#it’s going into how these language learning algorithms work

[apollos-boyfriend]

overhearing my 10 year old cousin watch a video talking about the dangers of misinformation in things like chatgpt and how you should not just mistrust the information but also the intentions of people attempting to sell it to you…… the kids are alright ❤️

[doubledeadstudio]

So, you guys are probably curious… What is the future of Reanimated Heart in its current state?

I've been quiet about this for a while because I wanted to get a bulk of my work done. Considering I'm working on the last and final Chapter One update, I am now formally announcing that the whole of Chapter One will still be uploaded in public for free.

Considering harassment issues I've experienced, however, I will only be doing it when Chapter One is fully wrapped up. That means that it'll be after the next update and after a final polish. I'm uncertain when I'll be done with all this, but my hope is to put it up in December on the same date the initial demo was posted.

After that, what then?

When I initially created Reanimated Heart, it was with the intent that it was going to be a very longform, serialized thing.

For context, before I started getting into game dev, I was a freelance artist with a background on Language and Literature. I did my best to post art to please an algorithm, but my true passion was writing. I wanted to write stories and novels, but the exhaustion of drawing and vying for some sort of online influence was draining to me.

I concluded that this type of work flow was 1) Psychologically damaging and unnatural, and 2) ultimately, unsatisfying.

Even when I had pieces that would do well, it didn't make me feel good because my heart wasn't in it because I had no time to make the things I wanted to make, I had no time to do what I actually wanted, which was to craft stories about my precious characters that I've had for years and were near and dear to my heart.

And then, I decided to create something that was, essentially, antithetical to this ritualistic pattern of clout chasing I've developed… and that was Reanimated Heart.

Given my background in Literature, I was very fixated on the concept of creating a "visual novel" in a serialized format, like how certain novels used to be published. (For example, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is only as long as it is because it's a story told in a by chapter format over a long period of time.) I thought that, if visual novels were really to be novels too, then it should be allowed to function in a way novels used to.

I also had this belief that, despite the never ending barrage of corporate shortform content vying for the attention economy, there's always going to be a part of human beings that yearned for something personal, emotionally intricate, and created over a long period of time. People want to invest in something. They want to learn about characters and the settings they live in, follow elaborate plotlines, and watch mysteries unfold. At least when I immerse myself in stories, I want it to really grip my attention like nothing else and have it live in my mind like it has a home there. And so, when I decided to make the game, I decided to stay the course of my original intentions and publish it on a semi-regular basis, with enough content to justify the months of work. I have my update schedule to prove it.

After years of working on RH, my belief has been proven completely correct. More and more people discover it over the long time period, and many of them react like I thought they would… They want to know about the characters, the plot, and the lore. They want more length and more secrets to discover, and I'm more than happy to provide that.

And so, I'll be continuing this update schedule, just in Patreon until the base game's full release in different platforms because, like I said, as much as I want to provide this content for free, its costs and the constant harassment isn't enough to justify uploading it for free.

But, because I've chosen to do this format, I've been asked…

Is this just a grift to get people to invest in your Patreon?

I have been accused of this by many people, including some devs in the so-called "yandere" VN space. Let me make this very clear now…

I am losing more money making this game than not making it.

Before I decided to make this game, I had more time to focus on doing freelance work which earned me significantly more money on a monthly basis. By focusing on gamedev, I've lost a significant amount of my regular clients. Not only that, I also put a significant amount of the budget on other contractors (such as music from Claira, art from Tay, and voice actors) and I've also put other career prospects on pause.

So, why even make something that just loses me money and invites harassment from entitled "fans" anyway?

Passion, as lame as it sounds. This is something that I want to make and earnestly believe in, something that I'll be satisfied with making later in my life. With each update, I'm thrilled by how much the narrative blossoms on the screen as much as you are. I can't keep putting money incentive over my art, because I'll end up right back where I started, which is chasing a number either in followers or my bank account. This isn't even remotely about the money for me. I will keep making this until it finishes or I die randomly.

I want to make something I'm proud of for myself. Signing up for the Patreon is more just about ensuring I can make the highest quality of game possible.

Now that I've made my intentions clear, let me get to some FAQ…

I don't agree with this model you've chosen for the game. It still feels like a grift. How do we know you mean what you say?

Check my update schedule.

I've been consistent and I intend to continue being consistent. When I stop being consistent, then you should react like a responsible consumer and stop supporting the project. If I stop intending to upload, I will make a formal announcement here, in the page, and on Patreon anyway.

If you want the updates but don't want to pay me, there are ways of getting it for free by being active in the server community.

If you only want to pay full price for the game, then wait until it's done.

And if you really don't want to pay anything at all, then don't do it. I am not forcing you to pay anything.

Can I pay only when there's an update?

Yes, that's always allowed. No, I don't think that's scummy. Everyone should be able to do whatever they want with their money.

How long is the time period between updates?

My intent has always been 3-4 months between updates. Usually updates take me a month and a half to write, then a similar timeframe for assets and coding. There are also some stuff irl that I can't help, so I put that leeway there.

Will you let us Subscribe on other platforms?

Yes, but I'm still looking into it. I'm going to do research on what the best websites are for this. I'm going to be looking into Ko-Fi soon.

Will you still be making other games?

Yes! But their uploads will be random and sporadic.

I know there are a lot of people wondering about the drastic genre leaps with my other games (coughs Another Rose coughs), but my justification is that, while I view Reanimated Heart as the novel, my other games are more like… short stories. If you've ever read a Stephen King novel and then get shocked by how random his short stories are, well, that's about the same logic I have. My "other games" are less thoughtful, sprawling stories like Reanimated Heart, and more like experiments for me to break out of my shell and have fun. While some short stories get sequels, others don't. They're pretty non-committal.

Will you ever be opening Reanimated Heart's comment section again?

Yes, I will open it again when Chapter One is finished and uploaded. I only turned it off because people annoyed me so much that I didn't want to work on it. You guys can have discussions again when I'm not releasing updates publicly anymore.

...

I hope this puts a lot of your questions to rest. If there's more, send them to my Inbox and I will add them here.

[cacodaemonia]

I was unfortunate enough to come across this ask from someone I don't follow a while back. It was one of those wtf moments that was so strong, I had to show the screenshot to a friend who isn't in fandom and never has been. They know the basics of how fandom works, and I've told them about the pro-censorship people in fandom, but this post really required some extra explanation, and I thought I'd share how I broke it down for them:

Obviously, most antis are very young. We all know this. That doesn't mean that all young people are anti-sex, pro-censorship, or unable/unwilling to distinguish fiction from reality, but it's much easier for young folks to get caught up in dangerous and toxic communities—in both real life and online.

From what I've seen over the years, there are all kinds of reasons why antis campaign against fiction they don't like and why they harass other fans and small creators. But I think a key point is that they seldom target big name authors, movie studios, or other media companies who make 'problematic' things.

That right there tells you a lot about one of their primary motivations: power over others.

They want to feel morally superior to people who create art (including writing, etc.) that they dislike. And because they can't influence powerful individuals and companies, they turn their personal disgust and outrage on people who are their relative equals or on those who have even less socioeconomic power—especially marginalized groups like queer and disabled people, who make up large portions of fandom.

There are plenty of other factors that impact this radicalization, of course, but I really think that the power aspect and feeling like they're one of The Good People are the most important elements.

But anyway, the screenshot above got me thinking about how someone could reach the point where they genuinely believe that government censorship of fanworks is necessary to... what? Prevent people from making (subjectively) 'gross' art because... that will lead others to commit actual real life crimes?? That's what the anti above seem to be suggesting with the slippery slope comment, and when I got to this point in the explanation to my non-fandom friend, they were BOGGLED. They simply could not comprehend the massive leap of 'logic.'

So I paused for a moment and considered how I could explain it, based on the various stages of indoctrination I've seen among antis over the years.

I think that a lot of these young people are probably very new to fandom. They find out about fanfic and go onto AO3, and they likely assume that some algorithm will handfeed them what they want—even though they haven't bothered to learn how an archive like AO3 works and haven't used any search filters to include or exclude things they like or don't like (this required a whole explanation about AO3 filters to my friend btw).

So anyway, these people who have grown up on sanitized mass media fail to heed any of AO3's many warnings, including creators' tags, and they come across something that they think is gross or that makes them uncomfortable. For example, "Ewww, fics about underage characters having sex is gross and makes me uncomfortable." That's fine. Hit the back button and use filters to avoid that. Problem solved!

But then maybe they go on social media and complain about someone making art they don't like, and they rapidly get sucked the echo chambers of cult-like anti communities. And this is where they all amp each other up by exchanging conservative talking points dressed up in ostensibly progressive language. They begin to feel angry and self-righteous and certain that they have to do something about this issue they've collectively fabricated. After all, "Think of the children!!"

I should also point out that most antis don't seem to even understand the words they use. For example, in that screenshot, it's pretty clear that the op is using 'censorship,' 'glorification,' and even 'slippery slope' as emotional catch phrases rather than words that have useful and concrete meanings outside of fandom.

Finally, their crusade against the fiction they dislike becomes such a huge part of their identities and 'friend' (more like mutual purity surveillance) groups that they just keep building it up into this huge moral panic until they're unironically saying things like, "Writing a fic about a 17 year-old and an 18 year-old kissing is actual pedophilia and the author should be harassed and doxxed and imprisoned."

When I got to that point, my friend was still boggled, but it was more of a horrified sort of boggled, where you just stare into space and contemplate the merits of a giant space rock hitting earth in the near future.

I really wish people getting sucked into anti mindsets would take a moment to consider how bathshit their beliefs sound to the average human being on the planet who doesn't spend huge amounts of time on social media.

[study-diaries]

Productive Things To Do Over Senior Year Summer Year [Guide + List]

Here is something that most don't tell you. After high school is over, everyone goes into a break mode. Which is completely fine, but the tricky part comes when they completely spend the days scrolling Instagram and watching YouTube videos.

I'm not against social media, definitely no. But I still feel that there is a way to productively use that time spent on your phone. I also don't believe in blindly hustling, so this is fully going to be customized and focused on what you specifically want. Literally.

So, here's how to have a productive and fun summer break.

Step 1: Figure Out What You Want

You have to honestly answer these questions in order for this to work. No influences.

So, take a pen and let's figure it out together: -

What are you currently interested in? (Could be anything. Literally. Finance, marketing, riding a bike, photography)

What kind of person do I want to be by the end of this summer? (Give every detail. Is it productive with a skill? Or is it just a more peaceful person with a more stable mindset?)

What opportunities might come in the next year that I want to be prepared for? (Again, you have to think about this. All on your own)

What times of day am I most focused?

What responsibilities do I need to work around? (family, chores, part-time jobs etc)

Once you have the answers to these questions, you have a general idea of what you want to do, not what you have to do or whatever your delusional idea of productivity is.

Step 2: Create Your Plan

Based on whatever those answers are, create a plan. Not just any plan, it should be something you like. See, most don't like school because they don't see the point of it, they get restricted access of learning that depends mostly on grades.

This would be something that you chose on your own, so obviously there are more chances of you getting it down and actually being excited for it.

So, Make a list of around 3-4 goals that you have to reach by the end of summer. It could be anything. Learning a skill, language or just habit building.

Step 3: Hack Your Algorithms

I don't think most people highlight this specific thing but it's honestly really easy. Social media is not the problem, literally it's not. Here's an easy way to use it that is actually productive:

Search For Things That You Want To Learn.

Watch Content Only Related To That.

If you look at my YouTube homepage, you'd only find business, marketing, coding and finance related videos. Because that is what I actually watch. My screen time on YouTube is at least 3-4 hours. And that is what gets recommended to me every time I open any platform. The more you search for content you're interested about, the more it gets recommended to you.

Step 4: Take Action

I could give you a blueprint and it would not be enough if you don't follow it. So, take actions. Literally. Mini steps every day that pile up when you look back after 3 months.

Small actions performed consistently every day for a week is better than time intensive actions performed only once a week.

Step 5: Have Fun Too. Major Priority

Just because you find yourself wanting to be productive, that doesn't mean you should completely ignore having fun. Set your goals, take steps and actually have fun too.

You need a holistic development plan, not a narrow one. So, go out, have sleepovers, plan loosely and actually live.

You can be productive and fun!

A List Of 15 Things [For People Who Actually Have No Idea What They Want To Do]

📖 Read — Fiction, non-fiction, historical... just something that moves you. 🧑‍💻 Take a course — Online or offline. Choose something you’re curious about. 🎨 Learn basic graphic design — Try Canva, Photoshop, or GIMP . Anything. 💸 Start learning financial literacy — Budgeting, saving, investing. 🎬 Watch documentaries — Pick a topic that fascinates you and dive straight in 🚶 Go on walks — Move your body, appreciate your surroundings 💪 Exercise — It doesn’t have to be intense. Just to keep yourself active. 🧺 Plan a picnic with friends — No productivity, just having fun. 👨‍💻 Learn to code — There are so many free resources. Learn anything. Front end. Backend. 🧹 Declutter your surroundings — Because it helps you to clear your mind. 🛏️ Clean your room and move stuff around — You probably haven't done that in a while. 👩‍🏫 Tutor someone — Keeps you occupied. You help someone and can even charge some meagre charges. 🖌️ Paint, draw, or create — Creativity is really important. 📓 Journal your thoughts — Just let it out. No prompts. Just write what you feel 🍳 Learn to cook — It helps in the long run and you get to eat it later ;)

_______________________________

I hope it helps ! :)

[xerith-42]

I know it seems like striking on social media might not do enough, but as someone who has been outright obsessively using the internet since I was a child to the point that it is literally woven in my soul, been active and involved in online activism for about five years, and been using social media as marketing for about the same amount of time, I can confidently say that

THIS FUCKING WORKS!!

People base their entire businesses on their success on social media. They look at trending topics on twitter and don't see bite sized chunks of culture distilled to its finest and worst moments, they see market data! They don't see you as a single human being, they see you as a data point among thousands run through a probably AI assisted system that's prone to fucking up, that determines everything they're going to do.

How they're going to advertise, who they target it with it, what the general public wants. Every single major corporation uses data from social media websites to do this. Every. Single. One. Social media is a lot of things, and one of those things is a tool for business and politics. We know for a fact that social media politics bleeds out into the real world very fucking quickly.

Even if you can't strike financially, even if you have to go to work or school to survive, striking on social media is one of the best things you can do. Even if it's quiet. People are going to notice when thousands upon thousands of users across various sites go completely dark, and even more when some of them start getting real fucking loud about this. The US Capitalist Infused Government loves sweeping war crimes under the rug once they think the general public has forgotten about their atrocities and fallen into complacency. This system has been doing this for literal centuries.

Social media is just the newest and most expansive form we as a species have developed in the ongoing invention of ways to express our thoughts about things. It's the weirdest one, that's for sure, but executives pay attention to it. They don't often seek to understand it beyond a very basic level, because as I said, they view us as numbers on a screen, not as multifaceted incredibly and deeply fucked human beings. They do not seek to understand us on a personal level unless they think the cost of it won't outweigh the potential profit.

Pattern recognition is the tool of the moment. Machine Learning. Gathering endless amounts of data so we can replicate human existence through machines. You may think that social media strikes are ineffective because social media is just on the internet and it's "not real", but it is real! You are really doing stuff! You are contributing! Even if you're just lurking! Basic amounts of engagement can make a huge impact in a busted algorithm. Maybe you're not someone who would ever be drafted into an actual war-zone due to physical or mental health conditions, but you are probably a part of a key demographic of people that businesses are absolutely hungry for.

The budding adult has always been the target of greedy capitalists basically since this system was established and continued to get worse over time. The stage of your life when you are in the age range of 18-25 is an incredibly important transitional period, followed by a transitional period every six months until you lose sense of what six months even is because you haven't been happy in eight, and if you're in the 18-25 range currently, you got extra fucked by the pandemic. The world is in a turbulent stage and we are at the center of all of it and have been since 2001. Every single social media marketing expert will tell you the 18-25 demographic of social media users is a target demographic, because they are the most prone to extremes due to a life chock full of them.

We have to remember to be human, but we have to also know how to speak their language. They just see us as numbers? Let's show them some fucking numbers. Make posts about Gaza trend on every platform you have your hands on. Even if it's just liking posts, that gives them a slight boost in the algorithm. Commenting on posts is especially important on sites like Twitter and Instagram. But across every site the most important thing to do is reblog/retweet/share/send/copy link, whatever it is for that site, it is the biggest thing that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE looks at.

From a humble artist to a head of marketing at a billion dollar corporation about to have a meeting with a barely over 21 intern about how they need to run the twitter account, to said intern bumbling their way through adulthood with a job they only feel they're good at because they've been using social media since Skype was invented. We need to be loud, we need to make sure this can't be ignored, we can't sweep this under the rug. Mass media, especially coming out of the West, has been trying to censor, de-sanitize, and keep this issue quiet.

DO NOT LET YOURSELF BE SILENCED

There are tens of thousands of DEAD CHILDREN who have been BOMBED while in CIVILIAN AREAS and that is a FUCKING WAR CRIME.

THIS IS A GENOCIDE

Say that as many times as you can. Do not let it be ignored. A silent populous is a complacent one. Use your voice, even as small as it may seem. Make noise. Be loud. Be annoying. Don't let this be ignored. Talk about it everywhere you go. Do not let this be ignored.

Sometimes even we get disconnected from the real people around us. We base our sense of worth as a person based on the numbers going up or down but instead of developing a gambling addiction we just got angry about it but still fall into it because of cultural conditioning. But even if you only have let's say, completely random example, 70 followers. And only a small percent of them will see your post. Let's say maybe 20 on average, 30 on a good day, and even higher based on the machinations of fate. That's still 20 people who took time out of their day to read something you wrote, process something you created, share a part of your experience of living.

And likely they felt compelled to share it too, therefore increasing the spread of people who feel your influence. 20 people may not seem like a lot, but that has a major impact. Now imagine posts into the hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions. Those aren't just numbers. Each and every single one of those is just another person who might have reblogged a post because someone they like shared it, or because they wanted to spread its message, and that simple act causes a single post to have massive waves of effects from simple ripples.

Don't let yourself be discouraged. Don't think your voice or your impact "isn't enough to matter." Everything counts.

Don't let this be ignored. Don't become complacent. Know that every little thing counts, and to do every little thing you can.

[diceramblesaboutocs]

Undirected Connection || Idia x Reader || Chapter 1

Prologue

Author’s note: wow I actually updated. :) Also the mandatory: English isn't my native language so...

Rating: Teen Pairing: Idia/Reader Words: 3 884 Tags: GenderNeutral Reader - Reader is from Ignihyde - Cat and mouse chase dynamic - minimal editing - I just try to write stuff - no beta, we die like men

The Board Game club. A place for introverts alike to find their voice as they played against other students, something that they all had in common so they had something to talk about. Or for people who like to stay one jump ahead of everyone else, like Azul Ashengrotto, the housewarden of Octavinelle. In the whole college, there was no more ruthless businessman. Strategy games? Be ready to be dominated by the cephalo-punk (as Savanaclaw's housewarden called him). Or witness him develop the best technique to throw the dice so he would always land the favorable numbers for his turn in a game of chance. Either way not many people were willing to play against him. Other than Idia, who could give a good fight and occasionally even win. It was a battle of equal wit and smarts. A match to witness.

But this evening, Idia found himself struggling. Not because of the game but because Azul's newest obsession and he needed Idia's help.

“Just name your price and we can negotiate.” Azul's clear and benevolent voice slithered towards Idia, like a seawitch's tentacles wrapping around someone valuable.

“No.” For once Idia didn't stutter. Maybe it was because they were in the middle of a game, one of his favorite games in fact. The Court of Wonders, a board game of horror and mystery, taking place in an old gothic city based on Fleur City. Fully cooperative, roleplaying puzzle game with combat and story campaigns where the player characters could investigate, fight eldritch beings, die or worse, go insane and start sabotaging the fellow players. Idia had been so excited when he got the newest expansion for the game that he brought it to the club without a second thought. He had done the prep work for it ahead of time. He had a mental list of how he would convince Azul to play the game with him.

But he didn't need the list. Azul had accepted the choice of game way too easy. And now he knew why.

Azul let out a hefty sigh, trying to tug on Idia's heartstrings. Who would help the helpless, benevolent housewarden of Octavinelle? “You do understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity?”

Idia's brows knitted together in frustration as he gestured towards the game hoping that Azul would give up. “For you, now play your turn.”

“And I’m willing to compensate for your efforts. I’m not just a decent businessman, I'm a benevolent one!” The silver haired businessman smiled with controlled brightness, very sure of himself that he would eventually tear down Idia's defenses.

“Azul, it’s your move. What will your character do? We could really use more clues.”

“Listen, Idia, you aren’t understanding the gravity of the losses I’m having here. Through this Litae, I could be making thousands of thaumarks.”

To use his superior technical skills to locate one sorry student who had piqued Azul's attention? If anything, that sounded low tier D rank quest. Idia had better things to do than that. “I can make you a voice generation software, just play your turn.” He had already done the text-to-speech app for the presentations on the Culture event, doing a voice generation on top of that would be a piece of cake. He could look through the best voice banks and implement those to the learning algorithm. He would actually create something, not spy on someone's online activity.

Azul wagged his finger in front of him in protest. “No, no. That won’t do. I need the real deal.”

Why couldn't Azul just let it be? “I’m not going to use my free time to chase after some weird online voice.��� The tips of Idia's hair started to shift their hue to more orange as his frustration started to morph into anger.

The change didn't go unnoticed by Azul. “... Very well, I didn’t want to do this, Idia, but you leave me no choice. Jade.” He looked at the door out of the classroom and Idia instinctively followed with his eyes to see the tall eel man with the most gentlemanly demeanor that hid something deep and dangerous beneath it.

The teal haired henchman gave his most polite smile to Idia, who's hair seemed to turn a bit paler in fear. “Yes, Azul.”

Before Azul could even give his orders to lynch the blue haired mage, tha panic had settled in Idia's mind. “Were you waiting for him to call you in like that?! Like some sort of BBEG?!”

“Jade here has some very interesting information on you, it would be a shame if someone made it public knowledge…” Azul crossed his hands in front of him and leaned in a bit, smiling deviously.

“... Wait wait, why are you taking this so seriously? Chill, dude, don’t you think you are going a little bit overboard with this? Like zero chill.” Idia saw how Azul loved to see him squirm under the pressure. He wasn't eager to let his browser history or his other cringe interested to be public knowledge. He was already half-way in becoming a social pariah, he really didn't need a boost for that.

“I just wanted to make sure that you understand how serious I am about this, Idia.” The merchant of the depths said his name with a singsong tune, happy about his victory in this game. “Shees, I wish I could report you. … Fine.” Idia sighed and slumped in his chair, cursing the cephalo-punk in his mind.

“I’m glad we got into an understanding. Let’s discuss the details of payment.” Azul pulled a very official looking paper out of his bag, tapping it gingerly with an expensive onyx ballpoint pen.

***

It wasn't only the day for the Board Game club to gather, but also for the Film Research Club. All the members were busy with their newest project, a horror short film with stylized visuals and extravagant setting. Using the Night Raven College Campus for the setting was ideal, as the tall castle set the mood to the correct base line. [Y/N] loved the project idea. Even though their little family quirk could be used in many ways in performative art forms such as acting or singing, they loved creating stuff with their hands. It was a creative outlet, where their form or sound of their voice mattered little. Only what they created mattered and they poured their heart and soul into them.

They had just finished creating the base for a miniature hill with a large and bare tree on top and was preparing a glue mixture to cover it with. This served as the adhesive for the dirt, gravel and small pebbles. Vil had been very particular about the color of the ground so [Y/N] had to collect right colored rocks that could be grinded down to smaller size to fit the criteria. It was lot of work, but it was worth it. They would never admit it, but getting praise for a job well done from Schoenheit made them feel very proud of themselves.

While other members were busy with costume designs and hunting down the era specific props, [Y/N] had the workshop class all on their own. The Film Research club had used its funding to get all sorts of tools and smaller scale machines to help with the production, ranging from sewing machines to sawing machines. The big windows of the old classroom made sure the daylight filled the room and gave the best light to compare colors in different environments. Two huge workshop tables occupied the center of the room, the other now filled with all the tools [Y/N] would need for the miniature setting.

“And here is the last stop of the introductions." Vil's clear voice echoed clearly from the hallway as he opened the workshop door completely. Behind him floated a familiar figure to all Ignihyde students, Ortho. Idia's "little brother". A technomantic humanoid, a marvel of scientific potential. He seemed to scan around the workshop quickly, eager to take in everything he saw. Vil on the other hand didn't waste time as he strut with decisive steps to [Y/N]. "This is [Y/N], they are in charge of the special effects, practical and computer graphics. But as you know, the film industry is so saturated with CG that people like to see something real and tangible.”

As Ortho's face recognition verified that indeed, [Y/N] was part of the Film Research club, his eyes smiled. “Ah, [Y/N]! I was told that I wouldn’t be the only student from Ignihyde.”

[Y/N] lowered their headphones and gave a quick wave of hand to Ortho with a small smile. “Oh yeah, I did hear you joined the club.”

“Yes, I hope to understand human emotions better and be better at emoting them to others. I got special permission to enroll as a student here so I hope to be a good underclassman for you.” The young humanoid was eager to explain the situation, embodying the very essence of child-like curiosity.

[Y/N] gave a small laugh. They enrolled in NRC the same year as Idia, so it was weird to think Ortho as an underclassman. “... You have been here as long as I have been so I wouldn’t exactly say that you are an underclassman in that sense. But it is nice to see you excited about this.” Now that they thought about it more, Ortho seemed different compared to their first year. His movements and speech had evolved to be more natural, and one could see him hover alone at times, asking questions. Maybe he was trying to make sense of life even back then. But one had to admit, he seemed even more different now. [Y/N] wondered what had triggered it.

Ortho nodded enthusiastically, his eyes looking past [Y/N] and fixating on the miniature base model. “What are you working on?”

“As our current project is a short horror movie inspired by old school movies, we asked [Y/N] to create sets and effects to work in that context.” Vil was quick to take the center stage again, now looking at the work in progress on the table too.

“Yeah, what Vil said. This here will be a miniature set for an establishing shot for the movie.” Feeling already proud because of Vil's words, [Y/N] gestured towards the project. The little gray pebbles were now neatly placed as naturally as possible on the base, waiting for the glue to cure.

Barely audible sound of scanning took place as Ortho leaned closer to the project on the table. “Ooh, yes, I can see it now. You use hard foam as a base and then add details and such with other materials like polymer clay, artificial miniature grass and foliage to make it look like the actual environment. I’m familiar with it as I used to help my brother work on Pirates of Treasure Planet figures and battle arenas.”

The mentioning of the popular miniature strategy game made [Y/N]'s smile wider as the nostalgia flowed into their mind. “That’s pretty much where I picked it myself too. Well I didn’t play the game myself, but my older brother too used to be a huge fan of the game when he was younger.” Their brother let them help with painting the figures and designing the battle arenas that they then took to the local comic book store. The game itself seemed quite deep and complex, [Y/N] was more interested in the creative aspect of the hobby than actually playing the game. “I see.” Ortho smiled.

Vil took a moment to look at the clock on his phone. “That said, have you informed the art club of our order?”

[Y/N] nodded, reaching out for their notes in their bag. As they grabbed the notepad, they could feel as the bag vibrated gently on silent. There was so many notifications coming a long. As soon as the club time was over, they would have their work be cut out for them. But every request would be a step closer to Wonderlink console. “Yes, I delivered the offer and advised them to send portfolios in the club email address. Right now there are couple applications but I haven’t checked them any further. I wait for couple more to arrive.”

“Very well. Forward the best candidates to me as soon as possible.” Vil would quickly take a look at his face through the front camera and then type a message to someone. He really was a busy and wanted person. Always going and reaching for new heights. One could hope to have such passion for everything that they did.

Ortho looked at Vil and then at [Y/N], trying to make sense of the conversation. [Y/N] gave a small shrug, it wasn't really a secret. “Candidates for matte painting for the background of this miniature set.”

“How exciting, you guys hire people from other clubs to work for the projects too?”

“Making films are collaborative efforts, dear Ortho. To get the best film, we need the best talent. Depending on the project, we might need a very wide range of talents to help with it.” Vil gave his signature pose whenever he was offering advice to anyone who just happened to be listening.

Ortho nodded and processed the information for a moment. “Say [Y/N], would it be okay for me to come to such meetings sometimes. I would like to know how these kinds of things really work in real life.”

“I don’t see a harm in that.” The idea didn't seem bad at all. Having someone like Ortho with such appointments would probably be very beneficial. He was an information bank and most likely had cameras installed into him. If some other student started to be too much of an arrogant bitch, they would have evidence. You never knew with students of Night Raven College, the S-rank troublemakers.

“Ah yes, the best way to learn acting and how people talk to each other is in the natural setting. I will allow it.” Vil gave his blessing, which meant that it was more than okay.

“Thank you!” Ortho beamed at Vil and turned back to [Y/N], his eyes fixating on their bag on the table. “Someone is really trying to reach you there. It is barely audible, but my sensors pick up vibration in frequency that would indicate that your phone is getting notifications.”

“Ah, sorry. Yeah, it is probably my friends sharing weird videos on magicam.” [Y/N] said as they pulled their phone out of the bag, the well worn phone charm dangling from it. A graphic presentation of constellations inside a silhouette shaped like a pegasus embellished with silver lines, giving it a look of an enamel pin.

The eyes of the young technomatic humanoid widen in recognition. “Is that the pegasus star system logo from Star Rogue?”

“Oh, yeah, it is.” [Y/N] moved the phone closer to Ortho, showing the small phone charm to him. It was an old charm, but it was beautiful. You rarely saw phone charms anymore, the smart phones rarely had any way to tie one on them. Even now, the old Star Rogue charm was looped around a self-made hole in the phone case.

“Me and Idia used to play that a lot when we were kids. It is one of my all time favorite games ever.”

Of course they would have played it. It was a cult classic. A legend of a game. The story, the graphics and the game mechanics were revolutionary when it was published. “It is a classic! I have played it too many times already, even tho I’m not that good at bullet hell games.” [Y/N] added.

“Maybe someday I can get Idia show you the no-death meteor run!” Ortho seemed more than happy to ask his brother to do that. Though [Y/N] had their doubts, it was already a rare sight to see the housewarden outside his room. Once in a full moon, the older Shroud emerged from his cave of a room and even then he tried not to draw any attention to him. Maybe he really just played all day and night in his room. Well, they could not be too mad about it, Idia still held best marks when it came to tests in school. Expect physical education. He really struggled with that.

“Oh, he has managed that? Serious props to him.” [Y/N] had to admit. It was a pretty amazing feat.

***

The cup noodles became too soggy again. Idia snarled but food was food and he had to eat something. Served him right as he got too immersed in the third volume of Sled Over Heels. It wasn't the newest anime around and the manga was only retelling of the anime, but the original creators were part of the writing process and he saw it 100%. Maybe one day he would learn to put on a timer and not trust his own judgement when 3 minutes had passed.

He sat into his gaming chair, the signed agreement generating damage over time, area of effect debuffing him, reminding him to do his "job". Major L. The agreement and the soggy noodles.

Fortunately, Ortho let himself into his big brother's room, enthusiastic as ever. “Hey Idia! How was the board game club today?”

“Ah, Ortho… It was a drag really… Azul was being crazy obsessed by some mystery entrepreneur and pretty much blackmailed me to help him locate them.” Idia didn't even look at Ortho's entrance, slurping on his meal and glaring at the official paper hoping it would burst into flames just then and there.

The smaller Shroud's eyes filled with worry and he approached Idia. “... You can’t let him do that. I will go to the Octanivelle dorm and have a chat with him.” He would. If no one else was his brother's friend and protector, he would be. It might have been his programming or the fact that his personality was based on Idia's dead younger brother, but he was always worried about him. Idia was quick to bend to his fate, whatever it may be. The depression and the social anxiety had him almost immobilized, and Ortho didn't want anything more than his brother to get better and find happiness and friends.

The offer made Idia's social anxiety raise its ugly head. “No, no no, no really, it is fine. I don’t want him to get super salty at me. It is already awkward to go to the club, I don’t really want the added awkwardness on top of that, plz.”

Ortho sighed. “Very well…” If Idia wished him not to say anything, he would respect his wishes. Even if it pained him. As much as it could pain a technomatic humanoid with artificial intelligence. But he wasn't sure if those were once again programmed emotions or was he truly feeling it. He shook his head. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Idia was feeling comfortable.

The silence that was born out of Ortho's submission to his wishes didn't help Idia's anxiety. “But hey, how was your club? The first day of the film study club.”

“Oh it was great! Vil showed me around and introduced me to everyone there. And guess what, I’m not the only Ignihyde student there.” Ortho didn't want to prolong the heavy atmosphere either and he truly felt excited about his day.

“Mm… I suppose there would be someone who would be interested in films here.” The older Shroud leaned back in his chair, trying to remember if there were any loud movie fans in the dorm. Or atleast any he talked to.

“It is [Y/N], they are from Class D of the third year” Ortho floated next to his charging station, preparing the device for the night.

Idia squinted. “... I have no recollection of them.” One would have to have a booming voice and loud opinions or otherwise eye catching for him to actually remember them. Someone like Malleus Draconia or the Leech Twins. Riddle Rosehearts made himself very unforgettable with his scary presence.

“Well anyway, they seemed super cool, and promised to let me observe as they would negotiate with other clubs for the film!”

“That’s pretty MVP behavior.”

“I know, right!”

Idia was happy to see his brother excited and making friends. At least one of them was and Ortho was always the more extroverted one anyway. It fit his character and Idia was content how the things were. Dealing with other people was tiresome and awkward. And with that thought, dealing with the stupid agreement he was blackmailed to agree to.“... Ortho, I would like to you to help me a bit with Azul’s demand. The entrepreneur in question makes personalized greetings for the clients, with the voices of known big wig celebrities or characters. If you could run your detection algorithm over the greeting I get to see if there is any indications of AI generation, patterns or pitches that could give us a lead for the person in question.”

Ortho tilted his head a bit as he assessed the brief. “Sounds doable. I suggest we choose a famous person who is well documented so we can compare the audio data against them.” “Yeah. Hmm… How about Neige LeBlanche? He is pretty popular and active on Magicam so there would be lots of casual footage and professional quality audio to run the tests through.” Even Idia knew who he was, the rivalry between Vil and Neige was almost a meme on its own.

“That’s a good choice!” Ortho beamed and readied his audio sensors for processing the possible information.

Idia took his phone out and started to type in the contact information and request details for this mysterious Litae. The money would not be a problem, but his mind blanked as soon as he reached the request text box. “... What should I ask them to say…” He looked at Ortho.

“How about a good luck shout or encouragement? Or a good night's wish while playing one of their characters from a beloved film?”

“... Let’s go with that.” Who was he to shoot down the suggestion? He didn't have any better ideas. Hopefully this would give enough data that he didn't need to do this again. He typed in the request: "Neige LeBlanche. A good night's wish." He stared at the request details in silence only to admit that he didn't know any films starring Neige LeBlanche. So maybe his actor persona would be enough.

He pressed send and in ten minutes an audio file was sent to his spare email. There was no way he would use his primary email to something like this.

With a swift click of a mouse the audio file was downloaded and it played its contents clearly: “You look so sleepy… haha… maybe you should go to sleep. Don’t worry, I will bake you an apple pie tomorrow. Like I promised. Good night, my dream. Sleep well.”

It really sounded like Neige. No immediate detection of audio artefacts from audio generation. The voice was clear and soft.

And this all made shivers of cringe travel across Idia's back.

[sillycowboys]

Tech’s Happy Ending

Tech deserved to be more than just a soldier. He could’ve been so much more. He had so much potential for a good life, all that was taken from him—and far too early. He probably would’ve ended up settling down on Pabu….with his brothers, sister, and Phee. Maybe they’d have a child and Omega would get to be an aunt. Tech would’ve been scared about being a dad, afraid that he’d have too much trouble with emotional aspect of parenting. But Omega would comfort him, reminding him of their conversation in the cave all those years ago. He’d be a great father, just as he was a great brother to Omega. He’d probably get a job somewhere where his talents could reach their full potential. He could use his intelligence for something other than war or survival. Over time he would learn to let go, floating in the sea and lying on the sand. He would teach the kids on the island all about algorithms, flying starships, and speaking other languages. Maybe he’d even open up a school on Pabu, dedicating his days to raising a generation smart enough to survive on their own and use their knowledge for good. He’d spend his nights sipping wine with Phee and reminiscing on their old days as cadets with his brothers. One day Omega, or maybe his child, would ask him about the war. He’d tighten up at first, telling them about the old strategies they used. But eventually, he’d think back to the cave and he’d breathe a bit. He’d tell them how hard it was to feel like you’re always on the edge of death, especially while his brain was constantly calculating the odds of their survival. When things got tough he’d look to his brothers, thinking that nothing else really mattered as long as they were together. Somehow, they always got through it—but never alone. He remembered when Omega first joined them he couldn’t really understand why. What were the logistical advantages to bringing along a child as they run from the empire? But he soon realized that Omega was special, different like them. And protecting her was worth all the negative odds he could calculate. He was thankful for her presence when they lost Crosshair, but he always wished they could all be together again. He wanted to see Crosshair teach her how to shoot, like he himself taught her how to pilot. He didn’t agree with Crosshair when he stayed with the empire, but he just couldn’t rack his brain for any logistical advantage to making him his enemy. He knew, without a doubt in the world, that the Bad Batch worked best all together. He thought Echo was the final piece to complete their little puzzle, but once Omega came along he realized it was her that made them complete. When they finally got Crosshair back, he felt like he could rest. He loved having all his family in one place. The odds were much better that way.

[diezmil10000]

when i was a teenager i used to spend too much time on social media. since i've always been into anime and otaku things, a lot of the japanese and south korean artists i looked up to were kind of distant; they didn't talk about their lives nor followed people back often. to my eyes, this was peak cool. these people drew so good that they didn't need to adapt to algorithms or foreign languages to succeed! i used to think that if i had so much power i wouldn't be able to resist the urge to use it to change the world.

at the same time, i also hated it. i hated when artists were so secretive about their process, so ungrateful towards the people who always supported them. i especially hated pick me artists who were constantly complaining about how hard it was to draw profiles and the other eye and who would mostly draw trends and memes and didn't understand the depth of the pieces of media they liked.

now i understand that my vision back then was blurred by a mix of admiration, bitterness and of course the language barrier. artists on social media are just random people. very few get to the point where someone else manages their account, or they start working for a studio, and even then it's still someone behind the screen.

i still have my takes about how certain types of online artists behave, but lately i've been trying to avoid those bad feelings and be more grateful for the fact that people are still creating, despite everything that's going on in the world. i'd rather be forced to follow a thousand amateur and/or attention-seeking artists than a shitty genAI account.

it's been about 8 years since i started posting my fanart online and i've met so many artists from completely different backgrounds. i've seen my friends grow and make art i would have never imagined they could make. i'm mutuals with people i've admired for almost a decade and i'm regularly told that my art inspires others. some manga authors and videogame developers have seen my art of their characters. it's been like this for years and i'm still not used to it. it's so nicel!! but it's still unbelievable.

i realized some time ago that i am now that type of unreachable artist to a lot of people. i feel guilty about it, but i don't know what to be sorry for. i guess that it was never about trying to be mysterious or forcing myself to hold back my opinions, it's just that the world is too big for one person to be on the spotlight. now that i have a job and i'm busy, i'm very comfortable in a spotlight i can turn off whenever i want.

(side note i still draw a lot but it's mostly my ocs and i'm embarrassed to post them)

if there's something i know for certain is that people will always want to see cool art. my family always asks for my drawings even if they're always girls making out and not the kind of paintings they wish i made. my friends who aren't artists still struggle to put into words why they like what i do, even if they don't know the characters; but the fact that they keep trying to communicate it makes me happy, because it shows that they really want me to continue doing this.

i don't need to hope that humanity keeps making art because i already know it will happen. but i wish people who are already on this path don't feel discouraged about the future, even with the rise of generative AI and fascism and the decline of social media platforms. the world is much more beautiful with everyone's creations in it and there's always room for more, we will always yearn for more.

i have no plans to stop making art unless i go blind, in which case i would probably learn to make music. i want to get better, i will get better, but i'm just a random person who happens to be alive at a time when random people post their art online. no matter where you are in your artistic journey, if you decide to keep moving forward, i'll meet you here in the spotlight.

[twistedteatime]

Howling Witch, Chapter 2: Bait

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Original Fem Character, 1940s!BuckyxOFC

POV: 3rd Person

Summary: To the intelligence community the Winter Soldier is a ghost, but to HYDRA the Howling Witch is a harbinger of doom that will stop at nothing to get at their prized asset. A phantom that leaves swathes of destruction in her wake. She is the biggest mistake they ever made.

Chapter Summary: The trap has been set, the bait is in play, the only question is will he go for it and how will the bait react to it all?

Word Count: 7.5K

Warnings: Language, Canon Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, Gun Violence, Shifting Character POVs, Frustrated and Aggravated Superheroes, HYDRA (HYDRA is a legitimate warning on its own), Light Angst, Self-Loathing, Flashbacks, Vampires (the bad kind. Steve is aware they are real as in the comics Cap fought vamps during the war), Wolf shifters (good though you wont see them shift for a while), if I missed something let me know.

A/N: Out later than I wanted it to be but as I've said a lot the past few days I have a lot going on right now offline. Anyway...this chapter we get to see a bit of the original story between the Howling Witch and Bucky from the 40s. We learn her name and get to see what she was before she was made into what she is and part of how she was made into what she is. It's also extra long because I didn't like where it originally left off so added more.

NOTE: The Female Main Character DOES have a name. It will be revealed this chapter.

I DO NOT CONSENT TO MY WORK BEING COPIED OR PUT INTO ANY FORM OF AI. (Also if there are typos it's likely my keyboard. I will fix as I find them, because no matter how many times I proofread there's always at least one).

Masterlists: Howling Witch🔹MASTER Masterlist

Previous Part: Chapter 1: The Hunt

Ao3 Link: Chapter 2: Bait (Registered users only)

Next Part: Chapter 3: Trap

She’d have loved to laugh when Natasha kicked Sitwell off the building. Seeing his face react to the laser through the scope had been amusing enough. Watching Sam swoop down and grab him had also been quite entertaining. Yet it was his face paling at the sight of her as she walked out of the shadows that really made her want to laugh.

She loved it when they recognized her and the fear of her permeated their scent.

It was different from the fear of falling to his doom. That was sudden, sharp, sourly sticky yet also swift and at the surface. This was far better.

Deep, slow, and tangy. It wasn’t fleeting. It lingered and oozed out of every pore on every inch of his skin as the recognition flashed over his eyes. Sour, yet sweet. Like it had been aged in a bourbon barrel.

It wasn’t the fear if imminent demise. It was the fear of recognition and the fear of coming face to face with something that you had heard stories of but didn’t think really existed. That you hoped didn’t…or at least that you’d never really see for yourself.

“Y-you…you’re…you’re real.” Sitwell whispered and she nodded silently.

She’d risk laughing if she spoke.

The wide eyes. The way their faces blanched. The way their bodies became rigid. The way their hair stood on end, not that he had any. Still, it never got old for her.

“That…that means he’s…coming. He’s…why didn’t they…they had to have kn-”

“Zola’s algorithm was never very good at calculating me. He could never quite quantify me. It’s gotten close once or twice, but it never could really get a good handle on me…and I’m not alone in this. It’s never been good at adapting to things it does not understand, of which there is plenty” She said as she approached him and he backed up into the brick, “Ooh…look at you…shaking. I’m not going to hurt you. That’s not why I’m here.”

“You can’t stop it. It’s already in motion. HYDRA will have control.” He said and she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

She laughed, short, brief, but enough, “Oh…trust me, my little jelly filled donut, HYDRA only thinks it will have control and that it wants it. HYDRA has no idea what it would really take to control what it wants to really control and then…even if it did succeed…it wouldn’t last because HYDRA lacks something very important for success.”

“What?” he asked, trembling and she just patted his cheek before walking away.

“Get going. I’ll cover you as best I can, but he’ll come out of nowhere. Likely when I’m not in position. He usually does.” She said and stopped before looking at them, thinking, and Steve could see something different, deeper, and more uncertain pass over her eyes, “Don’t hesitate. I won’t.”

She was here.

Ducking down behind the concrete that was what blared through his thoughts. He wasn’t sure who exactly she was, but he knew she was there. She always was.

He scowled.

She always interfered.

No. He would complete his mission. Whether she liked it or not.

She hadn’t been wrong.

The Soldier. He came out of nowhere and she didn’t hurt Sitwell. He did and Sitwell became much more similar to a jelly donut in the most macabre of ways.

She didn’t hesitate, either.

One precise shot. Bulletproof glasses. They had obviously planned for The Howling Witch, or was it that she knew that they planned for her? Sitting in the truck, her shoulder throbbing, Natasha played it over in her head again…and again…and again.

Did he shoot her or was it her?

“Essie. It has to be Essie.” Steve thought, his mind racing, stumbling, running, circling, and trying to make sense of it all, “If The Winter Soldier is Bucky, then she has to be Essie…how is she alive…how is he…”

“Who is Essie?” Sam asked and Natasha looked at Steve for an answer.

“She was part of the SSR. Translating, breaking HYDRA’s codes, and breaking every soldier’s heart that ever got the courage to face her wrath just to ask her to dance, that or their faces…until Bucky.”

“Go on. Go ask her.” Steve urged his friend, practically shoving him through the crowd towards the curly haired blue dress clad brunette standing next to Peggy, her bright red lips turned down in one of her usual scowls.

“You’re settin’ me up for more failure. Is this revenge for the fair? I only told her good things about you, I swear.”

“No. I bet Monty that if you asked Essie to dance she’d say yes and he bet no. I’m not losing to him.” Steve answered, enjoying the sight of his best friend flustered around a woman far too much.

“Because she says no to everyone.”

“No one is you. She tolerates you or she’d yell at you more an’ beat you with a rolled-up map more often. Just…be a man and ask the pretty lady to dance!”

“Funny coming from you. Why don’t you ask Carter?” Bucky asked him and Steve shook his head.

“That’s different. I don’t work with Peggy every single day for hours on end hunched over a map of Europe. I did that once. You two do that every single night.”

“Well, yeah. We can’t rely solely on your memory or just mine with where the bases and outposts are. You only got a quick look and I wasn’t exactly mentally present most of the time up there. She’s the best of the HYDRA Code crackers we’ve got and damn good at pinpointing stuff on the map. Better than that loon Philips had before we were all ambushed. If they actually listened to her we probly wouldn’ta been ambushed but no.”

“See? You don’t shut up about her and you haven’t even looked at any of the other girls here since the first time you saw her in the war room yellin’ at that guy. Ask her to dance. C’mon. Don’t make me lose my bet.”

“Of course I look at her. She’s gorgeous and she’s actually read The Hobbit. Unlike some people.”

“I couldn’t get into it.”

“You didn’t even try. It’s a good book and has a small guy as the hero. What wouldn’t you love about that?” Bucky retorted and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Stop stalling and ask the lady to dance. Don’t make me throw you over there. I will.”

“You’re a punk. Y’know that?” Bucky asked then scowled as he watched another soldier walk up to Essie and look her over top to bottom.

“How ‘bout I show you around the dance floor a few times, sugar?” he asked and Bucky’s eyes narrowed further, lips twitching in a frown while Steve’s curled up knowingly.

“I can see it just fine from here…and my name is not Sugar.” Essie said after glancing at the dance floor momentarily, dismissively, but then looked as Bucky plastered on a smile that could melt a hole through an iceberg while walking up.

“That is not how you ask a lady to dance, private.” He said and the soldier glared.

“And how would you do it, then you’re so smart?” he asked then stiffened as Bucky tilted his head questioningly, waiting, “Sargent.”

Bucky looked at Essie, the perfect picture of confidence and charm, “I would be absolutely honored if you would agree to this next dance with me. Please. I promise I won’t flatten your toes. I’m not Steve. He might be tall and Captain America, but he can’t dance.”

“Hey!” Steve protested as Essie’s red lips curved upwards slightly, then more.

“Well prove me wrong.” Bucky said to him with a shrug of his eyebrows before looking back at the woman before him in blue, hoping she didn’t see the sweat beading on his temple.

She likely did.

“Sure. You’re the only one around here with any manners.” She said with a smile and Steve couldn’t hold back his own at how Bucky’s blue eyes had lit up with the smile on his face.

Pure sunshine and then smug as he looked at the soldier while accepting her hand. Essie just shook her head at him, rolling her grey eyes slightly. Still she was smiling as they walked onto the floor and allowed him to take her waist and hand.

“You’re the first man here to even say the p-word to me all night. Tell me, Sargent Barnes, is it forbidden for the lot of you peacocks to say please?” she asked as they began to move, letting him lead her around the dance floor.

“I can’t answer that for them. Seems like it sometimes.”

“Is that what gets the girls back home? Strutting up, puffing up, saying any combination of words other than please?” she asked and he chuckled lightly.

“Maybe. Maybe they just haven’t adjusted to the higher standards over here.”

“Maybe they should. Gets better results when you wait for a handsome man with manners and good literary taste.” Essie replied with a small smile at him he returned.

“Was that a compliment?” Bucky asked smiling more as he laughed lightly, “From you?”

“Don’t let it go to your head and don’t spread it around. I’ll have to fight off more of your tittering fan club.”

“Fan club? You’re confusing me with Captain America over there.”

“Yes…that’s why all the other ladies and secretaries were practically fighting each other over who got to be your nurse when you walked into camp with him.” She replied smoothly and he looked at her, “Don’t pretend you don’t know women fight over men.”

“Well, between you and me, hasn’t felt like I’m the center of their attention since getting back.” He said and she laughed lightly.

“Sure, Steve Rogers is a tall, muscle bound, chisel jawed, strapping, strong, daring, brave man…and sure that gets plenty of the girls around here fanning themselves whenever he walks by…but there are plenty of others far more interested in his best friend. You know…the one that doesn’t risk flattening their feet, the one that Peggy doesn’t angrily shoot live bullets at, the one that…seems to have a bit more sense than a rabid badger in a golden retriever’s body…”

He laughed, deep, resonating in his stomach and chest, “Oh…you don’t even know half of how right you are about Steve.”

“I beg to differ, Sargent. You don’t know about the grenade incident.” She retorted and he looked at her then glared a few moments later at Steve across the dance floor as he smiled while talking with Peggy.

She watched that smile fade then looked over. All she saw was a smile on Essie’s face and a glare on Sargent Barnes as he charged over. That smile on Essie’s face was mischief. Pure mischief. The look on Steve’s was fear.

He started backing up towards the door, “I gotta go. Right now. Rain check.”

Then he was out the door and James Buchanan Barnes strode past her like a man on a mission. Essie walked up soon after, still smiling. Satisfied.

“What did you do? Couldn’t you just dance with the man?”

“I told him about how Steve jumped on a fake grenade back in New Jersey thinking it was live. He tried to tell me I don’t know how stupidly brave your boyfriend is. I proved him wrong.”

He returned eventually, face set with frustration, exasperation, struggle. No mask of charm. The mask was off. It stayed off even as she sat down next to him.

She didn’t say anything. She just sat there, silently, save for the occasional refusal of a dance. The music played on. Light, swaying, smooth, and high. Something meant to lift the spirits of the soldiers, take their minds off the battlefield, the horrors they had seen. Ones they had endured.

It worked for the most part. For some, it didn’t. It never would, but for most, it provided a well-deserved return to some semblance of normalcy. Something bright and clean to swallow them up in warmth and soothe away the grime of war, pain, and the unspeakable.

“I don’t…I don’t understand why he’s so…desperate to walk out there and…get himself…” Bucky eventually said as he stared off into nothing, blue eyes distant as he jerked his hands into the air, fingers gesturing explosively while Steve observed from around the corner.

“It’s the type of person he is. Big as his body is now…it’s still not big enough to hold in him. He’s a good man. Makes mistakes, but everyone does. He’s not stupid. Not really. He knows the risks, but to him they don’t outweigh the rewards. He’s not in it for glory. He just wants to do what’s right and protect people.” She said calmly and smiled at him softly, “I understand, though. He’s your brother. You’ve spent years protecting him and then he grew into a tall and shiny man and rescued you.”

“He’s not shiny.”

“You weren’t there when he came out of the chamber. He was very shiny. You should have seen Peggy’s face. Well…most women’s faces. Mine was even notable. Mostly confusion. I honestly didn’t expect it to work, and even if it did I didn’t expect what he was to come out as he is now.” She said and he nodded then licked his lips briefly, disbelief etched across his face, “What?”

“So you’re trying to tell me that you didn’t instantly fall for Captain America?” he asked and smiled while looking at him.

“I’m not a magpie. I require more than a man being shiny. I’d like one with manners, can dance, knows how to read, and knows I’m not just some dumb broad named Sugar.” She answered and Bucky smiled gently as he looked at her, studying her face, “We never finished our dance, by the way.”

“You distracted me.” He retorted, lips crooked up in a smile she shared and looked back at her once he glanced at the dancefloor; then he stood and offered her his hand, “Let’s finish what we started, though. Wouldn’t be right to leave you with only half a dance.”

So close. SO CLOSE.

He was gone again. Just like every time before. Steve hesitated. Just that extra moment. That was all it took for the programming to kick back in and he was gone again.

He’d be back though. They’d send him back out soon. She was going to make sure that they did.

This hunt wasn’t going to fail. It couldn’t. Hesitation or not it could not fail.

She sighed and took the victories she could out of what had just happened. It wasn’t all in vain. It proved she had chosen the right bait. Steve hesitated but it wasn’t over yet, and it wasn’t nothing.

It was something and Essie really couldn’t blame Steve for his hesitation. It was a shock. One she’d felt before herself. As desperate and frustrated as she was…she couldn’t blame him for hesitating. That’s what she had to tell herself. All of it.

Don’t get angry.

Focus.

It’s not over yet.

Focus.

Do what you have to do.

Let no one stand in your way.

Then burn it all to the ground.

“Where are they now?” She asked as she walked through the tunnel, pulling her cowl and hood down, goggles long since discarded now that she was back in the dark.

Where she belonged.

“They’re on their way, Alpha. Close. We tried, but the best we could do was the news helicopter. Delta flew there as fast as she could. Hill got loaded into the transport and let us know she has them. They’re on their way. So is Delta she had to put the copter back.” Tanis said as he walked with her, sharply pulling the tie free and off with a soft growl.

“I’m surprised she didn’t crash it.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as they walked, Tanis a half step behind her, and he nodded.

“You and me both.” He agreed and held up a ringing phone, “Pierce is calling again.”

She took it and answered it, ignoring the angry scolding shouts coming through it, “I told you not to underestimate Rogers. I told you I didn’t want an extra team. I told you I work alone. You overplayed your hand, Pierce, and you interfered in my methods of doing things and you clearly didn’t brief the Asset on what he was hunting! Then you LET THEM GET IN MY WAY!”

Tanis flinched as she shouted into the phone. It was better for her to be shouting at the man she really hated instead of him, true, but it still hurt his sensitive ears. A lot. It did from the very beginning.

Gorgeous. That had been his first thought upon seeing her hauled into the then Alpha’s throne room. Then pity. He knew what the former Alpha did to anything pretty that he liked. He was the Lowest of the Low, he was just too strong to be put where he belonged…not on a throne with that smirk as she was led in on a chain with a collar around her neck.

She was broken. Shattered at the soul. Silver eyes that screamed of years of suffering only to suffer even more.

She was an offering. One the Alpha had taken pride in receiving from the dark-skinned stranger in return for their services. One he underestimated.

That they all did.

She was beautiful and shattered…but they were wrong to think she was broken beyond repair. Beyond resistance. Beyond guile, trickery, and Challenge.

Far from it.

The Alpha had laughed when she Challenged him for leadership there in the throne room. He praised the stranger for bringing him something entertaining. At least until the stranger spoke.

“She’s not joking…and she’s Hungry.” He said with a small smirk, his fangs evident as he looked over his sunglasses, “Feeding Day.”

Feeding Day.

Words they soon had ingrained into their very beings. Words they associated with the sticky metallic smell of blood and the shrieking sound of their former Alpha screaming.

Words to fear. Words to celebrate. Words that earned his respect followed by actions that cemented his loyalty.

So he dealt with the shouting. She had every reason to shout. Frustration, anger, disappointment, and the need to sell the narrative.

A narrative that saw her blaming Pierce for their actions.

He had to bite his tongue at that.

“Then…then…then you let a FUCKING NEWS COPTER IN THE AREA! You could have gotten rid of Rogers, Romanoff, that bird guy you didn’t tell me about, and the Asset you’re so clearly eager to sabotage and get rid of if you had just locked down the airspace! There’s reports of a vigilante maniac flying around the city in a pair of metal fucking wings and you don’t think to restrict the airspace or send in air support?! What the hell is he? You never told me about him! Instead…in-in-instead, you let a fucking news copter fly over and broadcast, LIVE might I add, your team of thugs about to execute the public’s favorite golden boy!” She shouted into the phone, shouting Pierce down into a silent, and no doubt fuming, submission, “Or is it that you were hoping I wouldn’t notice so you’d have someone else to blame? Crossing me is the worst mistake you could ever make, Pierce…and it will be your undoing. I promise you that.”

“Threaten me again and I’ll add you to his list.” Pierce growled, enraged, threatened, and she smiled.

“Go right ahead. He’d have to find me before I find you. I’d avoid windows from here on out, Pierce. Unless they’re the triple thick ones in the Triskelion where you are right now…pacing back and forth in front of your desk.” She said calmly and then hung up when he started to speak again, cutting him off; she pocketed the phone after texting into it, calm, collected, and focused, “Let’s hope he actually has big enough balls to do it.”

“He’ll wipe him again, first.” Tanis reminded her and she nodded with pained sigh.

“I know.” She said regretfully, “They’ll wipe him again if he mentions Steve anyway but they can’t put him on ice again. That will change the process.”

“Your reasons are your own for doing this way…but when the hunt is over…what then?” he asked and she looked at him.

“The hunt was only ever the beginning, Tanis. You weren’t there when Eric had to walk me through the years adjusting to what I am, hiding, accepting the reality of everything that happened and that I did. Getting him out from HYDRA…that was only ever the beginning. It was never the end. Even if by the end…we part ways again…at least he’ll be free. At least he recognized Bucky was a name, at least there was recognition when he looked at Steve. Fleeting, but something.” She said and he nodded, silent, something that did not fit well with her Gamma, “Say it. Your silences are just as loud as Ruun’s.”

“If, and I am not saying he will, if he decides to leave…to Reject you because of what you are now…will you survive it? You’ve been hunting him longer than you’ve been leading us. He’s your Mate, I don’t question why you’ve been hunting him so long and I’m not…questioning your ability to lead, just…will you be okay?” he asked as he looked at her, amber eyes concerned, not for his leader, but for his friend, “Should that come to pass?”

It took her a moment to answer as she looked at him, studying him as if she were committing his face to memory. It was something she did often. Not just to him but to everyone.

His sister described it as being like she was looking at you for the last time, every time, just in case. Tanis was never able to look at it any other way since then. She was right.

“I survived losing him once, Tanis. I’ll survive it again if I must. I know you’re not questioning me. Stop that. I’m Alpha, not a tyrant like the last one. Not like that. You should know that by now.” She said and he smirked slowly, shifting gears as he saw her silver eyes dimming down to steel.

“Well…Pierce might not agree with that statement…you were kind of a bitch.” He said and smiled more as he saw her eyes shift and glint and her lips twitched up briefly.

“Sometimes…you need to be a bitch to achieve your goals.”

“Does that include you shooting your Mate in the face?” Tanis asked and she looked at him.

“If I know the bullet won’t go through the glasses…yes. It was a lower caliber and it was never going to go through in the first place. Just enough to ding him and piss him off. He’d have been fine. I’ve done it before.” She said as they walked through the tunnels, voices up ahead she recognized.

“What about…” he started and gestured down the tunnel.

“What about what?

“You shot me.” Natasha said as Essie and Tanis walked in, “It couldn’t have been him. The Soldier. It had to be you from where I was.”

“It stopped you.” Essie said as she pulled up a chair and slid it towards Tanis before sitting herself on an old filing cabinet above him.

“You almost killed her.” Sam said as Steve just stared at her, his head still obviously swimming in shock and confusion.

“Almost, but not quite. The bullet he’d have fired into her skull would’ve.” She said as she sat back against the wall, “The Winter Soldier doesn’t miss. Neither do I.”

“Bucky.” Steve said as he looked at her, “Bucky doesn’t miss.”

“That’s not Bucky.” She said and he shook his head, “That is not Bucky, Steve.”

“Yes he is. That’s Bucky. I grew up with Bucky! I know who Bucky is!” he retorted, scowling, nostrils flared.

He was out of shock.

Essie knew what was next.

She’d gone through it herself.

“What the hell is going on?! How…I went into the ice…you…Bucky…you shot him! Bucky loves you, Essie, and you shot him! Do you even care what you could have done?! YOU SHOT-” Steve started while standing and then Tanis plugged his ears; Steve realized it a little too late.

“THAT IS NOT BUCKY!” Essie snarled and Steve recoiled, eyes wide as he paled and sat back down.

She knew why.

Her teeth. Canines. Top and bottom that sharpened and extended into something inhuman. Her eyes. Silver that caught the light unnaturally for a human at the best of times but when angered produced their own light and glowed with a rage that was barely contained at the worst. Her voice. Not just shouting but snarling, she felt it vibrating through her chest and throat as it came out.

Not human.

Other.

“I am not the Essie you remember. He is not the Bucky you remember, Steve. Not anymore.” She said taking a deep breath in, willing her teeth to recede, “Bucky…he’s still in there. I know he’s still in there. Today proved that. You hesitated. You let him think too long, but…you made him think. Bucky is still in there but right now…he is not Bucky. That man…is The Winter Soldier. That is not James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. Not your best friend. Not my man. That is the Winter Soldier. I am not the Essie…not the Esteria Stark you remember anymore. Peggy never told you what I did…after you told me what happened on the train…did she?”

Steve shook his head, yet Sam spoke.

“Maybe…maybe we can back the hell up a bit? What the hell even was that guy? He had a metal arm. A metal…fucking…arm.”

“Steve doesn’t like that kind of language.” Fury said and Essie looked at him, “Just saying. Surprised he isn’t yelling about cursing with ladies present.”

“You do understand that Steve was in the army…during a war where SNAFU was invented…right? He’s heard all of it. So did I. It just wasn’t as common as it is now, but it was still there. Not on official records, but there.” she said and Steve let out a short laugh.

“Good luck telling her to mind her mouth. Won’t work. I remember the shock on Dum Dum’s face the first time she and Bucky got into an argument in front of everyone over that girl that touched him. She let out every word in the book.”

Essie scowled.

“It wasn’t funny. She was a threat. A real threat. Not a threat to the relationship, just in general. You were a covert unit. She was such an open book she was a walking billboard with boobs.” Essie retorted and Tanis snickered quietly, shaking his head, and she looked at him, “You’d have been all over her so don’t you laugh about it, Tanis. Just your type. Pretty, blonde, green eyes, long legs, bouncy boobs, always up for a good time, and dumb.”

“You’ll never let me live that down, will you?”

“No.” she said and Natasha couldn’t take it anymore.

“What are you? What is The Howling Witch? How did you become The Howling Witch?” Natasha asked and Essie looked at her as did Fury, “How is he here…with you? I think we’re owed some answers. That Steve is owed some answers. Your name is Esteria Stark?”

“Not that Stark.” Nick said, “I made that mistake, too.”

“Everyone does. It became an inside joke with Howard at some point before things happened.” Essie said, checking her watch, and Steve glanced at her yet remained silent, “Stark is no more a unique last name than Rogers, Wilson, Barnes, Pierce, Roberts, Ross, or any other. Mine is Germanic in root. From what you now call Germany. I lost the accent a long time ago…just as you lost your accent of birth a long time ago. My accent now…it shifts depending on where I am and what I talk about.”

“You’re German?” Sam asked and Steve answered.

“People often forget that the first country Hitler invaded was Germany.” He said and she nodded quietly before speaking again a few moments later.

“Bucky asked me one day why I did it. Why I was there with the SSR. Not flirting. Not the stupid: ‘What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?’ nonsense. He just asked because he wanted to know…” Essie said softly, eyes shifting as the memory slipped its bars.

They had been going over the map. Again. For hours. Long past the time everyone else had left for the night.

It was late, her neck ached from the angle it had been bent at going over the European map and translated transmissions she had been working on all day. HYDRA’s code changed again.

They didn’t use the same code as the other German forces did. They had their own special homebrewed one steeped in mythology, numbers, and insanity. Took a while to crack through, but eventually she did and went to retrieve Bucky.

It was part of a routine. One they’d had since nearly the very beginning when he first came back from the base with Captain America and agreed to help. Peggy and Steve had brought him to her where the map was so she could pick his brain about what he had seen while under Arnim Zola’s “care”.

Peggy had warned her he was a flirt and might be a bit tanked since she found him in a bar. Steve just looked at her, a bit nervous about leaving his friend there with Essie after the outburst she’d had with someone else being less than useful. He didn’t deny what Peggy said about Bucky being a flirt or even possibly drunk.

He wasn’t, though. Far from it. Setting eyes on him it turned out he was quite alert. Alert and observant.

He’d seen quite a lot during his time as one of Zola’s subjects. His memory of it was spotty at times as he’d been delirious a lot of it, but it was still there. Once something was committed into his memory it was there…it just took some nudging.

Sometimes physical nudging if he got too distracted.

“Ow! What was that for?!” he asked, rubbing his head with a sharp look at her, “You’re damn violent, y’know?”

“Stop focusing on me and focus on the map. Staring at me isn’t going to help you remember anything.”

“You don’t know that. Starin’ at you might unlock the secrets of the universe for all you know.”

“James. Focus. Where on this map could they be sending the next shipment to? Where are the little cockroaches they are running to next?” she asked and he scowled a bit.

“Bucky.”

“James. Right now, you are James…or do you want me to demote you back to Sargent Barnes? Or better yet, soldier boy?” she asked as she glanced at him, tired, her accent slipping from fatigue, and he looked at her.

Really looked at her like he was trying to see who she really was. It was invasive, as if trying to see into her depths; to see what made her tick. It made her tense up as she waited for the question. She knew he heard the shift. It wasn’t the first time, but he had never looked at her like this before.

 “Why are you here? Doin’ all this? Puttin’ up with…all of this? The…soldiers, the men, the other women that talk about you? I know you’re a German, Essie. I know you hide it. I’m pretty damn sure I know why, but why are you doing this?”

It wasn’t a new question. She was asked it often. She rarely ever gave anyone a full answer. Yet, as she stood there at the table with him, Essie found the answer coming past her lips before she knew it as she pointed at a spot on the map.

“I was born here. In a little village far away from the politics and the secret meetings of Berlin deep in what you call The Black Forest. We didn’t have much. No one did, but we managed. The village was remote. Off the beaten path despite everything that happened in it during the war.” She said and Bucky frowned as he listened, blue eyes locked on her face while she lightly traced the outline of the area. “People didn’t leave the village much, but they did occasionally. My aunt was one. She married an English businessman just before Hitler took over. I don’t know how they met. I was never told, but when it…he happened…I was with her. She invited me to visit. To see more of the world, so she said, so I was in England when it happened. We received a letter from my Papa. ‘Don’t come back. Stay there. Stay safe. We love you.’ That was the last time…we ever heard from them.”

“What happened?”

“We found out later that HYDRA…Schmidt…burnt it to the ground. The whole village and took everyone.” She said and his frowned deepened with the plummeting of his stomach, heart aching and breaking as she continued, “They took my mother, my father, my older brother…my little sister. The whole village. Every last one from the newest of babies to the oldest of the elders. Every…last…one. HYDRA took everything from me. They take one more thing from me…and I will go out there myself to hunt them down and gut them like the pigs they are. That is why I do this.”

Bucky tapped the map, pointing at one of the bases Steve had pointed out with his left hand while his right gently took hers from where it was still tracing circles against the surface. She looked at him while he squeezed softly. Then she looked at where he was pointing.

“The facility was big. They wouldn’t have risked sending anything that big out too far without proper cover. Not with our guys in the sky up there even after Schmidt blew it to hell on purpose. They’d go back to recover whatever they could from as close as they safely could. Here. They’d head here.” He said and looked at her when she squeezed his hand back, “Whaddaya think?”

Essie looked at translated code she had and nodded, “It’s…likely. HYDRA doesn’t like giving things up.”

The room was silent as she finished speaking. It was momentary. Tanis knew it was only momentary as she collected her thoughts, memories, and words. It was a story he knew well from his many years as her Gamma.

It never got easier to hear or to think about even if it explained so much to him and others about why she had come to them, fought for them. It even explained why she was so adamant about remaining hidden and keeping their passages hidden even when not in use.

“I wasn’t bluffing. They took yet another thing from me: Him. They took Bucky…and I had enough. I was done with sitting around in a tent or a bunker or a base hunched over a desk. They needed people…ones that knew the language, the customs, the terrain to go into the forest.”

Steve looked at her, frowning, “Essie, I…”

“The Black Forest is thick. Dense. Difficult to penetrate even when it isn’t made into a defensive wall. They’d already spent roughly six months fighting one battle that saw over 33, 000 allied casualties. They wanted to prevent more so when I offered they accepted. Especially since I knew how to work a rifle and was a ‘damn good shot’. Peggy knew, Dum Dum knew and Monty knew. They begged for me to not do it.” She continued and locked her eyes on Steve’s when he looked at her, “I told them not to tell you.”

“Why?” Steve asked, frowning, “I…”

“Because you’d only blame yourself even more than you were and like you are now.” She answered while looking at him, “Bucky wasn’t your fault. He still isn’t and I am not your fault. None of it, none of this, is your fault. No one knew. They kept everything hidden about why they took my village. We knew they were running experiments after the castle, but we didn’t know what for. Until I found out when my partner, a backstabbing cunt, betrayed the entire unit to her lover…an officer under Himmler himself.”

Steve grimaced, so did Fury, “He was almost as obsessed with the occult as Schmidt was…” “Mmh…yes, and they had found the research notes from Castle de Krake that we couldn’t find. She was so happy to hand me over. I was the last one from my village. She hit me pretty hard. Then she spent days taunting me about how superior and loyal her lover was compared to Bucky before we arrived. I had the last laugh in the end. She handed me over and he put her in the same cell as me as a ‘control sample’. Something to see if the process would work with anyone or if HYDRA was onto something and not just insane thinking I had to be someone specific. The war was all but over by then…not that it mattered to them.”

Pain. So much pain. Burning. Inside. Cold. Outside.

Her blood felt like it was boiling yet she was shivering as she lay strapped to the gurney. Tubes. So many tubes running in and out of her body. Red with blood that went in and that went out. So much blood.

Then another needle.

Track marks dotted up and down her arms in such a multitude they blurred together. She didn’t feel a sting. She barely felt the metal plunge into her skin, but she felt the injection.

She always did.

Liquid fire flooded into her system and a scream burst past her lips.

One of them protested, “But the Fuhrer-”

“Forget that. It doesn’t matter now. We’re almost there. We almost have it. What they failed to do. If we can wake up the dormant potential in her…imagine what we could do to others! Imagine what we could do with her if the mixture takes hold and integrates with her on a cellular level. She’s perfect. Everything, Hans, everything we put in she adapts to. It’s beautiful to watch.”

“They went through an entire village for you?” Natasha asked, her tone dry yet hoarse, and Essie’s lips turned upwards slightly as she shook her head.

“No, little spider, they went through my entire village…one…by…one…until I was the last one left. The only one left. Steve and the others found some of the reports in Castle de Krake.”

“Everything they did to them…they did to you?” Steve asked and she nodded.

“Yes. Everything. I just happened to be the one to survive ‘The Awakening’. They weren’t trying to recreate the super soldier serum Erskine made. What they concocted was to reawaken what we now know to be dormant genes in my genetic code. Ancient ones that tied the entire village to a race of hidden, deeply misunderstood, people.” She replied and took a deep breath in, “Most people confuse them with werewolves, but they’re not what you think of as werewolves. That is a more involuntary thing. A Wolf is born. Not made. Unless you’re me, but even then I’m not a full Wolf.”

“You’re enough of one.” Tanis said as he glanced up at her calmly, having been sitting silent until this moment, “It doesn’t matter what else they shot you up with. You are enough of a Wolf for us.”

“Be that as it may, Tanis…truth is that I am not a full Wolf. I don’t even really know what I am. Even after 70 years of being…this…I don’t know what I am. I’m mostly Wolf, but there are other things, too.”

“You could find out…” Fury said and she scowled.

“I am not submitting my blood into any of your databases for investigation. I had enough of that in Germany and enough of that after. No more.” She retorted and checked her watch again.

“You got a date, or something?” he asked and she looked at him flatly, “Just curious…”

“For a man with a collapsed lung and no accelerated healing factor…you’re very talkative.”

“Considering it was your boyfriend that fired several slugs into me…I think we still need some more answers.”

“Considering you’re annoying…I almost wish he aimed higher and that I didn’t offer you a place to hide.” Essie retorted seamlessly with a smile at him and several blinks of her silver eyes, “I don’t particularly like recounting the endless experiments that turned me into this or what I was when Eric found me.”

“Eric?” Steve asked, thinking.

“The vampires you fought back in the war screamed about him by the name of ‘Daywalker’.” She said and he nodded that it was familiar and Fury spoke.

“Blade. He doesn’t work well with others.”

“He can when he feels like it, which isn’t exactly often.” Essie said and went on, “He was part of the Secret Invaders that went after a U-Boat made with cursed metal and other things that got possessed earlier in the war. You’d think they’d have learned to stop messing with things they couldn’t control or understand at some point, but no. They never did. It’s like they just had a collective thought of: ‘Yes. We are puny humans but let us mess with the occult, supernatural, extraterrestrial, and everything in between! It’ll be fiiiineee.’ Ugh. Anyway, he’s not very sociable, but that is the price he pays. He’s the one that found and got me out. I’d love to tell you all about it, but I don’t personally remember much of it.”

It was Tanis that spoke next when it was clear they didn’t want to let it go just yet, “He told us about it early on. Said he was tipped off about a base where they did ‘some pretty fucked up shit’ to people. The tip off was right. She was the only subject there by then. The last one left…in a cell…with three of their largest soldiers trying to hold her down as she screamed. He was going to intervene when the tables turned and he said the next thing he knew was that they were screaming for him to help them. ‘I’ve seen a lot of fucked up things, but that was a new level’.”

“What are you?”

“Hungry.” She answered, blood dripping down from her hands as she licked at them, sucking them clean until feral silver locked on the plate set on the table in front of him.

Blood dripped as she reached through the bars at it.

Slop.

That’s all it was.

“Hungry!” she snarled, panting desperately as she strained towards it, her body pressing into the bars harder and harder, scraping the skin, tearing it as she reached, “Please. So hungry. So hungry.”

Vampires didn’t beg for food. Not when there were three still warm bodies to feed from. Teeth weren’t right either.

He picked up the plate. Then the keys.

A mistake.

He was fast, but so was she.

“I vaguely remember locking him the cell and interrogating him while eating what they called food. Somehow he convinced me to let him out. I honestly don’t remember how. I just remember it being a few days later when I asked what his name was while holding a skewered rabbit he had cooked over the fire and handed me. I remember him wincing a bit at the crunching because I ate the whole thing, bones and all.” Essie said and hopped down off her perch, “Delta should be getting back soon. I’m going to go debrief her.”

“I can do that.” Tanis said and she shook her head.

“No. You stay.” She answered, silver locked on amber for a second yet it was enough for Steve to see something pass between them, silent and understood as Tanis nodded.

“Yes, Alpha.” He said and waited for her to leave the room before speaking, “She’s not going to talk to you about everything. It took us…about…two years to get the whole story out of her and we didn’t enter her story until about 23 years ago.”

Natasha shifted in her seat as she looked at him, “Then maybe you can fill in the gaps. Why is she codenamed Howling Witch by HYDRA if she wasn’t made by them? I found a file on her once in a database, it was mostly redacted, then it was deleted. She won’t answer anything directly.”

“Would you? You’re Red Room. We know what that is. That you are one demanding clear answers and transparency…well…it’s a bit funny, honey.” Tanis replied as he sat in his seat, head cocked to the side as he blinked playfully yet also seriously, “The scientists responsible for her ‘Awakening’ were using HYDRA research and methods, but only scraps they’d picked up from the wreckage or smuggled out from other bases. There was a lot of fighting between divisions. They’re responsible for only half of what she is. Eric busted her out from the SS facility, spent a few months with her, getting her stabilized enough to take her around people, and took her back to England. To their pre-cursor to SHEILD. So he thought. Guess who they really were.”

Steve sighed and shook his head, “HYDRA.”

A/N: Long but needed. Next chapter will be up, hopefully, Thursday. I might have things to do on Friday. There's a lot of...uncertainty about this week with my schedule so just bear with me. The next chapter will be shorter, more like the first in length.

I appreciate every like, kudos, bookmark, and view, I sincerely do, but if you really want to let me know you want more of this: comment, reblog to share my work, send asks, tell me.

Masterlists: Howling Witch🔹MASTER Masterlist

Previous Part: Chapter 1: The Hunt

Ao3 Link: Chapter 2: Bait (Registered users only)

Next Part: Chapter 3: Trap

[sophiemariepl]

So… for the disclaimer: I am only a beginner to AO3.

(My tags here for the info. Again, I am open to criticism, as long as it is constructive.)

But when last December I finally decided to publish my fanfiction about Aemond Targaryen and my Lannister OC, I added tags relating to Daemyra, as well as Rhaewin and Rhaenor, because I actually do intend to make them relevant later as the story progresses, even though they are not the main ships in my story.

I did that because for years, I have seen people doing that in ASOIAF fandom on AO3. I genuinely thought that it was just an information to the readers that yes, this ship does appear in my story, so if you are okay with it, you can read it, and if you don’t want to read anything that this ship happens in, then don’t.

And in many ways, tagging stories in such a manner still serves exactly such a purpose, especially in more niche ships, like Jason Lannister/Johanna Westerling Lannister or Gwayne Hightower/Tyland Lannister. I cannot describe how for years I was frustrated that I couldn’t get a proper fanfiction relating to Brandon Stark (Ned’s older brother) and a Targaryen OC (like an alternative version of Rhaegar’s canonically stillborn sister Shaena), because people were tagging them even though they were even most vaguely mentioned in the story. But did it encourage me to go to the anon’s comment section every time they updated their story and demand from them to change their tags? Well no.

And meanwhile, that is exactly what I see Daemyra stans doing. The first time I published my fanfic, I thought that maybe I was indeed just inexperienced and I just didn’t know how to tag properly yet, even though those comments were genuinely vile and they quickly escalated to insulting my writing style as well, although I did mention in the disclaimers to my story that English is not my first language and that I am still learning how to properly write prose in English.

So after that situation I modified my tags and added „mentioned” to all tags relating to anything vaguely romantic/sexual regarding Rhaenyra (except those with Alicent), just to make it more clear.

However, even this did not save me from waking up this morning to not one, but two angry comments under my most recent update, again, demanding that I change my tags, because they are, „misleading”. Like, how is „mentioned Rhaenyra Targaryen/Daemon Targaryen - relationship” misleading? It literally says that it is only mentioned! Like anon, if it still shows on your page even though it still says „mentioned” in it, maybe then, idk, stop subscribing that particular tag?

And you know, I would have thought that this is really a tagging issue, if only I did not tag any other ship that is a bit more popular than others that I used, that is, Helaegon. Just like in case of Daemyra, I also added it since I am planning to make it relevant to my story. But completely unlike the case of Daemyra, I did not receive any comments whatsoever from the Helaegon shippers demanding that I change my tags.

So my conclusion is that the root of the problem is actually in the Daemyra stans themselves, especially in their entitlement and expectation to be given special treatment in the fandom. The only advice I can give here is: just leave your bubble from time to time and see how other ships are treated, especially less popular ones. Just because someone tags a thing not the way you like it to is not an excuse to literally bully someone. Because yes, loosing your composure over something as small as tags on a fanfic and proceeding to write often not one, but several lengthy and angry comments under their work basically constitutes as bullying. AO3 is still one of the few pages on the internet which are the least shaped by the algorithms. If you are unhappy that you don’t have an algorithm here catering you everything the way as you like it, then it is really your problem. Like, grow up and touch grass.

Seriously, I might actually have to change my tags since the number of people that you can block is limited on AO3 and I am tired of doing that every time I am receiving this type of treatment.

These are the most recent comments that I received. They were written by the same person btw (the fact that they have energy for this.)

Like, why shall I care about what Daemyra fans want in the first place? And how is my fanfic, which is very small and rarely viewed in comparison to many Daemyra fanfics, stopping people from seeing actual Daemyra fanfics? Also they always say „I really hope you understand” but the moment you don’t want to accept their demands, they go from 0 to 100 and begin to insult your writing. Not to mention that the style of these messages is almost always identical, almost as if they were written by bots 💀

(For the disclaimer: this is not meant to criticize anyone who just enjoys Daemyra as a ship per se. I do know people who enjoy this ship like people used to enjoy Cersei x Jaime - particularly because it is toxic, and don’t feel the urge to whitewash it as some amazing love story. Meanwhile now many people who are very active in the Daemyra fandom are currently pretty delusional about the toxicity of their relationship, and on top of everything, demand special treatment within the fandom, which is the topic of the above post.)

[rynrising44]

Some fanfiction tips and tricks:

Hi hello how are you- I've been writing a lot of fanfiction recently (shocker) and wanted to make a little list of helpful tips when it comes to formatting and getting thoughts in order. I still fall prey to many of these errors and see a lot of them out there on AO3, which stifles a good chunk of fics that readers, especially English only speakers, ultimately lose interest in/are unfamiliar with.

NOT HARD AND FAST RULES. Just what I've noticed throughout my process.

English speakers/ writers use quotation marks in their writing. They look like this: "I can't believe you've done this!" she screamed. Using << I can't believe you've done this! >> she screamed, OR 'I can't believe you've done this!' she screamed when writing in English are foreign to most readers. If you're having trouble reaching audiences and are using one of the two formats above, it's probably because of the way your dialogue is written.

NOTE: if you are writing in another language which uses <<+>> or '+' keep using those formats. This only applies if you're writing in one language but keeping the structure of another.

You don't have to say, 'he said,' or 'she said,' after every line of spoken dialogue. Have fun with it and go back and forth! Here is an example in present tense:

"You're about to get sacked after being shot by Russian sleeper agents and stealing a helicopter," he says with bad taste. "How does that make you feel?" "Getting shot? Or getting fired?" Mackey asks. "Getting shot and then getting fired." "Seriously?" "Just... taking the piss, alright?" Mackey doesn't bother replying.

Epithets are not your friend. Do not use them. Get in the heads of your characters! Would the wife of your main character refer to him as 'the taller man' or 'the blonde?' NO! We refer to others by their name, nicknames, and pet phrases (don't overuse the pet names though).

Read books! The best way to learn how to write is to read. This will really help you understand the way sentences flow and how to end/begin sentences.

The quotations go outside the period. "Like this."

Pick a tense and stay with it. Don't go back and forth between 'said, went, replied,' and 'says, goes, replies.' This is a mistake I see people do a lot, especially when first starting out.

When tagging your fics, don't use tags like "Bad at tagging" or "This is garbage I don't know what I'm doing." That is YOUR WORK. Your fic is yours and you should be proud of it. If you don't stand by your creativity and ideas, then why should anyone else?

One shot collections should be in a series. NOT in a multi-chaptered fic. Unless they are complete, in the same universe, and follow a timeline, try to post them individually. That way, if someone likes one but not the other, you aren't screwing yourself over.

Use your summaries wisely. Quotes, action scenes, and eye-catching statements will draw a reader in. (Please don't say something like "Bad at tagging and summaries.")

Write what you want to read. Not what others want to read. If you love writing rare-pair F/F fanfiction with established relationships, DO THAT. (Shameless plug there.) Don't go chasing pairings and tropes that you hate just for views/kudos. The good feelings will not last, and you will pigeonhole yourself into things you don't like. (want proof. Try it out and see what happens.)

Get involved in the fandoms you write for. Comment on other author's works, especially if the fandom is small. Chances are, they will click on your fic, read it, and share it with others. Also, you can yell at one another and keyboard smash all day long.

Give each other shout outs on Tumblr.

The summary section for your fics is NOT where you put things like 'taking requests. give me a request. please comment fic recs.' Save that for Tumblr/ Twitter (rolls eyes, 'X') and Wattpad. AO3 is for stories, not algorithms. If you really feel the need, include it in your profile.

WRITE SOMETHING IN YOUR PROFILE. People love personalization. Also, you can give blanket statements about your rules on gifts, inspirational works, and other things.

Do not overtag your works if those tags do not apply. Writing 50+ tags for a 1k fic is a little head-scratching. Focus on the main ships only and the top relevant categories (and any triggers, oc). If it's a 1k fic, people will honestly just get annoyed at seeing all the space taking up their AO3 pages. (I say this with love. We all remember that one 'Untamed fic.')

Don't like. Don't read. Don't bash. Don't be cruel.

Do. Not. Hate. Fics. Publicly. On. Tiktok. Or I swear to the gods I will hunt you down and skin you alive. Save your scathing reviews for private messages and private DMs on Discord. Fanfiction is free and authors don't owe you anything. (YES! This includes drabbles. And incest. And any/all of the clerical errors I have already discussed above.)

Also, comment on older fics.

Comment on all fics, actually.

Also, read WIPs. If you want fanfiction to continue and you want longer works, support the authors that write those works. Don't be greedy and entitled by closing up your mind. If you want to read complete works only, that's your right. But you don't have to brag about it/ moan about not having anything good in your fandom of choice when you refuse to keep an open mind to like, half of the fics on there. (This is not a statement about my works, btw. I have a little group that comments/I know is aware and interested in some of my stuff. This is more for the general public.)

Kudos aren't limited. No one tracks them. Literally no one cares what you like. If you're worried or embarrassed about something you like that's between you and god only, private bookmark it. But kudos everything you like/re-read because if you don't, the author probably assumes you didn't like their work and that will make them sad.

AI is not art and you should never use it. Not even to help you come up with ideas. You're better than that, okay? And if I see/read an AI work on AO3 I will block you and mute all your works ASAP without a second thought.

There are definitely so many other things that come to mind when thinking about AO3 and writing in general, but I feel like this is a good place to stop. Again, not trying to step on any one's toes. Heaven knows I use purple prose and commas and the words 'and/ gods/ absolutely not' like they're candy. But I'm also aware that I am doing so and being aware of my habits and tendencies make all the difference.

(The writers curse does exist btw apologies in advance, but your life will probably go through changes the instant you press that 'post' button.)

[max1461]

It's like, "why try to reduce chemistry to physics when you can use some kind of ML algorithm to predict chemical properties better than an actual calculation based on QFT or whatever could?". Well, the answer is obviously that that ML algorithm isn't as insightful to us. It's useful but it doesn't tell us what's going on. Trying to better understand the physics-chemistry boundary, and do reductionism, even if in practice a bunch of shit is infeasible to calculate, well, I gather it tells us structural stuff about chemicals, stuff that "plug and chug with an ML algorithm" can't presently give us.

"What's the point of doing linguistic theory if we already have LLMs". Well, because I don't know what's going on inside an LLM and neither do you. They're really good at doing translation tasks and shit but... do they give us insight into how language works? Do we have good reason to think that "things an LLM can learn" correspond closely to "things a human child can learn" linguistically? Does looking at a bunch of transformer weights tell us, e.g., what sorts of linguistic structures are cognitively + diachronically possible? Well, no. To do that we have to look at the actual linguistic data, come up with theories, test them against new data, repeat. Like scientists or whatever.

[teru-byte-dev]

Introducing @teru-byte, the sockpuppet detector (among other things)

Something I've always hated about online forums is trolls repeatedly making new accounts to continue their mayhem with impunity.

They're everywhere. It does not matter if you're on Tumblr or Discord or Reddit or a dedicated forum, they will keep coming back well after they ought to be shooed off.

There are many different kinds of trolls. Some are just nuisances. Some spam. Some try to get a reaction. Some are much more crafty about trying to get a reaction. Some will do and say and send and post deplorable things.

Some enjoy their reputation as troublemakers. Some take refuge in anonymity. It is the latter type that @teru-byte was made to address.

Over some 3am brainstorming sessions and showers, my brain combined some disparate facts I knew to form an amazing discovery in language analysis. Sadly I cannot share the discovery publicly because it is what gives power to @teru-byte.

@teru-byte is a bot I have worked for a long time to bring to life, and it's finally ready. Given sufficient data, it can accurately determine the author of given writing. No, it does not use “AI.”

I waited until I was very confident in its ability before going public, because a single misfire could be ruinous. It still errs on the side of caution, by design. The false negative rate of approximately 50% is worth the near complete erasure of false positives.

Some might say this is “feeding the trolls.” If I believed it was, I would not be doing this. I counter that if a troll is hiding behind an array of alternate accounts, it is because they are terrified of reputation. Even a troll who does not immediately reveal themself in order to further their chaos will readily do so when they are found out, if they enjoy the spotlight. If they do not enjoy the spotlight, the prospect of reputation is horrifying.

In addition, knowing it's the same user can aid in learning other patterns, even more so on the administrator side of things. Extra punishment or deterrents are available when a user is provably evading bans or blocks.

I am debuting this project on Sysblr because I hardly know of a more ideal environment. There are dozens (not hundreds or a handful) of active users here who consistently keep coming back to write hundreds or thousands of words weekly, with easily accessible and very expansive account histories. And indeed, some trolls to catch.

Presently, @teru-byte has 1 publicly accessible command: revealing some statistics about a specified user, as proof of work in lieu of being able to publicly discuss the algorithm running the sockpuppet detection, for it is very easy to circumvent given knowledge of how it works.

I suspect these blogs will rarely be visibly active by next week. @teru-byte is designed more to strike like a bolt of lightning upon unsuspecting lowlifes.

The name is half pun and half a reference to the Death Note character Mikami Teru, who traded half his lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes which allow the user to see the true name of anyone they look at.

[reanimatedmagpie]

Hey!! I absolutely love your work, your art, comic, designs, etcetc are just.. so SO good. ALSO, I was wondering if you possibly had any art resources? More specifically art resources for someone that’s just starting out. I would love to get into drawing but there are a million videos and books and articles out there and I have no idea where or how to start.

Art school would be amazing but gosh dang it I’m broke </3

first of all ive never gone to art school proper, or any real amount of college at all for that matter either, its not terribly hard to get ahead of your peers who do with proper work ethic and knowing where to look for, the 'self-taught' label is becoming increasingly arbitrary because the internet's made it all easier than ever to access if you know where to look

admittedly i was starting out at a very different time in the internet and speaking a different language, so i cannot quite recommend what i was using when i started between language availability and modern expectations of say video quality, however! i do have some pointers

at a glance channels like proko [though more so the older videos] are pretty handy but also

i can tell you what to look for and general principles

if youve not already, look up and commit to practice the way youre supposed to hold the pen for art. genuinely good for your artwork, but, more importantly, helps you strain your wrist less. considering especially in the beginning artwork can take a long time, you need to get into those habits early. look up wrist exercises while you're at it and try to warm up your hands before starting. it is genuinely exactly like sports you cant skip the stretch. /

look for specific things. 'get good at art in 10 days' is the same as 'get fit in 10 days' even if its not impossible to learn some very useful fundamentals in that time, you know thats not what they have for you. you need to be looking for things like 'color contrast' 'muscles of the leg' 'how to do cleaner linework' when searching on the internet /

I would avoid short form content or even just shorter videos altogether or anything with a super flashy presentation for anything but like, simple software tricks, that stuff is not really usually interested in teaching things as much as its here to get algorithm points. it used to be a lot less of a thing and i feel sorry for people that are learning with this so saturated in the space ngl definitely steer clear off pinterest too. they wouldnt need to cocomelon you if they had something useful. did you know straight up art lecture recordings are out there btw? /

if you want an overview of a broad variety of things you want a book. yes i know. they are all fairly useful i would personally say and if you do not have a library in your immediate area, did you know the internet archive lets you borrow books digitally if you have an account? for human anatomy i really recommend the morpho series, for animals my go to was Gottfried Bammes, and i cannot recommend the Understanding Comics and Making Comics for sequential art, but generally speaking, books often want to appeal to people that are just starting out, so most of them that have a technical drawing aspect at all will help a beginner in some capacity. if you dont yet know which ones are 'good' i generally recommend looking into ones that mention the author is an art professor in the back /

important note: sometimes people consider the text on the page in those books as filler and Only look at the diagrams. that's not the case, you do in fact learn things if you read it /

also when reading those books take care to not just copy down the process but try your best to understand why. its not so much what it looks like so much as the thought process behind it /

use gesture drawing exercise tools like sketchdaily.com [if you do not wish to see nude models make sure it's filtered to clothed] if you do not yet know what gesture drawing is, that's a keyword to look up /

The secret sauce to drawing any creature is its bones and muscle. Trouble with faces? draw some studies off of photos of replica skulls. struggling to get what the hell is happening with the neck? look up a diagram of the neck muscles. a lot of 'anatomy for artists' resources are ultimately just translations of the scientific fact, so if youre not finding anything good there, go to the source! ive been doing that a lot lately. /

watch speedpaint videos! i know they dont come up as often on youtube naturally anymore but you get a Lot of insight into things from watching people whose art you like [and even don't like!] draw /

Draw real life things from real life. your pet or perhaps family member or friend, strangers on public transport, buildings outside it doesnt actually matter what just that you do it. photographs lack real life depth information most people's eyes can capture irl /

i know it can be kind of difficult these days but you shouldnt discount or ignore traditional even if you are not planning to focus on it. understanding of irl art mediums is really valuable even if you plan on being primarily digital because the less predictable nature of them builds confidence and helps you be more present among other benefits. its one of the many reasons youre not gonna find life drawing classes that allow students to just whip out a tablet /

hang out with your artist peers! ideally in spaces where people are actively making something like OCTs[Original Character Tournaments], game jams, even fandom spaces can work though i do not recommend that last one so much because they tend to be less interested in you as a person and more just seeing free art of their favorite guy and arent very friendly to beginners ngl. best find spaces specifically for original work, people tend to be more supportive there.

there really isnt a strict order in which you have to learn things. you can in fact go all in on turtle anatomy for a while if thats what interests you, why not, etc. but some good places to start are, in no particular order

anatomy of the face

anatomy of the torso

rotating cubes in 3d space [volume and perspective. generally not that scary i just find people overthink it a lot and get anxious]

how motion works[even if youre not at all animation inclined]

composition, color, contrast

various linework techniques, various panting techniques

mammal anatomy, bird anatomy, reptile anatomy, bug anatomy's nice too

basic plants, basic buildings, basic machinery

Anything deeper than that will be dictated by your own interests, this is just what would make you a very adaptable generalist. look up references whenever you struggle, study things you find visually cool, let your interests guide your research for the most part

but also, if i were to call Anything my big cool piece of advice, it's don't just sit around and aimlessly wait for your art to get 'good enough' to do something cool. start some little projects [and i do mean little. like under 5 pages of comic, a silly animation to a Short sound byte etc] and look up what you Directly need for them try your best. like a one day project, then a three day project then maybe a week long one, etc dont go right into anything long term right away, get practice finishing things first!

[youd be surprised what comics make you draw too, my last thing just had a random model t car in it for fun]

Because nothing, and i do mean nothing will teach you to make art in practice quite the same as making even a tiny project featuring the thing you want to learn

[kanguin]

Hi, idk who's going to see this post or whatnot, but I had a lot of thoughts on a post I reblogged about AI that started to veer off the specific topic of the post, so I wanted to make my own.

Some background on me: I studied Psychology and Computer Science in college several years ago, with an interdisciplinary minor called Cognitive Science that joined the two with philosophy, linguistics, and multiple other fields. The core concept was to study human thinking and learning and its similarities to computer logic, and thus the courses I took touched frequently on learning algorithms, or "AI". This was of course before it became the successor to bitcoin as the next energy hungry grift, to be clear. Since then I've kept up on the topic, and coincidentally, my partner has gone into freelance data model training and correction. So while I'm not an expert, I have a LOT of thoughts on the current issue of AI.

I'll start off by saying that AI isn't a brand new technology, it, more properly known as learning algorithms, has been around in the linguistics, stats, biotech, and computer science worlds for over a decade or two. However, pre-ChatGPT learning algorithms were ground-up designed tools specialized for individual purposes, trained on a very specific data set, to make it as accurate to one thing as possible. Some time ago, data scientists found out that if you have a large enough data set on one specific kind of information, you can get a learning algorithm to become REALLY good at that one thing by giving it lots of feedback on right vs wrong answers. Right and wrong answers are nearly binary, which is exactly how computers are coded, so by implementing the psychological method of operant conditioning, reward and punishment, you can teach a program how to identify and replicate things with incredible accuracy. That's what makes it a good tool.

And a good tool it was and still is. Reverse image search? Learning algorithm based. Complex relationship analysis between words used in the study of language? Often uses learning algorithms to model relationships. Simulations of extinct animal movements and behaviors? Learning algorithms trained on anatomy and physics. So many features of modern technology and science either implement learning algorithms directly into the function or utilize information obtained with the help of complex computer algorithms.

But a tool in the hand of a craftsman can be a weapon in the hand of a murderer. Facial recognition software, drone targeting systems, multiple features of advanced surveillance tech in the world are learning algorithm trained. And even outside of authoritarian violence, learning algorithms in the hands of get-rich-quick minded Silicon Valley tech bro business majors can be used extremely unethically. All AI art programs that exist right now are trained from illegally sourced art scraped from the web, and ChatGPT (and similar derived models) is trained on millions of unconsenting authors' works, be they professional, academic, or personal writing. To people in countries targeted by the US War Machine and artists the world over, these unethical uses of this technology are a major threat.

Further, it's well known now that AI art and especially ChatGPT are MAJOR power-hogs. This, however, is not inherent to learning algorithms / AI, but is rather a product of the size, runtime, and inefficiency of these models. While I don't know much about the efficiency issues of AI "art" programs, as I haven't used any since the days of "imaginary horses" trended and the software was contained to a university server room with a limited training set, I do know that ChatGPT is internally bloated to all hell. Remember what I said about specialization earlier? ChatGPT throws that out the window. Because they want to market ChatGPT as being able to do anything, the people running the model just cram it with as much as they can get their hands on, and yes, much of that is just scraped from the web without the knowledge or consent of those who have published it. So rather than being really good at one thing, the owners of ChatGPT want it to be infinitely good, infinitely knowledgeable, and infinitely running. So the algorithm is never shut off, it's constantly taking inputs and processing outputs with a neural network of unnecessary size.

Now this part is probably going to be controversial, but I genuinely do not care if you use ChatGPT, in specific use cases. I'll get to why in a moment, but first let me clarify what use cases. It is never ethical to use ChatGPT to write papers or published fiction (be it for profit or not); this is why I also fullstop oppose the use of publicly available gen AI in making "art". I say publicly available because, going back to my statement on specific models made for single project use, lighting, shading, and special effects in many 3D animated productions use specially trained learning algorithms to achieve the complex results seen in the finished production. Famously, the Spider-verse films use a specially trained in-house AI to replicate the exact look of comic book shading, using ethically sources examples to build a training set from the ground up, the unfortunately-now-old-fashioned way. The issue with gen AI in written and visual art is that the publicly available, always online algorithms are unethically designed and unethically run, because the decision makers behind them are not restricted enough by laws in place.

So that actually leads into why I don't give a shit if you use ChatGPT if you're not using it as a plagiarism machine. Fact of the matter is, there is no way ChatGPT is going to crumble until legislation comes into effect that illegalizes and cracks down on its practices. The public, free userbase worldwide is such a drop in the bucket of its serverload compared to the real way ChatGPT stays afloat: licensing its models to businesses with monthly subscriptions. I mean this sincerely, based on what little I can find about ChatGPT's corporate subscription model, THAT is the actual lifeline keeping it running the way it is. Individual visitor traffic worldwide could suddenly stop overnight and wouldn't affect ChatGPT's bottom line. So I don't care if you, I, or anyone else uses the website because until the US or EU governments act to explicitly ban ChatGPT and other gen AI business' shady practices, they are all only going to continue to stick around profit from big business contracts. So long as you do not give them money or sing their praises, you aren't doing any actual harm.

If you do insist on using ChatGPT after everything I've said, here's some advice I've gathered from testing the algorithm to avoid misinformation:

If you feel you must use it as a sounding board for figuring out personal mental or physical health problems like I've seen some people doing when they can't afford actual help, do not approach it conversationally in the first person. Speak in the third person as if you are talking about someone else entirely, and exclusively note factual information on observations, symptoms, and diagnoses. This is because where ChatGPT draws its information from depends on the style of writing provided. If you try to be as dry and clinical as possible, and request links to studies, you should get dry and clinical information in return. This approach also serves to divorce yourself mentally from the information discussed, making it less likely you'll latch onto anything. Speaking casually will likely target unprofessional sources.

Do not ask for citations, ask for links to relevant articles. ChatGPT is capable of generating links to actual websites in its database, but if asked to provide citations, it will replicate the structure of academic citations, and will very likely hallucinate at least one piece of information. It also does not help that these citations also will often be for papers not publicly available and will not include links.

ChatGPT is at its core a language association and logical analysis software, so naturally its best purposes are for analyzing written works for tone, summarizing information, and providing examples of programming. It's partially coded in python, so examples of Python and Java code I've tested come out 100% accurate. Complex Google Sheets formulas however are often finicky, as it often struggles with proper nesting orders of formulas.

Expanding off of that, if you think of the software as an input-output machine, you will get best results. Problems that do not have clear input information or clear solutions, such as open ended questions, will often net inconsistent and errant results.

Commands are better than questions when it comes to asking it to do something. If you think of it like programming, then it will respond like programming most of the time.

Most of all, do not engage it as a person. It's not a person, it's just an algorithm that is trained to mimic speech and is coded to respond in courteous, subservient responses. The less you try and get social interaction out of ChatGPT, the less likely it will be to just make shit up because it sounds right.

Anyway, TL;DR:

AI is just a tool and nothing more at its core. It is not synonymous with its worse uses, and is not going to disappear. Its worst offenders will not fold or change until legislation cracks down on it, and we, the majority users of the internet, are not its primary consumer. Use of AI to substitute art (written and visual) with blended up art of others is abhorrent, but use of a freely available algorithm for personal analyticsl use is relatively harmless so long as you aren't paying them.

We need to urge legislators the world over to crack down on the methods these companies are using to obtain their training data, but at the same time people need to understand that this technology IS useful and both can and has been used for good. I urge people to understand that learning algorithms are not one and the same with theft just because the biggest ones available to the public have widely used theft to cut corners. So long as computers continue to exist, algorithmic problem-solving and generative algorithms are going to continue to exist as they are the logical conclusion of increasingly complex computer systems. Let's just make sure the future of the technology is not defined by the way things are now.

[sophieinwonderland]

I feel like what im gonna say about AI is a different t total position and may sound """bad""" when I didn't mean but I believe AI is making more. "dumber'? Because if you give something that literally does it FOR you. You are not gonna learn and (some or a lot) of people use it in high school, college, and academia in general I think it leads to an Idiocary-like situation at some point in the future. Im being fair here and I've only seen the environmental stuff but here we go. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01787-8 https://slejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40561-024-00316-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01787-8 From the second study IT stated this "found a concerning trend where users exhibit an over-reliance on AI dialogue systems, often accepting their generated outputs, AI hallucination, without validation. This overdependence is exacerbated by cognitive biases where judgments deviate from rationality and heuristics or the use of mental shortcuts, leading to uncritical acceptance of AI-generated information." This mean that most people just take on its face. Which you could argue for "oh its their fault if they fell it without fact-checking" the study FOCUSES on STUDENTS. So are you just saying that people who are just started life and (maybe) naive and didn't think to fact-check what the AI says because after all. It fed on a lot of data it probably will be 100% correct (when its not) (yes I admit I USE Grammarly however it shouldn't devalue my argument and in all things considered very minor and doesn't really do a negative impact) Heres a fat table (disorganized tho from the study) https://slejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40561-024-00316-7/tables/2

(EFL learners are just people who are learning English as their second language.) https://slejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40561-024-00316-7/tables/2 From the same study it also said

"Duhaylungsod and Chavez (2023) investigated 16 college students’ interactions with AI dialogue systems for academic tasks. The results indicated that AI dialogue systems efficiently decreased the time dedicated to research and information retrieval."" as well from the review "The study reports the potential reduction in critical thinking skills when depending on AI (75%), the risk of excessive reliance on technology (73%), and the prevalence of misinformation and inaccuracies (70%). Furthermore, there is substantial apprehension regarding the ethical implications of unintentional plagiarism (69%) and algorithmic biases (40%)." 75 PER CENT. PERCENT

Yes! The brain drain in academics is something I think should be a huge concern!

Given how many high schoolers have used AI to cheat on essays and other work, it might be a good idea to just keep essay writing and research in the classroom on school computers where AI wouldn't be available. Otherwise, you are going to end up with a generation that graduates high school without the skills they were supposed to learn.

But this doesn't really work as well in higher education like in those studies you cited. Especially online education.

There is a high probability a lot of people graduating college in the coming years may not have much of an understanding of the subjects they studied because they took shortcuts with AI.

This is another one of those things though that's... well, the genie is out of the bottle, so how do we as a society deal with it?

Can I say that at least part of this is cultural too though? In the early 2000s, it seemed like everyone was taught not to trust everything they read on the internet.

What happened to that culture?

What happened to the culture of being skeptical of what you see online?

Because it seems like so many people just accept whatever they read uncritically, and this is a cultural shift that started before the ChatGPT era.

We need to bring back skepticism and critical thinking in the age of AI!