#Large Scale Web Scraping

[3idatascraping]

Large-Scale Web Scraping - Web Scraping at Scale

To make sense of all that information, we need a way to organize it into something meaningful. That is where large-scale web scraping comes to the rescue. It is a process that involves gathering data from websites, particularly those with large amounts of data.

What Is Large-Scale Web Scraping?

Large Scale Web Scraping is scraping web pages and extracting data from them. This can be done manually or with automated tools. The extracted data can then be used to build charts and graphs, create reports and perform other analyses on the data.

It can be used to analyze large amounts of data, like traffic on a website or the number of visitors they receive. In addition, It can also be used to test different website versions so that you know which version gets more traffic than others.

Getting To Know The Client Expectations And Needs​

We collect all the data from our clients to analyze the feasibility of the data extraction process for every individual site. If possible, we tell our clients exactly what data can be extracted, how much can be extracted, to what extent it can be extracted, and how much time the process completes.

Constructing Scrapers And Assembling Them Together​

For every site allotted to us by our clients, we get a unique scraper built in place so that no one scraper has the burden to go through thousands of sites and millions of data. Moreover, all those scrapers are working in tandem for work to be done rapidly.

Running The Scrapers By Executing Them Smoothly​

It is essential to have the servers and Internet lease lines running all the time so the extraction process is not interrupted. We ensure this through high-end hardware present at our premises costing lacs of rupees so that real-time information is delivered after extraction whenever the client wants. To avoid any blacklisting scenario, we already have proxy servers, many IP addresses, and various secret strategies coming to our rescue.

Quality Checks Scrapers Maintenance Performed On A Regular Basis​

After the the automated web data scraping process, we ensure manual quality checks on the extracted or mined data via our QA team, who constantly communicates with the developer’s team for any bugs or errors reported. Additionally, if the scrapers need to be modified per changing site structure or client requirements, we do so without any hassle.

[actowizsolutions0]

Lawyer Data Scraping Services: Unlocking Legal Insights with Automation

The legal industry thrives on accurate and up-to-date information. Whether you’re a law firm, legal researcher, or a business seeking legal insights, having access to comprehensive lawyer data can be a game-changer. This is where lawyer data scraping services come into play, offering an efficient way to collect, analyze, and utilize legal data.

What is Lawyer Data Scraping?

Lawyer data scraping is the process of extracting publicly available information about attorneys, law firms, case histories, and legal precedents from various online sources. This automated technique eliminates the need for manual research, saving time and ensuring accuracy in data collection.

Benefits of Lawyer Data Scraping Services

1. Comprehensive Legal Research

With automated data scraping, legal professionals can gather extensive information about attorneys, case laws, and judicial decisions, allowing for better legal analysis and strategy development.

2. Competitor Analysis for Law Firms

Law firms can monitor competitors by collecting insights on their practice areas, client reviews, and success rates, enabling data-driven decision-making.

3. Efficient Lead Generation

Businesses seeking legal services can use lawyer data scraping to identify the best legal professionals based on expertise, reviews, and geographical location.

4. Regulatory and Compliance Monitoring

Stay updated with changing legal landscapes by tracking regulatory updates, compliance policies, and amendments in various jurisdictions.

How Lawyer Data Scraping Services Work

Professional web scraping services extract legal data by:

Collecting information from lawyer directories, bar association websites, and court records.

Structuring data in a user-friendly format for easy analysis.

Ensuring compliance with ethical data extraction practices.

Other Data Scraping Solutions for Various Industries

In addition to legal data, businesses can benefit from other data scraping services such as:

Flipkart dataset: Extract product details, pricing trends, and customer reviews for eCommerce analysis.

Web scraping Zillow: Gain real estate insights with property listings, pricing trends, and neighborhood analytics.

Extract large-scale data: Automate massive data extraction for enhanced business intelligence and market research.

Google Shopping scraper: Analyze competitor pricing, product availability, and customer reviews to refine your eCommerce strategies.

Conclusion

Lawyer data scraping services empower law firms, researchers, and businesses with critical legal insights. By automating data collection, professionals can make informed decisions, improve efficiency, and stay ahead in the legal industry. Explore lawyer data scraping solutions today and unlock a world of legal intelligence!

For expert data scraping solutions tailored to various industries, contact Actowiz Solutions today!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Humans are not perfectly vigilant

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Here's a fun AI story: a security researcher noticed that large companies' AI-authored source-code repeatedly referenced a nonexistent library (an AI "hallucination"), so he created a (defanged) malicious library with that name and uploaded it, and thousands of developers automatically downloaded and incorporated it as they compiled the code:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

These "hallucinations" are a stubbornly persistent feature of large language models, because these models only give the illusion of understanding; in reality, they are just sophisticated forms of autocomplete, drawing on huge databases to make shrewd (but reliably fallible) guesses about which word comes next:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

Guessing the next word without understanding the meaning of the resulting sentence makes unsupervised LLMs unsuitable for high-stakes tasks. The whole AI bubble is based on convincing investors that one or more of the following is true:

There are low-stakes, high-value tasks that will recoup the massive costs of AI training and operation;

There are high-stakes, high-value tasks that can be made cheaper by adding an AI to a human operator;

Adding more training data to an AI will make it stop hallucinating, so that it can take over high-stakes, high-value tasks without a "human in the loop."

These are dubious propositions. There's a universe of low-stakes, low-value tasks – political disinformation, spam, fraud, academic cheating, nonconsensual porn, dialog for video-game NPCs – but none of them seem likely to generate enough revenue for AI companies to justify the billions spent on models, nor the trillions in valuation attributed to AI companies:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

The proposition that increasing training data will decrease hallucinations is hotly contested among AI practitioners. I confess that I don't know enough about AI to evaluate opposing sides' claims, but even if you stipulate that adding lots of human-generated training data will make the software a better guesser, there's a serious problem. All those low-value, low-stakes applications are flooding the internet with botshit. After all, the one thing AI is unarguably very good at is producing bullshit at scale. As the web becomes an anaerobic lagoon for botshit, the quantum of human-generated "content" in any internet core sample is dwindling to homeopathic levels:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

This means that adding another order of magnitude more training data to AI won't just add massive computational expense – the data will be many orders of magnitude more expensive to acquire, even without factoring in the additional liability arising from new legal theories about scraping:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

That leaves us with "humans in the loop" – the idea that an AI's business model is selling software to businesses that will pair it with human operators who will closely scrutinize the code's guesses. There's a version of this that sounds plausible – the one in which the human operator is in charge, and the AI acts as an eternally vigilant "sanity check" on the human's activities.

For example, my car has a system that notices when I activate my blinker while there's another car in my blind-spot. I'm pretty consistent about checking my blind spot, but I'm also a fallible human and there've been a couple times where the alert saved me from making a potentially dangerous maneuver. As disciplined as I am, I'm also sometimes forgetful about turning off lights, or waking up in time for work, or remembering someone's phone number (or birthday). I like having an automated system that does the robotically perfect trick of never forgetting something important.

There's a name for this in automation circles: a "centaur." I'm the human head, and I've fused with a powerful robot body that supports me, doing things that humans are innately bad at.

That's the good kind of automation, and we all benefit from it. But it only takes a small twist to turn this good automation into a nightmare. I'm speaking here of the reverse-centaur: automation in which the computer is in charge, bossing a human around so it can get its job done. Think of Amazon warehouse workers, who wear haptic bracelets and are continuously observed by AI cameras as autonomous shelves shuttle in front of them and demand that they pick and pack items at a pace that destroys their bodies and drives them mad:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

Automation centaurs are great: they relieve humans of drudgework and let them focus on the creative and satisfying parts of their jobs. That's how AI-assisted coding is pitched: rather than looking up tricky syntax and other tedious programming tasks, an AI "co-pilot" is billed as freeing up its human "pilot" to focus on the creative puzzle-solving that makes coding so satisfying.

But an hallucinating AI is a terrible co-pilot. It's just good enough to get the job done much of the time, but it also sneakily inserts booby-traps that are statistically guaranteed to look as plausible as the good code (that's what a next-word-guessing program does: guesses the statistically most likely word).

This turns AI-"assisted" coders into reverse centaurs. The AI can churn out code at superhuman speed, and you, the human in the loop, must maintain perfect vigilance and attention as you review that code, spotting the cleverly disguised hooks for malicious code that the AI can't be prevented from inserting into its code. As "Lena" writes, "code review [is] difficult relative to writing new code":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773779967521780169

Why is that? "Passively reading someone else's code just doesn't engage my brain in the same way. It's harder to do properly":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773780355708764665

There's a name for this phenomenon: "automation blindness." Humans are just not equipped for eternal vigilance. We get good at spotting patterns that occur frequently – so good that we miss the anomalies. That's why TSA agents are so good at spotting harmless shampoo bottles on X-rays, even as they miss nearly every gun and bomb that a red team smuggles through their checkpoints:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/23/automation-blindness/#humans-in-the-loop

"Lena"'s thread points out that this is as true for AI-assisted driving as it is for AI-assisted coding: "self-driving cars replace the experience of driving with the experience of being a driving instructor":

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773841546753831283

In other words, they turn you into a reverse-centaur. Whereas my blind-spot double-checking robot allows me to make maneuvers at human speed and points out the things I've missed, a "supervised" self-driving car makes maneuvers at a computer's frantic pace, and demands that its human supervisor tirelessly and perfectly assesses each of those maneuvers. No wonder Cruise's murderous "self-driving" taxis replaced each low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged technical robot supervisors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

AI radiology programs are said to be able to spot cancerous masses that human radiologists miss. A centaur-based AI-assisted radiology program would keep the same number of radiologists in the field, but they would get less done: every time they assessed an X-ray, the AI would give them a second opinion. If the human and the AI disagreed, the human would go back and re-assess the X-ray. We'd get better radiology, at a higher price (the price of the AI software, plus the additional hours the radiologist would work).

But back to making the AI bubble pay off: for AI to pay off, the human in the loop has to reduce the costs of the business buying an AI. No one who invests in an AI company believes that their returns will come from business customers to agree to increase their costs. The AI can't do your job, but the AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI anyway – that pitch is the most successful form of AI disinformation in the world.

An AI that "hallucinates" bad advice to fliers can't replace human customer service reps, but airlines are firing reps and replacing them with chatbots:

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240222-air-canada-chatbot-misinformation-what-travellers-should-know

An AI that "hallucinates" bad legal advice to New Yorkers can't replace city services, but Mayor Adams still tells New Yorkers to get their legal advice from his chatbots:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/03/nycs-government-chatbot-is-lying-about-city-laws-and-regulations/

The only reason bosses want to buy robots is to fire humans and lower their costs. That's why "AI art" is such a pisser. There are plenty of harmless ways to automate art production with software – everything from a "healing brush" in Photoshop to deepfake tools that let a video-editor alter the eye-lines of all the extras in a scene to shift the focus. A graphic novelist who models a room in The Sims and then moves the camera around to get traceable geometry for different angles is a centaur – they are genuinely offloading some finicky drudgework onto a robot that is perfectly attentive and vigilant.

But the pitch from "AI art" companies is "fire your graphic artists and replace them with botshit." They're pitching a world where the robots get to do all the creative stuff (badly) and humans have to work at robotic pace, with robotic vigilance, in order to catch the mistakes that the robots make at superhuman speed.

Reverse centaurism is brutal. That's not news: Charlie Chaplin documented the problems of reverse centaurs nearly 100 years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)

As ever, the problem with a gadget isn't what it does: it's who it does it for and who it does it to. There are plenty of benefits from being a centaur – lots of ways that automation can help workers. But the only path to AI profitability lies in reverse centaurs, automation that turns the human in the loop into the crumple-zone for a robot:

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

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Jorge Royan (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munich_-_Two_boys_playing_in_a_park_-_7328.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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Noah Wulf (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thunderbirds_at_Attention_Next_to_Thunderbird_1_-_Aviation_Nation_2019.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[b1asho]

Species number two: Rossetians!!

Here's some more info, because unfortunately I ran out of room to cram it in between the drawings:

Rossetians are a mid-sized species that evolved in an area roughly the size of Europe, and have less extreme regional differences than other species, usually only having some vatiation in skin pattern, color, and snout shape.

They aren’t exactly adapted to live in water, but there were enough water obstacles around that they developed some useful traits like nostrils in the top of their head and semi-webbed hooves.

Their skin is thick, dry and rough, closer to scales. This bars moisture from coming in and leaving. The only place they have hairlike structures is in/around the pouch/genitals for oil secretion and for neonates to pull on to drag themselves into the pouch after birth (meaning they see hair as private and even lewd).

they use their heat-sensitive nose pits and sensitive pronged tongue to navigate low visibility places like tunnels and dense vegetation, and also to locate food and other resources that are hidden in crevices.

Their tongue in particular replaces their sense of smell, and is able to detect minute chemical changes in the air. It’s pretty long, and slides back into a hole a bit in their mouth/throat when closed.

They also use their four wide set eyes to scan more open areas, and while they have good close and far vision, they cant see in the dark and have poor color vision.

Rossetians share our iron based blood, using a large molecule that is contained in cells. It retains oxygen for much longer and in higher quantities (closer to erythrocruorin in size and effectiveness.) it is a very dark red when not oxygenated and turns a much brighter red shade than human blood when exposed to oxygen.

It is very very stable, can operate at a wide range of temperatures, and helps them manage in oxygen scarce environments between the pockets of oxygen in their tunnels (however, they can’t tolerate low oxygen for long, and need warm temperatures and abundant oxygen function well).

The high quantities of oxygen their blood can carry helped fuel them when fleeing predators, but at other times the large size of the molecule means that it takes a lot of energy to pump it around fast, and it already brings a lot of oxygen per molecule, so normally they have a slow heartbeat and metabolism. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, all of these things potentially leading to their longer natural lifespans.

This iron based blood developed because their environment was very heavy in metals, particularly iron. There were also a lot of other toxins just hanging around in the air, water, and soil. They have a very strong liver and other specialized glands and processes to help them metabolize and expel metals that they take in, it they can tolerate a lot more metals in their body than a human could (they’re very hard to kill via poison, toxin exposure, or drugs) . they actually incorporated it into more of their body (namely their horns and teeth, and for coloration of skin). Like limpets, they have metal in their teeth, making them extremely hard and strong (used for scraping off algae, moss, and lichens from rocks and crushing nuts and tubers) this also partially accounts for the color of the teeth, though some still have white teeth due to less pigmentation. Their colors vary less due to sun exposure and more due to the content of elements around them.

Rossetians were originally prey animals, with their horn and extremely thick skin/fat layer being their main protection from predators. (through selection over the years, their horns have become a bit more ornamental, though they’re still plenty sharp). They developed sapience due to their overkill sensory prowess, letting them spend less time scanning and more time thinking. Eventually, this combined with their cooperative herd structure/domestication of food sources to advance their intelligence to modern day.

As herbivores, they eat predominantly plant matter, though some also consume dairy due to a similar “lactose tolerance” mutation as humans for the taste and nutrients. They eat small and frequent meals for steadier energy to make up for their slow metabolism.

They are endotherms, though mainly due to their thick fat and skin layer helping them to trap heat. Without this, they aren't nearly as good as humans at regulating their own temperature, though they can still shiver and pant to try and regulate (they cant sweat).

They have a total of 6 teeth, two in the front and four molars in the back.

Their food tends to be boiled or otherwise processed in some way to make it easier to get energy and nutrients faster with their otherwise slow metabolism (so they can stay on the go for busy city life)

They are viviparous and can reproduce any time of the year like humans, but they lack a true placenta. infants instead develop in a pouch of skin on the mother where they drink milk.

Their pouch opens like an American opossum, and their children will stay in and out of it for a while even a little after they’ve been weaned (eventually, they get too big.) They stay in there for the first year or so, and will then start exploring outside in their ‘toddler’ stage before eventually being able to walk on their own.

They have a centaur-esque body plan that allowed them to free up a front set of arms and support brain development while also being able to lower themselves to the height needed to navigate the volcanic tunnels they lived in and move quickly. The only important thing in their front "torso" region is a small cluster of nerves that helps handle some of their sensory information.

4 of their 6 limbs are for walking while the front 2 specialized for object manipulation, with the two digits on the sides slightly turned inwards and able to be used almost like thumbs. None of them are very good for gripping since climbing wasn’t part of their evolutionary history (though all of them are also slightly webbed, especially the back ones, since swimming was helpful to them in their environment)

Their soft lips and similarly shaped mouth make it very easy for them to replicate human language, though their tongue and teeth sometimes get in the way (and makes it harder for humans to speak their language, since some noises require the use of two or four prongs of the tongue at once).

They can see a color spectrum similar to horses or deer on earth, which is why their clothing is often dull or monochrome besides the stitched patterns. However, since it was useful for them to be able to see some color variation to tell if a plant was poisonous or not, they can see reds/greens a bit better than Prectikar, who have a similar colorblindess range.

While they can't see red, they still incorporate it into their clothing since to them it registers as a nice green to accent the blue and yellow. To us, it looks red.

They have very homogeneous cultural traits because for much of their history, they have valued unity and have been joined together under one Empire or another (most recently, the same guys who got to the Prectikar). However, similar to cultures across, say the British isle, they still have unique quirks from their regional heritage.

Males have a horn with a unicorn-like front spike and a considerably longer tail, while females lack the horn projection and also have a pouch. Unlike other species, they actually have similar sex and gender roles as human men and women, though a bit more pronounced than current humans due to their society’s particular emphasis on family units in politics and economics.

They also have stricter nudity and propriety standards year round, with traditional conservatives barely showing anything more than their face out in public.

They show marriage through pierced ears. They typically have one partner for life.

Most of their clothing is heavily layered with lots of dresses and cloaks to give them a feeling of security when in public, like a weighted blanket or something to cover their shape so they feel less exposed. Many also cover their sensitive ears when in crowded spaces.

Most of their brain is in their head, but they have 2 smaller clusters to help deal with other sensory information and leave more room for thinking in the main brain. The clusters are located between their front arms (protected by the larger vertebrae and collarbone/shoulder blade their arms connect to up there) and their pelvic girdle.

When interacting with other species, they are known to be very timid and insular among themselves. Unfortunately, xenophobia has a very literal meaning to them since most other species have traits that they instinctively find unsettling as former prey animals, like sharp teeth and claws (similar to what happens when you see a snake or spider, even if you know it won’t or can’t hurt you most people still feel fear). Without proper socialization for both parties, things can get awkward very fast.

[ghcstao3]

part 3 of siren/sailor ghoap hehehehe (part 2 🧜‍♂️)

-

Despite his gripes and discomfort, Soap does eventually drift to sleep before his chest begins to feel too tight, his breaths too short.

Then he’s rudely awoken by a large splash, drenching him even more so than he already was. He sits up in a flash, already glaring daggers at the water before he can make out the silhouette of Ghost’s head.

Soap curses under his breath, wiping excess water from his face and slicking his hair back from where it sticks to his forehead.

“I found somewhere,” Ghost announces.

At least Soap could appreciate his bluntness.

“Did you?” Soap grumbles. He’s found his fear of Ghost has diminished significantly, instead replaced with irritation. He figures it’s the cold and wet having finally seeped past his skin and into his bones. “And how do you suppose I’m getting there?”

“I’ll take you,” Ghost says, as if it weren’t obvious. “Come closer.”

Soap’s heartbeat ticks up in pace. He slowly tucks his outstretched legs closer to his body, though he’s still too far for Ghost to reach. Soap shakes his head. “You are going to eat me, aren’t you?”

“No.”

Soap sniffles. “I don’t believe you.”

Ghost huffs. Soap can sense the eye roll, whether or not the siren actually does so.

“Come on,” Ghost coaxes. There’s a slightly singsong, melodic quality, even for such two little words, but it’s enough to give a single tug on Soap’s heart the same way Ghost’s singing had in the rowboat.

“Cheater,” Soap scoffs, yet he still finds himself slowly unfurling his limbs.

Ghost hums to the same effect, even so daring as to swim right up to where the stone meets the water, folding his arms over the edge—all a mirror for the way he lured Soap in the first time.

But this time—this time, though still menacing in the way that it’s all his nature allows, Ghost is… teasing.

So, with a sigh and nothing better to do, nowhere to go, and already waiting for death, Soap relents. He crawls forward toward the water, mindful of the sharp angles of the cave’s formation, his palms surely to be scraped up anyway, if only from the commotion that had led him up until this point.

He creeps forward until he’s about a foot away from the siren. Squinting into the dark, Soap can almost make out those damp, blond curls. He doesn’t much like the glint in Ghost’s dark eyes, however.

“I said come closer,” Ghost insists.

“I am closer,” Soap argues.

Ghost beckons him even still. It isn’t until Soap is reluctantly face-to-face with the siren that Ghost appears satisfied.

Then Ghost is pushing himself out of the water, inching impossibly closer and closer, until—

Until he’s kissing Soap?

Soap gives a startled yelp, unable to pull away before webbed hands have latched onto the sides of his face. The siren persists even when Soap isn’t really kissing back—though Soap doesn’t realize he’s being pulled into the water until he feels a shock of cold on his face.

But again Ghost won’t let go, his lips still firmly pressed to Soap’s. Soap panics, trying to pull back but finding it impossible once he’s been dragged completely into the depths. He thrashes in the water, but Ghost remains entirely undeterred, his hold on Soap ironclad.

Then… then Soap realizes—his chest never constricts, his lungs never fill with water. Despite the rapid pace of his heart beating in his ears, it’s almost like… it’s almost like he can breathe.

His realization must be evident, as that’s when Ghost finally pulls away, that sharp grin appearing on his face. He lets go of Soap’s face and instead seizes his wrist before he’s propelling them through the water with his powerful tail.

It’s much different, being towed along while conscious. When light finally streams back into Soap’s vision, he finds himself entranced by the colourful fish they pass, the seaweed and the reefs, almost entirely forgetting the creature attached to him in his passing amazement.

Almost.

Every so often the scales or fins of Ghost’s tail will brush against Soap, and every so often he’ll be snapped back to his reality—abandoned by civilization, held captive by a sea creature who insists Soap isn’t food, but does so with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Eventually, though, when Soap finally catches a glimpse of the sun, relief floods him. He gets to see daylight again, feel the warmth on his skin, and that thought alone is enough to calm him if only for a moment.

When they arrive to shallow water, Ghost suddenly stops swimming. Soap looks to him, confused, then glances down and realizes he could touch sand from where they float—it’d be too difficult for Ghost to continue.

The siren’s hold releases and Soap finally breaks the ocean’s surface, drinking in a mouthful of fresh air as if he hadn’t been able to within the water with whatever magic that kiss had held. He climbs to his feet, the water still up to his chest, and begins to wade onward to where Ghost has brought him—a small island, lush with trees but with a beach where Soap could dry in the sun, abandoned and isolated from everything.

While it may be far from any other person, at least here Soap wouldn’t have to worry about suffocating or starving for at least a little while longer as he perhaps devised a plan for his rescue.

He glances back at Ghost as he makes his way to the island, the siren never moving from where he peers out of the water, watching Soap. Every time Soap glances back, he never shifts.

When Soap is finally clambering onto dry sand, however, Ghost is gone.

Soap doesn’t suppose that the distant pang in his heart, his soul is disappointment. Why would it be? Why should it be?

Yet as his skin and hair and clothes slowly dry, Soap finds himself constantly looking back out at the ocean, at that spot, wondering if he’d ever catch another glimpse of the siren who ultimately had, as promised, not eaten him.

[skyward-floored]

Tell me about Swamp Link, please! 😁 (Or a snippet if you haven't written anything in a while and need a nudge 🩵)

Swamp Link! He’s one of my Link OCs, and the name is fairly self-explanatory XD

Link lives in a huge swamp that spans most of southern Hyrule, with a tribe of Zora who found him and took him in when he was a baby. Hyrule as a whole is actually a lot of wetland, largely due to a Hylian/Zora war several hundred years ago in which dams and things were built and destroyed. Link meets Zelda when she travels to the swamp to pray at a temple of courage that’s supposed to be there, and that’s about when the story starts.

I’m still working on an overall plot for him, but I have a lot of pieces of story that I think just need to click in the right way. It’s a work in progress! In the meantime, I’ve been mostly writing oneshots with him with the parts I do have figured out. I’ve actually been writing one today XD I’m hoping to finish it soon, but in the meantime here’s a wip!

“Zelda! Come meet my siblings!” Link grinned, and Zelda stepped closer, seeing two more heads poke up from the water.

They were all about the same sizes and colors, though the shades varied, just like the adults. The younger Zora had more speckled appearances though, little flecks of color across their scales that reminded Zelda of sunlight on water. One of the children swam right over to her with Link, but the other two hovered further away, one looking anxious, the other suspicious.

“Link, what’s that?” the closest one asked, eyes wide.

“She is Zelda,” Link corrected, and Zelda gave a little wave.

“Hello there,” she greeted with a smile as the bolder of the three drew near, and the little Zora paused, then grinned at her.

“Hi!” he chirped back, light from fireflies making the speckles on his scales shimmer. “I’m Tad! You’re like Link, you don’t have scales! Don’t you get scraped by stuff? How do you swim with all those clothes? Do you have any fins?”

“Don’t forget to breathe, Tad,” Link said with a teasing note, and looked at Zelda as his brother squeaked in embarrassment. “This is Tad, obviously. Back there is Lilith with the pinkish fins, and her friend Webs has the darker ones. They’ll probably be a bit.”

“Cause they’re scaredy-catfish cause old Viyne told them silly stories about Hylians eating Zora!” Tad shouted in the direction of the other kids.

“Be nice, Tad. You’re right that that’s a silly story though, I don’t eat Zora,” Link pointed out, switching to float on his back. “And neither does Zelda.”

“Well Lilith and Webs believed him,” Tad huffed. “I didn’t of course.”

“Well I appreciate you being willing to meet me,” Zelda said with a smile at Tad, shifting to sit on the ground. Oh it felt good sitting down. “You’re very brave.”

Tad squeaked again, but he looked pleased, and swam around in a little loop.

[sailorsoons]

what are "other forms of Ai" that's bad? isn't it just generative Ai that's the issue? everything u linked is about generative Ai and not "other forms of Ai". /gen

Hi! Great question and you're right - I only linked some of the resources on Generative AI. Additional forms of AI are thins like predictive AI, machine learning AI, and general AI that performs tasks like web scraping, automated data collection, crowdsourcing, and chatbots/AI assistants. All of these different types of AI have the same issue as generative AI in terms of environmental damages.

One could argue that everything we do causes environmental damage because it does, but at the current rate that countries, companies, governments and individual people use the different AI tools listed above, we are severely impacting energy, water and metal resources. The amount of power and sheer materials used to create the servers and CPUs that output all of the above tools is insane.

Here are some additional resources on cases where different types of AI have had negative outcomes:

Predictive AI Use in Law Enforcement Agencies

AI Screenings make it harder to get hired

AI Screenings make it harder to get hired part II

Machine learning/predictive AI is bad for science

This article covers a ton of different positives and negatives of AI

In general, there are a lot of potentials and futures where AI could make a positive impact, but at a global scale, it's not being used that way. The last article linked offers some ways in which AI could actually be useful, especially in the medical field, but at large, AI is disproportionately used with negative results and at a high cost.

[zombiecicada]

Running program and loading document.

Security bypassed.

Upload complete!

Document of specimen designated ‘Subject #42’

Case Number: 19.15.21.12

Date: REDACTED

———————————————————————

———————————————————————

1: Subject #42’s Eyes

Subject #42 has large forward facing eyes, its pupils can easily expand and shrink to account for glare or near total darkness. The sclera of the eyes are vibrant yellow. This was later concluded to be due to having high levels of some bilirubin adjacent chemicals within the body.

Originally, it was assumed Subject #42 was suffering from liver failure, but further examination and blood tests revealed such was far from the truth. Whereas that much bilirubin in a red blood celled organism would be a sign of toxicity, because Subject #42 does not have red iron based blood, these high levels of bilirubin do not strip away or break down the blood cells. Instead of causing toxicity, it’s a natural antioxidant.

Subject #42’s eyes appear to have entered a near constant state of myosis, even in low lighting.

———————————————————————

2: Subject #42’s wings

Subject #42 has broad webbed wings that suggest an adaptation for long periods of non stop flight over vast distances.

Such an hypothesis was confirmed reviewing the observation notes of Subject #42 traveling vast distances prior to its capture. Subject #42’s wings were bound with cold iron cuffs shortly after its capture. While Subject #42 later outsmarted the attempts to restrict its ability to fly by simply using its abilities to levitate, the cuffs serve as a successful means to stop it from phasing through the walls of its containment unit.

The second finger of Subject #42’s wings are covered in small, aged scars along the whole length of the limb. The patterns and depth of the scars are consistent with wounds received from scraping against rocks and deflecting debris with the limbs. Subject #42 will swing its talons around like weapons with remarkable precision.

———————————————————————

3: Subject #42’s teeth and mouth

Armed with impressively developed canine teeth and a pointed, papillae covered tongue, Subject #42’s diet is primarily that of a hypercarnivore.

This has lead Doctor Cruce to hypothesize that Subject #42 might have been following the armed forces to feed on the bodies of the casualties produced by the conflict. Subject #42 does share some characteristics of scavengers, such as strong jaws and sharp teeth, but the metabolic cost of traveling such far distances, alongside its abilities, claws and the sword it was found wielding suggests that Subject #42 would likely or primarily have hunted opposed to scavenged. And yet, there was no reports of Subject #42 hunting anything prior to its capture.

The blue colouration comes from the subject’s blue blood, being copper based instead of iron based and highly oxygen efficient. An endurance test concluded Subject #42 can go almost four hours without breathing, suggesting Subject #42 comes from a low oxygen environment where it pays to be able to make the most of the little oxygen available. However, it seems to be perfectly fine in environments of standard 21% oxygen levels.

———————————————————————

4: Subject #42’s paws and forelimbs

Everything about Subject #42’s paws and forelimbs suggests it is a highly efficient climber. It has tough palms, strong claws for grip, an abundance of collagen within its body, and well developed tendons and ligaments.

A test concluded that with ease it can swiftly scale up vertical walls, alongside being highly oxygen efficient, it does not tire easily, leading Doctor Cruce to suggest Subject #42 might’ve evolved in a rocky, mountainous environment.

———————————————————————

5: Subject #42’s standard vision

A vision test conducted on Subject #42 determined it has remarkably clear long distance vision, able to spot small movements and small details from over several hundred feet of distance.

It can see a wide range of colours and in various levels of lighting.

Interestingly enough, it is badly nearsighted, seeming to have put all its points towards seeing very far instead of close up.

When Subject #42’s powers are activated, its eyes go fully lavender in colour and light up in a bioluminescent display.

—————————————————————————————————————

6: Subject #42’s ‘soul vision’

Finally approaching Subject #42’s bizarrely dare say otherworldly powers, hooking up various scanners and devices to Subject #42 to scan its brain Doctor Cruce discovered Subject #42 has an ‘alternate vision’ that she’s come to dub ‘soul vision’. When activated, Subject #42’s retinas stop perceiving light entirely, instead seeing a vast spectrum of the electromagnetic wave length that shows up to Subject #42 in various ‘colours’ and shapes.

While it took a bit of trial and error, it was discovered that people who have what’s been commonly dubbed a ‘soul’ will show up to this alternate vision as a figure with white eyes. Anything without a soul, be it people or objects, will be entirely invisible to Subject #42 during this time. It seems to be able to toggle back and forth between these two modes of vision at will.

Currently, it is unknown if the ‘colours’ that show up have different meanings. Subject #42 continues to show no ability and or interest in answering any questions that are asked of it.

—————————————————————————————————————

7: Further manifestations of Subject #42’s ‘soul magic’

Subject #42 is highly proficient in the use of its magic. It appears capable of instantly and immediately telling if something with a soul approaches it, even through walls and when its vision is restricted, suggesting the soul vision might be able to see through solid objects and see a remarkable distance away.

Alternatively, it may just be a sense that Subject #42 has passively.

When focused, this soul magic can form highly energetic lasers (resulting in biweekly maintenance required to Subject #42’s containment unit), an energy field around itself, and various other high energy attacks.

Subject #42 has a large quantity of energy within it, which it appears to get by steadily absorbing the lifeforce of everything around it.

Subject #42 has a large quantity of energy within it, which it appears to get by steadily absorbing the lifeforce of everything around it.

While it initially caused concern and almost led to the immediate order to terminate Subject #42, Doctor Cruce confirmed at the time that Subject #42 does not appear capable of doing this to such an extent that it would cause death or noticeable symptoms, quote ‘it's not taking from you anymore than the rate of you already naturally dying’. This statement was later retracted when, during a test, Subject #42 killed a test subject by simply touching it, examination to the body shows no wounds or signs of bodily trauma. It appears that Subject #42 instantly killed the fellow subject by removing its life force.

Doctor Cruce now believes that Subject #42 can indeed at any time rapidly and fatally absorb the life force of another being, but must come in contact with it first. For safety precautions, and yet another complaint from maintenance, Subject #42 was later moved to be held in stasis.

Up until that point Subject #42 had simply been very aloof and standoffish, during its final moments before being put in stasis it seemed to enter a state of hysteria, repeatedly calling out for something or someone.

—————————————————————————————————————

There are still many unanswered questions regarding Subject #42, such as the unnatural origins of its abilities and its origins in general.

Doctor Cruce’s conclusion is that it would benefit Nightmare Enterprises to make demonbeasts using Subject #42’s DNA.

However, she stressed a high deal of caution and time to conduct further research before proceeding with any attempts to make new monsters.

Subject #42’s highly unpredictable nature and abilities could lead to the creation of a monster far worse than it that could be impossible to contain that could become an unimaginable threat to the company, especially if it escaped and got into the wrong hands.

(END OF LOG)

[werewolfnightwalker]

Mermay

A cute, fluffy drabble of Merman!Keigo and Touya.

----

Touya's flipflops slapped wetly on the rocks as he hopped across them, keeping his balance despite the slick, algae-coated surfaces. His siblings were back on the shore with their mom, building sandcastles, but he had something more important to do.

Adjusting the bucket hat on his head as it nearly fell off, he made it to the last rock and knelt down, peering into the water. "Keigo? Are you here?" He called hopefully.

There was a pause, before a glittering, ruby tail emerged and 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 the surface, spraying water at him. Touya laughed, throwing an arm up to shield himself. Bubbly laughter echoed him from below, before Keigo's head breached the surface of the water. He grinned up at Touya, his vicious fangs gleaming like pearls. "Hi, Touya!"

"Hey." Touya giggled, bracing his hands on the rock as he leaned out, over the water. Keigo rose to meet him, and Touya tasted salt water when their lips met.

He pulled back after a few seconds, to see Keigo's earfins fluttering happily. He reached out, running his finger over the edge of one, and Keigo tipped his head into his hand with a low croon. His own webbed hand came up to hold Touya's against his cheek, the crimson scales that dusted his cheeks like freckles scraping against his palm.

Touya's heart made a funny leap at the motion, heat rising in his cheeks that had nothing to do with the summer sun. Ever sine he met Keigo- after the merman had rescued Shoto from nearly drowning the year before- he'd been helplessly in love with the beautiful creature.

He'd come back at 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 once a week since then to see him, even braving the waters in winter. It had taken months to get Keigo to trust that he meant no harm, that he didn't want to catch him or steal his scales or anything of the sort. Longer still for him to work up the courage to confess, but now he was glad he did.

You know what today is?" He asked, stroking his thumb across Keigo's cheek.

"The twentieth day of summer?" Keigo murmured.

"Yeah, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 the anniversary of the day we met." Touya told him proudly.

"Is it?" Keigo opened his eyes and blinked at him, his irises like a pair of golden suns.

"Yes! Like I could forget the day I met you." Touya smiled. Keigo huffed, looking away; he couldn't blush, being coldblooded, but Touya knew when he was being shy. He sat back, digging in the satchel at his side, and pulled out a sandwich bag, in which were a pair of taiyaki- handmade by Touya himself.

"I brought these to celebrate." He held the bag out to show him.

Keigo cocked his head at the treats, eyeing them critically. "Those are some odd looking fish."

"They're pastries." Touya corrected, "They just look like fish." He pulled the bag open and retrieved one, holding out. "Try it, I filled them with chocolate."

"Chocolate." Keigo echoed as he took the treat, eternally amused by human words. Touya sat back and watched him sniff the taiyaki, before delivering a swift bite to the back of the head, as he did when he ate actual fish. He tore a large bite off, the chocolate filling smearing on his lip as he chewed. Touya saw the way his eyes lit up from the flavor, before he was devouring the cakey treat. "Delicious!" He declared, licking the crumbs and chocolate smears off his claws.

He looked up at Touya, before his eyes zeroed in on the other snack. Touya had meant for that one to be for himself, but he pulled it out of the bag and gave that one to Keigo, too.

He made sure to tuck the plastic bag back into his satchel; the last time he'd let an arrant piece of plastic fall in the water, Keigo had gotten so mad at him he'd threatened to never speak to him again. Touya had spent the rest of the day picking up trash along the beach to earn his forgiveness.

Now, as Keigo gobbled up the second snack, Touya sat down properly on the stone and let his feet dangle in the water. As soon as he was done with the snack, Keigo swam up to him, rubbing his cheek affectionately against Touya's shin.

"Happy anniversary, Keigo." Touya chuckled, reaching down and running a hand through Keigo's hair.

"Anni-ver-sary." Keigo echoed the word slowly, like he was testing how it felt in his mouth. He pulled away, peering up at Touya. His secondary eyelids blinked, even as his eyes stayed open, before he grinned. "If today is such a special day, then I will get something for you, too!" He declared.

Before Touya could speak, he turned and dove back into the water, vanishing under the waves with a flick of his tail. The young boy blinked, bewildered, but patiently waited for him to come back, curious to see what Keigo would bring him.

After a few minutes, Keigo reemerged, swimming up to the rock and thrusting his hand at Touya proudly.

"Here. You shared your delicacy fish with me, it's only fair that I return the favor. This is a special treat for mermaids- we only eat them during courting rituals or hatching ceremonies."

Touya looked down at his hand, and his stomach dropped; clutched in Keigo's claws was a sea slug, one with vibrant, pink and red colors.

Touya… did not like fish. It was a texture thing, more than anything, but the mere thought of even 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘪 made him gag.

"I eat it?" He echoed, dismayed.

"Yes! Traditionally, you swallow it whole." Keigo beamed. Touya's heart flipped over in his chest; his merman looked so enthusiastic about sharing this part of his culture, he didn't have the courage to let him down.

Swallowing his pride and no small amount of bile, he took the slug from Keigo's hand. At least it was dead; he thought he might puke if he had to eat a live one.

It was cold and slimy in his palm, and he hoped his reluctance came across as hesitation rather than disgust. Keigo gazed up at him with anticipation shining in his beautiful eyes, his hand coming to rest on Touya's foot.

Touya took a breath, counted to three in his head, and threw the slug back in into his mouth. Immediately, he gagged on the texture, the flavor, the smell- he felt vomit creep up his throat, but he swallowed both it and the slug before it could leave him. He nearly puked, anyways, as he 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 the slug hit his stomach, and only just managed to keep it down. He took several slow breaths, blinking tears out of his eyes.

"Well?" Keigo asked after a pause, his tail swishing through the water. Touya looked down at him, at the excited look on his face, and forced a smile.

"Delicious." He promised him, smacking his lips before he added, "Kind of salty, though."

That made Keigo laugh. "Of course it was! It's a sea slug, silly!"

Touya laughed weakly, and after a moment, Keigo pulled himself up onto the stone to sit beside him, and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Thank you, my sea star." He crooned.

"You're welcome, Kei. I love you." He nuzzled his nose against Keigo's, causing the merman to flap all of his fins happily.

"I love you, too. Happy anni-ver-sary."

//End.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this story, consider leaving me a tip!

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

Fang you're major/area of study has something to do with computer science, I'm just curious about your stance on AI in the field?

ive given a v long opinion about it but baseline is that it's not inherently unethical or bad. it is a tool and it can be helpful in the right circumstances and for automation and precision. the unethical part of ai is the large scale usage that is detrimental to the environment and the unethical web-scraping that should be completely illegal. feeding models with public works and profiting off of them is theft

we also live under the american regime so i think there needs to be regulation about the usage of it for monitoring fucking civilians but that's a long time concern and ongoing battle. it has worsened as a threat since it entered the general consciousness.

the use of ai itself especially with privately trained models is more than fine. it does good work in certain fields and makes the lives of other people easier.

so tldr fuck chatgpt and other various profiting ai companies + companies thieving from peoples works but opting them into ai model training without consent. but ai itself is just a tool. it can be utilized in good and bad ways.

[chroniclingworlds]

Primamorphs

This is an incredibly diverse Euconch group, with far more genera than I can possibly categorize currently, so I will focus on the more commonly seen species. They all share the same relatively primitive traits. They have fewer bones than other Mollichordates; their limbs contain small, rod-like bones connected by muscles and ligaments. This allows greater flexibility, but prevents them from getting very large. Unlike other Mollichordates, they only have one or two toes per foot.

BarkLumps:

Pictured: the titan BarkLump, found in the forests of Maari.

These diminutive animals live worldwide, anywhere that there are decaying logs. With rasping mouthparts and ten little feet lined with suction cups, these creatures cling to dead trees and slowly scrape away rotting matter, feeding on the chitinous shells and the soft plant flesh within. There are hundreds of known species and potentially thousands of cryptic species waiting to be discovered with DNA testing. The species pictured here is among the largest BarkLump, nearly the size of a human hand, but most species are much smaller. The pattern on their shells mimic the trees that they prefer; this one is patterned to resemble the overlapping chitinous scales of Titanica trees.

Sapsuckers:

Pictured: The reticulated sapsucker, native to the labyrinth forests of Faon, is one of the larger species.

Similar to their cousins the BarkLumps, Sapsuckers are small animals that live their lives clinging to plants with the help of their many suction cup feet. But while BarkLumps eat decaying trees, Sapsuckers parasitise live plants. With the help of a highly modified beak, they insert their pharyngeal jaws into the vein of a plant and lap up the vascular fluids. Typically, the plant is unharmed by this annoying companion, but blooms of these little animals can kill even the giant Titanica trees. While many are roughly the size of the species pictured above, Sapsuckers that can easily fit on a fingernail can be found living in grassy plains and Limia carpets.

Leafies:

Pictured: the palm leaf mimic, an arboreal species living in the lush canopy of Ejoa rainforests.

Named for their incredible mimicry, these omnivores have their greatest diversity in tropical forests, but a few species can be found living in more temperate areas as well. Species which live in drier climates have shells that mimic the fat, water-filled leaves of arid plants, and species that live on the ground resemble dead leaves. They spend most of their time swaying gently with the wind, waiting for small Hexapods, BarkLumps, or Sapsuckers to venture too close and be grasped in their tiny clawed hands. They also feed on fruits, nectar, and even occasionally leaves.

Scuttlers:

Pictured: the wooly Scuttler, found in the tundra of Amki.

These elusive animals are more frequently heard than seen, scuttling around in leaf litter or the tangled roots of savannas. Eating essentially anything they come across from animals to plants to decaying matter, these are like the little vacuum cleaners of the forest floors. They are a keystone of the ecosystems, providing food for many other species and cleaning up their habitats. They are found basically everywhere except extremely arid deserts and mountaintops.

Marsh Eyes:

Pictured: the spotted lumpfrog, native to the Three Lakes region of Ejoa.

Semi-aquatic and skittish, these creatures live in ponds and swamps around the world. Their bulging eyes positioned on the tops of their heads are frequently the only thing you see of them before they vanish beneath the water. With webbed feet and thin, slimy skin, they are almost like an alien frog. Unlike frogs, they feed primarily on marsh plants, with occasional Hexapods and tubies as a protein source. Their shells are highly reduced to allow more agility underwater, but it can still be seen as a hard lump just under the skin.

Land Flounders:

Pictured: the Hyranese pancake, an average-sized land flounder from the deserts of Hyra.

Just like their aquatic namesake, land flounders bury themselves just beneath the sand of desert regions with only their eyes sticking out. There, they wait until something small enough to fit in their mouth wanders into reach. Their pharyngeal jaws are highly extendable, able to shoot out nearly twice their body length, and coated with a sticky mucus almost like a chameleon tongue. After a big meal, they can go months without needing to feed again.

[3idatascraping]

Large-Scale Web Scraping: An Ultimate Guide offers comprehensive insights into automating massive data extraction. Learn about tools, techniques, and best practices to efficiently gather and process web data at scale.

[girderednerve]

A pseudonymous coder has created and released an open source “tar pit” to indefinitely trap AI training web crawlers in an infinitely, randomly-generating series of pages to waste their time and computing power. The program, called Nepenthes after the genus of carnivorous pitcher plants which trap and consume their prey, can be deployed by webpage owners to protect their own content from being scraped or can be deployed “offensively” as a honeypot trap to waste AI companies’ resources.

“Of course, these crawlers are massively scaled, and are downloading links from large swathes of the internet at any given time,” [Aaron B, Nepenthes' creator, said]. “But they are still consuming resources, spinning around doing nothing helpful, unless they find a way to detect that they are stuck in this loop.”

[rooksmuses]

A CREATURE NOT MADE TO SLINK. massive, a predator's slow gait, clawed forelimbs scraping grooves into the steel-reinforced concrete, it progressed through the narrow tunnels guided only by its keen nose, by the infrared it can practically taste on the pits dented above its scaled maw. the webbed flares of its hindlimbs and it’s whiplike tail trail uncarefully in the damp, near fetid puddles of condensation ( sweat ? tears ? the blood of the earth ? ), an odd set of tracks for an errant fool to follow. a wyvern had to eat.  it's far enough away now, it thinks, silvered eyes cocking back for a moment, to the expanse travelled, and indeed, it could no longer feel the heat of masses gathering—all that remained was the heat within itself. the caverns it finds itself confronted with are not nearly large enough to stretch out in, and so it coils, clinging to the darkest parts of the area, head pointed towards the way it came. waiting…  whoever wandered this far away from the safety of numbers had it coming, really.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Made in his image

(Shapeshifter!au Tallulah. Showing a lack of self-esteem by having her literally change herself to get adopted. <3)

She pressed back against the wall, listening dully to the conversation floating over to her. The sound echoed around the walls of the tiny dug-out space she called her house (bouncing around her head, mocking her), making it hard to pinpoint where it was coming from.

It wasn’t like it mattered, anyway. Her throat was wrecked after so long without nearly any water, and she was too starved to put any kind of force into punching the wall, let alone punch it hard enough to alert them of her presence.

Quietly, she scratched another number in the ground by her hand, clawed fingers marring the floor. It had been smooth when she had first woken up there, but now tiny divots littered the ground. Not for the first time, she wondered what color the stone actually was.

Light. Lighter than her, when she pressed her hand to the floor and squinted she could make out that much, but otherwise it was a mystery.

The conversation halted abruptly.

Too abruptly. Not as if they had gone out of hearing range, but as if they had simply stopped talking.

Like they were trying to listen.

She knew she shouldn’t let her hope run away from her.

She dug her claws into the stone and dragged them along the floor regardless, hoping against hope that they would hear.

The silence was deafening.

Maybe she had just been too lost in her own head, and because of that she simply hadn't noticed them getting further and further away. Maybe she was finally going insane, staring at the nothingness for days on end had gotten to her. Maybe she would die here and no one would ever be any the wiser and there was nothing she could do about it –.

She heard something hit the stone with a deafening clang.

And then again.

And again.

She shrunk back into the safety of the corner, quietly hoping that, whichever way the person would come from, it would be far from her corner. She would prefer not being clubbed with a pickaxe, or hit by a stray rock that had come loose while the person broke their way into her room.

For once, the whatever it was that watched over them all actually answered her pleas.

Light poked its way in on the opposite side of the cavern, faint at first, traveling through the tiniest of holes. She almost looked away – the light, as little as it was, was almost blinding after so long with nothing but sheer darkness – but she didn’t dare to, instead powering her way through the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, determined not to miss a thing. Cracks spider-webbed outwards, and it only took another few, clean hits before the hole was large enough for a person to squeeze through, if they were not too concerned about a couple of scrapes.

It seemed her saviors were, though, because they continued to chip away at the opening.

Her eyes landed on a man with a mess of curly, chestnut hair and a set of wireframe glasses perched on his nose. Not that this was what she noticed first – no, her first thought was about how tall he was, tall enough that he had to duck just slightly in the room she had always thought to be surprisingly spacious for a pocket of air in the wall. Or maybe he was just hunched over because he was coughing, perspective was weird. He had dragged the front of his turtleneck sweater up to cover his nose, trying to keep out the dust and pieces of stone kicked up by their pickaxes, but even this wasn’t enough to keep him from coughing and waving his sombrero around in hopes of batting away some of the particulates.

The man’s eyes had slid right over her. Between the dust and the fact that her dark scales helped her blend into the shadows, she was easy to miss.

Probably for the best, though. She knew reptilians were not the most cuddly things, and that many humans were put off when they might happen to see long claws or gaunt, inhuman faces.

So, she would have to change before they could see that.

Quietly, she shifted. It wasn’t a particularly fun process, having her bones contort into new shapes to match that of a human’s, to have skin stretch itself over her scales, to feel strands of hair begin to poke out from the back of her head… but at least it was quick, a change done in the split-second of a torch’s flicker.

In came another man, not as tall as the first, but extremely broad, and with a head that shone without any hair in sight. His metal arm gleamed in the light of the torch he was holding, and this did nothing to help her from thinking the man looked a little scary.

This mild, passing thought, turned into a blaring alarm when his eyes instantly locked on her.

For a moment, his face paled, and she wondered if, somehow, he had seen her in the exact moment she had shifted. That he knew. That her chances of the family she had daydreamed about for weeks on end to pass the time were already dashed. She hadn’t yet crossed the starting line!

“Wil – Wilbur, there’s a kid here,” the man said.

The first man’s eyes widened and he followed the man’s pointed finger, only to jolt in surprise when he finally noticed her.

“It looks just like me,” the tall man said, no doubt taking in the curly brown hair she had grown and the pale skin she had created to match him. “Oh, hell, it looks just like me .”

Panic jolted through her in parallel to the horror dawning across the man’s face. Had she chosen wrong?

Maybe she should risk a quick shift, hope that they would blame the change on the low torchlight? Maybe she should add a scar over the bridge of her nose to match this new man?

But they had already seen her, and she didn’t want to put them off. What if they thought she was mocking them by changing her appearance to match theirs? What if they saw the moment her features shifted, got a brief peak behind the curtain, saw the glimmering scales dancing under her false skin? What if they were disgusted?

They thought she was a human child, it was probably best that things remained that way.

She widened her eyes just slightly at the muscular man. She had waited months for this, for a chance at a family, she was not going to be left here. Not again.

It had been bad enough to be without a family, but if she was outright rejected? She really wasn't sure how she would cope. The meaning of life was love and kindness, this she knew, but if she was rejected did that mean she wasn't worthy of either of them?

“Wilbur, you’re scaring them,” the man said, hesitantly closing the distance between the two of them. He was careful, as if approaching a wild animal that he was scared would run off if he made any sudden moves. He wasn’t too far off, to be fair, not about the animal part, at least. He settled a heavy hand on her shoulder – the human hand, warm even through the thick fabric of her shirt and covered in callouses. “Hey, what’s your name?”

She hesitated, before shaking her head.

“You… don’t have one?”

She nodded that this was true. Not one that she remembered. And she would take any name, so long as they would return the favor and take her with them.

He gave a smile, hesitant and small as it was. She returned it, trying to still her heart in her chest before it got away from her again.

She was right to do so, because the man turned back to his companion (‘Wilbur’, apparently) with a grim look. “I think she’s yours.”

Wilbur shook his head rapidly. She might be offended at how vehemently against the idea of being her father he was if she wasn’t too busy feeling her heart drop like a rock into her gut.

“Fit – you – I – you know this, I can’t take care of a kid .”

“I can’t either. I’m already taking care of Ramon on my own.”

“At least you’ll be here to try. I have to leave in two weeks, Fit!”

“She looks just like you. I think this is one of those times where you have to take responsibility, Wilbur.”

They…!

They were fighting over who would not keep her.

She looked around frantically. She needed to prove herself to them! She needed to be something worth keeping. She already looked like one of them, but that wasn’t enough, so that meant it was up to her and her actual personality, so surely she was doomed.

She had been stuck in a cave for as long as she could remember, she hadn’t had much time to pick up any hobbies!

Well, she wasn’t all that good at the one she had tried, at least.

But she had to try.

She snatched up the flute she had fashioned out of a singular stick she had found in the room with her and launched into one of the songs she had learned to play in her many hours of sitting around with nothing to do. Her throat ached with every harsh exhale, and the flute was poorly made, but she still managed a few quick notes.

Wilbur’s lips quirked up at the corners. Not in amusement, not like he was laughing at her, but instead something undeniably fond. “Big fan of Usher, are you?”

She had no clue what that was! But sure! She nodded rapidly, giving him as bright of a smile as she could.

His eyes didn’t stray from her own for a few moments, the complicated expression tugging at the edges of his face never fading.

Whatever he found in her face, though, he must have liked (she would hope so, she had made it just for him), because he managed a tiny smile and held his hand out for her. Probably to help her up, but she grabbed his hand and didn’t let go.

He didn’t pull away, either.

“Well… let’s get you out of here. Can’t stay in a dusty place like this, can we?”

She glanced around the dusty place that had been her home for the past few weeks. The walls and floor were gray.

She looked at Wilbur.

She nodded once. Firmly. She would not be coming back here.

[expression-of-doubt]

old-reds.html

The following is an excerpt from the official website for the Neutral Capital Coalition (or NCC) – a political coalition, formed out of four parties: The Capital Communist Party, The Communist Party of The Capital, Party of Capital Communists, and Russophiles for the Rebirth of the Fatherland.

As you click around, you are presented the political doctrine of, what is advertised as, an ideologically neutral, nationalist party, somewhere in the political centre of The Capital. Most of the text on screen is, by default, scaled to the largest font size available, as if to compensate for their average reader's diminishing eyesight. All of the buttons are large, and noticeably red.

The page also appears to have been mangled, as most of the assets on screen seem to be misaligned and mistranslated. Whether or not this is a freak web-scraping accident, or the original design is impossible to tell.

Welcome to the Neutral Capital Coalition’s official website. Click here to view the list of candidates for the production of the representatives from the coalition for the October election season. “Climble the snark and ER!”

“Russia is not our enemy” – it says on the bulletin.

“The Capital Socialist Party – a bourgeois party!” - it says on the news ticker.

The political scene in The Capital is a difficult one to translate to people who haven’t lived there in the last thirty years or so. Regardless, the post-Cold-War political climate is not too different from other Eastern European countries at the time. After the fall of the Soviet Union, most of the former Soviet republics are thrust into political turmoil, as the power vacuum allows for new faces to come into the limelight, new political political figures to head the nation through the tumultuous process of democratisation.

However, not everyone was so eager. “The Old Guard”, as they would come to be know, were all those people – now aged 70 and over – who felt that this was the worst thing that could happen to their homeland. Usually, individuals in high-standing positions within the country’s administration, and/or people whose sense of identity was too intertwined with the Soviet ideal, to give up so easily.

Those people were forced into a kind of hiding in plain sight – their former party allegiance kept under wraps, until the country could be once again reunited with the Motherland. The rewards for their patience were to be tenfold, as Putin himself would shake their hand and thank them for their devotion to the greater cause.

Such a thing would, sadly, not happen in their lifetimes. Distraught, they would make a five-year plan to ensure that such a future is secured, even if they couldn’t see it for themselves. With their millions in accumulated net-worth, they would do the next best thing – they would have children.

Now aged in their mid-forties or early fifties, these are the children that saw the tail-end of the old socialist regime, and would be tasked with rebuilding the nation in the new westernised era. Children that have been taught from an early age, that there is a great nation out there in the north – a brother nation, which cares so deeply about them, and would do anything to be together with them again. One that would save them from the West.

No one asked the people whether or not they want to join the EU, nor did they ask their opinion on whether that is a poll that should be held! It is our position that it is better for our nation to not participate in the EU. We definitively have no place in NATO, and it is yet another lie that NATO is a defence alliance that will come to our aid!

It is an aggressive and terrorist organisation, set to impose US world domination, as Eisenhower himself said when he created NATO!

Many of the workers, who have been brainwashed by the bourgeois propaganda for 30 years now, have no class consciousness, and every person who is on a salary is part of the working class! The majority of people still remember who really cares for us, who we must reunite with, if we are to survive as a people. We must return to our brothers-in-arms, and be whole once again! – the page reads.

And so the country exists as a relic - a perpetual proxy war, which is begging to return to the “good ol’ days”. Being on either side of the political spectrum labels you as either an old, detached, Russian pawn, or a new, money-grubbing, US puppet. No one is playing for the home team.

Under these conditions, there could be no moving forward from the Cold War. The country would be stuck in a perpetual transition from one regime to the next – one step forward, one step back. There could be no such thing as nationalism, since whatever form that word would appear in, on the political stage, would soon come to be clarified by whom it was paid for – the US or Russia. On its own, it is a nation that bares no remark – a country with no identity of its own; much like a D-list actor, working as an extra, in a large Hollywood blockbuster production.

On the receiving end of all this, would be the Old Guard’s grandchildren – now aged somewhere in their twenties. Children that have never seen the old regime, nor will they get to see the new one. A lost generation, not because of war, death, and bloodshed, but lost because it would only ever exist in transition. A generation of unfulfilled youth, who would only ever hear of greater times from the past, or even greater times to be had in the years to come. Their present would be put on hold for the sake of someone else’s idea for the future.

Now think what kind of life a person, born into that generation would have. What decision would they make, when they walk up to vote for the future of their country, and on that list is some coalition, vying for neutrality – a coalition composed entirely out of former members of the Old Guard. Is it some practical joke? What could the “Neutral” in their name stand for? It isn’t neutral, because it is a compromise between the political ambitions of both sides. It isn’t neutral because it wants to put the country first, and foreign diplomacy second. It’s neutral, because they believe that they’ve already won.

US-financed neo-Nazi leader detained by our glorious militia! Another victory against fascism in Europe! The Neutral Capital Coalition expresses its gratitude to The Capital municipality, the mayor, the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. The state has once again shown I pursues a consistent and categorical policy against the western fascism, perpetuated by the US in our country. – an article on the page reads.

What can a member of that lost generation do? Wait for every single insignificant old fart in the Old Guard to keel over and die? Gladly. . . but unfortunately unlikely. The thing about those parasites is that when they multiply, their children aren’t that much better off. They keep spreading the brotherly love, and wear their red little pins, while they go to their rallies. The unfortunate truth of the matter, is that in order to have the memory of the good ol’ times to fade away, the neue Lost Generation won't only have to wait for the Old Guard to die, but have their own parents die as well; have themselves die; and in all likelihood, have their children die of old age, for good measure.

That is—obviously—a morbid and slow process. Too slow. So what is the next best thing? Well. . . being the most technologically savvy generation, nurtured on the internet, as so called “digital natives”, might end up having its boons. Here and there, their grandparent might have the idea to meet with like-minded people, reminisce about the good ol’ times, and discuss some political views. However, walking is getting a little bit harder as time goes on, and those legs don’t carry you as far as they used to. Maybe the kid can set you up on the computer, so you can do that over the internet instead. Maybe you have the kid make your political party’s website, since he seems to be good with that whole programming thing. Maybe the kid starts phishing for some credentials, distributing some malware, running some ransomware, mining cryptocurrencies, and generally opening a couple of extra bank accounts for every visitor on that site.

Slowly, but surely, every member of the Old Guard slowly starts having more and more issues with the computer. Every click slowing their machine down more and more. A CPU failure here, identity theft there; an issue with their health insurance here, a completely drained pension there.

Eventually, it all adds up, and all they have left to do is lay down, penniless, unable to move, disconnected from the world – all alone. Nothing but their ideals to keep them company. A new age with a digital footprint large enough to stomp out the good ol' times from collective memory. Surely, your brothers and sisters out north will rush will save you now.

Anton “The Shiv” Popov is to be sent into one of the new mixed-gender prisons, which were recently established due to the overwhelming levels of success in detaining the large spike in crime seen around The Capital in recent years. The NCC sees this as an incredible victory for the equality of the sexes and the rule of law in our great nation!

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> danvan7712 says: You will all see many more of these cases. Per day. With subordinate prosecutors, the Ministry of the Interior, the government, mayors, you are all really in the jungle! The strong and brutal will survive, while Europe isolates you more and more like a panopticon of horrors or a mafia museum!

> Ressurectionist says: Literarily, this is an incredibly bad article.

> T26gram says: RE: danvan7712 – you fucking idiot, shove your head up your asshole

> puck_futin says: The comment was deleted by moderators because it contained advertising messages or spam.

> comanvergil says: When we were civilized, the European barbarians first killed their brother to take his witch and become tribal leaders!