That’s what I felt like after finishing Slayers NEXT (recommended by the great Arai). A nice ol’ fantasy adventure with a nice, in-depth world to support it. Slowly but surely, I’m gearing up for Slayers Revolution (which I hope will be good and not suffer from any “resurrection sickness”).

In the last post, I mentioned being concerned about lag between frame and location, so I went and ran some ad hoc tests. Turns out that, at least on the computer I’m using, the difference in lag is less than millisecond. ^^; I guess I was worrying too much… In any case, Codename Spark reached v0.0.6.3, and about all I really want to do with it for now. Guess it’s time to move onto another section… probably image layers? Since I’ve done so much graphical coding so far (which is definitely not my forte), I guess it’s good to continue with it until I get sick of pixels and SDL_Surfaces and whatnot. That way, doing something far more interesting, like reimplementing the ZODIAC system I had before, will be far, far more engaging.

Lately, I’ve been getting more ideas for Eldeen’s world, to the point that I might just end up writing some of this stuff down. Maybe afterwards, it’ll make more sense. Hopefully, after all of Nekohime is said and done, I can use the engine to recreate my new world. At the very least, it’ll serve as a nice way to demonstrate other things you can do with it.

RK should stop staying up so late. He should also stop doing stupid mistakes that would take over an hour of debugging to figure out, only to change a two 0’s into two i’s. God save us all.

Spark v0.0.6.3

NoodleKnight pushed me to write another blog entry, so here I am, I guess.

As the title indicates, I’m not quite dead yet, and, surprisingly neither is Nekohime. It’s just in continual development hell. ^^; I just do some personal programming for it every now and then.

For the most part, the coding hasn’t been much of a challenge in actual programming, though design is a bit different. Mainly, balancing simple code that might have inherent shortcomings versus complex code that is hard to work out. My current problem involves synchronization of sprite frames and movement based on time. While what I have pretty much works out fine, the fact that I know that it’s technically not completely synchronized grates on my conscious. I originally avoided some of the complications with a startAt() method, so I’m possibly looking at getFrameAt() and getLocationAt() to solve the problem. Of course, the trade-off for synchronization is the lag due to the processing; instead of one being off 10 units of time with the off by 5, they’ll both be off by 10 units of time. … Not quite an improvement I’d hope for…

I’ll probably just do what I’ve been doing for now (5/10 lag instead of 10/10 lag), as the design is modular enough that I can improve that bit of code or even tweak the interface or implementation fairly painlessly.

Lately, I’ve been getting some new ideas in my head, too. First being the adventures of Eldeen, and the second being related to me currently watching Slayers NEXT. (The Slayers series, by the way, is something I really should have watched a long time ago.)

Too bad they’re both still a bit too fuzzy to work out. Maybe with some more time.

RK wishes kiryuu=rekka and arai would come back sometime soon, as it’s kinda’ painful to get into a lot of stuff they recommend only for them to not show up again…

Spark: v0.0.5.1

There is a war being waged across the computer world. It is a war without beginning, and a war that most certainly will not have an end. It does not necessarily involve that huge corporate entity known as “Microsoft,” nor does it always involve involve the faceless empire of “Google.” Many times it involves that of the open source community, other times the black- and white-hatted security experts, other times the Web 2.0 junkies, other times just the common user.

This war? It is the war of “I’m Right, You Idiot, So Let Me Tell You How It Should Be.”

Since as long as I can remember (which isn’t very long, to be honest), mankind has always had the problem of individuals thinking themselves to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some are rather skilled individuals, some are not. But, as a wise Jedi once said, “Size matters not. The only difference is in your mind.”

And, unfortunately, that’s true here.

Case in point, the people that make up my computer certification class. I bring you Subject A, who I shall call Abe. We are talking about the basic networking components. The hub on Layer 1. The switch on Layer 2. The router on—

“WAIT A MINUTE AREN’T THERE SWITCHES THAT HAVE ROUTING CAPABILITIES?!” Uhh, sure. Those are layer 3 switches. So, anyways, we have routers on Layer 3—

“SO WHY WOULD WE USE A ROUTER IF WE HAVE A LAYER 3 SWITCH?” Uhhh, well, routers came before layer 3 switches—

“ARE WE USING A LAYER 3 SWITCH OR A ROUTER IN THAT OTHER LAB?”

…

Who the hell cares?! Must we specifically have to tell people it’s not important, primarily because this is just an explanation that will segue right back into configuring Routing and Remote Access, and making sure we do it right when we’re taking that wonderful certification test.

And then there’s the case of the man who must drill all technicalities despite the fact that generalizations were invented to quickly go over concepts without spending hours on it. Network Load-Balancing and Clustering.

“Aren’t those two basically the same thing?” No… let me explain. This does this and that does that, and when this happens…

“But since this and this, aren’t they the same?” No, I haven’t finished. This and this…

“I asked about clusters, not load balancing. You didn’t answer my question.” Wait, what?

I know comparatively a lot about things that most people don’t even care about. Therefore, it’s sometimes best to not even open your mouth. One must gauge whether you are being helpful, whether you’re on topic, and whether the topic warrants the time being used.

And, of course, making sure you have your facts straight before you start criticizing something is always a plus. Like when a bunch of “l33t” users couldn’t figure out the logic behind numbering the upcoming Windows client OS as “Windows 7″ (refers to the kernel version, which I would THINK those type of people would know something about), or how the Microsoft IT personnel couldn’t wrap their head around the concept of Mandatory Access Control (MAC), which is pretty much the basis for all the stereotypical governmental security measures you see in Hollywood movies (”Hey, this file is marked as Top Secret! Let me see if I can crack the password and get top secret clearance…!”).

So, in total, I find that this world of computers, which is supposed to be a world of logic, information, and advancement, is just the same as the real world: full of bull.

This might be impetus for the writer to fulfill his lifelong dream and takeover the world. Or, at least, carve his own nation out of it.

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Day 4

Sunday, July 2nd, 2007

With checkout at 11AM, there was a bit of a rush to get people to wake up and pack. Afterwards, I headed off to the exhibit hall at 11:30, since I actually wanted to look around and buy something.

It was then that I nabbed a Revoltech Saber figure for $25. Niiice. With a bit of money left over for a few more purchases, I searched around for one store that had an Arche Klaine figurine: one that wasn’t $69. And that’s when I saw it… marked down to $35 for the final day. Previously, it had been $45, which was still out of my price range on Day 1, and I would later find out that $35 is about where you’d actually want to pay excluding shipping.

Going through some last rounds through the booths before I headed towards the line for the Transformers movie, I snagged six packs of T-M Lycée cards before bidding fare well to the exhibit hall. ::sigh:: I wish I had more time.

The line, however, was ridiculously long, worse than the line for the exhibit hall (though not as bad as Day 1 Registration). Stuck in the blazing hot sun, Tokyopop bag beginning to break due to excessive use, I showed off what little I had to the rest of my group. And, of course, like every other line I’ve ever been in, whenever I get incredibly bored and try to situate myself into a less-boring and more entertaining position, the line moves. Like magic. Which usually means trying to stuff everything back into my backpack. D:

Mahou~

We eventually made it faster through some creative maneuvering and a contact we knew further up the line. Wheee… Stuffed into balcony seats, unfortunately.

But I guess that didn’t matter. Transformers was by far the best action flick I’ve seen in forever. The robotics animation was fluid yet natural. The power of the Autobots and the Decepticons seemed on par to a Gundam, yet seemed more believable given the live-action context. The plot wasn’t that bad for an action movie, and served to complement it rather than exist separate from it. Old-school quotes were well-received in the movie, but not to the extent to make it painfully obvious, cheesy, or out-of-place. And the U.S. military, even though they were getting their ass kicked by Blackout and troubled by Sector 7, proved themselves to actually be competent, adaptive, and effective, unlike how many other movies typically portray them.

My guess on why people still are mixed about this movie is because they have these enormous preconceptions as to what the movie would be about, with some having their heads so far up their own asses to see that why a lot of the changes from the original Transformers had some very good reasoning behind it. But, you know, I’ll just group them with the same people who think that the Fate/stay night was horrible because it lacked the sex scene, or that Emiya Shirou is an idiot and a loser because he isn’t using his Unlimited Blade Works non-stop.

So… anyways!

After Transformers, we headed over to the closing ceremonies. A short foreign film called “Otaku” was playing, where these two Latin American (?) otakus are arguing over some insignificant detail about some anime series. The argument escalates into a DBZ-like fight between nerds, which was actually surprisingly well-done. Afterwards, the Guests of Honor came out, and all the fans cheered for them. I’m glad they were there, because the host was a retard who didn’t know how to speak if it wasn’t actually written in his script. Ishikawa was there, and my sister and I cheered for her. I had a feeling that they, too, felt disappointed with the Anime Expo itself because of how things were organized. And, I think the fans wanted them all to know that they very much appreciated having them over.

And, that was the end. While it was probably the worst Anime Expo I’ve been to, I ended up finding things to do anyways, and generally enjoyed myself. I just hope that Anime Expo cleans up their act.

I also hope that next year, Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center won’t be a bomb, either.

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Day 3
Sunday, July 1st, 2007

For once, something was actually scheduled correctly. The new AMV Contest re-viewing thing at 10:00AM actually went off without a hitch. We all left at 9:30AM and got there just as it started.

Had the original AMV Contest schedule actually gone smoothly, it would have been a fairly good all around. Not stupendously impressive, but good nonetheless.. There were a total of three Fate videos: Even More Fatal Blood (probably from the guy who made Fatal Blood the year before), Nascent Malediction (two more words I have to Google), and Knights of Fate, which I felt was the best made out of the three, and might have a good chance of actually winning. That is, if everyone doesn’t vote for Skittles, the Haruhi video.

I kinda’ wanted to head back to the exhibit hall, mainly to look for the Revoltech Saber, but I needed to send off a friend who was going home that day. I ended up instead heading to the line to get tickets for the Ishikawa Chiaki concert. Luckily, there wasn’t much of a line. And, luckily, even though they were delayed, and security were particularly anal, the concert wasn’t a disaster like the Haruhi one. Everything was fairly solid, even if the Arena wasn’t exactly crowded.

Strangely enough, the Masquerade was mostly on time. We got in fairly quickly, and it actually started on schedule. There weren’t any T-M costumes, though, so that was a bit of a shame, but for the most part, there were some very good cosplays. Unfortunately, it seems like the Long Beach Convention Center itself and their hired security retards were getting in the way of a lot of people. Or, at least, that’s what I could glean from the situation. Apparently, upper-management of both Long Beach and SPJA were… stupid, anal, and overly concerned about money. But that’s just my opinion.

As I chat away in #beastslair, my eyes become tired. I need sleep. But I can’t stop typing.

D:

Day  2

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

Ended up sleeping in until 11:15AM… I ended up staying up last night fairly late to watch a friend of mine play Melty Blood on his laptop. And… the Ishikawa Chiaki panel was to start at 11:30AM. For those who don’t know, Ishikawa-san is the singer half to See-Saw, with Kajiura Yuki making up the second half. Recently, she’s been going solo. Guaaahh… I’m gonna miss this… ;-;

But, this is me. And I’m not gonna let something like oversleeping keep me back!

So, I threw on my clothes and whatnot in five minutes, then ran off towards the convention center. Only to realize that I had to go the far end to get to the panel. So I continued to run. D:

I arrived at the panel at 11:40AM. Ouch… oh well. I enjoyed it anyway. Ishikawa-san was a very nice and friendly person. And had her own cute way of talking, I guess. I didn’t know and still don’t know much about her anyway, so the questions that were asked of her and her corresponding answers were very insightful and enjoyable for me. I’m also somewhat glad I can understand about maybe a third of what she’s saying, despite my limited grasp of Japanese. Whee~!

Honestly, I feel that the only enjoyment I’ve had from the AX events themselves are the panels.

After we were let out at 12:20PM, I headed into the exhibition hall for a bit. Spotted EvoSpace again at his booth, seemingly bored with his job at that moment as he passed out mini-fliers. He pointed me towards a booth somewhere the 600 Aisle that he said sold some Lycee cards. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find it. -_-; Worse, when I went to visit my favorite booth again, they lacked any more Touhou games in their doujin game section. Guhh… I was hoping to pick up at least Imperishable Night, then Perfect Cherry Blossom there. ::sigh::

I wandered around some more, but decided that I should probably search for the line for tickets for the Haruhi concert that would be coming up later on. So I headed over to the Arena building and secured six tickets for Haruhi, one for each of our group. YAY! Something is going right!

Or not.

I ended up waiting in line for hours on end. First outside for hours, then inside the building for hours, then inside the concert area for hours. Nothing has started, and they were already a few hours late. I missed watching the Death Note movies because of this. D:

I don’t know exactly what was going on. But I’m betting it’s a mix of technical difficulties, inability to locate the three seiyuu, and inability for management to tell workers what the hell is going on. But, I honestly waited many hours of my life doing nothing. And when people finally came on stage (first Mikuru, then Haruhi & Nagato afterwords), it was obvious that the hosts were stalling for time because of some major complication. We also find the English VAs being forced onto the stage to partake in various delaying tactics. It got to the point where there the people were even arguing and blaming people on-stage. Yeowch.

In the end, we got several songs spread throughout the event, anyway. Which were good in themselves, but as part of the whole… I was enjoying those moments mostly for the fact that something was going on.

Later on, I went to the dance at one of the hotels. Now THAT was actually fun. Something good at the end of the day. Dancing isn’t really my thing, since I can’t really dance at all, but it got my mind off of the worse parts of the day. There are a few stories about that, but I’ll save that for later, since I’m heading off to the AMVs now. Hopefully they got it right this time. D:

Day 1

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Woke up at 6:30AM, but didn’t start getting ready until 7:00. By 7:30, though, I was pretty much ready to head out for registration. But, just like I predicted, other people would be slow. So, as I waited and played music for the next hour or so, I breathed a sigh of regret. The line would only get longer and longer.

We finally left at 9AM, but the line was, at this point, ridiculously large. Sent to the back of the line, which snaked itself in and around the whole of a parking lot. We finally registered around 12PM, around when the exhibition hall opened up. I wasn’t able to get into it until 1:30, but I was able to quickly locate Hen Da Ne, which I regularly go to each Anime Expo for various doujin and… uhh… visual novel goods.f

Chatting with the storekeeper, he seemed to have figured that TYPE-MOON stuff in general tends to be good sellers. He had stocked up a lot of hollow ataraxia, as a result, but Realta Nua was going “for a high price,” as the shopkeeper from Resident Evil 4 would say. It would be bundled with the telephone card, all of the grail bust statues (sans the Kuro Saber), and, as well as the Torabura game. The sad fact of the matter is that I don’t own a PSP, and as much as I’m disappointed with Sony in various ways, I wouldn’t mind owning a PSP at all.

I ended up purchasing Fate/hollow ataraxia, the This Illusion and Hollow singles, and the Hishoku no Sora single by Kawada Mami. Uwaah… Oh wait. And Fate/Zero volume 1 & 2. Yay.

I wandered around some more, and spotted a rather nice Arche figurine. I was hoping for $30-40 USD, but it ended up being $69 USD. Ouch. ;-; I’m, sorry, Arche, but my money is tight. Maybe if I can find you at a more reasonable price.

Afterwords, I headed to the Broccoli booth to track down EvoSpace, or Koji. Supposedly, he was supposed to be near, but the people at Circus didn’t know where he was. Hell, I asked for “Koji,” and I got a larger, more broadly built man. I’m thinking, “ZOMG THAT’S NOT EVO… unless he changed a lot. o__o”

I hung around for a bit, hoping to spot him. Luckily, I ran into none other than Raven, who I somehow remembered. I exchanged some words with him, and he found out that Koji wouldn’t be coming until maybe a half hour.

Damn. You need to work, Evo!

So, we waited and hung around, idly chatting as we looked for Koji. We spotted him and flagged him down, intercepting him before he could even get close to the Circus booth. We greeted him and talked with him a bit as a few other people joined in. Koji was doing such a -wonderful- job of handing out brochures as we loitered around.

And so, around 2:30 or so, I took my leave and started look searching for the inevitable line that would lead to tickets for the AMV Contest. Apparently, the staff has no idea about anything. The people by the ticket office tell me to go downstairs. Downstairs tells me to go downstairs. Downstairs’s downstairs tells me to check near the exhibition hall. The exhibition hall tells me to check near the ticket office.

WHAT.

I swear, organization this year is absolutely stupid dumb. Instead, I head into the Galaxy Angel panel, which I thoroughly enjoy. I didn’t win any raffle prizes, though, but… eh. It was getting to see the producers and character designers talk and whatnot. I know it must be difficult to speak in English, so I applaud their efforts.

Afterwards, it’s sitting in line for the AMV tickets. After waiting for hours, it turns into sitting in line for the AMV itself. Which somehow turns into, “Someone stole my laptop which had all the contest AMVs on it so no AMV contest tonight.”

D:

Now THAT just sucks. Worse, they plan to reschedule for 9:30am tomorrow morning. NINE THIRTY. It was already hard to get people to leave at 9AM for something as important as registration.

Long Beach sucks.

All that was shown was a single category: AmTV. Which isn’t necessarily the best. There was a rather nice Fate/stay night video called “Knights of Fate,” but I guess our votes don’t matter!

In the end, I returned back to where we’re crashing to drop stuff off and pop a pair of aspirin pills for the annoying ass headache that the whole AMV fiasco caused.

I was hoping that I would enjoy more of the events and less of the exhibition hall this year. Unfortunately, due to inept care of the AX staff, that hope was scattered into the wind.

Today’s loot

- Fate/hollow ataraxia
- Fate/Zero Vol. 1
- Fate/Zero Vol. 2
- Fate/stay night - This Illusion / days Single
- Fate/hollow ataraxia Single
- Kawada Mami - Hishoku no Sora Single (Shakugan no Shana OP1)

I arrived at Long Beach at around 8PM… just about time when pre-registration closed

orz

I won’t go into details why, but let’s just say I was ready to go since this morning. Oh well. I guess that means I’ll have to wake up early tomorrow.

Long Beach looks better than I remembered. Out by the ocean, lots of restaurants and bars and whatnot to support a decent nightlife, a nice cool breeze. What isn’t so great, though, is the hotel situation. To be frank, Long Beach doesn’t seem to have the actual CAPABILITY to host something as large as an Anime Expo. Trying to reserve a room six months in advance was nothing less than hell. Not mailing out my badge until June 25th is bad. Even if they had printing problems because of the lack of a sponsor, that just shows that they didn’t handle an even more important thing — finding a sponsor for them — with enough proper care and attention as they should have. I mean, I don’t think someone like Geneon or ADV or Viz or Newtype would be that hard to sign up for a certain type of advertising. And people love the lanyards.

It’s already hard enough to get people to come together and meet. Thank you, SPJA, for making things more complicated. Because, you know, having a year in advance every year, you’d hope the process would get better each year.

So,  that’s how this ends up. Tomorrow… I plan to go for registration. I’ll probably miss the opening ceremonies. The first thing I want to do, though, is head into the exhibit hall and grab some of the rarer items that are around. Also chat up with some of the store owners that I always see each year. Then, while people attend the SKIN concert, I’ll be patiently waiting for tickets to the AMVs. After I secure them, the Galaxy Angel panel is next. Wheeeee. Followed by the Hirano, Chihara, & Goto Focus Panel (the three principal female seiyuu for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu), and then rushing to a presentation about Afterworld.

Then, from 6:30PM onward, it’s AMVs and the waiting for the AMVs. Hopefully, the guy won’t put his laptop on a cart, then accidentally drop it, completely destroying it and the AMVs on it, further delaying the AMV Contest. Ugh. I’ll probably bring a muffin with me tomorrow.

A huge TL;DR warning here.

Prelude

I owned a small apartment in this huge, confusing, ugly apartment complex. I left it for some reason, but then I met a friend of mine named Yoshi who asked me for something. I told him I had it back in my room, so I went running around with him around the complex, except I couldn’t find my room. I lived on the second story, though, and all entrance to rooms were accessed by grated stairways that laced the entire, misshapen building. We go up the nearest flight of stairs… then discover that half of the twisting path is missing. Only the guide and support rails were left. The metal creaked against the weight, yet, for some reason, Yoshi wanted to go across it anyway, thinking that it was completely safe. Then we heard a snap, and suddenly we fell a good eight feet to the ground. I cracked my head against the earth and got a good bruise, but thankful I didn’t snap my neck or anything.

Night Life

Instead of finding a way back, I got together with a group of other friends I had. In it was Kareem from my Japanese class, NoodleKnight (#beastslair), Hidelu (#beastslair), and Len (#beastslair). I don’t know what we were, but I guess we were a bunch of hooligans. We broke into this one old lady’s house, then all got scared when she was threatening to call the police and have us all killed.

I noticed, however, that the house was of a lovely Victorian style, and idly made mention of that. This evidently calmed her down and pleased her, and offered to show us some of the more interesting parts of town. We got into her brand-new, white Toyoto pickup and started cruising around. She would point to us interesting tidbits and pieces of gossip about various places, which actually was actually interesting to all of us. Kareem was driving the car and the rest of us were in the passenger seats. The old lady stood in the bed of the car like a commander/tour guide, commenting that we were such wonderful kids.

Rain began pouring down, and she pulled on her pancho hood. I felt bad for her, since she was outside and we were relatively safe inside. The torrent continued and strengthened, and water began leaking in, but I didn’t care so much. People began taking naps after such a “long day.” Noodle, in front of me, was fast asleep, while Len, opposite to him, was fallling asleep as well. Her shirt was low-cut, and I blushed when I noticed she -had- breasts. Her eyes opened up a little and looked towards me. She wordlessly said, “RK~!” and smiled a little before going back to sleep.

I guess the hormone therapy worked. o_o

The Beginning of the End

We stopped the car because of some commotion up ahead. We jumped out and looked to the right, across the dark fields. One of the Slicer Defensive Missile Systems in the distance had activated because of an incoming. It streaked out a five missile pattern towards a distant target, prompting fear and uncertainty to creep into all of us. To our horror, more missiles joined it. Then missiles from the other direction began appearing. The missiles danced and weaved around each other in a computerized tracking and evasion routine. Another five missile pattern lanced out. Then, in the distance, we saw specks of light. I knew for certain that these were missiles heading straight for where we were. We all panicked. A missile, sensing this, began twisting and turning in unpredictable direction, but ultimately destined for us. We panicked more as people began to run for their lives.

Kareem, Noodle, and I were on the left side of the crowd, near a corner with two walls and some bushes. The missile streaked straight towards us, and we knew we were hosed because we were close to two walls. Nevertheless, we dove down to the ground, I flying a little further forward. The missile blazed past us and impacted against the brick wall to our rear, creating a minor explosion.

What jumped out of the explosion surprised us all. A large, flat, animal-like beanbag (it looked like a flattened gecko from Fallout II), raced forward and smashed into the bush in front of me. It then flopped down right on top of my back. I freaked out and flipped it off of my back… straight onto Noodle’s. There was a flash of light… and I knew I just did something very bad. I panicked more, then looked up and, to my horrow, I saw dozens of missiles heading towards us. People screamed and fled. I jumped to my feet and ran, darting behind one brick wall just as a missile that was tracking me collided with it. I continued running… abandoning my friends in the process. I wanted to go back and help, to fight against whatever was attacking us. But another part of me told me I had to survive, because people were depended on family depended on me being alive. So I ran.

A Crumbling City

The screaming had faded away, and I didn’t hear any more missiles. I ran up a half flight of stairs and ran noticed the entire catwalk it connected to was littered with those explosive Gecko Beanbags. I ran forward anyway, careful not to step on any of these pressure-senstive mines.

A young black girl ran past me, and I warned her to not step on “those things,” since they were actually explosives. She heeded the advice, stopped, turned around, and began following me.

She asked, “Where are you going now?”

“I’m heading back to my apartment. I need to get away and find out what happened.”

“Alright, I’ll come with you. I was planning to head over to the military base to find out what happened, but your place sounds like a better idea.”

We ran. The lights were gone, and shadows had crept out of hiding to rule the dead city. We made our way to an area where some man was contemplating the best way to scale a certain chain-linked fence. It had razor teeth on the areas where we could grip, so I found some small pieces of cardboard we could use to help grip those areas by using them as gripguards.

Then… a rabid combat dog came after us. I quickly gave a piece of cardboard to the black girl and we tried to scramble over. I was partly over when the dog had jumped up and tried to bite my face off. I flinched back, and the dog pulled the man down instead. Frightened with the prospect of a painful death, I tumbled my body over and continued running, regretting that I left the girl behind.

The Chinese Military Checkpoint

I reached a sort of military checkpoint, then climbed aboard a bus heading toward the apartments. At last able to rest, I stood near the front of the bus so I could see where we were going. It was dark, yes, but I was way too paranoid at this point to not be wary. our path illuminated only by the bus’s headlights, we slowly continued forward. The bus driver mentioned that the Chinese military was blocking the way, keeping traffic out of the more dangerous areas. The bus driver insisted that we continue, so, they let him through. A feeling of dread and fear permeated the atmosphere as we began to slow down. We could hear in the distance a Chinese person on a loudspeaker, speaking in the same accent as the Red Guard in Command & Conquer Generals.

“These brave people have volunteered to sacrifice themselves and venture forth into unknown hostile territory… for the good of China!”

I flinched. Seems like these people were assholes. As we slowly continued forward, to my horror, I saw the Gecko Beanbag Bombs all over the road. I quickly warned the driver that those were actually explosives, so he tried to maneuver the tires to not roll over them. He ended up managing to run over one, though, as we felt a strange tremor jostle the bus. Losing his nerves, he turned the bus around and heading back to the checkpoint.

The Beginning of the End

I talked with one of the passengers on the bus. Evidently, he had fought his way -out- of that area to get to the checkpoint and was some sort of paramilitary soldier. I asked him what was in there, and he replied, “Oh, just the usual stuff.” I pressed for more details, and I got the impression that some sort of biological agent was used to turn people into grotesque freaks of nature driven to only kill the closest living thing next to them. It was then that I realized I was hopelessly useless in the war.

We reached the checkpoint again, and I took a closer look at everything. Evidently, the Chinese military was handling a lot of logistics for the U.S., and had been contracted to do so in case of an invasion. The bus was then redirected to proceed to a “safe area.” Brightly lit shops offered several end-of-times services; some where selling firearms, other emergency supplies, others were pawnshops, etc. Businessmen through and through.

As we entered a tunnel, I noticed strange lights and advanced technology hugging the walls. Evidently, we entered a “hyperplane corridor,” or whatever. The bus began to accelerate, and we began whizzing past other cars and houses and whatnot at perhaps 200 miles per hour. I began to get tired and watched the bus television. There was an advertisement about the the Slicer Defensive Missile System, and how it’s an unstoppable defense against incoming threats. The animation showed a pattern of five missiles flying and weaving about in the sky. I found it incredibly ironic how it did jackshit to defend us all. I dozed off…

Home… Sorta’

I woke up to find myself at my house. All the emergency supplies were taken out, and it was a bright sunny day. I looked outside and noticed the vacant lot across the street was filled with military supply trucks. More were regularly running down our street. I turned on my computer to try to get in contact with people. The Internet worked… but the ISPs were gone. Instead, I connected with a new ISP signup page, where we could rent bandwidth if we wanted to. <_< Evidently, all Internet resources were being used for the military invasion. >_>

I got a call on my cellphone from someone named “Alma,” but didn’t connect it with Hidelu’s name until after it finished ringing. Panicking, I dialed the number, but heard the voice of a very annoying person I knew. He had called with some cellphone he had dug up, and now wasn’t really paying attention to the call. Guilty and angry, I hung up the phone, contemplating what I was going to do now.

Alright… I guess I was looking into apartment complexes. I was in the lobby of one of the complexes, which looked much more like a resort hotel in Anaheim. I distinctly remember two of them near each other. They both had clean, cerulean carpets and off-white walls styled with simplicity and elegance.

But, I remember I left my mattress outside. So I went out the back way, towards, passing a pool. Water polo lessons were being held there, and the chief instructor was some guy who TA’ed computer class I took back in the summer after fifth grade. I said “Hi” and continued until I reached the busy street at the end of the curving granite walkway.

It was sunny with a mild breeze. Perfect weather. No wonder they were holding water polo classes.

So, I picked up my mattress, and for some reason, I decided to take the sheet cover off. I hefted it the mattress with me, but decided to go to the other apartment complex, which is basically the same as the other one. I asked the desk attendant where to go, and she pointed down a hallway.

I go down the hallway… and find myself in a completely different apartment complex lobby. Clean, but not as high-quality. Brown, woodish walls and navy-colored carpeting. Various people were walking around, but they walked with the demeanor of workers instead of tenants. Well, that’s when I realized, “Oh crap, I don’t have my bedsheet cover with me.” I left the mattress there and ran out the same way I came in but I didn’t go “back” to the other complexes. Damn, a stupid thing to do.

So, I walk back to the lobby, and my mattress has disappeared, but I don’t really care much for it anymore. I head to the elevator, where there are two men and a woman in there. I go inside, and the the whole apparatus shakes and groans. One of the guys goes out disappears around a corner, while the remaining two people discuss what’s wrong with the elevator. Apparently, the complex is currently under renovation, but is still operating. The guy and girl walk out, continue to talk, and block the exit.

Now, the elevator is rocking left and right at 30 degree angles and ever-so-slowly descending. The guy laughingly comments, “Boy, I wouldn’t go into that elevator unless they tore the whole thing out and replace it.” I’m thinking that he needs to get the hell out of the way and help me out. Also, the elevator is slowly going down, making me more panicked until the girl offers her hand to help me out of it. I’m pulled out, and repairment are called to fix it.

I decide to take the stairs to see the rest of the apartment. The elevator, when I had looked in it, showed seven floors, but this complex was huge, looking more like a gigantic Anaheim Convention Center rather than an apartment. I walk around and realize there is a ring of keys in my pocket. I look at one key, which looks like a decidedly unique, modern, yet functional key. So, I decide to go open up the door to some corner apartment, which has clear, industrially-treated glass walls with light steel beam frames. Looking more like a corner office in a corporation, it offered a wide view of the outside. I decided to try a key in the door, but then took off when I realized it was occupied by two individuals. I made up my mind, though, that I would try every door in the entire complex with the keys I had.

I passed by a bunch of equipment and someone that I figured was the chief repairman of the elevator. He was working on it, and I found a little paper spin dial lying on top of some metal boxes. Sribbled on the current entry was “0101.” I spun the wheel dial, reading through some strange jargon and references and landed at “1101.” Then, the chief repairman scolded me (telepathically, I’m guessing), saying that he was now at the 11th floor, and he had locked it to the 1st floor. I guess this dial was a manual lock mechanism for it… or something. So, I wheeled the dial, trying to find “0101″ again. Turned the thing upside down, but didn’t find any special electronics on it. Only some metal clip that clicked with each rotation.

It became dark now, and we were all getting the idea that this apartment complex wasn’t safe anymore, with the elevator being a major source of it’s “corruptness.” I was starting to wake up, so I tried to end it. Realizing I couldn’t, I decided to cut it off as a “Part 1 of 2.” Strangely enough, I got a preview of the second half afterwards.

Three police officers, two male and one female, have their guns drawn and flashlights out, investigating the roof of the complex at midnight. They proceed into a small, fenced-in area. The fence itself has rusted into a sickly orange-brown color. They proceed onto a large, rusty, metal plate, which is supposedly right above the elevator shaft.

“Wait, this isn’t rust. This is mold!”

“What the hell is this?”

“This isn’t normal mold. We need to report this!”

“Wait… what’s happening?”

Black rats began materializing within the cracks in the rusty mold. First dozens… then hundreds… then thousands. The three officers, horrified by the sight, cannot move or do anything as the swarm grows larger around their feet.

Everything fades into blackness…