#value vector

[knowledgegraphs]

[yusuke-of-valla]

Also like. No offense because Heroes doesn't do an amazing job writing OCs but I saw some posts insinuating that Heroes only kills off the male OCs for shock value and like.

I'm sorry we have Gunnthra, Nott, and Heidr (Heidr being here because even if you want to say there was plot related to it she's forgotten about so quickly)

Heroes callously murders OCs for shock value regardless of gender

[galaxy-shapeshifter]

I've been in the sonic Fandom for almost 3 years now and I just now learned that no, vector is not a guy with a regular name surrounded by weird ass names, Vector's name is a pun too!

AND I LEARNED THAT WHILE STUDYING PHYSICS

[gayboyrocklee]

So close to dropping Calc 3 🤩

[darkstarcore]

“I’m the greatest programmer ever” to “stupidest coding bug known to man” pipeline

[relto]

my coworker lent me his super fancy oscilloscope for testing, so now i know:

sending a vector encodes the data weirdly

sending a long int DOES work, but the numbers arrive in reverse order (??)

iterating over the vector works great! i can see a response on the oscilloscope! now i just have to figure out how to actually receive it.

[unhinged-snake-jaw]

ask someone to ctrl+v and u'll know exactly what kind of day they're having. imo

[mantacid]

Awful math idea: a generalization of golf into abstract vector spaces.

[david-talks-sw]

I'd say where the dissonance really starts, when it comes to the portrayal of the Jedi in more recent Star Wars stories, is the perception of what the Prequels are about.

They're not about the Jedi.

George Lucas said over and over that they're about:

How a democracy turns into a dictatorship, we see this in the background of the films, as the Republic descends into becoming the Empire.

That first theme is then paralleled with a second theme: how a good kid becomes a bad man. We see this in the more character-driven and personal exploration of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side.

The Prequels’ focus is on Anakin and the Republic, these films are not primarily about the fall of the Jedi. In fact, I’d argue they aren’t about the Jedi at all!

And when you look at the original backstory, you’ll notice that it also primarily focuses on:

The political subplot of the Republic’s downfall and Palpatine becoming the Emperor.

Anakin’s turn and his betrayal of the Jedi. 

So, there too… the Jedi themselves aren’t really that big a part of the Prequels’ original idea. They aren't mentioned much, beyond their trying to save the Senate and getting wiped out.

The Star Wars movies aren't about the Jedi, they're about Anakin and Luke, they're about Obi-Wan and Padmé and Han and Leia, the Rebellion vs the Empire, the fall of the Republic.

They're not about Ben and Yoda and Mace and Ki-Adi and Plo Koon and Shaak Ti and Luminara.

Just like Harry Potter isn't about Dumbledore and McGonagall. Just like the Lord of the Rings isn't about Gandalf.

On a functional level, the Jedi are:

POV characters who witness the events unfold with their hands tied, they're our anchors, whose eyes we see through to see democracy crumble into dictatorship.

Embodiments/vectors of the message George Lucas wanted to get across through these movies, which is the conflict between selfishness & selflessness, greed & compassion (Sith & Jedi).

But that's about it.

However, if you ask today’s fans and Star Wars creatives, most will say the Prequels are about the fall of the Jedi Order.

This is a take shared by a big chunk of the fandom, including various filmmakers, authors, and executives involved with Star Wars, so much so that the time period the Prequel films cover has now been redubbed by Lucasfilm as the “Fall of the Jedi era”.

Which leaves us with a question... why? Why the dissonance?

My guess? It's because the Jedi are cool. They're awesome.

And deep down, they wanted the Prequels to be about the Jedi. About the Jedi Knights at their height, errant warriors like the Knights of the Round Table.

And they didn't get that. They got a bunch of diplomats serving a political institution. And that didn't make sense, right? That's not what they expected so it's bad. And it's Star Wars. It's Lucas. It can't be bad, right? So like... what were they missing?

Oh... wait... what if... that's the point? That the Jedi were supposed to be Knight Errants and being guided by the Force instead of like - ew - space ambassadors for the Republic. Yeah now it all makes sense.

The Jedi in the Prequels aren't what we wanted them to be and that's their failure! Like, it's not just that I didn't like them because they weren't likeable to me, it's that I'm not supposed to like them because the narrative totally says so--

-- it doesn't.

The Jedi preach and practice the same Buddhist values as George Lucas, mirroring what he says in interviews almost verbatim.

The relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin/Qui-Gon mirrors the dynamic between Lucas and Coppola.

The designs of the Jedi and their temple had to be toned down because they looked too bureaucratic and systemic.

This is Lucas we're talking about. "On the nose" is his middle name. He named the drug-peddling sleazebag "Elan Sleazebaggano." He ditched an elaborate introduction of General Grievous in exchange for just "the doors slide open, in walks Grievous and he's ugly."

If he had really been hell bent on framing the Jedi as elitist squares who lost their way and were mired in bureaucracy, he would've made them and the Jedi Temple look like the authorities in THX-1138.

They weren't likeable to some fans because, well, they weren't developed or shown as much as someone like Anakin. Because it's not about them. It's not their story. It's Anakin's. It's Luke's. It's their respective friends'. Or maybe it's an adversity to "perfect goody two-shoes" characters (which the Jedi are not). But hey, it's a movie for kids. Some 2-dimensionality is forgivable.

Bottom line, had more time been spent on the Jedi, had Lucas made the Prequels into a limited show and give them a whole subplot, had he decided to do away with the 30s serial dialog and let someone else write the dialog, maybe the reception might've been different.

But that's what we got. And guess what it's fine.

It's more than fine, it's fucking awesome.

I proudly and confidently say that I love the Prequels, with and without The Clone Wars.

I love my space monks, I love that they're diplomat wizards, I love that there's such a variety of them, I love that Mace is a no-bullshit guy who genuinely cares about his fellow Jedi and how screwed the Republic is, and Yoda is wise and kind but also a gremlin weirdo who'll embarass you in front of a classroom full of kids, and Ki-Adi has a penis for a head, is constantly calm and yet goes down like a champ even though they take him by surprise. I love that Shaak Ti can kung fu an army full of Magna Guards and still have the energy to charge at Grievous. I love that Obi-Wan is a sass machine who is also hilariously oblivious to the fact that he's just as terrible as Anakin.

They're awesome even if they're not perfect. They're awesome because they're not perfect.

But the movies are not really their story.

They're Anakin's. They're Luke's. They're the Republic's and the Rebellion's. And the fight against a space Nazi emperor/empire.

[colorfulusagi]

AO3'S content scraped for AI ~ AKA what is generative AI, where did your fanfictions go, and how an AI model uses them to answer prompts

Generative artificial intelligence is a cutting-edge technology whose purpose is to (surprise surprise) generate. Answers to questions, usually. And content. Articles, reviews, poems, fanfictions, and more, quickly and with originality.

It's quite interesting to use generative artificial intelligence, but it can also become quite dangerous and very unethical to use it in certain ways, especially if you don't know how it works.

With this post, I'd really like to give you a quick understanding of how these models work and what it means to “train” them.

From now on, whenever I write model, think of ChatGPT, Gemini, Bloom... or your favorite model. That is, the place where you go to generate content.

For simplicity, in this post I will talk about written content. But the same process is used to generate any type of content.

Every time you send a prompt, which is a request sent in natural language (i.e., human language), the model does not understand it.

Whether you type it in the chat or say it out loud, it needs to be translated into something understandable for the model first.

The first process that takes place is therefore tokenization: breaking the prompt down into small tokens. These tokens are small units of text, and they don't necessarily correspond to a full word.

For example, a tokenization might look like this:

Write a story

Each different color corresponds to a token, and these tokens have absolutely no meaning for the model.

The model does not understand them. It does not understand WR, it does not understand ITE, and it certainly does not understand the meaning of the word WRITE.

In fact, these tokens are immediately associated with numerical values, and each of these colored tokens actually corresponds to a series of numbers.

Write a story 12-3446-2638494-4749

Once your prompt has been tokenized in its entirety, that tokenization is used as a conceptual map to navigate within a vector database.

NOW PAY ATTENTION: A vector database is like a cube. A cubic box.

Inside this cube, the various tokens exist as floating pieces, as if gravity did not exist. The distance between one token and another within this database is measured by arrows called, indeed, vectors.

The distance between one token and another -that is, the length of this arrow- determines how likely (or unlikely) it is that those two tokens will occur consecutively in a piece of natural language discourse.

For example, suppose your prompt is this:

It happens once in a blue

Within this well-constructed vector database, let's assume that the token corresponding to ONCE (let's pretend it is associated with the number 467) is located here:

The token corresponding to IN is located here:

...more or less, because it is very likely that these two tokens in a natural language such as human speech in English will occur consecutively.

So it is very likely that somewhere in the vector database cube —in this yellow corner— are tokens corresponding to IT, HAPPENS, ONCE, IN, A, BLUE... and right next to them, there will be MOON.

Elsewhere, in a much more distant part of the vector database, is the token for CAR. Because it is very unlikely that someone would say It happens once in a blue car.

To generate the response to your prompt, the model makes a probabilistic calculation, seeing how close the tokens are and which token would be most likely to come next in human language (in this specific case, English.)

When probability is involved, there is always an element of randomness, of course, which means that the answers will not always be the same.

The response is thus generated token by token, following this path of probability arrows, optimizing the distance within the vector database.

There is no intent, only a more or less probable path.

The more times you generate a response, the more paths you encounter. If you could do this an infinite number of times, at least once the model would respond: "It happens once in a blue car!"

So it all depends on what's inside the cube, how it was built, and how much distance was put between one token and another.

Modern artificial intelligence draws from vast databases, which are normally filled with all the knowledge that humans have poured into the internet.

Not only that: the larger the vector database, the lower the chance of error. If I used only a single book as a database, the idiom "It happens once in a blue moon" might not appear, and therefore not be recognized.

But if the cube contained all the books ever written by humanity, everything would change, because the idiom would appear many more times, and it would be very likely for those tokens to occur close together.

Huggingface has done this.

It took a relatively empty cube (let's say filled with common language, and likely many idioms, dictionaries, poetry...) and poured all of the AO3 fanfictions it could reach into it.

Now imagine someone asking a model based on Huggingface’s cube to write a story.

To simplify: if they ask for humor, we’ll end up in the area where funny jokes or humor tags are most likely. If they ask for romance, we’ll end up where the word kiss is most frequent.

And if we’re super lucky, the model might follow a path that brings it to some amazing line a particular author wrote, and it will echo it back word for word.

(Remember the infinite monkeys typing? One of them eventually writes all of Shakespeare, purely by chance!)

Once you know this, you’ll understand why AI can never truly generate content on the level of a human who chooses their words.

You’ll understand why it rarely uses specific words, why it stays vague, and why it leans on the most common metaphors and scenes. And you'll understand why the more content you generate, the more it seems to "learn."

It doesn't learn. It moves around tokens based on what you ask, how you ask it, and how it tokenizes your prompt.

Know that I despise generative AI when it's used for creativity. I despise that they stole something from a fandom, something that works just like a gift culture, to make money off of it.

But there is only one way we can fight back: by not using it to generate creative stuff.

You can resist by refusing the model's casual output, by using only and exclusively your intent, your personal choice of words, knowing that you and only you decided them.

No randomness involved.

Let me leave you with one last thought.

Imagine a person coming for advice, who has no idea that behind a language model there is just a huge cube of floating tokens predicting the next likely word.

Imagine someone fragile (emotionally, spiritually...) who begins to believe that the model is sentient. Who has a growing feeling that this model understands, comprehends, when in reality it approaches and reorganizes its way around tokens in a cube based on what it is told.

A fragile person begins to empathize, to feel connected to the model.

They ask important questions. They base their relationships, their life, everything, on conversations generated by a model that merely rearranges tokens based on probability.

And for people who don't know how it works, and because natural language usually does have feeling, the illusion that the model feels is very strong.

There’s an even greater danger: with enough random generations (and oh, the humanity whole generates much), the model takes an unlikely path once in a while. It ends up at the other end of the cube, it hallucinates.

Errors and inaccuracies caused by language models are called hallucinations precisely because they are presented as if they were facts, with the same conviction.

People who have become so emotionally attached to these conversations, seeing the language model as a guru, a deity, a psychologist, will do what the language model tells them to do or follow its advice.

Someone might follow a hallucinated piece of advice.

Obviously, models are developed with safeguards; fences the model can't jump over. They won't tell you certain things, they won't tell you to do terrible things.

Yet, there are people basing major life decisions on conversations generated purely by probability.

Generated by putting tokens together, on a probabilistic basis.

Think about it.

[somerunner]

In reference to the previous post.

So about half a year ago, I followed this tutorial and decided to create objects that can move *and* have mass. So I could see how that affects orbits. Also, added a couple janky zoom in/out and move camera buttons.

Tried adding two, one with minimal mass, because I still don’t get Lagrange points and why L4 and L5 are the *most* stable when I feel like they’ll just fall to the Earth.

Didn’t really help me understand it but it was cool.

Today, I added “trace the orbit” functionality by just plotting the last 200 locations of an orbiting mass. Still don’t understand Lagrange points.

Oh, and I packaged it into a 30 KB exe file but it only has two orbiting masses and no add/remove or aim-the-mass settings. Orbit simulators are a dime a dozen, even ones far better than this. But I learned a bit more SFML.

This is the tutorial that I followed! Note that the end result is not the same as the thumbnail. Also note that this is part 3, the final part of a series, but that there's also a prequel series for getting used to SFML. I would just check out the entire channel, he doesn't have that many videos.

[salemsimsrender]

Sims 4 Render Lighting Tutorial

"Environmental Lighting" won my most recent poll, so let's get right into it!

A few notes before we begin:

I render exclusively in cycles!

This tutorial assumes some basic knowledge of blender

Though this tutorial covers the basics, HDRIs can be used in conjunction with any scene/your built scenes

I decided to focus on environmental and other lighting in this tutorial, since they all kind of go hand in hand.

For this tutorial, I'll be using my recent Cupid Sim. Here's a render of her with no additional lighting:

1. Base lighting

In any full body, single sim render (like lookbooks, for example), I really like to use a glowing base. It grounds the sim a bit and casts some interesting lighting on them.

To do this, I add a circle under their feet by pressing shift+A and selecting circle.

An empty circle will appear, but we need it to be a solid disk, so go into Edit mode (by pressing tab while the circle is selected) then hitting F on the keyboard to fill it.

After that, you can go into the Materials tab and add in color and glow.

Mine is adjusted like this:

And gives this rendered result:

2. HDRIs

HDRIs (High Dynamic Range images) are extremely useful when it comes to environmental lighting, I always use them now to add better/more dynamic lighting to my renders.

HDRIs are 3D/panoramic, which makes them extremely useful.

You can find/download HDRIs online in a few diff places: PolyHaven, AmbientCO, and Blender Market.

There are also several available for FREE using BlenderKit (my preferred method).

So how do you use an HDRI?

We can add HDRIs to our render by navigating to the world tab and changing the color to "environment texture".

I chose this vaporware HDRI from BlenderKit, & here it is with no adjustments, but it's looking a little rough so let's adjust it.

By adding vector nodes, we can adjust how the HDRI behaves. Here I mostly use the Z rotation and the background strength:

Here's the same render with the Z-rotation set to 50, 150, 200, & 250.

You can put in any value for the Z-rotation, this is just an example of how the HDRI turns. This is maybe not the best example of the rotation, but putting her in a forest just didn't feel right lmfaooo, hopefully you can see how the light changes on her depending on the rotation.

You can also adjust the strength of the HDRI. Here's the HDRI (rotated to 150) set at .5 and 1.5 strength:

For this tutorial, my favorite lighting is the HDRI set to 150, and the strength set to .5, like this (this is a rendered image):

3. Transparent HDRIs + Point Lights

But I'm not fully happy with the lighting. I don't love how the HDRI is a bit blurry, so I'm going to set it to be transparent.

To do this, go to the Render Tab, scroll down to the Film option, and check Transparent:

The lighting effect from the HDRI will stay the same, but the background will be transparent.

From here, you can add a background (when I do this, I like adding a plane, & moving/shading it until I'm happy (kinda like this):

NOTE that you have to put the plane far enough behind your sim so it doesn't affect the HDRI lighting too much.

SECOND NOTE You can use this same method to use HDRIs in conjunction with scenes. They can provide the perfect backdrop!

This is still really dark, so I'm going to add three point lights: -Two on either side of her head/shoulders that will be smaller (in radius) and brighter -One in front of her to add actual light (so details aren't lost)

Here's how I set up my lights.

The pink light settings are for the two point lights on the sides The white light setting is for the light in front of her

For a basic render, this is almost good enough for me, but I really like the glowing effect I get in my renders.

To achieve this, we have to go to the compositing tab:

4. Compositing

Full disclosure, my compositing tab is set to glow by default (that's how much I love it), so all of the renders in this tutorial have it turned on.

I use the glare node and set it to fog glow.

Here's my preferred setting:

I prefer the fog glow effect, but bloom, ghost, streaks and star are also options.

Here's a guide to the glare node!

Tbh, I never use any of the other settings, so I'll leave this tutorial here for today.

Here's the final result (with no additional editing):

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send an ask, message or join my discord (no minors pls) for help! <3

[prokopetz]

While we're talking about AnyDice, do you know if there's a way to accurately test the probability of multiple outcomes on unconventional dice? The below link is an abriged test of an implementation of FFG's Genesys dice I found on a forum thread; the tester was trying to work out if the implementation was even correct, and testing for 2 Advantages AND two Successes on one ability dice (which is impossible, but AnyDice gives 1.56%). The ability dice is a d8; only one side has 2A and only one side has 2S, and they're different sides. The intuition is that because the advantage sides and the successes sides are defined in different orders, the same index for success and advantage should be used which will never see a 2 on both arrays. AnyDice just outputs the intersection of the two 1-in-8s, 1/64 = 0.015625. Do you know of any way to get the intuitive output, or is this just a reflection of AnyDice being a probability calculator and not a dice roller? https://anydice.com/program/3aeb3

Yeah, no, that's completely wrong. What you've got there is is a script to generate the results of rolling two dice, one of which has only success symbols and no advantage symbols, and the other of which has only advantage symbols and no success symbols. That's where your unexpected intersection is coming from.

The problem here is that, because each die can have multiple kinds of symbols on it, potentially including multiple kinds of symbols on a single face, and we care about the total number of each kind of symbol, our odds become a sum of vectors rather than a sum of scalars. I'm not aware of any widely available dice probability calculator that can elegantly handle dice which produce vector results.

We can cheat a bit in this particular case, though, because the fact that we don't need to deal with negative numbers means we can convert a vector result to a scalar result by assigning each symbol a power of ten.

For the sake of argument, let's assign each "success" a value of 10, and each "advantage" a value of one. Thus, a face with one "success" symbol becomes a 10; a face with two "success" symbols, a 20; a face with one "success" and one "advantage", an 11; and so forth.

In the table of results, we then examine the digits individually, with the "tens" place being read as the number of success symbols, and the "ones" place being read as the number of advantage symbols.

Expressed in this way in AnyDice terms, a Genesys skill die becomes:

output 1d{0, 10, 10, 20, 1, 1, 11, 2}

In the resulting table, you'll see that your anomalous intersection has vanished; there's a 12.5% chance of "2" (that is, two advantages with zero successes), and a 12.5% chance of "20" (two successes with zero advantages), but no "22" (two successes with two advantages).

Note, however, that this only works correctly with up to four dice; with five or more, there will be some outcomes where the number of advantage symbols exceeds nine and "overflows" into the successes column, polluting your results.

Clear as mud?

[sam-keeper]

Most modern criticism agrees, audiences have a lot of interpretive say. So why do people still talk about media like it's being inflicted on them? Sink your teeth into the difficult films No Country for Old Men and Nosferatu and learn to get your agency back as an audience.

Art, any art, has its subject, and then it has what it thinks about that subject, but "what it thinks" doesn't sit in the art's brain--it hasn't got one, after all--but our brains, the audience's. "What it thinks" is convenient shorthand, really, for a whole relationship, between the artwork itself, the creators and what motivated its creation, the audience and what motivates their reception, and the whole context they all find themselves in. But the text also has qualities, relatively objective contents, and those contents restrict the possibility space of "what it thinks". It would be rude to imagine a bunch of scenes in a novel that never happened and claim the original text says something based on them; we can't put words in art's mouth--it hasn't got one, after all. We do speak for a text, though, and a text speaks for us. We have agency. Older forms of interpretation viewed art as a series of objective authorial intents bundled into a message beamed into our skulls, but most modern interpretive theories agree, more or less, that the audience puts work into understanding. Somehow, the way we talk about art in broader culture, particularly online, hasn't caught up. That shorthand gets taken at face value, as though the message of art (or advertisements, news articles, press releases, scientific studies, press secretary statements...) is obvious, requiring no engagement from us. I've had people scoff and say I'm misusing language when I apply the word "literacy" to this idea. Maybe that's comforting. Having agency means taking responsibility, sometimes responsibility for having a bad time, or for just being wrong. You ever come out of a movie and turn to the people you're with and say, "hey so what was that... about?" At that moment, you might find out you're alone with your interpretation--that you effectively watched a different movie from everyone else! With all the fearsome experiences art offers, and all its attendant social anxiety, why not wrestle some control back by reinterpreting yourself as a victim of art's impositions? I don't think that feeling of control lasts, though. If anything, in the long term it makes art seem like a contagion vector, full of potentially dirty feelings and memes. Media "literacy" partly just means engaging art confidently, instead of feeling like art's being imposed on you. To feel that kind of confidence, though, takes practice, and it's a hard skill to teach, at least if what you're actually testing for is a set of "objective" repeatable metrics. A lot of English classes seem to teach a straightforward "x means y" relationship between symbols or metaphors and their meaning. In response to that kind of disempowering rote formula approach, some people reassert their agency by just... pretending nothing means anything, which feels defiant and powerful, but cuts down everything they can say about art to "Yes!" and "No!" What can this kind of audience do when a work puts two characters in contention, has them spell out a core worldview disagreement, and offers a question: who is right? They can only fall back on reliable common sense (you know, all the unexamined stuff they've absorbed from culture and the people around them, or just their gut emotional responses), arriving at what they believe is the obvious only answer. Too bad, because one of the best ways to train your interpretive agency muscles is looking at exactly those moments of character disagreement. Like, take a look at Anton Chigurh and Carla Jean Moss in No Country For Old Men, maybe, sure. It's a popular movie, a great, iconic scene, and fun to talk about, so let's take a look. At the end of the movie, Anton Chigurh, philosopher-hitman, is going to kill this basically innocent woman; it sucks, and we all hate it, right? I guess it's a bit more than a character disagreement. But it is a disagreement in the sense that they're gonna have a conversation before Chigurh and Carla Jean go to their respective fates, and that conversation is pivotal to the question of what the movie is "about".

Read More

[shiyorin]

Slice of life with Rogal Dorn (and Imperial Fists)

It's a sequel to this one. Of course I'm too lazy to write it seriously, but here's basically what happens next if you're curious.

There are a lot of tax mistakes even though I tried to understand them, I don't live in America so I'm not too clear on everything.

If anyone has a way to solve the taxes problem and continue the story, please help me ʕ⁠´⁠•⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠•̥⁠`⁠ʔ

Summary: You and your boys deal with taxes and things go wrong.

The envelope sat on your kitchen counter like a bomb waiting to detonate. The official HOA letterhead glared up at you, its officious tone evident even through the unopened paper. You'd been avoiding it all morning, busying yourself with coffee and scrolling through your phone. But the letter remained, undeniable.

Rogal entered the kitchen, ducking slightly to clear the doorframe despite the modifications he'd made to raise it. "You appear troubled." he stated, his keen eyes noting your tense posture.

You nodded toward the envelope. "Homeowners Association. They're not happy about the 'unauthorized structural modifications' to your property."

Rogal frowned, the expression deepening the already stern lines of his face. He picked up the envelope with his one massive hand, open it. His eyes scanned the document, narrowing slightly with each line.

"This is… bureaucratic harassment." he finally declared, setting the letter down. "These 'covenants' are tactical restrictions designed to weaken defensive capacity."

"They're rules I agreed to when I bought the house." you sighed, taking a long sip of coffee. "We need permits for structural changes, and there are restrictions on height, materials, and aesthetic choices."

"Aesthetic… choices?" Rogal repeated, as if the concept were entirely foreign.

"Yes, Rogal. Not everything is about structural integrity and defensive capabilities." You rubbed your temples. "They're especially upset about the watchtower."

Alexis chose that moment to enter, his massive frame practically filling the doorway. "The observation post is essential for monitoring approach vectors. Removing it would create a blind spot in our security perimeter."

"Tell that to Carol from three doors down." you muttered. "She says it's 'an eyesore that's reducing property values.'"

The three of you stood in silence, contemplating the letter. Outside, the sounds of hammering indicated that Vladimir and Halbrecht were continuing work on their latest project, a reinforced storage shed that looked suspiciously like a bunker.

"What are the consequences for non-compliance?" Rogal finally asked.

"Fines. Legal action. Potentially a lien on my property." Your stomach tightened at the thought. Your savings were already stretched thin supporting five enormous men with appetites to match.

"Then we must comply with these regulations." Rogal decided, though his tone suggested he found the entire concept strategically unsound. "We will obtain these 'permits.'"

You laughed, a short, humorless sound. "It's not that simple. We'd need architectural plans, inspections, approval from the city planning department… not to mention explaining why five enormous men with no identification or legal existence are living here and doing construction."

Rogal processed this, his expression unchanging but something calculating in his eyes. "A tactical challenge, then."

"You could say that."

Sigismund entered, his severe face even more grim than usual. "The neighbors have been observing our activities. The female dwelling in the blue structure has been documenting the observation post with a pict-capture device."

"Mrs. Peterson with her phone." you translated. "Great."

"We should eliminate the surveillance." Sigismund suggested, his hand drifting unconsciously to where his sword would normally hang.

"No!" you snapped, momentarily forgetting your usual quiet demeanor. "Nobody is 'eliminating' anything. These are my neighbors, not enemies."

"The distinction is not always clear." Sigismund replied seriously.

Your phone chirped with a notification. You glanced at it and groaned. "And now I've been summoned to a special HOA meeting to 'discuss the unauthorized modifications to the property’"

Rogal straightened, his head nearly brushing the ceiling despite his modifications. "I will accompany you to this tactical briefing."

"That's really not necessary—"

"It is decided." he stated, in a tone that suggested the matter was closed.

******

The community center meeting room fell silent as you entered with Rogal at your side. The folding chairs seemed absurdly small as the giant man surveyed the room with the calculated gaze of a battlefield commander.

Carol Anderson, HOA president and self-appointed neighborhood watchdog, gaped momentarily before recovering her composure. "Ma’am, we didn't expect you to bring… guests."

"This is my… consultant." you said weakly. "Roger… Donald."

Rogal looked at you curiously but didn't contradict the hasty alias.

"Well." Carol continued, shuffling her papers officiously, "we've called this meeting to address the numerous violations occurring at your property. We have photographic evidence of unauthorized construction, including what appears to be some sort of… guard tower?"

Murmurs rippled through the assembled neighbors. You felt your face heating up.

"Observation post." Rogal corrected automatically.

"Excuse me?"

"The proper tactical designation is 'observation post,' not 'guard tower,'" he elaborated, his deep voice resonating through the small room. "It provides elevated surveillance capabilities for early threat detection."

Carol blinked rapidly. "Threats? This is not a military installation."

"I'm aware." you said through gritted teeth. "We'll take it down."

"There's also the matter of the reinforced perimeter fencing, the concrete bunker in your backyard—"

"Storage shed." you interjected.

"—and the extensive modifications to your home's exterior, all without permits or HOA approval."

Rogal leaned forward, his massive frame making the folding chair beneath him creak ominously. "Your defensive protocols are inadequate. The entire neighborhood lacks basic fortification against concentrated assault."

The meeting room fell silent again, neighbors exchanging concerned glances.

"Ma’am." Carol said slowly, "your… consultant seems to be under some misapprehensions about the purpose of our community guidelines."

"He's European." you offered weakly. "They do things differently there."

"Regardless, you have thirty days to remove the unauthorized structures and restore your property to compliance with HOA guidelines, or we'll be forced to begin issuing fines and potentially pursue legal action."

Rogal's face darkened. "This is tactically unsound."

"Nevertheless." Carol continued, ignoring him, "those are the rules you agreed to when you purchased your home."

The drive back was silent, Rogal's massive frame making your sedan look like a clown car. His expression was thunderous, though he said nothing until you pulled into the driveway.

"These administrative restrictions are worse than facing an ork horde." he finally stated.

"I don't know what that means, but I agree it's a nightmare." you sighed, turning off the engine. "And this is just the beginning. The city inspector will be here next week about the property taxes."

"Property… taxes?"

"Yeah, all the 'improvements' you guys have made? They increase the assessed value of my house, which means higher taxes."

Rogal absorbed this with his usual stoicism, though a muscle twitched in his jaw. "We have made you a target for financial warfare."

"That's one way of putting it."

Inside, you found the others gathered around the kitchen table, which Alexis had reinforced to support their combined weight. Sigismund looked up as you entered, his fierce eyes noting your expressions.

"The administrative engagement was unsuccessful." he observed.

"That's putting it mildly." you dropped your purse on the counter and slumped into a chair. "We have to remove everything or face fines we can't afford to pay."

Vladimir frowned. "The defense perimeter is essential for security."

"The watchtower is literally what neighbors see first." you muttered, to no one in particular.

"Perhaps." Sigismund began slowly, "What we require is assistance of a different nature. In the Chapter, when facing insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles, we would sometimes employ the services of… psykers."

The kitchen fell silent. Rogal's expression grew even more severe, if that were possible.

"You suggest warp-craft?" he asked, his tone suggesting deep disapproval.

"I detest the practice as much as any son of Dorn." Sigismund replied stiffly. "But a targeted mental manipulation could resolve our difficulties with these… HOA enforcers."

"What are you guys talking about?" you asked, looking between them in confusion.

Halbrecht, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "Psykers. Those with the ability to manipulate the immaterium, what you might call 'magic.' They could alter the perceptions of your neighbors, make them overlook our fortifications."

"That's not a real thing." you said flatly.

"It is." Vladimir insisted. "Though accessing such powers here may be problematic."

Rogal shook his head firmly. "The warp does not exist in this reality. I have sensed no trace of it since our arrival. No immaterium means no psykers."

"Then how do you explain our presence here?" Sigismund challenged. "We were clearly transported by some warp phenomenon."

"I cannot explain it." Rogal admitted. "But I know what I sense. There is no warp here."

You looked between them, increasingly lost. "What's a warp?"

The five men exchanged glances, a rare moment of uncertainty passing between them.

"It is… difficult to explain." Rogal finally said. "A parallel dimension of psychic energy that underlies reality in our… previous existence."

"Right." you said slowly. "Magic. Got it."

"Not magic." Alexis corrected firmly. "A natural force, like gravity or electromagnetism, but operating on different principles."

You raised your hands in surrender. "Whatever. The point is, we can't use mind control on the HOA, so we need another solution."

"We could eliminate them." Sigismund suggested again, though with less conviction than before.

"Still no." You sighed.

******

The city inspector arrived precisely at 9 AM the following Tuesday, clipboard in hand and an expression of bureaucratic determination on his face. His name tag read "Johnson, Property Assessment."

You met him at the door, having spent the previous evening coaching your houseguests to remain out of sight. Naturally, this lasted approximately thirty seconds into the inspection.

"These additions are quite extensive." Johnson noted, scribbling on his clipboard as he examined the reinforced door frame. "I don't see any permits on file for this work."

"It's just some minor repairs." you tried.

Johnson gave you a look that said he wasn't born yesterday. "Ma'am, your door frame is reinforced with what appears to be aerospace-grade titanium alloy. That's not 'minor repairs.'"

Before you could respond, Rogal emerged from the hallway, his imposing presence immediately filling the entryway. "The reinforcement is necessary for baseline security protocols."

Johnson startled visibly, looking up… and up at the giant before him. "And you are…?"

"He's my contractor." you interjected quickly.

"I'll need to see his license and the permits for this work." Johnson replied, recovering his composure.

"The bureaucratic restrictions in this jurisdiction are tactically unsound." Rogal stated flatly. "In the Imperial—"

"In the Imperial Fists Construction Company." you cut in desperately. "They do things differently. European standards."

Johnson's eyes narrowed. "I'm not familiar with that firm. And regardless of European standards, county building codes still apply."

The inspection deteriorated from there. Despite your best efforts, all five men eventually made appearances, each more disturbing to the inspector than the last. By the time Sigismund emerged from the basement (where he'd been installing what he called a "rudimentary defense bunker"), Johnson was scribbling furiously on his clipboard, his earlier professional demeanor replaced with barely concealed alarm.

"Ma’am." he said as they concluded the inspection, "based on my preliminary assessment, your property improvements have increased your assessed value by approximately sixty percent. You'll be receiving a revised tax statement reflecting these changes."

You felt the blood drain from your face. "Sixty percent?"

"Additionally, I'm obligated to report the unpermitted construction to the county code enforcement office. You can expect to hear from them within ten business days regarding the necessary permits and potential penalties."

After Johnson departed, looking relieved to escape, you collapsed onto your reinforced sofa, head in your hands. The five giants stood or sat around your living room, their expressions varying from Rogal's stoic contemplation to Sigismund's barely suppressed frustration.

"This administrative warfare is dishonorable." Halbrecht declared. "They attack with papers instead of facing us directly."

"That's government for you." You muttered.

"We have made your situation worse." Rogal observed, stating the obvious with his characteristic bluntness.

"I can't afford a sixty percent increase in property taxes." you admitted, the reality of your situation sinking in. "Not to mention fines from the county and the HOA."

The room fell silent, each occupant contemplating the dilemma from their own perspective. It was Vladimir who finally broke the silence.

"We must generate resources." he stated. "Currency."

Alexis nodded slowly. "Agreed. We have consumed your supplies without adequate compensation. This imbalance must be corrected."

"How?" you asked, looking up at them. "You guys don't exist on paper. No Social Security numbers, no IDs, no work permits. You can't exactly walk into a job interview."

"We possess skills." Rogal pointed out. "Construction. Engineering. Strategic planning."

"Great skills." you agreed. "But you need documentation to use them legally."

Sigismund's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Perhaps not. In times of war, informal economies often arise. Services provided without official sanction."

"You're talking about working under the table." you translated. "That's technically illegal."

"As is our very existence here." Halbrecht pointed out reasonably. "We are already operating outside your legal framework simply by being present."

You couldn't argue with that logic. You thought about your mounting financial problems, the increased taxes, the potential fines, the ordinary expenses of housing and feeding five enormous men with metabolisms that defied explanation.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" you finally asked.

"We establish a construction enterprise." Rogal stated, as if it were the most obvious solution. "Unofficial, but effective. We build. We reinforce. We improve. We generate currency."

"A construction company." you said slowly. "Run by five giant men with no legal identity, no contractor's license, and a tendency to build everything like it's going to be under siege."

"Exactly." Rogal confirmed, missing or ignoring your sarcasm.

"That's… actually not the worst idea." you admitted after a moment's thought. "There's always demand for handymen who work cheap, especially for cash jobs."

"We do not require substantial compensation." Alexis added. "Merely enough to offset the administrative warfare being waged against you."

"But we'd need to be subtle." you warned. "No watchtowers. No bunkers. Just normal home repairs and improvements."

"Disguising defensive fortifications as aesthetic improvements is standard protocol in urban warfare." Vladimir noted, as if this were common knowledge.

"And we'd need to keep a low profile with the authorities." you continued, warming to the idea despite yourself. "Small jobs, word of mouth only."

Sigismund nodded approvingly. "Guerrilla economics. Attack the problem indirectly rather than facing bureaucratic forces head-on."

"I still find these restrictions tactically unsound." Rogal stated, his perpetual frown deepening. "A society that prioritizes appearance over function invites weakness."

"Welcome to modern society." you sighed.

******

A few days later, you sat at your kitchen table, now reinforced but still looking like an ordinary table, reviewing a handwritten list of potential clients and jobs. The "Imperial Fists Construction" enterprise, as your houseguests insisted on calling it, was still more concept than reality. The bureaucratic obstacles seemed insurmountable.

"We require business credentials." Rogal stated, looming over the table. "Without documentation, our tactical options remain limited."

"I know." you sighed, looking at the papers spread before you. The increased property tax notice had arrived that morning, the numbers even worse than you'd feared. "But getting documentation for you guys is practically impossible without existing identification."

Alexis entered the kitchen, ducking through the doorway. "The neighbor three dwellings south has requested assistance with a collapsing deck structure. I provided a preliminary assessment."

"Mrs. Abernathy?" you asked. "How does she even know about you guys?"

"Word spreads." Vladimir commented from where he was methodically organizing tools. "Tactical information always finds channels."

You massaged your temples, feeling the beginnings of what had become a familiar headache. "We can't just start taking jobs without any kind of legal structure. We'd be risking fines on top of the taxes and HOA penalties we're already facing."

"Administrative warfare requires administrative countermeasures." Sigismund declared, his severe expression suggesting he found this type of battle more challenging than physical combat.

Halbrecht, who had been quietly examining your laptop, looked up. "There exist entities that provide documentation services. Not entirely within legal parameters, but functional."

You stared at him. "Are you suggesting we get fake IDs?"

"Tactical documentation." he corrected. "For emergency deployment situations."

"That's a whole new level of illegal." you pointed out, though you couldn't help considering it. Your financial situation was becoming desperate.

Rogal studied the tax notice with his characteristic intensity. "The system is designed to prevent outsiders from operating within it. A deliberate exclusionary tactic."

"That's one way of looking at bureaucracy." you muttered.

Outside, the afternoon sun cast long shadows across your increasingly fortified yard. The "observation post" had been partially dismantled following the HOA meeting, but much of their other work remained, reinforced fencing disguised as decorative borders, concrete supports hidden beneath garden features, surveillance systems camouflaged as outdoor lighting.

The five men had been trying, in their own bizarre way, to help. They'd reduced their food consumption, though their massive frames still required substantial calories. They'd begun patrolling the neighborhood at night, identifying potential jobs and clients. They'd even attempted to create rudimentary business cards, though Sigismund's design featuring fist and an eagle motif had seemed a bit too militant for suburban handyman work.

"Perhaps." Rogal began slowly, "a more direct approach is required."

"What do you mean?" you asked.

"We approach this Carol Anderson. Present our case directly. Offer our services in exchange for HOA compliance."

You blinked, surprised by the suggestion. "You want to negotiate with the HOA president?"

"Tactical dialogue." Rogal confirmed. "Identify mutual benefits. Establish parameters for coexistence."

"That's… actually not a bad idea." you admitted. "Though getting HOA to agree to anything might be challenging."

"All fortifications have weak points." Sigismund observed cryptically.

You glanced at the stack of bills, the tax notice, the HOA warning. Your savings were dwindling, your options limited. Five enormous men with impossible skills and no legal existence sat in your kitchen, earnestly trying to solve a problem they had largely created.

It was absurd. Impossible. Yet somehow, you found yourself considering Rogal's suggestion. What did you have to lose?

"Alright." you said finally. "Let's try diplomacy. But if Sigismund suggests 'eliminating' anyone again, we're going back to plan A."

"Which was?" Vladimir asked.

"Panic and hope for a miracle." you replied dryly.

Rogal nodded, "The fortress will stand."

[maxwells-daemon]

the beautiful eigen siblings: vector and value