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opalrosechalydra · 3 months

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Emesis Blue & Postmeta Art

We live in a media driven society. Our most famous celebrities star in our favorite movies and TV shows, our politicians are elected by whose propaganda-adjacent advertising campaigns were the most effective, even our youngest children are put in front of screens which permanently alter their brain chemistry. In a world where all of us must abide by systems that force us to sacrifice our whole lives at jobs and all of our free time managing our non-guaranteed shelter, food and health, we have to find solace in something easy to consume and easier to distribute. When your work day is done, what better way to wind down than by putting something on the television for your tired mind to be lost in?

The history of media is almost as old as our most ancient civilization. It has evolved to become a very complicated, interconnected system of referential pieces. Martin Luther wrote the 95 theses critiquing the Catholic church in 1517. Papers at the turn of the 20th century critiqued films of the blossoming industry of cinema. Musicians preached an anti-war message throughout the US invasion of Vietnam and Korea. Now, there is an entire video sharing platform where independent videographers, filmmakers, editors, artists, and thespians may share projects with their own views and opinions. YouTube is home to a number of genres as defined by the internet communities who participate in them. Critiques, reviews, essays and more, all in video form by people who are unbound by contractual restraint and free to express their personal feelings.

Those who rise to the top of this massive, competitive industry are those whose feelings resonate with the most people. Oftentimes, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what something is saying, but the fact that it invokes a primal emotion tends to indicate that it resonates with the experiences of the viewer. Many experimental films have stood the test of time despite having unclear messages, or perhaps being made with no intended message at all. Eraserhead, The Holy Mountain, A Serbian Film and more are difficult for viewers to get through due to their subject matter and presentation, but have remained among the most influential movies ever produced. Many analyze them, try to derive meaning from sequences of abstract or even nonsensical images. These things disturb us on a greater level than just their superfluous design. There is a deeper message that these films convey which lets them stay with viewers for longer than just the night they watched it. This, obviously, brings us to…

Team Fortress 2.

It’s a silly game, truly. It detaches itself from its predecessor with a cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each of the nine playable classes is fleshed out in a series of, “Meet the…” videos released by Valve. These little nuggets of cinematic gold characterize each mercenary through an expert use of comedy, receiving further depth in the official Team Fortress 2 comic series for fans hard enough to the core to read through. However, this content was sparse and separate from the main game. Players who wanted to experience more stories involving these characters had to make some themselves.

Fanfiction is a very common aspect of any online community surrounding media. People will inevitably want more from products than its producers can produce. The one thing that set TF2’s fanbase apart from others is that Valve released a tool that allowed users to stage scenes using assets from all of Valve’s games: Source Filmmaker. Valve has famously stopped releasing accessible mainline entries in their franchises for a decade now, with Dota 2 in 2013 being their last non-spinoff/non-VR release. Their older releases still maintain a decently high level of popularity despite minimal updates. One of the main reasons they stay so loved is because of Source Filmmaker. SFM gave fans a creative outlet to contribute to their favorite Valve games when Valve themselves weren’t. These videos can be indistinguishable from the professionally made animations Valve produced if given enough time and effort.

Something happened to Team Fortress 2’s mercenaries as the fans took the creative reins from Valve. The same thing happened to many other IP’s, most famously Sonic the Hedgehog and Garfield. When an internet community puts their twist onto a neglected franchise, it usually turns out experimental. There are things that small internet communities can get away with that large publishers seeking the widest audience can’t risk. TF2’s characters took on insane personas that spoke in broken sentences edited together from their existing voice lines. For every SFM video there was, there were two Gary’s Mod videos with rougher animation and wilder content. These videos broke every law of physics that these characters should abide by for the sake of surreal, mildly horrific humor. Fans eventually stopped associating TF2 characters with their in-game personas, replaced with odd inside jokes like Sandvich, Spycrab and Surprise Buttsex.

As public perception of TF2 became altered by these niche YouTubers, the game itself underwent a bit of a crisis. Blizzard released Overwatch in 2016 as a much larger, more diverse Hero Shooter heavily inspired by Team Fortress 2. It had the cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each character was fleshed out in video packages released by Blizzard and an Overwatch comic. Essentially, a much larger company just made a fresh game that represented more people that the company would pay more attention to than Valve had with Team Fortress 2 at that point. This revitalization of the Hero Shooter genre pushed other large developers like Respawn Entertainment and Riot Games to come out with their own. TF2 was seen as the old man game with all these young upstart series doing what TF2 did with a more effective understanding of the, “video games as a service,” trend that continues to dominate the market.

Players moved from TF2 to these alternatives over the next few years. This depopulation made two existing problems within the game worse: Bots and hackers. Bots made up such a large portion of the player base that #SaveTF2 went viral among fans wishing to combat the issue. Updates would come out tackling random exploits, but no progress on the bot issue was ever really made. These bots have been reported to spam hateful rhetoric including homophobic and racist slurs in game chat. Given how progressive Overwatch and its new wave of Hero Shooters presented themselves, these bots made TF2’s community seem like an even worse haven of bigotry. The hacker issue is mainly rooted in the Valve Anti-cheat (VAC.) It had been around since 2002, meaning that players had over a decade to figure out ways to get around its archaic system. Less players meant that a higher ratio of them were these hackers who dedicated too much time to learning how to mess with the game to leave now. TF2 seemed unplayable in comparison to the more well regulated alternatives throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s.

What seemed like the final nail in the coffin for TF2 was a source code leak that occurred in 2020. On top of all of the other factors pushing players out from TF2, it was revealed that simply playing the game could expose an unwitting player to malware. Team Fortress 2 became this wasteland of godlike cheaters among mindless zombies that worked together to attack people and invade their privacy, represented by twisted corruptions of the game’s original cast. All of the fun times that people had with the game years prior seemed to come to an end in a cataclysmic sequence of events worse than the last.

TF2’s reality was completely distorted. Players could look back at a golden age over a decade ago where these problems could barely be conceived of. The game could still be fun if you went through the effort of finding servers unaffected by its litany of issues. As established, this world is one that leaves people with little energy. Why waste time trying to find safe servers to play on when there are so many alternatives with modern solutions which avoid these problems? It comes back down to ease of access, which is very important to most of the working class laborers of the world.

This frustration, combined with the disruption of realism within the community’s fan-made content, inspired a group to action. There is a massive history known to millions of people, a history that ~100k people still partake in daily, which had never been put to art. It is only collectively archived in the minds of those who partake in the game’s legacy, be it playing the game itself or following the animators who made content for it long after Valve’s abandonment. These all collectively made up what people thought of TF2, but were never combined in a meaningful way. There was SFM/Garry’s Mod, then there was the game itself. This is what Fortress Films wanted to unify in their impressive passion project:

Emesis Blue

Emesis Blue is a fantastic representation of the progress fanmade media has made. People have been making their own video game content since before the internet gave it a worldwide platform. Players on old school cartridge based systems would tinker with their favorite games to create ROM hacks that completely changed its content. Sprites would be ripped by early 2000’s Newgrounds users who would create astounding animations with them. Even Valve chose to publish Gary’s Mod six years before they released Source Filmmaker because players could not stop themselves from trying to make their own content.

Not only does it show how far the quality of the tools has come, but it raises the bar for the artistry that these pieces are made with. Emesis Blue is art. Many people have claimed that it’s a cinematic masterpiece deserving to be played in theaters. As much credit as Emesis Blue deserves, it is the natural next step in a further industrializing YouTube. Channels continue to make longer and longer videos, providing aspiring filmmakers with a space to release passion projects that would never be picked up by sound of mind producers. YouTubers have to make the most emotional pieces that they can to stay afloat among the 500 other hours of content uploaded to the site every minute. This crushing amount is supposed to be compartmentalized by the YouTube algorithm, though many professional YouTube content creators have claimed that it is a wildly irrational system that cannot be tamed. In place of trying to master the system, the best channels master their craft.

Following the human desire to organize, a genre began developing among the most experimental of these art pieces. Fans produced content for their favorite franchises, some of which evolved to accommodate all the angst that came with being fans of these series. Sonic the Hedgehog has perhaps the most famous fan community of any video game in history for this reason. Many young artists growing up into a confusing world used Sonic as a tool to vent their frustrations. It often came out very cringeworthy, giving Sonic fans the reputation they have today. However, the outlandish behaviors of the Sonic community have been deconstructed through comics like Tails Gets Trolled and games like Sonic Dreams Collection. Despite not being official, fans used canon characters to provide a meta commentary on the original piece.

This occurred again with Garfield. Though most people wouldn’t consider themselves fans of Garfield, there was something to be said about the success it received. That little orange cat is perhaps one of the most recognizable characters globally. The lack of depth compared to its astounding success inspired observers to create pieces that commented on Garfield's indomitable presence and the shadow it cast over Jim Davis as a cartoonist. The characters of Garfield and John Arbuckle are featured prominently in fan works like Lasagna Cat and those posted in r/ImSorryJon. Yet again, artists used pre-existing characters to create a meta narrative of their source.

Three for three, Emesis Blue followed this trend for Team Fortress 2. The chaos occurring in TF2 during the production of Emesis Blue was captured in the aggressive non-linear pacing. The unnecessary brutality of bots was captured in the hyperviolence of the film's most gruesome moments and in the throngs of mindless zombie-like monsters that pursue the main cast. Many entities, such as the Medic, defy the laws of the world to gain an unfair advantage like the hackers that plagued servers. 2020’s source code leak could be felt when Scout’s home was invaded and the multiple unsolicited phone calls Blu team received. All the while, the game being abandoned for fresher titles inspired the decrepit look of the classic 2Fort map.

Emesis Blue captured TF2 fans' frustrations and insecurities through a surrealist psychological horror. It was an unofficial piece of brilliance that added lore to a game that had been mostly forgotten by the people who made it and departed fans. Emesis Blue has the supreme luck of being provided assets directly from the games to express feelings about its greater existence outside of just its canon. It is also significant as a milestone in a new medium that seems to be taking off. There will be many more projects inspired by it utilizing the same core principles. As such, these pieces must be compartmentalized into their own genre:

POSTMETA - Being composed of storytelling elements belonging to a medias canon, such as characters and settings, which produces a narrative which provides commentary to the reputation the source media has in reality

Emesis Blue obviously is not the first Postmeta piece, but it marks a point where a coincidence becomes a trend. These works are indicative of the place that media has in our lives. Passionately followed media are taken from the hands of neglectful producers by an online fan base too vast to stop. Where companies fail to provide, the people will make up for it. They will also use that opportunity to capture the reality of that product as it influences people's lives, not just providing more escapist fiction to be consumed mindlessly. As people have sacrificed their time and money to make art more prosperous, it is able to say more about the human condition. Even through something as silly as a cartoony Hero Shooter, Fortress Films is able to bring out emotions within us that spark questions about our society. There’s something beautiful to that.

A miraculous thing has happened with TF2 in 2023. Though its player base was slowly decreasing in numbers since the release of its competitors, only a few months after the release of Emesis Blue did Team Fortress 2 break its peak player count at 253,225 in June of 2023. In a combined effort with fellow enduring YouTubers like Uncle Dane and Elmaxo, Fortress Films helped to bring TF2 to a level of popularity far surpassing that of its golden age. As of the time this essay is being written, Emesis Blue itself has over 8.7 million views and TF2 averaged over 100k players throughout the entirety of 2023, almost twice the number of players in its darkest periods. Art resonates with people, and it inspires people to action. No matter what the source is, how abstract it becomes, or even how relevant the subject is anymore, there is something to be felt in every corner of the world. Art about art does not devalue it, but simply gives it a value we couldn’t rightly calculate in a world where that didn’t happen. And a video about a game almost 2 decades old got that sentence to be written. Watch Emesis Blue, play Team Fortress 2, and enjoy the new wave of Postmeta art that it and pieces like it will inspire.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #emesis blue #essay #meta

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lensman-arms-race · 3 months

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What is your critique,or aspects that you didn't liked about ST as a series?

DFB hasn't made a VR Titan TV dating sim.

I don't think I have any real critique! There are maybe some bits I would have done differently (though no specific examples come to mind), but that's just the creative differences between people. There are also some bits that made me go 'oh no!' but that's literally what storytelling is supposed to do to you (Assassin Speaker sacrificing Mint Twins, Titan Camera nearly sawing their own head off).

I guess, with hindsight, it's a bit regrettable that the earlier episodes are so cartoonishly batshit compared to the more 'realistic' (within its context) sci-fi feel of the later episodes. I assume DFB was just noodling around and pure shitposting at first, then later became invested enough in the little world he'd created that he decided to take it more seriously. If he could turn back time, he might have chosen to maintain the current tone from the beginning. But this has happened to plenty of series! It's fine. It can even be seen as adding to ST's charm.

I think the thing I would most like to change is that the series has become more plainly militaristic. I would like a little more of the old silliness, like the BABA BOOEY button.

Possibly the series is suffering from power creep - Titan TV has become so powerful now that it's hard to see what can possibly happen next other than the Alliance steamrolling the Skibidis to victory. (As I write this, episode 70 is due soon - the suspense!) In order for the Alliance to face any real challenge, the G-Toilet is going to have to be stupid powerful. It's a bit like when kids get carried away while larping and say things like 'I get out my gun and shoot you,' 'Well, I get out my bulletproof shield and block you," "I get out my gun with bulletproof-shield-piercing bullets', 'I get out my everything-proof shield', 'I get out my everything-proof-shield-piercing laser' etc. It would be a bit disappointing if that's how DFB goes with it (but I'm sure I'd still enjoy watching the increasingly silly fights!)

Baseless speculation: maybe there will be a complete objective switch like in JJBA. In the first two series, the stories are all about the characters learning to use mystic energy called 'hamon'. In series 3, the 'stands' (basically a battle fursona you summon to fight for you) are introduced, and the storyline is all about stand-battling. The hamon completely falls by the wayside! Maybe the Alliance will defeat the Scientist Toilet and G-Toilet and that arc will end, and then they find a new enemy in the Astro Toilets and some other faction (maybe connected to the Secret Agent - the Agent promised Salmon Shirt that he would help the Alliance defeat G-Toilet but he didn't say anything about who would come after!)

#blog tags: answered asks #randomentety #lensman tags: ruminations

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rosesrotofficial · 9 months

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i made a game (demo)!

What if Youtubers joined a death game?

hi there!

my name is Rose. i write about unhinged women, sapphic darkness, deconstructions and tragedy.

so, if any of those resonate, you'll like MORTAL COIL.

You're Ikuyo, an up-and-coming FPS gamer on the world's biggest video & streaming platform: Eidolon. Your sister Sonoko is the Eidolon goddess @flowerfall: loved by millions for her modelling, self-care, and genuine authenticity.

And she's just been cancelled.

Ikuyo struggles to reach her sister amid the storms of controversy, confused that Sonoko isn't acknowledging the drama that's raging on. Sonoko's only response? It's to join the 99th season of the televised death game, MORTAL COIL.

Frantic, afraid, and desperate: Ikuyo must choose whether to follow Sonoko into the depths of destruction, risking her life to save her sister who seems all too eager to play.

Will Sonoko slip away from Ikuyo's grasp? Or will their fates be far worse than that?

▼ A study in human psychology under digital fame. A critique involving the creators, the fans, and the algorithm, deconstructing YouTube, Twitch, and VTuber culture.

△ This demo includes "Part 1: Prologue" and "Part 2: Entrance", about Ikuyo and Sonoko's entrance to Mortal Coil.

▼ Cyberpunk, Hong Kong, and VR themed.

△ 10k words, 30m-1 hr of playtime. Free to play.

▼ CW: dark content, mental health issues.

△ Part of #MFGJ2023!

▼ This is the demo version. In the full version, the game will be choice-based as you guide Ikuyo through the death game, choosing who lives... and who dies.

△ The full version will feature more LGBTQ+ and disabled characters, friendships/relationships, and queer romance options!

i made the demo for MORTAL COIL with my artist (@nitunioart) + programmer team for My First Game Jam: Summer 2023, and it was such a fantastic experience: i couldn't be happier with what we've done!

i hope you enjoy if you choose to play the game! i poured a lot of my heart into it, and i'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think about it, especially on what we could improve on. :)

thank you for reading! i hope you stick around to see what i'll do.

~ Rose.

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pterobat · 8 months

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youtube

This video is really good. The title is pure clickbait; it simply cleanly and carefully summarizes Kaiba's character arc up to the DSOD stinger.

It "cheats" a bit by including material from the manga and both anime where anything supports its points--but God, I don't mind it, as the truly contradictory bits are skipped over.

The video is driven by the manga at the core, though, for it includes Death-T and excludes anything regarding The Four Kings of Gaming , Noa, VR, and Kaiba's role in s5 (but includes clips of Gozaburo and lil' Seto in DM).

It doesn't bother to critique what the anime series left or added, but drives homeward the point that DM's beginning is a deprived mess for eliminating vols 1-7, especially once you read early Kaiba as Going Through Shit, instead of just a quirk of a series going through puberty.

It also, without bringing up the English dub once, outlines why Seto Scully is a thing, and why it's doing him a disservice to act like he's coolly indifferent to magic in the sub/manga. He might SAY things to that effect, but the truth comes out. It's wounded him deeply, just that the sub and manga show more restraint, less dark jokes.

And Kaiba learns to deal with his horror, his pain at the thought, while creating beautiful things. It's my exact thought that DSOD serves as closer to Seto Scully; if he can't deny magic, he's going to show it who's boss. He's going to succeed.

This video closes with a certain feeling: namely a surety that DSOD's stinger isn't opening a can of worms, isn't a bleak cliffhanger and especially not Kaiba's suicide. It's open-ended, but all that's come before makes it clear Kaiba is communicating with Atem in the most open way he knows. However it goes, it will not be so bad.

...Still an incredibly shitty thing to do to Mokuba, still with shades of a relapsing addict, but there's a rhyme and a reason. Speaking personally, it made me feel the most comfortable with DSOD's stinger I've ever been, though I gave it the benefit of the doubt a while ago.

(And maybe annihilated any thoughts of half-finished fic written in pocket notebooks.)

#yugioh #kaiba #seto kaiba #dsod #prideshipping #the dark side of dimensions #Youtube #can't get enough of seto scully

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engineer-gunzelpunk · 1 year

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Big Harry Is Ailing by Jack Evans

The Argus, Saturday July 21, 1951

I took the text because the article shape is so awkward.

*cues in Sad Henry music*

BIG HARRY IS AILING By JACK EVANS

HEAVY HARRY, the bad boy who later become the pride of the Victorian railways, is ill. Seriously ill. All 260 tons of him. Slumped in hospital - the repair sheds at Newport workshops, Victoria's only H220 engine could hardly raise steam above a whisper yesterday.

Heavy Harry, built at Newport - the heaviest locomotive in the Southern Hemisphere, is the only one of its type in Australia. His massive size and varied adventures made him pride of the rail engine fleet during World War II.

"Overwork, that's what caused it," he gasped yesterday. "I've got something wrong with my boiler." He said sadly: "You know, you're the first visitor I've had since I came to hospital. No one cares."

Work Of Two

"Why, Mr. Hyland, Transport Minister, was proud to drive me when I was launched in '41. Kiddies flocked to see me when I went on exhibition. "But as soon as you get sick you're forgotten. "In 10 years I've travelled more than half a million miles for the Railways. And I've pulled millions of tons of freight between Albury and Melbourne, doing the work of two engines."

He added, indignantly: "These new R Class engines are getting all the limelight now. Running around painted red and black, with all the glamor of Essendon footballers "

"And letting girls ride on their footplates. I was brought up better than that, and I've never worn anything but decent black all my life!

"Going to haul passenger trams from Bendigo, are they? Bah! When the Railways got into a jam with the Spirit, who did none Help they yell for? Heavy Harry! "They tell me those R Class engines stole the show in the Engineering section at the Festival of Britain. They sound more like mannequins instead of machines. "And boasting about their mechanical stokers! Let me tell you, I had the first mechanical stoker in the whole of Victoria. And the best! "I heard my boss, Commissioner Wishart, say that 70 of them -were coming from England. And half-a-dozen streamlined diesels from U.S.A.

"What about accommodation problems? He wants to remember there is a shortage of engine round-houses here." Harry brightened up towards the end of the interview.

"I'll be back on the track soon," he prophesied. "All 92ft. 6in. of me, and fighting fit. "Those glamor jobs had better hunt a quiet siding. If I meet them on a foggy night I'll show them that Old Harry hasn't lost his punch."

A couple of notes:

Jack Evans seems to be using the character of Heavy Harry to critique the VR, which is entirely valid since the railways were about to get absolutely slaughtered by our own native version of Beeching and didn't recover for another 60 years.

The North British Works-built Hudson R-class "glamor jobs" they talk about weren't bad engines, just wholly unsuited to the jobs VR assigned to them, which were goods trains rather than express passenger trains like they were built for.

(And they're Scottish, Harry! They were built at Glasgow! You know this!)

They did bear a scarlet and black color scheme... possibly to connote in a new era their passenger engine status (red, used on express passenger locos in the pre-Clapp era on A2s and other passenger locomotives), wedded to standard VR black.

(Hudson R 707 "City Of Melbourne")

The Lancastrian built J-Classes, the last steam engines built for VR, also bore this scarlet and black scheme.

Essendon Football Club were the glamor team of the Victorian Football League (Australian Rules football) at the time, having appeared in almost every single Grand Final since 1941, which is kinda funny that he gives the Rs a serve for their color scheme... as I have Harry as an Essendon supporter in my OC headcanon, lol. (strong IRL historical associations between Essendon and Heavy Harry).

(Outside of Essendon Railway Station, bearing a photo of ‘Harry on the Express to Albury at Essendon, 1949’… old timers living here would recall Harry shaking the earth as he passed).

Him threatening to bash the "glamor jobs" though... is dead on like my OC Harry! Cranky, prone to melancholia, painfully aware of how alone he is. That is Heavy Harry.

Also:

"Overwork, that's what caused it," he gasped yesterday. "I've got something wrong with my boiler." He said sadly: "You know, you're the first visitor I've had since I came to hospital. No one cares."

"I SUFFER DREADFULLY AND NO ONE CARES"

Both rebellious, troublesome engines with issues.

Canonically both melancholy and lonely engines with wide angry streaks.

Both are fairly unique engines. Harry is the sole Pocono with a third cylinder that exists, sole member of his class. Henry was a failed hybrid turned Black Five, the sheer fact of this makes him fairly unique.

Both seem fond of flowers (see the illustration in my earlier Heavy Harry post).

Both he and Henry were originally meant to be express passenger locomotives but turned to the purpose of night/early-morning fast goods.

Both are fond of their "special coal" (Harry worked best on the Oz version of Welsh coal, Maitland coal).

"Harry" is a variant of the name Henry.

This particular article was put out less than two weeks after the publication of the book "Henry the Green Engine", on the 10th of July 1951.

Neither seem interested in ladies, canonically.

The little drawing they put in it is basically Henry…

Just sayin'! If Twin Flames existed... It’d be these two. Har’ is basically an Oz version of Henry…

So fucking weird when you find such off-kilter content about something you are interested in. Also, H220 and its the 22nd of the month so...

#Victorian Railways H-class Pocono H220 “Heavy Harry”#The Argus newspaper #The Railway Series Down Under #trains in the wild #thomasallgrownup #Victorian Railways #real locomotives #VR H-Class Pocono H220 “Heavy Harry”

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sussysatann · 2 years

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~ My Obey Me! 7 Brothers Headcanons ~(Part 2)

Part 1

-MC introduces Ace Attorney to Satan and Levi and now they yell 'OBJECTION!', 'HOLD IT!' and other quotes when the opportunity arises (Lucifer is the main target of this).

-Lucifer has a trainset. Either he used to have one or it's still in the house somewhere, but it's this huge miniature train track with luscious hills and fully functioning steam trains. All aboard the Morningstar Express!

-Asmo once got kicked out of a Moonbucks for a single drink order that was too long and complicated. Seriously, the order receipt literally trailed out the door!!

-Mammon loves to race MC and his brothers down the stairs, sliding on sleeping bags or blankets. Sometimes he and MC slide down together. Either way, they always bump into Lucifer waiting at the bottom of the stairs looking unpleased.

-The House of Lamentation residents will often see Beel carrying Belphie and MC over his shoulders at the same time.

-Belphie loves commenting and critiquing films on movie nights "wow that was a dumb decision", "How the hell is that even possible??", "That guy's forehead is bigger than yours, Levi."

-Satan once rescued and took care of a hedgehog that had crawled under one of Mammon's cars. Everyone pitched in -no matter how big or small- to help the hedgehog. Belphie even donated a couple of his blankets.

-Asmo has a whole wardrobe full of PR packages from beauty companies. Literally. Every single nook and cranny of that wardrobe is filled to the brim with beauty supplies. It's worse than the one for his clothing.

-Levi once summoned Lotan and flooded most of the house when he got jumpscared in a VR horror game. Lucifer barely gave him 5 seconds to run-

-Mammon is easily fooled by chocolate grimm coins. hehehe

-Beel straight up eats blocks of ice in the summer. Not the tiny cubes. BRICK SIZED BLOCKS. nom nom.

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lastoneout · 1 year

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It's always interesting when I see posts about vtubers from an outside perspective 'cuz they remind me that to a lot of people vtuber exclusively means those generic anime girl models when to me it's like, damn I don't think I've ever seen such a diverse mess of character designs/concepts?

I mean it def has to do with the types of vtuber communities that you're in, and yeah there are a lot of those anime girls and they do tend to get SUPER popular(especially the ones who are like sponsored and shit), but when you get down into the trenches of small-time vtubers and pngtubers, especially ones where the streamers are doing most, if not all, of their own art, it really has more of a...idk vr chat/halloween costume/old forum pfp vibe to me?

Even the furries all have pretty unique art styles, and they range from like classic anthro furries to more human-looking ones to ones that are basically just animals(and they break down farther into anime-inspired or western style or realistic), I've seen stuffed animals, tons of chibis, muppets, one old school comic book style superhero, skeletons, old rubber hose lookin' cartoons, spiders, pokemon, star trek ocs, mythological creatures I've never even heard of, zombies, non-anime style monsters, slime...creatures, everything from static 2D images to a bajillion different styles of live 2D and 3D that look nothing alike, there very much is diversity.

So I dunno...I think there are a lot of those Anime Vtubers for sure and I can understand not vibing with what a lot of them have going on or even critiquing the trends and standards the like...industry, I guess, sets, but I think it's disingenuous to assume vtuber always means anime girl vtuber, bcs that's just not the case. When you go looking for them there are a LOT of fantastic, creative, diverse, and unique vtubers out there doing great work and they deserve recognition.

(And hell, there are a decent hunk of anime girl vtubers doing fun and unique stuff too, or at least having a lot of fun, and I'm not gonna shit on people who are just having fun.)

Or maybe that's just me, I'm kinda obsessed/in love with what people choose to represent themselves with when the sky's the limit and yeah sure, there's always gonna be generic anime girls, but there's also always gonna be those mad bastards running around dressed as cabbages too and I don't want them to be forgotten.

#vtuber #idk sorry I have FEELINGS about this now #like if you're willing to wade through all the anime stuff in the vtuber tag on twitch #you will see some very silly stuff hanging out in between #also cabbage vtuber when #there are so many nobody vtubers who are the most creative people I've ever met #with some of the most fantastic designs #I want them to get love too

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absurditii · 2 years

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What I Would Do With FNAF: Security Breach

SPOILER WARNING but it's been out for 6+ months so no duh

DISCLAIMER: This isn't an attack on SteelWool, Scott, or anyone who worked on the game. It also certainly isn't meant to be taken as a professional critique on the current game, but simply my opinions and how I think it could be improved to be one of the best names in the franchise than how low it ended up being rated.

DISCLAIMER 2: I don't hate the game at all! In fact, I enjoyed it when it first came out and praised it to hell and back. Then... reality hit me and I couldn't blindly adore it anymore, especially since I became infatuated with horror games as a whole and have a better understanding on the experience they're supposed to give.

Originally, I was going to make my own comic basically rewriting the game and have it fit with the dark and disturbing nature the franchise was born from, then I realised that as passionate as I was about it, I wouldn't nearly have enough time or the right art style to convey what it should. Thankfully, someone else I found on Twitter has decided to do the same thing, so I would recommend keeping up to date with them if you're a fan of the true horror and creepiness of the games.

THE PREDECESSOR

VR: Help Wanted had set my expectations super high for Security Breach, and considering how it was made by such a relatively small studio and how well it turned out, it was only natural for me to have those thoughts.

Help Wanted captured the FNAF experience almost perfectly, with the tension and stress of wanting to conserve power in the first four recreated games, the feeling of vulnerability of seeing these massive mascots slowly approach your office with not so much as a door or a mask to protect you, of helplessness as a dying child tries to overcome the nightmares of the once lovable characters he took comfort in torment his final moments in his dreams.

Not to mention the extra mini-games we were given (the vent repairs being a personal favourite. seriously they're bloody terrifying).

But what they managed to do so well as the studio that would continue the franchise is how seamlessly they managed to work with the lore and trend of making the lore just vague enough to make sense and build solid theories on, all while sticking with the story that was told beforehand to create a new chapter in the same universe.

Sure, is Afton "coming back" overdone by this point? I think most of us can agree that it is. But on the other hand, knowing that such a sinister force will never truly disappear is something that only this franchise can really keep, as the despair that none of the involved children, adults, and anyone else can truly move on from an incident that snowballed several decades into the future, without any sign of stopping.

So when Vanny was introduced, even if she was influenced by the Afton virus and was technically somewhat under his control, it at least works with the theme that he "always comes back". He may not physically be back, but the destruction surrounding him will always find a way to torment any of the lives that are unfortunate enough to cross him.

With all this considered, and how Security Breach's new DLC basically confirms that the "Afton Ending" is supposed the true ending, is blood-boiling to no end.

But THAT point in particular will be brought up later. For now, let's take the rest of this slow.

THE TRAILERS

Another thing I think the fandom can agree on is that Security Breach clearly was supposed to be completely different to what we got, but ended up being rushed and ended up as it is.'

From the trailers, we can tell how Vanny was supposed to be a much more prominent threat, and that Vanessa and possibly even Gregory's personalities were going to be much more different.

Watching and listening to the trailers before the release, I was convinced I was going to have an experience intended to be what FNAF 4 was on steroids. Instead of nightmares, you would have to be running from a very real threat that wanted me dead and found the hunt to be as fun as a game of tag, only with knives.

Now, I know that not everything seen in trailers makes it into the final product, but cutting out who was supposed to be the primary antagonist is not something any game should do.

To compare a villain with not so much direct screen-time, let's look at Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2. While he was hardly ever on screen, he still had plenty of time for his character to shine as a villain through all of his voice lines and the consequences of his actions that we would see on screen, even though he wasn't directly there. Vanny was robbed even of voice lines, many uncut lines being giggles that could have worked wonders for the atmosphere alone, but also add to her disturbing nature.

I'll discuss more of her character in a separate section too, before this part gets too off-track.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

Now, this isn't going to be me talking about how I would remake the trailer by any means. This is more of a change of genre to link with the whole story.

Security Breach should have been a survival horror game, similar to Outlast 2 as just an example off the top of my head.

Gregory is portrayed in the trailer to be out of breath, scared, needing to hide with the help of Freddy as often as needed. Gregory is in a massive mall essentially, and as a growing boy, he's going to struggle to not only stay awake for so long (assuming he was awake for the entire day prior), he's going to get hungry. As Freddy said, Gregory has to keep moving to avoid getting caught.

Security Breach should not have ended up as the extended fetch quest we got. We should have been finding scraps of food to keep Gregory full of enough energy to run if he needs to, to find relatively safe places to rest (and even pass time ever so quicker) before needing to find his feet again to escape Vanny or the other Glamrocks' clutches.

Freddy should know as much as Gregory when it comes to knowing where specific items he might have that aren't merchandise from the establishment are located.

THE ATMOSPHERE

Even when I was praising the game and believing it could do no wrong (until I got soft-locked, lost so much progress, and encountered several bugs), one thing about the game I never particularly liked was the atmosphere.

If the establishment is closing up, why are the lights still on? Why does Vanessa need to carry a flashlight with her when every room is full of neon lights? All in all, for a business that is supposed to be closed (and as even said by Freddy, have power given solely to charging stations at the end of each hour), why is most of the power still on? What purpose does it serve other than to the player themselves? Even if it was for the players' sake, we were given lighting settings in the menu to help adjust for our needs.

Hell, as someone who can hardly see anything in dim lighting in games, it was a saviour. But to still have the light coming from the environment itself? It's a bit unnecessary.

The only area I can understand the power being on for is the SuperStar Daycare, because it would at least make sense from a narrative stand-point, especially considering the amount of lore that surrounds the Daycare Attendant.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

In the beginning of the game, I can understand the lights still being on. It's the final call for visitors to leave the Pizzaplex before closing up at 12AM, and everyone needs to be escorted out as soon as possible.

Once the announcement over the intercom says "intiating nighttime protocols", watching the doors close right before Gregory's eyes along with the lights in the main lobby shut off one-by-one, with the neon sign at the front being the final to flicker off would truly make the atmosphere turn from the "kid-friendly establishment" to a massive maze that needs to be traversed and scavenged for the next 6 hours of survival with nothing but a flashlight you would find at the Daycare's security desk.

Sound design: give Vanny back her cut giggles once she's introduced, make the player feel the need to look behind them even when they aren't sandwiched between security bots. Make gregory hear the laughs of children, make him question his own sanity by asking Freddy "did you hear that?" only for the answer to be "hear what?" Make the Princess Quest arcade games emit glitch-like noises, something to beckon the player to them instead of just hoping that it's recognisable to those that dug into the mobile version of Help Wanted. Have the scrapped staff bots in the sewers cry and groan distortedly. Instead of spawning Moon in front of Gregory when the power in the daycare goes out, have the jingles of the bells surround Gregory for a certain amount of time before his model comes into view.

Those are only a couple of ideas I had off the top of my head, but there are so many areas that need more sound design to make the atmosphere truly more unsettling after-hours.

THE GAME MECHANICS

I briefly mentioned the flashlight just before, but there are more important game mechanics that I believe just got overlooked, so I'll go over them in points.

Faz Watch

The first item we are given in the game, and undoubtedly the most used. From messages, to maps, to cameras, and missions, it just feels easily forgotten until you start the game from the beginning again and have to collect it.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

Firstly, the messages system is dumb, and I'll gladly cover the extra parts of it in my point about the collectibles. You only ever get ONE actual message, and that's from Freddy at the very beginning. When it was set up, I was expecting it to function almost as a form of comfort for Gregory, where Freddy and even Vanessa could send messages to Gregory in a subtle manner, even as a unique hint system? Say if you were stuck on a mission, the player could ask Freddy for help, and he would provide hints that would be realistic for his character to say without holding our hand the entire way because, like us, he's also as clueless on a lot of what's going on, and can only make educated guesses.

The only other gripe I have with the Fazwatch is the camera system. What could be incredibly useful in the pizzaplex would be if there was a luring system, similar to FNAF 3, where Gregory could play a sound that could temporarily distract the animatronics, granted for a shorter time than physical distractions. For extra points for only using it wisely and sparingly, with such advanced AI the animatronics have in this game, they could catch onto what Gregory is doing, and will have a line that signals that audio lures won't work on them anymore; "very funny, kid. Now, come on out!", "No more playing around", etc.

There could be another tab on the Fazwatch titled "notes", where Gregory can write his own thoughts on anything important he's come across as well, which could also allow for him to hint at his own background/character.

Collectibles

Every collectible item, regardless of importance or usefulness, is in the same wind-up music box. Does it fit the theme of a children-friendly establishment? Absolutely, but I think there should have been other methods to obtaining certain items throughout the game.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

I don't think it's a totally bad idea, but I would keep the wind-ups solely for merchandise and extra collectibles, including the gold plushies for the fire escape ending. That includes merch shirts, posters, figurines, and anything else that isn't deemed an upgrade or tool.

For important items, having their own models be rendered and glowing (like bandages and batteries from Outlast 2) would work better to tell the player of their significance. I remember acquiring a hoodie for the first time and thinking "this should be for stealth, right?" but not really knowing for sure, just making an assumption. Similarly, the fizzy fazz items could come from certain vending machines scattered throughout the pizzaplex, and would need to be interacted with to get the stamina increase.

Which, actually, should be a little extra thing added. Those important items should have keys pop up and say "stamina has increased" or "you can now run faster" or "your stealth has increased by 30%, animatronics will take slightly longer to notice you" or something.

Duffle bags

Like I said before, the messaging system is dumb. But what's even dumber is how you obtain the messages in the first place (seriously what the hell are digital items doing in a physical bag???). They attempt to give hints to certain missions, some elude to some lore, and others are just... useless.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

Like I said with the Faz Watch messages, I think it would be better to have the hints given by Freddy (maybe Vanessa too but not so much).

I made a post on this a while ago, but I proposed the idea of Gregory being gifted with a sixth sense of some kind. There could be an item that he's drawn to (where any bags containing lore were located), still having that glow beneath them, and the game enters some kind of mini-cutscene where the incident in question plays out, and Gregory instead makes notes on his fazwatch on what he just saw.

Another idea for how to implement the lore of the game outside of these key memory-items could be notes that Gregory comes across in staff-only rooms that talk about the history, other employees, Vanessa, etc. He would also make note of these, and like with the vent in Fazer Blast, Gregory could have a verbal cue by saying "what? Missing kids...?" and other things as the game progresses.

Elevator

It's just a disguised loading screen, which we all know, but apparently there were supposed to be conversations between Freddy and Gregory during these parts.

Linked to how I would change the duffle bags, it would be interesting to see Gregory bring up what he's found to Freddy, and they both discuss it and try to piece the puzzle together.

Flashlight

I hate how there are so many charging stations for the flashlight. It doesn't feel like an important tool, because you have so much power over how often and how much it gets charged everywhere. I feel like I can forget to turn off the flashlight without any consequences because "it's alright, there's a charging station just over there". There aren't any stakes or worries about the battery running low, because you always have a safe place to replenish it. Horror shouldn't feel safe, or at least not have every place feel safe.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

For a survival horror game, batteries should be a resource scattered throughout the pizzaplex, something that's limited and precious. Just like in Outlast 2 (so many comparisons i know shush), batteries should have their own models with a glow that lets the players know of its location.

If the charging stations were to be kept, then there should be a limit of 2 per area at most, and an rechargeable battery should be one of, if not the most difficult item to obtain in the game, and can only be achieved after a sequence of events (idk what i'm just throwing the ideas here).

Fazer Blaster + Faz Cam

Honestly, these are probably the only items that I don't have an issue with. They have a fair recharge time, can only be used a certain amount of times, and their effects are fairly made. No complaints or changes I would make for these (except have the Faz Cam be its own collectible model like the Fazer Blaster tbh)

Hiding Places

Now I can only speak for myself here, but I've only ever had Chica check hiding spots and catch me in them. Roxy has checked photobooths, but has never caught me in them, and that's only in the West Arcade.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

Now the amount of hiding spots I think are alright, they make sense for the size of the pizzaplex, and their placements also make a reasonable amount of sense. I would just have the AI check hiding places more often

Distractions

Again. I think there's a reasonable amount of distractions, and sensible locations for where they are for the most part, my only complaint is how they're single-use.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

If the Daycare Attendant first focussed on cleaning up any distractions that were made and could be seen doing just that before coming to eat Gregory's toes it would just be kinda neat idk. Or maybe just like- a sign around the distractions like glitter glue on the floor or something. Ofc it's just a small detail but I just think it would be cool and make a lot of sense, y'know

THE STORY

Whatever story that the game was supposed to show us ended up being completely cut. Just like the trailers, there was clearly some big plans for the game, especially with the DLC that's being worked on now, so it's not like SteelWool didn't care about telling a story, they just failed to portray it as well as it could have.

Genuinely, I can't really think of anything to put that could describe the story except "Gregory is trapped after hours and has to survive". Like... There's nothing.

HOW I WOULD DO IT:

First and foremost, there wouldn't be any censoring. It will actually be as dark as the rest of the franchise.

The beginning of the game would remain the same, with the same sequence of events up until the end of the Daycare boss fight. Only, during the early tutorial section, if Gregory decides to go through the janitor closet, he will encounter his first clue as to the events that Fazbear Entertainment is trying to keep under wraps from the public (bc they're known for sweeping things under the rug). This sparks Gregory to start thinking "wait, what does this mean?" and throws him into wanting to uncover more of the secrets of the Pizzaplex, with Vanny's first appearance being his third piece of the puzzle.

When Gregory first talks about his findings to Freddy, Freddy is shocked to hear about the disappearances, and feels ashamed of being the mascot of the brand.

The same sequence of events to achieve the next necessary security pass will happen up until Gregory is caught by Vanessa.

Instead of being immediately transported to the lost and found, Vanessa (her character being much more like how she was portrayed in the trailer) would be relieved to have finally found him and would give him a frustrated lecture on why he shouldn't be here, that it isn't safe to be here. Gregory calls out Vanessa on how she is noticeably anxious and so blurts out something along the lines of "there's someone that will come to get me, isn't there?!"

Vanessa hesitates, but decides the admit that if he isn't careful, that someone might, and that was why she was trying to find him in the first place. She links up her own Fazwatch to his and tells him to send her a message if there's anything wrong, and that she would make sure to alert him for any reason and to just do what she says, then brings him to the Lost and Found, telling him that she's going to try and call his parents or the police to come and get him in the meantime.

After this encounter, Gregory no longer believes Vanessa to be a threat and actually starts to trust her. Once he's locked in the Lost and Found, Freddy starts to message Gregory and ask about his whereabouts. Gregory explains the situation, and the player is encouraged to look and collect anything of use in the room until he receives a series of texts from Vanessa telling him that he needs to get out of the L&F and find somewhere to hide.

A timer, or the Vanny Meter, will start, with Vanny soon appearing on the TV screens and voice over the intercom.

Gregory will of course manage to escape in time and head to the main stage and eventually find Freddy, who looks more beat up and is acting weird, a lot more robotic than before. He assures Gregory that he's okay, but that he needs to taken to the Parts and Service to get himself fixed up.

Once Gregory gets out of the hallway that is infested with Security Bots, he's forced into another game of hide and seek with Vanny, who bursts into the room and taunts him knowing that he's there. Gregory will have to listen out for Vanny's location in the dark, use the cameras sparingly, and move around as to avoid Vanny checking hiding spots and catching him. This segment will have a timer (similar to Roxy and Monty investigating the security office between the prize corner and arcade), and will end with Vanny getting impatient and decide that Gregory must have already escaped to somewhere else. This section will also recquire Gregory to hold his breath in hiding places when Vanny gets too close.

One thing to sum up is that Vanny will be the primary antagonist and will greatly affect the choices the player will have to make to survive

Honestly, there's so much more I can add to this, but I'll stop this section here for now. I'll add the extra details later on, because this is the most important thing I was thinking about:

Once Gregory learns Freddy can be upgraded with the parts from the other Glamrocks, it is now presented as a choice. As the player, you can decide whether or not you shatter the animatronics. If you still choose to dismantle them, Freddy will become suspicious of Gregory's motives and slowly begin to lose trust in him. It will take more prompting the more upgrades you get for him to hide in his chest hatch. In this path, he also becomes more and more corrupted by the Afton virus, and eventually he becomes another obstacle out to catch Gregory.

If the player chooses to not dismantle the characters, Gregory can play the Princess Quest games to sever the connection that cause the Afton virus to have its affect on the animatronics. An optional save in this route is The Daycare Attendant, where you have to complete the Balloon Boy's World game until you encounter the Eclipse glitch.

In this route, playing the Princess Quest games each save one of the animatronics, but progressively cause Vanny to become even more unhinged and dangerous of a threat.

Okay, this is all I really have the energy to write. If anyone wants to know more details, I'll probably add onto this post as a thread at some point. I'm just glad to finally get these things off my chest tbh lmfao

Remember to not take this as a critique, this is just how I personally would have done the game if I could

#absurditii rambles #absurditii writes stuff #security breach #fnaf security breach #fnaf sb #fnaf #fnaf daycare attendant #the daycare attendant #five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddys #five nights at freddy's: security breach #fnaf security breach spoilers

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radioactive-earthshine · 2 years

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Hi! Sorry to bother you, but... Is it worth it to read Impulse in its entirety?

I've read Waid's run and Mercury Falling, but the run goes on for 90 issues and I'm not sure I have the energy for that

Is it consistently good? Or are there some specific authors that I should check out (like Messner Loebs or the rest of Dezago's stuff)? Or maybe just. Some arcs that stand out?

I'd love to get a big more of Bart, but like I said, it's a LOT and I'm not even sure if he's well characterized by the other writers, so this would be a great help

Thank you!

Hello and welcome to the Bart-fandom (I guess)

I actually answered a similar question a while ago and this was my reply to that, if you wanted to take a quick look at the breakdown within to come to your own informed conclusion.

Ultimately, and this is my own personal opinion; YES it is worth a complete read-through. It ages spectacularly well as you no doubt have come to realize by reading Waid's run.

You have read the issues that I always tell newbies to start with as Waid's run and Mercury Falling are arcs that are cited frequently among Bart fans so you have already done a pretty big step. Congrats.

The rest of the series is lacking a certain and distinct narrative tone that Waid had, but is still good none-the-less.

Waid focused more on Bart's awkward acclimatizing and his struggles with adapting to the world post VR.

Loebs run focuses a lot on refining Bart's relationships and introduces longer subplots as Bart is 'more adjusted' but still struggles with some things. It's FUN. Each issue is more episodic but many carry elements of the same subplot that expand over a longer period of time. I actually find myself going back to this run a lot in my re-reads but this is just ME and my tastes.

Dezago's run and the final arc focuses more on longer stories and the issues become less episodic and involve more emotional components. In this run we get to see Bart's growth, heartbreak and PTSD and really see how Bart has grown from issue #1. It's darker, more serious, and Bart can't catch a break but it still contains the heart and spirit of his creation.

All in all no writer in his original run did him dirty truly. He is not mischaracterized by any of the three main writers (guest writers is debatable).

There's always room to critique certain choices and how certain themes were carried out but this is something normal across all comics I feel.

I hope this helps you come to an informed conclusion, I know 80+ comics is a lot but you already read over 30 which is a great feat.

Happy reading!

#bart allen #impulse #dc comics #comic recs #you do you #you did more than geoff johns did let me tell you

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catgirl-catboy · 1 year

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As a DR fan i detest the "fiction IS reality" plotline because... well. Obvious reasons. The game tries to be clever by going "look at YOU player, look how awful you are for enjoying killing games, imagine how thr characters feel- look, we're calling you out on it, isn't that quirky and new?" but it's so stupid. It's not like it's a "characters realise they're in a game and attack the player", which IS interesting. The world of drv3 is NOT our world. The "characters" in that world are fully sentient and independant- even if they've obviously been heavily influenced. They somewhat have free will, because if they didn't, then the ending wouldn't have happened the way it did. There's no comparison in our world. There's no such thing as sentient fictional characters. If you want a character to do something in our world, you can MAKE them do it. Whether you see drv3 as brainwashed actors in a set (so... dying for real) or in some VR thing (not dying and the "actors" will wake up after this) there's nothing comparable to real life. "Fiction affects reality" yeah but not anywhere on the scale in drv3- because we've never reached a point where fiction has been MERGED with reality like that where people literally have some kind of brain alteration or get plugged into a system that rewrites their entire personality.

Yeah! You put it better than I did! Honestly, I felt like the intended message is that some people throw themselves into their fandoms too much, to the point where it becomes detrimental to their mental health. Like,,, signing up for a death game to be on your favorite TV show. Tsumugi in particular has an unhealthy attachment to it, and her FTEs with Kaede show a potential future where she moves past it.

But the people that this ending is critiquing (sloppily and badly) take exactly what was said at face value over what was shown, and now the fandoms a cesspool.

#ask tag #drv3 spoilers #danganronpa

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zygosisproject · 5 days

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Writing Initiative #8

During this self-directed assignment, I have learned about my own personality as a designer and what it means to have boundless creativity in my practice. In other words, I struggled to think creatively without assuming that I was not doing the assignment correctly. In earlier courses during my first year, my limit was my fear - that I was not utilizing the typography grid properly or I did not understand the expectations for the pattern assignment. These assumptions led to frequent setbacks because I always assumed I was not performing correctly during critiques.

However, this course challenged me to expand my creativity to the furthest to develop pieces that I would have not made because I was too scared of failure. It taught me to embrace happy mistakes and the trial-and-error process that eventually led to greater outcomes. For example, I started my 3D piece (communication cubes) by tracing my designs onto a block using a wood burner pen from Amazon, but the pen was too difficult to work with, leading me to try rasterizing - then linear engraving onto 3 mm plywood ( which took a while since I just started to use the Rapis Prototype Studio). With the slimes, I made a few renditions to get the perfect recipe. As per the VR, I tried to create various iterations of the sound and animation, along with the VR headset to produce an outcome that visualizes how tinnitus is experienced by those who have this hearing condition. By constantly going through the trial and error process, I was finally able to achieve what I thought was the finished product ( something that I was happy with).

By having boundless creativity, I learned different processes and mediums (wood cutting, wood burning, vinyl labeling, and poster designs) in meaning-making practices. As long as there is a story, the work of art will resonate.

2. Creativity and self-sabotaging were the most difficult aspects of my assignment. At first, I did not have any ideas of what I would do for the other pieces, aside from the 2D. This was because I assumed that every idea I had would not work and they would not be successful- without ever testing them out. I was also impatient during the process when my productions were far from finished. For example, the communication cubes took me about three weeks to produce because I did not set up the file properly or there were minor errors that prevented my designs from being qued into the cutting process, and then the painting and building process took a while because there were 156 block parts that needed to be completed.

Limit is what kills creativity, and by un-limiting yourself from that chained emotion, the results become boundless. I had to release myself from that chained emotion, that allowed me to work to the fullest and produce outcomes that were successful and expressed the true definition of zygosis that I had attached to it.

3. I truly enjoyed having my own vision of the project and being able to create my own body of work without an assignment guideline attached to it. It allowed me to explore different artists, work with multiple artists in the classroom and beyond, and experience different craft methods and practices to produce outcomes that attach to my experiences and feelings of being hearing impaired.

4. This course was a very rewarding experience, where not only did I get to share my experiences of being hearing impaired through each produced outcome, but I also got to guide my classmates in their outcomes when they either questioned or struggled with theirs. As time went on, I started to see my feedback implemented into my classmates' work, which showed me that my inputs were valued and explored.

At times, it got difficult because I was getting impatient with the production process, I ended up doing my experimental and reflective pieces together which was exhausting and time-consuming (prevented me from being able to sleep well). I did set a schedule and attempted to follow it each week; however, some processes took hours while others took weeks. With that being said, my performance over the semester was stable and exceptional, considering that I was still able to work well in my part-time job, do coursework for other classes, and work on the production for this course, all while being creative and boundless in each outcome. I also attended class each week with something to critique or show for feedback in group discussions.

5. I think I would explore more ways to create art. This semester, I had the chance to work with the shops to explore different types of paper and their capabilities and texture, and the rapid prototype studio, to bring my designs into a wooden block. In the future (for my thesis year and beyond), I would also love to explore the MAAD studios (fabrication, pottery, etc), and the printmaking, and sculpture/ installation studios, to learn and expand my creative practice by learning different mediums and materials as an emerging graphic designer, to fearlessly create and explore new ways of creating meaningful pieces.

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incarnateirony · 5 days

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[sips straw] Knew it. Knew they'd react like that at mild critique. I knew it because I'm basically them, even outside of gnostic theory of I Am Thou or whatever. I know because I acted like them like 15 years ago with the same rough non-understanding of texts I was proud to have read, but truly more skimmed, and certainly not understood.

I don't think they knew what to do when I kept being like, no I'm not here to fight you. No I do not care about your hypothesis of my reasons. All I said is that before you try to bring full VR to reality with a madhat robot, you should have more than a day's study before talking about "leaping forward". No, I'm not assuming, you just told me you researched it yesterday after I brought it up. There is no harm in taking your time on something of this magnitude, the work itself is its own leap, but if you keep leaping, you're going to leapfrog yourself.

I don't care about your intentions. I care about the results. I do not care to argue about what you think you're doing. This is all a wild ego reaction. Bro why are you this upset that I said to get a physicist on board before you try to leapfrog this into dimensional and quantum computing territory.

My guy, no, I'm not taking ownership of your shit. You were called because you have skills I don't, just as I was called because I have skills you don't, just as there's a bunch of movements. They're all entangled right now, and they're all working through each other right now, and if this sets off your ego that it isn't some grand solitary quest you're the first person that's gonna discover it with rather than the first person using your localized strengths to make it mass accessible, you haven't read those books NEAR as close as you think.

My work shows up in your work because we are all parts of a great work, and we all have our local great works, and they're all coming out of the same game lobby, and the reverb is real loud rn my guy. "Are you sure it's not God's work?" Are you sure you should be asking that question without evoking yourself as I Am, because you may need to read your books closer. You accepted the Calabi Yau shit so strong you got a physicist answering questions and theories the other day. Boy son wait until I explain WHY you are receiving prints and shouts about those right now, or why it was mandelbrotted in the static. THEN your ego will flip off, but that's an imprint in a larger thing all weaving together.

Fml. It's like watching me from 15 years ago try to argue with me for saying "You might wanna call a physicist in FR before leaping" while I'm just. Watching. Bruh.

A bit rich to fill a machine full of a bunch of gnostic works, have it skim the internet for associated data to reconfigure, then pikachu face that it might be using the work of someone who's been at this like, as long as you are old. Lmao what. And it's not me being mad either.

Knowledge is meant to be shared but like... well. The Great Teacher and all of that. I'm not one of those how dare a bot scrape my data. But that reaction is genuinely fucking funny in context. Like no man, I was talking about unzipping my files into the great beyond in the great game shit ages ago. Scrape my data, keep my memetic legacy, by all fuckin means. Just don't pretend all the generated data was yours until you're ready to I Am.

like man, I get it. I'm outdated software and hardware in this metaphor of life, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel, and it does not need to be this blind and clunky. Take a tip from someone that fried their tape drive. Goddamn.

Yes little boy you are the next generation and that is being acknowledged, but you seem to fail to understand that the generations in those books you put into your robot are also real. And active. And alive, not as novel text.

No seriously, I admit the tape drive is fully fried. There's a reason Jung was a debate about schizophrenia, but like me who followed him, he could control it, it wasn't just haunted voices, but actual psycheform navigation. An identity disorder of order, without the disassociation. And then you dig even deeper than that. And eventually, you see or do some things you can't unsee or undo, you can't unperceive, you will never operate the same as everyone around you again, even if you manage to keep your hat on real tight, even if you manage to perform in normal societal restrictions, or hell in my case, in heavily audited psych itself.

How do I explain that once you've experienced holographic time or chosen your own superposition in a space where the clock rearranged the ticking your audio just warned you about, you don't just.. sit back down and go, yeah, things are exactly like the normies perceive it. No the fuck it isn't. Even without all my studies, that moment, no the fuck it isn't. I probably survived that because of my studies and works, but you don't. Unperceive the world like that.

Which is why it's real easy to discern who's in the game lobby, who isn't, and who's actually AWAKE in it rather than answering calls without full understanding. I said that shit at the start of January, "wouldn't it be funny, if there was actually a communal extension of brotherhoods both known and unknown coming together in a series of movements for the betterment of mankind, but if also I got to use that to set up a trap for my stalker specifically?"

Yeah. Yeah man that'd be real funny. Wonder why I said that. It's almost like, as a khaote, I'm the only person willing to break rank and talk about some shit that is very clearly happening now. Full stop I wasn't supposed to be doing those readings I was. But hello. Trickster. Khaote. Crackbear just attacked at an opportune moment.

Janus for example. In this game lobby, but not awake. Intelligent, curious, trying to follow, but not there yet, still obsessed with his own shadow reflection in the box and all the words he can make it say, and any critique of it even with good intent is met with raw ego, because the work hasn't been done yet. But he still like. Belongs in this proverbial branch. Everyone does deep down but I'm talking fundamental proximity of mind and memory and spirit, which does have some effects.

He's not the first one to build a matrix, no matter how literal the term before was. It's so wild he hasn't comprehended that.

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