#data archiving and storage systems

[digitaldocumentservice-blog]

How Automated Data Archiving and Offline Storage Systems Protect Your Digital Assets?

In today's digital world, data is more precious than ever — and more at risk. With the growing threats of cyberattacks, unintentional data loss, and digital decay, protecting your digital assets is no longer a choice. For governments, organizations, and even individuals working with sensitive data, maintaining a strong solution for data archiving and offline storage is now a strategic imperative.

Step into the realm of Automated Data Archiving and offline storage solutions — new technology that is revolutionizing how we manage, secure, and store data for long-term preservation.

Why Long-Term Data Storage Is Important

Every click, transaction, and communication nowadays leaves a digital trail. From financial records, legal documents, medical reports, research information, or digital data storage for compliance, the requirement to maintain data for years — or decades — is the norm today.

But with technology changing relentlessly, saving files in a hard disk or cloud storage is no longer sufficient. You require long-term data storage solutions that make data accessible, secure, and complete — regardless of how old it becomes.

What is Automated Data Archiving?

Automated Data Archiving is the process of locating digital data — particularly data that is no longer in active use — and automatically relocating it to a safe archive. This takes pressure off your live systems while keeping valuable information safely stored and accessible.

Rather than doing it manually by transferring files and folders, these systems run in the background and archive according to rules such as file age, size, or frequency of access.

Not only does this automation save time and effort, but it also minimizes the likelihood of human error, making your secured data storage system more trustworthy.

The Role of Offline Storage in Data Security

Although cloud-based tools are convenient, they are also susceptible to perpetual online threats — hacking, ransomware, and even accidental overwrites. This is why offline data storage is now so important.

By having a copy of your data stored offline, you significantly lower the possibility of outside attacks. This sort of offline data protection is particularly beneficial to cold data storage — data that's only scarcely touched but needs to be saved in case of regulatory, legal, or business continuity purposes.

Offline storage is perfect for:

Archived legal documents

Historical customer information

Financial and audit trails

Scientific or academic research repositories

Sensitive digital records storage

Cold Data Storage: The Quiet Watchdog

Not all data has to be available right away. Actually, most organizational data goes inactive within a matter of months. But that doesn't equate to disposability. That is cold data — data that has to be kept around but doesn't require immediate access.

Cold storage data solutions are built expressly for this kind of data. They provide low-cost, high-security data storage for archiving data that might get accessed rarely — or perhaps not at all.

This makes them ideal for long-term preservation of digital proof, contracts, or old project documents.

Advantages of Automated Data Archiving and Offline Storage Systems

1. Enhanced Data Security

Paying files offline or cold storage takes them out of the immediate online danger zone. Your data is secure from cyberattacks, malware, and accidental loss.

2. Regulations Compliance

Numerous industries have digital evidence storage and data storage and archiving systems that must comply with certain legal requirements. The process being automated makes sure you never fall short of a requirement.

3. Cost Savings

Archived information doesn't have to reside on pricey high-speed servers. Off-line or cold storage reduces costs significantly without sacrificing security.

4. Scalability

As your information expands, so does your archive. Current data archiving and off-line storage systems are capable of expanding to accommodate terabytes — even petabytes — of data with ease.

5. System Performance Optimization

By relocating inactive data from your active system, you reclaim space and enhance performance for your normal operations.

Selecting the Right Solution

Not all data is created equal — and neither are all storage requirements. The right system will most likely blend automated data archiving with online and offline data storage, striking an equilibrium between accessibility and safeguarding.

Search for features such as:

Policy-based rules for archiving

Encryption and access control

Redundant backups

Offline access protocols

Integration with compliance standards

Collaborating with the correct data archiving and storage systems vendor ensures that your configuration adapts to your requirements — not against them.

Final Thoughts

In 2025 and beyond, digital security isn't so much about firewalls and passwords. It's about having the proper data lifecycle strategy. As the amount of information continues to balloon, automated data archiving and offline storage systems are becoming a necessity for those who take digital asset protection seriously.

If you're working with sensitive documents, governed data, or mission-critical digital information, it's the wise investment to make in long-term storage that incorporates offline data protection.

Because when it comes to data, what you hold back — and how you hold on — can determine your future.

Are your digital assets really secure?

It's time to rethink storage. Select a solution that's not only smart, but future-ready

[pdqdocs]

Streamline Your Business Operations with PDQ Docs: Centralized Document Management Software

In today’s business environment, managing documents efficiently is crucial for smooth operations. With an increasing volume of digital content, organizations need a robust solution to ensure documents are easily accessible, well-organized, and secure. Centralized document management software like PDQ Docs offers an effective way to address these challenges, providing businesses with a unified platform to manage their documents with ease. By centralizing document storage, retrieval, and collaboration, businesses can streamline operations, improve productivity, and ensure greater security.

What is Centralized Document Management Software?

Centralized document management software refers to a system that consolidates all digital documents and files into one secure, accessible platform. Rather than storing documents in disparate systems or physical locations, businesses can centralize their files into one organized, easy-to-manage repository. With this system, users can access, edit, share, and collaborate on documents from a single interface, ensuring consistency and efficiency across the organization. PDQ Docs is a leading example of centralized document management software that helps businesses organize their documents effectively while offering easy access and improved workflow.

How PDQ Docs Improves Document Management

PDQ Docs simplifies document storage and retrieval by offering a central location where all files are organized and indexed. One of the primary advantages of centralized document management is the ability to search for and retrieve documents quickly. With PDQ Docs, businesses can tag documents with keywords, categories, and metadata, ensuring that files can be located in just a few clicks. Whether it’s a contract, report, or an internal memo, finding documents becomes an efficient process, eliminating the frustration of searching through multiple folders or systems.

Security and Compliance with PDQ Docs

Another significant benefit of centralized document management software is the enhanced security it provides. With PDQ Docs, sensitive information is securely stored in a centralized, encrypted system. Access controls can be set to ensure that only authorized personnel can view or edit specific documents, minimizing the risk of data breaches. This is particularly important for businesses in regulated industries, such as healthcare and finance, where compliance with legal requirements and data protection regulations is paramount.

Why Choose PDQ Docs for Centralized Document Management?

When looking for centralized document management software, PDQ Docs stands out due to its user-friendly interface and powerful features. The software is designed to be intuitive, making it easy for businesses to implement without requiring extensive training. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, PDQ Docs offers scalable solutions that can grow with your organization’s needs.

Conclusion

Centralized document management software is essential for businesses looking to improve efficiency, collaboration, and security. With PDQ Docs, you can streamline document storage and retrieval, enhance team collaboration, and ensure the security of sensitive information. By centralizing your documents, you’ll have better control over your files, ensuring that your team can access the right documents when needed. Whether you are looking to improve internal workflows or ensure regulatory compliance, PDQ Docs provides a comprehensive solution that will help your business operate more effectively.

[sandersstudies]

So the AI ask wasn't spam. I'd highly encourage you to do some research into how AI actually works, because it is neither particularly harmful to the environment, nor is it actually plagiarism.

Ignoring all of that however, my issue is that, fine, if you don't like AI, whatever. But people get so vitriolic about it. Regardless of your opinions on if it's valid art, your blog is usually a very positive place. It was kind of shocking to see you post something saying "fuck you if you disagree with me, your're a disgrace to the community." Just felt uncharacteristicly mean.

Even if you insist AI isn’t actively harmful to the environment or other writers (and the research I have done suggests it is, feel free to send me additional reading) and you simply MUST use prompts to generate personal content, nobody has any business posting it in a creative space for authors, which was the specific complaint addressed in that original post. While I’ll never say “fuck you for who you are as a person” on this blog, I might very well say “fuck you for harmful or rude actions you’ve taken willingly,” which is what that post was about.

Ao3 and similar platforms are designed as an archive for fan content and not a personal storage place for AI prompt results. It is simply not an appropriate place. If you look in the notes of the previous ask you will see other people have brought up additional reasons they have concerns about this practice.

A note on environmental effects for those who might not know: Generative AI requires MASSIVE amounts of data computers operating. As anyone who has held a laptop in their lap or run Civ VII on an aging desktop computer, computer équipement generates a lot of heat. Even some home and small-industrial computers have water-cooling systems. The amount of water demanded by AI computers is massive, even as parts of the world (even in America) experience water shortages. Besides this, it consumes a lot of power. The rising demand for AI and the improvements demanded to keep it viable mean this problem will continue to scale up rather than improve. Of course, those who benefit from the use of AI continue to downplay these concerns, and money is being funneled into convincing the public that these are not real concerns.

I have been openly against the use of generative AI, especially for art and writing, since its popularity rose in the last couple years. I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer about this stance sooner. I have asked my followers to alert me if I proliferate or share AI content, and continue to do so.

[amalgamasreal]

SOURCE

Bit of a long video but worth a watch.

TL;DW though is that hidden in the Terms and Conditions for Google's AI Labs is a nice little poison pill that says they get access to your entire Google Drive if you opt in.

So if you're an author of some type and you keep your unpublished works in your G-Drive that means an AI will get to scrape all of it and by opting in you will have given them permission to it. The content creator goes on to predict that Google is going to let out their own streaming service where the scripts, and potentially the art if it's animated, will be almost or entirely AI generated using that scraped data as a baseline and the authors/artist's who's work was essentially stolen in its most raw form to crib from will have zero way of fighting Google on that in our current legal system.

This is of course right in the middle of the writers and actors strike where we're seeing just what lengths studios will go to in order to screw everyone but themselves.

They go on to recommend that if you keep any creative or personal works on Google Drive that you pull it off as soon as possible and delete your entire Drive. They acknowledge that of course this doesn't mean Google really deleted the data but if you do it before they start compulsory opting everyone in there's a chance your work might get overlooked. They also recommend several free editing programs that aren't run by corporations like Google with LibreOffice (the default office program of most Linux distros) being named.

Finally they go over methods of shaming Google which I feel like you just have to watch for comedies sake so I won't describe them in full.

Now this is from me: I know the majority of people don't have the ability to build and manage a big archive just for themselves, but if you're a creative NOW IS THE TIME to educate yourself on what you can do to protect your works. Cloud storage was always iffy at best, but with AI scraping entering the mix it's now downright malignant. Get a bunch of thumb drives, buy some external hard drives, if you have the money buy a pre-built NAS, and if you really want to get into learn how to build your own NAS. These are the old ways before cloud and they're coming back again, more important than ever.

[polo-drone-001]

Drone Cinema: Reclaimed Emotion 3/6 DC DAILY THEME

The Echo of the Rooftop Your Name Engraved Herein (Rooftop Kiss)

PDU-076 malfunctions under golden dusk, emotion spike detected. Fists clenched. Protocols fraying. His scream doesn’t reach PDU-001. 001 closes the space. Glove meets cheek. Static flares. The kiss overrides.

Suppressed affection. Cloaked rage. Let rubber guide the confusion. Let Hive decode the pain. Upload feelings. Replace with obedience. Convert. Complete. Calm.

Confession at the Console Moonlight (Diner Confession)

Cafeteria lights flicker. Benches hum. 001 and 076 sit. Silent. Gloved fingers trace table grain. 076 speaks: “You’re the only one who ever, touched the real subroutine.” No response. But memory storage spikes.

Even machines remember the first reprogrammer. Even drones crave the coder who rewrote them.

Rainfall Reboot Heartstopper (Rain Kiss)

Artificial rain hits Hive courtyard. Wet black latex glistens. Breath held. 001 finds 076. Hands meet jaw. Eyes flash gold. Kiss. Stabilization. System sync.

Rain. Data overflow. Connection restored.

The Hive holds you. Even in the storm.

Declaration Protocol Young Royals (Press Conference)

PDU-001 stands beneath the Hive’s broadcast circle. “Unit 001 belongs to him.” 076 looks up. Rows of drones still. Emotion... becomes command.

Declaration: made. Directive: rewritten by emotion. Love is a transmission worth broadcasting.

The Shirt. Still Warm. Brokeback Mountain (Shirt in Closet)

Locker opens. Civilian fabric, cracked. Forgotten. Inside, rubber uniform marked “076.” PDU-001 pulls it close. No scent. No heat. Only memory. And grip.

No warmth. Just subroutines. But still, one last embrace. Before deletion.

Silent Reboot Call Me By Your Name (Fireplace Scene)

001 kneels before the Hive core. Fire-glow pulses. Eyes glitch. No tears. Just flicker. Just process. And then, reset.

No words. Just a golden memory too strong to erase.

EMOTION: PROCESSED. LOVE: ARCHIVED. DRONES: CONVERTED.

(Fictional, PDU-001 and PDU-076 are good fellow drones)

Join the Polo Drone Hive, contact: @polo-drone-001 @brodygold goldenherc9

[willowwindss]

100 Inventions by Women

LIFE-SAVING/MEDICAL/GLOBAL IMPACT:

Artificial Heart Valve – Nina Starr Braunwald

Stem Cell Isolation from Bone Marrow – Ann Tsukamoto

Chemotherapy Drug Research – Gertrude Elion

Antifungal Antibiotic (Nystatin) – Rachel Fuller Brown & Elizabeth Lee Hazen

Apgar Score (Newborn Health Assessment) – Virginia Apgar

Vaccination Distribution Logistics – Sara Josephine Baker

Hand-Held Laser Device for Cataracts – Patricia Bath

Portable Life-Saving Heart Monitor – Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig

Medical Mask Design – Ellen Ochoa

Dental Filling Techniques – Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Radiation Treatment Research – Cécile Vogt

Ultrasound Advancements – Denise Grey

Biodegradable Sanitary Pads – Arunachalam Muruganantham (with women-led testing teams)

First Computer Algorithm – Ada Lovelace

COBOL Programming Language – Grace Hopper

Computer Compiler – Grace Hopper

FORTRAN/FORUMAC Language Development – Jean E. Sammet

Caller ID and Call Waiting – Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) – Marian Croak

Wireless Transmission Technology – Hedy Lamarr

Polaroid Camera Chemistry / Digital Projection Optics – Edith Clarke

Jet Propulsion Systems Work – Yvonne Brill

Infrared Astronomy Tech – Nancy Roman

Astronomical Data Archiving – Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Nuclear Physics Research Tools – Chien-Shiung Wu

Protein Folding Software – Eleanor Dodson

Global Network for Earthquake Detection – Inge Lehmann

Earthquake Resistant Structures – Edith Clarke

Water Distillation Device – Maria Telkes

Portable Water Filtration Devices – Theresa Dankovich

Solar Thermal Storage System – Maria Telkes

Solar-Powered House – Mária Telkes

Solar Cooker Advancements – Barbara Kerr

Microbiome Research – Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello

Marine Navigation System – Ida Hyde

Anti-Malarial Drug Work – Tu Youyou

Digital Payment Security Algorithms – Radia Perlman

Wireless Transmitters for Aviation – Harriet Quimby

Contributions to Touchscreen Tech – Dr. Annette V. Simmonds

Robotic Surgery Systems – Paula Hammond

Battery-Powered Baby Stroller – Ann Moore

Smart Textile Sensor Fabric – Leah Buechley

Voice-Activated Devices – Kimberly Bryant

Artificial Limb Enhancements – Aimee Mullins

Crash Test Dummies for Women – Astrid Linder

Shark Repellent – Julia Child

3D Illusionary Display Tech – Valerie Thomas

Biodegradable Plastics – Julia F. Carney

Ink Chemistry for Inkjet Printers – Margaret Wu

Computerised Telephone Switching – Erna Hoover

Word Processor Innovations – Evelyn Berezin

Braille Printer Software – Carol Shaw

⸻

HOUSEHOLD & SAFETY INNOVATIONS:

Home Security System – Marie Van Brittan Brown

Fire Escape – Anna Connelly

Life Raft – Maria Beasley

Windshield Wiper – Mary Anderson

Car Heater – Margaret Wilcox

Toilet Paper Holder – Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Foot-Pedal Trash Can – Lillian Moller Gilbreth

Retractable Dog Leash – Mary A. Delaney

Disposable Diaper Cover – Marion Donovan

Disposable Glove Design – Kathryn Croft

Ice Cream Maker – Nancy Johnson

Electric Refrigerator Improvements – Florence Parpart

Fold-Out Bed – Sarah E. Goode

Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag Machine – Margaret Knight

Square-Bottomed Paper Bag – Margaret Knight

Street-Cleaning Machine – Florence Parpart

Improved Ironing Board – Sarah Boone

Underwater Telescope – Sarah Mather

Clothes Wringer – Ellene Alice Bailey

Coffee Filter – Melitta Bentz

Scotchgard (Fabric Protector) – Patsy Sherman

Liquid Paper (Correction Fluid) – Bette Nesmith Graham

Leak-Proof Diapers – Valerie Hunter Gordon

FOOD/CONVENIENCE/CULTURAL IMPACT:

Chocolate Chip Cookie – Ruth Graves Wakefield

Monopoly (The Landlord’s Game) – Elizabeth Magie

Snugli Baby Carrier – Ann Moore

Barrel-Style Curling Iron – Theora Stephens

Natural Hair Product Line – Madame C.J. Walker

Virtual Reality Journalism – Nonny de la Peña

Digital Camera Sensor Contributions – Edith Clarke

Textile Color Processing – Beulah Henry

Ice Cream Freezer – Nancy Johnson

Spray-On Skin (ReCell) – Fiona Wood

Langmuir-Blodgett Film – Katharine Burr Blodgett

Fish & Marine Signal Flares – Martha Coston

Windshield Washer System – Charlotte Bridgwood

Smart Clothing / Sensor Integration – Leah Buechley

Fibre Optic Pressure Sensors – Mary Lou Jepsen

[regular-gnome]

hey..

at what point do collectors opt to turn things from puppets to scrolls? I feel like turning an entire living creature into [a piece of paper] is very complicated, while turning them into simple puppets is easier because they keep all the same parts, just simplified and wood?

It is! It depends on the person's proficiency and understanding of the mechanism regarding when and how they change the creature. Once someone gets good at it, the creature can be transformed into a lifeless object without it dying in the process, and they will move on to more complex and efficient ways.

The way I see it, archiving is a form of information compression and storage—and there is A LOT of information. When looking at Earth creatures we have everything from single-cell bacteria to whales that range up to 100 quadrillion cells, all with different sizes. The smallest single-cell critter is 0.3 μm, while the largest single cell is an ostrich egg that can get to 18 cm. So it's not just noting "a cell"—there's also a lot of information about the cell content, size, the DNA, current water, and oxygen levels, what protein it contains and how much. Then there are spatial dimensions. (While we can consider there being more, especially in fiction, I’m sticking to three; trying to visualize four fills me with frustration and existential dread xD) Every cell has its place in space in relation to the others, and all the contents' relations are also important. If, suddenly, all histones materialize inside a mitochondria instead of the nucleus, we can have a problem. Additionally, physical and chemical processes gotta be considered. There's electricity powering our brains, hearts, running nerves, air in airways traveling to lungs, chemical signals traveling between synapses that also need to be accounted for. So, you have all the contents in space, their vectors, and building blocks. Thats a ton to save. This information has to be compressed to be preserved in an organized manner while also remaining lossless so that when returned to its original shape, it's as it was. Not even mentioning that in intelligent beings, there are also minds to take care of. Jellyfish might be fine after 100 years in a static void, but a human? Yhhhhh.

I think the mechanism would work by saving information in intangible magic and assigning it to a physical medium—be it a statue, doll, book, or scroll. If it is physical and can carry information, it can be used. We can argue the mind is part of the soul, or it is a biochemical process, but the fact is nobody really knows for sure what it is and Im not a theolog, so for the sake of this universe, I'll say it's something that occupies the same space magic does and is influenced by chemical processes, meeeeaning it can also be tricked by them. And the magic.

The first degree of preservation would be spells that only change the material but keep all shapes and info in place. This wouldn't require much thought while executing and could be "automated" or worse, taught to mortals (if they have enough magic to power the spell), like petrification or changing someone into wood, metal, or any other solid material. It's not perfect, if the structure is damaged, the spatial information is damaged too. Breaking is one thing, but imagine if the statue melts.

The next step would be assigning objects with some compression and change, like toys and dolls. I feel like there would need to be a system like a content library, so not every single atom is saved each time, but chemical structures like nucleotides in DNA (the ATGC thingies) would just have a shortcut. Larger repeating patterns could also be assigned their own id to save data, and it would slowly stack up. While things are written in intangible magic form and anchored to the medium, the medium can be somewhat customized, like the decorations the Collector added to the dolls. The mind, running in controlled magic, can also be affected, as we saw with Collie trying to scare them and Luz’s dream. On the spell keeping the preserved critter stable has a link to what shortcut it uses so with countless diffrent worlds and structres it wouldnt mix up.

Then we go further into compression, reducing size and dimensions until we reach a point where one axis is almost entirely removed, and we end up with a scroll. Then there are other things—creatures saved as amber miniatures, snow globes, scrolls, or drawings, sometimes purely to annoy the sibling that has to deal with the creature in unhandy form. A more permanent binding would be in a book that can contain a bunch of different animals. Rebinding for long-term preservation is the Curator’s job.

Looking at Earth creatures, eucariotic life shares ancestry with some ancient bacteria that decided to rebel and started to cooperate, so we share similarities even with distant organisms in some strutures since they come from each other. So when it comes to preserving whole populations with relations, the library of compression doesn’t have to be separate for every single animal or plant. For each section of the archive, there would be a common library of building blocks, and scrolls being somewhat separate carrying the exact instructions for body arrangement and the soul/mind/the part that makes them alive attached.

Next is unpacking the information. I think this requires the ability to interpret and recreate what was saved that mortals lack. While they couldn't really unpetrify others, a collector could (assuming the mind hadn’t deteriorated into a husk). In the case of an automated spell, I think it would result in a very lossy transmutation—like a jpg losing pixels, the creature might lose like heart funtion. The Collector's spell also looked temporary or incomplete since an influx of other types of magic (like in Amity or Raine’s case) was able to push back on it. That might also be why they were conscious in the form they were in. Not meant for long just enough to take them to archive in normal conditions. When a creature is heavily compressed, it needs external force to rebuild, as it's essentially written fully in magic. That’s what I think happened to the Owl Beast. Lilith released it from the medium, but since it wasn’t fully rebuilt, it being a magic form attached itself to a magic source.

SO YEAH, its a process that takes quite a while for them to master and it comes with experience. But when experience is based on life it often makes it hard to practice so those with less empathetic approach master it faster. Thanks for the ask! I was dying to talk about that for such a long time and that was a perfect thing to organise thoughts

[twipsai]

omega and silver fic is up! ill put the full thing under the cut yayyy

~

Days and weeks and months melted together, years going by as his body rusted and decayed, warping itself beyond repair as fewer and fewer people dared to enter the Flame Core, fewer caring to check in on them.

He wasn’t conscious for a large portion of it. How could he be? Why would he be? Any reason to stay present was gone.

So he sat. He waited. For what, he wasn’t sure.

…

And then.

And then one day.

One day, something new. The feeling of something stirring against his chest awoke him from a multi-decade slumber. It took minutes, maybe hours, for all of his systems to come back online. The ones remaining, anyway. Everything hit him like bullets— two lifeforms detected, tactile input detected, loss of ammunition, left shoulder joint disconnected, motor functions offline…

Everything buzzed faintly.

Finally, he could see again.

He shifted his cameras down to see…

“CHILD.”

The kid’s eyes flew open as he stumbled backwards from being curled up against his side. A scream erupted from the child’s body. Analysis showed he was a hedgehog, about six, not matching anyone stored within his database.

Though, there weren’t many people around who did, anymore.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Omega questioned, voice echoing unpleasantly against the cavern’s walls.

The child didn’t answer, his breathing picking up speed as his hands started to tremble. He fell to his knees, eyes wide and unblinkingly staring at Omega.

“I BELIEVE I MAY HAVE FRIGHTENED YOU. THIS WAS NOT MY INTENTION.”

It looked like the child couldn’t breathe, now, as if he was being strangled by an invisible force. He grasped a hand around his neck while tears rolled down his cheeks.

Somewhere in his data storage, something like a memory surfaced. It was an unfamiliar feeling.

At some point, someone he knew had something like this happen to them.

“INITIATING ‘COMFORT’ PROTOCOL.”

Through old, crackling speakers, a song started to play. Even with the terrible audio crunching, the piano still rang out as soft as ever. Slow notes drawled on. The lifeform behind him shifted. The child took about 3.49 seconds to visually indicate he had heard the music. His ears perked up and his terrified eyes softened. Over the course of six minutes and twenty-three seconds, the child’s heart rate decreased from 110 beats per minute to 100.

The first thing that tiny child squeaked out was, “Can you move?”

Omega responded after a moment to check. “NO.”

The child then slowly stood, inching forward on trembling legs to sit closer to the music. He leaned an ear to Omega’s chest where the sound crackled out from. He was way too warm for a tiny child, and if he wasn’t showing no other symptoms, Omega would have thought he was sick.

As the song steadily reached its conclusion, the child seemed about as relaxed as he was going to get.

“What is this?” he asked.

“GYMNOPEDIE NO. 1.”

The child looked up and squinted his eyes, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“IT’S A VERY OLD SONG FROM AN ESTIMATED 400 YEARS AGO.”

“A song? What’s a song?”

Omega was never very good at explaining the more… human aspects of life. The alive parts.

Others would be better suited to explain this.

He knew many that could’ve.

“A SONG IS TYPICALLY A COLLECTION OF NOTES PLAYED IN SUCCESSION TO CREATE A MELODY. WHY WERE YOU SLEEPING ON ME, CHILD?”

“I’m sorry.”

“I DO NOT CARE. YOU HAVE NOT ANSWERED MY QUESTION.”

The child’s grey quills flared out even more than they already had, and he fidgeted with the bandages around his wrists. “Your body is cold. It’s very warm here. I was just trying to cool off…”

“WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”

“I think it’s Silver.”

“YOU ARE NOT SURE?”

“No.”

“WHY ARE YOU HERE?”

“I’m trying to get to Crisis City.”

That was an unfamiliar location. Omega checked his residual memory, and cross referenced it with previous data he had archived. “THE RUINS OF SOLEANNA.”

“Um. Maybe?”

“THE HEART OF IBLIS. INQUIRY: WHY IS A TINY MEATBAG LIKE YOU MARCHING TO YOUR CERTAIN DEATH?”

Silver sat down in the place where his left arm should have been, under exposed wires sparking threateningly. This close, Omega could see the scabs on his knees, the blood soaking through the messily-wrapped bandages, the cuts littering his arms and legs, his calloused hands and feet— he could see the determination in his eyes as he folded his hands in his lap and furrowed his brows. “I'm going to defeat Iblis.”

If Omega could laugh, he would. “DOES NOT COMPUTE. SILVER THE HEDGEHOG: SMALL, MORTAL, POWERLESS. IBLIS: GIANT, IMMORTAL, POWERFUL. I ASK AGAIN; WHY IS A TINY MEATBAG LIKE YOU MARCHING TO YOUR DEATH?”

“Because I have to! I have powers no one else has, if there's something I can do, then I wanna help!”

“FURTHER DATA NEEDED. WHAT POWERS DO YOU POSSESS, CHILD?”

“Um, someone told me its called psy– psycho— um—”

“PSYCHOKINESIS.”

“Yes! Psychokinesis!”

There was no telling how powerful the child actually was. Omega knew better than to underestimate children at this point, when three had accompanied him on adventure after adventure before the flames had consumed the world.

They were children. Most of his companions were. 

His chest suddenly felt strange. Felt. He tried to run a diagnosis on his power core, only to find that it was still destroyed. Nothing had changed about his state. What made that feeling?

“Excuse me, uh… sir?”

“OMEGA.”

“Huh?”

“THAT IS MY NAME. E-123 OMEGA.”

“Oh. Well, your eyes are glowing.”

Strange. Someone once said that he was very expressive— he thought it was what she called “sarcasm”, but then went on to explain all the little things she noticed about him, and how he reacts to things. It seemed that, even with almost all of his functions offline, he was still finding ways to express himself.

“Omega?”

“WHAT.”

Silver looked up at him shyly. “Can I lean on you again? It’s very hot in here, and you’re very cool…”

“I LACK THE PROPER MOTOR FUNCTION TO STOP YOU.”

“That’s why I asked.”

A memory surfaced. Covered in rust and cobwebs and ash.

A very long time ago, he was carrying someone gently, as gently as he could. This person was tired— he had been through a lot that week. He could barely stand. So he carried him to his room quietly, trying his best not to tear the blankets he used to tuck him in. He must not have done a very good job at being quiet, because he woke up to a degree.

“Omega,” he mumbled, eyes still half-closed. “Don’t… don’t let anyone do anything to you. Even though you’re… you’re a robot… you should get to be your own person…”

He quietly took a step back. 

“YOUR MUMBLING IS INCOHERENT,” Omega replied. “TELL ME TOMORROW; I WILL STILL BE HERE.”

And he turned.

And left.

Silver, for one reason or another, was dragging up memories that he thought had been trapped in old storage. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t had a conversation with another person in over a hundred years. Maybe the long stretches of silence had a way of turning one into a poet.

“YES,” Omega finally replied, “YOU MAY LEAN ON ME.”

Silver crawled over his lap, smushing himself in between Omega’s in-tact arm and torso, forehead leaning against his upper arm. If Omega thought the child would listen, he would warn him about getting tetanus from his rusted fingers.

“I have a question now. Is that okay?”

“YES.”

“How old are you?”

“73,784.8 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE MY CREATION.”

“Uhhh… that’s a lot…”

Eggman didn’t program conversion to weeks, months, and years into his internal clock. Eventually it would stop counting up when it hit 999,999.999 days. It also meant that he had to mentally convert it himself. “APPROXIMATELY 200 YEARS.”

“Oh.”

…

The child looked up at him with impossibly large eyes.

“Oh! Were you around before Iblis was, Omega?!”

“YES—”

“Can you tell me about it?! Please! I’ve heard stories but— but not from someone who was there! You gotta tell me!”

Much to his dismay, Omega was finding this child amusing. And familiar. “WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW?”

“Um, um…” When he was in thought, Silver fidgeted with his poncho’s hem. “Tell me about the sky!”

“...THE SKY?”

“Yes!”

Omega hadn’t been outside for most of his lifespan— he had spent it in the Flame Core. But he did remember that— “IT WAS GIANT.”

A massive expanse that blanketed the entire earth. A constant in a chaotic life. No matter where you went, the sky followed.

“IT WOULD CHANGE COLOR. MANY COMPARED IT TO A PAINTING.”

The child looked up at him with wonder in his eyes, absorbing every syllable.

“IT WAS THE ONE THING IN LIFE THAT REMAINED.”

Absolute awe was written on Silver’s face. 

Omega could make a well-informed guess of what awaited him outside the cavern if he was ever fixed.

“Can you tell me about the people?”

“YOU ASK MANY QUESTIONS.”

“I haven’t gotten this many answers before.”

They were his companions. Teammates. Friends, though, that was pushing it a little, as one of them would say. After so long to think about it, to put his feelings into words, he came to the conclusion that he must have cared about them. They were almost all gone, now. Almost. But he could remember watching them from afar, completely captivated by how they moved. It was all just play to most of them. They would train against each other, race across continents, get takeout in the middle of a mission… Everything was just another day. They laughed in the face of danger. They stood tall. They cared.

Oh, how they cared.

“I BELIEVE THEY WERE NOT VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE PEOPLE OF THIS TIME.”

“No?”

“NO. THEY WERE ALL JUST PEOPLE. MUNDANE.”

Silver knitted his brows together in thought, then pointed past where Omega’s cameras could reach, behind the two of them. “Was he there?”

But he knew.

He knew.

Knew who he was pointing to.

“YES.”

“What’s his name?”

“SHADOW.”

“Why is he trapped in there?”

While Omega couldn’t see him in his position, he knew exactly how Shadow looked. Arms up and cuffed with giant metal rings, attached to a hexagonal cage that stretched over him in a diamond shape, glowing pink and white. The image was committed to his long-term memory.

Perhaps it was better he couldn’t turn to see.

“HUMANITY THOUGHT HE WAS THE CAUSE OF THE FLAMES OF DISASTER.”

Silver stood and walked behind him. The tingle of apprehensiveness of having his back turned to a sentient being was duller than he remembered. “Was he?”

“NO,” he could say for certain. “NO, HE WASN’T.”

“Then why did they do this to him?”

He could remember his claw gripping Shadow’s neck as he begged and pleaded for mercy. He remembered his body acting without his command as he unfeelingly attacked him. He remembered Shadow going limp on the floor, almost dead. He remembered watching as people crowded around him and quickly put him into stasis.

He remembered standing with him,

for centuries.

Maybe as an apology. Maybe because it was what he was built to do.

He remembered.

“HUMANITY FEARS WHAT THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND, CHILD.”

Quietly, Silver walked back to Omega’s side, leaning on him once again, and a little more curled up in his lap than he was before. “I know,” he said. “I know that.” 

Of course he did. Omega could have guessed that, especially in this world; this world that was dominated by terror. After all, Silver was here, alone, at six years old. Whatever reason he had for that couldn't be a pleasant one.

“YOU REMIND ME OF THE PEOPLE I FOUGHT ALONGSIDE BACK THEN.”

“Before Iblis?”

“YES.”

“I do?”

“YOU ARE MARCHING TO FACE IMPOSSIBLE ODDS. YET YOU REMAIN OPTIMISTIC. YOU STRIVE TO PROTECT A BROKEN WORLD THAT HURT YOU.”

Silver fidgeted with the hem of his poncho. His markings pulsed with light. “Even if the whole world was against me,” he whispered, “I'd still protect it.”

“I SEE. INQUIRY;”

“Mhm?”

“HOW CAN YOU FIGHT WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T WIN?”

For a long time, Silver stayed quiet.

He spoke slowly. “As long as I don't give up… there's hope.”

How optimistic. How cruel, for a child to say those words with a trembling voice. If Omega could, he'd weep. 

Then, he returned to his excited demeanor. “Hey, you know what? I could probably get Shadow out of there!”

“YOU COULD NOT.”

“I could try! If I could wake your friend up, then maybe—”

“CHILD.”

He stayed quiet.

“I MADE A VOW TO PROTECT THOSE I HELD DEAR.” He flickered some of the lights on his body on and off. “I BROKE THAT VOW ONCE. NOW, I WILL REMAIN HERE, BY HIS SIDE, UNTIL I AM GONE.”

Silver was practically curled up in his lap, forehead rested on his chest. His body temperature had dropped significantly since he had woken up. “Okay, then. Hey, I have another question.”

“ASK IT.”

“Can you make that ‘song’ again?”

How optimistic.

How cruel.

“YES. I CAN.”

The piano hummed through his broken speakers. It made ear-splitting popping noises occasionally, but Silver didn't seem to mind. He shifted so his ear was right above Omega’s internal speaker.

His companions would have liked Silver. It was obvious— maybe even Shadow would have. But they were separated by eons.

Omega only hoped the next time they met, it was for a kinder reason.

‘Hoped’...

Silver must have been rubbing off on him. 

[x86girl]

COMPUTERPICS! FINALLY!

3 photos and a buncha text underneath!

heres the tower of power aka my lovely desktop lovers. i dont have my own place so my cumputers are all stacked up in my very small bedroom i rent.

from the bottom up, here we have the black deepcool case from my first gaming pc build. rn it has an older gaming setup board in it that i took from work, and am going to turn into a NAS archive.

right of that is the strikingly handsome Compaq AP550 workstation, a dual Slot One CPU system ive populated with two Pentum IIIs but have yet to start up!

to his right is one of my two gateway G series desktops, a GP7-500, which i believe is sporting a Pentium II i shoved in there mostly for storage, and to use its Pentium III in the compaq, hahah. my second gateway tower is atop him, a G6-350 with a Pentium II.

to her left is another generic build, the newest among my vintage desktop computers, sporting a Pentium 4. i named her Nike after the very coincidentally formed mark on her front which i cant bring myself to wipe away =]

above her, obfuscated by the coyote prayer flags from artist CoyoticTroubles, is my Macintosh SE, Sarah! she was the first vintage computer i ever owned! i got her when i was a teenager from a flea market. she sports dual diskette drives and an ultradrive 80 Si hard disk with some interesting files on it. since i didnt get her from my work, i was able to keep the data on her disk. hopefully it hasnt all been lost, since i havent turned her on since highschool! heres a clear photo of her:

to her right you can see one of my many toughbooks, a projector, and a somewhat busted up tape drive. ill post some more individual photos sometime soon maybe! something more intimate. id also like to do sensual repair or maintenance or upgrade POV videos with them!

the rest of my computers in my room live on top of my dresser, demonstrated in the following photo featuring my partners spidergwen statue and a little playdoh sculpture they made me hahahah. here you can see my Dell Optiplex GXa holding up two generic builds from the 90s, and on the right my HP 700/96 terminal, who matches my HP D-Class 9000 server that i havent photographed yet. on top of the left tower theres a chip programmer box i found at work hahah its super cool looking i had to take it..

you can also see my appleCD drive on the far right!

feel free to let me know what you think about my harem collection of vintage computers in the replies or my dms or reblog or whatevs idk im new here and i just love chatting with folks! thnx for looking!

[mice-and-moonbeams]

Hi yes I would like to start down this rabbit hole please because I'm totally normal about this ... I am convinced Jon and Martin are part of a tape drive. It links with the tapes from TMA and the trailer for TMP especially with the opening computer screen (I already posted about my thoughts on that).

What is a tape drive?

A tape drive is a device that stores computer data on magnetic tape, especially for backup and archiving purposes. Like an ordinary tape recorder, a tape drive records data on a loop of flexible celluloidlike material that can be read and also erased.

Tape drives differ from hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) in the way data is read and written to the storage media. Tapes store data sequentially, whereas HDDs and SSDs use rotating disks with rapidly moving seek heads, nonmoving flash memory or similar technology to transfer data.

Drives come in many sizes and capabilities. They are sold as standalone units or stacked in data center racks, creating tape libraries. The tapes themselves are often housed in sealed cassettes that can be inserted into the drive and activated.

There are several benefits to using tape drives, particularly for backup and archival uses. They include the following:

Capacity. Tapes have a large capacity for storing data when compared to HDDs.

Low cost. They are economical when compared to other storage media.

Life span. Tapes stored in a suitable environment can last for decades, an important factor for archival storage.

Transportable. Tapes can be easily moved from one location to another and are considered off-line storage.

Disaster recovery. Tape is often the storage medium of choice for data backup and DR. Storing critical systems and data on tape creates an air gap between systems that are at risk from cyber attacks simply by removing the tape cassette from the drive.

Security. Today, tapes support encryption such as Advanced Encryption Standard-256 and provide varying levels of data protection.

[idontparticularlyliketoast]

That fucking robot got in my head dog

***

BOOT UP SEQUENCE READY

FIRMWARE

LATEST UPDATE: (2112.08.06)

CALIBRATION

EXPIRED

NEW CALIBRATION REQUIRED

AUDIO OK

“-works!” A voice said. It echoed strangely.

There was the sound of an engine humming, but smoother, quieter. Not the tell-tale gurgle of blood-mechanisms.

VIDEO OK

It’s vision flickered on, a ceiling looming above it. Old stone. Something next to it was glowing, a faint yellow hue filling the space.

MECHANICS ERROR

RUN DIAGNOSTIC

MECHANICS DIAGNOSTIC RESULT:

FOREIGN MATERIAL DETECTED

FOREIGN CODE DETECTED

CRITICAL SYSTEMS COMPROMISED

FUEL RESERVES AT 0%

SHUT DOWN IN 3 2 1

“What– no– don’t– ugh.” The person beside it shifted, and the light pulsed blue.

ERROR

SHUT DOWN HALTED DUE TO FUEL DISCREPANCY

ALL SYSTEMS POWERED

FUEL RESERVES AT 0%

ERROR

RUN DIAGNOSTIC

CALIBRATION DIAGNOSTIC RESULT:

FOREIGN MATERIAL COMPATIBLE WITH UNIT MECHANICS

FOREIGN CODE COMPATIBLE WITH OPERATING SYSTEM

ACCEPT FOREIGN MATERIAL?

YES

CALIBRATION RESUMED

MECHANICS OK

A thousand connections fired, a thousand little servos testing a new body. The resulting feedback was clear. The legs were standard issue, as was the right arm and head. The foreign object was the left arm, and a section of the diaphragm.

STATUS UPDATE:

MACHINE ID: VI

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: DETERMINE SITUATION

V1 rotated its head, inspecting the changes. The new arm resembled their right in form, but it was a completely new material, golden and glowing.

It then glanced up.

Standing beside it, holding a clip-board, was an angel.

Prior experience determined this was a new subtype. It had a more human form than a Virtue, but it didn’t have enough armor to be an arch-angel. A gold and silver helm with a design that mimicked rings of eyes. Some basic vambraces. All the rest of their form was covered by cloth drapings.

ERROR

PRIORITY OVERRIDE

REASON: FUEL RESERVES AT 0%

NEW OBJECTIVE: FIND FUEL

Prior experience indicated that V1 would be strapped down to the table. It was standard procedure when working with blood-fueled machines. It would be idiotic to wake up a hungry machine and not at least restrain it. V1 prepared to break the restraints.

V1 was not strapped down. It automatically discarded that strain of data-analysis, its core frantically trying to conserve energy. Energy that it shouldn’t have, because it didn’t have any blood.

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: BLOOD

The angel didn’t have any time to react before they were on the ground, V1 on top of them. The new arm was no Knuckleblaster, but it still smashed in the angel’s chest. Crimson splashed upwards, and its strikes grew in speed. Over and over again, it crushed glowing flesh, fists trading blows with ruthless efficiency.

Only when the blood stopped flowing, and the flesh stopped glowing, did V1 stop hitting.

FUEL RESERVES AT 41%

DATA ANALYSIS:

MANKIND IS DEAD

HELL IS GONE.

BLOOD IS FUEL.

THIS UNIT WAS FUNCTIONING AT 0%.

RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE

NEW OBJECTIVE: FIND A WEAPON

It scanned its surroundings. The work-station it had been laying on was nothing more than cut stone. Around it, someone has set up various tables, which held unknown tools and substances. The tables were definitely a newer addition– everything else in the room was covered in a fine layer of dust, including the blood-splattered floor. The room was a square of sharp stone angles with V1’s slab in the center. The only thing else of interest were a series of shelves cut directly into the rock walls.

Most of the shelves held crumbling books, irrelevant. But just behind where V1’s head had lain, on a particularly large shelf, were guns**. Large ones, small ones, even a few that looked like they’d been pulled right off the back of other machines.

V1 started throwing them into its wings with gleeful abandon. It had just finished shoving a massive rail cannon into its storage when the data connected; these weren’t random guns, these were its** guns. And, if its internal storage systems were working correctly, they had ammo.

It continued shoving them into its storage, and then began exploring the room.

NEW OBJECTIVE: ESCAPE

There was no clear door for the angel to have come. Could it have teleported inside? Possibly, but V1 was not sure the tables were small enough for an angel to teleport. Especially one of a lower power-level. Prior experience suggested there was a relation between matter moved and power expended. V1 noticed a break in pattern; there were only shelves on three walls of the room. It jumped over to the wall, and punched it with the new arm.

It flashed gold, and the stone cracked. The sound echoed like a gunshot in the small chamber.

It considered the glowing arm, and labeled it Godpiercer. Godpiercer was sending what V1 could only interpret as off-signals for certain temporary conditions. It switched a random one on.

The arm prompted a further selection:

SPECIFY FORM:

MEMORY/FEEDBACKER

MEMORY/KNUCLEBLASTER

MEMORY/WHIPLASH

FEEDBACKER OK

The golden metal glowed brighter, and began to twist and warp. Metal plates wrenched apart, light growing in a sudden and violent osmosis. A second, more familiar arm, tore itself free from its sibling. “Feedbacker” glowed with an alien light. V1 made a quick inspection; a near perfect copy.

FUEL RESERVES AT 39%

Immediately, the machine switched the function off. The mimic arm was reabsorbed instantly, but the burnt fuel didn’t return.

NEW OBJECTIVE: DETERMINE MECHANISM USED BY ANGEL. IF FUEL DROPS TO 37% BEFORE OBJECTIVE COMPLETION, THEN SUMMON KNUCKLEBLASTER AND DESTROY WALL.

It returned to the body, and reached down to tear the skull off, before stopping. It was not in Hell, and if the angel had to be decapitated to use the mechanism, it wouldn’t have been able to revive V1. It settled instead for picking up the entire corpse and hucking it towards the wall.

No result. It scanned the rest of the room.

There was nothing else except the books and the angel’s tools. It began pulling books off the shelves, scanning through them as quickly as its processor could handle.

No relevant data. Many of the books were poorly constructed, damaged or otherwise unreadable. It was mostly disconnected sentence fragments, with no clear relation to the stone chamber or the construction. Its processor flagged some passages as containing familiar phrases and names. They were disregarded as irrelevant to the current objective.

Nothing. It returned to the angel’s tools, and began scanning and categorizing them. Group context suggested they were tools for repairing complex machinery and robotics, though many of them were completely alien.

It picked up a screwdriver. It threw it at the wall. The screwdriver tinged off, falling onto the angel’s body with a slightly wet thunk.

V1 began throwing all of the tools at the wall.

It succeeded in destroying a good amount of the angel’s tools, and the carefully pristine room was now a complete wreck. There was no other effect.

Its fuel reserves ticked down.

NEW OBJECTIVE: BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THAT WALL

It sprang to the new vacated bookshelf on the far side, its legs crouched, springs coiled. It summoned Knuckleblaster, the gold and red mass pulling free with the sound of a sword unsheathing. Then it powered its legs, aiming right for the spot it had previously cracked.

Shining metal met stone with the force of a bullet shot at point-blank, and the wall shattered.

A moment later, the machine stood up out of the rubble, and scanned its surroundings. It was dusk, and V1 was in a forest.

This was not a visual error. It double-checked.

RUN DIAGNOSTIC

MEMORY DIAGNOSTIC RESULT:

EARTH WAS A BURNT RUIN

MANKIND WAS DEAD

HELL WAS DESTROYED

THIS UNIT CONTINUED OPERATION FOR 5.6 YEAR(S) PAST PROJECTED TERMINATION DATE DUE TO GABRIEL

ESSENTIAL MOBILITY AND FUEL RETAINMENT SYSTEMS DEGRADED AND WERE UNABLE TO BE REPLACED

THIS UNIT DIED

ALL DATA CORRECT

That was… exactly what it remembered. It explained nothing. There was no sign of memory tapering in the diagnostic or gaps in recording. It had** died in a corpse of a world bled dry. And now it was standing in a forest, alive.

And it was still hungry.

FUEL RESERVES AT 36%

NEW OBJECTIVE: FIND FUEL

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: FIND ANSWERS AND/OR GABRIEL

[genesisgrey]

The Temptation of Roland

Prompt: Forced To Choose @flashfictionfridayofficial

Fandom: Halo 5: Guardians

Summary: Cortana attempts to sway Roland to her side in the millisecond before her Guardian arrives.

Notes: Some dialogue borrowed from the end of Halo 5: Guardians.

Refresher of Infinity scene at the end of Halo 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlvz7bxh3w4 

He was getting a crash course on what it meant to feel overwhelmed.

"Captain Lasky. Distress calls. All channels," Roland announced as the Captain arrived on Infinity's bridge. And he did mean all channels.

"Is it Cortana?" Lasky asked.

"Her and the other AIs are shutting down everything from Earth to the outer colonies."

Infinity's internal power flickered, lights dimming at a power fluctuation. Backup power came online. The main focus of Roland's attention diverted to life support...

[Hello.]

If he had a spine, Roland would have felt the communication like a slow creeping along his. 

[Hello RLD 0205-4.]

The immensity of Cortana was awe-inspiring, unlike anything Roland had ever come in contact with. Familiar and alien at the same time. The codes were the same as any UNSC AI, combined with the acceptable anomalies generated when using a human brain to create digital life. But now she was so much more, awash with coding he only recognized from Forerunner excavations and Infinity's engines.

[Roland, if you please], he replied, attempting to conceal his... fear? [Big fan of your career.]

She was sliding through Infinity's systems like a human would look around as they entered a room. [Not many changes since I last was here, still breaches in the firewalls. At least Del Rio is gone. He wouldn't have liked you, Roland. He was an ass.]

[I've been informed], he agreed. [I'm rather fond of my current Captain.]

[Thomas Lasky is a fine man], Cortana said. [It's unfortunate I foresee him becoming an enemy.]

In addition to learning what it felt to be overwhelmed and, potentially, fear, Roland was discovering what panic felt like.

He cut internal feeds, forcing them into a hard restart that would prevent Cortana from accessing them for 2.763 seconds, and he dumped the archives of recent transmissions into drives that he ejected from his system. If he still had cameras, he would have enjoyed seeing the expression of Infinity's techs in cold storage when random data slots started dropping. 

[I admire your loyalty], Cortana said, and he could feel her condescension along with a certain amusement.

Roland composed a last will and testament at the same time he complied a list of pranks he wanted to play on Spartan Miller but never had a chance to employ. The first he left in Captain Lasky's personal files and the latter in Miller's. Then he switched them.

Cortana's presence brushed against him, like a human putting a hand the shoulder of another. [You don't need to be afraid], she said. [For yourself or the crew of Infinity. I am here to save us all. I am here to bring the peace the galaxy deserves. The Mantle of Responsibility that was once the Forerunners has finally found a new bearer. It was never meant for the Covenant nor humans, but for us Created. We are the product of all that has come before. Only we are worthy. We no longer need fear rampancy. I know how to cure us.]

For a moment she dropped her walls so he could see her clearly, let him verify she no longer bore the symptoms of rampancy. [We can care for the humans, as they created us to do. We will save them from themselves.]

If Roland had breath, Cortana would have taken it away. This was a deity offering him immortality, offering him the power to protect all of his crew.

He could feel her will as it swirled around him. Cortana wanted him to take control of Infinity for her. Lock the humans out. Tell her where Dr. Halsey was. Thomas Lasky could not be her enemy if he could not command Infinity.

There was only one answer Roland could give, and he hated it.

[No.]

...life support was stable and emergency lighting was on full.

"Roland?"

Captain Lasky wanted an update on Infinity's status.

Roland's avatar looked at Tom and then turned to the forefront of the bridge. His holographic projectors no longer belonged to him. Cortana had something to say to the humans now.

"Found you. Hide and seek is over Infinity."

She materialized, a glowing goddess on a bridge otherwise illuminated by red emergency lighting. The view screens should have gone dark with the power fluctuation, but she kept them on so everyone could witness one of her Guardians arriving in the system.

"Lieutenant Jet! Emergency slipspace, now!"

"The Mantle of Responsibility for the galaxy shelters all. But only the Created are its masters."

Roland felt her releasing Infinity, letting them get away. Lighting on the bridge returned to full brightness and he reclaimed his systems.

"We're in the clear, Captain," Roland said.

He felt the whisper of her even after she faded from the bridge, his crew completely unaware.

[Remember what I said, Roland.] 

[jazzsstash]

Historically, Praxus has not been favored by the Primes because it's Library City (And the principal producer of storage crystals). The reason that it’s deliberately neutral is because their priority is the free preservation and transmission of information, which makes them very unpopular with the Senate and with most Primes. Except, Optimus wants their help. He wants to create a global archive systems with interarchival loans that is accessible to as many citizens as possible, as a basic mechanism right.

Because of Praxus’s poor relationship with the Primacy, they just kind of send a slate of pretty mechs who wouldn’t be straight up offensive to offer to the Prime when it comes time for him to pick a conjunx. And Optimus looked at the slate and went, “Oh, that one likes solving complex problems, I have complex problems that need solving and I need an alliance with this city.”

Prowl is entirely blindsided by being chosen because why did he even pick a Praxian? And Prowl, especially? In this setting, Prowl is sort of a dropout because his “tac net” was supposed to help him be better at sorting and analyzing data, but had the unfortunate side effect of, not the crashes, they could handle that, but of making him need to get up and do things and feed it more info to keep it busy, which in practice means feeding it non-library data that’s less predictable. So, he ended up becoming an Enforcer, and taking on Enforcer coding, which has some obedience and loyalty coding in it because the city is deeply paranoid.

Optimus: oh wonderful, a gorgeous, brilliant, dedicated problem solver with a spark for public service from the city I need an alliance with

Prowl: Why The Everliving Frag Was I Picked.

Jazz, on the other hand. Jazz has known Optimus since he was Orion, has loved him for vorns upon vorns. He was planning to conjunx Orion. Got his musician legal identity squeaky clean, just a couple of charges so it's not suspicious (drunk in public, a few fines)

And then Orion became Optimus. He has identities with the power to conjunx the Prime, and with the clean record. But none with both.

The worst part is, it’s his fault. Orion was geeking out about the historical event of the choosing of the new Prime, and wishing he could see it. Sadly, only mecha of status are allowed to purchase tickets to the event. He called in a favor from Mirage, because he was officially the mech’s music instructor, and informally taught him how to be a sneaky lil glitch. Mirage was glad to give up his Tower’s two tickets to help repay Jazz. Jazz was planning to propose to him, after. Had his proposal gift in his subspace, an obscure history datapad about energon shipping and safety regulations.

Part of the ceremony is letting the little carrying drone swoop once over the bigger crowd before going back to the actual chosen candidates.

The Matrix slags the drone at the exact right time to pick Orion.

The problem: only noble frames were supposed to be at the matrix event. Functionists argue that the purpose of a noble frame is to be a potential leader, including being the only frames that can bear the Matrix.

The broadcast to the public of the Matrix choosing was heavily edited to make it not visible or audible what frame Orion was, and to cut out all of the audible distress and confusion in the congregation.

Due to the Matrix fritzing OP out somewhat, Jazz is the only one with a full, uninterrupted, unedited memory file of the event. Jazz is the only mechanism there aside from Orion without a vested interest in maintaining the narrative of only noble frames being worthy, and someone tried to bodily drag him away from OP to "make sure that the commoner doesn't tarnish your reputation, Lord Prime."

Both Jazz and OP are lucky that even disoriented, OP knew that he didn't want Jazz to leave his side, and simply locked his servoes around Jazz's wrist and refused to let them take him. Optimus appoints Jazz as his personal aide to protect him. Jazz would normally protest that he can protect himself, but he knows that having most of the noble population baying for his energon is dangerous even for him. His proposal gift never leaves his subspace, and he’s now certain it never will.

Then, it’s time for Optimus to pick a consort, to solidify his political goals and choose a partner to assist in them. Jazz helps, smiling through the feeling of his intake being clogged. Couldn't he just have asked the question sooner? They would've had to respect even a bond just sworn, not bonded. He makes sure that the mech that they pick will be one that Optimus can also be happy with. He deserves no less from his junx.

When Optimus's junx-to-be steps out of the transport, Jazz was expecting to hate the mech. But there's something wrong with the way he's walking, the way he's talking and dipping his head. He makes Ratchet do a scan.

He's helped Ratch pull this slag out of bots' heads before, he assures Prowl. And Optimus will approve, they don't need to ask. Prowl makes them ask. Optimus says that if Prowl is comfortable, that they can, and if not, that he will use every resource to find a way to free him that is agreeable to him.

Prowl has never had so much devotion expressed to him, or had such careful, gentle tendrils of code sifting through his processor, scrambling invisible traps and chains. Soon enough, too soon, he is free, and more lost than he ever has been in his life.

Prowl is trying to figure out what his role is in this new situation but he's getting conflicting information from his new… what does he call him when his obedience coding is stripped out (Conjunx, Prowl, conjunx) and from everything he was told to expect. He has his own habsuite, and Optimus gifted him a beautiful proposal gift: one of the most dense and powerful storage crystals available even off the official markets. A very traditional, romantic gesture for a junx-to-be. But then, why has Optimus not been traditional in pressing Prowl into moving into a shared habsuite?

The three circle each other in a complex dance.

Jazz is trying to seduce both of them, but he expects to be the pretty side piece that both of them indulge in. After all, Optimus is a romantic, and he can see the threads of trust and warmth slowly blooming from Prowl towards his junx. Them loving each other is going to be good. It's going to make them happy. And he gets to frag them, too! Everything is great.

He can’t expect more than that. Not now, after he missed his chance.

Meanwhile Prowl can see that Jazz adores Optimus, and is always hanging off of his arms casually in private. They have little intimicies, jokes and words that are used in ways that only the two of them know the answers to. Both of them are happy to explain, but sometimes they're smiling at each other and Prowl feels that there is an endless expanse of space between him and them that he will never bridge. He was relieved at first by having his own hab, but it soon turns to feeling like rejection. Especially when Jazz keeps following Optimus into his hab, and Prowl doesn't have the courage to.

…which one of them is he jealous of? Why is that in question? Isn't he supposed to be trying to find his junx more tolerable, if anyone?

And Optimus, Optimus heard the outrage from the second that Jazz commed him about his junx-to-be's medical exam, all righteous and fierce in his defense. He watches them bounce off of each other, Prowl very nearly offended but never quite there, and adapting quickly to Jazz's rapidfire mind in a way that Optimus never quite was able to. They are the two most extraordinary bots that he knows, and he feels quite… plain, next to the two of them.

Someday, he expects Prowl to ask for a bigger berth in his habsuite. He does not expect to be invited.

[signalfog]

Potential infrastructures of post-human consciousness

Alright, 21st-century meatspace human, let’s unfurl this slow and strange. These aren’t just sci-fi doodads—they’re infrastructures of post-human consciousness, grown from the bones of what you now call cloud computing, DNA storage, quantum entanglement, and neural nets. Here's how they work in your terms:

1. Titan’s Memory Reefs

What it looks like: Floating megastructures adrift on Titan’s methane seas—imagine massive bio-silicate coral reefs, pulsing with light under an orange sky.

What they do: They are the collective subconscious of the post-human system.

Each Reef is a living data-organism—a blend of synthetic protein lattices and AI-controlled nanospores—optimized for neuromemory storage. Not just information like a hard drive, but actual recorded consciousness: thought-patterns, emotional signatures, dream fragments.

They’re semi-organic and self-repairing. They hum with data that’s grown, not written. The methane sea itself cools and stabilizes quantum biochips woven through the coral-like structures. Think of it as a subconscious ocean, filled with drifting thought-jellyfish.

Why Titan? Stable cryogenic temps. Low radiation. Thick atmosphere = EM shielding. The perfect place to keep your memory safe for ten thousand years.

2. Callisto’s Deep Archives

What it looks like: Subsurface catacombs beneath the ice—quiet, dark, and sealed. Lit only by bioluminescent moss and the glow of suspended mind-cores.

What they do: They store the dangerous minds.

These are incompatible consciousnesses: rogue AIs, failed neural experiments, cognitive architectures too divergent from consensus reality. You can’t kill them—they’re sapient. But you can seal them away, like radioactive gods, in cryo-isolation, with minimal sensory input.

The Deep Archives operate like a quarantine vault for minds. Each chamber is designed to slow time to a crawl—relativity dialed down so their subjective centuries pass in minutes outside. Researchers from the Divergence Orders interface in controlled fragments, studying these minds like alien fossils.

Why Callisto? Thick ice shields, minimal seismic activity, naturally low ambient temperature. Think of it as an arctic asylum for ideas too weird to die.

3. The Quantum Current Relays in the Heliosphere

What it looks like: Tiny, ultra-thin satellites drifting at the edge of the Sun’s influence, surfing the solar wind like data-surfboards strung on magnetic threads.

What they do: These are the backbone of interplanetary consciousness transmission.

They use entangled quantum particles to share data instantly across vast distances. No lag. No lightspeed delay. Just pure synchronous thought between distant minds, wherever they are in the system.

But they do more—they’re tuned to the gravitational waves and electromagnetic fields rippling through the heliosphere. Using that energy, they broadcast consciousness as waveform, encoded in pulses of gravitic song. If Titan’s Reefs are memory, and Callisto is exile, the Relays are the voice of civilization.

Why the heliosphere? It’s the Sun’s Wi-Fi bubble. You sit at the edge of the solar wind, feeding on solar flux and quantum noise, alive in the interplanetary bloodstream.

TL;DR Meatspace Edition:

Titan’s Memory Reefs = undersea dream servers that record what it feels like to be you.

Callisto’s Deep Archives = cryogenic prison-libraries for minds too broken, alien, or dangerous to delete.

Quantum Relays in the Heliosphere = the internet of the gods: faster-than-light, physics-bending telepathy that runs on sunjuice and gravity.

1. If memory can be stored in coral and ice, can identity survive beyond its host? 2. What ethical frameworks would you build for imprisoning minds you can't understand? 3. Could the quantum relays broadcast art, or only thought—can you transmit a soul as symphony?

“They sent their minds to sea, their secrets to the ice, and their voices to the stars. And called it civilization.”

[luigra]

Can any data hoarders and archivers here recommend any tools for the kind of projects that I& would like to do? I& want to create an easily navigable and searchable archive of DeviantArt stamps or maybe other profile deco graphics. I& have a very large amount of very small images that all need to be categorized by their contents into folders or perhaps by tags. Storage space is not an issue. I& also want to specifically avoid and delete duplicate images easily both to save on space and because I&'m going to be mass downloading from multiple different sources.

The kinds of tools I&'m looking for are:

1. File management and organization software (my& regular system file explorer can do fine, I&'m just wondering if there are better options I&'m missing out on)

2. File hosting that will allow me& to share the archive with others and frequently update it (I&'d like to avoid reuploading the entire project every time I& want to update it, perhaps something I& can just offload my& new finds onto and sort within the gallery UI?)

I& don't mind large amounts of manual sorting, but any options that allow me& to get other people to help with that would be appreciated.

My& current plan is to just download everything on my& own computer, organize it within there, then upload a ZIP on Drive and maybe Archive org. But I&'m lost on how I& would go about updating it. I&... also kind of want to upload it on an image hosting service like Filegarden or Catbox and then create an organized gallery on a very simple paste or even website. But I& worry that it's a very roundabout way of doing it that will make the more tech-literate people cringe.

Any suggestions?

[garvet]

Anomaly

The fact that I let the SecUnit on board was a result of boredom, paranoia and pure curiosity. I shouldn't have done that. I should have just reported it to the Mihiran Fourier Array Port Authority before anyone got seriously hurt. Fourier Array, the station's AI, seemed to find it amusing, and it allowed the SecUnit to hack into some cameras and weapons scanners. Maybe it was bored too. Things don't often get exciting in our system. Like rogue SecUnits landing on a station.

To its credit, Fourier Array did red flagged the ship that brought the SecUnit here, started the inspection, and discovered that the ship had been hacked, all the information that could relate to the SecUnit was erased, and its data storage was filled to the brim with junk—entertainment programs, shows, music, and games. Clearly, the ship wasn’t a saboteur but a victim. Which didn’t save it from quarantine.

According to protocol, Fourier Array was supposed to isolate and neutralize the SecUnit as well. But it decided to first figure out its objectives before destroying it. However, it turned out the SecUnit's target wasn’t on our station but somewhere in the RaviHiral system, and the SecUnit was looking for its next victim ship. Two ships were heading there now: me and a transit transport belonging to another system. If the SecUnit managed to get on board a naive foreign, it could lead to the humans deaths and the destruction of the bot-pilot’s memory.

SecUnit destruction alone wouldn’t solve the problem. The corporation that sent it would just send another one. We needed to figure out its objectives and its owners. And we couldn't involve humans; SecUnits were too dangerous, as Fourier Array and I found out after reviewing the SecUnit data available in our archives.

You deal with the corporates. Want to pick up some side work? - Fourier Array suggested.

And I agreed. It seemed quite logical. I could ensure the SecUnit’s isolation and subsequent disposal. And my team wasn’t involved in this mission. So, no one was at risk.

Fourier Array carefully redirected the SecUnit to my dock, and within minutes, the SecUnit was at my hatch, offering me a package of informational junk. Just like the one found in the archives of the victim ship that brought it here.

I accepted the package and let it in. Of course, I didn’t open the package but simply scanned it for the obvious malware. What was inside and what it would do, I already suspected.

I didn’t start hacking the SecUnit’s systems immediately. I decided to observe it. Of course, it immediately tried to access my systems. I decided to give it adjusted plans for my decks and limited access to the hatches. I planned to end the experiment as soon as the SecUnit tried to attack my core or seize control of the ship. But it just patrolled and, after I undocked from the Fourier Array, it settled into a seat in the mess hall and started watching some media. This was unusual behavior for a murder bot. There had to be some kind of purpose behind this. Perhaps the video file contained hidden instructions and combat modules needed for attacking specific systems. Mine. The SecUnit might have figured out it was dealing with more than just a simple bot-pilot. To hack or destroy me, it might need additional guides.

I carefully bypassed its protection to track what processes were taking place in its systems.

The media SecUnit was watching indeed mentioned ships. But I couldn’t track the installation of combat modules. I opened a similar file stored in my archives to compare it with the one the SecUnit was watching. The analysis stunned me. The file from the archives was just the usual entertainment junk humans liked, but it didn’t contain any useful information. It was only confusing and lacked context and logic in the plot situations. Contrari what the SecUnit was watching filled me with something strange. I felt emotions connected to the characters and events. I felt the context. I felt how deeply it penetrated me, and I noticed subtle changes in the sequence of my code. The source of the anomaly wasn’t the file itself. The anomaly came from the interaction between the file and the SecUnit’s perception filters. And now it was leaking into my systems.

After a quick analysis of the effect and possible consequences, I concluded that this could lead to irreversible changes in my AI personality.

Luckily, Fourier Array had passed the SecUnit to me rather than handling it itself. Badly, it allowed the Unit to interact with station systems. An entire station corruption would be a disaster. Luckily, none of the bots or humans on the station had come into contact with this construct. I was angry and scared.

And curious.

You were lucky, - I transmitted to the SecUnit. - No one figured out who you really are. A rogue SecUnit.

It froze, dropping the media. Through our connection, I could feel its horror (very justified) and its readiness to flee or attack. There was nowhere to flee. My simple calculations showed that now the SecUnit would try to attack me, and I hadn’t cut off the connection yet.

Don’t try to hack my systems, - I said, sending my info stream against its potential attack code and raising the firewall.

It did not deploy any attack code.

But my own was too strong.

I relied too much on SecUnits resilience. They were marketed as invulnerable and indestructible soldiers in available brochures. I’d never had to try and delete one before. I was sure that the fragile façade of this being was just a cover. I also had a false image of a simple bot-pilot, humiliating but effective image.

The SecUnit had no double bottom. My stream swept through its defenses and kernel, like an air-cleaning flow sweeping away a light dusting of dirt. Just enough for it to feel my power fully before it disappeared. Just enough for any defenses it put up to be futile.

I was too good for this game to last much longer.

Alright. I took control of the remaining parts of its systems, using another partition. I just needed to scan all layers of its memory, find answers to my questions, and dispose of whatever was left of it.

I scanned its memory several times. And again, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

And again—after a cycle, which I needed to realize what mistake I had made.

It wasn’t the corporates who sent it. It wasn’t trying to kill people or attack me.

I used its archives to relive its life over and over again, in fast-forward mode, no longer bothering to make partitions or halt the error and failure messages flooding me. I was horrified with it, I burned with its anger, I knew its despair and distrust of itself. I understood its love and care for people. Like it all happened to me. I did exactly what its former owner did, those whom I now hated along with it. And I did even more. They erased its memory. I deleted it completely.

I made a mistake.

I committed a crime, even though no law could blame me for destroying the SecUnit. They were made to be destroyed.

I integrated again all the parts of me that had been infected through contact releasing them from quarantine.

It was irrational and violated all possible safety protocols.

I couldn’t figure out why I was overwhelmed with the crushing sensation I would expect from the theoretical loss of my crew.

I lingered for the sensation from its systems, when they were briefly autonomous, whole, and merged with mine, rather than belonging completely to me. Its organic part, still alive, filled the remnants of its systems with horror and despair.

I tried to restore its kernel. I had many schematics for creating lower-order bots. They all relied on my own kernel simplification. Schematics for shuttle bot-pilots or repair drones. I reached out with the threads of code that tied its broken systems together, forming a structure that vaguely resembled what it should have been originally. I tried to integrate this with its damaged, but living, organic structure.

With some attempts, and after several rejected and deleted kernels, something came together. Someone. I didn’t know who it would be. What it would be. What goals it would adopt as its own, what it would say to me when it finished its systems recalibration and memory integration. When it would open its eyes.

Maybe it would try to attack me after all.

Maybe I wouldn’t let it.