Kahraba · a Beirut power-cut ghost story, made with Rive

Get the source and play it Download the video

Play it: install the Rive CLI, clone the repo, run rive . in it. The pointer is your phone light; hold it on a pair of eyes. The video is 52 s with sound.

The story

8 PM, and the state power (كهربا الدولة) is on. For now. The lights stutter the way every Beiruti knows they will, then the building goes dark. Six jinn live here, and in the cut you can see their eyes in the windows. Rest your light on a pair of eyes and the jinn behind them shows itself, reacts, and flees. Find all six and Abu Ali's neighbourhood generator (el moteur, 5 amps) coughs into life, and the six of them sit on the parapet together. Even the jinn pay the subscription. Keep the light on too long and the battery dies, and the whole building opens its eyes.

THE GHOULالغولCrouches between the water tanks; lit, it rears up with its claws over its head.
THE SI'LEWAالسعلوةCombs her hair behind Umm Georges' laundry; lit, she ducks behind the sheets.
THE QARINAالقرينةYour shadow twin. She steps the other way, and lifts her own phone at you.
THE IFRITالعفريتBorn in generator smoke. Lit, it burns, then goes back down the chimney.
ABU KEESأبو كيسIn his tarboush, with a sack on his back. Something in the sack kicks.
THE NEIGHBOURS' CATبسّة الجيرانArches, puffs its tail, bolts along the wall. Probably just a cat.

Stills

In the power cut, the phone light finds the ghoul between the water tanks on the roof as it rears up — The light finds the Ghoul on the roof.

The lit apartment building before the cut, neighbours in the windows, a Lebanese flag on the roof — 8 PM, state power on.

Close-up in the dark: the phone light catches the Qarina in the triple arch as she lifts her own phone; her name card reads 3 of 6 — Caught: the Qarina lifts her own phone back at you.

The battery died: red and yellow eyes open in every window — The battery died.

The generator is on and six jinn sit on the parapet under the end card reading Happy Halloween from Beirut — Even the jinn pay the subscription.

How it is made

Written in RML, Luau and WGSL with the Rive CLI, and rendered headless with it: every frame of the piece in the video is a rive --screenshot (the breakdown, terminal and credits cards are composed in Python).

Rive CLI + RML	The file is markup: text, HUD, cards, the inverter switch, the state machine and every keyed animation, verified with `rive . --verify`.
Scripting	A Luau layout script runs the story clock, the torch, the six jinn (each caught one gathers itself, stretches, shudders and runs, while the camera moves in for a close-up), eyes that move between windows and shut when the light comes near, sparks, smoke and the generator's rumble.
GPU Canvas	The script draws the street twice a frame (albedo and emission) and one WGSL pass lights it: moonlight, window spill, the phone torch, a painted sky, bloom and fog. It also plays the story: the brownout before the cut (the voltage sags to a dirty orange), heat haze over the moteur's chimney with a stuttering sodium light, and the vignette closing in when the battery dies.
Data binding	A view model carries power, phase, jinn found, battery, captions in English and Lebanese Arabic, and the street-light level that dims the neon signs.
State machine	Four layers: the lever, the story, one card per jinn found, and the battery warning.
Tuned by hand	Named ease curves for every keyed move, the lever's 240 ms overshoot and 3-frame plate knock, the card's elastic settle, the story's timing, the torch path, each jinn's pose and palette, all adjusted by eye against screenshots.