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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

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What kind of bubble is AI?

My latest column for Locus Magazine is "What Kind of Bubble is AI?" All economic bubbles are hugely destructive, but some of them leave behind wreckage that can be salvaged for useful purposes, while others leave nothing behind but ashes:

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

Think about some 21st century bubbles. The dotcom bubble was a terrible tragedy, one that drained the coffers of pension funds and other institutional investors and wiped out retail investors who were gulled by Superbowl Ads. But there was a lot left behind after the dotcoms were wiped out: cheap servers, office furniture and space, but far more importantly, a generation of young people who'd been trained as web makers, leaving nontechnical degree programs to learn HTML, perl and python. This created a whole cohort of technologists from non-technical backgrounds, a first in technological history. Many of these people became the vanguard of a more inclusive and humane tech development movement, and they were able to make interesting and useful services and products in an environment where raw materials – compute, bandwidth, space and talent – were available at firesale prices.

Contrast this with the crypto bubble. It, too, destroyed the fortunes of institutional and individual investors through fraud and Superbowl Ads. It, too, lured in nontechnical people to learn esoteric disciplines at investor expense. But apart from a smattering of Rust programmers, the main residue of crypto is bad digital art and worse Austrian economics.

Or think of Worldcom vs Enron. Both bubbles were built on pure fraud, but Enron's fraud left nothing behind but a string of suspicious deaths. By contrast, Worldcom's fraud was a Big Store con that required laying a ton of fiber that is still in the ground to this day, and is being bought and used at pennies on the dollar.

AI is definitely a bubble. As I write in the column, if you fly into SFO and rent a car and drive north to San Francisco or south to Silicon Valley, every single billboard is advertising an "AI" startup, many of which are not even using anything that can be remotely characterized as AI. That's amazing, considering what a meaningless buzzword AI already is.

So which kind of bubble is AI? When it pops, will something useful be left behind, or will it go away altogether? To be sure, there's a legion of technologists who are learning Tensorflow and Pytorch. These nominally open source tools are bound, respectively, to Google and Facebook's AI environments:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

But if those environments go away, those programming skills become a lot less useful. Live, large-scale Big Tech AI projects are shockingly expensive to run. Some of their costs are fixed – collecting, labeling and processing training data – but the running costs for each query are prodigious. There's a massive primary energy bill for the servers, a nearly as large energy bill for the chillers, and a titanic wage bill for the specialized technical staff involved.

Once investor subsidies dry up, will the real-world, non-hyperbolic applications for AI be enough to cover these running costs? AI applications can be plotted on a 2X2 grid whose axes are "value" (how much customers will pay for them) and "risk tolerance" (how perfect the product needs to be).

Charging teenaged D&D players $10 month for an image generator that creates epic illustrations of their characters fighting monsters is low value and very risk tolerant (teenagers aren't overly worried about six-fingered swordspeople with three pupils in each eye). Charging scammy spamfarms $500/month for a text generator that spits out dull, search-algorithm-pleasing narratives to appear over recipes is likewise low-value and highly risk tolerant (your customer doesn't care if the text is nonsense). Charging visually impaired people $100 month for an app that plays a text-to-speech description of anything they point their cameras at is low-value and moderately risk tolerant ("that's your blue shirt" when it's green is not a big deal, while "the street is safe to cross" when it's not is a much bigger one).

Morganstanley doesn't talk about the trillions the AI industry will be worth some day because of these applications. These are just spinoffs from the main event, a collection of extremely high-value applications. Think of self-driving cars or radiology bots that analyze chest x-rays and characterize masses as cancerous or noncancerous.

These are high value – but only if they are also risk-tolerant. The pitch for self-driving cars is "fire most drivers and replace them with 'humans in the loop' who intervene at critical junctures." That's the risk-tolerant version of self-driving cars, and it's a failure. More than $100b has been incinerated chasing self-driving cars, and cars are nowhere near driving themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

Quite the reverse, in fact. Cruise was just forced to quit the field after one of their cars maimed a woman – a pedestrian who had not opted into being part of a high-risk AI experiment – and dragged her body 20 feet through the streets of San Francisco. Afterwards, it emerged that Cruise had replaced the single low-waged driver who would normally be paid to operate a taxi with 1.5 high-waged skilled technicians who remotely oversaw each of its vehicles:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/cruise-general-motors-self-driving-cars.html

The self-driving pitch isn't that your car will correct your own human errors (like an alarm that sounds when you activate your turn signal while someone is in your blind-spot). Self-driving isn't about using automation to augment human skill – it's about replacing humans. There's no business case for spending hundreds of billions on better safety systems for cars (there's a human case for it, though!). The only way the price-tag justifies itself is if paid drivers can be fired and replaced with software that costs less than their wages.

What about radiologists? Radiologists certainly make mistakes from time to time, and if there's a computer vision system that makes different mistakes than the sort that humans make, they could be a cheap way of generating second opinions that trigger re-examination by a human radiologist. But no AI investor thinks their return will come from selling hospitals that reduce the number of X-rays each radiologist processes every day, as a second-opinion-generating system would. Rather, the value of AI radiologists comes from firing most of your human radiologists and replacing them with software whose judgments are cursorily double-checked by a human whose "automation blindness" will turn them into an OK-button-mashing automaton:

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

The profit-generating pitch for high-value AI applications lies in creating "reverse centaurs": humans who serve as appendages for automation that operates at a speed and scale that is unrelated to the capacity or needs of the worker:

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

But unless these high-value applications are intrinsically risk-tolerant, they are poor candidates for automation. Cruise was able to nonconsensually enlist the population of San Francisco in an experimental murderbot development program thanks to the vast sums of money sloshing around the industry. Some of this money funds the inevitabilist narrative that self-driving cars are coming, it's only a matter of when, not if, and so SF had better get in the autonomous vehicle or get run over by the forces of history.

Once the bubble pops (all bubbles pop), AI applications will have to rise or fall on their actual merits, not their promise. The odds are stacked against the long-term survival of high-value, risk-intolerant AI applications.

The problem for AI is that while there are a lot of risk-tolerant applications, they're almost all low-value; while nearly all the high-value applications are risk-intolerant. Once AI has to be profitable – once investors withdraw their subsidies from money-losing ventures – the risk-tolerant applications need to be sufficient to run those tremendously expensive servers in those brutally expensive data-centers tended by exceptionally expensive technical workers.

If they aren't, then the business case for running those servers goes away, and so do the servers – and so do all those risk-tolerant, low-value applications. It doesn't matter if helping blind people make sense of their surroundings is socially beneficial. It doesn't matter if teenaged gamers love their epic character art. It doesn't even matter how horny scammers are for generating AI nonsense SEO websites:

https://twitter.com/jakezward/status/1728032634037567509

These applications are all riding on the coattails of the big AI models that are being built and operated at a loss in order to be profitable. If they remain unprofitable long enough, the private sector will no longer pay to operate them.

Now, there are smaller models, models that stand alone and run on commodity hardware. These would persist even after the AI bubble bursts, because most of their costs are setup costs that have already been borne by the well-funded companies who created them. These models are limited, of course, though the communities that have formed around them have pushed those limits in surprising ways, far beyond their original manufacturers' beliefs about their capacity. These communities will continue to push those limits for as long as they find the models useful.

These standalone, "toy" models are derived from the big models, though. When the AI bubble bursts and the private sector no longer subsidizes mass-scale model creation, it will cease to spin out more sophisticated models that run on commodity hardware (it's possible that Federated learning and other techniques for spreading out the work of making large-scale models will fill the gap).

So what kind of bubble is the AI bubble? What will we salvage from its wreckage? Perhaps the communities who've invested in becoming experts in Pytorch and Tensorflow will wrestle them away from their corporate masters and make them generally useful. Certainly, a lot of people will have gained skills in applying statistical techniques.

But there will also be a lot of unsalvageable wreckage. As big AI models get integrated into the processes of the productive economy, AI becomes a source of systemic risk. The only thing worse than having an automated process that is rendered dangerous or erratic based on AI integration is to have that process fail entirely because the AI suddenly disappeared, a collapse that is too precipitous for former AI customers to engineer a soft landing for their systems.

This is a blind spot in our policymakers debates about AI. The smart policymakers are asking questions about fairness, algorithmic bias, and fraud. The foolish policymakers are ensnared in fantasies about "AI safety," AKA "Will the chatbot become a superintelligence that turns the whole human race into paperclips?"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/#taking-up-a-lot-of-space

But no one is asking, "What will we do if" – when – "the AI bubble pops and most of this stuff disappears overnight?"

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/19/bubblenomics/#pop

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

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

tom_bullock (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/tombullock/25173469495/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #ai #economics #business #hype #bubbles #bubblenomics #residue

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neverendingford · 1 year

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#as much as I hate how Instagram is trying to push me content. it's interesting to play with the algorithm #it's so transparent as to what it bases its suggestions off of. kinda fun to try and fine tune it.#it feels like back when I'd mess with replika and try and foster a certain personality trait or response and train out others #if you can recognize the algorithm then you can stop getting fed mindlessly and instead use it to show you the content you want #that's the thing about algorithms. they're tools. weapons if used that way. but a tool for a purpose #so if they give you the tools to adjust the algorithm. then you can turn it to your own purposes #my biggest complaint is when they don't give you enough tools to manipulate your own algorithm #the moment you don't have the tools to adjust your own experience is the moment they start forcing content instead of letting you choose #I especially hate when it starts choosing to push content based on things I can't control #I don't care if my friend likes baby videos I don't want to see children in videos take that shit away #the amount of mommy baby videos I've had to repeatedly tell it to never show me again is awful.#I feel like I stumbled into the cult of motherhood or something #I do have the chance to hunt up more good black artists which is super cool. there's not that big of a pool here #so it's harder to find my preferences since yaknow.. limited sample size #tag talk

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mageiab · 1 year

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honestly full respect to tiktok/instagram artists but i could never in my LIFE do the cute little process video thing. making my process look pretty and advertisable would ruin the point for me, aside from being near impossible because i'd have to 1. remember to film any of it and 2. constantly interrupt my flow to film. you get a finished drawing and that's it!! that's all you need from me

#i don't like how this sort of trend makes the art process look so.#artificial?#quick easy and cheap?#advertisable?#i dunno.#and again shoutout to you if your process really is that straightforward and pretty to watch #personally i'm a little more insane than that #and i dunnooooooo it kinda disturbs me how even the process of creating art was made into an advertisable thing!!#like the actual art wasn't enough #now every part of the process has to be presentable and pretty #and i use the word advertisable a lot here bc to me these videos feel like ads #like a weird disingenuous attempt to grab your attention #idk man something about the way the algorithm of these apps has trained artists to present themselves feels so fake!! so so fake #i'm rambling a lot i'm gonna stop now before i hit the tag limit 😗✌🏽

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sant-riley · 1 year

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[Random Task force 141 × gen z! member headcanons]

A/N: Reader goes by the codename Teddy in my writing! Along with she/her pronouns :) I am also extremely biased with Ghost so her main pairing is more towards with him compared to the others <3. I know absolutely nothing about the military so this is not accurate I am so sorry💀.

CWs: Dark Humor, Age gaps, Simping, crude humor, cursing. (not sure what else but lmk!)

Chances are, you're the youngest in the entirety of Task Force 141. Just a good couple of years younger than Gaz.

When Laswell brought her in to meet the group, they couldn't help but stare at her in confusion. A tiny girl who couldn't have been older than any of them. Soap couldn't help but chuckle while Ghost nudged him in the side to shut him up.

"This is your new rookie on the team, her callsign is Teddy. Treat her well."

All the men nodded, watching the younger woman shyly smile and wave towards them.

First they realized that her humor was, in Ghost's words, fucked.

Any minor inconvenience had her saying she wanted to be hit by a car or some type of bodily harm, Price quickly whirling around with eyes widened. "Now, I don't think that warranted that kind of response, don't you think?" "Oh it definitely did, Captain." And she'd walk away without another word.

He swears he gets gray hairs from everytime you make casual talk of you dying. He actively tells the others to check on you bc he genuinely don't know if you're serious or not.

Ghost is not up to date with shit, man uses no social medias oncesoever so everything she spouts is wildly out of pocket. References to basic things like tiktok, Twitter, Instagram? He just silently stares at you like you're on drugs. You can't really use your personal phone on base but you try your best to explain memes to him. He sighs and rubs his forehead with a groan of "I'm too old for this shit, teds." "Oh come on! You have to at LEAST know the meme about the marines eating crayons!" "What the fuck are you on about?

The only ones who know vaguely what the fuck you're on about sometimes are Gaz and Soap, despite them still being a few years older.

Granted, they are not caught up with everything but they actively make it a point on leave to try and be up to date bc of you and your mannerisms. Plus it makes you happy when they fire back a quote they learned.

Can yall imagine Soap on tiktok, what random shit he'd have on his fyp bc he doesn't know how the algorithm works 😭.

Teddy has made every single one of them a personal playlist when she does have her phone, Soap once caught her adding songs and hasn't stopped teasing her since. Price and Ghost pretend not to care and barks at Soap to leave her alone but they're equally curious. Ghost contemplates stealing her phone to see it.

Doesn't matter how serious or dark their job may be, you simp for fictional characters, loudly. Price has learned to tune it out, Ghost although slightly jealous, finds it endearing, Gaz and Soap indulge you and will actively ask about why you like the characters you do and how much you love them bc they like to see you excited. It's a nice feeling when they're always in life or death missions.

You're the smallest one in here okay, everyone can easily throw you without batting an eye so they all take turns training you! They all despite knowing you can take care of yourself, would still like to teach you all they know so should you come against a taller/stronger opponent, you'll be okay.

You are the most protected person in the entire squad, esp when going out for drinks, Ghost will put you in the middle between him and Price and basically make a wall of muscle around you. He says he doesn't care and that he just doesn't want to be pestered by creepy people coming up to you but he will literally stare down any man or woman who even tries. He is the creepy one in everyone else's scenario. Soap just laughs and tosses back his drink.

They all notice your ticks and tells, seeing your leg start to shake when you're anxious, when you start cracking your fingers when you're restless, how you will avoid eye contact at any cost. They start to find ways to soothe you in their own ways. Price will give you a pat on your shoulder, sending you a smile.

Gaz nudges you with his body to take your attention off the situation, or he'll simply start asking you random dumbass questions just to see your face change.

Soap will, if he has gotten permission before, just pick you up and throw you over his shoulder, running around with you while you scream for him to let you go. Is also not against tickling you straight up to get you to smile.

Ghost tried to be as subtle as he can be. If yall are sitting close to each other, he'll make sure some part of his body is gently pressed against yours. Whether it be his foot, thigh, hand, some part of him will ground you. You try and reassure him that you know he doesn't care for personal touch but he just says to shut up.

Meeting Graves was a trip, for everyone involved besides you and Grave. Absolutely having no control over calling him a irl Fix it Felix. You were on Graves shitlist and honestly you wouldn't be surprised he betrayed yall for that one comment bc of how angry it made him.

Constantly being told to be quiet, but you cannot help it and will make little quips over comms. Ghost takes after you and starts to say horrible "dad" jokes that make you choke trying to hold back. Soap hates both of you and calls you unfunny.

They realize you're impulsive, especially when you show the amount of tattoos you have.

"I joined the military to fund my tattoo addiction." "You know what? That's not even a surprise."

Going home on leave is always a bitter experience, you never look excited to go home. So one of the guys (usually ghost) will offer you to come with them. It helps 3/4 all live somewhere in England so it's easy to see them/ take trips to their place.

They're all attached despite knowing better. They can't help it and they know they care for you so much more than other force members.

Ghost and Soap bristle when Alejandro makes a mention that he'd offer you a spot in his team, impressed with how you can take opponents twice your size.

"¿Te interesaría quedarte en México?"

"The Hell she will."

If you'd like to be tagged in future works, please comment under my rules that are pinned to my blog!

#okay this got rambley real quick but hey its my blog i can do what i want #ghost <3 #soap <3 #price <3 #gaz <3 #call of duty #call of duty x reader #cod x reader #gen z!reader #simon ghost riley x reader #soap x reader #simon riley x reader #ghost x reader #john price x reader #headcanon #kayla writes <3 #fem reader

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aiweirdness · 9 months

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AI versus a giraffe with no spots

On July 31, 2023, a giraffe with no spots was born at Brights Zoo in Tennessee.

Image recognition algorithms are trained on a variety of images from around the internet, and/or on a few standard image datasets. But there likely haven't been any spotless giraffes in their training data, since the last one to be born was probably in 1972 in Tokyo. How do they do when faced with photos of the spotless giraffe?

Here's Multi-Modal In-Context Learning:

And InstructBLIP, which was more eloquent but also added lots of spurious detail.

More examples at AiWeirdness.com

Are these crummy image recognition models? Not unusually so. As far as I can tell with a brief poke around, MMICL and InstructBLIP are modern models (as of Aug 2023), fairly high up on the leaderboards of models answering questions about images. Their demonstration pages (and InstructBLIP's paper) are full of examples of the models providing complete and sensible-looking answers about images.

Then why are they so bad at Giraffe With No Spots?

I can think of three main factors here:

AI does best on images it's seen before. We know AI is good at memorizing stuff; it might even be that some of the images in the examples and benchmarks are in the training datasets these algorithms used. Giraffe With No Spots may be especially difficult not only because the giraffe is unusual, but because it's new to the internet.

AI tends to sand away the unusual. It's trained to answer with the most likely answer to your question, which is not necessarily the most correct answer.

The papers and demonstration sites are showcasing their best work. Whereas I am zeroing in on their worst work, because it's entertaining and because it's a cautionary tale about putting too much faith in AI image recognition.

#neural networks #image recognition #giraffes #instructBLIP #MMICL #giraffe with no spots #i really do wonder if all the hero demo images from the papers were in the training data

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aos-presents · 9 months

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Money | Business | Inspiration | AI (@savetoinvest)

instagram

You want to change your life? Change the pages you follow on social. Curate your social news feed or timeline to reflect the people, places and things that resonate with your higher self. Elevate your auto suggestions...

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emeryleewho · 3 months

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If you're worried about the enshittification of the internet completely killing your access to work by your favorite creatives (I've already seen a lot of artists I love state they'll be leaving Tumblr thanks to all the AI training), I want to introduce you to a handful of ways to circumvent the social media hellscape to stay connected to your favorite creators.

RSS Feeds

I'd argue that this is the best option. It essentially allows you to create your own social media "dashboard" by saving websites and getting updates when they post new content. Most websites already have these, and if social media goes down (or just continues to degrade), the best way you can access your favorite creators will be with direct connection to their personal websites. I'm still learning how to use these, but if you want to learn more, this article does a great job.

2. Newsletters

I know newsletters are a pain and it's annoying to have your inbox cluttered, but if there are creators you know you'd be remiss to lose access to, I recommend subscribing to their newsletters. I'd honestly skip the ones that share frequent content you don't need, but for example, my newsletter is updates only so I only send it out maybe every few months when something big happens. It's an easy way to stay up to date on info that social media buries. Of course, if your faves are writing up blog posts & insights that you want to read in newsletter form, consider subscribing to those as well, and don't feel like you have to subscribe to *every* newsletter to make it worthwhile. You just want to make sure you can still be reached by the creators whose work you really don't want to miss.

3. Ko-Fi/Patreon

I don't think a lot of people realize you can follow people on these platforms for free, but because they have paid options, they offer more direct access than social media sites whose algorithms will just erase people you love from your feed altogether. This one isn't the best alternate since a lot of content may be behind a paywall, but if you just want an easy way to be sure you'll still have access to updates from people you want to support, this is a usable way to compile creators in one place and most creators will post updates for free so you should still get those.

So yeah, these are my suggestions. If you're just on social media casually and you just like the easy access to content but don't particularly care about individual creators or specific projects or anything like that then you probably don't need any of this and that's fine. If social media is continuing to work for you then feel free to continue enjoying it without worrying about alternatives. I just want people to have a fail safe if you, like me, are realizing that this shit is getting completely out of hand and everything you once wanted social media for is quickly becoming inaccessible.

Anyway, I highly recommend tuning in to people's personal websites, but I doubt most people have the energy to check each individual website so RSS Feeds are great alternative. Whatever you choose to do, just try to diversify enough that no one company can completely kill your access to your faves on a whim and remember that the closer to direct communication you can get to with creatives the better.

#PSA #internet stuff #idk how to hashtag this but spread it around if you see it lol

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seancekitsch · 4 days

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How did Vox and Assistant get together?

hehe i wrote a little something about it!!

also reminder that requests for hazbin hotel/ helluva boss are open!

“Say, Y/n,” your boss’ voice melts over the sound of his office, computer fans and clicking keys, “you consider yourself smart, right?”

Is that some kind of trick? Did you mess something up? No, you couldn’t have.

“Remarkably intelligent,” you retort, eyes not looking up from data. His newest algorithm on VoxFlix is rolling out perfectly, and your finishing touches on it are making new subscribers flooding in.

“Would you consider yourself skilled?”

Definitely a game he’s playing; you can see he’s in the same data set as you. He’s seeing what you’re seeing. Your eyes flicker up above your VoxPad, but not to him.

“In all the ways that count, sir,” you sigh, feigning annoyance but interested in where he’s taking this.

“Hardworking?”

“As hard as I can be without a chair of my own,” you quip, making a jab at his poor planning skills. Vox has you standing over his shoulder almost all day, following him to meetings, standing in the background of presentations. You’re glad you’re already dead or your feet would be killing you. Vox just laughs.

“You think you’re funny?”

Oh, just from that tone you know you got him. This has just become a tennis match, back and forth.

“Incredibly witty,” you tilt your head towards him, and close out the document you were viewing, “and maybe a bit charming too.”

Vox leans over his desk, now entering your space. You can’t help but lean closer too, your body reacting to him. It’s not a secret your boss is one of Hell’s most handsome eligible bachelors, and you are not immune to the effects of that fact. His eyes are trained on you, sharp and bright; his full focus on you.

“Pretty?” he asks, and strikes a nerve.

“Enough to get by,” you deflect, “What’s with all the questions, sir? This an interview?”

You’re not sure if you should be this flippant with a dangerous man like Vox, but it rolls off the tongue naturally, as it has since your first meeting with him.

“Yeah,” He smiles, “I’m making sure you aren’t gunning for my job.”

Your eyes flicker down to the sharp corner of his smile, the way it grows under your attention.

“I wouldn’t dream of it sir,” Your smile matches his, and he leans in further.

Vox catches your lips on his screen, the slight tingle of static at the corners of his mouth. It’s nothing like you thought it would feel like, and yes, you’ve definitely thought about it. You let your mind wonder sometimes when you lean your him against his desk and you swear you see his screen glitch, or when you hand him his mug and your hands touch. Electricity in his touch as he pulls you closer, his hand moving to the back of your head to pull you in closer to him, the two of you bent over opposite sides of the desk to join. His kiss is gentle, but firm; he presses where lips should be against you, and yet his mouth opens, your lips slotting in perfectly. His tongue licks between the seam of your lips, you part them eagerly.

Vox deepens the kiss, climbing up onto his desk, his free hand throwing his keyboard to the side to make room for his knees, his hand behind your head moving to your back to pull you up and closer to his chest. The hum of fans kicks in, and you smirk as best you can through the kiss. You recognize them as Vox’s fans, his internal cooling system to prevent shutdown. It’s a rush of blood beneath your skin, a pumping racing feeling of an ego boost knowing that simply kissing you made that happen. His other hand comes to your waist, his claws immediately bunching up the fabric of your shift dress to make it rise dangerously high. You let out a moan- fully accidentally. You hadn’t wanted to let Vox know how much you were enjoying it. He breathes against you, hot air pushed from the fan against your neck, and he pulls away fully, his lips and hands leaving you.

When you open your eyes you see him kneeled on his own desk, desperation causing him to move across it for you. Any other demon and you’d find a move like that pathetic, but with Vox it feels hot, powerful and sexy. In his hand is his VoxPad, his thumb swiping before he shoves it your way.

“I’m not signing a deal with you,” you spit immediately. Always count on an Overlord to spoil a mood, you think.

“It’s not a deal,” he urges you to read it, and you oblige him to skim it.

…non disclosure of relations…

…no press…

…strict rules of relations… no others…

“Is this a fucking NDA?” you ask, forgetting any manners or sexiness. That was out the window with this document shoved in your face.

Vox’s screen flashes, and he looks almost sheepish. He looks embarrassed for even showing it to you. Poor baby.

“It’s not… not an NDA,” his screen stutters with static. Oh, he’s genuinely nervous. You’ve got him. You look him up and down, sizing up your boss perched on his desk, red streaks of shared spit smeared down his screen, his jacket rumpled; a powerful man disheveled.

You drop the VoxPad to the side, your hands moving back to your boss. You let your fingers walk up Vox’s sleeve, slow and seductive.

“You still gonna kiss me even if I don’t sign it?” you coo, you really don’t want to sign any paperwork that isn’t your normal work contract.

“Well,” Vox’s screen twitches, and he thinks about it, “I guess I could just… trust you.”

You quirk an eyebrow at him, fingers now dancing around his lapels, then yanking on his bowtie.

“When have I ever given you a reason not to?” you ask, and he just kisses you instead of answering; you’d never crossed or even contradicted him.

Your tongues lick and lap at each other, static making your hair stand on end, his claws back in the fabric of your outfit. Vox pulls you onto the desk as well, pulling your body flush with his, letting you feel all of him. His hands go immediately to your ass, handfuls he digs into. He’s hard against you, and fuck, you want him. He’s bigger than you’d imagined, you can tell even through clothing. Heat burns through you, flushes to your core. Need floods you unlike the curious want of before.

You break apart from the kiss with a sharp gasp, not breaking away from his embrace.

“Fuck,” you pant, “I’ll blow you right here if you never bring up that NDA again.”

Immediately one of his hands leaves your ass to slap around for the VoxPad until finally he grasps it in his claws.

“Consider it deleted, Doll.”

#vox x reader #vox x assistant reader #vox hazbin x reader #hazbin hotel x reader

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

Text

Privacy first

The internet is embroiled in a vicious polycrisis: child safety, surveillance, discrimination, disinformation, polarization, monopoly, journalism collapse – not only have we failed to agree on what to do about these, there's not even a consensus that all of these are problems.

But in a new whitepaper, my EFF colleagues Corynne McSherry, Mario Trujillo, Cindy Cohn and Thorin Klosowski advance an exciting proposal that slices cleanly through this Gordian knot, which they call "Privacy First":

https://www.eff.org/wp/privacy-first-better-way-address-online-harms

Here's the "Privacy First" pitch: whatever is going on with all of the problems of the internet, all of these problems are made worse by commercial surveillance.

Worried your kid is being made miserable through targeted ads? No surveillance, no targeting.

Worried your uncle was turned into a Qanon by targeted disinformation? No surveillance, no targeting. Worried that racialized people are being targeted for discriminatory hiring or lending by algorithms? No surveillance, no targeting.

Worried that nation-state actors are exploiting surveillance data to attack elections, politicians, or civil servants? No surveillance, no surveillance data.

Worried that AI is being trained on your personal data? No surveillance, no training data.

Worried that the news is being killed by monopolists who exploit the advantage conferred by surveillance ads to cream 51% off every ad-dollar? No surveillance, no surveillance ads.

Worried that social media giants maintain their monopolies by filling up commercial moats with surveillance data? No surveillance, no surveillance moat.

The fact that commercial surveillance hurts so many groups of people in so many ways is terrible, of course, but it's also an amazing opportunity. Thus far, the individual constituencies for, say, saving the news or protecting kids have not been sufficient to change the way these big platforms work. But when you add up all the groups whose most urgent cause would be significantly improved by comprehensive federal privacy law, vigorously enforced, you get an unstoppable coalition.

America is decades behind on privacy. The last really big, broadly applicable privacy law we passed was a law banning video-store clerks from leaking your porn-rental habits to the press (Congress was worried about their own rental histories after a Supreme Court nominee's movie habits were published in the Washington City Paper):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

In the decades since, we've gotten laws that poke around the edges of privacy, like HIPAA (for health) and COPPA (data on under-13s). Both laws are riddled with loopholes and neither is vigorously enforced:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/09/how-to-make-a-child-safe-tiktok/

Privacy First starts with the idea of passing a fit-for-purpose, 21st century privacy law with real enforcement teeth (a private right of action, which lets contingency lawyers sue on your behalf for a share of the winnings):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/americans-deserve-more-current-american-data-privacy-protection-act

Here's what should be in that law:

A ban on surveillance advertising:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-online-behavioral-advertising

Data minimization: a prohibition on collecting or processing your data beyond what is strictly necessary to deliver the service you're seeking.

Strong opt-in: None of the consent theater click-throughs we suffer through today. If you don't give informed, voluntary, specific opt-in consent, the service can't collect your data. Ignoring a cookie click-through is not consent, so you can just bypass popups and know you won't be spied on.

No preemption. The commercial surveillance industry hates strong state privacy laws like the Illinois biometrics law, and they are hoping that a federal law will pre-empt all those state laws. Federal privacy law should be the floor on privacy nationwide – not the ceiling:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/federal-preemption-state-privacy-law-hurts-everyone

No arbitration. Your right to sue for violations of your privacy shouldn't be waivable in a clickthrough agreement:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/stop-forced-arbitration-data-privacy-legislation

No "pay for privacy." Privacy is not a luxury good. Everyone deserves privacy, and the people who can least afford to buy private alternatives are most vulnerable to privacy abuses:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/10/why-getting-paid-your-data-bad-deal

No tricks. Getting "consent" with confusing UIs and tiny fine print doesn't count:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/02/designing-welcome-mats-invite-user-privacy-0

A Privacy First approach doesn't merely help all the people harmed by surveillance, it also prevents the collateral damage that today's leading proposals create. For example, laws requiring services to force their users to prove their age ("to protect the kids") are a privacy nightmare. They're also unconstitutional and keep getting struck down.

A better way to improve the kid safety of the internet is to ban surveillance. A surveillance ban doesn't have the foreseeable abuses of a law like KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act), like bans on information about trans healthcare, medication abortions, or banned books:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/kids-online-safety-act-still-huge-danger-our-rights-online

When it comes to the news, banning surveillance advertising would pave the way for a shift to contextual ads (ads based on what you're looking at, not who you are). That switch would change the balance of power between news organizations and tech platforms – no media company will ever know as much about their readers as Google or Facebook do, but no tech company will ever know as much about a news outlet's content as the publisher does:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

This is a much better approach than the profit-sharing arrangements that are being trialed in Australia, Canada and France (these are sometimes called "News Bargaining Codes" or "Link Taxes"). Funding the news by guaranteeing it a share of Big Tech's profits makes the news into partisans for that profit – not the Big Tech watchdogs we need them to be. When Torstar, Canada's largest news publisher, struck a profit-sharing deal with Google, they killed their longrunning, excellent investigative "Defanging Big Tech" series.

A privacy law would also protect access to healthcare, especially in the post-Roe era, when Big Tech surveillance data is being used to target people who visit abortion clinics or secure medication abortions. It would end the practice of employers forcing workers to wear health-monitoring gadget. This is characterized as a "voluntary" way to get a "discount" on health insurance – but in practice, it's a way of punishing workers who refuse to let their bosses know about their sleep, fertility, and movements.

A privacy law would protect marginalized people from all kinds of digital discrimination, from unfair hiring to unfair lending to unfair renting. The commercial surveillance industry shovels endless quantities of our personal information into the furnaces that fuel these practices. A privacy law shuts off the fuel supply:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/digital-privacy-legislation-civil-rights-legislation

There are plenty of ways that AI will make our lives worse, but copyright won't fix it. For issues of labor exploitation (especially by creative workers), the answer lies in labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

And for many of AI's other harms, a muscular privacy law would starve AI of some of its most potentially toxic training data:

https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-updated-terms-to-use-customer-data-to-train-ai-2023-9

Meanwhile, if you're worried about foreign governments targeting Americans – officials, military, or just plain folks – a privacy law would cut off one of their most prolific and damaging source of information. All those lawmakers trying to ban Tiktok because it's a surveillance tool? What about banning surveillance, instead?

Monopolies and surveillance go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Some of the biggest tech empires were built on mountains of nonconsensually harvested private data – and they use that data to defend their monopolies. Legal privacy guarantees are a necessary precursor to data portability and interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/wp/interoperability-and-privacy

Once we are guaranteed a right to privacy, lawmakers and regulators can order tech giants to tear down their walled gardens, rather than relying on tech companies to (selectively) defend our privacy:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

The point here isn't that privacy fixes all the internet's woes. The policy is "privacy first," not "just privacy." When it comes to making a new, good internet, there's plenty of room for labor law, civil rights legislation, antitrust, and other legal regimes. But privacy has the biggest constituency, gets us the most bang for the buck, and has the fewest harmful side-effects. It's a policy we can all agree on, even if we don't agree on much else. It's a coalition in potentia that would be unstoppable in reality. Privacy first! Then – everything else!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

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

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

#pluralistic #privacy first #eff #privacy #surveillance #surveillance advertising #cold war 2.0 #tiktok #saving the news from big tech #competition #interoperability #interop #online harms #ai #digital discrimination #discrimination #health care #hippa #medical privacy

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thealternateuniverse · 9 days

Text

A Misunderstanding

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

-------

Y/N shut out the world by putting her headphones on, music blaring, as she walked towards the cafeteria with good spirits. Her weekend had been well spent after decluttering her apartment. Her dad had left her a message last night, informing her that he would be out of town but would return before their match against Iowa.

For some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about the Paranoia game from last time and how Paige had just revealed she was into Hannah Jump. Hannah was her teammate back in Stanford, and Y/N admitted, aside from being talented on the court, she was good in academics and... really pretty. It was itching her to know if Paige would pursue Hannah or not; after all, she had just admitted she liked her. Paige might appear as the fuckboy type among their lot but she might be the most decent one when it comes to relationship. She never pursued anyone ,yet, probably some flirtations but never to the point of dating. Her world seems to revolve only in basketball. Regardless, it is not her business.

She opened TikTok last night, only to be blasted by Paige Bueckers edits in her feed. The algorithm must have been playing some kind of joke on her, she thought, feeling a mix of amusement and irritation at the coincidence.

Shrugging off the thought, Y/N lazily slipped her hands into her hoodie's pocket and ambled towards her destination. Her train of thoughts got cut off when she almost stumbled, feeling a weight on her back that nearly sent her crashing to the ground.

"The fuck b— What the hell Paige Bueckers!"

Y/N exclaimed, cursing every inch of Paige's being as she struggled to regain her balance while supporting Paige's weight.

Paige, seemingly unfazed by the near disaster she caused, had the audacity to laugh.

"You nearly broke my back, Paige! I could've broken your face too!"

Y/N protested for the last time, yet still allowed Paige to remain on her back.

"Damn right, you're heavy," Y/N grunted under Paige's weight. It seemed she had no intention of getting off anytime soon. Despite being almost the same height, Paige had bulked up since her ACL recovery.

"Suck it up, Miller. Don't be a loser," Paige encouraged, oblivious to Y/N's struggle.

"Yeah, and you'll be the loser if I drop you here." she bit back a response.

By the time they reached the cafeteria, Y/N was already sweating, carrying Paige acting as a warm-up.

She hadn't actually seen Paige face-to-face yet, so when she dropped her off, she almost stuttered. Paige's hair wasn't tied up today, and she was only wearing her sleeveless compression top, which fit her perfectly, sticking it to the right places.

"Hey, Miller. I know I look good; stop ogling," Paige called out with a playful airiness, teasing Y/N as she caught her glance.

Y/N rolled her eyes, attempting to conceal her embarrassment from being caught gawking.

"No braids today?" she asked before Paige could further boost her ego.

"Kayla is out of town, so..." Paige shrugged. "You can braid it later before practice."

"Yeah, and make sure you took a shower today; I don't want some greasy hair," Y/N quipped with a playful smirk.

Paige feigned being hurt, putting both her hands on her chest in mock offense.

"You're so mean, dude. You don't know what some people are going through," Paige said, shaking her head while placing her hand on Y/N's shoulder.

"You're so dramatic. Now if you'll get out of my way please, I am hungry." Y/N retorted with a chuckle, nudging Paige playfully.

Paige stepped aside, allowing Y/N to pass, and followed after.

Y/N couldn't help but notice something different about Paige today; she seems to be perky.

"What's gotten into you today, Paige?" Y/N stopped and turned to confront Paige. The latter merely bestowed onto her a deep grin that extended to her eyes.

"Nothing, why? Is it a crime to be in a good mood?" Paige remarked, rolling her shoulders, a clear indication of her upbeat demeanor.

Y/N shook her head in disbelief but decided to let it go, opting instead to grab her breakfast.

-------

"Stay put, Paige Madison, you're gonna ruin my braids," Y/N insisted, gently placing her hand on Paige's shoulder to keep her still while she worked on her hair.

"What's taking you so long? Kayla does it quickly," Paige complained.

In truth, Y/N was deliberately taking her time. She needed to steady her hands, unsure why they were shaking. After all, she'd done this countless times before. But being so close to Paige felt different, almost unfamiliar. And Paige's hair, soft and smelling of peppermint, tempted her to linger, to breathe in the scent and savor the moment.

"There, finally done."

Taking one last satisfied look, Y/N released Paige. "There, all done," she announced proudly. This time, she'd opted for a Dutch braid, a departure from Paige's usual signature hairstyle.

"Thanks, but I'm still the best," Paige quipped with a playful grin

"Oh, really? Care to make a bet?" Y/N challenged, a mischievous glint in her eye.

---------------------

The team's lounge was unusually quiet following practice. The girls taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep after the exhausting training session.

Meanwhile, Y/N sat on the edge of her seat, nervously tapping her foot as she debated whether to open it or not. She found herself repeatedly switching it on and off, unable to make up her mind.

Cameron's message had left Y/N in a dilemma. Eventually, she rose to pack her things and switched off her phone. As she moved, she suddenly halted, blinking as the vision in her left eye began to blur. Panic welled up as she feared she might pass out. She turned around to her left, unaware of Paige, who had just emerged from the shower. Their heads collided.

"What the heck! Are you blind or something, dawg?" Paige exclaimed, rubbing the spot where they had collided.

"Oh yeah? And today I discovered just how thick your skull is," Y/N retorted, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"But seriously, are you okay?" Paige asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah, actually, I am blind. I didn't see you," Y/N admitted.

"Probably because your contact lens is off," Paige suggested, seeing the uneven eye color. Her left green and right hazel.

"Oh," Y/N replied, mentally chastising herself for forgetting her own condition.

"Here, let me help you. Stay put," Paige said as she draped her towel over a chair and gently guided Y/N's head with her hands to assist in fixing her contact lens.

"How am I supposed to know you're not going to poke m--"

"Quiet, almost done," Paige interrupted, her tone firm but reassuring.

As Paige worked, the room seemed to grow warmer. It was the second time they had been this close outside of the court, and Y/N found herself uncomfortable with her blurry vision, unable to clearly see Paige's features up close. Yet, paradoxically, she also found solace in the blurred lines, grateful that she wouldn't have to dwell on the details of their encounters today.

"There, done," Paige announced, and Y/N blinked, relieved to find her vision clear once more.

"T-thanks," Y/N stuttered, clearing her throat. Their eyes locked for a moment, but before the intensity could linger, Y/N was the first to break the contact.

"U-uh, I'll just pack my things," she mumbled, trying to ease the sudden tension.

"Y-yeah, you should," Paige replied awkwardly, her own discomfort evident in her voice.

---------

Unbelievable, Y/N let out an exasperated sigh as her car refused to start. Of all the days and weather conditions, why did it have to happen now? How was she supposed to get home in this rain?

"This is ridiculous," she muttered, leaning her head against the steering wheel. The parking lot seemed endless, and she knew she'd be soaked by the time she reached the bus stop for her commute home.

She opened her phone, fingers tapping out a message in their group chat, hoping someone was still around in their class or lingering in the parking lot who could give her a ride home.

Upon sending the message, Paige was quick to reply, mentioning she had just gotten into her car and would swing by to pick Y/N up.

It was the third time Paige had come to her rescue, and it seemed like she always appeared at just the right moment.

Paige's Camry pulled up alongside Y/N's car, and she swiftly gathered her belongings before stepping out and securing her vehicle. She dashed toward Paige's car, a brisk pace driven by both the biting cold and her aversion to getting wet.

"Thanks, Bueckers," she muttered gratefully as she settled into the passenger seat, closing the door behind her.

"Anytime, Miller. What would you do without me?" Paige quipped, exuding confidence and earning an eye roll from Y/N.

As they merged into traffic, Waka Flocka's music blared from Paige's stereo.

"I need to swing by Walmart first; I'm running low on groceries. Hope you don't mind," Paige added, breaking the rhythm of the music-filled silence.

Y/N nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I can grab some for myself as well."

The rain had somehow mellowed by the time they arrived at Walmart. The two of them dashed into the store, snagging a cart and launching into their grocery run.

Paige peered into Y/N's meticulously organized cart, filled with salad ingredients and chicken, devoid of any junk food.

"How are you even full just eating that?" Paige teased, gesturing towards Y/N's cart.

Y/N glanced over at Paige's cart, which seemed more like a haul than a grocery run, stocked with proteins, organic chips, and various meats. It was clear Paige was focused solely on food items.

"Duh. Do I look like I have time to cook?" Y/n retorted with a smirk, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Paige raised both hands in surrender. "Alright. For an athlete, you sure eat less."

Y/N, who had been chubby back in grade school due to her big bones, had made a conscious effort to monitor her weight when she got into basketball.

"I've got big bones. Plus, I was fat back in grade school. I easily gain weight, so I have to watch what I eat," Y/N explained.

Paige's curiosity piqued at the mention of Y/N's childhood appearance, but she merely mouthed an 'oh,' holding back her questions for the moment.

When they finished their grocery shopping, the two of them struggled on their way back to the parking lot, battling against the persistent rain. They did their best to shield the bags from getting wet, navigating through the downpour with determination.

Besides her earlier dilemma about Cameron's text, she finds herself faced with a new one. First, she struggles with the task of carrying the grocery bags up to her apartment alone, as she already has her gym bag filled with basketball gear. Second, she hesitates to ask Paige for help, knowing how much Paige has already done for her today. She waits until they arrive at her apartment before finally mustering the courage to speak up.

"Um, Paige, there's one more thing. I really need your help carrying these groceries," she stammers, nodding towards the backseat where the bags are piled.

"No problem at all, Miller. I've got you," Paige responds with a thumbs up and a playful wink.

"Thanks. I owe you big time for all your help today."

Y/N couldn't help but roll her eyes every time Paige proudly exclaimed, "What would you do without me?"

In the elevator, she nudged Paige to keep her quiet as Paige continued to prattle on about her indispensable role in Y/N's life.

A sense of panic washed over Y/N when she noticed her door was unlocked. Only she and her dad knew the passcode.

Upon entering her apartment, she was greeted by Cameron sitting comfortably in her living room.

"Hi," Cameron greeted awkwardly.

"Who let you in?" Y/N asked, attempting to hide her annoyance, though it came out with a grit.

"I, uh... asked your dad," Cameron replied nervously.

Y/N felt her jaw clench.

"You can—"

"The heck, bro, why are you standing there like a post or something?" Paige barged in, not noticing Cameron at first, as she followed behind Y/N.

"Sorry about that. Hey, let's drop off these groceries and grab some lunch at your place, yeah?" Y/N suggested.

Paige gave Y/N a confused look, not catching on until she noticed Cameron. Y/N glared at her, silently conveying a "play along or else" message.

Paige, on the other hand, finds herself uncertain of what to do. She holds Y/N's groceries, her gaze shifting between Y/N and Cameron, feeling like an inadvertent intruder.

"U-uh, w-well, yeah, sure," she awkwardly responds, inching towards the kitchen to set down the groceries. The palpable tension between Y/N and Cameron doesn't escape her notice.

"H-hi, Cameron," she offers as she passes by, to which Cameron responds with a polite smile. "Sorry, I must have interrupted your plans today," Cameron apologizes.

"It's fine. No problem. I'll just… yeah, groceries," Paige gestures towards the kitchen, trying to diffuse the awkwardness.

She retreats to the kitchen, giving the two space to talk.

"I'm sorry for coming here with short notice. I thought you read my texts," Cameron explains.

"I am busy. I don't have time to be on my phone all day," Y/N replies tersely.

Paige wonders how she ended up in this situation, feeling more like the one interrupting rather than Cameron.

"W-well, I am staying at a hotel. Let me know when you are free," Cameron offers tentatively.

"I have no free time. I have an upcoming match, so feel free to go back to California anytime," Y/N says casually.

"Y/N…" Cameron trails off, at a loss for words. With a sigh, she continues, "Alright, let me know when you are ready to talk to me. I'll be leaving."

Cameron gathers her things and departs. What the heck just happened?

Paige returns to the living room to find Y/N standing there, visibly distressed after Cameron's departure.

"Well… what the hell just happened?" Paige asks, trying to make sense of the tension.

Y/N sighs heavily. "Long story. I really don't have the energy to deal with her," she says, shaking her head in frustration.

"Do you still want to go grab lunch?" Paige offers, hoping to lighten the mood.

Y/N's head shoots up, her eyes lighting up at the mention of food.

"I think so. I am hungry," she admits, a small smile forming on her lips.

"Well, don't expect salad. I won't feed you that kind of crap," Paige quips, injecting a bit of humor into the conversation. ---------

They found themselves in a brief argument over whether to cook or dine out, but in the end, Paige's preference for eating out won.

Paige wasn't joking when she said she wouldn't subject Y/N to just salad. She orders some chicken wings for her, reasoning that it's just for one day, and Y/N can return to her original diet afterward.

"Well, we're fucked," Paige muttered, her ears growing warmer and eyes a mix of amusement and concern.

Y/N's brows creased, curious about Paige's comment. Her annoyance grew as her phone buzzed again. Opening it, she was bombarded with Instagram and TikTok notifications, causing color to drain from her face in realization.

"What the hell? They took this angle wrong in all ways. Do we look like we're kissing?" Y/N exclaimed, her voice unintentionally carrying across the restaurant. The heads of other diners turned towards their table, causing Y/N to bow her head slightly in embarrassment.

Paige, now red-faced, looked away, feeling the weight of the situation.

"Who the hell even took this clip?" Y/N continued, her annoyance evident.

It became clear that the video was taken earlier when Y/N's contact lens fell out, and Paige was helping her. The angle made it appear as if they were kissing, with Paige's back and her hands on Y/N's face.

"That's kind of awkward. It really does look like a compromising angle," Paige added, trying to diffuse the tension.

Y/N shook her head in disbelief. "I didn't know there's actually malice in helping people now."

"Let them think what they want to think. It's not like it's any of their business," Paige declared, trying to brush off the situation with a nonchalant attitude. When in truth, her heart is almost thumping out of her chest.

"Alright, for the sake of my peace of mind," Y/N said with a resigned sigh.

Just then, one of Y/N's block mates, Miller, spotted them from across the restaurant. "Yo, Miller. What are you two doing here? Are you like having some lover's quarrel?" he called out, his tone teasing.

Annoyed, Y/N grabbed Paige's arm and hastily fled from the scene, wanting to escape the embarrassment.

Paige couldn't help but overhear what Y/N's blockmate said. "Holy shit, it wasn't a no. They were really dating," he exclaimed to his friends.

Paige's heart sank as the reality of the situation sank in. "Now we're really doomed," she muttered under her breath, realizing the potential fallout from the misunderstanding.

#azzi fudd #kk arnold #paige buckets #paige bueckers #uconn huskies #uconn wbb #aaliyah edwards #ncaa women’s basketball #paige bueckers x reader #nika muhl #aubrey griffin #cameron brink #stanford cardinal

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lazypanartist · 1 year

Text

Hobie Brown x Artistic/DIY Reader

Y'all are already EATING TF out of part one. Anyways. Here more of him ❤️💙

Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

Warnings: maybe spoilers for ATSV, IDK. Reader's in the punk scene and from Hobie's universe. Whole lotta projection. Canon-typical injuries

Features personal Hobie HCs I guess. It's just self indulgent (and for the rest of y'all too I guess)

Please RB, likes alone don't do anything for the algorithm!

-----

You don't even need to turn around to know he's there. The smallest footsteps led from your window, a tiny breeze brushing the side of your face.

"Spidey."

You finally glance up when he huffs, sketchbook forgotten as you catch sight of a new gash along his chest.

He waves off your attempt to look at the area.

"'S fine, luv. Just a scratch."

"Just a - for the love of - ugh!"

You drag him onto the couch as you brush past, a quiet laugh meeting your ears as you rummage through the medicine cabinet around the corner.

"It's really not that 'orrible!"

Even with his protesting, he shrugs his jacket off with a wince, pulling the top of his suit up so you can access the newest wound on his torso.

He can vaguely hear you scolding him, telling him that the city needs him to be less wreck less, but he has one little, uninterrupted train of thought:

This is NOT how he wanted this to go.

The original plan was simple: show if like he'd done a time or twenty, tell you that he trusts you enough for something, then wham! Mask off!

But no. Here he was, shirtless on your couch, shaking in an attempt to stay still for your caring hands to work on him.

Still..

It had to be salvageable.

"-and without you, Osborne would've gotten his filthy grip into our movement, but NO, you were there to stop him -"

"How long are you planning to repeat yourself?"

You sighed, and he winced internally.

Okay. So not like that.

"I'm just worried about you, y'know?"

He nodded gently. "I can tell. Pretty obvious, actually."

You rolled your eyes, going back to work. "Yeah, well. You're our city's hero. Cheesy, yeah, but it's true."

He sucked in a quiet breath. "Yeah? If I'm the city's hero, then you're mine."

You look up at him, speechless. And he grins, hand coming to the bottom of his mask.

Plan - back on track.

"Cheesy, yeah. But it's true."

You're still staring, more in awe now, as he removes his spiked mask. He watches your eyes flicker from his coils to his multiple piercings, lingering momentarily on his lip before meeting his eyes. He's still grinning cheekily as he leans forward, stifling a groan as his newly tended wound shifts.

"Wow.."

He barely hears the word, instead feeling it roll across his chin from where you're kneeling in front of him on the couch, and his smile widens.

"That's what I thought when I saw you."

And he knows you were already hooked - everyone is, he's heard - but now you're just staring, taking him in, and he feels.. loved.

It's odd, after everything he's been through. But he can't help but revel in it, hand coming forward to cradle your cheek.

"Are we.. wow."

He leans forward further, straining against his gash, but sighs when you push him back upright before sitting next to him on the couch.

"Don't strain that."

It's crosser than he expected, but he can't help but chuckle. "Whatever you say."

"Doctors orders."

You lean forward, barely, and he follows suit. The new angle is more comfortable anyways.

"I don't like taking orders."

You know.

"What about.. significant other's suggestion?"

He leans forward further, hand coming back up to hold you.

"I could do that."

-----

Part 3

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