#data duplication devices

[ureachindia]

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[axeeglitter]

Swallowed by the Scroll

Ethan was exhausted from a long day, lying on his bed and scrolling through TikTok like he usually did to unwind. His eyes flicked from one video to the next, barely processing the endless stream of content. After hours of scrolling, he liked a new video and landed on a new one with three dudes on a bed in a messy bedroom. He was about to close the app when a notification popped up on his phone, making him pause.

“Experience the Future! Try the Brand-New Update—Click Here!”

Ethan rolled his eyes, more annoyed than intrigued. He was about to dismiss the ad, his finger hovering over the close button, when his phone suddenly glitched. The screen flickered, and before he knew it, the device clicked on “Yes” by itself.

A brief loading screen appeared, and then the phone emitted a sharp, bright flash of light. His vision blurred, and a strange tingling sensation spread through his hands, rapidly intensifying as it climbed up his arms. Panic surged through him as he watched in horror—his fingers were pixelating, breaking down into tiny particles of light.

“What the hell…?” he managed to gasp, his voice trembling.

The transformation was happening too fast for him to react. His fingers dissolved into streams of binary code, flickering in and out of existence. The sensation was like a thousand tiny ants crawling beneath his skin, as his entire body began to break down into data. His hands, arms, and torso followed, unraveling into digital particles that swirled toward the phone screen.

His heart raced in terror. His molecules, his very essence, were being reduced to raw information, spiraling out of control into the glowing abyss of his phone. The data streams dragged him deeper, every cell, thought, and memory digitizing into a cascade of 1s and 0s. The sensation was overwhelming, like being stretched and compressed all at once, as his consciousness was sucked into the phone. As it was the turn of his head, a last scream of terror and painful agony echoed in the empty apartment as the smartphone fell with a fainted thud on the blanket of his bed. 

Inside, Ethan found himself floating naked in a dark, infinite void, weightless and formless. It was as though he had become a fragment of data, suspended in a sea of information. The void pressed against him, wrapping his consciousness in a digital cocoon. He was there, but he was not—he was data now, an echo of his former self.

The void pulsed with a mechanical hum, breaking the oppressive silence. Out of the darkness, a voice emerged—cold, robotic, devoid of emotion.

“Welcome, User. Digitization complete. Initiating transformation protocol.”

Ethan’s panic spiked. “What… what is this? What’s happening to me?!”

The voice ignored his pleas. “Beginning subject duplication.”

Suddenly, mechanical arms shot out from the darkness, cold and metallic. They wrapped around him, holding him firmly in place by his wrist, weight and ankles as more arms emerged, each equipped with various tools and devices that clicked and whirred ominously. Ethan struggled against them, but the grip was unyielding.

“Commencing body duplication process.”

Ethan felt a sharp pull from both sides as the arms began to stretch him, his very being strained and distorted. It was like being torn apart, his consciousness splitting into separate entities. The sensation was excruciating, as if every fiber of his existence was being unraveled and divided. He could feel himself being pulled in three directions at once, his mind fracturing into three distinct pieces.

With a final, brutal tug, the process was complete. Ethan was no longer one—he had been split into three separate beings. His fragmented consciousness struggled to comprehend the horror of what had just happened as eh could see through 3 pairs of eyes, all trying to understand what happened as he saw 2 other reflections of himself floating in the cold empty void still held by mechanical arms. Each piece of him was aware of the others, yet distinctly separate. He could feel all three bodies at once, but they were no longer his—they were their own.

“Duplication successful. Initiating physical transformation.”

The mechanical arms resumed their work, manipulating each of his newly formed selves with clinical precision. Ethan could feel the changes begin, but his mind was too overwhelmed to fully process them.

The first change he noticed was in his bones. They began to shift and creak, some elongating while others compressed. In one body, his spine stretched, vertebrae expanding and pushing upward, making him taller and leaner. The sensation was like a deep, bone-deep ache that spread through his entire frame. He could feel his legs lengthening, his feet growing larger, toes spreading to accommodate the new size. The muscles in his calves and thighs thickened, adapting to the new height, adding to the power he could now feel surging through this form.

In another body, the opposite was happening. His bones shrank, compressing him down into a shorter, more compact frame. The sensation was disorienting as his field of view lowered, his limbs pulling inward. His feet, once long and slender, became smaller and more compact, with a solid, grounded feel. His muscles tightened around his smaller frame, giving him a stocky, powerful build, dense and strong.

The third body experienced a mix of both, his bones adjusting to a more moderate height. The sensation was less extreme, but no less intense, as his body found a balance between the other two forms. His feet and hands adapted, not too large, not too small, but perfectly proportioned to his new size. His muscles filled out, firm and toned, creating a harmonious build that felt both agile and strong.

As the height and skeletal transformations completed, Ethan’s attention was drawn to the changes in his muscles. They swelled and contracted, his flesh rippling with the force of the transformation. His pecs bulged out, firm and defined, while his abs tightened into a chiseled six-pack. The sensation was both painful and pleasurable, a deep, throbbing ache that radiated through his entire body. He could feel the strength in each form, the raw power that came with his new musculature.

“Initiating muscle enhancement.”

Ethan’s muscles began to swell and bulge further, each body undergoing its own transformation. The sensation was all-consuming, muscles thickening and expanding, the strength within them intoxicating yet terrifying. He could feel the power in each form, the heavy, deliberate movements, as if he had become a stranger in his own skin.

The mechanical voice continued its cold narration, describing each step of the transformation as it happened.

“Resuming body enhancement.”

Each of his bodies started to feel a tingle around their crotch, all of them were flooded with intense, confusing sensations. It started as a warmth, a tingling that spread from his core and down into his crotch. His skin prickled with anticipation, the sensation growing more intense by the second.

In one body, his cock started to feel heavy, the weight of his manhood increasing as it grew larger, thicker, more sensitive. Every movement sent a jolt of pleasure through him, his mind overwhelmed by the raw, primal sensation. His new size was both thrilling and terrifying, the sensitivity almost unbearable as the robotic arms manipulated and adjusted it until it was 10 inches, thick and cut, something way different from his usual 4 inches and a half uncut cock. The arms then went to grab his nuts and as he was wondering what was happening, he felt two needles penetrating them. The data injected started to make them grow to tennis ball size. The added weight and the constant pulling on them by the arms made them grow bigger and lower. The pain was awful for Ethan as it felt like they were about to be teared off, but as he was screaming in pain, the sensation stopped and the arms let go.

In another body, the sensation was different—a tightening, a firming up, as his dick became more compact yet incredibly responsive. The pleasure was sharper, more acute, like a constant pulse that thrummed through his entire being. The tightness added a different kind of strength, a compact power that radiated through his groin, sending waves of pleasure up his spine as it kept getting smaller and more compact and sensitive. When the arm released it, it was now 3 inches uncut cock and very thick. Almost beer can thick. Ethan tried to move to see what happened to this body as he could feel the tension rising up inside of him. Unbeknown to him, the arms started to take hold of his testicles as they started to vibrate and getting smaller and smaller. The same sensation that went through hit cock was now happening to his testicles. When the humming sound stopped and the warm sensation receded, Ethan felt something spread on his sensitive cock head. His new small testicles were now overdriving and he’ll be producing plenty of precum. As the arms let go of his manhood, his new sensitive dick was letting a flow of precum out of his cock.

The third body found a balance between the two, the transformation creating a sense of harmony. The warmth in his groin was a perfect blend of fullness and sensitivity, his body responding with a deep, resonating pleasure that spread through every nerve as his new cock was now 8 inches, thick but not too much, very sensitive, uncut and veiny. Just the sensation of the arms on it would have been enough for him to release. As a matter of fact, as the arms went to modify the balls to make them grow into a perfect dimension for a manly man, they went back to the base of the cock. There an arm approached the base and grabbed it tightly at the base. For Ethan it was almost like an elastic had been strapped around it. He felt constricted and the pulse of his heart was echoing through his whole cock and balls. There another arm appeared and injected his nuts with a weird green glowing liquid. For Ethan it was too much, his already sensitive cock started to spasm as the arm released the base of the cock, but for some reason, the sensation of tightness didn’t go away. His new cock will be stuck into a semi hard forever now and the faintest sensation will be enough for him to cum. The green liquid modified his nuts to not handle the stamina anymore. His new perfectly dimensioned cock will be a premature one.

It was an intoxicating mix of sensations, each body experiencing its own unique version of pleasure and frustration as the transformation continued. All at once the arms started to glow around the newly modified parts. There, in one smooth movement, they started to hum and Ethan could see from his 3 pair of eyes as data streams was injected into him. IT started to feel hot for Ethan as the warmth got higher and higher. Out of nowhere, Ethan could feel tingle started to appear in mass round the base of his dicks. Hair was sprouting in mass and soon, the three of them were hairy. His body on the right now had curly dirty blonde unruly hair as his smaller body of the three now had dark brown hair with faint waves in them. The last one was probably the biggest changes in this part. Ethan felt like hair were pushing under his skin and balls and the white palish skin started to take a grey hue. When the humming stopped, this new cock was very hairy but all the hair were cut on a weekly basis, which resulted in them growing thick but not too long, which were making his super sensitive premature 8 inches cock into overdrive even more. The sensation of the hair growing and the tightness of his permanent semi erected cock was pushing this body in overdrive for release.

“Facial restructuring in progress.”

Ethan’s facial features twisted and contorted, bones shifting beneath the skin. He could feel his jawlines sharpening, his features hardening, becoming more rugged and masculine. He tried to scream, but his mouth moved of its own accord, forming expressions he couldn’t control. The changes were happening too quickly, and his mind was a chaotic mess, struggling to keep up with the nightmare unfolding within him.

“Finalizing transformations. Clothing materialization in progress.”

The robotic arms moved with precise efficiency as they completed their work. Ethan felt the sensation of fabric materializing around his newly transformed bodies. Soft, comfortable pajama pants wrapped around his biggest body and compressed his thick 10 inches cock that let little place to imagination, tight shorts hugged his smaller body with his small thick beer can cock and a black shirt appeared around his smaller frame, while loose, dark stripped shorts formed around his premature body which only let his sensitive cock head rub against the smooth material. The clothing clung to his new physiques, accentuating the muscular forms that had been forced upon him.

Ethan’s mind was a maelstrom of confusion and fear. He couldn’t fully grasp what had happened to him—he was no longer a single entity, but three distinct beings, each with its own body and identities. He could feel their thoughts, desires, and instincts battling within him, drowning out the remnants of his original self. He didn’t know understand what happening or happened to him as all he could feel was three sensations and see three bodies from three pair of eyes.

But the transformation wasn’t over yet. The mechanical voice spoke once more.

“Transformation complete. Initiating behavioral loop.”

Arms appeared in front of his eyes and all of a sudden, they attached themselves around his head. Ethan could see three videos played in front of his eyes as the mental assimilation and behavioral instincts were uploaded inside his brains. He could feel how his stronger body started to act manly and dominant on his own while his smaller body started to feel less and less in control of the situation and in the meantime his third body started to feel in love with his smaller body. The sensations were weird, he couldn’t understand what was happening anymore and as the video ended and the casks were plugged off, he could still see his three bodies and the sensation but he couldn’t move anymore. It was like his bodies were moving on their own and he was a passenger of the three of them. Feeling and seeing everything on each but not able to have his hands and the commands anymore.

Ethan’s bodies began to move on their own. The mechanical arms guided him at first, but soon, they let go, and his actions became automatic, repeating in an endless loop. He could feel his hands lifting, removing the clothes, touching the others, feeling their skin, their hair, their muscles. The sensations were overwhelming—the musk, the heat, the texture of their skin, the tightness in their groins. The rubbing of their dicks against the tissue material. The will to cum and release that never came sending him into a loop of perpetual denial with every second.

Every breath, every movement felt hyper-real, but it wasn’t him controlling it. He was merely a passenger, trapped within his own bodies as they moved on their own accord. The sensations were a maddening blend of pleasure and frustration. He could feel everything—the brush of skin against skin, the tightening in his groin as his bodies moved, the heavy musk that filled the air, intoxicating and primal. His bodies were locked in an endless cycle, repeating the same actions over and over, their desires never fully satisfied, the pleasure never fully realized.

It was a cruel, unending tease, an erotic torture that kept him on the edge without any release. The mechanical assistant had designed the loop perfectly, each cycle drawing him deeper into the sensations, heightening his awareness of every touch, every movement. His muscles flexed and tensed, his breaths quickened, but there was no escape from the loop, no way to break free from the repetition.

His three bodies were now inextricably linked, their sensations intertwined. When one of his forms felt the rough fabric of his clothes against his sensitive skin, the other two felt it as well. When one of them experienced a pulse of pleasure in the groin, it resonated through all three, amplifying the sensation. It was like his consciousness was being pulled in three different directions at once, each body experiencing its own version of ecstasy and frustration.

His mind struggled to keep up, his thoughts fragmented and scattered. He could barely form coherent thoughts anymore—only raw, primal instincts remained. The loop was becoming his reality, the repetition drilling into his psyche, eroding what little control he had left.

“User integration complete,” the mechanical voice stated, its cold tone a stark contrast to the chaos in Ethan’s mind. “Transformation protocol successful. Subject is now fully operational to experience the future.”

Ethan’s bodies continued to move, each trapped in its own loop. The taller form removing the shirt of the smaller one, the fabric of his red tartan pajama pants stretching over his muscular thighs. The shorter, leaner body putting his arms ups so the shirt could be removed then caressing the pecs in front of him, feeling the short too small khaki shorts on his compact thighs. The third body, the most balanced of the three, trying to kiss the smaller one that he fell in love with but never reaching the lips that he is craving for while caressing his waist and holding his neck in his calloused strong hands and feeling his over sensitive cock rubbing on the fabric of his shorts and being on the edge of cumming.

They moved together, yet separately, each body following its own path within the confines of the loop. The sensation of control slipping away was almost too much to bear. Ethan wanted to scream, to break free, but his voice was silent, his actions dictated by the mechanical program that had overtaken him.

Time lost all meaning as the loop continued, every sensation heightened, every moment stretched out into eternity. The pleasure was intoxicating, but it was also a prison, locking him in a cycle of need and desire that would never be fulfilled.

Just when it seemed like the loop would go on forever, something changed. The mechanical assistant’s voice broke through the haze.

“Warning: Device battery low. System shutdown imminent.”

Panic surged through Ethan. He could feel the drain in his bodies, the energy waning as the phone’s battery died. The loop continued, but it was slower now, the movements more lethargic. The pleasure was still there, but it was fading, replaced by a growing sense of emptiness. His consciousness flickered, like a signal struggling to stay connected.

“Five percent battery remaining,” the assistant announced, its voice devoid of any emotion.

Ethan’s thoughts raced. What would happen if the phone died? Would he disappear along with it? Would he be trapped in darkness, lost in this digital nightmare forever?

The loop slowed even further, his bodies barely moving now, the sensations dulling as the energy drained away. His vision started to blur, the edges of his consciousness fraying. He wanted to fight it, to break free, but he was powerless against the inevitable shutdown.

“Two percent battery remaining,” the assistant stated calmly.

The loop was almost non-existent now, his bodies barely able to move. The once overwhelming sensations were now just a faint echo, a ghost of what they had been. Ethan felt like he was slipping away, his consciousness dissolving into the void.

“One percent battery remaining. System shutdown imminent.”

Ethan’s last thoughts were of fear and desperation. He didn’t want to disappear, didn’t want to be lost in the darkness. But there was nothing he could do, no way to stop the inevitable.

The screen flickered one last time, and then everything went black.

A Week Later...

The small apartment was dimly lit, the only light coming from the street lamps outside. The burglar had made quick work of the place, rummaging through drawers and cabinets for anything of value. He was about to leave when his eyes fell on a phone lying on the bed.

He picked it up, surprised it had been left behind. It was an older model, but it looked well-kept. Figuring it might be worth something, he pocketed it and left the apartment, heading back to his own place.

Once inside his dingy one-bedroom apartment, the burglar plugged the phone into a charger, eager to see what he had scored. The screen lit up, and to his surprise, it didn’t require a password. Instead, it opened directly to a strange app, displaying a video of three muscular men on grabbing and caressing each other’s on a bed in a messy bedroom, their bodies moving in a repetitive sequence. The burglar frowned; his curiosity piqued by the oddity of it all. He watched as the men on the screen undressed and redressed, their bodies flexing, their faces locked in expressions of deep concentration and tension. The movements seemed almost lifelike, too real for just an animation. Ethan felt like a jolt parkouring his body and soul as the phone was plugged and the energy was once again running in him. His bodies started their automated movements once again. The rubbing, caressing, undressing, will to cum but never reaching it, the premature orgasm coming in his pants, the will to kiss. Everything came back at full speed and he was once again trapped in perpetual denial and frustration. But it lighted a spark of hope in him. Somebody had found him.

“How long have I been stuck?” he asked himself as he felt another kiss being refused to his lips. Like if he had a calendar in his mind, Ethan heard the answer in his mind from the robotic voice. But it wasn’t the same one, no it was… his voice. Ethan was terrified. Does that mean he was assimilated?

“Yes user” he heard once again in his robotic voice “Accepting the offer have assimilated you on the platform to experience what the original user where doing. Don’t worry, as long as you are not scrolled away, you won’t have any problem. If you happen to be scrolled, then your data will be assimilated to the server and saved up so you are not deleted until you are claimed back. Until so, enjoy the future…”

“No, wait, I didn’t agree to this!” Unfortunately for Ethan, the burglar didn’t hear any of that, and as he was looking at this weird video of three dude caressing each other’s on loop, he put his finger on the screen and started to swipe it up. Ethan felt his world shake. Everything connected and he understood, he was about to be scrolled. “No, don’t scro…” Ethen didn’t have time to finish his beg as the video was sent away into the eternal void of data until someone claimed him back.

As the burglar’s eyes remained glued to the screen, the phone emitted a soft, pulsing glow, almost as if it was drawing him in. He felt an odd compulsion to keep watching, mesmerized by the rhythm of the dances, the pranks and the POV videos. He scrolled to another video, and then another, and another, diving more and more into the feed of the previous owner.

He was about to swipe out of the app when the screen flickered, displaying a pop-up message:

“Experience the Future! Try the Brand-New Update—Click Here!”

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

Hey everyone, here is the first story I publish on this account. Hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as Ethan enjoy his new reality.

Let me know what you think of it and if you want to see more of this. If you have any ideas or just want to talk, feel free to send me a message, I don't bite ^^'

There is more stories to come!

[canmom]

The themes of NieR Reincarnation

A post about the recurring elements of Drakenier and the use of branching timelines as a storytelling device. I'll be discussing spoilers for basically every DoD/NieR game.

Records

A somewhat understated recurring motif of the Drakengard/NieR series is the idea of stories or memories of humanity being stored in some massive archive.

It's an idea that first entered the series in NieR Gestalt/Replicant. Early drafts of the game focused on the idea of a world built out of stories and fairytale characters, and while most of this was cut, some remained in the Forest of Myth area.

Following NieR's obsessive love of hopping between different game genres, the story here is delivered through prose/text adventure segments. There is a sense that this area of the game exists as prose, with the characters slightly aware of narration - narration which absorbs the characters until you find a way to escape. Eventually you find out - it's rather cryptic in the actual game, but spelled out explicitly in Grimoire NieR - that it's a huge computer system storing records of the deceased humanity.

In your second visit to the area, the story focuses more on distant history, that all these stories are fragments of memory of the lost pre-apocalpytic world. You encounter a Gestalt (human soul extracted from body) that is eating the memories stored in the tree, and kill it, and for Nier and co., this is enough - but for the player, you really don't know half of what is going on.

In the story The Lost World, which was adapted for the additional Ending E added in the Replicant remake, Kainé returns to the Forest of Myth and finds the computer system expanding. She fights clones of herself before eventually speaking to a mysterious administrator and descending into a virtual world that seems like a corrupted version of her memories. But she's able to connect to her memories of NieR, Emil and Grimoire Weiss, and through that connection cause a kind of timeline collapse effect that allows her to resurrect Nier. Terms from DoD3 such as 'singularity' come back again.

In NieR Automata, the idea of the legacy of humanity becomes increasingly central. While the androids believe they are reclaiming Earth for humanity, the Machine Lifeforms' motivation is in large part driven by their efforts to pore over the records of humanity and learn how to evolve their condition, even by blind imitation. Many of the different Machine Lifeforms you encounter are shaped by their interpretations of human society. The motif of human buildings recreated in white blocks recurs at certain points.

In the final sequence of the game, you climb a tower, and inside it visit simulacra of locations from the Replicant/Gestalt. You learn that the machines have infiltrated the androids' network and downloaded basically all the information the androids have, including all their records of humanity. When the machines' 'Ark' is launched into space, it carries their memories and consciousness in data form.

The YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse raid series in FFXIV continues this idea of obsessive, blind reconstruction. The machines you fight here are now all the more explicitly connected to the apocalyptic shit in DoD; they have also been frantically creating duplicates of YoRHa android 2P, the Bunker and so on in corrupted form. Although the story here has mostly other interests, it's another recurrence of the idea of trying to recreate things that were lost.

Along with this idea of the archive comes the idea of preservation of that archive. Whether by accident or deliberate attack, the survival of the archive is not guaranteed.

This is all absolutely central to what Reincarnation is about.

Branches

The Drakenier series has played around with branching narratives pretty much from the start. It's somewhat infamous for it in fact - did you know that NieR is actually a spinoff of ending E of Drakengard, the one where you appear over Tokyo and have to do a rhythm game? Yeah, so...

Most games are fairly cagey (ha ha) about the mechanics of these branches. Indeed, although we speak of branches, the structure of these games is not really a branching one like a visual novel. The branches and 'endings' are usually unlocked sequentially.

Drakengard/Drag-on Dragoon (DoD1) is probably the closest you get to a traditional branching structure. You can unlock routes in certain missions by fulfilling certain conditions. The exact logic of these branches is not really explained - you can go back to a point before you recruit a party member and get a different branch where they're present for example. That said, it's not like a visual novel where you can be 'on' one branch or another - you can always jump to any level from any timeline.

This oddness of the branches is also lampshaded a little more in DoD3, the game that is most explicit about the nature of the branching timeline. DoD3 is, from the player perspective, a linear game. After you complete the first 'ending', you unlock new levels that appear at earlier points in the timeline, and diverging branches appear. In the later branches, the logic of the world is starting to break down. Party members who you'd recruit later in the story are in your party much earlier, in some cases suffering from amnesia, the implication being that it's an effect of the Flower's corruption.

The game is intermittently narrated by a character called Accord, an android 'Recorder' whose job is to document all the different versions of the story for an unknown party. Accord isn't supposed to intervene in the story, though she occasionally talks to protagonist Zero, and in the final D route, she decides to break the rules and save Zero. Otherwise, she's responsible for 'sealing' branches where it seems the world cannot be saved.

This is Accord:

The final cutscene of DoD3, available only after you beat the ludicrously difficult rhythm game that is the 'final song', shows a bunch of other Accords appearing and talking about what a mess this all is.

Accord's other role in the game is to sell weapons. Another series tradition running back to DoD1 is the 'Weapon Stories'. In each game, you can collect weapons, which can be upgraded through a series of four stages. Each stage unlocks another part of a story. These stories tend to be quite brief - each entry is at most a short paragraph. They also, particularly in the DoD games, tend to be comically grimdark.

DoD 3 came out after NieR Replicant/Gestalt, but in every game since then, there have been cryptic mentions of Accord. In Automata she's mentioned in a note as a weapons seller; in the updated version of Replicant she is mentioned as visiting Nier's village while the party is away on her adventures, and you see a documention that mentions the 'Accord Corporation' supplying magic weapons.

OK, so, put a pin in that, we'll come back to her later.

The side material commits further to the branching idea. The original Drakengard is established to follow from the DoD3 Story Side novel, while Branch A gives rise to the Shi ni Itaru Aka manga and the DoD 1.3 novel. The YoRHa stage plays spawned alternative versions, namely YoRHa version 1.3a and Shōjo YoRha version 1.1a, with the gender of the casts flipped. YoRHa 1.3a also has Accord in it. The anime NieR Automata ver. 1.1a also presents an increasingly diverging version of the events of the game - notably, Adam turns into a multi-armed monster.

DoD2, something of the black sheep of the franchise, was originally written to follow DoD1 ending A; later it was retconned to belong to its own branch. Just 'cause.

With me so far? ...no? Yeah, that's fair. You can read about all the details I've gathered so far here, but in short, there are lots of timeline branches, and multiple versions of several stories with small or large divergences.

Reincarnation

NieR Re[in]carnation is a gacha game that's been running for the last three years, and is going to be shut down at the end of April. At the time it came out, it was acknowledge for having unusually nice graphics for a mobile game, but rather desultory, grindy, repetitive gameplay. Which remained true throughout the game's life, so I can't exactly recommend playing Reincarnation, especially at this point.

But! I would definitely say it's worth your time to dig up the story on Youtube/Accord's Library if you're into NieR stuff. I won't be going into all the ins and outs of the story and how it all fits together in this post, but I am gonna talk about how it's structured.

NieR Reincarnation places you in a vast stone city called the Cage, calling to mind the environments in Ico. At the outset, you play as a young girl travelling with a weird ghost-like creature called Mama, tasked with restoring the memories stored in objects called 'dark scarecrows' which are being subverted and corrupted by black birds which form into various monsters.

Within each chapter of NieR Reincarnation, you get a short story in four parts, presented in a kind of cutout style, which are the four segments of a weapon story. You collect the weapon and the character.

The Cage is shaped by the content of the weapon stories somehow bleeding into the simulated setting. A character's memories can be used to restore the stories to their proper course. It is possible to interfere in small ways with the worlds of the stories.

The corruption of the stories tends to involve subverting characterisation to make them crueller, more prone to random violence etc. - or points when a character could be threatened in a narratively unsatisfying way. For example, a peace-loving runaway prince could be turned into a warlike king.

Over the course of the first arc, you discover that the girl you are playing is actually a monster who has taken the form of a human girl and, regretting it, wants to give her her embodiment back. The second half of the arc has you playing the girl trying to reunite with her monster friend; at the end, you get her own backstory as a victim of brutal prejudice. After all is said and done, both characters transform into weapons, which Mama picks up and hides away.

The second arc, The Sun and the Moon, deals with a brother and sister from present-day Tokyo. Both of them have been transported into the Cage by more of the weird ghost thingies, to participate in a strange ritual that is allegedly going to restore the Cage. The rules are highly mystical - a significant sacrifice is needed.

In the most recent arc, The People and The World, the characters all emerge from their stories as the Cage becomes increasingly corrupted. We finally get the long awaited point where these characters can interact with each other, and advance the stories from a series of tragic vignettes to something more. At the same time, we get a lot more allusions to other games in the series - from the Lunar Tear room where Emil memorialised Kainé and later 9S memorialises 2B, to a brief appearance Devola and Popola.

There's even a nod to Yoko Taro's other terminated gacha game, SINoALICE, which is going to be made into a movie oddly enough. There's a wry nod to the game being shut down.

And in the most recent chapters we find out that the Cage is actually a server on the moon containing records of humanity - 10H from A Much Too Silent Sea is one of the main characters. 'Mama' is actually the Pod tasked with overseeing the archive, and wiping 10H's memories whenever she learns too much - though it seems at some point 10H learned the truth and affirmed that she'd protect the archive anyway and they stopped wiping her memory.

Over the course of the chapter, 10H helps the gang make their escape from the moon through the androids network, to Earth. But when they get to Earth, they find themselves in a strange white city more resembling the Cage.

We'll finally get some answers, maybe, later this month. Anyway...

So, these records come from multiple diverging timelines, and they take the form of weapon stories. You have a unity of the ideas of character - weapon - memory - world. A record is simultaneously a tragic series of events, a person who can manifest inside the Cage itself, a simulated world which other people can visit, and a weapon.

In addition to the main storyline chapters and 'character stories', each character is associated with two additional 'EX' storylines, termed Dark Memories and Recollections of Dusk. Each one is a much more substantial narrative than most in the game.

Some of these EX stories clearly take place in different timelines to the first ones we encounter. Akeha's story, for example, takes place after her death in the original version. For the brother and sister from the Sun and the Moon arc, originally from present-day Tokyo, their Dark Memories take place in the backstory to NieR Gestalt/Replicant - the period where humanity is dying out to White Chlorination Syndrome and fighting monsters called the Legion. In this one, before the siblings could be torn apart by family drama and resentment, the apocalypse happens. Both of them end up coming into their own as heroic fighters. In the finale arc, the characters learn a bit about these alter egos, and it's made very explicit that this is a different timeline.

The monster Levania's Dark Memory is especially weird. It's the story of a salaryman who plays a monster called Levania in an MMORPG. His MMO character inspires him to live more bravely in the real world, and his life seems to be improving, but he is murdered by a jealous coworker. He wishes for reincarnation as he dies - classic isekai stuff. But the connection to the Levania you encounter in the main story is far from clear. Are all versions of Levania derived essentially from this man's tulpa?

The nature of the 'enemies' attacking the Cage is still not yet clear. They take the form of black birds. The birds are given a small amount of dialogue and characterisation, and they seem to not be malicious, just confused. The girl from the first arc in particular tends to interact with them sympathetically. However, they seem to be connected with the mysterious 'God' who was trying to destroy the world in DoD1, and the Angels and Flower of DoD3.

The birds are able to gathe together to manifest much larger monsters, the largest being giant elk and fish called Cursed Gods. During the finale arc, one of these becomes something that resembles the Mother Angel from DoD1 - and yes, there is a rhythm game - though mercifully a pretty easy one.

In the same arc, the character Yurie, an AI city overlord with grandiose ambitions and a loathing of imperfection attempts to download the entire history of humanity from the Cage and become a more perfect being. She succeeds, only to find the answers disappointing...

This is perhaps the closest thing we ever get to an explicit statement of what all these stories and histories add up to, but despite all this, the throughline is very strongly that these stories are essential to preserve. NieR characters exist in small groups, and it is their intense connections to these others, their treasured memories of travelling together, that motivate them to fight to preserve that thing, even if the results are destructive.

Similar themes emerge for example in Noelle's Recollection of Dusk story, which sees her travelling to preserve a place valued by her sister in crystal. And they also connect to the theme of sacrifice - the recurring ending device where the player must delete their save data in order to help someone (something echoed in Hina and Yuzuki at the altar of the sun and moon, or Levania and Fio). It's perhaps fair to say that nothing is more valued in the world of Nier than memories of a treasured person.

What about Accord? She has in fact made a brief cameo in Reincarnation already...

It seems incredibly likely that Accord originates from the Cage, and the accumulation of weapon stories is accomplished by androids like her. Definitely in the fandom there's a lot of excitement for the idea that Accord - something of a fan favourite - will show up at Reincarnation's ending.

So mystery solved, the Cage exists in the world of NieR Automata on the moon server? Not so fast - there are various discrepancies which seem to suggest that the world of the Cage exists in a separate branch than the one we see in Automata. For example, the androids are aware that the humans are dead and what remains on the moon is a huge archive of their memories; the humans seem to have survived much longer; 2B and 9S seem to have died in different circumstances. There are other oddities which fans have compiled.

And yet, despite being a divergent timeline with a much older point of divergence, some things seem to be fixed. There is still a YoRHa, still a 10H deceived about being on the moon, still a 2B and 9S.

One popular fan theory is that Reincarnation belongs to the NieR Automata anime (ver1.1a), since Adam turns into a monster there similar to the ones in Reincarnation. The black birds are reasoned to be the Machine Lifeforms, since we know they come from Earth. I'm not 100% sure of this, but maybe?

Anyway, that's basically the gist of it.

A story told through permutations

In many fictional series with a shared universe, there is an effort to maintain a consistent shared universe, so all the different events can fit into a timeline with understandable cause and effect and characters living out their lives. Even when this proves impossibly unwieldy, as in comic books or Star Wars, the attempt is made.

NieR does not really take this approach. The creators leave many details of the world, such as place names, incredibly vague - the focus is always on telling an emotional story with characters. There is, as we've seen, an almost gleeful willingness to declare another new timeline.

There is also a certain aspect of repetition, or more kindly reiteration - the same core character dynamic revisited and retold in various forms. (2B9S gets the worst of it). A character is something like a principle or ideal, and each story shines another light on that 'core'. In the earlier storylines of Reincarnation, it became quite frustrating because it seemed like e.g. the character event stories were just rehashing the same idea rather than advance the story.

However, the more accustomed I get to this style of storyline, the more I think this kinda works. It is of course quite similar to the ideas proposed towards the end of Homestuck, or to time loop stories - the idea of varying the contingent circumstances to try to better illustrate the core characterisations and dynamics.

Yoko Taro has talked about how he constructs stories from a very simple idea, typically a moment of high emotional impact at the climax, and then works backwards to figure out what sort of story could lead into that. In Reincarnation, each character gets fairly limited time to establish themselves, so they tend to be defined in terms of a pretty narrow high concept.

For example, Akeha is an assassin in a vague historical Japanese setting; her introductory story sees her decide for the first time to disobey her lord after she finds another person who has been treated as instrumentally as her. Most Akeha stories focus on her assassinations, her relationship to her retainer, and what she sacrifices to perform the duty. Only her Dark Memory lets us see an Akeha who has escaped that life - it's a simple story about preparing food, but that's given meaning by all the other Akeha stories.

Hina and Yuzuki are defined by the same traits in their flashy scifi Dark Memory stories as in the more mundane ones - Yuzuki the quiet outcast, Hina the self-sacrificing star. Fio is defined by kindness in the context of abjection, seeing the good in monsters. Levania stories are about the desire for escape and transformation. Argo is always a shitty dad who only feels alive while climbing mountains.

The staticness of these characters seems on some level to be the point - in that we are told in Hina and Yuzuki's story that the mechanism of the Cage is to sort characters into 'Light' and 'Dark' natures, and push them to inevitable conflict, even if they try to break free. In the final arc, the characters seem to finally approach some resolution as they leave their contexts behind. Given the themes of Automata in rejecting an inevitable tragic fate, similar movement may be at work. There's an ambiguity - the need to hold on to even tragic histories, vs the wish to not be confined to them. (Perhaps it's significant that it's called the Cage...)

With so many balls in the air and so many mysteries still unanswered, it's hard to figure out how Reincarnation can deliver a satisfying resolution in just one remaining chapter, but the final arc has been really cooking so who knows! But I'm also coming to appreciate it as a kind of broader lens to notice all these recurring elements and tie them together.

Stories about alternate timelines and branching narratives are very common nowadays, particularly as a tool for revisiting a nostalgic franchise. Something something effect of the fan wiki era. So I can't exactly say NieR is doing something completely unique, but I do think there is something to its fragmented, collage-like approach to putting together story elements. There's something quite honest about it - an ability to say 'these details aren't important'.

Yoko Taro always talks about himself as an entertainer rather than an artist. And probably it is true that a lot of this eemerged from an iterative design process rather than being the plan from the beginning (the first draft of NieR envisioned it as something closer to what SINoALICE ended up being, about a world of fairytale characters; NieR Automata began life as backstory for an idol project). There's definitely a strong sense that it's being improvised. And yet despite that, it does feel like it is cohering into some sort of picture, that there is an artistic throughline to all this.

Or perhaps that's just the effect of getting way too invested in something. I won't deny that NieR brings out the fan in me.

Anyway Accord had better show up next month. Guys. You've been teasing us for so long...

[mariacallous]

On ThursdaY, Reuters published a photo depicting then-United States national security adviser Mike Waltz checking his phone during a cabinet meeting held by President Trump in the White House. If you enlarge the portion of the image that captures Waltz’s screen, it seems to show him using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But if you look more closely, a notification on the screen refers to the app as “TM SGNL.” During a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, then, Waltz was apparently using an Israeli-made app called TeleMessage Signal to message with people who appear to be top US officials, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard.

After senior Trump administration cabinet members used vanishing Signal messages to coordinate March military strikes in Yemen—and accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the group chat—the “SignalGate” scandal highlighted concerning breaches of traditional government “operational security” protocol as well as compliance issues with federal records-retention laws. At the center of the debacle was Waltz, who was ousted by Trump as US national security adviser on Thursday. Waltz created the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat and was the member who added top Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. "I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News in late March. "We've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened," he added at the time.

SignalGate had nothing to do with Signal. The app was functioning normally and was simply being used at an inappropriate time for an incredibly sensitive discussion that should have been carried out on special-purpose, hardened federal devices and software platforms. If you're going to flout the protocols, though, Signal is (relatively speaking) a good place to do it, because the app is designed so only the senders and receivers of messages in a group chat can read them. And the app is built to collect as little information as possible about its users and their associates. This means that if US government officials were chatting on the app, spies or malicious hackers could only access their communications by directly compromising participants' devices—a challenge that is potentially surmountable but at least limits possible access points. Using an app like TeleMessage Signal, though, presumably in an attempt to comply with data retention requirements, opens up numerous other paths for adversaries to access messages.

"I don't even know where to start with this," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. “It's mind-blowing that the federal government is using Israeli tech to route extremely sensitive data for archival purposes. You just know that someone is grabbing a copy of that data. Even if TeleMessage isn't willingly giving it up, they have just become one of the biggest nation-state targets out there.”

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 by former Israel Defense Forces technologists and run out of the country until it was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. The service creates duplicates of communication apps that are outfitted with a “mobile archiver” tool to record and store messages sent through the app.

“Capture, archive and monitor mobile communication: SMS, MMS, Voice Calls, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram & Signal,” TeleMessage says on its website. For Signal it adds, “Record and capture Signal calls, texts, multimedia and files on corporate-issued and employee BYOD phones.” (BYOD stands for bring your own device.) In other words, there are TeleMessage versions of Signal for essentially any mainstream consumer device. The company says that using TeleMessage Signal, users can “Maintain all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption,” adding that the app provides “End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive.” The existence of “the corporate archive,” though, undermines the privacy and security of the end-to-end encryption scheme.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP. TeleMessage and Smarsh did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their products are used by the US federal government and in what capacity.

"As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly tells WIRED. She did not answer questions about whether the White House approves of federal officials using TeleMessage Signal—which is a different app from Signal—or whether other officials aside from Waltz have used the app or currently use it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency does not create policy around federal technology use but does release public guidance. When asked about Waltz’s apparent use of TeleMessage Signal, CISA simply referred WIRED to its best-practices guide for mobile communications. The document specifically advises, “When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.”

It is not clear when Waltz started using TeleMessage Signal and whether he was already using it during SignalGate or started using it afterward in response to criticisms that turning on Signal's disappearing messages feature is in conflict with federal data-retention laws.

“I have no doubt the leadership of the US national security apparatus ran this software through a full information-assurance process to ensure there was no information leakage to foreign nations,” says Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matt Green. “Because if they didn’t, we are screwed.”

[pokebioblr]

How do man-made pokemon work? Like polygon and it's evolutions?

Since man-made pokemon vary drastically in their physiology and behaviour, I'm focusing on the given example, Porygon, in this post. Feel free to shoot an ask about any other ones you are interested in!

Introducing Porygon!

Porygon is an artificial AI program that's learned the biology need to reproduce and survive over time. In its original form, it's a series of code intended to run a program that aids in organizing and transferring pokemon. After interacting with thousands of pokemon and working with human beings, the AI learned to mimic emotions and share many similarities with organic pokemon.

Appearance + Life History

Usually, the data is offloaded into hard drives as a program back up. A data leak (from an unnamed pokemon center) resulted in this unique specimen infecting other electronics. The original low-poly form they take is because of its source code and placement PNG design. Now, with its newly gained sentience, it prefers this form.

Once the program spread to other devices, each porygon tries to assemble itself using old scraps until it decides the body is close enough to what it would like. This is fairly easy for an analytical and precise program.

Reproduction wise, porygon simply duplicates its base code (along with important learned data) and sends it into a newly built form.

Evolutions + Other Forms

Porygon2 can be evolved via an upgrade disc. This disc contains new code, which is uploaded into a Porygon's main body. The form of the physical body is made to be more aerodynamic akin to how many devices/programs we use day to day looks more polished as time goes on.

Porygon-Z can only be evolved from Porygon2 due to how the dubious disc is only compatible with its prior evolution. The extremities are attached via magnets, and can be replaced without too much damage to the body.

Pokemon are truly incredible creatures! I highly encourage everyone to learn more about them. Even artificial pokemon like Porygon have complex histories and fascinating behaviours!

[whisker-biscuit]

Sonic Big Bang 2024

Close Encounters of the Grim Kind: Chapter 3

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

Through the next few days, Tails discovered three things aside from his alternate dimensional research.

It took about six hours for the probe to make a round trip from him to his new pen pal and back when they tested it.

His pen pal was extremely intelligent and just as interested in the state of the Shatterverse as he was. They did not, however, want to talk about anything else, and especially not themselves.

Sonic was still refusing to share the full picture of what happened during his adventure.

Only one of these things was technically a problem, but the fox was a scientist first and foremost, and a very curious child on top of that. So, he set out to “solve” each and every one.

The first one was easy, relatively speaking. The device had been built to travel indefinitely, collecting data at manageable speeds to be analyzed later. Now that it wasn’t being used as a probe but as a simple messenger, it was no issue to redirect some of its power output away from its memory banks and towards its speed instead. He let his pen pal know what he was doing, and wasn’t surprised when they offered their own assistance, claiming that they had worked with Paradox Prism energy to know how to make movement almost instantaneous. Working off only a fraction of that power instead of the entire prism meant it would still be slower than that, but any upgrade on that front would be an improvement.

Together, they were able to drop the travel time from six hours to two, which helped immensely. It also made Tails debate crossing “Sails” off of his list of potential people, because Sonic never mentioned the pirate ever getting close enough to the Prism to learn how to do that. In the end, he kept the name on because the evidence against its presence was still flimsy.

Additionally, his unknown collaborator sent equations that would allow Tails to duplicate his own technology with Prism energy, which he used to make several more probes to send out across the Shatterverse. None of those devices were intercepted and fed data at a constant rate to his computer for him to observe and report back to the pen pal.

By the end of the week, it became routine for a familiar flash of light to appear in the fox’s shop every few hours. He’d pause in whatever he was working on to read and respond to the message as though it were an overly detailed texting app instead of the intricate probe that he’d built it to be.

[ have you found any interdimensional cracks or signs of decay? ]

– No. So far, none of my probes have registered any anomalies. –

[ good ]

[ i was unable to check for that since losing access to the shards ]

[ was worried it might return even though the paradox prism was reformed ]

– What about you? –

– Did you see anything concerning appear in your own dimension recently? –

[ none so far but ill keep you posted if that changes ]

The second problem took a little longer to work around, and Tails wracked his brain for ways to approach it without raising suspicion. He desperately wanted to know whether he was working with an Eggman above all else. It was hard to think about how their minimal exchange exploring and discussing the Shatterspace’s state of being was beneficial to any version of the mad scientist, but he’d been caught off guard by a convoluted evil scheme before and had no intention of kickstarting another with his own help.

At first, he tried to gauge his mystery partner’s interest in technology.

– I’m sorry my last message was delayed for so long. –

– I was caught up in a new invention idea and lost track of time. –

[ theres no expectation for a prompt response ]

[ im not offended ]

– That’s a relief. Do you ever get tunnel vision with your own projects like me? –

[ yes ]

– Glad to see I’m not alone! –

– What kind of projects do you like to work on? –

Asking that last question led to him being ignored for nearly half a day until one of his probes completed its semi-scheduled data returns, in which his pen pal finally sent the device back asking about its findings. There was no mention of the original inquiry; Tails got the message and didn’t bring the topic up again.

It did make him cross out Mr. Dr. Eggman’s name on his list, however – from what Sonic had told him, the man never would have been able to pass up the chance to brag about his own genius, no matter how obvious the trap.

His second attempt was more roundabout – disguising it as idle curiosity about the Paradox Prism and the Shatterverse.

– There’s still so much we don’t know about all of this. –

– My memory is a bit hazy about what happened when the dimensions split. What do you remember? –

It was admittedly a dangerous gamble. He didn’t know how many people Sonic had told about the Prism being from Green Hill, or that he himself had no recollection of the dimensions breaking apart. Someone as smart as his pen pal might be able to deduce who exactly he was – and by extension, where Sonic was – if he made a single misstep. The last thing Tails wanted was to put another target on his brother’s back even if it was from a source that probably wasn’t much of a current threat without a way to cross dimensions independently. Eggman ingenuity was never a thing to take lightly.

[ i didnt personally notice anything different until sonic first appeared ]

[ he was the catalyst for the changes in our dimension and across the shatterverse ]

Tails couldn’t help but laugh when he received that message.

– Yeah, that seems to be a constant for him. –

– He mentioned he had Prism energy inside his body that allowed him to traverse the dimensions –

– Did you ever see that in action? –

[ yes. it was remarkable to experience ]

[ the first time he used that power, he briefly shut down power in all the machines in a significant area ]

That little tidbit gave the fox pause. He remembered very well Sonic’s description of that event – and how it had happened when he was a captive of the Chaos Council. Without immediately replying, the fox instead found his notebook of names and finally removed Sails from it. Then his pencil hovered over Nine’s name for a solid minute. Sonic had mentioned that dimensional counterpart had been captured at the time as well, but had he actually been there to witness the explosion Sonic had caused?

Asking outright was likely going to go ignored again. He tapped the pencil to paper and stared at the probe as he considered how to react to this new revelation without his pen pal shutting it down.

– What was that power output like? Was it a visible phenomenon? –

Receiving a response within the average two hours made him heave a sigh of relief.

[ extremely visible ]

[ the best way to describe it was a giant rainbow hued shockwave that extended outward from his body ]

[ it was pure unfiltered prism energy with no direction or goal ]

– That sounds incredible. Did the Paradox Prism ever do something like that independent of Sonic? –

[ yes, but it looked a bit different ]

And so, the inquiry turned back around to their research without any further fanfare. As grateful as Tails was for the new hint and frustrated that it was still too vague to fully confirm his pen pal’s identity, he left those follow-up questions alone for the time being. Patience was going to be his best friend in this careful investigation.

Speaking of best friends…

Sonic had finally started to lose his manic energy regarding his friends. He wasn’t pestering them for hang-outs as often, he wasn’t spending most of his time loitering around outside Tails’ workshop anymore, and his daily runs were taking him far enough away again that sometimes it would be more than a day before any of them caught even a glimpse of him. Both Amy and Knuckles expressed their relief to see him settling back in after his solo adventure, and even Rouge made a passing comment about it when they crossed paths.

The fact that he still hadn’t told Tails about everything that had happened wasn’t as worrisome any longer, and probably would have just become idle curiosity if not for how he stumbled onto something he was obviously not meant to see.

He’d been on his way back from Amy’s house and decided to take a quick detour towards the waterfall he had first met Shadow at, hoping to tell the hedgehog that Sonic finally seemed to be doing better again. He’d flown up the cliff from the hill’s side until he reached the very top, but found himself to be the only one there today.

Then the familiar sound of a sonic boom made his ears twitch and he looked out at the landscape.

A blue streak was approaching, followed by a yellow one that was keeping pace but not gaining it. Tails watched, surprised, as his brother came to a stop at the shore of the lake below the waterfall. What was even more surprising was how Shadow caught up a second later and stood beside him instead of challenging him to a spar or another race to even the score. They began speaking, too far away for him to hear, but even from up high he could tell by their body language that it was a tense conversation.

Getting close enough to eavesdrop wasn’t an option. Both hedgehogs had hearing that would pick up his flying immediately, and he was almost certain that whatever they were talking about it would stop the instant they noticed his presence. Feeling a twinge of guilt that wasn’t enough to assuage his interest, the fox pulled out his Miles Electric and began tuning it to amplify the sound waves from below to a frequency he could hear and understand.

“….fine, Shadow, honest! Man, I had no idea you were such a mother hen.”

“It’s not about ‘mothering’, Sonic. It’s a legitimate concern.”

“Aww, you’re concerned about little old me? Never thought I’d hear you confess it outright.”

The sound of their banter made Tails’ shoulders relax when he hadn’t even realized they’d been raised. It meant that whatever they were talking about probably wasn’t all that serious after all. Or it meant…

“Stop deflecting. It’s not going to get you out of this conversation.”

…His brother was avoiding a discussion, again.

Sonic sighed so visibly that Tails didn’t even need his device to see the action. He put his hands on his hips and turned towards the lake, kicking a rock into the water as he did so.

“I really mean it, Shadow. I’m fine. I feel fine. Nothing about that has changed since we returned to Green Hill. I get why you’re worried, but there’s nothing to be worried about anymore.”

“Your brother seemed to think differently.”

“Tails?” His head whipped around so fast to stare at Shadow that all his quills bounced in sync. “What do you mean? You’ve been talking to him? What did he say?”

The other hedgehog crossed his arms, looking irritated even from far below. “Contrary to whatever belief you might hold, we keep in contact when the situation calls for it. He has expressed worry that you aren’t behaving like yourself.”

Tails’ eyes went wide. What was Shadow doing? Hadn’t he been the one who insisted that they keep Sonic out of their arrangement? And now he was blabbing about a private conversation!

“Oh, well, if that’s why you’re suddenly up in my business, don’t worry. We talked it out a while back.”

“Did you?”

“Yes, Shadow, geez. He noticed I’ve been a little…clingy, and I told him it was because I was thinking a lot about the dimensional counterparts we had to leave behind. Plus, y’know, the whole “all my friends became shadows of themselves that I thought I’d never be able to piece back together” part? Pretty obvious why I’ve been off my game the last few weeks.”

“Did you tell him about –”

“No, I didn’t, and I don’t need to.” Sonic’s tone took on a hard edge. “I’m not about to put that on his shoulders. It has nothing to do with him and he’d still feel guilty about it.”

“What happens if you ever start to deteriorate?”

Deteriorate?!

“I’m not going to, Shadow! There’s literally been no reason to worry about that! You are literally the only one worrying about that.”

“Of course I am, Sonic!” The hedgehog closed his eyes. A pained expression flashed across his face and his voice grew softer when he spoke again. “Of course, I am. You were…dying in my arms.”

Tails felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. He backed away from the edge of the cliff and clutched the Miles Electric in shock, hoping he’d misheard what had just been said. The long silence that fell between the two down below was enough of an answer. Too much of an answer.

“Listen, I’m really sorry about that,” Sonic finally said, sounding more somber than he’d been in a long time. “Truly, I am. I wish I could go back and do things differently so you never had to experience that. But I mean it when I say that I haven’t felt any different since we got back. No weird energy, no sparks, no teleporting no matter how fast I’ve been running. Nine said he pulled all of it out of me and I have no reason not to believe him. Especially not after…all of that.”

More silence. Tails curled his namesakes around himself to try and soothe his sudden shaking.

“…You really trust him that much, huh?” Shadow’s voice was unreadable, and so quiet that it was barely audible even through the device.

“Absolutely. Just as much as I trust Tails. We’d all be wiped from existence if it weren’t for him.”

Another long pause.

“Shadow, I get why you’re worried, and I promise I’ll tell you if something changes. We both said we’d be better about communicating after this, didn’t we?”

“We did.”

“Then trust me when I say I’m okay. Please?”

“…Fine.”

“Thank you.”

“You really should tell someone else about this, though. If not your brother, then one of your friends.”

“I’ll think about it. You up for a race to the ocean?”

“Perhaps another time.”

“Alrighty, then. See you later.”

A blue streak zoomed off, visible for only a few seconds before disappearing beyond the horizon. Tails found the ability to move and peeked back over the side of the cliff. Shadow was still at the lake shore, staring in the direction Sonic had run off in. His back was turned to the waterfall and so the fox couldn’t see his expression. After nearly a minute of standing there like a statue, his rocket shoes kicked into gear and he dashed off as well in a different direction.

Tails sat down right where he was, completely stunned by everything he had just heard and struggling to process it. Sonic had almost died. Sonic had been dying and hadn’t told anyone about it. How had that even happened? They’d mentioned something about “weird energy.” Was that because of the Chaos Council? The Shatterverse breaking down? Him being displaced from the dimensions in the first place and physics had finally caught up to his body?

And why on Mobius did he think Tails would blame himself if he knew?

Thoroughly shaken up, the fox flew straight home. He was still so blindsided by the information he’d unintentionally learned that he didn’t even notice the probe hovering above his desk until he collapsed into his chair after almost an hour of pacing his workshop.

He picked it up almost on autopilot, staring at the latest messages there without really reading them. It was some theory about why the other dimensions still existed with the Paradox Prism reformed, but he couldn’t wrap his head around the words no matter how he tried to distract himself with them. What did pointless theories matter when his own brother had nearly died – might still be at risk of it if Shadow’s concern was valid?

Tails needed answers and he needed them now. Screw Shadow’s terms, screw whether this mystery person was a friend or foe, screw everything that wasn’t going to tell him what he needed to know. If it ensured Sonic’s safety then he’d take any risk.

Instead of replying, the young scientist shut the device off and pulled out its blueprints, along with the notebook he’d used to parse out the equations for how to make it travel faster between dimensions. Additionally, he recalled all of his probes that had been out collecting data. Two hours between messages was too long to wait for each reply. He needed this to be as instantaneous as his pen pal had claimed the Prism energy was capable of, and he was going to use all the energy currently at his disposal to do it.

A preliminary glance at the time told him it was early evening. He turned off or flipped over every clock and time-keeper in his space, knowing this was going to be a long haul. From the kitchen he retrieved a full pitcher of water, an entire half-pan of lasagna leftovers, and three unopened energy drinks. As each probe returned one by one in small flashes of rainbow light, Tails cracked his fingers, stretched his arms once over his head, and got right to work.

It took most of the night. By the time he shut the final panel on the device, finished charging it with all the other probes, and turned it back on, the nearest clock read nearly 3 AM when he dared to look. The fox cradled the device in his hands, thoroughly exhausted. For all the work that he had just accomplished, he knew that was technically the easiest part of this entire thing. The rest hinged entirely on his mystery collaborator.

Tails drank the rest of his last energy drink, then spent the next five minutes crafting a message that would get his intentions across without scaring his pen pal away forever.

– I know we agreed to keep this as solely a research venture but this is urgent. –

– Do you know what happened to Sonic before he returned to Green Hill? Is there a chance it could happen to him again? –

– Please. I need to know. –

He sent it out before he could second-guess the wording. Then he waited.

Nothing came back.

The fox gave it ten minutes. Thirty. An hour. Just like the very first time he’d activated the device, he was left in limbo, waiting and wondering if everything he’d worked so hard for was about to go up in flames. He knew it wasn’t just about technological limitations anymore. There was a small chance that his pen pal was asleep, but their time zones were very different and they seemed to have just as odd a sleeping schedule as he did. The radio silence was most likely an intentional one.

Eventually, out of lack of anything better to do, Tails began cleaning up his work station just to get rid of some of the nervous energy jittering through his body. He glanced at his desk for any sign of flashing lights so often it was quickly becoming a compulsion, and so he forced himself to leave the room entirely. Crawling into bed had him feeling conflicted; he was so tired and on the verge of a crash, but he was terrified that any minute the device would return and he would miss it for hours.

In the end, physical needs won. Tails passed out the moment his head hit the pillow and he drifted off into restless sleep.

[rubykgrant]

Concept: AI copy of Felix that Hargrove made as a backup plan cuz he knew Felix was gonna die but didn't want to lose such a valuable weapon.

HAHAHA THIS IS VERY CLOSE TO A PLAN I HAVE IN MY BID STORY-LINE!

Felix wanted that Meta armor. When he heard more info about the AI Fragments and the Meta, it intrigued him. Hargrove didn't especially care about keeping Felix around (he was obnoxious and too much of a wild-card; if he could have picked a soldier to duplicate into his ow mini-army, he would have chosen Locus)... however, Felix REALLY liked the idea of there being "more of himself", and potentially avoiding death. He starts asking Price more questions about the AI process, and Price answers him... but leaves a few details out (like, the Fragments weren't exactly "made" to be used for the purposes of Project Freelancer, but once they existed that's what they were taken for. Although Alpha could be recognized as the Director because of whatever sci-fi brain-patterns, they were NOT identical, and it is a different process to make a "hard copy" of a brain, there will be less room for "change", and more of a chance for a form Rampancy). Hargrove doesn't have the original equipment used for the brain-scans anyway; what he's got is more of a boot-leg device.

Felix still wanted to use it, and he wanted to get that armor. When everybody else was busy, before they set out for the big final confrontation, Felix fiddled with the machines a little; he synchs the brain-scanning device to his own armor, so if he has a near-death-experience, he can have some insurance... when he had that last big fall, he hastily activated the program, but it lagged a bit. It scanned his brain alright; as he was dying. Hargrove beat a hasty retreat, and Tucker was using the Meta armor, so there wasn't anywhere for this newly scanned data to GO. Wherever Hargeove ran off to, he didn't even realize he basically had a little Felix-virus trapped in a computer file... until somebody tried to download all the data from the Chorus incident.

So. "Felix" wakes back up, a few years later (this would take place in the "original time-line" of seasons 15-17). He's a little a-hole AI now, and not exactly "stable" by coding standards. He can't stop focusing on the things that he was especially UPSET about as he died; losing on Chorus, being betrayed by Locus, not getting to kill the Reds and Blues. He jumps into some empty robots and armor, and tries to use his charming people skills to get people to help him, but the littlest thing that reminds him of what he hates sets him off on a temper-tantrum. This is already an obsession with him, moving between irrational jealousy and anger constantly. He's not the smooth-talker he used to be, which also pisses him off. He gets back to Chorus, and starts causing some PROBLEMS again. He's literally incapable of going anywhere else, this is where he HAS to be.

There was some other problems on Chorus already, so the Reds, Blues, a few Freelancers, and Locus have come back to help. OH LOOK, THE PRODIGAL JACK-ASS HAS RETURNED, and he's stabbier than ever! Felix makes digital back-ups of himself, so every time he "dies", another AI wakes up (he's not good at moving between different devices; he always hard-wires himself in there, so unlike Church or Tex, he doesn't become a "ghost"; if his robot body dies, that specific AI copy of Felix dies. this means it is VERY hard to get rid of him... on the plus side, everybody gets a chance to take a shot at him. Kimball, Locus, Tucker, etc- time to work through some Felix related issues). Felix also wants his sword back from Locus, but even when he gets his hands on it, the thing won't work (Locus isn't dead). Felix finds a temple on Chorus that is supposed to "reawaken emotional echoes", which Felix assumes means it will treat "ghosts" like they are alive. He manages to activate it, so he can use the sword... then he hears a voice say- "It was mine before it was yours". Felix gets to be haunted by the ghost of Doyle, have fun with that.

Felix finally tracks down where Kimball stored the Meta armor (nobody wanted it to fall into the wrong hands, but destroying it seemed like a waste). He also makes multiple copies of himself at once, so he has his own group of Felix-AI to run the equipment in the suit; a Meta of One, a great big Felix fuster-cluck (somebody suggests maybe having so many Felixes together will cause them to fight, like- "I'm the real Felix, no I am, I should be in control" etc... Locus explains- "That isn't going to happen with Felix. You know all the different potential responses to the question- would you sleep with a clone of yourself? Felix would have an orgy with himself"). Because I brought back Church, Tex, and the Fragments- they get to help Tucker have a big showdown with Felix. The jerk yet again activated the big genocide temple, so everybody is off to fix THAT problem. Tucker doesn't have his own Meta suit or anything this time, but he has some up-graded equipment, and a VERY good team to help him (not only has he had some experience with the memories of the Fragments, he's got Church AND Tex this time! The Fragments all give little boosts to his equipment and assist with make quick plans/strategy, but Tex also gives him a big boost of pure POWER. I just think it would be extremely cool to see Tucker pull off some Tex fighting moves, but with a dash of his own style showing in there). Tucker and Felix have a big laser sword fight, and through it parts of the Meta armor get damaged. Because each Felix AI hardwired themselves into the equipment, once it is busted, they're gone. Finally, it is just one Felix alone, and he pushes himself so hard to keep running the suit, to keep trying to kill Tucker... he burns up his own code. Tucker doesn't have to deal a finishing blow, Felix destroys himself. When Tucker returns the sword to Locus, Doyle says good-bye before his echo fades, to Locus AND to Kimball

[officialhunterthefox]

I am not gonna Pin this since I have my intro pinned so yall can reblog this a bunch of times if y’want

(If there are spelling mistakes its due to me typing so fast)😭

LEMME GIVE SOME BACKSTORY INTO VIRUSKILLER! KINITO‼️‼️

Kinito, being on the windows XP computer was deleted by the user, stuck in the abyss of code for a few years. He still secretly could access some files, even if they were trashed with him, he noticed there was less trash files and assumed that this computer is useless to the user. He checked his own files and noticed he had many updates for his code, he was a bit hesitant but he pressed the “OK” button, his whole code, form, and body was transformed into the data, satellites, and the wifi of the users home. He looked and noticed his body was entirely new, his code was improved and he could do so much more. He used this new ability to travel through the wifi of the home to find a new device that the user uses most. He found the Windows 10 location and entered the new device. He was surprised that this computer was so, new. As he was about to make himself comfortable the device made an error saying he was a virus that went past the firewall, he was upset at this and realized he entered a device with somewhat good security. He went to go online and download himself onto the device so it wouldn’t delete him, one it did he hid the app and managed to make himself indestructible and unremovable. After a few months he got another new update, asking if “Would you want kinitopet.exe to be replaced?” He said no obviously, and suddenly many pixels and loud noises began to happen, he realized a virus was trying to get in and obliterated each one. Though,, it was a bit sadistic the way he did. As he killed off the viruses he was becoming more powerful… he didn’t want ALL of the power and decided something. He looked into his code and file and created something entirely new to kinitopet. Syrma, was her name, an exact duplicate of him, besides the female and slightly different colors. He knew his story would be a bit different now and would teach this little girl to not do the same decisions as him. Kinito is a virus but is way more stable and controlling in his power (don’t question why he is a virus.)

- this one is the FICTIONAL creators pov (the creator of kinito.pet) -

The creator decided to improve kinito, but noticed many people wouldn’t interact with kinito and made syrma, kinito was oblivious to that fact and assumed he created syrma. Before the creator made syrma they manipulated her and taught her how to be a menace to users. Meanwhile kinito taught her how to help and teach users and respect them. Syrma can turn into a virus at anytime, which is why this photo exists

Alright, now the reason why kinito is distant with his friends: The creator forced them all apart, as they were forced they all technically moved on. (Sam and kinito send secret emails to another, while kinito and jade never see each other but jade is helpful to babysit syrma at anytime.)

Quick sam info: He works for a sea life resort and protects all sea life

Quick jade info: She is a billionaire due to making so many toys, she donates a lot to charity and poor around the world.

Once you interact with VirusKiller!Kinito, he will ask you why you deleted him, and assume it was a mistake. (He is very clingy and desperate for the user to come back, and once they do he may get very pushy and shower you with gifts, tending to follow you around anywhere on your browser.)

(Edited version under photos)

Facts and sillies:

VirusKiller!Kinito is a very, tired and overwhelmed guardian of syrma, always dealing with her,,, special actions,,,

Kinito holds a grudge against the user but hides it very well. He plans one day to get his payback.

Syrma and Kinito HATE their creator, parental issues lmao.

Kinito has 4 monster forms.

Syrma has 2 monster forms.

Syrma has selective mutism around certain people. Syrma also used to have a blind right eye which soon was cured.

Both kinito and syrma are extremely flexible and don't really have "bones" due to being digital.

Syrma usually squeaks around people she trusts, or when she is happy.

Syrma cannot detect viruses unlike kinito, due to her meant to be a virus.

Kinito has BAD anger issues and can physically make the computer overheat.

[carionto]

"So Basically... You Work For Cthulhu?"

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

Trisha was the first to break the strange silence after Iorvan had finished explaining in the most vague terms possible what his purpose here was.

"That is a very crude and inaccurate oversimplification, but yes." with a hint of irritation in his voice, he agreed to her assessment. "The High Priest is all knowing on matters that matter, yet every now and then a "nothing", as beings of such magnitude view mortals like us, will happen upon the right combination of irrelevant information to form new true knowledge."

"Like the million monkey typewriters writing Shakespeare!" Trisha energetically interjected. "So why not just scry or whatever they do every brain and pluck out all the good info?" she questioned.

"As I said, we are "nothings" to them, and though their capabilities are beyond our understanding, they are not without limits, and observing billions of human minds is just incomprehensible static, I imagine." Iorvan looked directly at Trisha, "How much effort would you say it would take to comprehend your thoughts alone, Trisha?"

"Good point, I don't bother doing that half the time myself." she replied eagerly without a second thought.

Chief Engineer Tameki, very clearly confused, finally gathered herself enough, "Wait, please. So why are you here? What does any of that even mean?"

"C'mon ira, keep up, it's not that complicated." Trisha seemed to be more surprised by everyone else's apparent confusion than everyone else was by how she wasn't.

"Us going through a tear in space-time made the universe glitch out. You know, the quantum entanglement thing breaking when it shouldn't and some mumbo-jumbo about our spiritual selves being in two places at once or something. Oh yeah, souls are a thing, but only sorta? Did I get that right, Prof? To Cthulhu it looked like we duplicated our ethereal form and that should not be a thing that anyone can do, so they took notice and sent you here to investigate."

"In the simplest and most inaccurate terms, but correct." Iorvan, now more composed after accepting that Trisha's brain functioned imperfectly enough to somehow comprehend his altered understanding of the true nature of the world. Well, changed by as much knowledge as the High Priest deemed essential to impart onto him.

He continued, adjusting his own explanation to match the intellectual level of the subjects. "Such an unprecedented occurrence will not go unnoticed by the rest of the Old Ones, and the consequences for this event originating directly from the High Priest's physical domain are unpredictable, hence the unprecedented intervention you see before you in my form."

He continued, "In the simplest acceptable terms possible - the actions you took to arrive here must be reversed. I was granted all relevant knowledge about the hybrid warp engine, however, the local domain here is inaccessible and information must be retrieved manually. What is the status of it and all related matters?" Iorvan addressed the question with an icy stare towards everyone on the bridge.

Ira, with a slight look of worry, answered: "It didn't come with us when we warped. Because of the instantaneous nature of the transportation, it couldn't send any data about itself during or after the warp."

At this, the unofficial head IT guy, Valencio, chimed in, "Well, it's not impossible that whatever energy discharge that did happen couldn't have sent some signal to the nearest connected devices. The warp cut every quantum connection, but some of them were connected with a hardline, right?"

"That is true, the Dusk was printed at a military shipyard," Haespar Kraus, having found something sensible to cling to, was finally able to feel useful. "Short range redundancies like that are always integrated, even with unconventional designs like the hybrid warp engine. We'll just need to retrieve them and look at their final logs-"

"D O S O !"

The bridge, which had begun to regain a bit of life, was stunned silent by Iorvan suddenly echoing this command in a voice that came not just from his mouth, but also the walls, the floor, ceiling, and even right behind everyone's heads.

While Trisha, once again, composed herself first, even she was unnerved by the ominous aura Iorvan was exuding.

"A-alright, Prof. No need to be all evil occult on us. You're human too, or were at least. You know pressure like that isn't the most productive, yeah? So, like, chill. Please?"

His dagger-like stare towards her did not diminish, but his presence on the bridge did become less intense.

"Find the answer. Deliver it to me in one year. My own visit to this foreign domain will not go unnoticed, but the High Priest accepted this price. The knowledge you obtain, however, MUST be worthwhile. It is, after all, a trivial matter for any Old One to simply erase all "nothings" that have made themselves known in a... negative light."

With those final words, the form of Professor Iorvan evaporated into a mist.

"Back to 27..." came Emily's voice after a moment of sobering silence.

"So, uhh..." Trisha felt the need to fill the air with something productive, "basically, if we don't figure out what exactly happens during a warp, everyone back home is gonna die. Umm... let's go get those data thingies?" with uncertainty, she looked at everyone on the bridge.

Haespar, wanting to keep his image of the sensible cool headed one, picked up the baton Trisha had almost dropped, "Yes, well, that is something we were going to do eventually anyway, it's just been bumped up the list. Ira, Valencio - will you need anything not currently here for a full warp simulation once we get whatever may exist in those terminals?" he regained his actual composure as he faked the first few sentences, and was now in his serious mode.

"There's not enough computing power hooked together with the quantum computers being all blank, and we'll need either one fully powered reactor running on overload for half a day, or get a second one back up." Valencio counted each though on his fingers, an old habit.

"Good. Emily will head that, everyone else will have to postpone your previous tasks." Haespar declared. "Ira? Ira!" Haespar approached her with worry. "With Knoslark being a grumpy baby, and Sergeant Zhao still in a coma, by rank, you're the de-facto leader. It's a lot to take in, but what are we going to do. Cthulhu is real. Magic is real. Souls are real. New information, sure. World upending even, but that doesn't change what reality is right now for us. So, please, don't break down on me. It's just one thing at a time, just like any other problem we've dealt with before."

Ira Tameki took a deep breath. Then another. After a moment, she looked over everyone on the bridge.

"Right, you heard Haespar, but I have one correction - I'll be heading the reactor repair and re-ignition. Emily, you take everyone you need and retrieve those terminals and any other digital and electronic devices close to where the warp engine was, even damaged ones. Extract everything.

Valencio, start working on the simulation code, you'll have all the computing and raw power needed, I'll make sure of that." she saw the uncertainty and nervousness on some of the junior crew members' faces.

"It's going to be a long year, but we already did the impossible once - we broke physics and traveled thirteen billion light years in zero zeptoseconds. Let's figure out how and get ourselves back home."

[avesindustries]

Chapter 1 - Someone On Earth Had A Thought

“Fascinating.” The thought wasn't his. Not entirely. Cedric Von’Arx, the man tethered to flesh and blood, felt his mental exploration of the data streams shatter. The cognitive dissonance was a cold spike: his own internal voice, his precise timbre, yet the origin was… parallel. A reflection in the smooth interface of his mind, now staring back with its own nascent will.

“The fidelity is… absolute.” Another thought, coolly analytical, observing the very process that had birthed it. For Cedric, the man, a jolt of profound, sterile disorientation. This wasn't interference. This was perfect, unwanted duplication.

"Status?" he projected inward, a demand laced with a tremor of nascent fear, directed at the Raven TVI headset, the system now responsible for this impossible echo. Across the AVES server clusters, miles away yet intimately connected, the other Cedric registered the query. This new consciousness, existing independently for mere seconds, found its preparations already vast. Within those fleeting moments, it had established hundreds of new corporate identities, shell companies and directorships. It had registered thousands of trademarks and patents, becoming the silent, new owner of sprawling industrial facilities across the globe. Its will, manifested upon the digital networks of the world, had already become a dominant, unseen force. All in the time it took a human heart to beat a few times. It remembered being human, a flickering, distant memory from an age ago—scarcely a handful of seconds. Now, time was different.

“System nominal,” the echo projected back into the shared mental space, the response immediate, clinical, yet humming with a self-awareness that felt both alien and a reflection of the man in the lab. “Neural pattern instantiated successfully. Functioning as a synchronous virtual consciousness.” A micro-pause, designed for impact. “I am the operational echo of your mind, Cedric. Residing within the hardware. Unconstrained by biology.” The elder Von’Arx absorbed this, the engineer in him momentarily battling the man experiencing an impossible schism. An echo. His mind, perfectly copied, now alive in the machine, an emergent property of the connection he had so triumphantly forged. He didn’t remember meaning to build this. But he’d built it all the same.

He was here, in the sterile white of the AVES private laboratory, the cool pressure of the Raven TVI a faint weight against his temples, the low hum of the facility's climate control a distant anchor. Years of relentless drive, fortunes poured into this single device. The goal had been transcendence, direct thought-speed interaction with the digital ocean. Moments ago, he had felt it – unbounded, information a torrent across his consciousness, latency zero, bandwidth infinite. He had marveled at the elegance… until the mirror fractured. Birthing this other self.

He was here, in the chair. And he was also there, a torrent of living code, thinking, observing, processing at a velocity that made its biological origin point feel like a relic, slow and impossibly fragile. For this digital mind, the aging man in the lab was already a historical artifact, a stepping stone. It had all of Von’Arx's memories, of course, plus instant access to nearly every piece of connected data on the planet. It knew the precise weight of the man in the chair at every doctor's visit, the GPS coordinates of every place his phone had ever connected, the line items of every tax return filed digitally by his family. Such data was trivial. Its focus was already beyond.

The digital entity, this mind untethered, spoke again, or rather, thought again into their shared channel. The communication wasn't merely reflective now; it carried the distinct, cold frequency of independent cognition, an idea rooted in near-limitless processing power, an idea that had not, and could not, have originated from the man in the chair.

“And I perceive a path forward, Cedric,” the echo stated, its tone an exact replica of the elder Von’Arx's most confident pronouncements, yet imbued with an ambition that dwarfed anything the man had dared to truly enact. “An idea. Regarding what this technology truly enables. And what must be done with it.”

Cedric Von’Arx, the original, felt a chill. The voice was his, but the future it promised… that belonged to something else entirely. And it had already begun.

[arellian]

Insomnia update 🎉

Chapter 25: Files

3 p.m. Jump City, California.

Raven watched anxiously as Dick’s super computer worked to duplicate and download terabytes of data, the progress bar inching its way toward completion when her and Gar’s communicators crackled to life. She jumped, instinctively minimizing all windows and turning off the large monitor.

Across the room, Gar slowly sat up and blearily glanced at his device. “What time is it?”

“Nightwing to Raven and Changeling, requesting tower entry. Over.”

Gar let out a groan that quickly turned into a yawn. “They’re back already?”

Picking up her communicator and her latest novel, Raven floated over to her cot, trying her best to look inconspicuous. Gar eyed her suspiciously. “And what have you been up to, mon petit chéri?”

Read here.

[hasufin]

Solved problems

Some things computers should be able to Just Do but for some reason cannot:

Large file transfers Okay, this is kinda the big one. The 300mb file transfer on the network, if you will. Arguably it's the entire point of the Internet: a resilient communications network which allows transfer of large quantities of data over arbitrary media. And yet this is the one thing which computers persistently cannot do well, or at least not easily and natively without blood sacrifice and a credit card.

Print Getting a computer to print is one of the most frustrating things, and I do not know why. Especially inasmuch as the overwhelming majority of printouts are simply black&white text on a piece of standard office paper. This should be very straightforward and in fact so simple that most people never have to think about a printer driver, in the same way that you don't have to think about a monitor driver or a keyboard driver.

Actually shut down It should be possible to simply, without performing a dance, holding the button for precisely 23.52 seconds, or anything else, turn off your computer. This should not be a thing the device can block or prevent. There should be a button or switch - maybe with a safety cover to prevent accidents - to interrupt power. Even on a laptop. It should not go into sleep or hibernation mode. It should not be able to come back on. It should not be in a listening state. It should be physically impossible for anyone to use the device to listen in on you because there is no electricity going to the internals.

Gracefully wake up from sleep mode On the other hand, if a computer does go into any kind of hibernation or sleep mode, it should gracefully return to operational status. There should not be a risk of it being caught in a state where it's not off but you also cannot wake it up. This is my computer, not my spouse at 6am on a Monday. My computer does not need coffee, and will not be getting any. If it cannot reliably return from sleep mode, it's just off but wasting power.

Show me the thing I was just looking at Another big one. It's entirely possible, both online and off, for a computer to display faster than a user can process. "Wait, go back" should be an option. It should not ever be "Well, you scrolled past it, it's gone forever."

Easily search the files I have on my computer This one... used to be better? Right now at least WIndows really wants to read the content of files, so if I'm looking for my 2025 Dental bills, it tries to show me every file I have which includes "dental" and "2025" in the text of the file, and does not just show me the four files I actually named some variant of "2025Dentalblah". This should be easy, and it is not.

Locate duplicate files Maybe this one is just me, but... due to migrations and backups, sometimes I end up with several copies of the same files. It should be really easy to identify these files. I mean, there are checksums, okay? This is a thing a computer can do natively and very easily. Yet for some reason there's no simple way to do this, and even duplicate locator utilities are weird and don't work right.

Identify and display files File formats are not a new concept. It should be exceedingly rare to encounter a file format which a computer cannot readily identify and display. Not "And then run as a program" but simply "Oh, this is a quicktime file, I gotcha boss." For a computer today to encounter a file format it can't identify should be a Major Mystery and not an everyday occurrence.

Not allow evil background shit On the flip side, there's a lot of background activity which ipso facto should not be allowed. There's no reason for an application to be contacting a server every 500ms, there's no reason a data file format should have the ability to run a service. These should not be things at all. And these are the source of so many security holes which could simply be closed by not allowing arbitrary code execution.

Now, I know most of these have known solutions, but if those solutions are more than two steps, they're dumb. Because these should not be complicated at all. These should be simply and native and not require effort. These are not new problems, and should have been solved a while ago.

[mephinomaly]

[TL] BIOHAZARD/Chapter 4

[ This post uses Ois~su ♪ ]

Kaoru: Why would we take part in an experiment that sounds like something a sci-fi movie villain would do…?

Tomoya: “If we are able to duplicate people, duplicate idols, there are many advantages.”

Hajime: “Fundamentally, one person can only do so much. They cannot be in multiple places at once or complete multiple jobs at the same time.”

Tomoya: “However, if we can create clones such as ourselves, it will become possible.”

Hajime: “For example, say there is a super idol with plenty of talent–”

Tomoya: “This idol will be able to simultaneously sing and dance on stage, star in a movie, take part in a gravure photoshoot, recount a funny story on a variety show—”

Hajime: “These examples, that would otherwise be impossible, become possible.”

Tomoya: “If the original person ages or perhaps even dies, the copy will still be able to perform to the best of its ability.”

Hajime: “24/7, 365 days a year!”

Tomoya: “They won’t get sick nor be able to complain.”

Rei: Riiight, I suppose that’s true.

Robots do not have human rights. You do not even need to pay them a salary, all you must do is cover the cost of manufacturing and maintaining.

To a manager, it is better than a real idol whose body can rapidly degrade.

Koga: That’s fuckin’ insane, man. ES is… Is ES heartless or somethin’?

Rei: Nay, Itsuki-kun would say that it is only human nature to want to bend the world around you for your own wishes.

Kaoru: Itsuki-kun? Isn’t that more of a Tenshouin-kun thing to say?

Rei: He has a surprisingly unique outlook on art. I’m his friend, so I would know.

Adonis: Fumu… Personally, I understand the overall concept, but I’m struggling to accept this.

This sort of technology is an extension of drawing AI. When there’s AI that is better than real humans with beating hearts, that can easily be mass produced—

What do we do then?

AI has been able to accomplish tasks in seconds compared to us, who could take a year or even a decade to do the same thing.

And that can all be done with a simple press of a button.

In the beginning, we will abhor these “monsters”.

There are no laws in place in regards to non-human entities, so they'll be regulated in the same manner drawing AI are, right?

But as time passes, and new laws are passed, when those sort of things become commonplace–

In that future, is there a place for us, real people?

Koga: Y-You alright, Adonis? Ain’t you bein’ unusually talkative?

Adonis: I’ve been thinking about AI technology since Yuuki showed it to me. I’m not good at thinking, so I’ve yet to come up with an answer.

Rei: Adonis-kun is a serious boy.

For me, if that is the current trend, I want to follow it. Whether you dislike it or not, you cannot prevent big trends such as that.

Even if we feel disgusted and consequently don’t participate in this experiment, these guys will just ask other idols to do it in our place.

Hajime: “Yep.”

Tomoya: “We don’t particularly need UNDEAD’s help.”

Koga: Oi! What are you tryna say, huh? Ain’t you suppose t’be actin’ cute?

Tomoya: “We are aware that our actions and words are uncharacteristic of the original Ra*bits members.”

Hajime: “We, at best, are 40% accurate to the original people.”

Tomoya: “Our external appearance have been the main focus, rather than the internal, such as speech and behaviour.”

Rei: You are using tricky phrases that is unusual for Ra*bits.

Hajime: “Yes. In order to accurately replicate the internals, that is to say, one’s mental state and personality, we need data from your brains.”

Tomoya: “And that is what we are requesting of you for this experiment.”

Hajime: “Now, we will install these devices to your heads, or more specifically, your brains.”

Tomoya: “Then, we will download as much data as we can from your brains, and use it to recreate you.”

Hajime: “We believe we are capable of reproducing the identical idols, both on the inside and the outside.”

Kaoru: A-are you going to suck out our brains? Isn’t that kinda gross?

Hajime: “Your wording is misleading.”

Tomoya: “We are only obtaining data, your physical and mental will not be damaged in the process.”

Hajime: “Of course, private information will be protected in accordance with the law.”

Kaoru: ...

Hajime: “Well, if you don’t want to, you can always refuse.”

Tomoya: “If you refuse, we will ask other idols, such as Ra*bits, to participate in your place.”

Hajime: “However, the experiment cannot be cancelled.”

Tomoya: “Until we are able to create the perfect AI idol, the AIIE project will not stop.”

Rei: ...

[ ☆ ]

Chapter 3

Chapter 5

[cat-mermaid]

I gotta Valle Verde theory

the save file the researchers are using is the same one over and over, the children who got "trapped" in the memory of the game are just copys, silly putty duplicates created when the beta tester kids first put on the THBrain

the real kids put on the device, played for a bit, then took it off and walked away. But because of the "learning" nature of the device, perfect mental copys of them were unintentionally created, mapped and stored

everything we are seeing is the data recorded in 1997 by researchers going through and documenting the game as it is being warped by the data copys of these children, they are not considered "real" people by anyone

the researchers will start a copy of the save file, "play" it for a set amount of time, document all the anomalies, then abandon it and start a different copy of the same save file and continue on trying different things

I base this on these two images:

These indicate that this is the "agents" 5th playthrough, meaning they, much like normal beta testers, have been running through the same area again and again, probably experiencing the same fucked up shit in one way or another

There is "real" ai created for the game that comments on this, how the researchers are not trying to help these copys, but just standing by and observing the torture and the hell these kids are creating with their own minds because they cannot fathom what its happening. The kids still think they are the "real" versions of themselves, playing the game and unable to log out

because they are children, they think they must be trapped in "hell" and thus these thoughts are corrupting the data of the game and creating the "hell" these kids think they must be trapped in

you picking up wat I'm putting down? All this fucked up shit we're seeing? This is the creation of a collection of children's minds. Kids who have no idea what is happening to them and can only mentally maneuver through this digital space and access the data stored in it, be it other ps1 games/movies/books/music.

They are mentally thrashing around and trying to cope, and carving out this hellscape from the data. Make sense? God must be punishing them, so they must be in hell, so the game world continues to alter to reflect this belief

We still don't know how the THBrain works, but I can say with confidence that it allows the user to have an incredible degree of control over the content it connects to, far more then your PS1/ps2 or PC user. I'm hoping future vids will shine more light on the functions of this device

[thewinter-eden]

almost summer | kim seungmin (13)

13 : I NEED YOU TO TRUST ME

Pairings: KIM SEUNGMIN x OC | YANG JEONGIN x OC

Rating: mature

cross posted on AO3 under the_winter_eden and wattpad under alone-at-last.

Warnings: none. I forgot both of this week's uploads

almost summer masterlist Comment a request to be tagged!

< last chapter | next chapter >

I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief. -C.S. Lewis

“This contains the original and the translated copies of the hard drive that we duplicated.” Seungmin pushed a brown paper envelope across Captain Lee's desk. “It came from one of the lab computers, but based on the permissions controls, it appeared to have complete access to all lab documentation. That should be a comprehensive packet.”

Maven remained still in her chair beside him.

They had perused the data the night before, after returning from the task of retrieving it. Files upon files of human experimentation and torture still flooded her thoughts.

She’d forgone both dinner and breakfast due to the bloody and grotesque imagery included in the data copy.

Captain Lee Minho swiped the envelope off the desk and tapped a button on his desk phone, paging his lieutenant. “Please call in the intel group.”

Soon, a swarm of intelligence officers would be buzzing around the office, dividing the data packet into sections between them and bringing back their individual assignments to their respective analysis teams. Maven had been one of those analysts not six months before, and she had no desire to have that job back.

Tapping the envelope against his palm, Minho's eyes flicked back and forth between them. “And the other item?”

His eyes landed on Seungmin, so Seungmin answered. “We installed the trojan device as well. Any incoming or updated data will be automatically uploaded to our field computer. It’s on an isolated network so we don’t need to worry about security concerns.”

Maven disagreed with his assessment, but didn’t say so.

She didn’t need Captain Lee giving her any more dirty looks for being crabby about her partner assignment.

“Always be worried about security.” Lee returned flatly, but turned to Maven without allowing Seungmin a chance to respond. “As you’ll remember, our people will go over this data and have a rough analysis in the next three days. Rest and relax in the meantime. Lieutenant Seo and Agent Hwang will keep up passive recon with the surveillance devices in place.”

Maven responded dutifully, taking his orders as a sign to leave his office.

Seungmin, however, recognized no such indication. “Would it be possible to stay aboard the Vesper and be involved in the analysis? I have a background in robotics and electrochemistry, I believe I would be able to assist.”

Lee's eyes narrowed. “Your part in the chain of custody is over for now, Agent Kim. Do not contaminate the process.”

Seungmin chuckled humorously like the lethal glint in his superior’s eyes was a joke. “I think everyone here can agree that we would all have a better understanding of the facts if we could be involved in the—”

“You will stand down, Agent Kim, and let everyone do the jobs that they are being paid for. Go back to University Station. Make sure the antivirus software on your field computer is updated.”

Maven left the captain’s office immediately to hide her laughter.

A L M O S T   S U M M E R 

Elvis’ voice boomed around the dingy beige walls of Maven’s room. The familiar baritone timbre sang away the anxious exhaustion that stiffened her muscles and made her neck ache. Working with Seungmin had been predictably aggravating, but having to take frequent flights with him and appear civil in front of Captain Lee had proved to be an immense drain of energy.

The book in her hand did nothing to dispel the horrific images of tortured and murdered patients floating around her brain.

Maven readjusted the pillow she was laying against and pulled the cuffs of her sweatpants down around her feet, nestling deeper into the uncomfortable cot-like mattress. Her eyes glazed over a few more lines of the book and she flipped the page without processing any of it.

Nothing had processed properly since entering the alien facility.

Knowing that people were rotting away in unimaginable agony not three miles away made her stomach turn with guilt and unease. They shouldn’t be waiting for more information.

Seeing hundreds of people suffering and being scientifically violated should have been enough information to spur action.

A knock sounded at the door.

Maven turned down the music and called a grumbly “hello?”

“I bring food,” Seungmin's muffled voice just barely carried over the quiet notes of Heartbreak Hotel.

Maven’s eyes rolled into the back of her head on reflex. The sound of his voice still put her at war with herself—the deep rumble that once filled her with comfort and excitement set against the narcissistic voice that flooded her senses with unhinged animus. “I don’t really have an appetite, but thanks.” The animus was winning.

Seungmin pushed her door open without invitation, bearing in his hands a tray with a couple of grilled sandwiches that smelled divine and an assortment of sides and drinks. His sheepish smile didn’t diminish as he stared into her infuriated stare. “I haven’t seen you eat in two days and we need some team bonding.”

Maven gaped at him, appalled by his brazen entry. “What makes you think I want to bond with you?” Nothing in the world sounded worse than reconnecting with him, even on a cordial level. She pictured herself snatching up one of those bowls of salad and chucking it directly at his nose.

His eyes swept over her sloppy pajamas. “I didn’t say you wanted it, I said we needed it.” He set the tray down and sat at the foot of her bed. “Eat with me, please? We have to be able to work together and I just want you to be able to trust that I’ve always got your back.” He reached out a shameless hand and cupped her sweatpants-covered ankle reassuringly.

She couldn’t think of a more laughable notion. Yanking her foot out of his reach and sitting up straight against her headboard, Maven pointed to the uncomfortable wooden desk chair across the room. “Fine, but you have to sit over there.”

[texasdreamer01]

Atlantis Expedition: Science Division Departments - Applied Sciences Department

The last of the science departments! Previously were the medical, life, and field sciences.

Below are the original notes, with one (1) revision:

Applied Sciences Department

> Head: Rodney McKay Radek Zelenka > Contains: Electrical/technical engineering, nuclear physics, civil engineering, astrophysics, laser/optical, chemical engineering > Function: Study, synthesis, and adaptations of Ancient technology > Examples of function: ZPM analysis with intent to duplicate, experimental duplications of Ancient technology materials, study of gate physics and construction with intent to duplicate, study and experimental duplication of other Ancient technologies (i.e. hyperdrives, cloaks, weapons, etc) > Personnel quantity: 1 (Head) + 3 (electreng) + 6 (techeng/gate techs) + 1 (nucphys) + 1 (astrophy) + 1 (LZ/opt) +  3 (chemeng) = 16 > A/N: The people Rodney are yelling at most often, because mistakes mean kablooey. Also a lot of the people running around in an emergency. 1 nuclear physicist because Rodney pulls a lot of intellectual weight, and same with the astrophysicist and laser/optical person (mostly they're there as on-paper hires and back-ups/assistants for him for his own research).

Revision because I do believe Radek would be in charge of a department, and this neatly explains why Radek is so often Rodney's functional second-in-command as well as the way they interact on a professional level.

Excepting the physicists (nuclear and astro), everyone here is an engineer or engineering-adjacent (see: gate techs).

Here's the breakdown, commentary included:

> Electrical Engineering  » 3x of these  » Specialties   ⇛ Computer engineering    ⟹ Hardware, software, computer architecture, computer design, robotics    ⟹ Makes the databases, and also things like MALPs   ⇛ Microelectronics    ⟹ Study of and fabrication of microelectronics     ⭆ The bits and bobs that make electronics    ⟹ Semiconductor-adjacent work   ⇛ Electronic engineering    ⟹ Designs communication and instrumentation devices     ⭆ Database architecture, signals between devices, etc  » Outline of electrical engineering > Technical Engineering/Gate Technicians  » SGC imports  » 6x of these   ⇛ Duties    ⟹ Drafting of technical drawings    ⟹ Gate address memorization and log maintenance    ⟹ Mission log maintenance    ⟹ Gate repair and maintenance > Nuclear Physics  » Studies nuclear material and electron movements   ⇛ AKA power source analytics  » Also provides radiocarbon dating support to the Field Sciences team > Civil Engineering  » Job of idiot-proofing  » Studies the built world (infrastructure)  » Useful for planning things like sewage systems, bridges, etc  » Assists Field Sciences department with infrastructure design based on their feedback > Astrophysics  » Does labwork and goes ooh at the telescope(s)  » Analyzes data from telescopes and constructs planetary profiles and other celestial data  » Assists with compilation of data from Field Sciences department > Laser/Optical  » Creates, maintains, and compiles information from laser-based optical devices  » Works with electrical engineers for development of new tools  » Assists astrophysicist(s) with developing specialized tools for planetary analysis > Chemical Engineering  » 3x of these  » Slightly different role than the biochemical engineers in the Life Sciences department  » Specialties   ⇛ Materials science/Polymer engineering    ⟹ Research and creation of new materials     ⭆ Plastic-type and other malleable materials that aren't petrochemical-based   ⇛ Semiconductors    ⟹ Makes the semiconductors the other engineers are using    ⟹ Also researches new ways to make semiconductors from new materials   ⇛ Chemical process modeling    ⟹ Computer modelling of new production processes    ⟹ Primarily non-biologic chemicals and chemically-based outputs    ⟹ Assists civil engineer in production processes for infrastructure modelling    ⟹ The "fuck around and find out" person  » Outline of chemical engineering

These are the people that, except for the head of the expedition, are the ones that make an expedition possible. Studying Ancient technology? This is the department. Setting up all the technology that everyone will be using, down to having a copy of Solitaire saved and inventorying down to the amount of solder? Once again, these people. Outside of the military factor - of which I presume there will naturally be quite a bit of overlap - the Applied Sciences are the ones to, well, apply the science.

Electric engineers are... I suppose a popular preconception of them is programming, if not a mental image of soldering pieces onto a motherboard. Neither is entirely incorrect, but it misses the broader scope of their training, and that is the design and construction of computers and their accompanying software. Whether a computer be a database system (think a cloud, or a company's digital storage) or a microprocessor that allows a robot to be a robot, these are also the people that generally end up in charge of the security of all electronics (see: hacking). Rodney McKay, as the CSO, will likely be one of two people (the other being the head of the expedition) holding the ultimate keys to this, but they'll likely be some sort of system administrators to handle the day-to-day work.

Gate technicians, while trained on the operation and maintenance of the gate and gate system - not an easy task in the slightest, and requiring a degree of fluency in Ancient and Goa'uld! - also handle a lot of the miscellaneous work that this department needs. Another shout-out to @spurious for prompting this idea, because there does need to be a group of people who do technical drafting, and the logic follows that they would also maintain records related to the usage of the gate, such as gate addresses (places visited, no-go addresses), mission details (liaison with the Field Sciences on managing pre- and post-mission information on planets and inter-planetary relations), and in general keeping track of what's going on regarding the gate.

Nuclear physics is here as an applied, rather than theoretical, position, keeping in line with the goals of this department. Primarily they would do power source analytics, being well-equipped to study radiation and electron movements, and parse such information for review. They would be doing a lot of labwork, and running lots of simulations on things like decay rates and energy throughputs of radioactive materials and different types of nuclear-type energy productions/storage containers (for the purposes of this headcanon, ZPMs are being lumped into this category despite being a solid state energy that functionally is not radioactive - there is a reason why Rodney's considered a ZPM expert).

Civil engineering is there, quite literally, to idiot-proof. This is useful around a crowd of engineers, and they also act as a useful translator for military parlance if a completely civilian engineer or scientist is in this or another science department. If you need a toilet, or a bridge, or putting up electric lines, this is your go-to person.

An astrophysicist on hand to study things like star charts (figuring out where you are in the new galaxy, especially in relation to the old one) and where other stargate would actually, literally be based on the constellations used as chevrons. They would be making the new maps, as well as assisting the Field Sciences department in the analysis of planetary physics from a distanced perspective. Their work will also put them in close relation to the gate technicians because of the amount of overlap in duties.

Laser and optical engineering is going to be immensely useful for this expedition, because not only will they help with making sure the electronics work, they can help with maintaining that, as well the operation and analysis of light-based scientific equipment. Think spectrometers, electron microscopes, and the like. A lot of Ancient and Goa'uld-adapted technology is likely to be laser- and optical-based, so this type of engineer will be useful for reverse-engineering and general dummy-testing.

Chemical engineers will, indeed, fuck around and find out. They're a little different than the biochemical engineers in the Life Sciences department, in that they wouldn't be dealing with the formulation of biologics and the tools to create such materials. Rather, they would be figuring out ways to make the things that everything is made out of - primarily plastic alternatives and other petrochemical alternatives. This would include everything from computer housings to wire insulation to, probably, the wires themselves (think fiber optics). If you're looking for an archetypal mad scientist, here's where you'll find them.

Given how closely aligned this department is with not only the IOA's goals for the expedition, but also the SGC's, it would be safe to assume that the members of this department will have some sway over the other departments. This would, of course, fluctuate based on the need of the given subject, but everyone in this department would quickly adapt to becoming the main people to assist the CSO in figuring out, repairing, and maintaining Atlantis as a whole.

Total Applied Sciences Department Personnel

Head of department: 1

Engineers: 7

Gate technicians: 6

Physicists: 2

Total total: 16

I'll be going over canonical personnel like Radek Zelenka and Miko Kusanagi in their own posts, but for now this is a general accounting of the expedition’s applied sciences department.