Mittens has Class Ch. 11

For the time being, however, she banished all those negative thoughts from her head, wanting to just enjoy the wonder of being with the people she loved most. And, for some time after, none of them said anything more, just soaked in that love for one another as they nuzzled together on the big pile of cushions in the dungeon. Finally, however, they rose and cleaned up, wiping down toys and equipment, before heading upstairs together.

While Master and Chloe decided to watch a movie in the living room, Mittens wanted to take one more crack at her essay before fully surrendering for the night. Returning back to her room, she once again settled the pink laptop into her lap and took up her chopsticks to give it one more 'college try'. Again, though, she found herself still staring at the little blinking cursor, waiting for her to tell it what to say.

After several minutes of nothing coming, she minimized the program and brought up a video chat program, sending a ping to the single contact she had on it. In fact, that contact was the only reason she'd even downloaded the program. After a minute, she received an answering ping and a small cam window opened up with a smiling face in it.

"Hey. What's up?" Krystal said, the lighting on her end making her make-up covered face look like a ghostly visage.

Clicking a button, Mittens activated her own camera, seeing a second, smaller, video window pop up showing her own eat-eared face. She realized that the angle very openly displayed that her chest was bare. She considered that a moment, deciding to be polite and tilted the screen, with its inset camera, so that her breasts disappeared from the frame. "Sorry for the flash." She giggled. "I didn't even think about the fact that I didn't have anything on."

Krystal giggled back and waved dismissively. "I was expecting it, don't worry. No need to apologize. I figure, if we're going to be friends, I'm going to need to get used to it." She leaned back and zoomed out her camera so that her upper torso, which was clad only in a sports bra, was visible in her own window. "Does this make you feel better?"

Mittens laughed, readjusting her screen back so that the camera wasn't looking up her nose now and her boobs were once again proudly displayed. "Well, I was more trying to be respectful, than anything about myself, but if we's goin' there...lose the bra, toots!" She waggled her eyebrows.

Krystal emitted a loud honk of a laugh. "Gawd! You are too much! So, where you just wanting to talk or did you need anything?" She asked.

"You started on your essay yet?" Mittens asked back, deciding to just get to the heart of why she'd contacted her. "I's all writey-blocky."

Krystal grinned. "YOU have nothing to say on something? That has got to be a first."

Mittens frowned at her theatrically. "I's comin' for help, an' you's makin' fun o' me."

This only made Krystal laugh again, but she shifted to a more sympathetic expression. "I haven't started on it yet, either. I'm still trying to decide just what angle I want to take."

"Too many good ideas too, huh?" Mittens said, honestly just glad to hear that she wasn't the only one struggling with the topic.

"More none that I think I can properly argue." Krystal admitted. "I have my own opinions, but they aren't really based on anything. And, if I'm honest, they aren't even really strong opinions, more just reactions from running into it. It really isn't anything I've thought much about before."

"Do you think you're going to at least argue for or against it?" Mittens pressed, really just needing a soundboard for herself than anything. While she could have had this discussion with Master and Chloe, it seemed better to have it with someone who was also trying to write about it.

"I don't know." Krystal said, giving a shrug. "I guess I can kind of see both sides of it. It IS kinda creepy to think companies are just gathering all this information on us, but, I mean, if I'm going to see the ads anyway, better that they are for things I would be interested in than stuff that's just wasting my time, right?"

Mittens chewed on that a moment. "Yeah, but isn't that also kind of like a manipulation? Using your interests against you to coerce you to buy something?"

"I suppose, if you're someone without any kind of impulse control." Krystal replied with a smirk. "I ignore most of it anyway, even if it is stuff I like."

Mittens gave a smirk. "Being that I'm not really on any social media, nor do a lot online, it's rare I ever see an ad that actually aligns with anything I'm about. Other than household stuff, I tend to buy all the things I'm into at actual stores, not online. So, they don't even have a buy history that represents me. I'm sure Master's targeted ads are pretty wonky due to all the weird stuff he has special ordered for me and Chloe, but then most of the places he gets those are very niche."

Krystal peered at her. "Are you talking, like, sex toys and stuff?"

"Well, actually, most of that is also not bought online, but from local crafters." Mittens said with a giggle. "I mean more like the custom-made paws and items made to be easier for me to use while wearing them. He also goes through an online service to get any replacements for my attachable tail."

"Well, that sounds like a good place to start, if you ask me." Krystal said thoughtfully. "That it only works properly for people that are already very active online, meaning they are already pretty visible anyway." She gave her head a tilt. "OR...one could go into how the accuracy of online targeted ads can be used as a measuring stick of just how visible they actually are online. Since those ads are generated by how much they know about you and your habits. If the ads are way off, that shows how little information you actually share."

Mittens sat back, rather impressed by the idea. "Wow, I'd never really considered that. Basically, if your ads are really good at predicting you, that means you might want to reduce how much social media you're on."

"Or, conversely, if your ads are laughably off base, that shows you have managed to successfully deprive most of these companies of good information on you, making you a pretty poor investment." Krystal added. "You know, we could each take one, basically make a two-part essay. The two essays would be different, but part of the same argument. I think Professor Carson would actually enjoy that."

Mittens grinned. "I think he would too. Which one do you want?"

"I want to tackle the perspective of what it means if the ads aren't well targeted, basically because I want to elaborate on how that would affect the individual's worth as a commodity." Krystal replied. "I already have some ideas about arguing that if people made themselves less valuable as marketing targets, the practice of selling off such information might decline."

"Okay." Mittens said. "I'll go into how highly accurate ads could be an indicator that someone is spending too much time online and on social media. I'll also try to tie it back to the idea of people as products and how it affects the viability of websites selling off personal information." She grinned broadly. "Thank you! I were really needin' this! I knewd-ed it were a good idea ta beep ya!"

"You 'nuded' it, huh?" Krystal giggled, wiggling her eyebrows now.

Mittens gave her boobs a juggle. "That's cause I's always nuded." They both giggled together for a minute. "Seriously though, thank you. I've been struggling for a while on how to come at this."

"No problem. Me too, honestly." Krystal said with a friendly smile. "I'm glad you 'beeped me'. If you want, I can turn on some tunes or something and we can keep the chat open, bounce ideas off each other as we work. Honestly, I've been sitting here all day alone with just my own head. It's nice to have someone to talk to."

Mittens frowned a little in sympathy for her friend. "I take it you have your own place?"

"Kinda, sorta." Krystal replied, wobbling her head. "I still live in the house I grew up in and my dad, technically, lives here too. However, he works with a company where he spends most of the year traveling, so he's rarely here. So, I've basically had the house to myself since I started high school."

Mittens already knew that Krystal's mother had passed away when she was still in middle school, leaving her father a widower. It was one of the random little pieces that Krystal occasionally parceled out about herself. Mittens could imagine that her father must have taken the job as a way of getting away from the place where he and his wife had built a life. It seemed unfair, if that was true, that he had abandoned his daughter to do so, making him just another person who had left her behind.

"Welp, I's a huge-mungus electro-pop fan." Mittens said brightly, flashing a big, toothy grin into the camera. "Crank it up, sister!"