#qr code fail

[skybristle]

being an anxious person with a brain that happens to be built for school is so funny. me stressing my head off just thinking of the classes i have like honey sweety you got A+'s all year by sitting and drawing on ur tablet during most of your classes you'll be fine

[so0ppa]

I am going to do SO MUCH WORSE than fire you.

[regicidal-defenestration]

Happy r/place to everyone who celebrates

[freeluigihesbae]

𝓫𝓾𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼 - 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝟏

(1,689 words)

summary:

luigi fell in love with you for those sparkling eyes where his dreams of falling in love first came true. but how did it happen?

𝗍𝗐: 𝗇𝗈𝗇𝖾

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

It was the fourth year of undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. There were times when Luigi wished he'd gone to a regular university, where no-one would try to inflate their egos just because they were an Ivy-League-r. It was tiring when fake 'friends' tried to get close to him, only to ditch and snitch when they took what they wanted and left.

Sure, he made some good friends in the years he had spent at Penn, making and leading a few clubs and having a few reliable classmates, but overall, there was a sense of grounding he still hadn't gotten. There was no-one on campus who was down-to-earth the way he was. No-one shared his perspective.

That all changed when it came time for homecoming. Luigi was the star of his friend group and they were desperately trying to set him up with a Philosophy major who, on paper, would be his picture perfect match. She was fairly tall - a humble 5'5" - dirty blonde hair, slender legs and a toned body. She even had perfect grades with a beautiful capability to hold conversation that had meaning, perhaps explaining why she chose, pursued, and succeeded in a philosophy major.

They tried and tried all they could, but failed in making Luigi ask her out. Ash, everyone had called her, did have a huge crush on Luigi, feeling encouraged by how Luigi's friends always nudged her when he came around, but they were doing her an injustice. Things came to a head when she took it upon herself to ask him out for homecoming.

"Luigi?" A soft voice comes up behind Luigi, who turns around, stopping his work on the wall. He was hanging up papers for UPGRADE, encouraging everyone to scan the QR code to register for the first meeting. His tense shoulders relax, but confusion immediately covers his face when he sees not only Ash, but her entire group of friends giggling behind her.

Ash's face is covered in blush, her eyes giving away how nervous she is. Luigi gives a small smile, stepping down from the ladder before repeating her name back.

"What's up Ash?" Luigi speaks with a steady tone, mind scattered across having to deal with the club and unable to focus on Ash entirely, but still caring about what she has to say.

"I-I- was wondering um-" Ash gulps and Luigi is clueless, wondering if she's okay. He watches her friends push her lightly whispering in her ear. She stops moving around and finally straightens her back, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"I was wondering i-if you wanted to go to homecoming with me." Ash finally gets the words out and her friends freeze, staring at Luigi to see what his answer is.

Luigi internally slaps himself - how could he not realize why they were laughing and screwing around with Ash? Of course it was about homecoming and for a second, he felt anger flare up. It was convenient to catch him in the middle of a busy hallway and come with an entire group because the pressure to say yes was tenfold now and it was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

Luigi stares at an unsure Ash, who seems to have her hopes increased after proposing the deal to him. The rational part of him is screaming to say yes and later talk to her in private, but he couldn't. He didn't like Ash because yeah, she was great at holding conversations and she was conventionally attractive, but he never clicked with her. In the few times he had gotten time alone with her, she came across as...boring. She was knowledgeable but gah-- something didn't click. Maybe it was the nuances in how her ego showed and how shallowness presented itself. It was tiring, typical, you know?

Luigi wasn't a pawn; he didn't want to be played and for that reason, he goes against that urge and tells the truth.

"Ash," Luigi starts talking but freezes upon seeing her friend huddle in closer. His smile slowly disappears as he's shaking his head.

"I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to ask me, but I'm going to decline that offer. I'm sorry if my friends have led you on in thinking I like you, but that's not true. I've been keeping to myself in this time and I-I just can't do it." Luigi finishes talking and doesn't know whether the ground or wall would swallow him whole, because he sees Ash getting tears in her eyes while her friends gawked, faces transforming into disgust.

Soon enough, Ash's face followed suit.

"You," she points a finger in his face before talking. "Rejected me in front of everyone? What kind of a guy are you?" Her anger is obvious but Luigi's face becomes neutral. What else did he expect?

"You're the one who came up to me when the hallway is busy and you brought your triage with you. Not my fault. Your attempt to pressure me into saying yes didn't work. I'm not apologizing for say no. Only if my friends have led you to believe something that isn't true." Luigi finishes talking before realizing the hallway he thought was bustling away was frozen and holding up countless phones in his face.

Oh no.

Ash lets out a sob before cursing him out and walking away, her girls comforting her and leaving Luigi forced to feel bad since everyone decided to stare at him silently and add in their two cents by giving blank or angry expressions.

He didn't have time for this.

"What are you guys looking at? Fuck off!" Luigi shouts and people seem to snap, muttering words as their phones lower and everyone starts walking off, still giving glances. Luigi returns to his tasks from before, stapling the papers into the wall for the next ten or so minutes. He feels relieved once the hallway is buzzing again as usual, taking solace in the monotony of his task.

But life just has to ruin that, doesn't it?

Luigi is about to lift his head up and staple the last paper before the short stool beneath him shakes, and eventually, leading him to lose his grip. The wall is smooth and it takes less than a second for him to realize he's going straight down to the ground.

He yelps, trying to keep himself upright but fails, falling over and groaning as soon as he hits the ground, except...

he feels something soft underneath his head.

Luigi looks up, facing the wall before looking to the side and beneath him to see a soft, faux fur backpack placed under his head, perfectly set to stop his head from hitting the ground. He looks up and sees the last poster, ripped into two halves making him nearly tear his hair out. He grabs the bag before scrunching it in his palm and talking.

"Who. The. Fuc-" Luigi's eyes are closed before he turns around to open them, ready to shout at whoever is looking at him before he freezes.

That's when he meets you, or your eyes, more specifically. There you are, biting your finger and looking at him with ridiculously glossy eyes stuttering out apologies and threatening to cry if he even says a word.

"I'm s-so sorry I didn't check where I was looking 'n I had a terrible day and I-I-I-" You're over your own head, afraid of his reaction and worried something had happened to him. You didn't kill him. You saved him and it wasn't your fault people were shoving you around even after they saw your cast on your left leg.

Luigi's eyes flicker down to your cast and back up to your eyes before he gently sets the bag down, walking towards you.

"Hey." He speaks softly, placing a hand on your shoulder, prompting you to look up at him. The tears have already streamed down your face and he gasps, taking in how beautiful your eyes look.

They're shaped like adorable almonds, widening at any shift in movement yet sparkling with so much emotion and fear. The brown hue looks stunning with a docile sun ray shooting right through them; Luigi has to gulp and shake his head before he speaks.

Instinctively, he wraps his arms around you, pulling your head into his embrace. You follow suit, snuggling into his arms.

"I'm so sorry I swear." You say, another tiny sob escaping you before he pulls back, shaking his head.

"Stop. I'm alive and you saved my life with your bag. I didn't see your cast. I'm sorry for getting so mad." Luigi says, running his hand down your back before letting go. You nod quietly, sniffling after you hear his words.

Luigi's heart is leaping out his chest, desperate to just grab your face and kiss those fat drops off of your face. But he can't.

"Listen, how about I make this up to you? Cafe Amore, 3pm. Tomorrow works?" Luigi asks, tilting his head down to catch your reaction. You look up with a gentle smile while wiping away at your tears.

"R-Really?" You ask and Luigi nods, prompting the previous anxiety to melt away and you let your arms drop to your side.

"Okay. Okay. Deal." You say and Luigi's smile widens impossibly more, nodding his head as he turns around but stops. You, getting ready to leave, also stop.

"Do you uh-" Luigi clears his throat, clearly blushing now. "Do you need help getting to class or- or wherever you're going?" You smile, feeling warm at his soothing voice and kind gesture, but you shake your head.

"No. I'm alright..." You pause. What's his name?

"Luigi." He fills it in and you nod, sniffling before you talk.

"I'm alright Luigi. I'll see you tomorrow." You giggle before walking away, limping with ease on your cast. Luigi watches from afar, his heartstrings breaking into two every time he watched you take a step on the same cast. He turns his head away, lightly placing his forehead against the wall.

He just fell in love and your eyes did the trick.

~

@cherrysolo and @luigis-wetdream (whoever the anon was that requested a bambi eyed reader, please tell them somehow a fic is being written for 'em bc idk who they are to tag them!!)

[readyoregg]

06 - Greenery

For Desktop View

A FREE Google Doc themed with a nature/green aesthetic. Completely green for all you green lovers out there, this doc is sure to grow your garden... of grass. First page intention is to look like the back of a book. . . failed. And yes, that QR code leads to my carrd. Feel free to change it! Five pages, ten minimal pictures, focus aimed on information.

I find giving Google Docs for free to be much more reasonable than credit/payment, it's text on a document and encourages writers. Feel free to edit/copy/use as you wish!

To make your editable copy: File > Make copy

To edit images: Right click > Replace Image

To edit drawing features: Double click drawing > Right click > Replace Image

To make shareable: Share > Change access to "Anyone with link"

FIND THE DOCUMENT HERE

[adrianicsea]

my bf bought me this old sticker as a christmas stocking stuffer and it has vexed me endlessly. aside from the fact that i haven’t put it on anything yet (it’s too good to use and i can’t decide what i want to put it on), the QR code links to a dead “this tag is no longer active” microsoft page, the URL on the front side only goes to a “getglue reloaded” facebook group, and any attempts to pull up the website on the mobile version of the wayback machine have failed. i NEED to know what secrets this sticker once contained

[kowai-kabuki-tanuki]

Annecy: A Lake of Broken Promises

Fantastic article by Matt Jones from Medium:

How Annecy 2025 exposed the widening chasm between graduate hopes and industry reality – and what must change before an entire generation of creative talent is lost forever

The picturesque lakeside town of Annecy should have been the place where dreams came true. Instead, it became the scene of a devastating awakening. As thousands of animation students clutched their sketchbooks and business cards with QR codes linking to online portfolios at the 2025 festival, the world’s premier animation celebration, they encountered a sobering truth: just 3 recruitment booths operated alongside 23 educational providers – a stark 3:23 ratio that perfectly encapsulated the industry’s fundamental supply-and-demand crisis.

The recruitment reality was brutal. Cartoon Saloon from Northern Ireland told hopeful graduates they weren’t currently hiring. Doghead from Italy maintained a booth that remained largely unstaffed throughout the festival. Dwarf offered opportunities, but only for those willing to work in France. A small recruitment room on Mifa Campus ran sessions for merely 2 days, yet was oversubscribed, leaving countless students without access.

This disconnect between aspiration and opportunity represents far more than a scheduling mishap or economic blip. It reveals a fundamental crisis brewing at the heart of the animation industry – one that threatens to squander a generation of creative talent whilst simultaneously undermining the very foundations upon which animated storytelling is built.

Key takeaways

Only a fraction of animation graduates – as few as 3 to 5 out of every 100 – secure employment in their chosen field, despite an industry valued at $400 billion globally

Major studios including Pixar have reduced their workforces by 14% whilst simultaneously increasing their reliance on artificial intelligence and sequel-based content

Animation festivals like Annecy, which should serve as crucial bridges between education and employment, are failing to provide meaningful recruitment opportunities despite charging premium attendance fees

Universities continue expanding animation programmes whilst knowing full well that industry absorption rates cannot support graduate numbers

A new model of industry collaboration, educational transparency, and creative risk-taking is urgently needed to prevent the collapse of animation’s talent pipeline

Where are the Jobs When Animation is Booming?

The question that haunts every animation graduate clutching their sketchbooks and business cards with QR codes to online portfolios seems almost absurd when set against the industry’s financial success. These students, many shy and anxious, scribble copious notes and desperately seek opportunities to showcase their work, lacking the confidence of seasoned professionals yet carrying the same creative passion. The global animation market reached $400 billion by 2024, with North America alone anticipated to grow from $23.2 billion in 2023 to $36.7 billion by 2031. Yet this prosperity hasn’t translated into opportunity for the very people who dream of creating these blockbuster films and series.

Behind the impressive box-office numbers, however, the animation industry has been experiencing seriously choppy waters. Major animation players have implemented cutbacks over the past year, with Pixar’s recent cuts affecting 14% of its workforce. The studio justified these layoffs as part of a move away from creating streaming content for Disney+ to refocus on features, but industry insiders recognise this as symptomatic of broader cost-cutting measures across the sector.

The cruel irony becomes apparent when examining what’s actually being produced. Studios are making unprecedented profits from animated content whilst simultaneously reducing the workforce needed to create it. 3 animated releases in 2024, all sequels, dominated the worldwide box-office: Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 topped with nearly $1.7 billion, followed by Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 and Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4.

The Academic Industrial Complex

Universities have become unwitting accomplices in this crisis, continuing to expand animation programmes despite knowing that industry absorption cannot support graduate numbers. The business model is too attractive to resist: animation courses command premium fees – often reaching $50,000 annually in prestigious institutions – whilst requiring relatively modest infrastructure compared to other disciplines.

Gobelins’ 3D Character Animator certificate boasts that graduates have a 100% employment rate within 6 months of completing the program, but this represents an elite programme admitting perhaps 20 students annually. Meanwhile, hundreds of other institutions worldwide graduate thousands more students into a market that simply cannot accommodate them.

The disconnect between educational marketing and employment reality has created what industry observers describe as an “academic industrial complex.” Universities promote animation programmes using imagery of Pixar campuses and DreamWorks success stories, whilst carefully avoiding discussions of actual employment statistics. Students accumulate debt pursuing dreams that statistical analysis suggests are increasingly unlikely to materialise.

Michelle Connolly of Educational Voice observed that “Schools must stop selling 1990s-era career dreams. Our 2024 survey shows 68% of graduates need hybrid tech/art roles to survive”, yet this message hasn’t reached prospective students who continue enrolling in traditional animation programmes expecting traditional career paths.

The Festival Paradox

Annecy 2025 perfectly embodied the industry’s contradictions. The festival featured phenomenal lineups with major studios like Disney Animation, DreamWorks, and Pixar presenting new work, drawing a record 18,000 accredited guests. Yet for the students who travelled from across the globe, often spending their last savings on accommodation and festival passes, meaningful employment opportunities were virtually non-existent.

Beyond the supply-demand imbalance lay deeper structural problems. The exhibition hall for students was even reduced in size this year, with 1/3 blocked off for Mifa (aimed at buyers), along with the traditional ground floor. This physical reduction of student space in favour of commercial activities perfectly symbolised the festival’s shifting priorities.

Even established schools like MoPA admitted the exhibition costs were incredibly expensive, yet they gambled on the opportunity to promote that year’s graduates – with very few actually getting the chance to meet with recruiters. This expensive gamble proves indicative of how educational institutions are forced to compete in an increasingly desperate marketplace, whilst being particularly unfair to students from institutions that couldn’t afford booth space.

This represents the festival’s core contradiction: it markets itself as an industry gateway whilst the economics tell a different story. Students invest hundreds of pounds in passes, travel, and accommodation, often funded by family savings or student loans, based on promotional materials suggesting attendance will improve career prospects. Meanwhile, the festival charges educational institutions premium rates to compete for attention from virtually non-existent recruiters.

The Artificial Intelligence Acceleration

Perhaps no factor threatens animation employment prospects more dramatically than the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. 75% of survey respondents indicated GenAI tools, software and/or models had supported the elimination, reduction or consolidation of jobs in their business division, according to a comprehensive study of entertainment industry executives.

The impact extends beyond simple job displacement. About 33% of industry executives predicted that AI would displace 3D modellers by as early as 2026, with 25% expecting graphic designers to be affected as well. These entry-level positions traditionally served as stepping stones for animation graduates, providing essential industry experience whilst developing professional portfolios.

About 21.4% of Film, Television, and Animation jobs (or approximately 118,500 jobs) are likely to have sufficient tasks affected to be either consolidated, replaced, or eliminated by GenAI in the U.S. by 2026. California, home to major animation studios, will be impacted the most, affecting 39,500 jobs.

The technology’s advancement was evident at Annecy itself, where AI companies maintained booths that were all but empty, targeting studios rather than students. Chat3D, offering text-to-3D model generation, charged between $500–1,000 per user per month – pricing that made clear their focus on corporate clients rather than emerging artists. The sparse attendance at these AI booths suggested either industry wariness or that deals were being struck behind closed doors, away from the festival’s public spaces.

The Sequel Trap

Studios’ increasing reliance on sequels and franchise content represents another threat to emerging talent. The 2025/26 slate demonstrates an unprecedented commitment to reboots and spinoffs: Stranger Things is being animated, whilst beloved series including Gumball, Regular Show, Adventure Time, Foster’s Home, and Steven Universe are all receiving reboots or spinoffs. Even these familiar properties face production delays, further restricting opportunities for new talent.

Original content traditionally provided opportunities for newcomers to prove themselves on smaller projects before advancing to major productions. However, this shift reflects risk-averse corporate strategies prioritising proven intellectual property over creative innovation. Tom Sito, a Hollywood animation veteran now teaching at USC, suggests that the widespread cutting of jobs “bespeaks the lack of vision in a lot of the corporate strategy”.

The sequel dominance creates a vicious cycle: fewer original productions mean fewer opportunities for new talent, which reduces the industry’s creative diversity, ultimately leading to even greater reliance on proven properties. Young animators find themselves competing for positions on projects led by established teams with decades of experience, making entry-level opportunities even scarcer.

What Must Change: A 3-Pillar Solution

Festival Reform: Creating Real Opportunity

Annecy and other major festivals must evolve beyond their current model of celebration without substance. Festival organisers should implement tiered exhibition fees, charging premium rates to companies without active recruitment whilst subsidising booths for studios offering genuine employment opportunities. This would incentivise meaningful job creation whilst reducing the financial burden on organisations actually hiring.

Festivals should establish year-round digital portfolio platforms rather than relying on brief, expensive physical events. These platforms could operate continuously, providing far better return on investment for both students and employers than current festival models. Having Annecy support the thousands of students who pay dearly to attend each year feels just, and recruiters should be incentivised to use such platforms or disincentivised to ignore them.

Most importantly, festivals must abandon romanticised career presentations in favour of honest industry discussions. Panel sessions should include employment statistics, salary realities, and alternative career paths rather than perpetuating unrealistic expectations about traditional animation careers.

Educational Transparency: Truth in Advertising

Universities must implement mandatory employment outcome reporting, similar to medical schools’ residency placement rates. Prospective students deserve accurate information about career prospects before committing to expensive programmes. Accreditation bodies should require institutions to demonstrate minimum employment rates – perhaps 25% within 6 months of graduation – to maintain programme approval.

Curricula need fundamental restructuring to prepare students for hybrid careers combining animation skills with business, technology, and entrepreneurship. Rather than training students exclusively for studio employment that may not materialise, programmes should develop versatile creative professionals capable of adapting to changing industry conditions.

Industry Innovation: Breaking the Sequel Cycle

Studios should establish “original content quotas,” dedicating specific percentages of budgets to new intellectual property development. This could follow models already implemented in some territories, ensuring continued creative innovation whilst maintaining profitable franchise production.

Governments that offer tax incentives and provide funding for large employers in the creative industry to operate in their countries should mandate original content quotas and student hiring/development programmes as conditions for receiving these benefits. Public investment in studios should yield public benefit through job creation and creative diversity.

Companies should develop apprenticeship programmes providing paid training rather than relying solely on traditional hiring from oversaturated graduate pools. These programmes could identify promising talent early whilst providing practical industry experience currently lacking in 3–4 year degree programmes.

Emerging Opportunities: Beyond Traditional Animation

Despite the challenges, new opportunities are emerging for creative professionals willing to adapt. The animation industry employs more than 220,000 professionals in the United States and is expected to grow by 5% annually, though these roles increasingly require hybrid skills combining animation with technology, business, or education.

Gaming represents a significant growth area, with the gaming and animation industry reaching a massive $268.8 billion by 2025. These positions often offer more creative freedom and better employment prospects than traditional film animation, whilst still utilising core animation skills.

Virtual and augmented reality applications continue expanding, creating demand for animators in educational technology, healthcare simulation, and interactive media. These emerging sectors often welcome candidates with animation backgrounds, even if they lack specific industry experience.

Independent production has become increasingly viable through crowdfunding and digital distribution platforms. Software publishers lead the animation industry’s pay scale with a $110,000 average annual salary, whilst tools like Blender and affordable rendering services enable small teams to produce professional-quality content.

An Industry’s Reckoning

The numbers from Annecy 2025 tell a story that the animation industry can no longer ignore. With 23 educational providers competing for the attention of just 3 recruitment booths, the festival became an inadvertent expose of systemic dysfunction. Thousands of students, armed with portfolios and dreams, encountered a marketplace that had no genuine intention of hiring them.

This revelation demands urgent examination of how the animation industry markets itself versus how it actually operates. The disconnect between promotional promises and employment reality threatens not just individual careers but the creative future of animation itself. If the industry continues excluding new voices whilst relying on artificial intelligence and franchise content, it risks cultural stagnation that could undermine the very creativity that built studios like Pixar and DreamWorks.

The current trajectory requires acknowledgement from all stakeholders – festivals, universities, and studios – that existing practices are unsustainable. Students deserve honest information about career prospects, meaningful opportunities to demonstrate their abilities, and alternative pathways when traditional employment proves elusive.

The animation industry stands at a crossroads. It can continue celebrating past achievements whilst failing future creators, or it can restructure itself to nurture the talent pipeline essential for continued innovation. The stark reality exposed at Annecy 2025 – 3 recruitment opportunities amid 23 educational providers – demands immediate action.

The next Annecy festival could feature genuine employment opportunities rather than empty promises, honest career discussions rather than promotional presentations, and sustainable pathways for emerging talent rather than exclusive access for established professionals. Whether this transformation occurs depends on industry leaders’ willingness to prioritise long-term creative health over short-term financial convenience.

The alternative – continued exclusion of new talent whilst relying on artificial intelligence and franchise content – threatens the very creativity that made animation beloved worldwide. For an industry built on imagination and wonder, such an outcome would represent the ultimate broken promise beside the pristine waters of Lake Annecy.

Students hoping to be noticed – by Matt Jones

[outbreakperfected]

Summary of the current state of the Chess/AION ARG from both a real life and lore perspective as of 9:19pm PST below the cut, for any guardians interested in catching up. Copy pasted from Discord from a few hours ago but there's been little progress on the state of the board so. Sorry if it's a bit hard to read.

After compiling together a bunch of people's different chess boards they got from completing a game in Eris' throne world that can be done once you collected all the chess pieces in the world that spawned last week, a bunch of streamers were able to piece together a QR code that led to the following site: http://aion-archives.net/ If you complete the puzzle, which is 27 weird chess boards you have to solve, you will be able to interact with a bowl of water that says "the water reveals" and it will give you a four number code (Signal Frequency x----) from 0001 to 4096, along with a custom chess board that you should take a photo of. If you plug in your chess board to any kind of chess site and receive the chess notation or FEN number, you can go to AION and input the following: your frequency number, and then the FEN number minus a few pieces. This will give you one of three things: Green text saying match confirmed, blue text saying data corrupted, or purple text saying quantum spin failed. The last one means you input your FEN notation wrong, while the first two mean you successfully put in the FEN notation. Meanwhile, people are also piecing together each unique board generated to match a frequency by their borders, and lining them into smaller chess boards assembled out of either red or grey tiles. By finding the piece in that bigger chess board created by the smaller chess board that would create some certain checkmate condition, this piece can be plugged into the in-game chessboard and if you complete a square successfully pillars around the arena will light up. They have the middle square done as of right now.

A handful of numbers on the website from frequency signals, as well as a bunch of other random dates (typically in coordination with stuff to do in either Destiny/Bungie or actual real life chess history) will spit out little bits of lore from the terminal. AION stands for the Apollo Intertemporal Observation Network, and we previously heard a mention of an "AION Initiative" back in some of the dialogue you can unlock from Vesper's Host by progressing through the puzzles in the questline. This was mentioned alongside the likes of Rasputin and Soteria, who we know are BrayTech AI. This fact also came to us from Astraea, who herself is a BrayTech AI. It is also very likely that the corrupted data outputs in some way link to the Corrupted Puppeteer, which is a failed BrayTech AI attempt to simulate a Vex Mind that possesses the ability to jump across various hosts and was able to construct some kind of neural network hivemind amongst House Salvation refugees on the Vesper Station.

A dialogue piece that only unlocks once the questline is finished actually reveals the message that was received through the Anomaly, and it is essentially that of someone named "Lodi" communicating that they are adrift. It is very likely this person is connected to AION. Additional texts you can receive from the website are prompts about an experiment starting today, traveling to another star, and a bunch of shit relating to astrophysics. If you bug the terminal too much, it will literally IP ban you which has happened to some unfortunate people in the twitch chat.

What is most interesting is that the code for the chess puzzle was cracked by uncorrupting FEN notations held behind the following set of numbers: 10071956 (I believe). This date aligns with some super important game in chess history, but importantly, you can see it be one of the dates counted down on the satellite in the short Edge of Fate teaser trailer.

and basically that is what we have so far

also if you input bungie related dates you can get easter eggs like pictures of a chess board made out of master chiefs

Right now a LOT of dialogue suggests stuff about jumping through space and time, which aligns with both what we know about the Nine and how the whole ARG is basically a game of 4D chess.

[yuurei20]

Updated Ortho Facts Part 18: Ortho's Abilities (pt4)

When Kalim talks about Jamil wanting to take him to a theme park Ortho calculates the odds of such happening as “less than one percent,” and we also see him assigning percentages to how likely it is that the students will suffer injury if they do not do as Idia says during Book 6.

Ortho says he can predict most things through simulations and data crunching, “so it’s really nice when something unexpected happens.”

Ortho and Lilia complain together about the predictability of a Playfulland ride, with Ortho suggesting the implementation of randomized movements. 

Ortho says that he enjoys research and gathering data.

Ortho is also equipped with a “built-in emergency magical disaster alert” which is triggered when he is wearing his Ignihyde gear. It is not specified if blot density increase detection is equipped only to his Ignihyde Gear or if it is something he can do regardless of the gear he wears. The alert goes to STYX.

Ortho will occasionally reference online searches that he performs, even offering to look up the physical address of Idia’s online game friend Muscle Red.

Ortho explains, “There's essentially no such thing as anonymity online for me.”

Ortho is also capable of QR code scanning and email. In his incorporeal state in Idia’s dream he is capable of connecting to wireless speakers and simple, non-technomantic electronics.

Ortho suffers his equivalent of falling unconscious in response to Malleus’ unique magic and escapes by uploading himself over the school’s public wi-fi.

He attempts to use the Land of Dawning’s network and undersea cables to send himself to STYX but fails due to Malleus’ energy field, which has stopped time.

Ortho notices Idia’s tablet and says it should support satellite broadband, as Idia designed it to connect with a STYX prototype communications satellite via an antenna that he secretly set up on a large tree behind the school. 

[marrkopolo]

A Wise Man Once Said

Precious lost its ring in the scrap yard with no metal detector the lavender pussywillows hide the trolls

Hong Kong wheel of fate UW spinned it first Knights of Templar slaughtered at a mass concert of bloody crimson tide

Tithe on a full moon for 2x the glee The crash of waves against the rocks, like bodies slapping against each other during sex blood shooting through veins Hot heat, sticky, in Iceland together I too, know of these lands

Tax season says the King! blue knots on a tent red food buckets hung like death #four crosses in a foreign land alone is no place to exist

An underwater welder lying on the blue tarp, is like a union of troops led by a zebra.

Flying flags at Disney welcome to the world of water failed regret, emptiness and betrayal tattered flags get left to rot sew it in with the others together and the quilt becomes strong and scintillating

Crush you with your own history headless horseman and halo hair dark horse donuts This is as good as it gets!

Red-lipped lipstick cracked porcelain face You can't hold a candle to this

King of the Hill My pool stick is clean now true Kings swim in the swimming pool together King of the Hill Jack of Spades went with the stolen crown and robots learn to volunteer.

Pledge to a sanitizer salute to a gong beat your chest it's loud and strong Love at first sight or sounds like a good idea Wisdom of the crowd or individual motivation?

A rabbi with the yachts Fortified lamps sees all UFOs, telekinesis and even explosive lingerie. One denarius for a days work Why they get more? Stand while another sits. Then switch roles and you'll see why.

What sees with three eyes? The melatonin-like parental bond, third eye awoken, Moksha.

Insane Luke has a scar red dots that kill. Baldie takes biosphere crown the bald animal is cutting loose again Is doraphilia still fun to you?

I attempt to transform but the tea is too strong my hands have small heart Lying down a tiny raindrop falls into my ear swirling into the cochlea My whole world has changed!

Eczema stealing make-up twice North Face go north Racks of weapons are not enough this time

My mask is old but gold bars had paved my fortunate path …a fortunate path(whispering)

Tik Tok vault one exit is enough The eagle has docked into spray-painted madness. Not to fret I hear a falcon cry Jump when the law is bent it will help you fly

Six shooter Six pack 3 sewers 3 fires Twin-spirit 1 spacesuit

Mountain top king of the hill climb Nepal Hajj pilgrimage princess climbs like a pirate piggyback down the wedding aisle

Opposites attract

One fell to its doom down the abyssal void towards the bottom and a ghost ship lost in the Bermuda Triangle with Pandoras Box Lazarus

Gunpowder in shoes Footprints in the sand Jesus did not tap

Short and tall fat and thin Lookalikes Soundalikes Smellalikes the hunt of touch and taste What double currencies create the ultimate Yin Yang effect? AI said to cure pride and competition, exchange abacus rubik-cubed calculators instead of cash.

Echoes and reverberation voices become lightning WATTS= AMPS X VOLTS

Float your payloads into the troposphere with skinny vertical structures of contained saltwater Heat a planet with a satellite asteroid belt

A call for help QR codes morse code gun flare smoke signal what are your coordinates? R-E-B-O-R-N

Some ancients say gunpowder only made flee then gun made to kill Oil spills from bronze age to silicon chips flood the market cut the mall castle cake in half Zangief on a segway You win.Perfect.

Lawrence Groves copyright©2024

[wolfmia2508]

Dandy world oc: )Um8Y

Required: 1500 incor and a QR code

Ability 1: Every 100 seconds turns into a random (PLAYIBLE!!!) toon (even shrimpo)

health: ♡♡♡ Skill check: ☆☆ Movement speed: ☆☆☆☆ Stamina: ☆☆☆ Stealth: ☆☆☆☆ Extraction speed: ☆☆

After Extracting: Ronmangoh quoinh, QUOINH!

In ele: Ranho rii romoo. Rahhan!

Facts: Not a toon, it/it's, was one of the prototypes that Dalilah made that failed (all toons start out like it (but not the same Gl17CH3D face) before being turned into themself) that was scrapped and was locked away, can't talk and is always acthing childlike.

Friends: none

During the ######'# it's door broke down (posibbly like the Christmas toon's) and it was able to excape.

[theresivy]

PLEASE HELP: SIGNAL B*OST, D*NATE, OR C*MMISSION ME!!

Listed below are the TL;DR, How to Help, and Full story/Context. I’m sorry I had to resort to this but i have no other choice.

TL;DR version

Please help a mentally disabled fan artist’s family to pay for medical debts for c*ncer, insulin, maintenance meds (for depression, anxiety, etc), and cat food

How to Help

D*nations!!! - I only have P*yPal (also thru K*-fi) and GC*sh! Please dm me for the link or QR code

C*mmission me!!! - I really hate asking for help with nothing to give in return, so preferably please c*mmission me. I havent updated my new set of c*mmission sheet samples BUT heres a short, quick version attached on my post as a pic.

B*y my let-go collection of merchandise!!! (PH-based only please and sorry) - In order to try and make up for the em*tional ab*se me and my mom have to go thru on a daily basis just by living with dad, I ended up in a downward spiral and tried to buy things impulsively since 2020. So, now, we’re paying the price and I have been deeply regretting it ever since. So, plsase please please help buy my palugi (selling for a loss) let-go merchandise, theyre mostly official and am selling for a loss, we badly need the space and especially the funds. Weve only sold less than a half of my stock and it doesnt help that my dad keeps mocking me about it.

Share and S*gnal boost!!! - Tumblr is the only site where i have somewhat of an audience. Please please please help reblog, share, and signal boost.

Full Story/Context

Hi, I’m Theresivy (Teh-reese-ivy), I have been depressed and mentally impaired (among other things) who draws art as a multifandom self-taught fan artist, As of 2020 my mom’s tumor has turned into cancer that has only been given medical attention to in 2022 onwards. And as of then, i have indefinitely become a N,E.E.T for my mom and our finance’s sake while being there by her side. As of now she has gone through FOUR surgeries because more and more unexpected complications keep popping up. She doesnt deserve this, why couldnt it have been me,

We live with my emotionally abusive and manipulative dad (her husband) and our two fur daughters Pancake and Waffles (of which my cats and mom mean more than the world to me) while being forced to live in one of the countless apartment complexes my equally abuse maternal uncle (and his wife, my maternal A-I-L) as we have no other choice. And as such, my dad has been kissing their asses since we were forced to move here more than five years ago.

Both my uncle and my A-I-L took it upon themselves to become the defacto head of my maternal family ever since my maternal grandmother passed just because he became rich thru the means of evil entrepreneur practices. We cant do anything lest we want to get kicked and live on the streets. He is a real-life mastermind as he is always a few steps ahead of us, even making it so that his eldest daughter became his perfect pawn of being his personal lawyer. He always has connections and to them we are merely insects.

My parents and the rest of our family dont really see “artist” as anything that could get money rolling in (and day by day my failed attemptes have been proving them right), and on top of that, they see me being depressed and such as being the “freeloading couch potato”. So they keep bringing up how much of a failure I am. Weve been living in such toxic conditions that my mom has developed this sort of stockholm syndrome type relationship with my dad, and her younger brother (my uncle), and his wife (my A-I-L, her S-I-L). At first i thought i could try and save mom but shes too far gone that she strictly forbids me from fending for myself whenever either of the three try to berate me and drive me to tears and breaking down for the fifth time every week.

All i wish now is to be able to pay back at least some of the debt, for my mom and my fur daughters’ sake, and hopefully my own. I have been in a downwards spiral ever since i have been tolerating being the “odd one out” kid from school. in general, and even in the family, its been literal years and my entire life, im tired of being used and tossed to the side, im tired of being the punching bag of a cosmic joke, and im tired of my disabilities. im tired of being useless to the people i care for the most. so please. help us.

My wish now is to be able to help mom and our fur daughters move away from our domestic ab*sers. everything is an endless spiral of dead ends and im sick of it. ive been self sabotaging for years but a small part of me still has hope, please. i dont want to believe that this is where it ends for us. in this world of darkness and cruelty that spits on our faces, only my mom and our fur daughters have shown me the smallest glimpse of happiness. and even then ive failed them by becoming a barely functioning patient of depression. so, please, dont take my sunshines away.

[ishido-enjoyer]

My first trip to Japan - Day 1

~17 hours of flying + a 90-minute bus ride from Osaka to Kyoto. Kansai International Airport was massive and chaotic and between being worn out from the long flight and just generally overwhelmed by big crowds and unfamiliar surroundings, it took a while for me to get my bearings. Mild weather but way more humid than the part of the US I’ve been living in for the past decade.

Japan has made their customs process fully digital. Before we boarded the flight to Osaka we were all instructed to scan a QR code that would take us to the official Visit Japan website to take care of what we would need for customs upon arrival. You have to make an account, fill out a 15-part questionnaire, then, once you’re all done, you receive a QR code that you need to scan along with your passport once you arrive in Japan and go through customs. It seems like it should be more streamlined this way but it didn’t feel like it; by the time I’d left Kansai International I’d had to go through the QR code/passport scanning and approval process three different times, first at a kiosk and then twice at two different manned stations. My passport was stamped at the first of these. I’m not sure what the point of the second one was.

I kind of wandered aimlessly for a while before finally locating where I needed to go to find a bus to take me to Kyoto. Attempted to have the conversation with the woman working the bus info station in Japanese; it started off well enough but I just couldn’t keep up with her and after I threw in the towel with an embarrassed “Wakarimasen, sumimasen,” she switched to English for me. But she was very kind about it and super helpful, and a few minutes later I was on a bus to Kyoto.

The bus ride was great just because it was my first real glimpse of Japanese scenery. Osaka is officially the biggest city I’ve ever been to; it’s just a massive sprawl. I still want to see Osaka Castle, but I’m planning to stick to Kyoto for the first couple of days at least (I’m here for thirteen days).

The bus ended up dropping me off literally right in front of the hotel I booked, so, big win there. It’s also right across from Kyoto Station, so getting around should be pretty convenient. For a relatively cheap hotel it’s actually pretty nice. When I checked in the young woman who helped me out informed me that because I was staying for so many nights, they had upgraded my room for free. The room came with slippers, pajamas, the deepest bathtub I’ve ever seen that isn’t a jacuzzi, and the toilet seat is *heated*. There’s also a bidet but I haven’t worked up the courage to try it yet. >_>

The hotel restaurant ended up being fully reserved so I walked across the street to 711 to find something cheap for dinner. Japanese 711s have a pretty legendary reputation and from what I saw today it’s well-deserved. I failed abysmally to communicate coherently in Japanese with the female cashier and then fumbled my way through using the unfamiliar payment machine. She was amused but also very kind and helpful. I will do better tomorrow.

Haven’t really decided where I’m headed tomorrow morning, but after this heavy travel day I kind of just want to take it a bit easy tomorrow and just maybe visit some of the nearby temples.

[rigelmejo]

Does anyone know how to make a wechat account in the United States? I've tried before but it always failed, I wouldn't receive the verification text or I didn't have a friend with a QR code to help me get verified.

I want to use the app weixindushu to read novels. And I can't make an account without a WeChat.

;-;

[blubberquark]

The Future

It's always grating to read or listen to random members of the public talk about AI in the media, and it is much more grating to listen to "futurists" or politicians or so-called experts who have absolutely no domain expertise nor background in machine learning talk about things "AI" will be able to do in the future. A lot of the time, they will predict that AI (which means conversational agents based on large language models trained with transformers and attention) will do things in the future that can already be done by humans, and by computers without any AI, machine learning, or large text corpora, back in the 90s. Politicians on the other hand sometimes use "AI" to deflect criticisms of infeasible ideas. How will this work, exactly? AI!

Sometimes using AI as a buzzword is the point. Nobody wants to hear "we will develop another app".

It usually doesn't take extreme forms like "In the future, AI will allow us to transplant human hearts", but I have seen weaker forms like "In the future, technologies like ChatGPT will make genome-wide association studies and automatic drug discovery possible". You don't need large language models for GWAS or drug discovery. The data sets for this are very different, and I doubt a system like ChatGPT could just absorb a large CSV file of medial data if you pasted it into the conversation.

If you look at claims about "the future" from the recent past, you see the same thing said about blockchain, web 2.0 mash-ups and tagging, the semantic web/ontologies, smart homes, and so on. "In the future, we will all have smart fridges" – "In the future you will begin your day by asking Siri what your appointments are and what you should eat for breakfast" – "In the future your PC will print your newspaper at home." – "In the future you will pay for groceries out of your Bitcoin Wallet."

If you push back, and you point out that a this new claim sounds like a bullshit claim about blockchain, smart fridges, and the semantic web, you usually hear "That's what they said about cars. That's what they said about television." Never mind who "they" are. Never mind that they didn't say that about cars, they said that about Bitcoin. Cars are just a massive outlier. Cars were immensely successful, and they were largely unchanged for 120 years, with for wheels and an internal combustion engine that runs on petrol. Cars are noisy, smelly, and dangerous to pedestrians and occupants. For decades, leaded petrol used in cars distributed lead into the air and int the food supply. Cars depend on an infrastructure of asphalt roads and petrol stations. This is different from what they said about CDs or monorail or QR codes or pneumatic tubes. As for TV, it is usually invoked to say "People thought TV would rot our brains, yet here we are". There is no denying that TV had profoundly changed how people spend their time, changed politics, changed how fast the news cycle is, and so on, often for the worse.

It's so easy to refute "that's what they said about cars" that I could probably fill 50 A4 pages with the history of technologies that failed in some way, purely from memory, and then find old newspaper quotes from optimists and futurists that compared the naysayers (correct in hindsight) with car skeptics, and I could fill another 50 pages with ways inventions like cars and TV and the Internet profoundly changed society, and then find quotes from futurists that explain that the Internet is really just a better fax machine, and the car is like a faster horse, so we have nothing to worry about.

There's another way to dismiss skeptics of new technology, and it's harder to refute, even though it operates on the same kind of hindsight bias:

Imagine the year is 1995. What couldn't you achieve if only you knew that computers and the Internet would be big? Imagine you can send a letter to yourself in 1995. Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that the Internet will be the Next Big Thing? Wouldn't you want to tell your former self that by 2015, everybody will have an Internet-connected computer in their pockets?

It's easy to refute the hindsight bias of "that's what they said about cars" with example after example of technologies that didn't catch on for 100 years like cars did.

Where's the error here? If you say something like "Language-model AI is the future! Wouldn't you rather get on the bandwagon sooner than later?" you risk investing your money into a scam just to get in on the ground floor.

But really think it through: Imagine the year is 1985. A time traveller tells you that computers are going to be big. Everybody is going to have one. What do you do? Do you quit your job and work in the computer industry? If not, do you buy a computer? Which one? A C64? An IBM PC XT? Atari ST?

I don't know how much you could really do with this information. Should you invest your savings into Atari? Should you learn to program?

Imagine the year is 1985. A timer traveller tells you that the CD is going to replace vinyl and cassette tapes, then there will be mp3 players, but nothing will really replace mp3 players, and then streaming music from centralised servers will replace mp3 players. Nothing will really replace the CD, but the music industry will be completely different. Nobody will sell music on SD cards, mini discs are better than CDs in terms of technology, but they solve the wrong problem. All the cool indie bands that released free promo mp3s in the 2000s will split up or sell out. "What's an mp3?", you ask.

Imagine the year is 2005. Every pseudo-intellectual Internet commenter seems to think VHS won against BetaMax because of pornography. They are going to produce pornography for HD-DVD. You think Blu-Ray is dead in the water. A time traveller appears, and he tells you that actually, VHS won against BetaMax because the tapes are longer, and it allows you to VCR a long television program. Yes, they are going to produce pornography for the HD-DVD first, but it doesn't matter. Ever since Internet pornography, nobody goes to the sex shop anyway, just to risk coming out of the door with a shopping bag full of HD-DVDs, just as his neighbour's wife is coming out of the liquor store across the street. Still the Blu-ray won't replace DVDs like DVDs replaced VHS, because you can still play a DVD in a Blu-ray player, and it will all be streaming in a couple of years anyway.

What will you do with this information, other than buy a Blu-ray player?

Imagine the year is 1923. A time traveller tells you that cars are going to be big. Really big. Everybody will own one, and a garage. Petrol stations are everywhere already, but soon there will be traffic jams. Cities will be planned for cars, not people.

Should you buy a car now? Should you wait for the technology to mature?

The year is 2025. Somebody tells you that LLMs are going to be big. Bigger than they are. Bigger than ever. Bigger than Jesus. He tells you you're a sucker if you don't use ChatGPT. You think he's right, but you don't work in a job that can be done by ChatGPT. You work at a bakery. Maybe just not yet?

What should you do?

I think the idea that you should get in now, and you will "miss the boat" if you don't learn to use GenAI and conversational agents, that idea is just stupid. It's half special pleading, half Pascal's Wager, and a lot of hindsight bias. You couldn't really "get into" other technologies before they matured. Futurists confidently predicted in 2022 that "prompt engineer" was going to be a job, when obviously companies like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI had every reason and every incentive to work on making their systems better understand users, to make prompt engineering obsolete. At some point owning a car meant learning to be a car mechanic or having a chauffeur who was your personal car mechanic, and then the technology matured. Cars are more complex now, and harder to repair when something breaks, but they are also more reliable and have diagnostic lights.

So should you use ChatGPT or Claude now, just to get ready for "The Future"? I don't know. All I know is that AI won't be a faster horse.

[1shcakes]

Facetfur Magazine

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Incredible Value for Money!"

"I was skeptical at first, but investing in my own Facetfur was the best decision I’ve made! They’re impeccably dressed, always at the ready, and they never fail to impress my guests. The only downside is their inability to express emotions, but that just adds to their charm! Truly the epitome of luxury service!"

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "The Perfect Addition to Any Home."

"Having a Facetfur has been a dream come true. They keep my space immaculate like I asked and make life so much easier. I can’t imagine going back to a time when I had to clean for myself, and the occasional look of despair in their eyes adds a layer of intrigue to my home decor. Just remember to keep them well-fed, I hear they need that for maintenance."

Don't scan the QR code. It doesn't contain anything.