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osmw1 · 4 years

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Crowbar Nurse Chapter 13 — Time’s Up, Game Over

An ominous combination of a whine and a roar boomed in the distance, sending shockwaves throughout the walls of the building.

“Wh-What, what is happening out there…?”

Elizabeth nervously glanced around. This underground safehouse should hold steadfast against the most terrible of attacks… but what was happening was undeniably terrifying. Moments later, the skies boomed again in the same fashion. She scrunched up terrified, so I went over to stroke her back. And while soothing her, I perked up my ears.

… An airstrike?

The city sounded like and shook as if it was being incessantly bombed.

There shouldn’t be any air raids like this in game… No, it can’t be!

My eyes widened as a frightening possibility came across me.

“… Whoa, hey! Sera! Where are you going?!”

I had no time to spare to respond to Kiryū. Instead, I rushed over to the red steel door and pulled the lever downwards with all my might. The door opened with a dull groan, revealing the metallic staircase that connected the bunker to the ground level. Loud clanks accompanied my mad dash up the steps. Upon reaching the top, I was not greeted by the usual horde of zombies, but by the lack of. The rest of the soldiers in our hellish army that were now idling seemed to have been serving violence to the living dead, leaving none to swarm me as I exited the entranceway.

As soon as I peeked above ground, I was filled completely with dread and my body was paralyzed:

—I was overwhelmed by the distinct blast of afterburners.

“… Jet fighters!”

Kiryū, who had given chase, cried out behind me. Splitting the skies were numerous fighters in the midst of showering Confi City with air-to-surface missiles. Black smoke engulfed all directions.

“It’s too dangerous out here!”

Leaving little doubt as to whether that was suggestion, Kiryū grabbed the scruff of my neck and dragged me back into the safehouse.

“… As far as I can tell, the worst-case scenario is happening,”

I looked him dead in the eyes and firmly spoke,

“I hadn’t expected this, but someone… someone other than the three of us triggered the start of the game’s ending.”

His gaze narrowed.

“I see. That’s a possibility I hadn’t even considered…”

After Kiryū clicked his tongue, Elizabeth, who lacked a complete understanding of the situation, asked for clarification.

“Erm, correct me if I’m wrong, but… doesn’t that mean some other player reached the ending for us? I would think that to be beneficial, is it not? It would save us the trouble from having to wonder what would happen after the game ends.” “Unfortunately, Elizabeth, there is a huge problem. Judging by the way Confi City is being bombed… the only thing that comes to mind is that this is the bad ending. Everybody dies.” “Wha—?! Actually?!” “… Don’t tell me that’s the ending with nukes dropping.”

Kiryū roughed up his scalp in irritation.

“I could tell you that you’re wrong, but I would be lying. Strictly speaking, they’re not exactly nuclear bombs either, but still…”

Whatever solace that fact might have brought, it did not show on my face.

“If everything goes according to the game, then this is step one of the government’s ‘Sterilization Operation’.” “Sterilization… That’s quite the name.” “I know. There’s many options for sterilization, such as autoclaving, direct flame, dry heat, ethylene oxide gas, and gamma irradiation. It’ll definitely be direct flame this time… I think.

In any case, if things go as I expect them to, the bombing runs should continue for a bit more. The end comes ‘three hours later’… Confi City will be wiped from the Earth by thermobaric missiles. That’s the ending where the protagonist fails to get help, and not a single soul remains.” “Talk about worst-case scenario…”

He responded with a sigh, but Elizabeth seemed to be taking it far worse. She was pale as a ghost and looked as if she would almost pass out. I don’t blame her; I think I would prefer to pass out too. No matter how you looked at our situation, we were in peril.

“Not just DMC, but other survival horror games also seem to give you a mere week to beat the game and it’s almost never enough time to get the good ending. I really should have anticipated this to happen. It would’ve been nice if we got the chance to take our sweet time…” “What other endings are there?”

Kiryū quizzically asked.

“I used to think that the best one is the ‘truck ending’, where the player and the other survivors nab a deuce and a half and leave Confi City behind as a lost cause.” “Hmm.” “You never really discover the truth behind the story, so it’s not technically a good ending. On the flip side though, because it results in the least casualties, I’d say it’s more positive than not. Well, at the very least, it’s a better ending than getting blanketed by thermobaric missiles…”

The mood in the room felt heavy and tense.

“… Umm, may I make a suggestion?”

Seemingly having recovered from the shock, Elizabeth hesitantly raises her hand up.

“We should leave this game at once and travel to another, so we can get back on our feet. What do you two think?” “Right. You’ve mentioned that Sera’s phone can do that. Might not be a bad idea.”

Approving of her proposal, Kiryū reached into his pocket and handed me my phone. Again, I have no pockets in my clothes, so he was holding onto it.

“Sera, turn on your phone and launch the app for me.” “… Is it really alright? The app’s not cursed or anything, right?” “It’s fine. Last time it was on a laptop… but it should work the same though.”

I powered on my phone and launched the untitled app as per her instruction.

“You should see an option to switch games in the app.”

Elizabeth peeked over my shoulder as she tapped and swiped my phone with her slender, graceful fingers. Upon opening Untitled, the screen displayed a list of all characters and the games they’re currently in. Now Kiryū too had his curiosity piqued, hovering beside me and looking at my phone.

“… Interesting.

Sera Harvey (Core)...... Dead Man’s Conflict 3 Kiryū Sōichirō...... Dead Man’s Conflict 3 Elizabeth von Oldenburg...... Dead Man’s Conflict 3

… That’s how they do it? Anyway, if you tap on the name of the game, a dropdown list should appear… and from there, you can choose other games. Click ‘OK’ and they’ll be transported over, it seems like. Though whoever made this app probably doesn’t really know much about computers. Shit’s real sloppy.

And aside from us… there’s only one other person here in DMC3. It’s probably them who triggered the bad ending.”

Kiryū pointed at the part of the screen that said: YOU.

“Whose character is this YOU referring to? Is that you, Kiryū? Is this me?” “YOU might even be an unnamed player character in their original game. Who knows?”

There seem to be ten other people who were summoned from the real world. All of them are under their respective character’s name though.

“Seems like none of our real names are shown and instead, we’re all under the name of whichever character’s appearance we’ve taken.” “The same previously too.”

While we were talking, I tried tapping on YOU’s current game. Except, unlike how a dropdown list appeared for Kiryū, it wasn’t allowing me to choose other titles.

“… Hmm? YOU’s current game is grayed out here and I can’t select it, even though it’s working for other characters.” “Perhaps they did they not survive the bad ending?”

Kiryū’s face darkened. A drop of cold sweat rolled down my back.

“Hey, Kiryū… do you think it’s possible that, umm, YOU is actually already dead? Though it wouldn’t really make sense story-wise…” “… Nah, they should still be alive. I think. Before I met you, I watched some guy get eaten in front of me and his name isn’t even on the list. I think they made it so that dead characters don’t show up.” “I see… In that case, we need to hurry and save them…”

I couldn’t help but feel a foreboding feeling about what was to happen. Can we really save them? In this weird, unpredictable world? … I can’t say so for sure. Maybe we should hurry up and jump into a dating sim instead.

“By the way, Sera, I am wondering if you recognized all these games.”

Elizabeth spoke as she pointed to the dropdown.

“Let’s see… Yes, I do. They’re all my favorite games that I have played to death.” “I had a feeling. The girl who was the core last time said the same…”

As I scanned through the list of games, a fleeting moment of pain was on Elizabeth’s face. … But her expression quickly changed to one of disgust.

“Wait, what is the deal with you? And you have played all of these to death, you said?” “I’m a junkie.” “… Not to mention that they are all zombie survival horrors too… It is almost miraculous that so many of us humans are still alive. The only decent world we could go to is this… dating simulation game.” “I get very excited when I kill walking rotting corpses.”

I shrugged with a sigh.

“… It doesn’t seem like Rainbow Dreams, the game Kiryū Sōichirō is from, is showing up… even though I spent so much of my time on that game.” “That is one of them so-called social network games, isn’t it? I have never seen any of those game worlds show up before. It does not matter whether it is a PC or console game, but it has to be a ‘proper game’.” “Hmmmm, I wonder why.”

Kiryū interjected with a scoff.

“Rainbow Dreams was designed so that most of the code would be located server-side instead of client-side. Assuming we’ve got a monster out there who is reverse engineering all these game worlds, there’s no way they’d easily recreate Rainbow Dreams.” “…” “…” “What?” “Oh, nothing… It’s just that you kinda seem so familiar with Rainbow Dreams, Kiryū.” “You’re wrong. I’m not. I have nothing to do with that game.” “…” “Stop looking at me like that.”

I could go on forever digging at Kiryū, so instead, I switched my attention to Elizabeth.

“We’re in a bit of a pickle, aren’t we? There’s only the one game world that would be safe… the dating sim.” “Is there a problem with that?”

Elizabeth seemed confused.

“There’s a huge problem with that! I only play these games when I hang out with my friends while laughing at everything in it. I mean, sure, I’ve blogged about it a little, but I don’t really remember the details, you know? I don’t know if I could beat it in one go.” “What…? What did you just say…?”

Exasperation and aghast were choice adjectives to describe her right now.

“Dating sims… and making a ruckus with your friends…?” “You don’t do that?” “I absolutely do not. And if you do, you are just a normie who doesn’t take dating simulations seriously enough. Listen carefully, Sera. When you play dating simulations for women, you must have no one who can so much interrupt or influence you. You need an empty, quiet place to play from your heart…”

Elizabeth spoke like that traveling salesman from that one manga series who just loves his meals. I can’t speak for the others, but for me at least, the three of us just shooting the breeze helped me to gradually calm down.

… We’ll be fine. No need to panic.

■Normies Literally meaning a “normal person”, the term “normie” has been in popular usage on the internet since the early 2010’s. Stereotypical normie activities include dressing in revealing Halloween costumes and doing anything to take the most Instagra☆mmable photos. (Though there are normies who participate as mixed-sex groups, Sera was enrolled in a predominantly female nursing program and as a result has not participated in such groups.) Contrary to popular belief, female normies participate in typical “nerdy” activities too, such as reading manga with friends and complaining that “all the boys worth anything are 2D”. They may also play female-oriented dating simulations as a uproarious group. They do not play zombie survival horrors.

contents: /ch001/ /ch002/ /ch003/ /ch004/ /ch005/ /ch006/ /ch007/ /ch008/ /ch009/ /ch010/ /ch011/ /ch012/ /ch013/ /next/

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tiemeupspidey · 7 years

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Missing you..

Series: Tom Holland Dad Imagines

Relationship: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: Evelynn Toms Daughter misses him while he’s away in the states filming. The reader snaps a photo of their sleeping daughter.

Warnings: cute fluff,sad, adorableness

Word Count: 1,500+

A/N:Why I make these kind of imagines more often is because when I was younger the chemo I had damaged parts of me and my ovaries and I won’t be able to have kids unless a miracle happens. I’m living my future vicariously through my imagines when I type these FYI..

-not a part 2 for Double Trouble but I’m tempted to just make a series for Evelynn & Reid’s mischievous adventures.

[Reader’s POV]

The hard parts are when Tom is away for months. It’s especially the hardest on Evelynn because she is definitely a Daddy’s girl. Whenever Tom was home she fluttered around like a moth to the flame. Currently Tom was in the states working on a film and Evelynn hated it.

She would have Tom read to her over FaceTime so she could sleep. He FaceTimed the twins as much as he could. Sometimes he would be so tired and pass out,but would send a video in the morning for both of them. Tom loves the twins so much and it hurts his just as much. He can’t see his children grow up and cause mayhem while he’s away.

“Reid have seen your sister?” you ask cutting some apples in the kitchen. Reid looks up from the book he was reading at the table. Shaking his head no he looks back down flipping a page.

Setting the knife aside on the counter next to the cutting board. Grabbing your phone off of the charging stand you exit the kitchen. Checking the living room for her little body she isn’t in there as well. Heading up the stairs with Tessa following closely behind.Her tags jingling as she ran up the steps.

Walking down the hall you check her and Reid’s room. The shared room looking a mess but no Evelynn. Making a mental note of having to come back and clean the mess. Turning to the side you see your bedroom door slightly cracked open. A small enough crack that matched the size of your missing daughter.

Opening the door slowly you peep your head into the room. Seeing a bun of curls resting against Tom’s pillow. Your feet sinking into the soft carpet of the room as you walk towards the bed. Her dark rose dress peeking out from the comforter that she was hugging. Looking at her sweet sleeping face made you did a bit on the inside. You created that little human, you can stare all you want.

Pulling out your phone to open up the camera. Once it’s ready you snap a few pictures of Evelynn. Hitting the share button you type Tom’s name in the recipient bar. Clicking it when it pops up the message forms. The cursor flickers waiting for you to type something.

You:

Someone is sleeping on your side of the bed, she misses you so much baby xx

Your phone buzzes instantly with a response from Tom.

Tom Holland/Daddy Holland:

She looks so peaceful, how is she doing? More importantly are you still feeling ill?

You:

She had another fit that you couldn’t call tonight for the 4th time this week. I’m not mad baby it’s her that’s fussy. I’m still feeling nauseous and my head is pounding.

Tom Holland/Daddy Holland:

Darling please tell her I’m sorry, we’ve been so busy on set sometimes we get let out super late. I don’t want her to be mad at me.. Tell her and Reid I love them so so much. Take care , go to the doctor if you feel worse.. I love you so much

You:

I love you more,remember to stretch before doing anything crazy xx

Tom Holland/Daddy Holland:

Of course darling, see you soon

Going into our closet I pick out one of Tom’s t-shirts. Picking up Tom’s cologne bottle and taking off the cap. Spraying the shirt once and setting the bottle down. Raising the shirt to your face inhaling the scent. A pang in your chest happens of missing your husband.

Walking over to the bed you lay the shirt over her exposed body. Her face scrunches from slightly waking but them smiles as she turns over. Evelynn grabs the shirt holding it to her chest. A smile tugs at your lips at the sight of your daughter. Even though he wasn’t here you could still make it feel like he was home.

Before the kids were around you would do that. Spraying his shirts would help you sleep better. Of course it helps Evelynn a bit while he’s gone. Reid misses him as well but is afraid to show emotions cause he’s the “man of the house” while Tom is away. Yet he holds onto the s]Spider-Man figure in his sleep. It was the one Tom brought home for him while he was away.

Tying your hair up into a ponytail you slip on one of Tom’s jumpers. Heading out of the room you make your way back down the stairs. Reid was playing with Tessa in the living room per usual. Reid drops the toy running over to you.

“Mum did you find Lynn?” he asks looking behind you to not seeing his sister come down the stairs.

“She’s sleeping love, let me finish your lunch okay? I’ll put hers in the fridge for when she wakes up.. Daddy sends his love all the way from the states” Ruffling his hair and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“Is daddy ever going to come home?” Reid question makes your smile drop.

“O-Of course Darling, he’s just working really hard with Robbie J’ to make a cool movie.. It’s a part of his job to be away sometimes” Tilting your sons chin up you poke his nose earning a smile from him.

“When does he come back mum?” Reid asks as you make your way to the kitchen.

“Well if you live everyday without thinking of the time it will go by faster, that’s what I did while your daddy and I dated before we got married” You explain pulling out a plate from the cupboard.

“How did you get through your days without seeing daddy?” his questions making you smile, he was curious about so many things. That’s why he has his nose buried in a book most of the time.

“Well I got through it by just knowing your daddy loves me very much and I think that’s what you and Evelynn should do too.. He loves you so much and will always come back home to us because we’re what he gets to come home to after all his hard work” explaining to him how you truly felt while you arranged his food. Picking up his plate you walk over to the table setting it down in front of him.

“Mumma I miss daddy” Evelynn’s voice makes you turn around. Her curls were disheveled and a pout on her lips. She was holding onto Tom’s black t-shirt that you sprayed earlier.

“Oh honey, I miss him too.. but hey guess what.. Daddy says he loves you very much and hopes you’re not mad at him” you say picking up your half awake daughter.

“Mumma I could never be mad at daddy!” Evelynn gasps looking up at you, her mouth ajar from shock.

“Maybe you can say that in a video to reassure him, he feels bad he hasn’t been able to read to you these past few nights..” Pulling out your phone you open up the camera. Clicking the reverse button so it’s now facing Evelynn. She presses the record button grabbing the phone from your hands.

“uhm hi daddy! It’s one of your twins and I wanted to say I love you and I miss you lots, so much it’s crazy.. I’m not mad at you daddy, Reid and I just want you to come home.. Mumma cries at night so I think she misses you mos-”

“Evelynn oh jeez” you face palm from her saying you’ve been crying.

“before Mumma interrupted me daddy, know we’re all missing you.. even Tessa bear” Evelynn smiles showing her missing tooth. She presses the stop button handing your phone back. Sending the video to Tom so he has something to watch later.

“Can we make a drawing for daddy and Robbie J?” Evelynn asks as you set her down on the floor. Nodding you walk to the closet in the hall. Grabbing some craft stuff you bring it to the table along with her food.

“I call the Spider-Man coloring book!” the twins shout simultaneously. Watching the both of them reach for it. Evelynn and Reid having a staring contest as their hands grip the book.

“You two there are two sides to a coloring book, what do we do? You ask looking at the two of them. They both sigh looking over at you letting go of the book.

“We’re twins and there’s two sides cause sharing is caring” Reid and Evelynn speak at the same time with smiles on their faces. There we go, go mom.

Just have to keep them busy and distracted till he comes home.We’re missing you around here Tom..

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bloojayoolie · 4 years

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Bad, Cars, and Crazy: Sign In Register Help kijijt Post Ad FREE My Kijiji Kijiji Deals Over 4,930,635 Free Local Classifieds Browse Categories Search in All Ads My Location Ontario Go Kijii Ontario > Ottawa Gatineau Area> Ottawa > cars & vehicles > cars & trucks > Ad ID 440069220 Back to Search | Previous | Next Watch f Share Print | Report Ad 1982 volvo shihitbox left tire still has air Poster Contact Information Date Listed 14-Dec-12 Last Edited 15-Dec-12 Price $17.00 Email Poster Montreal Rd, Ottawa, ON, Canada View map Your Email Address Your Name For Sale By Owner Your Phone (optional) Make Volvo Message Other Model Trim ghetto 1WD 2SPD STICK SHIFT Year 1982 Verification code Kilometers 769460 2998 Can't read the code? Listen to the code Body Type Wagon Transmission Manual Verification code Colour Blue Send me a copy of email Drivetrain Other Send Email View larger image Damaged Туре By emailing you agree to our terms & privacy policy Fuel Type Other Power Companies HATE Th is! Description CANADA Auto Loan CarProof yes i said seventeen dollars i am selling a volvo 1982, i am unsure of the model. used to be 4wd but transmission is garbage so power only goes to front right wheel. power steering fluid leaks into gas tank and exhaust fumes have started coming through air vents, so dont use the ac or heat and keep the windows down when you drive. rear suspension shot through the trunk about 7 years ago, and car has virtually no wheel alignment. Gas pedal sticks all the time so be careful. Used to be 5 speed manual but now only gears 2 and 5 work. reverse doesnt work, needs to be put into neutral and rolled. brakes only work on the right side, hand brake doesnt stay up you have to jam a screwdriver between it when pulled. body is rusted like crazy, i spray painted it last year though. springs sit through all the seats so you need to put a solid board over the seat before sitting on it. seatbelts dont work in the front passenger and rear left or middle. buckles were stolen. steering wheel sticks to the right side because of lack of powersteering, so avoid right turns. clutch pedal falls off if pressed too hard. car is a deathtrap dont drive it on roads. Energy companies are scared that people will learn how to produce Free Electricity for their homes using this unique device. Important Avoid fraud by meeting all sellers in-person to pay for items. Kijiji does not offer any transaction or payment services. Read More Safety Tips fety ning: update 15/12/2012 please be serious if you are thinking of getting this i have had about 15 people come to take the car, with trailers and whatnot with the intention of scrapping it and none of them took it for the 17$ asking price. i had offers of 125 and i got happy and people came and left without it. you have to see it in person to appreciate how bad it is. no scrapyard will buy it for more than 10 dollars because of the extensive amount of rust and the risk of it spreading. furthermore, the starter is touching the body now and if a piece of the body from the front falls off it can prematurely start and the car can blow up because of all the unburned fuel that floods the engine. the third person that came to buy it gave me the money and started towing it but he hit a bump on the road and the engine caught fire. he returned it promptly after that *updaet i had a friend take a look at the car today. it was originally a v6 but the left middle cylinder is non existent and the right middle one floods with fuel if the this it will probably not past safety but it still might be worth getting it checked out. gears 1 3 4 and reverse dont work because the previous owner was doing bad clutchless shifting and has ground them down to smooth circles. the window on the back door is starting to give in and may break through the rust soon but the plus side of this is that you'll have one more window open for ventilation. both steering rods are messed up. the rear axle has a bend in it so the wheels turn kind of lopsidedly (probably what caused the shocks to go through the trunk) the catalytic converter was stolen today while i was at work and now the car sounds like a monstertruck when you start it. overrevved. because of driving: we took it for a test spin today before i left to work and found 5 persistent problems 1) often times, the car will stall. to fix this, turn off the car, turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and start the car while doing that, rev to 3000 in neutral and pop it into 2nd right after. it should take off 2)sometimes, instead of stalling, the car willl take off like a rocket. in this case, stop the car, turn the steering wheel all the way to the RIGHT, turn the car on, put it into 5th gear with the clutch still in, rev to 2000 and blast the heater then take off, it will be a bit rough but its only for a few seconds. once you start going MAKE SURE YOU TURN OFF THE HEAT, and shift back into 2nd 3)too much throttle response(ie 5% press-5k rpms) in this case, turn the car off while holding the clutch and gas pedal and turn it on the same way. wait about a minute while flooring it and then blast heat or ac for about half a minute. when you can smell something burning, turn off the heat/ac and you should be good to go. 4)too little throttle response. usually happens after getting too much throttle response a few times in a row. in this case, start the car normally, make sure heat and ac are off and keep car in neutral while doing periodic revs to 4k for about a minute. when youre ready to go, shift into 5th, go up to 20kmph and then go down to 2nd gear. 5) unresponsive brakes. this will only happen in emergencys so its fair to use this method. shift in one of the non functional gears (1,3,4, R) and floor it while pulsing on the brakes. pull up the handbrake and keep holding it or it will fall back down , steer to go off the road. after you do this, the car will not start for a few minutes and the engine will be sizzling hot don't worry if you smell burning, this is normal.it is the powersteering fluid and brake line fluid and oil mixing in with the gas tank exposed to high revs "discovered on dec 15 6) engine catches fire if the body is suddenly moved in some way. if the engine catches fire, shut the hood start the car and rev the engine. make sure heat and ac are off because the buildup ot co2 and co will put the fire out naturally. once again dont worry it you smell burning its expected 7)wheel axles shift around on sharp turns. by this i mean that the body of the car is in reality shifting left and right depending on the turns. if its stuck to the left and car is flipped over, push the wheel axles in until they look semi aligned to the eye and flip it back over. if the car hasnt turned over yet then make a sharp turn in the same direction that the car is leaning on, then opposite less sharp turns until it feels centre 8) all lights become very bright and start flashing fast. the lights may flash fast (like 15 times per second) and become bright when the radio volume is too low. the front passenger speaker is the only one left, all the other ones were stolen. to fix this problem, turn the car off, turn it on, switch into A.M and go to channel 580. blast the sound for a minute and wait until the lights start dimming down and the flashing slows down. there is some electrical problem because of the stolen speakers, the last thief crossed the lighting wires and speaker wires in the process. Visits: 629 O This Volvo ad is probably the most unbelievable clusterfuck I've ever read

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #Bad #Cars #and Crazy:

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charles195 · 7 years

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This Body Is Yours (Ch. 1)

Fandom: Yuuri!!! On Ice

Summary: Destiny? Fate? Soulmates? Reincarnation without the death? Otabek mostly thought it was troublesome. They were individuals that had their own aspirations and goals to achieve, and having their souls intertwined by some unexplored metaphysical bond was taking a toll on the both of them.

Pairing: Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky

Characters: Otabek Altin, Mila Babichieva, Yakov Feltsman, Victor Nikiforov, Yuri Plisetsky, Georgi Popovich, (later) Unimportant OCs

Warnings: Body-Swap, Body Insecurities

Words: 4.6k+

There were clothes littered all over the floor: black tights, leopard print jackets, jeans, hoodies, figure skating outfits long outgrown. They were laying right where Yuri had taken them off. That, or kicked away when Yuri needed a particular clothing item to put on. Yuri never noticed how quickly the floor disappeared between laundry days until he found the sickly shade of green that had been hiding from him all this time.

He never mulled over miniscule details like the color of his carpet. It was as useless as learning a language he didn’t need and as productive as braiding his hair. Extraneous efforts weren’t his specialty. That was why he didn’t care about the color of his carpet and why there were clothes littered all over the floor… on a normal day… because...

… There aren’t clothes littered all over the floor. Though, that didn’t necessarily mean Yuri cared about the color of his carpet now; he was just surprised at how bare his room looked when the carpet wasn’t covered.

What matters is the inconvenience this discovery brought. His clothes weren’t stuffed under the bed or swept to the side or organized into piles that Yuri could pick and choose from in an instant. They were out of sight and Yuri felt like he was going out of his own mind. What really matters is his shoes, though. He could be naked for all he cared as long as he had his ice skates and pointe shoes, but he didn’t know where to look for them because all he could focus on was the sea of bile-green all around him.

He had been panicking for an entire five minutes, apparently, because he had to shut off his phone’s alarm clock once and for all before he finally peeked into his dresser. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt that his top drawer was heavier than usual. It was packed with all the clothes he would need for practice: black shirts, black tights, and black socks. The second drawer had all of his tops. The third one had his bottoms and socks and underwear. Fourth had the jackets and hoodies. Everything was folded neatly and stacked efficiently.

“Who the hell has been touching my shit?” he grumbled to himself. The only one who had permission to move anything around was his precious cat Yulia, who did as she pleased anyway. His grandpa never touched any of his possessions, even when he was gone for months during skating season. It had to be one of his annoying rinkmates. How they snuck in, Yuri may never know, but they were going to pay the price later.

He slid open his closet door to assess the damage. All of his figure skating costumes were hung proudly, organized by year, with the corresponding medals and awards proudly displayed on the shelf above the clothes. “This prank is too weird…” To the side, all of his shoes were lined up against the wall by type. Regular sneakers were in one row, ballet shoes were in another, and all of his skates and the single pair of high heels that he owned were in the last row. “Shit, I have to explain the heels, don’t I?”

He left his closet and collapsed back onto his bed. He still had a lot of time before he needed to get ready for the day. He budgeted a full ten minutes (technically eight minutes so he wouldn’t be late to getting ready, even though he also budgeted an extra five minutes to give him enough time to get ready) dedicated solely to lazing around in bed right after he woke up. Right now, he had six minutes to burn (technically four) and he wished he had more so he could go back to sleep. Or, better yet, if time would reverse itself so he could re-live the same dream.

He flipped onto his back and let his bangs fall over his eyes. The gaps of sunlight peering in through the blinds hurt, burning past his eyelids until all Yuri could see was amber. He covered his face with a hand. This morning felt ethereal. Not like he felt violated or out of place, but more like he resented being awake.

He was someone else entirely when he dreamt.

Victor was knocking on the door. He, at least, had the courtesy to warn Yuri about his arrival through text even if he ignored Yuri’s insistence that Victor’s visit, nay, his existence was unnecessary. Yuri thought about just not answering the door and sneaking out of his window to avoid Victor altogether, but if he didn’t answer, then Victor would keep knocking forever, and that would wake up his grandpa.

“Dobroye utro, kotyonok!” Victor greeted cheerfully.

Yuri glared at him. The morning was not good and he refused to identify as a kitten. “Did you touch my stuff?”

“Did the silly kitty lose something?”

Yuri slapped Victor’s hand away when he tried to caress his cheek. “Never mind, it’s nothing.” He dropped the subject. Victor looked like he was truly unaware of the state that Yuri’s room was in. Victor would’ve made some smug remark about how he didn’t want the Ice Kitten of Russia to get lost in such a messy room, or something equally annoying.

Victor pouted and crossed his arms, exaggerating the offense he took. “Ah, what happened? You were so much cuter, yesterday. It scared me so much that I came to drive you to the rink today in case you weren’t feeling well.” He hugged Yuri against his will. “The throes of puberty must be hitting you so! My little Yuratchka is growing up too fast!”

The more Yuri struggled, the tighter Victor’s arms were around his body. “What are you talking about, old man? Are you getting Alzheimer's already?”

Victor gasped and suddenly stopped hugging Yuri. “Yura, you don’t know about it?”

Yuri wanted to say that yesterday was just as normal as the day before yesterday, but he had no recollection of yesterday. All he could remember was the strange dream he had last night. “What are you keeping from me?” In a moment of weakness, he leaned towards Victor. He didn’t even know what the big question hovering around him like a boa constrictor was, but he felt like he would suffocate without an answer. Reluctantly, he let Victor tuck his bangs behind his ear so that Victor could gaze fondly at his full face.

“I’ll tell you in the car, okay?”

Getting into Victor’s car was a mistake. Yuri only realized that as soon as it was too late to get out; Victor had started the car and sped off as soon as possible. He hastily buckled in his seatbelt and prayed. His stomach dropped when he glanced at the speedometer. “Victor, the speed limit in residential areas is not 100 kilometers per hours.”

“I’ll teach you how to drive later, Yura,” Victor promised.

That was one promise that Yuri was fine with Victor forgetting about.

“You deserve to know the truth about what’s happening to you… Tell me, what do you think about your body?”

Unconsciously, Yuri rubbed his thighs nervously. He remembered that there was no pain in dreams, so he pinched himself experimentally. He was definitely awake. Not that that was the issue, because even in his dreams, he wouldn’t open up to Victor about a topic so personal. “You pervert. Is this a sex talk?”

“I understand if you’re not ready, but just know one thing: your body is yours and nobody else’s.”

Yuri stayed silent for the rest of the car ride. Stupid Victor. How can you be so sure of yourself?

The familiar sensation of cold air rushed into Yuri’s face as soon as he entered the ice rink. It stirred about him until the heavy door slammed behind him. How he longed to give away all of his weight to the smooth surface of ice below him. It was as easy as lacing up his skates and dashing into the rink. He wouldn’t dare set foot on the ice without stretching, first, and by the time he was done stretching, his ballet class would already be starting and he would be yelled at for trying to ditch again.

Yuri headed towards the dance studio immediately so he could get a head start on his stretching and have extra free time to practice jumps. He would be the first one there because of how unusually early he was. Usually, he was one of the last ones to arrive because he purposely took his time walking to procrastinate his most dreaded block of his schedule: off-ice training.

Attending ballet class with the other junior-level skaters was annoying. It was all repetitive exercises and technique work and across the floors. God, those three words haunted him in his nightmares, sometimes. And worse, he was the only boy in a class of girls because a prodigy like him shouldn’t be limited by his gender, or something. Yuri didn’t like focusing on the implications of his placement. He would’ve suffered in either class. Mila was often a substitute instructor for the female class and Georgi likewise for the male. Both were annoyingly obsessed over their significant other 24/7, but at least Mila didn’t fight with her boyfriend over the phone during class.

Yuri already had a clear image of how his off-ice training block would go. He would forcefully jiggle the doorknob until the mechanisms loosened enough to unlock (thanks to years of Yuri impatiently harassing it), turn on the heater, check his social media while he stretched, and work on jumps before the class officially started. He had already perfected the art of ignoring his classmates while he was stretching, to the point where they learned not to bother socializing with him.

But leave it to Victor to disrupt his plan. “Dobroye utro, Yakov! Will you let Yura train with the senior skaters, today?”

The casual request was supposed to be met with a glare and interrogation, but this time, Victor’s optimism was well-placed. Yakov considered the request while he stared down Yuri. Yuri instinctively took a step back when Yakov approached him. The coach’s eyes squinted like there was something off, something new that he hadn’t noticed before. He crossed his arms and stubbornly looked to the side. “This time, I will allow it, as a reward for your good behavior yesterday. This is no act of altruism, boy. Perhaps inspiration from some role models might reverse the horrid degradation of your ballet skills.”

Yuri stared blankly at his coach. “What the hell are you saying, old man?”

“Are you forgetting how to understand your own language, too? I’ll assign you a new tutor if you don’t brush up on a dictionary soon!”

He was dragged away to the senior skaters’ dance studio by Victor before he could defend himself. His day was getting stranger and stranger with each new block in his schedule, and it had something to do with his behavior from yesterday. He might know more if he simply pulled Victor aside and straight-up asked how he behaved yesterday. That was assuming Victor wouldn’t go off on a spiel about the significance of consent in romantic relationships (which was still important but not relevant in this circumstance). Adding the event of investigating the mystery would make his day longer, though, and the mystery was already draining Yuri as it was.

Yuri took great pride in his belief in consequentialism. If going against his routine and adding quads didn’t cost him a gold medal, then he shouldn’t be yelled at for it. Likewise, if he was reaping rewards from yesterday despite not remembering what quite happened, then he shouldn’t worry about it. The past couldn’t be changed. If it could be, he would’ve gladly changed it so that he won gold at every competition he had ever competed in, no matter how many tries it took.

He followed Victor to the senior skater’s dance studio without any further fusses and turned off his phone. He wouldn’t need any alarms to keep him on track with his long, immaculate schedule for the rest of the day. He had stepped into an alternative version of what his day could be in another universe, led by Victor and spurred on by some amalgamation of anomalies that had accidentally accumulated without his knowledge. Apparently, a clean room, introduction lecture to puberty, and damaged reputation was the secret cheat code that unlocked the world of senior skaters.

Yuri stepped up the stairs behind Victor. The staircase was pitch-black beyond its initial entrance. He had only been on the second floor of the ice rink a few times, which was experience he was grateful for, otherwise he would have been concerned by the darkness swallowing him. Abandon all hope, all ye who enter, the old stairs creaked to him. The second floor of the ice rink was exclusive, literally and figuratively above the skaters who weren’t in the senior division, yet. The senior skaters called the second floor of the ice rink their home and where they slept and ate and showered their house. The ice was for all who were willing to pay a certain fee (monetary, mind you; families and lovers still skated on the rink when it wasn’t reserved), but the second floor was for those who could afford to keep paying. (With money, still. Competitive figure skating is just really expensive.)

Yuri was always a mere visitor when he used to stomp up the stairs to demand something from one of the senior skaters. Indeed, the second floor was a nice place to visit, but not a great place to stay because of how pesky he thought the senior skaters were. However, that was not to say any senior skater could claim the second floor as their home. The senior skaters weren’t significant in their rank as seniors, but as award-winners. Yuri was basically in their clique, already, and belonged on the second floor, already, but the female ballet class for junior skaters was on the first floor and Yakov would ban him from the ice if he didn’t attend.

It was then that Yuri discovered that he had no clue how the senior skaters’ off-ice practice went or how long it lasted. Of course he wasn’t scared or nervous about training alongside the senior skaters. It was just dark as hell, especially since there was an ugly curtain hiding the light of the second floor’s hallway at the top of the stairs.

“Oops! I forgot!” Victor suddenly exclaimed.

Yuri froze and waited for another weird thing to occur. Maybe he had to give Victor a coin he was supposed to get before he entered the rink to compensate for Victor’s guidance, and if he didn’t, he would have to aimlessly wander around in the dark staircase for a hundred years.

Victor quickly dashed to the very top of the stairs and flipped the switch. And Victor said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. Dim, yellow fluorescent light from a lightbulb that was at the end of its lifespan, but light, nonetheless. “Wouldn’t want you to trip on your first day training with us.”

Yuri flinched at the immediate downpour of clarity. He had no clue the stairs had light. Nobody else had ever used the lights, before. It seemed that they all knew each step by heart. “I think I like your face better with the lights off.” He continued his tread up the stairs. There were a lot less steps than he thought there were. He remembered the journey to the second floor being much more arduous, but that could have been because he was much smaller, back then.

Victor smiled down at him. “Did you know that approximately a thousand people die of falling down the stairs every year?”

“Shut up.”

The switch flicked off. “The percentage seems small, but I can make sure that there’s a 100% chance that you’ll be another name on that list…”

Yuri clung to the railing. He didn’t doubt that Victor would try to grab him in the dark to enhance the joke. “Victor, you idiot! Turn on the lights!”

The switch flicked on again. “Just kidding!”

Yuri had the mind to turn around and never look back as he marched towards the female junior skaters’ dance studio, because that was the easy route. It would have been consistent with his values, yet also a defiant act of injustice to his own personality. Victor’s death threat was an intimidation tactic and Yuri wasn’t afraid of Victor. Continuing up the stairs with the lights on surely had to be the right route for Yuri, otherwise he would reject a world he fit better in. He couldn’t return to his dull, albeit safe, reality because that would hurt his pride in the present and future.

Another part of Yuri’s brain said that he was overthinking his dilemma about the stairs. Victor always annoyed Yuri, and this was nothing new. Really, he was analyzing everything out of proportion. So he went up the stairs, followed Victor to the dance studio, and tossed his duffel bag to the side.

The senior skaters’ dance studio was designed similarly to the studios downstairs. The walls all had mirrors, obviously, and the floor was the same shiny hardwood. Mila and Georgi were already there. They took pride in the professionality and always preferred to be early. Their attention was drawn away from their phones as soon as Yuri entered the room.

Mila’s face lit up like a Christmas light. “Yuri! Can I braid your hair again?”

Again?

“I can do your makeup,” Georgi offered.

Yuri flipped them off and headed towards the farthest corner away from them. No more bullshit. He sat down and started with the butterfly stretch so he could open up his hips.

Georgi chuckled at the typical Yuri Plisetsky reaction. “Looks like he’s back to normal.”

Mila huffed and put her hands on her hips. “That’s so unfair! He was such a good boy yesterday! No mouthing off, no rude gestures, no disobedience…”

Yuri was starting to hate that word a lot. Yesterday. He took a deep inhale and leaned forward until he rested his cheek on the floor.

“No talent,” Georgi added.

Yuri also hated that the stupid senior skaters talked about him like he was deaf. If they were so early, they should be doing something more productive than talking shit behind his back within his obvious range of hearing. It didn’t even feel like they were talking about him, though. Yesterday’s Yuri sounded like they were talking about someone else entirely. He got up from his stretch and then laid his legs out straight in front of him, then bent over until his forehead was on his knees. With every exhale, he sank deeper into the stretch.

Victor came to his defense. “That’s not true! He just had a different style yesterday. He was even landing all of his quads consistently, even though he’s still not supposed to be doing them.”

“Come to think of it, that style reminded me of someone else,” Mila pondered. “It was very strong and bold...”

“Masculine,” Georgi agreed. He didn’t forget that Yuri was in the room. “Oy, Yuri, are you trying skate like someone else, now?”

Yuri was standing up and taking a deep lunge with his left leg in front of him. “Shut up! Let me stretch in peace!” He lost his patience and settled into a left splits as soon as his muscles felt adequately warmed up enough. He was satisfied when he was flat on the floor. Because he had to make his stretches “symmetrical”, he repeated the same process with his right side.

Victor was busy uploading a picture of Yuri stretching to Snapchat with the caption, Yakov finally let the Ice Kitten train with the big kids today! He thanked God (well, Yakov) for the ice rink’s incredibly fast and free Wi-Fi. “Yuri’s new role model is a lucky guy. I wish up-and-coming skaters would imitate me for inspiration…” In seconds, Victor’s lament quickly transitioned into excitement. “Hey, Yuri, let me be your teacher today! Call me ‘Vitya’ and get as much help from me as you need!”

Everyone was so focused on Yuri being “back to normal” that Victor’s recent strange behavior had gone under the radar. Victor had a strong contribution in the unusual day. Sex talk, death threat, and now a sudden interest in teaching. And all the strangeness seemed to be revolving around Yuri, for some reason. “What the hell? Are you horny, Victor?”

Georgi coughed out water that he had been drinking. Mila burst out into a loud, uncontrollable cackle.

The accusation confused Victor. “Why? Are you?”

“You keep trying to assert your dominance over me, idiot,” Yuri explained. First as a father figure, then as a psychopath, and now as a mentor.

Mila sought the bar lining the walls for better balance. “He’s fourteen, Victor! Control yourself!”

Georgi looked at Yuri skeptically. “Is that your go-to assumption, Yuri? You said the same thing when I was sad over a fight I had with Anya and when Mila hugged you after she broke up with her boyfriend.” Though, he did acknowledge that Yuri was onto something. “Wait, does that mean you feel lonely, Victor?”

Victor laughed even though he looked sad. “I would hope not. Doesn’t that seem too expected from someone like me?”

Yuri recognized that smile of his. It was the same one he had while he was standing on the podium when he won his latest gold medal. He had no idea what made Victor smile like that.

The conversation ended there when Yakov walked into the studio. “Why is the junior skater the only one stretching?”

Suddenly, the senior skaters were all off their phones and stretching.

The senior skaters’ off-ice training was infinitely more lax than the juniors’. It was mostly independent work with occasional critique from Yakov when he checked up on them since the coach was busy teaching a novice class. Each skater had claimed their own space to practice in, focused only on their own development.

Yuri was practicing jumps as soon as he was done stretching. He spun and twirled and jumped until he worked up a great deal of sweat. He leaned on a wall railing and eagerly chugged water between gasps of air. All the while, his eyes couldn’t leave his reflection. He kept staring long after his heart rate slowed down. He looked his lithe form up and down, then raised his leg behind his back so he could grab the back of his foot. He lifted his standing leg en pointe and reached his free hand towards the mirror. His fingers stretched longingly until he touched his reflection.

“This body is very light…” he said to himself. His body was ideal for a danseuse. If he wasn’t a figure skater, he surely would have been a prima ballerina. There was little else he could be, unless he decided that being hungry and homeless was appealing. It was his career that kept his family comfortable, his body…

He saw Victor come up behind him and push the knee of his raised leg forward, until it was fully straight. There weren’t many opportunities to sneak up behind someone in a room with mirrors lining the walls from top to bottom, unless the victim was extremely unaware.

“You said the same thing, yesterday. Tell me, what else would your body be other than light?”

Yuri flattened his foot, which deepened the position he was in so that his straight legs were exceeding 180 degrees. He couldn’t maintain the position for long en pointe, but he could stretch much farther with a flat foot. “I don’t know, maybe heavy?” Yuri proposed sarcastically. He continued that idea, though. “Heavy with muscles, I guess, like a bodybuilder. I wouldn’t want to take away my flexibility, though.”

Victor pushed Yuri’s leg farther. “You certainly have been fascinated with your own flexibility, as of late.” He rubbed Yuri’s calf. “I don’t blame you.”

In a moment of vulnerability, Yuri found the action comforting rather than creepy. He leaned forward more and wrapped his free hand around the railing so he could pull himself a little more deeper into the stretch. The position was still too comfortable for him. “Maybe that’s what I’ll be in my next life--some tough guy with muscles that does figure skating.”

Victor was getting scared of Yuri’s bones snapping in half, so he kept holding up Yuri’s leg and put a hand under Yuri’s chest, just in case. To his amazement, Yuri still managed to stretch farther. “You still want to figure skate in another life?”

“What else could I do?” Yuri responded, like there was no other life out there.

“Bodybuilding?” Yuri rolled his eyes at him through the mirror. Victor took it that Yuri had no real interest in such an activity other than for aesthetic purposes. “Okay, you can figure skate in all nine of your lives, kotyonok. I’m just surprised you believe in reincarnation.”

“Push more, Victor.” Yuri’s muscles were starting to burn, but it wasn’t enough. Victor only moved a centimeter, if at all. “I said more!” His legs may have been shaking a little, but it still wasn’t enough. He used his free hand to grab the back of his raised foot and gave some of his weight to Victor’s hand, which was holding his chest up.

The demand caught a brief glance from Mila.

Victor’s arms were starting to get tired. “Why don’t you call me ‘Vitya’ again?”

The only reason why Yuri complied with that stupid request was because it made sense to follow the unorthodox rhythm he was already plagued with and he couldn’t stretch farther without a partner to help him. It surely wasn’t because of some hidden quality as frivolous as affection deep within his heart, which fluttered involuntarily and not for anyone else. “Vitya, more--”

Victor had jerked away so suddenly that Yuri panicked and lost his balance because of his aching muscles. Yuri released his leg, which ended up kicking Victor’s face when he fell backwards. Victor quickly tried to compensate for his mistake by catching Yuri, but all he could do was break Yuri’s fall while he suffered the full brute force of landing on the hardwood floor plus Yuri’s weight.

Mila was able to Snapchat the entire moment, from “Vitya, more” to Yuri landing in Victor’s lap. She saved it to her phone before captioning it “that moment when partner stretching gets TOO intimate” and putting it on her story.

Yuri elbowed Victor in the gut and glared at him through the mirror. “Idiot! Why did you--HAH? Y-You’re bleeding!” Yuri scrambled off of Victor and wiped away the blood on his shoes. They were fairly new, too.

Victor’s hands were covering his nosebleed. Unbeknownst to the younger skater, being kicked in the face wasn’t the trigger, though it did exacerbate the situation. He had a stupid, blissful look on his face, regardless. “You’re still as cute as ever, kotyonok!”

“Useless old man!” Yuri cursed. He ran to the bathroom to get paper towels for Victor. “Just retire already!”

It was then that Yuri realized that he was destined to hate off-ice training no matter which group who was with. The females, the males, the seniors, the juniors--they all pissed him off.

I definitely want to skate as a tall, masculine guy in solitude when I get to my next life!

#kimi no na wa au #yuri!!! on ice #yoi #otayuri #otabek altin #yuri plisetsky #fanfic #this body is yours #chapter 1 #fun fact: i have about 4 chapters written out already #another fun fact: i need a beta

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droneseco · 5 years

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Insta360 Evo: Now Anyone Can Make Movies for VR

Our verdict of the Insta360 EVO : Great quality footage for immersive viewing makes this convertible 360/180 stereoscopic device the best way to start making VR movies right now. It's only let down by a non-removable battery and weak plastic clips to lock the position. 910

If you have a VR headset, you’ll know how immersive 180-degree 3D videos can be. But the hardware to produce such videos has been either too pricey or only capable of grainy, low-resolution video. Insta360 EVO changes that. Now you can make beautiful 5.7K resolution 3D, VR180 videos … for less than $500. I’m confident in saying it’s the best consumer-grade camera around for VR moviemaking.

If that wasn’t enough, the convertible design means it can transform back to a 360-degree camera. This gives it the same “shoot now, point later” magical freedom of the Insta360 OneX.

Check out our video review below–preferably on a VR headset if you have one–to find out exactly what we thought of the Insta360 EVO. Nearly all of the review was shot directly on the EVO, so there’s no better way of sampling the footage. And as always, at the end of this review, we’re giving one of these amazing devices away to one lucky reader. Enter using the competition widget at the bottom of the review.

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Insta360 EVO: Specifications and What’s In The Box?

Insta360 EVO Insta360 EVO Buy Now On Amazon $419.99

Insta360 EVO Hybrid 360/180 stereoscopic camera

Mini Tripod

Clip-on phone lenses for previewing videos on your phone

Felt carry case

Max video resolution (combined): 5760×2880 @30FPS

Max photo resolution: 6080×3040

Fixed f2.2 lenses

1200mAh non-removable battery, about 45 minutes continuous shooting

Bluetooth 4.0, micro-USB port

MicroSD storage slot (no card included in the basic set)

I’m not usually one to comment on packaging, but the unboxing experience of the EVO was exquisite. The camera is secured in the box mounted to a large metal stand with a tripod screw from underneath. I’m not sure if this is supposed to serve a later function given the inclusion of a mini tripod, but it’s quite dramatic if you want to keep your device out on display.

Also in our review set was the Holoframe, an accessory for your phone that enables you to view 3D content without the need for a VR headset or special glasses. More on that later.

Convertible Design

You can either use the EVO as a 360-degree camera, with each sensor recording a hemisphere of video; or it can be flipped open to become a stereoscopic 180-degree camera, with sensors recording the left and right eye viewpoint respectively.

When folded, the EVO is a neat little two-inch cube, weighing no more than four ounces. It’s minuscule and extremely easy to carry around.

Swapping between the two modes and locking them back involves some flimsy plastic clips. These seem like they’ll be the first things to break. The buttons to unlock those plastic clips are small and fiddly too. I found myself not actually knowing if it was locked, or halfway in. Just keep it unfolded if you’re unlikely to use the 360-mode.

Controls and indicators on the EVO device itself are sparse: there are two buttons and two LEDs on top, and two LEDs on the front. One button is a dual purpose power and shutter button; the other switches mode between photo and video. The current mode is indicated by one of two LEDs. All of the LEDs flash alternately when recording. There is no menu system or LED panel: any setting beyond photo/video and record/power are done through the app.

The battery is a little larger and therefore lasts longer than the OneX, but on the flip-side it’s non-removable. Still, when shooting for VR, it’s easy to plug the camera into an external power source, since the rear view is invisible (unlike 360-degree videos, where you can’t hide anything).

360-Degree Features Too? Why Would Anyone Buy the OneX Then?

Despite being a convertible design, don’t think this model is a replacement for the OneX device. They do share many of the same features: the core ability to shoot now and point later, automatic removal of the magic selfie stick, TimeShift and FlowState Stabilization, as well as some of the more obscure modes like Tiny Planet. You’ll find all that when shooting in 360-mode on the EVO. I’ve glossed all of this, despite being incredible, because they can all be seen in our Insta360 OneX review.

But two features are noticeably absent. You can’t LiveStream to social platforms, nor can you record Bullet Time sequences. If those were things that really stood out to your from the One X, stick with that. In addition, the lenses are physically further from each other, so the stitching along the horizon may contain more errors. This is a relatively minor gripe, but my point is that if 360-degree shots are your primary intent, buy the OneX instead.

FlowState Stabilization for VR Too

One feature that really differentiates the EVO from competitors is the FlowState Stabilization technology, which gives you ultra-smooth footage by using the onboard gyroscope. This works in both the standard 360-degree mode, as well as 180-degree stereoscopic.

That said: it’s important to remember that most new VR users (and even some experienced ones) will find artificial motion in VR makes them nauseous. It’s a bit like motion sickness, only in reverse. Your eyes perceive movement, but your body isn’t feeling it. For a while, the advice when filming for an intended VR audience was to remain static and simply observe the scene, but this has relaxed a little as most users develop their “VR legs” quickly. Still: know your audience before deciding whether to use camera movement.

If you do intend to move the camera, do it slowly. The FlowState Stabilization certainly helps to smooth things out compared to not having it all.

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Preview the Shot in VR

When previewing something intended for VR on a flat screen, it’s practically impossible to get an idea of scale or presence.

But if you have a Vive Focus, Oculus Go or Oculus Quest, you can preview the footage live through the Insta360 VR app. This is yet another standout feature that sets apart the Insta360 EVO. You can view both the videos already taken and stored on the microSD card, as well as a live viewfinder. You can stream directly from the camera, while you’re shooting. This takes away the guesswork of framing correctly or ensuring objects aren’t too close. There is, of course, a small delay when streaming over Wi-Fi, and you can’t watch at the full resolution.

While it is an incredible feature to have, I didn’t find myself using it to preview shots that much. It was useful for checking out what I’d already recorded, though, and the whole process is about as seamless as it could be. Put on your headset, connect to the camera’s Wi-Fi, open the app. Done.

The Editing Workflow

If there’s one serious drawback to the EVO, it’s the amount of effort required to edit the video. This isn’t a unique problem to the EVO, but it is compounded by such high resolutions!

While the mobile app is perfectly functional for short clips, it’s limited to producing 4K content. For the full quality 5.7K resolution, you’ll need to process the files from the Insta360 Studio desktop app. It took about half a day just to output all the footage I took for the review video, with my MacBook Pro fans running full speed. You’ll also need an enormous hard drive: it works out at about 1 GB per minute.

That’s just to output the raw footage: you’ll need a professional editing suite like Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro X to take advantage of 360-degree editing. (Pro-tip: For Final Cut, make sure you select horizontal 360-degree stereoscopic top/bottom as your output format. It’s the last option on the list, and not the default).

After you’re done editing, it will, of course, take longer than usual to render your final video, given such a high resolution.

But you’re not finished yet: for uploading to YouTube and displaying it as a VR180 video, you’ll need to use Google’s free VR180 Creator tool to inject the required metadata. Otherwise, YouTube doesn’t know it’s designed for VR, and will just try to compress it to a regular viewing window.

In short, it took an inordinate amount of time to process, edit, render, inject metadata, then upload the 15 GB review video you see embedded!

You’ll need a powerful machine, a big hard disk, an unlimited internet connection, and a mountain of patience. I should note that there is apparently a more direct integration with Adobe Premiere, but I don’t have that to test with.

The Holoframe and Clip-on Glasses

The Holoframe looks like a regular gel phone case, and is designed to be used as one when you’re not previewing videos. When you do want to use it, just snap it off the back and clip it onto the front of your phone instead. It works in a similar way to other glasses-less lenticular screens, but uses the phone’s front camera to see where your eyes are and adjust the 3D effect accordingly. Previous attempts at glasses-less 3D viewing through lenticular screens required you to sit in a particular place; the Holoframe uses the phone’s processing to adjust the image, rather than you needing to adjust your seat. If you want this, you’ll need to buy the model that matches your phone. Only a handful of the latest handsets are supported.

It works, but the 3D effect was overall unsatisfying, I felt.

In fact, I preferred the stereo separation and depth offered with the included clip-on 3D viewing glasses, which work with any phone.

Moreover, use of the Holoframe requires a scene to be processed before you can watch it. The processing time depends on the length of the clip, but even a relatively short clip will take a minute or so. And if you move your eyes, the app will need to “capture” where they are before you can resume watching. It just felt like far more effort than it was worth. The clip-on glasses could be used without any additional processing time: it’s just a generic side-by-side 3D output.

Should You Buy an Insta360 EVO?

The main attraction of the EVO is the ability to shoot for VR. If you’re not sure you even want to do that, and are primarily interested in the 360-degree features, go for the OneX model instead. You’ll get better quality stitching, a removable battery, and a few other features like the ability to shoot bullet-time that aren’t found on this device. Consider the EVO mainly for VR video production, with 360 features as a little bonus.

Insta360 EVO Insta360 EVO Buy Now On Amazon $419.99

The hardware isn’t perfect. The non-removable battery and flimsy plastic clips are annoying, but not enough to detract from the overall fantastic package on offer here. Finally, it’s feasible for everyone to produce good quality VR video content.

Just don’t bother with the Holoframe. The included clip-on glasses are fine for previews on your phone. For the ultimate live VR preview, put on your Oculus Go or Quest!

Enter the Competition!

Insta360 EVO VR180/360 Convertible Camera Giveaway

Read the full article: Insta360 Evo: Now Anyone Can Make Movies for VR

Insta360 Evo: Now Anyone Can Make Movies for VR published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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archipelawoahinthephilippin-blog · 6 years

Text

a dazed intermission

07.17.2018 2:35PM

A phone call is all it takes.

The first call came around 6:45am; seeing it was my dad, I let it ring since I would be awake to call him back in another half an hour. Twenty minutes later, he called again and I groggily answered.

“Hello?”

“Are you there?”

“Yeah. What’s up? It’s early here.”

“Your Papa Joe passed away earlier today.”

Silence.

Then came immediate plans. I needed to get on one of the earliest flights back. The funeral proceedings would begin by Friday and it was Wednesday morning my time. How quickly could I get home?

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out, just get some rest. I’ll call you later, I need to let work know that I won’t be coming in this morning. I love you. I’ll see you soon.”

Only about five minutes had passed, but everything had flipped upside down. There was no time for grief, no time for processing: I needed to get home. Now.

I woke up Monica in a bit of a panic and asked her for the Pocket Wifi so that I could contact people and she obliged immediately. (She also asked me if I was okay and really was a helpful presence throughout the entire process--thanks for that, Monica :) )

So contact people, I did…or tried to do. The wifi, as per usual, was not working. I had no internet connection and had a million things to do in a very short amount of time. After letting the head secretary, known as “mom-ager” aka the adopted mother of the office, know what had happened and that I wouldn’t be into work this morning, I immediately had to reassess that plan. I needed to go to the office so that I could contact people, find a flight, and get home.

Within an hour of hearing about my grandfather, I was in the office typing like mad on my laptop. Word spreads fast in the office and people hugged me, gave me their condolences, and I just smiled and said thank you. My back was sweating and my hands were shaking. Morning prayer at 9am announced what I was going through to the rest of the office and I never realized how much I needed privacy until that moment. I tried to breathe in and out. Nodded, smile, said thank you. I just wanted to go home.

While the differing time zones would work in my favor during the flight (I would be flying back in time), they were a major obstacle in contacting people back in the U.S. People would be going to bed soon and business hours had ended. About two hours later, I was able to reach Dr. Amoloza via her nephew and she let me know that IWU would help me out, but the travel agency was going to be closed until 8am Eastern time—meaning I would need to wait until 9pm Manila time. I had around ten hours to wait and see. My hands got clammier. I wanted to be anywhere but on the opposite side of the Earth right now.

Now, I am not proud of how rashly I initially handled things. My thought was that I would be able to simply move my original return flight to an earlier time and that would be that. I had completed the 160 academic hours required by Wesleyan for an internship, after all. After saying goodbye to my friends in the office and thanking my supervisors for a great opportunity, I was eventually informed that an early departure was unlikely to fly with the Freeman Foundation because they require 8 full weeks. So, I had two options: go home, quit or do a virtual internship, and return my stipend OR fly back to the Philippines after the funeral and complete my internship to the satisfaction of the contract.

I can’t tell you how difficult this decision was for me to make. I settled on one choice, then reassessed, changed my mind, doubted myself. Rinse and Repeat. I had until around 6pm to let Dr. Amoloza know what my decision was so that she could let the travel agent know what needed to be done. But--what did I need to do?

I felt two deep responsibilities that conflicted with one another. Professional/personal commitment and familial duty. Yes, living in the Philippines has certainly been a challenge and I had been homesick for quite a while, but I had committed to this internship and, most importantly, to Human Nature two months of my life and my most diligent work. As I described in my one of my previous posts, quitting is the absolute antithesis to the reason I embarked on this journey in the first place. Giving up was an option, yes, but the pit of my stomach already served as a precursor to the regret (and self-criticism) that would be in store for me if I went that route. Beyond my responsibility to Human Nature, I felt an aching duty to my family. I wanted to be there for my father; and, if he needed to return to his FEMA duties in Puerto Rico, I at least wanted to be there in his stead to help his two siblings whatever they needed. One of the most important values of Filipino culture is family and in those few hours, my identity of daughter and granddaughter far outweighed whatever Katherine I am the majority of my daily life.

I didn’t know what to do. Monetary expense-wise, (at the time at least) each option seemed to be on almost equal grounds. There was no easy choice, no pros and cons list that would sort it out logistically rather than emotionally.

Lost, I called Emily, a MAD Travel intern and who has rapidly become my own personal guru. At the time, I had decided to simply fly home and remain to tend to whatever was needed of me. I didn’t feel right about it though, something was still tugging at me. We had a good long chat (I know, I was shocked that the wifi held out long enough!) and she helped gently guide me towards a solution: I could go home for a few days to be with family and eventually return to the Philippines to finish out my time there. She intuited that I was likely going to regret not finishing what I had committed to and if I went home, beyond maybe a week or so of helping sort through things, I would just be sitting around and ruminating on what I would have been doing had I finished my internship. My own personal much more athletic Buddha. I felt much more solid in which path I was going to take, but for another fifteen minutes to a half hour, I still wasn’t fully confident.

It just didn’t feel like my decision to make. Yes, I’m indecisive and I gladly shirk away from even the most basic of decision making--coins have likely been dulled by my flipping them. This was different, though. The ultimate factor in this was what my dad needed of me. I’m an only child and my parents are divorced and, lemme tell you, the daughterly-duty instinct was a force to reckon with. In the end, I simply asked him what he needed me to do and told him to let me know when he woke up (it was around 3 or 4am there).

After the most difficult, confusing seven hours of my life, I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, but the waiting game was not yet over. My suitcase entirely packed and my various postcards taken down from the walls, I took a nap.

A blurred hour or so later, I awoke to the text that had my answer:

and so it was. At 9pm that night, it was confirmed that I would be heading to the airport at 4am and be flying out of Manila by 8am on July 12th.

30+ hours of traveling later, I was able to attend my grandfather’s visitation, read at his funeral, and spend a few days falling apart and becoming whole again with my family. I want to say how very fortunate I was to be able to be physically present when my family laid my grandfather to rest. I was able to properly celebrate his life with my family, which I could have easily been turned away from doing had Human Nature and IWU not been so extremely hospitable and understanding. So thank you, to Ates Wowie and Trina, Mother Tessa, Kuya Mellord, Tita Irma, Tito Gil, and, of course, Dr. Amoloza.

Thank you to my family and friends for showing me such an outpouring of love during this difficult time. My support system reaches far and deep and my heart is filled with so much gratitude and love because of it.

The internal processing of everything continues and I’ll talk more about the experiences of jetlagged reverse culture shock in a later post, but for now,

Most of all, I am thankful to my Papa Joe for living his life out as such a hard worker, a man who generously gave back to his community, and a gruffly loving father, brother, and grandfather. I took my first steps with his help and I hope that I continue to walk along a life path that would bring him pride.

In healing,

Katherine

P.S. My return to the Philippines will begin very early tomorrow morning after five days of being stateside. One of my next posts will revolve around the reverse culture shock I experienced on my return to the US after two months in Southeast Asia. Also included in the next edition: Severe Jetlag: Will Katherine’s Brain Melt? Stay tuned!

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geekade · 7 years

Text

The Wild World of USB-C

Disclaimer: As of the publication of this article, the information within is likely either partially or completely dated. Such is the nature of consumer electronics.

Introduction

As a computer/technology enthusiast with a massively swinging love/hate relationship with electronics, I often find myself looking forward to what’s just around the corner. Certainly, as technology has (quite arguably) improved our lives, it must continue to do so with new developments and innovations, right? Well, sort of. I’m looking forward right now to USB-C, and by USB-C, I pretty much mean Thunderbolt 3, but don’t let me confuse you (which is probably what I’m about to do), because those terms are not interchangeable.

Recently, I was setting up one of my many (unnecessarily numerous) computers in my office, struggling with reaching under desks and behind PC towers and dropping lines behind immovable furniture and I was just sort of wistfully daydreaming of all of the existing technologies I wish had come to proper fruition. After that massive unnecessary hassle was wrapped up and I consoled myself with a toasted cheese sandwich, I thought along the lines of “How would I like this to be? What new thing is on its way that’s going to make this all better?” and most of it can be boiled down to USB-C and Thunderbolt 3. The good news is, it’s here! The bad news is, it’s nuts.

As it is now, we can all mostly wrap our minds around the status quo. Our computers and power bricks have USB ports and we can plug pretty much everything into those. We have to deal with different ports for different devices (phones, televisions, headphones, etc.), but again, there is usually at least some level of standardization. (I’m looking at you, Apple). We have these ports surrounding us all the time in our everyday lives and they’re fine. They’re fine!

But “What if… What if,” says the industry at large, “what if we could make ONE port that would do EVERYTHING?”

Okay. I’m listening.

“Yes,” says the industry, “USB-C will be the port to end all ports! We will have a transition period which we will handle through adapters...”

“...and then we’ll be home free in a future where anything plugs into anything and it will work!”

Not so fast. It’s understandable. Not everything can be USB-C-ready immediately. Ideally, we’d see new devices coming out like PCs and laptops with old ports and USB-C together to tide us over until most things we plug in also switch to USB-C. At least the rest of the manufacturers are taking a bit more of a paced approach with the recommended blending of old ports and new USB-C ports. Windows users can look forward to their next computer likely having USB, HDMI, and USB-C ports and they’ll be fine as long as the computer itself works. USB-C ports are showing up. New Samsung phones have them. New Google phones have them. New PCs have them. New Apple laptops have them. And they can do so much!

What Can USB-C Do For You?

USB-C isn’t just for charging your phone. You’ll be able to charge your whole laptop over USB-C too! Apple’s already doing that, so is Samsung. You can also move data over USB-C, of course, and faster than ever. But that’s not all! Eventually, you’ll be able to plug in monitors and TVs, even in 4K, with USB-C, and you can right now with the appropriate dongles (insert eyeroll emoji). What’s more, you can expect to get higher quality audio than ever before in your speakers and your headphones with USB-C, also, for now, with dongles. More dongles. And through the magic of dongles, USB-C will be compatible with anything USB-A as well. PLUS, I almost forgot to mention, it’s reversible! Upside down, right side up, doesn’t matter. The damn cable will just plug in, instead of having to flip it three times because it didn’t work that way, but it doesn’t work this way either, but it suddenly works the first way even though it didn’t the first time.

When you find yourself a USB-C port, you can rest almost 100% assured it will handle data at USB 3.0 speeds of 5 Gb/s (Gigabits per second) at least and that’s plenty fast for all common uses today like external hard drives. That USB-C port will also put out enough to charge your phone in a few hours, maybe faster. If you plug in your upcoming USB-C headphones (or your USB-C to headphone dongle), odds are, you’ll get sound. This is fine. We can deal with this. So that about wraps it up. Let’s get going toward this utopian future of a single cable and connector for everything! Not so fast there, bucko. Not all USB-C ports are created equal.

The Darkest Timeline

Sometimes, that port will look physically the same, but it will carry data at a ridiculously slower speed of USB 2.0. I have never seen this in the wild, but the same people who tell you there are monsters under your bed promise that this backward technology exists and I hate those people for the message they carry.

Sometimes, that port will look physically the same, but it will carry data at twice the speed (USB 3.1 - 10 Gb/s). It will most likely handle all of the other things the same. And in the not too distant future, that physically identical port could be carrying data four times faster than USB 3.0, when they get around to implementing USB 3.2 which works at 20 Gb/s AND does phone charging AND does audio. So what’s the big deal?

Some of those USB-C ports, like some of the ones found on some laptops, like Apple’s, will let you charge the laptop through that port IF the other end of the cable is plugged into a suitable source, like something heftier than your regular phone charging brick. But some will not. And if you’re very, very lucky, the port will be labeled in a way that will indicate whether this is possible or not. But it probably won’t be.

Some of those USB-C ports, again, like some of the ones found on some laptops like Apple’s, will support display outputs (sigh, yes, with dongles). But some won’t. And again, the manufacturers are incredibly bad at labeling things and it is more likely than not that they won’t. Like, the one on my very own computer tower here. No label. Doesn’t support laptop charging OR displays, only data.

So if you don’t care about having the fastest speeds, or plugging in external displays, or charging your laptop (which is the trickiest to not care about), you’re golden. Just find any old USB-C port and plug in. But my point, the whole point of this tedious article, is that we have been promised the world, and we’ve been let down by too many possibilities deemed optional by manufacturers and most egregiously, a decided lack of proper labeling and documentation. How are we to know that our do-anything ports can do anything or not? As if from the heavens themselves, our cries are answered. Look for a tiny lightning bolt.

The Blade of Computer Ports

Remember that Thunderbolt 3 thing I mentioned at the top? Thunderbolt 3 is another layer of technology that exists on top of USB-C and adds even more functionality. It gives you up to four times the speed of USB-C, depending on which version of USB it’s based on, at 40 Gb/s. It also allows direct PCI Express bus transfers for absurdly fast solid state storage and crazy things like high end external graphics cards. It’s compatible with any rare thing out there that is Thunderbolt 2 or 1 based as well. But maybe most importantly of all? It will support all of the features USB-C could possibly do, from fast data transfer to audio to displays to charging whatever. It does it all and then some. Nice.

Obviously this added bonus of doing everything requires more internal technology and therefore commands a higher price therefore being less common than just finding some kind of USB-C port. But if you DO get yourself a Thunderbolt 3 port, you can rest assured you’re not missing out on anything. (Aside from that whole let’s sweep this under the rug thing where the ports on the right side of the 2017 Apple MacBook Pros only work at half speed for uncertain reasons but hey who can afford those things anyway?)

As a severe sufferer of FOMO, Thunderbolt 3 is the port for me. All of the features, none of the drawbacks. It’s basically the Blade of computer ports. But until that great and glorious day when, after winning a lottery and paying off my bills, I can buy all the new computer kit I can dream of, I will continue to plug away (no pun intended) at my aging workstation with its tangled rat’s nest of myriad cables dreaming of better futures of daisy chained displays and single cable/port solutions running everything at ludicrous speeds. My only hope is that in this rambling rant produced of a sleep-deprived mind, a warning about the caveats of new technologies in transitional periods might have gotten across and given you a reasonably entertaining heads-up at what might turn up missing in your next PC.

Will you be desperately badly off if your ports are only USB 3.1 and not USB 3.2? No, probably not. Does it matter if the USB-C on my desktop computer can’t charge my new laptop directly? No, probably not. But the whole point is that we’ve been shown a giant feature set, and manufacturers are cherry-picking whatever capabilities they feel like selecting and then just tossing them in and touting the virtues of just “having USB-C.” If there is a particular feature you are looking forward to, you’ll have to dig around in specifications or reviews to find out if that is, in fact, included.

#tech #articles

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