James

[color=#707875]You will have to use the Profile Picture option in your own personal profile on OtakuBoards. This is the only way that personal pictures can be displayed here.[/color]

[color=#707875]For god's sake people, let's use some spoiler tags. People who haven't seen The Ring/Ring are getting the most pivotal part of the movie spoiled for them. Geeze. [i]Anyway...[/i] I don't really watch a lot of horror movies, mostly because I just never find them terribly interesting or worthwhile. Sometimes I don't mind watching dumb horror flicks for fun (ie: Halloween or Scream, for example). Those movies are not really scary in a truly frightening way...they are just gory and filled with teen angst or something, usually. I wouldn't put them on the same level as Ring or something like that. I've seen Ring/The Ring so many times now that it doesn't scare me at all, but when I [i]first [/i]saw it I definitely found it frightening. I think this was simply because I had no idea what to expect. I walked in expecting something like Scream, but what I got was very different (and very original). The Japanese series is far more subtle than the American remake, though I preferred the ending to the Japanese original [spoiler]Sadako's emergence at the end was far more scary than Samara's, which was too quick and sloppy[/spoiler]. Although Japanese horror films don't have nearly as much money put into them as American ones, I find that they often seem to be more frightening, on a very basic level. For example, has anyone here seen The Grudge? It's [i]relatively [/i]new on the scene, and it was apparently written by the scriptwriter who did Ring. Although Hideo Nakata did not direct it, nor was it derived from the original author's story. In some ways, The Grudge mimmicked techniques from Ring. And I didn't find it to be nearly as scary. However, it certainly had some genuinely frightening/surprising moments. [spoiler]The idea that you can hide in your bed -- a place that should be safe -- only to have a freaky looking dead person come up under the covers and kill you, is an example of how the movie plays on some basic fears.[/spoiler] Generally speaking, I think that these movies demonstrate what you can do with clever design and a low budget. My favourite moment from Ring 2 is when [spoiler]they are at the Yammamura Inn and the tape is "manifest" into real-life, where we see Shizuko and Sadako standing there in the room...and the scene keeps repeating itself, as if it's on a loop. And then, when Shizuko actually breaks free from the loop and turns around to look at the people in the doorway -- it's one of the coolest and most subtle scenes I've come across in a horror film. I thought it was really clever and worked very well.[/spoiler] If you haven't seen Ring 2, you should see it just for that part, I think. Hehe. ~_^ I'm also a fan of the Hannibal movies...although I don't particularly find them to be scary, they are "horrific", I guess. For the most part I just like the dialogue (Hannibals interviews with the various other characters are awesome) and the movie has some genuinely beautiful moments (particularly "Hannibal", the second movie). It's an odd mix of beauty and depravity or something...I think that's part of the attraction. Also, coconuts mentioned The Eye. That's one I'm interested in seeing. I think it's a Hong Kong film, isn't it? The site looks pretty interesting and I like the concept. So I'm interested to see how that came out. In general, when it comes to horror, I don't find outright gore/carnage to be scary or anything. It just does nothing for me. For me, I prefer more of a psychological horror -- something that really sits in the back of my mind and won't go away. Even a movie like The Mothman Prophecies somewhat had this effect; it wasn't really a horror movie, but it certainly had a psychological element to it, which I enjoyed. This is also why I like games such as Silent Hill. It's not the gore or the violence that is scary (because there really isn't a [i]huge [/i]amount of violence compared to similar games), it's the unnerving aspect to it...the confusion and paranoia, etc... Anyway, I haven't listed four...I made mine more of a discussion than a point-list or whatever. ^_^;[/color]

[color=#707875]I think that such a thread is a good idea -- a place where everyone can ask (and answer) questions about specific graphics programs. However, the success of such a thread really relies upon those who are prepared to give little tutorials or something. It's a time consuming thing and I'm not sure if you're going to have much luck with it, but by all means, give it a go.[/color]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Wow, amazing stuff so far everyone. You've all done an exceptional job. ^_^[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969][/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969]I'm very pleased with how this thread is going. And again, I urge all OB writers to have a go -- whether you think your work is good or not. The aim here is to have fun![/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969][/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969]This next piece is a favourite of mine. It is written by Poppy Z. Brite and I think you'll find it to be quite an interesting twist on various stories that we've seen already. Very interesting reading.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2][/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black][b]System Freeze, by Poppy Z. Brite[/b][/color][/size][/font] [size=2][/size] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Plodding toward the summit of Everest, high above Camp Three where every step felt like a life's work and every breath made her pray she'd be able to take the next one, Fria Canning saw her first dead body. It was a Japanese man in a red climbing suit, huddled in a fetal position beneath an outcropping of rock. He must have been here since last season, maybe longer; at these altitudes it was almost impossible to retrieve the bodies of dead climbers, and the mountain became their sepulcher. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]One of the man's mittens was gone, exposing a withered, clawlike hand. His face was as dark and scoured as the rock, a grimacing mask that no longer looked human. Fria had to unclip from the ropes to get around him. As she did, she said a quick silent prayer for him, a wish that the mountain spirit Chomolungma might welcome him, and then she kept climbing. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She didn't think of the corpse again until fifteen minutes later, because fifteen minutes later she was dying. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]It happened so fast, only a heartbeat to break through the deceptive crust of snow, less than that to fall a hundred feet, and then the shock of impact. Fria felt something snap in her thigh, something give in her shoulder. She'd plunged into a hidden crevasse, landed on some sort of ledge deep within the ice. Her harness had been attached to the ropes, but either her carabiners or the harness itself had failed. She couldn't move to check; hot knives of pain sliced at her when she tried. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Fria tried to assess her situation. She lay on her right side facing a wall of ice that soared up nearly as far as she could see, only a faint gray smudge of daylight wavering at the top. The outer layer of the ice was translucent, webbed here and there with white fissures. Deeper in, the ice turned a delicate, almost metallic blue. Beyond thatÇas deep as Fria's eye could seeÇwas an opaque core of darkness. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]If she died here, the glacier would chew her up and eventually spit her out somewhere lower on Everest. She'd heard of it before, climbers disappearing into crevasses and getting churned out months or years later. Fria didn't want that. She'd rather stay on the mountain, become part of its vast system. The idea of leaving her imprint on systems had always appealed to her, had kept her home learning to talk to computers when other kids were cruising the mall, had inspired her to write the artificial intelligence program that financed this climb. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She imagined her consciousness spiraling away from her body, into the multifaceted ice, into the matrix of the mountain. Dreamily, without fear or even surprise, she noticed that a man was coming through the ice to meet her. He walked as easily as if through thin air, wearing a well-cut black suit and dark glasses like some CIA spook. His stride was neither hurried nor hesitant. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Was this Death? She'd always imagined him as more colorful somehow. She flashed on the prayer flags that the Sherpas strung on the mountain for the wind to harry; each snap of a brightly colored flag was a prayer to an ancestor. Fria felt sure that the man approaching her could have nothing to do with such matters. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]When he reached her, he bent and offered her a hand. She grasped it without thinking, and the man pulled her up as easily as she herself might lift a toddler. She sucked in her breath, anticipating the pain of her broken parts, but the pain did not come. She realized she was standing intact on the ice ledge, supporting herself on her own sturdy legs, and the man was watching her with the barest hint of a smile. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Hello, Fria Canning." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Hi." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"I'm Agent John Fine, and I'm very pleased to meet you. We admire your work tremendously. AI isn't my particular specialty, but my colleagues say your Self program is the most revolutionary piece of artificial intelligence work achieved by any battÇany human." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Well, thank you." Fria was certain now that she must be hallucinating. Probably she was dying, random bits of memory spooling through her brain like a buggy hard drive spitting out lines of nonsense code. What could she do but play along? "I'm, uh, very proud of Self. It almost feels like I created something that's more than the sum of me." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Of course it is more than the sum of you." A trace of irritation crept into the man's voice, but he smoothed it over at once. "Fria, would you like to get out of this crevasse? Would you like to summit Everest?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"I don't think that's in the cards." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"It can be. Do you want it?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She laughed. "What are you, the Devil? Is this my chance to sell you my soul for another thirty or forty years on stinky old Planet Earth? I don''t think so, Mister." "What would the Devil want with an artificial intelligence program, Fria?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Help him recruit the damned, maybe? I don't know. Forget it. **** off." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]The man took a step backward into the ice, and at once Fria was lying on the ledge again, limbs bent in ways they shouldn't be, the pain red and pounding and a hundred times worse than before. She began to cry from the relentlessness of it, and soon her sobs turned into retches. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Die deep in the ice then, if you like. It makes very little difference to me either way. But I'm not the Devil, or any other such silly human bogeyman, and all I want from you is something you would have done anyway." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"What?" she managed to spit out. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Finish the new AI program you began work on before you left for Nepal. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]We will contact you when it's completed, and we will pay you very handsomely for it." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Honest?" she said, absurdly. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Honest." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"You got it." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]And then with no sense of transition she was back on the surface of the mountain, within sight of Camp Four at the base of the South Col. Her limbs were whole and strong, her gear undamaged, her climbing harness hooked onto the ropes. The whole thing might never have happened. In fact, it couldn't have. She was climbing without bottled oxygen, after all; she must have slipped into hypoxia, and her air-starved brain had taken her on one hell of a trip. Though every cell of her body ached, she'd never felt more intensely alive. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Fria started toward Camp Four, where her Sherpa team would have hot tea and a dry tent ready. The next day just before noon, she stood upon the summit of Everest, one foot in China and the other in Nepal. [/size][/font] [center][font=Book Antiqua][size=2].................... [/size][/font] [/center] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She'd been staring out the window above her desk for nearly an hour, not seeing the fields of tall grass and summer wildflowers that surrounded her house. She was picturing mountains. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]With a shake of her head, Fria brought herself back to reality and forced herself to look at her computer screen. It was filled with lines of code that no longer made sense to her. She didn't know why, but she just couldn't work on this program anymore. Maybe it had too many associations with the climb, with the accident she'd hadÇor, rather, the accident she imagined she'd had. Fria knew she couldn't have survived the kind of fall she remembered, let alone have gotten herself out of the crevasse and continued on to the summit. Therefore, she'd been hypoxicÇperhaps even had a touch of cerebral edemaÇand hallucinated the whole thing. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She was proud of having summited, but it upset her to think about Everest now. The summit was not all she'd thought it would be. The peak of her life, literally the highest point she would ever achieve, was over. Traveling back through Namche Bazaar, Kathmandu, London, New York, home, she'd felt a curious, flat depression. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She decided to put the new AI program aside. Her savings account was still healthy, and it wasn't as if she had promised the program to anybody. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]The knock came two days later, catching her in her underwear, drinking cold coffee and trying to make a dent in her huge backlog of e-mail. She struggled into a ratty bathrobe and headed for the door. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]She didn't recognize the man at first. With his dark suit and spook shades, he looked as incongruous on her front stoop as he had a hundred feet down in a glacier. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Fria Canning. Agent John Fine." He offered a hand which she was too confused to shake. "I'm sure you remember me." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Not really, Mister, uh" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Agent. Agent Fine. We met under rather uncomfortable circumstancesÇ circumstances I'm sure you wouldn't want to repeat. I'm here about the AI program." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"The new one?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Fine's silence was confirmation enough. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"I'm afraid I won't be completing that one. I've moved on to other things, and I'm not sure what business it is of yours anyway." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"We had an agreement, Miss Canning." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Then it all came back to her: the crevasse, the pain of her broken body, the searing cold. The promise she had made to the man who walked out of the ice. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"I can't do it," she whispered. "It makes me think too much of" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Of this?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]Fine's body was changing, glittering, a mass of proliferating crystals seeming to burst from his mouth, chest, abdomen. Ice. Ice coming out of his body, advancing like a speeded-up film of glacial encroachment. Ice touching her, surrounding her. Ice tightening around her and cracking her bones. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"We hate it when our batteries give out early," she heard Fine say, and then the ice covered her face and she knew no more. [/size][/font] [center][font=Book Antiqua][size=2]............... [/size][/font] [/center] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]The coroner stepped back from the autopsy table shaking his head. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"Damnedest thing. I don't understand it." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]His assistant shrugged. "What? All those broken bones, looks like she was beaten to death." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"I don't know if she was beaten or not. The injuries are more consistent with a fall, but she was found in her living roomÇwhere the hell did she fall from? Anyway, the injuries didn't kill her." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"What then?" [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]The coroner looked out the window for a long moment before answering. [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]"This woman died of hypothermia." [/size][/font] [font=Book Antiqua][size=2]The window in the morgue was small, high, and dirty, but through it the coroner and his assistant could plainly see the sun and sky of a perfect July day. [/size][/font] [size=2][/size]

[QUOTE=black bird] P.S can you download the Otaky smilies , there so funny . [/QUOTE] [color=#707875]Yep, you can. All of our smilies are either freeware, or they were edited by me (based on vB defaults). The only smiley that is excluded is the Mod Rod smiley, which was made by Sara. If you want to download that for private use, I recommend asking her for permission first. But the rest are open to download as you wish.[/color]

[color=#707875]Well, I downloaded track 09. It took me about half an hour/fourty minutes, on my pathetic Internet connection. *quietly kicks it* I've just listened to it. I wouldn't say that I've heard a [i]lot [/i]of Japanese music. Generally speaking, my experience with this type of music is either from Japanese movies/anime (and their soundtracks), or a couple of artists that I know of outside anime (like Denki Groove or Towa Tei). Before I say anything about the specific track, I think it's worth mentioning that in my experience with Japanese music...I've always felt that much of it sounded very similar. A lot of it has an "elevator music" type feel about it, in the sense that it's often very inoffensive. It's very "polite", so to speak. I often feel as though there's a great tune there, just [i]waiting [/i]to break out. But never quite does. Does that make sense? With most of the music I listen to, I'm used to very expressive percussion and a really rich blend of instrumentation. I really like music that has a powerful rhythm and so on -- for me, it's a pretty necessary part of musical enjoyment. This is the first time I've ever heard anything from L'Arc~en~Ciel, to my knowledge. Generally, I found that this song reflected what I'd heard with other Japanese music in general. It was very soft, very polite, very reserved. During certain parts, it did have that elevator music vibe. But at the same time, there were quite a few parts (particularly the violin theme at the end -- I think it was violin, anyway), which had a very distinctive melody that I found quite appealing. The big problem for me was that again, it felt very reserved...it never really seemed to jump out at me and demand my attention. I think this is partly due to the relative absence of percussion. And again, for me personally, it's an absence that really stood out. Having said all of that, I think there were other things that might have affected my feelings on the song. First and foremost was the fact that I didn't understand the lyrics. And often, with songs that include lyrics, the specific words being spoken are part of the enjoyment (even if they don't tell a story or say anything particularly cohesive, does that makes sense?). So that may have been a factor. Also, I didn't particularly like the singer's voice in general. It just didn't do anything for me. So yeah, while there were elements that I disliked about it, as compared to what I normally listen to, I also feel that there was plenty to like about it. And I can see why you enjoy it, for sure. I also thought that this topic deserved some comment, especially because you were kind enough to go to the trouble to provide samples for all of us. It was definitely worth sampling the music, and I might try some other tracks on here soon. ^_^[/color]

[color=#707875]Yeah, they actually tell you The Bride's name in the first movie. You have to be sharp to notice it though. ~_^ Anyway, like everyone else and their dog, I enjoyed the first volume. It was good, dumb fun. And I'm sure the second will be just as crazy and fun as well. It'll be nice to eventually watch the two as a full movie, also. I don't think I'll buy the first DVD, based on what I've read about it. Apparently even the video and audio quality aren't particularly great for a DVD. Hopefully the second DVD will be more feature-packed and better quality, but who knows. Either way, that's the one I'll probably buy. But I'll definitely rent the first movie again. I've only seen it once, so I'm eager to see it once more before I see the second story.[/color]

[color=#707875]Wow, I really love the volume silder on the GBA SP. I find it very comfortable and smooth. ~_^ *changes volume repeatedly to demonstrate this fact* o_O;; Ahem, anyway. As far as frustrating gaming moments go, there are two that come to mind. Firstly, in Resident Evil 2. I got up to the last boss and somehow, I managed to save with only a couple of bullets left in my gun...and no reserve ammunition. So needless to say, my fate was pretty much sealed at that point. That was my fault though, rather than being an actual design problem with the game. And then, The Wind Waker. Specifically, the ridiculous Triforce fetch-quest at the end. Not only was that whole section totally unnecessary (and counter-intuitive), but it just felt very un-Nintendo. It wasn't any fun. You have to get the maps, [i]then[/i] get them decoded [i]then [/i]find the pieces? Give me a break. It was the most rushed, last-minute piece of game design I've ever seen from Nintendo. I'd have rathered that they delayed The Wind Waker by a couple of months and included an extra dungeon or two. I'd gladly have waited, if I'd known how poor that Triforce "quest" was going to be.[/color]

[color=#707875]Tony's right. This is a feature that came with vB3 as a default and we just haven't used it yet. The reason we haven't used it is because every single group has to be personally approved by an Administrator by default. This means that Charles or I could be sitting there approving group after group each day. Right now, the system requires too much Administrator control. I would [i]rather [/i]have a Group Membership system that is entirely controlled by the members themselves, so that they can designate group leaders and so on. It's something we will look at doing in the future, but not right now. At the moment we have other updates planned, which I think people will enjoy more than the Group Membership system anyway.[/color]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Again, I want to remind everybody to include titles with each piece, so that I can credit you. Mitch, I removed the two song lyrics posts, because they were neither your own work, nor were the "official" Matrix stuff. But everything else is fine, so it's been left as-is.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Also, I want to stress that I'm not holding people to any constraints about what they post, except that obviously, you have to post Matrix-related stuff that is your own work. So far I'm incredibly impressed with everything I've seen, and I really want to encourage people to post their work here -- please do not be concerned about your post quality, or English skills. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]This is one occasion where I really don't care. If you have fun writing your piece and if you really want to submit it, please do so. There aren't any requirements on post quality in this thread, provided that your piece is Matrix related and within reason (so obviously, something that's two lines and unreadable wouldn't qualify). [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Anyway, here's my next piece. Like the first one, it's based on my original character notes. Actually, this [i]is [/i]my original set of notes for Sabine. I decided not to edit it, unlike my first one. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Oh, and, CrH...I borrowed your HTML for this one. Thank you. ~_^[/size][/font] [img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18543&stc=1[/img][font=Garamond][color=#08846e][left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]Sabine was a police officer; a traffic cop, to be precise. Highway patrol. Nothing too out of the ordinary. That is, until a high speed chase changed her life forever. [/color][/size][/font][/left] [left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray][/color][/size][/font] [/left] [left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]She was tailing a speeding truck in her cruiser for several kilometers, until it finally pulled over on the side of the road. And just as she went to give the driver a ticket, he took off at full speed. Sabine jumped into the cruiser and gave chase. The pursuit lasted for more than an hour, until it came to a horrible end[/color][/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]. [/color][/size][/font][/left] [left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]Sabine raced along a highway bridge, which sat over a wide river. She sped along beside the truck and edged toward it, in an attempt to force the driver to stop. But she was not prepared for what followed. The truck driver veered across the broken line and nudged her cruiser; there was only a slight kiss between the two vehicles, but it was enough to send Sabine's cruiser lurching sideways through oncoming traffic. Sabine's eyes were wide with terror, as she attempted to gain control of the vehicle. But it was too late. [/color][/size][/font][/left] [left][/color][/left] [left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]The cruiser ploughed through a concrete barrier and dived off the bridge, toward the murky water hundreds of meters below. Sabine stared intently at the wall of blackness that was fast approaching. She stared so intently, that the wall seemed to slow down. It was no longer speeding [i]toward [/i]her, but rather, it seemed to be creeping away from her. [/color][/size][/font][/left] [left][font=Garamond][size=2][color=slategray]Sabine looked away from the river, which now appeared as a tiny speck in the distance. The car was gone from around her and she could no longer see it. Instead of falling, she was flying high above the world. For a moment, it was peaceful. She could hear water running nearby and birds calling in the distance. And then, as suddenly as it had started, the black river approached her again. She began falling faster than before. And just as she hit the river's surface, her eyes opened for a second time. She was immersed in a pink gelatenous liquid.[/color][/size][/font][/font][/left] [left] [/left] [left][b][font=Verdana][size=2]Midnight Chase[/size][/font][/b] [/left] [color=slategray][/color]

[color=#707875]Well, that's a really complicated question. It's complicated for a number of reasons. For one thing, if I were to tell you specifically what I did, I'd probably be here for quite a while. But also, it depends entirely on the program that one is using. What I did to make that banner would be a slightly different process to someone who was using Photoshop, for example. I used Paint Shop Pro 8 to develop that banner...and I use PSP8 for [i]all [/i]of my digital work on OtakuBoards and elsewhere. I'm so comfortable with it, that I even use it in conjunction with Photoshop for school projects. Most people use Photoshop though. But I've never liked Photoshop...I've always found Adobe products annoying to use, for some reason. Photoshop can do some amazing stuff, but quite often you can tell that something has been "Photoshopped", because [i]most [/i]people don't really know how to use it. They're only getting 5% out of what it can do. In terms of what I did to make that latest banner...it wasn't particularly difficult. It was just a combination of using the line tool, the "blinds" image effect and some specific point-by-point selections. Really it was mostly those three tools, so it was very simple and it didn't take very long to produce (about 5 minutes or something). Once you learn the software, it's very easy to churn things out and stuff. It mostly comes down to your own aesthetic knowledge and how you apply certain things, like colour and composition. Anyway, I'm rambling. If you really want to know the specifics on how to make banners, I think it's probably best to do an online search for a tutorial or something. It's very difficult for me to give you a tutorial on here, without going into great step-by-step stuff, and using screenshots and so on. If I just quickly explained it, it wouldn't make a lot of sense.[/color]

[color=#707875]Although this thread has not yet gotten off the ground, I think I'm going to close it. And I'll explain why. First and foremost, we've had several abortion threads before. Now, generally, I think certain threads can probably be safely repeated numerous times over a long period. But I feel that abortion is a very specific kind of discussion; people's opinions don't change on a whim and they are usually pretty unlikely to go back and forth during a short period of time. I fear that with this thread, we might simply have people repeating everything they've said beforehand. But also, I'm concerned that this thread will [i]inevitably [/i]be closed at some point, because there will be one or two people who just don't want to participate in a civil way. I understand that what I'm doing may seem unfair, so I'll meet you halfway. If you want to discuss abortion, you can do it on myOtaku. As far as I know, we've only just had a thread like this (and by only just, I'm talking within the last few months). We already know where everyone stands, for the most part, and we've all heard the pro life/choice arguments before. I just don't think it's something we need to dig up right now. I'm mostly willing to allow you guys to discuss pretty much any issue, but I encourage you to look for something new for the moment. This is a very classic discussion that seems to get frequently rehashed. And it's not really conducive to the idea of variety and quality, because we [i]always [/i]see it. I want to see something else for a change and I don't think that's too much to ask.[/color]

[color=#707875]Congrats to all the winners. See you here again next year. ~_^[/color]

[QUOTE=Mnemolth]Hmm... Quote threads are often a little obnoxious. Or precocious. Or both. As if we can reduce the complexities of life into a neat little phrase. Once upon a time T-shirts were actually a piece of clothing, rather than a form of expression. But hey, that's just my opinion... :)[/QUOTE] [color=#707875]But you were the one who had that quote in your signature, "Fighting for peace is like ******* for virginity." That quote seems to be a classic example of what you're talking about above. ~_^ Anyway, in regard to the thread itself...if you guys [i]are [/i]going to write down quotes here, please at least analyze them or make comments about them. The idea of just copying and pasting quotes is pretty spammy. So please, take note of that.[/color]

[quote name='ScirosDarkblade']Har. Batman Returns was about as true to the comic series as the Jole Schumacher films, to be honest. [/quote][color=#707875]I'm mostly referring to visual style alone. I'm not a hardcore Batman fan myself, so I really don't have an in-depth view on the character's original personalities. But, stylistically, there was obviously a major difference between the 60's version, Returns and and post-Returns movies. My preference would easily be Returns, at least as far as aesthetics are concerned. It seemed like Joel Schumacher was trying to somehow capture the camp value of the 60's series, but it just came out wrong.[/color][quote=ScirosDarkblade] Believe me, Burton took liberties like nobody else. Well, no that's not true. Schumacher that dumbass ruined Bane beyond any recognition. What an insult to a character who deserves at least one 3-hr Batman film dedicated all to him. [/QUOTE][color=#707875]I'm absolutely certain that Burton took liberties; of that I have no doubt. But Burton takes liberties with everything when he puts his hand into the mix; everything that he "remakes" or "reinterprets" has his own dark spin. In my experience with his films, it's always been something that's worked -- but only because of the subject matter at hand. I've always found Batman Returns to be my favourite iteration of Batman, for the reasons mentioned above. Burton may have taken significant liberties with character personalities...but from the average moviegoer's point of view, I'm glad that he did. I much prefer the Batman Returns Catwoman and Penguin to any other versions that I've encountered (including in the various animated series). But again, I'm speaking as someone who isn't a hardcore Batman devotee. If I were in that position, I'm sure it's quite possible that I may view Burton's interpretation as a complete butchering of the original. But also, if viewed in a vaccuum, I think Burton's movie was a truly good movie in and of itself. It stood on its own two feet as a movie, irrespective of the franchise surrounding it, though of course, it [i]does [/i]stand up against the rest of the franchise by virtue of what it is.[/color]

[color=#707875]Wow, I don't think I've ever heard anyone speak a bad word about Batman Returns. lol I feel that Batman Returns was more true to the original comic series than anything else I've seen. Burton really nailed the dark visual theme in the movie, I think. In regard to characters like Penguin and Catwoman...well, I suppose it's both a matter of convention and taste. When I look at the 60's campy versions, I just don't feel that it in any way represents the original style of the comics. I felt that although Penguin and Catwoman were depicted somewhat differently by Burton...they were, in my view, the best depictions of these characters. At least, if Batman were a real situation, that's how I'd imagine them being. I liked the fact that Penguin was a horrible, dirty little man with a black sense of humor. lol And I liked the fact that Catwoman wasn't an airy fairy, kinda pointless character (not that she was this way in the older movies, but she was definitely more "glamorous" in the 60's series). I liked the fact that she was dark, gritty and psychotic in Batman Returns. That's how I picture a true Catwoman. But that's me. I just assumed that most people preferred Batman Returns, as compared to the newer movies. The Joel Schumacher iterations of the series were awful, in my view. I half expected Batman to tear off his suit and run around in a g-string, while dancing to Abba -- it was [i]so [/i]ridiculously campy and glittery that it became kinda laughable and pointless. Nothing like Returns, unfortunately.[/color]

[QUOTE=vicky][size=1][b]Maybe because Storm in the Comics has to keep her Emotions under control...? If you haven't heard, Storm always tries to keep her emotions under control, and even in the X-Men Series (old ones and stuff) she was way different from everyone else.[/b] [/size][/QUOTE] [color=#707875]I would have to say that Halle Berry was a huge disappointment for me, in the X-Men movies. I don't think that it was so much a question of Storm needing to be a reserved character (although I do understand what you are saying), but I think that Berry just didn't really seem to [i]care [/i]about the role at all. Moreover, did anyone notice that she seemed to "forget" her accent several times during the movies? "Oh, today I'm American. Now I'm Egyptian. Now I'm a bit of both." It just lacked consistency. And I think that's kinda sloppy. This isn't to say that the X-Men movies were bad, because I quite enjoyed them. I thought they reflected the comics/cartoons/etc pretty well. And they were certainly a lot better than most of the video game to movie translations out there. X-Men 2 was also a lot better than the first (no doubt due to the higher production values). Anyway, let's keep things civil in here. I don't mind if you guys want to discuss your choices and your reasons for them, but let's keep our comments focused on that alone. I'm quite certain that you are all capable of talking about the movies themselves while still being civil on a personal level.[/color]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Just a note, guys. I'd like it if you would all include titles to your pieces, so that I can create an index of short stories and their authors within the first post. ^_^[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]I'm really pleased with this so far. I encourage everyone to give it a try and to branch out as much as you like.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]I am going to take this opportunity to present an official piece, written by Neil Gaiman. Hopefully this should also provide some ideas. ^_^[/color][/size][/font] [b][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Goliath, by Neil Gaiman[/color][/size][/font][/b] [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18498&stc=1[/img][/center] [color=black][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I suppose that I could claim that I had always suspected that the world was a cheap and shoddy sham, a bad cover for something deeper and weirder and infinitely more strange, and that, in some way, I already knew the truth. But I think that's just how the world has always been. And even now that I know the truth, as you will, my love, if you're reading this, the world still seems cheap and shoddy. Different world, different shoddy, but that's how it feels. [/color][/size][/font] [font=helvetica][size=3][color=#ffffff][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]They say,[i] here's the truth[/i], and I say, [i]is that all there is?[/i] And they say,[i] kind of. Pretty much. As far as we know.[/i] [/color][/size][/font] [size=2][font=Verdana][color=black]So. It was 1977, and the nearest I had come to computers was I'd recently bought a big, expensive calculator, and then I'd lost the manual that came with it, so I didn't know what it did any more. I'd add, subtract, multiply and divide, and was grateful I had no need to cos, sine or find tangents or graph functions or whatever else the gizmo did, because, having been turned down by the RAF, I was working as a bookkeeper for a small discount carpet warehouse in Edgware, in North London, near the top of the Northern Line, and I was sitting at the table at the back of the warehouse that served me as a desk when the world began to melt and drip away. [/color][/font][/size] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Honest. It was like the walls and the ceiling and the rolls of carpet and the News of the World Topless Calendar were all made of wax, and they started to ooze and run, to flow together and to drip. I could see the houses and the sky and the clouds and the road behind them, and then [i]that[/i] dripped and flowed away, and behind that was blackness. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was standing in the puddle of the world, a weird, brightly coloured thing that oozed and brimmed and didn't cover the tops of my brown leather shoes (I have feet like shoeboxes. Boots have to be specially made for me. Costs me a fortune). The puddle cast a weird light upwards. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]In fiction, I think I would have refused to believe it was happening, wonder if I'd been drugged or if I was dreaming. In reality, hell, it had happened, and I stared up into the darkness, and then, when nothing happened, I began to walk, splashing through the liquid world, calling out, seeing if anyone was there. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Something flickered in front of me. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Hey," said a voice. The accent was American, although the intonation was odd. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Hello," I said. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The flickering continued for a few moments, and then resolved itself into a smartly-dressed man in thick horn-rimmed spectacles. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You're a pretty big guy," he said. "You know that?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Of course I knew that. I was 19 years old and I was close to seven feet tall. I have fingers like bananas. I scare children. I'm unlikely to see my 40th birthday: people like me die young. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"What's going on?" I asked. "Do you know?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Enemy missile took out a central processing unit," he said. "Two hundred thousand people, hooked up in parallel, blown to dead meat. We've got a mirror going of course, and we'll have it all up and running again in no time flat. You're just free-floating here for a couple of nanoseconds, while we get London processing again." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Are you God?" I asked. Nothing he had said had made any sense to me. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Yes. No. Not really," he said. "Not as you mean it, anyway."[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then the world lurched and I found myself coming to work again that morning, poured myself a cup of tea, had the longest, strangest bout of [i]deja vu[/i] I've ever had. Twenty minutes, where I knew everything that anyone was going to do or say. And then it went, and time passed properly once more, every second following every other second just like they're meant to. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And the hours passed, and the days, and the years. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I lost my job in the carpet company, and got a new one bookkeeping for a company selling business machines, and I got married to a girl called Sandra I met at the swimming baths and we had a couple of kids, both normal sized, and I thought I had the sort of marriage that could survive anything, but I hadn't, so she went away and she took the kiddies with her. I was in my late 20s, and it was 1986, and I got a job on Tottenham Court Road selling computers, and I turned out to be good at it. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I liked computers. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I liked the way they worked. It was an exciting time. I remember our first shipment of ATs, some of them with 40 megabyte hard drives... Well, I was impressed easily back then. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I still lived in Edgware, commuted to work on the Northern Line. I was on the tube one evening, going home - we'd just gone through Euston and half the passengers had got off -- looking at the other people in the carriage over the top of the [i]Evening Standard[/i] and wondering who they were - who they really were, inside - the thin, black girl writing earnestly in her notebook, the little old lady with the green velvet hat on, the girl with the dog, the bearded man with the turban... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then the tube stopped, in the tunnel. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]That was what I thought happened, anyway: I thought the tube had stopped. Everything went very quiet. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off. And I was looking at the other passengers and wondering who they really were inside when the train stopped in the tunnel. And everything went very quiet. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then everything lurched so hard I thought we'd been hit by another train. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off, and then the train stopped in the tunnel, and then everything went - [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]([i]Normal service will be resumed as possible[/i], whispered a voice in the back of my head.) [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And this time as the train slowed and began to approach Euston I wondered if I was going crazy: I felt like I was jerking back and forth on a video loop. I knew it was happening, but there was nothing I could do to change anything, nothing I could do to break out of it. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The black girl, sitting next to me, passed me a note. ARE WE DEAD? it said. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I shrugged. I didn't know. It seemed as good an explanation as any. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then everything faded to white. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]There was no ground beneath my feet, nothing above me, no sense of distance, no sense of time. I was in a white place. And I was not alone. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The man wore thick horn-rimmed spectacles, and a suit that looked like it might have been Armani. "You again?" he said. "The big guy. I just spoke to you." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I don't think so," I said. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Half an hour ago. When the missiles hit." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Back in the carpet factory? That was years ago." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"About thirty-seven minutes back. We've been running in an accelerated mode since then, trying to patch and cover, while we've been processing potential solutions." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Who sent the missiles?" I asked. "The U.S.S.R.? The Iranians?" [/color][/size][/font] [size=2][font=Verdana][color=black]"Aliens," he said. [/color][/font][/size] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You're kidding?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Not as far as we can tell. We've been sending out seed-probes for a couple of hundred years now. Looks like something has followed one back. We learned about it when the first missiles landed. It's taken us a good twenty minutes to get a retaliatory plan up and running. That's why we've been processing in overdrive. Did it seem like the last decade went pretty fast?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Yeah. I suppose." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"That's why. We ran it through pretty fast, trying to maintain a common reality while processing." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"So what are you going to do?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"We're going to counter-attack. We're going to take them out. It's going to take a while: we don't have the machinery right now. We have to build it." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The white was fading now, fading into dark pinks and dull reds. I opened my eyes. For the first time. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]So. Sharp the world and tangled-tubed and strange and dark and somewhere beyond belief. It made no sense. Nothing made sense. It was real, and it was a nightmare. It lasted for thirty seconds, and each cold second felt like a tiny forever. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then we went through Euston, and half the passengers got off... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I started talking to the black girl with the notebook. Her name was Susan. Several weeks later she moved in with me. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Time rumbled and rolled. I suppose I was becoming sensitive to it. Maybe I knew what I was looking for - knew there [i]was[/i] something to look for, even if I didn't know what it was. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I made the mistake of telling Susan some of what I believed one night - about how none of this was real. About how we were really just hanging there, plugged and wired, central processing units or just cheap memory chips for some computer the size of the world, being fed a consensual hallucination to keep us happy, to allow us to communicate and dream using the tiny fraction of our brains that they weren't using to crunch numbers and store information. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"We're memory," I told her. "That's what we are. Memory." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You don't really believe this stuff," she told me, and her voice was trembling. "It's a story." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]When we made love, she always wanted me to be rough with her, but I never dared. I didn't know my own strength, and I'm so clumsy. I didn't want to hurt her. I never wanted to hurt her, so I stopped telling her my ideas. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]It didn't matter. She moved out the following weekend. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I missed her. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The moments of deja-vu were coming more frequently, now. Moments would stutter and hiccup and falter and repeat. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then I woke up one morning and it was 1975 again, and I was sixteen, and after a day of hell at school I was walking out of school, into the RAF recruiting office next to the kebab house in Chapel Road. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You're a big lad," said the recruiting officer. I thought he was American, but he said he was Canadian. He wore big horn-rimmed glasses. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Yes," I said. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"And you want to fly?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"More than anything," I said. It seemed like I half-remembered a world in which I'd forgotten that I wanted to fly planes, which seemed as strange to me as forgetting my own name. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Well," said the horn-rimmed man, "We're going to have to bend a few rules. But we'll have you up in the air in no time." And he meant it, too. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The next few years passed really fast. It seemed like I spent all of them in planes of different kinds, cramped into tiny cockpits, in seats I barely fitted, flicking switches too small for my fingers. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I got Secret clearance, then I got Noble clearance, which leaves Secret clearance in the shade, and then I got Graceful clearance, which the Prime Minister himself doesn't have, by which time I was piloting flying saucers and other craft that moved with no visible means of support. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I started dating a girl called Sandra, and then we got married, because if we married we got to move into married quarters, which was a nice little semidetached house near Dartmoor. We never had any children: I had been warned that it was possible I might have been exposed to enough radiation to fry my gonads, and it seemed sensible not to try for kids, under the circumstances: didn't want to breed monsters. [/color][/size][/font] [color=black][font=Verdana][size=2]It was 1985 when the man with horn-rimmed spectacles walked into my house.[/size][/font][/color] [size=2][font=Verdana][color=black]My wife was at her mother's that week. Things had got a bit tense, and she'd moved out to buy herself some 'breathing room'. She said I was getting on her nerves. But if I was getting on anyone's nerves, I think it must have been my own. It seemed like I knew what was going to happen all the time. Not just me: it seemed like everyone knew what was going to happen. Like we were sleepwalking through our lives for the tenth or the twentieth or the hundredth time. [/color][/font][/size] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I wanted to tell Sandra, but somehow I knew better, knew I'd lose her if I opened my mouth. Still, I seemed to be losing her anyway. So I was sitting in the lounge watching [i]The Tube[/i] on Channel Four and drinking a mug of tea, and feeling sorry for myself. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The man with the horn-rimmed specs walked into my house like he owned the place. He checked his watch. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Right," he said. "Time to go. You'll be piloting something pretty close to a PL-47." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Even people with Graceful clearance weren't meant to know about PL-47s. I'd flown one a dozen times. Looked like a tea-cup, flew like something from [i]Star Wars.[/i] [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Shouldn't I leave a note for Sandra?" I asked. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"No," he said, flatly. "Now, sit down on the floor and breathe deeply, and regularly. In, out, in out." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]It never occurred to me to argue with him, or to disobey. I sat down on the floor, and I began to breathe, slowly, in and out and out and in and... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]In. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Out. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]In. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]A wrenching. The worst pain I've ever felt. I was choking. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]In. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Out. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was screaming, but I could hear my voice and I wasn't screaming. All I could hear was a low bubbling moan. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]In. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Out. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]It was like being born. It wasn't comfortable, or pleasant. It was the breathing carried me through it, through all the pain and the darkness and the bubbling in my lungs. I opened my eyes. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was lying on a metal disk about eight feet across. I was naked, wet and surrounded by a sprawl of cables. They were retracting, moving away from me, like scared worms or nervous brightly coloured snakes. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was naked. I looked down at my body. No body hair, no wrinkles. I wondered how old I was, in real terms. Eighteen? Twenty? I couldn't tell. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]There was a glass screen set into the floor of the metal disk. It flickered and came to life. I was staring at the man in the horn-rimmed spectacles. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Do you remember?" he asked. "You should be able to access most of your memory for the moment." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I think so," I told him. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You'll be in a PL-47," he said. "We've just finished building it. Pretty much had to go back to first principles, come forward. Modify some factories to construct it. We'll have another batch of them finished by tomorrow. Right now we've only got one." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"So if this doesn't work, you've got replacements for me." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"If we survive that long," he said. "Another missile bombardment started about fifteen minutes ago. Took out most of Australia. We project that it's still a prelude to the real bombing." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"What are they dropping? Nuclear weapons?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Rocks." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Rocks?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Uh-huh. Rocks. Asteroids. Big ones. We think that tomorrow unless we surrender, they may drop the moon on us." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You're joking." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Wish I was." The screen went dull. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The metal disk had been navigating its way through a tangle of cables and a world of sleeping naked people. It had slipped over sharp microchip towers and softly glowing silicone spires. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The PL-47 was waiting for me at the top of a metal mountain. Tiny metal crabs scuttled across it, polishing and checking every last rivet and stud. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I walked inside on tree-trunk legs that still trembled and shook. I sat down in the pilot's chair, and was thrilled to realise that it had been built for me. It fitted. I strapped myself down. My hands began to go through warm-up sequence. Cables crept over my arms. I felt something plugging into the base of my spine, something else moving in and connecting at the top of my neck. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]My perception of the ship expanded radically. I had it in 360 degrees, above, below. And at the same time, I was sitting in the cabin, activating the launch codes. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Good luck," said the horn-rimmed man on a tiny screen to my left. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Thank you. Can I ask one last question?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I don't see why not." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Why me?" [/color][/size][/font] [size=2][font=Verdana][color=black]"Well," he said, "the short answer is that you were designed to do this. We've improved a little on the basic human design in your case. You're bigger. You're much faster. You have faster processing speeds and reaction times." [/color][/font][/size] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I'm not faster. I'm big, but I'm clumsy." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Not in real life," he said. "That's just in the world." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And I took off. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I never saw the aliens, if there were any aliens, but I saw their ship. It looked like fungus or seaweed: the whole thing was organic, an enormous glimmering thing, orbiting the moon. It looked like something you'd see growing on a rotting log, half-submerged under the sea. It was the size of Tasmania. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Two-hundred mile-long sticky tendrils were dragging asteroids of various sizes behind them. It reminded me a little of the trailing tendrils of a portuguese man o' war, that strange compound sea-creature. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]They started throwing rocks at me as I got a couple of hundred thousand miles away. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]My fingers were activating the missile bay, aiming at a floating nucleus, while I wondered what I was doing. I wasn't saving the world I knew. That world was imaginary: a sequence of ones and zeroes. I was saving a nightmare... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]But if the nightmare died, the dream was dead too. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]There was a girl named Susan. I remembered her, from a ghost-life long gone. I wondered if she was still alive (had it been a couple of hours? Or a couple of lifetimes?). I supposed she was dangling from cables somewhere, with no memory of a miserable, paranoid giant. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was so close I could see the ripples of the thing. The rocks were getting smaller, and more accurate. I dodged and wove and skimmed. Part of me was just admiring the economy of the thing: no expensive explosives to build and buy. Just good old kinetic energy. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]If one of those things had hit the ship I would have been dead. Simple as that. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The only way to avoid them was to outrun them. So I kept running. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The nucleus was staring at me. It was an eye of some kind. I was certain of it. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I was a hundred yards away from the nucleus when I let the payload go. Then I ran. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I wasn't quite out of range when the thing imploded. It was like fireworks - beautiful in a ghastly sort of way. And then there was nothing but a faint trace of glitter and dust... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I did it!" I screamed. "I did it! I ******* well did it!" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The screen flickered. Horn-rimmed spectacles were staring at me. There was no real face behind them any more. Just a loose approximation of concern and interest. "You did it," he agreed. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Now, where do I bring this thing down?" I asked. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]There was a hesitation, then, "You don't. We didn't design it to return. It was a redundancy we had no need for. Too costly, in terms of resources." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"So what do I do? I just saved the Earth. And now I suffocate out here?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]He nodded. "That's pretty much it. Yes." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The lights began to dim. One by one, the controls were going out. I lost my 360 degree perception of the ship. It was just me, strapped to a chair in the middle of nowhere, inside a flying teacup. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"How long do I have?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"We're closing down all your systems, but you've got a couple of hours, at least. We're not going to evacuate the remaining air. That would be inhuman." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"You know, in the world I came from, they would have given me a medal." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Obviously, we're grateful." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"So you can't come up with any more tangible way to express your gratitude?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Not really. You're a disposable part. A unit. We can't mourn you any more than a wasps' nest mourns the death of a single wasp. It's not sensible and it's not viable to bring you back." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"And you don't want this kind of firepower coming back toward the Earth, where it could be used against you?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"As you say." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]And then the screen went dark, with not so much as a goodbye. [i]Do not adjust your set[/i], I thought. [i]Reality is at fault.[/i] [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]You become very aware of your breathing, when you only have a couple of hours of air. In. Hold. Out. Hold. In. Hold. Out. Hold.... [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I sat there strapped to my seat in the half-dark, and I waited, and I thought. Then I said, "Hello? Is anybody there?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]A beat. The screen flickered with patterns. "Yes?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I have a request. Listen. You - you people, machines, whatever you are - you owe me one. Right? I mean I saved all your lives." [/color][/size][/font] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18502&stc=1[/img][/color][/size][/font][/center] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"...Continue." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"I've got a couple of hours left. Yes?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"About 57 minutes." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Can you plug me back into the... the real world. The other world. The one I came from?" [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]"Mm? I don't know. I'll see." Dark screen once more. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I sat and breathed, in and out, in and out, while I waited. I felt very peaceful. If it wasn't for having less than an hour to live, I'd have felt just great. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]The screen glowed. There was no picture, no pattern, no nothing. Just a gentle glow. And a voice, half in my head, half out of it, said, "You got a deal." [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]There was a sharp pain at the base of my skull. Then blackness, for several minutes. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]Then this. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]That was fifteen years ago: 1984. I went back into computers. I own my computer store on the Tottenham Court Road. And now, as we head toward the new millennium, I'm writing this down. This time around, I married Susan. It took me a couple of months to find her. We have a son. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]I'm nearly forty. People of my kind don't live much longer than that, on the whole. Our hearts stop. When you read this, I'll be dead. You'll know that I'm dead. You'll have seen a coffin big enough for two men dropped into a hole. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]But know this, Susan, my sweet: my true coffin is orbiting the moon. It looks like a flying teacup. They gave me the world back, and you back, for a little while. Last time I told you, or someone like you, the truth, or what I knew of it, you walked out on me. And maybe that wasn't you, and I wasn't me, but I don't dare risk it again. So I'm going to write this down, and you'll be given it with the rest of my papers when I'm gone. Goodbye. [/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]They may be heartless, unfeeling, computerised bastards, leeching off the minds of what's left of humanity. But I can't help feeling grateful to them. [/color][/size][/font] [size=2][font=Verdana][color=black]I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life.[/color] [/font][/size] [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18503&stc=1[/img][/center] [center][font=Helvetica][size=3][/size][/font][/center] [/color][/size][/font][/color]

[font=Verdana][size=2][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18482&stc=1[/img][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Welcome to The Reanimatrix, my first attempt to experiment with the Literature forum in some way. ~_^[/color][/size] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Basically, I want to take a moment to explain exactly [i]what [/i]this thread is and how you can participate in it.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]First and foremost, I want to express the fact that this is [i]not [/i]an RPG. Instead, it is intended to be a collection of short stories, written by myself, by other members and by actual authors who have an involvement with the Wachowski brothers' series.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]I decided to make this thread because of my upcoming RPG, [b]The Matrix Revelations[/b]. Originally, I was writing some basic skeletons related to the history of certain characters within the RPG. But as I was writing them, I decided to expand this concept, to allow myself and other writers to create short stories that explain various events relating to The Matrix and its history.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]If you've seen The Animatrix, you know what I'm talking about. It is a collection of animated shorts. Each short sheds a little light on some aspect of The Matrix, whether it's the war between man and machine, or a beatiful demonstration of a ghost house (and how the Agents handle the "clean up" of it).[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]My intention is to use this thread to write short stories about events that relate to [b]The Matrix Revelations[/b], but which also relate to any of The Matrix stories in general.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]This will also give me an opportunity to read what others write and if you have an interest in the RPG itself, it will give you a chance to demonstrate your creativity as it relates to The Matrix.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]I want to make something very clear at this point though; there are no limitations on what you can do. I don't want you to write an epic story, though -- these are [i]short stories[/i]. However, you can be as creative as you like. You can write a poem, or a narrative, or a diary entry and so on. You can even create a short comic strip if you like. The choice is up to you.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]As we go, I will also post the works of "official authors" who have written short Matrix stories. You can read these for your own enjoyment (they are free anyway), but you can also use them to develop your own ideas.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Most of all, I want everyone to have fun. If you loved The Animatrix, this thread should be right up your alley. Feel free to experiment with ideas and different styles of writing, feel free to use images (your own art or something else) and feel free to explore any aspect of The Matrix universe that you want.[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]So, to avoid further rambling, I'll kick this baby off with my initial entry. Have fun![/color][/size][/font] [/font][font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969]EDIT: Oh, and please note; I'd like it if people included their comments on other people's entries [i]within [/i]the same post as their own entries. So if you want to comment on people's stories, please also include your own short story as well. But make sure to seperate comments from stories. I recommend using the "< hr >" HTML tag to do this (without the spaces). But you can do what you like (different colours, images as dividers, etc).[/color][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][color=#696969][/color][/size][/font] [center][font=Verdana][size=4][color=black]THE REANIMATRIX[/color][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black]INDEX[/color][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black][/color][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][color=black][b]CAIN'S AWAKENING[/b][/color][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JAMES[/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][b]KNITTING[/b][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SIREN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S ONLY MEMORY[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ZIDARGH[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]GOLIATH[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY NEIL GAIMAN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]REBIRTH AND DEATH[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ALAN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]A "MACHINE'S" CALL TO DUTY[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ZIDARGH[/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][b]ZENITH[/b][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MIMMI[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]DRONE ROBOT CONVERSATION[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ALAN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]MIDNIGHT CHASE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JAMES[/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][b]SOAP-BOX SERENADE[/b][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY UNBORN LORD XION[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]PULLING THE PLUG[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY CHARLES[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]WITNESS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY BOBA FETT[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]PIRATES' MISSION: PART 1[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MR. MAUL[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]PRINCIPAL CONCERN[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SIREN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]AND THE SUN WILL RISE UP[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SHINMARU[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]SYSTEM FREEZE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY POPPY Z. BRITE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]CAUSE TO EFFECT[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MIMMI[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]CONTROL[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SUBLIME2004[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]I FEEL[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ANATEMA[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]LAYERS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ALAN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE RABBIT HOLE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY BIO[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]CASSIE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY LORE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]BLUEBIRD[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY WHO?[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]GHOST STORY: LOST[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY REFLUX[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]FROM THE ARCHIVES: LUCY[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY CHARLES[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE CHASE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JAPAN_86[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]SEVERING TIES[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SUBLIME2004[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]ARTFORM REQUIEM[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY AJEH[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]IGNORANCE IS BLISS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SOLO TREMAINE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SHINMARU[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY LORE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]CONNECTION[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY KAZUKO[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]TWIN VOICES OF EDEN[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY CYRIEL[/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][b]A NON-BELIEVER'S ACCOUNT[/b][/size][/font][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SUBLIME2004[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]IDENTITY CRISIS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY BARON SAMEDI[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]ONE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MIMMI[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]SOLILOQUY OF THREE: ONE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY CYRIEL[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]FROZEN HEAT[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SIREN[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]REALITY SHOT[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY WONDERSHOT[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]REDEMPTION[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SOLO TREMAINE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]ANOTHER FIRE STARTER: PART ONE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY BIO[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]NEW MANAGEMENT[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JAMES[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE MAN IN THE BLACK SUIT[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY EPITOME[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]RENAISSANCE AFFAIR[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ANATEMA[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]BOARDWALK CAFE[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY KANE[/size][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE AWAKENING[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY EPITOME[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]BUT...IT'S SHINY[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY ALAN[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]MY LAST STAND[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY EPITOME[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]NOT SO CRAZY[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JJRIDDLER[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]LAST THURSDAY SESSION[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JAMES[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]UP IN THE AIR[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JJRIDDLER[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]PLUG ME IN AGAIN[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY REISE[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]KISMET[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MIMMI[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]THE WORLD TURNS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY JJRIDDLER[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]A HOUSE OF CARDS[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY MIMMI[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]DISSOLVED GIRL[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY SEAN[/SIZE][/font][/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/b] [/center] [center][b][font=Verdana][size=2]EVERYONE FALLS THE FIRST TIME[/size][/font][/b][/center] [center][font=Verdana][size=1]BY EPITOME[/SIZE][/font][/center] [b][size=2][font=Verdana]Caine's Awakening[/font][/size][/b] [size=2][font=Verdana]When I look back at how it happened, I'm still amazed. You hear of people having out of body experiences during surgery, but what I went through was ridiculous. And for what seemed like hours and hours, I actually [i]did [/i]think that I'd died and gone to hell. I'd been booked into the hospital for surgery on Tuesday, I remember that much. It was in the middle of winter and I remember that the windows in the car were fogged up. My wife was driving. I miss her so much. But that's all I remember. I remember being in the car and rubbing the passenger side window with the cuff of my shirt, to get a better view of the hospital as we approached it.[/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I don't remember actually leaving the car though. My memories beyond that point are vague. I know that I was having wonderful dreams while under the anaesthetic, that much I am sure of. But something happened, something that shouldn't have happened. My dreams stopped abruptly and I felt conscious, although I couldn't seem to open my eyes. I couldn't hear anything either; not even the sound of the heart rate monitor, or anything that one expects to hear after waking from major surgery. Instead, I still felt like I was flying -- or rather, [i]floating[/i]. And suddenly, there was a strange jolt to my body. That's the only way I can describe it. It was like the feeling you get when a shiver runs down your spine, except that it shook my entire body violently. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]And then I woke. I opened my eyes to a nightmare. There was no comfortable hospital bed, with crisp white sheets and soft pillows. I was under water, or so I thought. But it wasn't water, it was something else. It was cool and wet, but also thick and gelatenous. At first I was afraid of drowning, but I realized that I could still breathe. I was enveloped in blackness, though. For some reason, I couldn't see. It hurt to open my eyes. I blinked several times -- or I [i]tried [/i]to blink -- and each time, I saw flashes of vivid pink and black. As my eyes began to adjust, I was able to keep them open for longer periods with each blink. And it was only now that I began to realize my situation. I was submerged in what seemed like a bath of strange pink liquid and I could hardly move, as my arms and legs were apparently tied down. I tried to scream, but it didn't work. My mouth was covered by something. Whatever it was, it felt cold and hard.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I tried to swallow and discovered something else; the tube was not only connected to my mouth, but it also ran all the way down my throat. I could feel it inside my chest, too. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Perhaps I passed out. I'm not entirely sure what happened. I remember opening my eyes very briefly now and again, and seeing pieces of metal fly past my face very quickly. It felt like I was falling at an incredible speed. I was still cold and wet.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]The sheer coldness of the water woke me. Despite the fact that I'd been a swimmer for my entire life, I had great difficulty in that pool. It wasn't that I couldn't remember how to swim, but I simply couldn't make my arms or legs move. There was something wrong with them; even when I closed my eyes and fought with all of my strength, all I felt was pain in my limbs. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Upon reflection, I don't know how it was that I didn't drown. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Eventually, I managed to push myself forward in the pool and drag myself out of the water. For a moment, I just lay there on the ground, breathing slowly. My skin felt oddly warm now that I was out of the water. And my limbs still felt lifeless and numb, though every time I attempted to move, the pain shot through them again. I was even too weak to cry, should I have had the desire to; although I think that I was far beyond that. I was terrified, like never before. Had I really died on that operating table and gone to hell? At the time I seriously entertained the thought. And although I now know that I [i]hadn't [/i]died, perhaps the reality was still quite close to it.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]While I lay there, I fell in and out of consciousness. Finally, I gathered the energy to sit up. Upon doing so, I also noticed that my ears had unblocked. Before, everything had sounded as though it were deep under water. But when I sat up, I could hear all sorts of alien sounds. The world around me was like a landscape from another planet. I was surrounded by a thick white fog, which I could barely see past. When I finally stood up and looked toward the sky, I could only just see through the white plume that covered me. What I saw beyond it looked like a skyscraper; a tall black column that almost stretched beyond the sky itself. But it wasn't a skyscraper. It was covered with countless egg-like objects, which were all emitting a soft pink glow. They reminded me of the strange pink liquid that I'd seen when I first woke from the operation. Each one had something inside it, but from where I was standing, I couldn't quite tell what they were.[/size][/font] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18480&stc=1[/img][/center] [/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=2]I turned away from the pool and began walking along the cold ground, one painful step at a time. With every step, my legs wobbled uneasily. The ground below my feet was smooth, but it wasn't grass or earth. As I looked ahead of me, my eyes began to focus a little more. The clouds of white fog were clearing and I could see the blackened horizon in the distance.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]It was then that I noticed the fields. I'd never seen anything like them before; fields of tall, angular plants that stretched for miles in all directions. I approached the edge of the field slowly, taking care not to trip over my own feet. As I came closer to the first plant, I realized that it wasn't a plant at all. Although it [i]looked [/i]like some kind of tree, it was clearly synthetic. It was covered in thick cables, which littered the ground at its base. Each branch -- if that's what you'd call them -- had attached to it a single egg-like object, much like the objects that I'd seen on the columns only moments ago.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I approached the lowest branch of the nearest plant and ran my hands over the egg's cool surface. It was slimy on the outside and covered with grime. I pushed the dirt away and looked at it more closely. Although the surface of the egg was cold and moist, there seemed to be a faint heat coming from within. It was an odd sensation to be standing beside such an object. But nothing prepared me for what I saw, when I peered into its deep crimson core. I saw a baby. A human fetus, to be more precise. It was curled up in the center of the egg and I noticed that there was a small black cable attached to the back of its head. [/size][/font] [center][font=Verdana][size=2][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18481&stc=1[/img][/center] [/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=2]As the realization of what I was seeing dawned upon me, I keeled over on the ground and vomited. My stomach groaned violently, as the thin white liquid splashed across the smooth ground. I held my stomach for a moment and tried to catch my breath. The world around me was hazy and it seemed to swirl endlessly around my head. It was then that I lost consciousness again.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]When I woke later, I dragged myself to my feet and began wandering through the fields. Part of me wanted nothing more than to die, to end this insane nightmare. At the same time, part of me wanted to survive and to find answers. I wanted to get out of there, to find safety and comfort and most of all, I wanted to see my wife again. Did she know where I was? I entertained the thought that as I was walking through those fields of unborn children, my wife was standing by my grave, weeping into a black handkerchief. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I must have walked for hours and hours. I remember that I was trying to avoid looking at those terrible glowing eggs. Sometimes I'd pass one and notice the fetus move slightly. It was incredibly unnerving. I had tears streaming down my face as my thoughts wandered into a myriad of dark places.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I could hear noises above me. And occasionally, I could make out the silhouettes of enormous, insect-like creatures, as they were hovering above the fields. They had spotlights underneath their heads, which they seemed to be using to comb through the individual plants, though it was difficult for me to tell. They also had long arms, with large, metallic claws on the ends. They used these to scoop up the glowing eggs. Although it was difficult for me to see, they seemed to be despositing the eggs into gigantic baskets on their backs. [/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Eventually, I stopped walking. Apparently I had come to the edge of the nearest field. I saw a massive canyon ahead. It was as though a piece of the ground had been torn away; the edges of it were slightly curved toward the sky and broken all the way along. When I looked down into the canyon itself, it seemed to stretch for miles underneath the Earth's surface. I remember seeing thousands of pipes, cables and wires everywhere, covering its vast walls and snaking their way down into the darkness far below.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]Suddenly, a heavy sound enveloped me. I covered my ears, but it was no use; the sound was so loud and deafening that I collapsed and screamed at the top of my lungs, begging it to stop. I opened my eyes and saw one of the gigantic insect creatures hovering above me. One of its grotesque arms slithered down beside me and grabbed the nearest egg. As its claws gripped the egg, I could hear the sharp [i]"clink"[/i] of metal touching glass, or whatever those things were made from. It tore the egg from its stalk and brought it up to the basket, which was well beyond view. I closed my eyes and covered my ears, as I waited for the noisy insect to move away.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2]I lay there for hours, on that freezing metal earth. I heard every terrible sound around me. I felt the cold, sharp wind biting at my skin. I wanted to die.[/size][/font] [font=Verdana][size=2][/size][/font][/size]

[color=#707875]I'd have to agree with Shinji about Jackass. I never understood all of the excitement that surrounded the TV series, let alone the movie itself. It's about a group of idiots who decide to hurt themselves and annoy others. Wow, fun. The fact that it was popular gives me very little faith in mankind. lol Actually, there are quite a few movies in this vein. Kangaroo Jack would be another example. The fact that it was number one in the United States is a scary, scary thought. But when you have people going to see movies like that and then saying in the same breath that The Matrix is terrible...well, you realize that you're definitely dealing with the "average Joe". People just aren't willing to put much thought into movies and it seems that this is occurring more frequently as time goes on. Is it a lack of attention span, or what? I don't know. This really gets down to what makes a good or bad movie, I guess. I mean, Alex showed me a link to an IGN review of the Kill Bill DVD. Now, the review itself pretty much attacked the movie on every point -- that it was nothing more than a rehash of old cinema styles, that Uma looked uncomfortable holding a sword (and she did, in my opinion), that the story was as pointless as paper-thin as you could get, etc etc. The thing is, I think a lot of it has to do with the movie's intention. I loved Kill Bill. No, I wasn't getting an in-depth, complicated story. No, I wasn't getting anything that really challenged me on a philosophical basis. But I [i]was [/i]getting something that was visually beautiful, artifully directed and which featured some pretty sharp dialogue in certain parts. It was a great blend of traditional genres and newer "genres" (ie: anime). The fact that this was all done so seamlessly is a huge triumph in my view. But if you go in there and if you misunderstand the intention...you will never get it. And you won't like it at all, or appreciate it on any level. The same is absolutely true for The Matrix movies. Yeah, a lot of the acting was as wooden as you can get (Keanu is possibly the most unemotional and monotone actor in the history of film). And some lines were truly annoying ("Neo, I believe" -- said as Kid tries to open the gate that connects to the Dock). However, these are totally superficial issues. When one understands the social commentary behind the film, the multi-layered philosophical elements and the sheer innovation present in the overall timeline of the film, there's an awful lot to be impressed by. Grand ideas being communicated awkwardly at times -- that's how I see it. But [i]because [/i]I see the intelligence and craftsmanship going on underneath the dialogue and acting...I'm far more forgiving about those superficial elements. But if you don't recognize what's happening underneath, you'll only look at the surface. And you won't come away with understanding. So, in terms of other bad movies...I'd have to say that one of the recent stinkers would be Jeepers Creepers. Mind you, I didn't actually see the second film. But I don't know how anyone could have truly enjoyed the first one. It starts off well enough; almost like Stephen Spielberg's Duel. The scary-looking, rusted out truck is trying to ram 'em off the road and so on...the truck itself looks great and the fact that you can't see the driver only adds to it. And then they drive past at church later on and see the guy dumping bodies into a pipe, from the truck. At that point I thought "Okay, that's interesting" -- the guy looked kind of frightening and mysterious, from a distance. And then as time goes on, we realize how utterly stupid the whole thing gets. Not only is the villain a completely bizarre (and silly looking) demon-esque character, but everything that happens after this is just really pointless. I mean, they meet the old woman in the police station and then what? She doesn't do anything at all to help them. Her advice is totally pointless. She basically disappears and the creature comes in and takes the brother away. It's kind of sudden and random, with no real meaning or purpose. I just found the whole movie really annoying. At first it had potential, but it became so ridiculous and laughable that I found it more a comedy than anything else. So, maybe the second movie is better...I don't know. But it'd have to be a [i]lot [/i]better to qualify as a good movie in my eyes. lol[/color]

[color=#707875]I think that the suspension of disbelief is what makes a game immersive. And normally, this would lead one to conclude that "realistic" games like Grand Theft Auto are, by default, more immersive than less realistic games like The Wind Waker. But this reminds me of something that Shigeru Miyamoto said a while ago. I'm very roughly paraphrasing, but basically, he said that in a game world you might render and incredibly realistic hand. That hand may have bumpy skin and wrinkles and beautiful textures. And then that hand might catch a glass bottle. The glass bottle might be incredibly realistic, with beautiful lighting and reflections. But what happens if, when the hand catches the bottle, the bottle floats through the hand a little (ie: clipping)? No matter how photo-realistic a game [i]looks[/i], it still won't be believeable, because of these issues. This is why, in many ways, Wind Waker is more "realistic" than a game like GTA. The game doesn't need photo-realistic graphics to actually immerse the player into a believeable world. Instead, there should be a consistency with the art design as well as a realistic/consistent approach to elements like physics and play control. In Turok Evolution, the stick sensitivity is awful. I will turn my character around and I'll expect an on-screen movement that corresponds to my controller input. Instead, my character will move sluggishly at first...and then they'll whip around at high speed. There's nothing predictable or intuitive about that. On the other hand, when I'm making Link run around, I'm dealing with a very intuitive design. Link does what I expect him to; his weighting feels right and his behavior accurately reflects my own controller inputs. I think the end result is that you almost forget you're holding a controller; you [i]become [/i]Link, because there is no delay or interruption between your input and the on-screen result. Not only is there no delay, but there's a sense of fluidity and appropriately weighted motion. So I think this plays the most important role in a game world. The art in a game, or the sound in a game is important, but not as important as they are in movies. This is because the audience isn't interacting with the movie as such. But in a game world, movement and interaction are the most important things. If you experience frustration with movement, nothing else matters -- look at those who don't play Resident Evil due to the controls. RE may have a great story, or pretty visuals, or moody and appropriate music. But that doesn't matter if the player is constantly being frustrated with the controller input. A game that suspends disbelief well is a game that satisfies the end user's desire for control -- for player control, for camera control and so on. Games that cater to the selfish desire of the gamer effectively are the ones that are going to be the most enjoyable to play. Obviously, games that may look gorgeous or have amazing music may still be awful titles, because they simply don't [i]play [/i]well. An example of this might be Star Fox Adventures. Nobody disputed that it looked good, or had appropriate music. But it played pretty poorly and as a result, it ceased to be as much fun as various other titles out there.[/color]

[color=#707875]I understand the resolution issues. But I've definitely seen games with better edges on the sprites. Regarding the blurring, I do think that it's a small issue. I certainly won't be too worried about it. But if I [i]were [/i]to complain at all about the visuals, I'd simply suggest that Intelligent Systems should provide better/higher redrawing when it comes to zooming and so on. So, I guess this once again indicates that my complaints with what I've seen so far are few and far between. ~_^[/color]

[color=#707875]One thing about these backgrounds, though, is that they will all be animated to an extent. Bear that in mind. Animation changes [i]everything[/i]. It's like with The Wind Waker. Still shots don't do justice to it; you have to see how smoothly it moves and how everything interacts so beautifully. I think Paper Mario 2 is probably also an example of that. The only thing that I dislike is the way that sprites are handled; the fact that they blur when they're zoomed in on, and the fact that their edges are still a bit jagged here and there. It's sort of annoying that Nintendo doesn't put more energy into sprite re-sampling, or that they don't create a system where we get some sharper anti-aliased edges (that sounds like a contradiction, but you'll know what I mean if you've seen various 2D fighters and stuff, with the very sharp sprites).[/color]

[QUOTE=Dragonballzman] GC: Turok Evolution. Eugh. No story, bad graphics, boring weapons... [/QUOTE] [color=#707875]Yes, that's one which I totally forgot. Turok Evolution is one of the most awful games I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing. lol And Acclaim knows it. I went for a job interview at Acclaim Entertainment back in 2002 and I spoke to their director of marketing. He told me that they knew they'd massively screwed up Turok Evolution and he said that they'd learned from that big mistake. ...I'm not quite sure if I should have said that, but yeah, I'm sure you guys can keep it in the Otaku family. lol So yes, Turok Evolution was gross. Even the voices sucked; they sounded like they were on a really crappy radio or something. Bleh.[/color]

[color=#707875]Oh, nope, nothing is wrong with your browser. The other images (all but the last one) were deleted. So yeah, it's no problem. Heh.[/color]