up in the air.

I rolled my eyes, when James was excited there was no dissuading him.

Ian seemed to realize the same thing as he smiled, “Ok James, what’s your big news?” he asked.

“Friday, I’m in love!” he declared in a sing song voice.

I failed to get the reference, “What?”

He sighed dramatically in aggravation before he thrust his left hand forward, “I’m engaged!”

I blinked in shock before I smiled, James and Craig had been dating for a while and now they were engaged? That was just fantastic.

“James, that’s great.” Said Ian happily.

“Let me see the ring.” I smiled as James placed his hand in mine, on his ring finger was indeed a small silver band incrusted with a row of tiny diamonds around its circumference.

“Aw James, its beautiful.” I told him.

“I know.” He squeaked, “It was so romantic. We were out to dinner and then we went for a walk and he got down on one knee and-”

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Said Ian before he turned to me with a smile, “See you next month.” He told me.

“See you.” I smiled.

“Bye Clara.” Said Maggie.

“Bye Maggie.” I smiled.

James was still bouncing with excitement as he came around the counter to dump his bag and Ian walked out the door. He then proceeded to tell me how Craig had taken him to Paris and proposed to him by placing a padlock on the famous love bridge.

“Wow, so when’s the wedding?” I asked.

“Next month.” He smiled, “I’ve always wanted a June wedding.”

I blinked in shock, “What?”

“My parents are coming over next month so its perfect timing.” He explained.

“Talk about a shot gun wedding.” I marvelled, “are you sure you’re not pregnant?”

“Ha. Ha.” He said sarcastically, “No, he’s been planning it for months. His parents are coming over from Wales at the same time mine are over. It will be great. We’re even going to do it at the registry office next door because, you know, we met here.” He said happily.

“That’s so cute.” I smiled, “I’m really happy for you.”

James eyed me for a moment suspiciously.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Stop that.” He commented.

“Stop what?”

“Stop looking so happy. It’s freaking me out.”

I laughed.

“I’m the one who is engaged and you look happier than I do. It’s not right.” He said.

“Sorry.” I smiled as I focused on arranging the books that needed to be put back.

“I know what’s making you smile.” He revealed after a moment silence.

I turned to him expectantly.

“Ian.”

“What?”

“Ever since the two of you reconnected you’ve been nothing but smiles.”

“We haven’t reconnected. We’re just spending more time together. He’s been having a tough time lately with the separation and I’m just helping him out.” I dismissed.

“Uh huh. Sure.” He said knowingly, “Just be careful.”

“Careful of what?”

“That you’re not the rebound girl.”

“I’m not going to be the ‘anything’ girl. We’re just friends.” I assured him.

“For now.” Said James ominously, “I smell double wedding.”  

I shook my head as I handed him the pile of put backs, “You were late. So you get to do the put backs.” I declared.

“What? Oh come on!” he whined, “I’m being punished for not wanting to leave my fiancé the morning after we get engaged?”

“Yep.” I said popping the ‘p’ sound, “I should think you want to come to work all the more, seeing as you have a wedding to pay for.” I said pointedly.

“Holy shit, I completely forgot about that.” He said, his face going blank with shock.

“Uh huh. Go put the books away.” I told him.

He grumbled unhappily as he walked away but I still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

                                               …

Sometimes I doubted the existence of my ovaries.

My all laws of nature, being in possession of a pair of ovaries meant two things; you loved the movie The Notebook and you liked shopping.

I had never seen The Notebook, so that was moot point.

But right now I was supposed to be shopping for a dress to wear to James’s wedding and I was hating every minute of it.

Half the dresses I thought looked good, only looked that way because of the model.

The other half of the dresses I couldn’t ever see myself wearing.

But finding a dress that’s design I actually liked was hard enough, I didn’t like anything too tightly fitted or too baggy, nor anything that was too short. I didn’t like high necked dresses because they always made me itch, nor did I like halter neck dresses because I couldn’t wear a bra with them and I needed to wear a bra. Anything with ruffles or a plunging neckline was out of the question.

There was then the problem of colouring, with eyes as blue as mine and hair that was practically platinum blonde, there were a lot of colours I just couldn’t wear. Any pale colours made me look washed out with my complexion. Bright colours like yellow or pink made me look sick. Black was always a safe option, but I heard it was bad taste to wear black to a wedding.

So that left a very small percentage of dresses that I actually liked.

But then I had the problem of not only price because I would absolutely not be paying a ludicrous amount of money for a dress I would wear once. Even the thought of paying the shipping fee filled me with loathing, but that was only a small problem compared to the other challenge I faced, which was size.

For some reason dress makers tended to think that if you were skinny, you were also short. But if you were tall, you were also fat. There was no way you could be tall and skinny like I was.

On the miniscule chance, I found a dress I liked I either didn’t want to pay the price that was asked, or they did not have the dress in my size.

Not only was the whole exercise endlessly frustrating but it was beginning to make me question my sanity in how much I was beginning to hate the very idea of shopping.

When Ian walked through the door, with Maggie clutching his hand, I was almost relieved to have an excuse to turn away from the computer and greet them.

“Hello you two.” I smiled.

“Hi Clara.” Smiled Maggie.

“Do you want to give Clara your book?” asked Ian.

Nodding enthusiastically, she held out the picture book she had borrowed last month to me, reaching up on the tips of her toes so the tip of the book brushed the edge of the counter.

“Thank you.” I said as I took the book from here, “Did you like it?”

“Yeah!” she said happily.

“Did you tell Clara what book we found in the book shop the other day?” prompted Ian.

“What book?” I asked.

“Possum Magic!” smiled Maggie.

“Wow! Really?” I smiled.

She nodded happily, “The possum ate lots of food.”

“He did indeed.”

“She’s been telling me all month she wants to eat a vegemite sandwich.” Said Ian sighing in a way that made me feel as if the two of us were sharing some private joke.

I laughed in delight.

“Ian,” greeted James as he swung around in the desk chair, “What do you think of my new glasses? How do they look? What do they say?” he asked putting his hand up to the thick black rimmed glasses he was wearing.

“I think they’re very hipster.” He told him.

I chuckled as I scanned in his books.

“I’ll have you know my fiancé loves them.” Said James seriously.

I rolled my eyes, James was using any excuse he could to rub his new-found material status in everyone’s faces.

“You should come,” said James, “We’re having a June wedding in Hyde Park because the weather will just be beautiful.”

“I’ll see if I can make it.” He smiled before he took Maggie’s hand and they made their way over to the books.

Now I really needed to find a dress to wear to the wedding.