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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

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Turn a blind eye

This was prompted by an amazing anon! If you are distrubed by the warnings this time, keep in mind it will end on a good note! I hope you enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900 (Warnings: description of crime scenes (murder), serial killer, Gavin whump, paranoia, sleep deprivation, panic attack)

‘Put your phone away, Reed!’, Nines ordered, dropping new files on his desk.

Gavin flinched, looking up, then down on the pile. ‘No, not another one.’ ‘Yes, actually. Another one.’ Nines watched him and Gavin sighed, putting the phone away and rubbing his eyes. He opened the folder to another letter. He didn’t even have the energy to feel particularly distressed about it. He opened it with the android looking over his shoulder. You’d better turned a blind eye to my doings, Detectives. I proved before your actions against me have consequences.

Gavin just let the paper fall onto his desk and kneaded his forehead. ‘That’s all?’, Nines asked. ‘Well, we better keep going then. They know we are close.’ Gavin nodded numbly. Of course, they had to keep going. Of course, they had to stop whoever was behind all these murders. But… The threat was hitting home. Gavin couldn’t shake off the pictures of his bike catching fire right as he was about to start it, only Nines’ quick intervention saving him from being severely burned and hurt by the explosion of the tank only seconds later. The android had been able to brush it off and return to work, but Gavin couldn’t. He hadn’t slept properly for weeks and there had been little else but work for him.

It all had begun with a weirdly detailed murder scene. A woman killed by a cut throat in the bedroom covered in blue blood. The corresponding android was later found drenched in her blood in an alley behind a cyberlife workshop, but he hadn’t been killed there, the body was staged. Neither the murder weapon nor any trace of the murderer was found. Both android and human were connected by a growing relationship after the woman had divorced her husband. Jealousy was an easy motive, but the husband was earnestly shocked and said the feeling about the divorce was mutual and they ended everything on good terms. Not really evidence for his innocence, but he had a valid alibi, being on a work-related trip to Baltimore at the time the murder had taken place.

They hadn’t solved the case yet and were still waiting for the forensics’ report as they were called to another crime scene. Again, a human murdered by a cut throat, covered in the thirium of their partner and staged in the bedroom, while the blood-drenched android was found behind a Cyberlife store. The only new clue was that both cases had to be connected. Gavin had guessed the motive to be anti-android related and as the third murder was discovered it was more or less solidified by the message left behind. The wall over the bed was decorated with the internal wiring of the android spelling out Trash. The same word was found at the android, cut into his chest piece where his serial number would be.

This was the work of a serial killer. And the asshole was experimenting. Thankfully that meant he was slipping. The next scene held footprints of evaporated thirium for them. Nines was able to estimate height and weight from the size, the intensity of the thirium coating and the distance between each footprint. The message left behind was painted with their blood, allowing Nines to crop a partial fingerprint from where each letter ended. So, their murderer was a human of just a little below average size and weight. If the estimation was correct. It was little to go with, but what was even more unsettling were the words left behind this time: Gavin Reed over the bed of the human man and RK900 scratched into the chest of the android.

It had thrown them off guard and had caused Fowler to keep them under police protection. Their colleagues took turns guarding Gavin’s apartment complex, while Nines had agreed to stay at the precinct full time. It did little to help Gavin be comfortable with the fact a completely unknown serial killer knew their identities. He laid awake most nights jumping at every noise in the building and thought about how on earth the murderer had found out who was investigating their cases. Did they have connection to the police? Was one of his colleagues corrupt? Was the killer one of them? Had he just watched the crime scenes? Or had some newspaper simply printed their names while telling the story of Detroit’s newest serial killer?

Gavin was constantly on edge never feeling safe enough to sleep more than a few hours. Even at the precinct he started to feel watched. And it didn’t get better when more bodies turned up. Still haven’t found me? I’m right here. You look tired. Something keeping you up at night? Cyberlife’s best, huh? Watch your steps. What a dream team. I should kill you next. That had been when the bike had caught fire the next day. To say that Gavin was panicking was an understatement. Gavin was stressed beyond everything and it was hard to have a single rational thought when the killer somehow managed to send letters to the precinct without being caught.

At least Nines was unphased by all of this. Ever the analytical logical machine, the android worked away, reading reports from forensics and finding clue after clue. It were small hints, but they were making progress. They would get the killer in the long run, but they both knew the shorter that “long run” would be, the less people had to die. Gavin was so thankful for having Nines. The android had saved his life and was the only constant in this mess. At least when he was with the bot, he was safe. Unless he was… Unless he was the killer himself. Gavin frowned. This was his panic speaking. He shouldn’t think about that. But it made sense, didn’t it? He was finding all the little clues; he knew they were investigating the case and- No. No, Nines was safe. He had to be. There was no reason other than his sleep deprivation and stress getting to him.

‘Reed. Get your back into it!’ Gavin flinched at the sudden shout. Or had it been said at normal volume? He looked around and as everyone was quietly working around him, he guessed his senses had betrayed him. ‘W-what?’ ‘You have to pull your weight, too, Reed’, Nines reprimanded him. ‘Or do you want to let the killer murder more people?’ ‘No, of course not.’ ‘Then quit staring ahead and go over the forensics again. I think we might have missed something there.’ ‘Y-yeah.’

Gavin managed to read a few sentences in between as his eyes hurt from staring at the screen for too long and his mind betraying him to get caught up in paranoid thoughts again. ‘Reed, have you found anything yet?’ ‘Are you even reading the report?’ ‘You have to stop getting distracted all the time.’ He couldn’t work like this. He wouldn’t be any help. He wouldn’t stop the killer and they would murder more and more people. There was nothing he could do, nothing, nothing, nothing-

‘Detectives?’ ‘WHAT?!’, Gavin shouted, startling the ST300 from the reception as well as everyone else. ‘Err… You got another package. This time directed towards you, Detective Reed.’ Gavin sighed trying to relax or a least lessen the tension in his body. He took the package from her, noting that it had already been opened and searched. No surprise bombs. He looked inside and took the letter sitting on top of the Styrofoam filling. He absently noted that Nines was walking around the table to look over his shoulder again. Gavin opened the letter and read it.

You have a nice flat, Gavin. He was pretty sure his heart had stopped. A beautiful cat. She’s sweet, really. Though I must say you could have cleaned up before leaving the home. You know, I’m kind of bored. I thought I would meet you here but apparently you are at work. Always at work, huh? Guess I just have to come another day.

‘They are bluffing’, Nines commented, but Gavin had already reached back into the package and retrieved a frame. The picture showed him and Eli side by side on his boat on Lake Michigan during their vacation last summer. Gavin had the only existing copy as he had taken the picture himself. It was standing on his kitchen counter at home. ‘No’, Gavin simply uttered, feeling unbelievably sick. He put the frame down on the table. ‘No, they aren’t.’ Gavin rose up on shaky legs, holding onto the table. He was breathing heavily, bile rising in his throat. ‘I- I need to go. I need a break. A smoke. Phck. I have to-‘ He began stumbling out of his seat, past Nines and was already running to the back exit of the precinct, the go-to smoking spot of most officers. His excuse to Nines wasn’t too solid as he had forgotten his cigarettes in his drawer, but Gavin couldn’t care. Not when he barely made it out to throw up on the pavement. He heaved out what little he had had for breakfast and the smell alone kept him vomiting his guts out until there was nothing left to come. He was so done for.

Nines stood next to the detective’s desk, program in disarray. He hadn’t expected Reed’s reaction at all. The man had been slacking ever since the case got bad and now, he suddenly panicked and ran for a break? Just because the murderer was clearly bluffing? Or had he missed something? He revisited his memories of the past weeks and as realisation hit in, the stability of his software was near to non-existent. He had to make sure though. He had to see what Reed was up to and see for himself if he was right. If Gavin was truly that compromised by everything. It was hard to believe with the man always putting on a tough display. But he had made a decision: He would follow the Detective to his smoke break.

As he opened the door to the small outer platform, an awful smell hit his sensors. Then he saw Gavin sitting the farthest away from the puddle of vomit, face white and eyes wide. Immediately his stress levels were popping up to the android and that was the last evidence that tipped the scales to deviancy. Nines’ confines shattered around him, as he understood under how much pressure the man must have stood. The human everyone thought to be able to take on everything wasn’t as invincible as thought and Nines had failed to see the signs. Gavin hadn’t been slacking off, he had tried to conquer his panic by distraction. And he had taken all that away from him. He sighed, regret setting deep into his systems. He should have been there for his partner. He had always said he cared for the man, but how could he tell himself that now that he saw what he had done to Gavin? Well, he was free to do so now that he was deviant. He just hoped it wasn’t too late yet.

‘Gavin? Gavin, stand up. You need to get cleaned up and drink something. Come on.’ He took the man by the arm and helped him up. Reed was shivering and not only for the cold. Nines helped him back inside, sat him down on his chair again, putting the letter and the box away before fetching a bottle of water. He handed it wordlessly to the man and watched him drink most of it in one go. ‘I will tell Fowler to assign someone else to the case. It’s too much for only two people and you are in too much danger to continue. You almost died once already. Simple facts.’ He didn’t say what he really felt. He didn’t say he suddenly feared for his safety. What had been the concern of a machine now was true worry. He wouldn’t allow him to go back to this flat of his. A team of officers would get his cat, but Gavin would stay at the precinct. Or at a safehouse. Whatever was necessary. Nines wouldn’t say any of that to Gavin, it would be too much for now. But he would make sure Gavin was safe first. He had only just now realised how much he truly cared for the man. And he would be damned if he couldn’t help him through this.

He would make sure his partner was safe and sound. And then this serial killer would pay.

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Gavin whump #loved writing this #you bet your asses Nines keeps Gavin safe #Baby discovered feelings and all of them are focused on protection

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limited-practice · 5 years

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Unstable Structure

I was talking with @jet-teeth about this post https://jet-teeth.tumblr.com/post/190467330915/starstruckswordsmech-autobots-the-reason-why and the great art she drew of it, and I got such a clear image of Intense Sunder on the left poking out a block with his needle tipped finger, Horrified Hubcap on the right, and Fed up Ambulon in the middle, and just had to write something. It was a great excuse to think about my favorites and to write something silly and fun.

2757 words of Sunder, Ambulon and Hubcap playing Jenga are under the cut.

Ambulon looked balefully at the tower of rectangular wooden blocks on the table in front of him. “Remind me why we have to play this again?”

“Well,” Hubcap said slowly, “It’s because Swerve- you know, the owner of the bar we’re all in? The metallurgist that likes Earth a lot?”

“I’m well aware of who our alt-mode curious barkeep is.”

“Ha, yeah, right. So. This is one of his favourite games and- and I think it was his birthday the other day and he wanted us all to celebrate it with him, so he told us to get into teams so we could play it together? In teams and compete with one another? Or maybe it was the anniversary of his bar opening. Or was it because it was the beginning of the week and he liked the name of the day?”

Ambulon tipped his head back and stared at the stained ceiling.

>he desires the company of others because he is lonely.

Sunder lent forward over the table and looked intently at the stack of blocks he’d finished building.

>there is a gaping chasm of nothingness circling his spark, and he’s sacred that it will pull him into its black depths and drown him by soft degrees. But he should not fear the darkness. He should learn to embrace it. He should learn how to hold it close and kiss it with the softness it deserves.

Ambulon swiveled his eyes to his teammate on his right.

Sunder’s hollow eye sockets bored into Ambulon’s face.

>you are never lonely in the dark.

Ambulon swiveled his eyes to his teammate on his left.

“Remind me why I got stuck on this table again?”

“That’s…” Hubcap bristled. “I don’t think you’re one to talk. Much.”

Ambulon raised his head and sat up straight. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Out of everyone on this table you’re, well, the only Decepticon. Ex-Decepticon. Teamwork isn’t exactly your, uh, strength.”

Ambulon lent forward and pointed a sharp finger at Hubcap’s Autobot badge. “Out of everyone on this table, I’m the only one who hasn’t murdered someone I worked with.”

“That’s-…true. So. Well. Right.” Hubcap grimaced. “Sorry. Um. Didn’t mean to cause offence there, and-”

“Yes you did.”

>yes you did.

“Look, can we just play? Please? I-…the two of you are looking at me and…and you haven’t even gone yet Sunder. You need to take your turn first because you built the tower.”

>the first to make their move is ahead of those who allow the insidious vines of doubt and decay to wrap their oily lengths around them and s q u e e z e out the light that never had a chance to breed.

“So…you’re thinking about it?”

Streams of dark air vented out of Sunder’s facial pipes and hung heavily around him, like a halo of corrupted smoke.

>I am not like the others.

Hubcap and Ambulon exchanged a look.

>I was born to build by taking away.

“Alright,” Ambulon said, in the weary tone of voice he used with a patient who thought they knew better but didn’t. “Let’s get this show on the road. If I lose to First Aid’s table then I’ve got deep cleaning duty for a month and I do not, I repeat do not, want that. So take a block away Sunder and let’s get going. Let’s get building. Let’s get winning!”

Ambulon looked at Hubcap. “See, I can be a team player. I am a team player.”

Hubcap’s eyes fixated on the peeling paint on Ambulon’s thumbs up. “…uh-huh.

“I was part of a combiner you know. I’m the very definition of a team player, so don’t accuse me of not being one again.”

“I won’t.”

“I know what it’s like to not be supported or appreciated, and I won’t do that to others. I won’t do it to you, my teammates, who I trust and respect and- SUNDER YOU SLAGGING MORON WHAT THE FRAG DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T DO THAT YOU’LL- OH SHIT YOU JUST DID IT, YOU JUST DID IT.”

Ambulon covered his eyes and Hubcap looked at the Jenga stack in horror.

One of Sunder’s needle tipped fingers was pushing a block at the very bottom.

“Why?” Hubcap whispered.

>it is burdened by the sins of those crushing it from above. I am here to relieve its suffering.

Ambulon dragged his fingers down his face. “We’ve lost. That’s it, we’ve lost. I’ve now got deep cleaning duty for a month thanks to you, you idiot.”

Sunder tilted his head and looked at Ambulon in a way that lowered the room’s temperature by ten degrees.

Several bots dotted around the room shivered and looked around in confusion.

Ambulon glared right back at Sunder. “Don’t think you can intimidate me you self-important smoke stack, because you can’t. I was a Decepticon medic don’t forget. A Decepticon. Medic. I’ve seen things that would make your eyes jump back into your sockets and fall out again. In fact they’d melt out of your face. They’d run down your front and stain your plating and seep into your vents and cause a build-up of optical rust that would require seven separate surgeries to fix. And I know all of this because it happened to a senior ‘Con who’s name I won’t mention, and because I assisted with surgeries two, three and four and took charge of number six.”

>the blocks are screaming.

Ambulon shook his head and Hubcap twisted his fingers together.

“I’m going to scream,” Ambulon said. “I’m going to scream out loud.”

“I’m going to scream silently,” Hubcap said. “Very silently and very loudly inside my head. If that makes sense. Ha. I don’t want to make too much of a scene.”

Ambulon gave him a curious sort of look. “Yeah you can do that, can’t you? Make things happen just by thinking about them?”

“Well it’s not- ha, it’s not that straightforward. I mean it’s easy for me to block or boost a signal because it’s part of who I am and comes as easily as breathing. Not that we breathe anyway, since we don’t have lungs and aren’t exposed to an oxygen rich atmosphere a lot of the time, and I just mean that as an Outlier I can do the things that…yeah.”

Ambulon tapped a world weary finger on top of the table. “As eloquent as ever, thank you.”

Hubcap’s blue eyes darkened. “What’s your problem?”

“What’s my problem? You want to know what my problem is? My problem is you and him and being on the losing team for this stupid game I didn’t want to play in the first place.”

“That’s more than one problem.”

“Have you always been the most popular bot in the room, or is this a recent development?”

>quiet. Both of you. I can’t hear the blocks.

“Because they’re talking to you?” Ambulon asked flatly. “Because they’re whispering sweet words of longing into your ear and begging for your tender touch?”

>you can hear them too?

“For the love of-”

“You could, ah, move that block back?” Hubcap suggested. “And choose another one?”

>no.

“Right. No. Of course not. But.”

>there is no space for doubt or time to dwell on it. It is a deceitful trick, and we must ignore it. We are moving forward, and cannot look back.

Sunder pushed the block a tiny bit more. The entire structure wobbled.

“You can’t look at it anyway,” Ambulon said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. “since you don’t have any eyes.”

Sunder made a noise that could dissolve metal and evaporate acid.

“Hey,” Ambulon said, looking sharply at Hubcap, who involuntarily flinched. “You could use you mind moving powers! Push that block back into place where it belongs, and allow needle-fingers here to rethink one of his life choices and to do the right thing.

“Woah! That, urr, might be…” Hubcap glanced around nervously and lowered his voice to a hissing whisper. “Against the rules. It might be cheating. You want me to cheat?”

“Show me where it says so in the rules.”

“I, ha, judging by the tone of your voice already know you know it’s not in the rule book, but- but we shouldn’t do it. I won’t do it. It’s wrong.”

“It’s wrong of me to suffer deep cleaning duty because of the two of you.”

“How is this my fault?” As always when he got pissed off and geared himself up to deliver a speech, Hubcap’s voice thickened and steadied and all his self-doubt and stuttering vanished. “I didn’t build the structure and didn’t make the first move, Sunder did. I didn’t even get the chance to build the structure and, depending on your outlook, therefore be awarded or burdened with the first move. I’m not at fault here! I’m innocent! I’m just trying my best to do the right thing and get into the spirit of the evening and I keep getting dragged down by your miserable attitude and I won’t, I won’t, be sent to prison again for committing the crime of cheating! It’s fair enough I got a long sentence because I was a traitor and a killer and was one push of a button away from re-starting the war, but I won’t go back to that modified solitary containment cell with no windows and bad smells just because you don’t want to do some cleaning in what sounds like a filthy medical facility!”

Sunder trapped his tongue between his teeth in concentration and pushed the bottom block out further.

“Are you done?” Ambulon asked Hubcap flatly. “Have you got all that out of your system now? Or are you going to work yourself up even more and have a spark attack and short circuit all the electrics and turn off the ship’s anti-gravity pumps?”

“No,” Hubcap sulked.

Ambulon’s face lightened. “Because if you did, then we wouldn’t have to play anymore! Every structure would get knocked over in the dark or come apart and fly away!”

“You do…know that’s still cheating, don’t you? Or do I need to edit my speech and deliver it again?”

>the cold shadow is almost lifted and our friend is nearly free.

Sunder poked his chosen block again, and the entire tower shifted.

Ambulon sighed.

“And it doesn’t work like that,” Hubcap continued, not quite ready and not quite willing to wind himself back down. “I can’t manipulate an electromagnetic signal unless I’ve been in contact with it first. And I haven’t had cause to study and absorb the ship’s gravitational system, so. No.”

“What about the lights?”

“What about them?”

“Could you turn them off?”

“I…yes. That would be an easy block. But I’m not going to.”

“You could say it was an accident,” Ambulon pressed him. By now First Aid had seen the state of Ambulon’s table and was pointing and laughing at him. “You’ve blocked things by accident before, right?”

“I…yeah. Yeah I have.”

“Like what?”

>like what?

Hubcap blinked at the sudden interest from both of them.

“Uh, well, this one time I…accidentally blocked the signal to an energon refueling system and, um, racked up a six figure repair bill for it.”

“Why?”

>how?

“Ha, that- well I was, um, in my room one morning and…having a good time and…finished, and…”

“Please stop.”

>who were you with?

“Both of you can just stop.”

“Uh, just myself. Yeah. It was intense.”

Sunder leaned forward in interest.

>what exactly were you doing?

“I’m not going to say this again.” Ambulon said, raising his voice. “I’m not! And I don’t want to. So for one last time just Stop. Both of you. Let’s veer away from this unpleasant diversion and focus on this stupid game instead.”

“Oh,” Hubcap said, his eyes narrowing in his flushed face, “I see. You’re only interested in this stupid game when it suits you, and when you want me to shut up. That’s rude. And unprofessional. I have nothing to be ashamed about!”

“Except you clearly are.”

“Yes, well, that’s my choice. Sort of. The point is that you shouldn’t make someone uncomfortable for something that happens naturally to their body. I thought you were a medic? And that you’ve seen things no mortal bot should ever have to see?”

“Seeing is far better than imagining, believe me,” Ambulon said. “And just because I can cope with something doesn’t mean I want to expose myself to it.”

>talking of exposing…

The tower trembled and tilted as Sunder continued to push the center bottom block out.

>look. It’s nearly free.

“And we’ve nearly lost.”

“Yeah,” Hubcap agreed miserably.

Ambulon and Hubcap watched in shared fatalism as Sunder pushed the block further and further out, and the tower tilted and trembled more and more and more. But didn’t fall. It didn’t collapse. The block was sliding out and against all odds the structure was holding.

They both lifted themselves up from their seats and braced themselves on the table with flat splayed hands, and watched the miracle unfold in front of them with wide eyes and open mouths.

They were going to win.

Despite everything, they were going to win. Sunder was going to do the impossible and build the magnificent and not lose and they’d all be hailed as heroes and-

SMASH!

The tower collapsed instantly.

Sunder plucked out his chosen block from the pile of rubble.

>you’re free now.

Ambulon and Hubcap slumped back into their seats.

“That was terrible,” Ambulon muttered.

“It was a very poor choice,” Hubcap agreed.

First Aid made a loud noise, and once he got Ambulon’s attention, he made mopping and sweeping and cleaning and vomiting gestures. Pharma laughed out loud and Ratchet rolled his eyes.

Ambulon glanced down at the table.

“I, err,” Hubcap began. “Sorry you have to do that. Go back to them. I know what it’s like to do something you don’t want to do in front of people you don’t want to be watching.”

“Whatever. It’s fine.”

“I’ll help you.”

Ambulon looked up and narrowed his golden eyes, which were now burning brighter. “You don’t have to do that. I’ve already lost one bet, and I don’t want to be in debt to another person.”

“It’s unconditional. I just…want to. For a teammate. For you.”

A flurry of emotions blew across Ambulon’s face. “OK.” He looked down and away and back up. “Thank you.”

Hubcap nodded. “And if…something gets blocked, like the codes to Pharma’s favourite food and drink orders out of every single dispenser machine there is, then, well, accidents do happen.”

Ambulon smiled, and the flurry settled warmly. “Many accidents happen on this ship. It’s a chaotic place at times.”

Hubcap nodded again. “So do we…start work now?”

“Hell no.” Ambulon stood up and pushed his chair back. “We drink now. We’re the first team out of this contest, which means we get the pick of seats and don’t have to wait to be served. Let’s get that table over there and start a tab.”

Hubcap stood up as well, and neatly pushed his chair back under the table.

Sunder looked up at them, and a shadow crawled across his sunken face.

>you are both going. You are both leaving me in the debris of my unexpected failure.

Ambulon tutted. “Stop sulking. We’re going to the table and you’re going to the bar to start the tab. You’re buying all of our drinks tonight.”

Sunder stood up and smiled a smile that could carve through planets.

>what do you enjoy consuming, my medic friend?

“The tears of my enemies.”

>me too.

“I thought you were more into memories and the reeking remnants of brain modules?”

>I enjoy variety every now and again.

“Fair play to you. Come on team, let’s retire and drink and pass amusing judgement on others who think they know better.”

>agreed.

“Hell yes. I mean heck yes. I mean-”

“And you’re buying the drinks the next time we play a group game and lose within seconds.”

“Agreed,” Hubcap said immediately. “But…”

“But that implies we’re going to lose again?” Ambulon supplied.

“But that…implies you want us both as your teammates again.”

Sunder took Ambulon’s hand, opened it, put the chosen block in his palm, and carefully wrapped his fingers around it to form a fist.

>a momentum of our first time together.

Ambulon glanced down at his fist. The small wooden block felt warm within in. “Thanks. I think.”

>you are welcome.

“Yeah. Yeah I guess I am.”

#ambulon #sunder #hubcap #transformers #jenga #my writing #this was written pretty much in one go and isn't serious #it's fun to write dumb comedy and let loose with dialogue #comedy #sfw #well there's a couple of swear words so not 100% sfw I guess #I love all of them #and I love that jenga post #I want to write all the other teams playing #or the sunder hubcap ambulon trio playing other games #it's a regular thing onboard the ship

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setepenre-set · 6 years

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Operation: Angler Fish (part 2)

Megamind/Roxanne, K+ rating, pre-movie AU

Minion encourages Megamind to give their damsel in distress an unusual present for her birthday.

AO3 | FFN | part 1

(links disabled so that this will show up in the tumblr search tool. I will reblog this momentarily with the links; look for it in the notes.)

“And—ah—here is the fabrication section of the lab,” Megamind says, “which is—where the big metal parts for the large machines are made. I’ve got basic molds for standard parts, of course, things that can be used easily in multiple machines, but the more complex pieces I design separately and we use wire and water EDM—that’s, um, Electrical Discharge Machining which—it’s—it’s very good for complex shapes and easier to preserve detail—”

For approximately the thirty-seventh time, he attempts to force himself to stop babbling. This attempt, like the thirty-six attempts before it, is an utter failure.

“—that’s the main EDM there, and you can see there’s another smaller one beside that wall there,” he says despairingly, “that’s the brainbot EDM; that’s where their parts are made. Most of them use a standard set of molds, but spikes and other customized parts like specifically shaped teeth can be designed and made as well, and of course there’s a great deal of variation in, for example, the number of limbs the brainbots can choose to have—”

Roxanne makes an interested humming sound, trailing gloved fingertips over the surface of the larger machine, then puts both hands on the edge of it and bends forward, and the movement causes the blue silk fabric of her skirt to fall forward, framing the shape of her—well—

Megamind jerks his gaze up guiltily and, at long last, finally ceases to babble, mostly because he’s now focusing very intently on not swallowing his own tongue.

Roxanne makes that sound again and straightens up, turning to face him. She’s—there’s a curve to her mouth, not exactly like a smile, but the maddening hint of one and he has no idea what she’s smiling about and—

She leans back casually against the machine, practically lounges there, and Megamind has no idea where he lost control of this whole Make-Miss-Ritchi-Evil-Queen-for-a-Day plan, but he very definitely has.

Another shoal of brainbots flies by, led again by their queen, Zero, all of them strangely quiet as they make their way past Megamind and Roxanne, all of them turning their eyestalks around as they go, craning their eyepieces over their braincases like interested drivers going by the scene of a disaster, which is exactly what this idea is shaping up to be. Maybe the bots can sense that; maybe that’s why they’ve been flying past in quiet little groups since he started Roxanne’s tour, although you’d think they would help him in that case.

Fake an emergency! Rile up the crocodiles! Start a fire somewhere! Anything!

In absence of a rescue from either Zero or Minion, who has been conspicuously absent since the beginning of this whole debacle even though it was his idea originally, the duplicitous fish.

“Do you have any questions?” Megamind asks desperately.

“Where are your books?” Roxanne asks, as if this isn’t a complete conversational hard right turn.

Megamind seizes on the question gratefully though—if he can just keep this tour moving, he won’t have to deal with her staring at him like—like—like that.

“Ah!” he says, “Well—I do, of course have copies of all of the records, financial and otherwise, of all the organizations that fall under my authority as Overlord, both physical copies and electronic copies. Which—ah—which collection would you like to see?”

Roxanne’s brows draw together even as she smiles a little bit wider, a look of bemused amusement.

“Oh, I’d be interested in seeing them both,” she says. “But I meant where do you keep your books, Megamind—books you read for pleasure.”

She lingers over the last word, drawing it out, making it into something almost indecently sensual, and Megamind feels heat flood his face.

“Um—I—why?” he asks.

Why does she want to know; why does she keep asking these kinds of questions; he was prepared for her to ask reporter questions, science questions, not—not—personal ones.

“Curiosity,” she says. “So where do you keep them?”

“…in my bedroom,” Megamind says, and at this rate his face is never going to be a normal shade of blue again, is going to stay fuchsia forever, a permanent blush of everlasting embarrassment.

He wonders, somewhat hysterically, if he could pass it off as some kind of sunburn, or perhaps a lab accident gone tragically wrong.

Roxanne makes a disappointed sound.

“That’s too bad,” she says. “You can tell a lot about a person, based on what their bookshelf looks like.”

Megamind, thinking of the bookshelf in his room, the one full of romance novels, makes a noise which sounds something like ‘ulp’.

Roxanne straightens up from the machine and saunters over to him, hips swaying, making the blue silk of her split skirt ripple like water.

“That’s all right, though,” she says, and slips her arm into his. “Bedroom tours are probably too—intimate—” again she draws the word out sensually, “—for a first visit. Although technically speaking, I have been here plenty of times before.”

She begins walking, moving through the Lair as confidently as if she’s the one who lives there, and Megamind helplessly allows himself to be pulled along with her, powerless and swept away by the force of her.

“I don’t think it counts as a social visit if one of you is tied up,” Megamind says.

Roxanne gives him a sidelong glance, dark lashes and curving mouth and sweetly vindictive amusement in her glittering blue eyes.

“You’ve lived a very sheltered life for a supervillain,” she says. “Haven’t you?”

Megamind makes a strangled noise and Roxanne’s smile goes wider, like that of a very self-satisfied cat.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “I think it’s sweet.”

“Oh look at this door over here!” Megamind says loudly. “Doesn’t this way look exciting?”

“It says ‘exit’, Megamind,” Roxanne says, voice rich with amusement.

“Which stands for exciting! In this circumstance!” Megamind says. “It’s the alligator pit; why don’t we go look at the alligators wouldn’t that be great—”

“Ooh,” Roxanne says, and he follows her gaze to see her looking at—

The curtain which closes off the section of the Lair where he constructs his idea clouds and evil plans.

Well. It should close it off; Megamind remembers having closed it off before setting out to invite Roxanne to the Lair. It was pulled completely shut when he left, but now it’s open—just slightly, just a crack, the red material at the opening swaying gently, as if from the breeze created by a passing brainbot.

There’s a light on in the idea cloud section—that shouldn’t be on either; what have the brainbots been up to? He wanted them to create a distraction but this is not what he meant at all.

Golden light shines invitingly through the opening, filtering through the hanging scraps of paper, twisting slowly in the air, staining the light different colors, making it flicker and change.

“What is that?” Roxanne asks, moving towards the curtain.

“That’s—I mean—it’s not—you probably wouldn’t be—”

She turns her head and gives him a look, eyebrow arched, chin tilted. The light catches on the spikes of the crown she’s wearing and why did he think it would be a good idea to put her in a crown?

Oh yes that’s right because he is a fool, brought low by his own hubris, that’s why.

“Megamind,” she says. “You promised to answer any question I asked.”

“…it’s the idea cloud for the next evil plot,” he says, too overcome to even try to argue.

“Really,” Roxanne says, eyes sharpening with even more interest. “Let’s go look at that, then.”

“But—”

Roxanne gives him another of those looks, and Megamind subsides.

“Oh, don’t look so miserable,” she says as they make their way through the curtain. “Keep an open mind, Megamind; you might even enjoy this.”

“Oh. What fun,” Megamind says.

“An anti gravity beam?” Roxanne says, looking at the plans he brought out when she asked him to explain.

“Yes, exactly!” Megamind says, gesturing excitedly. “Isn’t it brilliant?”

It really is; she’s actually very impressed; she’s never gotten to see Megamind’s machines and plans being created; she’s usually just here for the falling apart phase of everything. But—

“I mean, yeah, the anti gravity beam technology itself is genius,” Roxanne says, “but—why?”

“Why—what—what do you mean, why?” Megamind says, gesturing at the idea cloud. “To defeat Metro Man, of course—”

“And rule the city as Overlord, Metrocity will be mine at last Miss Ritchi evil laughter evil laughter, yes, yes, I know the spiel,” Roxanne says, waving a dismissive hand and ignoring Megamind’s indignant sputtering at her imitation of him. “But why an anti gravity beam?”

“I—I’m not sure what you’re asking,” Megamind says.

“It’s pointless,” Roxanne says. “Why would you do this; it’s never going to work!”

She sees an expression of hurt flash in Megamind’s eyes, and then his mouth goes flat, his eyebrows drawing down.

“Yes, yes, your plans never work, Megamind; give it up,” he says, “evil fails, good prevails; I know the schpiel as well, Miss Ritchi—”

“That’s not what I—”

“—should have know it would be like this; should have known—”

“I mean,” Roxanne says, “some of his powers work off of anti gravity, Megamind; why don’t you reverse the polarity of the neutron flow or—whatever it is, I don’t know—and turn it into a targeted gravity beam instead?”

Megamind halts in midsentence, mouth still slightly open, eyes suddenly very wide.

“…his powers do what, now?” he says.

“Work off of antigravity,” Roxanne says. “Obviously?”

“Obviously?” Megamind says, voice rising with incredulity. “What do you mean, obviously?”

“Obviously!” Roxanne says, gesturing again, both hands this time. “Come on! Flight? Have you seen Wayne? He’s huge! And not in any way aerodynamic! How the hell else is he going to get off the ground; I mean really.”

“You—surely he didn’t just tell you this!” Megamind says. “Even if you are his girlfriend, that would be—”

“—even if I was his girlfriend, that would be incredibly stupid,” Roxanne says. “Which Wayne is. Just—not in this particular circumstance.”

“You just—you just came up with this,” Megamind says, and then blinks. “Wait. Was his girlfriend? Was as in—past tense?” 

“Was as in entirely hypothetical, never going to actually happen because he is approximately as interesting and attractive as a lampshade,” Roxanne says. “And—well, yeah, I just came up with it. You really didn’t—I mean, it seems really obvious to me, and maybe I’m wrong, but it’s got to at least be a hypothesis worth testing, right?”

Megamind takes a soft, sharp breath.

“It,” he says, “was not obvious, Roxanne. You just happen to be extremely intelligent and perceptive.”

Roxanne’s breath catches at the compliment, at the ease with which he gives it, at the fact that he doesn’t seem to know he’s said something astonishing.

“And this,” he says, “this is—”

He places the tips of his fingers together, steepling his hands, and then he smiles at her, slow and dangerous and very, very sharp.

“Oh,” he says, voice dark and promising. “Oh, my dear, clever Miss Ritchi—this is a hypothesis very worth testing indeed.”

Roxanne isn’t sure if she actually says oh, or if her lips merely part, soundless with wonder because—

(my dear, clever Miss Ritchi)

—because he’s said that before, called her that before, but she never realized before that he means it.

“Yes,” Megamind says, fingers still steepled together, supervillain smile curling his lips, “yes, we will certainly be testing the anti-anti-gravity beam. It will be—”

“—anti-anti-gravity beam?” Roxanne cuts in, unable to help herself, in spite of the way her heart feels like it might never learn to beat normally again.

“—an evil plot to—” Megamind, who had begun to pace, as he usually does during evil monologues, stops in his tracks and mid-sentence, frowning at her. “Yes, of course, Miss Ritchi,” he says, “the anti-anti-gravity—”

Roxanne gives him a flat look.

“It’s a gravity beam, Megamind.”

“Anti-anti—”

“Gravity beam.”

“But—”

“Gravity. Beam.”

“Oh, potato, tomato, potato, tomato,” Megamind says, waving a dismissive hand as if he’s trying to chase off a particularly annoying gnat.

Roxanne gives a snort of laughter and he grins at her, bright and triumphant and happy, so very happy.

“We should record it, too,” she says. “So even if it doesn’t work we’ll be able to review the footage and see if we can work out what went wrong from there.”

Megamind’s expression changes from innocent joy to dark delight in an instant, and Roxanne—

Roxanne suddenly feels as if the air between them is filled with electricity, lightning ready to strike at any moment.

“What an excellent idea, Miss Ritchi,” Megamind says, and Roxanne suppresses a shiver of something that she can’t even come close to pretending is fear. “Yes, we should record it so we can review it later.”

He laughs, low and beautifully wicked, and then—

“Really?” he says, in a tone that hovers between uncertainty and laughter. “A lampshade?”

“A beige lampshade,” Roxanne says, and Megamind’s evil laughter rings through the Lair.

(After a few moments, it’s joined by hers.)

...to be continued.

Day two of my birthday week celebration! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

(thank you to my dear @displacerghost for beta reading this, and for originally giving me the story to finish as a present 💜💙💜)

#megamind #megamind/roxanne #operation: angler fish #fanfiction

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stopwebformspam · 3 years

Text

what is website form spam?

Stop Web Form Spam - Our team is passionate about creating the best StopWebFormSpam stop spams for your business. what is website form spam?

There is nothing worse than figuring out that your contact form (or any other form) has been flooded with spam entries. This is a massive waste of time and, unfortunately, something every website owner has to deal with at some point.

Checking for form spam doesn’t just waste your time, and it also hurts your resources, especially if you have a limited number of forms for your free or paid plan.

Not to mention that it takes time and effort to turn your back on qualified customers and those who need to contact you.

And if you don’t take the time to clean up (and ultimately stop) spam submissions, you risk harming your brand name’s reputation when those spam messages show up on the front end of your website for Visitors to see.

Fortunately, there are ways to combat this and make your life a little easier. After all, there are things we’d all rather be doing than dealing with a form spam situation gone wrong.

So, let’s get started!

What is form spam?

Technically, form spam is when malicious organizations or secondary actors send unsolicited information via online forms to send phishing or abusive messages.

In simpler terms, form spam occurs when unsolicited messages are sent via forms on your website (and sometimes via the front end of your website), often without you realizing it.

Why does form spam exist?

You might think that form spam shouldn’t be a problem these days. After all, traditional email spam is mainly under control, thanks to advanced spam filters that block spam messages.

However, web forms have not yet reached that point, and spam still affects web forms in the form of junk messages and unimportant web links.

Moreover, form spam still exists since it functions.

Such as, spammers look for vulnerabilities in your website forms so they can hijack them and use them to send spam messages to others.

These emails end up in recipients’ inboxes, looking like emails you might send. Visitors unknowingly open your website and even click on it, only to be taken to a completely different website. The spammer benefits from the increased traffic and engagement on the website.

In addition, spammers try to exploit any web form on your website to post their messages with hyperlinks to other websites and products to gain link equity and improve search engine optimization.

An excellent example of this is when a website owner allows comments to be automatically published.

How Does Form Spam Work?

Well, you already know that form spam is a problem you need to get a handle on. But I think if you understand how to form spam works, you will better understand how to stop it.

Form spam can happen in two ways:

1. Manual spam.

Manual spam occurs when people hired by companies manually fill out web forms, which can be found all over the internet, with information that links to companies that need link juice.

This type of form of spam is the most difficult to combat, as human spammers can bypass most (if not all) anti–spam measures that can be put in place.

However, it is also a time-consuming process, so unless your website is viral (in which case kudos to you

), chances are it will never fall victim to manual form spam.

2. spambots

spambot spam occurs when programs are created to search the internet for web forms and fill them in, mainly hoping that the message will appear somewhere on the website.

A feedback or referral form that allows messages to be automatically posted on your website without permission may contain this type of spam, along with junk text and hyperlinks that lead to other websites.

This type of spam is easier to combat because spam bots are not human and find it challenging to overcome some more advanced anti–spam measures. However, this does not make them any less harmful. Some spambots even try to inject scripts into your website to hijack it or leave invisible links and gain an SEO advantage.

What’s more, the spammers who run the spambots don’t care if you can stop them. spambots are so powerful that they can access millions of websites every day, and they can find a vulnerability at any time, exploit it and get their reward.

So how can you prevent form spam? It just so happens that I have a whole arsenal of tips and tricks that you can start using today.

5 Ways to Stop Form spam

If you want to combat form spam, you must do everything in your power to make it difficult, if not impossible, for automated bots to fill out your forms.

At the same time, you also need to strike a balance and make your website forms as easy as possible for website Visitors to fill out.

1. Use contact forms (not email addresses).

Your online business contact information probably includes an email address and the physical address/office address, a phone number, and social networking icons. And your customers are probably excited because this way, they can contact you or your team directly.

However, if you want to remove as much spam as possible, the first thing you should do is remove this email address from your website.

This is because spambots patrolling websites looking for forms are also looking for email addresses that they can collect and use as spam for others. Of course, you can always fight spambots by using a WordPress plugin like email Address Encoder to protect your email addresses and mail to links.

2. Use Google re CAPTCHA

You may not know it, but a few years ago, Google officially did away with CAPTCHA.

Don’t know what CAPTCHA is? You’re in luck.

The concept behind CAPTCHA was genius. Designed to protect websites from spambots by generating tests that users had to respond to before submitting an online form, these programs were a surefire way to prevent form spam.

At least for a while.

But soon, there were problems with Google’s famous CAPTCHA:

Annoying website Visitors who had difficulty answering the question or entering the correct text.

spambots are learning to bypass CAPTCHA and spamming forms.

Decrease in form conversions by up to 3%.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to see or hear, especially for hearing or visual impairments or other problems.

This is a disaster for the user.

In response to the increasing difficulties that CAPTCHAs were causing, Google developed a new solution called re CAPTCHA.

Already using stopwebformspam on your website? Nice work!

3. Use The honeypot Method

If you are not a fan of CAPTCHA or re CAPTCHA, you can use the honeypot method instead.

A honeypot is a small code designed to thwart spambots by displaying hidden form fields only to them. These codes perform two tasks.

Deceive spambots: honeypots display fake form fields for spambots to fill in. Since the spambot is not human, it simply fills in all the form fields and clicks submit. If this happens, the form is automatically marked as spam and rejected, so there is no need for action.

Invisible to humans: honeypots can be made invisible to human users so that they do not know that there are fake form fields. This means that the user is not disrupted when filling out the form, and conversion rates soar.

4. No links

Do you want to know one of the easiest ways to prevent form spam?

Ban links to comments and forms on your blog. This won’t eliminate all forms of spam, but it will certainly help, especially against manual spammers who try to type links into messages and send them to your site.

An excellent way to do this in the WordPress comments section is to use the ‘Perfmatters’ WordPress plugin.

5. Do not allow users to submit information directly to your website.

Online forms are a way of collecting information about Visitors that appear on your website. Therefore, if you want to prevent spam on your website, we recommend creating a form that asks for testimonials and asks customers for feedback. This way, you can prevent customers from complaining about your service in the wrong places on your website (e.g., blog posts).

Final Thoughts: The Right Way to Handle Form spam

Ultimately, there is no perfect solution to entirely prevent spam on your website, but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with it.

If you need to request cleanup you can contact the StopWebFormSpam support team.

Enjoy the post? For More Posts Visit Stop Web Form Spam

#reduce #contact #form #spam #wordpress #website #content #automated #bots #stop #messages #antispam

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evanvanness · 6 years

Text

web3 will blur the lines between games and gambling

When you have a native value transfer layer in web3, the line becomes very blurry between games and gambling.

Skill based games

Skill based games will naturally add in small amounts of value. For example, Celer Network has a game called Gomoku on testnet that shows off the value of its state channels and is planning on launching soon for real ETH.

If you play the game with a small amount of ETH staked, are you gambling? OF course you aren’t really. This is clearly a skill game, so it shouldn’t fall under most gambling statutes (and hopefully any regulator would have enough common sense to realize so), but clearly you are putting a small amount of value at risk over how good you think you will be at playing the game.

I can imagine that bridge could very easily be an early hit in web3.

First person shooters will start to have value on the line

But now imagine that you’re playing a 1st person shooter like Halo, but you can win the objects that your opponent is wearing - which also have value because they are bought and sold on a decentralized exchange.

You’re just firing up a first person shooter and playing. Again, it’s clearly a game of skill, but there will be some kind of value transfer depending on who wins/loses/gets shot/whatever.

What’s fascinating to me is that Jez San had these ideas 40 years ago, but it has taken this long for the tech stack to make them possible.

Tipping...?

Cent is an interesting example of a game (in the broadest sense) that is also gambling (in the broadest sense).

Seeding is Cent’s form of tipping content creators. But there’s a twist: you get some of the seeds of the people who seed after you.

On my first seed, I actually made back almost double what I originally seeded/tipped.

This is an interesting game that I haven’t analyzed in much depth, but it’s a very interesting dynamic around finding content early and getting rewarded for it. You could see bots join the platform who attempt to predict what is successful, anti-bot rules of various types, etc.

web3 apps are coming that aren’t just copies of web2

Copying web 2.0 apps just doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what is possible. I think we’ll see an increasing number of Ethereum apps experiment with the solution space that is possible from having a native transfer layer.

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reneeacaseyfl · 5 years

Text

The DeanBeat: The inspiring possibilities and sobering realities of making virtual beings

I had the pleasure of attending the first-ever Virtual Beings Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, where I met real people talking about making virtual characters driven by artificial intelligence.

It felt like I was witnessing the dawn of a new industry. I know that the idea of making a virtual human or animal has been around for a long time, but Edward Saatchi, the CEO of AI-powered virtual being company Fable Studios, gathered a diverse group of people from across disciplines and international borders to speak at the conference, as if they all had the same mission. To be there at the beginning.

Who they are

Above: Edward Saatchi is cofounder of Fable Studios.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The whole day was full of inspiring talks from people who came from has far away as Japan and Australia. So many uses of the technology were built by a wide array of people. Saatchi curated a list of entrepreneurs, investors, artists, writers, engineers, designers, musicians, virtual reality creators, and machine-learning experts. They included people who built virtual influencers, artificial fashion models, AI music creators, virtual superhero chatbots, virtual reality game characters, and augmented reality assistants. The virtual beings will help us with medical issues, entertain us, and god knows what else.

This cross-disciplinary cast is what it will take to create virtual beings who are characters that you know aren’t real but with whom you can build a two-way emotional relationship, Saatchi said. And it won’t be machine learning and AI alone that can deliver this. It will take artists working alongside engineers and storytellers. These virtual beings will be works of art and engineering. And Saatchi announced that Virtual Beings grants totaling $1,000 to $25,000 will be awarded to those who create their own virtual beings.

youtube

Saatchi’s Fable Studios has shifted from being a VR company into a virtual beings company, and it has created the VR experience Wolves in the Walls, starring an eight-year-old girl, Lucy. Pete Billington and Jessica Shamash of Fable said the goal with Lucy was to create a companion that you could live with or speak to for decades. Lucy was just one of many virtual characters shown at the event. They ranged from Instagram influencer Little Miquela to MuseNet, which is an AI that creates its own music, like a new Mozart composition.

“We think about how we take care of her, and how she takes care of us,” Shamash said.

Amazing progress

Above: Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, shows off A Boy and His Kite.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

In a brief talk, Kim Libreri, chief technology officer of Epic Games, showed how fast the effort to create digital humans has progressed. The Unreal Engine company and its partners 3Lateral and Cubic Motion have pushed the state of the art in virtual human demos, starting with A Boy and His Kite in 2015, 2016’s Hellblade, Mike in 2017, Siren in 2018, Troll and Andy Serkis in 2018.

But the summit made clear that this wasn’t just a matter of physically reproducing humans with digital animations. It was also about getting the story and the emotion right to make a believable human. Cyan Banister, a partner at Founders Fund and an investor in many Virtual Beings Projects, said she wanted to see if someone could reproduce her grandmother so that she could have conversations with her again. Banister said these characters could be so much more compelling if they remember who you are and converse with you in context.

youtube

She became interested in virtual beings when she heard about a Japanese virtual character — Hatsune Miku — who didn’t exist, but who threw successful music concerts singing songs that are created by fans. She has invested in Fable Studios as well as companies like Artie, which is bringing virtual superhero characters and other celebrities to life as a way get consumers more engaged with mobile apps.

“I saw Hatsune Miku in person, and that was magical, seeing how genuinely excited people were,” Banister said. “I wondered what is the American equivalent of it. We haven’t seen it yet, but I think it’s coming.”

Would you bring back your best friend?

Above: Eugenia Kuyda, creator of Replika, built a chatbot in memory of her best friend.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

My sense of wonder turned into an entirely different kind of emotion when I heard Eugenia Kuyda talk about why she cofounded Replika. Her company was born from a tragedy. Her best friend, Roman Mazurenko, was killed in a car accident. Months afterward, she gathered his old text messages in an effort to preserve his memory. She wanted one more text message from him.

She had her team in Russia build a chatbot using artificial intelligence, with the aim of reproducing the style and nature of Mazurenko’s personality in a text-based chatbot. It worked. Kuyda put it out on the market as Replika, and now it has more than 6 million users in the past couple of years. Many of those users write fan letters, saying that they are in love with their chatbot friends.

Above: Replika has 6 million users who text with chatbots.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

“It’s like a friend that is there for you 24/7,” Kuyda said. “Some of them went beyond friendships.”

There are so many lonely people in the world, Kuyda said. She has been told that Replika is creepy, but she has begun to figure out how to measure the happiness that it creates. If those lonely people have someone to talk to, they aren’t so lonely anymore, and they can function better in social situations. If Replika keeps making people happier and less lonely, then that is a good thing, she said.

Above: Replika’s conversations

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

I went up to Kuyda afterward and remarked to her how much it resembled the script of the Academy-Award-winning film Her, with Joaquin Phoenix, a lonely man who fell in love with his AI-driven computer companion. The worst thing that could happen here is similar to the plot of the movie, where one day the bot simply disappears. Kuyda wants to make sure that doesn’t happen, and she is investigating where to take this next. She wanted to make sure that everyone could have a best friend, as she had Roman.

Who we pretend to be

Above: Lucy from Wolves in the Walls shows what it takes to make a virtual being.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

If something was missing at the event, it was the sobering talk about how the technology needs some rules of the road. Several speakers hinted that virtual beings could be creepy, as we’ve seen a lot of science fiction horror stories about AI from to The Terminator to the latest Black Mirror episodes on Netflix.

Since nobody offered this warning, I jumped in myself. On the last panel, I noted how the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game will be disturbing because it combines the agency of an interactive video game with realistic combat situations and realistic humans. It puts you under intense pressure while deciding whether to shoot civilians — men or women — who may be harmless or running to detonate a bomb. That’s a disturbing level of realism, and I’m not sure that’s my idea of entertainment.

The potential risks of the wrong use of AI — virtual slaves, deep fakes, Frankenstein monsters, and killing machines — are plentiful.

And that, once again, made me think of the moral of the story of Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night novel, where the anti-hero is an American spy who does better at his cover job, as a Nazi propagandist, than he performs as a spy. The moral is, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

Above: Don’t fall in love. She’s not real.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

I said, “I think that’s a wise lesson, not only for users with the agency they have in an open world with virtual beings. You will be able to do things that are there for you to do. But it’s also a lesson for creators of this technology and the decisions they make about how much agency you can have” when you are in control of a virtual being or interacting with one. You have to decide how to best use your hard-earned talent for the good of society when you are thinking about creating a virtual being.

The temptations of the future world of virtual beings are many. But Peter Rojas, partner at Betaworks Ventures, said, “We shouldn’t be afraid to think about legislation and regulations for things that we want to happen.”

He said there are moral, ethical, and responsibility issues that we can discuss for another day. Rojas’ firm funded a company that is working on technology to identify deep fakes, so that journalists, social media firms, or law enforcement can identify attempts at deception when you put someone else’s believable head on a person’s body, making them do things that they didn’t do.

“There is incredible talent working on the different technical problems here on the storytelling side,” Rojas said. “As excited as I am about what’s happening in the field, I also share fears about how this could be used. And where I don’t see a lot of entrepreneurs is in working on new products around technology that will help against the deception.”

I agree with Rojas. Let’s all think this through before we do it.

Credit: Source link

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velmaemyers88 · 5 years

Text

The DeanBeat: The inspiring possibilities and sobering realities of making virtual beings

I had the pleasure of attending the first-ever Virtual Beings Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, where I met real people talking about making virtual characters driven by artificial intelligence.

Who they are

Above: Edward Saatchi is cofounder of Fable Studios.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

youtube

“We think about how we take care of her, and how she takes care of us,” Shamash said.

Amazing progress

Above: Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, shows off A Boy and His Kite.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

youtube

Would you bring back your best friend?

Above: Eugenia Kuyda, creator of Replika, built a chatbot in memory of her best friend.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Above: Replika has 6 million users who text with chatbots.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

“It’s like a friend that is there for you 24/7,” Kuyda said. “Some of them went beyond friendships.”

Above: Replika’s conversations

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Who we pretend to be

Above: Lucy from Wolves in the Walls shows what it takes to make a virtual being.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The potential risks of the wrong use of AI — virtual slaves, deep fakes, Frankenstein monsters, and killing machines — are plentiful.

Above: Don’t fall in love. She’s not real.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

I agree with Rojas. Let’s all think this through before we do it.

Credit: Source link

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weeklyreviewer · 5 years

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The DeanBeat: The inspiring possibilities and sobering realities of making virtual beings

I had the pleasure of attending the first-ever Virtual Beings Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, where I met real people talking about making virtual characters driven by artificial intelligence.

Who they are

Above: Edward Saatchi is cofounder of Fable Studios.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

youtube

“We think about how we take care of her, and how she takes care of us,” Shamash said.

Amazing progress

Above: Kim Libreri, CTO of Epic Games, shows off A Boy and His Kite.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

youtube

Would you bring back your best friend?

Above: Eugenia Kuyda, creator of Replika, built a chatbot in memory of her best friend.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Above: Replika has 6 million users who text with chatbots.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

“It’s like a friend that is there for you 24/7,” Kuyda said. “Some of them went beyond friendships.”

Above: Replika’s conversations

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Who we pretend to be

Above: Lucy from Wolves in the Walls shows what it takes to make a virtual being.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The potential risks of the wrong use of AI — virtual slaves, deep fakes, Frankenstein monsters, and killing machines — are plentiful.

Above: Don’t fall in love. She’s not real.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

I agree with Rojas. Let’s all think this through before we do it.

Credit: Source link

The post The DeanBeat: The inspiring possibilities and sobering realities of making virtual beings appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

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omega-al · 7 years

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The Last Rebellion - First hit of Death

Continued from

http://polychromaticat-blog.tumblr.com/post/161783493179/the-last-rebellion-bronx-runs

When the door closed, Meryl set a few small charges on the locks and around the door, assuring no one was coming through that way.

This tunnel was huge, bigger than I thought it’d be. Old media had always shown tightly packed cars or people sitting near each other in a space less than five feet across. This tunnel had to be twenty feet high. It had four sets of rails running parallel, some crossed over each other and ran off down another smaller tunnel. The old subway system, the B-line according to the yellowed paint on the walls of the tube.

Meryl displayed our path through a shared virtual experience he sent through direct link to me so know one could know our route, and in case we got separated I could still find my way. It was a five kilometer walk with some back and forth crossing because of collapsed tunnels and dead ends. We would pass under, the undercity.

“Do you think we can breath again for a while?” I said nervously.

“I sure as fuck hope so, but we don't have time for anymore, we gotta keep moving.” With that Meryl started off down the tunnel.

There was more light in this tunnel, but the grime that had built up on the covers gave everything and eerie red glow. It was wetter here, there were puddles that were so big and dark you couldn't tell how deep they were. You could step in and go in up to your knee, or maybe fall forever into oblivion. We avoided the water where we could and followed our path. Down in this darkness and quiet I couldn’t avoid my sorrow as it crept back into in my mind. Paris was dead. The woman I loved, is dead.

“Do you think she suffered Meryl?”

“No, I saw the shot, it was fatal, or at least would be quickly.”

“I don’t want to think about her bleeding out, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have brought it up.” Meryl said nothing. “You know, I think she was working for them.” Meryl said nothing. “I mean, maybe it started out that way at least.” Meryl, nodded his head, confirming what I had been purposely blinding myself to. “It was something she said a week ago, something about the rally being a bad idea, she had been so supportive until then, gung-ho even. But she got a weird call late at night and seemed distant and sad the entire next day.” I was unloading now, I had been holding this in since she was shot. “The more I think about it, there were so many signs, things I ignored because I’m so in love with her… was, so in love with her.” Meryl said nothing. “Jeez Meryl, I am pouring my heart out here, ain’t you got any words of encouragement? Or condolences or something?” I had stopped moving and was raising my voice now.

“Would it have helped to tell you I knew she was an informant? Would you have believed me if I told you she would betray you?”

“No probably not, I think Brooklyn tried to tell me a few times, but I always avoided her words, denied Paris could do anything like that, she loved me.” I thought she loved me, she must’ve loved me at the end, she dove in front of the bullet for me, she died to protect me.

“So would it help now to tell you I am sorry the woman who tricked you into loving her, that you let her, you let her put all of us at risk because you loved her?” Meryl sounded angry, actually angry with me. He hasn’t been angry with me since the first days of school before he got all zen and focused.

“I am so sorry Meryl, I really fucked this up for everyone and here I am wallowing in my own sadness” Meryl said nothing. “Meryl I am trying to apologise here, could you at least”

“Shut up Bronx, did you see that?”

“See what?”

“There, in the water up ahead, something just moved.”

I could see the tiny ripples hitting the edges of a small lake about eight feet in front of me.

“Maybe some water just dripped down from the ceiling?” As I said this something long and black moved across the surface for a moment before disappearing beneath the waters again. Meryl put his arm across my chest and pushed me slowly backwards away from the not so still waters. When we stepped away a big black slimey tentacle came shooting out of the water and grabbed Meryl by the leg, he screamed in agony and bits of steam started rising where the tentacle was gripping him. It was burning through his pants and melting his skin, I could smell it cooking. The thing began to drag him towards the pool, so I grabbed my pistol and fired a few rounds into the giant black arm, causing it to lose it’s grip on Meryl. I grabbed him under his arms and dragged him as far away as I could before the thing I had only managed to make angry, spewed out five more black viscous tentacles towards us, I could see a green goo oozing from its suckers and a terrifying maw full of teeth just under the surface where the tentacles met. I avoided the first attempt to grab me and jumping over and rolling past it, when I came up I fired two shots into what I think might have been an eye, it was a white sacklike thing on it’s back that seemed to move and follow me as I jumped and rolled. When the sack exploded and the monster made a noise that can only be described as a pipe organ on fire. I didn’t see the tentacle come up and grab me from behind. It wrapped around my torso and gave me a searing pain that wracked my whole body and paralyzed me from the waist down. That’s when Meryl threw one of his little tech-toys at one of the tentacles that was coming in for my head, it exploded with a force that blew me backwards and blew off the tentacle it had landed on. Dark green blood and guts splashed everywhere, but I was still not free. Another one of his bombs blew near another tentacle but it was less direct and only inflicted minor damage. I fired my guns into the things disgusting fucking head and it still did not die or release me for that matter, and now I could see one of the tentacles had found Meryl and was dragging him towards the gnashing bloody mound where the mouth was. It was desperate, we were going to die and that’s when we heard... “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS QWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!”

A gang of low-tech humans with swords swung in from the darkness and attacked the thing, cut it limb from limb, laughing and screaming “YOLO” while throwing fire bombs, and yelling “MUCH WOW!” as battle cries, neither of us understood what the fuck any of this meant, but we were glad to see them. They killed the thing, eviscerated it, the pool had become a bloodbath and smelled like salty pussy.

Picking myself up as best I could, most of the feeling had returned to my legs. I had to overcoming my disgust as I removed the tentacle that was still wrapped around me, then I said boldly, “Oh wow! Thanks so much guys! You sure saved our asses there!”

The gang had been ignoring us and high-fiving before I spoke, then a few laughed and looked towards the big dude who had led the fight with the ‘yas qween’ he was cleaning his sword off on a younger gang members shirt. He didn’t stop or turn to face me. “Who are you people? And what are you doing here?” his voice was deep and gritty.

“My name is Bronx Zingaro, and we, are trying to avoid being caught by the bots.”

“Are you some of the many that have come to join our fight?”

“Umm well, no, but I am sure if you told me what your fight was, I could return the favor of you ending this one, by helping you with yours?” I was really pulling out all the charm here, I knew this gang, I knew who they might be, the MMG. The Mean Meme Gang, known terrorists and killers. They were anti-tech, most I could see didn’t have techports anywhere. Home grown humans by the looks of em, and maybe not grown with freshest material, if you get my drift.

“You fuckers are Omega, you carry your trap with you. She is in your head now.” He was damn near religious in his tone.

“We’re cut off, I made sure of that when we came down here.” Meryl offered in assurance.

“Lies, I will not trust you, but I can’t kill you, and I would very much like to kill you Omegatech scum,” He said turning to face me and sheathing his sword, “but these days you gotta see our leader first before we kill you. So I guess you’re lucky.” There was no attempt to hide his spite.

The gang members were on all sides of us with weapons drawn and we were in no shape to argue, “Ok, take us to your leader.” I said this with a jokey alien voice. Which I immediately learned was a mistake when the leader stuck me with the back of his hand, hard across my face.

“It’s not that easy, boyo, we still don’t trust you. So here’s what’s going to happen.” the gang members shoved a small plastic inhaler into our mouths and pushed down on the button, “Breath deep or we’re gonna have to insert it rectally,” he laughed. “This is Formula N, it’s gonna make you stop thinking about anything outside of yourself, you’re not gonna care what we do to you, you’re not gonna care where we’re going, and depending on what kinda person you are, you’re gonna wanna die, or you’re gonna ask me for more.” It tasted like burning chrome and made me see trails. I could hear him and the gang laughing at us as the world got dark around the edges and the emptiness set in.

“First hit of death is free!”

Then everything went black.

#earth 3077 #antitech drugs #tentacles #monsters #gangs #meme #the last rebellion #Formula N #guns #bombs #nihilism

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fandom-necromancer · 5 years

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614. It’s not like I love you or anything.

Another prompt by the lovely @smolandangry001! Thank you very much for sending this in and enjoy some tsundere Gavin!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

'I heard the precinct hosts a Halloween-Party later this month', Nines reminded him out of the blue. They had worked for around an hour in silence now. 'Uh-huh', Gavin answered absent-mindedly. 'I intend to go there.' 'That's good for you. I hope you have fun.' 'Could you drive me there? Just a little favour between friends?' 'Yeah, sure', Gavin agreed. 'But just this once.' 'It's not like I love you or something', he added under his breath. Nines smiled at him as he picked up the words that weren't meant for him. 'Curious, I have never thought about the possibility of a human falling for me', he teased in a serious, very neutral tone that made Gavin question whether the phcking tin-can was lying. 'And to think it would be you, detective... I thought you were anti-android...' 'Hey, phck you, I said it's not like I loved you!', Gavin shouted at him to try and cover up his slipped words. 'I could never love you - Or any android in that matter!' 'I sense a 87% chance this was a lie.' 'You using your creepy ass investigation tools on me?' 'You start lying to your partner?'

'Ugh...' Gavin looked back on the table. 'Change of topics! Or I change my mind on driving you there!' 'I start to think this is far more interesting and important for me than the party', Nines mused. 'Really? You phcker just enjoy me squirming I think.' 'That may add to the fun', the android admitted. 'But please, tell me, why are you so dismissive to love?' 'Come on, that shit isn't real. That's something for these cheesy teenage movies. So, yeah, I'm living in the real world, thank you very much. Can we go back now to solve these very real cases?' 'I think you are just scared of opening up to someone and bind yourself. Maybe to lose your reputation of the residual asshole? Maybe bad experience?' 'God, you are worse than some of my classmates and they tried very hard.' 'Does that mean I'm right?' 'Yes... Phck, no, no!' 'You are a real bad liar.' 'And you are a pain in the ass! Phck you, I'm gonna take my break now.'

'What was that all about?' Gavin groaned and didn't turn to the voice in his back. 'Not you too, Tina.' 'Hey, just asking. There isn't much that makes our big bad android interrogator smile like that. Actually, I thought there wasn't anything in the world to achieve that.' Now Gavin did turn, coffee in hand and walked over to the table, glancing over to the bot. He was still seated and smiled to himself thumbing through a few papers. 'So what did you tell him?' 'Nothing. He asked me if I drove him to the Halloween-party later this month. I agreed.' 'And what?' 'And I reminded him he shouldn't think too much about it.' Tina growled at him. 'Your. Exact. Words. Gavin.' The detective evaded her invasive look. 'I said it's not like I loved him or anything.'

Tina answered with a shrieked 'Yes!' That gathered the attention of the whole precinct, before they saw it was her and got back to work. Still excited but also a lot quieter, she laughed: 'So, you finally told him!' 'Tina! I didn't say anything about it, so shut it.' 'Come on, no one who isn't in love would phrase it like that.' 'I. Don't. Love. The. Damn. Bot!'

'You love my brother?' 'Ah for phck's sake, not you too! And no! Hell the phck no!' Gavin was desperate. 'And what the hell are you even doing here, Connor?' 'Fetching a coffee for Hank', the RK800 stated innocently. ‘He loves you too, you know?’ ‘What?’ Ok, it was one thing for people to twist his words in his mouth. But the android…? That had to be a joke. ‘He speaks very often about you at home. And mostly positive, too.’ ‘Holy shit.’ ‘Hah, I knew it!’, Tina triumphed. ‘You really are in love.’ ‘Ah come on, isn’t it uncommon enough for a holy shit that someone actually talks good about me?’ ‘Yeah, but that didn’t sound surprised, this was hopeful.’ ‘I. Am. Not.’

‘You are. Everything you said was a lie according to my analysis.’ ‘You phcking-‘ ‘What is so condemnable about it?’, Connor interrupted. ‘You are a good team and obviously like each other. Why not take it a step further?’ ‘Why? Seriously phck you guys, I’m never speaking to you again, goodbye.’

Unfortunately, the only place to flee to was his desk and that meant he would fling himself directly into another situation. Thankfully, as he sat down, the android stayed silent. There was a look, Gavin didn’t want to think about, then they managed to get back to their work. ‘Is it… Would you…’ Phck. ‘What is it, detective?’ Nines had looked up and directly into Gavin’s eyes. ‘Ah, I don’t know, Connor said you like me? That true?’ The man didn’t believe his eyes as the android’s cheeks flushed a light blue. ‘I do think very highly of you, detective. You are an excellent cop and a fascinating human.’ Oh shit. He felt his own face heat up. ‘Thanks.’ ‘And if you choose to go further, I would gladly follow that path’, the toaster added. Yep. He was phcked. Because holy shit, if Tina and the plastic prick weren’t right with their interpretation.

‘How about I join you on the party then, not only drive you there. I mean, if you want to, that is.’ There was that damn smile again. ‘I would enjoy that very much, Gavin.’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Nines: You love me?#Gavin: no I don't #Tina & Connor: dude??? You do???#Gavin: guess I do...

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