#Circuitry's queue

[viciousbite]

@circuitry-and-chaos continued from xXx

The realization of his mistake loomed over him with big open maws and fangs. Too big, too big! Darkfang's mischievousness coming back to bite him, literally. His serpentine scaled form propelled forward in an attempt to escape, but too late. Body trapped between the coils of a bigger predator.

He hissed and squirmed, claws scratched at the mer's arms and chest. Let go, let go-- His head screamed, digits reaching towards the biting maws in an attempt to pull and pry him off him. "Get off, you fragger-- Argghh!" Panicky vocals, as their frames twisted and tangled together in a long coiled mess. "I taste horrid, horrid, I swear, no eat, not food--!"

One of many reasons, he should have stayed and learned on more how to act around bigger predators, aka stay away, don't bite them.

[mychlapci]

reading that Tarantulas and Prowl processor overload ask has revived one of my recently dormant fetishes

(this is an expansion on the forced porn download ask actually, wasn't really done b4 sending)

Prowl's archives just being a massive database of miscellaneous data, which seems like a fully practical thing that he'd do for simulation work at first glance, but in truth, he just never deletes anything because he gets off to the feeling of being just sooooo full in places no physical sensation can reach.

He wasn't always like this, you see. Prowl used to maintain good software management habits. He'd defrag according to a strict schedule, used connection buffers often and cleared his processing queues before recharge. He would never think twice about netdiving into shady websites with nasty popups, let alone download anything from there. But eventually, as his processors develop at that exponential pace his handlers noticed upon bringing him online, Prowl got bolder.

Bold enough to make a slip up and plug into a corrupt mainframe, triggering that forced download and kickstarting his fetish for good. He barely remembers anything about that incident other than an overwhelming mental barrage of arousal. Sometimes Prowl wonders if his colleagues at the time knew just what was literally going through his head as he slumped over on the console, seizing in place as they frantically tried to disconnect him safely. Maybe they caught the scent of his overload under his panels, and chose not to say anything.

Prowl would of course say that he was perfectly fine after that incident, but he'd be haunted by that instance of utter bliss he'd felt when like 30 terrabytes of ERP chatlogs and erotic flashgames burned through his neural circuitry. Eventually, he'd start by visiting a library. Full of clean and safe data to indulge in. Then he started logging all non-confidential precinct data, like routine security footage that's get deleted anyways, and dispatch call recordings. Then he started downloading from legal websites, then onto not so legal ones.

He even has backup and extra hard drives stored in his office and habisuite in plain sight, since no one else but other archivists and data specialists would catch on to his kink in the first place. Every once in a while, he'd plug himself into all these units and just let all that data flood through him, his fans and cooling systems squealing in effort to keep up with the deluge of information forcing it's way through his staticy brain, reducing his overclocked cognitive units into jello as his RAM gets consumed by pure uncontrollable math.

He loves the feel of his mind being pounded by googols of nonsense, it makes him hornier than anything else. He'd save anything from the internet, books and numeric databases are his usual go tos; high definition media are a must, the more graphically and audially intensive the better; the most unoptimized and performance heavy video games, anything that would fill up his hungry battle computer until it's full to bursting and melting.

Sometimes when he feels extra naughty, he'd even fire up the various malware and viruses the Spec Ops team would bring back, on top of all the seedy ones he'd find online. He'd trigger them in his processor and lie back in his berth, finger his fluttering pussy and feel the malicious software start tearing through his brain as his battle computer instinctively fights back, making him feel soooo hot all over. And every time he overloads, it sweeps all of his progress, and the self cleaning protocols will just have to restart as he writhes helplessly in the dark of his room.

Software sanctity? Fuck that, he'd hit anything as long as it demolishes his brain and make him into a silly, messy, spasming horny mess. A real dataslut.

god this is so good. He's quite literally overloading his processor out. It's almost like an addiction. Of course, Prowl could stop any time he wants... he could, he just doesn't want to! After a while, pumping his head full of junk data and malicious viruses is the only way Prowl can even have a fulfilling orgasm. Being full of miscellaneous data is just not enough. It's a pleasant pressure in his constantly calculating brain, yes, but if he wants to cum, he needs something stronger. He'll keep frying his brain inside of his helm as long as he gets to feel that electrifying thrill of his battle computer struggling to deflect the attacks on his mainframe.

It feels like he's falling apart at the circuits, delicate wiring so hot that it's disintegrating into dust, and all he can do is frantically rub his soaking wet valve through it all, optics bright and staring off into space as his HUD floods with nonsense. All his senses are completely taken over by the foreign malware, all he knows is that he feels so good.

Honestly, I wonder what would happen if he got stuck like that. Just for a day or two. And someone had to find him in his apartment, face twisted in pure bliss as his frame keeps twitching even after countless hours of continuous overloads. Of course, Prowl's processor gets cleaned out after that, yet he can't help but want to repeat it... to feel so absolutely stuffed and overwhelmed with data that he's just a wet, helpless thing. To give up control and let his processor sink into endless pleasure.

But for now, he's got a morning shift at the precinct to finish.

[trudemaethien]

How about Sev/Glitch and "fill, separation, registration"? (Asdfghjkl those are genuine results i got and i have the screenshots to prove it lmfao)

how far is kashyyyk from draay 2 i wonder? (i did not check *handwave handwave*) you get one definite prompt fulfilled and vibes on the other two.

Sev is four places back from the head of the line when his attention gets drawn. “Where is your registration,” the droid intones, and a far too familiar voice responds.

“Here, you see my registration,” the clone says in a smooth cadence. He sounds like… Bard’ika trying to mind-rub some two-cred lowlife.

Does he really think he can use the Force? Does he think it’ll work on a droid? As far as Sev knows, it doesn’t. That guy is so screwed.

He doesn’t have a registered chain code either; Sev had been planning on trying to jam or slice his way past the tinnie. He needs to get off this waystation just as badly as the other clone seems to.

The droid is making increasingly obstinate noises, so Sev shoulders past the queue and steps up. “Give my brother here a pass, bolt-brain, or we’ll start realigning your vital circuitry, cozen?”

“Attempted security breach has been reported, please proceed to the waiting area without further deviation,” the droid says, and that’s enough for Sev. Who knows what it’s called down upon them.

He busts its bucket and proceeds somewhere decidedly other than where they’ve been instructed to. “Let’s go,” he growls, manhandling the other clone along with him by a firm grip on his bicep.

He hasn’t seen another clone in months. He’s not leaving him behind, not like some guys might.

“Hi,” the clone says, sarcastically hysterical, “how are you? I’m just fine, thanks for ruining my plan to keep my head down and get through here quietly, appreciate it!”

“You’re kriffing welcome, di’kut,” Sev says. “You’re plan wasn’t working, I improvised and adapted it. You packing heat?”

“Do I look like I—through a security checkpoint? You’re insane. You’re insane! Let go, I can kriffing well walk on my own. Insane,” he mutters, capping off his tirade.

“Sev, actually, a commando,” he introduces himself.

“Glitch,” the trooper grudgingly responds. “And I do have, uh…” At this juncture he flashes open his poncho a bit to reveal a honest-to-goodness lightsaber.

He does think he’s a Jedi!

Alarms have begun going off around them. Sev moves faster, as quickly as he can on his fucked leg. Glitch sees it, ducks under his arm, and loops his arm around Sev’s waist, seamlessly falling into step and taking weight off the injury.

It’s been even longer than the last time he saw his squad since Sev’s been touched, and he flinches, accidentally making overly honest eye-contact with the Jedi-clone. Now’s not the time to be thinking about the heat and press of a body against his vulnerable side, the comforting heft of a brother under his arm, the familiarity and the disparity of it being a total stranger.

Glitch is startled by it too, and his tongue reflexively darts out to wet his lips.

“So, Commando, you want to, hmmm, share the rest of our escape plan?” he asks, and Sev ruthlessly jerks his brain back into tactical mode.

First they have to make it out of here, and then they can figure out …everything else.

Lost Boys 🔒 https://archiveofourown.org/works/51594406

[hackernewsrobot]

Reverse engineering the 386 processor's prefetch queue circuitry

http://www.righto.com/2025/05/386-prefetch-circuitry-reverse-engineered.html

[sic-semper-tyranniss]

⚔ — SIC-SEMPER-TYRANNISS: an indie single-muse featuring an au-based Soundwave from transformers prime. this blog is private, selective, and queue based with sporadic activity. mature content is present and tagged accordingly. please read rules before following!

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[coetusmachina]

Stahlklinge kissed him back just in time before he walked away. His optics were trained on him the entire time, brazenly tracing over every divot and curve of his frame until he disappeared from sight.

He still stared in that direction before he chuckled, shaking his helm and starting an internal timer for the ten minutes that Ghostspire had requested. His engine revved once more at the thought of whatever it could be that caused such a request to be made in the first place.

As requested, he stayed where he was for about five minutes before he began to - very slowly - make his way toward their habsuite, one half-step at a time while hoping that he was pacing himself well enough so that he approached the door exactly at the ten minute mark. In the past, he would have arrived either much too early, or much too late - however, now? He stopped by the door just as his interal alarm went off. Perfect.

He lightly cleared his intake before knocking on the door, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe as he waited for the go ahead either to go into the room, or wait further for Ghost to open the door for him.

Ghostspire purred, giving him another kiss before heading off.

He normally wore one to two heavier sets of outer armor. Enough to properly protect him when out in combat. For tonight though? In the safety of there own room?

He strips down to his civilian grade armore. Well.. it was lighter than civilian grade, a specialty armor made for nobles. Some of it was missing on his frame, long since destroyed.

So, on top of the softer armor that showed his protomesh, he was wearing some nice, soft, easily tearable cloth mesh that hugged his arms and middle.

[saratogaroadwrites]

Tron: Liberation (10/15)

Tron: Liberation | saratogaroad rating: T total wordcount: 106,965 characters: Tron, Beck, Mara, Zed, Paige, Pavel, Tesler, Clu 2, Dyson, Yori, Quorra, Original Siren Character relationships: Tron & Beck, Beck & Mara & Zed, Tron/Yori other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Continuation, For Want of A Nail warnings: none

The Game has changed. The Revolution has begun. With Tron healed and once more in the fight for the Grid, the war has begun. But Clu will not give up so easily, and this is a war that will be fought in the streets. But it is a war that Beck and Tron intend to win, so long as they can do one thing first:

Survive.

[AU: Fanmade Season 2]

=

The Outlands were quiet, empty. For kilometers, the sharp mountains echoed with the wind, snowdrifts playing in the downcycle’s stillness. It was a stark contrast to just across the bay, where all that could be seen was the still smoking wreck of Argon’s now empty hills. Wind playing with his hair, Beck stared across the ocean. For his entire runtime, Argon had been all he’d known. It had been his home, stifling and small but home all the same.

Now, it was gone. The lurch in his core that left him with was an achy one, a lingering sort of ache he knew wouldn’t fade with energy or a sleep cycle. It was the same ache that lingered with his memories of Able, and of Bodhi. Something that could not be replaced was gone. Even if it was restored, it wouldn’t be the same. Taking a steadying breath, Beck frowned.

“Have you seen this happen before?” He asked Tron quietly. Standing beside him, the old program shook his head.

“Not to this scale, even on the old system.” He frowned. “Something big must have happened to set Clu off into doing this. I just don’t know what.”

Beck could guess. He watched as a plume of burning energy reached high into former Argon airspace from where a refueling tower had once been, thoughts whirling a kilometer per second. The order had come only after Pavel’s deresolution, only after Paige had gone back and likely spun some kind of story to explain that. The reformat had probably been Clu’s last ditch effort to drive them out of hiding, and it had worked.

It had just taken Argon and Grid only knew how many programs with it.

With a proverbial kick to his core, Beck turned back to the others. After their boat had been driven across the bay by the waves, they’d all managed to crawl out onto the rough Outlands stone to take stock. Zed was recovering from his near crash, sitting with his back to a boulder as Paige, her steady Medic Green circuitry covered by a large patch across her torso, coded a cap onto the stump of his leg. Mara, much like Beck and Tron, was more shaken than actually hurt. Scattered burns and gashes from their escape through the Harbor was all that remained on her frame, and she held Zed’s hand as Paige worked. Beck watched, core spinning up faster. He didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to even consider it, but maybe…maybe Paige had had something to do with the order. But that didn’t explain why, after saying that she could do nothing else for them, she’d come and joined them at the Harbor. There was something he was missing, and it was beginning to worry him.

Shoving the thought into his low priority queue he turned back to Tron, the old program’s eyes still on Argon, and shook his head.

“Does it matter?” He asked, clearing his throat a moment later, “It’s done. We should get moving.”

Tron glanced at him sideways. Beck swallowed hard but said nothing, and Tron sighed. Doubtlessly, Beck thought to himself, they were having similar thought processes. Sooner or later, Beck was going to have to deal with that.

He just wanted it to be a little later, that was all.

“You’re right,” Tron said after a moment had passed, turning his back on Argon’s remains to walk back to the others. “It’s a long way to Lithium from here.”

“Lithium…” Beck frowned. “You and Ruby mentioned that before. What’s so important all the way out there?”

“According to Ruby,” Tron said, “There’s a sizable resistance in the city’s underground. It’s our best chance right now.”

Their best chance of finding allies, their best chance of survival, their best chance of somehow making all of this work. With a deep breath, Beck followed in Tron’s footsteps. The Outlands stretched for kilometers all around them, and unless they found some sort of recycling dump on the way, they’d have to go the entire way on foot. Which was just great. Glancing upwards, Beck heaved a sigh.

Could things get any worse?

“Is he mobile?” Tron asked Paige, dragging Beck from his thoughts. Paige didn’t look up from her codework, turning several strings in on themselves to make sure the cap would hold. After a moment, she shrugged.

“Sure,” She replied, “But if we don’t get him to an actual medical facility soon, he will lose what’s left of that leg.”

“How soon is soon?” Mara asked quietly.

Paige frowned a moment, pensive, then shook her head. “Within the next triple. Preferably within the next milli, but there’s no chance of that now.”

Zed groaned, burying his face in his free hand. Mara and Beck exchanged a worried glance, while Tron nodded and looked off to the horizon as Paige tweaked a few final strings.

“Lithium is a hundred kilometers north from here.” Tron said, more to himself than to them even as all four young faces turned in his direction. “If we don’t stop, we can make it before the triple is over.” He looked down at Zed. “Are you ready?”

“If I say no,” Zed groaned through the palm of his hand, “Will you leave me here to sleep?”

“No, Zed,” Mara and Beck said in unison, rising to haul their injured friend to his foot between them. He yelped, nearly tumbling onto Beck before they could steady him, one arm slung around each of their shoulders. When his head lolled towards Mara, she thunked their temples together and tightened her grip around his wrist. Tron watched the trio for a moment, then turned away.

“Paige, you’re up front with me. Keep your disk out.”

Having stood in a smooth motion that belied the pain she must have been in, Paige set a hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side.

“What,” She started, “Don’t trust me behind you?”

“Not at all,” Tron replied, causing Beck to groan softly and Zed to give a pained snicker, “But we’ll all need your skills with that disk if we’re going to make it to Lithium without losing another limb.”

That got Zed to stop snickering, and Mara to raise her head. Beck frowned.

“Are you expecting trouble?” He asked

“Worse,” Tron said with a narrow eyed glare into the mountains around them. “I’m expecting Grid-bugs.”

Of course. Beck grimaced. Of course it would be Grid-bugs.

“Right, right,” Zed nodded as they began to walk, only to stop and stare at Tron’s back with wide, fearful eyes. “WHAT?!”

Beck and Mara flinched at his volume. Tron’s mouth twisted into something that was more grimace than smile.

“Just keep moving,” Paige said before he could speak, tone dry as the stone around them. “The sooner we get there, the better.”

There was nothing any of them could say to that. With a final look back over his shoulder at Argon’s smoldering wreckage, Beck turned his face forward and kept walking. Zed’s hopping step was hard to keep pace with at first, nearly toppling the three of them more than once before they were able to find a proper rhythm.

Which was good, since they had so much ground to get across!

The nanos walked into micros, the micros crawled into an eighth, and an eighth dragged itself out into the featureless stone of the Outlands all around them. No one bothered to speak even as they slowly plodded along, leaving snow capped peaks and abyssal canyons in their wake. Tron and Paige walked with military efficiency just ahead, disks in their hands and tapping at their hips as both kept a sharp eye, and sharp ear, out for any sign of a threat.

Neither looked back, and neither noticed Beck watching them as they all plodded along. Now that there was relative peace and quiet, he couldn’t get his processor to slow down. Paige had said she couldn’t—wouldn’t—come with him, wouldn’t side with him, and yet here she was. Injured, marked with a burn much like the one across his chest, and barely willing to meet his eyes. Her circuits blazed green all the way down her frame, without even a secondary designation color, and there was not a pixel of red to be seen on her. Green was a very good look for her, he decided; it suited her. Better than Occupation red had, at least.

And then there was Tron. Cyrus’ words were still caught in Beck’s processor: to have come from the same source code, to be offshoots of a single program…things like that hadn’t happened since the days of Flynn. Even Able hadn’t known much about that sort of thing, mentioning it only when Link had once asked why bike and tank code was so similar. Of course, Beck thought to himself, there was a pretty big difference between vehicles sharing code and Programs sharing code. And it would be a big deal for the two of them, if Cyrus had been telling the truth, to be offshoots of Tron’s code. It would explain a lot of things.

If, and this was the really big if chimed in Beck’s logic unit, Cyrus hadn’t been lying. Tron had flinched, startled or unsure or even alarmed, but he’d barely reacted otherwise. He almost hadn’t cared. Did it mean nothing to him? Tron was from the Old System. Maybe offshoots were just more common there? Beck sighed quietly, core lurching sideways a little. Why was this bothering him? It wasn’t like it really changed anything. And they still had more important things to deal with so--

“Hey—” Zed’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. Beck snapped his head to the side, blinking as Mara and Zed’s worried faces came into focus, both watching him with concerned eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah—” Beck shook his head, “Yeah. Just…thinking too hard.” He forced the thoughts down, deeper in his queue for another time, before looking at Zed again. “How’s the leg?”

“Oh, you know,” he sighed, “doing okay, considering it’s just the one now.”

“Zed….” Mara groaned. She drew a deep breath in and opened her mouth--

Then she clicked it shut as Tron held up a clenched fist, forcing everyone to a halt.

Zed grumbled, “What’s the big idea—” Only to be cut off as Beck slapped his free hand over his friend’s mouth when Paige went completely still. Even the wind had stopped, the area around them quiet as a city in a blackout. For a few nanos, no one dared to move for fear of attracting the attention of whatever had stalled their escort, but then Beck heard what had caught their attention.

Skittering, clicking, drawing ever closer. There was only one thing on the Grid that would ever make that sound.

Grid-bugs.

“Where are they coming from?” Beck swiveled his head back, looking over each shoulder in turn, but he could see nothing but stone, no sign of their encroachers. Zed’s eyes widened as the sound registered, and Mara looked around as well. Ahead of them, Tron shook his head.

“I don’t know,” He said quietly, a hissing whisper they could barely hear, “But keep watch. We can’t afford an ambush.”

Paige scoffed quietly, gesturing the trio of mechanics forward without a word, her eyes back on the stone before Beck could try to catch her gaze. Despite the clicking, things were quiet. Slowly, not daring to speak any more, the five of them marched forward. All of them kept their eyes on the stone and mountains around them, waiting, watching for any sign of the Grid-bugs. Circuits flared overload bright as every one of them poured every ounce of power they could spare into visuals or audio, trying to sight the threat before it came.

In the end, it barely mattered.

Mara caught sight of them first, letting loose a warning cry as, in the distance, pouring down the mountainside like rain were thousands of Grid-bugs, just itching to swarm over the five of them and devour them bit by excruciating bit. Zed shouted, shifting his weight as Mara and Beck both scrambled for their disks, kicking them on nearly in the same instant. Up ahead, Paige’s disk was a beacon of green-edged white while she slipped into a her old military stance beside Tron. For half a nano, Tron held his position, one arm spread wide as if to defend the three mechanics behind him and the other ahead to ward off the swarm with his disk alone.

Then the swarm was on them, throwing itself upon the two like a wave of red. Paige shouted, lashing out with wide, forceful movements. Dozens of Grid-bugs fell to her every slash, and dozens more to Tron’s as the pair of them began to fall back to the three behind, but the swarm just kept coming! Like a wave on the shore it rushed them, unstoppable and just as dangerous as the Viral code-water they’d left behind. Dozens of the little things launched themselves at Paige and Tron, but the rest parted, trying to reach the three Mechanics and their larger energy source. Mara scrambled to grab the last of her free code grenades, throwing it at a knot of Grid-bugs. They went up in a cloud of pink and blue smoke, the graphic spreading across the Outlands stone, but for the fifty or so that had been destroyed another eighty took their place!

Lashing out with his disk, Beck snarled. They’d sooner be devoured than escape this with their limbs intact. Beck shifted his stance, trying to pull Zed and Mara in closer as Tron nearly disappeared beneath the swarm. He reappeared before Beck’s core could do more than lurch, swatting a pair of Grid-bugs off his arm as the knot of programs closed in on themselves. Zed looked around wildly, eyes wide.

“We’re trapped!”

Surrounded on all sides by swarming Grid-bugs, just waiting for a chance to slip in past four revving disks and destroy them. One arm still supporting Zed, Beck glared at the bugs. There was no way out of this mess.

Suddenly, a sound echoed down the stone around them. There was the throaty roar of an engine, and then—

A four-wheeler burst over the rise of the nearest hill, cleared their heads as they all ducked, and landed on the heart of the swarm. A hundred Grid-bugs went up into shards of code, followed by hundreds more of their fellows as the driver spun their vehicle so fast it nearly went onto its side. The white-blue circuits blurred as they gunned the engine, driving tight circles around the five programs like they were driving a bike and not a four-wheeler big enough to carry them all to safety. Hundreds more Grid-bugs were crushed beneath the wheels, until the swarm broke ranks and retreated, too much of its code lost to keep working.

The four-wheeler jerked to a halt, and for a few nanos no one moved. Disks kept revving, circuits flickered between overload and normalcy as they all drew deep breaths and tried to calm overworking processors, but each of them looked up as the clear hatch above the seats popped open and a program stood up. White-blue circuits marked them as neutral, their asymmetrical tunic and long gloves marking them as female-designate, and not of Argon assignment. Beck tilted his head as both Tron and Paige went stiff, but his eyes went back to the driver as she retracted her helmet to reveal a pale face with icy blue eyes and dark hair in an asymmetric bob around her ears. She turned to them and smiled warmly.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” She asked lightly, jumping down from the driver’s seat to the ground. She hopped over a pile of Grid-bug remains and strode over to them, smile only widening as she stopped in front of Tron and put both hands on her hips. “Just like old times.”

Tron seemed to shake himself off. “Old times,” he said, “Didn’t involve you rescuing me, Quorra.”

Quorra beamed. She shifted her weight, peering over Tron’s shoulder to peer at the three mechanics. Her eyes lingered on Mara, took in Zed’s missing leg, looked at Beck, then looked back to Tron. She opened her mouth.

“Quorra?” Paige broke in suddenly. They all looked at her, and Beck’s core lurched. Her circuits were flickering, her disk dull in her hand. She stared, unmoving, at Quorra’s face. “You’re—how are you—?”

Quorra blinked, before her eyes went wide with something like recognition.

“Paige?” She asked quietly, “Is that…is that you?”

Paige didn’t answer. Her circuits went dark, and without a hint of fanfare she crumpled to the stone before anyone could catch her. Quorra lunged forward towards her as Beck’s eyes went wide.

“Paige!”

——

“How are they?” Quorra’s voice was soft, quiet in the darkness of an Outlands downcycle. Standing watch over the four sleeping Betas, Tron shook his head. Paige had crashed, hard, and not stirred even as Quorra had taken them back to her camp hidden deep in the mountains half a milli’s drive from Lithium. The young ISO had offered them shelter, and looking over his charges, Tron had been loathe to turn her down.

Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to rest. He trusted Quorra, had offered her some training in their younger cycles, but she was still just one program. Clu no doubt wanted her derezzed as much as he wanted Beck and Tron captured. If they were found, he wouldn’t leave her to fight the army alone just because he needed a sleep cycle. Taking in a deep breath, he looked sideways at her.

“Asleep, all of them.” When she smiled knowingly, he turned away. Mara had chosen a spot closest to the entrance, curled around Zed as he lay on his side and hid his face in the crook of her neck. The cap on his ruined leg glowed a soft green-blue, lighting up Beck’s sleeping face where he rested sitting against the cold stone wall. Paige had been laid on her side at the back of the small cave, and Beck held her hand as they waited for her to rise. Of course, he’d drifted off into sleep mode before that happened, but Tron wouldn’t begrudge him that small comfort.

Users knew he’d be doing the same, had it been him and Yori in their position.

Yori. He was so close he could taste it, feel her. He knew it was just his memory bank, but…he shook his head again to clear it of the thought and turned to Quorra. She didn’t take her eyes off the sleeping quartet, hands clasped around her crossed elbows.

“You know Paige?” He asked quietly. She nodded.

“A long time ago,” She began, “After the Purge, a friend of mine and I ended up in Gallium. Paige ran a Medical Center there, and our paths crossed.” She shrugged, looking down at the ground with a frown. “But someone called the army on us and we had to leave. I…haven’t seen her since then.”

Which meant she’d missed the fact that Paige had spent that same long time being Occupation. Tron huffed out a near silent sigh, looking back at dim green circuits. He’d never known a program to recover from repurposing like that before, but then, there weren’t many programs like Paige. Strong-willed, stubborn, desperate for something to believe in…he closed his eyes.

“How bad was it?” When Quorra made a confused noise, he continued, “The Purge. I was…in Clu’s custody for most of it.”

Quorra made a soft sound of sympathy, her hair whispering over her glove as she tucked an errant behind her ear.

“It was…bad,” She whispered, age old hurt deepening her voice, “There’s less than a dozen of us left now, and every single city that even harbored an ISO for a milli was quarantined or reformatted. Arjia was wiped off the map, Bostrum went viral, and whatever’s left of Helix is still under lock and key.” She sighed. “Clu was…very thorough.”

“Anon couldn’t stop him.”

Quorra barked out a laugh. He opened his eyes to see her grimace as the knot that was Mara-and-Zed shifted, before her voice lowered and her brow furrowed.

“Anon couldn’t even slow him down,” She said with a surprising amount of viral hatred in her hiss, “After Clu came at you and Flynn, he found me. We worked together and took out the virus, but Clu…” She shook her head, clenching her fists at her sides. “He got lucky. When the Regulator came down, Anon…he…” She took in a deep breath, circuits flickering for just a moment before she regained enough calm to continue, “He saved me, but…he…”

“It’s alright,” Tron said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with wavering eyes as he pinged [Calm] down her circuits. “You don’t have to finish.”

She didn’t really need to. Though his last order to Anon had been to keep an eye on the virus, the changing situation would have meant a change in directive. If the virus was gone and Quorra was here, but Anon was not…he sighed quietly to himself as Quorra took another deep breath to grab hold of her composure. One more good program, lost in the war against Clu.

How many more would it take to end it? He just couldn’t say.

Quorra dashed a hand across her eyes, then shook her head.

“After Anon derezzed, Flynn found me.” She looked up at him, oblivious to Tron’s core having ground to a screeching halt. “We hid out in the Outlands for a while, but…” She frowned. “We had different ideas about how to handle the situation.”

Her words became static. Circuits flickering, Tron had to force himself to take several deep breaths to keep himself functional. With a quick access to recent memory storage, he came to a stark, cold realization:

Flynn had never gotten off the Grid. He was still here.

“Flynn is,” He distantly heard himself gasp, cutting Quorra off mid-sentence, “Still here?”

Quorra blinked. “Of course he is. He couldn’t reach the Portal in time.” She reached towards him. “You didn’t know?”

Tron stumbled back, circuits flickering rapidly. The wall of stone was cold against his port as he landed against it and slid to the ground. His frame shook, his breath trembled. Flynn had never made it back to the Portal. He was still on the Grid.

He hadn’t done a thing to stop Clu.

“I told him to run,” Tron whispered as Quorra came to her knees in front of him, placing both hands on his knees and staring at his face with wide eyes. “Clu and his guard, they came for Flynn and I—I held them off, but it wasn’t—I wasn’t—”

He’d given everything to buy Flynn time to escape, and the User had squandered it. Wasted the only chance he had left to stop it, to save the Grid, every program on it, like it meant nothing. Tron’s core spun up, growing heated.

“I told him to go!” He almost shouted, slamming a fist hard against the stone beside him. Quorra jumped, though none of the betas in the other room stirred. Tron groaned, muffling the sound into the palm of his other hand as his fist dragged down the rough stone. Quorra’s face fell. She leaned forward, taking his wrist into both her hands. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Why didn’t he go?”

“…I don’t know,” She whispered, “You’d have to ask him that question, if you really want to know.”

Did he? Did he really want the answer to that question? No. It had been easier thinking that Flynn had abandoned them, easier nursing the old hurt of his User and Flynn both turning their backs on him. Now? To know that Flynn had simply never managed to escape? That was a fresh wound. He’d failed his directive, both self-given and programmed. If Alan-One could see him now, he would be so ashamed of his program. Tron’s core lurched at the thought, and he forced himself to breathe before he could shut down. Once again, he shook his head.

“No,” He said softly at first, then again with more firmness, “No. I don’t.” He opened his eyes, trying not to think about the understanding he could see in the furrow of Quorra’s brow. “I need to get us to Lithium. Can you help me?”

For a moment, Quorra was silent. Then, slowly, still holding his wrist between her gloved hands, she nodded.

“Sure. Just—” She cocked her head, “Do something for me first.” When he raised a brow at her she smiled. “The last any program had heard, you’d been derezzed. Then, all of a sudden, we start getting hints that Tron is active on the southern edge of the Grid? There’s a story there.”

Tron turned his head, looking at the four sleeping programs. One corner of his mouth quirked upwards.

“…It’s a very long story.”

—

It was raining again. Beck sat, port cooling against the stone of the cave they rested in, elbow on his knee, and turned his head towards the sound. It was outside, near where Tron and Quorra had gone to speak without waking any of them.

Any more of them, at least.

Beck scrubbed his hand over his face. It would be a long time before he could erase the sheer pain he’d heard in Tron’s voice from his memory storage, if he ever could at all. He’d kept silent, unsure what to do or even what to think. Flynn had always been a myth to his generation of programs, known but not. Now, not only was Flynn likely still functional, he was still on the Grid. And he’d had to have had a hand in Beck’s rezzing all those cycles ago if he really did share source code with Tron.

Unless Tron’s User was involved with that, at least. There was just no way to know, and thinking about it too hard was making his processor ache. Beside him, Zed and Mara slept on, undisturbed. On his other side, Paige slowly opened her eyes. He looked down as she stirred, hand slipping from his grasp as she began to try and rise off her side where they’d laid her down.

“Take it slow,” He whispered, startling her into looking up. “You crashed hard back there.”

She looked at him for a long moment, then sighed quietly. It said a lot that she let him help her to sit up, back against the wall, rather than fight to do it herself. Once she was upright, he pulled his knees up and rested his chin on them, watching as she tried to comb rain-damp tangles out of her hair. Her eyes were dark, her brow furrowed, her circuits dim.

He knew an overthinking program when he saw one.

“Tesler?” She looked at him again as he gestured at her sides, still marked with broad blue patches to hide red-green burns, much like the ones he still carried. She nodded, raking both hands through her wild hair.

“He’s not going to be a problem anymore,” She said quietly, then finished more firmly, “I derezzed him myself.”

Beck’s eyes widened. Paige, of all programs, had fought Tesler? Her own commanding officer? He raised his head, reaching out with one hand.

“What happened?” He asked, “I thought you were on his side.”

“So did I,” She sighed, giving up on the tangles in her hair and lowering her hands to her lap. “But it turns out he wasn’t who I thought he was, either. At all.” She shook her head. “You were right. I should have listened to you.”

“Paige…” He reached out, putting a hand on her knee. She looked up, peering at him through her hair. “You did what you thought was right. What matters is you got out intact. The rest…” He shrugged, offering her a tiny smile. “We can deal with the rest.”

For a long micro, she said nothing. She watched him, searched his face, searching for something he just couldn’t name. But she did seem to find it, because she returned his smile.

“How did you stay so optimistic with a program like him for a mentor?” She asked ruefully, “He’s not exactly energy bubbles and auroras.”

Beck couldn’t help it: he laughed. Energy bubbles and Auroras was definitely not the way to describe Tron with any degree of accuracy, and the milli it turned out to be true would be the milli he finally ran for the hills. Stretching out his legs, Beck grinned.

“Comes with the territory, I guess. Someone’s got to balance him out or we’d both have gone a little…”

“Off-directive?” She raised a brow at him, but her smile was still there. Rather than deny it he shrugged, then raised his head.

“Back there,” He gestured out to the mouth of the cave with one hand, the rain growing louder, “You recognized Quorra, didn’t you?”

“I did.” Paige nodded. She gazed down at her hands still in her lap, idly tracing the circuits on her arms as she spoke. “A long time ago, I…I was a Medic in Gallium. Quorra ended up there, somehow.” Her voice grew quiet, distant. “She’s the one who first taught me how to fight. Which was really stupid for a Medic program, but it saved me when Tesler came to…clean things up.”

That needed no further explanation. Beck grimaced, able to paint a picture of what she must have seen. Tesler’s crew hadn’t exactly been known for their light touch. Beside him, Paige sighed.

“And I couldn’t even keep my friends safe, or my patients functional. Couldn’t heal, couldn’t be a good soldier…Grid.” She leaned her head back, thunking it against the wall. “What good is a program who can’t keep either of her directives?”

Beck’s core lurched. Slowly, cautiously, he scooted over until they sat arm to arm, his shoulders just a little taller than hers.

“A good one,” He whispered, “One who means well and does her best to take care of others.” He reached for her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers to transmit [comfort] down the circuits on her arm. “Even if it doesn’t work out the way she planned.”

She looked at him with soft eyes for a long moment, then, slowly, leaned her cheek against his shoulder. In his grip, her hand turned to rub her thumb over his knuckles. She laughed quietly as one of the circuits on his wrist flickered violet in the dim light, but didn’t move.

“Careful,” She whispered, “That soft core’ll get you derezzed if you don’t watch out.”

Beck just smiled.

“Then it’s a good thing we’ve got a Medic around—ah—” He hissed as she reached over with her other hand, poking the edge of a patch. She quirked a brow at him as he pouted down at her.

“You’re held together by bits and strings, Beck,” She shook her head. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

“I don’t know,” He tilted his head away, “If you heal half as good as you fought me? We’re in really good hands.” When she didn’t seem too convinced, he squeezed her hand. “Seriously, though. I’m glad you’re with us.”

She snorted. “You’re just saying that because I can reset your patches.”

“Maybe. Well, okay, kind of,” He snickered, smiling as the corners of her mouth turned upwards. “But, honestly? I was kind of worried about you back there.”

“Only kind of?”

“You could knock anybody straight on their port, so yeah.” He closed his eyes, leaning his head against hers. When she didn’t move, he relaxed. “So yeah, only kind of.”

“Lucky me.” She snorted quietly, amusement coloring her tone. With nothing left to say, both went silent. Outside, the rain continued its hissing downpour as inside, Zed and Mara slept on. Beck himself fell into a light doze against Paige’s side, just listening to her breathing and the sound of the rain. Sooner or later, they’d have to get up and move on. Zed needed actual medical care, and none of them could do anything from in here. He didn’t think he or Tron could sit idly by in a cave for very long, either. But for right now, at that moment, he didn’t mind the quiet.

“So,” Paige said suddenly, bringing him back to wake mode, “Your mentor. Is he…” She paused for a couple of nanos, then rolled her head to meet his eyes. “What does Tron think about all this?”

Beck opened his mouth, then stopped as bootsteps echoed in the cave. He turned his head.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Paige turned. There, at the mouth of the cave, was Tron. He didn’t look happy.

“It’s time to go.”

— Rain beat against the outer shell of the four-wheeler as Quorra drove the five of them across the Outlands. The four betas were squished together shoulder to shoulder in the backseat, Paige by one window and Zed smushed between Beck and Mara on either side to keep him upright. They all looked tired, worn, circuits dim by the lack of energy.

Not that, Tron knew, he looked much better. All that was keeping him upright was the need to keep the four of them safe, and the knowledge that soon, he’d see Yori again.

Yori. Leading the resistance in Lithium, barely a kilometer away as Quorra’s steady driving left Outlands stone far behind.

“You never explained who Yori is,” Beck said as he leaned forward, hands on the driver and passenger seats to hold steady as Quorra went over a hill, “Is she from the Old System?”

“She is,” Tron nodded, arms crossed over his chest. “She’s my partner program. Flynn brought us both over when he established the Grid.” He frowned. The last time he’d seen Yori had been before the Coup. All this time, he’d mourned her, though her derezzed when the Capitol had fallen to Clu’s forces, but now… “She kept the Portal in working order on this side so he could come and go. When it went dark, I thought she had too, but…”

“She’s definitely functional,” Quorra said with a glance at him. In the distance, Lithium’s glowing high-rises drew nearer and nearer with each passing micro. “She’s been running a pretty sizable resistance out of Lithium’s Dark Side for a while now. The Sirens are helping her, last I knew.”

“Sirens—” Mara leaned over, her head of cyan hair just visible in Tron’s peripheral vision, “Does that mean that Ruby was working with her?”

Yori lives, Ruby had said just a triple ago. Giving his processor a sharp internal shove, Tron nodded.

“It does,” He said, choosing to ignore the odd look that came over Beck’s face at that, “But they kept it quiet. Nothing like what we did.”

“That wouldn’t take much,” Paige chimed in dryly as Beck and Mara sat back, “Considering some of the soldiers bet energy rations on what bit of Argon you’d blow up next.”

Zed burst out laughing, and kept laughing even as Mara whacked his arm with the back of her hand and Beck groaned. Quorra grinned, eyes on the road ahead as they reached Lithium’s lower gate. Unlike Argon, there wasn’t much of an Occupation presence here, down in the Dark Side. Tron peered out the window as they drove, the sights unfamiliar. He’d been to Lithium once before, as Flynn had been getting it and the highway to it set up, but that had been a long time ago. It was a different city now, Quorra had explained, cut into two sides by it’s Occupation General, Ion. On the Light Side as Quorra had called it were the high-rises and programs that had backed Clu in any way possible and were rewarded with luxurious apartments and high energy rations to play around with. On the other, the Dark Side that was named for it’s dark streets and scant lights, lived working programs, programs that had not agreed with Clu but not sided against him, either. Tron watched as dimly lit faces flashed by on the side of the road, programs just trying to get through their run-times without trouble, paying little heed to the four-wheeler that Quorra drove into an unassuming building deep within the mazelike streets of the Dark Side.

Once they were inside, she killed the engine and popped the hatch. Tron hopped down first, taking in the building as Mara and Beck helped Zed to get down; the building was a warehouse of some kind, completely empty but for a small hatch in the corner. Quorra walked over to the hatch and pried it open, revealing a set of stairs that led below. She looked up as Tron and Paige walked closer.

“This leads down into the Undercity,” She said, “Where Lithium’s Resistance is based. We can find a Medic for Zed there.” She looked at the three Mechanics as she said that, all of them sighing in relief. She smiled at them, then looked to Tron. “And I’ll take you to Yori. Come on.”

She led them down the stairs, down into brightly lit corridors that turned at sharp angles. Programs in black suits with varying assignment markings greeted Quorra like an old friend but paid little heed to Tron and his faceless helmet, or to the three hobbling Mechanics and Paige just beside them. Sirens in gleaming white milled among themselves, and they all noticed as Tron walked past, staring with wide eyes and silent mouths. Zed yelped as he nearly ended up dragged when he spent too long looking after a Siren instead of keeping pace, Mara humphing quietly as they came to a door marked with the green lines of a Medic. Quorra knocked once, then stepped inside.

Like the rest of the Undercity, the large room here was well lit, medical equipment gleaming under the bright lights. A black suited male-designate looked up as they entered, but when he caught sight of Zed he stood up so quickly his chair almost clattered to the ground.

“What on the Grid happened to you?” The Medic shouted, coming around a medical table to help get Zed on-board. Paige spoke up to explain, Medic to Medic, but Tron turned away as Quorra touched his elbow.

“Yori’s probably in the command center. This way,” She walked off down the hall. Tron made to follow, only to stop as Beck came up beside him. The young program shook his head.

“If you want to do this alone, just tell me,” Beck said, “but I don’t like the idea of you going off without back-up.”

Back-up that Beck knew, he meant. Tron knew the feeling, and even though he was fully capable of taking care of himself and Quorra was there, had their positions been reversed he’d have done the same thing. Wordlessly, he nodded. Beck returned the gesture and the two of them were off down the hall after Quorra, following her back through the sharp turns and winding corridors of the Undercity. It lived up to its name: they walked so far it must have gone under the entire city of Lithium, storage units and connecting tunnels serving as the perfect place for a growing resistance so long as they kept quiet.

And, Tron thought, the perfect place to get trapped if they weren’t careful. There were so many turns it would take a User-given miracle not to get lost down here. The nano he could, he’d put the Mechanics and Paige through their paces to learn at least a half dozen escape routes, whether or not Yori was actually here. He tried not to think about that, tried not to rush ahead of Quorra as she guided them through rapidly thickening knots of programs, but each passing nano dragged on his processor like nails down his back.

He just wanted to see her. Know she was still functional. That would be enough.

He tried to convince himself of that as Quorra led them through a set of open double doors and into a massive room filled with programs. Tron caught sight of a table inside before the doorway was blocked, and Quorra huffed around a frown.

“Just wait a nano,” she grumbled, shouldering her way through two programs at the entrance. They parted for her to pass, and that was when Tron saw her.

"Yori." Tron whispered. He watched, barely feeling Beck’s hand on his arm. All around them, programs lined in blue-white were talking amongst themselves, some consulting data panels, others reading off of tablets around a large table in the center of the room. The holo-display beamed the schematic of some building, but Tron didn’t bother paying attention to it. His eyes were only on the program clear across from him.

There she was. Her hair was different now, cropped shorter around her ears instead of her long braid of the cycles before, the color of her suit darker than he remembered, but he would know her anywhere. It took everything he had not to rush over to her. Quorra slipped through the crowd around her like a shadow until she came to Yori’s side, bending to whisper in Yori’s ear. Half listening to Quorra and half listening to the male-designate reading off a tablet, Yori inclined her head before she snapped it up as Quorra’s words sunk in. She looked at Quorra first, eyes wide as Quorra smiled and nodded, gesturing back to the doorway. Slowly, as if she dared not hope, Yori looked to him.

Across the room, their eyes met. Like the first time they’d ever met, a connection took root. He took a step forward as she stood up so fast her chair clattered to the floor. Everyone besides Beck and Quorra jumped, staring with widening eyes as Yori took a step around the table, then another, and another after that until the pair of them met by the doorway. The programs around became a murmur as the entirety of the Grid shrunk to just the two of them. She stared, eyes searching his face for something, or perhaps just taking him in.

"Tron..." she breathed after a moment, reaching up to put a hand on his cheek. He sighed shakily and leaned into her touch, knowing that his healing meant he was just as she remembered him.

Well, no. They'd both changed. But not enough that she couldn't recognize him. Her eyes softened.

"Users....it is you."

She pulled him down, wrapping her arms around him. With another shaky sigh, Tron wrapped both arms around her and held on.

Finally, after so many cycles, he was home.

[arabellaflynn]

I went down a few rabbit holes while researching the Advent Calendar last year, that didn't make it into the queue because they got too long or went too far afield. Here's one of them!

One thing you notice when you watch a bazillion videos about old games consoles is how the design of circuitry has evolved. If someone says 'circuit board' today, you think a light piece of leafy green board, filled with parallel lines of copper at 45° and 90° angles, dotted with lots of tiny inscrutable plastic and metal doodads. But it took a long, long time for them to get that way.

If you look at really old circuit boards -- and I mean really, really old circuit boards, like from the beginning of the transistor era, they look completely different. They're brownish, for one thing. And kind of... wiggly?

Apologies for the transfer quality. It's not your connection, it just sucks. This piece appears to be some sort of promo-tainment thing from Tektronix themselves, from 1969. The rounded corners and bluish fuzz at the edges is an effect called 'vignetting', and it means this is originally from a 16mm film reel. There's no earthly reason for film to look this terrible. The uncentered picture means someone copied it by pointing a camera at a projection screen instead of bothering to get a proper kinescope setup, and the fact that it only goes up to 240p makes me feel like it was originally transferred over two decades ago for RealPlayer and nobody bothered to fix it for YouTube. VHS is about 240 lines, but if this were a crap transfer from a VHS tape you'd also see scanlines. It's possible there's a better copy at VintageTek, a museum dedicated to the history of Tektronix; they are an all-volunteer institution, and they probably have more important things to funnel funding to than updating their YouTube channel.

Point being, it looks like porridge and I'm sorry, but at least the content is interesting.

The brownish color, which is actually from an evolutionary stage earlier than what's covered here, is because many early boards were milled of bakelite rather than electrodeposited onto a glass or fiberglas backplane. If you want to see some of what that might have been like, you can hop over to Usagi Electric. He uses CAD to mill boards, rather than the photochemical process described by Tektronix, but it's pretty much the same idea. He does a lot of it in pursuit of his mad obsession with building a vacuum tube computer here. (If you're curious, his logo says うさぎ電気, "Usagi Denki". "Usagi" is Japanese for rabbit or bunny -- there is one who appears at the end of some videos -- and the spelling of "denki" here specifically means electrics, as opposed to 電機, which is usually rendered electronics. It still pops up in the names of some engineering or technology firms, but generally only the really old ones.)

The wiggly nature of early boards is neatly explained by watching the drafting process, starting about three minutes into the video. It was originally done by hand. The rest of the half-hour video goes through the whole multi-stage process, but the gist is that when you lay out the board, you draw dark lines where you want the conductive traces to be on the final product. To get a consistent size, tape is used for "holes" and tape lines are uses for the traces. If you've ever used stripe tape in nail art, it was apparently something like that -- vinyl tape with a bit of stretch, so you could curve it around. It was a methodical sort of art form. Ever solved one of those "connect the same-color dots without crossing lines" puzzles? It's basically that. If you can't find a topologically-appropriate solution on a single plane, you can produce boards with traces on both the front and the back, as Tektronix does here, and these days you can actually bury traces in internal layers as well. It's just a pain and makes the cost go up exponentially. 

The mention of "holes" is interesting. Early circuit boards were nothing but holes. Everything had legs and was soldered on from the underside. Today these are known as "through-hole mounted" components; the alternatives are "surface-mount" components, which are generally smaller and fiddlier to solder on by hand, but considerably easier to lay down and solder in place by machine. Surface-mount technology has been around since before this Tektronix piece, but remained NASA-grade esoterica until the automated assembly process became cost-effective in the 1990s. Today the conductive holes are referred to as "vias" and the little medal dots surface-mount things are soldered to are "pads".

I'll also note that they show the automatic soldering process for these boards late in the video. It involves skimming the boards across the surface of a pool of molten solder. Solder in the 1960s contained a lot of lead. I would not personally like to be in that room. Today a machine places little surface-mount doojiggers in place along with solder beads, and then melts it all very gently in a very hot oven until it all melds together, not unlike a pan of slightly too-runny cookies. If you do it right, the surface tension of the solder keeps it on the pads and out of the traces. This is particularly useful for placing CPUs, whose myriad tiny pins in a tight grid would be far too difficult to solder by hand, and the origin of "reflow" repairs for electronics that are exhibiting symptoms of flaky solder joints.

The "silkscreening" process here does not use silk, but originally it did -- it was invented in Asia, logically enough. The gist of it is that you take a piece of finely woven mesh, traditionally light silk but in modern times also metal or synthetic fiber, and you plug up all of the little holes in it in the areas where you don't want ink to get through it, usually with some sort of water-repellent substance. In the days of yore, you painted on some kind of sap or wax, but nowadays it's usually a light-sensitive plastic that's scraped across the whole mesh, topped with a stencil that is opaque where you want ink to flow, and exposed to UV light that sets the substance. The unset areas that were in shadow are rinsed clean, leaving the mesh permeable in those places. The ink emulsion is then applied to the printing surface beneath in the reverse process: Ink is spread across the mesh, then squeegeed through with enough force to push it through the holes in the weave and onto the surface beneath. The dots of ink bleed just enough to flow into one another, producing a solid area of pigment. The circuit board designs were originally drafted in black on a white background, then photographed and reduced to 1/4 their original size, and the film used as the stencil for the silkscreen.

Holes are drilled mostly by hand(!) in this clip, which is an error-prone process, as you can see from the Usagi Electrics guy. The worker uses what's called a pantograph drill. A pantograph is a device that translates motion from one place to another, often with a change in scale. Typically pantographs are mechanical in nature, based on the complimentary motion of opposite corners of a parallelogram, but you could make a pretty good argument that modern systems that accept movement inputs from a user and translate them elsewhere by computer are also members of the class. Robot-assisted surgery comes to mind. If you cared to have an even longer argument, you could also consider systems that scan items with laser photons in order to reproduce them on a lathe or CNC machine pantographs in spirit, if not in fact. 

A visual or optical comparator is just a device that projects a magnified view of something up on a screen, along with a point, grid, or profile it needs to match, not unlike a microfiche viewer with a targeting reticule. They're still used in some areas, although software image processing is steadily gaining ground. 

You'd be amazed at how many things still need a look-over by a human with a brain. The lack of human brains is how we got the sharply-angled board traces we have today, in fact. Computer-aided drafting was developed to a usable level in the 1980s, and predictably the people using it were mostly engineers. The kind of route-finding you do in those connect-the-dots puzzles, and that the electronics engineers did when drafting the boards, is one of those very slippery human things. You want to find the shortest path, to save on the precious metals you use as conductors, but the absolute shortest path (with reasonable tolerances) is often a very snaky curve that would require a large number of points to define. It's much simpler to work on a grid, hence the 45° and 90° angles -- this ensures that all trace paths can be defined exclusively by where their corners lie on a square coordinate system, and is much less calculation-intensive. This was a lot of what early graphics tablets (or digitizers) were used for, and some light pen systems. 

Having watched my father do a lot of this as a kid, I gather that at least in modern CAD software, you can just pick things up and put them wherever you want, but that the autopathing gets very confused if you do it too much -- mostly it's better to let the computer figure out where the traces go and tell you if you want something impossible in 3D space. And if you screw up anyway, there's always blue wire.

Circuit boards don't have to be the ubiquitous green, either. That's just the color of the solder mask, a lacquer painted all over the parts of the board you don't want solder to stick to. It's mostly tradition at this point, but you can get boards in pretty much any color you like -- the second most common I've see is a dark navy blue, probably because copper traces and white silkscreening stand out best on those two colors. You're welcome to get neon purple, if you can find anyone offering it.

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[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: A woman with light skin, blonde hair in a ponytail, and teal eyes with heavy dark circles underneath. She is wearing large red glasses on top of her head, a green hooded jacket, a yellow t-shirt with an image of Spinarak (a green spider-like Pokemon) on the front, blue lounge pants, and pink slip-on shoes. She is sitting on the ground with a pale green laptop on the ground between her legs, and on the back of said laptop is a glowing green bug emblem. Beside her is a fan-made Pokemon design resembling a butterfly with large grey wings with black accents, a purple body, long black antennae, blue hands and feet with little grey “claws”, blue and white insect mouth parts, and large red eyes that have a “sinister” shape. The background resembles the background for bug-type Pokemon as seen in Pokemon Go, with leaves and a dew-covered spiderweb over a green and yellow gradient. End ID.]

-----

"Sup, Trainer. Welcome to the Cantessy League, and it looks like I'll be your first Gym challenge. Name's Kora, I work with bugs, both real and virtual. Bet you're thinking this Gym's puzzle would work better at an Electric gym, huh? But there's a funny reason why we call computer errors 'bugs'. Decades ago, when the processing power available in our Rotom Phones would require machinery the size of this room, a wild Venonat got tangled up in some wires and caused enough glitches as a result to shut down a whole data center. All joking aside, bugs are a force to be reckoned with when you know how to handle 'em. Ready to see what I mean?"

And here's the first Gym Leader of Pokemon Circuit! I wanted to emphasize the main conflict of tradition and nature vs innovation and technology, as well as the way these elements can harmonize, so that's why the first Gym Leader of Plow is ranch-themed and the first of Circuit is computer-themed.

In Circuit Version's Shelbyton Gym, you'll face off against Kora, a computer technician who specializes in bug-types. She loves all kinds of creepy-crawlies, and she gets that not everyone does but she's still gonna love 'em and she will show you how good they are. Before you can fight her, though, you'll need to get through the Gym challenge of connecting various platforms in a "web" of circuitry. You'll fight Gym trainers along the way of course, and eventually by making enough connections at each web stop you'll open a door at the end of the Gym in order to reach Kora at the end.

Kora's initial Gym battle comes after you've had quite a bit of time to train up, so her team's a bit higher leveled than most first Gym Leader teams. She has a Spinarak at level 16, and then she'll follow it up with a Falseroy at level 18. Shouldn't be too much of a challenge, given she's only the first Gym Leader and all, and you'll especially have an advantage if you chose Calflame and picked up a Cardling. There is a bit of a battle gimmick that I'll explain soon, but since you'll both have access to it that addition will just lead to some extra fun. :3c After becoming the Champion, you can rematch Kora with a higher-leveled full team of six: Vespiquen, Scyther, Forretress, Hunneon, Ariados, and Falseroy. ...Wait, there was a Pokemon with "-eon" in its name in her post-game team, does that mean what you think it means? Yes. Yes, indeed. UNNNfortunatelyyyy the way I have my art queue set up we won't be getting to that for a LOOOONG time, but yes my friends, Cantessy has new Eeveelutions. How many, you may be asking? ......Yes :3c

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Pokemon and related concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Kora Midgley, Falseroy, the Cantessy region, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[hotshithaxxorbitch]

Dirk&Roxy==> Get Engaged

Dirk

Just because you're the new Champion doesn't mean you stop camping with your Pokemon, so it was no surprise Roxy was in the room with the Switch, and that's exactly what Dirk was planning. So it was right on queue when he kicked down the wall from the other side, revealing the secret passage he had been constructing and finished with this dramatic entrance. Clapping dust out of his hands and shaking debris out of his hair, he nodded to them. "Rox, come check this out. I made a passage to the top of the mountain."

Roxy

Roxy was stooped over the switch, eagerly shaking a little feather wand in the face of her sylveon, Peppa. Her trance was interrupted when suddenly a nearby wall literally burst open in front of her. Startled, she let out a shriek, the switch falling into the couch cushions as she moved. Standing in the hole the wall left was Dirk, dusting himself off and asking her to follow him through a mysterious tunnel. Just a day in the life, tbh. "Is this what you've been doin' for the past month? But sure, let's go, give me a minute to throw on clothes, I'm sure it's cold in there." Roxy waved an arm around before ducking into her room. She knew Dirk, and he'd been particularly weird lately, and he was definitely up to something. She was also pretty sure it was about to pay off, whatever the fuck it was, so she wanted to pull herself together. Once she was dressed and presentable and like, wearing shoes, she returned to the common room. "Aye aye, cap'n, let's go."

Dirk

He held out his hand, letting them take hold before he led her up the large tunnel. It was very roughly hewn, an obvious rush job, but very clearly structurally sound and safe. He wasn't nervous, not really. He had planned it out very carefully and had already processed his emotions about the whole thing some time ago. He was confident. "You ever go to the top of the mountain? It'd be even easier for you than me, since you could just phase through and I have to go outside or use one of the other tunnels I made. I go up there sometimes." Well, a lot more real recently, but it was true, sometimes he climbed to the top just to breathe for a bit. It was why he knew around now would be a good time. The lighting was perfect.

Roxy

She followed along beside him, letting him slip his hand into hers as she started up the tunnel. "A few times, yeah, but not in awhile. I don't think I've been up since we really got settled in here."

Dirk

"I like it. It's weird, even though my planet of Sburb was just tall ass buildings, I liked it. Something about being up high calms me down." It was eerie, how easy this stuff rolled out of him. He normally had trouble pushing aside his metaphorical shades. Maybe Roxy has been more of an influence on him than he realized. "You know, this whole mountain thing started out as a massive joke, and also a way to ensure a large and secure base of operations, I keep finding myself decorating it like a home too. You seen the carpet I added to the southern hallways? Shit makes you forget there's nothing but pure hard stones it's so soft."

Roxy

"Well, you did spend your formative years in a big ol' skyscraper above the floods, so I 'spose that makes sense." Roxy smiles up at Dirk, leaning over and popping her hip into his. "Of course it's a home, dummy, we live here. We may be freaky clone babies, and you may like to pretend to be a lifeform that's evolved beyond the need for basic emotions, but we're still regular old pack bond happy humans." She laughed quietly, nodding. "Yeah, that shit is plush."

Dirk

His lips tilted upwards slightly, in what some scientists could possibly argue was technically a smile as he yanked them up a little faster, picking up the pace. "You remember that question you asked a while ago, and I told you we would talk about it later? You know, about marriage and whatever?"

Roxy

Roxy sped up slightly as Dirk tugged on her arm. He was smiling, or at least what passed for smiling for Dirk. "Ah yes, my very eloquently composed response followed by you sayin' "We'll talk later bye" and digitally running out of the room?" She smirked at him playfully, quirking an eyebrow. "Yes, I remember."

Dirk

They finally reached the top, coming out through an admittedly small door. The sun was setting at just the right angle, and the clouds were the right shape to reflect the golds and reds and pinks of the slightly darkening sky. There was a large statue of two people, very obviously Dirk and Roxy but a good nine feet tall. The Dirk figure was looking out at the sky, his face set in Dirk's default (and arguably only) facial expression: stone faced stoicism, which worked quite well in stone. The Roxy figure had a hand on his shoulder and was looking back and down at them, their other hand reaching down as if to invite whoever was looking to join them. Some real sappy and legendary shit, honestly. There was a small box in the palm of the stone Roxy's hand. "My answer's in that." said Dirk, gesturing to said box.

Roxy

Dirk pulled them both up out of the tunnel and up to the mountain's peak, any questions Roxy had about what he'd been up to lately. He'd been carving the top of the mountain  into a statue. Of them. Well, that was certainly very Dirk, wasn't it? Sitting in the statue's palm was a small box, which Dirk was gesturing to as he spoke. Logic very clearly dictated what was in that box based on context. Roxy came to a halt, her hands drifting up to hover over her mouth. She was frozen in place, her eyes struck wide. "Dirk..." she stammered quietly "Is this...? Are you...?"

Dirk

Dirk shrugged, gesturing to the box again, his hand on the small of her back. "What, like it would change anything between us? I fully plan on spending the rest of my eternal life with you in it. And if that means doing things like making a big fucking fuss about how we'll always be on our own side, then this party's going to be weird as shit." He pushed her forward, gently. "Just take the box."

Roxy

Roxy stepped forward, glancing back at Dirk, equal parts nervous and curious as she tried to glean literally anything off of his face. Carefully, she picked the box out of the giant stone version of her hand and pulled the lid open.

Dirk

The ring glinted in the burning sunset, the intricate patterns all across the outside resembling electrical circuitry. The gem glowed softly, a deep pink with some sort of light in its center that flickered like a living thing. Handmade every step of the way by the man himself. Dirk had taken off his shades. He took a deep breath, his arms held out to the side lightly as he stood behind her. "Let's get human married, you weirdo."

Roxy

A sound escaped from Roxy, somewhere between a manic giggle and a sob, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She nodded, not quite trusting herself to formulate english, or any other languages, in that exact moment. Her eyes flicked from the ring, pink and glowing softly from within, up to Dirk, who had pushed his shades up into his hair to let her see his eyes. Roxy nodded again, her head bobbling rapidly as she did. She held the open ring box towards Dirk. "Put it on for me?" she asked quietly, smiling with watery eyes.

Dirk

He rolled his eyes, but they were smiling more than his lips as he took the ring out of the box, batted said box aside and gently took her hand. He slid it on, like how he'd slipped it on hundreds of times to the exact replica he had made. He'd made sure it would fit perfectly.

Roxy

Roxy grasped Dirk's hands as he made to pull back after slipping the ring on her finger, pulling him back closer to her. She took a moment to look down at their clasped hands, and the pink stone glittering on her ring finger. With her other free hand, she reached up and cupped the side of Dirk's face and grinned at him. "Yeah, let's get human married."

Dirk

There was a rumble in his throat that was in the philosophical range of a laugh or chuckle. He bent forward ever so slightly and pressed his lips to hers.

Roxy

Roxy leaned up, returning Dirk's kiss and burrowing him into him before looking up at him, beaming. "Hey. I love you. Weirdo."

NEW MESSAGES

Dirk

"I know. Me too." He didn't even break the hug, he just lifted her up and started the descent down the mountain again. "It's getting cold, and I have rubble to clean out of the game room."

[deviationdivine]

A Kiss Is a Kiss (Connor|Request!)

TLDR: Confessions are sometimes the best way to say ‘I love you’

Word Count: 2,082

TW: Wholesome Fluff, Minor Language 

A/N: Kiss Prompt: 67. “When One Stops The Kiss To Whisper “I’m Sorry, Are You Sure You-” And They Answer By Kissing Them More”   |  I don’t mind at all! And you’re right! My main android boy needs love. Here we go! I have a couple other requests in my queue to get to but the ask box is still open for business!

“Just relax, Connor.”

“How am I supposed to, as you say, relax?” Connor’s brows rose incredulously. Listening to advice from his partner can potentially lead to unwanted probabilities. As the deviant android sees it now that is a high percentage from current assessment. 

Obviously it is clear in his face how distracted with analytics. Filling up his brain, running diagnostics over personal status and somehow the thought of you makes him overheat. Continuously as a matter of factual -

“Don’t analyze shit! Be your goddamn self!” 

Hank’s biting words cease the android’s internal struggle. He is still learning despite having been free for some time now. You make him question. It is not a negative thing. Being a machine while you are so human, pure and-and he feels so much. 

“I can’t do it, Hank,” Connor murmurs uncharacteristically lacking in confidence.

The android formerly sent by Cyberlife who infiltrated, took down various guards to free his people in the tower warehouse is afraid to watch a movie with you. 

Not just anywhere. Here in the comfort of the lieutenant’s home which Hank is attempting to leave making it much more intimate than it should be. 

“Jesus. Get a grip! It’s a damn movie. Not a marriage proposal!”

Grabbing keys off counter set Hank off for his front door. The look of disgust is written on his face.

This kid jumps from buildings to moving trains and can’t even sit his ass down for a regular human activity. This pining shit he’s doing is pissing Hank off. Why else is he purposely getting out of here? “I’ll be at Jimmy’s Bar. Don’t wait up.” 

“I don’t think…”

A slam of the door cuts into the android’s protest. Leaving Hank to go off drinking is not the best idea. He has cut back but it does not mean it’s become good for his health now. Mulling this longer than typical shows how strangely human this feeling of trepidation can be.

“Wait, Lieutenant!”

The minute he wrenches open front door is the single highest spike his system ever experiences. Connor’s lips part unable to process with you already on the porch; hand in the air with impending knuckles about to crack upon its surface.

An immediate stillness takes hold looking into his face. It honestly takes a minute for you to move again. Is this your body telling you that you’re breaking down? Funny, humans attain those problems albeit in an entirely different way. Oh, it’s just a very handsome kind right now.

“Connor,” you say his name with soft affection. How can you not? He’s just-

“Hi.” A smile brightens the second you study him better, standing there in a casual button down almost identical to the hue of thirium. How fitting. 

Actually, it’s nice to see him out of those work uniforms. As much as you enjoy a man in a suit and tie; your breath draws slowly locking onto warm chocolate. Richer than a good mug of hot beverage you’re sure.

There is something about his eyes. Always saw how deep they can go just a faraway galaxy of cocoa. Swirls of caramel flecks shining starry and alive, you find yourself pulled into the softest black hole the universe may create. Nothing can be fuller or livelier than the eyes of this wonderful detective. 

Often you think about days waking up to see them early hours of the morn. Knowing they were always going to be part of your existence.

Fantasy really. Call it an overactive taste for the romantic. He exudes your deepest dreams from long ago. It came back as an adult now ever since you saw him.

“Y/N.” Connor’s voice is stilted. He blinks before narrowing eyes towards driveway. Hank’s car is gone. Did the lieutenant pass you? Of course he must have. There is no chance you avoided each other due to the time frame in which he stepped out and you…

“Earth to Connor.” Snapping fingers up to gain his attention causes a light giggle on your breath. How cute is he? Well, that’s a rhetorical question. “Are you OK?”

Something in the tone you present makes him straighten. This time he finds himself prepared or – an equivalent of preparation. “I am fine. I was… Please,” he decides to act with proper etiquette. 

Standing aside to let you inside allows the android to watch closely as you accept. Unable to stop studying the moving sway of your body sets his internal core temperature to dangerous levels. Overheating whenever you are near is a constant he comes to crave. Looking forward to those fleeting sensations, he wants to always have a reason to experience them now.

“I just saw Hank.” You confess really wondering why the man barreled out of here like a bat out of hell. Well, who cares honestly? That means the two of you are alone for once.

“Ah, yes,” Connor nods, closing door securely. “He had something important to accomplish.”

Does that include knocking back a few at the bar? Keeping it to yourself, it’s obvious that Connor’s acting a little off. He seems…nervous. Why would he-?

“So what did you have in mind? For tonight I mean.” Quickly explaining your choice of words it’s not every night you’re alone with Connor. The thought of it makes everything light. A flutter deep in your stomach ripples nervously because he’s so close. Does he know? Of course he can scan you but this is nice either way.

His smile is lopsided, light and partially dazed. The android completely snaps out of his distraction. Finally he registers your question. “Ah, I...I did not think that far ahead.” 

“Oh,” a quiet huff leaves you. 

Connor immediately regrets his response. “Y/N, I did not mean I forgot about tonight. I only...”

“Connor.” Hushing him with a gentle brush of fingers against his cheekbone radiates shared warmth between you two. Making him uncomfortable is never something you can live with. You thought - well, you’ve been closer. That’s all you want. “You know for having such impressive skills you’re lacking tonight in your negotiator tactics. You could probably get me to do anything.”

Anything. He hears your voice but can only focus on the lovely form of lips that spill words. How shining your eyes are as they look at him as if he were a regular man. It isn’t long before you decide to drag him into living room.

Contact from your skin to synthetic fuels his longing. This thing burning in his chest that has raged so long for you is one thing only. It is love.

Seating yourself on the couch, him following without speaking, you eye the room, searching for Sumo. Wonder where he’s  lounging?

“We can always look through what movies Hank has lying around. Maybe then…” Your voice ceases abruptly, fading into the ravenous lips of your ‘date’ who cradles your face in a delicate draw. The connection is a tidal wave of feelings washing over the two of you.

Pushing his arms down to hoist up on seat cushion, you’re already snaking arms around the android’s neck. It comes quickly this need to tangle and both of you are in sync to a burning tempo unleashing every secret held since the beginning. 

His arms are full of you; pulling your body flush and it forces you to sink down from the hasty kneel atop couch. Instead he catches your body down against his.

You cling to him aware of the thundering beats rapping against ribs. Can your heart even stand how much fire runs through veins? Strong hands locking onto hips holds you in place and this is the moment everything falls together. Except Connor will never let you go.

Connor pants into your mouth feeling how far this physical contact takes him. Arousal shoots through him to the point of blindness in his circuitry. 

He wants to lay your body down, gently at first, worshiping every part, tasting what makes you so perfect to him. Then he wishes to show you how much he will give in his raw, human splendor that continues to make him more than machine.

Thoughts are furiously whirring. He thinks of every possibility but remembers. He is an android and you-you are worth more than the stars above. “I’m sorry,” the deviant’s whisper is full of true desire. Even as he tries to pull away from your gravity he hardly wants to end the kiss. “Are you sure you-”

Answering with a breathy kiss shuts up any doubts. Those are the same you know he still goes through but every time there’s a reminder of how deserving of this he is. That’s what happens now. Letting his lips become a beacon alighting passion and love. Never have you felt this for another being and never again will you. Only will it be him because you love this sweet android more than he knows.

“Stop talking and just kiss me a little more.”

The instruction brings a full smile to the detective’s face causing the rare appearance of dimples in his happy thread of emotions. Reading your heart rate now it appears you enjoy this aesthetic. Yet, he still has questions. “Wouldn’t you prefer to be with a human man?” 

Is that why he’s been so hesitant? All this time how can he even think you want anything else? Growing close, finding so much together while falling further into this human life and it fits him like a glove. He’s more than anything in the world. Does he even realize? Can he see that to you he is the whole of the universe?

You slide fingers up his chest. Making a point to place a palm dead center it’s all there is to show. “I feel your heart. It beats just like mine,” a fragile whisper speaks the truth. He may disagree but his heart is human enough for you. 

“Connor, I don’t want a human man.” What does human or android matter? Love is love and this is it. “I don’t need anything at all in the world. I just want you.”

A series of simple words but they completely shatter this prototype android snapping every seam of doubt. He never should have questioned but you are far too precious for him to make a mistake. 

“I-I want you too,” he confesses his deepest human desires. “Dare I say I need you to function?” 

The android smiles a brief moment before his lips fall. In a line they paint his deeply rooted worry. It's been eating away for some time. “The thought of you finding another, being with someone else rips apart every one of my emotions. Emotions I am still grappling with on a daily basis but I know.” Connor reaches to scoop up your hands in his. Twining fingers through soft human digits, his gaze softens in complete adoration. He is in love with you. Of this he is more certain than anything in his continual learning. Deviancy means discovering all of those things and he wants to continue with you.

How soft he is only makes your heart flutter more. He can take out a room full of men in three seconds flat with those skills. That wouldn’t take away from his other side, the affectionately sweet side. 

“Well, aren’t you a nervous goose,” a silly tease slips out.

He cocks his head in confusion. That is not one he has heard before. At least not from Lieutenant Anderson but it does not fit something he would say. 

“Y/N, I am afraid that idiom does not quite make sense.”

Your eyes narrow. “Shut off that intelligent brain of yours and cuddle with me to a cheap romcom.”

Some late night cheese flick lit up the TV by the time Hank sneaks back inside. Shutting his door and locking up without losing his damn keys this time sure didn’t prepare for this saccharine bullshit. 

No lights on, you soundly asleep with a head nestled underneath Connor's chin. The android’s arms wove around your sleeping form, his eyes shut as he clearly went into stasis to match your need for rest. 

Hank shakes his head at the lovey dovey shit stuck to his couch. To think that plastic asshole almost turned tail and ran. 

“Guess it went better than expected. Huh, Sumo?” 

Drawing the dog’s attention it's pretty clear. Considering the pair of you a minute, the lieutenant ultimately switches off television and heads for bed.

Tag List: @elydith

[viciousbite]

Relentless, thumb not letting G escape from the overwhelming sensations. He rubbed and flicked over the pretty node, trapping it between digits for an extra stroke and squeeze until he came undone beneath him.

Darkfang's hips stuttered, spikes pleasantly trapped by the quivering valve. "Ahh-- Frag--!" He continued to thrust through G's overload, battering his spasming valve, until the tightness dragged him over the edge. Transfluid spilled deep within him, pouring between spikes and the corners of G's valve.

The Snake's claws strongly gripped his waist, frame trembling, snug against his valve, grinding through the crackling of charge. His fangs parted in glitching moans and then muffled when he impaled them down into the side of G's neck cables. A bite, nothing more, while he let his frame recover from the intense overload.

Servos tugged at the cuffs, whining softly as he writhed on his spikes. Whimpering and moaning as his valve clenched and squeezed his spikes. Helm tilting back as optics slip close, letting those tears fall onto the waiting glossa. Legs pull him closer as he whimpered, optics fluttering as he moaned.

Optics widening as his node was finally touched. Arching as he cried out at the touch, hips bucking up against it. Trying to twist away from his touch and he trembled.

"D-D- Fuck-!" He cried out as he overloaded, valve spasming around his spikes. Transfluid drooling from his own as it twisted and curled.

[maxismatchccworld]

Sims 4 Patch Notes

UPDATE: 4/16/2019 – PC 1.51.75.1020 / Mac 1.51.75.1220

Happy April, Simmers. Nice to meet you! Maxis hired me as a freelance writer to work on these game update notes. (Side note — if you find a problem, blame SimGuru Graham — he’s my editor.) In all honesty, it’s a pretty sweet gig. I got to see the new Expansion Pack, Game Pack, and Stuff Pack that the team is working on, and did you know that they bring in bagels on Fridays? But hey, enough about me. Being a freelancer, I’ll be gone again before you know it.

Anyway, funny coincidence; there’s actually a brand-new Freelancer career arriving in this update that’s free for all players. I was playing around with it earlier, and go figure… my Sim self earns more money as a freelance writer than I do! Geez; guess I’ll have to live out my fantasies of getting rich through The Sims again. Looking beyond the new, free features though, I’ve got to say… those SimGurus really knocked it out of the park with this one. Just look at all those lovely fixes to many of the top discussed community issues!

Well, let’s get to it, shall we? Here’s everything you’ll find in this April update. Have fun!

Yours truly,

Sue D. Nym

Freelance Writer Extraordinaire

NEW CONTENT

Freelancer Career

Freelancer is a brand-new type of career. Sims can choose to be a Freelance Artist, Programmer, or Writer, and will work through an agency that will connect them with a variety of gigs. Unlike other careers, there’s no defined work schedule to worry yourself over. Need some extra Simoleons? Smash through a few gigs in a single day and get paid! Need some time off? No problem – plenty of gigs will be waiting for you when you’re ready to get back to work. Your office is wherever you want it to be. Perhaps a quiet corner in the local library, or maybe you’d prefer a home office decked out in the new set of office furniture? You’re your own boss, so the choice is yours! Completion of gigs across the different agencies will lead to a variety of rewards, and ever-increasing pay. Really, it’s the best Sims career Maxis has ever made. [Sue, please… remove this. No editorializing. – SimGuruGraham]

New Objects

This free set of home office furniture and decor is ideal for your burgeoning Freelancer Sims!

Bookcase: Edgier LadderCase

Desk: Anglette Desk

Desk Chair: The Professional

End Table: A Cute Anglette

Decor: Not So Simple Pen Holder

Decor: Hand Reference Model

Decor: Robo, The Friendly Circuitry Kit

Decor: The Note Book

Laptop: FreeRoam Portable Computing Device

Wall Decor: Better As A Pair Of Paintings

Wall Decor: Supreme Freelancer Award

New Clothing

Freelancers tend to want comfy, but professional outfits. We’ve got them covered with the following new pieces of clothing.

Women

Men

A cable knit cardigan outfit

A sweater and skirt outfit

A layered sweater

A pair of flats

A collared sweater

A button up shirt

A crewneck sweater

A pair of drawstring pants

Moschino

In collaboration with Moschino, your Sims can now enjoy an item from the Moschino X The Sims Capsule Collection. The new Freezer Bunny hoodie can be found in the Create a Sim catalog.

Immaculate White Shelf

I could have buried this down in the Fixes & Updates section, but… it’s kind of a big deal. There’s now a plain white version of “The Immaculate” shelf available in Buy Mode!

[Note to self: Sue seemed super excited about this. It sure seems like something we should do more of… – SimGuruGraham]

FIXES & UPDATES

The Sims 4

Sims will travel to the correct venue when invited out to an event by a NPC Sim.

Fixed an issue where the UI would occasionally indicate that a Sim was at work, when they were actually at home, which would block access to the Sim’s inventory.

Sims will no longer receive random phone calls from other Sims between the hours of 8pm and 10am, allowing them to enjoy a full – and speedy – night’s sleep.

Fixed an issue where multiple music tracks could end up looping and playing simultaneously.

Expecting parents will once again be able to “Take Family Leave” via their phone to take time off from work.

Fixed an issue where a Sim who had cheated with another Sim romantically, were then unable to successfully propose to that Sim and get married.

Fixed an issue where Sims in the eSport Gamer branch of the Tech Guru career were not earning money when programming video games.

The Pick Up Serving Together interaction will no longer cause one of the Sims involved to fail to route to the food.

Fixed an issue where interactions on the Digitalistic Sketchpad object would disappear if a Sim’s actions were canceled while they were picking up the Digitalistic Sketchpad.

Updated the Digitalistic Sketchpad object so that creating paintings on it will satisfy Aspiration goals and work tasks that involve painting.

Fixed an issue with the Lin-Z Smart Speaker, where the interaction to hire a Gardener would remain unselectable, even when the home had a garden that needed tending.

Sims will now look at the Lin-Z Smart Speaker when speaking to it.

The “Pre-Owned Painter’s Easel”, that’s unlocked via the Painter career, will now provide an Inspirational emotional aura, instead of a Focused emotional aura.

Fixed an issue where staircases were not rendering properly while held by a mouse cursor.

Updated positioning of overlapping Search & Reset buttons in a player’s catalog within the Gallery.

Adjusted icons of Lunar New Year recipes to better display what food you’re looking at within an inventory.

The children’s Yin & Yang Necklace will no longer clip into their neck when wearing a shirt that’s tucked in.

The “CleanRoom” wall pattern, which was previously missing a name for its 5th color variant, has now had that specific color variant named “Like Sand”.

Added the ability to click through different pack art on the main menu for any of the packs you currently have installed.

A new content alert icon has been added to individual careers within the Select a Career panel, to help players find new careers that have been added to their game.

Note: If a save file created prior to this update contains a Sim that’s already in this bad state, simply traveling to another lot with that Sim will permanently fix this issue.

As far as I’m aware, this is the only instance in the game where a color variant has been given a unique name. Huh… neat!

Mac

Fixed an issue for Mac users with Intel integrated graphics, where the mouse cursor would not move properly after adjusting the shape of a Sim’s body in Create a Sim.

Removed an outdated file that was causing a false error message to appear for 64-bit Mac users that said, “The Sims 4” is not optimized for your Mac and needs to be updated.”

Get To Work

Scientists will once again wear an appropriate outfit when going to work even if StrangerVille is not installed.

The “Chemical Analyzer” object can now be purchased from Build Mode without having to use a cheat.

Fixed an issue where selecting the Randomize from Gallery option until receiving an alien Sim, and then further randomizing that specific Sim, could result in a naked alien Sim.

Made updates to the list of valid objects that can be selected as the outcome of the SimRay’s “Transform Object” interaction.

City Living

Fixed an issue where objects from multiple festivals were appearing on top of each other in the neighborhood simultaneously.

Apartment landlords will now leave the apartment immediately after addressing a tenant’s complaint.

Added the ability for Sims with the Vegetarian trait to hire a Vegetarian Caterer by clicking on Stoves or Refrigerators.

Vegetarian Sims will no longer enjoy eating Mud Carp.

Cats & Dogs

After installing this update, Sims who adopt an animal after befriending them will be able to become companions with them and lecture them for misbehavior.

Fixed an issue where hungry pets would not eat from food bowls autonomously.

The pet toy box will no longer have its position rotated in a random direction when a Sim returns home from an active career.

Fixed an issue where the “Litter-Matic Scoop-Free” litterbox wasn’t looking clean after cat poop had been removed.

Fixed an issue with the Pet Adoption Agency, where they would occasionally show up at a Sim’s home without any pets to adopt, and would simply stand at the home’s front door and not do anything.

Note: Sims who have already adopted an animal after befriending them, in a save file created prior to this update, will continue to experience this issue. We’re investigating a separate fix for this issue in existing save files.

We’ve placed the magic gnomes responsible for this in the naughty box alongside SimGuruNinja.

Seasons

Updated the Gardening career so that Sims will earn more than 10 Simoleons per completed work shift.

Fixed an issue where on days where no holiday was set to occur, a Sim’s work schedule would update to falsely indicate that the day was a Holiday just prior to going to work, causing the Sim to stay home for the day.

Fixed an issue where NPC Sims were not autonomously using the skating rinks that appear in certain neighborhoods.

Toddlers will no longer attempt to queue up behavior to “Run Inside” during bad weather conditions if they’re already inside.

Fixed an issue where Sims voices could not be heard when Singing Together around a Holiday Tree if City Living was not installed.

Get Famous

The Acting career task to “Get Into Hair and Makeup” can be successfully completed once again.

Fixed an issue where celebrity Sims who had been set to use their normal walkstyle were switching back to using the celebrity walkstyle after traveling to certain types of venues.

Three star celebrity Sims will no longer use the celebrity walkstyle.

Dine Out

Players who have City Living installed can now add the Siopao and Ensaymada dishes to their restaurant’s menu. Yum!

Vampires

Vampire Sims created after installing this update will be able to continue to gain points after reaching the rank of Grand Master.

Fixed some circumstances where Vampire NPCs could appear at a venue and prevent the player from being able to save the game.

Fixed an issue where NPC Vampires would have their Vampire Energy drained after completing a load, which was causing them to idle in place instead of performing their expected autonomous behavior.

Note: Vampires that already exist will continue to experience a problem with gaining points after reaching Grand Master. We’re investigating a separate fix for Vampires in existing save files.

StrangerVille

Fixed an issue where Sims that had been shared to the Gallery after completing Act 1 of the StrangerVille Mystery would be blocked from progressing in the mystery when downloaded from the Gallery into a new game.

The following environment objects, which were created for StrangerVille, have been added to the Build Mode debug catalog to allow placement on lots. Players must enter the bb.showhiddenobjects cheat before they can be seen in the catalog.

Added proper images to the Officer and Covert Operator branches of the Military career.

Removed the “Question about Spores in Lab” interaction for Sims who have already acquired the Modified Hazmat Suit.

Removed the “Heart of the Pack” styled look from Create a Sim, as it was authored using clothing that’s only available to Sims that have joined the Military career.

Updated the pack information panel on the main menu to not display world objects under the Build Mode Items.

10 different cacti

3 different Joshua trees

3 different RVs

2 clusters of rocks

2 junked cars

A group of desert flowers

A military truck

A tire

A parking stop

My First Pet Stuff

Fixed an issue where deleting/selling the rodent habitat could cause the game to become unresponsive.

Holiday Celebration Pack

The Crown Roast platter will now show a partially eaten state when half of its servings have been taken.

I’d like to adjust the wording here, as this issue was not specific to stray pets and there may be confusion. The bug was happening if you became Friends with the pet before using the Adopt interaction. You HAVE to become Friends for Adopt to become available on a stray, but some users were encountering this by petting their computer-adopted pet a bunch of times before hitting Adopt.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (April 16th, 2019)

There’s a new Sims 4 PC update available via Origin!

Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game!

UPDATE: 4/16/2019 – PC 1.51.75.1020 / Mac 1.51.75.1220

Happy April, Simmers. Nice to meet you! Maxis hired me as a freelance writer to work on these game update notes. (Side note — if you find a problem, blame SimGuruGraham — he’s my editor.) In all honesty, it’s a pretty sweet gig. I got to see the new Expansion Pack, Game Pack, and Stuff Pack that the team is working on, and did you know that they bring in bagels on Fridays? But hey, enough about me. Being a freelancer, I’ll be gone again before you know it.

Anyway, funny coincidence; there’s actually a brand-new Freelancer career arriving in this update that’s free for all players. I was playing around with it earlier, and go figure… my Sim self earns more money as a freelance writer than I do! Geez; guess I’ll have to live out my fantasies of getting rich through The Sims again. Looking beyond the new, free features though, I’ve got to say… those SimGurus really knocked it out of the park with this one. Just look at all those lovely fixes to many of the top discussed community issues!

Well, let’s get to it, shall we? Here’s everything you’ll find in this April update. Have fun!

Yours truly, Sue D. Nym Freelance Writer Extraordinaire

NEW CONTENT

Freelancer Career

Freelancer is a brand-new type of career. Sims can choose to be a Freelance Artist, Programmer, or Writer, and will work through an agency that will connect them with a variety of gigs. Unlike other careers, there’s no defined work schedule to worry yourself over. Need some extra Simoleons? Smash through a few gigs in a single day and get paid! Need some time off? No problem – plenty of gigs will be waiting for you when you’re ready to get back to work. Your office is wherever you want it to be. Perhaps a quiet corner in the local library, or maybe you’d prefer a home office decked out in the new set of office furniture? You’re your own boss, so the choice is yours! Completion of gigs across the different agencies will lead to a variety of rewards, and ever-increasing pay. Really, it’s the best Sims career Maxis has ever made. [Sue, please… remove this. No editorializing. – SimGuruGraham]

New Objects

This free set of home office furniture and decor is ideal for your burgeoning Freelancer Sims!

Bookcase: Edgier LadderCase

Desk: Anglette Desk

Desk Chair: The Professional

End Table: A Cute Anglette

Decor: Not So Simple Pen Holder

Decor: Hand Reference Model

Decor: Robo, The Friendly Circuitry Kit

Decor: The Note Book

Laptop: FreeRoam Portable Computing Device

Wall Decor: Better As A Pair Of Paintings

Wall Decor: Supreme Freelancer Award

New Clothing

Freelancers tend to want comfy, but professional outfits. We’ve got them covered with the following new pieces of clothing.

Women

Men

A cable knit cardigan outfit

A sweater and skirt outfit

A layered sweater

A pair of flats

A collared sweater

A button up shirt

A crewneck sweater

A pair of drawstring pants

Moschino

In collaboration with Moschino, your Sims can now enjoy an item from the Moschino X The Sims Capsule Collection. The new Freezer Bunny hoodie can be found in the Create a Sim catalog.

Immaculate White Shelf

I could have buried this down in the Fixes & Updates section, but… it’s kind of a big deal. There’s now a plain white version of “The Immaculate” shelf available in Buy Mode!

[Note to self: Sue seemed super excited about this. It sure seems like something we should do more of… – SimGuruGraham]

FIXES & UPDATES

The Sims 4

Sims will travel to the correct venue when invited out to an event by a NPC Sim.

Fixed an issue where the UI would occasionally indicate that a Sim was at work, when they were actually at home, which would block access to the Sim’s inventory.

Sims will no longer receive random phone calls from other Sims between the hours of 8pm and 10am, allowing them to enjoy a full – and speedy – night’s sleep.

Fixed an issue where multiple music tracks could end up looping and playing simultaneously.

Expecting parents will once again be able to “Take Family Leave” via their phone to take time off from work.

Fixed an issue where a Sim who had cheated with another Sim romantically, were then unable to successfully propose to that Sim and get married.

Fixed an issue where Sims in the eSport Gamer branch of the Tech Guru career were not earning money when programming video games.

The Pick Up Serving Together interaction will no longer cause one of the Sims involved to fail to route to the food.

Fixed an issue where interactions on the Digitalistic Sketchpad object would disappear if a Sim’s actions were canceled while they were picking up the Digitalistic Sketchpad.

Updated the Digitalistic Sketchpad object so that creating paintings on it will satisfy Aspiration goals and work tasks that involve painting.

Fixed an issue with the Lin-Z Smart Speaker, where the interaction to hire a Gardener would remain unselectable, even when the home had a garden that needed tending.

Sims will now look at the Lin-Z Smart Speaker when speaking to it.

The “Pre-Owned Painter’s Easel”, that’s unlocked via the Painter career, will now provide an Inspirational emotional aura, instead of a Focused emotional aura.

Fixed an issue where staircases were not rendering properly while held by a mouse cursor.

Updated positioning of overlapping Search & Reset buttons in a player’s catalog within the Gallery.

Adjusted icons of Lunar New Year recipes to better display what food you’re looking at within an inventory.

The children’s Yin & Yang Necklace will no longer clip into their neck when wearing a shirt that’s tucked in.

The “CleanRoom” wall pattern, which was previously missing a name for its 5th color variant, has now had that specific color variant named “Like Sand”.

Added the ability to click through different pack art on the main menu for any of the packs you currently have installed.

A new content alert icon has been added to individual careers within the Select a Career panel, to help players find new careers that have been added to their game.

Note: If a save file created prior to this update contains a Sim that’s already in this bad state, simply traveling to another lot with that Sim will permanently fix this issue.

As far as I’m aware, this is the only instance in the game where a color variant has been given a unique name. Huh… neat!

Mac

Fixed an issue for Mac users with Intel integrated graphics, where the mouse cursor would not move properly after adjusting the shape of a Sim’s body in Create a Sim.

Removed an outdated file that was causing a false error message to appear for 64-bit Mac users that said, “The Sims 4” is not optimized for your Mac and needs to be updated.”

Get To Work

Scientists will once again wear an appropriate outfit when going to work even if StrangerVille is not installed.

The “Chemical Analyzer” object can now be purchased from Build Mode without having to use a cheat.

Fixed an issue where selecting the Randomize from Gallery option until receiving an alien Sim, and then further randomizing that specific Sim, could result in a naked alien Sim.

Made updates to the list of valid objects that can be selected as the outcome of the SimRay’s “Transform Object” interaction.

City Living

Fixed an issue where objects from multiple festivals were appearing on top of each other in the neighborhood simultaneously.

Apartment landlords will now leave the apartment immediately after addressing a tenant’s complaint.

Added the ability for Sims with the Vegetarian trait to hire a Vegetarian Caterer by clicking on Stoves or Refrigerators.

Vegetarian Sims will no longer enjoy eating Mud Carp.

Cats & Dogs

After installing this update, Sims who adopt an animal after befriending them will be able to become companions with them and lecture them for misbehavior.

Fixed an issue where hungry pets would not eat from food bowls autonomously.

The pet toy box will no longer have its position rotated in a random direction when a Sim returns home from an active career.

Fixed an issue where the “Litter-Matic Scoop-Free” litterbox wasn’t looking clean after cat poop had been removed.

Fixed an issue with the Pet Adoption Agency, where they would occasionally show up at a Sim’s home without any pets to adopt, and would simply stand at the home’s front door and not do anything.

Note: Sims who have already adopted an animal after befriending them, in a save file created prior to this update, will continue to experience this issue. We’re investigating a separate fix for this issue in existing save files.

We’ve placed the magic gnomes responsible for this in the naughty box alongside SimGuruNinja.

Seasons

Updated the Gardening career so that Sims will earn more than 10 Simoleons per completed work shift.

Fixed an issue where on days where no holiday was set to occur, a Sim’s work schedule would update to falsely indicate that the day was a Holiday just prior to going to work, causing the Sim to stay home for the day.

Fixed an issue where NPC Sims were not autonomously using the skating rinks that appear in certain neighborhoods.

Toddlers will no longer attempt to queue up behavior to “Run Inside” during bad weather conditions if they’re already inside.

Fixed an issue where Sims voices could not be heard when Singing Together around a Holiday Tree if City Living was not installed.

Get Famous

The Acting career task to “Get Into Hair and Makeup” can be successfully completed once again.

Fixed an issue where celebrity Sims who had been set to use their normal walkstyle were switching back to using the celebrity walkstyle after traveling to certain types of venues.

Three star celebrity Sims will no longer use the celebrity walkstyle.

Dine Out

Players who have City Living installed can now add the Siopao and Ensaymada dishes to their restaurant’s menu. Yum!

Vampires

Vampire Sims created after installing this update will be able to continue to gain points after reaching the rank of Grand Master.

Fixed some circumstances where Vampire NPCs could appear at a venue and prevent the player from being able to save the game.

Fixed an issue where NPC Vampires would have their Vampire Energy drained after completing a load, which was causing them to idle in place instead of performing their expected autonomous behavior.

Note: Vampires that already exist will continue to experience a problem with gaining points after reaching Grand Master. We’re investigating a separate fix for Vampires in existing save files.

StrangerVille

Fixed an issue where Sims that had been shared to the Gallery after completing Act 1 of the StrangerVille Mystery would be blocked from progressing in the mystery when downloaded from the Gallery into a new game.

The following environment objects, which were created for StrangerVille, have been added to the Build Mode debug catalog to allow placement on lots. Players must enter the bb.showhiddenobjects cheat before they can be seen in the catalog.

Added proper images to the Officer and Covert Operator branches of the Military career.

Removed the “Question about Spores in Lab” interaction for Sims who have already acquired the Modified Hazmat Suit.

Removed the “Heart of the Pack” styled look from Create a Sim, as it was authored using clothing that’s only available to Sims that have joined the Military career.

Updated the pack information panel on the main menu to not display world objects under the Build Mode Items.

10 different cacti

3 different Joshua trees

3 different RVs

2 clusters of rocks

2 junked cars

A group of desert flowers

A military truck

A tire

A parking stop

My First Pet Stuff

Fixed an issue where deleting/selling the rodent habitat could cause the game to become unresponsive.

Holiday Celebration Pack

The Crown Roast platter will now show a partially eaten state when half of its servings have been taken.

[trashchatter]

Feel-ugly-day

Hey WWW,

You know those days where you can acknowledge that you’re not utterly gross looking and that you have good features but for some reason can’t seem to make yourself feel good? Its been one of those days. Normally on these days I’d take some cute photos of myself and upload them onto instagram (healthy coping mechanism I know, we stan relying on external validation), but its two days before my final exam you know a bitch don’t have time to do that right now. Gotta prioritise learning about the neuroanatomy of the brain and how it’s abnormalities and dysfunction of the neural circuitry can lead to autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia as well as how the cochlea’s physiology and anatomy aids hearing and distinction of noises!!!!! (I love my degree i love my degree i love my degree i love my degree...)

I have so many pretty people I’m friends with and pretty people I know, SA being one, TA being another, RM being one more (if you’re not sick of me listing the initials of people you don’t and never will know), and sometimes they make me feel hella insecure. They’re all so beautiful and I’m here like Alice Average or some shit. This sounds like a classic 20-something year old millennial going on about how she’s not blessed to the high heavens with good looks, but I promise you, I’m just trying to contextualise how I’m feeling for you guys.

I have a huge weakness in looking for external validation from people. Before I got into the relationship I was in now, I either relied on friends, family or hookups in order to provide me with the validation I was seeking. However, now I’m with such a wonderful man who treats me honestly better than I probably deserve, I kinda have to stop looking in those places for validation. It’s really weird because I see my friends flirting with guys and girls and I feel jealous. Not because I want to be hooking up with people. No, in short, hookup sex is never good sex. However, I’m jealous that they are receiving attention. Being told through social and verbal queues that they are attractive, funny, interesting etc. I get this feeling because of my inability to self-validate. Now here’s the thing, this does not correlate at all to my feelings towards my relationship. I love the man I’m with, and I think he’s amazing. He has done so much for me and continues to do so much for me. He is the most supportive, loving and caring individual I’ve ever met and he fills my life with so much positivity and joy. No, this issue is completely separate. I have tried explaining this to him on multiple occasions and he doesn’t get it. It upsets him and frustrates him that he can’t provide all the validation I need to feel good about myself. But, unfortunately, as I’m sure most of you will know unless you can self-validate, one person is never going to be enough to produce all the validation you need to feel positive about yourself (take a shot for every time I use the word validate, S lmao maybe you should use this as a drinking game tomorrow with P).

But, for him, I want to learn how to love myself and accept myself. I’ve come so far from where I was when I was younger, and I want to continue that process of self-improvement.

I am a tall, beautiful, powerful woman. I am attractive, I am interesting, I am funny and I am worthy. I do not need other people to tell me I am attractive in order to feel so. I am stylish, I wear clothes that make me feel good. I had big, brown eyes and an infectious goofy smile. I have a weird sense of humour that makes everyone laugh. I have big lips and I do not need to fake tan to make myself look good. I am toned, I am strong, I am lean. I do not need to lose weight, I do not need to have surgery. My small boobs are great, my long, skinny fingers are beautiful, my legs look fucking great in heels. I am beautiful the way I am. I look interesting and I am proud. I am a fucking boss.

I think, previously before I decided to utilise this blog as a positive space for me to process how I’m feeling, I would have ranted on and on about how I ugly I felt. I’m not going to do that today. I really want to, but I’m not. For some reason, I feel like this process is going to leave me unsatisfied in terms of internal validation, but I’m hoping the more and more I do it, the better I get at it and the more satisfied I become from this process.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful day, Emily xx

P.s. please do not think that because of the descriptions I used of my physical appearance do I think that other people with features very different to mine aren’t also beautiful. In fact, one of the reasons I find it so hard to self validate is because many of the women I look up to as beautiful or attractive have very different aesthetics of their own that are miles away from me. I am not going to put myself down to make other people feel better by saying different aesthetics are superior to mine because I feel like that is partially how I learnt to feel so ugly. However, I am also not going to sit back and say that my physical characteristics are superior to anyone else’s either. I’m not gonna sit back and list all the things I find beautiful because then that would make already long-ass textpost miles fucking long. Plus I think a major part of being attractive or beautiful is through how you convey and carry yourself and what kind of person you are. So please don’t let what I say have a negative impact on how you view yourself. Love u all <33

[420rinnefucker69]

some quick announcements!!

changing my queue tag from "long live the queue" to "all queued up" bc i thought of fox's taunt in smash

trying to be a bit more organized when it comes to tagging and stuff?? dunno all the fine details but,, organization yeah

probably gonna make an art blog bc i dont want all my mutals seeing my okay at best art lol its not worthy. art blog will include all of my creative endeavors though, music, writing, woodshop, coding, circuitry, etc. whatever the heck i feel like doing lol

gonna like,, actually use the tumblr website soon??? just for gp. wish me luck even though im a little gremlin that prefers the app

working real hard on my schoolwork and stuff tho so all of this might take a while to actually be noticeable

that's all for now! just wanted to post this so if my activity drops y'all know why,, a ton of background stuff is happening