#Automatic Data Input

[instantdataservices]

Hii Everyone! I Hope all are doing well

Medical Insurance Auto-Fill Software is a specialized tool designed to streamline and automate the process of filling out medical insurance claim forms and related documentation. The software is developed to enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and save time.

Implementing Medical Insurance Auto-Fill Software can contribute to a more streamlined and accurate claims submission process, reducing the administrative burden on data entry works

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[eggpea]

Hate it when I'm asked about something then being completely ignored bc what I'm saying doesn't line up with the person's paranoia

[rb19]

From the Archives: "Verstappen 'driving style' myth is a trait of greatness" Jan 19, 2021 by Matt Beer

"As a driver, it doesn't matter if you have an understeering car, oversteery car, slippery surface, grippy surface, you constantly adjust your driving style to that. If you just say 'this is my driving style', this is how it's going to be, you will not be quick. I think you learn in your whole racing career from go-karting to F3 to whatever, every weekend the car behaves a bit differently, so you always have to adjust to it. It's every weekend, constantly you're adjusting your driving style a little bit to make sure that the car is working well. And of course you try to set the car to your liking but it will never be fully to your liking. You always have to fine-tune. Or at least you try it. And at the end that’s what makes a driver fast."

Throughout F1 history the very best have had very different careers, been very different personalities, and on the surface seemed like very different drivers. But if they share one defining trait it's their capacity to handle different situations and adapt to what is required in each moment: they have a wider operating window. Verstappen speaks of adaptability as if it is second nature. Probably because it is. This is a young man who has been carefully moulded into a world-class driver. The devotion to the craft of driving, instilled at such a young age, is why at 23 he has greater intuition and 'feel' than most will have at the peak of their powers. [...] Verstappen's ability comes from his intuition, which in turn a legacy of years of relentless preparation and practice. So, when he finds himself dealing with a skittish rear end, or in greasy conditions, or driving through rivers like in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, he has an extraordinary bank of data to use to handle those challenges. And he can access it automatically. It's why he handles them better than most, why even if a data overlay of a given lap or a comparison of a race stint might have shown Gasly or Albon where Verstappen was quicker, and a binary idea of what he was doing to be quicker, it doesn't fully account for how he was doing it. Driving a car is a dynamic process, with multiple inputs and countless adjustments. It's an immensely complicated sensory puzzle and piecing it all together through conscious thought is difficult, if not impossible. Most of what makes Verstappen so effective is happening on an unconscious level. [...] So, what can lazily be described as Verstappen's 'driving style' is far more complex than that. He doesn't have one way of driving, he has the skills required to drive in multiple different ways and is building more and more experience to know what way works best in any given moment. That manifests itself in such delicate, refined inputs that most drivers can see what he's doing and get close to replicating it, but not quite. And that's worth tenths of a second at a time, especially when it comes to the 2020 task of taking a capricious car and driving around its vices. This is what is second nature to Verstappen now, why the speed seems to come so effortlessly. In 2020 he augmented that with further gains in maturity and judgement. This is a vital second trait that will, car permitting, allow Verstappen to translate his performance into championships. [...]

[sightseertrespasser]

Lore dump! Lore dump! Lore dump!

You! Anonymous asker! You shall be my excuse to infodump on the Mentor System.

So, Cybertronians do not have children.

A “newborn” mech emerged straight from the Hotspot has the body of a fully realized adult, the mental capacity of an adult and the base instincts of a feral raccoon.

A mech that’s existed for about two minutes has all the information it can possibly acquire within two minutes. Which mostly amounts to rolling around on the ground and becoming acquainted with such novel concepts as gravity, vision, sound and other forms of sensory input.

Eventually, the newly sparked Hot Spot mech will start putting two and two together and figure out that the ground isn’t moving around at random and that the changes in visual data is directly affected by how they’re flailing about.

After a couple days of this, most mechs have usually figured out “walking.”

A new spark only really has three guiding structures of information already in their heads: Pain is Bad, Energon is Fuel, Knowledge is Good.

They don’t know what the hell any of that means right away but it quickly falls under “you’ll know it when you see it.”

Hot Spot mechs start off with basically no knowledge at emergence and have to learn how to do everything. One thing that MASSIVELY speeds up the learning process is if the mech is lucky enough to find other, more experienced mechs.

At this sort of larval mental stage, the only form of communication that doesn’t need to be directly taught are EM fields. So, when a new spark runs into any mechs for the first time, if any of them send out any kind of Positive EMF, it’s going to cause that New Spark to latch on the that particular person pretty hard. From their grand perspective at a whopping total of three days old, this is literally the nicest thing that’s ever happened to them.

From there, whoever decided to be nice to the still feral mech that’s actively trying to lick any open wounds is now responsible for their well being.

Good news is that the newly appointed Mentor can get the new spark up to speed on things like language and basic survival pretty quickly, especially using stuff like data packets.

On modern day Cybertron, collecting newly formed mechs for education and socialization is a standardized process and a very well compensated one at that. A mech who places themselves in such positions are referred to as Mentors. It’s a very serious position since the mentor can have a significant impact on how a new spark develops as a person.

Within the totalitarian regime of the Functionalists, early developmental control is an even bigger deal, as Hotspots, or Forged mechs automatically have a higher social standing than Cold Constructed mechs. In turn, meaning they will have far more influence in society later on.

Some groups of mechs, such as various guilds or tower socialites will want those who show the most promise to join and bolster their ranks. Granting more allies in the long run without having to make peace with old enemies.

Most Hot Spots just end up joining general society however. Even with standardization, it’s extremely difficult for a mentor to have more ward than one at a time. Since they literally don’t know anything, but have the mental and physical capabilities of a fully developed mech, new sparks have to watched 24/7 and don’t do well without constant interaction.

You know how toddlers have a “Why?” Phase? It’s like that, except the toddler will become extremely distraught if you take a break, it can turn into a helicopter and it doesn’t know that flying into power lines is bad because you haven’t explained that concept to them yet.

Mentorship is not for everyone. Unlike humans who have a healthy dose of “aw, they’re so stupid!” happy brain chemicals that tell us this is Cute, and Cybertronians, Do Not Have That Benefit. Instead going “Oh god they’re so stupid.” Repeatedly. And without reward.

Basically, a good mentor has the patience of a saint.

So what’s mentorship like for Cold Constructs?

Pretty different!

For starters, Cold Constructs come online with a lot of pre-downloaded data packets. Mostly stuff like language packs, instructions on how not to accidentally blow themselves up and other commonly referenced information.

The Functionalists have three big W’s covered: Where are you, What are you and Why do you exist?

In the case of a CC Praxian Enforcer, everyone of them comes online knowing they were created in and for the city of Praxus. They are an Enforcer and what they were created to enforce was the law.

So! You’ve got fully functional Cold Construct with all the updates. They’re instantly ready to be released into society. Right?

Right?

Wishful thinking is a fools trade for sensibility.

As it happens, language packets can’t effectively cover culture. And no amount of instruction manuals is gonna replace practical experience. Any job you’ve ever worked, you’ve undoubtedly learned the difference between what you’re told to do, and what’s the best way to actually do it.

That’s not even touching on How To Interact With Other People. Society is constantly shifting, slang evolves and social dynamics shift. The rate of updates necessary would have to be constant and every mech made beforehand would be working with defunct data.

Not to mention, personalities are still random upon coming online. The Functionalists can try very hard to encourage or punish certain behaviors, but short of Shadowplay, there’s no real method of control that works beyond an individual scale.

Ultimately, the best solution to making sure their Cold Constructs are actually capable of interacting with society semi-normally is going back to the Mentor system. Depending on what they were built for, a new Cold Construct will be assigned to a mentor of the same function. So a construction-based mech gets assigned to a senior construction worker, a cargo mech goes to a more experienced cargo mech, and so on.

Because CC’s are built to order, there’s no social capital to get from mentoring them as they’ll be joining the given demographics rank’s regardless. So, mentoring CC’s is a lot more like showing the new guy the ropes.

Sometimes there’s a monetary bonus, sometimes a CC just gets randomly assigned to a senior enough mech without compensation. Volunteers are always welcome.

In the case of Prowl and Smokescreen, at their original precinct, there was effectively a hazard pay and special living quarters for anyone who signed up to be a mentor and Smokescreen figured “I see people mentor all the time. Looks easy and I get a bigger habsuite. I can deal with rooming with a temporary dumbass.”

And then he got Prowl. Who came with all of his Prowlness, and Prowled all over the place.

At first, Smokescreen thought he lucked the fuck out, because almost immediately after Prowl started up with the existential questions, Smokescreen sat him down and taught Prowl how to do research and figure out stuff on his own. The mentorship was effectively on autopilot. All Prowl had to do was follow Smokescreen around like a silent shadow at work and observe what wasn’t written in databases.

Job done.

And then Prowl had to talk to someone who wasn’t Smokescreen.

And that person did not like how Prowl spoke to them.

And Prowl got so confused and frustrated that Tac-net crashed for the first time.

Giving Smokescreen the very cold wake-up call that he was the only person who understood how Prowl communicated. Because he assumed Prowl would figure it out talking to other people on his own.

Throw in the health issues related to Tac-net and Smokescreen had the very real paradigm shift that he was now not only responsible for another persons wellbeing, but the single person who could support him anymore.

Ever since then, Smokescreen has tried fairly hard to teach Prowl how to be a person, which pretty much amounts to how to be like him. Life happens outside of work, most laws are hypocritical, and stop caring so much damnit.

But you can’t control someone’s baseline personality. So eventually, Smokescreen stopped trying to argue with Prowl, and just started working with how he was as a person.

Traditionally, mentors and their wards live in fairly close proximity, and the mentor is legally responsible for their ward until the dynamic is dissolved. Cybertronians are very social by nature, so it’s fairly common for mentors to remain apart of their former wards social circle for a long time.

In the case of Smokescreen and Prowl, due in part to the smaller age gap and general unpreparedness, their relationship is far less like a typical Teacher - Student relationship and far more like a Older Brother Who Knows How To Skip School To Go To The Club and Younger Brother Who Should Not Be Brought Along To The Club relationship.

Add in Bluestreak to the mix and you’ve got an almost functional person between the two of them Mentoring him.

Youngest Brother Who Was Clearly Raised By Their Older Brothers And Is Destroying At Darts In The Club.

[utopicwork]

I had a breakthrough yesterday that I've been fervently working on. With what I know about image compression and terminals I was able to implement image and animation display in terminals with color. I'll show a few examples and then explain the significance (I can't show the animation right now because I can't record it at the moment).

Note: These images were automatically optimized not manually, better quality is possible these are samples

The reason this matters is we now have a way to transport graphics in a very optimized way in which we only have to store the indexed colors and the positional data for the colors (which we have a novel method of optimizing) notably you only have to send the indexed colors once for an animation or stream of images. This provides us the ability to render graphics with no GUI so with far less overhead.

TLDR: We have an entirely new way to send and receive images/animations/streamed sequences

For the more technically interested read on

This uses the Python Curses wrapper, unicode block elements and Pillow to achieve this. The limitations are loose but input images will automatically be posterized to handle the 255 color limit of Curses (a little fuzzy on if there are ways around this beyond the fg/bg doubling idea I'm thinking qbout, I'll look into it soon) and your image needs to be a width and height that can be displayed within your particular terminal setup ex: a 32x32px image needs 32 lines and 32 columns.

To accommodate this for PierMesh we can use the ShrinkRay optimizations.

[yoursweetwife]

hi i’m absolutely brain rottimg about dr ratio while trying to complete a lab report

just thinking about his partner complaining about statistics and about how they despise statistical analysis. they’ve got this report to do (i wonder where this idea is coming from…) and they’re dreading it

he notices them furrowing their brows as they input data into this analysis program, cursing under their breath.

“aeons, why is this so confusing…? the graphs they use… why can’t i tell if…” they’re mumbling under their breath, absolutely confused. they’ve actually been at it for a while, and ratio *hates* to admit that he’s beginning to miss their presence…

so he goes up and pries the laptop out of their hands, with a soft mumble of ‘you’re an idiot’ under his breath.

“i’ll help you out. it’s better than watching you fumble with the data like an idiot.” he says softly, but he really is too embarrassed to admit he would literally do their whole lab report for them if they asked him.

just thinking of soft fluffy dr ratio begrudgingly helping his partner suffer through their lab work. as a reward they smother him in kisses and he hates to admit he enjoys seeing them so happy and thankful…

GET HIM OUT OF MY BRAIN!!! IM BRAINROTTING!! I WANT HIM DEAD /J

Sorry, it took me a long time to respond to your request. Since you didn't specify gender, I decided to take a female reader

synopsis: [name] was tired and Ratio decided to help his lover

frmale!reader

Sitting on the flock sofa, Ratio looked up from his book from time to time to look at his watch. From the outside it may seem that he is completely calm, but inside the scientist was trying to overcome his own anxiety. Only the rapid tapping of his fingers on the pages of the book betrayed his irritation.

Ratio ran his hand through his disheveled hair and sighed irritably. How long he's been sitting here? Ever since you told him to go to bed alone because you had a lab report to fill out, and Ratio knew how much you hated that, but you hated asking him for help even more. And no matter how much Veritas respected you for this, your absence began to bother him.

And Ratio hates this feeling, now even being alone in the room seems like some kind of torture, he’s used to your more physical displays of affection, cuddling against his side, resting your head on his shoulder..

Quiet rustling noises made Ratio glance displeasedly towards the kitchen. He put the book on the coffee table and headed into the next room, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Already at the door frame, his golden eyes met your tired figure. He could hear you irritably whispering curses under your breath while writing something down, and Ratio began to fear that you were about to cry, seeing your completely confused face and futile attempts to fill out the table.

You didn't even notice his bulky figure standing right in front of you, and his worried expression never reached your eyes. For a couple of seconds, he had the urge to throw the ill-fated laptop out the window.

"Oh, I don't understand...what.."

Here again, Ratio rubbed the bridge of his nose, and with light steps walked straight to the table, before you even had time to come to your senses, as the gadget slammed shut in front of your face, making you flinch.

Veritas stands at the side of the table, keeping his hand on the computer and staring irritably straight into your tired eyes. His whole body was tense, as evidenced by the bulging veins on his strong arms and twitching muscles, you almost thought that he was going to scold you for your idiocy, as if you were one of his students.

"Veritas, what are you doing?"

He interrupted your question and leaned closer to your face, and you involuntarily held your breath, avoiding his assessing gaze and waiting for the next words.

“Idiot, how long are you going to rack your brain over such basic things? If you continue to stare mindlessly at the screen, knowledge will not appear in your head automatically.”

Ratio crossed his arms over his chest and looked at you expectantly. You laughed awkwardly and leaned back in your chair, relaxing for the first time in hours.

“What else could I do but stare mindlessly?”

You decided to joke to diffuse the tension. But your lover seemed to take it seriously and pointed to himself proudly.

"For example, asking me for help."

The look of surprise your face did not go unnoticed, but almost immediately it was replaced by a slight smile. Ratio's face relaxed a little, and his cheeks turned a light crimson shade.He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure.

"I'll help you. It's better than watching you fiddle with data like an idiot."

In just a second he was sitting next to you, opening laptop to see what he had to work with. For aeons, he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible and be in a soft bed with you in his arms.

You silently watched Veritas’s actions, listening to his explanations, but your thoughts constantly went somewhere else. Contrary to popular belief, Ratio is quite a cute lover, especially in the mornings when he is too sleepy to try to act cool and confident. And his attempts to hide his need for you are adorable.

Soon the work was almost finished, and you even learned something during this time and helped Veritas, for which you received a dry “not bad,” but pride was visible in his eyes.

You couldn't help but yawn, causing tears to form in your eyes. Your lover shook his head softly. His sweet troubled woman.

"Time for bed, you look like you might faint from exhaustion."

“Thank you, Veritas, now I’ll clean everything up and we’ll go...”

Just as you reached for the mess on the table, Veritas stopped your hand, gently grabbing your wrist, and looked at you sternly.

"I'm pretty sure it can wait until tomorrow."

"But..."

With his free hand, Veritas lifted your chin while the other rested on your waist.

"No "but", we're going to the room now and you won't get out of bed until the next morning."

Ratio said, draw out each word. A deep blush filled your cheeks, for the first time Veritas looked so...needy, and he also seemed surprised by his own words.

Veritas let go of you almost immediately and turned away, trying to hide his red face, but you prevented him by grabbing both of his hands.

“It seems like I never thanked you for your help, does it?”

Your soft hands came to rest on his face, pulling him closer to place a light but passionate kiss on his lips. And Veritas wasted no time in deepening the kiss, leaning into your soothing touch.

If you always thank him like that, then he is ready to fill out thousands of such reports.

You soon broke contact and a few more quick kisses landed on his cheeks, forehead and nose, causing him to protest, but despite the outward hostility, Veritas clearly wanted more, and you were going to give it to him.

[roseserpentpress]

Did someone say Automatic Bookbindery Stats Calculator?!🧮

✨Ever wanted an organized place that after inputting data about the books you've bound, it easily calculates stats such as number of books you've bound per year and total number of books you've bound over the years, or total number of fanfics you've bound? Then look no further, this google sheet is set up to do this for you! Feel free to make a copy and try it out! ✨

🧮 Some stats automatically calculated include🧮:

Number of books made per each year

List of fandoms you've bound for

List of ships you've bound for

List of different books sizes you've bound

Total # of books

Total # of unique books

Total # of copies

Total # of fanfics bound

Total # of words bound

Total # gifted

And many more!

Okay, used cars sales person schtick aside, I personally had already begun this as an easier way to track what I've bound since I find this sort of stuff interesting, and I was already listing the fanfics I had bound in a google sheets to keep track of them... so then why wouldn't I just already start to calculate stats? Except originally it was p broken since I half-assed it, but a little while ago I finally found some time to hammer out all the issues (probably), so I believe now it's all set and ready to go. If you do use it and notice an issue do let me know, and also I do want to note it's been solely set up (so far) to take in already finished bookbinding projects.

[k-nayee]

Morning After Alien Romulus ii

wc: 3.9k a/n: Song Inspiration: Morning After by DVSN; recommend you listen while reading!!

Traveler M.List

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ˏ⸉ˋ‿̩͙‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙ˏ⸉ˋ‿̩͙‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙ˏ⸉ˋ‿̩͙‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .‿̩̥̩‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙ˊ⸊ˎ‿̩̥̩‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙ˊ⸊ˎ‿̩̥̩‿̩̩̥͙̽‿̩͙ˊ⸊ˎ

The quiet hum of the ventilation system was the only sound in the room as you awakened.

Your bare skin prickled slightly as the cool air traced along your spine. The sheets were slightly tangled around your legs, a faint reminder of the way Tyler had held onto you as if afraid you’d slip away.

For a moment you stayed there, caught between the comfort of the present and the weight of the future pressing on your chest.

You took in the sight of Tyler sleeping beside you—his dark lashes casting shadows on his cheekbones, lips slightly parted, breaths even and untroubled as his arm draped loosely over your waist,

You felt an undeniable tug in your chest.

It wasn’t fair. None of this was.

You reached out without thinking; brushing your fingers gently through his hair, smoothing back a few strands that had fallen over his forehead. He barely stirred with a soft exhale.

You wanted nothing more than to stay, to sink back under the covers and pretend, even for a little while longer, that the outside world didn’t exist. That Jackson’s Star wasn’t a crumbling graveyard in the making.

But reality was impatient and duty whispered in the back of your mind.

Leaning in, you pressed a light kiss to his forehead, lingering just enough to let the moment settle. "Soon," you murmured against his skin, the promise hanging between you. "We’ll get there soon."

Though you weren’t sure who it was really meant for. Him or yourself?

With careful movements you slip out from under the sheets, mindful not to wake him. The floor was cool beneath your feet as you padded across the room, a wince pulling at your face as you bend down to dress quickly—the soreness a not-so-subtle reminder of last night.

You had picked something simple. Practical. Didn’t want to give anyone a reason to notice you more than necessary today.

The facility was quieter than usual when you arrived. Most workers hadn’t clocked in yet, leaving only a few scattered employees moving through the lit corridors, lost in their own routines.

Good. Fewer eyes meant fewer questions.

Settling at your workstation, you booted up the terminal, fingers moving automatically over the keyboard. Years of navigating these systems had made you efficient—too efficient.

You knew the system inside and out; knew its weak spots, its loopholes. Every firewall, every security gap, every blind spot left unattended that management either didn’t care to fix or simply hadn’t noticed.

Maybe it was arrogance. Maybe it was neglect. Either way it worked in your favor.

Hacking in was second nature by now. Your eyes scanned the lines of code flashing across the screen as you navigated through, slipping past security protocols with the kind of precision that only came from experience.

A click here, a minor override there—nothing too aggressive, nothing that would trip an alarm. Just a careful dance between what was allowed and what wasn’t.

Then you saw it.

QUOTA MET: TRANSFER ELIGIBLE

The confirmation glowed in green across your account file, staring back at you like a silent invitation.

You had met your quota weeks ago. The option had been sitting there waiting. You hadn’t acted. Not until now.

Not until Tyler.

Your heartbeat picked up, thudding against your ribs as you pulled up your brother’s data. His file flickered onto the screen—his name, his hours, his status, all laid out in sterile formatting.

For a brief second doubt gnawed at the edges of your resolve. What if this didn’t work? What if someone noticed? What if—

No. You couldn't think like that. Taking a deep breath, you began typing.

It wasn’t just a matter of inputting numbers. The system wouldn’t allow a direct transfer under normal circumstances. There were fail-safes in place, redundancies meant to prevent exactly this kind of manipulation.

Luckily you knew the cracks in the armor.

Instead of a direct transfer you rerouted the hours through a dormant worker ID—a name that no longer had a body attached to it, a ghost in the system. From there the hours flowed cleanly into your brother’s account, looking like nothing more than a clerical correction.

The moment you hit Enter your status blinked red.

QUOTA UNMET: TRANSFER UNELIGIBLE

And then—your brother’s turned green.

QUOTA MET: TRANSFER ELIGIBLE

A sharp breath hitched in your throat, your hands were still trembling slightly as they hovered over the keys. 'It's done.'

The thought echoed in your head but it didn’t bring you the relief you expected. Instead your stomach twisted with unease.

With a shaky exhale you forced yourself to focus. You couldn’t afford to sit here in shock. You quickly began to erase every trace of your interference.

You became hyper-aware of the faint hum of machinery and the distant murmur of workers beginning to filter into the station as your fingers moved automatically.

Delete logs, clear access history, reroute tracking pings.

Every file you touched, every lingering breadcrumb that could be traced back to you, wiped clean. It was meticulous work but you had no room for error.

A few more keystrokes... A final scan... Gone.

With a final click you shut off your terminal. You sat there for a moment, staring at the dark reflection of your own face on the screen’s surface.

It was done. No going back.

Your lungs deflated as you leaned back in the chair, shoulders slumping as the tension coiled in your muscles finally unwound—just a fraction.

Because this was only the first step.

Pushing away from your desk, you forced your legs to move through the near-empty halls. The artificial lighting above flickered slightly, casting sharp shadows along the walls, but you barely noticed.

You needed to look the part.

Reaching the nearest restroom, you slipped inside and locked the door behind you. The mirror reflected back a face that didn’t look nearly as weary as you felt.

That wouldn’t do.

Digging into your bag, you pulled out your small kit of waterproof makeup, your hands steady as you selected the palest shade you had. You apply it strategically to make your skin appear almost ghostly: dabbing it under your cheekbones, around your eyes—anywhere that would make you look sickly.

Then came the red liner, a precise application around the rims of your eyes to mimic irritation and exhaustion. You blinked a few times to let the moisture build naturally.

The effect was haunting—you looked drained, on the verge of collapse.

Perfect.

Satisfied, you straightened, adjusted your shirt to appear slightly rumpled, and took one last breath before leaving the restroom.

Now came the hard part.

The walk to Mary-Anne's office felt much longer than usual. Your hands felt clammy, your breathing slightly uneven, but you forced yourself to stay calm. This has to work.

Reaching her door, you raised a trembling hand and knocked softly.

A rustle of papers. A chair shifting. Then—

"Come in."

You pushed the door open and stepped inside.

She was at her desk (as usual), glasses perched on the bridge of her nose as she worked through a thick stack of paperwork. The soft glow of her monitor illuminated the wrinkles in her forehead as she worked, but as soon as she saw you she paused.

Her face brightened upon seeing you, her lips parting in the start of a warm greeting—until she saw you up close. The warmth drained from her expression and was replaced by deep immediate concern.

"____...sweetheart, I—" Mary-Anne's brows knit together as she stood up slightly, leaning forward. "What’s wrong? What happened?"

You lowered yourself into the chair across from her, your hands clenching together in your lap, curling into yourself just a little as you gave a shaky sigh.

“I—I listened to you,” you murmured. “I went to the infirmary. I...I just thought maybe I was run down, you know?" A weak humorless laugh escaped you before you inhaled sharply as if bracing yourself. "But after some tests, they—" Your voice caught.

Mary-Anne was already on the edge of her seat. "Tests?" she echoed. Her own hands pressed against the desk, her knuckles white.

You lifted your gaze to hers, your eyes wet, the red lining enhancing the illusion of someone who had cried too much already. "They found something growing in my brain. They don't know what...but the tumor's developing fast."

Mary-Anne's face went slack. For a moment she just stared, uncomprehending—like her mind refused to process what you had just said. Then the color drained from her face.

"Oh honey…" Her voice broke, eyes glassy with unshed tears. "No...no that can’t—"

You let out a shaky breath, blinking rapidly as if you were trying to keep yourself together. It wasn’t hard—because underneath the act real emotions swirled, tangled with the lie.

You could feel the weight of it pressing on your concious.

She reached forward, grasping your hands in hers, squeezing them tightly as if that alone could will reality into something kinder.

You let your head dip slightly, eyes burning as you let out a trembling breath. "I—I don’t have much time."

Her grip on your hand tightened. "No no don’t say that. There—there has to be something they can do. Treatments—"

You shook your head. "It’s too late for that."

The first tear slipped down her cheek and it nearly shattered you.

She saw you like family. A daughter, a niece—someone she had taken under her wing long ago. And now? Now she was losing you.

You hesitated before speaking again, letting the tension stretch just enough. Then you carefully squeezed her hand. "I...I need you to do something for me."

She sniffed, blinking rapidly. "Anything."

You took a breath. "I need you to approve my brother’s transfer to Yvaga III."

Her brows knit together, confusion flickering across her grief-stricken face. "...What?"

"I gave him all my hours," you admitted lowly. "He has everything he needs to leave. But if anyone checks the records, they’ll see the numbers don’t add up and they’ll start asking questions."

Silence.

Mary-Anne's entire body tensed as her hands pulled away. "You—what?" Her voice dropped to a whisper, almost like she was afraid of the walls listening in. "Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! If they find out—"

You cut her off with a hollow laugh. "I’m already a dead woman."

That stopped her cold.

The room fell silent except for the faint hum of machinery beyond the walls. Her lips parted but no words came out. She just stared at you, at the emptiness behind your eyes, at the acceptance.

The truth (at least the truth you had crafted) settled between you both like a lead weight..

“There’s always one final screening before transfer off Jackson Star.” You spoke again, voice softer now, raw with the emotion you needed her to see. “If you approve it no one will think to look deeper. No one will question it."

Tears spilled freely from your eyes now, your breath coming out uneven. "I...I can’t leave him alone. I'm all he has. After the death of our parent's I can’t—" Your breath hitched and the dam broke.

Your body shook as sobs wracked your frame. The grief, the fear, the desperation—it all poured out in a way that felt real. Maybe because some of it was.

Maybe because you knew, deep down, you weren’t just crying for your brother. You were crying for everything.

For the life you never got to have... For the choices forced upon you.... For the lies you had to tell to ensure the only family you had left would be safe....

Through your blurred vision you saw her; you saw the war waging in her expression, the way her hands curled into fists, the way she fought against the rules, against logic, against everything she was supposed to do.

Then, with a heavy shaky sigh, she shook her head. "You…" She let out a choked sound, somewhere between frustration and heartbreak. "You absolute fool."

And then she nodded. "Okay."

Your breath caught.

She sniffled, wiping her face. "I’ll do it. I’ll make it official."

A broken sob tore through you as you surged forward, wrapping your arms around her. She let out a strangled sound of her own before hugging you back tightly, squeezing you like she was trying to hold you together.

You had done it.

Your brother was safe.

And nothing else mattered.

*.·:·.☽✧✧☾.·:·.*

You sat in the dimly lit living lounge, your knee bouncing uncontrollably as nerves twisted like a knot in your stomach. The faint hum of the ventilation system filled the silence but it did nothing to settle the unease gripping your chest.

The clock on the wall ticked louder than usual—or maybe it was just your heartbeat roaring in your ears.

Your fingers tangled together in your lap, gripping tighter than they needed to as every so often you'd glanced toward the front door.

'He should be home soon...'

You had gone over this conversation in your head over and over. What you would say...how you would say it.

But now? Now you weren’t even sure how to start.

Then—

The front door slides open with a soft hiss, the faint shuffling of boots against the metal floor signaling his return. Anticipation and dread coiled inside you as you shot up instantly like a tightly wound spring.

Your brother stepped inside, his uniform slightly wrinkled from another long shift. A tired but genuine smile formed on his lips as he shrugged off his jacket. "Hey! You won't believe the kind of day I had—"

The easy smile falters the second he sees your face. "What’s wrong?" The usual warmth in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a cautious edge.

You hadn’t realized how serious you must have seemed—hands clenched, eyes trained on him like you were bracing for impact.

You didn’t answer.

Instead you closed the distance between you in a few quick strides and pulled him into a hug.

His body tensed at first, caught off guard by the abruptness of it, his arms hovering uncertainly before finally settling around you. He was taller than you now, but the way you clutched him and forced his head down to rest against your shoulder said otherwise.

"Okay...?" His voice was muffled as he let out a confused chuckle. "Now I know something’s up."

He shifted slightly, trying to pull back, but you only tightened your hold for a moment longer, now cradling his head under your chin.

His breath hitched. "Hey...what’s going on?" His voice was softer now. More careful.

You could feel his unease, the way he hunched slightly, letting you hold onto him like you used to when you were both younger—when the world had been scarier and he had needed you to shield him from it.

Taking one last shaky breath, you finally pull back. His hands lingered on your arms as you reached up to gently cup his face between your palms.

His skin was warm beneath your touch, [eye color] eyes searching yours for answers as his brow scrunched deeper. "Seriously. What’s going on?"

You met his gaze. "You’re leaving, [Brother's Name]."

He blinks. “What?”

"You’re getting out of here." Your voice became firmer. “You’re leaving Jackson Star.”

His expression remained frozen for a second, like his brain was still catching up to the words you had just said. Then his eyes slowly widened.

A beat of silence.

"...What?" His voice was barely a whisper this time.

You didn’t waver. You repeated yourself as you give a steady and reassuring nod. "You’re going to Yvaga."

For a moment his lips parted but no sound came out. He just stood there blinking at you, the reality of your words sinking in.

Then—a grin.

It started small, creeping onto his face. Then it grew bright and full of disbelief.

"Wait. Wait are you serious?" His voice pitched higher, excitement bleeding into every syllable. "You’re not messing with me? This isn’t some kind of cruel prank right?"

You didn’t need to answer. The look in your eyes was enough.

"Holy shit—are you serious?! No wait—" He spun around, running a hand through his hair as a sudden burst of energy rushed through him. "I— I’m actually leaving?! I can finally—?!"

He turned back to you as he started rambling, his words coming out in breathless waves.

"I’ll actually get to see the sun?! And real trees?! And—actual grass?! Like real growing grass? And the air—God bet the air doesn’t even smell like metal and recycled filth over there—"

But then he stopped.

His words cut off mid-sentence as he looked back at you. And just like that, the boyish wonder vanished, replaced by something raw as the light in his eyes dimmed.

“Wha....what about you?”

You had been waiting for this. You forced a reassuring smile, shaking your head as if his worry was misplaced. "I’ll be there too."

He didn’t respond right away. His eyes searched yours as if trying to find the lie beneath your words. When he found nothing to doubt, his shoulders eased. "Okay...yeah. Good that's good."

Relief softened his features, and just like that the light returned. He grinned again, bubbling back up as he started pacing, hands gesturing as he talked.

"God I don’t even know where to start! Do I need to pack everything? What should I bring? What’s the first thing I should do when I get there? Do you think they have real food? Like not this rehydrated crap?"

His energy was infectious and you couldn’t help but let out a laugh as he spin in circles like a kid on their birthday. “Relax. The transport doesn’t leave for another week. You have time."

"Yeah but still—!" He waved his arms, his mind clearly filled with preparations. "I gotta be ready!"

Still grinning, you reached out and ruffled his hair, messing it up just to hear him groan in protest. He batted your hand away with a playful scowl.

You hesitated for half a second before adding, "You’re gonna be staying with Mary-Anne for the time being."

His excitement dimmed again, his lips pressed together. "...Why do I have to stay with her? Aren't we just going together?"

There it was—that little sliver of doubt creeping back in.

"Because I need to handle some things here first. But I’ll be there right after." you said, pinching his cheek exaggeratedly in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Besides, you like her. She makes those weird cookies you love."

The teen scrunched his nose but didn’t argue. He still looked uncertain.

"You promise?"

You smiled, lifting your hand and holding out your pinky; a silent vow.

He stared at it for a moment before huffing, a grin tugging at his lips as he looped his pinky around yours. "You better not make me wait too long," he muttered.

"Do I ever?"

"Yes. Constantly."

You laughed, bumping your forehead against his before pulling back.

For now the moment was safe. For now he was happy. And for now that was enough.

*.·:·.☽✧✧☾.·:·.*

The low hum of Corbelan IV ’s engines vibrated through the metal walls, a subtle but constant reminder that they were really leaving. The air inside the ship was thick with tension—excitement, unease, the weight of the unknown.

Navarro was already in the cockpit; flipping switches, checking dials, her voice crisp and efficient as she called out checkpoints.

In the main cabin Rain and Andy moved around, taking in the ship’s interior with quiet awe while others moved frantically, checking cargo, double-checking straps, ensuring everything was in place.

And then there was Tyler.

He sat in the co-pilot’s seat barely registering the checklist Navarro was rattling off. The faint hum of the ship, the occasional flicker of a dashboard light....it all blurred into the background.

His fingers tapped restlessly against his knee, shoulders slightly slumped as his entire body carried the kind of tension that only came with waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen.

He should be happy. They were finally leaving this cursed place. They were finally free.

But you weren’t here.

"You alright mate?"

Tyler blinked, turning to see Bjorn staring at him from where he stood near the console. The scavenger's arms were crossed, his expression unreadable but sharp with observation.

Tyler forced a grin with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Yeah. Yeah—I will be."

Bjorn made a noise in the back of his throat, half scoff, half knowing grunt. He smacked his lips and muttered, “Women. Can’t live with ‘em...can’t live without ‘em.”

Tyler let out a breathy laugh, though it held no real humor. But before he could respond—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A loud pounding rattled against the metal door causing everyone to jump.

"Shit!" Bjorn hissed, his entire body going rigid.

Kay sucked in a sharp breath, eyes going wide as hands instinctively move to her stomach. "Think we got caught?" she whispered as panic crept into her voice.

Navarro whipped around in her seat. "No fucking way, I cleared us. There’s no—"

Tyler’s pulse spiked as he turned toward the console. With a quick press of a button, the external camera feed flickered onto the screen.

And then—

All the tension in his body evaporated.

A slow disbelieving smile stretched across his face.

He shot up from his seat, barely giving the others a second glance before bolting for the door. His heart was hammering, his throat tight as he slammed his hand against the release button.

The door hissed open.

And there you were. Standing just beyond the threshold, a bag slung over your shoulder with a warm smile tinged with nervous energy. "Got room for one more?"

For a split second Tyler just stared.

His breath stuttered, eyes scanning over you as if he needed to make sure you were real—that you weren’t some cruel hallucination conjured by wishful thinking.

In an instant his arms were around you.

You barely had time to react before you were engulfed in his warmth, your feet nearly lifting off the ground as he held you tight against his chest. His breathing was uneven, almost ragged, like he was forcing himself to believe this was happening.

"You here," he muttered against your shoulder.

You let out a soft laugh, muffling the way your throat tightened. "Didn’t actually think I’d let you have all the fun did you?"

Tyler pulled back just enough to look at you, his hands still gripping your arms like he was scared you’d disappear if he let go.

His eyes searched yours.

You could tell—he wanted to say something else. Something bigger. But instead he just huffed a breath and shook his head. "Get inside idiot."

Grinning, you stepped past him, dropping your bag onto the floor as you took your first steps onto the ship.

The others were staring.

Bjorn let out a low whistle. "Well look at that. Drama’s over folks. Guess we can all breathe now."

Kay let out a choked laugh, one hand clutching her chest as if trying to slow her racing heart. "Almost gave me a damn heart attack that's for sure"

You just shot her a wink.

Navarro’s voice came through the intercom, cutting through the moment. "Last call. We’re clear for launch in two minutes. Strap in or get left behind."

This was it.

Tyler exhaled, running a hand through his hair before glancing back at you, a different kind of smile on his face now. "Come on," he said, nodding toward the seats. "Let’s get the hell out of here."

You grinned.

"Gladly.

[vintage-tech]

useful information: How to get a USB Blu-Ray player to work on your computer

Not a post about vintage technology, just an explanation of what you think might be simple to do but isn't: There are Blu-Ray players that plug into your computer by USB, and you discover that just plugging it in doesn't make it work* in the same manner that CD-RWs or DVD-RWs are automatically recognised and function. You will see "BR Drive" in My Computer and the name of whatever movie you have inserted, but that's as far as you're able to go.

*There is software you can buy to make a Blu-Ray (internal or external) function, sure, and if an internal came with your computer it's likely already installed -- but if you're like me you don't have that software, you're cheap and won't pay for software, and you want to use what you have installed already or find free solutions.

Looking in the Blu-Ray drive's package, there's not a lot of info about what you're supposed to do. The above no-name Blu-Ray player cost $40 from a popular website; name-brand ones can set you back $120 or so. Looking around online for those instructions, I never saw the whole set of directions in one place, I had to cobble them together from 2 or 3 sites. And so here I share that list. To keep out of trouble, I'm not linking any files -- Google will help you.

Get VLC, the free video player available for pretty much any operating system. Thing is, it doesn't come with the internals to make it work with Blu-Ray even if when you go to the Play Media menu there is a radio button for selecting Blu-Ray.

Get MakeMKV, a decoder for reading Blu-Ray disks. This had been totally free during the beta testing period but it's come out and has a month or two trial period you can work in.

Get Java if you don't already have it. Reason for this is, the menu systems on Blu-Ray disks uses this... technically it's not required, however it does mean you don't have options such as special features, language and sound changes, or scene selection if you don't have Java installed; insert a disk, it can only play the movie.

Get the file libaacs.dll online so you have AACS decoding. I am told it hasn't been updated in awhile so there may be disks produced after 2013 that won't work right, but you won't know until you try.

There's a set of keys you will also want to have so that the player knows how to work with specific disks, and so do a search online for the "FindVUK Online Database". There will be a regularly-updated keydb.cfg archive file on that page to pick up.

Got those three programs installed and the other two files obtained? Okay, here are your instructions for assembly...

In VLC: go to Tools, Prefs, click "show all"… under the Input/Codecs heading is Access Modules then Blu-Ray: Select your region, A through C. You can change this if you need to for foreign disks. Next related action: go to My Computer and C:, click into Program Files and VLC, and this is where you copy the libaacs.dll file to.

In MakeMKV: click View, then Preferences, and under Integration - add VLC.

Confirm that Java is set up to work with VLC by going to the computer's Control Panel, going to System Properties, and into Environment Variables. Click System Variables, and click New to create this key if it doesn't already exist: … Name: Java … Value: [the location of the Java 'jre#.##' folder... use Browse to find it in C:\Program Files\Java]

Let's go back into My Computer and C:, this time go to Program Data, and then do a right-click in the window and select New and Folder. Rename this folder "aacs" (without the quotes), and then you click into it and copy the keydb.cfg file here.

REBOOT.

And now you should be able to recognise Blu-Ray disks in your player and play them. Three troubleshooting notes to offer in VLC:

"Disk corrupt" -- this means MakeMKV has not decoded and parsed the disk yet, or that you don't have the libaacs.dll in place so that it can decode the disk. ...After checking the VLC folder for the DLL to make sure, launch MakeMKV, then go to File, Play Disk, and select the Blu-Ray drive. Now it will grind a bit and figure out the disk's contents.

A note appears when a movie starts saying there will be no menus, but the movie plays fine -- Java isn't running. ...Invoke Java by going to the Java Settings in Start: Programs. You don't have to change anything here, so Exit, then eject the disk and put it back in to see if the movie's menu now appears.

Buffering between chapters, making the movie pause for a few seconds? There is a setting for this but I need to find that info page again for where that is. (If you find it, tell me where it is!)

I don't claim to know a lot but if you have any questions I might have some answers or suggestions. So far I've watched "Office Space" and Disney's "Coco" without any issues beside occasional buffering.

[beclight]

784488414544297984 i never joined the archive server because i knew it would eventually turn to shit but as a data hoarder it irritates me how inefficient they're presumably being. anyway here's some tools that have helped me !! desktop only unfortunately

https://dht.chylex.com/ -> for discord server archival. this isn't immediately relevant to all this but i find it handy

https://github.com/mikf/gallery-dl -> a tool that runs in the background to download images/files from a site you input, automatically sorting it from oldest to newest. works slow but gets the job done. there are a lot of supported sites but for this specifically i use it for tumblr images, deviantart images, and deviantart journals

https://tumblthreeapp.github.io/TumblThree/ -> this one also downloads all images from a blog but not in order. i use it to download individual posts from a blog and as far as i know they're automatically sorted in order. if you fiddle with the settings you can download all posts as individual txt files, and then use the command prompt ren *.txt *.html to mass change the extension and them view those files in your browser with formatting

i also used the chrome extension GoFullPage - Full Page Screen Capture to take easy screenshots of things like the toyhouse while it was up, the au info pages, etc. doesn't work on really long pages but i've used it a lot

remember there is almost always an easier way to save things than just doing it by hand!! - <3, a web scraper

☝️☝️☝️

Very useful ask, please check it out!!

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I just realized that the extremely extensive image description subtitles that people have started putting below illustrations on this website for the benefit of people with visual disabilities, are also perfectly formatted to serve as detailed image labels for data mining /AI training, plus are word-for-word the type of human-written image description you'd want to input into a diffusion model to generate a knock-off of the original image automatically.

I don't have anything to add to this observation, only that I am almost certain that this will lead to some truly rancid discourse some time in the next five years.

Maybe something to do with those shirt-selling bots, if instead of ganking the original image to sell despite it being a copyright violation they scan for IDs of popular tumblr illustrations, feed them into dall-e 3, and then sell the resulting designs to people who interacted with the original image. Original artists would be mad but wouldn't be able to touch them, legally, at least not without complex wrangling because automated takedowns wouldn't work.

...God, fuck, what have I just invented.

[arminaa8]

Saving Fic Epubs and Metadata Using Calibre

I FINALLY spent time learning how to set up Calibre with the FanFicFare plugin in order to easily keep track of fics that I've read. What's really awesome about it, though, is it does way more than just "keep track":

It saves epubs for future downloading (in case the fic is pulled from AO3)

It automatically "scrapes" metadata (title, tags, warnings, etc.) from the fic and includes it in Calibre's built-in spreadsheet

Allows you to create custom categories for things like notes and personal ratings, as well as categories for metadata not scraped by default (word count, for example).

Every bit of information scraped is SEARCHABLE and SORTABLE! Tags, authors, published date, etc.

However, the instructions for how to do all this are not clear-cut and are scattered on different sites and forums. So I've created a little guide based on what worked for me!

Here are my categories (if you know me the fic shown is not a surprise). I couldn't fit them into one long horizontal screenshot so I split them into two.

Most of these are default categories, but some (Thoughts, Words, Summary, Ratings, and Notes) are not. I've excluded default categories I didn't need, and created custom ones for the information I wanted to include.

Tutorial below the cut!

Download and install Calibre.

Once the program is open, click Preferences > Get plugins to enhance calibre Search for and install the FanFicFare and EpubMerge plugins (EpubMerge works in tandem with FFF and allows for downloading an entire fic series into one file).

_________________

Custom Columns

Preferences > Preferences > Add your own columns The custom column screen is shown below. Anything unchecked is a category I didn't want to include in my list. Anything with a column icon next to it means its a custom column I created. To create a new column, click +Add custom column.

The settings I made for each of my custom categories are shown below. Take note of the "column type" for each category. You can make any kind of columns you'd like!

Once you've made your custom categories make sure to click Apply on the "Add your own columns" screen. Now we need to configure the FanFicFare plugin to assign data to some of the custom categories. Click the down arrow next to the FanFicFare plugin icon on the main Calibre screen, then click Configure FanFicFare. On the next screen click the Custom Columns tab.

You will see a list of your custom columns with drop-down menus next to each. For columns you want the plugin to automatically fill, click the drop-down and select the matching data from AO3. There are many options to choose from, including pairing, language, warnings, etc. Note that I left the Notes and Thoughts columns blank. This is because I will input that information manually for each fic.

_________________

Downloading Individual Fics

Arrow next to FanFicFare > Download from URLs Paste in entire-work fic URLs into the black box. I personally found it tedious to copy/paste each link, so instead I found a Firefox extention called Copy All Tab URLs that does exactly what it says on the tin: copies all URLs from any open tabs. Much easier. Click OK. Then, WAIT. It takes a minute to fetch the data. If a fic is restricted, the plugin may show a pop-up asking you to log into AO3 so that it can access the fic.

You're good to go when you see the following pop-up in the bottom-right corner. Click Yes.

_________________

Downloading An Entire Series

FanFicFare combined with EpubMerge allows you to download an entire series into one epub file!

Arrow next to FanFicFare > Get Story URLs from Web Page

Paste in the link to the SERIES page.

Click For Anthology Epub to download everything in that series into a single epub.

The next screen lists all the links in that series. Nothing to do here but click OK.

[conlangery]

How come native speakers don’t have to learn/can’t explain (usually) the rules of the their first language? They just automatically know if something is wrong or right. Sorry if that’s a dumb question

It's not a dumb question at all.

Basically, acquiring your first language is very different from acquiring a language later in life. That structure gets embedded into your subconscious, but you can't just summon that up and describe it.

Think about learning to walk. Almost all humans who are capable of it end up walking pretty much the same way. But can you explain the biomechanics of walking? Unless you've studied it, you can't, and even if you have, you still don't constantly have awareness of which muscles you're flexing, how input from the balance system affects your stride, etc.

When you acquire your first language, you are basically a small animal with an instinct to attempt to communicate with the people around you. You don't have language yet, much less the metalanguage required to describe your language. Your brain just figures out the patterns, attaches it to sensory input, and gradually builds up this system that works behind the scenes as you speak for the rest of your life.

That's also why just asking native speakers how things work isn't sufficient to produce a grammar. You will get speculation, confusion, and sometimes just plain false information if you just ask directly. But asking them "Is this sentence okay," or recording their speech will get data that you can later analyze. Native intuition is data, not analysis, because all of it is them activating a system that was built up when they were still drooling on their bibs.

[yuesya]

Verifying…

Finalizing…

100% complete. No errors found. All systems are operational. Proceed with activation?

…

Affirmed.

Control unit will be activated in 3… 2… 1…

AR-000 wakes up.

Her body does not move. Her breathing does not change. Her eyes do not open.

But all the same, awareness floods her senses –an abstract awareness consisting of the myriad mechanisms feeding input of the surrounding environment into her mind. It is only instinct, then, to grasp control of these external devices intricately linked to her systems, the knowledge of how to do so flowing automatically from instructions in her core.

The first thing that she ‘sees’ is the sight of her creators. Men and women wearing white lab coats, outfitted with various mechanical devices and other such technological augmentations. Their gazes are collectively fixated on a single point in the bright, sterile room–

On her, AR-000 realizes, turning her gaze in the same direction as her creators.

Curiosity. A vague sense of something being out of place, except she doesn’t know what it is. Confusion, and befuddlement.

Unit AR-000, designation Titania, looks at the white-haired girl sleeping behind the reinforced glass casing of an experimental capsule, countless wires connected into her body, and wonders why there’s a strange trickle of dissonance that she feels, echoing faintly in the back of her mind. As if there’s something that’s–

“Did it work?” One of the scientists, a woman with a robotic eye, leans forward anxiously. “I’m not seeing any response from her.”

“That’s because she has zero mobility, you know the schematics of her design.” Beside her, a man rolls his eyes. The woman scowls.

“You know that’s not what I mean,” she snaps tartly. “The previous attempts failed because the subject couldn’t properly develop a consciousness and maintain its sense of self in the ‘hivemind.’ Based on our data, the tuning should be right this time… but if she’s still not responding…”

Responding?

… To what?

Another scientist coughs. “U-um! Good morning, Titania…?”

“… What are you doing? Like that’s actually going to–”

[Hello.]

The voice that echoes out with her quiet greeting to her creators is strange. Artificial. She thinks that her voice shouldn’t sound like this, but why would she–?

“Oh, by the Aeons.” Movement fills the room. The scientists explode into a flurry of movement, rushing to check various contraptions and devices. “It worked! Gelos, it worked! Ha, who was the one saying that–”

“I get it, I get it! Less talking, more recording! We need to collect the data for–”

“Thank goodness, thank the heavens, thank the Monarch of Myriad Machines…”

…

In contrast to the other scientists who rush about the room like busy bees in a hive, with varying degrees of excitement and elation, there is one who approaches AR-000 silently. It takes only a fraction of a second to identify him: Chief Scientist Polus Meliseus.

He does not say anything. For a moment, the Chief Scientist only looks up towards AR-000’s unmoving body silently. He gently places a hand against the glass, and the movement is familiar, somehow.

(Why?)

The Chief Scientist blinks. A clear liquid trickles down from his eyes.

Tears, AR-000 identifies. A sign of sadness. Is there an error in her that he is upset with?

[Why are you crying, Chief Scientist?]

“Because I’m happy,” he tells her with a choked voice, thick with emotion. “Finally… it’s finally done. Thank you for being born, Titania.”

… Titania thinks that she is happy to be born, too.

[eldritch-bf]

Make google sheets automatically calculate your character’s age!

I like using google sheets for story data like this and maybe you do too so here’s a simple way to make your life a lot easier. Plus it automatically updates itself if you change one of the dates for whatever reason.

You can also have it tell you how old your character is on any date, or really, the difference in time between any two dates you want.

Formula and explanation is below the cut.

=DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "Y") & " Years " & DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "YM") & " Months " & DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "MD") & " Days"

Basic format. What you change is in red and green. Here’s an example:

=DATEDIF(B2,C2, "Y") & " Years " & DATEDIF(B2,C2, "YM") & " Months " & DATEDIF(B2,C2, "MD") & " Days"

You will probably skip B1, C1 because that’s usually your header row, as well as column A because that will likely be where your character’s name goes. Just copy and paste the whole formula into the first cell of a new column you want to spit out the age (date difference).

Delete all three instances of B2 and type in or click on the cell that has the start/birthdate for that character, then do the same with C2 but input the enddate.

If you just want the year and month, use this one.

=DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "Y") & " Years " & DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "YM") & " Months "

This one gives you just the year.

=DATEDIF(Startdate, Enddate, "Y") & " Years "

You can also erase “ Years ” at the end if you just want it to display 45 instead of 45 years

After you enter it in once, google sheets should guess the pattern (simply moving down the same column) and all you have to do is click formula cell once, then click and hold the bottom right corner where a dot will appear, and drag it down as far down the column as you need it to go.

Also, if you want your date columns to automatically format a specific way, do this:

Click the top of the column so that it highlights everything beneath it.

At the top hit Format

Hover over Number

Sidemenu will expand and towards the bottom click custom date and time formats

It will give you various options. Pick whichever one you like. You can fiddle with the up and down arrows by Month Day and Year to further customize it

Click apply

Now even if you type out “jan 3 1997” it will automatically change it to “January 3, 1997” or “01-03-1997” or “1/3/97” etc.

You also might need to freeze your header row for it to work properly. Right click on the 1 next to the header row, and all the way at the bottom it says view more row actions, click freeze up to row 1.

[kirbyoctournament]

🌙 INFO: updated polling methods 💫

in response to multiple instances of tampering and trolling on our tumblr polls, we are moving to a more secure method of polling for the remainder of the tournament. this will impact the semi-finals and finals of both the mainline AND second chance brackets.

future polls will no longer be completely anonymous (only moderators will be privy to votes, the general public will never see who voted for whom), nor will polls have reactive public statistics. votes will be manually verified by our moderation team. we have multiple automatic and manual checks in place to prevent further tampering, and are easily able to disqualify any fraudulent votes without impacting the overall poll.

How will polls run?

future polls- and the semi-final round six rerun- will be conducted via google forms.

instead of voting on tumblr, participants will follow a link on poll posts to a google form and choose an OC from a multiple choice list. the process is still very simple, and should only take a few seconds.

a tumblr blog and a google account are required. you may only vote once. you cannot change your vote. your email will not be submitted, recorded, or observed by moderators in any way.

the posting time of polls is also being adjusted, to account for moderator availability. polls will now drop publicly at 9AM CST, three hours earlier than previously. all polls will still run for 7 days, and our overall schedule remains the same.

statistics will no longer be publicly visible, but we will aim to provide updates on polls every 2 days, to encourage campaigning and good-sporting competitiveness in support of the competitors. the final results will be a surprise until they are posted on the tournament blog shortly after polls conclude!

How are you verifying votes?

the requirements to vote include a verified google account, which is automatically verified by google and limited to a single vote per person, and a genuine tumblr URL. though google requires you to be logged in for verification, your email will not be submitted or observed by the moderation team.

tumblr URLs will be manually verified by our moderation team. we recommend that you input your most recognisable URL in the community, to make this process faster. only moderators will see this information, and it will never be made public.

we have several other checks in place, and are once again documenting all of our data should it be required. our moderation team are skilled, dedicated, and hardworking, and will be working behind the scenes for the duration of polls to monitor for any further evidence of tampering.

What if my blog is empty/looks suspicious?

if you have an otherwise empty account that could be mistaken for a bot or fake account by our team, we request that you reblog the polls you are voting in, even temporarily, so that our modteam knows your blog is legitimate.

only otherwise empty accounts are required to do this.

if you have an empty account and do not reblog a poll, your vote may be recorded as suspicious and disqualified. due to the expected workload of this task, we cannot guarantee that moderators will reach out to confirm first, however all decisions regarding possible suspicious votes will be peer reviewed by our entire team of 7.

🎉🌙💫

we wish all competitors the best of luck, and hope our spectators have plenty of fun continuing to cheer on these amazing characters! happy voting!