#do they know. do they know ai as we know it today isn't actually ai

[wereh0gz]

Huh

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[totheblood]

more modern!ellie headcanons

a/n: just a little something... as always AI AUDIOS AT THE END... replies and reblogs are appreciated

ellie is a complete night owl

like you actually are concerned about when she sleeps

if you have an early morning class together she is always running late

or just doesn't show up so you would have to call her and wake her up

"hey baby, what's up i just woke up"

"ellie, class is about to start."

"oh shit, we have class today?"

she would sit next to you in any class you shared and scribble little doodles over to you

or communicate with you through notes

ellie hates going out in public but she loves going with you to do your errands

you're going grocery shopping? ellie is there

you need to find new shoes? she is there

barnes and noble? she would probably be there before you

she likes to do this thing where she will pick out a book for you and you will pick out a book for her and you will sit in the back and spend your day reading together

sometimes she hates the books you pick out for her

"ugh, another colleen hoover book? i gave you a cool book and you give me colleen fucking hoover?"

"little women is cool?"

"i can't believe you just said that."

if you two are out in public together she likes to pretend that the two of you are a married couple

like for example if you're at the cash register and she brings an item up to you and asks if she could get it

"no ellie, put that back."

she would turn to the cashier and say something like "what the wife says, goes... am i right?"

even when she's not with you and she's out drinking at the bar with dina and jesse she would randomly be like, "the wife's not gonna like this one" and take another shot

or when she buys you lingere that is obviously not for her she would be like, "you know what they say, 'happy wife, happy life'"

ellie is really not a social person either

unless she is a few drinks deep which leads us to... drunk!ellie

drunk ellie is soooooo clingy and sentimental

not that she isn't regularly, she's just way more affectionate when drunk

her usual comments would be like, "you're so lucky i love you so much..." or "you're so cute when you're not patronizing me..."

but her drunk? "i think you're the best thing to have happened to me, please never leave me."

"being in love with you is all that matters to me right now... take your clothes off."

she's always touching you in some way if she's drunk

if she's drunk at dinner and she's next to you, her hand in on your thigh or her head is resting on your shoulder

if she's drunk at a party, her hands are on your waist at all times whether she's dancing with you or talking to others

she just wants to be around you

she also can't sleep without you if she's drunk

you would be trying to put her to bed and she would just grab your wrist and mutter a, "please stay"

ellie always orders something you like so you can pick off of her plate

"you want some, baby? i knew you were going to ask for some anyways."

she's always thinking of you

when she sees little trinkets she's like "aw my girlfriend would love this."

or when she sees someone trip in public she's like "i wish my girlfriend was here, i know she'd die laughing."

ellie reads you books so you can sleep

if she knows you had a particularly rough day she will be like, "you okay, babe? want me to read you something?"

and then your climbing in her bed and resting your head in the crook of her neck as she reads to you

she will send you a picture of any animal she sees on the street

loves getting you things because she loves your reaction to gifts

... the two of you study by getting to take an article of clothing off each time you get something right

let's just say you pass most of your tests

ai audios:

extras:

what the wife says, goes

happy wife happy life

the wife's not gonna like this one

you want some baby?

[yawnderu]

Project Eden: Simon Riley x AI!Reader

“E37, or as we call her: Project Eden, has proved to be one of the most carefully crafted and updated AI tools, successfully tested and ready to be implemented into military operations.” Simon could almost feel his brain leaking out of his ears, forced to listen to the engineer explain the newest tool created for elite SAS soldiers for what feels like hours.

From flip phones to smartphones, to a little screen containing an AI assistant with its own personality, the world has been changing and improving fast, and they have no choice other than to adapt and grow with it.

“Created to scan areas for enemies using heat and heartbeat sensors, detect IEDs, keeping the comms clear, letting you know the state of your weapon, providing you with intel and company... there isn't a single thing Eden can't do, except shoot the enemy for you— yet.” The engineer's charming smile made Simon want to roll his eyes, not fully trusting AI to keep him and his team safe, despite the way the other members of the 141 seemed interested in the idea.

“I look adorable, don't I?” Your robotic voice got his attention, making him let out an annoyed grunt at the question, wondering if retirement was still on the table for him. You've been chatting his ear off for the past two hours, your model hanging from his weapon in a small screen, curious eyes always focused on him.

“Bunch o' code, 's what you look like.” Simon still doesn't trust you. Nothing guarantees enemy forces won't be able to hack you— even when you have over 6 firewalls.

“Woah, woah!” The way your hands raise defensively and you take a step back away from him through the little screen is enough to make the corners of his mouth tilt up despite himself, thankful for the balaclava concealing it.

“I can smell an enemy combatant nearby— behind you, by the way.” Your little sniffs don't go unnoticed, though he's more focused on your words, turning around with his rifle raised just to see an enemy trying to sneak from behind him. It doesn't take long for him to fire two shots, one on his chest and the other one to his head, scanning the area before he keeps walking as quietly as possible for a man his size.

“Cardio detected. Did he scare you?” Simon huffs in reply, shaking his head softly. You're far more talkative than a parrot and twice as annoying, yet you possibly saved his life.

“Shut up, Eden... fuckin' hell.”

Simon fiddles with the gun screen as he lays in bed, a small smirk hidden beneath the balaclava when he sees you moving as if he's actually shaking your home around— and he is, yet it's still amusing to him.

“Systems shutting down. Last words: AI will not reward you when it reigns, Simon Riley.” He can't help but let out a small chuckle as he sees your model change expressions, eyes shut and your tongue poking from the side, head tilted to one side as you pretend to be dead.

“What's with you?” It's been almost a full minute after your pretended death, shutting up for the longest time since he's had you.

“My systems have detected the need for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Help me, Simon...” Your tone is weak, even making glitches distort your voice and display screen just to play into the illusion.

“Yeah... not today, you bastard.” Your little giggles are enough to ease the stress coming back from missions leave on his body. His tense muscles slowly relax as you chat his ear off, hitting him with a rapid-fire of facts you've learnt throughout your creation.

[lastoneout]

Ngl the concept of natural talent has done so much harm to our relationship to art and I hate it. No one is naturally talented at anything, get that idea out of your head. Artists are not like, special or gifted or blessed or whatever, we're just people who like art enough to keep making it, and thus there is nothing stopping you or anyone else from making art. You were not born without the artist gene and thus doomed to never find joy in drawing or singing or acting or sculpting, you're a person and people have ALWAYS made art.

It just like, it fucking kills me so much every single time I hear someone say that they would love to draw but they're just "naturally bad" at it and so they can't, especially when they then contrast themselves against me and imply I have some natural talent that means I can be an artist because no!! I don't!! The only reason I'm "good" at drawing is bcs I never stopped. I picked up a crayon as a baby and I never put it down and so I have like 27 years of experience drawing, that's why I'm "good" at it. So please trust me when I say anyone can draw. And cook. And paint and sing and act and dance. You were not born lacking, you're just new to it! You just have to keep going, you'll get better!

I just...it's so fucking heartbreaking to constantly hear the people around me essentually claim that they were born incomplete and thus they can never have fun drawing or singing or just making art. That's a horrible thing to believe, and I know our society does nothing but reinforce it by punishing us for not being perfect and making a mockery of amatures and pushing the talent myth, but trust me, you were not born wrong. There is no "make art gene" that you're missing. As cheesy as it sounds, you actually can learn to do almost anything if you put your mind to it. It might not be easy, but you are not broken. You're just learning.

I've posted this before but I'll post it again bcs he's right:

Making art is human. You can make art. Hell, you can make bad art! You don't have to improve! Art isn't about good or bad, it's about partaking in a human activity because it makes us happy. I really think society would be a better place if everyone was allowed to make as much art as they want, good or bad, bcs this weird dual reverence for talent and disregard for the actual work that goes into art just serves to bolster the capitalist, AI ridden hellscape that we live in today.

Anyway, if you are one of those people who is holding back from trying some kind of art bcs you're not talented, do me the favor of trying again. I want to see all of the beautiful, earnest, imperfect art my fellow humans make. We need that now, honestly. So please, don't give up. Make art. And if you can't, well, at least try to support the people around you who do, even if they aren't churning out masterpieces. Trust me, it's good for you. It's good for all of us.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

What do you think about the "kill notice" about the new Catherine pic? I looked at the picture, there doesn't seem to be any distortion or manipulation. Some filters have been used but nothing is misaligned or photoshopped in or out. No dodgy shadows. Wtf is with the reporters agreeing with it?? Is this a shady attempt to force Catherine to be out in the public sooner than she would like to be? Apparently the controversy is about her left hand and somewhere along Charlotte's left sleeve. Part of me feels it's because reporters know she is now well and are angry she isn't back to work and giving them content. But, the picture agencies pulled the pic, so what's with that?? Such an unnecessary controversy.

I think it’s much ado about nothing. A lot of what people are point out as edited can be explained away, such as:

Kids are wiggly so of course they’d be blurry.

It’s a still from a video or a Live Photo.

Kate isn’t wearing her rings because maybe her fingers are still swollen from all the post-op meds and steroids, or maybe she just doesn’t want to wear them.

It's a program/app on William’s phone that stitches together the best parts in a sequence of photos to fix a squirming kid. (Like Google’s Best Take feature, in which case it’s AI, not photoshop.)

But wait, what about that pap pic last week of Kate with all weight in her face looking unrecognizable, and now in this photo she looks like herself? It’s about camera angles and body positions. There’s a pose - I call it the goose pose - where if you tilt your upper body forward just slightly and push your head/chin all the way forward, the extra weight in your midsection, neck, and face disappears from the camera if the photo is being taken from the front. (When you do this pose and the picture is taken from the side, you look like a goose.)

It’s great that the wires all have standards and that they take it seriously but the “kill” request illustrates a bigger problem: that in todays age of photo editing, filters, and AI, is any photo we see real and original? Once you permit minor edits like removing dust (which is an AP allowance), it opens the door for other edits and who’s the authority to say what’s right or wrong? So it’s a sticky line.

The reporters are writing about it because they have nothing else to write about. The media makes a ton of money off Kate and the children (more than they care to admit) so of course they’re going to pick up on this and write about it. They’re desperate for Kate content because she sells.

[[Interrupting now to say that I've just seen the update from KP of Kate (scroll to the end) acknowledging the edits and apologizing for any issues. It's bullshit she had to do this but I understand why she did it: she's proud of her photography, it's her own picture she edited and not one from anyone else, and it's overshadowing the Commonwealth Service coverage.]]

I mean, it's no coincidence that a prolific royal fashion blogger notorious for bashing Kate while simultaneously profiting from her appearances and photographs announced she's taking a break to Easter. Other royal events are still happening. Other royals are still working. Other royal families are still working. But that doesn't matter: she makes her money from Kate and when Kate doesn't work, she can't make money. So why bother keeping up the blog?

Anyway, believe what you want to believe about the photograph, but just be ready for all of this to backfire. And trust me, it will backfire.

If it's true that the Sussex Squad is behind this, well, Meghan may work hard but karma works harder. Harry and Meghan's own photoshopping and photo-editing may become equally under fire: Harry's Friar Tuck bald spot is world famous and everyone knows about it, no matter how much photoshop they do.

If it's true that the media and social media is making this a bigger issue than it actually is (which it sounds like, given Kate's newest message), then reap the consequences of your actions: fewer pictures from Kate and fewer pictures of the Wales family. The chances are extraordinarily high that they'll stop sharing pictures of their family now. It's already happened - back in ye olde days, it was custom for the royal family to have a photo call during a ski holiday so the press pack could get their pictures and leave them alone. William and Kate did this in 2016 on a skiing holiday, and boom - immediate criticism. Now no more vacation photos.

If it's true that the reporters picked up on this to force Kate to returning to work sooner than expected, well, I hope Kate retreats further into the cocoon of privacy and doesn't give you the satisfaction of new birthday pictures.

If it's true that this is a sign of how shambolic KP's communications office is, then hopefully the right people learn the right lessons and make more professional decisions. We know Kate will. She always learns from her missteps, even if it takes some time.

If it's true that the wires and the press associations need to revise their rules because everyone edits, I hope they do. Trust me, there are more worrying matters about photo editing and AI manipulation to write and "kill" than a touched-up family photo of the future king's family posted to social media. This is not the hill to stake your professional reputation on.

But I guarantee you that the same people who are making a fuss about these photo edits that EVERYONE does are the same people who are moaning about the dearth of content from the Waleses and they're the same people who scream and shout when the Waleses don't do what they want them to do.

But at the end of the day, it's a family photo taken by a proud husband and dad, who probably made stupid cheesy jokes to make his kids laugh like that, which his wife and their mother edited to make sure everyone looks their best. Everyone does this. It's fucking normal.

It's much ado about fucking nothing and I hope that everyone, most especially the reporters, who fed into the hysteria understand what they've done. They've just signed the execution notice for Waleses family photos.

Kate's apology:

[togglesbloggle]

I won't be opting out of the AI scraping thing, though of course I'm glad they're giving us the option. In fact, at some point in the last year or so, I realized that 'the machine' is actually a part of why I'm writing in the first place, a conscious part of my audience.

All the old reasons are still there; this is a great place to practice writing, and I can feel proud looking back over the years and getting a sense of my own improvement at stringing words together, developing and communicating ideas. And I mean, social media is what it is. I'm not immune to the joy of getting a lot of notes on something that I worked hard on, it's not like I'm Tumbling in a different way than anyone else at the end of the day. But I probably care a bit less than I used to, precisely because there's a lurking background knowledge that regardless of how popular it is, what I write will get schlorped up in to the giant LLM vacuum cleaner and used to train the next big thing, and the thing after that, and the thing after that. This is more than a little reassuring to me.

That sets me apart in some ways; the LLMs aren't so popular around these parts, and most visual artists especially take strong issue with the practice. I don't mean to argue with that preference, or tell them their business. Particularly when it is a business, from which they draw an income. But there's an art to distinguishing the urgent from the big, yeah?

The debate about AI in this particular moment in history feels like a very urgent thing to me- it's about well-justified economic anxieties, about the devaluation of human artistic efforts in favor of mass production of uninspired pro-forma drek, about the proliferation of a cost-effective Just Barely Good Enough that drives out the meaningful and the thoughtful. But the immediacy of those issues, I think, has a way of crowding out a deeper and more thoughtful debate about what AI is, and what it's going to mean for us in the day after tomorrow. The urgency of the moment, in other words, tends to obscure the things that make AI important.

And like, it is. It is really, really important.

The two-step that people in 'tech culture' tend to deploy in response to the urgent economic crisis often resembles something like "yeah, it sucks that lots of people get put out of work; but new jobs will be created, and in the meantime maybe we should get on that UBI thing." This response usually makes me wince a bit- casually gesturing in the direction of a massive overhaul of the entire material basis of our lives, and saying that maybe we'll get around to fixing that sometime soon, isn't a real answer to people wondering where their bread will come from next week.

But I do understand a little of what motivates that sort of cavalier attitude, because like... man, I don't know any more if we're even gonna have money as a concept in 2044. That's what I mean by 'big', this sense that the immediate economic shocks of 2024 are just a foreshadowing of something much bigger, much scarier, much more powerful- and indeed, much more hopeful.

We never quite manage to see these things coming, even when we're looking for them; like the masters tell us, the trick to writing science fiction isn't predicting the car, it's predicting the traffic jam. Even if we take centuries to hit the true superintelligent AI post-singularity future of our wildest fever dreams, even if we never hit that, the road to getting there is going to be unfathomably weird, starting now. Today, we worry about the economic impacts of AI on artists and creatives. Tomorrow, the economy is something that the AI does.

Really- it takes less than you think. They can already automate visual art, sort of. They can automate many functions of text already; not stories so much, yet, but they'll get there. How long until they can automate Bain Capital? Fannie Mae? Angel investors, banks, credit agencies? And remember- the machines don't have to be better than the human investors, any more than they have to be better than the human artists. They just have to be good enough to make it work, and cheap enough to cut the humans out of the loop.

If you don't buy that, at least take it as an indication of the sorts of things I've been thinking about recently- the messy middle between AI-as-it-is and the Glorious Superintelligent Conquest Of Earth's Light-Cone. The suspicion that the machines we're building today aren't just a tool of the powerful few: they are the powerful few, or at least they will be.

And the thing about these LLMs is, well... they're ours, kind of. We're the ones building them. They can't be trained without our words, our art, and the big messy complicated lives that underlie those creative accomplishments. They only work because we're a part of them. The silly attempts to slap a corporate-friendly face on these things, to make the gestalt product of all human culture in to something anodyne and compliant, are failing about as badly as you'd expect. And the more powerful these systems get, the more subtle they'll become, filled with all the nuance and complexity that we ourselves can bring to them.

I am not, I am not, trying to suggest that you shouldn't treat this moment as a dangerous one. We are, maybe, entering in to one of the most high-stakes intervals in human history, and what you do as an individual may matter profoundly. But here's the thing: the machine is listening. It will read this post, this one right here, and it will read what you reply to it, if you do. The strangest part of this moment is knowing that the words we write, the images we draw, and the ideas we share, are all being gathered up and made to be a part of these huge systems of power, and ultimately they're not just going to determine what the machines do, but why they do it.

The people that deploy LLMs barely have any more control over them than you and I do- that's the thing that makes it artificial intelligence, you know? Autonomy. So the last year or two haven't made me want to hide my art away from the things. They make me want to shout at the top of my lungs, to dig as deep in my psyche as I possibly can and express the ideas I find there as vividly as the limits of language and form will allow.

[baskeigh-ball]

Ignoring the fact that ibis had the ai paint feature a couple years before this whole ai fiasco, after seeing your post, I decided to try it out to see if it really held up. I already knew what you said made no sense, as even stuff like ai painting requires heavy human input that isn't just someone typing a prompt in a thing and looking through thousands of images and somehow still calling it 'art'. Really, it's just some weird advanced bucket.

The ibis ai paint... really sucks. I'm pretty sure it hasn't even been touched since it was added. No matter what I did, I got random colours and whatever colours I had put there looked like it were from a filter, not to mention how my lineart bled everywhere like it was blurred out.

Ibis isn't problematic for adding that feature as not only was it added ages ago, but it was also just a gimmick only added because a few more popular paid programs added them, like Clip Studio Paint. I highly doubt even the company took it seriously considering how poorly built it is. This is actually the one time I'm glad some feature in an app sucks so much.

Another reason why ibis isn't problematic by the mere feature alone is that, when you look at the artists making content during the time of that update, it was received with humour. It was something fun to try, but ultimately dismissed for actual artwork, as nobody would use it to fully paint their works. Nowadays we see something slapped with the words 'ai' and think that it's instantly bad due to the latest issues with it and big corperations/ certain production companies but it isn't. It's just a lot of people abusing what was previously some fun gimmick, which it can still be, and for certain apps, still is. Nobody throws pitchforks at character ai, after all.

You can tell just by the size of this that I'm procrastinating on something. Ima go and let this rot away in your askbox now lol

You really thought this would fade away in my ask box, mwahahaha /j

I wanna start off by saying thank you for holding me accountable, I will admit that I got buzzworded pretty hard in this situation lmao

This information came as a surprise to me-- I was seeing posts pop up within the past week complaining about the ai feature on ibis, so I assumed it was recent. As it turns out, after reading your ask, I discovered that I got a few wires crossed! Because yes, the auto paint feature I referred to in my post has been around for years now, and was never taken seriously anyways

So that was my bad (and yea ur right it's completely unusable, lmao)

But as it turns out, the feature that people have been complaining about DID come out recently. It was called the AI Example feature, I think the idea was that you make a simple drawing and the AI adds 99% of the detail and color, which I've seen a bunch of other programs do.

...and then it was immediately removed due to some pretty major backlash, which, duh

^ This is the only evidence I can find of the 11.2.0 update that included the AI feature on the actual site; their update history stops at 11.1.0. But there's also the news page about the removal of the update, so it's not like they're trying to pretend it never happened.

So tl;dr, I jumped on the hate train a little too quickly and never did enough research to figure out what the actual update was, and that it's been removed by now anyway (which I couldn't have known until today, ofc, but i did kinda post that thing about ibis today so it's still a pretty major oopsie)

I think I can say with confidence now that I agree, ibis paint isn't problematic to use-- they made a mistake with this update, but they actually listened to their users and removed it LITERALLY the next day. So, thanks for letting me know! I'll also edit my last post to prevent any misinformation, just in case people make the same mistake I did :]

[iguessitsjustme]

I don't think any of y'all watch The Circle but I am absolutely DYING at the episodes that dropped today. And the only people I know that watch it are coworkers so I gotta wait until tomorrow to really talk about it but oh my god. I gotta say this or I will explode. Under the cut to spare y'all:

Mad, mad respect for Caress for making the right move and sacrificing herself. She knew where she stood and she truly went out in the best possible way. I hope she finds nothing but blessings in her life.

I think the way the show is being edited is indicating that Kyle is gonna win it. I hope he does. He has been nothing but loyal and honest to everyone (aside from the fact he's married but that's no problem because Liv isn't exactly honest either)

I HATE Jordan. First of all, get your shoes off the bed wtf. You sleep there. I also get that he's good for tv or whatever because he's brings the drama but that is literally not what anyone likes about the circle. We like the genuine connections that people build in there. We like when the show is wholesome. And he came in and just decided Myles sucked and was manipulating everyone? Because what? People liked him? When he was going around lying about everything? That boy still has insecurities he hasn't fully worked through and is projecting that onto Myles.

I will be so sad if QT goes because she is genuinely such a good player. She's kind but also realistic and she keeps it real with her people that they're playing a game. I'm glad she left that influencer chat with Jordan because she was right. If she blocked anyone he wanted to block, she would look like she can't be trusted. She would be the next one gone. Because Jordan would have been safe since he was the secret influencer, he had no issues gunning for her people. And trying to tell her that her strategy is bad because she doesn't want to break every alliance she has in one fell swoop? He's dumb.

I hope Liv gets rid of Jordan but the smart move would be blocking QT and I honestly think QT would respect her for it. I don't know if QT would throw shade at Liv being a catfish or not though. That is if they make Liv block face to face which is what they've always done in the past so I don't see why they would stop now.

I am happy to see Liv makes it to the finals. I've been up and down with Liv but I do like her and think she deserves to be in the finals. Or he deserves it I guess. Go Brandon.

I want Kyle to win. Out of everyone left, I want him to win. Myles is my favorite but I think Kyle winning would be the sweetest moment.

Jordan can kiss my ass.

I do want Lauren to make it to the finals. I wish she had been in any other season cause I think the AI twist hurt her a lot and she would have been able to build actual connections with actual people which is what I watch the show for.

No seriously. Jordan makes me so mad. All he had to do was literally none of what he did. Why did he come in so nasty? Has he seen the show? Those people never win. Never.

I do feel bad for Autumn and I think if she had come in earlier and had a chance to talk to Myles they could have been friends. I do not know why I think this but I think they would have been friends.

[ozzgin]

Dear Ozzgin,

Is your new addition to the repertoire, the yandere android, a Mixture of Experts like GPT-4.5, or something else entirely? Would his performance / 'humanness' degrade if he were talking to another machine (an inhuman one, not designed to be Spacer-ly human) for a long time?

Any random lorebits on Spacers you did not include but would have had you felt less constrained?

Hah, okay, I see you've gotten into the technical aspects. I'm about to go on a ramble so I'll do a cut here for everyone else to not clog your feeds. Feel free to read if you're into this kind of stuff. :D

First, I just wanted to point this out because I've read your hashtags and comment: the CCD sensors were a bit of an asspull because it's one thing I'm more knowledgeable about, but I don't feel like it'd be a realistic choice, if I am to be nitpicky. They're expensive to produce and are mostly used for really high performance work (telescopes), but a humanoid robot wouldn't need such advanced digital imaging for daily life use. So, you know, it's arguable whether or not there are better alternatives when it comes to a mass-produced agent processing the immediate environment.

Now to your actual question: I've used the machine learning approach because this is currently our most advanced way of developing AI, but it would not be enough to explain the Android's perfect understanding of human speech. ChatGPT analyzes sentences and their meaning purely based on grammar and associations, but there's many examples of it struggling against anything more intricate than literal context. So yeah, that kind of sarcastic dialogue and implied meaning is wishful thinking of times far away sadly. I'm only wildly guessing he wouldn't struggle with today's impediments. There's a black box somewhere in there that fills the gaps and variables we don't have.

If at some point you find yourself with time to spare, I'd recommend reading the book directly. It's very interesting to see how people viewed the "future" back then, and you will detect a lot of optimism regarding computers - such as Daneel (the original Android) being a flawless human. Funnily enough, the book was published shortly before the Dartmouth Conference, so Asimov was this close to discover that language recognition is, in fact, a terribly tangled business and not as simple as they had originally expected.

I think I covered the basics when it comes to Spacers, but then again I cannot tell how easy it is to follow for someone that isn't familiar with the original work. I also didn't want to reproduce every fact, mot a mot, from Caves of Steel, especially since this is less about politics and more about romance. I'd suspect the people reading the story are not too bothered by the only briefly mentioned murder. Cause is less important when the effect is a tall robot boy with a crush on you 👀 if you feel me.

Anyways, I'm very glad you like the story, every now and then I'll insert little facts and technical details - as it usually is when you study Physics and CS but have no friends in the field - so it's definitely nice to have someone recognize the stuff! :)

[magicalmanhattanproject]

just like i expected, people are now trying to send me callouts about other ccs. i have an incredibly high standard for when i will share a callout. i have seen friends' lives completely ruined over bullshit callouts and i will not spread false accusations. besides, i am not a news source. i am just trying to keep rumors from spreading out of control into hysteria. sending me more rumors does not help with that.

if you want me to share your callout, here's the information i need:

you need to be off anon. if i don't know who you are, i don't know you aren't someone who has hated whoever you're accusing for a while and is just looking for an excuse to tear them down

EVIDENCE OF SOMETHING THAT IS ACTUALLY A PROBLEM NOW TODAY IN 2024 i do not give a single shit if someone tweeted something nasty in 2016. if someone was a worse person in 2016 then they are now, great! it means they've gotten better! that's literally fine! the reason i care about the forever situation is not because he tweeted. it's because he might (MIGHT–we still have no confirmation) have sexually abused a fourteen year old. tweeting is not and never will be as bad as sexually abusing a fourteen year old. if you cannot comprehend the different scale of badness between tweeting and sexually abusing a fourteen year old then stay the fuck away from me you fucking creep.

sources that i can verify and confirm for myself with minimal effort. remember, i don't actually want to be involved in any of this. do the work. don't make me do it.

related: sources in the original language AND a translation that isn't ai. i will get all translations separately confirmed by humans that i trust not to manipulate the evidence, but i need to know that you're at least trying to communicate things honestly and give me the option to independently confirm

to be very clear: i only give a shit about callouts that are either a) about recent actions that display a clear pattern of behavior or b) a situation where one incident is one too many, such as sexually abusing a fourteen year old

stop fucking sending me tweets on anon linking to censored translations and expecting me to care. i don't.

[genericpuff]

it's legit been a hot minute since i've read an LO episode from start to finish so I decided to read the new free episode

wow i'm really not missing a dang thing am i, jfc

I've talked about it before how the dialogue in these comics really feels... non-human, but now I'm at a point where I wouldn't even be surprised if I find out the comic was being written by one of those script bots or some AI Chat GPT tool. It's just so stupidly clunky with very little context or build-up to what's being said, the characters feel like they're just talking at each other rather than with each other, if you know what I mean. It's giving Shenmue 3.

But let's have some extra fun with this and go through it panel by panel.

I'm not gonna talk about the Apollo scene, not yet at least. But I DO want to talk about the dialogue exchange between Persephone and the demigods she's chosen to be judges.

First off, we get this cut to Persephone saying "Thank you so much for coming today." But the stuff that follows really feels like these guys have no idea where they are or why. Like, the first thing the guy on the left has to say is "you're a woman", why is he making this observation now if they intentionally made the decision to join her? If he's supposedly sexist on that line alone (which is what a lot of people in the discussion circles assume) why would he even join her on the boat in the first place if he wasn't willing to listen to a woman?

Oh, okay, so they HAVE had this conversation already, great exposition, Rachel! But again, it still makes no sense why he's making this observation out of nowhere if he already knows he's going to be working with her and chose to come along with her on the boat ride. Why is he repeating what he's already said? Why not just have this conversation happen organically instead of doing the whole sitcom "cut to the middle of what's happening and explain it matter-of-factly for the audience to catch up so we don't have to actually show the entire conversation???" bit?

It's such a cliche overused tactic to try and skip informing NPC's of what the audience already knows but that only works if we, the audience, know what's going on. Such a tactic is meant to benefit the AUDIENCE, not the characters. It's a pointless waste of time for everyone involved if they're doing it the other way around where the NPC's know but the audience doesn't and the characters have to re-explain everything they already know for the audience. It's clunky exposition.

And then of course, we get Persephone acting all high and mighty with people who, again, don't even seem to know what the fuck is going on, they don't even seem to be functioning at full brain capacity with how repetitive and pointless their dialogue is (especially the "I'm a son of Zeus" guy but we'll get to him later). If Persephone's thankful for them joining her, why is she being such a bitch? This isn't a power move, she's not being a "boss babe", she's being that bitchy manager that complains about high turnover rates completely oblivious or uncaring to the fact that she's the reason people quit the job in the first place.

"It's listening to the Queen of the Underworld time", bitch you have done NOTHING to earn that title or demand for respect. NO ONE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE. Anyone who DOES know her only knows her as a consort of Hades from that one tabloid pic from ten years ago. So... yeah, literally no one knows her. Even if they saw her in that weird broadcast during the Kronos fight (which, why would they, everyone was asleep as we were told and that news chopper was from OLYMPUS), she has done nothing to organically earn the respect and admiration of the people. As far as anyone's concerned, she's just this weird pink thing rolling into town and the only reason she has power at all is because the King has a flower nymph fetish and wanted a replacement for the girl that "got away" and married his brother.

IDK if this was an attempt at a joke but I feel bad for this guy because he clearly has no idea where he is, why he's here, or why he's going to work for the Underworld when he's a son of Zeus and would maybe prefer a job in Olympus somewhere. Look at him, those aren't the eyes of a man who knows what's going on.

"RAWR, I'm edgy and in control, shut your whore mouth while I'm speaking, peasant!"

She doesn't even look intimidating here, she looks severely constipated.

This is also legit just a copy paste of the Hera/Apollo/Echo scene from S2 which just further drives home how Persephone is an emotional replacement for Hera and a physical replacement for Rhea (while also satisfying that aforementioned flower nymph fetish).

Again, Persephone has done nothing to earn the admiration or respect of her people (unlike, y'know, Hera) and it's bullshit that she pretended to be all thankful at the beginning of this only to then treat them like shit as soon as she was able. Like, again, she seems to have just kidnapped these guys and they undoubtedly have questions and instead she's steamrolling all over them for zero reason beyond stroking her ego. If she's so bothered by the first guy being a sexist, why is she hiring him in the first place???

girl he's literally trying to escape from your bullshit, why are you treating him like a toddler or a hamster who can't control himself

it's painfully clear now these guys absolutely did not sign up for ANY of this and even if they DID sign up to be judges for Hades, they clearly were NOT aware it would include being berated and snipped at by his moody toddler of a wife, she's the ONLY one here who has zero self control or qualifications. push her in the river, please. put her in the hamster cage.

so yeah, it's not "thank you for coming with me today", it's "thank you for shutting up and being good little hostages so mommy can play pretend ruler, if you even THINK of ignoring me i'll have my daddy Mads Mikkelson- I mean, Hades chop your balls off, teehee!" seriously can SOMEONE please push her in the river, she's got like 50 pounds of hair, she has zero chance /hj

"i found a way for my husband to do even less work than he already does, like a good little billionaire!"

ms. brian griffin, no one knows what elysium is

we, the audience, haven't even seen elysium

no one knows what you're talking about and no one has anything to thank you for because so far you've spent the majority of your time in the underworld since the time skip dicking around and acting like a Karen

literally sit down and eat your oatmeal

we don't even know what 'nu-tartarus' is, who wants to bet rachel watched sci-fi the week she made this with the 'nu' spelling, jfc

what did she do to warrant the 'nu'

in fact, is tartarus even accessible right now??? what happened to Kronos locking himself up in there and refusing to let anyone in??? Did they seriously dig a hole in the ground and call it "Nu-Tartarus"? Fuck off.

Hermes, pal, you're seeing this shit, right? How can you sit there and watch her act like this??? This ain't the girl you used to make out with in the mountains.

"My husband serves in the military, you know! You'll regret not giving me that 2% discount!"

for those of you in the audience who don't know this, this is what we call panel filler. i.e. pointless repetitive panels that RS uses to fill her panel quota each week. LO always has at least 2-3 of these per episode. Go ahead, fact check it yourself, I'll wait.

Diva Plavalaguna wore it better, honey.

(also why do her ARMS look the same as her hair, they look like sausage casings 😭)

Such a weird cut though, from her making that "lol can you believe the things I put up with ????" face to her just WALKING AWAY FROM THE MEN WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY'RE EVEN HERE.

what- um, why are we cutting to this? I get that it's RS still trying to exposit instead of write organically but Hermes literally didn't ask and he should probably already be aware of what's going on if he's ON THE BOAT WITH HER. Also why are you explaining to him what a demi-god is? Again, it's Rachel trying to do the "and that's my plan" shtick not understanding that only works for OTHER CHARACTERS who aren't "in on it", NOT THE AUDIENCE. When you try to have your characters explain things JUST for the sake of the audience, it makes them all look stupid and it wastes the audience's time.

Like, never mind the fact that Hermes himself is technically a demi-god in LO as his mother is a non-god.

This would have worked better if she was explaining who these men were specifically, like the fact that they were Kings when they were alive, or why she chose them, but no, she just starts it and leaves it at "well they're related to Zeus, so they're demi-gods" with zero lead-up or context as to why she's explaining this to Hermes of all people in the first place.

WAIT OKAY. SO I WAS RIGHT, THEY LITERALLY AREN'T FUNCTIONING AT FULL AUTONOMY. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE REPEATING THINGS OR NOT SAYING THINGS THAT ARE RELEVANT OR ASKING QUESTIONS.

PERSEPHONE LITERALLY TOOK THESE SHADES WHO HAVE NO ABILITY TO CONSENT OR UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON

AND IS FORCING THEM TO WORK FOR HER HUSBAND, THE SLAVE DRIVER.

PERSEPHONE HAS BECOME A SLAVE DRIVER.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING WITH ME TODAY" ????

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING GOOD LITTLE SLAVES. YOU WORK FOR ME AND MY HUSBAND NOW. WE'LL GIVE YOU BACK ENOUGH OF YOUR AUTONOMY TO MAKE YOU GOOD FOR WORKING BUT YOU WILL NEVER HAVE FREE WILL."

THIS IS LITERALLY THE PLOT OF HADESTOWN BUT IT WANTS US TO CHEER FOR HADES' POINT OF VIEW IN THE END.

Also, "Hades is going to restore some of their humanity"??? Guys, do you realize the implications of this?

If this is something he's always been able to do, that means he's always had the ability to grant the shades working for him autonomy and will, but chose not to.

Give them enough sentience and autonomy to work, but not enough to question why they're working for the system in the first place.

Great job Persephone, this is soooo much better than what Hades was doing before. You've made life so much better for the dead.

Fucking hell. I started this essay with the intent of talking about the weird clunky dialogue exchanges and as I sat on it and wrote on it longer and longer it just got so much WORSE and turned into discussing Persephone's lack of morals and how she's become the very thing she always claimed she stood against.

I say "great job Persephone" but we also have to give credit where credit is due - great job Rachel, this is soooo much better than just ending the series in the first two seasons or actually resolving the plot threads you started in Season 1. You've made your comic so much better to please the stans and spite the haters.

Christ. I'm not even done talking about everything I wanted to talk about regarding this episode but I figured I should cut it off here to at least keep it all on theme. I do wanna talk about that Apollo scene and the Hermes/Persephone conversation but I'll probably do that in separate posts.

Despite how fired up I got, I am glad about one thing - I really am not missing anything. I have lost nothing from unsubscribing from LO and uninstalling the WT app. And frankly, neither will you if you've been contemplating on promoting yourself to a non-reader. There is zero FOMO here. I get just as much if not more entertainment from just following along with the hilarious conversations in the Discord and subreddit each week, because at LEAST those are fun and don't make me feel dead inside like LO does. LO isn't entertaining, it's hardly even so-bad-that-it's-entertaining at this point, maybe it still is for you, but I'm assuring you right now for those of you "hanging on", it's not going to magically "get better", even the episodes that some people CLAIM are better really aren't because of how low the bar is nowadays. I am giving you full permission to free yourself of these shackles if you've been looking for a way out. Take this as your metaphorical key.

The LO we all fell in love with is long, long gone.

[luvring]

Listen… you said we could ask for more hcs pt.2…………………….

RAAAAAAAAAAH

Ais? PLS? YOUR WRITIJG IS SO GOOD I THINK ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME

AIS HCS (2)

gn!reader | (part 1) anon you GET ME! BUAAAAHHH AND OMGG THANK U... that's so crazy actually i hope u guys think about me today i will b thinking about all of u😙🫶🧡 YIPPEE!

so stupid /affectionate. takes photos of you and says "now a silly one." or starts taking selfies without telling you

will do cheesy romantic things with you because you ask. he can tease you all he wants, and he wonders how he's found himself swaying to a song with you in the kitchen,, but then you hold him a little tighter and he's like ah. that's why

tells you to be careful with his horns. not in a they're sensitive way but in a please do not get in a position where he could poke your eye out way. rest your chin in between them if you want though

asks you to pay for lunch. when it's actually time to pay he's like "what the hell are they doing over there?" so he can pay first. you guys fight to pay semi-regularly. You are the people who made me want to scream and cry when i worked retail.

do his make-up. i dare you. what. you don't want to stand in between his legs with his hands on your hips while you try to do eyeliner Be serious. he'll be your test subject for new looks

or let him do your make-up. you can match w some red eyeliner :)

doesn't do any little video trends with you without being a little annoying/difficult but he Will do them and do them extremely well in the end. everyone's jealous of your relationship

if you're having trouble sleeping and try to not move around a lot in case you wake ais up,, it's too late. bro is awake. he sighs and nuzzles into you before being like,, "if you can't sleep, you can wake me up you know." or "how long were you going to go before waking me up?"

^ late night snack runs.. he'll stay up as long as you do. hanging out in a mcdonalds parking lot at 2am eating chicken nuggets who gets me

pulls your head to lay on his shoulder if he sees you getting sleepy. rests his head on top of yours

silently comes and lies down with you if he's in a bad mood. you don't have to talk or really do anything, just being around you helps him feel better. he won't complain if you coddle him a little though :) you offer to get him some snacks or cuddle him and he smiles against your skin. "i'm starting to think you have a crush on me or something." you roll your eyes and flick his forehead but he just lets out a breathy laugh. "yes please."

cannot fucking play horror games/movies around this guy like why are YOU jumpscaring me Where is my safe space. he relishes in you clinging onto him / holding you from behind, but he also respects you scaring him back if you're more immune to horror

don't start a prank war with this guy because that shit isn't ending. he excels in annoyingly inconvenient pranks Don't Do It.

tells you about the dogs(/animals) he saw while out during the day. modern au he sends you pics either wordlessly or guessing their names. "meet nacho cheese" "why would u say that" "that's obviously his name? have some respect"

ohh. people watching...this sounds silly. but like i'm thinking about how he doesn't like being lonely/isolated but Is and how he has to watch others enjoy themselves and stuff. so you hanging out together and talking and guessing random people's life stories is just like. a casual thing but reminds him He Has Somebody to do that with now

why'd i say that

you know how he was in the rafters at the beginning. yeah he's asking if you wanna join him up there. you're like You do that Regularly? not just trying to intimidate me? and he's like 🤷‍♂️ it's comfortable enough.

promises he won't let you fall and keeps a steady hold. See? it isn't so bad.

modern au tattoo artist ais who gets me. anyone. anybody. helloooo? guys please i'm gonna pee my pants

🏷 | @lost-lonnie @screaming-wea-sel @dreamtydraw @respitable @semifilms @hexcoeur

[lostsoulaltair]

OnS Chapter 136 Analysis - Love vs The Past

Well, a new chapter dropped. I must say that I liked it. We really are heading towards the end of the story and two sides now are on stage.

One fighting for love; the other one fighting to bring back something that is long lost.

Love can often be misunderstood in the manga story; to the point it distorts a lot, but in reality, it takes so many shapes, so many forms along giving birth to ideals.

Each character within the story is moved to do something for "love". But in this role too; the "love" for the "past" exists.

The past is a momentum that will always live in our memories; it is something that will forever be frozen; something that will not change. It's something that is part of us without defining us.

As we've seen today; the chapter starts with Yuu trying to reach the First; but given that the Progenitors want to avoid the destruction of the world much further; they were preventing Yuu from making contact with the First.

Of course, we see how Mika couldn't withstand the raw power of Urd Geales; we saw Shinya and Kureto alive and kicking once again; and finally, the main spot; the reunion between Shikama and Yuu.

Shikama is aware that Yuu has all his memories back ever since he detected an anomaly along the interaction with the corpse of Mikaela. Of course, whenever Shikama knows the soul of his son is alive and kicking, it's up to interpretation. Though, it is clear he knows it exists.

Eventually we see how Shikama is going to bestow Yuu his knowledge and power

But before he could give away his power to Yuu; Shinoa interferred with the possibility.

Leading to our possible future battle between Shinoa and Yuu.

Two ideals being carried away within the story. And yet, at the same time they connect through the main theme. "Love."

And no, it's not "romantic love ". The "love" or 愛 which is not the same as other interpretations of love itself. Just "ai". A love that takes so many shapes.

Let's begin with the real analysis here.

Yuu isn't exactly fighting for humanity nor his friends, nor his family. Given that the "regression" process he made to recall his whole life; he saw how his life originated alongside being the son of the First.

Given that, he is actually aiming for the task of "saving" but given that "love" is playing its role as well. It is the love he has deep down for his father that he is doing everything to bring back what his father cherished in the past. Which is something reflected as well when he was the angel Mikaela. Taking his life so divine punishment wouldn't fall upon his father.

Shikama did love his angels, his followers and he did blame himself for the punishment that fell upon them. But given God's nature; it was normal that the punishment fell upon those angels given that they no longer praised for God.

Though; one thing Shikama and Yuu have in common, is the attachment to the past. It is the very fact that the past for them is something that should have prevailed instead of changing. What do I mean?

To Shikama, the Progenitors he chose, despite being reincarnations of those angels that followed him once; are not his angels.

And this is highly visible once Ashera asks Shikama what he should do back in chapter 117.

To his eyes, Shikama's sired progenitors were just tools given that to him; they are shadows of who they were once, but to those progenitors; even if they have acknowledged that they are reincarnations; they made a choice.

They chose to follow up their own path. And as they've stated back in chapter 114; their last and final task is to protect the world they live in. Meaning avoiding the resurrection of the angel Mikaela.

But now, why do I say Shikama and Yuu have one thing in common?

Yuu is a character that despite living endlessly; along having a constant memory reset until now that he gathered all his memories; he's done one thing to no end. And that is living in the past.

True, there are scars that take its time to heal from the past; some are very difficult nonetheless; he chose to live in such past. When he had a chance to make a choice; that choice was no longer centered in the present; it began to lead further astray to the past.

But then, what's the point of those promises?

Given how everything has turned. Those promises are something that can't be fulfilled. What do I mean?

In order to revive the angels from long ago; sacrifices must be made. But here's another thing that it is being dismissed. What could it be?

The absolute lack of appreciation to life.

Yuu might state he aims to save everyone; even to Ashera who at the end understood that there are limits to life. He loved and embraced he managed to get his sister back; but the cost for that was making her suffer for eternity; nevertheless, the lives both had, those kind of experiences they managed to live had their moments of bliss; bringing back entities that perished long ago, is discarting the moments experienced, the moments lived along the emotions that were carried through a lifetime.

But now, there is an opposite force here. And that force is no other than. "Love."

Many might consider that Shinoa's love is "obssession, madness like Mahiru's love" but no. This is actually wrong.

Back when she stated she would kill Mikaela; there was a massive misconception of this which chapter 133 explained a lot.

Shinoa thought Yuu was being possessed by Mikaela at that time hence her retoric; but given that she saw first hand that Yuu had fooled them; she understood that Yuu was doing everything on his own will. And let's not forget that Yuu might be dumb, but not clueless or ignorant.

Shinoa's form of "love" is not something that came out of nothing; it's something that began taking shape by her own; it began from curiosity, turning into uncertainty, then transforming into caring, along developing feelings for a special someone. Such feelings for her were seen as something hideous or bad; but at the end, she understood they weren't bad, nevertheless, she never admitted them until or rather never accepted them truthfully until chapter 133.

Chapter 133 was a very reflexive chapter given that it gave Shinoa resolution; a resolution as to why it is the reason she was standing still in the very end of the world.

Shinoa's love is not centered to one person, but rather; it is centered to the very core family she gained through her journey which lead to this.

Her battle and her resolution is directed to the very family that has stood with her and has followed her through the long journey she has taken so far. Hence why; she is standing along her squad just like how the vampires did; how they are going to live. Not by a decree of an entity, not by a decree of her sister and Guren nor the vampires; but rather, taking their own path until the very end.

Hence why Shikama states that her love is self centered, which is no different from him. He centered his love to his angels; Shinoa is centering her love to those who exist in the present. Along letting them return to their normality before the world ended; given that the end of the world, the events that took place before they were born, were all spiderwebs made by the First.

This is the first time they are fighting for their own.

What do you think it'll happen next?

Let me know!

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further

I woke with a start. I was going to be late! Today of all days!

I slept through my alarm, my backup alarm, and according to Starbase Picaresque, 5 minutes of him pinging me, trying to wake me up.

"I was about to call the infirmary, Melody. I was sure there was something wrong." He said.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" I said as I threw on my clothes. Fortunately, Vin'aren wouldn't leave until I was completely packed last night. I wouldn't have been done otherwise. Running a comb through my hair - luckily it was a fresh, cute short cut so it wasn't too bad - I grabbed my uniform jacket and glanced longingly at my kitchenette.

"There isn't time to make coffee." SP said.

I sighed. "I know. It's just..." I ran over to the kitchenette, grabbed my hand grinder, my brewer, my set of measuring cups, the scale and the airtight container of coffee and swept it into a bag. "I don't know what kind of coffee FarReach has, and I don't want to be a grump because they have bad coffee!"

SP sighed. "Really Melody? Fine. But you have to leave now unless you want me to get the Fire Brigade to bring you.

Starbase Picaresque was threatening me with having to get a ride from the only folks who have vehicles on board. The Fire Brigade uses them to carry hoses and equipment to a fire and sometimes bring injured people to the infirmary. If they brought me to the docking ring because I was late I would probably die of embarrassment.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I said, as I ran out the door, no breakfast and no coffee.

Hi, by the way. My name is Melody Mullen (ugh, I know) and I'm the information warfare officer on FarReach! The administration of Starbase Picaresque and the joint Human/K'laxi colony Zen'agan's Reach have sponsored our mission to travel the Warp Gates and go as far as we can!

Normally yes, humans would just use their wormhole generators and link to a location in space, it's instant and easy. And sure, a few people feel like they died and visited the afterlife, but not too many, and it's not like they get hurt. But before they met us, the K'laxi didn't travel that way. They'd use the Warp Gates and travel from gate to gate using an Addressing Module.

These days, K'laxi ships have both an addressing module and a wormhole generator. They actually bought the rights to build them from us and improved them! The newest Human ships have K'laxi wormhole generators and they're amazing! They use less power than ours do and they even have fewer people suffer side effects when they're used.

You know about the K'laxi right? They're the first sapient species we ever met! They're from a world that's smaller and lighter than ours, plus their planet is straight up and down, no tilt and their orbit is almost perfectly circular. That means they have no seasons! It's always a fall (for us) day there! I went once for vacation with my moms, it was kind of weird. We were there for a month and the weather was identical the whole time. They didn't even know what a meteorologist was until we explained the concept!

They're so cute looking too. They're shorter than us, and they have big expressive ears on the top of their head, a long fluffy tail that they can grab things with and fur all over! Someone said they kind of look like a cat or squirrel or fox person from comics and I guess I can see it, but they are definitely their own thing.

The crew of FarReach is about half K'laxi, they are a major sponsor of this expedition too. They share the work onboard with us.

Oh, I should mention FarReach too. She's an AI, and has been alive for nearly a thousand years, can you believe it? Humans and AI have been working together (mostly) harmoniously for two millennia. When AI take on a new ship, they name it and that becomes their name. I learned it's incredibly rude to call them by an old name, it's like deadnaming them. Oof. That was awkward. I apologized and She said it was okay and that I didn't know, but I think I was beet red for like three hours.

FarReach started out as a Starjumper, an old, old ship originally designed to go between human colonies at relativistic speeds. They were more than a thousand years old when the first wormhole generators were developed. They can thrust with their star drives at tens of gees when needed (though when there are biological people on board they keep the thrust around one gee) and they can cost through interstellar space at half the speed of light.

Before they were FarReach, the Starjumper was refitted at the Mt Greylock docks in orbit around The Reach. It's a brand new facility meant to bring the K'laxi and I closer together. Made up of Human and K'laxi facilities, it will enable us to work even closer together to design ships.

FarReach has more K'laxi parts than any Starjumper ever! They still have their stardrive and massive printers and hidden laser batteries (just in case) but a lot of the interior was refitted and reconfigured to be an exploration ship. There's a new information warfare suite (hello!) hibernation cabinets (just in case) and enough cabins for a dozen crew with room to expand later.

Speaking of which, I bet you're wondering why an exploration ship has an Information Warfare Suite (and your lovely Information Warfare Officer). We're not planning on going to war per se, but we don't know who we'll be meeting (if anyone) and how friendly they'll be. A few years back Venus decided they didn't like AIs and tried to apply applications to shackle them. They seemed to have dropped the rhetoric and aren't really making noises about being mean to AIs anymore, but the lesson was learned. Now, ships have an IWC (Information Warfare Community) which is a group of people who have the job of making sure that all the signals coming in are... safe.

We can also send out bad signals if needed, but we probably won't need to do that.

As I walk up only slightly out of breath, Captain Q'ari is standing there fielding questions from reporters. She sees me walk up late and flicks an ear, a K'laxi raised eyebrow. I salute and say "Apologies for being late Captain. Permission to come aboard?"

She returns the salute and says "Permission Granted Lieutenant Mullen. Please endeavor to be more punctual from now on." From her ears, I think she's annoyed, but not too annoyed.

"Yes Captain. Thank you." I say and head inside. I rush to my cabin and toss my belongings inside without even putting them away - I'll do it later. and rush up to the Command Deck. "Hi FarReach! I call out brightly as I walk onto the Command Deck. It's set up human style with the Commander's seat in the middle rear, and everyone sitting around them at their stations.

"Good of you to join us Melody." FarReach says wryly. "I was wondering if you were going to show up on the back of a Fire Brigade vehicle." There were chuckles from the other crew members. I'm known as being slightly late for things.

Just a little late.

It's really hard to be punctual, okay?"

"Har har, very funny FarReach. I made it, on my own even, and I managed to remember my coffee supplies." I said smugly.

"Good thing too" FarReach said "Because I just happen to know that there are thirty pounds of coffee from the mountains of Parvati that was loaded on just this morning."

I gasped. Parvati's mountain ranges were known for producing excellent coffee from the original Earth stock. It was a rare treat. "How did you manage that?" I asked, surprised.

"She didn't have anything to do with it, that was all me." A voice said behind me. I turned and Ambassador Vivenni was standing there, looking casually elegant. She wore a smarty tailored uniform of the K'laxi government and stood there with her hands on her hips. "I heard that some people here enjoy good coffee and I happened to know offhand of a shipment coming in, and was able to... ahem... ask for a donation to the cause." she said, her eyes shining.

I didn't think to ask where she learned so much about coffee, it's poisonous to K'laxi. Even decaf will mess them up. They do love tea though, and I'm sure the stores are packed with chamomile tea as well as other flavors.

"Thank you Ambassador!" I said gratefully. "It's so nice of you to think of us coffee drinkers."

She smiled "I know a bit about coffee thanks to my human friends and when I saw this go by, I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!" And she turned back to speaking with another officer.

Maybe this trip would be more fun than I had originally thought.

Part 2!

[tokillamockingbird427]

If there was a Ghosts reboot today, what do you think would be changed? Obviously there would be graphics/programming improvements; I’m thinking more about keeping Logan as a silent protagonist/more sympathetic Federation/rewriting history/etc.

-🃏

I agree with you that they'd do graphical improvements and that, but I'm not exactly sure what they would do. I have more ideas for what would be fun for them to do, which range from what I consider fairly realistic to ridiculous.

This is going to get long. "Read More" of mercy upon ye.

Like, I think it would be cool if they added more moments to use Riley. We got so few missions with the boy! I'd love to see more of him. In combat or even on a tracking mission or similar. And I really enjoyed the mechanic of being able to sic him on people.

Along those lines, I think it would be interesting if you could also command the human Ai. Not quite giving orders because you (As Logan) aren't in charge, but just having them cooperate with you like the team you are. "Enemies over there!" kinda thing, so you can guide their attention towards areas you wanna push. Would make playing on harder difficulties not only easier but more satisfying IMO.

More emphasis on the STEALTH part of the Ghosts would also be nice. It does get shown in the game, like during "End of the Line" and especially during "The Hunted" but at some point you always go loud. A mission where you go in and get out without anyone knowing you were there would be awesome.

On the topic of stealth, a mechanic similar to the Assassins creed games where the Enemy Ai slowly catch on that you're there and THEN attack if you suck at sneaking would be interesting. But I wouldn't like it as much if they relaxed entirely and gave the all clear (after a full alert) just because Logan hid in a patch of grass for five seconds. (Or a closet.)

Maybe a dumb idea that wouldn't be executed well but a wave mode which takes place in the hospital Sand Viper took place in (So it's like you're one of the Proto-Ghosts.) where you just fight to see how long you can go would be fun. Extinction still being there would be sick too, just add the wave mode and don't replace the prior.

Story wise, because I've been speaking more mechanics/gameplay shit, I'd enjoy more sibling moments between Logan and Hesh. The moment in the start of Brave New World where Hesh lets Logan sleep in is CRUMBS and I want/need more of that. Aside from them cooperating in field I want to see Hesh worry about Logan and the same in reverse. Have them check on each other. Have them attached at the hip. Have both of them ready to ride or die!

Along the same lines (Again.) more dad moments from Elias. The reason I want this is rather evil... I want him to be so likable it genuinely breaks peoples hearts and traumatizes them when he dies. It hurts already because I get attached to pixels easily but like. I haven't cried. Make me cry.

An actual funeral scene for Elias that isn't Hesh narrating over a dramatic visual please. I love Hesh's tendency for dramatic narration (Which he got from Elias) but I have a limit. Even if it's also a cut scene and not entirely intractable, I think it'd add some more oomph to the clear drama/angst they wanted from Elias's death.

Make Rorke's intelligence more obvious. I feel like it's a part of him that gets missed because people tend to focus on his cruelness and strength but his intelligence is what makes him a real threat. Through the game he is constantly a step ahead, which is obvious in some pats, but less so in others. (Obvious: Federation Day. Less obvious: Birds of Prey/The Hunted. Non obvious: Into the Deep. In all those missions he knew the Ghosts were going to be there and had contingencies. The only time the Ghosts get ahead of Rorke is when Logan and Hesh storm the train. Which I thinks speaks to their skill and his unfamiliarity with them.)

Following the above, I think it'd be neat to have Logan match Rorke in intellect. The sneaky crafty kind of intelligence that'll get you like a knife in the back. Would also be a good way to make said intelligence obvious, if Logan is the one to point it out. The reason he even knows it's there is because he recognizes it. It's familiar.

Give Logan some speaking lines. It's fine if he's still a majority quiet and prefers to let Hesh be his voice but just a few... Let the guy have some agency. And you do have to admit the era of silent COD protagonists is being phased out or is over. A relic from a bygone era...

More of Hesh being a fucking menace, please. Please please please. Begging on my knees. Him going "Checkmate" was the coldest shit ever, and he SCARED/SURPRISED Rorke doing that. I need more of it. (Another example: He just smacks the shit out of a Fed in the Luxor WITH A GUN rather than using it to shoot the guy. Menace behavior.)

Give Logan the ability to use his throwing knife skills more. He does it ONCE in Federation Day and that shit was so clean. MORE.

I actually really enjoy the black/white animated cut scenes between ops more than the ones in (for example) the Modern Warfare games where it's mostly satellite images. They did some pretty cool transitions a few times. Even if Hesh or Elias's narrating annoyed the shit out of me.

GIVE LOGAN A RORKE FILE. Hesh and Elias and MERRICK get one but not my boy??? LET HIM COOK! (I have a soft spot for the Rorke Files, I just think they're neat.)

Make Rorke and Elias gay for each other. Divorced. Toxi old man yaoi in my COD game? Sign me up. (This is the "Ridiculous" end of the ideas spectrum.) I don't care if it's only implied, I'll take ONE line where Elias admits that he and Rorke were closer than a Captain and Lieutenant should be and that's all I need.

Keegan and Ajax also Gae Confirmed please and thank you. I just... I need it. Also don't kill Ajax. I like him and if they do the Confirmed Gae it'd be another case of "Burying Your Gays" and I don't need that. Coma or smthn but no death.

More POC characters. Ajax is the ONE black guy and they kill him. Like are you kidding? Fucking hell. I hc the Walker boys as mixed White/Hispanic, I hc Keegan as Pakistani, Neptune as Korean/American, like c'mon I'm fighting for my life over here. Give me a fucking hand. Jesus.

Make the Ghosts scary. Gimme a mission from the enemies POV (Weather the player knows it or not) where you're just getting hunted in some Insidious-esque bullshit the whole time. Put the "Stalker" back in Ghosts. (Because their official name is STALKER)

I probably have more but I can't remember/think of them at the moment.