#DataPacket

[poseidonsworst]

Listen, I know it's soft sci-fi and we're not meant to think about it in depth, but also I love to imagine that Murderbot sorta just doesn't know shit about fuck when it comes to its own organic parts, like

MB: I don't take in nutrients like humans do. I don't need food or water.

Incorrect. Resupply lines are mentioned in the first book. At the most basic high-school biology level, if you need oxygen at all its because you're undergoing cellular respiration so you also need glucose. Not to mention potasium, sodium, other electrolytes and WATER!! All that shit is coming from somewhere. Either your one dinky little lung is pulling it out of the air somehow (I'd buy it for water at least) or the resupply lines function as parenteral nutrition.

MB: I don't produce waste.

Incorrect. Aerobic or anerobic, cells produce waste that needs to be filtered out of the blood, not mention cellular breakdown from trauma or natural death. Either there's some sort of internal recycling system going on, or the resupply and repair lines also function as dialysis. My bet is some combination of both.

Show MB: There's no dopamine there.

Maybe romance doesn't trigger dopamine release for you MB, in which case sure, but if you mean constructs don't have dopamine that's INCORRECT AGAIN! We know you have muscles, if you can move those muscles you have dopamine. If you have organic motivation to do ANYTHING you have dopamine. And we know you've got epinephrine, which is made in the same place as dopamine so you def have dopamine.

Show MB: Neural tissue is one of the best data transport material there is.

This one I fully fucking believe, because unlike wires you can send more than just On or Off. Neurotransmitters are so fucking complex if we could use them as WIRING!?!?!? No wonder every ship and system in MB has fucking emotions. No wonder a bot pilot can "Scream and die" when faced with killware. What the fuck is killware btfw??? Do we think it's part computer virus part datapacket that gets translated from binary to mRNA that then hijacks organic cells to fucking kill them?? Do you think there's killware that's turbo brain cancer or digital rabies??

There is so much biopunk potential hidden in the cyberpunk and I'm scrabbling for the crumbs. Martha Wells PLEASE I need ANSWERS!!!

[alivewithclive]

Ukraine's military forces are now equipped to do more 3-D printing of spare parts on the battlefield. 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇸

#Repost @kyivindependent_official with @use.repost . . . U.S. Under Secretary of Defense William LaPlante said on Sept. 15 that the U.S. has provided the Ukrainian military with industrial-size 3D printers to print spare parts for battlefield equipment.

Speaking at the Center for a New American Security, LaPlante said that the 3D printers were procured last month and training for the Ukrainian military on operating them was completed in the past week.

The 3D printers are "about the size of a truck," and their use on the battlefield is "changing the ballgame," La Plante said.

According to the U.S. official, Ukrainian forces were independently using 3D printers to print spare parts at the start of the full-scale invasion.

Although Ukrainian forces did not have the appropriate technical data packets to do so, intellectual property laws "are only mildly interesting" when one's country is under attack.

Since then, Ukraine has been supplied with all the relevant technical data packages by the U.S. and other allies to carry out 3D printing, LaPlante added.

11h

[drill-bits]

How are they doing the scan on Drift? It looks like Ratchet is plugging something into a data pad so is it not like an ultrasound?

I mean— u tell me how any of their technology works

But i imagine it’s the same as any medical scan or diagnostic, there’d just be a whole new datapacket to access that wouldn’t have been there before

Although for this soecifically, I imagine Brainstorm (or Perc or Nautica) whipped up a Device that lets you See The Sparkling Inside The Tank LIKE an ultra sound but definitely NOT one because the amount of steel reinforcement around that thing is practically impenetrable

(It would build a holographic/3D render of what it looks like based on the data they get from Drift’s medical diagnostics)

[singingcicadas]

Realized that even though it's a shame that there wasn’t much Drift/Megatron interaction in the story, we still got a fairly detailed one-sided account of Drift’s opinion.

Because this is in no way an accurate assessment of the mentality of the crew members on Necroworld. Drift's either doing some really bullshit armchair psychology or he's projecting his own feelings and assuming that they're shared by everyone else.

Once you break everyone down individually you can see that Drift’s theory applies to very few people:

Rodimus and Minimus have sort of an ambiguous friendship going on with Megatron. Rodimus literally chose to save his life when he could have let Megatron explode with Tarn. Minimus immediately proceeded to give himself congnitive dissonance b/c he thought Megatron betrayed them by running away.

Nautica Velocity Cyclonus Tailgate Ten have no preexisting history against Megatron.

Nautica has more Other Problems than to pay attention to Megatron.

Velocity’s conversation with Megatron after the psychological attack was nothing but caring and friendly. Megatron even felt comfortable enough to admit to her that he was happy. She and Nautica are amongst the few people who sees Megatron as a person first, before his deeds.

Cyclonus might even admire him a little with the romanticized way he talks about the Decepticon ideology.

Tailgate's knowledge about Megatron's past comes entirely from datapackets and documentaries. And his response to that kind of threat level is to pull a gun on him and then try to shadowplay the evilness out. Point is, Tailgate's method to dealing with threats is to be very hands-on, especially after he got his spark spasm superpowers. His way of coping is definitely not brainwashing himself into thinking 'he's not a threat' and being unconsciously nervous all the time.

Whirl hates Megatron with a passion but he also saved Megatron in the time travel. He views Megatron as less of a threat than the functionists.

Nightbeat doesn’t care about anything other than his mysteries; his response to threat of imminent demise at sundown is to go exploring.

Rung’s… Rung. He’s forgiving and compassionate, and also a professional therapist who should be capable of employing healthy rational methods to cope with Megatron being in his life.

Rewind, like Nautica, has a whole slew of Other Problems, I'm sure Megatron's not a very big priority right now.

Skids is dead.

That only leaves like three people unaccounted for and they’re all branded Megatron sympathizers for a reason: they all said no to Getaway when he asked if they were pro ‘mutiny and kick Megatron off the ship.’

Drift's only been back for seven days, even if he got filled in with everything that happened since, he's still in no position to be making that kind of assessment. He doesn't have the context. He wasn't there when Megatron was captain of the ship. He didn't even meet Nautica Velocity and Nightbeat before he left, he has no idea what they're like or what they think of Megatron. Even Rewind's not the same one from before. (Add: he also didn't know Ultra Magnus was actually Minimus in a suit)

Most importantly his entire response in the second two panels is the complete opposite of Ratchet's original question. Ratchet's question was "Is it me or is everyone a little skittish?" Skittish. as in nervous. uneasy. jumpy. Drift's like "Megatron's gone so they can relax." But skittish is the opposite of relaxing? and they only started being skittish after Megatron left? He's the only one to bring up Megatron in this?

Rodimus' reasoning in the first panel (sans Rodpod) makes much more sense.

TL;DR: Drift's nervous around his old boss and can only relax after Megatron's gone, so he assumes that everyone else must feel the same way too. Everyone else: not really?

[transposition-fic]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62350501/chapters/163534765

Chapter Nine Sneak-Peek:

  “He did? You’re certain?” Red Alert directs a nervous glance over towards the Flame Mistress. “Well, we checked in with Optimus Prime to get approval to bring in supplies, and to update him on the situation overall. He seemed willing to negotiate with a free Caminus in the future, but, uh… I guess, he said to be careful?” 

        Jazz can only guess that means that Optimus Prime isn’t a huge fan of the Flame Mistress, literal hero-worship notwithstanding. Obviously, Red Alert wasn’t willing to say that in front of their company.

        “Oh, please, when am I not? You know, my predecessor actually considered naming me ‘Circumspect,’ but he refrained ‘cause there were too many syllables.” Jazz’s joke falls on deaf audials, and he groans. “Anything else?” 

        “Uh, yeah. Your physician accosted us and shouted at me a lot, about making sure you took proper care of yourself. He gave us some documentation which I’ve already sent over to your copilot in a datapacket to be certain he got it. Sorry, sir. After that, I went over to Head Tactician Prowl. He… is keeping up with our strategy, but otherwise didn’t recommend that we change our course of action.” 

        Jazz is deeply suspicious of this. Prowl loved to meddle in other people’s projects, and would never give up on the opportunity to tell someone else what to do when prompted. Unless… he was warned away from the project. 

        “Did you yell at him?” 

        Red Alert’s vocalizer lets out a horrified crackle. 

        “...yes. How did you know that?” He asks, optics darting back and forth between the Flame Mistress and Jazz. 

        “Everyone in his department is neurotic, bossy enough to verge on insubordinate, catty, rude, humorless… and worst of all , half of you want to ‘junx the Autobot Codex. Of course you’d yell at your boss; he trained you all to do it.” Jazz snorts. “You’re exactly what the Flame Mistress needs, though, so I suppose I’ll have to be grateful for that.” 

        Red Alert holds out his servo for the Flame Mistress to shake. She seems vaguely disgusted by the gesture, but concedes, discreetly wiping her servos on her robes a moment later. 

       “Charmed,” she lies, politely.

[the-starry-seas]

have to get this thought out while it's here but like: bail tagging along on fox's first Hike because apparently fox will be traumatised by the wildlife if left to his own devices, but he still wants to explore, and breha has her queen duties the entire morning

and then breha gets a massive datapacket from bail's comm and does the space equivalent of texting under the table because that seems like it might be important

and it's just an absolutely massive number of pictures of fox sprawled in a patch of mountain flowers, bright colours all around him, his fingers curled around the grass, his face tilted up to the sun with the kind of soft smile one usually only sees in classical paintings

and a video of bail plucking a flower to wiggle under fox's nose, and fox sneezing about it and then laughing, a low warm chuckle that has him stretching out among the flowers and relaxing with a soft sigh

they end up not coming home until it's almost dark because fox was so comfortable and bail taught him the art of looking for shapes in the clouds because it would have been a crime to move him (and it was the perfect excuse for bail to shuffle closer and put his head on fox's shoulder).

breha goes with them the next time and they just end up camping overnight at a nearby overlook, and there's so many more beautiful flowers at night that fox doesn't give a single thought to the Creatures

[mirrorbusterz]

I love the way you describe comm-link communication in dissertation literally exploded my brain and was so complicated and awesome... referring to the scene in chapter 11 where Megatron tries to get Orion to come to the bar with him. Augh..... it's just so creative and I love the idea that there could be so much detail included in the way that they use glyphs and code bc it's a processor to processor thing.

Same with any of the historical/archival details... maybe I'm just a freak english major that needs to get a real job but oml... I loved the part where they read over the play together it made my heart so happy. Wow wow wow.

BACK to the comm-link stuff. I was rlly interested about the implications of this line "Was that… disappointment, bleeding down the line and into Orion’s processor? Perhaps he had just imagined it, what with the way the hashstring is near instantaneously replaced with what could only be read as calm acceptance. Orion flinches."

How genuine is the disappointment involved? Was it kept in or allowed to bleed over *intentionally* to try to convince Orion to feel bad for his decision? If not, why does Megatron want to conceal his annoyance with the affair when is normally so blunt about what he wants and how he feels?

Thank yewww, I'm going to be honest I came up with the commlink lore on the fly, but I was really glad how it turned out. It was originally going to be what is essentially just texting, but I think that it would be alot more interesting to explore how messages could be directly sent to someone's brain. It's not necessarily that they are in each other's brain or anything like that since a commlink frequency must first be accessed by that mech's own will and only what you allot is sent over, but I like to think it's alot more intricate than what can be described through words. The raw data can only be expressed through words that their brains have interpretted, but the emotion that comes with those words--those datapackets than can be tweaked to match certain processor emotional frequencies--are an integral part of commlinks that is lost in translation. The best way to describe it is like if you could directly feel an emotion that an emoticon was trying to convey.

As for Megatronus, I'm so glad you brought up that little bit of characterization we see. I agree with you in that Megatronus is a blunt, outwardly assertive person, but I think a lot of that is directly separate from his emotions themselves (probably a emotional distancing tactic he gained throughout the war), so when his emotions DO bleed through it's significant for someone like Orion who sees him as an articulate person. That is to say, I feel he actually has a poor grasp on his emotions once he allows himself to be vulnerable, and it spins wildly out of control.

I'm sure letting his disappointment slip through the line WAS intentional to tell Orion "i am not happy with this outcome," but that other stoic part of himself was telling him to reel it in for both of their sakes. He was rejected and he shouldn't be hung up over it, business as usual. Yet, as we will see, Megatronus' personal feelings regarding ratchet and orion's relationship have slowly been on a downspiral and I think that disappointment can not only be tied to his personal feelings, but his faith in Orion's contributions to the Cause itself. Because Megatronus views *himself* as the Cause, which is a concerning line of thinking. I'm sure he knows Orion doesn't like to disappoint others as well, which is pretty manipulative on his part.

[twiincast]

Headcanon:

Blaster and Soundwave are right about the same size, but Blaster has a bit more bulk on him since he's a broadcast unit.

For a while there, he had absolutely no animosity towards the other Host Mech. Sure, he didn't agree with the other's faction or "morals" but he didn't go out of his way to attack Soundwave either. That only came about when the other managed to torture Beachcomber into taking the shot to try to silence him. Now, it's personal.

His stage Persona, the "Voice" is just that- a persona. When he's not broadcasting, he's a remarkably quiet mech who tends to read more than speak on his downtime. Now and again, he can coax his Symbiotes into the occasional game- but for the most part, he's quite content to simply observe them.

He has five symbiotes- but two of them are free agents at the moment and the other deactivated. The only ones that remain with him are Steeljaw and Sundor.

Steeljaw's altmode is easily the size of a Terran Cave Lion, but he's a gentle soul. Like his Host, he tends to read and explore the world more academically. Before the cementation of Functionalist, he had a Degree of Xenobiology from the Iaconian Institute- but it was redacted when the current Senate took command.

Blaster does have data-cables, though they're not in the same configuration as Soundwave's. His are more like fiber-optics, and can easily plug into just about anything to receive and send out datapackets. This allows him to neatly bypass the whole "hacking" thing. He's not as adept at that as his competitor is.

He really has no favorite genre of music, but Jazz just HAD to go and get him hooked on rock ballads. Now and again, catch him humming to Poison, or even more rarely- something like Panic! at the Disco.

Blaster prefers to observe rather than jump right into a situation. He's still the same person he was before his attack, but it has definitely taught him the value of patience.

And recognizing panic attacks versus flashbacks.

[thenamesblurrito]

GUESS WHO’S BACK WITH CYBERTRONIAN FOOD IT’S ME BABY!! And all of them are fruits! You can find all the other food posts in this masterlist here

1) cherry bombs double as both hard candy and festive explosives. Sweet and spicy at the same time, they grow from areas with a lot of sulfur and carbon. They’re ready to be picked when the fuses of a cherry bunch unravel from each other to let each cherry swing freely. Sometimes the wind blowing through the branches will knock the cherries together hard enough to detonate one and strip the whole tree in a loud messy chain reaction. Certain mechanimal species like gryphraxi that require ammunition as part of their fuel eat cherry bombs often, otherwise it’s mostly Cybertronians who pick and eat them.

2) sticky little shells of congealed fuels, pistachioils are found exclusively underground, stretching downward like stalactites to collect trickles of oil. The talc shells are edible too, and lend a nice crunch to the sticky oil inside.

3) logginkey plants are one of the rare cyberflora species that don’t emerge from a flora hotspot, but instead emerge from one of the datapacket seeds transferred to another plant. Growing on other cyberflora, a logginkey takes energy from its host and in turn acts as a secondary immune system, running through system checks and setting up firewalls. They’re a general health station for mechanimals as well, with their flower plugs capable of interfacing with and debugging fauna visiting for a checkup. These mechanimals then take the fruits to eat, and a benign temporary script uploaded by the flower directs them to stick one or two seeds on a different plant somewhere. The seeds are electrified and very sour-sweet, and mecha often take them like supplements. (it was a bit hard to figure out a name for lilikoi, but I figured reversing the order of keylogging would work)

4) thank you to @dear-fellow-travelers for the suggestion! There’s a variety of oilmelon types, all derived from the same codeline but developing differently depending on the resources surrounding their hotspot. Cantalubricants are often underground, honeydetergents are common around acid swamps, and papoyleums mostly show up near wellsprings and geysers. They’re usually soft on the inside, sweet, and energizing

5) bombegranate trees are ecosystem architects. Their fruit grows up at the very top of the branches, and not long after ripening, explodes outward, sending hard crystal seeds scattering a good ways away and embedding them in the ground with sheer force. These crystal seeds start crystal prairies, and after awhile a single bombegranate can surround itself with a huge radius of wild-growing crystals. The fruits need to be harvested right when they ripen, unless the harvester wants to risk a bomb in the face, and the seeds can be chewed a long time before breaking down because of how hard they are.

[evecolourshock]

Fic :)

Tron hums, looking Paige up and down. It's one part assessing, one part approving. She's been good for Beck's confidence, supportive even when Tron had to ask for his help during or before a date (he tried to avoid that - Beck's social life has taken enough of a hit as-is). Didn't mind Beck has secrets - backed off when Beck told her they weren't fully his secrets and he couldn't tell her without approval from all involved parties.

The Renegade secret is the last major secret Tron knows Beck has. If there's any others, Tron doesn't know them either.

"What was that?" Beck demands, after he takes Paige home - not to the barracks, interesting, another point in her favour for breaking away from that regime.

"I like her." Tron answers, smiling a little. "She's good for you. Not afraid to stand her ground, too."

"...did you just have a datapacket-measuring contest with my girlfriend." Beck's tone is disbelieving, and Tron has to bite down on snickers. "Tron. Are you serious. Did you do that-?"

Tron has to mute the comm to keep Beck from hearing him, almost doubling over with laughter as Beck's demands for information get more and more incredulous.

A new contact pops up - the girlfriend herself. "I can clear the building for mandatory emergency drills if you want to get hold of those plans for the mass rectifiers. Also, are you winding my boyfriend up?"

"Thank you." Tron hesitates. "And... maybe a little." Beck did tell him to at least try to be more personable.

"He's swearing at you. It's funny."

Tron can hear Beck over the line. "I know."

"You're not so bad, I guess." Paige is warm, amused. A lot like Yori, at least in how much she loves, supports, and enables her partner, while still finding it in her to laugh at his antics. "Take care of him?"

"You're alright yourself." Tron teases, then sobers. "I will, just make sure you do the same."

Paige hums down the comm line. "Will do. Stay online."

She hangs up then, and Tron's left with hope's faint warmth and far less loneliness than before.

"You know, Yori?" Tron asks the air quietly. "I think the kids are gonna be just fine."

Beck: Paige, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.

Paige: That’s the real Tron? He’s alive? Then…no offense, but why did he need you to be the Renegade?

Tron: Reasons.

Beck: Shut it. Now look, I want the both of you to get along.

Tron: As long as you like her and she doesn’t betray us, I’m happy.

Beck: Oh. Really? Great!

Tron: Paige, if you hurt him, they’ll never stop finding your remains.

Paige: I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Beck: What did I JUST say?

[machinesandman]

[DLN-000 > DWN-024]: Oh, you know.

[DLN-000 > DWN-024]: B)

He is enjoying this way too much.

[DLN-000 > DWN-024]: Your eyes are the color of the setting sun, and I wish I were the horizon meeting you.

Wait. No. He knew that tone. He knew that so called expression. Shadow was about to respond-

There was a very distinct sound of a record scratch of some sort, and the feeling of startled surprise, then flustered heat. Shadow pulling back every single datapacket he had been exchanging to yank himself into self control, back together, as tension shot through everything that made up who he was on the individual connection. It was fight or flight, and Shadow was not the type to back down. Despite how his cool had been momentarily broken.

[DWN-024 > DLN-000-?]: You are playing a very dangerous game with your words, Proto Man.

[DWN-024 > DLN-000-?]: The sun can also burn.

Don't respond, don't reply in kind, do not exchange mirroring tones, don't take the dare, don't take the bait. Shadow had to keep reminding himself.

[gabriel-patterson]

Hi!! I'm Lieutenant Moreno but you can just call me Luca :)

I think the Major had already given you a tour but if you need directions anywhere or any general info on the ship, you can consult the datapacket I've attached to this message.

Oh. And if you want strawberries, I recommend getting friendly with Lieutenant Harris - she grows them fresh for us!

Welcome aboard! Enjoy your stay!! :D

-//Lt. Moreno. L

[DTAPK:// ATTACHMENT: A Newbie's Guide to the SSV Berlin]

Top of the morning to you, lad.

Let me guess, you are one of those who are a ray of sunshine in the morning, aren't you?

Still, thanks for the attachments, I will give them a look-over when I have the chance. And noted, Lieutenant Harris. Where can I find this lady so I can turn on my charm before my reputation catches up to me?

/Patterson

[no-higher-authority-aboard]

What was, will be. What will be, was.

Roland examined the eight word datapacket warily.

He’d hit it with half a dozen antivirus programs. Malware detection. ONI-approved counter-intrusion software.

And nothing happened. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

By all intents and purposes, it was safe. Just some odd message from a crewmen to someone else that happened to get caught in the Infinity’s local Slush.

But—

Undid Iridium.

[jazzybot4]

I don’t know much about transformers but my first thought was more mars rover or transformers meeting stabby the roomba

Jazz was giggling. Sideswipe was snickering. The pair of them bent over a Rover with a roll of tape and a sharp thing did not inspire Ironhide to want to get any closer. Then Jazz pinged him the datapacket and Ironhide groaned. Stabby The Mars Rover tweeted out its first ‘victim’ later that afternoon, and Perceptor was unamused at the little drones *cheek*. His face inspired several thousand reaction images and three memes in two days. Nasa had never had more fun. Also, they got all sorts of fascinating samples.

[chillintel]

[Have LOTS cat videos sent your way, Chill, because you suggested them and he thought you'd enjoy them too. There's at least two hours worth of content in this datapacket. Enjoy!]

Two hours and counting (Windchill can’t,) of content means at least three hours for a response.

[text]: I like the ones where they’re afraid of vegetables. And the banana.