Please help. I need my new laptop for productivity, but the new Kubuntu is making trouble I don't know from my ancient Thinkpad with 22.04 or such.
After selecting it in the boot loader, the screen turns black forever, requiring a hard power cycle, and I don't know whether anything happens behind the black screen or it just freezes.
The system does load if I select safe mode first and then launch the OS from there, weirdly. It also gives a warning about some graphics drivers not working properly when booting from graphical mode, so I only have some vague ideas about maybe confusion with the AMD CPU's internal GPU and the dedicated AMD GPU in the laptop.
What adds frustration is that the touchpad fails to be detected maybe half the launches, with no clear pattern yet.
I also noticed it runs on X11, not Wayland, and the shipped Haruna media player produces video with tearing! VLC, too! And half the time Haruna only shows black screen on video play or only a few pixels - So something about graphics and other basics is seriously wrong and robbing me of much time in cluelessness. I thought Lenovo and AMD would be the best combo for Linux. I mean, you an ever order them with Ubuntu pre-installed.
"About this System" shows graphics processor: llvmpipe" Is that how it's supposed to be?
Internal GPU is Radeon 780M and dedicated one is RX 5500 M or some such. Can't verify right now.
SUPPLEMENT: I let it sit and eventually it triggered the auto-sleep due to long idleness and in the moment it did that, the login/lock scree briefly flashed on screen. Then after waking up, again only black screen.
Also, after another hard power cycle I had to repair two broken libraries, libgdk-pixbuf soandso. But that might have been for XNview.
Regarding the touchpad I could experiment with alternative drivers like mtrack, multitouch and synaptics, but I don't want to cause a conflicitng mess. The shipped drivers should do the job, no?

Been having the wonderful issue of the laptop not waking from sleep, and now powering with no display. The caps lock key shows no toggle light, just pure black screen. Have done power drain and unplugged internal battery with no luck, I actually had this issue last night and it just turned on normally after 2-3 on off cycles
Pls help :(

After years of having issues with black screen and having changed different parts of the computer to try and solve it, I had had it. However, I recently figured out that if i disconnected the battery and just ran the computer with the AC power then the computer worked properly again. But since this is a laptop, I wasn't too keen on using it as a stationary computer. Sometimes I would be able to reconnect the battery again and with the AC but the battery wouldn't charge. My battery is a brand new o and bios battery health check also says it's excellent.
Since I somewhat understood what was causing it, I was able to find different threads in different forums that said that it's some type of short circuit happening in the motherboard. Some suggested

1. changing the motherboard (these can be pricey and I think the issue might come back up)
   
2. to use the usb-c slot to charge the laptop, since appereantly the usb-c slot and the ac power don't run in the same circut or something like that. Just make sure you use a usb-c charger that has the same watt as your current one. People have said though, that if you use a non-dell charger that the laptop will cap it 85-90w I think.
   

Anyways after days of my laptop being all black, I bought a 100w generic usb-c charger to my 130w battery, and it works again. No black screen and battery is charging again.
So if you are having issues maybe this can help you, this is a pretty inexpensive solution.
I'll update this post if the black screen appears again but I believe the issue is solved for my.

RELEASE NOTES 1.35.21.0
If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior. If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title. How to install a new update safely
NEW CONTENT/FEATURES Added flight plan assistance setting for ATC in the user experience assistance settings so that users can request the ATC to favor their flight plan or world map flight settings over the current conditions. This assistance is set to “Active” by default. Active: ATC will set the active runway and approach for the departure and arrival airport based on the users flight plan or settings in the world map. Deactivated: ATC will set the active runway and approach based on current conditions only. ATC now clears a step to the next altitude some time before arriving at the previously cleared altitude, rather than once arrived at the previously cleared altitude. (Next step is issued when at 2000FT from cleared altitude rather than 250FT from cleared altitude). ATC Vectoring bug fixes: Now assigning the correct clearance when the first two waypoints were one over the other, Now assigning a new vector & clearance every time the user asks the ATC for a new vector. Added completely new Cirrus SR22T G6 model with custom engine simulation, book-accurate performance, and extensive Perspective Plus NXi features.
GENERAL BUG FIXES Several crashes have been fixed across the title Fixed localization bugs Performance optimizations for long flights. Fixed ATC that was mixing voices in localized languages Automated Weather Report temperature reading updated
MARKETPLACE Fixed an issue where the Wishlist would not sort properly in the Marketplace
MENU Fixed freeze when opening the logbook
NAVIGATION/TRAFFIC Enhanced ATC phraseology. Some of the improvements include: The removal of the word ‘for’ in altitude change requests. Eliminating the requirement to include altimeter settings in takeoff clearances.
WEATHER Snow and ice coverage accuracy has been improved in live weather Fixed an issue where the wind from a malformed METAR was incorrectly read Fixed an issue where the sim occasionally retrieves obsolete weather data Improved transition during cloud coverage updates AND fixed an issue where clouds don’t load when starting a flight.
GLASS COCKPITS GARMIN G3000 / G5000 Fixed an issue where removing an airway entry leg from the flight plan could sometimes corrupt the flight plan.
G1000 NXI Added support for hardware keyboard with new AS1000CONTROL_PAD H events. Fixed an issue where removing an airway entry leg from the flight plan could sometimes corrupt the flight plan. AP: Added support for LVL and TO/GA modes MFD: Added Page Menu popup for MFD’s Nearest Airports page. CAS: PFD Alerts softkey indicator now flashes color and changes to appropriate label with CAS messages CAS: Pressing PFD Alerts softkey now acknowledges CAS messages and cancels aural chimes CAS: Alerts now display in order of priority and time first seen SIM: Added support for knob-based XPDR code entry using H events. For aircraft developers: Made all methods in PFD and MFD plugins optional. Exported NavSystems’s class FrequencyItem and its props interface FrequencyItemProps. CAS messages may now be assigned associated Alerts messages via JS and/or plugin code Added support for control pad entry for Constraint Selector in the FPL dialog Added support for LVL and TO/GA autopilot modes Added support for control pad entry on several UI input components Added support for styling the Com selection based on the radio selected to transmit, and for both Nav and Com standby frequencies selected to edit WT21 For aircraft developers:
Added configurable side button support to the WT21
AIRCRAFT GENERAL Payload station weights that are set via SimConnect are now properly displayed in the Weight&Balance toolbar panel. Fixed – L-39 Pipsqueak – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Fixed – L-39 Sarance – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Contact Points compression under some kind of roof (bridge, cave, arch, etc.) was fixed Fixed – P-51D LadyB – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Aircraft Registration can no longer be lowercase Fixed – P-51D Miss America – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Fixed – P-51D Strega – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Fixed – T-6 Baby Boomer – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Improved aircraft simulation stability (few potential crashes were fixed) Fixed – T-6 Undecided – Unable to enter values by double-clicking on GNS screen Corrected an issue that could prevent cockpit interactions from working in some rare conditions Correct many false positive errors regarding InputEvents when loading AI planes Corrected an issue that would cause some P51 to lose power in reno races. Fixed an issue that could cause the state of Avionics circuit depend features to be toggle on and off when no MarkerBeacon circuit was present It is now possible to slow down the simulation speed to 1/8 and 1/16 of real time. EXTERNAL HUD Minimized HUD can now display more than 8 engines power values HELICOPTERS Anti-stall protection is now disabled for helicopters. AIRBUS 310-300 A310 Radio Stuck Broadcasting on KSNS ATIS After Departing KSFO. Vertical speed knob labeled as “altitude knob” in tooltip. AIRBUS A320NEO (V2) During testing of the A320neo, we encountered an application crash rate on console that is too high to pass certification. We need to address this issue before the A320 can ship. BELL 407 Rotor weight changes. Rotor brake force adjustments. Rotor blade dynamics adjustments. Throttle/governed RPM during startup and shutdown. Engine performance changes. Fuel management on the weight and balance settings. Performance data on the aircraft selection screen. Localization text changes. FADEC tooltip. Fuel Pressure gauge illumination. Cold and dark state changes. Checklist correction. Fixed checklist AutoStart. AutoStart sequence now works. BOEING 787-10 / BOEING 747-8I General performance optimizations for consoles and some hardware configurations W&B: An operational CG margin is considered now to avoid extreme CG values when loading the aircraft. SIM: ATC will now know about your planned cruise altitude and will assign you a flight level accordingly. CHECKLISTS: Fixed bug where checklists that only contain closed loop items would sometimes be skipped when entering the checklist page if all items are completed. [787] CHECKLISTS: Fixed flaps checklist items being completed before the flaps reached the selected position. [787] W&B: Corrected movement of the CG as fuel is burned by moving the tanks to the exact locations of those on the real plane. [787] EFB: Support clearing of the TOW field. [787] EFB: Cap the achievable MTOW at the certified limit of the plane. [787] EFB: Correct error message when current TOW exceeds the achievable MTOW. [787] EFB: Added Automatic brightness adjustment. [787] EFB: Fixed spelling errors. [747] SYSTEMS: Reserve fuel transfer will now not stop once started mid flight. CDU: Fix takeoff speeds being invalidated when opening TAKEOFF REF on the copilot side CESSNA CITATION CJ4 SIM: ATC will now know about your planned cruise altitude and will assign you a flight level accordingly CIRRUS SR22T G6 Completely brand-new art and model of the SR22T G6 GTS. Completely reworked flight model and performance featuring: CFD with book accurate performance and pilot tested handling. Modern propeller system. New turbo and fuel engine systems. Custom ECU, engine computer, and EGT/CHT simulation. Custom lean misfire, detonation, and engine failure simulations. Full Perspective Plus features implemented for G1000 NXi, including: Full-screen engine page with anti-ice status and fuel flow targets. Full-screen fuel management page. Weight and Balance page with graphical CG envelope. Trip planning page with automatic and manual modes. Massive suite of interactive checklists. MFD destination inf-box. PFD power gauge, GAGL indicator, GS and TAS. Frequency loading menus on airport and waypoint inf-pages. FIKI (Flight int-Known Icing) and TKS simulation. Stabilized approach system with PFD alerting and monitoring for: Bar-mismatch, crosswind, tailwind, flaps, lateral deviation, and vertical deviation (GS and GP). Updated EIS with custom reversionary mode version. Lean assist, fuel flow green band, and cyan fuel flow lean target indicators. Fully modeled GCU479 Garmin Control Unit keypad with all entry modes. Additional new autopilot mode support including LVL, TO, and GA. Large suite of accurate CAS messages including new G1000 NXi alerts acknowledgement and menu behavior. CURTISS JN-4 “JENNY” Fixed – [KO-KR] Some instruments in cockpit are not localized in Korean in Curtiss Jenny. Fixed – [Localization] Livery names are not localized in liveries page. Fixed – [pl-PL] Missing/untranslated words in checklist. Fixed – [TR-TR] Some instruments in cockpit are not localized in Turkish in Curtiss Jenny. DAHER TBM 930 Fixed broken autopilot panel backlighting. DOUGLAS DC-3 Fixed starting engine in Multiplayer causes other DC3 engines to animate starting Fixed overlapping words on the warning labels inside the cabin and on the rear cabin door. (Enhanced) Fixed Radio altimeter appearing off above 400ft. Classic 8-way Quick view controls fixed during flight. Fixed fuel pump does not indicate fuel flow from Cold/dark until after mesh switch is engaged. (Enhanced) Improved low resolution text in the Enhanced Edition cockpit. (Enhanced) Fixed missing panel texture for Beacon light. (Enhanced) Fixed HUD not correctly indicating state of flap. Fixed Decision height/Radar altitude setting knob setting does not match panel texture. Fixed fuel pump not indicating fuel flow from Cold/dark until after mesh switch is engaged. GRUMMAN G-21 GOOSE AI copilot completes checklist items for you in Evaluation mode. Attitude Indicator doesn’t provide pitch indications. Fuel drawn from wrong tank when starting Cold & Dark. Part of tooltip description for Magneto Cutoff not localized. Unable to toggle “taxi light” in cockpit–must use key binding. H-4 HERCULES “SPRUCE GOOSE” Camera Quick views fixed Engine 5-8 throttle fixed when using a gamepad ROBIN DR400 Fix Flaps looking misaligned with the wings in neutral position. RYAN NYP “SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS” Camera Quick views fixed WRIGHT FLYER Camera Quick views fixed WORLD Used more realistic mapping of wave lengths onto RBG values for the ozone layer scattering and the sun color, resulting in more realistic colors of the sky and the lighting in the world.
TOP-GUN MAVERICK Fix for the aircraft carrier wake in Maverick landing challenge that was missing
PERIPHERALS Various peripheral fixes Pause mapping on the Occulus touch left controller switched from Y to Menu button Anti Ice and Aux Fuel Pump LEDs are now working properly with Bravo Throttle Quadrant
SDK Added new Coherent calls SET_CRUISE_ALTITUDE and GET_CRUISE_ALTITUDE to get/set the planned cruise altitude the in game ATC knows about. Fixed crash when “positive_g_limit_flaps_up” parameter is present in [AIRPLANE_GEOMETRY] section in flight_model.cfg, but one of the parameters: “positive_g_limit_flaps_down” or “negative_g_limit_flaps_up” or “negative_g_limit_flaps_down” is missing. See SDK for details. More parameters have been added to the “[VIEWS]” section of the “camera.cfg” file to control the behavior of the external camera (“external_camera_distance”, “external_camera_follows_heading”, “external_camera_follows_velocity”). See SDK for details. Several features have been added and bugs have been fixed for the skid-type landing gear, which can now be retractable. See SDK for details. Added “set_max_compression” and “spring_exponential_fix” parameters to the “[CONTACT_POINTS]” section of the “flight_model.cfg” file. See SDK for details. DEVMODE Debug old: option to disable 30Km mesh display limit “Exponential Constant” parameter is added to the Contact Point serialization (it was missed) Aircraft debug windows stability was improved Fixed context setting of Material Editor when opening Scenery Editor Added Interactive Points state initialization via .FLT files The “gear_locked_on_ground” parameter in the [CONTACT_POINTS] section of the “flight_model.cfg” file now works for SKI and SKID type retractable landing gear. Fixed random crash when exiting the game with DevMode open AssetReload: Reload gltf lod min size Fixed some scenery option not applied during multiple selection Add SpeakerFullName in DialogAction Improved linear memory size formatting in WASM Debug window SIMCONNECT SimConnect Input Events function can now be used while devmode is disabled SimConnect Input Events shouldn’t crash the sim after going back to main menu (or restarting a flight) Ident and region are now two separate fields while requesting Facilities New Data are available through NavData API (Pavement, Vasi, Approach Lights) SIMVARS Added simvars AIRCRAFT_AGL and AIRCRAFT_ALTITUDE_ABOVE_OBSTACLES Aircraft editor Added an option to delete a parameter from the cfg file, or to reset it to its default value Added rotation Gizmo Added new parameters Added expert Mode to the editor. Expert Mode eliminate all constraint on the editor regarding conditional fields, required parameters or array sizes. Only already existing parameters and modified parameters are saved. This mode allows for greater flexibility of the editor but require more knowledge on how to configure an aircraft. Made NdArrays more flexible, avoid writing too much data per line. Fixed ctrl+f focus that would not focus parameters properly Fixed unwanted or incorrect changes when saving a file in the editor VISUAL EFFECTS EDITOR Fixed visual effect instances not being properly stopped and restarted when the Visual Effects Editor is closed New fixed orientation feature New nodes: Abs, Sin, Cos WASM Fix clipping modes (intersect, complement and Xor) for GDI+ API Fix an error in the dependencies of the VFX Aircraft Sample (and rename the sample from “SampleWasmModule” to “VfxWasmModule”) Fix a bug in CommBus API that cause first registration of an event in Wasm to be ignored CommBus : When register an event in Wasm the triplet [eventName, callback, ctx] can be registered only one time per module CommBus : New function added in Wasm : fsCommBusUnregisterOneEvent CommBus : In JS a CommBusListener has been added

Compromise
First Prev
“Alright, so uh...” Alex picked the last larva out of the bowl and ate it. A burst of umami and the unexpected taste of alcohol. Now that it had soaked up some of the spice from the broth, it was pretty good. Not particularly flavorful, but a better eating experience than he would expect from a grub. “Why did Eleya put two towns into a warship?”
“I do not know.” Carbon was less fussy about the variety of ingredients presented, eating without playing favorites. It was what she’d picked out when pressed to recommend something for him, and the speed of the devastation she was enacting on what had been a bowl nearly filled to the brim said that it was actually a personal favorite. “I had heard some suggesting converting retired Naval ships into housing, using a decommissioned carrier as a space station once it could be towed into a proper location. Swapping out launch bays for community towers is not a long bridge.”
“That seems...” It seemed desperate. But given what he’d seen, desperate was where they had been in the weeks following the disaster. Where they still were, even if things were improving.
Were things improving?
“Born out of desperation, yes.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “We did not have many colonies, we had not built so many stations. We only kept old ships for parts as another means of efficiency in our fleets. There had been hundreds of thousands in transit all over the Empire at the time. On their way home, on their way to relieve others who now no longer had a home to return to.”
“Yeah, that-” He shifted some of the shredded cabbage-potato around his bowl, trying to figure out what to say. The ‘that sucks’ he had stopped himself from blurting out felt offensively inadequate. “That does present a huge challenge. Did they end up bringing ships online for that?”
“Oh, we did everything. Any idea that was not completely untenable got the blue light. Repurposing ships, building sealed micro-arcologies on less habitable planets, mining out sufficiently large asteroids, asking the Confederation for help. I saw one proposal that suggested an inflatable space station. I thought it was a completely deranged idea.” She paused and picked up the bowl, slurping out some of the broth. “Then Humans arrive to bring aid, and do you know what the first structure they brought with them was?”
“An inflatable space station.” He saw that coming. Everyone - well, everyone who was sufficiently interested in space ships - would recognize the Redoubt class from that description alone. The very definition of form following function, each ship was little more than a central cylinder with hard points for a dozen habitat modules, and engines bolted to one end. Light, fast, cheap. Once deployed, you had a small space station that could be packed up when you were done. Old technology, sure, but they were everywhere, and the configuration options were extensive.
“Exactly. Forgive me, but I laughed. I knew the intent was to help, but having seen that proposal just weeks before...” She smiled and laughed despite having just apologized for such a thing.
“No I get it, it’s a goofy looking ship.” He could see the humor in the situation as well. Having gone from ‘this is too dangerous’ to ‘of course the Humans brought one’ was pretty funny. It put a smirk on his face and got him close to laughing along with her. “Probably used it as a command post until something heavier arrived. Kind of the primary use case for those in Search and Rescue, which is what I think the aid mission was first considered.”
“I was not involved with that aspect of recovery operations, but it stands to reason.” She set her utensils aside in a very specific way, sliding the bowl towards the end of the table. “I cannot tell you why they put all these people here. My first guess would be that it was a somewhat straightforward swap. The bays are very securely attached to the structure, but they are intended to be removed and replaced. It would be important that Eleya use her ship as a proof of concept.”
“Royals lead?” Seemed the logical jump.
Carbon nodded. “The Sword is recognized as her flagship. It is named after her. The Stronghold is based heavily on the Imperial Palace in Ama’o - may it rest. Taking in civilians, thousands of them, is hard proof that she is not simply hiding in here. Having the senate on board also brings with it the need for support staff, creating a symbiotic relationship. It is... a good compromise.”
“Okay, wait. How is The Sword of the Morning Light named after Eleya?” That legitimately confused him. “All I know is the -ya suffix is feminine.”
“Another name mauled by your automatic translation, though this time it is a portion of the Empress’ full formal titles.” She gave him a pointed look, a little smirk hiding on the side of her muzzle. “The strictest translation would be ‘the sword that is used to cut back the night,’ but that is even worse. If I were doing translations and feeling poetic, perhaps I would call it Dawnsword. It would convey the meaning of the name well enough, I think, without being verbose.”
“Then why do you call it the Sword like we do?” He figured just using the actual Tsla name would be easy enough if Dawnsword was a better translation.
“When in Rome.” Carbon snickered. “The Confederate systems I was working with before leaving for the Haultain were not set up to handle Tsla, and none of the Humans I spoke to recognized the name when I said it, so it became a force of habit.”
“Ah, that’d do it.” He’d ask about the actual name another time - it being one of Eleya’s titles felt like a natural transition to learning the rest of her titles, and he didn’t give a single damn about doing that right now.
“Alright, Eleya needs places to put people, and a place to put a temporary capital until the new location can be properly sorted. Two birds with one stone, I suppose. Wouldn’t staying at Schoen be more of the... leader thing to do?”
“If she were to stay here beyond the end of this endeavor, perhaps so. For now, having this ship - and its civilians - as a base of operations, in what even we consider to be one of the most secure solar systems, is reasonable. Most governing at that level has been done remotely since before the disaster, so it doesn’t impede anything.” She paused to sip her tea. “No one needs a senator to be on site anyway. Their presence traditionally just interferes with real work.”
That did get a laugh out of Alex. “The more things change.”
“The more they stay the same, yes?” She said with a grin.
“It is so. All right, mystery of the Dawnsword’s surprise towns is put to rest.” He stopped talking as Haraya came out of the woodwork to remove Carbon’s dishes, bustling away with even less stiffness than before. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something? “Heck. Did... Did anyone tell you we have an appointment to see a designer about our uh, our insignia?”
“No, but my communicator has been going off like I am being told something like that.” Carbon laughed and leaned back into her chair, fishing the slim black device from her jacket, the screen coming on.
Alex was not intentionally staring at his wife’s abdomen as he pushed the bowl away and set his chopsticks out like she had done. “Zenshen said it was this afternoon.”
“Mmh, afternoon. Another curious translation.” She teased him gently, flicking items off her screen one by one. “Neya says it is with Aetena Lyshen, at three. He has stated that his schedule is open today, and we may come in earlier if we so desire. Oh. How unexpected.”
Three o'clock, Tsla’o time, was probably like a solid five or six hours away. Plenty of time to have a deeply personal conversation about what Neya had told him. Or, perhaps, just go talk to the guy sooner. It wasn’t like he was putting it off... but he was putting it off for now. “What’s up?”
“Neya contacted the Colonel to make sure that Zenshen was attached to your detail properly - it turns out she was. You are both already on the artifact project, so it was just a slight shift of duties. The Empress went through appropriate channels, and Lehnan agrees with her decision.” She glanced up at him as she processed that. “I did not expect it to be so proper.”
“She is trying to turn over a new leaf, at least as far as you are concerned. Ensuring I have the help to not fuck things up, and doing it properly, could be a part of that.” He managed to make it sound like a statement, even though it was very much a question. Did his insistence that Eleya needed to start following through on her words actually sink in?
“It is possible. She will need to do more than fill out a little paperwork to prove herself.”
“Yeah, obviously. It’s just that you seemed surprised, so I was left with the impression that was unusual.”
Carbon stared down at the phone in her hands. “I do not know. From what I have seen, she will normally adhere to formal channels. But in the past, when it has come to dealings with me, she has not. Relied on her word being law to make things happen.”
Like making it legal to marry a Human. Changed who knows how much legal history with a stroke of a pen, to unfold some new machinations. “Zenshen made it sound like she was mostly there to act as a buffer between me and the military, keep me from offending anyone. Which strikes me as Eleya looking after her investment.”
“That is a reasonable assumption. I fear she has more intent sunk into you than we can see, so...” She also stopped talking when their waitress returned for Alex’s dishes, giving the young woman a warm smile. “Perhaps it really is.”
Alex, being privy to at least one plan that Carbon was unaware of, instantly did not want to comment on that. “Like you say, it lies with her to prove... herself good.”
“So it does.” Carbon smiled at his butchering of their turn of phrase before glancing down at her communicator again. “All right. Do you have any further plans for this morning?”
“Not a one. Want to push up the meeting with Lyshen? For that matter, do we have any plans tonight?”
“I do want to get that done. Designers can be particular. Best to get started sooner, and also have a meal that we can excuse ourselves for without appearing rude.” She smirked, displaying a little bit of the knowledge she had accumulated growing up in an elevated class, and started tapping away at the screen with both thumbs. “As for this evening, nothing that Neya has made me aware of.”
“Sounds good to me.” Left the evening open to actually have a sit down with Neya, perfect. “Oh shit, that reminds me. Neya wants us to bring her breakfast.”
“Does she. Very upset about not being able to come along?” The tone she had said that Carbon was familiar with Neya pretending to be put out by that, as did the barely hidden smile and tiny little snort of a laugh.
“Absolutely heartbroken.” He played along. “I had to promise that we’d get her something this morning and that you’d make breakfast again tomorrow.”
“Mh. We will see who is making breakfast when the time comes, but I will have something sent to her and we will proceed to our appointment.” She flipped through the applications on her phone and started typing something else out. “There.”
Carbon slipped the slim black screen back into her jacket and stood, stretching a little bit before walking over to the end of the bar, Haraya hustling out to meet them with a small device like the one Carbon had used to pay in the other little restaurant. She set her palm down on it, it processed for a moment and played a happy little tune.
“Thank you both, it was an honor to serve you.” Haraya bowed again now that the transaction was done.
“You did well, thank you.” Carbon said it in Tsla as she returned the bow, glancing over at Alex to ensure he was doing the same thing.
“Sa meha.” He was. Paying attention to what Carbon was doing was getting him pretty far, as was having memorized how to say ‘thank you’ in Tsla.
They turned to leave, but Haraya spoke again before they could take a step. Quiet, and very timid. “May I ask you a question?”
Carbon didn’t even think about it as she looked back. “Of course.”
“I was mostly asking the prince, I am very sorry.” She looked just this side of terrified to be correcting a Royal.
“Oh yeah, shoot.” Alex caught himself speaking in English way too late. He pursed his lips and inhaled, just barely preventing himself from rolling his eyes at that little faux pas. Based on what Carbon had said about Haraya getting her information about how nobles work from movies, she would have interpreted that as aimed at her. He queued up a very quick reply. “Please do.”
“After you left, last night.” She glanced over at the bartender, who was not paying them any attention at all. “Adana kept saying a strange word, I assume it to be Human - untranslatable.”
The irony of the translator not being able to digest something in English was not lost on Alex. What had he said to the kid?
Carbon, meanwhile, thought it was hilarious. “It is actually two words, a phrase. Oh, busted. In this case I believe it means that he got caught doing something he should not have been doing.” She laughed, looking up at Alex with a grin.
Haraya’s relief at how this turned out was immediately visible. She was still tense, but didn’t look like she might have just caught an execution. “Adana likes to play with the door controls. They beep and flash, and he can activate the viewscreen... And open the door. That is what he was doing when he found the prince in the hallway, when he should have been in bed. It is not an offensive term?”
“Et.” Alex shook his head no. Score another point for knowing the basics.
“It is as he says. A harmless statement.” Carbon picked up the slack from Alex trying not to advertise that he spoke their language yet. She looked over to him again. “Perhaps used to tease a friend when they get caught out?”
He nodded as sagely as he could, a smirk barely suppressed as he caught that shade she was directing at him.
“His mother will be so glad. She has been concerned it was some kind of swearing, or something worse. I told her that the prince had been kind in my interaction with him, but she was-” Haraya exhaled sharply, wide brown eyes darting between them with a hint of that fear creeping back in. “She was afraid despite that.”
“Ah. If that does not settle her, please get in contact with me.” She pulled her communicator out, swiping along the screen for a moment and holding it out to the young woman. “We can arrange a meeting to clear anything up.”
She looked down at a swirling orange circle on Carbon’s phone, “I am not allowed to carry my- May I get it?”
“Of course.” Carbon smiled.
Alex lowered his voice as Haraya hustled away. “You sure giving her your number is a good idea?”
“No. But she is earnest and correct in her assessment of you.” She shook her head, her words quiet and sharp. “That boy learned a simple phrase, and his mother thinks it is a curse? I know why she did. I have met my own people. I think a gentle nudge may be in order to prevent it from being passed along.”
“When you say gentle nudge...”
She held a hand out to ease his concern. “I was thinking tea.”
Haraya returned, phone in hand and followed by an older, grumpy looking male dressed in the same natural fiber clothes save for a vibrant red scarf around his neck, voice raised as he tried to keep up with the excited teen. “You may not use your-”
“Akai.” Alex gave what he assumed was a manager a needlessly cheery greeting with a little wave of his fingers. Oh man, he had loved being a shit to managers when he was younger, particularly if they were on a power trip. The opportunity hadn’t presented itself recently, and the urge to abuse the power that he allegedly had now was so tempting.
“Floor boss!” Carbon was a step ahead of him, greeting the gray male in their own language loud enough to draw his attention away from their waitress. “What is it that I may not use?”
Alex’s translator sat unused for several seconds as the sounds that guy made never made it past shocked guttural noises, the realization of who he’d been yelling in the general direction of sinking in. Haraya was too busy getting Carbon’s contact information to notice, or might have just been ignoring this exchange as hard as the bartender was.
“It was- My words- Did not for you.” He held up his hands and backed away.
“Ah, a simple misunderstanding?” Carbon offered him as the phone dinged complete, and she slipped it back into her jacket.
“Yes, of course.” Couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Haraya bowed again as she hid her communicator, the same black rectangle that Carbon and Alex appeared to have. “Thank you. I hope I will not have to contact you, but that you have offered...”
“The prince has shown me who he is, what is in his heart... It will not do to have anyone doubting his character.” Carbon smiled and returned the bow.
Alex followed suit.
The fear in her eyes was gone, and if anything there was a little bit of admiration in there now as she thanked them again, quietly, before running off to whatever her next duty was.
They left the same way they had come in, through the main dining area. The crowd had shifted, some groups gone, new ones in their place. Conversations to fill boredom, meals he didn’t recognize being consumed at every pace conceivable. Once again, he was pretty sure this was his kind of joint.
It only took the gentlest of questions to get Carbon talking about what she’d been doing all morning as they walked back to the tram, riding all the way to the stop closest to the bow this time. Alex was only slightly familiar about what she was talking about - had something to do with preventative maintenance checks on one of the shuttles. It was interesting to find out they had developed a very similar system to what he was used to, checking in on functionality after so many hours of use.
He didn’t understand the majority of what she was describing, but he enjoyed listening to her talk about things with such enthusiasm.
Lyshen’s office was easily the furthest forward he had been on the ship yet. Took the elevator up to deck 20 and then just walked towards the bow for another five minutes. He must have been as close as one could get to the plate armor and whatever buffer they put between it and the habitable areas. It seemed almost entirely unused - he was sure some of the bulkheads had dust on them.
For Alex, there were two potential reasons for this. Aetena Lyshen preferred the solitude of the area. It was actually very quiet, even compared to the hall in front of their cabin. Or, he had pissed someone off and gotten banished to a spot as far away as possible.
Whichever option, Lyshen had put some work into his workspace. The door was ringed in a delicate gold filigree, a lacework of glittering geometric shapes with his name and title contained in a small banner above the door. They were meeting with a Royal Artisan.
Carbon tapped the door controls and it slides open almost instantly. The young woman with light red fur inside is dressed nearly as formally as they had been last night, though in muted grays. She bows. Not too deep. “Welcome, the Chief Artisan is preparing for your arrival. It should be just a few minutes.”
Chief Artisan. Well. Alex shot Carbon a sidelong glance as the receptionist turned and they followed her through a waiting room. A simple rectangular area, with a few upholstered chairs and benches scattered around. It was the most Human looking area he’d been in so far.
The far wall caught his eye as they walked through, windows looking into a workshop. Alex walked over, the large floor beyond housing a dozen or so Tsla’o, all seated at desks or workbenches, engrossed in whatever they were working on. Almost to the last, they were using hand tools.
Alex had never really seen craftsmen up close, doing their thing. In movies, or videos, sure. But not right here a few steps away, carefully engraving some sort of... Breastplate? Cuirass? Big chunk of metal that looked like it went over the chest.
“I believe that is yours.” Carbon stepped up next to him, a smirk in her voice as she leaned against his shoulder. “To go with your gauntlets, and the rest of the armor that is no doubt being fabricated.”
“What makes you say that?” How could she pick that up from looking at it for, what, three or four seconds?
“Consider the size.” She nodded at it, the artist working on it laying out a star near the shoulder. “Who else would wear such a piece?”
“Huh.” Compared to the guy who was doing the work, it wasn’t exactly massive, but he would need a lot of padding to wear that. This raised a few questions for him about the ethics of receiving such gifts. But he wasn’t a politician... Not as far as the Confederation was concerned. “I guess it is.”
They stood in silence and watched work progress. A woman in the back was carving something, perhaps a chair leg. One guy in the corner making hinges with an induction forge and a tiny, specialized anvil.
Before long, the secretary approached them again. “The Chief Artisan is prepared for you now. Please.” She gestured to the only door that went somewhere other than the corridor.
The Chief Artisan was sitting behind his desk, wearing an outfit similar to his receptionist, pale green eyes switching back and forth between two screens. The primary one was built into the desk, and had been jury rigged to a Human made laptop that sat on top of it, a rat’s nest of cables connecting the two. There was a holoprojector built into the desk, a jumble of images floating over it. He waved them in and gestured to the chairs across from him, “Please, sit.”
Alex was quick to oblige, glad to be just some guy for the moment. Carbon didn’t seem to mind either, taking the seat beside him without a word. Aetena was the first green Tsla’o Alex had seen, sort of a dark forest green with jade stripes visible on his neck. Apparently a bit of a rarity given how often he saw the other colors on the ship.
“I am sorry to keep you waiting, the connection to your Solanet has gone down. Despite that, I believe I have enough saved locally to begin the process.” Lyshen trailed off, lost between the two displays before closing a dozen images from the holo. He picked a pen up from the table and arranged the remaining pictures neatly, four different coats of arms that claimed to belong to a Sorenson. The red enamel barrel blurred into an arc as he spun the pen in his fingers, voice picking up speed as he locked on to Alex. “There is a large amount of heraldry available for your surname, do you know which coat of arms belongs to your particular family?”
There was a deer, a deer head, a rearing horse and a weird shaped star. Maybe it was a flower, or a drip of paint. They were all surrounded by leaves and the occasional knight’s helmet. Alex wasn’t sure what any of it meant and up until now, he’d never even thought about it. Knights and damsels in distress had never really been his thing. “Uh, can’t say that I do, no.”
“Mmh. What geographic region does your lineage trace back to? I could find no significant references to the Berkley Soresons on your Solanet.” He leaned back and the pen continued to trace crimson circles in his hand.
“The name comes from Europe, but the last couple of generations have lived in California, and America before that for who knows how long... We’re from a little bit of everywhere.” It was an inside joke with the family, which had ties back into nearly every corner of the globe at this point. Now they had a relative from somewhere way off the globe as well.
That puzzled Aetena, ears flicking as he turned back to the Human screen and picked over the keyboard slowly. He didn’t like what he found. “All of these originate from the continent of Europe. Do you happen to know which country?”
“No, I’m not sure. Had an uncle do the family tree thing once, but between the civil wars and The Collapse, the lineage got spotty about a hundred years ago.” Alex wasn’t really into the whole ancestry thing once you got outside of living relatives. It was novel, sure, but right now all he really wanted to do was ask if he could borrow that Solanet access when it came back up. The rest of the ship had access to the Confed’s milnet, which tightly restricted what he could be sending across it - he just wanted to download a couple of movies and some music, but milnet barely overlapped with the wider public network.
Lyshen set his hand down and the pen switched back and forth like a metronome, clicking on his desk at the end of each arc. He closed his eyes for a moment, jaw working silently before he closed the images and started pulling up new ones. “Perhaps we should move on to other aspects of this endeavor. As I have been told that you wish to integrate Tsla’o and Human cultures in your marriage, I had intended to blend the existing Tshalan sigil with some of the Sorenson family heraldry. I thought it would be best to use the gear-star surround from the Princess’ family crest as a base to build from. Something that is immediately familiar to Tsla’o, to put the viewer at ease. As it is indicative of starship commands, exploration and the outer colonies, it will solidly represent both of you and the way you met.”
Alex raised an eyebrow at Carbon, “sound reasonable?” He had no idea if it was or not, but it did sound like it. Also, if they were serious about integrating parts of Tsla’o and Human cultures, they needed to actually get on that.
“Yes. I agree, that would be a good place to start.”
“Thank you.” He busied himself bringing up a few more pictures, rough combinations of the ten point gear-star and the various items from the Sorenson crests, bits of decoration and detail work.
The door chimed behind them and Lyshen stopped with a sharp glare. He eyed the clock and sighed, a whispered curse under his breath before he set his pen down and straightened up. “Come.”
There was a soldier partially concealed behind the door, the rank plate on his uniform loaded with details, not that Alex could read them yet. He swept the room with a rifle as he entered, the short barrel ending up pointed just a hair under Alex’s sternum. A pair of soldiers took up positions on either side of the door and covered him, a few more lined up in the waiting room.
When he spoke, it was crisp and authoritative. “Please back away from the Human.”
 
First Prev
*****
Never a dull moment on that ship.
Art pile: Carbon reference sheet. Art by Tyo_Dem

Hi! Recently I dualbooted openSUSE TW with Windows 10 LTSC 21H2 (Linux in my machine has so much better performance and battery life, mostly why I got openSUSE on my machine), I kept Windows because others in my family use my laptop sometimes and are entirely unfamiliar with the existence of Linux, plus because some games. I'm loving openSUSE so much more than Windows but these reasons are kinda keeping me away from entirely maining Linux. (if DE is important, it's KDE.)
Windows has been working fine before i installed openSUSE, but when I dualbooted openSUSE its become...so much slower, Programs afterwards have been crashing and freezing so much and I usually get random error pop ups, Every program, I could only play Limbus for like 15 minutes before it crashed along with Explorer (and battery life has gotten so much more worser), The date and time is misconfigured and is not synchronizing with my time server (I have the correct time zone set) automatically (it's usually 3 hours behind)
ArmCord has even been freezing AND unclosable, not even prompted to close it, Just frozen. I have to use Task Manager to terminate it, openSUSE has been perfectly working fine for me (aside from needing to press Caps Lock twice due to it not recognizing the first press for some reason, resulting in double unintentional capitals).
These issues have never occurred to me before, They instantly came in after I installed openSUSE.
I dualbooted Linux Mint and 11 before and 11 worked perfectly fine along with Mint. What could be the issue here?

Old Dell work laptop with McAfee Drive Encryption with pre-boot password and locked BIOS. I was trying to wipe the drive and install new OS but even require password to boot the USB. Any help will be appreciated .
Screenshot

A few days ago, I received a file from a journalist friend who teaches at a private university in Montevideo. I known this person for years now and the exchange with her on our countless bar nights basically made me want to try to study journalism. After I started my career we became even closer and we shared concerns about the evolution of information, social media and the infamous cerebral callosity we acquired to endure the tragedy.
My friend, let's call her Valeria, was part of a public competition to accompany a minor scientific expedition to the Uruguayan Antarctic base. Her thesis was about investigating how information reception behaves in remote and isolated areas.
I barely read it , but basically tries to show that information circulates and is received in a particular way in these circumstances by a group of unfamiliar people living under extreme climatic and isolation conditions, having as an example, life in submarines and in military bases in Siberia. The Antarctic base gave her the chance to observe some of her postulates up close.
Finally, she was chosen and traveled with this scientific group in a commercial flight Montevideo - Santiago de Chile to later arrive at Punta Arenas and fly to the Antarctic base.
The last communication I had with her before she sent me the almost 90 photographic captures of the Journal, was on March 15, 2024.
We talked over the phone about how the weather was in Montevideo, that it does not stop raining and the cars are practically floating on the streets. She told me that the transport that was going to take them back was having mechanical problems and they would probably have to order spare parts for the plane from Punta Arenas. Then She told me that it is freaking cold down there and his colleagues are all very boring. Nobody has whisky for the evenings. We laughed about that part because I told her to bring at least one bottle of Grappa in her purse.
Before saying goodbye, she told me they had spotted some old metal structures south of the base. The soldiers told her that it was safe to go near that part so she was going to explore them. It wasn't there when they first arrived and that the recent and atypical heat wave probably must have exposed it. I told her to be careful and we said goodbyes.
Three days later I received an email. “Valeria shared a file with you.” As I start to see what it was about she calls me.
“Mauro? MAURO!, can you hear me?” She said in a nervous and excited voice.
“I can barely hear you, what happened?”I asked half asleep, while still lying on my bed.
“Listen to me carefully, don't talk, just listen” I could tell by her agitation that she was walking fast or maybe running. The creaking footsteps in the snow could be heard in the background. in the distance, a catastrophe-type siren was blaring.
“Are you alright? What happened? What's that noise?” I said, now sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I sent you a file. Transfer it to a flash drive, delete history and reset your cell phone, the computer and your email address. I'll explain everything later, it'll be worth it.”
“What? What are you talking about Vale?, what for? Tell me what's going on - I started to yell at her, in slide panic.
“Listen, I found something that is not supposed to exist. In the diary he explains everything. I'm going back to the base, I think someone is following me, I set off an alarm or something. Save that file for me until I get there and remember that... “
There were two loud booms and the sound of water invading the transmission. A choked bubbling and cracking sound reminded me of ice collapsing. My friend had fallen into the water, in Antarctica.
“HEY, are you OK?! What happened?!” - I kept screaming hysterically until the call was cut off.
I looked at my cell phone for a second. My hands were shaking, I tried calling several times but the phone went dead. I looked at the compressed file. I jumped up and ran to the dining room furniture, frantically looking for a white flash drive that had to be in a drawer somewhere. I couldn't find it, so I went back to my desk. I pulled the drawer so hard that it came off the rail and fell to the floor. I started to dig through my belongings on the floor, coins, papers, cards, nothing.
I thought, I struggled to remember where I had fucking put it. Finally I saw my backpack peeking out from behind the desk chair, I jumped on it and in the second small pocket from the inside, there was a cheap white 16G flash drive. I put it in the pc, downloaded the file directly there, took it out and fabric restored the entire system on the computer. I do the same with my cell phone as Valeria said.
At the time I didn't even question if those measures really prevented me from being tracked, and the idea that that was the reason made panic run through my body like lightning. Sitting on the floor of my room next to the mess, my body was numb with tension. After a few seconds, I rebooted my cell phone to try to call Lucia, her sister.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, it's that you? I think something bad happened to Vale, I hear her over the phone as if she fell into the water, and some rumbling. I don't know what I heard, I think she got into some trouble or some place she shouldn't have been - I realized that I was mumble and not saying anything clear. For some reason, I didn't mention the file.
“It can't be Mauro, I just spoke to her on the phone. She was at the airport in Santiago de Chile at the boarding lounge, we talked for about half an hour, she told me she was bringing a fancy bourbon to share and…”
I stopped listening, it didn't make sense, how could it be? what the fuck is going on!
“Mauro, are you ok? Is something wrong? it's too early, are you sure you didn't dream it?”
“Did you talk to her? half an hour ago? But...,” I exclaimed without being able to hide my confusion.
“Are you... sure it was her?”
“Yes, of course you moron, it's my sister! Did you smoke pot again on an empty stomach?”
“No, you're right, nevermind, thanks Lucia, talk to you soon.” I ended the call without letting her say goodbye.
Had I dreamt about it? I erased everything now, how will I know if I dreamt it? I hesitated absurdly.
This is surreal, I thought to myself as I looked at the flash drive in my hand. I refocused my attention and went to the attic looking for my brother's old laptop he left me before going to live in Spain. It was practically useless, but it was enough to see the file. I turned it on, waited for the decrepit Windows XP to load, and put the flashdisk in, opened the compressed folder and found two files.
“LabNotes.pdf”
“PersonalDiary.pdf”
I decided to open the journal first. From what I interpreted from the loading order of the screenshots, after reading it, I opened the image of the last page.
I transcribe as is.
Day 243 of the 2nd mission 10: 40 am. March 12, 2019.
I am the head researcher of the Psychological Area at the UN Antarctic base; I'm currently assigned to Project Sisyphus categorized as the highest classified rank.
This is going to sound crazy, but the person living with my family is my clone.
It still surprises me when I say it out loud, but after being able to replicate the brain-muscular history (a perfect copy of our memory) of any person and having mastered replicating every cell of our bodies at any age, it was only a matter of time before the development of social biotechnology would emerge. Now and by worldwide agreement, as a complete secret.
There is absolutely no shame or a shred of ethics in what we do, there is no longer any constraint on what we can do to the subjects for the sake of research. That haunts me every day.
It all went to shit so fast, I doubt anyone will come to our rescue. The protocol says so, the base in the face of an imminent security risk will erase itself. The structure was designed to collapse methodically following a protocol of incineration and sinking. The immediate perimeter has underwater mines that make the ice collapse almost imperceptibly, but deadly to anyone who tries to leave.
No one can escape from the base, neither the research staff nor the subjects. Our place in the world is already taken.
I only hope that this journal along with my lab notes will be found at some point. I managed to construct a small insulating gasket for it so I trust it will survive in case this part of the building collapses as well.
Please use this data to let the world know what happened here and don't let perversity define us once again.
To my family: I love you and miss you every minute.
B.
At the exact moment I ended the reading I received a video call that made me jump with fright, it is...
Valeria.
With my pulse shaking, I answered the call.
“Hi you! The flight was delayed, can you believe it? This one is absolutely in my top three, worst trips of my life. I'm really hungry and everything is so expensive here. What are you up to? Tell me something, please, I'm soooo bored!”
I looked at her with confusion and I couldn't manage to pronounce words. When I was about to modulate an answer she interrupted me.
“What's the matter Mauro?, are you on pause? Is the signal OK? HELLO! Can you hear me? Can you see me?” She started to walk through the boarding lounge looking for better signal
“Yes yes, Valeria I can hear you.”
She laughed and looked at me with a face between sensual and serious, and continued.
“Do you miss me?” while raising the phone jokingly as she typically does in her selfie pose.
“Valeria, don't you remember calling me earlier today?”
“I? called you? Nop. Why? Ah! By the way, did you know there are penguins in Tierra del Fuego? I would have liked to go and see them.” She continued his verbose conversation in a carefree tone, with her typical hand gestures and playing with his hair.
“Well, at last!” She interrupted herself and shouted, jumping up from her chair.
“We are being called to board, see you in a couple hours!” She said goodbye with a smiling sonority, and began to walk towards the boarding gate.
But at the last second, before ending the call, her gesture changed. She looked directly at the camera with a hardened and emotionless face and almost mechanically, she whispered.
“(I'm going to retrieve that diary).”
My stomach dropped to the floor and I could feel as if my blood was running cold with fear. I could not shake the awful and eerie feeling that this person, who was returning, whom I had never in my life called by her full name, was not my friend.
So, the next couple of hours I put everything in to transcribe the rest of important passages of the diary. Something was compelling me to do it, i can't explain it, Some mix between moral duty, and morbid curiosity. Here is my selection of it.
Lab notes. day 96 of 1st mission 08:00 am December 22, 2016.
Subject JON X012:
First physical assessments: Normal, alert and inquisitive, exhibits some alteration to screens.
We place 100 cc of sedative in room air. The subject attentively follows the narrative of scenario B5 “The last mission”.
The subject responds positively to the premises of the story, where he is asked to address an audience threatened by a natural disaster, convincing them to choose a certain path out of the city.
He offers to collaborate but fails to articulate the message with the power to overcome the simulation.
We resort to pouring 125cc of concentrated Psilocybin into the air as stipulated in the protocol sheet.
The vocal frequency and body language reading receptors in the observation room are activated. The subject manages to formulate a series of premises articulately and with discursive power, circulating around the observation room.
Successful reaction.
We move on to the next stage.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project.”
Diary entry: Day 96 of the 1st mission 21:30 pm. December 22, 2016.
Today they transferred subject JON X0012 for psychological evaluation, several in the lab were very anxious about this arrival. I was never the religious type, but I can understand why. Truth be told,
I always imagined Jesus would be taller.
*********
Day 106 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 02, 2017
Today we received a new lab assistant for the night shift. Much needed as I was covering these shifts myself and am really burned out. The underground operates at full power at those hours, the hum of the machinery becomes unbearable. This must be why the rooms have an insulating structure.
********
Day 112 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm January 08, 2017.
The new integration is not very bright. He labeled the transcripts wrong again yesterday and doesn't seem to fully understand the importance of these. I'm going to have to go through the whole method with him again. I don't have much patience lately, it's not his fault, he seems like a nice guy and it's real that I need a second of confidence. Better train him from now on. Maybe start a sketch of a short explanatory document.
*******
Small introductory guide.
When the subjects conclude the incubation and breeding process (pages 19 to 52 of the manual), that is to say, that they have at least remembered speech and with it, depending on the time in which they lived, reading and writing, they generally begin to perceive themselves. Just before situational curiosity is when the psychology department comes into action. Either to run the “stand by” simulation or the main tests.
In each subject's file is the target of their cloning, the era in which they lived, and the recommended scenarios to trigger the desired response. If the file has X amount on the cover, this corresponds to the generation of the subject, whether it is the first or 10th time it is incubated.
Generally, it takes between 2 and 5 attempts to generate the correct simulation, and administer the appropriate drugs.
It took 5 attempts to come up with the correct amount of methamphetamine that subject AH X005 (Hitler) needed to function in the scenario, as the correct amount bordered on overdose.
Simulations are much easier since the implementation of multisensor AI. We managed to generate almost any scenario including temperature, smells, lights and sounds. We tried not to use familiar ones, as human smells are impossible to replicate. We found this out in a complicated way. We tried to recreate a conversation between RR subject X003 (Reagan) and his mother, but he recognized the fakery by the absence of body odor. His mind collapsed and we had to move him to the Underground. The people in Area C (Private Clients) almost lost a very large Chinese account.
After calibrating the subject, we ran both psychological and behavioral tests, scanned retinas, analyzed blood, as well as vocal and body language. But what has really yielded surprising results are the free interviews. It is amazing what some minds are capable of with the right environmental and chemical stimulation. That's why transcription is vital (!!)
Our area develops BC (Behavioral Algorithms) which are then bought by the private sector, and some government agencies.
To give you some examples: Twitter was an idea of subject JO X008 (Orwell).
Bots in social media and the use of big data was an idea of JG X002 (Goebbels) and KM X014`s worst nightmare (Marx) was bought by Amazon.
It is an arduous process and the success rate is low, but when we achieve the goal per subject, well, these results are a mein part of the latest revolutions of mankind.
So follow the lab rules, never refer to subjects by their actual historical name, and always remember, they are assets, not people.
***********
Day 117 of the 1st mission 16:30 am January 12, 2017.
Today is a rest day all over area D. I miss many things from the old world that I thought I would never miss, taking a bus, standing in line with strangers, and today I miss Sundays. We only have one on the month. So as usual we gather in the rest area to listen to a liberated jukebox that tries to lighten the mood. I know, right? Why I wrote about this “Saturday” photocopy, well besides the same nostalgic drunks, I was approached by a person I didn't recognize.
From what I understood he was a rehabilitated alcoholic, maybe that's why I didn't see him on “Saturdays”. He must be in his 50's, he was portly and wore thick black-rimmed glasses, he seemed to have a slight limp, I noticed it when he went to refill my beer.
I am a very reserved person and find it hard to talk to people. Truth be told, I've lost the desire to talk to people here. What can you actualy fucking talk about here, if it's not about the same thing. Everything revolves around work and some inter-area gossip, which never escalates much.
But yesterday was Clara's birthday and to hide the remorse and sadness of only having shared with her the first 3 years of her life, I had a few too many beers.
We chatted about banal aspects of life in isolation, and the things we miss. For him it was going to the stadium to watch soccer with his grandchildren. I think it was loneliness and nostalgia that brought us together that night.
His name was Sigfried, I don't know if I spelled it right, but it was clearly Nordic, i notice because of some of the words he mixed up with English. He works as the underground level security manager. We all know that it is one of the most restricted areas and what we have learned in these almost 10 years in the project, is that the more restricted, the less questions you should ask.
But that day, I think I felt the urge to hurt myself, to go off the rails, so I asked what we all suspected but no one knew for sure. I asked about the blenders. I wish I hadn't.
************
Day 126 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 21, 2017.
I almost can't express how furious I am today, but I'm going to try because if I don't, I'm going to punch the new assistant in the face. He has nothing to do with this, he's just mildly irritating.
Anyway, in Genetic Mapping or area A, they approved the incubation of another Anomaly. It seems to be an express request from a major shareholder and there is not much to say. Anomalies are very risky to reproduce, nature is wise, and for some reason it placed them in history moments where they had their limitations.
It seems that after the crisis of 2010 with “The Russian Devil” it is no longer scary enough. New school morons... If they had been there they wouldn't even dare to think about it. I AM FURIOUS.
The arguments are that this case lived longer, that the clone would be in his 70s, and that he possessed noticeably more “civilized” traits. As if the court of the last Zar had not been somewhat civilized.
Personally I think this is a big mistake. Since the discovery that some people possess unknown DNA components and with the 2010 background, they should draw the line. There are certain things, still beyond our ability to understand. But it is delusional of me to think that there are limits, someday the absence of them will consume us all.
************
Lab notes day 142 of 1st mission 08:00 am February 06, 2017.
Final free interview with JON subject X012
Scenario B-24 or “The Dinner Party” Result: Normal.
Notes: Subject is grateful, positive, docile and hopeful for the future. Offers to cook next time by asking for spices and ingredients of typical Hindu dishes.
The subject is directed to the Underground area.
Attached audio for transcription.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project”.
**********
Day 142 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 06, 2017.
Today was the last session with subject JON X012, I managed to extract the last retinal and body language readings, as usual before sending them to Underground level. We ran the dinner scenario, the truth is that is one of the best simulations we have achieved. The subjects are relaxed resulting in the best free interview environment. This one was no exception, I must say I understand the charm of the “messiah” turned out to be quite an entertaining subject. I hope his next generation will be similar.
**********
Day 152 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm February 16, 2017.
I was tasked with the continuous monitoring of subject NT X004. I am not at all happy with this transfer. First of all, I know nothing about area B of engineering and technology. Secondly, I still think this is a really bad idea.
One of the laboratories has been set up with the essential simulation equipment and personnel. Tomorrow we start with the calibration.
**********
Lab notes day 153 of the 1st mission 08:00 am February 17, 2017.
First interview with subject NT X004, we run simulation scenario 54-A, “Signal from another planet.”
Subject is observed to be receptive at first but quickly changes to paranoid. We administer 300cc of MDMA via air, according to protocol.
We introduce the reconstructed figure of a colleague in a cry for help speech.
The Subject laughs and doesn't believe a word, we move to a physical approach plane,
I volunteer myself with a room operator from the engineering area, we show him unfinished plans of an experimental vacuum propulsion engine.
He laughs again and tells us that we are not who we say we are.
We administer 50cc of DMT and move on to the next scenario.
From the screen an astronaut with non-human features sends a distress signal and intergalactic coordinates.
The subject looks thoughtful, reassesses, picks up the blueprints and begins to shout out values and what appears to be mathematical and physical formulas.
Air is charged with percentages of absolute sedation.
Audio recording is attached.
It is filed under the name “Project SpaceX.”
**********
Day 153 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 17, 2017.
I'm not sure what happened today, this is the first time in 10 years that a subject overcame the deception of 3 simulations. We had to place absolute sedation in the air, as risky as we know it is. I recommended that we restart the process from scratch, but it was a resounding no, the client is in a hurry.
I need to get more involved in this case to recalibrate the subject. I don't know if I want to. The words before full sedation still resonate with me. “are you still using DC current? interesting...”
**********
Day 154 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 18, 2017.
Something happened, I don't quite know what. The rooms have an emergency lockdown active. Outside hear security personnel mobilizing. I tried the intercom but it didn't work. The insulation prevents my screams from being heard from the outside. If this goes on another day I'm going to break the lock. I'm going to set my backpack to the bare minimum.
**********
Day 157 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 21, 2017.
Yesterday I heard explosions in the B area. I couldn't take it anymore and broke the lock. Whatever it was I had to go out and see. The corridors were dark, and the underground buzzer went on, at least that worked.
I went right to the north staircase, down the 4 floors in near darkness, the power was failing. The entrance to the underground area was barricaded but I managed to see a figure peeking out from inside as they felt me making noises.
It was Sigfried, he pointed me in the doors direction and I entered through a heavily armored side door. I was surprised by the immensity of this section, it encompassed a large hall below almost all the sectors of the base. In front of us there were 4 large industrial pipes with switches and multiple smaller pipes coming out of their bases. These were repeated like mosaics throughout the area until they disappeared into the distance in the darkness.
Leaning against one of them were 3 officers in formerly white coats and a nearly dead guard bloodied on the floor. Poor guy, his legs were crushed with his flesh in the open. He was lying in a pool of his own blood.
He had a blank stare and was panting, it seemed from the pale of his skin, that his fate was imminent. My asthma began to pound in my chest sharply, so I reached into my bag looking for my inhaler. I told them between visible gasps of bad breath to please tell me what's happened.
One of the doctors had a badge from area B and another from area E which corresponds to bio-armamentistics. The latter burst into tears and said “We deserve it, every one of us, we deserve it”.
I knew the other guy, he is an engineer in area B. I could hear him babbling almost nonsensically about, as why they never thought about it, an issue with electrical power.
He looked at me carefully as if recognizing me and grabbed me tightly by my jacket pulling me close to his face transformed for the panic.
“He let them out, all of them!” but not only that, no no no no... he told them the truth. Nikola fucking Tesla hacked us and told them the truth.”
He began to laugh frantically with a face of absurdity until he burst into a choked cry. At that moment everything went dark. The emergency lights activated, and from far away and getting closer, along with the emergency sirens that began to sound, we heard a large mass of people screaming and running through the corridors outside.
Sigfried looked at me as they started to pound on the shielded door and said.
“We're fucked.”
**************
Day xx of the second mission, month xx of 2017
“()The industrial sounds of spinning blades, the cries for mercy followed by the thunderous, liquid crack, down that big pipe, into the green barrels, with the Monsanto logo, dripped down one side an elongated drop of pink paste ending in the letter E on the chemical label. FERTILIZER.”
**********
After finishing the transcription, my whole body began to want to flee, the walls of my house were tinged with a faint blue light as the cloudy dusk came through the window, the lights turned off by my abstraction at the computer gave way to the dark corridors that began to feel alien. As I gently closed the pc my ears began to ring as if under pressure, my breathing became more present and the vibration of my cell phone interrupted my trance.
A call from the office. It was to tell me that I had a vacation week pending, that by schedule, I had to take it starting today.
Sons of bitches, now they even choose your time off - I thought at first, but at the same time I found the voice on the phone very strange, and to tell the truth, the procedure itself.
The anger turned into confusion that only added to the paranoia. The sounds in the street began to seem erratic, a chaotic and strangely familiar feeling came over me. My senses seemed increasingly acute, and they screamed:
Go away.
I grabbed the old laptop, the flash drive and headed for the bus station. The short trip from my house seemed like a long journey. People on the street looked at me with strange faces, the cell phone kept ringing with unknown numbers on the screen and a strange idea began to formulate in my head that whispered “Them, Valeria is one of Them”.
Already on the platforms I rummaged through my backpack where I confirmed that I had the key to the family beach house in San Luis, 60 km to the east of Montevideo. I turned off my cell phone, got on a bus heading to another and much far away town called Treinta y Tres. Sat near the last seat and slipped my cell phone in my front pocket of the seat in front of me, got off and commented to the driver with a clueless face, “I got confused, I'm going to the coast”.
I almost jumped onto the steps of the correct bus to where I was heading, unable to avoid the gazes of the passengers questioning me for the last minute drop in. I sat in my numbered seat and defragmented in dissociation, trying to understand what I was doing, I was running away, but from what?
The images of the last transcriptions were engraved in my mind, the last paragraph was repeated over and over again making me shake my head from time to time trying to get them away from my thoughts. The road was dark and I lost track of time, the digital clock within sight of the passengers jingling since we left, reading 10:40.
“San Luis Station!” - I heard the guard's shout in low volume.
I staggered to my feet, hurried to get off and with the same impulse I entered the dirt roads.
I zig-zagged through the dark, cold and silent beach town. The moonless night and the smell of the sea calmed me.
When I turned the corner to the gabled beach house of my family, on the steps of the front door lit by a white light, was her. Sitting, waiting for me. I stopped dead in my tracks and a chilling vertigo ran down my torso to my throat. We looked at each other for a short two seconds, until she stopped and started walking in sliding steps towards me, smiling and playing with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her arms. The growing sound of the wind through the trees covered us.
“Darling, how are you? How nice is the summer house, I don't think we ever came here, did we? Is it the one your grandmother left you?”
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream, how could such a familiar attitude from such a familiar person transmit such panic to me? I had to answer something.
“Yes, this is it. I came to clear my head for a while, they gave me a few days at work and I wanted to take advantage of it.” I tried to excuse myself with failed dissimulation, since I stuttered in the middle of the words.
“Yes, I know! We arranged it with them, so you can be more relaxed and as a gesture for taking care of the file. Ah! and another thing. I think someone stole your cell phone at the bus station.” She looked at me with a smart-ass smile.
“Anyway, don't worry, they already found it on a bus on the way to “Treinta y tres”. You can get it back later.”
At this point I opened my mouth to ask for explanations, but as terrified as I was I only mumbled a “thank you”.
All this dialogue let us half a body length away, Valeria looked at me now a little more serious and stood at my side. She took my arm petrified and I could feel how a strong smell of neutral soap invaded me, as if she had rubbed herself in it too much.
“Shall we go inside? it's getting cold,” She said, finishing the sentence with a sweet gesture of pleading.
“Emm, shure.” I said.
My trembling hands managed to hit the lock on the 3rd attempt, we entered, turned on the lights and from his backpack she took out a red wine. Our favorite.
“Bring me some glasses, Mauro”. - She said to me as she sat down on the armchair against the window overlooking the gentle hills outside.
She poured wine until he almost filled the ex-cottage cheese glass, looked at me and in a toast gesture said.
“To... Dr. B?”
I slid a little smile and raised my eyebrows. Then I took half a glass in one sip.
“Well!” - She exclaimed, leaning over and resting the glass on the coffee table, and continued.
"You must be very confused, I understand, I saw it many times, the mind trying to adapt to a new, unsuspected reality and in your case all at once. It is not easy. First, make sure that no one is going to hurt you or anyone you know, second, what you read in that file, as you may have noticed, is not intended for public knowledge. Also to tell you”. I couldn't take the stress anymore, I exploded.
“You're not Vale. Who are you?! You're almost identical, but....”
“Ah yes, that one it's a tricky one to explain. Let's try, let's see:
“I'm a version of Valeria that she accidentally gendered when entered the lab. In one of the incubation rooms she touched a scan button that photographs her mind for 48 hours. It contains a micro needle that took her blood and thus generated me.”
“The thing is that we were in a situation of self-destruction of the systems, and that part of the programming code of the protocol was also copied in Valeria's mind.”
“And Valeria? She 's... dead?”
“Well, yes and no. If she tried to leave the base she's probably dead. if she's still there, she's probably frozen to death or killed by the cleanup command, but basically, if I'm here, she's not anymore.”
the coldness with which she answered me made me lose the little calm I had, I got up from the armchair and started to back away with my hands on my head, I couldn't stop repeating,
“this can't be happening, this can't be happening”.
“Hey! Mauro, calm down, it's going to be alright. I'm Valeria too. In every way, I'm still your friend, I know who you are and everything we went through, really, it's me, and when I finish managing the leak, the code, it won't work anymore, it will be erased from my mind and I'll be me. So don't worry. You only have to give me the flash disc and this issue ends here. We go back to normal life and nobody will know about anything.
“I'm not going to pretend that my friend didn't die! Alone, fucking freezing to death, I'm not going to let you take her place, I'm not going to let you!” - She interrupted me.
“Mauro, listen to me” - She came closer to me and grabbed my hands, her big, lined eyes looking at me with sweetness, like so many times before.
“I AM Valeria, I have the same fingerprints, the same blood, the same DNA, the same memories, the same scars, absolutely everything. Are you going to tell my mother that I died? to my sister? Are you going to report me? Nobody is going to believe you at all. If anyone even wants to believe you, how would you prove it? I am an exact copy”. - she told me, smiling with real sweetness and empathy.
I could only cry, for my friend, for the helplessness of the conclusion that she was right. I collapsed on the couch, and watched as the hills swayed in the night.
“Let's have the last glass and I'm leaving.”- she said to me.
“After I give you this, and that part of you disappears, will you remember that you are not... really Valeria?
“No, there is already a simulation on pause about Valeria's last week, she won't remember anything about this situation when she wakes up, because the memory is simply overwritten.”
“So I'm going to be the only one to know about this?”
“Take it as a gift Mauro, a glimpse behind the veil. And if you keep it that way, everything will be fine” - The threatening tone was soft but evident.
“Okay, hand me your PC and the flash drive.”
I looked at her evaluating all possible actions and if this decision was the right one, she stretched out her hand and smiled sympathetically. I gave her the old computer and the black 16G flash drive with the file. She inserted it, typed mechanically fast until the screen went black.
“Perfect, That would be all - She took out the flash drive, threw it on the floor and stepped on it violently with the heel of her shoe, put on his backpack and headed for the door.
“Stop,” I said.
“The things that Dr. B wrote... about the underground…
“Yes, they are true, it was the only way to be self-sustainable and to be able to isolate the complex from the rest of the world. Even the most morally flexible scientists would question the work if they knew where the subjects ended up, and what we were doing with their bodies... Anyway, I'm going home, Lucia called me 5 times already. Talk to you tomorrow.
“Love you,.” - She smiled at me and closed the door behind her. I felt a car slowly drive away from the house.
From my pocket I took out the white flash drive and looked at it. Now I had a decision to make.

Is it possible to connect a second keyboard to windows 11 and have windows detect on the hotkeys from the second wireless keyboard. For example if I have the Caps-lock on the wireless keyboard at all times and the ahk needs the capslock on then I press the buttons from the wireless keyboard would something like this work. Or is there a software that I can get for free or tinker with the settings on the laptop to detect 2 different keyboards the built in keyboard and the secondary keyboard. I want to be able to use the second wireless one for hotkeys only.

I've been working on this issue for over a week and am about at my wits' end.
I purchased an "Amazon renewed" S22 a year ago. It was listed as "factory unlocked." I was able to add an e-sim from Google Fi and have used it with no issues. However, I recently noticed that the device has not received any OneUI or security patch updates. I compared with a family member who also has an S22, bought new from Google Fi, and realized we had different model numbers. Mine is SM-S901U and theirs is SM-S901U1.
Searching around it seems the model ending in U1 is unlocked, while just "U" is carrier-locked. I'm confused how it would be carrier locked without any carrier's splash screen showing up when I boot it. There aren't any apps/bloatware specific to carrier. Neither Samsung, nor Google Fi customer support could tell me how to get updates--they just told me updates roll out through the carrier, and that maybe I should check with "the original carrier." But I have no idea who the original carrier of the phone could be.
I tried downloading a firmware update from Sam Mobile and couldn't get it to download. So I tried SamFW (this one specifically) and loaded up the files into Odin, tried to follow instructions to flash it to the phone, and got a generic "fail" error on Odin.
Any suggestions?
In case this is helpful information:

• OneUI version: 5.0
• Android version: 13
• "Google play system update": April 1, 2024
• Android security patch level: January 1, 2023
• Service provider software version: SAOMC _SM-S901U_OYN XAA-13_0006 XAA/XAA,XAA/XAU/TMB

EDIT TO UPDATE WITH SOLUTION:
For future people searching with this issue, here's what worked:

• I downloaded the current update with Frija, although I think it would have worked with the SamFW file as well. I entered the model number SM-S901U1, not my own phone's model number, and XAA as the CSC code.
• I downloaded the "patched" Odin version 3.13.1_3B from here.
• I loaded the files from Frija into Odin. I used the Home_CSC file and it did not wipe my phone.
• At first when I tried to run this, it kept saying "Complete(Write) operation failed," but I switched to a different USB port (the one my laptop power supply plugs into) and it worked right away! Took 2.5 minutes to flash the file, my phone restarted and immediately installed the newest OneUI version.
• Remains unclear whether I will get automatic updates (OTA) in the future.

After Grub alt+f4'd my entire laptop and took everything with it I figured ehhh, I'll try Nix. I'll probably not like it. Oh i was entirely wrong on that. This is a distro, no wait, calling it a distro is wrong, an OS I didn't know I was even missing...until I installed it and gave it a chance. It's blown me away with a lot of things running on an underpowered machine, using Mate as a desktop helps but even with Gnome or Plasma it is smooth and responsive and fun to use.
​
I mean, how come it is so great? Aside from my one (minor in the grand scheme of things) problem I'm putting off sorting after reading up on how to do it, NixOS is awesome.
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I don't have to go futz about with an AUR helper or hope a package is in a repo or build from source. It has 99% of the stuff I need and want and use daily in the repos, and unstable is right there. No messing with the AUR or having to remember how to build things. Immutable means I can't break it by late night rm *.conf in the wrong directory, and then some, and I can swap out components as I please and then have it working with one command and in the case of switching DE a reboot and a cup of tea, and then get right back to things, and if I don't like a DE I can just swap it out for one I do like, or mix and match. I can test out software before installing, and then delete it afterwards, which is a huge win
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And let's not even get on how quick the system is. My laptop is semi-affectionately called the potato for good reason. It's one of those crappy two in one Dell turns into a tablet thing, and yet with NixOS it absolutely flies, things that took a few moments to open on Arch or longer on Ubuntu and Mint, open instantly and I can get to work on things right away and I'm excited to see what my much much faster desktop can do with NixOS really and how much faster it'll be compared to Arch or Mint.
The only downside is people going oh I wouldn't touch Nix it's too complicated, while they are saying oh use archinstall over on Arch and don't install manually. To me, I will take the ability to put my config somewhere and wget it, put it in the right place and sudo nixos-rebuild switch&&sudo nix-collect-garbage -d and have my system back to how it was over having to sit there and have to remember a whole list of Arch packages or Ubuntu commands to get a system to the same state. One file (No I'm not messing with flakes or home-manager yet) is a massive win for NixOS thanks. If my USB drive didn't have a habit of wiping files, I'd just put the config on there and have it ready to go, but I'm not sure how Ventoy would like that. Knowing my luck it'd give me the option to boot off of it.
​
I mean is NixOS perfect? Nope, but, the good of it outweighs the bad of the distro, FHS compliance, there are ways to deal with that. Not got a package? Request it, the only negatives I've found are FF crashing instantly on the live Gnome ISO and the documentation (though to be fair my gold standard for that is Arch's wiki. Hopefully, NixOS can get to that point
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The only breakage was entirely on me for putting the wrong username in and being locked out of my system but that was solved well enough, so it was PEBCAK breaking, not the system
TL:DR Nix is the distro I didn't know I was missing until Grub alt+f4'd my entire laptop and forced me to make the switch.

I hope this will be pinned as I want to provide a upto-date full-scope info dump on critical things that have changed over the last few years that people binging YT videos and old threads will be out of the loop on.
The Decode Wiki has a massive amount of information thats proacticly updated and mantained, so here is just a more camcorder format biased summary of a lot info there.

Rule 1

There is a thing called SAVE or LOCK tap on tapes, enable it on all your tapes before playing with them, this will save your ass from careless or just mistakes and stop your from erasing your tapes.

Cleaning & Service

Please do not treat mechnical kit like magic, it requires care and maintaince like a car or a rifle it has a lot of parts that need cleaning and oiling once and awhile or outright replacing like belts and capston rubber wheels.
Paper & 99.9% IPA never 60% etc (water + elecronics just no.) for VHS & Beta head cleaning.
Chamois Sticks (overpriced waste for all but camcorders) for small head cleaning.
Brush, Airblower, Super-Lube, Sowing Machine oil - Genreal cleaning & service.
Lens cleaning should always be with microfibeswabs to clean rims, UV Filters are your dust/shatter protection friends caps are also adviced during sunlight use!

PAL & NTSC

We are not all united in this world of standards per region, never forget the diffrances it can cost you time and suffering.
PAL 625-line (25fps 50 fields "25i") is Europe/Middle East to Russia 50hz grids
NTSC 525-line (29.97fps 59.94 fields "29.97i") is USA/Canada/Japan 60hz grids
Digital active area is 720x576i PAL and NTSC is 720x480i or 488
(there is also 608/512 height called IMX standard for preserving the VBI area both are in analog world sampled at 4fsc or 1135x625 PAL & 910x525 NTSC but only vhs/ld/cvbs-decode provide acesss to the full signal frame.)
NTSC-N/PAL-M/NTSC-50/PAL60 etc (South America and outhers who could not just stick to one unifyed system or slowly migrated with existing kit)
Recorded Media only has 3 flavors in common world use, NTSC/PAL then the french have SECAM or MESECAM for recorded tapes before moving to PAL.
Digital you will use and or encouter i.e 2000s era will only be NTSC/PAL (then flavors of HD in interlaced or progressive 25/24/29.97p) to keep things simple.
PAL decks (most 90's & 2000's decks) will play most MESECAM tapes, will play NTSC tapes also but the standard video output will have 4.43Mhz instead of 3.35Mhz colour subcarrier so NTSC native kit will not like it, such as Time Base correctors or NTSC CRT TVs so you will get B/W video out of a lot of PAL kit with native NTSC support too or it will be just PAL converted by a PAL DMR-ES10 for example.
The decks however are reading full NTSC or MESECAM signal off the tape so the video boards internally are converting the signal, but with direct RF capture will get you a native capture to work with and preserve analog tapes.

Digital Tapes

Massive Guide Here with full scope breakdown
Do NOT HOT PLUG, FireWire is 12v turn kit off hook up cable turn it back on, unless its a adapter from TB2 to TB3 to FW800 with low power data only then its most likey a full spec port with 12v 5A that can kill kit if ports are not clean and you hot plug it.
MiniDV/HDV/Digital8 FireWire Camcorders fall under

• FireWire/IEEE 1394 (4pin FW400 / 6pin FW400 / 9pin FW800)
• Apple Replaced this with ThunderBlot TB3 to TB2 then a TB2 to FW800 adapter is commonly used for MacOS users.

StarTech and 101 china brands make cards, I like DVgrab on Linux, but WinDV still works for most Windows Boxes & Final Cut still works on MacOS.

Digital Pro Tapes

HDCam / HDCam SR / DVCProHD / DigiBeta (digital betacam) / MPEG IMX etc
Some decks like DVC do have FireWire but HDcam and Digibeta flavors are all SDI
HDCam falls under SDI - Digital to V210 or FFV1 4:2:2
This applys to decks and camcorders you will be using SDI most likey but some had HDMI 8-bit 4:2:2 output like later HDV camcorders did.

Analog Tapes

VHS-C/SVHS-C/BetaMax/Betacam/Video8/Hi8
SVHS may have VITC timecode in VBI space, Hi8 can have PCM digital audio if shot with pro kit and RCTC data like time and date code on pro and prosumer models.
The best possible method for preserving tapes in the 21st century for analog Video and HiFi signals is The FM RF Archival Method then decoding it to S-Video/Composite in software then chroma-decoding it to YUV digital data all in software, no hardware TBC or this capture card is better then that capture card nightmare or limted codec support, it cuts through the noise (littorally) and plight of inflated hardware markets, VHS-Decode gives you a alternative for all analog tape formats dispite its name.
This is direct sampling of the orignal signals as the deck reads the tapes before its internal processing, this is the most affordable and technologically high quality preservation workflow that anyone can use today, cost of entry is sub 100USD and virtually all decks have test points. (but later decks will not have easy HiFi test points so 90s decks with a good cleaning first are your go to.)
You may even already own a CXADC compatible Hauppauge/WinTV or outher brand of capture card with CX chips the driver can use.
Sony 8mm or Hi8/Video8 and Digital8 with backwards playback support have test jigs that are plug and play for test points.
The older more well known method is deck with S-Video Time Base Corrector "TBC" ADC/Capture Card or a capture card with a TBC, this will cost you 2-20x the cost of a FM RF archival workflow thats with a basic office PC out of the skip basically added to the shopping list.

Making a Camcorder tapeless

Analog - S-Video/CVBS or Compoosite (Yellow RCA or 4-Pin Din for S-Video)
Digital - HDMI (but only HDV MiniDV camcorders had this so S-Video would be the best output in 16:9 squesse mode this applys to Digital8)
Cheep Analog SDI coverters off eBay using a 12v to USB-PD adapter will be the most powerful plug and play clean signal converting kit you can put into a Molle belt pouch or backpack with PD power adapters.
SDI is just HDMI with some more specs and piped over Coax cable orignally it replaced all the Coax copper lines that ran Composite or CVBS in studios and now its good solid locking interface for A/V world using the BNC connector from the 1940s and HDMI converters are a dime a dozen for SDI.
Digital8/MiniDV you can buy little off shelf USB adapters, but for later prosumer kit with NPF mount etc just buy a new 18650 cell based chinese battery they last all day long.
Recorders, Atmos, Blackmagic are your 2 go to brands today, but if you have a laptop just get a Magewell or GV-USB2 based setup and encode with VirtualDub2 or OBS if you like crunching stuff with realtime de-interlacing (its terrible for recorded media never should do it, but for live feeds you can get away with it in most cases as long as your system can keep up and use a codec like ProRes LT)

Power & Power Adapting

You can use 9v with stepdown or 5v with step up to power the 6-7.1v to 7.1 to 8.5v voltage range of camcorders, common batterys today are NPF, BP, V-Mount or Gold Mount with ARRI B-Mount slowing getting adaoption, but USB-PD or 20v 3A PD65W and 20v 5a PD100W power banks are now very cheep and provide more then enough to power most field portable kit.

Codecs & Containers & Chroma Sampling & Bit-Depth

Codecs and Cotainers is fun, but MP4/MOV is banned for archival, you will lose files, they break if the recording/encoding fails midway, do not trust them to store your audio and video memorys forever.
MKV/MXF are the only containers you should keep masters in if not DV/AVI at worst for HD and SD media today very much so if you have a home server with Jellyfin for example header dependent containers like MP4/MOV are poor for streaming locally and over the the internet on demand headderless don't care and are very relisaint if currupton happens you lose frames/seconds not your whole file.
(Note: you can easily re-mux a file from these safe containers for use on outher devices that require avi or mp4 etc its just a wrapper to hold the data, its easy to convert between the two without loss)
Codecs range from lossy compressed like AVC/H264 or HEVC/H265 (in MP4/MOV etc) to Lossy DV25 used for MiniDV/Digital8, to visually lossles like ProRes HQ, and the V210 for uncompressed and FFV1 today for lossless compressed.
Chroma Sub-Sampling is how much colour range data is stored per pixel, 4:2:2 is enough to use green screens and preserve the full range of live from camara Composite NTSC or PAL, ware as 4:4:4 is the same for HD era kit in very lay terms here but this is only for master recordings and for digitisaion.
Bit-Depth is simple 8-bit 256 range 10-bit 1024 range of colour, you want 10-bit almost always for inital capture in digital HD era and in Analog SD archival but can drop it to 8-bit 4:2:0 with careful encoding after the fact many videos on this that are clear and demo this.
For example though in this community DV is 4:1:1 NTSC and 4:2:0 in PAL so if using a Digital8 camcorder to ingest tapes from Video8/Hi8 your not saving the full range of colour and also using a lossy compressed codec at 25-30mbps great for 1995 but for 45-50mbps you can use lossless compressed FFV1 8-bit 4:2:2.

Deinterlacing

101 ways hardware and software converters, personally if your camcorder does not have a progressive or progressive pulldown mode, shoot in interlaced, use Hybird or StaxRip with the QTGMC filter via Vapoursynth or Avisynth its 3-5 clicks today and some copy paste at worst, dont use BDWIF or YADIF if you can help it, and always bare in mind lossy compressed interlaced footage will almost always have artifacts to fight with.
All Analog media in consumeprosumer world is interlaced and should be delt with in post for recorded media.

Final Notes

This is a fun subject that without basic EE/Cine/ENG world info being ingrained into your mind, its not very well condenced for people to get into without making massive mistakes or just ones that are sad to see due to lack of ah heres a nice list of key points to go and google and look into or sticky note on the kit.
I hope this has got you on the path of understanding key info in this era!

I’ve visited Bisbee twice now, and it’s by far my favorite town in AZ. I love both the historic tourist area and the actual town (forget if it’s just called bisbee) up the road. And I don’t mean for this question to be insulting, as everyone I’ve met has been so nice and lovely. Truly a great vibe and community. That said the first time I came I stayed in an air bnb and my wife and I had noticed two guys sitting in a car drinking beer nearby. They looked a little rough around the edges, but that’s not a big deal, I’ve been around and lived with drug addicts and criminals before. But when we checked into our place, we left and went walking around, realized we forgot something and turned back to our room. We were gone for about 5 mins and when we turned back around the corner and could see our room up the street, one of the guys from the car was trying to open our room. Luckily it was locked (via a keypad, there was no key for this) and he saw us, got in the car and left). It really freaked my wife out but I said “well, maybe he thought it was a business or something” because this place was downtown and looked like a bavenue (it was the courtyard on brewery Ave). Anyways, we let it go, we’re super careful about locking up, etc. but we never saw those guys again. That was about 2 years ago.

Flash forward today we returned with my parents and sibling, and it was so fun and we all loved it and everyone we met. But there was another shady person who stood out we passed by. A while later we were walking up the road and in the alley with all the art canvases hanging, and I’m walking on the main sidewalk and hear someone shouting a bit and plastic pieces flying down towards me. I come to the alley and am not going down it, but just walking past with my group and it’s that shady girl from earlier and they smashing a laptop angrily. They see us, and start storming in the opposite direction we were headed. I was at the front of the group and didn’t hear but this girl told my step dad “I wish you’d get the FUCK out if my way!”. Mind you we weren’t gawking, In their way, didn’t say anything. They just sorta walked in front of my step dad and said that. It was more funny as this person was prolly 5’4 girl and my step dad is 6’4 huge dude. So not scary or in danger. Just got the sense this person hated non locals or seemed to have a drug problem or something. Weird to be smashing a laptop in an alley. 

TLDR Had a few weird encounters vs dozens of positive ones. So no issues, more curious what you guys think. I’m from a small town with a lot of drug addicts and shady people. I just wanted to ask some of you if Bisbee has its share of addicts and crime as well? It seems so perfect and awesome. Do some of the locals target or dislike out of town tourists even if they’re respectful and not a nuisance? Do addicts break in to cars or rooms ever? Sorry if this sounds disrespectful, it’s not coming from a place like that from me, just want some locals perspective.

Hi team, I found this sub really useful when preparing for my test. After my lessons I'd make a note of anything I did wrong to stop me repeating mistakes. I read over these in the days leading up to my test so they'd stick in my mind. Sharing below, I know not everyone will find learning in this way helpful, but hopefully they're useful to someone!
I really thought I'd failed about midway through, but remembered someone on this sub said you need to concentrate on what's next on the test and not think about what's already happened. As I didn't get any faults that shows how easy it is to get in your own head and worry!
All the Show Me/ Tell Me notes are specific to the Fiesta I did the test in so just edit them to your / your instructors car.
The end is on the tricky parts of the Bromley test route, my instructor highlighted them as where people slip up and fail so I wrote down how to handle them.
I found the test route walkthrough on https://www.youtube.com/@DrivingSchoolTV really helpful, especially where he says you're doing the test because you are a safe driver and you just need to show that, which was really good for pre-test nerves.
Notes
Don’t chase an amber light
Check all 6 spots (including blind spot) before moving off or doing manoeuvres
During manoeuvres always look around and be nosy!
Watch speed when there’s an open road - especially when entering new road
Don't worry about getting up to speed in a built up area - go slow
Look around looking for indicators – especially on buses
Keep checking mirrors
Hill Start – Check over right shoulder, then all mirrors, then right shoulder again. Indicate right. Get biting point with clutch, then add accelerator. Take off handbrake and move away.
When turning off a road slow up to almost a stop before turning, if there's a car coming wait, better to do it slow than rush the turn
Look back in the mirror every time you use the brake
Make sure when stopping in a traffic jam to not cover any exits on the left
6 point check before moving off every time
On test the examiner will be looking for you to check blind spots every time
Crossing at crossroads, if going straight over you have right of way ahead of someone turning right onto it across you
Junctions with a million things going on, keep concentrating on your lane and the lights
In a 30 zone get into 3rd as quickly as you go from 1st to 2nd
If you're behind a bus, leave a lot of room in case they stop and you have to go round
Moving down a gear - brake to the speed you want and then select the gear.

On instructors car:
How to open the bonnet

• Latch on passenger side, then latch in the middle of the bonnet

Which is oil dipstick

• Mid left stick. To check wipe with cloth and dip back in and see if the oil is between the min & max markers

Which is engine coolant cap

• Wide bottle on the left. Never open when hot. Check that coolant is between min & max

Which is hydraulic brake fluid reservoir

• Circle cap to the right of the coolant cap, has a circle in brackets marker. Check it is between min & Max on the outside.

Close the bonnet by unhooking the support stick and lowering to a few inches above the bottom and drop, can push it down if it needs securing.

Bay parking - on test you will have to do either reverse or forward, you get to pick if you want left or right
Reverse - left - go third line from target Bay in line with passenger handle. Adjust mirror so it's looking down. Slowly on clutch, go full lock down to the left and ease round into the space. Go a little further round before straightening wheel. Driver is just in back half of space (make sure the front isn't peaking out)
Front - right - line 2 spaces away in line with bottom of windscreen. Slowly on clutch, go full lock down to the right and ease round into the space. Straighten wheel
If you're going in between two cars and it's tight on the far corner, you can reverse and straighten up to go in
To straighten up, turn the wheel slightly to the side where the space is, slowly clutch up move and turn the wheel the other way at straighten up

Parallel Parking – straighten up next to car, reverse til half past car. Adjust passenger mirror to look down. Look around. Full lock down to left as moving behind car.
Get til car is bit further than 45 degrees sticking out from the curb -
Keep looking around, checking blind spots
two full rotations down to right while going very slowly with foot on brake, car will speed up as camber (steep) of road
Look all around, do not stare at wing mirror
Continue reversing - going forward is a minor, but fine if you touch the curb
When car door is parallel with curb in wing mirror straighten up while reversing
Can't go more than 2 car lengths behind car in front.
Sort your mirror out when you're done.

Pulling up on the right - look for somewhere with a lot of space on the right, check all mirrors and blind spot, indicate, then slowly go over to the right, get close to the curb and straighten up. Handbrake, cancel signal, and go into neutral. Examiner will ask you to reverse 2 car lengths. Make sure you check all spots and mirrors again, before slowly reversing, keeping the car straight. To straighten up turn the wheel to where the space is. Right hand mirror parallel to curb. Stop if anyone approaches. Examiner will tell you when to stop. Put the handbrake on and go into neutral. To move off, check all mirrors and spots, indicate, and move away.
Emergency stop - make sure to brake then clutch quickly
2.1 Show me how you would check that the direction indicators are working.
Turn hazards on - shows both are working. Then walk around car and check all six are working.
2.2 Show me how you would check the brake lights are working on this car, (if you need to switch the ignition on, please don’t start the engine).
Operate brake pedal, make use of reflections in windows, garage doors, etc, or ask someone to help, (may need to switch ignition on, prompt not to start engine).

2.3 Show me, or explain how you would check that the power assisted steering is working before starting a journey.
If the steering becomes heavy the system may not be working properly. Before starting a journey two simple checks can be made. Gentle pressure on the steering wheel, maintained while the engine is started, should result in a slight but noticeable movement as the system begins to operate. Alternatively turning the steering wheel just after moving off will give an immediate indication that the power assistance is functioning.

2.4 Show me how you would check the parking brake (handbrake) for excessive wear; make sure you keep safe control of the vehicle.
Apply footbrake firmly. Demonstrate by applying parking brake (handbrake) so that when it is fully applied it secures itself, and is not at the end of the working travel.

2.5 Show me how you would check that the horn is working.
Beep beep!

2.6 Show me how you would clean the windscreen using the windscreen washer and wipers.
Rear windscreen - push the right indicator away from driver.
Front windscreen - pull the right indicator toward the driver.

2.65 Show me how you would switch on your dipped headlights.
Turn dial behind steering wheel once to the left. Green light on dashboard shows it is on. Turn it once back to the right to go to automatic headlights.

2.7 Show me how you would switch on the rear fog light(s) and explain when you would use it/them, (no need to exit vehicle).
Turn on dipped headlights and then press the lower of the two buttons to the left of the dial (has a little fog symbol). Check warning light is on the dashboard (orange light, same symbol as on the button). You would use the fog light when visibility is less than 100 meters.

2.8 Show me how you switch your headlight from dipped to main beam and explain how you would know the main beam is on.
Turn on ignition, turn on dipped headlights, then push left indicator away from you. Blue light on dashboard shows that it is on.

2.9 Show me how you would set the demister controls to clear all the windows effectively.
Rear demister is on the left of the panel under the radio. Turn it off by pressing it again.
Front demister is middle of the panel under radio. Use the off button on the right of that panel, which turns off everything front demister has turned on.

2.10 Open the bonnet, identify where you would check the engine oil level and tell me how you would check that the engine has sufficient oil.
Mid left stick. To check wipe with cloth and dip back in and see if the oil is between the min & max markers

2.11 Open the bonnet, identify where you would check the engine coolant level and tell me how you would check that the engine has the correct level.
Wide bottle on the left. Never open when hot. Check that coolant is between min & max

2.12 Open the bonnet, identify where the brake fluid reservoir is and tell me how you would check that you have a safe level of hydraulic brake fluid.
Identify reservoir, check level against high/low markings.

1. ‘Tell me’ questions

3.1 Tell me how you would check that the brakes are working before starting a journey.
Brakes should not feel spongy or slack. Brakes should be tested as you set off. Vehicle should not pull to one side.

3.3 Tell me where you would find the information for the recommended tyre pressures for this car and how tyre pressures should be checked.
Manufacturer’s guide, use a reliable pressure gauge, check and adjust pressures when tyres are cold, don’t forget spare tyre, remember to refit valve caps.

3.4 Tell me how you make sure your head restraint is correctly adjusted so it provides the best protection in the event of a crash.
The head restraint should be adjusted so the rigid part of the head restraint is at least as high as the eye or top of the ears, and as close to the back of the head as is comfortable. Adjust using button at the base. Note: Some restraints might not be adjustable.

3.5 Tell me how you would check the tyres to ensure that they have sufficient tread depth and that their general condition is safe to use on the road.
No cuts and bulges, 1.6mm of tread depth across the central 3/4 of the breadth of the tyre and around the entire outer circumference. Check using a tread depth gauge.

3.6 Tell me how you would check that the headlights and tail lights are working (no need to exit vehicle).
Turn ignition on, turn dial on right of the wheel one click to the left. Then walk round the vehicle.

3.7 Tell me how you would know if there was a problem with your anti lock braking system.
Orange ABS Warning light should illuminate if there is a fault with the anti lock braking system. It flashes on when the ignition is turned on.

Bromley
Turn out from behind station, keep to the right then, sharp turn onto the left lane, must start from the right as the lanes are busy and tight
There's a junction where you go over and it looks like a straight but must be treated as a right turn, then left turn
There's a sharp right turn on a left bend, so go really slow in first around the bend and turn when it's clear
The one way system that is like a round about, you must get over to the left as you go past the turn before your turn so you don't get stuck in right lane
Going under railway - tunnel is really tight, so go slow and make sure there's no-one oncoming, so you can go over the centre line or you clip the wall on the left
Look out for crossing over to Lewisham - as Lewisham is mostly 20mph

I NEED QUICK HELP PLEASE MY DAD HAS BEEN USING MY LAPTOP AND NONE OF US IS COMFORTABLE AND ABLE TO HIS JOB SEPARATELY!!
My dad’s laptop (HP ZBook Firefly15 G8 1G3U7AV)has been crashing so much lately and showing multiple bsod with different errors, the only errors i was around to read and search about were irql is more or less (probably ram issue) and kernel security check failure then he told me after couple days his laptop stopped working at all. Every time i boot the laptop it doesn’t even boot and starts beeping 3 long beeps then two short ones while the screen stays black all the time then after the beeping stops the fan of the laptop gets louder and the power button and the Caps lock button keep on twitching their lights. I NEED QUICK HELP PLEASE MY DAD HAS BEEN USING MY LAPTOP AND NONE OF US IS COMFORTABLE AND ABLE TO HIS JOB SEPARATELY!!

Hello.
XPS15 7590 here.
A couple of weeks ago my XPS randomly shut down in the middle of light office work. I could not restart it until I performed FLEA procedure and it turned on in manufacturer mode and with compromised audio drivers.
Now it keeps shutting down randomly (sometimes after a minute, sometimes it works for 24hrs no stop) and more often it cannot restart after being manually shutdown or asked to restart. It goes in manufacturing and shutdowns or even just becomes unresponsive/only turn backlighting on and then shuts back off. Sometimes gives out diagnostic LEDs, various combinations regarding CPU or bios error.
Only "solution" is waiting and trying again after half an hour or so.
Then after trying again manufacturer mode comes out and I have to cycle on off a couple of time to deal with that and caps lock light remaining stuck on. Stress tests performed, no issue found. Local repair shop says Northbridge damage but I suspect it could be related to previously known dead/malfunctioning ram slot now left empty.
Any clue on what I could try? Bios recovery? Clean install? It would feel very dumb to change a laptop which basically works for hours or days except some random periods or after shutdowns.
Thank you

Hi, I have been using an old laptop for server, and I want to upgrade to a micro form factor PC. The micro form factor is important since I plan to permamently migrate within few months and suitcase space is limited.
The idea is to have a proxmox. The prox arrangement are to be determined later. But at least I can give you the intended use cases: 1. NAS, probably using a single slim HDD. 2. File sync (gitea, nextcloud, immich, photoprism, syncthing, etc.) 3. Programming and development. Via SSH, or VNC, or any other means.
No plan for transcoding purposes in the near and far future, but it is a welcomed feature :)
With all of that in mind, I need help on choosing the specs.
The option I have is Dell Optiplex, Lenovo ThinkCentre M720Q, or HP Elite desk. The most noticable differentiator between them are the CPU and the price. * i5 7500T (4 core, 4 thread, 3.3 GHz) at 115 USD * i5 9500T (6 core, 6 thread, 3.7 GHz) at 155 USD * i3 8300T (4 core, 4 thread, 3.1 GHz) at 96 USD
Plus additional 16GB RAM, at 32 USD. Storage I already have, no need to buy a new one.
Do you have any suggestion, especially the difference between Lenovo, Dell's Optiplex, and HP EliteDesk? Which one gives me least trouble and least vendor lock?
Do you know the difference between those intel CPUs? I remember that gen 7 8 and 9 are full of gimmicks with slight performance differences between them.
Any suggestions are welcome

I have been praying and praying the last hour that this is just a dream. Honestly, i don't know why i want this to be a dream.
The people might not speak any language that i know but at least they are healthy and happy and not barely surviving afraid to accidentally step out of line. The city around me is so living and there’s tall buildings with loads of well polished windows and sandstone.
James gazes up at me, squeezing my hand. “Addie, where are we?” I sigh and shake my head, squeezing his hand back. “I’ve got no idea, bub” I say. Way to go, Adam, I mumble to myself.
James looks past me over at some statue of what looks to be a soldier holding a child up in the air. We seem to be in some kind of large square. There’s statues and large sculpture of ten-pointed stars. The tallest buildings around the place have large red banners hanging down their facades.
"Maybe we can ask someone if they've seen Aaron and Juliette" James says, gesturing with a splayed hand to the tons and tons of people walking all over this place.
"James, i'm not sure they even speak English" i shake my head again, a trio of girls snickering and blushing as i briefly lock eyes with them. "Well, you haven't tried asking if they speak English" My little brother says prudently, shaking his own head. I cannot help but smirk. Smart kid, my little brother.
So i start towards those girls, looking back to make sure James is tagging along. The girls are grinning and snickering and trying to pretend that i'll just go right past them. I'm not. Halting as we reach, i shove my hands into my pockets. Gazing at the ground for a moment before looking up. "H-hey-" Damn, what's going on? I was never nervous with Juliette.
"Do any of you speak English?" My voice dies in my throat as the girls don't stop snickering. "Yeah, we do" One of the girls say, brushing a strand of her brown behind her ear. She is practically fighting to keep her eyes in place as she bites her lip.
"Great! You see, we're looking for my brother and his...girlfriend. My brother is blonde, got green eyes and he's 5'9-" "What does 5'9 mean?" One of the other girl asks. I want to deadpan. Oh well, it doesn't seem like they know the imperial system.
"He's, uhh...roughly 175 centimeters tall. His girl is 160, dark brown hair and blue eyes" I explain, gesturing with my hands to give them a change to figure out Warner and Juliette's heights.
"Sorry but we haven't seen anyone like that. Maybe...try at a police station or a muncipality office" Well i would if i could understand those scrawls that's everywhere! "Uhhh, how do i find a police station?" I ask, swallowing. The brown haired girl laughs, blushing faintly.
"You read, silly. You speak English so you must be from Erikland, right? You guys still learn Asparijo, don't you?" She giggles then frowns. "Y-yeah..." I swallow as two of the girls stick their heads together. I turn and look down.
James is gone. My heart is going to come flying out of my mouth any second.
"James!" I don't care, i yell his name. "Addie! I found a police lady!" I hear my little brother's voice call out.
I turn to the girl and offer them a good-bye before turning to where i heard James' voice. The brown-haired one is practically begging for me to stay so she can get my number.
I see James, standing besides a blonde woman in an aquamarine uniform and navy blue pants and cap. She must be the police officer he mentioned.
"Hello there. Your little brother here says you're looking for an Aaron Warner and a Juliette Ferrars. Is that correct?" She asks, scribbling on a small pad. I nod. Then she knits her brows, pull me closer and lowers her voice.
"They were arrested last night by the State Intelligence Service. For carrying firearms close to the Imerial Residence" She says, staring at me before releasing me.
Gazes down and flashes James an innocent smile. But my little brother isn't easily fooled.
I am not either. They were trying to escape our father. Well, not that James even knows Paris is our father. He's better off not knowing he's related to that monster.
"It's not nice to whisper" James tells the woman accusingly. She cracks a smile at the eleven-year old glowering boy. Chuckles before turning back to me.
"Since you are related to a detainee, i must ask you to present some identication" She says, holding out a hand.
My hearts drops into my stomach. We only have our Reestablishment IDs and i don't think these people are going to give a hoot about those.
What the hell happens if i am honest?
"We don't have any" I say, gulping. The officer's mood switches on the spot. "Then i must ask you to come along" She says and she is reaching for her radio and James looks like he might pee his pants and he probably thinks we are going to get arrested.
Now the policewoman is speaking into her radio, swiftly in her alien language. She turns her head away and i spy a pair of policemen coming our war. I might be strong and jacked and all that but i'm not looking to fight anyone.
Not when James is around. Not like Kenji not giving a damn. James is already starting to sob once he is realizing what we've gotten into.
"It's going to be alright, James. No need to be scared" i say, ruffling his hair as the two policemen join their female colleague, talking swiftlty.
"Please turn around" One officer says, pulling a pair of a handcuffs out of his black tool belt. I try not to look at James as i turn around and clasping my hands at my back.
The officer moves to cuff my wrists when James tried to smack his hands away with a high-pitched "Leave him alone!"