#Fastest Processor

[globalbrandsmagazine]

Upgrade Your Rig: Intel's i9-14900KS 14th Gen Processor Arrives! - Global Brands Magazine

Intel announced full specifications and availability of Intel® Core™ 14th Gen i9-14900KS processors, again reaching the cutting edge of CPU frequency to retain the title as the world’s fastest desktop processor.1 The processors deliver up to 6.2 gigahertz (GHz) max turbo frequency out of the box, ensuring a world-class gaming and creating experience for desktop enthusiasts who want the most power possible.

[savvymantis]

anon who asked about the character limit, thanks for confirming! Also as of typing I realised your ask box being tilted I Need That is prolly a reference to Ratchet XD Nice one! As for my request could I ask how TFP Ratchet, Wheeljack, Bulkhead and Bee would react to their so calling them their husband?? There was this one trend going around where a spouse would be on the phone and casually refer to their partner as husband in a conversation. I just wanna see the bots flustered and confused, that's how I like my big robots

Dear Future Husband

Ratchet:

"You leave my husband alone!"

The playful scold echoes throughout Ratchet's processor, drowning out your cheers and jeers with the kids as you chase them off from his work desk. He looks at his frozen servos, then flicks his gaze towards you, watching as you pin Miko to the ground while rubbing your fist into the top of Jack's head as he cries for some uncle of his.

Husband.

Ratchet moves a servo to the computer, typing into a search engine. The results prove he's correct, a husband is a spouse, a married partner, equivalent to a conjunx, at least in the legal sense. Probably the sentimental sense too, considering how you are.

You called him your husband.

Ratchet glances back at you again, now buried beneath revenge-seeking children. He can't see your face behind Raf, who's sat on your chest, but he can hear your laughter. He smiles.

"Come on, off with you!" Ratchet shoos the kids away from you. They tumble and laugh at the gentle brush of his servos. "Don't crush my conjunx when I still need their help."

The smile you give him is dazzling, prettier than any star he's ever seen before.

Wheeljack:

"Careful, or your guard dog will come barking."

"My husband is twice the mech you could ever wish to be!"

Wheeljack knows a thing or two about humans, not really by choice, but he knows that word you said is meant to relate to him. He cradles your tiny form to his chest, blocking blasts with his back before he's transforming around you.

Breakdown isn't an opponent he wants to deal with right now, not with your life on the line.

Luckily, the Nevada landscape provides plenty of shortcuts and hideaways for him to make use of. You mercifully keep low and keep quiet, allowing Wheeljack to think a bit better about his escape routes. As much as he hates backing down from a good fight, you're a bit more important than his pride.

How will he question you if you're dead?

"All clear now, sweetspark."

You pop up into his driver's seat, grinning wide. "Have someone record it if you fight that guy. I wanna see you hand his ass to him on a silver platter."

"And I want you to tell me what a husband is."

Your smile softens. "From what I understand from Smokes, it's the equivalent to you calling me conjunx."

Wheeljack speeds off into the desert, throwing down the driver's seat so you roll into his trunk. Ah, so you actually got curious about him calling you that? Seems you both got some explaining to do.

Bulkhead:

"My husband's the strongest by far!" You brag, causing Bulkhead to pause and look at where you're stood before the kids, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen. "And you can't compare!"

"I was in the wreckers with him!" Wheeljack protests.

"Yeah, but he's still way stronger and cooler!" Miko pipes up, firmly behind you in calling him strong and cool. Bulkhead tromps over, faceplate warm, as he waves a servo around and dismisses the group bragging session. Not that is stops Jack and Raf from arguing with Smokescreen about who's the fastest of the bots.

"What's a husband?" Bulkhead asks you, once just you and Miko remain by him. Lifted onto the catwalk, Miko giggles and tries to climb up to his shoulder. He lets her.

"Someone who really loves someone else." Miko provides, tucking into the side of his helm. "Like how you love a conjunx."

"Is that the equivalent?" You ask, grinning lopsided and wide. Bulkhead feels his spark do flips when you grab one of his digits. "I love you tons, so you're my husband, my partner bonded to me in law and in spirit."

"Oh." Bulkhead lifts his other arm, scratching at his cheek. "Uh. . . Well, I love you tons too. As many tons as I can carry."

"That's a lot!" Miko chimes.

You just laugh, and Bulkhead decides to look up what husbands do, that way he can be a proper one, all for you.

Bumblebee:

"Ah, oops, hang on." You twist around, smile sheepish as you wave at Bumblebee. "What game did you want again, hon?"

Bee's wings flick upwards, and he gives you a sweet serious of noises and a point towards one of the games he already has. It answers your question nicely, even without Raf's help to translate.

"Right!" You chirp, turning back around. "My husband would like Ultra Racing Ultimate 4, please! I can pick it up in store, yes."

The conversation drizzles away as Bee's processor overcomes with static. He vaguely draws lines between dots, what husband means and what you must mean by saying it. His spark is lurching around in his chassis like it's trying to jump out to you, its true owner.

It the second it takes you to end your call, servos wrap around your waist and drag you into a teary eyed, utterly sappy Bee. He warbles his noises at you, leaning into the palms you brush over his cheeks and the kisses you press along his helm.

"I love you too, bubs." You coo, rubbing your nose to where his would be, if he had one. "Wanna scare the guy with how fast we show up to get the game?"

Bee decides he will conjunx you by the time he finishes his game.

[revelboo]

Thanks to you and other people, I now have a BLOKEES addiction and have so many BLOKEES while I sit here waiting for the next Defender Wave with Roddi and Shockwave (and most importantly, Soundwave with his favorite children). Just for that, you get a picture of my recent purchase of the Galaxy 07 Transformers One Wave two figures

~~and my undying wish and prayer that they make a blurr figure soon. I want my speedy boi~~

Ahhh! Mine arrived today, too! 💕

Hot To Go! Pt 1

Blurr x Reader

• Venting as Waspinator and Sky Byte begin loudly complaining about bots with organic altmodes being discriminated against, Blurr makes a note to cut the two of them off. Doubts Waspinator is overenergized enough to actually cause a problem, but Sky Byte isn’t as intimidated by everything as Waspinator is. They’ll either start something or just start singing karaoke. Which is as likely to start a brawl as anything else since neither one of them should ever be allowed to try to sing except as a means of psychological torture.

• Turning, he begins mixing a drink for Tankor, listening to the noise of the bar around him. Everything so slow after the war that it still doesn’t seem real, feels like he’s the only one at speed, the world around him standing still until he’s forced to slow down, too. No war, no danger. He’s proud of this place, but sometimes he thinks about racing again. About that sizzle of excitement and danger. Pushing himself past his limits to prove he’s the fastest. Knows there’s been talk about reinstating the Iacon 500, but there’s just as many against it as for it. Anything that’s too much a reminder of before, of something the Senate sponsored or approved of, makes everyone uneasy. Everyone finding a new normal and some wanting to go back to the way things had been, tensions high and only getting worse every day.

• Pain shreds you apart, eviscerating you alive until you can’t even scream. One moment driving, the next, agony so intense you can’t think, can’t breathe. And when that bright rending abruptly ends, you plop underwater and you really can’t breathe. Kicking to the surface, coughing and spitting, because this isn’t water, it’s viscous and glowing. Throwing your arms against the side of whatever you’re swimming in, you scrub at your burning eyes. And stare up at a big, blue robotic monster.

• Frozen, staring at the impossible little organic swimming in Tankor’s drink, Blurr glances at his nearest patron to see if you’re just a hallucination. No, Waspinator is gaping at you, mandibles spreading slightly. And you look at him, right in the optics with uncanny intelligence and your little face is so eerily Cybertronian. Watches you look around slowly, mouth trembling right before you screech at processor scrambling decibels. Shoving away from the edge of the glass and going under again, flailing and coughing when you resurface. “Everyone’s seeing this? Not just me? Good,” he mutters, dipping his servos into the glass to fish you out. And you weigh nothing as your terrified sputtering resolves into frightened chirping. You’re warm against his servos, little heart racing. What are you and where did you just come from? “Anybody know if organics teleport?” He asks and Sky Byte just shakes his head, mystified. ‘I’m not drinking something some nasty organic’s been soaking in,’ Tankor growls and he ignores the other mech, gently depositing you on his bar rag and he immediately has to catch you when you try to run straight off the edge of the bar in your terror.

• There’s giant, growling monsters everywhere. Pushing and squirming to try and get out of the blue one’s grip, you lean away when he grabs a rag and starts patting you dry, growling to a horrifying bug monster. Is the one sitting beside him a robot shark? Maybe you’re having a mental breakdown. Or dreaming. But you can taste the bite of whatever that glowing stuff you fell in was, smell the faintly metallic spice of the monster holding you and feel the warmth of his big hand. And you’re not that creative, your dreams never this detailed. Gasping as you’re lifted up to the blue robot’s face, listening his rough growling, you whimper. Because this can’t be real. He can’t be real. Realizing you’re chanting that, whispering ‘this isn’t real’ over and over as your heart races.

They’re making friends

[villiedoom]

How long do your photo realistic scenes take to render? What's your PC's specs? Your art is so gorgeous; every time I see it I think I would absolutely crash blender if I pursued making renders like that 😅

Thank you! <3

It depends on the scene itself and also on the resolution and sample amount. The fastest ones I made aren't even renders but screenshots from the viewport - they are quite fast to render, taking just a minute or few.

As an example - a simple portrait featuring just a Kotie and flowers, along with an HDRI map for background and lighting. It took about 5 min to render in 1800x1200px resolution with 120 samples plus denoise (on Cycles).

If there are background objects, more detailed lighting and especially volume, it takes longer. Sometimes much longer.

My computer has a processor Intel Core i5-12600K and GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. For scenes like these, with just one character and a minimum of background, that's enough. But complex scenes and especially animations take hours to render, and I usually render animations at a much lower resolution with fewer samples; even if one frame of animation takes just a few minutes, rendering many frames takes a very long time.

And of course sometimes Blender crashes, especially if there is more than one fluffy character plus a more detailed background :')

[askthemedbay]

Lore wise, I would have to know the lore of what happened to Pharma. What is shown is fascinating and love to know more! Your art and worldbuilding is really good, and I am happy to see more.

(OOC: Thank you for the kind comments!! And congrats, anon, you’re the winner of the first story post! It’s a bit lengthy, but I’ll do more of these if you guys like them!)

Ratchet was already growing suspicious by the time he noticed what Pharma had done.

No one could find that many willing donors that quickly, and morgue was filling up with cogless corpses.

It was stupid to believe Pharma, and he saw that now, just like he saw him drugging those sleeping bots. Those optics that would never open, that would never see their new home planet.

If only he was faster.

Ratchet adjusted his wrists. His new modifications hadn’t exactly settled with his original circuitry yet, making the joint feel bulky and slow. It would settle into its new purpose soon, though. It would see use soon.

Pharma hadn’t stopped stalking around the room since Ratchet agreed to leave, his pedes tapping rhythmically to every calculated step. Keeping up with quota drove him mad, Ratchet thought. No bot would think to kill a patient mid operation, to rip out their most precious organ and leave the corpse as an accident.

It was so stupid to believe him, in hindsight he was a fool. But that was hindsight, and this was now.

Ambulon stepped into the small room, and Ratchet pressed himself further against the wall. No one had noticed him yet, not even the keen-opticed trainee. He knew what Pharma planned to do to him. He felt all that Ambulon felt, and had heard Pharma’s mad ramblings late into the night. Yes, he was smarter than they assumed. The elder medic still had a functioning processor.

“You requested me?” Ambulon prefaced. Primus, he was only a kid. He was older than his own, but clearly not by much. That soft faceplate and hardly set jaw said enough. He’d only recently grown into that heavy plating.

Pharma ceased his pacing, looking at Ambulon with wild optics. That was not the same bot he once considered a friend, a colleague. That wasn’t Pharma, not anymore. Some kind of disease had wormed its way into his processor. It bastardized him. Turned him into… into…

Ratchet didn’t blink. His optics were tuned in and focused. That’s how fast it was. Though, seekers moved quickly under stress, didn’t they? Pharma raised his servo, which quickly turned into a loud, screeching engine.

Ambulon wasn’t stupid. He also made it through grueling medical academies before the war ruined his chances of a real certification. At least he was there to teach the poor kid… the long and short of it, he’d figured it out quite a while before Ratchet had; wether the circumstances were some sick twist of fate or not, the kid’s safety was his greatest concern. And for good reason. “Pharma..? What are you doing?”

Ratchet wasn’t nearly the fastest bot on the Ark, but he had some good days. This just happened to be one of those. Though, not nearly as fast as Pharma was in drawing his weapon of choice, Ratchet flung himself at the other medic.

They landed in a pile of scraping frames and harsh curses, tussling on the sterile ground of the medbay. Pharma, while lithe and agile, was no match for the bigger mech, but he was certainly trying. He waved his saw around like a mad mech, almost grazing Ratchet’s crest multiple times.

If any time was good to test his new ability, now was that time.

Ratchet raised his new, awkward servo, and revealed its purpose. The plating snapped away easily, revealing about a dozen tinier cables, ones that almost resembled those Soundwave used to disable his enemies before he went for the kill; but these were far more humane.

He fought for a better hold. Ratchet pushed Pharma onto his front, unwilling to listen to his screams. Not anymore. His free servo held his saw-wrist down, while he placed his modification on that practiced place. Ratchet closed his optics, focusing his power into controlling those smaller tendrils.

Pharma yelped, then that yelp turned into stupefied groans. When Ratchet returned to himself, the cables had snaked up the back of Pharma’s neck and into the thin gap between the heavy protective plating and connective wires. He was cradling his processor now. Subduing him manually. Finding the small nodule at the back of the processor, Ratchet watched the light fade out of Pharma’s optics.

He was not offline, not entirely, but he would be in stasis for some time. Just enough to get him locked up in the Ark’s brig.

Ratchet released soft vent, his internal fans clicking on as he carefully removed his processor-scrambling equipment. He stood, only now noticing that Pharma… he’d definitely hit him. The glass panels of his chassis were shattered, and he was coated in pink, purified energon. But that wasn’t his greatest concern.

Ambulon was frozen in place, like he’d gone to recharge standing up. He couldn’t speak, only opening and closing his intake stupidly. Ratchet stumbled to him, grabbing his shoulders roughly and squeezing. “He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

When Ambulon shook his helm no, Ratchet cycled his vents with relief. He pulled the young bot into his arms, trying to comfort him. “You’re okay, kid. You’re safe. Go… go take the next decacycle off. Please.”

“Yes, sir..”

He always was quite good at taking orders.

(OOC: Once again, I’ll do more story posts if you guys like them! Have some related sketches too)

[retropopcult]

The Cray X-MP was a supercomputer designed, built and sold by Cray Research. It was announced in 1982 as the "cleaned up" successor to the 1975 Cray-1, and was the world's fastest computer from 1983 to 1985 with a quad-processor system performance of 800 MFLOPS. The principal designer was Steve Chen.

[quasarwake]

Mentor!Starscream x Seeker!Reader, CH 25

Cadet/Cadet au belongs to @radioactiverats, this is another character that we've been playing with- meet Foxfire, seeing Starscream's Cadet, three different times- And times before he'd been noticed himself.

3000+ words

Three (and more) times

~~~

(Part 1)

~~~

The first time Foxfire had properly seen the Cadet had been at Swerve's- and, being an appreciator of all things earnest, he had quickly taken a liking to the little Seeker- your cerulean blue a refreshing bit of old colour that he had thought had no longer existed in the Decepticon ranks, not that he paid as close attention as he could have. It was nice to see- it had even been nice to see Skywarp letting loose, having lost himself in the crowd as though they were back on Vos again. He had become more malicious than he'd been back home, that bond between his trinemates loosened until none of the three had really seemed happy or stable, regardless of their high ranking. There was something of his old self when he'd decided to bring you along on his excursion, and it almost let Fox forget about how the war had changed all of you. It had been a long time since he had seen that kind of exuberance, that joy of life and there had been... something more comfortable, Swerve's letting itself open up to the newbie in the ranks.

That was, at least, until his trine-leader had appeared, Thundercracker close by his wing.

Starscream.

The whole of the bar went so quiet so fast, and Foxfire along with it. Fox remembered hearing rumours of you being attached to Starscream somehow, and some of those rumours? Many of them? Had not been kind. Seeker processors often leaned towards a more lascivious sense of humour but there had been more of that dark edge for what assumptions had been made about the Decepticon second-in-command and his…

Pet.

Foxfire had felt that discomfort in his spark, remembering that red mech from Vos, another trine-leader like himself, having pinned some of the fastest and most powerful fliers around for the thrill of it, caught Thundercracker and Skywarp, mechs that could shake the air and disappear into it.

Foxfire knew from experience how hard that could be.

And for such a long time, Fox had wondered if maybe the mech that had managed to pin him all those vorns ago was still in there, or if his spark had been harrowed away to make room for something much more nasty.

Seeing you nearly run up to him, overclocked on the lightest brews of engex and swaying to the music, Fox felt his hackles raise defensively, narrowing optics at the mech that hadn't so much as looked his way since the war had begun.

A mech that, at one time, had promised to bring Foxfire's trine into his flock, that together, they would be powerful, magnificent in the skies or in any endeavours, that had been Starscream's promise that night on Vos so long ago-

How easy it was to believe in poisoned words against Starscream, when he so clearly used that skillful charm to weave his way out of the most dangerous of descents, and away from those that wanted to be closest to him?

And yet, there was the little blue jet in you, the one that had been rumoured to be nothing but a pet at best to the Decepticon second-in-command.

Something that sounded so nasty there, but had been a gentle, claiming title that had Fox’s audials burning at the memory of, the way Starscream had whispered it so softly, that ashy rasp in his processor playing on repeat.

But you didn’t look like some sad little pet. You hadn’t spoken like one, at the bar, though there had been an endearing shyness to you. Hey, everyone’s nervous their first time at the bar, after all!

It had made Foxfire a little wary, thinking about Starscream and the mech he thought he knew. But your smile, your easy little wing rolls, the way your arms wrapped around Starscream’s chassis… ‘Super cool’.

The Starscream he’d heard rumours of and seen in combat was definitely not one Foxfire would call ‘super cool’. But the Starscream he had known all those vorns ago…

The way his wings jolted, before relaxing, clearly relieved at your safety, your comfort around him palpable to anyone in the room. And there was no anger directed towards you, the mech that was doing rather well for themself in spite of being overclocked. Fox had mentally cheered for you, seeing you stay on your pedes.

Foxfire felt his wings lower, relaxing, as Starscream's servo rested gently on your back, holding you carefully, before turning his frustration out on his trine-mate.

And again, he felt that there was something less venomous about Starscream's ranting, his own wings held stiffly, as if he could hide his relief from those that paid attention. The rest of the bar fell back into the ease of normalcy. He hadn't come guns blazing, and there was something more than a little familiar about seeing a trine-leader chew out his trine-mate for doing something irresponsible. And maybe few others would see it, but Starscream's faceplates had flashed from angry, to amused in brief moments, like he couldn't contain it-

Like he himself could still feel those echoes of Vos in this bar of Swerve's.

Foxfire let himself finish his drink, before making his way back to his own trine, processor filled to the brim with thoughts on somebody that had once promised a bond with him-

And to you, the little flier that had set those gears turning.

~~~

(Part 2) ~~~

The second time Foxfire had seen you, it was shortly after you had received your new wings-

And there was still something in his wings that tingled unpleasantly, when he thought about his contribution to the whole ordeal.

As if he should feel this guilt anymore, after vorns of that questionable experimentation on any number of dead metals, giving new life to them.

He had been trying to speak to Starscream again- trying, being the operative word. Some days Foxfire really wondered how much Starscream remembered or forgot, how much he forced himself to ignore while forging ahead for the 'Decepticon cause'. It wouldn’t be too different, Fox supposed, than the path he’d had to take.

He remembered when the last Winglords had fallen, and all that was left to take their place, to look towards, was Starscream.

All these vorns later, after multiple solar-cycles of trying to casually speak to him again, trying, reaching, pulling away and nearly giving up, and Foxfire had Starscream coming to him, asking, of all Seekers, who, who would have compatible wings, who would not be missed-

And Fox had remembered the gentler mech he had seen at the bar, allowing the little blue jet to cling to him, nuzzle into his plates, your armor unmarred and your wings, while a bit unpreened, a lovely, gentle arc. Like you hadn't been at war.

Like Foxfire hadn’t brought his trine into the Decepticon cause at the urging of the very mech you had been clinging to.

This was the same mech that came to Foxfire to ask him whose wings to pry off to save you, give you flight again.

And Foxfire felt something in his spark ache for you, just a little- but he hadn't actually gotten to see you after that repair. He hadn't actually gotten to see how you wore those wings- in another life, even with his little medical experience and his preference towards making… living sculptures, Starscream may have come to Foxfire for the healing of your wings, those cerulean blue wings of Vos.

Perhaps that was another painful realisation. Recognition of Foxfire’s own change in himself, that in the vorns that had passed, Starscream was not the only mech who had had lost some of that gentle care.

At least now, there was a new change, it seemed- something in the air, something that moved around you, greater than just your EM fields, and even the grounders seemed able to tell that something was up.

In the halls of the higher ranked Seekers, he was sure now that everyone would see you.

The claim had been so loud, Foxfire had wondered if his own receptors had become oversensitive again- but looking down the hall in your direction, he nearly didn't recognize you.

Small frame, the blue unmistakably yours, but those wings- massive, dark, nearly spreading across the hall as you staked your claim.

The air shivered with the statement, with the wake of quiet Echo left behind him, with Starscream’s astonished shout of surprise-

Foxfire had to chuckle to himself when he returned to his habsuite, thinking on the SIC’s myriad of shifting facial expressions, all focused on you. Your cracked faceplate, wings that seemed mostly mismatched to your frame, the proud and confident stance you held yourself in- and how well, it seemed, that you had grown into those wings. Fox wondered if you realised how strongly that Echo would respond to a claim from you, with wings from his former leader, and he smiled, curling up with his still recharging trinemates, warm and pressing around and into his frame like puzzle pieces.

Foxfire smiled to himself.

Oh, but how fun it would be-

To see a new trine formed properly.

~~~

(Part 3)

~~~

The third time he had seen you was shortly after your daring rescue of Starscream.

If it had been any other mech, Megatron would have openly stated that he had been impressed- and yet, you had saved Starscream, not a mech that Megatron was always so eager to keep around.

Things had gone back to an uncomfortable level of normalcy after Starscream’s return- and again, Foxfire found himself trying to reach towards the other trine-leader, making his living nightmares for the Decepticon cause but finding less and less inspiration to create them.

And there you were, another creature he had helped create. And there was… Echo, too, and Sunstorm, and there was something there, in the loading bay that day-

Sunstorm clearly trying to flirt his way into building a trine again, Fox had simply thought with bored interest, until there you were, your servos firm on Echo’s wings, tiny as you were in comparison to him. Fox eyed the null-rays adorning your shoulders, recalling how he and his trine had chosen other alterations to their frames, less costly, less painful-

And there you stood with your wings held wide, your stance even, staking a claim on one flier over another trying to court him. It was vicious-

There was something in it that called to the artist in Foxfire, that part of him he only really was able to let out while building his monsters, his nightmares.

It was beautiful.

It felt like fire.

A spark reigniting.

Your eyes burned right into Sunstorm’s irradiated EM field, and Foxfire watched his wings twitch in annoyance-

Before Echo turned to look at you. Look over your wings, yes- but Echo really looked at you, his frame turning so deliberately to ignore Sunstorm, wings rolling suggestively, but so casually as he took you in, as you held his wing firmly.

Fox had to smile- there really was just, something so familiar about seeing all of this, seeing the way that Sunstorm prickled before backing off, as though he had never flirted with the larger Seeker in the first place. You had dragged Echo off, the larger mech moving with you with a comfortable ease, like there was no place he’d rather be.

For a moment, Foxfire watched you two leave, feeling the warmth in his spark at something… new, forming, from the once so closed-off Cadet.

It was cute, too, seeing such a little mech take the lead so effectively over a big warframe.

Sunstorm’s radiation drew Foxfire’s attention from the other seekers, and Fox turned to see the other mech roll his wings invitingly.

Foxfire pulled a very obviously disgusted expression, wings dropping sharply and fields flaring with something that could be translated easily into ‘eat slag and offline’, before turning on his heel. He had a trine, his trine, and even if he didn’t-

There was another mech he wanted to see more, and even if Sunstorm shared his face, he was no Starscream.

~~~

Part 0

~~~

You had only seen the mech known as Foxfire once, before everything had gone to the Pit- well, twice in one day, really.

And it had been during class, of all things.

It hadn't even started, Starscream was late. Starscream was never late, and in fact, was frequently expecting others to be early. It was discomforting, disquieting, and it set the entire class' energies on edge. A small argument had started in your group, until finally, you were pushed to go find him- the least likely to get in trouble for it, apparently- he had to be somewhere.

And you only needed to re-enter the academy from the flight grounds to see where Starscream had gotten to.

Standing further down the hall with another Seeker, just a touch shorter and sleeker in build than Starscream himself, neon green and black plating standing out in the dark halls. You almost call out to Starscream-

But there was something... different, about his face. Something you hadn't seen before, something relaxed.

Starscream's whole frame actually seemed so at ease around this flier, who talked excitedly with a freely waving servo, a roll of painted foil under his other arm, and it occurred to you that this might be one of the academy's artists. But why would he be with Starscream, of all mechs? Was Starscream somebody that appreciated art?

But there was something- something about the way Starscream eyed the other mech, that even from a distance you could see. It was the way his optics trailed over the slimmer jet's wings, rested on his white faceplates, the sharp angles of this mech's black helm undeniably shapely.

You receive a ping from your classmates. ‘Well?’

Shaking your head, you make your way closer, making a sharp crackle in your vocals to ask for attention, the two mechs leaning close together before Starscream jolted back, his frame snapping into something much stiffer as he looked at you.

"Cadet! What are you-"

"Sir," you start. "We've been waiting- class?"

His optics flicked a few times, and you could tell he was checking his internal cronometer-

And they brightened again, rolling in their sockets as he looked back to the green mech.

"Foxfire, I've been neglecting my duties," he drawled, his tone much more casual than you'd heard it before. "Shall we continue this later?"

"Whenever you like~" the mech's tone was playful, and you cocked a brow-plate when he bowed, his arm rolling in a dramatic flourish. But, he seemed graceful strutting away, and you could almost feel the heat coming from Starscream's EM field-

He looked away from the other flier after a long moment, before gesturing for you to lead the way.

"Shall we, Cadet?"

~~

You were taking your break from drills on a balcony when you saw him again- he was marching up to Starscream, arms empty, a wide, jagged grin on his face and a pleased roll to his narrow wings. You couldn't hear from that far above, your audials not yet adjusted for reconnaissance, but the excitement of the new mech was palpable.

And there was something about the familiarity in the way he moved around Starscream, stepping lightly on his pedes around him as the two mechs spoke. You couldn't quite place what it was- until he slipped his arm around Starscream's waist, leaning close to whisper something, Starscream's frame moving into his touch with ease.

You had expected Starscream to pull away- but his wings told all that could see that he was content, pleased, even, letting them roll slowly on his back, darksteel faceplate contrasting with the stark white of the other mech’s.

You felt your face flush as you watched as the green mech danced back, wings flicking playfully as he gestured for Starscream to follow. Starscream seemed to consider for a moment, unaware of how you watched them from above, his face suddenly taking on such a mischievous look, his excitement clear in the glow of his optics, the crooked pull of his smirk. The other mech reached out his servo, before darting back, his wings flaring in invitation, and Starscream-

Ah.

There it was.

Starscream's wings in the classic roll, drop, forward flicker of frag-me flutters, heel-thrusters boosting him closer as he reached to grab for the other mech.

Your optics widen, energon rushing to your faceplates as heat prickled under them. Was he really going to-?

With most of the rest of the class in the air, you watched as your instructor ditched class, cyan servos grabbing onto and interlocking with black digits. It would almost be sneaking off-

If you hadn't heard their cackling echoing from the grounds.

~~

"Did you see that green mech with Starscream?"

Your roommate was positively glowing, wings fluttering with the excitement of new gossip- Starscream having ditched drill instruction! The class had ended without incident, sure, but..

Of course the whole academy was buzzing with the news of it.

You were trying, however, to forget the prickling in your plates, the way your processor buzzed at the casual expression on Starscream's face, the playful spike you had felt in his EM field, even from a distance.

Had you ever seen him like that before? Had you ever seen his wings so relaxed, his expression so... carefree? Had you ever seen him play like that, boosting himself along the ground, plates shivering with excitement as he leapt to grab another? You couldn't really hear what your roommate was saying over your own buzzing processor, and they try to catch your attention again.

"Hey! Hey- do you have any ideas what they were up to?"

They waggle their browplates, clearly hoping for anything particularly juicy.

You roll your helm to the side, humming thoughtfully.

You could share, but…

…maybe you wanted to keep this for yourself.

"I dunno," you return, shrugging on your berth. "I didn't really see anything, but-

I think he’s an artist."

Previous/Next

[andmaybegayer]

Do you know of a decent place to see which phones still work well after years? I'm noticing pretty damning performance issues with my Xperia meanwhile my razer phone 2 is still chugging along!

Longevity is kind of double edged, there's update support and there's raw performance. For update support, there's EndOfLife which has details for a few brands, and you can otherwise usually find a recent list pumped out by an aggregator site if you search "Update Support <Brand> Phones". Just because support is long doesn't mean it'll necessarily run well, (Samsung has long support on even their slowest phones) but it's a start.

For performance, the flagship phones with high end processors and tons of RAM do a lot to future proof a phone against the increasing resource demands, so your best bet is often just benchmark results relative to those.

GSMArena will usually have GFXbench or 3DMark and GeekBench results for phones. Versions change often but, you can usually look at like, the contemporary Samsung S or S Ultra whatever which is pretty reliably one of the fastest fast phones of its generation and see how what you're looking at stacks up. e.g. here's a Nothing 3a pro vs the Samsung S25.

Huge performance gap! GeekBench and AnTuTu are sort of holistic usability benchmarks, while 3DMark is mostly gaming focussed. Here's my phone (Pixel 8) vs its contemporary S24. Now that I mention it, contemporary pixel is also a good "middle of the road" benchmark for recent generations.

No good graphics comparison, but you can see, ~65% performance give or take in general use. This also shows you how big the inter-generation gap was this time, pretty big!

Another thing that matters more than you might think is storage. Modern phones use eUFS 2.x or eUFS 3.x, both of which are high performance flash standards and which are a huge step up over older eMMC storage. Slow flash like eMMC dramatically affects app performance and only makes it worse if you run out of memory and have to hit swap. Snappy app transitions under Android involve a lot of careful memory management and swap usage so slow storage can really highlight that. GSMArena will usually list the flash standard a phone is using.

Memory has a much narrower spread these days, even the cheapest new budget phone will usually have 6GB of RAM, but getting 8 or 12GB will help reduce swapping and improve caching for application launching and multitasking.

[coyotemaximum]

thinking about blurr.

soundwave finds him annoying at best. he's admittedly a fairly decent spy; he's fast, can be very focused, light on his pedes. his processor runs at an insanely fast rate, so every risk he takes has already been calculated three times over. on the battlefield though? in a fight? blurr is INFURIATING. again, he's fast, but he's also loud and LOVES taunting people. he's a fucking looney tunes character. he's the roadrunner and he turns all his opponents into wile e coyote. he's genuinely the worst and, while soundwave has defeated him more than a few times, he's never gotten out of a fight with blurr with his dignity intact.

you'd think knock out would like him, or at least like racing with him, but no actually. the thing about blurr is that he's a TERRIBLE sport when it comes to racing. and to be fair, on velocitron, a single race could ruin your social standing, but even knock out doesn't get all that twisted up about it because they're not ON velocitron and the war kinda killed that tradition. but as it turns out, being the fastest thing alive has given blurr a NASTY ego, and that takes pretty much all the fun out of racing with him.

it's actually skywarp who likes blurr the most out of all the decepticons. skywarp, being able to teleport, has no issue keeping up with him, they're both similar levels of annoying to their enemies and opponents, they both like going fast as hell. there have been countless battles where skywarp and blurr have ended up just running laps around each other off in the distance and not contributed at all. they didn't even attack each other, they just raced the whole time. they both get chewed out for it, but it keeps happening and WILL keep happening. they're almost friends. almost.

skywarp knows not to let too much slip, of course. blurr IS a spy, after all, they can't let their guard down too much. but blurr talks openly about his life, so skywarp talks about theirs to an extent. maybe one day, one of them will break, or one of their sides will find out that they're talking, but for now they're content to let the war fade into the background.

[pointycorgiears]

Cross Guild Flower Shop AU

I've always wanted to sit down and make a Flower Shop AU of something because I spent over a decade working as a florist and have firsthand knowledge of the processes and logistics of a flower shop.

But then I get the War Flashbacks and I shrivel silently back into my hidey hole. (I got super burnt out from that career) I don't know if I could ever flesh it out, but IF I were to do a Cross Guild Flower Shop AU, this is how it would go:

~🌷~Cross Guild Floral Creations Inc.~🌷~

Buggy: The owner/boss of the shop. Has surrounded himself with very talented people in the industry, but these same people might all be secretly insane. Including himself. He's just trying to keep things afloat and make sure things run smoothly!

Crocodile: The ACTUAL Owner of the shop. He owns the land, the space, the name, everything. He stays out the shop's daily operations for the most part. Will only show up if Buggy is in desperate need of assistance or is in trouble.

Mihawk: A manager who just no longer gives a shit. He's there for a paycheck and will take no crap from anybody, even Crocodile. Will never be fired, because Croc knows if Mihawk goes, everything goes up in flames the second he walks out the door. He is quite talented though and can make some seriously BEAUTIFUL wedding bouquets.

Alvida: She's a floral designer also just working for a paycheck. She has a love/hate relationship with her job, but she is loyal to Buggy, and she doesn't want to leave him hanging. She's also good with customers. The regulars love her! She's not afraid of telling the rude one-time customers to fuck off though.

Galdino: The flower processor that works (lives) in the back of the shop. Never sees the light of day. He receives the flower shipments from the wholesaler and cuts the stems of the new packages when they arrive to be put into water. He makes sure special orders are delivered to the shop and sorted and labeled into their own buckets. He keeps the back coolers well stocked and organized, but constantly complains about being cold all the time. (Everyone knows this is a lie. When you work in the coolers all day, you stop feeling the cold.)

Cabaji: The fastest, most efficient deliver driver in town, maybe the world. No ones asks how he got that funeral piece delivered 10 miles away in under 30 minutes, and no one (especially Buggy and Croc) WANTS to know. As long as there's good insurance on the delivery van and he doesn't get pulled over, nobody cares.

Mohji and Richie: They are Buggy's friends that constantly hang out around the shop and don't really do anything. Croc is annoyed because they can be a distraction from the business. No one else really minds them though since they do help out when it's really busy. Richie is the shop therapy pet that prevents everyone from murdering each other on the spot during Valentine's Day crunch time. (I'm not joking)

[randofics]

Halitus

Novo amor - Repeat until death

Novo amor - Haven (Life is Strange - True colors)

Optimus tfp x reader Fluff

------------------------

Organics were interesting to Optimus in their bodily functions. Being an archivist was in his programming, after all, so it was in his nature to want to learn more. But he also had an important job to do and thus never had much time for it.

Nevertheless, when he spotted you asleep on the couch, chest expanding and contracting with each breath you took, he couldn't help staring. It was intriguing to think that your brain didn't have to constantly activate and move your diaphragm muscles to make you breathe. It was simply an automatic thing. Meanwhile, his processor was constantly calculating and activating different parts of his body to function and move.

Sometime later, he found himself out at one of his favorite spots in the canyons with you. Snow covered the sandy ground in some places, and the air was cold. The sun was setting coloring the clouds in pastel oranges, pinks, reds, and purples. You had a thick coat on with faux fur on the hood, and a beanie covered your head.

Each breath you let out, he could see in the frigid air like steam, and in the light, it was colored in orange and yellow. Your eyes lit up as you spotted something in the distance, and a smile pulled at his lips.

"Optimus, look a herd of pronghorns!"

In the distance, a migrating herd of pronghorns was galloping into the canyon. Hot puffs of breath came from their noses as they ran. It was amazing to see them in motion, their hooves kicking up snow and sand. They soon came to a stop so they could graze on the brown grasses sprouting from the rocky soil. Some went to drink from the snowmelt creek that had formed in the old riverbed.

"I bet they have such soft noses!" You let out a giggle as you thought of squishing ones nose in your hand. He smiled bigger at your happy demeanor. "Did you know they're actually the only surviving member of the Antilocapridae family? They're also the fastest land mammal in the western hemisphere, topping out at around 55 miles per hour!"

"I did not, that is very intriguing indeed y/n." One reason he enjoyed your company was that you too loved learning as much as he did. And he continued to learn new things from you just as you did with him and the others.

You both sat and watched them for a little while as they grazed. The sun set even further, and the pronghorns moved on. With the last of the sunlight peeking over the horizon, he knew it was about time to head back.

Transforming, he popped open his driver's side door for you to climb in. You step up and sit in his seat, making sure to buckle up. His engine rumbles as he gets back onto the dirt road, and when he stops at a crossing, you lightly kiss the emblem in the middle of his steering wheel. "Love you, Optimus."

"As do I y/n."

[thepromiscuousfinger]

In case you didn't know, GFM does not directly payout to individuals in the Middle East.

Per their requirements for their Trust & Safety verification process:

How can I help support those affected by the conflict?

The fastest, safest, and most helpful way to help those in need is through charities working on the ground. Please consider starting a certified charity fundraiser for a verified organization providing critical support to those affected. Consistent with our long-standing policies, fundraisers are allowed for humanitarian aid and medical supplies to individuals, and for humanitarian aid and medical supplies to registered 501(c)(3) public charities providing support to those affected.

What details do I need to provide to help the fundraiser review process?

To speed up the review process, we recommend you include the following details in your fundraiser description:

All cities where funds and assistance are being sent. Specificity is important here — please include the name of the city, town, or village. We cannot accept generally stated regions or territories, or vague and undefined groups of people.

Clearly detail the purpose of the fundraiser and how the funds will be used. This can include, but is not limited to, humanitarian aid for civilians, a registered 501(c)(3) public charity for medical supplies, or clothing and food for displaced persons.

If you are distributing funds to an organization after withdrawing to your bank account, you must list the organization’s name on your fundraiser and you will be expected to agree, in writing, that you will transfer funds to that organization and that the funds will only be used for humanitarian purposes.

Why do you need my documentation?

As part of our review process to distribute the funds raised, we may need to gather additional documentation to verify your identity or the identity of the recipient, as well as plans to distribute funds. We know getting money to people as quickly as possible is important, however, this is necessary to meet payment processor requirements and help ensure the fundraiser is compliant with our Terms of Service. The information you share is only required for internal GoFundMe verification purposes and will be used in compliance with our Privacy Policy: https://www.gofundme.com/privacy

...

Being cautious of where money is going is common sense. If individuals are receiving money through public charities that are later distributed directly to them, where's the statements to prove it?

[rescuebabiesau]

When the Fastest Bot Goes Faster

"GO, BLURR! I'll BE FINE!"

Salvage's words had only been said seconds ago, but it felt like an ancient memory as they echoed in the racecar's processor.

Go. Run. Flee. Leave. Escape.

Blurr had turned tail and taken off away from the officers trying to arrest them- for Primus knew why- and he knew some of them would be close behind him. Some would have stayed to cuff his friend, his closest companion who'd been there for him through thick and thin.

Blurr was a coward once, he would have fled from danger and not looked back once, he would have put his own safety ahead of all else...

...He was not that bot anymore.

He was running away, but only to get some distance. He needed space to get up to speed, he needed space to go faster than he ever had.

His tires screeched on the pavement and then he drifted to a stop. Flashing lights were headed his way... and then he took off back towards them. Towards the danger, towards the problem at hand.

He wasn't really sure when he transformed, because it all happened in- well, a blur! Time seemed frozen around him, the world moving by him at slow-motion, and then he felt a resistance like he was hitting a wall, but it began to give under his force, and he clenched his teeth as he kicked hard off of the ground and pushed past it. It felt like the pieces of the wall scraped his metal, tearing the paint and plating away to reveal something else underneath-

BOOM!

All the officers saw was a flash of white and blue fire past them, and then a shockwave blasted them to either side of the street.

"Youwannatakemyfriendfrommeyougotanotherthingcoming!" Blurr spat, words leaving his lips faster than any bot could possibly understand. The remaining officers and Salvage appeared in mirco-seconds, and he blasted past them and then knocked the officers back several feet before skidding to a stop. "Salvage!"

Salvage looked around for a moment, still trying to process how his captors were suddenly on the other side of the square, and then looked at the glowing, vibrating figure that had his friend's voice. "Blurr!?"

"Runnowtalklater!" Blurr announced, snapping the cuffs loose from the recycling truck's wrists. "Let'sgolet'sgo!"

"Run now... Okay...!"

___________________________________________

Rule #1 of being a Rescue Bot: Help when needed.

[revelboo]

I've been having some thoughts about the various sparklings, and i realized that yeah, a fair number of them will have normal vehicle alt modes, but it's be really cool if some of them had animal modes based off of earth animals. Like I can see idw Starscream's being a peregrine falcon (the fastest bird on earth), tfp Starscream's as a type of heron, all slender grace and a skilled hunter. Soundwave's idw kid could take the form of an owl and his tfp kid could be a bat. Jazz's kid could become a lyrebird with an outlier ability for perfect vocal mimicry.

On the flipside, B127's sparkling doing this is how you get Cheetor, so...

I love this! Even though the sparks are going to go into prepared protoforms that are designed to lean towards a certain frame type: seeker vs miner, that isn’t necessarily what they’ll end up with. The spark itself determines the final outcome and reshapes the protoform to suit it

Bad Idea Pt 19

TFP Soundwave x Reader

• Head tipping to watch you finger comb your hair, Soundwave hesitates. Megatron’s human had put the idea into the warlord’s processor that the humans needed human things. Little wash racks and waste disposal areas. Little berths and storage. The little tubs had been Megatron’s idea, though. What he hadn’t expected was for you to spend so long submerged under the warm water. Long enough he’d hooked a tendril around you and lifted you out, venting when you’d just stared owlishly at him. You’re back in the water now, elbows up on the side of the tub as you groom your hair.

• Pushing off the edge of the pool sized tub, you swim another lap aware of Soundwave watching you curiously, his tendrils restlessly shifting. You’re getting the impression Cybertronians don’t swim, though since he’s living metal he’d probably sink like a rock anyway. So maybe that’s why he’s so worried about you. Keeps reaching in to lift you to the surface when you dive. “Get me some soap and shampoo, maybe a hairbrush, and I’ll marry you,” you say and his head tips. And then he’s fishing you out again, holding you dangling above the tub, dripping wet. Apparently your exercise session is over.

• Carefully setting you down outside the tub, he drops a towel on top of you. Less unsettled now that you’re not underwater. Even if you’re frowning up at him before you bend to start drying your hair with the towel. And his head tilts to watch you, making a note of the things you’d asked for. Things you need. Reaching out, he ghosts a servo against your arm. As fascinating as watching the way you move underwater is, you can’t breathe under there and that leaves him unsettled and anxious. Afraid for you.

• Drying off, you wonder if he’ll be annoyed if you get right back in the water as soon as he leaves. Because big bird will definitely tattle on you if you do, the drone currently perched on a high shelf recharging. “You understand I’m not going to drown, right? I can swim.” Your big cryptid’s only response is to gently pat you on top of your head with a servo, then to nudge you further away from the pool with a tendril. The message to stay out of the water loud and clear. Bending to gently bump you with his visor as if in apology, his servos brush your spine. Can’t muster the energy to be annoyed with him when he’s just worrying over you.

• And you lay a hand on him even as you wrinkle your nose. You won’t go back into the water if he leaves you unsupervised. Will you? Even if you can swim, he doesn’t like it. Doesn’t like when you hold your breath and dive under. Unhappily lingering, his tendrils writhe. Half tempted to ferry you to his berth and away from your little space just to be sure you’ll be okay. But as you brush your mouth against him, he has to trust you. Because how can you trust him if he can’t trust you? Wants to get you the things you need, human things. To show you he can provide for you. That he’s listening to your needs. For you to be happy.

Previous

Next

[ckret2]

Hey. I’ve been looking at your posts about posting your fic on Ao3, and I just wanted to be sure— you do know that you can post your fic without having to use HTML mode, right? Like you can post it without having to type a “<p>” and “</p>” before and after every new paragraph, or use “<em>” “</em>” to make sure something in italics is recognized by the website as italics? Just look for a button on the left right above the box you’re going to be writing in that says “Rich Text” and press that. It should be right next to the button saying “HTML,” which is the default button selected, but you only have to press Rich Text to change that.

And none of your work is lost if you switch buttons. But Rich Text mode gives you a version of the posting box where you can write normally and just press the return key for a new paragraph like normal, and there’s a little menu on the top where you can choose if you want to write in bold or italics or change the spacing or whatever. I just felt like you ought to know in case you missed it and had to write the hard way.

I can't do that because the site I write on and store my fics on strips the formatting out of the document—italics, bold, etc—if I copy/paste it anywhere I've tried (all my other word processor apps, other websites, and yes, AO3's rich text editor) EXCEPT FOR tumblr, for some bizarre reason I don't know. Copy/pasting from the site I use into tumblr and copying tumblr's text to paste into AO3's editor is the only workaround I've found for this issue aside from reformatting every italicized/bolder word by hand. And I use a lot of italics.

I could copy/paste the rich text off tumblr and paste it into AO3's rich text editor, but since tumblr's stupid-as-hell post editor only allows you to select one paragraph at a time, my options are: copy/paste one paragraph at a time; manually force past tumblr's stupid-as-hell inability to select more than one paragraph by selecting the first paragraph and manually scrolling all the way down to the bottom to select the whole thing; selecting the whole chapter by going to the finished post and scrolling down to select the whole thing (which is finicky as hell if you're on a tablet, which I am); or, using select-all in tumblr's HTML format and then just quickly deleting the author's note when I paste.

As you can see, using select-all in HTML format is the fastest and least human-error-prone way to transfer text from tumblr to AO3

Every time I post a new chapter I paste the text to AO3's HTML editor and then switch to the rich text editor to insert that chapter's art.

[spiderscribe]

Happy day 10 of TF Rare Pairing Fest!! I hope you've all been enjoying Percy's rotating harem of boyfriends, because I was also asked to write Blurr/Perceptor and that’s what you’re getting today. For the prompt "Butterfly" <3

@tfrarepairing

“Hey, Percy?” asks Blurr, breaking the silence and consequently shattering Perceptor’s focus for the fifth time in as many kliks.

Resisting the strong urge to comm a security guard and request that Blurr be removed from the premises on the basis of being a metal shard in his side, Perceptor lowers his datapad and stares down Blurr. “What?”

Blurr wilts a little at Perceptor’s frosty tone, but he squares his shoulders and keeps talking anyway, his ever-present irritating grin on his face. “This place is really nice. How’d you end up working here?”

“I was recruited to assist in species inventory and identification.” Perceptor ticks off the last box on his checklist and swipes to the next page, walking towards the next room. Blurr scrambles after him, and a distant part of Perceptor’s processor notes that it’s rather funny to see the world’s fastest bot running to keep up with him. “The current categorization system is horribly inefficient.”

“Oh. That’s, uh. That sounds pretty bad,” says Blurr as he follows him. “Did they call you up because you’re an expert in this field?”

“Not particularly,” says Perceptor. “I assume I was contacted because of my extensive general knowledge of offworld organic fauna.”

The two of them emerge into an enormous, brightly-lit enclosure that smells strongly of organic soil. Sunlight streams in through the glass roof, glittering against the lush green crystal trees and imported Earth plants growing in abundance. A steel bridge embedded with decorative stone pieces winds through the artificial forest, inviting visitors to continue strolling inside. In the distance, Perceptor can hear the merry bubbling of the water fountain spilling over fields of grass.

And throughout the entire room, thousands of cyber-butterflies and organic butterflies flap freely, filling the room with their distinct buzzing and unique patterns in a canopy of vibrant colours.

(read the rest on ao3!)