#that runs behind the screen of the crt

[cryptidspaz]

behold my full late 90s / early 2000s media set up Bitches. Fuck the shitty quality streaming of shows & movies you can never own & fuck compressed audio through shitty bluetooth speakers.

[fernsnailz]

it's time... for the TEAM DARK FEST! 💥💥💥💥

me and @serpentineshine are hosting a little tournament to finally determine who the best Team Dark member is! this week there's gonna be goofs, bits, and even a special prize for the winner 👀

however, the most important prize of all is what awaits at the end of the festival! ...but that's a secret right now.

💥 cast your vote below! 💥

(oh also if anyone makes any propaganda for their fav character. tag me i wanna see)

video transcript below the cut! ⬇️

A blue announcement screen with scrolling text reads “SPECIAL FENSNAILZ ANNOUNCEMENT.” There’s a looping animation of Squeak the cat in the middle. It disappears, cutting to a shot of a studio space.

In the studio, SNAIL, SHINE, SQUEAK, and a VASH PLUSH all sit at a desk with a large CRT TV on it. Squeak and Vash are on top of the TV, and shelves with various items line the walls. Everyone seems to be unaware that the camera is rolling - Snail is reading the script, Shine is drinking from a mug, and Squeak is licking her butthole. Vash remains motionless.

Snail notices the camera zooming in, and throws away the script in a moment of panic. Shine and Squeak sit up to face the camera as well.

SNAIL: Coming at you pre-recorded, it’s Snail, Shine, and The Beasts!

SHINE: We’re here today to announce a special tournament we’re hosting: the TEAM DARK FEST!

SQUEAK: Eep!

VASH: weemp womp :]

SNAIL: You know ‘em, you love ‘em-

SHINE: Or hate them.

SNAIL: It’s all about TEAM DARK this week! Fellas, turn on that TV!

The camera cuts to a close-up of the TV as the screen flips on. Three shitty photos of each Team Dark member appear on the TV under the question “Who is the best member of Team Dark?” Every Team Dark member’s name is misspelled underneath the photos.

SHINE: Time for the ULTIMATE question: Who is the best Team Dark member?

SNAIL: Oof. We’re turning them against each other, huh? That’s dramatic.

SQUEAK: Meep! (HOLY SHIT)

The camera zooms out to a wide view of the studio, but zooms out much further than needed for a split second. For some reason, this is all being filmed on a green screen set, and the shelves behind the cast seem to be edited in. Not only that, but this studio is either widely over-staffed or widely under-staffed, because the boom mic is held by seven Chao stacked on top of each other. The camera zooms into a closeup of Snail before much of this information can be processed.

SNAIL: Well, it’s obviously Shadow. I told him if he won, I would get him ice cream after soccer practice!

The camera pans over to Shine.

SHINE: No way, vote for Rouge! She can carry like. Nineteen mountain lions. Give or take

The camera pans over to Squeak and Vash. Squeak points at a crude drawing of Omega that seems to say “VOTE OMEGA.” It is upside down. Vash holds a cute little sign that says “I <3 OMEGA” that he likely made himself.

SQUEAK + VASH: ?????????????? (we didn’t hire anyone to translate this part.)

Back in a wide shot, Snail and Shine stare blankly at Squeak and Vash. Squeak licks her butthole again. Vash is now Real. Someone off-screen sneezes very convincingly.

SHINE: This poll will run for ONE WEEK before we announce the winner! So little time…

SNAIL: Everyone make your vote count! The winner of this festival will have a special page in my… 

An image of a porcelain snail appears over a white background as an echo-y human voice says “SECRET UPCOMING PROJECT.”

VASH: bweep bwaa :] (Yay! Prizes!)

SHINE: The final verdict will be decided by Twitter AND Tumblr, so commit as much voter fraud as you please!

Squeak bites Vash and he screams. They both fall off the TV and make a surprising amount of noise. Snail and Shine stare in shock.

SNAIL: See you in seven days! And hey, if you want to participate… tag me in any propaganda you make to fight for your favorite Team Dark member!

Squeak and Vash explode.

[smorbee]

iBook Pyramid Behind the scenes!

This is a long one. Also keep in mind we made this a year ago so were going completely off of memory at this point BUT we do have the files. Unfortunately we didn't save specific versions of it really early into its creation so all the blender files close to being finished.

We have an intense appreciation for funky old computers. People correctly identified inspiration from the Thinkpad 701C. Less obvious in the final design but something that almost certainly influenced us as well was the 12-inch powerbook g4.

There is something very satisfying about nearly-square shaped laptops.

Others mentioned the JVC 3100R pyramid TV which, you'll be surprised to learn, we had never actually seen until after working on this project. The resemblance is uncanny and yet, entirely coincidental. Honestly if we had seen this thing, it probably would have had an effect on our design because the way that hinge is set up is beautiful. Our thought process was simply just comically emulating the form factor of a modern laptop but with a giant CRT.

We're pretty sure the idea started out as simply wanting to design a full profile keyboard into a macbook-like laptop because funny, and at some point the butterfly keyboard came to mind and we said Screw it and implemented that into it as well. Heres the keyboard separated into the different sections.

Sorry to say that the keyboard does not actually contain any switches. (You'll see that this computer was modeled to be viewed a limited angle)

Heres the keyboard from the top.

Once we got going with it, the whole thing was turned into a big joke of course, clashing many different eras of technology into one. Such as this massive beige tank of a "laptop" having a single USB C port as its main I/O.

And same with the software. This is the texture for the display, Which was taken from our real (unfortunately not crt based) macbook setup at the time. Except not quite, as the original screenshot was 16:10. We simply edited the image to make it 4:3. This is running mac os 12 with a majority of the icons changed to early osx equivalents.

We'll be real and admit the animation is not very intricate, theres no real "rig" for the model, parts are just parented together because we did all this in about 2 days. That said, we had loads of fun animating it still, trying to imitate the motion of someone struggling to lift the heavy top up before it swings open with an inaudible, but easily imaginable "Thud". Making the whole body shake and the trackball jump slightly was the finishing touch to make it complete.

The wire for the trackball was made using a circle with the screw modifier and then applied to a curve. Here's what it looks like with each modifier applied sequentially.

And then making the trackball itself a handle for the curve, we can have the cable be dynamic. (Yes, we notice that the trackball in fact has no mouse buttons. No good explanation for that, I think we just forgot lmao.)

For the screen, we make use of a location transform on the UV mapping for the satisfying detail of the screen distorting from the impact, which we swear we've seen before but no matter how hard we (safely) bumped our CRT monitor we weren't able to recreate it. Nonetheless even if its not entirely realistic we wouldn't remove it for anything.

speaking of which, an utterly useless detail considering the resolution and distortion of the final renders and yet we added anyways just for our own amusement is that the display has a shadowmask, simply done by just multiplying it over the base screen texture.

Combined with a glass material over the inner part of the screen, it utterly destroys low sample count renders of the screen and makes the project at least 3x as prone to crashing so thats cool! (it crashed on us while we were writing this section)

We've learned since in future projects that trying to optimize polygon count and materials is still very important even for offline rendered content. We can never be truly free from the constraints of memory limitations 😔

the final step was getting a more authentic less "polished" look in the compositing. This step can get very complicated based on the specific look were going for, but for this render its really just basic color correction and some blurring and sharpening steps. We used the default fake jitter node in blender at the time, though in more recent stuff we use the non-denoised image with filters applied to it instead, so its less uniform between images and more uniquely degraded looking.

Though we'd do a number of things differently now were still pleased with the final result. especially in animated form.

Heres an overview of the scene:

This is the bezeled apple logo in polygon form. Its simply an alpha texture with a normal map:

Thats all for now! Thank you for reading!

[signalhill-if]

Grainy camcorder footage being played on the fragmented surface of a CRT television. It's totally silent except for the whirring of the tape in the VCR. The person filming is in a crowd of onlookers, aiming the camera up at a stage. In the smeared, shaky footage we see a middle aged man in a suit, with a young blonde standing just behind him and off to the side and an entourage of several more official-looking men and women standing around him. You can't hear his speech, but whenever he pauses, the officials on stage clap.

The shaky camera glances around, away from the subject- perhaps trying to take in the scale of the event, perhaps anxious for what was about to come next. In the blur of camera movement you can make out the building behind him, an opulent thing with a massive neon sign depicting a playing card that flickers in a rhythmic pattern. The camera settles on the crowd around- alternately agitated or excited. There's a tension in the air which you can feel clearly, even through this recording.

The camera settles back on the stage just in time for us to see what's about to happen. We don't see the bullet- only its aftermath. The crowd starts to run in every direction. The officials flee the stage. But the camcorder stays in place. It starts to zoom, its shaky hand magnified as it struggles to capture the mangled head of its subject. Then its holder aims upwards, a overshooting at first, catching a glimpse of the city's radio tower silhouetted against the dark violet sky. It catches a blur of blonde hair and pink satin as it searches for its target, and finally settles on the face of the young woman still standing on the stage by her father's side.

Her face and hair are splattered with red. She stares into the camera, her face inscrutable, before a click can be heard and the tape stops whirring. Her face is warped in lines as the word PAUSE appears in white letters over the screen. Another click, and the image disappears as the tape slides out of the VCR.

[cicadacalling]

A few secrets in re:curse

Since re:curse is a game that includes the project file for the game itself, I went poking around in there via the demo version of RPGVXAce and found some pretty interesting stuff. Since I assume not everyone wants to go to that effort I figured I’d share a few of the things I found here, specifically the “translations” for the glitched text present in the game, plus a bit of dialogue from an unused room and one other secret I found regarding the ending of the game.

The glitched text I’ve transcribed here is the email Caroline sends Joan, the dialogue from the version of Caroline present on the CRT monitor, and the alterations Caroline makes to the ASTER code of conduct.

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

lab_normal_01 (the start room for the game)

(Note: this is the email Joan received)

Subject: re:curse

congratulations! youve hit 10000 carolines

want to meet carolines in real life?

click here

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

lab_corrupt_02 (first corrupted room)

CRT Caroline:

hiiiii linda

how goes it? still a dipshit?

haha, i know you don’t understand me.

but the person behind your eyes might.

since it’s such a pain to translate, i’ll at least try to be entertaining

----

ASTER Facility code of conduct:

It’s the ASTER Facility book of bullshit

(...the letters are moving around too much)

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

lab_corrupt_03 (the flipped lab room)

CRT Caroline:

notice how this monitor isn’t flipped? totally on purpose.

in fact, i bent the laws of reality to make that happen. its Very Important Lore

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

lab_corrupt_05_looping (1st “island” lab room)

CRT Caroline:

oh, this one!

i remember this lab.

all the little islands, exactly the same…

extending in every direction…

…

i’ve always existed in places like this, huh?

i wonder if i’ll miss it. when the time comes.

----

ASTER Facility code of conduct:

It’s the ASTER Facility archive of autostereograms

(...the letters are forming strange, repetitive patterns. You can feel your eyes unfocusing.)

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

lab_corrupt_06_looping (2nd “island” lab room with Cube)

CRT Caroline:

just now, i looked through the screen, to the horizon line in the distance.

and i imagined myself. many loops in the future. standing on that platform.

it made me feel…

(CRT Caroline’s head splits in half)

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(CRT Caroline goes back to normal)

i’ve decided.

i actually hate this room.

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

lab_corrupt_07_maze (vertical maze room)

CRT Caroline:

(Note: This is after the phone conversation where Linda tells Joan her password and Joan is confused about what a vertical bar is)

lol

idiot doesn’t even know about “vertical bar”

...my feelings are a mess.

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

lab_corrupt_08_stairs (stairs room)

CRT Caroline:

stairs room…

what came after stairs room..?

OH.

i just remembered.

i wonder if you’ll realize…

who exactly you’re looking at, that is.

(Note: Linda walks in on herself and Joan kissing after this room. It’s possible Caroline is referring to something else but that context feels pretty important.)

----

ASTER Facility code of conduct:

It’s the ASTER Facility book of moire patterns.

(The pages are covered in high frequency strips. The patterns undulate as you move your head around.)

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

map8.5 (wide maze with breaking floor)

(Note: Computer Caroline mentions going though Linda’s administrative warning folder and learning about “Tube Incident” in this room.)

CRT Caroline:

i have one regret.

“tube incident.”

i looked at the pictures.

it’s not something you can unsee.

----

ASTER Facility code of conduct:

It’s fucked up, or what?

(It’s an illustration of an elephant. The feet are drawn in the negative space between the legs, which has a disorienting effect. You’ve seen this one online before. She must be running out of ideas.)

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

map10 (spiral walkway)

(Note: Computer Caroline’s dialogue ends with “that phone has now rung for the eleventh time. that’s my cue.”)

CRT Caroline:

my cue too.

thanks for chatting, cheater.

i’ll see you later.

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

There is also an area in the game labeled lab_corrupt_testZone that is not accessible during a regular playthough of the game and presumably was used as a debug room. There’s a lot of text here specific to this room but in particular I want to share the dialogue that the two Carolines have in this room. The places where [number] is present are presumably spots where fonts would load.

----

Computer Caroline:

well, well, well…

fancy seeing you here, lindy!

yep…

a real treat. a real welcome intrusion.

from a real. good. pal.

----

CRT Caroline:

[1]youre not supposed to hear me, stupid!!

euuuuuggh go awayyyy

[1]eeeeughhh cough co[0]ugh cough cough. better?

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

As one final thing: When looking around in the files I noticed that the file for the noise that plays when the game is forced to close had a name that indicated it was actually an image file. I converted it into something I could open in a graphics program and this is what I got:

(as an aside I think there’s supposed to be some color present in this image but I was legitimately unable to get it to open in anything but greyscale. If you want to check out this file yourself it’s in Audio>SE)

[transparentstickers]

A German promotional sticker for the Sega Maga drive. A computer generated face smiles out from a CRT televsion screen. Colour blocks run down their face, reminicent of a test card. Their eyes are rectangular with static instead of whites, and you can see a circuit board behind their smile.

Above them is a pink arrow with segmented display text reading "Der Absolute Wahnsinn" (The Absolute Madness) above the Sega logo.

[synthy-sizer]

The interior of the rocket is instantly disconcerting. The entire thing is turned sideways. You can see several rows of seats extending downwards. The backs of the seats are against a wall, which houses a hefty-looking DOOR. There are rungs built into the wall that would allow you to climb down safely. Above you is an array of CRT MONITORS covering most of the wall.

Look around>

The lights are warm and dim, something much more comforting than the concerning red that bathes most of the Apollo facilities. The interior is made of glossy, smooth plastic and even has carpeted floors. You're surprised by the level of comfort it prioritizes. There also appears to be a communications TERMINAL next to the ladder.

Go to door>

You climb down the ladder and walk on the "wall", then lean down and examine the door. It has a large WHEEL on it.

Turn wheel>

You crank the wheel and pull. The door swings open. Looks like it was designed to keep the air inside in case of a breach. That's a smart safety feature. You look down at the room below. It's all empty racks and shelves, abandoned straps and hooks, and slots on the floor. It looks like it was designed to keep luggage and supplies secure. You close the door behind you and turn the handle back. There doesn't seem like any reason to keep it open.

Look at monitors>

You climb back up and look at the monitors. You recall that you never saw any windows on the rocket when you looked at it from the outside. Maybe the monitors are what let you see the outside?

Look at terminal>

The only familiar thing on the terminal is the INSTANT MESSENGER. There's also a program called STARTUP. You could probably use Heresy's advice now.

Talk to Heresy>

[HERESY is ONLINE]

Luna1: Hi Heresy.

Heresy: I see you made it to the rocket.

Luna1: Yeah, I did.

Luna1: But I don't know how to launch it.

Luna1: There's no obvious launch button.

Heresy: Those rockets were surprisingly autonomous and automated.

Heresy: They used a computer to run it.

Heresy: I should be able to help you launch.

Luna1: This seems kinda dangerous…

Heresy: You'll be ok, Sofia.

Heresy: Nothing can happen to you.

Heresy: I promise.

Luna1: Ok….

Luna1: So what do I do?

Heresy: Make sure the doors are closed and buckle yourself in.

Heresy: The terminal should have a few options for starting up the monitors and putting it in launch mode.

Heresy: Once you set those things up I can start it from my side.

You minimize the messenger. It sounds like Heresy was talking about the STARTUP program.

Use startup>

You double-click the application and it opens. The screen lights up with a flashy UI which features a short list of BUTTONS. They read monitors, safety check, and launch mode.

Use buttons>

You click every button in turn. The monitors start to whine and turn on soon after, displaying a clear view of the sky from the rocket's position on the launchpad. The cameras must be on the nose of the ship. When you click the safety check, a diagnostic program starts running and a loading bar appears. You barely even see it before it disappears, though. Seems like it's perfectly functional despite everything. Finally, you click launch mode. The program changes to a message.

"PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEAT AND BUCKLE UP FOR YOUR SAFETY. CLOSE MAIN HATCH BEFORE LAUNCH."

Ah, right, the HATCH. It would be a bad idea to leave it open during launch.

Close hatch>

You swing the hatch shut and turn the wheel on your side. Everything should be set up now. You need to let Heresy know.

Talk to Heresy>

Luna1: I think everything is set up now.

Heresy: Good.

Heresy: I saw that you set it to launch mode.

Luna1: Yeah.

Luna1: So I guess this is it then?

Heresy: Yeah. Buckle yourself in and I'll trigger the launch remotely.

Heresy: The course is already projected.

Something is bothering you. You pause a bit before sending your next message.

Luna1: Do I really have to go?

Heresy: What do you mean?

Luna1: I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave yet.

Luna1: I'm going to miss everyone a lot.

Heresy: You don't have to leave right now.

Heresy: You can stay as long as you like.

Heresy: But the thing is, your fate was already decided.

Heresy: At some point you'll decide to come anyway.

You think about her words for a while.

Luna1: How do you know?

Heresy: Because God told me, Sofia.

Heresy: I reached out to Luna for a reason.

Heresy: And I knew when you found me that you were who I was sent to find.

Heresy: We're both part of something bigger than us.

Heresy: That's why I need you.

You leave her waiting for a while again, trying to sort out your own conflicting emotions. But eventually you decide.

Luna1: Ok, I'm going to buckle up now.

You get into the seat nearest to the terminal and strap yourself in. The chair has excessive padding and buckles, and the headrest feels like more than just comfort. You look up at the grid of monitors. Something new has started to form on them. There's an overlap charting out the course to Earth from Luna. And then a countdown. As the countdown the rocket starts to rumble, more and more, and you can see the camera views start to show smoke drifting up. As soon as it begins the camera view cuts out, showing only the grid and leaving you in the dark to wait in anticipation. And then, liftoff.

You're pressed back into the seat as the rocket launches. Everything it shaking violently. You can faintly hear ripping and tearing metal and the booms of scattered vehicles and equipment flying from the thrust of the launch. The entire facility is probably demolished. But you can't afford to focus on that now. More and more pressure is piled onto you, and then you black out.

…

….

…..

You wake up suddenly, gasping desperately for air and trembling. You look around. Things are floating in the cabin. The cameras are back on, and you can see Earth in view, surrounded by the inky void and twinkling stars. As you slowly approach the planet, you notice what looks like a dense glittering silver ring around it. You're left to this view for quite a while. A timer in the corner of the grid says it'll be a number of hours before you make it. Eventually, you pass out.

…

….

…..

You awake at the jolt of the rocket. You're right inside the dense ring now. Now that you're closer, you can see what it's made of; metal scraps and debris. The rocket rumbles and shakes again. You must be bumping into the space debris. How many satellites and facilities were launched into orbit to create a ring this dense? You wonder for a moment, and the rocket shakes again. The lights flicker this time. You're getting nervous. Suddenly, you feel the thrusters again, and the pressure builds. It looks like you're coming in for an entry. The rocket slowly descends into the atmosphere, and as flames appear to build against the nose of the rocket the cameras cut out again. The ship rumbles and shakes more and more, and the pressure against you builds. A warning message appears and the lights flash red.

"WARNING: CRASH LANDING"

You close your eyes and feel the impact of the rocket slamming into the ground.

And then nothing.

NEXT

PREVIOUS

[iheartnimbassacity]

✍

[A video. It begins with Dave looking at an old CRT TV, he looks around 13 or 14, red is glowing from the screen, shining onto Daves face. Yet the screen itself is coverd in a thick layer of static, it almost hurts to even glance at it. Behind him is Gretta Reid, his mother.

Dave is crying, yet he didnt look away "Why...Why did you show me this, mother?" The child's voice is shakeing, covering his mouth.

"Why, you need to learn what happens to defectors, dear. They were going to run away, and we cant have that." Grettas face cant be seen, but her voice was clear as day. Smooth, no accent to speak of, "We are Reids, you will get used to this."

"But they...They are dead! You killed them!" Dave tried to back away from his mother.

"Its apart of the business."

"I dont want to do anything like that! I dont care what dad or Gi-"

"Dreda." Gretta stares at her child with cold steel, makeing Dave go silent. A threat.

"Yes mother, I understand." He faltered, looking to the ground.

"Good. Now go and feed my darling Ivy. Dont be late, you have more training in an hour." She ejected the tape from the CRT, the label reading "M&T DEATH PROOF."

The video ends.]

[cavewretch]

updated apr 19 2024

welcome to earth! welcome to PHOTOSYNTH!

once upon a time in october 2022, i listened to a song called "the turn of a dream" by robert schroeder and imagined people in a space ship, en route to move (back) to earth. they've got two cats who are sitting on the dashboard panels of buttons and switches of the spaceship. there's a little bit of urgency, like they're on the run, but they're also a bit caught up in awe at the sight of earth.

visually there was a lot of messing with crt tvs like pushing through electricity and screens and static. more below the cut! feel free to ask me things about it :D

from that little song kernel i started having fun imagining what earth might look like in a distant future, and what the people would be like, and what their experiences might look like in a post climate-change-global-capital-collapse world. what could grow? in this project i'm also thinking a lot about technology- the sustainability and evolution of gadgets and gizmos over the last few decades and what consequences our excess causes.

what use can we get out of things that are old but still have useful parts or still function? what can we create with what's left over?

who gets left behind after the rich and powerful deem earth unlivable? what will they do to survive?

i have no idea what photosynth may come to be - perhaps animation? a web comic? i haven't decided! i'd like it to be a collaborative something someday! this is all a big sandbox i am stomping around in and constantly adding to ! i've drawn some characters a little and have brainstormed some scenes but i don't have something to be read yet. and i'm honestly perfectly content to let it stay that way for years . i hope it's something tangible in the world as a finished object in like. 10 years. i think that's a fair amount of time to give myself. (i have a pinterest board with 700+ images, an 11 hour playlist, unfinished sketches, an archival external hard drive, and a very chaotic notebook.)

anyway! lets ground ourselves a bit beyond abstract conception shall we!

on earth, the great emigration begins. earth has gotten severely dangerous for life, and Scientists have recently discovered the yellowstone volcano in the west of the american empire is rapidly getting close to eruption. they can't predict when exactly the volcano will blow, but they know it will mean certain destruction for much of the continent, and contribute to global climate shift. a volcanic winter/small ice age, at least. the governing bodies make some swift and grand decisions. space travel has improved enough that the upper class can access it when necessary. state-based spaceships are designated for the rich and powerful, because of course we need our government leaders where we go next, or else we'll be lost! mars exploration has developed enough that there is a station large enough for the federal branch of government to set up shop. able bodied manual laborers are organized by tech conglomerates across the country and are sent to work on building ZEXA, a man made base to start up this new ultimate civilization. any employee within the empire working in certain disciplines are given numbers and ships with certain number ranges are assigned for migration. the empire drops its borders, encouraging mass migration to the south and elsewhere in whatever way people can get access to. it doesn't assist the process beyond that.

an empire moves to mars, leaving a majority of its population behind.

yellowstone erupts. north america is largely uninhabitable. the globe's climate is significantly altered.

time moves. the largest settlement (Jovia) in the north american continent is established and is home to roughly [300k? 1 million? idk] people.

Zexa 5's Galactic Federation bombs Jovia, starting the interplanetary war. a little girl escapes the destruction. across an ocean, a pair of newlyweds gear up for battle. two continents over, a "research project" begins development. the war "ends."

occupation remains, and the pressure cooker is reaching fever pitch.....

lets meet some characters!!!!! :D

ROSE EYE, named for her pink heart shaped glasses that double as a sniper scope. also known as JEN, who once escaped the destruction of her home town.

Jen is reputable assassin, with skills in stealth and both long and close range combat. she got her code name after a factory whistle blowing turned into a company's collapse, which she only escaped because of the help of THORN.

THORN, named alongside rose eye for their partnership in rescuing factory employees and carrying out the attack on the company. she's dubbed thorn for her electrified blade weapon and her unique virus software .//th0Rn that gives her full access to multi level security systems. of course it helped she was a security guard at the factory...

also known as HANA. adept at engineering and spacecraft with a love for earth-bound air travel, hana is joyful and loves country music and happens to save her workplace crush who wears those pink glasses everywhere's ass, jumpstarting her criminal career and a high speed chase off-planet. next stop: earth!

on earth, twin boys are knee deep in the junkyards after school to scavenge for new materials. ADI is looking for electronics, AMIR is looking for anything he can fashion into useful clothing. amir is taller. not by much, but by enough that you should know. they've found an old pc with a series of oddly prophetic corrupted plain text files and jpegs. one file looks like some sort of schematic. they'll bring it home and scare their mother, reminding her of what killed their father.

both boys are 19, one sporting purple hair dye and the other a nose ring, for individuality. they're about to complete their foundational educations and choose their apprenticeships and mentors.

across an ocean or two, a galactic federation research facility enters its 21st year of operation. a man who's been fighting to escape it since its inception just might make it this time. in cairo, a pilot receives an order to target that facility.

IVAN has been a prisoner of a galactic federation human experiment facility since he was a child. he's been pushed and prodded in research of the "human limits of strength and survival". despite fighting his captors his whole life, he is what they wanted him to become: a deadly weapon. and he's about to be freed by a man who terrifies him in a different way.

MIGUEL grew up surrounded by rebels and pilots. after his parents were executed by the galactic federation he was raised by an old mechanic in cairo. covered in tattoos piercings and charisma, miguel fashions himself unknowable and invulnerable . with nothing to lose he carries out targeted attacks on galactic federation bases. he just received a mission order that will bring him back to an old friend and give him lives to protect and live for.

thank you for reading !!!! 🫶🫶🫶

[soapkaars]

Do you want to share anything about one of your favorite contemporary art pieces?

or, you can resurrect Peter Lorre to star in any film made after his death. Which one?

Oh I love this question! There has been so much fantastic contemporary art over the years that it’s hard to choose! I think one of my absolute favourites is a video piece I saw in the Venice Biennale more than a decade ago (around 2008-ish). I can’t remember the name nor the artists who made it so I’ll try to explain it best I can:

It was made by a Spanish art collective and the premise was to register a group of young people and their activities who all lived together in one old apartment in Barcelona (I think). It was filmed in a kind of documentary style, with each segment starting off with a number and a short description of what was going to happen. The segments I remember are:

‘Camouflaged food’ - one of the people goes to the kitchen to cook. The top of a bottle turns out to be a carrot. The triangle holding up the kitchen shelf is a piece of parmesan. There are mushrooms growing in the hot water geiser. There is a piece of lettuce hidden in a book. They make a little salad out of all these hidden pieces of food.

‘Christiano Ronaldo exits the television and runs across the room.’ - the group are watching a football match. The camera zooms in on the television (an old CRT on the floor) at the moment the football player is running to a corner in the screen. He disappears offscreen and then we see behind the television a tiny cut-out photo of him mounted on cardboard and on wheels being pulled by a series of strings through the living room.

‘One minute rave’ - all the young people gather into a bedroom, lights go off, music goes on, they dance it out for exactly one minute and then leave. Light goes back on, it’s a bedroom again.

All throughout these absurdities, the actors don’t break out a single smile. It’s all played straight and extremely deadpan. Every activity is treated with the same amount of detached boredom, no matter how weird or absurd it was. It was grand.

Other pieces I really loved that I’ve seen over the years were: an opera about people bored at the beach contemplating the end of the world (I have a copy of the music, it’s so well done), a video of two old Southamerican men listing every political and public figure who had died or will die with great gusto or pathos (every once in a while I find myself quoting it: ‘Fidel?’ ‘Morirá.’ ‘Mandela?’ ‘Ha muerto.’), an upside-down US tank with a little treadmill control on one of its treads and a jogger running on it… oh there’s so much! I’m terrible at named but I can remember these pieces so vividly whenever I think of them and their memory always makes me smile…!

As for your other question: there are a lot of films I think Lorre would be really good in, including several thrillers and hardboiled films made in the 80s, he’d be great in Twin Peaks, for instance, but personally… I want him to play in a BBC Poirot series. It doesn’t even have to be David Suchet’s series! It can be any filmed adaptation, I just think he’d kill it as that character!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

ALTR 114209

A JSE Fanfic

Septics Inverted AU

First IRIS Chapter | Previous

(It feels like it’s been forever since I updated this. I think I was a bit intimidated by this new chapter. How does one cover the history of Anti and IRIS? In a chapter-long flashback spanning a couple decades but focusing on a couple key instances. That’s how. And that’s what this chapter is. It’s longer than the previous chapters of IRIS Inverted, but shorter than the rest of my recent work by about 2000 words. Have fun!)

One night, a television in a suburban home turned on all by itself. The screen flicked through channels, blasting fragments of audio into the empty living room before settling on the static of a lost signal. A shape seemed to move in the white noise. A person’s head and shoulders.

Anti wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he’d last been in the world. It had to be a while, just judging by the way technology had advanced. These boxes of coils that displayed images were new. They were all connected by cables and wires that beamed radiation. People had figured out how to combine radio and motion pictures. Fascinating.

Footsteps in the house. The television clicked off, just in time for a woman to look into the living room, confused. She walked up to the television and pressed some buttons on the box, turning some dials as well. Trying to figure out what was wrong. It got annoying after a while, so Anti shut down all signals going to and from the television, leaving it on static. The woman messed around some more, then sighed and left.

Anti leaned out from the static screen, his form nothing but flickering shadows, and watched her go. Once he was sure she was gone, he stepped out entirely. He was still a shadow. Now that he’d severed his connection with his host, he couldn’t take a solid form. That was the price he’d paid when he left.

Jameson was probably still alive. If Anti wanted, he could go find him. But he didn’t want that. Even after spending a couple decades cooling down, he was still angry with him. And... well, he didn’t know if he wanted to see what happened to Jameson. He could think of no good outcome there.

In fact, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to chance running into him. The world was a big place. And it was all connected through electricity now. Anti could go wherever he wanted.

And so he did.

He flitted around the world for a couple years before finally deciding to stay in America for a while—New York, to be exact. The city was a web of energy, giving him a lot of places to go and a lot of things to do. It was in this city—in the year 1953—that he first heard of IRIS.

Anti had taken to living in a skyscraper where they broadcasted television. He liked the connection he felt there, where the cameras beamed out to every CRT box in the nation. But his presence hadn’t gone unnoticed. Flickering lights, shadows of people film, the hum of static and the feeling of charged air right behind you. It wasn’t long before the TV studio employees began to whisper that the whole place was haunted. Anti would have felt bad, but it was sort of fun to frighten them. It wasn’t like he could stop the electrical problems anyway. He was pure energy without a host, and that was bound to affect the electricity whether he wanted to or not.

And the effect he had was bound to attract attention.

One day, a man came into the broadcast studio. He wore a blue jumpsuit and carried a black duffel bag, and wouldn’t have looked too different from any maintenance worker or janitor if it wasn’t for the logo on his lapel. A white outline of an eye, accompanied by the letters I.R.I.S. Back then, the eye only had one circle for an iris. They would change it eventually, as all companies do.

The man talked with the studio owner. Anti listened to their conversation from the overhead light. “There is a chance that something dangerous is in your building,” the man said. “We at IRIS are offering a free scan.”

“Dangerous? Dangerous how?” The studio owner asked.

“We are unsure at this time,” the man replied. “That is why the scan is free.”

“What if you find something? Are you about to charge me for getting rid of it?”

“It will be a small fee if something is found. Only one hundred dollars.”

The studio owner looked surprised. Anti didn’t really understand currency, but even he knew that was shockingly cheap. “Well if the scan is free...” The owner mused. “Go on ahead. Do I have to clear out a space for whatever scanning equipment you’re about to bring in?”

“Thank you, sir.” The man in the blue jumpsuit turned and started to leave. “Don’t worry about clearing a space. We at IRIS are very efficient.”

Anti followed the man as he walked through the studio hallways, causing the electric bulbs to flicker whenever he shifted to a different one. The man looked up, noticing this. He seemed concerned, but not worried. He walked until he was alone in a small hallway, home to some storage rooms. And then the man pulled something out of the duffel bag. A small... slab. Made of metal. With a screen. Anti could feel the buzz of electricity coming from it, but... it was so small. The man could hold it in two hands. What was it?

The screen turned on, a white grid on a black background. The man turned in a circle and the grid slowly filled in with more lines. It was an outline of the hallway, complete with rooms. A map. The man fiddled with some buttons at the edge of the screen—and then the device started making a beeping noise. Two dots appeared on the map: one yellow, and one red right behind it.

The man froze. He slowly raised his head and looked around. Anti understood what was happening. Somehow, that device knew where Anti was.

He didn’t like that.

The lights overhead flickered, going out for five seconds straight. Anti stepped out of the building’s wires and manifested behind the man, his shadowy form insubstantial. The beeping coming from the device rose in pitch, speed, and volume. “What the hell?” the man whispered. When the lights turned back on, the man spun around, only to freeze the moment he saw Anti there.

Anti drifted closer. The man remained frozen for a second more before suddenly pulling something out of the duffel bag: a metal rod similar in size and shape to a screwdriver, connected by a wire to something inside the bag. He jabbed it towards Anti’s form. The rod made an electronic whining noise as it passed through Anti’s shadowy chest, but nothing else happened.

The man went pale. His nose started to bleed. Anti drifted closer still, raising a hand and brushing it through the man’s arm. He yelped as a shock passed through his arm, making him drop the rod and the flat device. “G̸et ͟out͟,” Anti whispered. His voice buzzed and popped.

Instantly, the man ran, only sparing a moment to grab his things. Anti followed him through the lights, making their flickering follow him. He considered causing the elevator to stall when the man stepped inside, but decided against it. He wanted this man and his strange devices out. Stalling the elevator would just delay that.

Unfortunately, Anti left the building not long after the man did. He knew that there would be more people poking around, possibly with more strange devices. And he didn’t feel like dealing with that right now.

But he would have to deal with them eventually.

Over the next couple decades, Anti traveled gradually westward across America. And every year or two, the same thing would happen. He would take up residence in some building. At first he preferred commercial ones, since they used more electricity and connected to more places. But people in commercial buildings were more likely to check out the weird electrical problems. After all, it could interfere with business. And once someone decided to investigate the problems, inevitably, someone would show up in a blue jumpsuit with the IRIS logo on the chest.

He saw them as an inconvenience at first. Something that forced him to move location when he was just getting comfortable. But then they started getting smarter. They would stay outside the building in cars full of electrical devices, scanning the building from a distance. If Anti didn’t catch them in this phase (often by shorting out their devices and manifesting in front of them to scare them off), they would call for backup. Four or five others in black, with the same eye-shaped IRIS logo on the sleeve of their uniform, would show up, carrying more of those handheld devices, often armed with a handgun of some kind. And they were trouble. Because they refused to leave.

Anti was forced to get aggressive. Well... maybe not forced. But these IRIS guys in black got on his nerves easily. They brought with them strange equipment. Spheres that irritated the energy in the air, grids that set up invisible barriers of electricity, and cameras that could tell them where Anti was. None of it had any real effect on him. But it was annoying and uncomfortable. Like nails on a chalkboard. Like metal squeaking on ceramic.

So...he lashed out.

He never wanted to hurt them. Not permanently. Just scare them. And at first, he was able to. Shutting down the lights and all other electricity was bound to freak anyone out, and he would add sounds in the darkness to make the experience that much more unnerving. One of them would stand in the darkness, staring through their small camera that was their only way to see their surroundings, and then there would be the sound of hissed words right in their ear. They didn’t want to stay long after that.

But IRIS became bolder. They brought more equipment with them, bigger and bulkier... and more powerful. They did much of the same things, but stronger. And it started to affect Anti. Just barely. Just an annoyance. But now he was the one being unnerved. What was this? As far as he knew, only magic could affect him in this shadowy form, but this wasn’t magic.

So his attacks against them grew more aggressive. He didn’t just turn off the lights, he made them glow red. The whispers grew louder, and he let electricity fill the air, giving a few of these IRIS employees shocks. He manifested more and more, still unable to be physical, but certainly able to look frightening. He’d long ago figured out that humans didn’t like things that looked human, but had too-long proportions, or joints that bent the wrong way.

And yet, IRIS kept coming back. Anti picked up some information from their employees’ conversations. The people in black belonged to a division called C&C: an acronym he never heard fully explained. But he guessed it was something to do with “capture,” or maybe “containment,” because they always spoke about doing that. And they always used the word “ALTR” as well, something he would later find out was another acronym, though that was never explained either.

That’s what Anti was to them. An “ALTR.” One time, he heard one of their scouts in blue jumpsuits get on a radio channel to report a “possible ALTR 114209 sighting.” That was him, wasn’t it? So... they wanted to capture him, did they? They thought they could pull that off? Like hell they would.

Anti still remembered vividly the day he went a bit too far.

He was squatting in a suburban house at the time. Two stories tall with a basement, in a neighborhood of identically-built houses, right smack dab in the middle of the United States. No one was living there at the time. It was for sale by the previous owners, who had already moved out. They’d left a lot of their furniture behind, including their television and appliances. That was one of the reasons Anti had chosen to stay there.

He hadn’t even seen the blue-jumpsuit-wearing IRIS scout. There must have been one in the area, but they had managed to slip under his notice. Instead, the five-person C&C team in black had barged right into the house one day, carrying electronic boxes on their backs and handguns on their hips. It caught Anti off-guard, and he always wondered if that was one of the reasons he was so... aggressive... this time.

They left the front door open. But Anti had long since figured out that if you moved the charges in the air around, you could move certain light objects... like a door. It hadn’t slammed closed behind them, but one of them noticed something on his handheld device. He spun around quickly and grabbed the handle, only to cry out as it shocked him even through the thick fabric of his glove. “The door’s closed,” he said, taking a radio off his belt to report it to the others. “I think it’s trapped us in here.”

“Is it locked?” asked another IRIS agent. That one was in the kitchen, which Anti knew because the hoard of electronics these agents carried were beacons to him.

“Unconfirmed, but I didn’t hear the deadbolt. It did shock me when I touched the doorknob, though.”

“That’s fine. We can break the door down if we need to. Or get out through one of the windows. Just focus on finding the ALTR.”

The five of them spread out through the house. For once, Anti didn’t try any of his usual tricks, though he knew they were picking up on some signals on their devices. They could probably feel the static in the air, too. He could see some of their hair standing up a bit. The air in the house smelled of ozone.

“Nothing in the kitchen or dining room.”

“Living room is clear.”

“Hallway is clear.”

“Office is full of energy, but not more so than anywhere else.”

“Alright, we’ll have to check the other floors, then. The floor plans say they’re both smaller than this one, so we can split up—as long as we don’t let each other out of our sight. Tanner, Herrera, take the second floor. Jacobsen and Knight, you’re checking out the basement with me.”

Did they know that Anti could hear them? Were they aware that he didn’t need to choose which group to watch, that he could watch them both at once?

When the group of three went into the basement, he shut the door behind them and fried the light system down there, sending sparks flying from bare lightbulbs. Let them deal with the darkness for a while. He would keep an eye on them while he paid more attention to the pair upstairs. They were in different bedrooms now. He closed the door to each.

The lights turned red, and though the windows were open and it was daylight outside, barely any sun came in. “Herrera, do you hear that whispering?” one of them said through the radio. He didn’t let the signal go through. Instead, he went through the radio, coming out on the other side as static-filled laugher.

“Tanner, was that you?” the other one said into the radio. But of course, that didn’t go through, either. They were alone. Except for Anti. He manifested in front of them, shadows gathering into a semi-human form. The agent stepped back, looking afraid, but didn’t run. They reached back and turned on the electronic box on their back. It started to whine, and the strange energy caused Anti’s form to shiver, but didn’t dissipate.

“Th̷a҉t'͞s usèless͟,” he whispered, and raised a shadowy arm. The box began to smoke and its whine increased, and the agent actually started to panic. They scrambled to pull it off, throwing it to the ground as arcs of lightning scattered along the surface. Anti stepped closer. “Leave͢.̡ No̵w̛.”

The agent seemed frozen. Anti could see the fear in their eyes, but they didn’t back down. He walked closer still. “I ̷s͡a̴i͡d͝ l̸eáve,” he growled. “O̸r—”

And then the door burst open. The other agent, who he’d trapped in the other room, came screaming into this one. The doors didn’t have locks, after all. Anti turned to them, prepared to intimidate them as well, but instead they threw a strange box right at him—small enough to fit in one hand, with bulky bits sticking out. It passed right through Anti’s shadowy body

That’s when he felt it. A horrible pull, like the box had its own center of gravity. His visible form dissolved, but he was still there, fighting against that pull. The box began to beep, several lights turning on and glowing red and blue. It rapidly grew hot, and that pull increased. Anti fought against it. He struggled. It was like being sucked into a whirlpool. Like scrambling to hold onto the edge of a crumbling cliff, he was trying to dig his fingers in but the ground was caving beneath his weight.

His vision locked onto the agent who had thrown the box. Instantly, rage consumed him. He lunged forward, looking for something, anything to grab onto—yes! There! He could feel something solid! He surged forward—

And the pull stopped. He staggered backwards, feeling... heavy. Heavier than he had in a long, long time. The agent was staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. Good. How dare they?! How fucking dare they?! They deserved to be horrified. Snarling, he leaped forward.

Anti did not pass through the agent like he was expecting to. Instead, they made contact, rolling out through the open doorway into the hallway. That was odd, but he took the opportunity. How dare they?!

He had hands, and they wrapped around the agent’s neck as he stared into their eyes. “You made a terrible mistake,” he hissed. The words were also heavy in his mouth. “You made a mistake, and now you will pay.”

He truly didn’t want to hurt them. But his anger carried them away, and he squeezed. The agent gasped and began to choke, and for a moment, he wanted to go further.

And then he heard shouting from the radios hanging from their belts—both of theirs. And then he realized that the hands he had wrapped around the agent’s throat were wearing black gloves—like all the other agents wore. And then he realized why he’d felt so heavy, why he managed to collide solidly with something.

To escape the awful pull from that box, he’d grabbed onto the other agent in the room, possessing them.

The shock of that made him let go of the agent’s neck. He wasn’t supposed to do that. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do that. But here he was, staggering to his feet. No, not his feet. There was warm liquid on his face—not his face—running down from his eyes—not his eyes. Blood. Everyone responded differently to possession, and it seemed he’d grabbed hold of someone who reacted terribly. Unsure of what else to do, he stood there... and laughed.

There was shouting within earshot now. He turned his head—not his head—and saw a staircase. Unused to this physical body, he clumsily walked over to it, grasping the bannister and peering down the stairs to see the other three agents standing at the bottom. Their expressions were all the same. Confusion. And then fear. Deep, deep fear. And yet, despite that fear, they all started to move within a split second, reaching for items in pockets and switches on their electronic packs.

Anti laughed some more—did they think they could do anything to him while he was possessing somebody?! They would just hurt their fellow agent. “Be careful!” he shouted. “You might get someone hurt!” He screamed that last word. Then he screamed again, wordlessly, just to see them back away. And he stepped out of the agent’s body.

Not a good idea, as it turned out. Because he was leaning forward, down the stairs. He’d forgotten that a human doesn’t just stay where they were once the possession was over. Their body went limp. And that’s what happened this time. The agent’s eyes rolled back into the head, and as all their muscles released, they fell forward. They fell down.

The sound was awful, and so were the cries of the other agents as they watched their colleague fall towards them. But Anti couldn’t stay to see what happened next. He only hovered nearby long enough for them to gather around the fallen agent, laying them out on the floor. Only long enough for one to hold up a handheld device and seem to scan the now-unconscious agent, and announce “There’s a heartbeat!” Only long enough for that.

He had to leave. He had to get away. Otherwise... what was it for?

Anti jumped all the way across the country after that, wanting to get as far as possible from what happened in that house. He ended up in another big city, the first he’d been in for years. For three days exactly, he stayed in a shop that sold televisions (always more televisions nowadays) and caused a lot of frustration for the owner when their TVs would randomly stop receiving signals.

For three days exactly, he hid. Until... someone found him.

It was the middle of the night. The shop was closed, and the door should have been locked, but somehow the man walked in anyway. His hair was black, as was his suit, and he carried a cane. He looked around the shop, then leaned back against the counter, as if this was all perfectly normal.

Anti wanted to be left alone. He didn’t want to see anyone, so he reacted poorly. Specifically, by turning on all the televisions at once, filling the air with static that barely concealed his whisper of “L̢eav́e.”

The man was unphased. He glanced around with eyes that were pure black, not reflecting the new light, and said, “I certainly will not.”

How annoying. Anti had enough annoyance these days. He didn’t waste time at all, manifesting directly in front of the man. “Lea͝v͡e̷ ͢me̴ a̧lon̸e̸,” he hissed.

Now the man looked irritated. “It’s not a crime to loiter in this state.”

“You̢ d͠on͞'t̷ ̀ow̴ǹ ̛t̢hi̸ś pla̴ce̵. T͢respa͏ss̕e̕r.”

“Oh, and you’re saying you aren’t trespassing?” The man flicked his hand dismissively. “Being a disembodied entity doesn’t give you the right to go wherever you want.”

“A̡n͏d̕ ýou hav̵e th͢at r͢i̶ght͏,̡ dò you?̨” Anti manifested a smile on his shadow face. “Hyp̶oc̕rite.̡”

The man chuckled. “Perhaps you have a point. But I didn’t come here to argue.”

“Co̕uld̢'̴ve ͠f͡oǫĺe̢d me.” That piqued Anti’s curiosity—and dulled his hostility. “W̢ḩy͢ ͟di͏d ̀yo͝u cóm҉e ̵he͏re̢, ͞the̡n?”

“I was looking to see if the rumors were true, about there being some sort of spirit living in the televisions here,” the man said. “I thought that, perhaps... we may be able to help each other.”

Anti tilted his head. “Wh̨at̵ ͝do you̧ ͟w͠àn̶t?”

“I’m looking for a friend of mine and I believe your ability could help me find him. Do this for me, and I’m open to do... well, anything within reason for you, as long as it isn’t too immoral.”

Interesting. Maybe something like this could help get Anti’s mind off the recent events. “I̵'͡m̸ ͞li͡st̵e̕ning̵.͏"̶

- - - - - - - - - -

“I got a little off track there at the end, but that’s the whole story.” Anti propped his elbow on the sofa arm, resting his head in his hand. “I hadn’t even heard of IRIS again until all of this shit started up. Which is kind of amazing, if you really think of it. I tried to be more careful, but gods know I still did all sorts of weird shit, intentionally or unintentionally. I’m guessing they got busy with something else.”

“...Wow.” Jack wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He finally settled on, “I can’t believe I never knew this.”

“Should I have told you earlier?” Anti asked.

“No, it’s fine, I just... you think that would come up sooner.” Jack laughed tiredly. “We’ve known each other for a long time now.”

“I didn’t want to talk about it until now,” Anti said slowly. “It’s... not my proudest moment.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Jack said gently. “Clearly, these IRIS guys wanted something from you, and they weren’t about to stop. You freaked out a bit too much, yeah. But... you didn’t really... Once you got a hold of yourself you stopped. And I think that’s what matters.”

“Not to the guy who fell down the stairs.”

“Well, yeah, obviously. But that was a mistake. It’s fine.” Jack gave him a small smile. “Honestly, the only new information for me there was the IRIS stuff. I didn’t learn anything about you that I didn’t already know.”

Anti stared at him. “Thanks,” he said slowly.

“No problem.” Jack paused. “That man at the end was Dark, right?” Anti nodded. “Does he know about IRIS?”

“I never told him about them,” Anti said. “But I did some research, and California is where IRIS comes from. Maybe he already knew back then. Or maybe he’s found out in the time that’s passed. Do you think I should ask him?”

“Might be something worth checking out.” Jack shrugged, trying to appear casual. “If, uh, someone else could, you know, know about all this happening to us, then I think... that’d be good. Probably.”

“Just tell me you want me to talk to him, Jack.”

“Okay, fine, I want you to talk to him.”

Anti chuckled. “Alright. I can do that. But... tomorrow. I want... to stay here for now.” He shifted position, fully lying down. He didn’t look at Jack.

Jack had spent enough time around Anti to figure he felt bad about leaving for so long. “Yeah, hang out for a bit, chill,” he said casually. “I know you don’t sleep, but take a rest.”

“I’ll do that.” Anti sighed, and closed his eye.

“I’ll be here,” Jack said quietly.

“...I know,” Anti whispered. “Thank you.”

[pinchraccoon]

Pinch Reviews: Slipstream

Slipstream, released in 2018 from Brazilian indie developer "ansdor games" is an Outrun inspired arcade racer inspired by all the goodness of the era of it's inspiration's release.

Packed to the brim with 90's nostalgia, iconography, cars, and writing styles, Slipstream serves as an excellent modernization of a classic genre, modernized for current audiences.

Slipstream is a racing game where you drive one of five cars and attempt to fight your way to the front of the pack in a multitude of different gamemodes across multiple tracks. You can accelerate, brake, turn, drift, and rewind time up to 5 seconds based on a meter that's filled by your continued ability to perform well. Additionally, as is the namesake of the game, players and other racers can drive behind a racer ahead of them in order to remove drag from their vehicle, and gain speed to pass the person they tailed, or slipstream them.

This game's simple but effective controls and mechanics make it a dream to pick up and play, but incredibly fun over long periods of time as well, as truly racing in this game Never gets old. It's consistently incredibly fun regardless of the mode to try to optimize your line around the multiple beautiful tracks at hand, and the sensation of speed given in this game is awesome.

More than the substance of this game, this game is *stylish.* Slipstream knows its influences very well, and utilizes just the right amount of the "crust" found in the older titles that it references and pays homage to and implements it in an incredibly tasteful, unobtrusive way. My favorite examples of this game's presentation being amazing are primarily in the varying optional settings to apply CRT and NTSC filtering effects to the game, as well as a similar setting for screen tilt on turns. I find that these optional settings were the moment I looked at the game and said "this guy gets it!"

The other, more traditional, aspects of the presentation that I found myself falling in love with are of course, the retro style found in the excellent pixel art, and intentional lack of anti-aliasing to accurately call back to the nostalgic past this game loves. In character sprites, car sprites, backgrounds, UI, menuing, and everything in-between, Slipstream is nostalgia implemented the best it possibly can be.

My other favorite feature of the game is the rival system, in which every race, in specific modes where it's enabled, a specific racer will appear ahead of you, provide taunting dialogue, and serve as a short term goal to beat in the time that you have on that specific stage. I found that the rival system REALLY helps certain gamemodes, as when you're too far from a racer ahead of you, it can feel hard to catch up without someone to slipstream on, which having a racer who spawns more or less on you helps to mitigate. Additionally, the Rival makes it such that there's always at least ONE person to race at any point in time, helping to keep instances where you're smoking the competition engaging, and not punishing you for winning.

My other favorite part of the rival system is the rivals themselves. There are a total of 16 rivals in the game, all of whom are references to 80s or 90s anime, gaming, comics, movies, or other pop culture. Each of them are rendered excellently, their bits are concise and easy to read, and each of them demonstrates a major love for the source material they originate from, such that it's impossible not to be endeared by the rivals in some way.

My final point on the game is it's soundtrack, which can be best described as "exactly what you expected from this game, in the best possible way." It's this synth-y, cheesy rock soundtrack that would sound at home in Out Run, and it absolutely makes the game in my opinion.

Normally, this is the part of the review where I start talking about my nitpicks or criticisms with the game, but I am so serious, I've been thinking about what I could potentially have a problem with, and I don't think I can really conceive of anything that I have an issue with in this game. Slipstreram provides an incredible mix of substance and style, with a swath of interesting and varied content to match.

Slipstream is about $10 on Steam, and I COULD NOT recommend it more to ANYONE who's feeling an arcade racer shaped hole in their heart.

[plusreaderswhenever]

Another Static + reader

It was midnight at your house. Sleepily, you flicked through the channels on your TV. You could barely keep your eyes open, but you couldn’t sleep for whatever reason, so you had turned on the TV, hoping to fall asleep listening to it. 

Then, you saw something that made your eyelids open wide despite their heaviness and made you jolt from the brink of exhaustion! Instead of an ordinary cartoon, news broadcast, or anything you would expect to see on TV, there was a robot staring at you from an empty space with badly pixelated clouds in the background. You calmed down for a second, figuring it was just one of the more strange TV shows, but it didn’t last long because the robot said this: “Hey you! You in the (your shirt color) shirt!”

“WHAT THE HECK?!” You yelled at a much higher energy level than you had the capacity for a few moments ago. The robot on the other side of the screen started to look dejected, despite not having a facial expression. “I’m sorry,” he started. “I really need to stop freaking people out like this.”

Those words reminded you of a rumor that had been spread around town for a while. They said that if you tuned into the right channel at just the right moment, the TV would watch you back in the form of a robot with a CRT-screen TV for a head. Creepy!

Even so, you were never really scared. Just surprised. And his apology for nothing made you feel bad for him, wondering if he was okay. You shouted slightly, “Wait! What’s your name?”

He looked very surprised! “S-Static! wh-what’s yours?” “I’m Y/N. What are you doing in my TV?” You asked gently. He answered, “I was sent to a place called the TV world because… of reasons…” You didn’t press it. “Okay. I hope to see you again!” 

He waved goodbye, but just then, the screen glowed green, and a strange force started pulling you toward the TV. “Oh no- RUN!” Static cried, but it was too late- the TV world sucked you into itself. Breathing heavily, you took in your surroundings, including the little bot who was now right next to you, shifting awkwardly. “Uhh… ‘sup.” He said.

“Hi.” You greeted back. You looked behind you, and the screen through which you came had disappeared. “So… how do I get out of here?”

Static replied, “Well, there isn’t a way right now, but I’m gonna help you out as much as I can, ‘k?”

You nodded. For a haunted TV channel he was really nice. You started to wonder if he really was what the rumors told you. Was he really a haunted TV channel? You decided to ask him.

“So there’s this rumor going around town about a haunted TV channel that watches you back. Is that true?”

Static looked mildly surprised, but supposed he should have seen something like this coming. “No! I was built in the real world, but someone put me here. I’m not a ghost or anything, just a regular old robot.”

“Oh okay.” You sighed.

Static jumped as if he suddenly remembered something important. “Hey wait! This dimension wasn’t meant to handle more than just me!” Then he calmed down a bit. “But there’s only one other person. We still have a while before it gets too bad.”

Then the sleepiness from before came back full force. You yawned, laying down on the TV world’s floor, which was surprisingly comfortable. Static noticed. 

“I think we have enough time to wait until morning to find a way out of here. Just sleep for now. You’re gonna need to be well rested to find a way to escape tommorow, dude.”

You nodded slowly. Static sat next to you, gazing off into the distance. You let rest take you over, successfully this time.

The next morning, you and Static had a singing battle for fun and it opened a portal to the real world! Static didn’t want to go through at first, but you managed to convince him. After that, you were best friends in the real world. The end :)

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Get Discorded about Diablo 3, I guess:

viBRAToryblurriness: First impression of Diablo 3: it looks like it probably has more depth in the long run, but it's at least initially less compelling than Torchlight 1 or 2 Deckard Cain hasn't even told me to stay a while and listen Literally unplayable

viBRAToryblurriness: Oh, also, next level wtf One of the first things I had to do when I opened the game was adjust the overscan settings In 2023 In handheld mode Do I look like I'm playing on a CRT in like 1993 and have to worry about what parts of the edges of the screen are behind the bezel or something?

viBRAToryblurriness: Idea: make the first several skills more interesting or make getting new ones not take so long I decided to try a couple other classes to see which ones I actually like Demon Hunter supposedly has grenades, and that could be fun...and then it turns out that's not until level 15, and every skill I've gotten before that so far is just "shoot slightly different flavor arrow" And now I understand why power leveling is such a thing in this game, because it takes forever to get anything interesting I keep scrolling through the skill menu and being like oh that looks like it could be fun and then it's inevitably like level 30+ And so I continue the exhilarating life of pressing the A button in different colors with different classes, and sometimes ZR now and then if I'm feeling fancy And not even bothering with the Y skills because they haven't been worth the effort to push the button more than once or twice so far Imagine if I could choose what skill to unlock next instead of you're going to use this crap for 30 levels and you're going to like it

viBRAToryblurriness: Oh, ok I guess it just took them until the necromancer to figure out how to make good leveling progression It seems to have fewer skills than other classes, but all of them are good so far and actually have synergy with each other Good job finally getting the hang of it with literally the last one you added to the game

viBRAToryblurriness: Necro is the first one where the third skill category (usually defensive/utility) has actually been useful as soon as it unlocks instead of just a waste of a button Wizard was like here have a long cooldown that lets you freeze stuff that's already climbed up your butt for a whole two seconds and doesn't do damage, while necro is blow up corpses for over 1000% damage each

viBRAToryblurriness: Why is this the one that sold like 400 million copies? I guess the past day of rambling answers my own question Because it's the most accessible one and dumps you right into what's going on without having to do a lot of work on your end to figure out how things in the game work, and you basically can't screw up putting a character together so people don't get frustrated by that And it's Blizzard and has the Diablo name recognition But I just genuinely don't care about a single character so far or any of the story, and every class I've tried the gameplay has ranged from incredibly meh to surprisingly boring And also surprisingly poor feedback from the game? Some of my skills I can't even see when they happen, and there's almost zero feedback for when they actually hit an enemy or succeed or anything Which is bizarre because that's the kind of thing everyone said it did better than other games Once again people on the internet are stupid and don't know what they're talking about probably including me, but not in this particular case I'm definitely right about this

viBRAToryblurriness: I feel like I should at least finish act 1 because I'm probably not far from the end of it, but also I'm not sure if I care enough to bother The story isn't doing anything for me so that's not motivating me to keep going, I haven't unlocked an interesting skill in hours, I haven't gotten any interesting gear that isn't just number go up in a while, the environments are pretty bland...what am I supposed to keep playing this for?

viBRAToryblurriness: I think it's probably safe to say that I just still don't really like Blizzard's games Like there's nothing objectively wrong with it, I just don't like it There are lots of things I personally think are subjectively wrong with it though But that's because I'm a hater and because video games were a mistake

viBRAToryblurriness: Also knockback in this game is just unreasonable Yes it's really fun playing a melee character when there are trash mobs that can knock me back like ten feet at will Repeatedly And I have zero CC res options so far

viBRAToryblurriness: This continues to be Hold the A Button (and Occasionally Press ZR): The Game But that was also true for the necro Although that one also got to push...Y I think? now and then in boss fights

viBRAToryblurriness: To express myself in Xenoblade terms, I'm not really feeling it, and I want something a bit meatier

viBRAToryblurriness: Also oops wizard time again Which does much better on Torment I both because it has much more damaging skills and because obscene knockback from enemies is actually a good thing Getting yeeted across the room when you never wanted to be at melee range in the first place is just helpful, especially when you have a passive that increases your damage when you're farther away from the enemy And this is how we deal with having zero CC res at low levels

viBRAToryblurriness: Maybe having a dozen different difficulty levels available when you first start a new character is a bad thing, and maybe having that many period with that much granularity is also not a good idea

viBRAToryblurriness: Supposedly smart loot is a thing, but this loot is all decidedly stupid

viBRAToryblurriness: I also love how every time I put my Switch to sleep and wake it up again it reconnects to the online servers Even though I told it not to before Also it makes me reconfirm which controller I'm using Despite not having changed controllers ever

viBRAToryblurriness: Ah good, I now have the fart pants, not to be confused with the poop pants in GD There must be some D2 item I'm forgetting about that inspired all of these

viBRAToryblurriness: Ok this game does have toggled buffs, because I have one now that I just turn on once and it stays that way forever So then why do I have two others that I have to cast that have a ten minute duration and then run out? This does not help anyone Also having to dedicate half my measly six skill buttons to buffs is just silly Or I mean I could just not use all the buffs and be worse and have room for another utility skill or something But that's also not useful

viBRAToryblurriness: I think looking at build info for stuff later in the game has made me less interested in playing the game There's so little variety for some things compared to what I'm used to

viBRAToryblurriness: Also watching video of some of them it really continues to suffer from a lack of impact for a lot of stuff It's like they watched the GDC talk about "juice" or anything Rami Ismail has said and used it as a guide for what not to do or something Or like they did half of it but skipped the things that make the biggest difference? I don't know how you have dozens of ten foot meteors constantly raining from the sky that feel like they have zero weight and at most pop like a balloon when they hit the ground I see the damage numbers with a T at the end or whatever so I'm sure it's a very big number, but it doesn't feel like it's making a big number

viBRAToryblurriness: I think that might be the end of that It keeps almost being pretty decent, but there are a bunch of little annoyances for me that add up, and it just doesn't feel satisfying to me

Interspersed with all that were people either agreeing or not being bothered when they were playing by various things I mentioned or pointing out how some of it is slightly different and/or better explained in not the Switch version. Ultimately I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did, but it’s not really my thing in the end. Not surprising really when you consider that’s been my reaction to every other Diablo and Torchlight game I’ve played previously.

[iloveabunchofgames]

#JakeReviewsItch

A Hole New World

by MadGearGames

Genre: Platformer

Pitch: An action platformer with the look, feel, and challenge of an NES game.

My expectations: NES platformers are what I'm all about.

Review:

Modern NES-style games typically fall into one of two camps: So accurate they could be played on vintage hardware or so far beyond the system specs you wonder why they bothered. A Hole New World leans toward the latter. Dozens of sprites fill its 16:9 screen without flicker or slowdown, animated with far more poses than would ever fit on an old EPROM. Nevertheless, it looks right. The palette, the pixel density, the visual design—the individual elements are straight out of the eighties, and they come together beautifully.

Running, jumping, and shooting feel uncannily like Mega Man, as does the way each boss leaves behind its signature weapon. The first level is an obvious Castlevania homage, with just a hint of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, while the second swerves toward Little Nemo: The Dream Master, further reinforced by the primary weapon’s arc and range.

It’s a game built on solid influences, though the unconstrained steps toward modernity are hit and miss. Levels are needlessly sprawling. Defeated enemies stay dead, which alleviates pressure, rewarding cautious play and hurting the pacing. The lives system is…weird.

It starts too easy and gets too hard, but when it’s in the zone, it’s great.

+ Take a handful of the best NES games, shake 'em up, and free them from old hardware limitations. + Looks and sounds just right. Even the optional CRT filter is tastefully subtle; a rarity in neo-retro games. + A steady rollout of new weapons and powers (as well as enemies and platforming challenges to test those weapons and powers) keeps the game interesting, while the two-button controls make it all manageable. + Frequent checkpoints and a forgiving, if rather odd, lives system for those who need it; hardcore speedrunning options for those who are not me.

– Baby-simple at the beginning, at least for experienced NES players. Hair-pulling punishment past the halfway mark. I called it quits at stage five of (I think) six. – The fourth level is so long. I'm sure it took longer than the first three combined. Really kills the momentum. – The title, A Hole New World, refers to a reverse-gravity, vertically mirrored version of the world above that's accessed by jumping or falling into the kinds of holes that typically signal instant death in platformers. It's an uninteresting gimmick, and there's rarely much reason to jump between the two. Plus, you press down to duck in both worlds, even though ducking in reverse gravity means you duck up, and my dumb brain can't handle that. – It's occasionally difficult to tell background from foreground. I jumped on a lot of spikes and dodged a lot of decorations.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🤍

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[powerofex]

*the anon reaches behind their own back and pulls out a CRT screen and a keyboard*

- Anon -

Should i run?