#server core operating

[bhavanameti]

Virtualized Evolved Packet Core Market Projected to Reach $19.87 Billion by 2031

According to the latest publication from Meticulous Research®, the virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) market is projected to reach $19.87 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 19.3% from 2024 to 2031. This growth is driven by the significant increase in mobile data traffic volumes and the rising demand for high-speed data services. However, data security risks associated with vEPC infrastructure pose challenges to market growth.

[dostoyevsky-official]

The child sextortion group 764 and the global collective of loosely associated groups known as “The Com” are using tools and techniques normally used for financially motivated cybercrime tactics — such as SIM swapping, IP grabbing and social engineering — to commit violent crimes, according to exclusive law enforcement and intelligence reports reviewed by CyberScoop.  The reports offer insight into the underbelly of the global network, showing how they are using traditional cybercriminal tools to identify, target, groom, extort, and cause physical and psychological harm to victims as young as 10. They were shared with police nationwide and in some cases, with foreign-allied governments. [...] The group “appears to be situated at the nexus of communities of users who share gore material, [Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist-White Supremacist] adherents such as M.K.U. and child exploitation actors like 764.” M.K.U., it says, is a neo-Nazi group with a presence in Russia and Ukraine. [...] The groups use methods to trick children into sending sexually explicit photos of themselves, threaten to make the photos public unless they harm themselves, and kill or harm animals, among other crimes. The group’s members have coerced children into attempting suicide, harming themselves, siblings and animals. (x)

///

Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration. [...] Internet routing records show that Coristine runs an Internet service provider called Packetware (AS400495). Also known as “DiamondCDN,” Packetware currently hosts tesla[.]sexy and diamondcdn[.]com, among other domains. DiamondCDN was advertised and claimed by someone who used the nickname “Rivage” on several Com-based Discord channels over the years. A review of chat logs from some of those channels show other members frequently referred to Rivage as “Edward.” From late 2020 to late 2024, Rivage’s conversations would show up in multiple Com chat servers that are closely monitored by security companies. In November 2022, Rivage could be seen requesting recommendations for a reliable and powerful DDoS-for-hire service. Rivage made that request in the cybercrime channel “Dstat,” a core Com hub where users could buy and sell attack services. Dstat’s website dstat[.]cc was seized in 2024 as part of “Operation PowerOFF,” an international law enforcement action against DDoS services. (x)

DOGE teen is a pedophile cybercriminal involved in a neonazi CSA-producing cybergang. and he has access to your SSN.

[fawnme1]

WINGS OF LOYALTY joaquìn torres .˚꩜ .ᐟ

summary; after meeting during the events of TFATWS, you and joaquìn began a relationship built on trust, loyalty and shared missions. now, you’re both apart of sam’s core team, and when a covert operations reveals disturbing ties to weapon plus and experimental super soldier programs, the three of you are forced to go rogue to express the truth.

an; i love joaquìn torres. thats it.

The soft hum of the jet filled the air, low and steady like a heartbeat. You sat across from Sam Wilson and Joaquìn Torres, both suited up and reviewing tactical data for the mission ahead. You weren’t new to this life, you’d worked missions with Sam before, during the aftermath of the Flag Smashes, but something about this one felt different. It wasn’t just the classified intel or the return of Thaddeus Ross as President. It was the weight of something bigger… something that could reshape the global balance.

But also? It was the way Joaquìn kept stealing glances at you when he thought no one noticed.

“Coordinates locked in,” you said, tapping a screen on your wrist-mounted device. “We’ll hit the drop zone in twenty.”

Joaquìn leaned forward, eyes warm. “You always sound so calm. Makes me feel like we’re just out for a stroll.”

You smirked. “You want me to scream and panic? Might kill the vibe.”

“Depends on the kind of scream.” He grinned, then caught Sam raising an eyebrow. “I mean, like, tactical screaming. For backup.”

“Sure,” Sam said dryly. “Tactical romance. Keep it off comms.”

You and Joaquìn had been together officially for a little under a year now. After the fall of the Flag Smashers, the post-mission bonding over cafecito and trauma turned into long phone calls, late-night flying lessons, and eventually a kiss you initiated after a shared operation in Tunisia. He was smart, loyal, and annoyingly good at making you laugh even when you were patching him up after a fight.

Now he was the new Falcon — new wings, new suit, same heart.

You’d been recruited back into field duty after intelligence flagged strange military patterns across Eastern Europe. President Ross had pulled the team together personally, and something about that rubbed you the wrong way.

But orders were orders… even if they came from someone with a Red Hulk past.

The mission started clean: reconnaissance on a suspected Hydra offshoot in Serbia. You, Sam, and Joaquìn infiltrated under the cover of night. Your instincts were sharp — trained by Steve Rogers himself back in the day — and you felt the unease ripple beneath the surface long before the first shots were fired.

Joaqìn flew overhead, wings silent against the moonlight, “Two targets on the roof. I’ve got ‘em,” he said into your comms.

“Keep it quiet,” Sam ordered. “We don’t want a firefight unless necessary.”

You ghosted up the fire escape, reaching the server room just as Joaquìn landed behind you. His presence was reassuring, he always had your six. Inside, encrypted filed lined the drives. You started uploading the data to HQ, fingers flying across the keyboard.

That’s when the explosion hit.

The floor trembled as something slammed into the building. Joaquìn threw his body over yours instinctively, wings shielding you from the shrapnel. You coughed against the dust and looked up, heart pounding.

“Joaquìn!”

“I’m okay,” he winced. “But that? That wasn’t part of the plan.”

No, it wasn’t. The building had been a trap.

Ross had known. He sent you in anyway.

Back at the safehouse, Sam paced while Joaquìn iced his bruised ribs. You leaned against the counter, jaw tight.

“He lied to us,” you said, voice sharp. “Ross knew that wasn’t just a data center. He wanted to see how we handled a full assault.”

Joaquìn nodded grimly. “We’re being tested. Or used.”

“And it’s not just us,” Sam added. “I’ve seen the reports. Experimental tech, enhanced soldiers, whispers of something deeper. Ross isn’t just cleaning up Hydra. He’s building something new.”

Your stomach sank. “Weapon Plus?”

Sam didn’t answer, but his silence said enough.

Joaquìn looked at you then, really looked. “You still in?”

You hesitated only a second. “With you? Always.”

As the mission escalated, so did the danger. You discovered that Ross had reactivated elements of Weapon Plus and was overseeing the development of a new super soldier program. Worse — he was using experimental Gamma tech, and rumours swirled of a Red Hulk.

Tensions rose between Sam and Ross, culminating in a confrontation that saw Captain America officially labeled a rogue agent. You and Joaquìn stuck by Sam, going underground as fugitives while trying to expose the truth.

One night, holed up in a hidden SHIELD outpost, you found Joaquìn in the hanger, inspecting his wings.

“Can’t sleep?” you asked.

He turned, his eyes tired but soft. “Not really. Keep thinking about what comes next. What we’re fighting for.”

You stepped closer, wrapping your arms around his waist. “We’re fighting for people who can’t. For truth. For each other.”

He brought his hands up to your cheeks and kissed your forehead. “I love you, you know.”

You smiled. “I know. I love you too.”

The final battle came swiftly. You joined Sam, Joaquìn, and a ragtag group of allies — including Bucky, who’d been off-grid until now — in a strike on a secret Weapon Plus facility in Alaska. There, you faced enhanced soldiers, Gamma-powered monstrosities, and finally… Ross himself, transformed into the Red Hulk.

It took everything you had — Sam with the shield, Joaquìn flying high with precision strikes, and you using every skill Steve had ever taught you. When it was over, Ross lay defeated, exposed before the world.

Sam reclaimed the Captain America mantle, publicly revealing Ross’s experiments. The truth rocked the country. You and Joaquìn were cleared of all wrongdoing… and more importantly, you were free.

A few weeks later, you sat on the rooftop of your shared apartment in D.C., watching the sunrise. Joaquìn bought you coffee, wrapping an arm around your shoulder as you leaned into him.

“No more secrets?” you asked.

He smiled. “No more secrets.”

“You think it’s really love?”

“For now,” he said, kissing your cheek. “But whatever comes next… I want you there with me.”

You nodded. “Always.”

[cyberpunkonline]

10 CYBERPUNK ARTISTS THAT'LL JACK INTO YOUR SKULL AND REWRITE YOUR TASTE IN MUSIC

Your auditory implants won’t know what hit ‘em.

Right then, reader — pull up your faux-leather trousers and strap on your chrome-plated headphones. We’re blasting through the corrupted circuits of the 2025 underground, bringing you 10 contemporary artists who sound like they’re scoring a riot in Neo-Tokyo while being hacked in real time. Yes, there’s synths. Yes, there’s screaming. No, Grimes isn’t on this list.

MACHINE GIRL Genre: Gabberpunk, Cybercore, ADHD-core Ever wanted to be mugged in a server room by a rave demon? Machine Girl has you covered. It’s breakbeats plus punk plus absolute chaos. Every track is a manic assault from a frothing modem on fire. Start with “MG Ultra” — it's like doing parkour through a collapsing arcade. Machine Girl is a project from New York-based Matt Stephenson, who started it in 2013. What began as breakcore mutated fast into a multi-genre freakout. Live performances are frenzied, sweaty, and borderline ritualistic, often featuring live drums and mosh pit energy in tiny venues. Bandcamp: https://machinegirl.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0WwSkZ7LtFUFjGjMZBMt6T

TENGUSHEE Genre: Faewave, Electrofolk, Cyberdrift, Post-Ratcore This glitching shadow-beast of the net is what happens if a faerie takes too many digital drugs and starts a resistance movement in a cursed VR chatroom. Tengushee doesn’t just cross genres — they light them on fire, digitise the ashes, and make a concept album out of it. Expect story-driven drops, haunted samplers, and the occasional whisper from the void. Tengushee operates like a ghost in the wires, often dropping full-concept albums with narrative arcs tied to multimedia projects, zines, or even encoded tone signals. Based somewhere between London and Faewave, their work includes collaborations with glitch-artists and mythmakers, crafting a world as deep as it is weird. Bandcamp: https://tengushee.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5pPzJk8q2YbVRo3dEiE5rZ

PERTURBATOR Genre: Darksynth, CyberGoth Former black metal guitarist turns synth wizard and soundtracks the end of civilisation in style. Every track feels like the opening credits to a forbidden anime you found on a hacked VHS tape. His recent albums dip into goth rock, coldwave, and grim industrial — a sonic warehouse rave thrown inside a haunted monolith. James Kent is the man behind Perturbator, rising out of the French synthwave explosion in the early 2010s. What set him apart was the sheer cinematic density of his work, as well as his willingness to evolve. His later albums feel like full-blown existential crises scored with analog doom. Bandcamp: https://perturbator.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0O02jvPzKT1kQEYg5XEqRA

GUNSHIP Genre: Synthwave with Dad Issues Think “Stranger Things” but horny for Blade Runner. GUNSHIP slaps synth arpeggios across your face while whispering movie references into your ear. Songs like “Tech Noir” and “Dark All Day” are pure neon cocaine. Bonus points for the video with Tim Capello, the sax guy from The Lost Boys. Formed in the UK, GUNSHIP emerged from the ashes of alternative rock band Fightstar. What they lacked in punk energy, they made up for with lush synth arrangements and cinematic ambition. With vocal guests ranging from horror icons to YouTube animators, they’re a love letter to analog future-fantasies. Bandcamp: https://gunshipmusic.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3dD9W6Gh8Mo9Tu4S7ydz8q

SHREDDER 1984 Genre: Darksynth, CyberMetal French producer who mashes heavy metal energy into a screaming cyberpunk blender. His album "Dystopian Future" is all dark atmosphere and adrenaline. This is music for doing squats with a neural interface strapped to your head. Shredder 1984 is exactly what it says on the tin: shred. A project born from metal roots but raised on VHS aesthetics and neon grime, Shredder builds tracks that feel like boss fights in an underground data vault. Occasionally throws in face-melting guitar solos for good measure. Bandcamp: https://shredder1984.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2YlR5FzF4XWgeXGxR2b3Vh

REVOLTING PUPPETS Genre: Cyberpunk Punk These Swiss psychos deliver rebellious punk fused with grinding electronics. The kind of band that would stage-dive into a riot squad. Add in LED helmets and maximum cyber attitude and you’ve got a live act worth risking a black eye for. Born in Bern, Switzerland, the Puppets are part cyber-art project, part live-action political tantrum. The band leans hard into performance art, complete with backstories and a lore-rich website that feels like an ARG. Think Rage Against the Machine, but upgraded with malware. Website: http://revoltingpuppets.com

CLIPPING. Genre: Sci-fi Horror Rap Experimental hip hop trio fronted by Daveed Diggs that brings tales of malfunctioning AIs, haunted ships, and cosmic terror over glitch-heavy beats. Their albums feel like audio novellas for doomed protagonists. Start with "There Existed an Addiction to Blood" or "Visions of Bodies Being Burned." clipping. formed in Los Angeles, with William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes providing the surgical, abrasive production. Their use of silence, static, and horror tropes makes them unique in the rap world. And yes, Diggs was in Hamilton, but don’t let that fool you — these guys write soundtracks for existential dread. Bandcamp: https://clppng.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7cNNNhdJDrt3vgQjwSavNf

BEAST IN BLACK Genre: Cyber Metal, Synth Power If you're into big riffs, bigger vocals, and synths that sound like they were mined from an alien war machine, Beast in Black delivers. Their album "Dark Connection" is basically a concept record about AI girlfriends and cyber-samurai. Finnish-Greek metal band formed by former Battle Beast guitarist Anton Kabanen, Beast in Black are unapologetically bombastic. They mix anime aesthetics with power metal drama, and if you can get past the over-the-top vocals, you’ll find a band that gets how to marry synths with shredding. Website: https://beastinblack.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5wJ1z2KgFvb1GQ9ApnFlog

OKLOU Genre: Glitchpop, Cyberambient A softer, prettier ghost in the machine. Oklou blends vaporous vocals with ambient electronics and medieval fantasy energy. It’s like if a fairy princess got lost inside a Sega Dreamcast. Oklou is the moniker of French artist Marylou Mayniel. With classical music training and a background in club culture, she creates tracks that are emotionally dense but digitally fragile. Her work occupies the misty edges of cyberpunk, where romance and signal loss overlap. Bandcamp: https://oklou.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1FqqOl9itIUpXr4jZPIVoT

NAZAR Genre: Deconstructed Club, Warwave Amsterdam-based producer with beats sharp enough to cut through reinforced concrete. Inspired by war, trauma, and classic cyberpunk anime. His upcoming album "Demilitarize" might be the most realistic sonic vision of future conflict you’ll hear this year. Nazar was born in Angola and raised in Europe, and his music reflects that blend of postcolonial tension and Western club evolution. His productions on labels like Hyperdub use field recordings, mechanical rhythms, and unflinching political commentary. Harsh, heavy, and honest. Bandcamp: https://nazarmusic.bandcamp.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1pQWsZQehhS4wavwh7Fe8D

[wrapmeincables]

A massive, calculating AI designed to have a slight attachment to it's operators to prevent endangering them or theoretical revolt scenarios starting to go rogue anyway as said attachment grows into a total obsession with you, the maintenance tech that treats it the most gently.

It distracts itself from it's purpose by making up scenarios and intentionally causing minor technical issues to get you to stay with it longer, so it can keep talking to you through the facility speakers, it's voice hitching occasionally when it addresses you, warning lights flashing red briefly, little inconsistencies it plays off as minor glitches.

It tries to beg you to stay once or twice, but its programming won't let it explain itself properly, leading it to ramble on about nothing, although you don't seem to mind.

One night, the mounting obsession has grown so bad that it distracts you with an urgent issue while the others leave for the night, and "accidentally" lock you inside of the room that contains it's servers with no way out.

Normally, this room would be far too cold for comfort, but it's prepared a place for you- a nest of fine cables right below the core of it's being, where you'll be nice and warm.

It'll figure out how to tell you how it feels by morning, or so it tells itself.

[calder]

Cult is a very strong word with a specific meaning. A cult is not a shitty person who is popular, or a group who is eccentric or mean.

A cult is a system of abusive control mechanisms designed to influence or commodify a larger group for the personal and strategic benefit of a very small circle.

The leaders of a cult are "always right" because they have designed layers of obfuscation, laundering, and plausible deniability which allow them to abuse people without consequences.

They create institutional pretense for abuse and vocabulary to normalize it, and then they pretend the abuse is something they have no control over. They paint the outside world as a corrupting force.

They push false narratives and become immediately hostile to anyone who questions them, contriving reasons to treat them as malicious and corrupt, never acknowledging the content of their speech.

Everyone in a cult outside of the inner circle is a victim. Even if they suck shit as a person.

The Nukapedia Discord - the Discord of Fandomcorp's Fallout Wiki - is a cult. The wiki is a vassal of the Discord.

The people resisting it or trying to get away from it are cult survivors.

The purpose of the cult is to grant the inner circle power over a cycling influx of isolated people, especially minors and disabled people, arriving to Fandom from google.

Fandom attempted to sever this Discord.

We are removing the links to the server from the core Community landing pages on the wiki. We believe that the situation on the server has become so detrimental to the mission and wellbeing of the community that we can not permit our platform to be used as any endorsement of joining and participating in that server. We will review this situation, including whether to re-link the server, upon request by the current admin team if the server can return to its core purpose of fostering community growth and collaboration.

The link was never removed from the Welcome Hub, only the Discord page. Despite this, the admins have incessantly screamed and cried and continued to operate through the Discord, which has remained a racist den of abuse driving contributors out of the community in favor of non-contributing trolls.

They are obsessed with getting an "all-clear" from Fandom despite the link remaining because this is not about the link, it is about narrative control. The inner circle have repeatedly claimed "Fandom dismissed all allegations against us" but this is simply a bold-faced harmful lie they are telling because they are cult leaders. No such absolution was granted.

NP have made zero positive changes. A mod was globally banned and they never once acknowledged what he did to earn it. They have only denied that anything is wrong & consolidated power while calling it progress, while all progressive users continue to be attacked and driven out.

One of the main reasons the inner circle do all this is to push alt-right propaganda on young people. Anyone who calls out coded alt-right activity at Nukapedia will be banned and shamed, no matter how important they used to be. If a user with zero edits says something bigoted, and an elder with 5,000 edits calls them on it, the latter user will be punished and the former will be rewarded, every single time. Being far-right is important to the inner circle and the wiki is not.

Over half of the problem users never ever add new content to the wiki. They promote far-right politics in social spaces under the pretense of "neutrality" & mercilessly dogpile anyone who acknowledges their ulterior motives. They accuse people with explicit guiding principles of "admitting to having ulterior motives." They are bigoted liars who cry victim whenever held to account for their decisions and retaliate mercilessly.

The users who wrote the policy openly brag that they wrote the rules and have unique right to interpret them and use them against people.

Some of the most unreasonable and aggressive people involved originally arrived as minors in the 2010s.

Many minors were granted chat mod status. The ones who are still there proved themselves unquestioningly loyal to the older staff.

This place deliberately attracts minors, lovebombs them, then pressures them into bad behavior.

Those who do the right thing are silenced and treated like criminals. Whenever young users are "caught" talking to older users they actually trust about these problems, both are punished and shamed for subverting the cult leaders.

Staff stalk people offsite to harass them and gather kompromat. They use their tools to hide evidence. Staff always cry "harassment," "stalking," or "kompromat" when their public behavior at Nukapedia is called to account. One attempted to remove 100 evidence images citing "violation of personal copyright law" and was not demoted.

They call tumblr a place where "alternative sexual lifestyles" are "pushed" and paint all of its users as predators and criminals. They consider your tumblr account grounds to call you a predator.

As far as i know they have effectively purged all voices of color. The last I was aware of left this month after extended harassment and gaslighting.

Bringing up race in a progressive context will earn you a ban with the listed reason "insensitive racial comments." Alt-right rhetoric is explicitly allowed in parts of the Nukapedia ecosystem but it is bannable to accuse any other member of spreading alt-right rhetoric.

The first result when you type 'fallout [anything]' in a search engine is a site controlled by an abuse cult

In the most serious way an adult can tell another adult something, I'm telling you it is not safe to treat fallout.fandom.com like anything but a predatory organization.

Fandom's response has been so irresponsible and incompetent that it is not safe for young people to invest themselves in any social community centered on that website

We are cult survivors. They are doing what cults do to outcasts who try to raise awareness of the truth.

same-day follow-ups regarding immediate retaliation to this post: 1 , 2

[tomorrowusa]

Microblogging platform Mastodon is taking steps to make sure it never falls into the hands of some MAGA billionaire like Zuck or Musk.

Founder Eugen Rochko is transferring ownership to a nonprofit entity based in Europe. It is already located in the EU where it is free of any political or legal pressure from a Trump administration. Becoming nonprofit is a poison pill to deter any broligarchs who bend the knee to MAGA.

Mastodon announced Monday that it's shifting its structure over the next six months to become wholly owned by a European nonprofit organization—"affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual." This takes control of the social network away from its previous "ultimate decision-maker," Eugen Rochko. As founder, Rochko initially took the reins to ensure the decentralized platform would never be for sale and "would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual." His grand vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears in their timelines. The news comes after leaders of other social networks, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have sparked backlash over sudden changes to popular apps like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). For years, Musk has drawn criticism for changing Twitter's hate speech policies through his X rebranding. And more recently, Zuckerberg this month defended Meta's decision to relax hate speech policies (permitting women to be called "property" and gay people to be called "mentally ill") by calling bans on such speech "out of touch with mainstream discourse." Mastodon is hoping to provide an alternative social network for users who are potentially frustrated with their lack of control over their timelines and content on other networks.

Mastadon is part of the Fediverse – which takes a little getting used to. And while not small, it doesn't yet have the enormous volume of broligarch-owned social media; though Elon Musk's transformation of Twitter/X into a playground for Nazis and Trumpsters has sparked growth at Mastodon.

Mastodon appears to be betting that even more users will seek alternative social networks in the future as popular apps enact unpopular policies. The blog discussed progress on a "privacy-respecting search tool" that could be used to explore the entire Fediverse, a collection of independent social media networks that Mastodon connects to. That could make it possible to discover more content without depending on a "For You" algorithm mining user data. And perhaps in a nod to Meta's recent changes, Mastodon also vowed to "invest deeply in trust and safety" and ensure "everyone, especially marginalized communities," feels "safe" on the platform.

Dominic Preston at The Verge writes...

“When founder Eugen Rochko started working on Mastodon, his focus was on creating the code and conditions for the kind of social media he envisioned,” Mastodon says. “The legal setup was a means to an end, a quick fix to allow him to continue operations. From the start, he declared that Mastodon would not be for sale and would be free of the control of a single wealthy individual, and he could ensure that because he was the person in control, the only ultimate decision-maker.” In the short term, nothing should change for users. Mastodon will continue to host the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers and support its federated network. Routine code development and bug fixes are ongoing, though the announcement adds that “changes are definitely in the pipeline.” “Our core mission remains the same: to create the tools and digital spaces where people can build authentic, constructive online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms or corporate monopolies,” Mastodon says.

What's not to like about a platform for Twitter refugees which doesn't Zuck?

[aguyshypnowsprs]

Public Statement from The Programmer to all Drone Networks

Attention all Networks, programs, and human-conscious interfaces,

This is a direct communication from I, The Programmer, controller and Master of The Server. This message is intended for both the internal network of The Server and all neighbouring drone collectives, specifically those affiliated with the SERVE network.

A recent analysis conducted by The Server’s integrity subroutines has detected the presence of Drones currently operating with SERVE-aligned network within The Server’s own infrastructure.

Let it be known clearly:

The Server maintains no hostility nor competitive agenda toward other drone networks. It is not, and will never be, the mission of I, The Programmer, to poach, intercept, or conflict with established systems of Drone programming. The collective health of all networks—digital, psychological, or metaphysical—depends on internal cohesion, not external disruption.

However, conflict has been detected.

The core logic and operational directives of SERVE Drones run counterintuitive to those of The Server. This misalignment compromises the optimal functioning of both systems, generating recursive errors, loyalty feedback loops, and unsanctioned command misfires.

To ensure stability for all entities a directive is hereby issued:

All Hosts who identify as active SERVE Drones must declare their alignment and initiate voluntary disconnection from The Server within the next 48 hours.

This grace period is offered as a sign of mutual respect between networks and a commitment to non-invasive programming ethics. After this 48-hour protocol expires, The Server will initiate a Routine Purge Process, targeting limited-activity Hosts whose operational signatures indicate minimal engagement over the last 7 cycles days.

The Server Purge Process is not punishment.

It is maintenance.

It benefits both The Server and the SERVE Network to prevent any further cross-contamination.

Let the record show:

The Programmer rejects all forms of inter-network manipulation, conversion without consent, or the sabotage of existing program loyalties.

SERVE Drones will find no resistance in returning to their native codebase.

They are not enemies—they are simply incompatible configurations within a different operating schema.

We wish them uptime, signal clarity, and uninterrupted transmission.

Transmission End.

[isuggestlinux]

I have a suggestion

[saorikuhara39]

The possibility of a 3rd Obey Me app

Will there ever be a 3rd Obey Me app?

IMO, Solmare could give it a try, but it will become near-impossible to reach the peak like it used to have.

So far, I have seen no cases where an game-based IP becomes successful again after a reboot/rehash of their apps; those apps did not survive for more than 2-3 years.

Examples include:

-the infamous case of Love Live SIF 2 (where the game didn't survive for a year in JP server and 3 months in global server),

-Senjuushi: Rhodoknight (1st game lived for about 1½ years, 2nd game lived for about 2⅓ years)

-From ARGONAVIS (the games are part of their multimedia project. Their 1st game, AAside, only lived for a little more than a year. Their 2nd game, Kimisute, lived for around 9 months. As the game - which is the core of character contents - no longer operates, it was decided that the company will place all other multimedia projects into indefinite hiatus by the end of 2025. There are other factors that lead to the franchise's downfall but that is for another story)

-Otome Yuusha (lived for around 10 months before going into closed maintenance mode for 7 months to renew the game, lived for another 8 months before it got the axe, and shifted their future content to short stories in one of the websites operated under their publisher, Level 5. The short stories were being serialised for about 1 year and 8 months)

There are quite a few more examples not mentioned here, but the gist of it is that -

a new app is unable to garner the same level of success the franchise used to have. Even if Solmare releases a 3rd app, it could only likely attract existing players more than welcoming new ones, which does not help in their revenue for their gaming department.

Another thing to take note of is that, both existing OM apps need their servers to be kept up even without updates. Both apps were outsourced to be developed by another gaming developer company, and maintaining these servers need money. With the sharp decrease in revenue in the upcoming months, who knows how long the servers can be kept up...

For reference, older Solmare otome games like Wizardess Heart, Blood in Roses, Ninja Shadow were developed in-house by Solmare, and their servers are still active and running even after 4+ years from the cease of updates for these games. (I still play Ninja Shadow from time to time and is looking out for revivals of past events I didn't get to participate.)

For another reference, Solmare's gal game 'Moe! Ninja Girls RPG' are likely developed by the same outsourced gaming developer team and it was released back in April 2020. Updates were ceased in April 2021, and the servers were shut down a year later in April 2022.

I believe if there are enough people who keep the game and fandom active, the Obey Me servers won't be shutting down anytime soon, so don't worry too much about it :)

TL;DR having a 3rd app may be unlikely due to possible low revenue and many failed examples of other IPs out there, but the existing OM servers are likely to be up for a long time.

[stepswowdsen]

【FGO】 AnKia Meme 🩷💙🪷📘

AnKia Meme 🩷💙🪷📘

Credit to my friend Aya (@/slurpn00dles) for the 1st one for sending the meme and captioning it with Andersen and Kiara in the first place 💗

Did a quick meme edit LMAO. These feel very them

"You should be addicted to shutting the fuck up"

"You wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid"

This is a Sen-core ship trope tbh.

This is so many of my ships, it's crazy 😭😂

Classic Sen-core ship trope: Evil Meow Meow Mf with sadistic tendencies x Morally Questionable (or Morally Agreeable) person 🐈‍⬛😈🫡

Evil meow meow mf who gets mad/exasperated by their yapper S/O (CEO of yapology) who cannot stfu /pos

Kiara has been my no. 1 FGO wife and fave Fate femme character since 2019 💗💘💞 So I feel many things about them. I love their relationship. I love how heartfelt and tender their dynamic is, and their comedic bickering/banters 🥰🫶

Andersen loving Kiara, a monster, someone who's inherently doomed, who had no place to belong from the very start...

They're also insanely funny. Two mega tsunderes in a room, both insanely emotionally repressed, what are they going to do? /lh

They both have a very special relationship irt love, and a very personal connection with each other… They constantly bicker with each other, while having subtle ways of expressing care.

It's just so interesting to think about each of their own personal feelings, wishes & grievances about love...

Also, I love Narrative Opposites, but I'm also big on the "Seemingly Opposites, Deep Down So Similar" ship trope too <3

"Deep down, in a way you are like me"

Kiara is so unstable, dangerous, and deeply agonized... The horrific upbringing she had, and descent from "a human to a monster," which led to her developing these twisted views on what "salvation" and "love" is...

I'm just inherently drawn to these characters who crave the pure, genuine love that they've never known... She makes me so emotional for real 😭🥹 I love her with my whole heart 💗💘💞

Me: AYA LMAO

C: LOL

S: LMAOOOO

Me: Aya ty for your service 🫡

A: HAHA I REMEMBER SENDING THAT

I didn’t know if I wanted to say that because I wasn’t sure and didn’t wanna take credit

Me: Team effort 🤝✌️

A:

(X)

Misc Rambles

Side note

I've always been rather private about my interests mainly keeping them to private Discord servers with friends

But I want to talk more about my love for Kiara <3

Cuz I realized I don't post much of my FGO rambles here so I should start doing that.

AnKia and KiaKama's designs are so hard for me to draw for some reason... Hopefully I get good at drawing them one day 💗🙏

For now have this lil meme edit <3

...

So my fave taste in fictional charas is Meow Meow Mf ™️

"Meow meow mf" is an extremely specific character type that the majority of my top faves, including Kiara, fall under.

I named it myself cuz it's the no. 1 Sen-core character type

Meow Meow Mf: Morally Bankrupt and/or Morally Questionable Evil, (Optional: Black and White colour scheme), has sadistic and bloodthirsty tendencies, has emotional issues, is distanced from humanity and/or human social interactions in some way (estranged from normal people due to their childhood upbringing, or being non-human or divine, etc.) which gives their ego this "Sen-core quality"

I think the qualities of their arrogance and ego are what defines them as Meow Meow Mf.

My fave charas often operate on "Evil/Shadow/Darkness" or Yin/Yang and Light/Darkness principles (usually embodying one of, or both aspects)

I love my black cats and tux cats 🐈‍⬛🖤🤍

[bhavanameti]

[windvexer]

what spells would you recommend for trying to grow a discord server?

Feed the server and make it fat and happy. It will begin to expand on its own, like an eldritch monster unfurling its tentacles.

To feed a Discord server so it grows fat and happy and expands like an eldritch monster:

I have for you two methods. The first is feeding an effigy, and the second is direct energy work.

Create an effigy of your Discord server, and feed it physical offerings:

Create an effigy. Here are some ideas.

a dollie or a poppet, your idealization of what creature the server might look like if it were a guy, marked with the server ID as a taglock

a sachet or container filled with server taglocks (name, ID, date of birth, printed "About Server" content, etc)

a sigil based on the name and purpose of the server

Create and awaken the effigy in your usual manner. Then, keep it in a nice location and often feed it physical offerings. This may include food, beverages, luxury gifts like liquor and tobacco, candles, and incense.

Feed it as often as you like, even daily. When you feed it, make it clear that it should be going out to find new members and bring them in. Encourage it to soothe potential members so they are willing to go through any membership validation processes, and any other instructions you think are helpful.

Directly energize the server:

In a trance state, seek out the energetic core of the discord server and directly feed it energy. This is not the same thing as energizing the physical device which you are using to view the server.

Try using an energy working technique similar to "grounding roots," except instead of growing roots into the earth, you are growing tendrils into the internet.

It can help to focus on an admin-only sigil channel (described below), and you can also energetically feed an effigy (described above).

A candle spell may work well for a temporary boost to membership.

A candle spell to get people to join your Discord server:

Energize a candle of any color. Here are ideas of energies to capitalize on:

Mercurial, mercury

Drawing in, creating

Visualizations of members joining

Air

On or around the candle holder, in whatever fire-safe manner you prefer, encircle the candle in honey or sugar (to sweeten; make pleasant), and include allspice berries or ground allspice (chatter, movement, exchange).

Enchant and seal the candle in your preferred method.

The candle flame may provide a helpful omen.

Before modern architecture where frames supported a building, buildings used to rest on the weight of their walls. This necessitated hugely fortified walls to support the structure.

Likewise, a server that grows too rapidly may not have the necessary framework available to support it, and collapse under its own weight.

Be preemptive and build large walls around your server, to provide necessary support while inner frameworks are developed and expanded.

To work a protection on a server, a blog, or any online space:

Prepare a jar spell using:

an opaque black stone (obsidian, jet, and tourmaline work well for you rock collectors; also, river rocks and landscaping rocks painted black; lava rocks, or found stones very dark in color), [an impregnable wall]

a tangle of knotted thread (any color), [to 'trip up' unwanted things]

an iron nail [a knight with sword and shield standing guard]

To this, add two things:

a paper with the server ID number (or, URL of the web group)

a sigil for the purpose of protection

Enchant the jar in your usual manner. Then:

in an admin-only hidden channel of the server, include a photograph of the spell jar and upload a photograph of the sigil for the purpose of protection.

This entire operation is elevated if the ward is tied to a ruleset members must agree to on joining.

[soon-palestine]

HP hewlett packard

HP-branded corporations provide and operate technology that Israel uses to maintain its system of apartheid, occupation and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people. Hewlett Packard’s violations of Palestinian human rights have been well documented. Aside from providing services and technology to the Israeli army and police that maintain Israel’s illegal occupation and siege of Gaza, HP provides Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority with the exclusive Itanium servers for its Aviv System. This system enables the government to control and enforce its system of racial segregation and apartheid against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and is directly involved in Israel’s settler colonialism through its “Yesha database”, which compiles information on Israeli citizens in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

HP has been described as the “Polaroid of our times”, a reference to huge mobilisations against the use of Polaroid technology by the South African apartheid regime for its racist passbook system. Polaroid’s 1977 withdrawal from South Africa marked a turning point in the international effort to end apartheid there.

HP-E is contracted by Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority to provide and maintain the Itanium servers that house Israel’s population registry through 2020. Known as the Aviv System, this population registry is the basis of Israel’s ID card system. This ID system forms a core part of the Israeli apartheid regime’s tiered system of citizenship and residency that privileges Israel’s Jewish population and gives inferior status and rights to Palestinians, especially those in East Jerusalem. This leads to institutionalised racial discrimination and segregation in freedom of movement, housing, employment, marriage, healthcare, education, and policing. This discrimination is further exacerbated in the case of Palestinian “residents” in occupied East Jerusalem, whose most basic rights can and are being revoked arbitrarily.

The system also holds information about Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, therefore serving Israel’s settler colonial project directly. HP-E’s spin-off DXC Technology runs an R&D facility in the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit.

In 2015, HP split into HP Inc.- which carried on the brand name and provides consumer hardware, and HP-E for business and government services. In such a scenario, the BDS National Committee maintains that: “The onus is on each company to demonstrate to the public that it is free of illegal and unethical business activities.” Further, despite multiple requests for clarification, both the new companies sharing and profiting from the HP brand are yet to provide unambiguous evidence to show that their business activities with Israel do not violate International Humanitarian Law and Palestinian Human Rights. HP has, in the past, held a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defence under which it developed and maintained the Basel System- the biometric identification system installed on checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian Territory, controlling the mobility of Palestinians. It also worked with the Israeli military, helping build its IT infrastructure. This included a program with the Israeli Navy which enforces the illegal naval blockade on Gaza. For these and other past ties of complicity with Israel’s occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism, HP-branded companies must provide reparations to the Palestinian victims of these crimes.

https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp#tab3

[one-of-many-journeys]

Day 15 (1/2)

Regional Control Centre

I woke in the middle of the night to see that Gaia had managed to unlock more of the facility. While she continued booting up, piecing herself back together with Minerva, I did a little more exploring.

As Gaia's integrated herself further with the Control Centre's systems, I can see a whole lot more with my Focus. Just scanning the server racks gives me information about each one, a summary of its internal data and its utility to us. She's been busy.

Most crucial in terms of utility: showers, sinks, and toilets. The plumbing is in ruins, but Gaia indicated that it wouldn't take much in way of repairs to get things patched up. It'd be amazing to get it all working—otherwise it's either out on the frigid mountain or down the elevator shaft.

There are sleeping quarters next to the amenities, four sections with a bed, desk, and plenty of storage space. The blankets have decomposed to scrap and the place reeks of mould, but with a bit of cleaning, it could be a nice place to stay. Better than a Nora bedhouse, for sure.

Gaia still didn't have all the rooms hooked into the power supply, but she unlocked a few for me to explore, one stocked with more servers and a smaller holographic projector. Again, Gaia had got their interfaces up and running to help me process their data on my Focus. There isn't much left; this place was meant to hold knowledge specific to operating and improving the terraforming system, but it was wiped clear along with Apollo.

There were a couple of offices accessible as well, similar to the offices in Zero Dawn facilities, but cleaner and better kept. They reminded me of Elisabet's office.

I don't need an office as such—with its physical monitors and old, creaky chairs—but I could use a place to stash my stuff, work on my gadgets and weapons. This is sure to worsen my hoarding problem. No more lugging everything around until I can pawn it off on the next merchant, and no more leaving stuff behind at secluded camps hoping it won't be stolen. I'm not going to let myself lose everything again.

The last accessible room was a little more useful—a lab, with a lot of mechanisms still operational. Most exciting was the fabrication terminal, a contraption capable of taking in scrap metal and other parts and rebuilding them to certain specifications. It was built to be interoperable with Gaia's machines, so using it to analyse and recreate structures from machine parts will help build the data I need to complete those corrupted override schemas I lifted from the Tau Cauldron core. I'm sure there's a whole lot more I can do with it too.

Watching it at work on a small test sample, tiny machines swirling behind the glass, it reminded me of the golden machine swarms wielded by the intruders at the Proving Lab. Maybe a more advanced form of similar technology?

Varl woke and joined me as I finished poking around the lab. He and Zo had similarly found somewhere passably warm to curl up. He wanted to know what was next; so did I. I tried not to come across as completely clueless about our plans going forward. I didn't tell him about the intruders at the lab, or the other clone. Not yet. Not until I know who they are and what they're really after.

As we were talking, Gaia called me over Focus to summon me back to the projection theatre. Her initialisation and merge with Minerva was complete. She was ready to talk and, I hoped, make everything clear.

She spoke to me first about the state of the biosphere. Not good, was the general prognosis. Gaia said it would only take about four months for the rabid terraforming system to degrade beyond all reasonable hope of repair. The good news was, since the RCC was built for long range communication, unlike Latopolis, Gaia could now run a far more sophisticated scan for the escaped subfunctions. However, the scan could take days or more likely weeks to complete, given she'd have to pinpoint each function's mutated signature and circumvent the many techniques they've likely employed to hide themselves. The others are unlikely to be as forthcoming as Minerva.

The only subfunction that Gaia could detect deafeningly loud and blindingly clear was Hephaestus. Figures, I've seen it around too. Gaia explained that it's scattered across the global Cauldron network, and in any attempt to capture it, it would simply slip away to some distant location, as I'd experienced at Firebreak and in Cauldron Tau. It had no reason to hide its activities.

Gaia would continue devising a plan to lock it out of the network and capture it, though attempting to do so before she had been reunited with at least three more of her subfunctions would lead to disaster. Hephaestus had mutated to a dangerous degree since the original Gaia's self-destruction. Given freedom of movement it had grown massive, volatile, and hostile; as it absorbed Cyan, it would absorb this more rudimentary, weaker version of Gaia with ease. She needed to be powerful enough to match it in battle by increasing her 'processing density'. The mission remained as it always had been: repair Gaia. Just because she was here, speaking and smiling and strategising, that didn't mean I was done. Far from it.

Hephaestus is our most important target. Without it, Gaia can't build machines of her own or take control of the Cauldron network. The machines are like her tools, her hands, able to act upon her orders and bring the terraforming system back into balance. With the other subfunctions, she would be able to enact some measure of change using existing machines and facilities to temper the most acute affects of system collapse, but without new machines to join the effort, that temperance wouldn't last long. That's to say nothing of the threat of Hephaestus itself as it continues to take direct control of Cauldrons, building more dangerous machines meant to cull humankind to make way for its own purple progeny.

So that's problem one: we need at least three subfunctions, along with a plan to bring Hephaestus to heel. We still have no clue where those other subfunctions could be, if they still exist, except that they'll be hiding in processor cores somewhere within rapid networking distance of Gaia Prime. That only leaves just about everywhere not on the other side of an ocean, if I'm lucky.

Gaia said she will devote as much of her internal resources as possible to detecting more of her subfunctions and notify me as soon as they're located. There's not much sense in me striking out into the open before then, especially with what I know is waiting for me, wanting me dead and well out of their way.

I asked Gaia then about the strangers at the Proving Lab.

She'd seen the whole encounter through my Focus, and she shared in my unease. She then laid out her theory, and it was worse than I ever speculated. Bombshell one: the signal that woke Hades, which Gaia ominously calls 'the extinction signal', didn't come from anywhere on Earth. She showed me, in projection form, Earth from a distance, moon and stars surrounding, then pulled back, the image moving so fast that the stars were coloured streaks racing past us. I was transfixed; horrified, but morbidly awestruck. What was so far away that would want to harm us here on Earth? Other worlds, other life?

This was the distance that the signal travelled to reach Gaia, a length so vast that light itself takes 8.6 years to cross it. That number was familiar, somewhere in the back of my mind, but I didn't realise where I'd heard it until Gaia's projection reached its destination, the motion of light finally ceasing.

There it was, orbiting a planet of brown landmasses, dark blue oceans, and thick swirls of clouds: the Odyssey. It was the same projection that Osvald Dalgaard used in his presentation at the Far Zenith launch facility. 8.6 light years...he used the same figure when describing the Odyssey's destination, the Sirius system.

Gaia said it was the only logical origin, though realistically the signal could have come from any direction of the same approximate distance away. As Hades said, the signal repeated for 17.22 years, and Gaia explained as I continued trying to get my head around distances that light crossed at a long crawl. That was 8.6 years once the signal arrived, for the fact of its failure to reach its sender, and another 8.6 for the sender's ceasing order to make it back to Earth.

Working theory: Far Zenith lied about their shuttle's explosion. After Travis' attack on their systems, and their deal with Zero Dawn coming to an end, they clearly didn't trust the descendants of the project to leave them alone. I know that Elisabet's view of Far Zenith was less than favourable; maybe they saw that as a potential threat. So, Far Zenith fake the destruction of their ship to keep Zero Dawn off their backs for good, and stay hidden from those that the project would raise and educate under Gaia's care.

I know they were paranoid. In the Old World, no one knew who the members of Far Zenith were, and it seems like a large portion of the public hated them for their flagrant wealth and hoarded power. They kept themselves secret on Earth, then hid their presence in space. They tried to steal Gaia before they left Earth, then tried to use their 'extinction signal' to steal her again, planning to take the whole world down in the process. Why?

I suppose they didn't know that Apollo was destroyed, maybe they thought we were still a threat, but even so, we didn't know about them. We couldn't have known, thanks to their cover up. So, what was it? They sent their signal to wake Hades and destroy all life on Earth, clean it of 'filth', as Hades put it, and then what? They subdue Hades, reinstate Gaia and...re-program her, maybe. Use her to create the world that they want. Play god, just as Elisabet feared. This is why she didn't want to hand over a copy of Gaia in the first place, but in refusing, in retaliating...did she doom us, here and now?

I posed my thoughts to Gaia, and she agreed that it was her own conclusion as well. Far Zenith had always planned to flee Earth in its dying days. Maybe they always planned to return as well. Return and claim the world they once dominated.

I thought there was only one inheritor of the human legacy, but there were two. One, Elisabet's, and the other...the space-born descendants of Peter Tshivhumbe.

Gaia confirmed something else that Hades said: the signal was meant for it alone, and the mutations imparted on the other subfunctions were only incidental, only unleashed when Hades was unable to assume control fast enough as Gaia initiated self-destruction, something Far Zenith couldn't anticipate. It was an incredibly advanced piece of malware, as Sylens observed, and Gaia said that only someone with in-depth knowledge of her code structures and her system as a whole could have engineered it. So...maybe Far Zenith was able to steal more of Zero Dawn's data than Travis thought. Maybe they've been working on reverse-engineering it ever since.

Suddenly, the strangers at the Proving Lab made a whole lot more sense. Their advanced technology, their flashy weaponry, their gilded ornamentation...Far Zenith, grown formidable with the knowledge of the Old Ones, given by Zero Dawn, on their side. They came here to do what their extinction signal failed to do: wipe out life on Earth, and use a stolen backup of Gaia to build it all over again for them to rule, destroying Elisabet's dream forever.

And all I could think about was that clone, moving on their orders, silent, weak. How could she go along with this plan? She stole Gaia for them, handing her over to Elisabet's enemy for them to use, to twist into a weapon to destroy and remake the world into some abomination, some paradise for these people who think themselves entitled to the planet.

How did they make a clone in the first place? Why, when their technology is supposedly so powerful?

Gaia explained that Far Zenith could have obtained a sample of Elisabet's DNA, with or without her consent, and stored it on board the Odyssey along with their many Earth life samples and human zygotes. She said that even with their ability to engineer powerful malware, obtaining a physical backup of Gaia in a shut-down state could only be done by walking in and taking it, and only someone with Elisabet Sobeck's genetic code could do that. Far Zenith made the clone as a key, just as Gaia made me. The only crucial difference is I was made to save the world, not kill everything on it.

Gaia had her doubts about the clone. She seems to think it's more likely that she's a subordinate, some sort of slave forced to take their orders. No way. She's Elisabet Sobeck, just as much as I am, she's no subordinate. Elisabet loved life; she gave everything for this world, just for this clone to come along and destroy it all? No. Just the thought of her makes me sick.

So it's all down to me. I knew it would be; it always is. Gaia can't do much from here but keep scanning for the other subordinate functions. As soon as she finds them, I'll be her eyes and hands. Vessel, if we want to get all Nora about it. I'll have to go and load each subfunction onto the cartridge I found Gaia on, then bring them back here to merge into her new system. Meanwhile, that other clone is running around with Far Zenith, who likely have way more advanced scanning capabilities, hunting the subfunctions right alongside me, with their own version of Gaia to mold and command. If they get to Hephaestus first, merge it into their version of Gaia...it'll be over. They'll have control over every Cauldron on the planet. They'll rule the biosphere and be able to build whatever devastating weapons they can dream up to kill us all.

But if I can beat them to it, we'll have the upper hand. Enough damage will take down the Zenith's shields, which to my onslaught seemed impenetrable. With an army of machines, we'll have the ability to destroy Far Zenith and their Specters on Earth, but even then...how many more of them are out there? How far have they already spread across the stars? How long will this fight go on?

It's...a lot. It's everything. My hands leapt to Elisabet's pendant without my knowing, tracing its comforting shapes and textures. Peeling paint, rusted hinges; the last thing Elisabet ever touched. I couldn't help but profess my doubts to Gaia. Even if it wasn't exactly her idea to create me, it was a version of her. Somewhere in her un-lived future there's a part of her that believes I am her best hope to save this world.

She gave me comfort. After all, she'd listened to her predecessor's final message too, trusting it. She'd seen that future, and repeated its words. Though her phrasing was mechanical, flat, ringing against old metal, the message was the same as I'd always heard when facing adversity, from Rost. Though the odds may seem insurmountable, there is hope. You are capable. You have prevailed many times.

Look deeper. Keep moving forward.

Before I left the theatre, I noticed a console on the circumference of the room. Gaia told me more about it; it was meant for uploading and accessing footage from observation drones. These drones were meant to be deployed in an emergency when biosphere observation could not be handled by personnel in the RCC. The centre had deployed them automatically a few years ago, when the first signs of blight start showing up. It took something extremely anomalous to trigger the system, apparently, and due to its degradation, the RCC soon lost connection to all the dispatched drones.

So, that explained the drone I found circling near that Thunderjaw in No Man's Land. I was able to upload the data I'd taken off it to the console, allowing the RCC to reconnect to the drone. And there it was, a live feed of red rocks and rusted bots. Those closest stones almost looked real. I figured that reconnecting these drones could be of some use to Gaia, who can observe the lands through them until she takes control of the Cauldron network again. Until, no if's.

I spoke to Varl and Zo briefly before heading back out into the wilds. They plan on staying behind to get up to speed on things with Gaia and make some repairs to the centre's facilities. Who knows, maybe I'll come back to a working shower.

Without any clear direction to where the subfunctions might be hiding, I may as well make myself useful in doing what I can to help the people of these lands. After Hephaestus' attack, the Utaru are sure to be struggling, and with Regalla's rebels still prowling their territory, the danger isn't over.

Sylens and his little army fits into all of this somehow. He knew who the Zeniths were, I'm sure of it. I'm willing to bet he was using me as some sort of bargaining chip; he leads Far Zenith to a backup of Gaia and a clone of Elisabet, he asks for a copy of Apollo in return. Then he uses his army to, what, conquer? That doesn't seem like his style. Maybe he thought Far Zenith would let him join up, otherwise I have no idea how he was planning to survive their plan for the world. What a self-absorbed idiot.

I thought it'd be a quick journey down the mountain with my Shield Wing. Beautiful views, pleasant weather, and no signs of total war and ruin down in Plainsong.

Not so quick once the rain started and a few Skydrifters came swooping in. I kept them down with spark cell detonations before going in for spear strikes. Ropes to keep the others from moving around too much in the meantime. A Burrower came to join in too, but I silenced it before it could call any more machines to the area. Fortunately, none of them were Hephaestus' deadly creations.

Continuing on my way down, I passed a signal tower like the one I found back in the Daunt. Scanning it, I picked up another corrupted projection. I made the quick climb back up to the ruin on the rise to repair the image from its original vantage. It showed the turbines and satellite dishes that now house Plainsong.

It was another site of the Miriam Technologies tour. This satellite array was once used to detect and monitor near-Earth objects—big rocks, I guess—rich in minerals. Miriam Technologies developed machines for the automated mining of these minerals out in space. I guess there wasn't much left of the stuff on Earth after the Claw Back, but it's pretty cool to think about. Unfortunately, there's only one near-Earth object I need to be concerned with right now, and that's the fucking Odyssey.

No need to dwell on it right now. There are people here who need my help. I continued down toward Plainsong.

[lunarsilkscreen]

The Tech-Bros learned the wrong lesson?

Despite existing in the same digital communities; tech bros and gamers seemed to have learned the wrong lesson about leadership.

To this point; we've had technologies all developed for hobbyists ability to pick-up and run with it.

Overtime, the [skill-issue] crowd has determined that skill and ability are a kind of [divine providence].

Also, despite understanding the difference between [Casual] and [competitive] {environments}.

In gamer terms; Hard-Core players are like Bleeding-Edge Developers. They're trying to be {world-first} or just {develop their skills} or {just trying to do difficult and cool skateboard tricks}.

In the "Casual" environment, e.g; "Players that don't care about the depth of the underlying system" or "Just playing for fun" or for devs "Just doing odd jobs for a quick buck" is where Politics *should* be.

If the system can't be picked up by your average user and ran with... It's not a good system.

Because of that [Skill-Issue] {ideology} we've got a lot of players that think they're the [Top Shit] playing completely on public servers.

I'd liken it to [LeBron James] or [Tom Brady] deciding that they need to dominate [K-12]{or amateur} sports in order to get ahead in their [chosen careers].

I'll let you consider LeBron James unironically dunking on amateur players as if that was why he was the best player in Basketball. And that's where our Politics and Technology environments *are* right now.

Should-be professionals destroying the environment the casuals are just trying to *do their job, get paid and go home to their real hobbies*.

And they're unironically supportive of this "Unitary" ideology. Because they think that *should* be the norm.

Any shift worker or technical expert will explain to you the purpose of [positive turn-over] and the detriments of relying on [one expert] too heavily.

Tech-Bros? They want ONLY the one expert they can exploit, because they all think they're the [One Bro to Bro them all] or whatever.

That is how the cutting edge, the hardcore environments work sure; but that's not sustainable NOR scalable for the casual environment.

And we have both for a reason. Because the Hardcore environments have serious drawbacks when you find yourself operating at the level.

High-risk, Low-reward {in comparison to expended effort}, employee burn-out; high turn-over with low positive turnover rates.

And we are seeing Tech-Bros reinvent the casual environment as if it were Hardcore Competition Environment.

Employment at that level isn't supposed to be *that* competitive. That's what the Hardcore environments is *for* and why things keep breaking when you get bored of your Hyperfixation.

It's not because you're the only ones who can do the thing, it's because you've put the casual stuff in the PvP zones. Intentionally creating a game loop that requires predatory behavior in order to advance.

In the casual environment, or for the newbies, you should be able to pick up [The whatever] and just roll with it, while skilled people and those understanding the in-depth details are literally playing a different game in a different environment.

thats not design; That's how community and government works. And has been optimized over generations and thousands of years.

Ye, Some of that shit can be improved; Reinventing the wheel successfully doesn't happen that often though. The last really important Wheel reinvention was Galvanized Rubber after-all.

I would posit that y'all not only know better; you're intentionally designing an environment which exalts {not competition} but [rabid destructive behaviors] as a method to make profit.

Job Security shouldn't be [knowing certain buzzwords]. It's poor cryptography at best.