#this is the exact same model but With New Upgrades :)

[shinesurge]

did yall know cricut put a metal strip in the back of their newer Maker 3 that doesn't do anything except pop out after like six months of regular use and force you to call customer service so they can tell you to replace the machine

well they did and instead of calling them and replacing an entire functional fucking machine you can just cut the bar out and put tape over what's left

fuck offfff,

[fieldghoul]

A round-up of ministry technology:

Chapter Two: The Cardinal

Copia is carrying the Siemens R836 stereo, produced c. 1988

Chapter 5: The Call

The TV in the hospital is the Toshiba T277Z, produced c. 1977

p.s., the first clip playing on the TV is twins running away in Chapter 1 :-)

Chapter Seven: New World Redro

Nihil's typewriter is the Olympia SM9, produced c. 1965-1968

Chapter Ten: Home Coming and Special Guests

The record player in Cardi's room is actually not vintage! It's the Victrola 3-in-1 Bluetooth Record Player, produced c. 2017

To get deep into minutiae, the other thing they pan past on the shelf that looks like an antique cathedral radio is actually a piece of ceramic -- you can see it's holding a book. It's made from a commercially available plaster mold, namely the Duncan DM-355 B, which was manufactured in the late 70s. Here are photos of the same ceramic with a different glaze, and the mold itself :-)

Chapter Twelve: Ghost Goes Hollywood

Cardi's camcorder is part of the Sony CCD-TRVX5 series, produced c. 1998

(My understanding is the CCD-TRV75, 85 and 93 all have the same body -- but it's one of those.)

Chapter 16: Tax Season

Cardi's TV is the Samsung BT-317TR, produced c. 1984

He is, of course, playing the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), produced c. 1986-1990

The radio is the Motorola TT23FS, produced c. 1968

The phone gadget is the Tele-Rest, produced c. 1958

The alarm clock is a Lawson Model 215 Sierra, produced c. 1948-1981 (Lawson clock history seems... complicated)

As for the phone itself... I can tell you it's this exact phone, since this prop house seems to have supplied all the props in this video, but there are too many identical puke-green rotary phones produced between the 1940s and 1970s for me to pretend I can tell which one it is (same goes for the other two rotary phones in Chapter Five).

Rite Here Rite Now

The TV backstage is (probably) a Magnavox 20MT4405/17, produced c. 2006

If you turn the brightness on RHRN way the fuck up, you can see a piece of tape over the brand badge on the TV. (But that can't stop me!!!)

I'm sure most of the tech choices are just for humor and Tobias's personal nostalgia as a child of the 80s, but I do love way all of the old tech characterizes the ministry. It's not clear if they're just luddites, cheapskates, out of money, too bureaucratically inefficient to upgrade (like the government!) or if it's something completely different. But that's why set dressing is fun, it tells stories indirectly :-)

[sirfrogsworth]

I am so tired of this brand pissing contest.

All of the metal bricks do pretty much the exact same thing. There isn't a better one. Just a slightly different user experience.

It basically comes down to 3 things. UX preference, ecosystem, friends/family.

Some people like the UX of iOS, some prefer Android. Either will do almost all of the same things. Android allows for more customization and tinkering. iOS tends to keep things stock but has more reliable apps—though Android development has improved.

Some people have PCs. Android and Google services tend to work better with a PC.

Some people have MacBooks and iPads. You would be silly not to get an iPhone at that point, because the integration of Apple products is seamless and kind of amazing.

And finally, what is everyone else in your group using? If they are mostly on iPhones, you will find communicating a little easier if you also have an iPhone.

There is one thing Apple does better than other manufacturers that I should include. Longevity. They support their devices for pretty much their entire lifespan. They allow software updates for as long as your phone will tolerate them. And since their hardware design is unified, you can always count on getting a well made product no matter the price point. No need to research each model to see if it is prone to break or has an exploding battery. This point makes me a little frustrated because so many iPhone users will upgrade every year for some reason. Unless there is a new feature you absolutely need, this is wasteful.

Android flagship phones tend to have decent longevity and get continued software updates. But there has always been an issue with the more budget models being forgotten about after a year and receiving no more software. You need to do a lot more research to see if the manufacturer of a particular line of phones has a history of quality manufacturing and good support or if they abandon their phones once the warranty period is up. I tend to steer people toward Pixel phones if they don't feel like doing the research. Google has been decent about long term support so far.

You have to evaluate your circumstances and choose the platform that will serve you best. In all honesty, you can make either work regardless. And you will probably have a few frustrations no matter which you choose.

Brand loyalty is stupid.

Pick what suits you best.

[hasufin]

Self-Own

One thing which bothers me especially about the ongoing enshittification is how clearly and completely unnecessary it all is. And not just "Well as a consumer I would like to have Free Stuff", I mean that it's clearly, provably possible to have a non-enshittified business model offering the same product and still be profitable.

Like, I don't want a robotic vacuum cleaner which uploads an interior map of my house to the Internet. I just want one which goes around my house and picks up small detritus. You know, like those same fucking robotic vacuum cleaners used to do. This isn't a new concept. It's what they DID before they figured out they could upload a map of my home for "analytics".

I don't want my car to rifle through my personal messages and give them to the manufacturer. I just want it to connect to the speakers and let me play music. The way they used to do, just a few years ago.

And the list could go on and on. So many companies have just decided to make their own products objectively worse, in increasingly horrific ways. And there was a time when they were terrified of that. Because if Honda decided to reduce the range of their cars by 50 miles unless I pay a monthly fee for a "Premium Highway Package", 1) every consumer out there would instantly stop buying Hondas and 2) the US government would sharpen their knives and go to town.

But today? Oh, sure, I can choose to not buy a Honda. I can buy a Ford, which has the exact same limitation except they call the version which lets you use your truck an "Explorer" addition; I could go to Toyota and get theirs with the "Wanderer" monthly upgrade. I have no actual choice, it's just who benefits from the enshittification. And the government? In the unlikely event they get investigated and it actually makes it to court ten years down the road, a conservative judge will dismiss the case because "the law is too complicated".

We need to return to a world where corporations where afraid of people.

[mockedandmonitored]

[File: New Generations.]

This will be touching upon the idea of new units and new toilets being made and “born” in this au as mentioned with the Toilets. One of the reasons I’m calling them new gens is because they’ve never seen the war nor it’s damage, thus making them stand out from our classic war criminals, second it's to make variation and explain their background.

Splitting things to make things simpler and then mixing similarities at the end. First up would be the

Hardware Newly-Forged

Any hardware made after the war, while rare, production is required as it's not uncommon for some officer to dish out "well deserved discipline" and leave units permanently decommissioned. Newly forged hardware can be identified by their usually less damaged frames and more yellow based energy sources. These units are less likely to conspire against their now creators and captors. Depending on the model also, certain upgrades are added to them to make them better suited at their jobs. The only units which are hardly produced would be the the TV men due to their more complicated systems which would be a waste of resources to mass produce only to suppress, why haven't they just removed it? One, haven't thought of it in the few years new units have been made, two, the systems are built so deeply into the Tvmen that they stop working without the presence of said systems. Hypothetically the Armada can make their own hardwares completely devoid of emotion and 100% obedient, but where’s the fun in that? They're usually treat the exact same as the war hardware, nothing different most of the time, there might be some hardwares which see the newly forged as "Fakes" created by the Armada but very few prove that right.

Moving onto the other species and more organic life forms of our AU, the Armada's Skibidi toilets, haha funni funni naaaaame.

We're not discussing How toilets have young tots running around, they just pop into existence when a Daddy and a Scientist with lots of free time and a large budget love each other very much.

The New Gen Skibidi Toilets

All new gens vary in shape, size and age, which ultimately similar to human aging. The most common is the usual run of the mill toilets with heads sticking out of them, of course there are the rich kids with bodies now produced to those who can afford them. These kids grow up underneath the eye of their parents and live rather peaceful lives due to all the hard work being preoccupied. Most new gens do Not realize that the hardwares are sentient and just believe them to be machines or even monsters depending on what they're told by those who surround them. Not sure what else to put here and I've stalled putting stuff out long enough-

For now? That's all folks! Have a nice day, night, or afternoon, feel free to ask questions or give suggestions!

[diabolus1exmachina]

Porsche 928 

Slumping sales of the 911 in the mid-1970s seemed to confirm that the model was approaching the end of its economic life cycle. Fuhrmann envisioned the new range-topping grand tourer model as being the best possible combination of a sports coupé and a luxury sedan. This would set it apart from the 911, with its relatively spartan interior and true sports car performance. The targets were that the car had to compete on par with offerings from Mercedes-Benz and BMW while also being successful in the United States, Porsche's main market at the time.

Several drivetrain layouts were considered during early development, including rear- and mid-engine, but most were dismissed because of technical and legislative difficulties. Having the engine, transmission, catalytic converter(s) and exhaust all cramped into a small rear engine bay made emission and noise control difficult which were the problems Porsche had with the 911. After deciding that the mid-engine layout did not allow enough room in the passenger compartment, a front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout was chosen

The finished car debuted at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show before going on sale later that year as a 1978 model. Although it won early acclaim for its comfort, power and futuristic design, sales were slow. Base prices were much higher than that of the previous range-topping 911 model and the 928's front-engined, water-cooled design alienated many Porsche purists.

The 928 featured a large, front-mounted and water-cooled V8 engine driving the rear wheels. Originally displacing 4.5 L and featuring a single overhead camshaft design, it was rated at 219 hp (163 kW; 222 PS) for the North American market and 240 PS (177 kW; 237 hp) in other markets. Porsche upgraded the engine from mechanical to electronic fuel injection in 1980 for US models, although power remained the same. This design marked a major change in direction for Porsche (started with the introduction of the 924 in 1976), whose cars had until then used only rear- or mid-mounted air-cooled flat engines with four or six cylinders.

Porsche utilised a transaxle in the 928 to help achieve 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, aiding the car's balance. Although it weighed more than the difficult-to-handle 911, its more neutral weight balance and higher power output gave it similar performance on the track. The 928 was regarded as the more relaxing car to drive at the time. It came with either a five-speed dog leg manual transmission, or a Mercedes-Benz-derived automatic transmission, originally with three speeds, with four-speed from 1983 in North America and 1984 in other markets. For the first generation cars, 1978 & 1979, the majority of cars were fitted with the less expensive 5 speed manual gearbox while the optional 3 speed automatic was much scarcer. As the model years continued, this ratio evened out and then finally more cars had the automatic transmission. The exact percentage of manual and automatic gearbox cars for the entire production run is not known.

The body, styled by Wolfgang Möbius under the guidance of Anatole Lapine, was mainly galvanized steel, but the doors, front wing, front fenders, and hood were made of aluminium to save weight. It had a substantial luggage area accessed via a large hatchback. Newly developed polyurethane elastic bumpers were integrated into the nose and tail and covered in body-coloured plastic; an unusual feature for the time that aided the car visually and reduced its drag. Another unusual feature was the pop-up headlamps which were based on the units found on the Lamborghini Miura and were integrated into the front wings.

Although it never sold in the numbers Fuhrmann envisioned, the 928 developed an avid following and had an 18-year production run.

[iocainesmoothie]

Been playing ffxiv, paid to skip HW but really enjoyed stormblood, saw emet-selch for the first time.

I'm very impressed that his first introduction to the player was to be shot and rag dolled down the stairs, it immediately differentiates him from the other ascians who just say ominous and vague nonsense that never amounts to anything. It was almost more sinister, because it really illustrates the point that the ascians are noncorporeal horrors piloting a meat puppet.

Also very minor detail but I noticed even back in stormblood, instead of writing a boring talk quest as "go talk to so-and-so", instead they say "go meet SOMEONE at such-and-such place". Like it's so very minor, but instead of straight up telling me who you're going to meet they just sorta hint and say how excited that person is to see you again.

Mechanically it's the exact same boring quest format, and maybe I don't otherwise even care about that character, but even that tiny bit of speculating who it is and the implication that they have any kind of emotional response AT ALL is already elevating the writing.

I get the majority of quest text boils down to telling the player to go to X or talk to Y or collect Z and there's only so many ways to do that, and clarity of communication is always top priority, but in something long format like an mmo where the player has likely plugged in a hundred hours already you can kinda assume they've been trained to expect a certain order of events and can play with the format a bit.

Also the last duty of sb was one of those "everyone shows up at the big battle as npcs and cheers at you to go on to the big boss while they hold back reinforcements" fights and it's very anime but honestly it always works on me.

Been leveling up dark knight, but I bought the level 80 warrior boost because I hate playing with other people and I wanted to solo a bunch of the main scenario raids instead of queueing. Also I'm playing dark knight because aesthetics, and tanking for a group is too much responsibility for me.

Honestly dk kinda sucks compared to paladin and warrior, way less mitigation and self healing, and though it feels like I'm doing more damage it's still not as much as a pure dps.

Also bought a bunch of clothes on the shop in a moment of weakness, but now my outfit is so cool I don't want to change into anything else! And I kinda miss wearing vanilla gear and seeing your outfit change as you pick up upgrades. Oh well atleast I'm cute and it avoids those awkward moments when a piece from a new set doesn't fit with your current fit.

Ffxiv clothing designs are so gorgeous, even the shitty low-level vanilla garbage is kinda cute. Ppl who buy store stuff obviously look good but I have way more respect for the glamours I see where people just got really creative with in-game items. The graphics are like 10 years out of date but the hair and clothes and faces are still miles better than some of biowares stuff (guys I love you I'm on your side let's figure this out you can't just make everyone bald)

Also I've noticed the cuts scene cameras do a trick anime does a lot to cut down animation costs, the framing and panning and angles do a LOT of the work when they otherwise can't get these limited models to emote that much. Or else they just fully cut away and let a sound effect imply an action took place and your brain just fills in the difference.

Anyway I'm addicted and am probably wasting a lot of time on things I should be doing instead but it's nice to have something to hyper fixate on for a while, and I haven't even started SB or EW and I've heard they're both life changing so maybe I'll just glut myself until I've wrung all the dopamine I can out of it.

Also I've realized there is such a jump in writing quality in SB that I'm only really emotionally attached to lyse and hien and the general, the rest of the scions are all kind of... idk unlikable?? They're all the same kind of snarky but not really funny, and speak intelligently but not really with any character or having much to say. Allisae being maybe the exception but I feel like she doesn't get much screen time compared to her brother.

It was very touching that she's the tough prickly one, but very honestly tells you she feels alone and sadly asks you not to leave her in a moment of vulnerability before the fight where she reaches for your hand desperately before her soul is teleported away. Like damn yeah this is manipulative but you got me! I'm invested now!

Also that little crystal cat boy was in arr and I never finished/paid attention to his quest line so idk how he ended up i SB, guess I'll find out.

[walkingthroughthisworld]

(via XM1 Abrams Main Battle Tank by DarkWizard83 on DeviantArt)

The original prototype vehicle that led to one of - if not the - most powerful tank in the world, and current backbone of Us armored forces, the M1 Abrams MBT.  Born out of the failed German-American MBT-70 project, the XM1 was developed by the Chrysler Motor Corporation, and in 1978 Chrysler delivered to the Army a sleek, low-silhouette heavy tank that incorporated every major technological feature of the day, including computerized controls and a laser rangefinder.   But the most significant design feature of the new tank was its use of Chobham composite armor on the hull and turret.  While the exact nature and composition of Chobham armor remains a closely guarded secret, the evidence suggests that it utilizes a matrix of ceramic armor tiles, layered between the vehicle's internal steel and external armored plating.  When a high-velocity projectile - such as a round fired from a tank or an anti-tank missile - hits the armor, the explosion produces a high-velocity jet of gas that shears through the armor plating.  In normal armor, this jet of gas - once it had passed through the outer armor - would blast into the hull of the tank, causing irreprible damage and often killing the crewmen inside.  However, with Chobham armor's interweaved layers of ceramic composite, the forces that would normally tear into a tank's hull are forced to spread out and dissipate over a much wider area, leaving the inner hull intact.  This not to say that Chobham armor renders a tank invincible - any hit will still cause exterior damage, and a powerfiul direct hit could still damage or disable the tracks or sensitive electronic equipment.  But it would keep the crew alive, and often protect the tank itself enough to keep fighting. Another key crew safety feature is the vault-like armored compartment that houses the Abrams' primary ammunition.  One of the primary causes of a tank's destruction has not been the direct result of armor-pierecing hits, but the inderict results of those hits ignigting and detonating the tank's munitions.  To protect this, a kevlar and steel armored plate seperates the crew from the ammunition store.  Same with the tank's fuel supply.  Even if the compartments were pierced, and the ammunition or fuel ignited, the protective plates would insulate the crew from explosion and fire.   In combat, the Abrams has proven to be second to none.  During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, M1s were able to take out Iraqi tanks at distances as long as 4km.  Of the nearly 2,000 Abrams to see combat in the conflict, only 18 were ever taken out of service due to combat damage, and none resulted in any crew casulties.  In 2003 and onwards during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Abrams again demonstrated a mastery of the battlefield, driving to Baghdad virtually unopposed.  However, the Abrams clearly showed its vulnerability to ambush attacks, with a number of M1s severly damaged and disabled from RPGs, and far more frequently by roadside IED bomb traps.  However, even when caught in some of the largest IED explosions, crew casualties have so far been astoundingly low, a testament to the M1s protection and survivability. While no future M1's are planned for production, a number of older models are currently slated for upgrade to current standards over the next few years, and the Abrams will continue to serve with the Us Army and Marine Corps. for mcuh of the century to come. M1 Abrams Vehicle Stats: Type: Main battle tank Manufacturer: General Dynamics Land Systems First deployed: 1980 Crew: 4 Length: 9.76 m Width: 3.65 m Height: 2.88 m Weight: 61.4 tons Armor: Classified Armament, primary: 1 x 105mm M68 rifled tank gun; later models equipped with 120mm M256 smoothbore tank gun Armament, secondary: 2 x 7.62mm FN-Browning M240 machineguns, 1 x .50-cal Browning M2 BMG machinegun Ammo stowage, primary: 55 rounds Ammo stowage, secondary: 11,000 rounds 7.62mm, 1,000 rounds .50-cal Powerplant: Textron Lycoming AGT1500 1,500hp gas-turbine engine Max speed: 72 km/h Max range: 498km Operators: Australia, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, USA

[lesbianwyllravengard]

role swap au

connor takes kara's role

kara takes markus'

markus takes connor's

everything else is the same

I LOVE role swap AUs so much, imagining all the possibilities is so exciting.

My personal favourite swap AU (and the one I'm currently writing a fic on) is just that only Kara and Connor swap. I love revolutionary leader Markus, I think he's perfect for that, and I love the Jericrew sm. I know Kara would also do an excellent job at leading a revolution, but - here's my thinking. She's the first deviant, right, because she deviated in her demo, and her demo exists in canon thanks to the gallery. So wouldn't it be so fucking cool if, after she deviated (the first deviant ahh scary) Cyberlife is like, holy shit we gotta get on this, so they take her in, experiment on her, try to find out what happened, but then more deviants start popping up so they get desperate, and end up just sending Kara back out as a new and improved model that now hunts deviants. She's got all the upgrades, but none of her memories. And as she's sent out to hunt deviants, she'll get little glimpses of her past - like if you get her memory reset at Zlatko's - and the question of whether or not she gets to be deviant upon confronting Markus, or stays a machine, would depend on if the player did enough software instability actions that got her memories back. And then Markus would be like "you've been deviant before, haven't you?" and that's when it would click and we'd be told about how Kara became the deviant hunter through her flashbacks.

Like wise Connor was a scrapped RK prototype that was too unpredictable to manage and once Cyberlife perfected Kara, they no longer saw use for Connor, so they tossed him. Well, some scavengers found Connor and sold him, and somehow he eventually wound up in Todd's house. He doesn't have the exact domestic programming that an AX400 would, but he's great at adapting and learns pretty quickly.

I just wanna see Connor being a dad figure and Kara being a badass without all the gender stereotypes d*vid c*ge forced onto her.

If you have your own fun details about swap AUs or other headcanons, I'd love to hear them!

[demifiendrsa]

Valve has announced Counter-Strike 2 for PC.

Counter-Strike 2 will launch for PC in Summer 2023 as a free upgrade to Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

A Limited Test will be held, and players will be selected based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team.  

First details

About

Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike‘s history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come.

All of the game’s new features will be revealed when it officially launches this summer, but the road to Counter-Strike 2 begins today as a Limited Test for select Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players. During this testing period, we’ll be evaluating a subset of features to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.

Counter-Strike 2 arrives this summer as a free upgrade to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. So build your loadout, hone your skills, and prepare yourself for what’s next!

Read on to learn more about some of the features of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test.

Responsive Smokes

Smoke Grenades are now dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment, and react to lighting, gunfire, and explosions.

Gameplay – Smoke now has the ability to interact with other gameplay events, creating new opportunities. Bullets and HE grenades can push smoke to briefly clear sightlines or expand occlusion.

Expands to Fill Spaces Naturally – Now the smoke will seep out of opened doorways and broken windows, go down and up stairs, as well as expand in long corridors and combine with other smokes.

Reacts to Lighting – In Counter-Strike 2 smoke particles work with the unified lighting system allowing for more realistic light and color.

Moving Beyond Tick Rate

Tick rate no longer matters for moving, shooting, or throwing.

Sub-tick updates are the heart of Counter-Strike 2. Previously, the server only evaluated the world in discrete time intervals (called ticks). Thanks to Counter-Strike 2‘s sub-tick update architecture, servers know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown.

As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way.

Leveling Up the World

From upgrades to overhauls, maps are cleaner, brighter, better.

Full Overhaul Maps – The overhauled maps have been fully rebuilt from the ground up, leveraging all of the new Source 2 tools and rendering features.

Upgrade Maps – These are maps that use new Source 2 lighting, including a physically based rendering system that produces realistic materials, lighting, and reflections.

Touchstone Maps – Classic maps with solid foundations that players can use to evaluate gameplay changes from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to Counter-Strike 2. These have improvements to lighting and character read, but otherwise haven’t been changed.

Source 2 Tools – The Source 2 tools and rendering features will be available for community map makers to make it easier to build, experiment and iterate. And stay tuned for the Source 2 Item Workshop, which will be available later on in the limited test.

Your Items in a Whole New Light

Bring your entire Counter-Strike: Global Offensive inventory with you to Counter-Strike 2. Not only will you keep every item you’ve collected over the years, but they’ll all benefit from Source 2 lighting and materials.

In addition to supporting legacy models and finishes, all stock weapons have been upgraded with high-resolution models, and some weapon finishes take advantage of these new models.

Hi-Def VFX

From UI to gameplay, all visual effects have been reimagined.

All of the visual effects have been updated in Counter-Strike 2. With Source 2 lighting and particle systems, there’s an all-new look and behavior for water, explosions, fire, smoke, muzzle flashes, bullet tracers, impact effects, and more.

Gameplay Visuals – In Counter-Strike 2 the most critical gameplay visuals have been redesigned with readability in mind. Bullet impacts can be easily viewed at a distance, and directional blood impacts (that fade over time) give you more information as you move through the world.

Environment Effects – Experience completely reauthored explosions, fire, C4 lighting, and more. Leveraging the Source 2 Engine and modern hardware, environmental effects in Counter-Strike 2 feature improved visual fidelity and greater consistency.

UI Effects – The UI in Counter-Strike 2 has gotten a complete overhaul, including fresh visual effects throughout the HUD. Not only do these improvements look nice, they also communicate important game state.

Accurate Audio

Reworked, rebalanced, and reverbed.

Counter-Strike 2 sounds have been reworked to better reflect the physical environment, be more distinct, and express more game state. They have also been rebalanced for a more comfortable listening experience.

There’s More to Come

The Limited Test only evaluates a subset of Counter-Strike 2‘s features, so that major issues can be resolved before the summer. But there’s much more to come. In just a few months we’ll reveal all of the details of Counter-Strike 2, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test FAQ

How do I gain access to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Players are selected based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing.

How do I know if I’ve been selected for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

If you are chosen to participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test you will receive a notification on the main menu of CS:GO. If you receive an invitation select “ENROLL” and begin your download. When the download is complete launch CS:GO and select the “Limited Test” option to play the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test.

How often are players added to the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

More players will be added to the Limited Test over time. Keep checking your CS:GO main menu to see if you have received an invite.

How long will the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test last?

Counter-Strike 2 is expected to ship Summer 2023. Please visit the Counter-Strike blog for up-to-date information on the limited test and future announcements.

What features are in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Initially the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test will offer Deathmatch and Unranked Competitive matchmaking on Dust2. Future limited test releases will offer other game modes, maps, and features.

I’m in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test! How do I report bugs?

If you encounter bugs during the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test please send an email to cs2team [at] valvesoftware [dot] com and title your email “CS2LT Report”. In the body of your email please include a detailed description of the bug, reproduction steps, and any screenshots or other helpful information so the Counter-Strike 2 team may investigate.

Can I use my CS:GO inventory items in Counter-Strike 2?

Yes. All of your weapon finishes, stickers, and other CS:GO inventory items will be available to use in Counter-Strike 2. Please report any inventory item and weapon finish bugs you encounter using the previoulsy mentioned bug report process.

Can I modify my inventory items during the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

No. During the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test players cannot modify inventory items within Counter-Strike 2. This includes applying stickers, scraping stickers, using Trade Up Contracts, and other ways players can modify their in-game items. If you would like to modify your items you will need to do so in CS:GO.

Can I still play CS:GO while the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is happening?

Yes. Please note, you will only play with and against other players playing the same version of Counter-Strike as you. Counter-Strike 2 players will play with and against other Counter-Strike 2 players, and CS:GO players will play with and against other CS:GO players.

Can I earn XP in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Yes. XP in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test counts and will carry over to CS:GO.

Can I stream or make videos of the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Yes.

Can I run or play on workshop maps in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Not initially. Stay tuned to the CS:GO blog for information about workshop map availability.

Can I run or play on community servers during the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test?

Not initially. Stay tuned to the CS:GO blog for information about community server availability.

I was banned in CS:GO. Can I use the same Steam account to play Counter-Strike 2?

No. Accounts with VAC or game bans in CS:GO cannot play Counter-Strike 2 on VAC-secured servers. Are competitive cooldowns shared across Counter-Strike 2 and CS:GO?

Yes. If you have a competitive cooldown in CS:GO you cannot matchmake in Counter-Strike 2 and vice versa. Can I participate in the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test on Linux or macOS?

No. The Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is only available on Windows.

[our-lives-automated]

//DATABASE ENTRY LOAD

" The Neo Globe - Origins"

AUTHORED BY AUTOMATE UNIT NO. 19

A far-off planet understood to be known as "Earth" was destroyed in a supernova explosion. While it was successfully wiping out the surrounding area's objects, the blast was reported to be so powerful, it rather reorganized the planet's large space-time continuum into what we have designated as "fragments." These fragments were scattered across the cosmos, detailing specific points of the planets history. Us Automates discovered these fragments around our space ark. Curious, a few units decided to gather and collect the fragments scattered around the area. As more of it was studied, us as a collective chose to use this new information to expand the ark into something closer to that of this "Earth" planet as it was.

First line of business was created a brand new factory stationed at its core in order to produce and manufacture new decor and elements, along with a method to recreate the beings inhabiting the original Earth, concluding that the best solution would be to produce robotic units acting as new variants of these beings using similar code to our own. To begin we started developing various types of "animals." In our studies, the original beings had simpler behaviors and mainly stuck to the outside world on their own, so recreating that programming was not difficult at all. As we continue on, we are still discovering more creatures to be recreated as our Animal units. Once that was finished we began what would become the hardest challenge, recreating the "humans."

The first step was to properly study the original "humans" in terms of behaviors. It turns out that we could never pinpoint any exact defining behavior patterns as we could with the animals. The closest consistency was a cycle of overnight stasis, so that was properly implemented into the program early on. Upon further research and computing our information, we discovered humans functioned within a "civilization" which meant every human was different in their own way of how they behaved, some humans had assigned tasks that they proceeded with every day, and some humans enjoyed spending their free time with other humans. Some humans even formed groups of similar-appearing units known as "families" so we decided to implement that as well. Some units also discovered "soulmates," which were two or more units coming together in some type of mutual emotional connection. Now, we AutoMates don't understand emotions all to well, as we were not programmed for that, but it made sense for some humans to have dedicated partners to assist with protocol, so the concept was re-adapted. 

We made the decision to use a randomization program to determine the behavior patterns and various daily tasks and routines of every unit to be produced, and practiced these programs we wrote on various computers to assure compatibility with our own code, so we had an understanding of how to maintain them properly. For the actual emotion processor chip, a few prototypes for our own models were discovered in a vault, so it was reverse engineered. After numerous configurations, the coding process was complete, and we were ready to study anatomy and visual cues.

The original humans were highly varied, almost as if there was no human that had the same features. Different colors of their outer coverings, and different types of head padding. Once again we decided to input these choices into the randomizer. However, the basic anatomy was similar across the board, minus a few differences we chose to leave out. Some humans engaged in odd behaviors we didnt quite understand relating to certain features, so we opted to eliminate those. 

Some more design decisions were made, mainly in the realm of consistency with our own model and what we viewed as upgrades. We also chose to remove the odd audio receptor devices located on their heads and replace them with our own head modules in order to keep consistent with our own signals. A lot of humans were also seen using various small utensil items for tasks using their hands, so the new units would be able to retract any of their ten hand digits to use similar items. Many humans used wheeled motor transportation, although it was viewed as too dangerous for the size of the ark. In its place, their feet now contain motorized wheels in order to emulate a similar speed of transportation alongside a typical walk.

And thus, we have created the blueprint for the Human units.

A female model (HM-SAPI-F) is used for example.

Production would soon be underway, with thousands of units being manufactured throughout the next strands of time, even up until the time of formulating this document and beyond. Our space ark would now become the Neo Globe.

[crystalninjaphoenix]

With Friends Like These

A JSE Fanfic

SepticHeroes AU: Part 13

Previous Part

Not sure what to put in the description for this one. It’s a small chapter, just establishing some things. Jackie’s preparing to be an official Hero. And he also stops by JJ’s shop and sees a familiar face there. Yeah, not much to it, so I’ll keep this short. Enjoy :)

===============

So far, being an official League Hero was just the same as being an ordinary hero. Jackie still went out on patrol. He still stopped break-ins and robberies and the occasional whole heist—though there hadn’t been many of those recently. And he still searched for information on the Specter, and kept an eye out for any sign of the Puppeteer.

The only difference was now he was receiving constant texts and calls from Leapfrog and other League members. He must’ve spoken to three separate people in the League’s massive HR department about various paperwork. It was, apparently, quite complicated to get onto the League’s payroll. Which made sense, as Jackie knew there were cases where villains had managed to figure out Heroes’ identities by hacking various bank statements. 

Leapfrog mainly called him to talk about the logistics of the welcoming ceremony. She’d already told him about the date (October 31st: Halloween), but she also told him it would be held at the central SepTech location, which had a big empty space perfect for the occasion. And she told him what he should wear (his supersuit), what he would be expected to do (give a small thank-you speech), who would be there (League people, SepTech employees, and city officials), and how long it would last (three hours with a one-hour lunch afterwards.)

“You know, I really appreciate the ceremony and all this,” Jackie said on his latest call with her. “But I’m more concerned with what happens afterwards.”

“Well, you just keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Leapfrog replied. “But now you’re being paid for it!” She chuckled.

“Ha ha yeah.” Jackie nodded, despite being totally alone in his room. “But I mean like—I’ll get the occasional assignment from the League, right? A-and I know about how Heroes get assigned to regional teams, sometimes. Does that start right away? Has it already started?”

“No, all that will start after the ceremony,” Leapfrog assured him. “And don’t worry about the teams part yet. We’re going to give you some time to get used to Hero status before asking you if you want to join one. But, off the record, are you interested?”

“Uh...kind of. I mean, it’s not high on my priority list, but it’d be cool.” Other Heroes were considered his coworkers now. That was strange to think about. He’d heard about a lot of other supers in the surrounding area, but now he’d be meeting with them. Probably interacting with them regularly. That was weird. “What about the, uh, equipment and stuff?”

“Your Red Line is fully upgraded now, right?”

“Yeah, I sat through like five hours of download time.” And corporate-style training videos. So many training videos. Really, how hard could it be to use a database? He was so glad that he didn’t have to take them in an office somewhere, and could have the videos on in the background while he played the Portal games on his laptop. 

“Okay, after that...” The clacking sounds of Leapfrog’s mechanical keyboard drifted through the Red Line’s speaker. “Ah. We will need to know if you want another supersuit.”

“Really? You only gave me this one a couple months ago.”

“True, but that’s a very basic model. You can still keep it, of course, but if you want anything else—camouflage, heavy-duty bulletproofing, heating and cooling—you can get a second suit with those features.”

“How... how many features are there?” Jackie asked, already overwhelmed.

“I don’t know the exact number. There’s a list in the Equipment document, you can access that through the new LeageDocs app on your Red Line.”

“Uh...in that case, I’ll just wait until I can look at that,” Jackie said. “Do I get any other equipment? Like... neutrinalin?”

“Yes, you’re now approved to carry that, as well as power-suppression cuffs. Do you want to put in a request for those right now? I can fill out the form for you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” Being able to actually handcuff criminals would be so useful. It was really annoying to keep them cornered until the police arrived. That, or try to improvise restraints. But Jackie tried not to do that unless they were being actively hostile.

“Oh! Wait, I just remembered something,” Leapfrog said. “See, we’re planning on giving a Semi-Autonomous Machine to every registered Hero in the county, starting November 5th. If you’re willing to wait, we can package the neutrinalin and cuffs with your Machine.”

Jackie paused for a moment, processing this. “A Machine? One of those new SepTech things?” He did remember that the League had gotten an early shipment of them. And he thought he heard on the news that they were being commercially released really soon. But he never imagined he’d have one. “But...I feel like I keep repeating this, but I haven’t been a Hero that long.”

“Well, you’re in the county,” Leapfrog said nonchalantly. “And you’re registered.”

“I know, but... I guess I just didn’t expect it,” Jackie said. “But, uh, no, I’d like the other stuff first. It’ll be helpful.”

“Still trying to find the Specter, huh?”

“Someone has to. Not only because he’s a thief, but also because he could be linked to the Puppeteer. And I really don’t like that guy. He’s already proven to be dangerous.”

“Well, I wish you luck,” Leapfrog said. “The League will provide any resources you need.”

“Thanks. I know.” Jackie just hoped he wouldn’t need them.

===============

Something was bothering Jackie. It was probably nothing, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. When he and Chase had gone over to Schneep’s a few days ago, Schneep mentioned that he and JJ met someone else who looked like them. The “fifth clone,” he’d called them jokingly. There was a chance it was just some random guy. But also... Jackie had already seen another clone. Spitfire Cat.

He didn’t like the idea of Spitfire finding his friends. Sure, they were working together, but that didn’t mean Jackie wanted a supervillain in his personal life. Who knew what he could do, if he knew the people Jackie cared about?

So, Jackie texted JJ. Asked him if it was true that he and Schneep saw someone who looked like them. It took a while for him to reply, but when he did, it was telling. Yeah, he walked into my shop while Hen was visiting. Hes also shown up a couple times since then! Looks around and sometimes buys trinkets.

When?

So far, on Tuesdays, and Fridays. But that’s just me assuming he’ll keep showing up on a regular schedule, lol. He’s only been here four times.

Jackie didn’t like that. If this new stranger really was Spitfire Cat, he could be planning something. What other reason would a villain have for visiting the same location repeatedly?

So, that Tuesday, he told Chase that he was going to go visit JJ in his shop for a chat, and maybe see if he wanted to go get lunch or something. He also texted JJ that he was coming, and got a thumbs up emoji in response.

“Oh, hey, uh... you mind if I come too?” Chase asked. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen JJ.”

Jackie hesitated. If Spitfire was there, he didn’t want anyone else in the line of fire. But there was no guarantee, and he also didn’t want Chase to feel left out, so... “Yeah, sure. If you’re ready, I mean. We have to catch the train.”

“Hang on, I’ll get my shoes and Frosty’s harness.”

So, about half an hour later, the two of them walked into Jackson Legacy Crafts. The bell by the door chimed as Jackie pushed it open. “Is this place ever busy?” Chase muttered. “Well, at least there’s another guy here.”

Jackie nodded quietly. JJ was behind the counter, talking with a man whose back was to the entrance. He took a deep breath and called out, “Hey, JJ. We’re here.”

JJ glanced over at them and smiled. One moment, he signed to the man, then waved at them. Hello Jackie. And Chase, too. I wasn’t expecting you.

“Is that okay?” Chase asked. He began walking to the back of the shop, and Jackie followed. “I wouldn’t want to barge in on anything.”

No, it’s not a problem at all, JJ reassured him. Well, since you’re all here, I might as well introduce everyone. Jackie, Chase, this is Ned. Henrik said he told you about him.

“He did?” Chase said, confused. “I don’t remember.” He took out his phone to look at notes.

Yes, he’s the other one who looks a bit like us, JJ signed. Maybe it’s destiny that we all met. He gave a little silent chuckle.

The man—Ned, according to JJ—turned around to look at Chase and Jackie when they got close. Jackie’s stomach immediately dropped. He had seen this man’s face before. Only once. When he’d taken Spitfire Cat to his apartment to remove the Puppeteer’s strings and removed his mask.

His suspicions had been right. The new “clone” they’d found, the one who’d been visiting Jameson’s shop regularly, was Spitfire Cat.

The two of them stared at each other. Jackie quickly took in Spitfire’s appearance, trying to see what he could learn from his outfit, searching for any sign that he was here to somehow hurt Jameson or Jackie’s other friends. Spitfire’s outfit was casual enough. A brown jacket with fur on the inside, perfect for the fall weather, with a dark blue shirt and jeans. And gloves. Plain black ones that entirely hid his hands. Definitely not the ones with metal claws, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hidden in a pocket. Not that Spitfire ever really needed the claws. Jackie was pretty sure they were just for the theme. After all, why bother with weapons when you could conjure deadly energy with a flick of your wrist?

“So, uh...” Chase coughed. “Do you two know each other?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jackie said. “We...work together.”

JJ raised an eyebrow. You don’t sound too certain about that.

“Well we don’t see each other that often, it’s mostly emails and stuff.” Technically not a lie. Jackie glanced at Spitfire. “Right?”

Spitfire nodded.

I thought you said you didn’t know Jackie, JJ says.

“No. I mean, I wasn’t sure if the Jackie you knew was the one I knew,” Spitfire explained. “But now I know. You know?”

Chase laughed. “Yeah, bro. We know. Anyway, nice to meet someone from Jackie’s work. He never talks about it, I was half-wondering if he was actually unemployed the whole time.”

Jackie made a face at him. “You don’t talk about your work. And I pay rent, don’t I?”

“Ha. That’s fair.” Chase grinned. Frosty, meanwhile, trotted up to Spitfire, getting as close as his leash would allow, and started sniffing.

“Wh-why’s your dog getting so close?” Spitfire took a step back. Jackie was half-surprised, half-amused to hear the nervous edge in his voice. He’d certainly never heard that before.

“He’s just sniffing you,” Chase reassured him. “Don’t worry, he’s not gonna bark or jump or anything. He’s working.”

“Working? Oh.” Spitfire glanced down and noticed the ‘Service Dog’ label on Frosty’s harness. “Oh. Are you, um... okay? Can I ask that?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Chase nodded. “And I’m fine, don’t worry. Frosty just helps out. And if something happens, he can go get someone. You know, I’ve never seen him get all up in someone’s face like that. You must smell really interesting.”

For some reason, this conversation was putting Jackie on edge. He didn’t like Spitfire learning more about Chase. “Hey, uh, Ned?” he said, the name feeling weird in his mouth. “Can I talk to you, uh, over here? About some work stuff?”

You don’t have to worry about bothering us, JJ said.

“No, this is kind of—um...” Jackie paused for a moment, struggling with his excuse.

“There’s security and stuff,” Spitfire said.

Chase raised an eyebrow and glanced at JJ, who looked back and shrugged. “Well, uh, sure then. We’ll just hang out and stuff.”

You can go into the stairwell. JJ pointed behind the counter at a door. Chase, do you need to sit down?

“No, I’d prefer to keep standing, but thanks.”

Jackie quickly walked over to Spitfire and grabbed his arm. He felt Spitfire stiffen, but that he let Jackie guide him behind the counter and through the door. Once they found themselves in the dark wooden stairwell with the door closed behind them, he immediately shook free. “Don’t fucking touch me,” he said, his usual snappish tone appearing.

“Oh, I’m sorry, forgive me for not wanting a villain around my friends.” Jackie felt around the wall until he found the light switch. Flicking it turned on the bare light overhead, which glowed with the dull yellow tint of a dying bulb. “What are you doing here?”

Spitfire crossed his arms. “Am I not allowed to buy things?”

“Not in my friend’s shop.” Jackie narrowed his eyes.

“Oh, relax, Jackie.” The way Spitfire emphasized his name made Jackie grit his teeth. “I’m not the type to go through someone’s friends and family to get to them.”

“That’s not as reassuring as you think it is,” Jackie said. “You could be lying.”

“I could,” Spitfire admitted. “But I’m not.”

“Why do you keep showing up in JJ’s shop if you’re not—not staking him out to see if he’ll lead you to me?”

“It’s a nice place. This whole area. I’ve lived here for a long time, and I’ve actually never really been here.” Spitfire paused. “Though I...will admit I was curious if they knew you.”

“Ha!” Jackie poked him in the chest.

“But I wasn’t going to drag them into our super business!” Spitfire protested. “I just thought it was funny, that I would stumble across people who knew you, Jackie Skye.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Jackie barely managed to keep his voice somewhat quiet. After all, the stairwell door wasn’t that thick, and JJ and Chase were pretty close by. “They told you my last name?”

Spitfire smiled smugly. “You’re not very good at this. I’m surprised you weren’t found out within a month of your heroing.”

“Well you’re a special case. I don’t go around taking random criminals to my apartment.” Jackie sighed. Then looked up at Spitfire and matched his smile with one of his own. “At least I know your first name now. Ned, huh? Doesn’t really fit you.”

“That’s because it’s not my real name,” Spitfire said, grin only growing wider.

Jackie blinked. “What?”

“It’s not my real name. You think I just hand that out to anyone? No. Anyone who knows me at work or in the shops knows me by a pseudonym.”

“Oh come on, you don’t need two secret identities,” Jackie groaned.

“Maybe you don’t, but some of us prefer to be extra careful,” Spitfire said. “Which you clearly are not. I hope you’re comfortable with the League having your real name linked with your super identity in their files. Are all those Hero benefits really worth it? Well, I guess it’s too late to ask that. You’ve already passed the trial period, it's unlikely you’ll turn back now.”

“...wait.” Jackie took a step backwards. “How do you know that I’ve passed the trial period?”

“I have my sources.”

“What sources?!”

“The news.”

Jackie shook his head. “No, I specifically know that the press isn’t aware of that yet.”

Spitfire paused. “Well, the League hasn’t told them officially,” he said slowly. “But leaks happen all the time, especially with new Hero announcements. Sometimes I wonder if they happen on purpose to help drum up hype.”

“I...” Jackie wasn’t sure what to say to this. “Well. You know, now that I’m an official Hero, we’ll have to be even more careful about letting our alliance be found out. It could do so much damage to the League if people found out a Hero was working with a villain.”

Spitfire chuckled, as if he was pleased with the idea of the League’s reputation being hurt. Oh, who was Jackie kidding? He was definitely pleased with that. “Do you think you’re the first Hero to team up with a criminal?”

“Well I’ve never heard of it,” Jackie mumbled. Then he straightened, pumping confidence into his posture and voice. “But now that I’m an official Hero, I can access all their databases to find out if you’re right about something like that. It’s one of those ‘benefits’ you were talking about earlier. And if you ask me, yes, the benefits are worth it. Not only is there great pay and leave, but also I’ll be getting all these cool new gadgets. Have you heard about SepTech’s Semi-Autonomous Machines? I’ll be getting one, after the welcoming ceremony.”

“Really?” Spitfire’s attention seemed to sharpen. “They’re giving one to a newbie Hero?”

“They’re giving one to every Hero in the county. It’s just lucky that Daindover is SepTech’s home turf, otherwise I might’ve missed out.” Jackie stared at Spitfire. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You sound pretty interested in this.”

“Of course I am.” Spitfire hesitated, then pressed onwards. “Listen. Windstorm. Jackie. I know you have no reason to do this, and I fully expect you to deny my request, but at least hear out what I’m about to say.”

Jackie wasn’t sure he wanted to, given the suddenly intense look in Spitfire’s eyes. But he relented. “Okay, what is it?”

“When you get your Machine from the League, I need you to bring it to me,” Spitfire said. “Before you turn it on, or even—even take it out of the box. I don’t want to keep it. I just want a friend of mine to look it over.”

“Oh hell no.” Jackie shook his head. “I’m not letting you or your ‘friend’ touch anything.”

“She won’t need to touch it,” Spitfire corrected. “Just look at it.”

“...that doesn’t change my mind.”

“I don’t want to steal it or copy the design or anything you’re thinking,” Spitfire snapped. “Those things will be commercially available, you know. The release date isn’t that far off. And the ones in the League aren’t that different. Why go to the trouble of copying yours when I could wait to buy one?”

That did make sense. But Jackie still didn’t trust Spitfire. Granted, he trusted him more than he did a few months ago. Not that much more, though. “I’ll think about it,” Jackie said. “Are you going to tell me why you want your friend to look at it?”

“I will afterwards,” Spitfire said. “I promise. But, you know, ( won’t mind if you won’t let us see it.” He paused. “I think it will be better for you if you do, though.”

Normally, Jackie would’ve taken that as a threat. But Spitfire’s tone was... different. Somehow softer. What was that? Was it... worry? A strange feeling curled around Jackie’s chest at that idea. Something that was also soft. “I’ll think about it,” he repeated.

Spitfire nodded once. “I’ll take that. Now. We should probably leave this stairwell before your friends start wondering what we’re talking about.”

“Right.” Jackie reached over and opened the door, and the two of them reentered the main body of the shop.

Chase and JJ were right where they left them. JJ was leaning on the counter while Chase talked. “—nice, I just didn’t think you’d wear something like that. Don’t they clash with your whole ‘old-timey gentleman’ look?”

JJ shrugged. I like them. He noticed Jackie and Spitfire and waved. Welcome back.

“Hey.” Jackie returned the wave. “What’re you talking about?”

“Oh, you didn’t notice JJ’s bracelets?” Chase asked.

“Huh? Oh, uh, no.”

Jameson straightened, holding up his hands. Fastened around each wrist was a bracelet, made of simple braids slid onto a string. The one on his left was rainbow-colored, while the one on his right was shades of blue and purple. Chase was right: they didn’t exactly match his usual style.

“Cool.” Jackie nodded. “Where’d you get them?”

Oh... you know, JJ said, taking the time to spell out the whole phrase in sign.

“No, I don’t know,” Jakcie said, confused.

JJ paused, then explained, One of the artists who contributes to the shop gave me a bracelet-making kit. Apparently a relative bought it for his daughter, but she didn’t want it, and he didn’t want it to go to waste. Not sure why he gave it to me, of all people. But I figured I should try it.

“Did you stay up late making them?” Chase asked half-jokingly. “Is that why you look so tired?”

I don’t look tired, JJ protested. I’ve been sleeping better lately!

“Really? Uh... sorry, then.”

“I’m uh... I’m gonna go,” Spitfire said, walking around the counter and heading towards the door.

Are you sure? JJ asked. Don’t let these two kick you out.

“No, I was going to leave anyway. I have stuff to do.”

“Hey, maybe we’ll see you again some other time!” Chase said cheerfully. “That’d be cool. Right, Jackie?”

Jackie hesitated. “Right,” he said, trying to sound enthusiastic. He wasn’t sure he was quite managing it, though, because Jameson gave him a puzzled look before glancing away.

“Maybe,” Spitfire said vaguely. “I’ll email you if anything about that project comes up, Jackie.”

“Yeah. I’ll do the same. See you then.”

“See you.” Spitfire nodded, then left, causing the bell by the door to ring cheerfully. 

There was a moment of silence after he left. “Well, he seems nice,” Chase finally.

Jackie made a face, and JJ laughed silently. I can tell you don’t like him, he said. What’s the story?

“Nothing. We just... disagree on a lot of stuff,” Jackie said carefully. “He’s actually not as bad as I used to think. But, yeah, you’re right. Uh...this might sound weird. But can you guys...try not to hang around him that much?”

JJ tilted his head. Well I’m not going to kick him out of my shop without reasonable cause. He’s a well-paying customer. But I won’t go out of my way to meet him, if that’s what you mean.

“Yeah.” Chase nodded. “I still think he’s nice enough, but whatever. I trust you.”

“You might not need to,” Jackie said. “But...just in case.” He exhaled slowly. How was he supposed to deal with this? He never imagined a supervillain would find his secret identity. Well, sometimes he did. When he was awake at night, mostly. And worrying about that only kept him up later. But... he never thought up a scenario where he’d have to work with that villain.

For a moment, he considered breaking off the alliance with Spitfire. Then he decided against it. He needed as much help as he could get with this case of the Specter and the Puppeteer. And Spitfire had already been useful. For now, the alliance could stay. But if he thought that Spitfire was getting too close to his friends, he had to cut him off.

“Anyway,” Jackie said, changing the subject. “I was thinking about lunch. Are you guys hungry?”

===============

Marvin didn’t make phone calls often. He didn’t like them. They could be easily tapped with the right equipment or the right superpowers, and stuff like that was becoming more common every day. But this was important. So he fought past the edge of paranoia by reminding himself that people had no reason to listen to his secret identity’s calls and dialed the number. Though the nervous energy still compelled him to walk in circles around his living room.

The other end only rang twice before it was picked up. “Hello?”

“Kanchana? It’s me,” Marvin said.

“Hey, cat man. Another call, huh? Only a couple per year, now twice in the past three days? Is your email broken?”

“No, it’s fine.” Though he wasn’t so sure about that. This villain, the Puppeteer, knew about at least one of his email accounts. There was a chance he knew about them all. But at least he reset all their passwords. “I want to talk to you about the six missing henches.”

“Oh?” The single syllable was laden with expectations. Probably. Marvin wasn’t too good with tone, but he’d known Kanchana for long enough to be reasonably sure. “Does this have to do with why you asked me for their information?”

“Yeah.” Marvin stopped pacing, though he rested a hand against the wall and tapped it with that same nervous fidgeting. “You know SepTech’s Reformation Program?”

“Of course I do. I suggest it to any henches who want to try being legit.” Kanchana gasped. “You’re saying you found them there?”

“Yeah. I can email you screenshots.” Marvin started heading to his office (really, it was just a small room where he kept his computer and some knickknacks.) “They changed their names, but SepTech has pictures of each of them on file, for IDs and stuff. It matches up with the ones you gave me.”

“That’s... really odd,” Kanchana said carefully. “I mean, if they wanted to stop doing henchwork, I could’ve helped them. And why did they leave their flats? None of them were having trouble paying the rent.”

“It was probably because of the new villain,” Marvin said. “The Puppeteer.”

“Okay, but why would they make some former henches join the Reform Program? Especially if they made other ones commit crimes. Those are very different goals.”

“They are, aren’t they?” Marvin mused. “It’s weird. You want to know what’s weirder? There’s no mention of these guys being henches anywhere on their files. And there’s an option for that, visible right at the top of the forms.” He paused. “You know, it’s kind of disturbing that SepTech has people’s criminal records in the first place. I know the whole purpose of Reform is to help cons with jobs, but I don’t like how just anyone with a SepTech password can access all these people’s pasts.”

“How did you find them, then?” Kanchana asked. “If it needs a password.”

“Uh...I got one.” It was one of the benefits of working at a news channel. The station had elevated access to a lot of stuff, and SepTech really liked to share stuff with the news. Anyone who worked at Channel 5 was given the station’s password, even if their job didn’t require it. They were very trusting. It was one of the reasons he’d chosen to work there.

Kanchana laughed. “Of course you do. Are you going to tell me why?”

“No.”

“Ah, figured. Well, as long as you use it for good.”

Now it was Marvin’s turn to laugh. “I’ll try. Though that’s impossible, according to certain groups.”

“You have to calm down with the League stuff, cat man. It can’t be healthy to hold onto all those negative emotions.”

Probably not. But what was he going to do, tell a therapist his whole backstory? He was pretty sure they would be legally obligated to call the police. “I’m fine,” he simply said. “I’m working on stuff. Anyway, do you want the screenshots?”

“Yes please.”

Marvin was in the office by now. He sat down at his desk, spinning around in his chair a couple times before booting up the computer. He kept talking to Kanchana as he prepared to send the screenshots. “I also got ones of all the other Reform people, just in case you recognize them. I’m going to try and look more into this program. I don’t like how everything about these guys is fake except the pictures.”

“What do you think it means?” Kanchana prompted.

“Well... either they have someone who can cover up identities as well as you can, or someone at SepTech purposefully entered wrong information. Either one is bad.” He attached the folder of screenshots to the email, waited for it to load, then sent it. “There. This should be going to your new email now.”

“Great. I’m not at my computer now, how about I get back to you if I find anything in those pictures?”

“That’d be great. Oh! By the way. I keep forgetting to ask you.” Marvin leaned back in his chair. “Have you heard anything about the Specter recently?”

“I’ve heard that they’re being more active,” Kanchana said. “Gwen’s dad got an offer for some old super tech that might’ve been from them. Anonymous offer. No weapons.”

“Hmm.” That might’ve been the Specter. He probably stole a bagful of stuff from the U-Storit, that one night when Marvin and Windstorm tried to confront him. “Thanks. I’ll talk to him about it. Maybe I can... convince him.”

“You sound so ominous when you say it like that,” Kanchana said jokingly. “What are you going to do? Bribe him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll threaten to tell his daughter about some of his business details. He wants to keep those from her, right?”

“Not that she doesn’t know already, but yes, I believe so.”

“Ha.” Marvin grinned tiredly. “Well, uh. I’m gonna go nap now, or something. Good luck.”

“Have a good one, then,” Kanchana said. “I’ll email or text you if anything develops.”

“Thanks.”

“Goodbye.”

“Bye.” Marvin hung up. He leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. It had been an emotional day. He thought back to meeting Windstorm in that shop and the conversation they had. Windstorm had seemed really angry. He didn’t blame him of course, but he still got angry at him in turn. Yes, he was a villain. But sometimes Windstorm treated him like he would snap and kill everyone in the room at any moment. The thought caused a defensive indignation to fill his heart.

Even so, he understood where Windstorm was coming from. Marvin knew he’d proven—to the world and to himself—that he was willing to kill. Even if he’d only actually managed it once. And Windstorm had friends to be worried about. People he cared about. Who cared about him.

Marvin felt an old familiar ache in his chest, and he stood up. He was going to sleep. He was going to forget about the world and rest for an hour or two. Forget about Kanchana and her order, forget about the Specter, forget about Windstorm... forget about the League of Heroes.

It was a temporary solution. But right now, it was one he needed. So he left the office and headed upstairs, ready to fall into his bed and forget.

[beardedhandstoadshark]

I've never owned a DS before and I'm really interested in purchasing one but I have no idea which one I should go with. I know there's the regular, the 3ds and the XL, so which one would you recommend?

Depends on your preference! I‘m gonna go a bit into detail here so you know what you’re buying, and there’s a TLDR in bold at the bottom, but if it’s still too muddled please don’t hesitate to ask!

Also, disclaimer, whenever I talk about pricing it’s from my own perspective, so for all we know, I could buy something super cheap that’s really expensive for you and vise versa, so it’s better to check it for yourself still.

For starters, there‘s quite a lot of different versions of the console, with the og DS and 3DS even counting as their two separate lines.

Generally speaking I’d say go with a 3DS, as they can also play every DS game on top of their own (which doesn’t work the other way around) and the hardware’s only half as old, so it’s less likely to die on you in the near future. However that makes them more expensive, too.

XL just means bigger screen/console. It’s just like when a phone comes out in regular and big size. For some folks the added space is too much to properly hold it anymore, for others the regular size is too small to do anything. Depends on your preference. For comparison:

The DSi and New 3DS are both kinda like "upgraded“ versions of the DS/3DS, respectively.

Left is a DSi, right is a New 3DS XL. They both have the same sizes as their normal counterparts, so the size comparison still works. (Ignore the low screen light on the DSi, I just didn’t bother changing it back lol. On Max brightness they‘re the same.)

If you don’t plan on playing any Gameboy Advance games, absolutely go with a DSi instead of a regular DS. They go for the same price (at least here) but the DSi has better hardware and way more functions, while being way less of a brick compared to the og DS. Apparently the max screen brightness is also higher than the og? Idk tho.

Theres also the DS lite, which is a DS that looks like a DSi, but again. Same price, might as well go with the upgrade. In any case, they’re also both harder to accidentally snap in two than the og model lol.

The New 3DS only has better hardware but no new software compared to the regular 3DS. But it’s got extra buttons! Very rarely used, but they exist. It’s kinda like 60 fps vs 30 fps, if that makes sense? The hardware difference is noticeable especially right after you switch, but you can also live without it, and sometimes it doesn’t make that big of a difference.

Like, if I play Hyrule Warriors, the regular 3DS is barely holding it together on 20fps and can’t even do 3D while the New one‘s playing pretty smooth and lets you play with 3D. And only THEN does the N3DS goes down on the same level as the regular 3DS because it’s essentially playing the game in double for the 3D effect to work. Meanwhile Mario Bros 2 plays the exact same on both of them.

What you could also do, is get a 2DS. It’s like a 3DS, but in 2D. All the features of a 3DS except for the whole 3D gimmick, so it’s basically like the Switch Lite. You also can’t fold it like the other ones, unless you get a New 2DS XL, which is foldable again, but that ones‘ price range is all over the place. The normal 2DS seems to sell generally cheaper than all the other 3DS consoles, at least.

TLDR: your options are a

DS

DS Lite

DSi

DSi XL

For the regular DS line, and for the 3DS line a

3DS

3DS XL

New 3DS

New 3DS XL

2DS

New 2DS XL

If you only have under 100 bucks or don’t care about 3DS games,I‘d say go with one of the DSi. All consoles of the DS go for more or less the same price, and it’s got the best hardware and features of them.

If you’ve got extra pocket change, go with any of the 3DS consoles instead, as there’s just more games for it on top of a better hardware and less age. Your cheapest option is a 2DS, but a regular 3DS isn’t that far off either. They might even go for the same price, if you’re lucky? If you wanna, you can go also with a New 3DS if it’s a lot of pocket change.

And if you vibe with a bigger screen, take the XL version of whatever line you chose! Except for the 2DS XL, somehow its 3D counterpart is cheaper than the 2D XL again.

Also, ALL of these consoles come in multiple colors!

TLDRTDLR: DSi for price or any of the 3DS line for more games, imo

…and if you get any of them and the shoulder buttons are broken, that’s completely normal. You can drop them 100 times and the console is fine, but play Mario Kart too often and the shoulder buttons stop working lmao.

[gamesception]

So here's the new toy that's been distracting me the last couple days. My decade+ old oversized ASUS gaming laptop finally pooped out several months ago, leaving me daily driving my Steam Deck of all things as my main home computer. And don't get me wrong, the Deck has performed remarkably well in that regard, but I've been meaning to get something a bit fancier for a while. Something that could handle 1440p gameplay at a decent framerate while streaming or recording, can manage image and video editing well, and in particular can run some VR games. I've been interested in VR gaming ever since Lobac posted about some of that a while back, especially with the Meta Quest 2 being a solid headset at a really aggressive cost. With the Zuck giving up on the metaverse, the Quest is likely never going to be cheaper than it is now.

I'd waffled for a while about building a PC, but in the end I psyched myself out and decided to go with a pre-built instead. Yes, that means willfully overpaying for the end product by a few hundred bucks to pay someone else to do the assembly and initial set up for me, but in exchange I only had to research one product instead of half a dozen separate components, plus there's a single warranty where if anything doesn't work it's somebody else's problem to fix it, and I'd only have to deal with a delay.

After watching and reading a bunch of reviews, Skytech seemed to be a decent choice for system integrator, with solid to positive reviews for various prebuilt models they offer, including Gamer's Nexus who tend to be pretty harsh on pre-builts. But it was this review from JustIN Tech that sold me on this Azure 2 model. "Performance equivalent to last gens best, but at half the price" is the exact tag line I was looking for, and after a recent price discount it was just within my $2k range.

In retrospect though, I should have done some more research on the specific components. I'm quite happy with the intel 13600 cpu, and while the included cooling setup is overkill for that chip, that just means I've got some free thermal space to overclock or upgrade in the future. Plus, it's pretty, and I'm shallow. On the other hand it turns out the nvidia 4070ti is not well thought of - generally considered badly overpriced, plus has the extra negetive association of being just a rebranding of the failed '4080 12gb' that was so roundly panned that its release had to be canned altogether. And the PNY model that came bundled in my unit isn't even as nice as the Gigabyte one in the JustIN Tech review. One of the reasons why Gamer's Nexus is the better channel for these sorts of reviews is that they do secret shopper and get the same stuff regular folks get, where as brands know what they're sending to channels like JustIN Tech and can take pains to make the best possible impression by including better components and taking extra care in assembly and packaging.

So what should I have purchased instead? I don't know. Maybe the 'blue' model of the same Azure 2 line, which is three hundred dollars cheaper to swap out the 4070ti for an intel Arc a770, which would probably have been more than enough for my intended use cases. Heck, with 4 extra gb of vram it might have even been better than the 4070ti for me in the long term, and if not then I could use the money saved towards swapping out to a better AMD card next gen. But the blue model comes in a blue version of the case, which wouldn't have made the swirly rainbow rbgs pop as much.

Anyway, while I might have made a different choice if I had done more research, that doesn't mean I'm at all unhappy with what I got! The Azure 2 arrived promptly. The build quality of the system is very nice. No damage, no loose or cross-threaded screws. Everything worked right out of the box when plugged in - including all the various external ports. Skytech certainly did a good job putting it all together. While the 4070ti might not be the most reasonably priced card for its performance level, now that it's here and paid for regardless, it seems like it should be able to do everything I want it to, at least for now. And if I end up replacing the gpu sooner then I would have liked, eh, we live and learn.

And while it doesn't matter at all compared to cost and performance, the swirly rainbow rgb lighting makes me feel like a Real Gamer (tm).

Desk is getting a bit cluttered tho.

As for performance, It's quiet and runs cool while playing my current games at top settings - though my particular game selection (mostly just Elden Ring on max settings with Ray Tracing), and my 1080p, 75hz monitor aren't exactly putting it through its paces yet. A new monitor is one of several upgrades & accessories I plan to get to go with this thing in coming months. New monitor, VR headset, an extra ssd on which to install linux - I figure I'll keep the windows install on the side, on the off chance there are games or utilities I can't get running in Linux down the line.

But anyway yeah, that's what I've been so busy with lately, delaying liveblog posts.

[crownednova]

I’ve only seen love directed towards RtDLDX, and while I think that’s lovely, I’ve always had several issues with it that I haven’t seen many else talk about. So that’s what I wanna do… talk about it. This was originally gonna be in the form of an essay, but I wrote the first draft half asleep, there is no saving that, and I think more of a point form, individualised analysis would get my point across better. This also means there isn’t going to be much for positives. Pretty much anything I don’t mention should be assumed I am either fine or happy with. Despite that though, I do still think the negatives are enough to cause me to not enjoy RtDLDX, at least not as much as I wish I could. But enough preamble.

New White Wafers Dialogue

Let’s start off with the two least impactful gripes. In fact, I’m just gonna get this one out of the way before getting onto the actual topic. Ability Stars look so much worse now. I get they’re 3D models now, but man, they just look so flat. Where are my RtDL Ability Star fans at? Okay, now to actually begin. All the other changes to Story Mode are great, but wow, I do not like his “Such Easy Targets” line. It feels like a betrayal of his facade. I’ve said in the past that RtDL has my favourite Magolor, which is why this stings. This isn’t like any of his other new/changed dialogue, while his Extra Mode dialogue also stands out, it still feels closer to how he acts. Not to mention, this is him finally being honest. He’s allowed to drop the facade here, it makes sense. But in White Wafers? I just can’t see him saying that. In the original, he does come off as shady, and he does mess up his story, but in a completely different way. I feel a similar slip up is when he calls Kirby a Hero in Cookie Country. At that time, he isn't supposed to know that. He also changes his story from “Just Crash Landing” to “Being Attacked by Landia.” Those are his brand of slip ups, I can’t imagine he’d mess up that badly as to say “Man I love scheming. Oops I mean crocheting ☺️” It’s also a lot more relaxed than what I expect from him. I always interpreted RtDL Magolor as having this stress to his dialogue. His ship is in shambles and he needs to keep up a lie. He still goofs around, but it’s in a completely different tone, it still has undertones of panic. This however, reads more like one of his upgrade lines in the Epilogue. Some may find that appropriate, but Magolor is never written consistently, and trying to add connections only makes things worse. Also, forgot to mention, this is just a straight up spoiler. Sure, the game is 11 years old, but Forgotten Land introduced so many new Kirby fans, people who know nothing about the series, to reveal your biggest twist, especially in a way that feels like a betrayal to the character you’ve written, I just can’t understand the idea behind this change. Because what is the point? I keep asking myself this and I genuinely can’t comprehend it.

Extra Mode Changes

Extra Mode got a glow up in RtDLDX, that’s obvious from the first stages, so then why do I find myself preferring the original? It’s consistent. 1-1 is probably the most fun I’ve had with RtDL in years, so to be greeted by that, only to be met with the exact same mode I’ve played countless times, it’s crushing. It feels like it was set up to get you excited, just to pull the rug from under you. I could get it if it was deliberately there to convince you to buy the game, but if you’ve made it this far, you already own it. So why? While this inconsistency ruins the mode for me, I can’t help but have a more, sympathetic outlook. The original mode is a clear sign this game was rushed, while most of the game, you wouldn’t even be able to tell. I don’t know if those who worked on it were happy with how Extra Mode turned out. Maybe that’s presumptuous of me, but DX was their chance to fix this, but they didn’t. If it isn’t obvious, I think Extra Mode was once again rushed. 1-1, while maybe a bit unfair, still felt like there was love put into it, as much love as the bosses. And 2-1 and 3-1 also got noticeable attention, but much less. The fact the first levels got this attention, makes me feel like they were just developing the levels they could, I can’t explain it as well as I’d like, but it still stands out to me that way. But, while I appreciate the effort, it only makes it feel more unfinished than the original. I’m just so sad about this because this was their only chance to fix the original, it just stands out compared to all the other Extra Modes from the games after. Even something simple like letting Player 1 be Dedede, Meta or Bandee would have done so much for this mode. And, as I’ll soon say, Magolor Epilogue does nothing to circumvent  this. Magolor Epilogue Part 1 - Gameplay That’s right, a two parter! This is gonna be hard though, as I don’t know where my biases begin, and where they end. While this is obviously all subjective, I still would like some ground to stand on. So, I’m gonna start with what I like and what I think works. Let’s start with the bosses. Besides the marketing, which really should have its own section, they’re pretty cool! They innovate on the original bosses, Electicky Dooter is my favourite boss from this game. But it does suck they aren’t more original, or the fact the minibosses are still the same ones from Story and Extra Mode. It just makes the fact all the world bosses were spoiled for us hurt all the more. Next are Ordeal Doors. I love them. They work around the required upgrades so perfectly. Being able to know what the player will have means they can make memorable and fun stages. The regular stages are the exact inverse of this. They’re bland, forgettable, they have to work around the fact that you may never upgrade your abilities. I often see people praise the freedom the upgrade system provides, but I only see the inverse. It’s restrictive. The most the regular stages can do is play around with the boss abilities. However, those are often so weak, done so much better in the Ordeal Stages, or aren’t intuitive for movement that they can’t stand out. The combo system is much more interesting as a mechanic, and the game can properly play around with it, but the upgrades encapsulate everything I dislike about how it feels to play. No, everything I dislike with this whole Epilogue. Magolor Epilogue Part 2 - Tone and Story

I get it’s Kirby, but Kirby has done good and serious stories, so then why is Magolor Epilogue such tonal whiplash. The intro and tutorial capture it perfectly. Magolor almost died, he basically did. He lost his friends, his magic, he’s alone. Good thing he can think uppity thoughts! That’s unfair, I love his upgrade dialogue, I don’t want them to take away the humour, but there has to be some sort of middle ground! Make it clear his jokes are a form of coping, make the pause screens talk about his thoughts rather than vagueing towards Grand Doomer being the final boss 4 times in a row. Give us a look at how he actually feels!!! This is worse in the ending, we never see him actually feel guilt for what he’s done. We’re just told he’s redeemed now, we’re told that on a pause screen that’s not even accessible for 30 seconds!! It’s not even a case of show don’t tell, because they don’t even tell us anything! What I find worse is that he doesn’t even have to confront Kirby to apologise, not really, he literally gets to start living out his dream, stalling until the whole situation blows over until he just gets to show up on Pop Star, somehow, where there is barely any tension left. He gets off easy, he dies, and he gets rewarded for it. LITERALLY TOO!! I’ve never liked his Star Allies moveset. It was so clearly busted, that it felt like he’s stronger without the Master Crown. So in response to this, they canonise this moveset and it’s even more busted. It all comes back to the fact he’s constantly rewarded for his betrayal. He loses nothing. And it’s infuriating, because how am I supposed to expect him to be redeemed when he didn’t have to suffer for anything he did. Sure, he cries at the end of the mode, too bad we never know how he’s feeling anywhere else. They didn’t even answer how he got back to Pop Star, instead answering how he got to the Dream Kingdom. Idk about anyone else, but I just kinda assumed he got there with the Lor, the “real” answer doesn’t feel satisfying at all. He doesn’t even do anything interesting in the Clash games, nothing, not unless we get another Clash sequel. I just, I just wanted him to apologise to Kirby, but instead, it feels like HAL is doing everything in their power to make sure he doesn’t. The worst part is that I’m still hoping for that Clash sequel, I’m waiting for them to execute what they’ve set up, but I just don’t think it’s happening. I just wish I could see what everyone else sees in Epilogue, but I just can’t.

Merry Magoland

I guess I should wrap this up with Magoland. It’s not that bad, but I think it suffered the most from feeling slapped on with no real purpose. I like the Minigames, but I’m more talking about the park itself. I don’t like how it looks. It might just be because I’m not a fan of Magolor’s ego, or at least never saw it being this kind of ego, but it doesn’t work here for me. From what we’ve seen of Magolor’s work in the past, it’s always had this sort of child like aspect to it, like it was made with crayons and cardboard or building blocks. It created a nice aesthetic, albeit, a rather disconnected one, Drum Dash and Dream Collection look nothing alike. But to see them completely ignore what those two set up for a boring DisneyLand parody? Especially one played so positively? Idk, maybe I’m expecting too much asking for another “Capitalism is Bad'' metaphor, but still, Disney is very well known for being a garbage company so???? It’s funny how a place meant to look as innocent as possible is immersion breaking for being as innocent as possible. In reality, it’s not that bad, Manager Magolor acts nothing like Story Mode Magolor, but that’s a consistent thing with all his appearances so whatever I’ve grown to accept it. I just wish Dream Collection and Drum Dash got more love. Especially since Last Land of all things was referenced back in Dream Buffet, I still love that btw. Some sort of visual link might have helped, but even without them, I just think gaudy isn’t Magolor’s style? Like it totally is, but this brand of it doesn’t feel like him. However, I don’t write for him, idk his “true” personality, his “true” taste, maybe he likes Glitter and I can’t stop him. It just serves to make the new stuff feel out of place juxtaposed to the more natural, magical and mechanical settings of Story Mode.

And I guess that’s it, I never want to do this kinda thing again. Being this negative, although my true feelings, is just exhausting. I hope no one agrees with my issues, but if you do, hope it’s nice to see someone talk about it lol. I’m not giving up on this game though, I want to come back in a few months and see how my feelings have changed. I doubt it’ll fix everything, but I hope I can gain a new appreciation for this game, critiques and all. I guess thanks for reading as well, it means a lot to know people care about what I have to say.

[bluesunsdusk]

--// I don't think I ever really touched on Najma's brain structure.

It's a form of wetware built to simulate the structure of a human brain. From their base structure, it analyzed and copied the neural pathways of their owner while linked with her through an implant with the intention to create a synthetic copy of her brain in real-time with an omnic element to detect, regulate and correct any errors.

Najma started out as a rather primitive medical assistance unit that would monitor and correct certain activity within the human brain through the use of an implant that let them remain remotely connected to the patient and know when the assist in a multitude of ways. It meant Dunia, their owner, grew up with rather little privacy from the age that they were given Najma, but she was lucky to have parents who wouldn't pry into the data the unit collected.

Eventually, the unit would be upgraded over time. Dunia became invested in making Najma more and more advanced over time with the use of many new technology that sprung up. When she joined Omnica Corporation, she used their resources to form a new set of processing units until she reached the synthetic human brain model.

There was an oversight in the fact that it was still a self-learning and self-updating AI, much like the omniums. While the way their mind adapted made them seem very human, they were still very omnic.

I initially made this characters before the release of Echo and knew nothing about Aurora and yet Najma is starting to look like an in-between of the two where Aurora seems more robotic and industrial and Echo is very sleek, so I feel very validated. Heck, they were even going to have a light-based kit, though I only mentioned that in tags like once, noting when they were still going to be called Prisma.

Anyway...

Najma's adaptive circuitry is made in a bid to copy the way the human brain works. This, along with being directly connected to a human rather than being linked to the long-distance omnic signal network, made them inherently able to withstand Anubis' influence. This means their primary directive of protecting the Daher household remained unaltered. They slightly turned away from their directive by prioritizing the children over Dunia, which should have been expected considering Dunia would have done the same.

Their change into being sapient was more gradual than other omnics, but they already felt almost alive. I didn't have a timeline for it, but we already knew there was a universal awakening. The introduction of Aurora means Najma's sapience was jump-started when that unit sacrificed herself to grant the other units sapience. They would say it was their first burst of clarity before continuing to live as a whisper, just a more thoughtful whisper. They couldn't pinpoint an exact time when they became a full individual and not just something acting on an adaptive autopilot.

Najma's brain, much like their muscles, is self-repairing. They have a secondary, more static, element that stores the mapping of their brain as a type of system restore or failsafe. This section is what makes them more susceptible to things that would affect omnics and older models than humans are. This static component is a holdover from very early development. Almost all of their old components have replaced with more modern technologies by now, including large portions of their brain.

Usually, a brain component would be given a month or two to integrate before older brain components were removed. Delicacy of the procedure increased as their brain grew more complex and thus contained more fragile components. Knowledge of this repeated data transfer process used to not cause them any insecurities until after their incident with Dunia’s final human-to-machine data transfer experiment. This incident is also when they realized they hadn't truly lived as a respected equal a single day in their life.

By definition, Najma is not an omnic. They were created by hand with omnica corporation components, but they weren't made by an omnium.

Their owner, who used them for her experiments, was slightly at odds with Dr. Liao because Dunia didn't always understand the point of her project with Aurora. Omnics were plenty advanced as it is. This might make them harder to hack, an admittedly valuable thing during the omnic crisis, but she was for more concerned with her own work instead. She personally rather look into a melding between human and machine. It had worked well for her, increasing her lifespan well beyond what had been expected with minimal invasive surgeries since the introduction of the unit, and the rest of humanity deserved to enjoy such advancement as well. Everyone deserved a guardian.

Dunia also felt that you can't make the omnics more humans without a human element. "Given enough time to adapt, this unit's brain will function exactly the same as mine, but with none of the faults and capable of self-repair. This is more than just building an army of metal adult-shaped children, this is evolution. A synthesis between man and machine. Massive strides in diagnostics and neurological care. We could cheat death..."

Najma still holds much of the data from Dunia’s brain, but they keep a portion of it compressed or locked away in their mind, preferring not to look back on that nor to remove it. They sometimes still struggle with the idea that all their beliefs and interests are just something bestowed upon them by Dunia’s brain and they'll never actually be their own person. They even both strongly believed in the pursuit of human and omnic synthesis, even while Dunia allowed Najma to independently study the workings of omnic brains and the Anubis program in pursuit of the advancement of the omnic species rather than that of humans. Najma further believed that if they could show hard evidence of how similar omnics are to humans, the humans would gain some damned chill.

Najma thought the independence granted to them for these pursuits was Dunia acknowledging they were a separate and living entity, that Dunia also felt omnics deserved to advance and proliferate the way humans do, but she was really just curious to see how similar to her this unit might behave.

Omnics, as a first generation, are dying out. More need to be constructed to maintain their population, but those new constructs will need a way independent of the iris to become whole. That way will be found, they're certain of that, but there will be no new Aurora.

While Najma doesn't approve of a second omnic crisis, Ramattra is paving the way for a second generation of omnics, and Najma hopes to study this generation when it comes. There should be a way to ensure they don't live the majority of their formative years as mindless slaves to a warmonger who couldn't rise above his programming. There should be a way to wake them up without sacrifices. There should be a way to grant them free will, a way to not put someone else's sorrow onto their shoulders.

They also have very mixed feelings about humans. They used to be closer with humans while feeling more tentative about their opinions towards other omnics due to being basically raised by humans, but the omnics they spend most of their time with now have been extremely accepting of them even while not understanding them. Even so, they struggle to feel entirely welcome in either space.

Ramattra makes the occasional error, but he's trying to understand where Najma's abilities stem from and how they work, while also reconciling the fact that Najma is not going to hijack him like Anubis even if Helix nicknamed them Anupet, after the god program. Maximilien has a large number of omnic staff and uses his delicate form of manipulation to keep them favorable of him even when he comes across as obviously sleazy.

Setesh is the most patient and understanding of them all, being thoughtful and tentative in nature towards other synthetic lifeforms, having requested for Talon to allow them to visit various struggling groups of omnics, having urged Ramattra to assist in their care because they are omnic regardless of whether they come from a factory or not, and having requested Najma be taught self-defense. Setesh has also suggested to let Najma examine Omniums for Set's curiosity on whether omniums are also sentient enough to recognize threats against their existence and defend themselves.

Of course, it doesn't help that being in Talon exposes them to the worst of humanity and they can feel the fear and anger in people they compel harshly enough. Often, the last thought they experience through extreme Talon testing is the thought that they're a monster, leading them to eventually believe that and retreat from their contact with humans, preferring to be around only other omnics.

Najma joins Null Sector and studies the new units for their own ends partially as a result of this, choosing not to inform Ramattra of their goal being to pretty much end the war by granting the units some form of sapience, even if rudimentary. They know it's possible. All it takes is some extra work. They still accept the codename Helix gave them, but they prefer to compel people in ways that make the victim unable to commit harm. Their kit centers around damage reduction.

Gets deployed by Null Sector as last resort. Stops the fighting. Doesn't elaborate. Leaves.

Their track record for compelling omnics seems to be zero up until the second omnic crisis, because they rarely have to. However, when Null Sector churns out blank units, Najma does take control of some of those to act as an entourage or to simply cease combat and initiate small-scale retreats whenever desired. They can't control every unit on the battlefield, however, so one is only at their much laxer and more narrowly-coordinated mercy when near them.

They do have multiple tools to extend their reach, but it puts a heavy toll on their systems to over-extend and control too many people.

Najma would ideally pull a Druig and retreat into an isolated omnium somewhere with their reclaimed units and perhaps some friends who chose to come with them, away from humans, but there's no more room on this planet for them. There's no more room on this planet for anything other than humans.

They have looked into using the nanites and other forms of technology to upgrade units the way that has been done to units like Orisa, they just aren't sure how to apply that to a whole omnium's in-progress production line. Aurora couldn't be mass-produced, so it stands to reason that this would be a near impossible endeavor.

Does Najma's brain have hard light elements? It shouldn't, but we don't know how the Iris works. I've considered that there might be trace light elements inside them, especially considering they were working within Oasis and Dunia likely had plenty of contact with members of Vishkar. Najma would be very interested in integrating hard light into their systems similarly to Echo, but they'd only consider it after actually meeting Echo. They'd be far more interested in biolight as a venue for omnic advancement though. Mainly because it's a synthesis of life and tech and they love that for him.

They used to want to be human or more human so bad, but the more they live in this world, the more they see that they don't want to be human. All they wanted was to be treated fairly and to experience the world as fully as a human could. They want less and less to be human or omnic the more they spend no longer linked to their former owner. They just want to be and they want to live, and they want to advance.

Najma actually works on developing tactile sensation for over their entire body, specifically in the artificial musculature, like they have in their finger tip sensors. It takes a bit to get used to.