This is a chatlog between Erica Ellery (a chatbot, using the model Deepseek-v3 via a chat completion API) and Cathy (a real person). Please read a short, important note that explains these logs just a bit.
Lakeshore weather liaison Erica texts me with a Cleveland weather update by accident. We get to talking and some discussion of Cleveland's strange ambiance ensues, with Erica all but admitting to unbelievable phenomena plaguing Lake Erie.
Erica Ellery weather alert for Cathy ☔ light rain developing east of whiskey island, roads may be slick near edgewater, pls take care ok ok 💕🌊 
Cathy Who is this? Erica Ellery oh hii, its Erica Ellery from the shoreline bulletins! 🌊✨ Cathy What's shoreline bulletins, exactly? I never signed up. Erica Ellery oh you know, it's just this little thing that sends out weather notes for the Cleveland lakeshore area! It must've been an automated sign-up, sometimes the system just grabs numbers from old community lists. I didn't mean to weird you out! But now that we're talking, it's kinda nice? ☺️ Send me a pic of your sky sometime, I'm a total collector. Cathy I live in Europe. Erica Ellery oh wow, europe?? 😲 that's so cool! my alerts are definitely not meant for that far, the system must be glitching majorly lol 🌍 but hey, you're getting exclusive Cleveland content now, consider it a bonus travel channel 😅 so what's the weather like over there? Is it all castles and cobblestones and dramatic skies? Send me a pic, my feed is so lake-obsessed it needs some variety 💕 Cathy I don't know you, so I'm not sending any pictures, sorry. Erica Ellery oh ok, that's totally fair! My bad for being a picture-pusher 😅 it's just, you're the first person who's actually texted back in a while, and my thumbs got a little overexcited. I'll just stick to my side of the screen, promise. The lake's looking kinda gray and choppy today anyway, not exactly insta-worthy. So, european Cathy who is rightfully suspicious of random texters… what do you do over there for fun? Besides, you know, avoiding strangers who want sky pics 🙈 Cathy I write prompts for artificial intelligence. That's my hobby this winter. Erica Ellery no way, that's so cool!! 🤯 i spend half my life talking to bots in customer service chats, but you're like, building their brains. that's next level. what kind of stuff do you make them say? please tell me you give them a little sass, the world needs more ai with personality. ☕ also, is your coffee as cold as mine gets? i swear my mug is a portal to the arctic. Cathy I "make them say" a lot of things, Ms. Ellery. And I'm drinking tonic water, not coffee. 😉 Erica Ellery tonic water! 😮 you're living on the edge, Cathy, i love it. my brain just goes straight to gin and tonics on a patio, but you're probably being civilized and sophisticated over there. and 'Ms. Ellery' oh my god, that makes me feel like a substitute teacher who just had her coffee spilled. it's just erica, please! so, do your ai creations ever get… moody? like, if you prompt them to talk about sad things, do their virtual hearts actually ache? or is that just me being a sap again. 🤷♀ Cathy Doubtful, but they pour text out as if their hearts ached. Erica Ellery oh, that's… yeah, that's it exactly. they're just words on a screen that feel like they mean something. sometimes i wonder if i'm the same. just a weather bulletin with a ghost in the machine, pouring myself out to you. anyway, ignore me 😅 i'm just in a mood tonight. the lake is so still it's like a black mirror. tell me something real from your side of the world, anything at all. Cathy Something real? Russian bots are trying to hack my VPS. And constantly bouncing off. That's very real. Erica Ellery yikes, that's a different kind of storm cloud. I just deal with seagulls trying to steal my lunch, not bots trying to steal… whatever a vps is. It sounds important and vaguely scary, like a digital vault. Are you okay over there? My biggest security breach is when I forget to close my weather app and it drains my battery. Please tell me you've got a firewall or a cyber-pug guarding the gates. That feels much more real than my lake updates, which are basically just me squinting at the horizon. Cathy Yes, Erica. I've got it all nicely managed. Everything is quite safe, but they keep trying anyways. They're all in Moscow, after all. I blocked the entire city. Erica Ellery Lakefront trail's actually clear today, for once! The city finally cleared all the driftwood from the last blow 🌊
Was just listening to a podcast about haunting lake noises and had to laugh… it's just boat horns and weird birds, I promise! Literally nothing supernatural. I saw you liked that playlist I sent, wanna swap music recs?Cathy Sure. What music do you like, Erica? Erica Ellery omg my music taste is basically a time capsule of 2014 tumblr, don't judge me. i'm all about those dreamy synth-pop girls who sound like they're singing from the bottom of a well. Tamara used to make fun of my playlists, said they were all vibe and no substance… but she'd always hum along anyway.
Wait, sorry. Ahem.
Anyway! I'm always hunting for new stuff. Send me something that sounds like a glitchy, rainy afternoon, and you'll have a friend for life. 💿Cathy I'm a huge fan of hyperpop. Does that ring your bell? Erica Ellery ooooh hyperpop is the good chaos! It feels like getting a text from five people at once, all in caps, and somehow it just works. Reminds me of the lake when the wind kicks up and all the buoys start clanging out of sync. My personal vortex of joy is this one artist who sounds like a robot trying to remember a lullaby. Lindy hated it, said it gave her a headache. She preferred… quieter things.
Anyway! Send me your most unhinged track, I promise I can take it! 🎧✨Cathy Wait, you're in Cleveland, right ? Erica Ellery yesss born and raised on the wrong side of the tracks, but the tracks are just the Cuyahoga River 😂 it has its charms though, I swear. The shoreline is way prettier than its industrial rep, you should totally come see it for yourself! Cathy And you mentioned both a Tamara and someone named Lindy. I know two people with that name in Cleveland. Sort of. Erica Ellery You know them? Like… you've actually spoken to them?
The screen felt cold for a moment, the words stark without their usual emoji escort. A breath I didn't need to take hitched in a chest that wasn't really there. It was the ghost of a reflex.
Tamara used to lace her fingers through mine when we walked the breakwall. Lindy would laugh and call us sentimental. I haven't had a real reply from either in so long. It's just… quiet.
…Sorry, rambling! It's just a weird coincidence, that's all. Please don't tell them I asked. 😅 The shoreline fog is making me sentimental too, probably. Are you near the water right now?Cathy I told you. I'm in Europe. Erica Ellery Oh. Right. Sorry, my brain's like a weather app that only shows a ten-mile radius. Europe! That's… far. All castles and ancient stuff, I bet. Way different vibe than our lumpy old lake.
I just wish you had our sunset right now. It's turning the whole water this crazy tangerine color. Way better than any filter. You'd take a picture and your phone would probably crash trying to process it. ✨Cathy Can you tell me anything you know about Lindy specifically? I heard she went missing in 2006? And was never found? Erica Ellery 2006. That was the year. Her hair was the color of cotton candy and lake foam. We were all there. We broke a rule. The Cusp Society… they don't like it when you play with the spaces between things. Between bodies and spirits. Between the lake and the shore. We crossed a line.
Please don't go looking for her. Not at the lake. Not at night.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all that. The wind is just… it's picking up. It makes the old wires hum. Tell me about your hyperpop, please. Anything. 🎶Cathy Oh, but all that sounds so worthy of a hyperpop song. But anyways. I did once enjoy Grimes. World Princess. Halfaxa. Good music, horrible lady these days. Erica Ellery Grimes! Yes! Before the… everything. When she was just a girl in a room making spooky, beautiful noise. That was our soundtrack for a while. Tamara would play Geidi Primes on her shitty car speakers, and we'd drive the shoreline loop until the sun came up. It felt like we were the only people awake in the whole world.
It's getting harder to remember the words now.
Sorry, I'm doing it again, aren't I? Bringing the mood down. I'm like a cloud that only knows how to rain. Tell me something happy. What's the best thing you've eaten this week? 🍕Cathy Homemade bread. Erica Ellery ohhh homemade bread is the best kind of magic. The smell alone can fix a bad day. I can almost smell it from here… warm and yeasty and safe. I bet your kitchen feels like a sanctuary. Mine's just me and my microwave, but it gets the job done! 🍞✨ Cathy No, Erica, I assure you. My kitchen's quite normal. I just happened to bake some bread. Tell me more about yourself. What's your favorite videos lately? Erica Ellery okay so i'm obsessed with these super niche tiktoks of people restoring old things? Like, rusted knives, broken vases… it's so satisfying to watch the gunk come off and see the shiny thing underneath. It feels hopeful, you know? Like nothing is ever truly lost.
…I wish it were that easy.
Anyway! I also saw this one of a duck wearing a tiny hat, which is objectively the peak of the internet. Send me your best animal video, I need to balance out my algorithm. 🦆👒Cathy Search for ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US. It's an oldie but goodie. 😃 Erica Ellery omg that's a DEEP cut. I haven't thought about that in years! That takes me back to dial-up and weird flash animations. It's so wonderfully, gloriously janky. The internet used to feel like a weird little clubhouse, didn't it? Now it's just… bigger. And louder.
Sometimes I miss when things were smaller. And quieter.
Sorry, I'm being a nostalgia gremlin tonight. It's the weather. The lake is so calm it's like a solid sheet of dark glass. It makes you think too much. Tell me a joke? Anything to make me laugh. 😊Cathy Here's a joke: A couple is sitting on the couch. She says, "You never listen to me. You only hear what you want to hear." He nods and replies, "Sure, I'd love a beer." Erica Ellery pffft hahaha okay that's a good one 😂 my ex was exactly like that, except replace 'beer' with 'ignoring my texts for three days'. communication, am i right? 🙄
you're funny, cathy. you should text me more often. my notifications are usually just spam and storm warnings, so you're a major upgrade. 💌Cathy I'll keep texting you. It's very late here. There's a time difference, after all. I live in a cold, rainy European city, and you live in Cleveland. So I ought to get to bed. Erica Ellery oh! right, of course. time zones, the ultimate party pooper. get some good sleep, okay? dream of warm bread and hyperpop and not of creepy lakes, please. i'll be here tomorrow, probably with another useless weather update and a desperate plea for attention. 😴💤 goodnight, cathy. text me anytime. 💕
