#my macrodata refinement

[youcanthandelthetruth]

Watching Severance again and it's kind of funny because the office setting is a nightmare etc. but I love my cubicle. I love it so much. I've only even seen it once back in October when I got the job because it's a cushy work from home deal, but I have some photos of my cubicle that I look at sometimes because I love it. My cubicle for me means I have dental insurance and retirement now and I never have to work a retail job again. Once every couple months we will have to go into the office and I already have a dragon figurine and a cactus picked out to Put In My Cubicle.

[vonlipvig]

not to miss the point, but i'd be so good as a macrodata refiner. i'd be able to tell the scary numbers from the happy numbers by a single glance and fill so many buckets of data. my caricature collection would be extensive. i'd get such a good grade in corporate slave, a thing that, as loyal employees, we should all strive for.

[victorluvsalice]

💬I'm curious about the New Severance fic (mainly because I don't think I've heard of that series) and the BITD Smiler BABS fic (Because...self indulgence)

*cracks knuckles* Okay, so, let's take these in order:

The Severance AU: Severance is a show on Apple TV from 2022 (though season 2 is coming out in 2025) about a bunch of workers for the Lumon Corporation who have undergone the titular procedure to "sever" their work and home selves (involves getting a computer chip inserted in your brain). Basically, an employee who gets severed has a home self (Outie) that doesn't remember anything about what they do at work, and a work self (Innie) that doesn't remember anything about their outside home life (like, they know basic stuff, but their personal lives are a complete blank). The Innies are in fact basically trapped on the basement floor they work on because the elevator that you use to access the floor also turns the chips on and off. So from their perspective, they get into the elevator at the end of the day -- and then immediately get out again and go back to work. The show follows the people in the "Macrodata Refinement" department (they sort numbers based on vibes, essentially) and their Innie and Outie selves as the Innies are shook up by new hire Helly R. and her desperate attempts to escape and the appearance of an outside self-help book on the Severed Floor, and the Outies (specifically Mark Scout) start to learn that Lumon is, uh, fucked up. Honestly, given how fucking weird the whole thing sounds (I haven't even gotten into the whole part where Lumon basically operates like a cult, or the Break Room -- which is not the room where you take a break...), I think the series might be your jam -- here's the Wikipedia page should you care to learn more.

ANYWAY -- I haven't actually SEEN the TV series, but I DID recently read "Welcome to the Panopticon," a BTTF/Severance fusion fic by @penny-anna that covers most of the relevant worldbuilding for the TV show while putting BTTF characters into their own version of the mess. I found the fic fascinating and inspiring, especially with all the Innie/Outie stuff, and my brain immediately decided two things:

One, I would love to do a Valicer AU with this fucked-up premise

Two, this kind of corporate malfeasance feels VERY Aperture Science.

Cue the mental creation of a currently-unnamed AU where Victor, Alice, and Smiler are severed workers working for the Macrodata Refinement department of Aperture Science! Victor's there because he was severely depressed after the death of his fiancee Victoria and their mutual friend Emily during a robbery and his parents talked him into it; Alice is there because she murdered Dr. Bumby, got caught (though she did at least expose him in the process), and was pushed into the program as a "rehabilitation effort" to make her a "productive citizen;" and Smiler -- well, Smiler was simply forced to have the procedure by their asshole father Dr. Kelman, who wanted them to do it as a PR move and to try and force them to bend to HIS wishes about their life. The idea would follow mainly the Innie versions of everyone as Smiler joins the team and makes it their job to try and keep them all from going insane down in that basement, with the trio gradually falling in love as they get to know each other (well, as much as they can when they're all amnesiac on the floor) and having adventures dealing with their weird-ass circumstances, their personality core supervisor Wheatley, and their unsevered boss Miss Glados (aka Caroline, one of the big movers and shakers of Aperture) --

And THEN managing to escape because of an incident involving the Overtime Contingency (which allows the Innies to wake up outside of the Severed Floor if the bosses really need them to for some reason), which allows them to wreck a party their Outies were attending with the real facts about Innie life -- and then the Outies get to see the Severed Floor, go "holy shit this is fucked up" and manage to escape when Chell shows up to cause chaos in the name of rescuing her old friend Wheatley... I mean, there's a LOT more detail in my head about what happens in this Hypothetical Fic Eating My Brain, but I want to actually get to the OTHER half of your question, so let's call it there for now. XD

BITD Smiler in BABS Verse: Okay, you've probably guessed that this relates back to when I asked you about VITD Smiler ending up in the "Beneath A Broken Sky" world and what you thought might happen with them and the cast. This version is a little different, as it involves a Smiler from a Blades In The Dark world that doesn't actually have a Victor or Alice in it, because I wanted to see how they'd react to the Victor and Alice who got sucked in without having any of their own. I haven't got like a FULL idea of how it would go yet, but I do have a few key items in place:

-->Smiler would end up in the BABS verse because, in this version of Duskwall, the moon is slowly but surely beginning to fall on the Shattered Isles and will eventually destroy everything, and Mar-Mal is trying to find a way to save their Advocates -- I'm thinking they manipulate a Special Tree to shoot Smiler to the BABS verse to "scout it out," so to speak

-->I picture the "local" Victor and Alice wanting to support their fellow dimensional refugee and checking in on them as they're getting settled -- and being perhaps a little concerned by how almost unnaturally cheerful Smiler is

-->I think it would be funny for Daniel to want to cast that spell that provides all the modern contemporary knowledge on Smiler, only for Victor and Alice to leap in and be like "don't, do you not remember all the vomiting when you did that to us" -- only for Mar-Mal, using their limited influence in the new universe through their connection to Smiler, to find the spell, go "oh, that looks useful," and cast it on Smiler anyway XD (though I'm picturing them managing to spare Smiler the vomiting -- not the fainting though, they still go down for the count)

-->I really have to wonder how Gef would react to Smiler -- I imagine it would be quite the thing XD

-->I imagine that Victor has some nasty nightmares after his experience with The Bleeding Eye (like, there's no actual contact by the creature again, Daniel's made sure of that, but Victor keeps having bad dreams about the "room" and the Thing in it -- can you blame him?), and Smiler eventually offers to help with their hypnosis skills -- Alice is immediately like "I want to observe to make sure this is on the up-and-up" and Smiler's like "Sure!" Cue Smiler helping Victor out, Alice being like "...wtf I didn't know that could be used for good," and the three getting closer as a result, with of course eventual romance

-->I want Smiler to go to OmegaMart, see the employees, and want to cheer them up -- mostly I want them to offer one a hug and the employee to be like ??? Smiler wants to improve happiness in this place damn it

-->Potential endgame is them finding a way to get Smiler back to their world, with Victor and Alice tagging along for a visit...only to discover the whole "moon falling on the world" thing and realize that Mar-Mal's plan is actually to evacuate the Advocates (and whoever else wants to come with) to the BABS world before everything, you know, gets smashed. Cue panicked race to get people through whatever gateway they got open before the end

Basically, it's just me going "I want that version of Smiler to cause Even More Shenanigans in that world" right now. XD

[redleavesinthewind]

hi pigeon so im watching severance and thinking abt your red colour post again and I'm specifically watching the version someone cut together of just the outie scenes and then just the innie scenes. and I realised that there's colouring of different scenes even outside of the work place that fit ur theory for example marks house, being a lumon funded estate, is very modernist and in the interior is quite cold with mostly whites blues and blacks. but Devon and rickens house is super warm with dark browns and oranges and stuff, showing how theyre like. Opposite Worlds and the life of ricken and devon is so different and alien to life at lumon but also marks own haunted grief-filled life. but also in the very first episode Mark goes to the "dinner with no food" wearing a red sweater when everyone else is in very muted blues or greys which I think is interesting considering he's the most out of place in that group. so the colour theory extends to the outie life as well. AND one last thing, Irvings paintings of the elevator is to the reprogramming floor I think? I can't remember what it's called but it's interesting that that's the only thing he can remember from his innie worklife and also the painting has a distinctive little red light above the elevator door. and that's the place that Ms casey is sent when she's made a huge mistake and is being "dismissed" or something, and presumably Irving has also been sent there so it's something that happens to you when you're EXTREMELY deviant and the break room isn't enough to punish you.... and it's got a little red light as an arrow pointing downwards and idk I may be overthinking it of course but it's all so interesting to me I love this show. Sorry for the uber long ask lol

aaahh don’t apologise for the long ask, but yes all of this!!! i didn’t catch mark’s red sweater, but sooo true he is out of place. but also speaking of colours i don’t think i ever told you, and i didn’t make a post about it, but i actually gave every colour that’s prominent in the show a meaning! so we have red which is of course out of place, blue which is lumon/work (their keycards, mrs. corbel wears blue, also, as you said, mark’s house is blue and it’s provided to him by lumon), green is unity/family (i associate devon with green, the macrodata refinement floor is green, burt and irv in the plant room), white is secerance (the hallways on the severed floor), and then there’s orange and brown, which are the most interesting ones, cause i think they stand for both rebellion and subjugation, which are two opposites that go hand in hand. like, you have ms. casey’s room, which is very brown and green, and i think that’s because lumon tries to force everyone to feel at ease there, but it is mainly used as a subjugation technique. same with the paintings on the severed floor, they’re meant to manipulate/keep everyone subjugated, and they’re very brown, however the one depicting the coup also has orange elements which is where rebellion comes in. also, of course, ricken’s book is orange, and his and devon’s house is more warmly brown than ms. casey’s room. (all of this is just what i remember from my first time watching it, it could be off because it’s been a while)

now, it’s funny that you mentioned the reprogramming room, cause what i assigned with black is the unknown. irv doesn’t know why he has black paint under his fingernails and doesn’t know why there’s black ooze in his dreams, and no one knows what’s in the reprogramming room, but i had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine (hiii tim @dykebonny we’re talking severance) who’s a big cosmic horror fan, who raised the theory that there’s something otherworldly behind that door. now, i know that’s going into theory territory and i don’t even know if i like it (it’s fun to play around with though) and that gives a whole new potential for the red light cause what is there that’s more out of place in the world than something that isn’t from this world. but like i said this is wild speculation but it’s fun to think about

anyway yeah i might actually make a proper post about all of this when i’m rewatching severance before s2 comes out, but yeah. the use of colour in this show is just fascinating

[batemanofficial]

!! have you seen they showed the first bts picture of severance 2 WE ARE SOOO BACK

YES I HAVE!!! WE ARE SO BACK!!! mark s my best friend mark s from macrodata refinement

[tomgregs]

honestly could do macrodata refining all day....its not even fun im just in my candy crush era

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Sat 24 Feb // Day 152 & Sun 25 Feb // Day 153 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

Six Nations 2024 Round 3

Ireland (1) vs Wales (5)

This one didn't have my full attention tbh but I saw enough to know the final score didn't do Wales justice. They've been unlucky. And the broski was actually in Wales watching this one with friends in a local pub.

Scotland (4) vs England (3) (with friend)

Me, knowing my dad's walking past my room: Come on, Scotland! My dad: *silent, murder in his eyes* Me: *the girl in front of the burning house meme*

He told the broski I'm Scottish now and moaned about me never supporting England lmao.

France (2) vs Italy (6)

I wish I had watched this live but I only heard about that ending afterwards. The tension around that overtime penalty kick. Wow.

Severance (rw with mum) 1x02 Half Loop

The team train new hire Helly on macrodata refinement. Mark takes a day off to meet with a mysterious former colleague.

Helly: What even are these numbers? Like, do we even know what we’re supposedly cleaning? Dylan: My theory? The sea. Helly: The sea? Dylan: Yeah. Think about it. Okay, if our Outies are up there severing their brains, shit must have gotten pretty bad. Famine, plagues, et cetera. So what is a desperate humanity to do? Helly: Populate the sea? Dylan: Populate the sea. But first, they gotta send probes down to the sea to clean up all the deadly eels and shit, ’cause we can’t cohabitate with that. So, we send the probes down, they send us the data coded, we sense what’s eels, and then we tell the probes what to blow up. Helly: This is the leading theory? Dylan: Nah, Irv thinks we’re cutting swear words out of movies.

Merlin 2x02 The Once and Future Queen

Realising that his jousting opponents always let him win because he is the royal prince, Arthur pretends to leave court and enters the lists in disguise to win on merit. He stays with Guinevere, who tells him some home truths about his arrogance, and they kiss.

Gwen telling Arthur how rude and arrogant he is versus Merlin telling Gaius how he's expected to do so much on his own. Can someone please check on both of them and make sure they're ok. Maybe bring them some hot chocolate with the little marshmallows on top.

[cipher-fresh]

more detailed ideas about what I want to do with all of these under the cut, if you're interested at all in these please feel free to send me asks!

choose-your-own-adventure format Star Trek OC story: I have a main cast of 7 Starfleet officers, and I want to try and emulate an episodic TV show format.

Doctor Who AMV set to Starman by David Bowie: Kind of what it says on the tin, mostly New Who doctors because that's what I know, but if I find nice clips of Classic doctors I might use that.

paint the unused american flag in the garage to a flag from my original story: We have an American flag in the garage we haven't touched for 8 years, I think we're not using it anymore. I have a flag for the country of Parvinos from my original story The Sound of Fire that looks like this:

[ID: A rectangular flag with a dark blue/purple night sky with 4 stars reflecting a light purple light. A curving gray stripe seperates the night sky and green grass. /End ID]

start writing that sitcom about that teleporting guy: i have some writing for this here. I need to still develop the other main characters and work on the plot. Charlie Crawford is fired by his predatory tech company job and discovers he has a hard-to-control teleporting ability.

write that story about Rafél Rhaava, travelling doctor with healing magic: Rafél Rhaava is a no-nonsense doctor of little words with healing magic and the ability to bring people back to life a limited amount of times

video essay about a fake TV show: Remember that cartoon where that magic user and two sci-fi engineering students wake up on the planet of everything forgotten by the universe? No you don't, I just made that up, but I'll stretch that out into a 45-minute video detailing all 10 episodes after the show was unfortunately cancelled.

Sunflower Doctor & companion adventures: the Sunflower Doctor is a future version of the Doctor, (so I can write fic without worrying about characterization)- and his companion Arjay.

Icarussian species development: The Icarussians are a winged humanoid species I'km placing in the Trek universe, outer space nomads who can fly in space and don't need to breathe. They are politically fraught and are massively divided over whether they should live on planets or live in outer space

pre-canon Severance fic: A fic jumping between outie Mark and Gemma's marriage and the Macrodata Refinement office before Petey left.

[dickwheelie]

ashamed of myself bc literally the whole show is about how awful working in macrodata refinement is but I just know that I'd have a fuckin ball doing those number sorting spreadsheets. I wanna do them so bad I just wanna put the numbers in boxes and see the percentages go up. they wouldnt even have to sever me I'd just do that shit for free in my real life

[somediyprojects]

Macrodata Refinement Team stitched by gmatom.

“Framed my Macrodata Refinement team photo stitch and found a perfect spot in the office for it. We are totally getting a waffle party this quarter.

Created the pattern myself, stitched with 28 colors of DMC, single strands on 22 count Aida. Final size is about 8x10.”

[Severance]

[10-billion-square-feet-of-lion]

she refine on my macrodata til i quota

[housefreak]

dr asked if I knew what mdr was and I kept thinking ohh macrodata refinement my best friends... just to find out the things not even called mdr I just didnt hear the leading e

[agentgreenbean]

I posted 50,340 times in 2022

That's 28,430 more posts than 2021!

1,739 posts created (3%)

48,601 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@aegleseeker

@wizardpotions

@ultragreedier

@trans-dwightschrute

@thornshadowwolf

I tagged 6,587 of my posts in 2022

#fave - 938 posts

#ofmd - 722 posts

#brba - 372 posts

#wwdits - 276 posts

#laugh tag - 255 posts

#severance - 218 posts

#omitb - 164 posts

#great news - 140 posts

#goncharov - 118 posts

#queen lizzie - 111 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#that episode of community where theres a game of strip pool and jeff bends over the table and ppl are just like subtly staring at his hole

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

we arent even saying words anymore

[image id: a screenshot that says "Explore more #blorbo" at the top. beneath that is a brown box that says "#glup shitto" with a thumbnail of some star wars-ish guy in it. next to the brown box is a red box that says "#horse plinko" with a very cropped horse plinko thumbnail. both tags are followed. /end id]

257 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

#4

the name's molecule. molly, for short. my parents named me that because i'm one fucking inch tall, and i spent my whole life fighting that reputation. but now i'm the best damn formula 1 racer in the country. and by god, will i save the president

347 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

#3

imagine you're just in your house painting another identical ominous elevator hallway painting (average normal activity) and then you're suddenly on some random doorstep of a lumon employee and you have apparently been screaming their name and pounding on the door. would that be fucked up or what

667 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

#2

A list of all the cool Severance-related links that I've found so far:

Official:

Lumon's LinkedIn

Severance - The Lexington Letter

Fanmade:

Lumon's Twitter

Lumon Industries Website

Episode Release Countdown

Severed Position Evaluation Form

Lumon Stationery Acquisition

Lumon Business Card Acquisition

Macrodata Refinement Simulator

Macrodata Refinement Simulator: 2! (This one is actually functional!)

The Whole Mind Collective's Twitter

Misc.:

Episode Transcripts

Feel free to reblog and add on! I'll try to keep this updated w/ new stuff, too, if I find any!

1,052 notes - Posted March 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

ebay listing for baby shoes, never worn because he grew rapidly into a child and then a teenager and then an adult man who has no memory of me raising him for the past year

1,408 notes - Posted September 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[fanfoolishness]

As you all know I've been rabid for Severance the past few weeks, and I've been mulling over various theories, ideas and character arcs. But I did notice that food is a running theme on the show: food, its absence, its uses, its meaning.

Severance is a show about connections, what happens when we lose or lack them, and how we can grow by developing these connections and relationships to other. Food is often used as shorthand for community and togetherness, and Severance uses food -- or the lack of it -- to help underscore these bonds, whether broken or whole.

Mark, a grieving, alcoholic widower, is rarely shown to eat. His normal post-work routine is beer or whiskey or wine on the couch. There's no montage of him even making a lonely bachelor dinner. He typically eschews food entirely outside of his interactions with others.

When Devon tries to pull him out of his house and away from himself, knowing the anniversary of his wife's death is approaching, they find themselves in a dinnerless dinner party, a pretentious, masturbatory bit of nonsense. The participants describe food as mere fuel for higher things, and not worthy of weight in and of itself. But these are hollow people, tactless and empty. Their relationships are plastic. There is nothing real about them, and thus, nothing real about their "dinner party."

The only real relationship that is explored here is Mark and Devon's.

Which is where we see the healthiest, freshest, and most filling meal of the show, lit with golden warmth, made by Devon and given to Mark. Their relationship is real, their connections are real. Their food is real. Devon asks Mark about therapy (he's not going) and Mark drinks from a hip flask (he's ill, but doesn't feel a need to hide it from Devon). The food in this scene underlines the strength of their bond.

Mark's other attempts at meals go less well. Mrs. Selvig/Cobel nearly force feeds him cookies; he eats them out of politeness, but the batch of burned ones in her kitchen shows that the effort to connect in this way is doomed. He goes to Pip's VIP area and is accosted by Petey before his food ever arrives. Later he and Petey share a pizza, but we don't see Mark eating, and the pizza looks sad and listless. Petey is trying to form a connection with him, but Mark is unable or unwilling to reciprocate.

A relationship that Mark does truly try to cultivate is that with Alexa. However, it doesn’t go well. His first date with Alexa is entirely foodless, though he orders a second whiskey while they sit with empty plates. He ruins the date later by aggressively arguing with people downtown, his defensiveness fueled by whiskey, and heads home alone for a beer.

The best he manages to do with Alexa is to decline alcohol at his second dinner with her and enjoy some fries -- and this is their healthiest interaction, where they mutually extend the date and Alexa comes home with him. Food as connection.

Contrast ordering whiskey number 2 in an empty restaurant on their first date, with being good with only water and having at least fries in a restaurant that shows more warmth, more liveliness, other couples. It's a healthier step, and one that almost gets Mark to a better place, until he runs out on Alexa in the middle of the night.

His worst meal, and the only time we see himself having his own food in his house, is when he scours the news for information on Graner's murder, makes an ass of himself to Alexa, tears up Gemma's photo, and grieves her more than ever. This is not sustaining. This is not healthy. It's a fucking bag of potato chips and a bottle of whiskey for dinner.

In contrast, innie Mark doesn't fare much better. The food at Lumon is doled out purely as soulless rewards for work the innies must perform. The food is precisely regulated, either with tokens or with Milchick's falsely cheerful deliveries of bizarrely regimented melons and eggs. Lunches are provided and noted on the list of the senior refiner's duties, but we never see the innies get to enjoy them, if they are indeed enjoyable. Food is fuel. Food is incentive. Food is out of their control.

Even the vaunted waffle party, lauded all season, requires taking a refiner away from their team so they can eat alone, where they then put on a mask and watch other people in masks. Food as separation. Food that encourages distance rather than fostering closeness.

But slowly, the innies begin to band together. They realize their prison is cold and cruel, that they have been deprived of basic, vital, precious relationships. Helly realizes that her own escape is not enough, and she wants the others to find freedom too. Dylan realizes corporate incentives mean nothing in the face of his son’s embrace — and he insists the others deserve the same chance to experience their own lives. Mark begins to realize through Ricken’s book and their new experiences that self-worth and community are vital goals. And Irving realizes his love for Burt is beautiful, Kier be damned.

The egg bar, coveted as fuck, is actually good. So is their teamwork. Their friendship. Their connections, finally recognized by all of them as more important than punishment or toeing the line or making it through another day.

So they plan their rebellion, their chance to break through to the outside world, to honor their mutual struggle and their bond. Dylan gazes upon his reward, a glass cube of all of them united; and Irving, excited, determined, triumphant, says:

“Let’s find out what’s for dinner.”

[tomgregs]

I just played the little macrodata game in your card and it’s so fun omg!!! Your card truly is so fucking cool I’m really obsessed with it

aw yayyyy thank uu only thing i wanted with my card was for ppl to get hooked on macrodata refining :]

[oceanmonsters]

rewatched severance and. it’s about how lumon is so insistent on treating treating lumon workers as a family (“seeing her here with all of you, I would say she most definitely has a family” “come, children of my industry, know the children of my blood” “to be an eagan, either a true eagan or anyone working in this lumon family”) but they also try to keep all the departments separate and make them see each other as enemies and also try to prevent severed workers meeting outside the company (meaning their bond with each other is solely on the company’s terms). and how helly instinctively rebels against this and refuses to see herself as part of the macrodata refinement family, but ultimately when they make the decision to rebel they do it together and it only works because they do it together — helly could never have activated the protocol alone because it requires one person to stay back. dylan looking at the glass cube of the four of them as his motivation for keeping the levers down. petey trying to break out on his own but ultimately ending up needing to turn to mark for help because he has nowhere else to go. smth about how companies will try to insist employees are family in order to instil a sense of loyalty in the company whilst also fearing the idea of employees actually meaningfully coming together and organising because it’s only together that they can actually break free.