#tech-crunch

[thepinkwool]

The Bad Batch (according to my father who can never seem to remember their names)

Handsome leader (Hunter)

Data analyst (Tech)

Mean and grumpy (Crosshair)

Blender arm (Echo)

And of course everyone’s favorite big guy:

Crunch (Wrecker)

[levi-venn]

Mirror Squad

An HC I need to get out of my head so I can move on with my life (Hah, jokes on you, Levi, Bad Batch is your life).

So...Hemlock created a mirror image of the Bad Batch called the Mirror Squad, but it's not what you think. Turns out these clones were the ORIGINAL Bad Batch.

Their names: Crunch (Wrecker), Striker (Hunter), Circuit (Tech), Void (Echo/Memento - See Notes), and CX-2 aka Headshot (Crosshair).

Striker and Hunter

Circuit and Tech

Void and Echo

Crunch and Wrecker

Headshot and Crosshair

The Mirror Squad - Origin Story Concept

The Mirror Squad were the first batch of Experimental Unit Clone Commandos created on Kamino: Striker, Crunch, Circuit, Void, and Headshot. They were decommissioned due to their rebellious and unpredictable nature which made them a liability rather than an asset to the future Clone Army.

Because the Experimental Clone Program was an expensive endeavor, the Kaminoans did not decommission these clones, but rather put them in stasis for later research. They tried again another batch of experimental clones and this time only four clones survived: Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Memento (see note) and Crosshair.

Note: Memento did not survive past his cadet years. Void and Echo's parallel are a coincidence.

When Kamino was evacuated, Hemlock scooped up the original Bad Batch squad, still in stasis within their pods. These clones were the first to be brainwashed and reprogrammed by Hemlock. Although their memories were wiped, their instincts to work as a cohesive unit remained.

Technically, the Bad Batch is a mirror image of what the original Clone Force 99 almost was, but this squad's official name is Mirror Squad.

[galactaknightyaoi]

I need to know, who's Wicked Knight. Their name sounds so cool and I want to see who the name is attached to ^^

Wicked Knight's one of my OCs! He's kind of new to this whole Knight thing, and is trying way too hard to be cool and edgy, hence the name. He's not nearly as cool as his name or appearence imply, though.

I've actually been procrastinating making a proper digital drawing of him, so all I have for you is a kind of crappy sketch to show his colors.

And here he is completely stripped of his coolness.

Those are unfortunately all the digital Wick drawings I have. But here's a few extra, traditional ones!!

Bonus baby.

[claypigeonpottery]

the urn is out of the kiln! it survived, it’s beautiful and it went from kiln to memorial in like a half hour so I didn’t get any pictures 🥲 I’m just glad it made it in time and the lid came off easy, sometimes lids get stuck in the glaze fire but not this time

[techcat]

Gimmie your skeleton OCs and I'll see about adding them in!

Colors are gonna be a wild guessing game, but I'm having fun.

Send me an ask with a ref or image and I'll see what I can do! Cheap as free.

Sens, Stag, and Crunch are mine.

Scout @maddyfairyqueen

Clover, Undeadtale!Sans and Zom (wip) @intrepimid

Viper (not on tumblr iirc)

Sap (wip) @polwigle

[skrunksthatwunk]

good news: kaiji blu-ray real

bad news: kaiji blu-ray put my wife in 480p

[transxfiles]

my calculator is my girlfriend. she's also the strongest soldier in all of the world's trenches in every war that's ever existed and every battle that's ever been fought. she's the personal angel that sits on my shoulder and she's so strong i don't even have a little devil to match her. i'm walking in circles but she works hard on setting me straight. you wouldn't get it.

[throwawaytabs]

theres a deep loneliness in me, to where ive ended up relating more to animals and computers/monitors than relating to humans

[vinnymauro]

ik according to my last poll i should be working on cheerscoops visuals and i made two of them but i'm going to work on something else instead.

[boomhogs]

this VV post is the bane of my fucking existence I hate it so much lmao

[kiturak]

Ok so my (30yrs of job experience) colleague used a chatbot for some cs thing that was puzzling us and its answer made sense actually?? So we fact checked it and yes, it was right. So while I'm still not using ai bc of the whole mess it represents, I've come to think of asking them questions as the equivalent of going to a Facebook mom group/ tech forum for answers. They will absolutely most of the time point you in the right direction, but you do need to do the actual thinking & fact checking part yourself. People already had no literacy in using social media for advice, either, so it figures AI isn't making things any better - especially as the fact checking step gets harder by the degradation of the www into ai generated garbage sites, as well. But. Treating AI as an authority/ getting mad bc it's delivering garbage is like going to a mom group and getting mad that someone wrote sunscreen will make your baby blind.

“i asked chatgpt-” ohhh ok so nothing you are about to say matters at all

[techcat]

Shit I forgot Crag's birthday. He was very very first drawn June 20th 2017

He didn't even have the name.

Scarf+Bandana and nose ridge has been there since the START

He got a bunch of refinements in his first year and a half as I worked with him. Big ones being eye color placement, chin crack, and sharp teeth.

His design is still loose, but more like hitting landmarks than specific structures.

Anyway, happy belated birthday, my decadent bastard.

[velkyr]

I'm in such a weird limbo kinda state right now because work has been Hell for months on end and that's finally calmed down. and in the midst of all that shit, I was putting myself forward to get promoted and I did so like. I am somehow qualified to be a senior dev now kinda fucking wild icl (I still feel like I know fuck all and yet at the same time I do think I've earned this)

the point being that now the stress has ebbed. I'm in that sort of post prolonged fight or flight state of... numb empty question marks. what do I do with my time if I'm not constantly thinking about work. what is the Concept of relaxing (something I've never been good at anyway). I got absolutely sick as a dog the literal day after we shipped the thing we needed to ship because my body fully gave up without the cortisol overdose and I'm still getting over that. idk. How Do Function. a mystery

[ailurinae]

Look, it's probably just not possible for me to do any of those. Or to the extent I could do them I would probably completely and utterly burn out and have to quit. I've never held any of those jobs and there is good reason for that.

For sure waiter or other food service would not be doable. I actually tried to help out a friend at a food stall once and within an hour I fell apart had to just leave. Someone else had brought me but wasn't there, I just walked home, several miles.

Retail, perhaps I could do, at least for a time, if I didn't have to run a checkout line. I could not do checkout/cashier.

Call center/help desk is closest to something I have done, I have been tech support, but it was never call center, it was always onsite, and for internal. Yes people could call us, but it was more common to get stuff via the helpdesk web interface, email, or just people walking up. And while we might solve things over the phone or web/email, it was usually perfectly possible to go the the system having issues. And sometimes required, for hardware issues, or hardware upgrades, etc.

And that kind of tech work is very different and much much easier than a pure call center situation, and doubly so if it a call center for external customers. Internal customers there is usually a way to remote into people's machines even if you can't physically go to them. External customers, that is usually not possible. And while I *can* talk a user through just about anything, it is often vastly harder than if I can remotely or physically access the computer myself. The level of communication needed is extraordinary, and when it is verbal, it is immensely draining.

Things like server-side application support, and system admin are much better for me, I am better at setting things up, at maintenance, and at figuring out and fixing hard problems, than dealing with huge numbers of relatively simple problems like end user desktop usually is.

you cant move up and become a manager or anything either you will always be at the bottom most entry level position. however hours will be as typical for that position and you still get the 100k. basically i just want to know which of these jobs you’d be happiest doing if you didnt have to worry about anything outside of work lol

[baekuras]

just thought about how annoying the combo of

"if you work hard you can even buy your own house" to "lmao in THIS economy?" in combo with "oh yeah tech is the future and here are all the ways on why" to "the internet is eating itself+what jobs???" is

you'd think those false promises would stop but nope

[rosemaryhoney27]

“A Perfect Little Monster”

Vlad had never felt so betrayed by reality.

The Batcave was filled with quiet whispers and sideways glances, the occasional crunch of a chip from Jason, and the warm hum of expensive tech. Alfred had politely handed Vlad a cup of tea and, without saying a word, patted his shoulder like someone offering condolences at a funeral.

Because Danny was being an angel.

Like, golden halo, angelic choir, glowing with good intentions level of perfect.

He sat politely on one of the chairs, legs crossed, posture perfect, sipping tea like it hadn’t taken Vlad a full month to get him to use a spoon correctly. He was even wearing clean clothes. A neat black hoodie, pressed jeans, no rips, no slime stains, no ectoplasm glowing through the sleeves. His hair was only slightly messy. He even said “thank you” when Alfred gave him cookies.

“Uncle Vlad,” Danny said sweetly, “you really didn’t have to make this whole visit sound so dramatic. You’ve been amazing.”

Vlad stared. “...What.”

Jason leaned in, squinting at Danny. “You sure you’re related to him? Like, at all?”

Danny laughed—actually laughed—like a normal, well-adjusted teenager. “Vlad’s always so dramatic. He says I ‘gnaw’ on furniture. I was literally looking for my sock.”

“It was in your mouth,” Vlad said in a strangled whisper.

“Because my hands were full,” Danny said reasonably. “I was holding the cat.”

Steph covered her mouth to stop the snort. “Oh my god, he’s adorable.”

Cass nodded slowly. “Too adorable.”

“Like a trap,” Tim added. “A very suspicious trap.”

“He is not like this,” Vlad hissed at Bruce, who was standing there with his arms crossed and the world’s most dad-like raised eyebrow.

“Sure he’s not,” Bruce said. “Just like Dick didn’t do a triple somersault off the Wayne gala chandelier when he was ten.”

Danny blinked. “Wait. You can do that?”

Dick: “We’re gonna be best friends.”

Vlad clutched his tea with trembling hands. “You don’t understand. This child once replaced my shampoo with green slime and told the press I was undergoing ‘ecto-regeneration therapy.’”

“Self-care is important,” Danny said serenely. “I was looking out for your brand.”

“He tackled a diplomat,” Vlad hissed, turning to Alfred like a man begging for someone to see reason. “An actual royal dignitary. Bit him on the calf.”

“The guy was slime trafficking and had a ghost locked in a bottle,” Danny said with that same innocent tone. “You should’ve seen Bruce’s Interpol file. I was lightweight compared to some of the stuff he’s pulled.”

Bruce’s eyebrow ticked upward in reluctant respect. “He did his homework.”

Jason leaned toward Vlad. “You sure you’re not the problem here, Uncle Vladdie?”

Vlad sputtered. “I—what?!”

Danny gave a dazzling smile. “He’s just overprotective. Isn’t he sweet?”

Vlad turned to Bruce. “Do you see what I’m dealing with?”

Bruce just nodded. “A perfectly polite teenager. Very respectful. You’re lucky.”

Danny turned that angelic beam on him. “Thanks, Mr. Wayne. I’ve been working on it.”

And no one saw the green glow under his sleeve when Tim tried to peek at his phone. Or the way the shadows around the corners of the cave flickered when Damian casually mentioned sword sparring.

Cass was watching, quiet and calm, and murmured, “He hides the wild. Like Jason.”

Jason grinned. “I like this kid.”

Dick put an arm around Danny’s shoulder. “Welcome to the chaos, baby cousin.”

Danny blinked. “Wait. You mean I’m actually—”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, man. Vlad’s your guardian. He’s Bruce’s cousin. That makes you family now.”

Danny looked mildly horrified. “...Do I have to fill out paperwork?”

Damian crossed his arms. “The League does blood rituals. Consider yourself lucky.”

Vlad, in the background, had given up on convincing anyone of anything. He just sipped his tea, mumbling, “I told Clockwork this would happen. Should’ve gone with the fruit basket instead.”

Danny was already being dragged into a group selfie by Steph and Dick. He looked a little dazed, but not unhappy.

“You’ll get used to it,” Jason said, handing him a cookie. “First comes the chaos. Then the trauma bonding. Then you start collecting knives.”

Danny took the cookie.

“…Do the knives have names?”

“Oh, you’re gonna fit right in,” said Damian, eyes gleaming.

Bruce sighed. Loudly. “No naming knives in the Cave.”

Danny smiled like he hadn’t just been handed the keys to the Feral Kingdom. “Sure thing, Mr. Wayne.”

Cass whispered to Vlad, “He’ll show them the teeth later. When they trust him.”

And Vlad, with the tiredness of a man who raised chaos and now had to watch it become socially strategic, simply whispered, “He already has.”