#Courier Automation

[arihantcourierservices]

International Businesses: Navigate Global Shipping with Arihant's Expertise

The future of courier services is here! Explore key trends like AI-driven logistics, drone delivery, sustainability, and hyper-personalization shaping package delivery in 2025 and beyond. Learn how businesses can adapt and thrive in this tech-driven world.

[verdantwyrm]

Grabbed the transcript from some more videos posted by Wrong organ. Here and Here

"Interested in joining the Pony Express Family, or are you new? Come aboard for a visual tour of the Type F Freighter 0926W0 Class C. A gem of the Pony Express fleet made by the working class, for the working class. To help your crew transition from strangers to a fully formed Pony Express family, our engineers and interior designers have lovingly crafted the heart of any long-distance cargo hauler. The common room, here you can engage in exciting fun activities such as playing board games, read- [inexplicable] Oh! You're probably a bit peckish at this point, don't fret! With the power of a nutrition pouch dispenser, your stomach will always be full. Feeling hungry, or dehydrated? Or maybe you'd like something sweet. With the Culinary Auto Mixer, you can simply follow a step-by-step recipe yielding a nutritious dish, a refreshing drink, or a pony express speciality- [inexplicable] Need to snack? Here's a hack. Use your personal credits at one of the Vending Machines to grab a healthy bag of Zero calories and Zero Body fat! Remember what Mama said? You don't want to spoil your appetite. And when it's time to hit the hay, our circadian rhythms automated helper visualiser will help you have the sweetest dreams. There is truly no bigger joy than a dream in the stars."

"Interested in joining the Pony Express Family, or are you new? Come aboard for a visual tour of the Type F Freighter 0926W0 Class C. A gem of the Pony Express fleet made by the working class, for the working class. Greetings future interstellar couriers, in this series of overviews, we'd like to introduce you to your temporary home between the stars. The trusty workhorse of Pony Express long haul cargo freighters, the Tulpar Type F Freighter 0926WO Class C! Since any ship is only as good as its captain, let's take a thorough look at the Tulpar's cockpit. All of our ponies are equipped with a state-of-the-art onboard navigation interface. Designed to make each trip for you and your crew efficient and safe. Easy to use intuitive auto-pilot- [inexplicable] Will safely- [inexplicable] destination and back. We firmly believe that a good captain is what truly matters. And as such, you can override- [inexplicable] if the need arises, Just don't forget, that it's you who bears the weight of the responsibility at all times. Even when it's the machine."

[justdiptych]

Trans issues are rarely brought up in the Fallout series. Fallout 2′s cut Environmental Protection Agency location was apparently slated to include 'Top Secret Research into Gender Modification', but there's little suggestion what that content would have actually included. Also, the pre-war USA was a fascist hellscape that was actively hostile to human rights - witness, for example, a federal information release about the New Plague, which conflates contagion, socialism and queer sexuality, and encourages readers to report anyone displaying any of the above for 'quarantine' - so pre-war trans communities likely drew as little attention to themselves as possible. More recently, two non-binary characters (Burke and Orlando) have been introduced in Fallout 76's expansions; their roles have been relatively minor.

All that said… the Auto-Doc technology we see in Fallout 2 and New Vegas would be an absolute boon for trans patients. Auto-Docs can synthesise and administer medications, including hormone treatments (the models in the Sierra Madre Villa Clinic can dispense adrenaline, for instance). Any medications not already available can be added to the Auto-Doc's database by a knowledgeable user - this is how the cure to Jet addiction is manufactured in Vault City.

Auto-Docs are also capable of all manner of surgeries. Cosmetic surgery is not unheard of in the Fallout universe - Rivet City’s Horace Pinkerton and Diamond City’s doctors Crocker and Sun all offer it - but Auto-Docs can go even further. Advanced models can even alter a patient’s entire skeleton, with minimal scarring: Fallout 2′s Chosen One can can have their skeleton reinforced, without any Charisma penalty (unless they opt for the heavier, more invasive upgrade), and New Vegas’ Courier can have their spine and central nervous system replaced with a synthetic alternative. Auto-Docs can even give a patient a new voice - Christine Royce tragically had this done to her without her consent, but this does demonstrate show the procedure’s viability for a willing user.

Whether or not the major medical companies of the Falloutverse would sign off on such uses of their tech, breaking and customising Auto-Doc programming seems to have been a simple matter. A suitably sympathetic or motivated physician could have easily started a trans health clinic that could address the bulk of their patients’ medical needs - hormone treatment, surgery far more advanced than exists in the real world, and even voice alteration.

In short, there is absolute, copper-bottomed, canon-compliant room in the wasteland for fully automated transing of genders, and I hope the devs will recognise and embrace this fact.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The REAL AI automation threat to workers

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

Long before the current wave of AI hype, we were being groomed for automation panics with misleading stories. Remember this one? "'Truck driver' is the most common job in America. Self-driving trucks are just around the corner. How can we prevent America's army of truckers from turning into a howling mob when the robots steal their jobs?"

https://futurism.com/millions-of-jobs-are-at-risk-but-their-loss-could-be-for-the-greater-good

It was absolute nonsense. First of all, "truck driver" isn't a particularly common job in America! The BLS lumps together all cargo vehicle drivers under a single classification. The category error here was thinking that every delivery van driver, furniture mover, and courier is behind the wheel of a big rig, cracking wise on a CB radio as they tear up the interstate.

But what about automation threats? It's possible that if we redesigned the interstates to give 16 wheelers their own separated lanes, and then set them to following one another, that they could traverse long distances in that way. Congratulations, you've just invented a shitty, failure-prone train.

"Shitty train AI" does not threaten the job of the vast number of people the BLS classifies as "truck drivers." For one thing, "shitty train AI" isn't going to pilot a UPS van around the streets of a busy city with other road users. Sure, a few robotaxi companies have bamboozled city governments into conscripting the city's residents into an uncontrolled murderbot experiment. These are not going well:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/9-key-leaders-depart-gms-cruise-amid-ongoing-investigation-into-san-francisco-incident/

More than $100b has been set on fire chasing the robotaxi dream, and the result is most charitably described as a technological curiosity, requiring 1.5 high-waged remote technicians to replace each low-waged driver:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

But even if we could perfect this technology, robots still wouldn't replace all those "truckers" who drive delivery vans (to say nothing of moving vans!). The hard part of driving a UPS van isn't just getting it from place to place – it's getting the parcel into the place. The robo-van would still need at least one person to get the parcel from the back of the van and into the reception desk, porch, or other delivery zone. It's not going to fire those parcels at your door with a catapult. It's also not going to deliver them by drones. Drone delivery is another one of those historical curiosities, capable of delivering a very narrow range of parcels, under even narrower circumstances:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#droned

If all UPS delivered was lightweight, non-fragile rectangular parcels ordered by people with large, unobstructed back yards, then sure. Congrats, you've just created the world's least-useful parcel delivery service!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/06/amazon-drone-delivery-service-seeks-faa-approval-to-launch-in-2022/

All that said, the big rig drivers probably don't need to worry about robots stealing their jobs. It's not even clear that "shitty train" is within our technological grasp, but even if it is, there's yet another problem with the AI automation trucker jobpocalypse: "trucker" is already one of the worst jobs in America:

https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/

It's hard to overstate just how fucking terrible it is to be a trucker. Truckers are trapped in abusive debt holes by their employers – who misclassify their workforce as "contractors" in a bid to sidestep labor law. Shriven of any labor rights, truckers are forced into the most ghastly, body-destroying, family-wrcking, financially precarious existence imaginable.

You can drive a truck for years, give almost all of the money you earn back to your employer (who denies that you're their employee) to pay back the usurious loan for your truck. Then, your employer can underschedule for shifts so that you miss a loan payment, and they can repo your truck and keep the six-figure repayment you've already made to them, leaving you destitute.

They can force you to work for hours – days! – without pay while you wait for loading and dispatch. They can make you drive long past the point of safety, then, if (when) you get into a wreck, they can fine you for not taking the mandated rest breaks.

Now, these drivers aren't about to be replaced by AI – but that doesn't mean that AI won't affect their jobs. Commercial drivers are among the most heavily surveilled workers in the country. Amazon's drivers (whom Amazon misclassifies as subcontractors) have their eyeballs monitored by AI;

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

AIs monitor the voices of the (primarily Black, primarily female) workforce at Arise – homeworkers who field customer service calls for blue-chip companies like Carnival Cruises and Disney. They're listening for unruly children or pets in the background, and workers who fail to muffle these dependents lose the contracts they have to pay to train for:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/22/paperback-writer/#toothless

And AI monitors the conduct of workers on temp-work apps. If a worker is dispatched to a struck workplace and refuses to cross the picket-line, the AI boss fires you and blacklists you from future jobs for refusing to robo-scab:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

Writing in The Guardian, Steven Greenhouse describes the AI-enabled workplace, where precarious, often misclassified workers are monitored, judged, and fined by algorithms:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/07/artificial-intelligence-surveillance-workers

Whether it's the robot that gets you disciplined for sending an email with the word "union" in it or the robot that takes money out of your paycheck if you take a bathroom break, AI has come for the workplace with a vengeance.

Here's a supreme irony: nearly all of the beneficial applications for AI require that AI be used to help workers, not replace them, which is absolutely not how AI is used in the workplace. An AI that helps radiologists by giving them a second opinion might help them find tumors on x-rays, but that's a tool that reduces the number of scans a radiologist processes in a shift, by making them go back and reconsider the scans they've already processed:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

But AI's sales pitch is not "Buy an AI tool and increase your costs while increasing your accuracy." The pitch for AI is "buy and AI and save money by firing workers." Given how bad AIs are at replacing humans, this is a bad deal all around, both for the worker who loses their job and the customer who gets the substandard product the AI makes.

There is a very limited slice of applications where an AI could make a lot of money for a company that deploys it, without costing that company anything when the AI screws up. For example, AI is a really good tool for fraud! Rather than paying people to churn out millions of variations on a phishing email, you can get an AI to do it. If the AI writes a bad phishing email, it's OK, since nearly all recipients of even good phishing emails delete them. What's more, no one will fine you or publish an op-ed demanding that your board of directors fire you if you buy an incompetent AI to commit fraud. Fraud is a high-value, low-consequence environment for using AI.

Another one of those applications is managing precarious workers who don't have labor rights. If the AI unfairly docks your worker's wages, or forces them to work until they injure themselves or others, or decides that their eyeball movements justify firing them, those workers have no recourse. That's the whole point of pretending that your employees are contractors: so you can violate labor law with impunity!

But that's not the ironic part. The ironic part is that "being a shitty boss" is the one AI application that companies are willing to increase their net spending on. No one buys an eyeball-monitoring AI so they can fire a manager. This is the one place where AI is there to augment, rather than replace, an employee.

This makes AI-based bossware subtly different from other forms of Taylorism, the "scientific management" fad of the early 20th century that saw management consultants choreographing the postures and movements of workers to satisfy the aesthetic fetishes of their employers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

The pseudoscientific cod-ergonomics of the 1900s was demeaning and even dangerous, but it wasn't automated, and if it increased worker output, this was incidental to the real purpose of making workers move like the machine-cogs their bosses reassured themselves they were:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Every AI panic is a way of deflecting attention from the real, grimy, here-and-now ways that AI is destroying our lives by demanding that we entertain nonsensical science fiction claims about large, shiny existential risks that AI might present in the future.

The "X-risk" of the spicy autocomplete chatbot waking up and using its newfound sentience to turn us all into paperclips is nonsense. Adding words to the plausible sentence generator doesn't turn it into a superintelligence for the same reason that selectively breeding faster horses doesn't lead to locomotives:

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

But there is a way that AI could destroy the human race! The carbon footprint and water consumption associated with training and operating large-scale models are significant contributors to the climate emergency, which threatens the habitability of the only planet in the known universe capable of sustaining human life:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2023/04/14/ais-unsustainable-water-use-how-tech-giants-contribute-to-global-water-shortages/

Likewise, AI isn't going to replace you at work. But it's already augmenting your shitty boss's ability to rip you off, torment you, maim you and even kill you in order to eke out a few more basis points for the next shareholder report.

Science fiction is a fun and useful way to tell parables about our current technologies. But it's not a roadmap for the future. The fact that sf writers like me found AIs as useful measures to describe Earth's dominant artificial life form – the limited liability corporation – doesn't mean that superhuman AIs should – or can – be created.

Back the Kickstarter for the DRM-free audiobook of The Bezzle, read by Tumblr's own @wilwheaton!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[powerhourao3]

One for the Books

Ever since the Courier had come home with heaps of books, they have not left their room. Yes Man is determined to find out why they are so caught up in them.

The day had been unbearably hot and dry, more so than usual. It had been hours of you going through the abandoned houses of some unmarked ghost town far out into the desert of the Mojave, desperate to find supplies or anything worth bringing back. The constant coming in and out of the building to be assaulted with varying degrees of heat took a faster toll on you than expected, making you feel dangerously sluggish. You were starting to regret not taking anyone with you on this expedition, telling your companions it would be short and nothing worth dragging them along for. With a weak tug at the aged brass door knob and a prolonged creek of the door, your eyes peeped at what was inside, half expecting and hoping for at least a Rad Roach to help wake you, but were instead greeted by walls reaching from ceiling to the floor with tall oak bookcases of pre-war literature. With a hopeful and curious couple of steps forward, you were thrilled to see that almost all the books were in readable condition. Seeing so many almost pristine books definitely woke you from your case of heat exhaustion. It was hard to find any pre-war literature that wasn't burned to a crisp or mercilessly eaten away by age and radiation. Your mind also wandered to another possible threat to any decent books left in the world by the gnawing gears of the Book Chute at Big MT, which made you shake your head with a snicker at the automated personality.

After taking a few of the books in the palm of your hand and skimming the summaries, you were even more excited to find that most of them seemed to be things you were interested in. Old Westerns, horror stories, history and science books, and there was a couple that caught your interest in particular that made you happy you chose not to bring anyone along lest they find out your shameful secret...

And that is how, for the past two weeks, almost all of your free time has been spent lying in your bed up in the Penthouse of the Lucky 38, consuming pre-war book upon pre-war book of sensual and romantic love stories featuring one thing in common: robots and humans getting it on. It ranged from stories depicting a strong hero falling for their robot companion and realizing that they didn't need to be so strong all the time to a more brutal world where robots rule the Earth and a robot overlord falls for his charismatic human slave. One of your all-time favorites was a novella about alien space robots abducting a human, and they and the robot slowly fall in love and, in turn, rule the galaxy together. It makes your heart swell thinking about that story again and how the author described the intimidating yet charming robotic alien in a particularly steamy scene. In all these stories, there was another, more embarrassing common thought, which was replacing the main characters with you and your co-ruler of New Vegas: Yes Man. You were glad that no one could see you at the moment, squealing and kicking your feet while on your stomach like some young school girl, gasping out loud at plot twists or betrayals and perhaps getting a little too hot and bothered under the collar at some more intimate scenes in the book which left you grinning like some mad person. You barely left your room in the Penthouse; if anyone were to walk in, they would have difficulty finding you in the sea of stacked books surrounding your bed and nightstand. You only left when you needed to eat or relieve yourself or when Yes Man forced you into meetings to aid in decision-making. Usually, you loved those meetings and talking to your giant robot crush, but nowadays, it flustered you more than anything. You could hardly concentrate on any of the information given to you, and who could blame you when all you wanted to do was get back to the world where you and the Securitron were madly in love and waist-deep in sappy shinanigans.

While you were so lost in your fantasies, it was not lost to your co-ruler how distracted you had become ever since those books made their way into your bedroom. And it was getting pretty annoying how he had to keep reminding you what topics were being discussed at the meetings almost every minute.

Like right now.

"-Aaaand if we decide to negotiate with them on this, it might result in a less desirable outcome for us. I calculate that they may continue to rebel, and the situation at Freeside will get more out of hand than necessary! What do you think about our option?"

Yes Man's monitor flickers to a less than impressed expression when his gaze returns to you, sitting at the conference table set up in front of the mainframe, with your face cradled in your hands and elbows on the table, looking off at some random point in the room. It was obvious that you were zoning out. Hard.

"Courier. Hey, Six!" He called out, which seemed to shake you out of your head after the second attempt.

"Oh, shit, sorry Yes Man, I think whatever you decided to do will be great! I know you got this!" Leaving no room for a response, you hopped up from your swivel chair and pranced back up the stairs leading to your room, presumably to continue stuffing your face between the pages of whatever you were reading. Yes Man's screen showed him gritting his teeth at your abrupt and frankly rude departure. Thats it. He is going to find out what has got you so wrapped up. He just needs an opening, a distraction for a little while. You'd think he'd be able to peer at the contents of your books through his handy dandy secret cameras throughout the building, but alas, the quality of the footage in your room was not the best. And with you never leaving for more than a minute at a time, there was never a good time to snoop around. How about going in while you were asleep? Nope, he swore you were the world's lightest sleeper! He supposes you had to be to have survived this long in the Mojave, though. So, his only option was to create a scenario that urgently required your presence! Yes Man began brainstorming which factions he could antagonize to create a situation that needed your defusion specialties. He supposed he could try to stir up some dust with some citizens of Freeside and the Followers of the Apocolypse.. Perhaps frame some murders on a couple people and the like. Maybe on that Arcade fellow, he never did like his snarky personality..

"Damn, your birthday IS literally right around the corner, we gotta celebrate it!" His scheming halted when he heard Veronica's chipper voice coming from the mic on the cocktail lounge floor.

"No, I hate celebrating my birthdays. Don't even think about it." Boone was obviously entirely against the idea, being his usual sulking self. It was enough to leave Veronica whining and complaining about his unwillingness.

Perfect.

Yes Man zipped himself into one of the Securitrons closest to your room and rolled over to the entrance, one claw gripping the door frame and peering in to see you once again laying on your stomach with a huge dorky grin from ear to ear. He rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Six, sorry to disturb your.. bookathon.. but I wanted to make you aware that Boone's 27th birthday is in two days."

You look up from your book with a shocked expression, letting the paperback fall and bounce on your comforter.

"What?! And he didn't tell me?"

"Well, he doesn't really seem too keen on celebrating it. I think he's just shy about the attention being all on him. Maybe he feels as though he doesn't deserve it!" He suggested feeding into your kind-hearted nature and love for your companions, knowing it would encourage you to spend time planning and curating a perfect evening for Boone.

"Well, there is no way I'm going let that get in the way of such an important day! Thank you for telling me, Yes Man." He grinned at the praise; getting even a little bit of your attention nowadays felt nice. He chose not to acknowledge his silly jealousy towards the stupid piles of paper you hoarded.

"No problem, Six. Have a good night. We can discuss what all you think you'll need to gather to ensure the celebration is a success tomorrow." And with his goodbye, he wheeled the Securitron back to its post and zipped back into the mainframe, he himself turning in for the night. He was thankful he wouldn't have to waste time starting up some mini-war between the locals to solve his problem.

The morning came and went, and the 'Top Secret Birthday Bash,' as you decided to dub the meeting, was completed with the companions, except for Boone of course. Everyone was given different missions to complete to get everything perfect, which was mostly just gathering food and drinks for the evening. But Yes Man decided to tip you off about a long-forgotten party supply factory not too far from the strip that would put that perfect extra touch to the event. And, with bright eyes, you were on your way to retrieve what was left of the caches. That should buy him a couple of hours to really dig into what was in those books of yours that got you so enraptured.

Yes Man waited about 15 minutes after you left in case you forgot some gear and decided to come back up. He desired not to be interrupted, and for good measure, he locked the elevator from reaching the penthouse floor altogether. He zipped into the same guard as the night before and wheeled his way to your room, humming a little tune on the way. Yes Man was excited to finally discover what was so crazy in the mountain of texts that were strewn about. He was careful about navigating the space, trying not to roll over any misplaced books on the ground, and cursed internally at your messiness. There were so many that the Securitron had trouble trying to find a place to start his deep dive.

Until he spotted what he assumed was your most recent read since it had that cute little bookmark. He remembers he found you while you were both exploring the guts of an abandoned library some months ago. It was decorated with stars that danced among a silvery, glimmery blue sky, and at the time, he didn't tell you how much it reminded him of the times you would go star gazing in your special hideout deep in the Mojave. His screen flickered to a passive, calm smile as he recalled the memory fondly while picking up the book off the sheet of your bed. The book's title made his trip down memory lane cut short with confusion.

''Passion in the Program: Love Beyond Code.''

The cover was decorated with a scene of a large and imposing robot grasping a human in his claws gingerly, both locking eyes intensely and dramatically, with a single tear flowing down the human's cheek. In the background behind the couple were faceless humans and machines, suggesting possible antagonists for the plot against these lovers. It was enough to make him snicker at the over-theatrical cover art.

..Flipping the novella to the back, he read the summary.

'In a stunning tale that blurs the lines between science and emotion, journey into a world where an extraordinary bond is formed between human and machine. This captivating saga unravels the story of a lovestruck robot whose destiny collides with that of his human counterpart. United against all odds, they shape the future, commanding a global empire unlike any other. Prepare to be spellbound as you witness a mesmerizing journey that will challenge your notions of what's possible, leaving you in awe of the unstoppable power of love and the resilience of the spirit.'

So this is why your stupidly sweet giggles bounced in his mainframe late at night? He flopped the book down on the bed nonchalantly, trying to beat away the feeling of his fans kicking on to cool his heating core. Then, he picked up another novel from one of the stacks on your nightstand.

"Desires in Circuits: A Forbidden Robotics Love Story."

Another book left underneath the Courier's right pillow was titled:

"Mechanical Seduction: When Steel Meets Flesh."

One placed on the floor near his wheel:

"The Mechanical Heartthrob."

To say his interest was peaked would be an understatement; he couldn't help the giddy feeling that zapped around his circuits, even if the books were ridiculous. The implication of your obsessive reading genre meant that perhaps his crazy desire to have something more with you could become a reality! It was so much information his processors could hardly handle it!

..Maybe it wouldn't hurt if he took a few of these. He means it's not like you would notice them missing; there were far too many here already! Plus, he thinks he knows which pile was the ones that were already read and which ones needed to be. So, if he took some from the read pile, there is no way you would notice a handful gone.

Yet, in his excitement, Yes Man had accidentally taken the book you were currently reading as well among his handful of borrowed literature.

--

You came back from scavaging late into the night, around 11pm, exhausted. But it was successful, ending with your arms and pack overflowing with party streamers, party hats, birthday candles, and the most important among other things, a large frilly blue and white pin that read the title, 'Birthday Boy!' in the center. You were excited to finally get back off your feet and maybe turn a couple pages into your favorite book you were re-reading. Arousal churned in your lower belly, recalling the steamy and exciting parts and once again replacing the characters with you and Yes Man. You were glad it was so late at night since you knew Boone would for sure be asleep, yet you scurried towards the elevator to make sure just in case he was lurking around somewhere.

"Hey, Yes Man, I'm home!" You called through the elevator as it made the trek up to the Penthouse. You readjusted the strap of your bag as you continued.

"That was a seriously good find; I don't know how you do it! But we got more than enough for Boone's birthday and Veronica's, and that's coming up next month!"

Finally, the elevator jolted to a stop at the Penthouse floor and released you from itself with a tinny 'ding.'

You stepped out of the shaft and took a quick glance around the space before scampering up the stairs to your book-infested room, not paying any mind to the lack of response from your robotic companion. After setting your pack down in one of the only cleared corners of the floor and kicking off your boots, you wrestled your jacket off your shoulders and plonked down onto the bed, ready to continue your readings.

A cold bucket of shock and shame flushed in your chest as you realized that ''Passion in the Program: Love Beyond Code" was no longer sitting on your bed, and neither were a couple of other choice novels and novellas. Books just don't grow legs and walk away, not to your knowledge at least, which leads to the only conclusion. Someone had taken them, and not just anyone, but it had to be Yes Man. He ensured that only you and he had access to the Penthouse floor. Your mind couldn't even ask the question of why he would have wanted to take them, far too occupied with the heat of embarrassment and humiliation rushing through your head to ponder the issue. Now your robot co-ruler knew you had a thing for his kind, images of his face twisted with disgust as he read the filth flashed in your mind as you groaned.

You knew there was no point in prolonging the confrontation as you skulked out towards his mainframe. But when you reached the screen, you found it black, meaning he was not present at that moment. Where could he be? He's almost always in his main frame.

"Well, hello there, Six." Yes Man's sultry voice makes you whip around in surprise at his appearance. He had transported himself into a Securitron, but this one looked cleaner and shinier than the average guard around the strip, almost brand new. His arm was draped casually over the railing attached to the stairs on the leftmost side, and the other was clutched onto his chassis. The confidence Yes Man displayed made your core heat up, and a particularly hot scene from your book popped into your mind. Uncharacteristically, you felt shy and meek in his company, finding that toying with the worn leather of your gloves to be a good distraction from the intensity of the thoughts racing through your fantasy-filled brain.

"Oh, uh, hey. I was wondering where you were, whatcha been up to?" A piss poor attempt at conversation was made on your half, but your awkward lack of eye contact made it obvious your current discomfort.

Yes Man ignored your questioning and smoothly wheeled up to you, towering over your form. Sometimes, you forget how huge Securitrons really were, which certainly was no help to extinguishing the fire coiling in your loins. The brightness of his screen lit up the dimly lit space, forcing all your attention to his screen. You felt like a moth drawn to a flame.

His left claw came to tenderly rest upon your hip as he spoke.

"You have been far from my company for too long; I have longed to see you again." His speech confused you as he never talked this way. Something was definitely up. Something seemed familiar.

His other metal arm came around your lower back to support you as your body was dipped slightly. The claw that rested on your hip was now ghosting a caress upon your cheek. Unintentionally, you leaned into the cool metal of one of his claws and reached your hand to grasp it. The chilly sensation of his metal helped ground you enough to realize what he said was a line straight out of a scene from ''Passion in the Program: Love Beyond Code.'' Particularly one that coincidentally leads to your favorite climatic sex scene. Right before the robotic overlord confesses his love for his human companion and they plot to conquer worlds together soon after.

"What shall you do to make it up to me?" He whispered, peering down at you with a slight smile.

Your giggle bit through the tension of his charming acting; your face was reddened with heat at the romantic presentation nonetheless. Yes Man's own embarrassed smile came onto his screen as he looked away from you, realizing he had been caught, but yet he still held onto you, awaiting your response.

"I knew you took my books!" Giddy laughter tore through the quietness of the room, and your grip tightened on his hand out of excitement.

"Alright, I guess you caught me!" His face shook from side to side as to mimic shaking his head. You thought about the implication of him having to memorize that line, which meant he definitely read your stupid robot love books. Embarrassment twinged in your chest, but he didn't seem too peeved about it. He looked back at you after a beat and began to explain.

"I'm sorry for snooping through your room; it's just you've been so preoccupied with your books! I had to figure out what it was, and I knew you'd never tell me. I suppose I just wanted to win you over a little bit."

"You don't have to copy those dumb books I read to make me swoon; how about we make our own story?" You flirted with your confidence back tenfold and, in return, dipped him slightly at his chassis. That was enough to make his system need a little more coolant than before.

---

You knew there was no point in prolonging the confrontation as you skulked out towards his mainframe. But when you reached the screen, you found it black, meaning he was not present at that moment. Where could he be? He's almost always in his main frame.

"Well, hello there, Six." Yes Man's sultry voice makes you whip around in surprise at his appearance. He had transported himself into a Securitron, but this one looked cleaner and shinier than the average guard around the strip, almost brand new. His arm was draped casually over the railing attached to the stairs on the leftmost side, and the other was clutched onto his chassis. The confidence Yes Man displayed made your core heat up, and a particularly hot scene from your book popped into your mind. Uncharacteristically, you felt shy and meek in his company, finding that toying with the worn leather of your gloves to be a good distraction from the intensity of the thoughts racing through your fantasy-filled brain.

"Oh, uh, hey. I was wondering where you were, whatcha been up to?" A piss poor attempt at conversation was made on your half, but your awkward lack of eye contact made it obvious your current discomfort.

Yes Man ignored your questioning and smoothly wheeled up to you, towering over your form. Sometimes, you forget how huge Securitrons really were, which certainly was no help to extinguishing the fire coiling in your loins. The brightness of his screen lit up the dimly lit space, forcing all your attention to his screen. You felt like a moth drawn to a flame.

His left claw came to tenderly rest upon your hip as he spoke.

"You have been far from my company for too long; I have longed to see you again." His speech confused you as he never talked this way. Something was definitely up. Something seemed familiar.

His other metal arm came around your lower back to support you as your body was dipped slightly. The claw that rested on your hip was now ghosting a caress upon your cheek. Unintentionally, you leaned into the cool metal of one of his claws and reached your hand to grasp it. The chilly sensation of his metal helped ground you enough to realize what he said was a line straight out of a scene from ''Passion in the Program: Love Beyond Code.'' Particularly one that coincidentally leads to your favorite climatic sex scene. Right before the robotic overlord confesses his love for his human companion and they plot to conquer worlds together.

"What shall you do to make it up to me?" He whispered, peering down at you with a slight smile.

The bright idea to play along was your decision as you respond with the following line in the book.

"Anything you could possibly desire, Overlord." In turn, you dip your head a little towards your chest to accentuate your eyes and make them appear bigger, just as the main character did as described in the book. A quiver shimmied through your body at the excitement and anticipation of Yes Man's next move. In reaction to your willingness to play along his grip became a tad more snug.

Your compliance made him lose his script.

"Get on your knees, Six." His words slipped out in a low and husky manner. A bit of confusion came up in your head. How was this going to work? You're pretty sure that Securitrons weren't made with any sort of genitalia built in. And you weren't sure you could take any of his claws inside you like you could Fisto's. But, deciding to trust in whatever he may have in store, you came to your knees with a little push of his claws on your shoulder, thighs quivering in anticipation of being able to live out one of your more dirtier fantasies with Yes Man instead of just in your head. You don't think you could ever get used to staring up at him from where you were; from here, you could appreciate his height and build even more. The scent of his new tire, oil, and metal was unexpectedly arousing.

Wordlessly a compartment under his chassis hissed opened, and a mechanical cock bounced out. It was an impressive and girthy six inches, with a ribbed underside and a glassy head. To be frank, it was gorgeous and matched the rest of his robotic shell with it being painted blue and grey.

His metallic paw came to rest on your shoulder once again, which helped snap you out of your trance.

"Well? Get to it."

His confidence melted your brain, making you comply immediately with his demands. With your hands on your thighs, you pushed yourself a little higher while still sitting on your feet. Your lips popped apart, mouth already wet and excited. The tip of your tongue gave an experimental lick to the ribbed underside of his shaft slowly to the smooth head of his cock, eliciting a whine from your companion. When you looked up at him with hooded eyes and small pants escaping your mouth, his screen expressed pure bliss. He realized you were looking up at him with your tongue still out and a dazed expression, which made him a bit self-conscious at all the attention. He tapped his claws together as one of his nervous ticks.

"How is it? I tried to get a reasonable model, nothing too big or too small.."

"It's perfect.." You slurred out, this time sucking on the glass head without warning, which made his chassis buck forward a bit in surprise with a moan. This only served to spur you on to take more of the flavorless cock into your throat. His claws came to intertwine with your hair, holding loosely onto it to not restrict your bobbing. You had wanted to do this for so long, long before you had ever discovered those books; you had fantasized about Yes Man taking you in his arms and shoving you down face first into the conference table and pushing into you or taking his cock in your mouth like now during meetings. Hell, not even long into first meeting him did you have a strong attraction to him. So, having him in front of you moaning out your name and gripping your head in desperate pleasure was sending you out of this world. Whimpers escaped your throat, sending vibrations straight through him, making him almost double over from the overwhelming stimulation.

'I can't take this anymore.' You thought as you unzipped the front of your cargo pants and slipped your fingers into your underwear to tease your outer lips before dipping your middle finger in between your folds to rub your clit.

When Yes Man saw you starting to please yourself, he tugged your head back to halt your assault and bent over to pick you up from your place on the floor, seating you in just one of his metal hands. He rolled a few feet closer to the conference table and dropped you onto it, causing loose papers to fly off and flitter onto the floor of the room. Becoming too hot and bothered by all the attention, you instinctually started to strip yourself of your clothes, tearing your shirt over your head and snapping your bra off, allowing your tits to bounce free and in full view of your lover.

"God, Six, you have no idea how long I've waited for this; you're amazing." Yes Man's voice was lustful in his appreciation of your body as he took hold of the sides of your cargo pants by the pockets and began to shimmy them down inch by inch with the help of you lifting and twisting your hips.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for this! I've been wanting to jump your robotic bones practically since the moment I saw you!"

"And you don't think I've felt the same? I just couldn't express it at the time due to my stupid programming. Getting this assertive drive was one of the best decisions I've ever made." With your pants completely off, you grin from ear to ear; your slick was dampening your underwear to an absurd amount.

"And what was the first?" You asked cheekily as you took your thumbs around the sides of your underwear and pushed them down and off your lower half, cunt exposed to the nippy air of the casino and to Yes Man's gaze.

He moaned before answering, "Going through your room to see what your obsession with those dumb books was." His hands came to grip each of your thighs. You loved feeling the stark contrast of his cooler metal against your overheating thighs as he pushed them towards your head, your feet now next to your ears.

"Awe, did someone get jealous?" With a coo, you snark at him and bring your hands from under you to grip the tubing that made up his arms to steady yourself.

"Yea, you could say that."

Yes Man pushed forward until his cock was fully seated inside; the head of his cock was flushed against your cervix, taking you by surprise and letting out a wanton throaty moan at the sudden fullness in your cunt. He set a brutal pace instantly, giving no time to ease into his girth. Your moans were practically bullied out of you. Your legs were caged against your body, and your cunt became slipperier by the second.

"Fuck! Yes Man, oh God oh God ohgodohgodohogod!" You sang his praises while each thrust made your brain turn further into horny mush and your orgasm climbing quicker than you could have ever expected.

Then, he pulled out entirely before hoisting you up off the table and cupping your ass into his hands and re-entering you. But this time, he was vibrating; each time he would pull out, it would catch your clit a little bringing you to the verge of tears as well as your undoing. The ribbing of his cock and him dropping and picking you up off his cock was too much, and you came hot and fast, pulsating around his length. It was heaven, looking into his eyes, screen to face, and seeing how the heat of your bodies fogged up his screen. Seeing the lip marks you left on his face from the fog print was incredibly wonderful.

Yet, he kept going, making you whimper and whine with overstimulation. With the tears freely flowing, you now gripped for dear life onto his arms for support and gave him a hopeless, questioning look.

"I'm almost there. Can you hold on a little longer, Six?" He begs, moaning and panting for your approval. All you can do is bark out a quick yes and nod your head, throwing it back in all the pleasure.

Even though you felt like you were going crazy, you also felt another gut-wrenching orgasm coming upon you, coiling around in your loins like a snake wanting to strike out. He kept his unforgiving pace for half a minute, messily throttling inside you, at times pulling completely out before pushing back to bottom you out.

After a few final sloppy thrusts, he stills inside you, cock twitching and shooting blanks alongside your second orgasm, milking along his length.

You both sat on the table, still connected, catching your breaths. When he pulled you, you winced, definitely sore from the punishing pace he had set. Still holding you in his hands, he wheeled you carefully up the stairs to your room and sat you on the end of your bed. He disappeared for a minute before reappearing with a towel, your clothes, and some purified water. Gingerly, he wrapped you in the towel around your shoulders and handed you the water before starting to neatly fold your clothes off to the side. You were mid-sip before you realized what he was doing.

"Mmm-" You swallowed hastily and recapped the water.

"Please, you don't have to do that!"

"Well, I want to! You just relax, okay?" He said your name this time, looking over at you with a smile before going back to folding your pants. He really knew how to make your heart melt.

"Since the cats' out of the bag, I uhm.." Suddenly, embarrassment was all back in you as you looked away from him and tugged the towel a little closer around you.

"ugh, it's so stupid. I definitely was just imagining us in place of all the characters in those books. That's one of the reasons it was so hard to focus on any meeting with you. I just kept thinking about us. Now that I'm saying it out loud, it's kinda creepy, huh?" You tried to laugh the shame off despite a remorseful heat coming upon your cheeks.

"Well, I mean, it is kinda creepy of me to snoop through your room, huh? So I guess we can call it even!"

He winked at you before wheeling over and handing you an oversized t-shirt and some loose-fitting sweatpants to sleep in. You giggle at his response, happy he wasn't disgusted with you and that you two were finally able to come to your shared feelings about each other. Taking the clothes, you made your way to the bathroom and took a quick rinse off before meeting your partner back in the room. By the time you had come back, all the books you had were gone to your shock.

"Where did all the books go?" You ask, still toweling off your head.

"I put them in the same room Mr.House used to inhabit! I didn't think you would be needing them anymore since any fantasy you had could just be lived out with the real deal!"

The way he stated it so matter-of-factly made you giddy, and if you weren't so exhausted and had to attend a birthday party the next day, you would go for round two. As you passed by him, you gave him a tender peck on the corner of his digital mouth. Yes Man wheeled himself next to you as you slipped underneath the thick covers of your bed. He turned off the lights seamlessly to the floor and dimmed his own before he cuddled a single digit to your cheek. You gave it another kiss and held it close to you like a beloved stuffed animal.

"By the way.. Did you always have that built-in?" Your question was mumbled out as you fought to keep your eyes open.

"No, this specific model was one of the few Mr.House had created in an experiment of his. That's why it's so clean and new; it's never left this building. But we can discuss that more later. Just get your rest for now, Six. You have a big day ahead of you." A drowsy giggle bubbled through your chest, and you accepted his answer with no energy left to discuss the matter.

"Goodnight Yes Man, thank you for tonight."

"Goodnight Six, sweet dreams!"

Your eyes slipped closed, and a smile was tugged at your lip at his response.

(Requests are open!)

[dykedvonte]

hi i actually have so many questions to ask!!! hope youre doing well, your posts are always so fun and gutwrenching to catch up on

can you explain more about the post-capitalism world??? i always found the ship looking so…. belly of a rusted metal ship to be weird but also offputting in a way that gets the atmosphere in the game so good. like i know its mostly to do with PE being a cheapskate company and using the lowest quality possible materials INCLUDING interior design but like damn, it reminds me of the ferries you take your car on across channels, all the furniture a bit dirty and outdated. we know the ship passed inspection and that the Tulpar is clearly quite old with the comment curly makes but like duuuuude i would not trust that thing, is that why swansea always has so many things to do??

also, the Pony Express name itself. i cant take it seriously with how deep and serious the rest of the game goes 😭 i know its probably done on purpose but it always gets me out of the headspace haha, chosen to show how ridiculous these kinda companies can be??? thoughts… so many….

For this i'd actually like to start with the Pony Express and it's name. The name comes from the irl Pony Express. TDLR is that it was one of the first cross country delivery service that specifically relied on the labor of undesirables as they traveled across the country in harsh conditions. It's likely named off the fact the game PE does the same thing and likely uses the horse as a call back to how all the couriers for the irl Pony Express rode on horse back.

It was also fazed out by a more automated, not man led, system just like what happens to the crew in the game.

The game gives a lot of insights to how humans are treated in heavy labor environments and how companies clearly maximize profit over employee safety/comfort. The first sign is that collective pay is permitted and that it seems minor mistakes and infractions can heavily deduct from that payment. Even if one crate is accidently broken, they don't get paid when most companies would have a set minimum take home in light of infractions.

The fact that the only places that lock are the places with the most expensive equipment is also a sign that it's late enough post-capitalism that they don't even carry pretenses about worker safety or privacy. I mean, they actively discourage sleeping over 5 hours with pay cuts and Swansea even bitterly jokes he isn't jeopardizing anything with his break time. All their food is synthesized slop that only one person can make to discourage food theft and they have to ration that, especially since they added a member knowing they didn't have enough room. It's that they have their own training courses for each position so they don't have to pay someone what their qualified. Everything is designed with a purpose of being tracked, the code scanner likely having inputs on how often something was used and put back to document penalties.

The biggest thing is the Pony Express holding out for so long against other companies. It's not for care of their workers but because human labor is objectively cheaper. It's implied so many companies left human workers behind because while the overhaul is expensive, what they make up in a lack of safety requirements and pay make up for it. It's a sort of retro-futuristic post-capitalism where it won. Things were set back because they no longer have to worry about the people, with very few being deemed worthy to move up.

It's telling that none of them are shocked by the conditions of the Pony Express more just tired of being there.

[alita-blue]

Some more thoughts on Pony Express. There's a gun for the captain to use in case of mutiny. The dialogue made me think that the addition of the code scanner is a recent-ish addition to the freighters, and the crew has to constantly ask the captain for codes like a manager at a supermarket, which likely causes malcontent fast given that their deliveries take months to complete. A mutiny is very likely to happen on any of these ships. It made me think of how some excecs and investors will intentionally push a company into a death spiral once they can't milk ever rising profits, and Pony Express is mentioned to be one of the last manned couriers. It was likely intentionally made to fail to be replaced with AI and automation. The Tulpar crew was failed even before Jimmy joined them.

Another thought. In some other post someone said a solution to Jimmy was to put in in a cryo-pod for the remainder of the journey but how feasable is that plan? It requires Anya and Curly getting Swansea and Daisuke alone to explain how Jimmy assaulted Anya (and having the victim explain herself to others is already a big ask), have them believe Anya, and the necessity of pulling out the gun to drag Jimmy into the cryo-pod. And then live the next several months with one essential worker less.

[mysterymanjoseph]

Undercover Misadventures: mysterymanjoseph and a-den-of-demons

Ever since the creation of the 'Galactic Empire' by one time Senator Palapatine, Joseph's home world has been on edge. His people were an independent sort, barely really having anything to do with the Republic when it existed. Now, it seems that a dictator was in charge, and those always wish to control more. So, his homeward began building up their military, knowing in time, Imperial Forces would make their way to them. Joseph had been 'drafted' by the intelligence branch of the home world's military, his past service putting him at the top of the list for some 'special' mission, that being, planting automated sensor pods on isolated planets between the core worlds and the outer rim regions where his people live. Using the cover of a 'independent prospector', gives him reasonable cause to be going to those isolated planets, hoping to 'strike it rich'. So far, all was running smoothy, until at one of the small outposts where he would resupply, and get any instructions through the secure communications network that was set up, he was met by an actual courier, undercover of course. Joseph was handed and actual, physical paper file folder in a sealed paper envelope. Most would think this was a stupid way to send information, but, a lot of times, 'dumb, outdated tech', defeats modern sophisticated types. Taking the file back to his own ship, securing the hatch, Joseph opens the envelope and reads the file. It seems that an Imperial officer, someone high up in communications, is disillusioned with the new government, and has deserted. Joseph has been tasked to find this person, and bring them to the home world for debriefing. Joseph thinks, "I am in no way trained for this sort of thing, coming in hot on a drop ship with a platoon of troops is what I'm familiar with doing, not this sort of 'sneak in and out', operation." "The intelligence people back home must be beyond desperate, and squeezed for time to send this my way." The file details the deserter is likely on the next planet Joseph was going to anyway, and what settlement they were thought to be hiding out in. He thinks, "Well, won't be suspicious for me to go there, already have an approved travel plan from the locals to go there." "How exactly I'm supposed to 'bump into', this officer, and convince them to come with me, that was not in the mission packet, guess I'll have to improvise." Joseph stashes the file in a safe place on his ship, resumes the resupply, then sets about readying his small vessel for takeoff.

@a-den-of-demons

[nixalegos]

Your Childhood enemy shows up on your doorstep, begging for help, what do you do?

People did not ask their neighbors for help. Not there. Not in the shadow of Augur's Row. Well. Most didn't call the street that anyway. The pounding sound of a fist on the door was too desperate to be a courier, and the whole house slithered awake as the very shadows pulled and warbled down the stairs along the walls. Ever hungry. But the man at the top of the stairs frowned. A glance from his third eye to the outside, to them, a flaming hateful scrying eye that hung suspended over the doorway to see this unexpected visitation. "HELP ME!" The desperate said. "THEY'RE GOING TO MURDER ME!" Well. It was the street for it. Felweave armor was shrugged on, plating locking, arms adjusted, a pinch at the elbow needing a wiggle to fix before his gauntlets were adorned. Weapons and gadgets prepped for this sort of emergency. Heavy boots bringing him down the stairs as locks and automated processes were completed. By the time his boots hit the landing he was ready for a cataclysm. The eye tilted, from the desperate elf with a curiously curly top of red hair to down the street where the supposed harassers sought to ambush. The warlock recognized it. And then the face. A fattened stress and panicking echo of the leering jeering bully for long before. It was funny. He could remember a childhood bully. He didn't even remember the surname of his birth. His hood was pulled up and over his head. It didn't matter, the hooded man thought. That man died on the red dirt of Hellfire. It was Lord Felscythe who opened the door. Thanks @dinthoqaf!

[christiansorrell]

Play-By-Blog #0.5: Cloud Empress

asdfasf

So, here are the results:

Our starting party will be a Courier, a Magician, and a Lordling! Screw Sellswords! No one here likes them apparently (literally not a single person, not even me, voted for them)!

I rolled all three characters randomly across the board, as is Play-By-Blog tradition. That said, let's take a look at our crew!

THE COURIER: "Senior" Stone (they/he)

(I'll be typing this up in a little character keeper for upcoming entries, but for now, here's my handwritten sheet! Sorry for my bad handwriting! I have little patience for legibility.)

Stone is a rough-n-tumble courier in their final year of being a teen. They just recovered from a broken arm for a few weeks in Tack Town, and are eager to get back on the road. With a new, still-unnamed crew at their side, they are confident about this next job, if for no other reason than they'll be more targets than just a lone courier this time. Stone is the party's provision carrier, being a Courier and all. They currently have 3 days worth of Provisions for the entire party (the max they can carry).

THE MAGICIAN: Boto "The Penitent" (she/her)

Boto is a full-grown Magician and practiced arcane healer, looking for something new and exciting among the, frankly, boring fields of the Breadbasket. She just finally learned more about an unknown spell after a few weeks in a backwater village, convincing the townsfolk of her trustworthiness. She's dying for some adventure, and this job looks like it could be just the thing.

THE LORDLING: Iselbraid "The Judge" (he/him)

Iselbraid is a Lordling of some renown but few achievements. After romancing (and angering) several members of the Royal Court, he's taken to the surface for a bit, looking to earn himself a valorous tale or two before returning in the fall. Hopefully they'll be some new members of the court that catch his eye by then. He's still convincing himself that this whole bit of adventure is the right decision, but he doesn't know how long he can get by off of smooth-talking alone.

OUR STARTING GOAL: Hunt a fleshthresher in the Breadbasket. The components fetch a decent exchange in trade, plus there's a local farmerling group offering to aid you considerably if you are able to make the fields around the fleshthresher save for them to harvest.

Fleshthreshers are ancient and deadly automatons, responsible for protecting the automated farm fields of the World Before. We'll need to explore the region or possibly chat with some locals and see if we can get a tip about any known Fleshthreshers in the area. Scout crews frequently gather in Tack Town and head out in search of food, working to gather undetected by the field automatons, so its reasonable to assume some may have a worthwhile lead, if we can find them.

OUR STARTING LOCATION: Tack Town (B18), the largest city in the lowland wastes centered at the heart of the Breadbasket.

"There isn’t an adult Farmerling who has not spent a season in Tack Town and only badly misplanned Farmerling children are born outside its crumbling plastisteel walls. The Lowland’s last city is filled with a jumble of hard shell tents, ancient dwellings, and tack-shaped rolling campers resistant to the unearthing Imago."

"Many make their way to the cafeteria, waiting to taste today’s sweet-meat soup; milky bone broth infused with cardamom and honey. Farmerlings high on mushroom tonic gulp down bowls of the stuff, stumbling past a parading Lordling and nir guards. The Lordling finds few eyes meet nir gaze and the Farmerlings that do bite their thumbs in anger."

"In the market, travelers buy handfuls of seeds with their winter savings, preparing to make their way back to ancient farmlands. There is no singular day of departure, just a growing feeling that it is time to move on. Folks trickle out, four or five at a time, and only the old and unwell stay behind preparing Tack Town for its next winter."

It is here our adventure begins, but first, we have a choice.

(As always, sound off in the comments in you've got another approach or a specific thing you'd like to see the characters do/investigate. Thanks for joining me for character creation! Next entry will dive into the adventure narration proper and we'll see how these characters explore the world, what events trigger, and more. I'm happy to have y'all along for the ride! - Christian)

[wishingforloushair]

✂️Sunday Snippet✂️

Thanks @larry-hiatus for the tag 🥰

This is from my Sci-Fi fic for the next round of @1dastroficfest

“You know how it is. These corridors are massive, and no one wants to walk anymore.”

It wasn’t a lie. The network of sprawling metal tunnels connecting the four residential and commerce districts to Solara, and Solara to the Goods In and Out ports ran for almost ten miles. Astra was a different sort of civilisation. Louis had heard stories, of course he had, of civilizations where people lived directly on the planetary surfaces, farming from the land directly, able to be exposed to their solar source. Astra was different. Desperate for a new way of life, the settlers had left their home planet to settle Astra in a series of sprawling glass domes, eventually renamed to the districts, connected via metal tunnels. Astra’s planetary surface was inhospitable, the solar rays deadly with even the slightest exposure. Enclosed spaces and internal combustion engines didn’t mix well, so cars, and other automated modes of transport were banned within Astra city limits. In fact, anything that could cause a spark was outlawed outside of very strict regulations. There was one, fully electric tram that connected Astra to a second colony, or at least the worksite of a second colony. But other than that, everyone had to lump it with walking, unless they were rich enough to buy a bicycle. A crappy one with a flat tyre would set Louis back over a thousand Astra Credits, so obviously he wasn’t going to do that.

The good news was there was always someone looking for him to grab their deliveries from Goods In, take their deliveries to Goods Out, or even sometimes go grocery shopping for them. And yeah, sometimes his shipments contained illegal items, but he was just a courier, so it was really nothing to do with him. If people’s shipments arrived on time, delivered with a cheeky smile and discretely, his Credits would never drop low enough for him to be homeless, and that’s what mattered. Smuggler, courier, potato, potahto.

Tagging (but no pressure to share) @petitommo @justahappycloud @babyhoneyheslt @enchantedlandcoffee @harruandlou

[once-in-a-blue-moon-rising]

Generally I like living inside my obsessive little brain and we have a good time, but sometimes it just latches onto something that is ostensibly futile and is also making me upset, and I kind of wish I was better at just putting things down.

In this case, I'm about 90% sure the courier has lost a gift I made for my sister, but their customer service is so shocking, I've not been able to get any help for it. Whether you call, email or use their stupid chatbot, all you get is AI/bots/automated messages.

Anyway, the obsessive part comes in here: I've convinced myself that if I could get in touch with a human and be really polite, and sob down the phone for 30 seconds I could get it sorted - which is probably not true, but it would be nice to give it a go. And so I've been scouring the internet for days for ways to trick them into speaking to you. So far, no luck; and now it's Saturday evening anyway, so of course no real humans are working rn. And it would be nice to put it down and immerse myself in something else, at least until Monday.

Anyway, don't use Evri. I know everyone already knows this, but I am cursing the fact that I agreed to it when the Post Office woman suggested it, because it hadn't been my intention going in, and I did have a moment of 'oh god, they're so useless' before agreeing. I knew this. But I'm not good at decision-making under pressure, especially when I hadn't realised there would be a decision to make, and the obvious implication of the question was 'oh you should go with Evri because they're cheaper than Royal Mail'.

tl;dr: I wish every executive at Evri the worst day of their lives; I wish I could think about almost anything else

[shipeasetechnologies]

Why Shipease is the Smartest Choice for E-Commerce Shipping in 2025

Why Shipease is the Smartest Choice for E-Commerce Shipping in 2025

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Thanks to its smart algorithm, Shipease automatically suggests the best courier based on delivery location, cost, and performance history. This means faster deliveries, lower return rates, and happier customers.

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4. Seamless Integration with Major Marketplaces

Whether you're selling on Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, or your own website, Shipease easily integrates with major e-commerce platforms. Sync your orders effortlessly and manage your shipping in a streamlined workflow.

5. Flexible Shipping Options

From same-day delivery to cash on delivery (COD) and reverse logistics, Shipease offers a wide range of shipping options. This flexibility allows you to cater to diverse customer preferences and boost your overall conversion rates.

6. Affordable Pricing and Transparent Billing

Shipease offers competitive shipping rates with no hidden charges. With clear invoicing and billing insights, e-commerce sellers get complete visibility over shipping expenses, making budgeting and forecasting a breeze.

7. Automated NDR and RTO Management

Non-delivery reports (NDRs) and return-to-origin (RTO) shipments can be a nightmare for online sellers. Shipease automates the process of addressing delivery failures, communicates with customers, and helps minimize return costs.

8. Dedicated Support and Account Management

Need help fast? Shipease offers responsive customer support along with dedicated account managers who understand your business goals and help optimize your shipping strategy.

9. Data-Driven Insights for Smarter Decisions

With in-depth analytics and shipping performance reports, you can track KPIs, optimize courier selection, and uncover areas to improve logistics and customer experience.

10. Future-Ready Technology

In 2025, speed and adaptability are key. Shipease stays ahead of the curve by continuously upgrading its tech infrastructure, ensuring faster processing, enhanced security, and new features that support your e-commerce growth.

Conclusion

E-commerce success in 2025 hinges on delivering orders quickly, reliably, and affordably — and Shipease is built to help you do just that. Whether you’re a small seller or a large-scale brand, Shipease offers the tools, tech, and support you need to ship smarter, scale faster, and deliver better.

Switch to Shipease today — because smart businesses deserve smart shipping.

[omnic]

today at work was, nicely put, hell !!

got a notification in the morning that my roster had changed, and i was put on a shift for tomorrow. this is just an automated message. i didn't receive any courtesy message or inquiring message from my manager...... just put on. i was annoyed that she couldn't have even flicked me a quick text. so i decided i would say no when i eventually got into my shift today. i'm being disrespected in small and big ways at work and i'm tired of it ngl

there was a part of me that was thinking she was gonna do some pity stuff about how she needs me, etc...... i definitely would've viewed this better if she's tried to pull the sympathy card. or some kind of understanding that i have a life, and the entire "so sorry for the short notice but can you do tomorrow?" thing. y'all how she reacted stunned me a little i'm gonna be honest FDKLMDLKMG

very firmly, aggressive "why CAN'T you do tomorrow? you SHOULD be available friday." basically started interrogating me as to why i couldn't do tomorrow, as if i should be hanging on every single day to see if i get put on a shift and never ever make plans even when we have an electronic roster. eventually, after berating me for a good few minutes, she told me that the reason i got put on was because there's a farmer's strike in the city tomorrow, roads will be blocked, stopping our courier's from accessing us, so one of our staff has to do courier work.

i could've continued saying no. i think that would've been better in retrospect. but i negotiated with her, since i knew she needed me. eventually i secured a shift that was just the essential time. but she bitched at it to my supervisor and both of them made the entirety of that shift fuckin AWFUL for me. every second thing i did was wrong. i was being micromanaged, berated, told i "shouldn't be doing x" even when they did x literally 20 minutes ago. they huffed, rolled their eyes with me, were rude and unnecessarily firm……. eventually it was to the point that CUSTOMERS noticed and they visibly changed their demeanour with me, offered sympathy smiles…. like you know it's bad when the customers are like "ummm that's mean of u to ur staff lol"

[advertisement098]

How does Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd ensure timely delivery for urgent printing projects?

In today’s fast‑paced marketplace, tight deadlines and last‑minute print requests are the norm rather than the exception. A missed delivery can mean delayed product launches, stalled marketing campaigns, or lost revenue—and none of that aligns with the high standards of brands that choose Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd

. That’s why we’ve built our entire operation around speed, reliability, and precision, ensuring your urgent printing projects arrive exactly when you need them, every time.

1. Advanced, High‑Capacity Production Infrastructure

From the moment an urgent job hits our desk, it enters a production environment engineered for speed without compromise on quality. Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd operates:

High‑speed web offset presses that can churn out tens of thousands of sheets per hour

Fully automated sheet‑fed offset machines with rapid plate changers and inline quality sensors

State‑of‑the‑art finishing lines (folding, binding, trimming, lamination) all under one roof

This vertical integration—where printing, finishing, and packing happen in the same facility—eliminates handoffs and logistics delays, compressing what normally would take days into a matter of hours.

2. Dedicated Urgent‑Job Workflow

Not every order at Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd follows the same path. We maintain a priority‑job workflow specifically for urgent projects:

Rapid Intake & Assessment: Within minutes of your confirmation, our production planning team logs your requirements, flags any special considerations (custom sizes, specialty substrates, special coatings), and creates a dedicated “express lane” for your order.

Expedited Proofing: Our in‑house prepress and design team turns around digital proofs in under 2 hours, allowing you to review and approve artwork without the usual back‑and‑forth.

Immediate Material Allocation: We keep a carefully calibrated buffer stock of popular paper grades, inks, and finishing supplies—enough to support multiple urgent runs simultaneously.

By isolating urgent jobs into their own fast‑track process, we ensure they never get back‑bunkered by larger or more complex work.

3. Multi‑Shift & Round‑the‑Clock Operations

When deadlines are non‑negotiable, our machines don’t stop. Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd runs three full production shifts and offers extended hours on demand:

Day, evening, and night crews keep presses rolling 24/7 for priority clients

On‑call technicians and supervisors guarantee that any mechanical or quality issue is handled immediately, without waiting for the next business day

This continuous operation model is critical for handling large‑volume urgent jobs—whether you need 50,000 flyers by first thing tomorrow or 20,000 packaging sleeves in 48 hours.

4. Real‑Time Production Monitoring & Communication

Transparency is key when time is of the essence. We provide:

Live production dashboards accessible to you via email link or customer portal, showing job status, machine uptime, and estimated completion time

Dedicated account managers who send twice‑daily updates by phone or WhatsApp—whichever you prefer—so you always know exactly where your order stands

Immediate alerts if any unexpected issue arises, along with a proposed action plan to keep your timeline on track

This proactive communication eliminates uncertainty and lets you plan your launch or distribution activities with confidence.

5. Strategic Vendor & Logistics Partnerships

Even after printing and finishing are complete, delivery remains a critical step. Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd partners with:

Reliable courier and freight providers for door‑to‑door domestic delivery, capable of same‑day or overnight service in major metros

Experienced export forwarders for international shipments, handling customs documentation and compliance so your urgent packages never get held up in transit

Because we coordinate dispatch in parallel with final quality checks, your order is out the door the moment it clears inspection—no waiting for batch shipments or manual handoffs.

6. Experienced Team & Agile Problem‑Solving

Technology and processes set the stage, but it’s our people who make the difference. Every urgent‑job team includes:

Senior press operators who can optimize run speeds without sacrificing color fidelity

Quality‑control experts trained to spot and correct deviations—on the fly

Project managers with the authority to reprioritize schedules, deploy extra resources, or arrange emergency material runs

Their deep experience and empowerment to act swiftly mean that even unexpected challenges—such as rush artwork changes or substrate substitutions—are handled smoothly, without derailing your deadline.

7. Lean, Continuous Improvement Culture Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd embraces a Kaizen‑inspired approach to production. Every urgent‑job cycle concludes with a brief “quick‑turn” review, where we:

Analyze what went well and what bottlenecks occurred

Identify opportunities to streamline steps further

Update our standard operating procedures accordingly

This commitment to ongoing refinement ensures that our urgent‑order capability becomes faster and more reliable with each project.

When your deadline is tight, you need more than a “best effort”—you need a guarantee. At

Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd we’ve engineered our entire operation to deliver on that promise. From high‑capacity presses and 24/7 production to real‑time transparency and expert teams, we leave nothing to chance.

So the next time you’re up against the clock, remember Prakash Machineries Pvt. Ltd—where urgent print means on‑time, every time.

To learn more or to place an urgent order, reach out to our dedicated rapid‑response team today at

visit https://www.prakashoffset.com/ We’re ready when you are.

[laktus]

Benefits of Hiring a professional courier company in Dubai

Hiring a professional courier company in Dubai offers numerous benefits for individuals and businesses. Dubai’s strategic location as a global trade hub and its bustling economy necessitate efficient and reliable delivery services to meet diverse logistics needs. Here's a comprehensive look at the advantages of partnering with a professional courier company:

1. Speed and Efficiency

Professional courier companies in Dubai are equipped to handle urgent deliveries with speed and precision. Whether it’s same-day delivery within the city or express international shipping, their streamlined processes and expertise ensure timely delivery.

Local Deliveries: Services like same-day or next-day delivery are tailored for time-sensitive documents and packages.

International Shipments: Efficient connections through air and sea freight ensure faster global reach.

2. Expertise in Logistics

Courier companies have specialized knowledge of logistics, customs regulations, and documentation. Their expertise minimizes delays, ensures compliance with legal requirements, and makes the shipping process seamless.

Customs Clearance: Professionals handle paperwork and adhere to Dubai's import/export regulations, reducing the risk of fines or delays.

Optimal Routes: Advanced systems help identify the fastest and most cost-effective delivery routes.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

While hiring a courier service may seem like an additional expense, it often proves cost-effective in the long run. The ability to avoid hidden costs such as vehicle maintenance, fuel, and penalties for delivery errors makes outsourcing a practical choice.

Economies of Scale: Courier companies leverage their networks and partnerships to offer competitive pricing.

No Hidden Costs: Transparent pricing eliminates surprises, ensuring predictable expenses.

4. Enhanced Reliability

Reputable courier companies prioritize the safe and secure handling of your packages. They have systems in place to ensure items are tracked and delivered as promised, minimizing the risk of loss or damage.

Insurance Options: Many courier companies offer insurance, providing peace of mind for valuable shipments.

Real-Time Tracking: Clients can monitor their packages through tracking systems, improving trust and transparency.

5. Improved Customer Satisfaction

For businesses, partnering with a courier company can enhance customer satisfaction. Fast, reliable, and professional delivery services create a positive impression, leading to repeat business and customer loyalty.

Convenient Services: Features like door-to-door delivery, scheduled pickups, and flexible time slots improve convenience.

Professional Interaction: Couriers trained in customer service ensure polite and efficient interactions.

6. Scalability for Businesses

Professional courier companies can scale their services to meet your business needs. Whether you’re a small e-commerce store or a large corporation, they can handle fluctuating volumes of deliveries.

Peak Demand Management: During busy seasons, courier companies can manage increased delivery demands without compromising quality.

Custom Solutions: Tailored delivery options are available for unique business needs, such as handling fragile or oversized items.

7. Access to Advanced Technology

Professional courier companies utilize modern technology to enhance their services. This not only improves delivery speed but also ensures transparency and accuracy.

Tracking and Alerts: Real-time tracking allows customers to know the status and location of their shipments at any time.

Automated Systems: Efficient sorting and routing systems reduce errors and delays.