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cuubism · 1 year

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Enchantment

"Hob," Death greets, and Hob has never heard her voice go tentative like that - though it is, as always, still friendly and kind. "You called for me?"

"Hey, hon," Hob says, or croaks, throat dry and overused. "Yeah, I did, but I meant it in more of a do you think you could help me get out of this situation sort of way, not like, you know." He makes a slicing motion across his throat with his free hand. "Off me."

Death chuckles, crouching before him. "Yes, I see that now. I admit I was concerned, for a moment."

"To be fair, this is not exactly not concerning," Hob says, gesturing to his bound wrist, the frankly alarming amount of blood all over his body, and the situation more generally. "But what's one more dungeon rescue among friends?"

Death touches the binding on his wrist with light fingers, considering. Try as he might, despite having one hand and both legs free and considerable experience in picking locks, Hob has not been able to get it off. It must be magical in some way. "You did not call for Dream?"

Hob sighs. "Listen--" he starts, and Death snorts.

"Didn't want to be responsible for the leveling of the entire street?"

"Dream has not exactly--" Hob shifts and winces, that cuff is starting to burn under Death's touch-- "proven himself capable of moderation."

"And he won't, if the past billions of years are anything to go by," Death agrees, with the fond exasperation of an older sister.

She leans in close, studying the metal chaining his arm to the wall. "You couldn't have known, but I think you've prevented more than that in calling me instead."

"What's that thing say?" Hob asks. "I couldn't make out the language. Looked old."

Death runs her finger along the runes encircling the cuff. Hob winces again as the burning sensation flares. "It's a spell. A trap for Dream. Drawing on your connection to him."

"What?"

"I don't think it would've been powerful enough to work as intended." Death's lips purse in displeasure. "But that doesn't mean it would have no effect."

"What effect?" Hob asks, sick at the thought of Dream snared in another trap.

"As soon as he touched the binding with the intent to free you, it would have hooked into his power; the more power he used to pull away, the tighter it would have wound, like a finger trap. It is an enchantment that..." Death hesitates, "draws on emotion."

"Oh." Hob scrubs a hand through his ruined, greasy hair. "Fuck."

"It is fortunate that you called me," Death says grimly.

"It's not going to hurt you, is it?"

"No. But I doubt this will be comfortable."

Hob braces himself. "How will you break it?"

"All things have an end," Death tells him, pressing her fingertips to the runes. Hob feels each touch through the metal like a brand. "Even non-living things die. I've found the loose thread of that end, and now I will unravel it."

She twists the cuff around his wrist counterclockwise, and Hob yelps, cringing back against the wall, not entirely sure she hasn't burned his hand right off. The enchantment flares brighter than the sun, then disappears, leaving smoke behind.

She undoes the cuff easily after that.

Hob's wrist is intact, though terribly burned. That'll take a while to feel any better, unfortunately. He holds it against his chest. "Thanks, hon. I owe you a pint."

Death laughs. "No, you don't, but I won't turn it down. Do you want a ride home? I'm heading that way anyway."

"That's disturbing to think about," Hob tells her. "But sure."

He's going to have to do some cleanup here later. But for now, he'd just like to get out of this blasted place.

~~~~

"Hob Gadling."

Dream appears in his living room a few hours later, when Hob is ensconced on the couch with his laptop, trying to figure out how he's going to clean up this whole mess without alerting the authorities. Dream looks stricken, and Hob feels abruptly bad about not calling for him, even though that had been a fortunate bit of foresight, in the end.

"Hey, love." Hob sets the computer aside, and Dream comes over to him, sitting lightly on the couch at his side. He takes Hob's bandaged wrist in his hands. "Sorry about all that."

"Sorry?" Dream echoes, voice tipping up a note in what Hob can only read as the infliction of a wound. "I would have come for you."

"I know you would." Hob lays his hand over Dream's. It adds uncomfortable pressure to the burns but he doesn't let go. "I just didn't want--"

But it wasn't really about maintaining the peace at all, was it? It wasn't about Dream's overreaction, not deep down. It was only about Dream.

"Didn't want you hurt," Hob says quietly. "Not again."

Dream's jaw tightens. "Do not decide what risks I should take."

"They wanted you, did Death tell you that part, too?"

"She did. Do you think so low of me as to expect that would change my decision?"

I don't think low of you at all, Hob thinks. "That's not what I meant. Death just seemed the more... practical... choice at the time," he says, which is a weak argument, but Hob stands by his decision. Dream is safe, not trapped, and that's what matters. Outcome over intent, he's learned.

"Practical," Dream repeats. "Yes. I see my presence is unneeded. I will--"

Hob catches him by the wrist before he can stand. "Don't. Please."

"Considering you are no longer in peril, and do not wish for my help besides, I fail to see what purpose I am serving here," Dream says, still tensed like he means to jump up.

"No purpose needed," Hob says. "I just don't want to leave it like that. I know you're upset. And I know, I know, I would have been upset too if you were in trouble and didn't ask for my help, so don't even bother saying that--"

"You would?" says Dream.

Hob looks at him, both eyebrows raised. Yeah, obviously.

Dream raises a single eyebrow in return as if this is not, indeed, obvious.

Funny, Hob thinks, that silent communication. Hob is a talkative person by nature -- too talkative, more often than not -- but Dream is not and so Hob has learned to read him like this. The confusion in the way his brow pinches tighter, the way his body settles just so back into the couch, listening again, no longer on the verge of flight.

Surely he knows. Surely there's no way he doesn't know.

"I'd want you to call for me," Hob says. "I wouldn't want to leave you trapped."

"This was a trap," Dream says.

Exactly. "Did Death describe the enchantment?"

"Try to escape and tangle yourself further," Dream says. "Yes. I understand."

Do you? Hob thinks. Do you know why it would have worked on you?

They haven't actually gotten there yet. Hob can feel it approaching, though, with the inevitability of the moon reaching its perigee above the earth. He hasn't felt the need to rush it. Each careful step Dream takes towards him is a gift.

"There are many such traps in this world," Dream says, studying Hob.

Each careful step is a gift, and Hob hates the thought of that progress being used against Dream, those painstakingly untied feelings employed to trap him all over again. He can picture Dream tangled and bound and trying to pull away from him, and he hates it so much that he makes probably the exact opposite decision he should make, takes Dream's face lightly between his hands, tosses their careful timeline out the window and kisses him, right there and then.

Dream makes a surprised sound against his mouth, which means he really must be telling the truth about not looking in on Hob’s dreams because Hob has not been subtle in his dreaming. Dream wraps careful hands around Hob’s wrists, once again bracketing where the cuff had burned him. Holding Hob to him. His kiss is sweet with just a nip of fire, which is what all moments with Dream have felt like since his return, really.

Dream leans against his cheek when they part, hair brushing Hob’s temple. “When my sister told me you had called for her, it— I believe you would phrase it as ‘gave me a heart attack.’”

“I’m sorry, love.” Hob runs a hand through his hair, and Dream leans into the touch. “I would never do that to you, okay? Even if I did choose Death – which I won’t, but – I wouldn’t just disappear on you without saying anything. Alright?”

“Very well,” Dream agrees, though Hob doesn’t think he really believes it. Truly believing in Hob’s relentless commitment to life is a tall ask for Dream at the moment, but it’s okay, Hob has plenty of time to convince him.

“Believe it,” he says, and kisses Dream again.

#hob: why does nobody truly believe that i don't want to die? come on now #my writing #dreamling #the utter lack of context of this #i'm attempting to tackle perfectionism by letting this silly little fic /not/ have a perfect ending. instead of obsessing over it #not sure if working...

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annaraebananawriter · 4 years

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Alone

Yellow there. I’m sorry for the absence. School’s been...busy. I have to find a way to work around that, which will probably be easier once it slows down and I get a bit a head of the game. Until then, I ask that you remain patient with me and enjoy this oneshot in thanks!

Fandom: Undertale, but specifically Dreamtale

Characters: Dream (Who belongs to Joku), with some of Nightmare (Who belongs to Joku)

Warnings: Implied/referenced suicidal thoughts and I think that’s it? Let me know!

Word Count: 1564

~oOo~

When you think of the word alone, you think of solitude. Of being by yourself all the time, having no friends to talk to, no family to rely on, nothing. Of keeping to yourself all the time, never making ties with anyone. You think of someone who’s sad, angry, hurt, or just lonely. You think of someone who needs some company.

But sometimes, the word alone can mean something else. It can mean having a job or duty that doesn’t allow you to stay in one place, that keeps you moving. It can mean having friends, good and trustworthy friends, yet you know that you can’t stay with them for more than a couple of days at a time. It can mean that you miss similar times, times where you were happy and carefree and laughed every day with your dear brother. Before the villagers settled down, before they started to demand more and more, before the incident, just…before, when brother loved you and everything was alright.

Dream gets lost in those memories, sometimes. He knows he shouldn’t, that he can’t afford to waste time thinking about the past and what could’ve been, what he should’ve done. It was so easy, to stay in the past like that. It was too easy. It was a trap. The memories grabbed him, pulled him down with their happiness and laughter. They taunted him, blamed him over and over.

“It’s your fault!” They seemed to say, vivid images plaguing his mind when he was both asleep and wide awake. “You caused this. You weren’t there. He didn’t trust you. You made him like that. All you’re doing is running away from your problems. Coward!”

They used to cause tears, make him drown in misery. Misery that he had to wrap up and make disappear in seconds because he couldn’t afford to be tracked. Now, they just washed over him, sinking into his mind, anchoring itself in place and never shaking away no matter what. They were always there. Even when everything was calm, when there wasn’t a need for them, they were there.

He hated it. Hated it as much as he was able to. He wanted to be rid of them. He wanted to be able to sleep in peace, to just live in peace. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to, not ever. And he hated that, as well.

Nightmare didn’t have this problem. Dream knew that. It was easy to tell. His brother didn’t wonder over and over about what might’ve been, what could’ve been and what should’ve been. He didn’t blame himself for something he should’ve seen coming, something he should’ve noticed, something he should’ve been strong enough to prevent. He didn’t worry about any of that. All he did was hate Dream, hunt him down, try to kill him. He was…happy, with the life he built, the one Dream interfered in.

Nightmare was happy and Dream, on some level, was too. He was always his happiest when his brother was happy. He always tried to put a smile on the other’s face when he was down, and it mostly worked, but in the days leading up to the incident, all his attempts failed. It had set off the first of the alarms that something was wrong. He didn’t get a chance to know just how wrong everything was until after; after he wasn’t stone anymore, when he met Nightmare again for the first time and they had their first fight of many.

“You never noticed a goddamn thing, Dream!” Nightmare had hissed, eye flashing a bright teal and his tentacles flailing wildly behind him. This was the first time Dream had ever seen his brother truly angry. “It was always ‘villagers this’ and ‘villagers that’ with you! You were so blinded, so used to having your ego stroked all the time, that you never cared to think about how they treated me!”

He hadn’t let Dream say anything before he continued. “They abused me. Every day, while you were off in your nice little fantasy land, I was getting beaten. I was being called a demon, a monster, that everything would be better if I was gone. And you. Never. Noticed. How can you say you want to make things right, help everyone, when you couldn’t see your own brother being hurt?

“I have spent the last few hundred years becoming something powerful. Something good. And of course, you always have to come along and ruin it!” Nightmare had laughed. It had been cold, cruel. Dream hated it. “You always do that. When I get something just for me, you have to come along and either take it or break it.” He had narrowed his eye, a manic grin stretching across his face. “I won’t let you. I’m going to kill you, once and for all, and finally be rid of you. Then, I can finally live in peace.”

The words had hurt. They had wormed their way into his heart and stayed there ever since, rooting in place. The guilt had started up then, at first just a little bit, then becoming a title wave of overpowering shame and hate for himself.

And yet, it wasn’t the words themselves that hurt Dream the most. Rather, it was what was between them. What was implied by his brother, whether the other realized it or not.

“I’m better off without you, Dream.”

…

Nightmare was better off without him and that stung hard.

And he was right.

For all his life, Dream has needed Nightmare. That never changed. His brother was his rock, the person he looked up to and did everything with. He relied on the other to be there when things were scary or wrong. And the time he strived to do the same. He strived to be the brother Nightmare needed, like he was for Dream. But when his abilities were put to the test, when Nightmare needed him the most, he failed.

That had hurt. He failed to keep his brother safe. He had time to think about it in his stone prison, even if he didn’t know or understand just how much time it was (it was a weird thing to describe in general—Dream was conscious, he knew that, but the passing of time didn’t quite register). He failed. So, he made a promise that he would do better, that he wouldn’t let Nightmare down again.

…

He didn’t keep it.

Now look where he was.

He had a brother that wanted to kill him, friends who needed him to protect the Multiverse, no home, rarely ever a steady amount of food and rarely a good night’s sleep. His life had gone from easy and minorly stressful, to frozen with only blackness as his vision, to spending every day running.

It was…tiresome.

God, all Dream wanted to do was stay in one place for all eternity, sleep for all eternity.

He wanted to give up.

But he couldn’t. He had to stay awake and alert. He had to protect billions of people. And he had to do it all while running for his life, protecting the only source of positive emotions, the thing that doubled as his soul. He could never take a break. He could never let someone else do it for him.

Most importantly, he had to do it all alone.

He was grateful for his friends, he really was. He liked them, too. They made him laugh and brought light times into his stressful life. It helped him keep sane. But that didn’t change the fact that someone was missing. That his brother was hunting him down instead of sitting beside him and laughing with him.

…

Nightmare was right.

He was better of without Dream.

…

But Dream couldn’t just…let go and continue on. Something held him back, a sense of uncertainty and panic whenever he thought of being alone. Something itched at him, a need to continue trying to bring Nightmare back, even if he knew that that would never happen.

And he didn’t know why. He thought it over constantly, but nothing about it made sense. He should be happy for his brother, but he wasn’t. Why? Why couldn’t he let him be happy? Was it something out of his control? Or was it just because Dream was so stupid and selfish that he wanted to keep Nightmare all to himself? Was that it?

Was Dream bad? Was there something wrong with him?

…

You know when someone explodes at you, or a thought comes up that shakes you down to your core, and you get this feeling of shock so you just stand there for a while, thinking about it over and over again?

That’s how Dream felt.

There was something wrong with him, he saw it now. But he couldn’t do anything about it until he knew what it was and how to solve it. He couldn’t go to his friends, either, or anyone else, as he couldn’t tell them about his problems because he was supposed to be the happy one, the perfect one. He couldn’t break that illusion. And he certainly couldn’t seek help from his brother, as he would die within second of trying.

…

Dream was alone.

He would always be alone.

…

But that’s alright.

That’s what he deserved.

…

It didn’t make it hurt any less.

#my writing #oneshot #my fanfiction #dreamtale #undertale #dream sans #nightmare sans cameo #tw suicidal thoughts #man #this one is hard to tag for #i dont know why

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bitcoinfuturesoftware · 3 years

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Advantages and disadvantages of the Bitcoin Future Software

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#Bitcoin Future

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hardwarerentalnews · 3 years

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Windows-10 Problems And Solutions You Can Troubleshoot At Home

Now, more than one billion users are running a gadget on Windows 10. As probably one of the most popular operating systems around, you may be one of countless who counts on this to get its powerful interface, improved streaming functions, and Quick Access capabilities. Despite widespread acceptance, just about every person is bound to run to a technical glitch or mal-functioning mistake from time to time. Luckily, you don't need a lot of personal knowledge to correct these problems. We have piled up five of their most frequent Windows 10 issues and remedies you may troubleshoot right at house.

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Make Sure Windows 10 is up-to-date, head back to"Update & protection" and click on"search for Upgrades." Additionally, you will get there by clicking on the Start button, navigating towards the Settings tab, and clicking on"Update & protection" >"Windows Update."

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3. FILES NOT OPENING in the Correct App

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4. TOO MANY OR Not Enough NOTIFICATIONS

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5. Web-browsing ISSUES

It's Not Unusual for Windows 10 browsing problems to pop up now And then, especially after updating the latest edition of Windows 10 or setting up other essential upgrades. Even though there isn't one just for a slow or frozen browser, then the issue often lies within your browser code, account extensions, or extensions. To solve your internet surfing problems, initially, strive:

· Updating your browser

· Disabling Addons and extensions

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· Uninstalling and reinstalling your antivirus Application

If you're experiencing internet browsing issues for this Purpose, you can have to clean your web browser cache. All these troubleshooting measures will vary based on Chrome, Micro Soft Edge, Firefox, or another browser.

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#Windows 10 issues and remedies

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marvelmando · 5 years

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breathe through the pain {p.parker x reader}

prompt comes from anon!

hey! since you wanted request, how about reader (who isnt a hero or anything) getting hurt and going for peter for help with the prompts 6, 26, 30 and 60? didnt know if there was a limit so sorry if so, thank you! hope you have a nice day/night!

notes: yes yes yes yes yes! this might be slightly hard just bc there are so many prompts, but my brain is ready for the challenge. thanks so much for requesting anon! and i hope you have an awesome day/night too, my lovely friend :)

also, i’m sorry for the gif and sad quote. see if you can spot it ;)

based on:

6. “You just got stabbed and you want to know if I’m okay?!”

26. “Am I not good enough for you?”

30. “Oh, absolutely not. I can’t do this without you.”

60. “I’m in love with you!”

from this prompt.

***warning: there’s a part at the beginning where a mugger is about to do... unsavory things to the reader, but it doesn’t end up happening. i don’t say anything outright, but if you’re triggered by assault or sexual assault, please don’t read this!!!! or just skip the beginning few paragraphs!!! there’s also some violence, particularly a stabbing, so if you’re squeamish, i don’t recommend reading this either, as i definitely go into some detail. also, some cursing (but with me, that’s par for the course, i’m afraid).

There was something off.

Walking alone at night in the city was an absolute no-no, especially for someone like you. But in your defense, it had still been light out by the time you left your apartment in Queens. The line at Delmar’s had been ridiculously long, and it took nearly an hour just to get a sandwich and a soda.

But you’d went alone, and now it was dark out, and something wasn’t right. The street you were taking was poorly lit, as most streets around there were. You should’ve been smart and taken the main road, but it would’ve taken you twice as long to reach your apartment complex in Forest Hills. The back of your neck burned, the hair on your arms raised in alarm. If you weren’t so anxious, you’d probably make a joke about your friend Peter and his spider-senses.

You picked up your pace when you heard the footsteps. As they got closer and louder, you reached into the front pocket of your jeans, feeling around for the remote Peter had given you and pressed the large button in the center, knowing it would alert him that you were in danger. It was a safety precaution you two had begun earlier that year when Rhino was at large.

It was just in time, too, because just as you’d finished pushing the button, a pair of hands grabbed you by the bicep and threw you into the nearest alley.

You stumbled to the ground, bag carrying your goods flying out of your hands, but the mugger was quick to haul you to your feet and shove you against the brick wall of an abandoned convenience store.

“Hey!” You shouted, yanking against his grip as he manhandled you. “Let me go, you asshole!”

You froze at the sharp press of the blade against your cheekbone, wincing slightly as it pushed into your skin.

“Shut your mouth pretty lady, or I’m gonna shut it for you.” He leaned in as he hissed into your ear. His hot breath was soured, making you grimace and press your face harder into the brick.

You tried to push off the wall, but he’d pinned both hands between your stomach and the wall, and by the feel of him, he was at least twice your size with hands as big as your face. Those same filthy hands rummaged over your hips, clawing into your back pockets as he presumably searched for your loose change (you knew better than to carry a hanging purse in the city).

He grunted in frustration once he realized you didn’t have any. “Ain’t got no money, sweetheart?” His voice sounded like he was smirking filthily. Your heart slid across a beat as you thrashed harder. It only made him tighten his grip and dig the blade harder into your cheek. “Guess I’m gonna have to take somethin’ else, ain’t I?”

“Let go!” You growled and, noticing that the hand holding the knife was slackening as he focused on moving his hand to your waist, you shoved your head back into his nose.

You heard a satisfying crunch at the impact, and the guy loosened his grip on you only slightly. But it was enough for you to lift your foot up and onto his toes, hearing a crack there too.

Instead of cowering back, however, it only made the mugger angry. He lunged at you with a low shout, slamming his fist into your cheek.

Your vision swam on impact, your mouth going fuzzy and ears beginning to ring. You could only barely notice that the guy had grabbed you to his chest instead of pressing you to the wall again, and it took you a minute to realize why.

Your eyes cleared enough to see Spider-Man at the entrance of the alley, and despite the pain radiating in your cheek, you grinned widely.

“Let her go!” You thought you heard Spider-Man yell to the mugger. You dazedly tried to move out of the man’s hold, but gasped at the sting against your throat, realizing he’d pressed his blade there.

“Don’t move, ma’am,” Spider-Man instructed you, sounding slightly panicked, as if he was trying to suppress the urgency. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

“Don’t move, Spider-Man!” The man shouted from behind you, sounding too loud next to your ear. You instinctively struggled against him, causing him to tense and hold the knife harder against your throat, drawing blood this time. Your hands flew up to the man’s arms, trying to push them away. “Don’t move or this knife slices the lady’s pretty little throat.” He sneered down at you.

You didn’t know why Peter wasn’t moving to shoot a web at this guy; you’d seen him deal with guys holding hostages before. More importantly, you’d seen him not even hesitate with guys holding guns to hostages’ heads, aiming his webs true no matter how close the criminal was to the hostage, but now? This guy only had a knife, and she’d seen Peter react faster than this guy could even move a pinky finger. So why wasn’t he moving?

You realized what you’d have to do. You’d somehow have to push this guy away from you so Peter could shoot a web at him. Maybe you were just too close to the guy, maybe there wasn’t enough space to get a web around him.

Looking Peter straight into the eyes of his mask, you nodded imperceptibly. Before you moved, you saw his bionic eyes widen and his hand raise.

You thrust your hips forward, pushing them back as hard into the mugger’s crotch as you could. He was startled, releasing you only slightly, but recovered quicker than you expected.

Then, several things happened at once.

You think Peter yelled. Someone did, but it wasn’t you.

Then, the mugger reached down and grabbed you around the waist. A dull but sharp pain erupted in your abdomen and your breath leaving your lungs in a heavy exhale, sounding more like a sigh than a grunt.

Time slurred and dark spots popped through your vision as your feet collapsed underneath you. This was when you realized that the mugger had let go of you.

You weren’t sure when your eyes closed, but they opened to stare at the open sky above the alley; would’ve been black and speckled with stars if not for the pollution pouring from the city’s millions of lights. But there were the stars; why could she see stars? Twinkling down at her like a billion little fairy lights, like the ones hanging around her bedroom.

“Stars,” she thought she breathed, and the next thing she knew, Peter’s unmasked face was blocking her view of the stars. She smiled weakly. “Pete, look, the stars,”

“No, no, no!” Peter reached down for the blade sticking out of your stomach. “Y/N, stay with me, please!”

You struggled to meet his gaze. “Hey,” you lifted a hand to his cheek, finding a large, blooming bruise already forming there. His lip was swollen, and his hair disheveled from taking his mask off. His eyes swam with something close to panic and desperation. “Are you okay?”

He let out a pained laugh, though it was humorless. “You just got stabbed and you want to know if I’m okay?”

“I’m alright, Peter,” you told him, and it was starting to be true. Your head cleared slightly, and as you glanced up you didn’t see the stars anymore. You looked down at your stomach, where the knife was protruding at a weird angle. You were beginning to sit up when a wave of pain rushed over you, nearly suffocating you. “Ah, shit,” you gasped. “Maybe not, then.”

“God, Y/N, don’t do that again!” He scolded, sounding eerily similar to May. Not that you’d ever tell him, even as the thought made you chuckle breathlessly.

You watched hazily as he leaned to the side to grab something - his mask, you realized, as he yanked it on with one hand, the other holding the good side of your waist.

“Karen, call for an ambulance. Yeah, run some diagnostics.” A pause, his bionic eyes closing shut as he sighed minimally. “Good. That’s... good, at least. Thanks, Karen.”

With that, he yanked his mask off to reveal the soft brown irises you loved so much. They were so expressive; no matter how much Peter learned to school his features into an unreadable mask, he was never able to hide how much his eyes said. You were always able to read them, after years of being friends with him, but right now there was just too much, and your head was steadily clouding as shock was setting in.

“Pete, I -”

“Just hang on, Y/N, you’re gonna be all right.” He smiled down at you, not willing to move you an inch in case it caused further damage to your insides. He knew better than to remove it, of course. The only option was to wait for paramedics to arrive and take you to the hospital.

“I’m... I’m just gonna close my eyes for a bit, okay?” You slurred, your eyes growing as heavy as lead. Peter’s voice forced you back into focus, and you clung to it like a life preserver.

“No, no! Absolutely not.” He urged, eyes softening as yours focused on him. “I can’t do this without you.”

He seemed to say the last part to himself, like he didn’t mean to say it out loud. The sound of sirens came into focus as they grew louder and louder.

“Just a little bit longer, Y/N, just hold on a little longer.” He stammered like he knew it was his voice that kept you awake. Maybe he didn’t, and he was saying it because he needed to, like if he stopped, he’d never get talk to you again.

His face was the only thing you could keep your eyes trained on, even as he tugged on his mask just as the ambulance arrived. Even as they swarmed around you, forcing Peter to let you go and watch as the paramedics secured the blade and hoisted you onto a stretcher. Even as you were rushed away and Peter just watched you get lifted into the back of the ambulance.

Then the doors closed and your eyelids dropped again.

“It’s okay,” you thought you heard the female paramedic say. “You can rest now.”

So you did.

---

The first thing you noticed when you woke up was the pressure on your left hand. Then came the smell, sterile and bright. Then, the incessant and steady beeping of the monitor.

You peeled open your eyes, grateful that the room wasn’t as bright as you’d expected. It was, however, very white. White walls, white tiled floors, white bedsheets, and white furniture. Even with the blinds partially closed and the lights turned off, the hospital room glowed from all the blinding white.

A spot of brown popped up in your peripherals, catching your attention. It was Peter, his head resting next to where he grasped your hand with his. Not wanting to wake him but not comfortable with watching him as he slept, you gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

He woke immediately, head shooting up and eyes focusing on you automatically, as if you were the only thing in the room worth looking at.

“Y/N,” he breathed, a smile warming his eyes and voice despite the painful-looking bruise on his cheek. He returned the light squeeze on your fingers, before reaching over with his available hand to the button that alerted the nurses.

“Wait,” you croaked, voice stiff from disuse. To his credit, Peter stopped, but didn’t look happy about it. “I need to talk to you.”

He shifted uneasily, looking worried. “Yeah?”

You stared him in the eyes. “Why didn’t you shoot him?”

Peter blinked, looking startled, as if it wasn’t the question he was expecting to hear. “What... what do you mean?” He sounded confused, incredulous.

“You know what I mean.” You snapped lightly, narrowing your eyes. “You could have easily stopped him when he had the knife to my throat. But you didn’t. You hesitated. Why?”

Peter’s eyes slid away from you, as if he knew the answer was something uncomfortable to admit. “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t know!”

“Were you bored or something?” Anger rose in you irrationally. “Was it not enough danger for you?” You knew it was a stupid accusation, but you couldn’t help but let the insecurity slip, “Am I not good enough for you?”

“What? Of course you are -”

“Then what, Peter?! Why did you hesitate?”

“Because I was terrified!” He suddenly shouted. You blinked, words escaping you.

“Of course you were Peter, I was terrified too!”

“No, you don’t -” he broke off, slipping his hand away and standing up to pace the floor in front of your bed. “You don’t understand, Y/N.”

You rolled your eyes. “Of course I do! I’d be terrified too if my best friend had a knife held to their throat!” You let out a dry laugh. “Hell, I’m terrified for you, and you face worse threats than puny little knives.”

Peter growled. “It’s different!”

Your mouth opened in disbelief. “What - Peter, how the hell is it diff -”

“Because I’m in love with you!” He shouted, his ears glowing a bright red, and his eyes hardened. Your mouth snapped shut. “I’ve been in love with you for years, and I’ve been so lucky that you haven’t been in any serious danger, even when Rhino was attacking me and Toomes discovered my secret.” He was breathing heavily, his brown eyes molten with something burning and slightly sweet, despite the rage still simmering under his voice. “I’ve never had to save you from something, and last night, I... it really hit me that if I made one wrong move...” his voice broke off, the fight draining out of him.

“Pete,” was all you could seem to say. You tried sitting up, and although the pain was significantly better than the day before, the pain blossoming from the wound made you gasp and collapse against the pillow. Peter rushed over to your side, making sure you stayed down and hadn’t broken your stitches.

He was fussing over your bandages when you put a hand to his good cheek. “Pete, I’m alright. You know that, right?”

He nodded, tilting his face into your hand. His eyes were soft again, full of light and love and something that made your breath escape through your lips.

“And I love you too, Pete. I’m in love with you, to be clear.” You smiled lightly, and his eyes brightened with a hidden smile.

“Can I...” he began to say, eyes sliding down to your lips.

Without a word, you leaned forward, and this time, you didn’t even notice the pain.

#spiderman #spider man #endgame spoilers #Far from Home spoilers #tom holland #tom holland imagine #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x reader #Avengers #avengers: infinity war #avengers endgame #Iron Man #marvel #imagine

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 22: MJ is seriously overestimating her abilities

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Over the last few instalments I’ve examined MJ’s skills, her experiences in crises and how she stacks up next to Spider-Man.

With all this context established we can now examine how well MJ can cope with the situation present in AMJ #1.

As a little refresher let me remind you that as of AMJ #1, Mary Jane found herself on a film set where a lot (the implication is most) of the crewmembers are former felons or current villains, all of who were under the employ of Mysterio.

She decided to go along with this on Mysterio’s word that he just wanted to fulfil his ambition of a biopic and give his crew a chance to do something good.

When Peter (who was totally in the dark about all this) proposed the hypothetical scenario of MJ being surrounded by villains she casually joked about the time she defeated a villain with a baseball bat. Peter dropped the subject after that.

The implication here is that Mary Jane can look after herself as evidenced by this (and other) prior experiences.

But now we’ve thoroughly gone over everything MJ is capable of and those experiences in question is she really in a position to look after her here?

If we are talking about just defending herself personally (with no assistance) then the answer would be…’probably not’.

And if we are talking about defending her self and others (which the comics never brought up at all) then the answer would be…’highly unlikely’.

In either case I can’t definitely say yes or no. And the reason for is because there are so many different variables that could come into play here. But that cuts right to the heart of the problem.

Between

Mysterio’s abilities and tech

The unknown number of enhanced people on the crew (whose powers are not specified)*

The unknown ratio of felons/villains/enhanced crew members to non-powered/non-criminal crew members

Filming at different locations, which we should presume they are doing as it’d be standard practice

However many journalists, onlookers and other civilians may or may not be observing the film crew

Whatever Beck and his crew might do in their downtime or whenever MJ isn’t around

there is any number of scenarios that can play out.

How much MJ can protect herself, others and private property (which could be someone’s livelihood) would depend heavily upon exactly what each scenario is.

This isn’t as simple as just Mysterio attacking her or the whole film crew turning on her. Even if it was there is any number of ways those scenarios could play out.

Beck could slip into her room whilst she is sleeping.

He could be talking calmly then abruptly pull a knife on her.

He could go off set somewhere then remotely attack her using his X-Men robots (those same ones who gave Spider-Man trouble in ASM Annual #1).

He could have the villains of the crew hold the non-powered members hostage.

One of them could simply go rogue and hold up a bank.

Several of them could get mad and go on a rampage whilst civilians are watching the filming.

And in each of those scenarios Mary Jane could resolve the crises with 0 damage done to life or property.

She might use and alarm system to alert her to Beck’s entry, then surprise him with a baseball bat or gun.

She could observe his body language closely then use basic self-defence skills to block the knife and disarm him.

She could stumble across Beck’s holographic tech and activate it, baffling the robots enough to escape.

She could use her psychology skills to talk the crewmembers into releasing the hostages.

She could simply knock out the crewmember holding up the bank because they happen to not posses enhanced strength or endurance

She could rally the endangered civilians with a megaphone towards a trailer then hit the gas to drive them to safety

But what if…

She didn’t have an alarm system or a baseball bat?

Beck was such a good actor he never gave away any ‘tells’ that MJ could detect so she was not ready for his attack?

She didn’t stumble across his tech or didn’t know how to make it work or if the robots weren’t affected by it anyway?

She misread the people with the hostages or if her negotiations failed in some way?

The bank robber had invulnerability and super speed?

There were too many civilians running in too many different directions for MJ to help all of them? Or if there was no megaphone, no trailer no gas or the villains were capable of catching up with them anyway?

All of the villains turn on MJ at once whilst she is surrounded?

Beck slips her a drug as he did Daredevil in ‘Guardian Devil’

Sends one of his robots to Aunt Anna’s home to kill her

He wires his suit for super strength as he did in ‘Guardian Devil'

He uses his illusion powers to disorientate MJ and beat her up, as he did to the super strong Spider-Man in their very first battle

Tricks her into thinking someone has died to make her emotionally vulnerable and potentially exploit information from her?

Fakes his death and escapes again

Switches himself out for a robot duplicate and goes on to sexually violate more teenaged girls and con the more seniors out of their life savings

Beck has superior psychology skills to Mary Jane and successfully gaslights her, causing emotional trauma

Uses his holograms to cause a riot that results in people being injured

Beck or any of the villains under his employ slip away during or after the filming and kill someone somehow…like perhaps some kid’s uncle...

Do you see how there are a billion things that can go wrong here?

Sure, there are always things that can go wrong in any potentially dangerous scenario. You could die of any number of things just in your house.

The difference here though is the chances are exponentially higher. A large group of criminals with physically dangerous powers evading the law often surrounded by groups of other people and being given access to a lot of money?

That’s a recipe for disaster even if nothing gets cooked!

There are discussions to be had about falsely accused people, those whose punishments were out of proportion for their crimes and the existence of criminal actions that should be legalized. But putting all that aside, there is a reason when criminals are assessed for parole.

There is a reason they are still required to check in with an official body after their release.

There is a reason sex criminals like paedophiles are put on a register.

There is even a reason many job applications at least ask if someone has a criminal record.

Whilst none of them guarantee anything, they all (in theory) minimize the risk of those criminals committing further crimes against people or property.

Let’s drop the idea of criminals altogether and use some analogies.

A surgeon cannot possibly guarantee the success of any operation. Even the most minimal of procedures carry some level of risk to the health of the patient. It’s impossible to mitigate that risk, but it is possible to prepare thoroughly to minimize it.

A fire fighter can’t be 100% certain of what might happen if they enter a burning building, though they still have to assess the danger as much as possible and then evaluate whether the risks to themselves, their colleagues or civilians is worth undertaking.

A soldier in a warzone does both. In theory a soldier should be as prepared as possible for an ensuing mission, but there is no guarantee of success. Their actions before and during a mission can depend upon their assessments of the situation as it unfolds. Sadly many people (soldiers and civilians on any side) have died unnecessarily due to poor preparation or bad decisions made without enough assessments of the consequences.

Now how about Spider-Man? Isn’t it true that he can never know exactly what will happen in any given crises he gets involved in? No he doesn’t, but the skills and experiences we talked about in parts 19-21 greatly minimize the risks and give him a far greater ability to potentially influence the outcome of a crisis.

What I am saying is that in Amazing Mary Jane MJ has not properly assessed the potential risks, she literally cannot assess them because there are far too many variables in play (or that could be in play, this is Mysterio after all). This combined with the limitations of her own skills means that she can’t o much to minimize the potential risks. Her abilities to influence the potential outcomes of any of the crises that might arise are not that great.

She is the equivalent of:

A surgeon just walking into the operating theatre with very little training, having a very general idea of what problem the patient has and not having familiarized themselves with the specifics of that patient.

A fire-fighter rushing into a burning building unaware of what type of fire they are dealing with, where it is, if there is anyone still inside and where they might be

A soldier going into battle unarmed and with just the basic knowledge of whom the opposing army is. Not how many men they have, not what they are armed with, not where they are likely to be. They are just relying on the fact they’ve survived other battles and defeated other opponents to see them through on whatever might arise now.

In short Mary Jane is being unforgivably stupid and irresponsible. Which is to say she is acting extremely out of character!

The only thing she DOES know is that she doesn’t know everything going on. She can’t possibly know if there is an ulterior motive, what Beck or the crew may or may not do. She can’t possibly be sure at all that she, her loved ones, innocent people or their livelihoods would be safe. But she can be sure that if they are going to be safe it would rely upon a Hell of a lot of things playing in her favour.

Basically MJ is banking on luck. She is banking upon being aware and present for a crises as it unfolds, that there will be resources available for her to use to resolve it, that she would even be aware of those resources and how to use them and that the crises would even be within her abilities to resolve in the first place. And most of all she’s banking on a criminals with a long history of deceit and repugnant behaviour to not be lying to her.

Those are ridiculously bad odds. They’d be bad odds even if it was Spider-Man in her place. He might possibly be safe from Beck trying to kill him as he sleeps, but he can’t be everywhere at once. He can’t necessarily crowd control every villain on set. He can’t keep tabs on all of them all the time.

The only practical things Spidey could do would be calling the authorities, the Avengers or use his powers (those things MJ totally lacks) to simply physically capture Beck and every criminal around. But allowing them to continue as they were on the belief that they definitely wouldn’t step out of line?

He would never and could never do that. And MJ would be the same because, as I established in part 9, MJ’s sense of morality and justice is very similar to (and very influenced by) Peter’s.

But just to put this aspect of my analysis to bed completely, next time I will more thoroughly examine whether Mary Jane really could beat Mysterio herself or not.

*Because Beck is using his own technology on the set and doesn’t seem to be using anyone else’s super powers in a particularly creative way one would imagine that the crew’s powers amount to just looking different and/or having enhanced strength to move stuff around.

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#Leah Williams #Amazing Mary Jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Mysterio #Quentin Beck

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

Canada’s other health crisis (Washington Post) The novel coronavirus was on the march across Canada, but it was a different public health crisis that turned Shannon Krell’s world upside down. Her brother hadn’t shown up for work, which was unusual. She called the police to have someone check on the 46-year-old, but a friend arrived first and made the sad discovery. Ryan Krell had died of an accidental drug overdose—another life lost to a crisis that has killed more than 15,400 people in Canada since 2016. Their number has increased in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. British Columbia, the epicenter of the crisis, recorded its deadliest month in May—and then surpassed it in June. Nearly four times as many people in the province have died of a suspected overdose this year as have died of the coronavirus. Overdose deaths in the Yukon territory this year are double last year’s tally. Paramedics in the city of Saskatoon last month responded to a record weekly number of overdose calls.

Taller cubicles, one-way aisles: Office workers must adjust (AP) Bergmeyer, a design firm in Boston, has erected higher cubicles, told employees to wear masks when not at their desks and set up one-way aisles in the office that force people to walk the long way around to get to the kitchen or the bathroom. “The one-way paths take me a little out of the way, but it was easy to get used to,” said Stephanie Jones, an interior designer with the company. “It actually gives me the opportunity to see more people and say a quick hello when I might have just walked directly to my desk before.” Around the U.S., office workers sent home when the coronavirus took hold in March are returning to the world of cubicles and conference rooms and facing certain adjustments: masks, staggered shifts, spaced-apart desks, daily questions about their health, closed break rooms and sanitizer everywhere. Employers in some cases are requiring workers to come back to the office, but most, like Bergmeyer, are letting the employees decide what to do, at least for now. Some firms say the risks and precautions are worth it to boost productivity and move closer to normal.

Postal Crisis Ripples Across Nation as Election Looms (NYT) Each day, when Nick Casselli, the president of a Philadelphia postal workers union, sits down at his desk, his phone is full of alarmed messages about increasing delays in mail delivery. Mr. Casselli and his 1,600 members have been in a state of high alert since Louis DeJoy, a Republican megadonor and an ally of President Trump’s, took over as postmaster general in May. Overtime was eliminated, prompting backups. Seven mail-sorting machines were removed from a nearby processing center in West Philadelphia, causing further delays. Now, post offices are being told to open later and close during lunch. Similar accounts of slowdowns and curtailed service are emerging across the country as Mr. DeJoy pushes cost-cutting measures that he says are intended to overhaul an agency suffering billion-dollar losses. But as Mr. Trump rails almost daily against the service and delays clog the mail, voters and postal workers warn a crisis is building that could disenfranchise record numbers of Americans who will be casting ballots by mail in November because of the coronavirus outbreak. At risk are not just the ballots—and medical prescriptions and paychecks—of residents around the country, but also the reputation of the Postal Service as the most popular and perhaps the least politicized part of the federal government.

California power problems (NYT) A heat wave is scorching the Southwest and has forced intermittent power shut-offs in California. Thermometers are cracking 110 degrees Fahrenheit in some cities. Californians used so much electricity trying to stay cool Friday night that, for the first time in 19 years, the agency that oversees much of the state’s power grid shut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers for several hours to avoid a damaging overload. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for much of the West Coast. The sweltering heat comes as coronavirus cases are on the rise in California, creating a dilemma for those who could not stay cool at home.

Bald Eagle Sends Government Drone Into Lake Michigan (NYT) A squabble in the sky over Lake Michigan left one bald eagle victorious and one government drone mangled and sunken. Hunter King, a drone pilot at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, was surveying an area of the lake near the state’s Upper Peninsula last month when the $950 drone started “twirling furiously” after it indicated that a propeller had been torn off. “When he looked up, the drone was gone, and an eagle was flying away,” said the department, whose name is abbreviated E.G.L.E. The department speculated that the eagle could have attacked because of a territorial dispute, because it was hungry “or maybe it did not like its name being misspelled.” Julia Ponder, executive director of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, said that it was likely because the drone had encroached on the eagle’s territory. “They’re the king of the skies,” she said.

National Debt To Surpass $78 Trillion By 2028 (Forbes) The coronavirus pandemic pushed the government into the proverbial corner, prompting it to borrow heavily from the future to ward off a serious threat today. Without this intervention, the U.S. economy would be in a much worse recession or possibly even a depression. Even though borrowing excessively may have been the lesser of two evils, the burgeoning debt will have ramifications in the future. With the debt approaching $27 trillion, and projected to rise to $78 trillion by 2028, it will present significant challenges.

French government pushes for wider mask use (AP) After France recorded its highest one-day rise in virus infections since May, the government is pushing for wider mask use and tighter protections for migrant workers and in slaughterhouses. But France still plans to reopen schools nationwide in two weeks, and the labor minister says the government is determined to avoid a new nationwide lockdown that would further hobble the economy and threaten jobs. France’s infection count has resurged in recent weeks, blamed in part on people crisscrossing the country for weddings, family gatherings or annual summer vacations with friends. Britain reimposed quarantine measures Saturday for vacationers returning from France as a result.

Lukashenko under pressure as rival protests planned in Belarus capital (Reuters) Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was under growing pressure on Sunday with rival protests due to converge on the capital a week after a contested presidential election that has thrown his country into turmoil. Lukashenko, in power for 26 years, has faced down a week of street demonstrations and refused demands for a re-run of an election protesters say was massively rigged to disguise the fact that he has lost public support. Often emotional in state TV appearances, the 65-year-old leader has alleged a foreign-backed plot to topple him. Russia, which has had a troubled relationship with Lukashenko, is watching closely as Belarus hosts pipelines that carry Russian energy exports to the West and is also viewed by Moscow as a buffer zone against NATO. The EU is gearing up to impose new sanctions on Belarus in response to a violent crackdown in which at least two protesters have been killed and thousands detained. Protesters show no signs of backing down.

Campus-based Thai protest movement extends reach to streets (AP) Anti-government protesters gathered in large numbers in Thailand’s capital on Sunday for a rally that suggested their movement’s strength may have extended beyond the college campuses where it has blossomed. Thousands of people assembled at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, a traditional venue for political activities. Hundreds of police were also present, as well as a small contingent of royalists opposed to the protesters. There was no reliable estimate of the crowd size, though it appeared to be one of the biggest demonstrations in several years. The student-led movement has three core demands: holding new elections, amending the constitution and ending the intimidation of critics of the government. Thailand has experienced a successful coup roughly every six years on average since the army toppled the absolute monarchy in 1932 and replaced it with a constitutional monarchy. But it has been under military rule for much of the time since then.

10 killed in Somalia in extremist attack on Mogadishu hotel (AP) A Somali police officer says at least 10 people have been killed and more than a dozen others injured in an ongoing siege at a beachside hotel in Somalia’s capital where security forces are battling Islamic extremist gunmen who have invaded the building, Capt. Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press that the attack started with a powerful car bomb which blew off the security gates to the Elite Hotel.

#headlines #news

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mister-tom-a-dildo-lover · 5 years

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Hey can you please do Harrymort where Voldemort and Harry have to work together to help everyone because muggles find out about magic and the are jealous/angry/scared ? Please? Thank you.

Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Harrymort

Tags: Canon-Divergence at the end of HBP so Dumbles is dead, Post-Graduation but Voldy is still alive and the war was still going and the Ministry wasn’t overtaken, it’s 2014, Bad!MuggleGovernments, Muggle leaders shoot themselves in the feet and the common muggle population take the side of magic, The Enemy and I have a common Enemy so we’re buds against them now, Drama, Murder, Dubious Morals, References to Sex, Hogwarts Professor Harry, Triggers for guns and bombs I suppose?, Violence, Prejudice,

All he could really say about this shite was that it hadn’t even been a muggleborn who had been the cause of everything. As they’d grown up in the muggle side, they knew how to get by and what to avoid. But of course a Pureblood would consider themselves too good to learn about the muggle world. This was why Hermione insisted on all magically-raised children attending muggle Studies, even if the class was behind the present times back when they were still in school.

The ironic bit was that Lucius Malfoy had been the whole cause of this. On some ridiculous, self-directed plan to find Harry on his own and present him to Voldemort during the summer, he’d been caught by the CCTV on the street nearest to The Leaky Cauldron.

Arabella Figg had been the one to alert the magical side of the new events by sending Harry a rushed letter full of terrified words that barely made any sense. Thankfully, she’d attached a clipping from a muggle paper where it pretty much spelled everything out as photos of Lucius Malfoy covered the front page, the date prominent on the bottom corner, showing empty space one second, and then showing the blond wizard a second later.

MAGIC REAL! WIZARDS LIVING AMONG US EXPOSED!

It all started with a rushed order that every family ‘hiding’ magical people, should turn them in, or turn in any evidence they had of the existence of magic. The order had gone out three days in advance of a sudden flooding of law enforcement all over Britain. Permission had been granted for them to ransack every home no matter the inhabitants, and search for proof of magic. And if any was found and hadn’t been given up already, it would be confiscated and the entire household would be put under arrest.

Claims of treason against the Crown were being thrown about in Britain!

The clipping Mrs. Figg had provided him with also had a list of the villages where wizards were known to live in the UK. There had already been a plan set in motion to extract the muggles from the villages and if the magicals refused to cooperate, then the muggle law enforcement was given leave to use lethal force.

Harry, by the time he’d received the letter, had only had less that twenty-four hours left to get those villages evacuated lest the muggles started dropping bombs or raining bullets down on the innocent people living within.

And the thing was, he wasn’t working for the Ministry. He wasn’t an Auror. He was a bloody DADA Professor! He was trying to teach the children to protect themselves from Voldemort and his ridiculous, terroristic faction! Being an Auror wouldn’t have helped them in the least. And it wasn’t his bloody job to save everyone anyway!

Still, Harry remembered the emergency assembly he had to call. He wasn’t the Headmaster or the Deputy Head, but he still had a certain level of power as Gryffindor’s Head of House. And when he’d set off the magical alarms, he knew he’d need a good reason for it.

All 1,017 students had gathered in the Great Hall, clad only in their PJs and housecoats, and looking tired as hell. He’d felt bad, but knew there were more important things going on than getting a full night’s sleep.

He had the memory of that night stored in a cupboard now.

“I know it’s late and you want nothing to do with being awake now, but I need your help. Thanks to Lucius Malfoy stalking me about London on 3 August, in search of my place of residence, the muggle CCTV caught him doing magic near The Leaky Cauldron. And it raised questions in the government, and they proceeded to poke around that area and found the entrance to Diagon Alley, even if they can’t get in yet.”

He remembered the tired faces becoming more awake as they processed what he had been saying.

“Eventually they realised they needed more information and if these people doing magic were walking among them so easily, then they must be living in Great Britain for however long. They have made it mandatory for all muggles to give up anyone or anything magical that they know of, or risk prison time. They have been taking into custody all wizards they find, plus their possessions. Front page news two days ago showed Lucius Malfoy’s face and a list of all the villages in Great Britain that wizards are known to inhabit. The muggle inhabitants are being escorted out as we speak and the government plans to use lethal force if the magicals do not turn themselves in when the order is given at five this afternoon.”

There had been a deathly silence following his words. He could tell those not Pureblooded understood how dire the situation was. And his fellow teachers did as well. Snape looked ready to spit fire.

“For those who are still confused over why we have to worry, think of it this way. Muggles have weapons called bombs that can do mass damage in little time. They’ve used them in the World Wars. Think of a single Bombard Maxima powerful enough to blow all of Hogsmeade up and leave nothing but bricks and ashes behind. Muggles have access to these weapons and they are currently an option. There are now 7 Billion humans on Earth. Magical humans only make up 1% of that. They outnumber us, and that’s why they’re evacuating their people from of the villages. They are very willing to destroy their own land if compliance isn’t given.

“I need all of you to send these pre-written letters to your parents warning them to pack up their things and come here. All of them. I don’t care if your family is Dark. I don’t care if there are Death Eaters among the lot. Right now, I’m sad to say hat muggles are the enemy now until further notice. All other countries are also taking up arms against magicals. There is no more time us to be at each other’s throats over differing opinions. We can’t afford that now. I will be heading to Diagon Alley to get The Daily Prophet on this immediately. No shield is strong enough to withstand a bomb let alone many. As Hogwarts is Unplottable, it is the only safe place other than Gringotts, left in our immediate community. And you’ll have a better chance being allowed in here than in there.”

He’d left then, not even taking a moment to explain to McGonagall everything. They’d had their own evacuations to do.

And, for the first time ever, Harry had to do something he never thought he would willingly do. He opened up the link between he and Voldemort and called out to the man as hard as he could mentally.

The high-pitched whisper of Voldemort’s mind had permeated Harry’s own. It sounded almost mocking in a sense, despite the shock ringing true in it.

How lovely to hear from you, Harry. The way he said Harry’s name had always made Harry feel strange and this time was no different. To what do I owe the rare pleasure of your company?

Your minion fucked us all over, was Harry’s response.

As they were connected emotionally as well as mentally, Voldemort could feel Harry’s urgency, and his teasing bled away instantly. What happened?

Persisting in telling your minions that muggles are no threat to us is what lead to Malfoy Sr. of all people, exposing us and now they have endless amount of our people in custody, but also their possessions, and they are planning on open fire in any way possible, on all the villages our people reside in once the muggles therein are evacuated. The operation will begin at five this afternoon. And this all leads back to your minion not being bloody careful while stalking my arse through London!

Voldemort was silent for several moments. Enough time for Harry to make it through the Floo in his office, to The Daily Prophet Headquarters. He had a love-hate relationship with the place, but if needs must.

You are already begun to plan, Voldemort noted, sounding interested.

Everyone to Hogwarts. I don’t know how the other magical communities are going to handle this, but this is how I’ve decided to. You can either join us or not, but the offer was extended to the children already, and they’ve been told to tell their families with letters I’ve written up for them.

You’d work with me of all people?

Better you than being blown to bits. You lived through the Blitz, you should know how bad this situation is! You should know that we do not have time for petty squabbles right now!

Voldemort went silent for several more moments, which allowed Harry to burst into the Chief Editor’s office without warning, frightening the man inside in the process.

I will see you soon, were the Dark Lord’s parting words.

And that had been that.

The enchantments on Hogwarts had been strengthened and extended even further just to be on the safe side. And all roads leading anywhere near the mountains were quickly overrun with plant-life and hidden. Hogsmeade had been evacuated and bespelled to look like a common forest. Voldemort had been the one to do that bit of magic and admittedly it had been fascinating.

Several people added their power to Hogwarts’ Ward Stone. Not only was the magical of the former Heads within it, but joining them now were Harry, Voldemort, Snape, Flitwick, Hermione, and Kingsley for added protections.

The crisis hadn’t been fully averted as some couldn’t be reached no matter how hard they worked with the House Elves and Owls to alert everyone. And as Harry predicted, several villages were no more and hundreds of magical beings were dead.

Oddly though, may of the common muggle population felt that the governments were overreacting to the revelation of magic. Many were enraged over their homes being ransacked and destroyed. In only a month of time, extremists arose on the muggle side. A faction if it could be called that considering how large it was.

More than half of the known world wanted things to go back to normal. Wanted magical people and creatures to be freed. Wanted law enforcement to stop being the very things they claimed magicals to be. And that was Terrorists.

Numbers were rising by the day. 4B+ people agreed with this line of thinking. That was more than half the humans alive. And that had been the most shocking to the magicals all over the world.

The unfortunate part was that despite so many speaking out, the governments had the weapons of mass destruction on their side, so insurgency wouldn’t do much without the firepower to back up their words.

It had all gone to shite. And Harry could only imagine what was being done to the capture magical beings. He’d seen some muggle films before. He knew it wasn’t good.

The only other somewhat decent thing in this, was the fact that Voldemort couldn’t gloat about muggles being horrible when it was obvious that it was mostly the governments, and those who were religious nutjobs behind this trauma. The fact that more than half the muggles didn’t agree and were vocal about it, had stunned many of the magical population all over the world.

It was a chance Harry used to impress upon the people of their community that ever group would always have bad eggs, but that shouldn’t reflect on the whole group.

Day 227 since magic had been exposed because of one pompous twat(who had been taken to task very painfully or so Harry’s heard). That was two hundred and twenty-seven days of their community living in constant unease and fear over what could happen. Jobs having to be maintained from the safety of Hogwarts. The castle magically expanding itself to fit the most of Magical Britain’s people.

Fifty thousand people under one massive roof. The poor House Elves. The amount of work involved in the upkeep of the castle. The amount of spontaneous classes on household magic so that everyone could contribute to the best of their ability without anyone being overworked.

Most of Diagon Alley was gone save for some buildings left standing in the rubble. The mumggles still couldn’t get in or see what happened, but the devastation was heartbreaking.

And through it all, Voldemort was up Harry’s arse nonstop. Wherever he went, the man was not far behind. Literally. Always around Harry. Some rubbish about them being the only true leaders of their community. Kingsley wasn’t even considered as a Ministry representative in the Dark Lord’s mind. Voldemort didn’t care for him at all.

Voldemort had been annoying for many reasons before. Now all Harry could think of was his snakey shadow that stalked him all the time. More annoying than bloody murder!

Day 283 of being cramped inside Hogwarts. In so little time, beliefs and assumptions had been challenged. Misinformation had been corrected. Harry had learned more about Voldemort’s goals and the truth behind many of his actions. Dumbledore apparently had a habit of thinking he knew everything and therefore didn’t consider much else beyond his choices or assumptions in the long run.

Basically, the old codger had been wrong about a lot of things.

That didn’t mean the Death Eaters as a whole were okay though. Most were still prejudiced arseholes and needed to have said arses kicked repeatedly to rid them of their idiotic traditions, but it was nowhere near as bad as Harry had been lead to believe, and seemed like it could be reversible with enough work.

And if Voldemort was going to flirt with him so much, it truly seemed like reversing this shite was possible.

Harry didn’t fancy himself the saviour everyone had always wanted him to be, but the opportunity to mellow Voldemort out couldn’t be passed up. If there was a way to calm down the Dark Lording a bit and make him less inclined to violence for the sake of cruelty, Harry would be thrilled.

Besides… he was kind of into the slender, serpentine appearance. The forked tongue and slittled eyes were pretty arousing.

“Who knew it would take muggles and bombs and a planned, world revolution for this to happen?”

Voldemort’s chilly hands massaged the bare skin of Harry’s lower back, the differences in their body temperatures making gooseflesh pop up all over the younger wizard’s body. It was a good feeling though, and Harry snuggled closer as his body warmed up with interest.

“You’re still a cockwomble, but a more tolerant one now.”

“Brat.”

“Wanker.”

Voldemort rolled them over so he could be on top. His slitted pupils didn’t contract in the least with the shift of lighting hitting his face. It was kind of ominous and also really fucking hot. “You have your list of marks prepared?”

“Yes,” he groaned. “I know whose block I’m knocking off in the morning.”

After enough time, they finally were able to make a full list of all the British leaders set on enslaving the magical population. As with everything, not everyone in the government was a terrible person. It simply took time and effort to separate the good from the bad. Weeding out the rotten roots so to speak.

While muggles had guns and bombs, they couldn’t really build anything to sense when magic was being used, so there was still a chance to overthrow them. But Harry had argued, at least for Magical Britain, that they should only kill off the people that absolutely deserved it, and imprison the rest. More than half the muggle population was on their side anyway. In the meantime, those who had been wrongfully imprisoned would finally see daylight for the first time in 345 days. Magicals and muggles alike.

Further action would have to be sorted out later. For now, this was the best plan they had to return to the relatively safe world they’d formerly been living in..

“No entertaining notions of grandeur, Voldy. We’re moving on from that entirely.”

“If I agree will you stop calling me that?”

“No. But I’ll go down on you more often.”

“Then you have my word, my soul.”

Trying to use romantic terms to get on Harry’s good side. “Flattery will keep you in my bed.”

“If I recall correctly, this is my bed in my room, my soul.”

“Details, details.”

Tomorrow would be the tension and the danger, but for now, they could relax for a little bit.

A/N: This got away from me so quickly! Took some time but I finally did it. I can see this happening in a sense.

#Harrymort #fanfiction #Watermelonsmellinfellon #Lord Voldemort

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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‘Angels’ in Hell: The Culture of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret https://nyti.ms/31fz0BT

‘Angels’ in Hell: The Culture of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret

A Times investigation found widespread bullying and harassment of employees and models. The company expresses “regret.”

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Katherine Rosman, Sapna Maheshwari and James B. Stewart | Published Feb. 1, 2020, 10:58 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 1, 2020 |

Victoria’s Secret defined femininity for millions of women. Its catalog and fashion shows were popular touchstones. For models, landing a spot as an “Angel” all but guaranteed international stardom.

But inside the company, two powerful men presided over an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former executives, employees, contractors and models, as well as court filings and other documents.

Ed Razek, for decades one of the top executives at L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, was the subject of repeated complaints about inappropriate conduct. He tried to kiss models. He asked them to sit on his lap. He touched one’s crotch ahead of the 2018 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Executives said they had alerted Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and chief executive of L Brands, about his deputy’s pattern of behavior. Some women who complained faced retaliation. One model, Andi Muise, said Victoria’s Secret had stopped hiring her for its fashion shows after she rebuffed Mr. Razek’s advances.

A number of the brand’s models agreed to pose nude, often without being paid, for a prominent Victoria’s Secret photographer who later used some pictures in an expensive coffee-table book — an arrangement that made L Brands executives uncomfortable about women feeling pressured to take their clothes off.

The atmosphere was set at the top. Mr. Razek, the chief marketing officer, was perceived as Mr. Wexner’s proxy, leaving many employees with the impression he was invincible, according to current and former employees. On multiple occasions, Mr. Wexner himself was heard demeaning women.

“What was most alarming to me, as someone who was always raised as an independent woman, was just how ingrained this behavior was,” said Casey Crowe Taylor, a former public relations employee at Victoria’s Secret who said she had witnessed Mr. Razek’s conduct. “This abuse was just laughed off and accepted as normal. It was almost like brainwashing. And anyone who tried to do anything about it wasn’t just ignored. They were punished.”

The interviews with the models and employees add to a picture of Victoria’s Secret as a troubled organization, an image that was already coming into focus last year when Mr. Wexner’s ties to the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein became public. Mr. Epstein, who managed Mr. Wexner’s multibillion-dollar fortune, lured some young women by posing as a recruiter for Victoria’s Secret models.

L Brands, the publicly traded company that also owns Bath & Body Works, is on the brink of a high-stakes transition. The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show has been canceled after nearly two decades on network TV. Mr. Razek, 71, stepped down from L Brands in August. And Mr. Wexner, 82, is exploring plans to retire and to sell the lingerie company, people familiar with the matter said.

As those plans progress, L Brands’ treatment of women is likely to come under even closer scrutiny.

In response to detailed questions from The New York Times, Tammy Roberts Myers, a spokeswoman for L Brands, provided a statement on behalf of the board’s independent directors. She said that the company “is intensely focused” on corporate governance, workplace and compliance practices and that it had “made significant strides.”

“We regret any instance where we did not achieve this objective and are fully committed to continuous improvement and complete accountability,” she said. The statement did not dispute any of The Times’s reporting.

Mr. Razek said in an email: “The accusations in this reporting are categorically untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context. I’ve been fortunate to work with countless, world-class models and gifted professionals and take great pride in the mutual respect we have for each other.” He declined to comment on a detailed list of allegations.

Thomas Davies, a spokesman for Mr. Wexner, declined to comment.

Fiery Explosions

Victoria’s Secret, which Mr. Wexner bought for $1 million in 1982 and turned into a lingerie powerhouse, is struggling.

The societal norms defining beauty and sexiness have been changing for years, with a greater value on a wide range of body types, skin colors and gender identities. Victoria’s Secret hasn’t kept pace. Some of its ad campaigns, for example, seem more like a stereotypical male fantasy — the director Michael Bay filmed a TV spot in which scantily clad models strutted in front of helicopters, motorcycles and fiery explosions — than a realistic encapsulation of what women want.

With its sales declining, Victoria’s Secret has been closing stores. Shares of L Brands have fallen more than 75 percent from their 2015 peak.

Six current and former executives said in interviews that when they tried to steer the company away from what one called its “porny” image, they were rebuffed. Three said they had been driven out of the company.

Criticism of Victoria’s Secret’s anachronistic marketing went viral in 2018 when Mr. Razek expressed no interest in casting plus-size and “transsexual” models in the fashion show.

Then, last summer, Mr. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, and the festering business problems at Victoria’s Secret escalated into a public crisis.

Mr. Wexner and Mr. Epstein had been tight. The retail tycoon gave the financier carte blanche to manage his billions, elevating Mr. Epstein’s stature and affording him an opulent lifestyle. Mr. Wexner has said he and Mr. Epstein parted ways around 2007, the year after Florida prosecutors charged him with a sex crime.

On multiple occasions from 1995 through 2006, Mr. Epstein lied to aspiring models that he worked for Victoria’s Secret and could help them land gigs. He invited them for auditions, which at least twice ended with Mr. Epstein assaulting them, according to the women and court filings.

“I had spent all of my savings getting Victoria’s Secret lingerie to prepare for what I thought would be my audition,” a woman identified as Jane Doe said in a statement read aloud last summer in a federal court hearing in the Epstein case. “But instead it seemed like a casting call for prostitution. I felt like I was in hell.”

Three L Brands executives said Mr. Wexner was alerted in the mid-1990s about Mr. Epstein’s attempts to recruit women. The executives said there was no sign that Mr. Wexner had acted on the complaints.

After Mr. Epstein’s arrest last summer, L Brands said, it hired the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to conduct “a thorough review” of the matter at the request of its board of directors. The exact focus of the review is unclear. Mr. Epstein committed suicide in jail in August while he awaited trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Davis Polk has worked for L Brands for years. Mr. Wexner’s wife, Abigail, previously worked at the firm. Dennis S. Hersch, a former L Brands board member and a financial adviser to the Wexners, was a longtime partner at Davis Polk. The law firm also has contributed money to Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts.

Employees interviewed for this article said Davis Polk had not contacted them.

A Davis Polk spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

‘Someplace Sexy to Take You’

“With the exception of Les, I’ve been with L Brands longer than anyone,” Mr. Razek wrote to employees in August when he announced he was leaving the company he had joined in 1983.

Mr. Razek was instrumental in selecting the brand’s supermodels — known as “Angels” and bestowed with enormous, feathery wings — and in creating the company’s macho TV ads.

But his biggest legacy was the annual fashion show, which became a global cultural phenomenon.

“That’s really where he sunk his teeth into the business,” said Cynthia Fedus-Fields, the former chief executive of the Victoria’s Secret division responsible for its catalog. By 2000, she said, Mr. Razek had grown so powerful that “he spoke for Les.”

Sometimes Mr. Wexner spoke for himself.

In March, at a meeting at Victoria’s Secret headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, an employee asked Mr. Wexner what he thought about the retail industry’s embrace of different body types. He was dismissive.

“Nobody goes to a plastic surgeon and says, ‘Make me fat,’” Mr. Wexner replied, according to two attendees.

Mr. Razek often reminded models that their careers were in his hands, according to models and current and former executives who heard his remarks.

Alyssa Miller, who had been an occasional Victoria’s Secret model, described Mr. Razek as someone who exuded “toxic masculinity.” She summed up his attitude as: “I am the holder of the power. I can make you or break you.”

At castings, Mr. Razek sometimes asked models in their bras and underwear for their phone numbers, according to three people who witnessed his advances. He urged others to sit on his lap. Two models said he had asked them to have private dinners with him.

One was Ms. Muise. In 2007, after two years of wearing the coveted angel wings in the Victoria’s Secret runway show, the 19-year-old was invited to dinner with Mr. Razek. She was excited to cultivate a professional relationship with one of the fashion industry’s most powerful men, she said.

Mr. Razek picked her up in a chauffeured car. On the way to the restaurant, he tried to kiss her, she said. Ms. Muise rebuffed him; Mr. Razek persisted.

For months, he sent her intimate emails, which The Times reviewed. At one point he suggested they move in together in his house in Turks and Caicos. Another time, he urged Ms. Muise to help him find a home in the Dominican Republic for them to share.

“I need someplace sexy to take you!” he wrote.

Ms. Muise maintained a polite tone in her emails, trying to protect her career. When Mr. Razek asked her to come to his New York home for dinner, Ms. Muise said the prospect of dining alone with Mr. Razek made her uneasy; she skipped the dinner.

She soon learned that for the first time in four years, Victoria’s Secret had not picked her for its 2008 fashion show.

‘Forget the Panties’

In 2018, at a fitting ahead of the fashion show, the supermodel Bella Hadid was being measured for underwear that would meet broadcast standards. Mr. Razek sat on a couch, watching.

“Forget the panties,” he declared, according to three people who were there and a fourth who was told about it. The bigger question, he said, was whether the TV network would let Ms. Hadid walk “down the runway with those perfect titties.” (One witness remembered Mr. Razek using the word “breasts,” not “titties.”)

At the same fitting, Mr. Razek placed his hand on another model’s underwear-clad crotch, three people said.

An employee complained to the human resources department about Mr. Razek’s behavior, according to three people. The employee presented H.R. with a document last summer listing more than a dozen allegations about Mr. Razek, including his demeaning comments and inappropriate touching of women, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Times.

It wasn’t the first H.R. complaint about him

At a photo shoot in June 2015, the company put out a buffet lunch for staff. Ms. Crowe Taylor, the public relations employee, went to get seconds. Mr. Razek intercepted her, she said. He blocked her path and looked her up and down. Then, with dozens of people watching and Ms. Crowe Taylor holding her empty plate, he tore into her, berating her about her weight and telling her to lay off the pasta and bread.

Ms. Crowe Taylor, who was 5-foot-10 and 140 pounds, fled to a bathroom and burst into tears. She said that she had complained to H.R. but that as far as she could tell, nothing happened. She quit weeks later.

In October, shortly after Mr. Razek had left the company, Monica Mitro, a top public-relations executive at Victoria’s Secret, lodged a harassment complaint against him with a former member of the L Brands board of directors, according to five people familiar with the matter. She told colleagues that she had gone to the former director because she didn’t trust the H.R. department.

The next day, the head of H.R. told Ms. Mitro that she was being placed on administrative leave, the people said. She recently reached a financial settlement with the company, they said.

Mr. Razek’s son, Scott, also worked at Victoria’s Secret. Sometime after the H.R. department was told about his mistreatment of a female colleague, he was transferred to Bath & Body Works, according to four people familiar with the matter. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The woman he mistreated later received a settlement from Victoria’s Secret, according to several current and former employees.

Mr. Wexner was seldom in New York, where much of the fashion show’s staff was based, leaving employees with the impression that Mr. Razek was his proxy. Mr. Razek flaunted that power, invoking Mr. Wexner’s name to get his way.

Even as complaints piled up, the elder Mr. Razek maintained Mr. Wexner’s support. In 2013, Mr. Wexner helped raise a $1.2 million fund in Mr. Razek’s name at Ohio State University’s cancer center.

‘A Voyeuristic Journey’

Russell James was one of Victoria’s Secret’s go-to photographers. The company at times paid him tens of thousands of dollars a day, according to draft contracts reviewed by The Times.

At the end of sessions with models, Mr. James sometimes asked if they would be photographed nude, according to models and L Brands executives. Mr. James was popular; he had a knack for making women feel comfortable. He also had a close relationship with Mr. Razek. The women often consented.

The nude photo shoots weren’t covered under the models’ contracts with Victoria’s Secret, which meant they weren’t paid for the extra work.

In the industry, “everyone is using their influence to get something,” said Ms. Miller, the model. “With Russell, it was getting girls to pose for his books or portrait series nude.”

In 2014, Mr. James published a glossy collectors’ book, “Angels,” which featured some of the nude photos. The women agreed to have their photos included in the book, according to Martin Singer, a lawyer for Mr. James.

Two versions of the books currently sell on Mr. James’s website for $1,800 and $3,600. Victoria’s Secret hosted a launch event for “Angels” during New York fashion week in 2014. Attendees included supermodels and the company’s chief executive at the time, Sharen Turney.

“This ample volume offers an unprecedented and personal view into James’s most intimate portrait sittings,” the book’s jacket says, noting that Mr. James met many of the women during his 15 years working for Victoria’s Secret. “Readers will be taken on a voyeuristic journey into a world of subtle provocation.”

At one point, a poster-size version of one of the book’s photos was displayed in a Victoria’s Secret store in Las Vegas. The model’s agent complained to Victoria’s Secret that his client’s photo was being used in the store without her consent. Mr. James also complained about it and asked for it to be removed, according to Mr. Singer. The company took down the photo.

In 2010, Alison Nix, a 22-year-old model who had worked occasionally with Victoria’s Secret, was invited to attend a weekend event to raise money for the nonprofit foundation run by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The venue was Mr. Branson’s private Necker Island in the Caribbean.

The live-streamed event, hosted by Mr. Branson and Mr. James, was billed as featuring “some of the world’s most stunning supermodels.”

Ms. Nix said her agent had told her that if she chose to go on the all-expenses-paid trip, she’d be expected to pose for nude beach photos shot by Mr. James. She said that was fine. She was left with the impression, she said, that “if Russell likes you, you could start working with Victoria’s Secret.”

Mr. Singer, the lawyer for Mr. James, said his client had no influence over whom Victoria’s Secret selected as models. He said models were not required to pose for photos, nude or otherwise. He said Mr. James had agreed to shoot the nude photos at Necker Island at the request of the models and their agents “as a favor and professional courtesy.”

Ms. Nix called Mr. Singer’s comments “absurd.”

She said that she and other models who attended the event were provided with copious amounts of alcohol and were expected to mingle with men, including Mr. Branson.

“We were shipped out there, and all these rich men were flirting with us,” she recalled. She said the models were asking themselves, “Are we here as high-end prostitutes or for charity?”

The last day on the island, Ms. Nix said, she and at least three other models lined up to have their nude photos shot by Mr. James.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Branson said he had “no knowledge of anyone being invited to the event for any reason” beside the charity fund-raiser.

Two photos of Ms. Nix from that weekend — one, in profile, with her breasts obscured but her bare bottom exposed — appeared near the middle of Mr. James’s “Angels” book, with her consent.

Ms. Nix never landed another modeling gig with Victoria’s Secret. Was she disappointed?

“To be honest, I didn’t expect much after the trip,” she said. “I could tell I wasn’t right for the brand.”

______

Emily Steel and Mike Baker contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

*********

#u.s. news #sex criminals #sex trafficking #sex crimes #jeffrey epstein #epstein case #trump epstein #world news today #world news #international news #nyt > top stories #women's rights #womenfashion

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

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8x14: Trial and Error

Then:

Sam and Dean finally have a home.

Now:

Kevin Tran is living the dream on “Fizzle’s Folly” (omg). He’s working hard translating half the (demon?) tablet, drinking coffee, and frying up hot dogs, day after day after day...the boy isn’t doing so well.

One day, he looks at his board of clues and exclaims, “Holy Crap!” He promptly gets a nose bleed and passes out.

At the bunker, Dean is busy placing his new room in order: New Zep album, guns on the wall, and photo of Mary on the desk. Sam stops by to scoff at Dean’s enthusiasm for a real room. Dean’s too busy loving his new memory foam bed to care.

Later Sam is digging through books in the library (yeah, you say this isn’t a home but you’re already hooked, Sammy). Dean brings him food wearing just a henley (Nesting looks so good on Dean). Then Sam starts to be crappy about Dean cooking (and YOUNG MAN, who cooked for you your whole fucking life?).

Before Dean can take a bite into his amazing burger, he gets a cryptic call from Kevin.

They get to the houseboat to find a very sick Kevin. He figured out how to close the gates of hell! Germaphobe Dean gives Kevin a big hug and then Kevin breaks down what has to happen.

It’s a spell said in Enochian after completing three trials.

The first trial: Kill a Hell Hound and bathe in its blood. Dean is pumped! He sets out to get goofer dust and better food for Kevin. Sam is tasked on finding someone who has a demon deal coming due.

Sam takes a moment to tell Kevin to take better care of himself. “Saving the world? It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Kevin knows that if they close the gates of Hell, he can get his life back. He wants this over asap.

Dean comes back and essentially tells Kevin to do the opposite of what Sam just said. Sam tells Dean about the Cassity family and their weird luck 10 years ago. Dean’s game!

Shoshone, Idaho

The boys arrive at the Cassity estate. They find the farm caretaker, Ellie, and she mistakes them for potential employees so they roll with it. They then meet Carl, the husband of one of the adult children in the family. After two seconds of interacting with the brothers he thinks they should be hired. Ellie reluctantly agrees and shows them their quarters. Then they get to do their “crap work” and by that, Dean finds out, she means actually cleaning horse stalls.

They witness a fight between Eliie and Alice, Carl’s wife. She’s frustrated with the exchange and doesn’t pay mind to Dean’s casual flirting.

It’s all to figure out who has a hellhound on their ass and both brothers assume it’s Alice.

That night over dinner, Alice and Carl hear the howl of a dog in the distance.

Alice decides to go check on the horses. The brothers follow.

Back at the dinner table, Carl gets a visit from a hungry invisible hound. Whelp.

Later, Sam tries to ask some questions at the investigation but doesn’t get far. They learn that all the Cassitys will be flying in soon. The brothers think that Carl had to have been the one to sign the deal and now he’s dead. Dean suggests they get out of there now that they didn’t get the hellhound.

Sam heads to the stables where he runs into Alice. He asks if she’s ok, and she says she’s fine.

She knows she should feel bad because she loved Carl, she just doesn’t remember why. This sets off alarm bells for Sam so he asks more questions. She grew up with Carl, but didn’t really see him until a Valentine’s Day party ten years prior.

Sam meets up with Dean in their quarters. Dean wants to summon a cross-roads demon. Uh, dude, slow your roll. Sam tells Dean about his exchange with Alice, and how it seems that he sold his soul for her, not the family oil. A demon made multiple deals with this one family 10 years ago.

The rest of the family arrive. There’s Noah Cassity, 71, worth a billion and just married wife no. 5. Then there’s Cindy, the middle child after Alice. She’s an alcoholic washed up country singer. Finally there’s Margie. She ran away 10 years ago and lives in Paris.

Ellie needs help now that the family is all there. Dean tasks Sam with waiting on them and Ellie gives Dean grill duty. She’s very impressed with his meat handling.

*Horrible Family Dinner Alert*

The family sits down for dinner. Sam serves wine (but not enough for Cindy).

Or maybe too much, because she reveals that Margie and Carl slept together before Alice and Carl were together.

Alice tries to remember the last time they had dinner together. It was a long time ago. Their father had invited a traveling salesman to join them. Charming, English, and named Crowley. Upon hearing that, Sam’s brain breaks.

Sam drops the news on Dean and they both worry about Crowley dropping in on their hellhound killing mission. Kevin calls with a new bit of timely trivia. The only way to see a hellhound is to either be damned or through an object scorched by holy fire. Dean nabs two pairs of protective eyewear to douse with holy oil.

The Cassitys continues to be The Worst. Noah and Margie head out with shotguns (and a little too much booze in the system) to kill themselves a wolf. This can only end well. Sam catches up with the bad idea gang and offers to join their posse - mostly to keep them from getting killed.

Ellie saunters outside, looking awfully fine. She clearly thinks the same of Dean by the way she’s giving him the look-over.

“I think you’re really hot,” she tells him. “You wanna go to my room and...have sex?” Like, YES? Dean’s brain basically stops working for a moment before he turns her down. He asks for a rain check and her face settles into something more serious and almost sad. “This is one night only.” Ouch, man. Ouch.

Sam’s crew has made it into the woods (super plan) where they start to get followed by the blurry handheld camera-de-hellhound. Sam peels off, tracking an odd sound, and ends up face-to-face with Noah. Margie’s off on her own. Cue the screaming and the blood! And now we’re down another family member since the hellhound has hauled Margie off to the pit.

Back in the house, Dean and Sam drop the pretense. The dead members of the family Cassity all sold their souls to a demon and hellhounds are using them as chew toys. They handcuff the family to the furniture (so they don’t freak out and hurt themselves), seal up the house with graveyard dirt, and head out to stalk the hound. That’s...one way to do it.

Dean orders Sam to stay safe in the house with the family while he goes out and does hero work. Sam calls him on his bullshit and Dean tells Sam that the trials are going to end in the death of one of them. “Or worse.” And if someone’s gotta go, it sure as hell’s gonna be Dean. Sam sees a way out but Dean - poor, fatalistic Dean - thinks he might as well go out in a blaze of glory. “I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand. 'Cause that's what I have waiting for me – that's all I have waiting for me. I want you to get out. I want you to have a life – become a Man of Letters, whatever. You, with a wife and kids and – and – and grandkids, living till you're fat and bald and chugging Viagra – that is my perfect ending, and it's the only one that I'm gonna get.” Oh, Dean. Always trying to feed up Sammy. A true parent!

Dean stalks the farm with his Clark Kent glasses and heads to the barn. There’s light and music playing and it calls Dean in like a siren song.

The Cassitys continue to break down. They suspect that Margie made the deal that made them rich.

Meanwhile, Dean walks in on Ellie drunk and dancing to “I touch myself.” She prowls into Dean’s space and Dean goes full-on awkward on her, telling her to stay inside no matter what she hears. “There’s something evil out there.”

“I know,” she says. She’s waiting for the hellhound to arrive and collect on HER deal. Oof.

Sam heads to the window and sees the hellhound prowling through the yard. At the same moment, Alice freaks out and breaks out of the house to run to her car, leaving Sam no choice but to race after her. The hound growls nearby and Sam shoos her back inside.

Ellie spills the details to Dean. She met Crowley that same night he made a deal with Margie. Ellie sold her soul to heal her mom from Parkinson’s and send her to a happy retirement. When Dean berates her, she asks him what he would have done if it was HIS mom. The same damn thing, his face says.

Dean also learns that Crowley never told Ellie that her ticket was up in 10 years, or that she’d be torn asunder by beasts. The beast howls and Ellie starts to hallucinate Dean’s face going all demon-horror. Dean pours out the last of the graveyard dust into a circle and orders Ellie inside. He heads out to face the hellhound.

In the rest of the barn, the horses are all SUPER quiet considering there’s an apex supernatural predator prowling around. Dean puts on his glasses (HAWT) and starts tracking the hound. He offers up some quips to the unappreciative beast and then is knocked aside and sliced across the ribs by the hound. It approaches him, ready to rip him apart, when Sam shoots at it. The hound scampers, Sam grabs the knife, and slices himself a fresh hellhound in the heat of the moment.

He’s doused with black gooey hellhound blood. Well. That went perfectly to plan!

They plan to create a hex bag for Ellie and tell her to run and hide from Crowley. Dean grabs some of the blood from Sam’s clothes and tries to do the first spell. It’s a total bust.

Sam tells Dean that he’s planning on doing the trials. And then he drops a truly wonderful, cathartic speech. “I want to slam Hell shut, too, okay? But I want to survive it. I want to live, and so should you. You have friends up here. Family. I mean, hell, you even got your own room now. You were right, okay? I see light at the end of this tunnel. And I'm sorry you don't – I am. But it's there. And if you come with me, I can take you to it.” SAM!!! What a good speech. He also tells Dean that he’s more than a grunt - he’s a genius hunter. Awwww, Sam - what a good brother! He asks Dean to BELIEVE in him.

Dean hands the spell over, a little resigned. What a MOMENT! Sam does the spell and it works instantly. Sam’s arm lights up with power and he grunts at the pain of it. And then he collects himself. “I’m okay,” he tells Dean. Oh Sam bby.

______________________________

You Look Like Clark Quotes in Those Glasses:

Memory foam. It remembers me!

I'm nesting, okay?

This whole saving the world thing? It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Did you know that there are like 6,000 kinds of tomatoes.

I do like a man who can handle his meat.

You're not a grunt, Dean. You're a genius.

______________________________

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 8x14 #trial and error #dean winchester #sam winchester #supernatural season 8

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luna-is-a-main-now · 4 years

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See You Again ch.3

Keith had found himself visiting Lance's room almost too often as the days passed. Usually it was empty, and he was the only visitor. Occasionally Pidge would join him, and most days they would tell stories and recite Lance's jokes, anything to remember him in a positive light to ease the crushing reality that he was dead. However, Keith was surprised when he walked into Lance's room, and found that Hunk was already there, sitting on the bed and staring at a framed picture dejectedly. Keith already knew what the picture was. He'd seen it a hundred times. Lance had insisted one day that the whole team gather up for a picture, and he was so excited about it that no one could really bring themselves to say no. It was the only picture they had that contained the whole team, and everyone had a copy of it.

"Hey, Hunk." Keith greeted awkwardly as the latter looked up at him. "How… how are you?" Keith mentally slapped himself. That was a really dumb question under the circumstances. Hunk grimaced at the words, answering the question easily enough.

"He was my best friend, Keith. I just want him to come back, for him to call or walk in here right now and say it was some awful prank or something and that none of it was real. Then we could be mad about it for a bit but ultimately relieved that he’s okay, but he’s not, he’s gone and there’s nothing that can make this feel okay again." Hunk cried bitterly. "I should have gone with you guys. If I had gone too, if I had insisted, he would've been okay. Everything would be okay." Keith instantly walked over and gave Hunk an awkward hug.

"No, don’t do that. Do not blame yourself. No one could have known what that mission would entail. I was there and I couldn't stop it, even though he was right next to me, so please, Hunk, it's not your fault so don't blame yourself." Keith vehemently stated, staring at Hunk in the eyes to make himself extremely clear. Hunk slowly nodded, and let his gaze fall back to the picture.

"I still wish I could have at least done something." Hunk whispered softly, voice breaking a little. Keith sighed heavily, exhaustion creeping in with the intake of air.

"Me too, Hunk. Me too." He muttered, as he sat beside him. “Can you… tell me about how you and Lance met?” Keith asked hesitantly, and Hunk looked over with a surprised expression that quickly morphed into a gentle smile as he placed the picture back on Lance’s nightstand.

“Oh man, you’re gonna love this. Settle in, Keith, because this story is a long one, full of the classic Lance shenanigans we all know and love.” Hunk smirked. “I’ve known Lance for years, ever since middle school. We had both just moved…” Keith smiled as Hunk animatedly continued his story, and he soaked up all the new information he was gaining about Lance and his relationship with Hunk.

By the time the pair decided to leave the room, both were smiling as they had each exchanged story after story about Lance. It was the first time Keith had felt even slightly okay in the weeks after Lance’s death. Not to mention, he was finally talking to Hunk comfortably, something Keith had been trying to do for a long time. While things were still not okay, Keith could see that it wasn’t all bad anymore. That didn’t stop him from desperately wishing that Lance was still alive, though.

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

Lance wanted to scream. None of these aliens were being remotely helpful. The most he figured out was that there was a freedom fighting party or camp or group on this planet, but no one would tell him who the leader was, how to find them, how to join them, nothing. Every single one of them accused him of being a Galra spy, that he wanted to find them just to wipe them out. It really ticked Lance off. Of course his mission would be downright nearly impossible, and Lance was betting it was simply because he just wanted to go home as soon as possible. He wished his team would somehow find out he was alive and come grab him now, get him off this planet full of angry people.

He knew they had a right to be wary, but it was honestly getting ridiculous; he’d been searching for information for weeks and hadn’t gotten anywhere. He felt like he was wasting time that could have been used getting back to his team. He didn’t really want to do this stupid quest anymore. He sighed angrily through his nose, and brought his hands to his face to rub the frustration away. Unfortunately, while he wasn't looking where he was going, he crashed right into someone.

"Oh, shit, I'm sor-" Lance started to say, until he realized he'd crashed into a tall Galran Officer, one who liked to patrol the town and demonstrate his so called power to the citizens, often consisting of beating them, enslaving them to be gladiators, or straight up killing them when someone dared to tick him off in the slightest. And boy, he did not look happy with Lance.

"Ah shit." Lance sighed dramatically as the officer reached for the sword at his waist, clearly wanting to cut Lance down. "I guess we're really gonna do this now, huh? Jeez you make my job so difficult." He grumbled as he grabbed his bayard and let it shift to its sword form. He really wasn’t interested in fighting this guy right now, but it appeared like he wasn’t getting much of a choice as the officer stalked towards him with a cocky smirk.

"An Altean bayard? How interesting. I thought only paladins of voltron owned such technology." The officer sneered as he slashed at Lance violently with his glowing purple sword. Lance quickly blocked with his blue energy shield and returned the favor.

"You would be correct in that assumption, asshole." Lance smirked at him as he ducked another strike. When he slashed at the officer this time, he made a hum of satisfaction as he was able to give the surprised galran a nice long gash on his arm. The galran officer looked behind him and made a quick hand signal, and a drone came into view from behind the nearest building.

"Go back to base. Alert everyone; Voltron is here. The paladin who bears blue armor is on Armenia. Request backup from the Empire to reclaim voltron and eliminate the paladins once and for all.” The officer addressed the small drone who quickly sped off. "The whole Galra Empire will soon know you're here. They'll take back Voltron and eliminate you and your team like the pests you are." The officer grinned ferally.

"Sorry to break it to ya buddy, but I'm the only one here, and my lion? She’s safe with the team, far far far away from here. You'll never get Voltron, and, for sending false alarm about Voltron being here, I wonder what will happen to you." Lance taunted with a wide smirk and a biting tone as he quickly struck at the officer again.

The officer just growled as he began attacking Lance with much more ferocity in his strikes than before, and Lance had to meet each one in equal turn in order to stay alive. He really wished Keith was here. He'd know how to beat this guy in seconds without even breaking a sweat. At that thought, Lance half-smiled, and pushed harder against the smug-looking galran. Somehow, Lance managed to disarm the officer and subsequently knocked him out with his own weapon.

"Man," Lance sighed, "you really wanna make my job harder. Hopefully, though, your little message will end up getting to my team too. That would be great." Lance glanced around him to see the shocked faces of the civilians as they stared at Lance standing over the downed officer, his sword in one hand and his bayard disappearing from the other. With an annoyed huff, Lance tossed the officer’s sword aside and walked away. He really didn't want to deal with any of this right now.

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

"Paladins, I need you all to come to the bridge right away. We are attempting to intercept a Galra communication, and, should we be successful, everyone should be present." Allura's tired voice called over the intercom, and Keith frowned at it. He didn't feel like standing around watching everyone else trying to break into the Galra's communications to intercept a message, knowing he couldn’t do much, if anything, to help. Keith sighed heavily, but ended up dragging himself up and out of his room anyways.

He wasn't surprised that he was the last one to arrive at the bridge or that everyone else was already working on something. Keith was good at fighting people and piloting ships; he didn't know how to do this, so all he could do was watch. Even Shiro was looking at things and providing opinions and suggestions where he could. Granted, he was also not exactly a tech genius like Hunk and Pidge were, but he at least knew enough to not be totally lost.

"Oh, guys!! I got it!" Pidge eventually cried in triumph, grinning as she set the audio clip that she had gotten from the Galran communications up on her computer. The speakers on her computer crackled a bit as the audio clip started.

"Attention all fleets, Voltron has been located. A paladin in blue armor was spotted on Planet Armenia of System Sania. Requesting backup to retrieve Voltron and eliminate the paladins." When the message ended, the speakers crackled again, and then there was silence.

"Voltron is nowhere near Armenia." Allura finally commented, puzzled. "All our current paladins are right here, many billions of systems away from Sania." Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the computer in confusion, as if it could provide a clearer explanation.

"A paladin in blue armor?" Shiro questioned, voice strained. "Lance is… and his armor disappeared. Not even we have the blue armor. How can any of this be happening? Coran?" Shiro turned his attention to the unusually quiet Altean.

"There is old tales in Altean history of heroes who died in battle, of children who suffered an accident and passed, of people who disappeared and turned up dead and so on, but eventually returned, safe and sound. In one such tale, a hero by the name Leona was returning home from a difficult battle, when her group was attacked by wild beasts. They were tired and unable to fend off all of the beasts before one charged at a dear friend of Leona's, and she threw herself in front of the beast, sacrificing herself to save her friend's." Coran's voice was soft as he recounted the tale.

"However," Allura spoke up, picking the tale up where Coran left off. "Months later, Leona, alive and well, crash landed in a foreign shuttle onto Altea. When she walked out of the shuttle and got settled back at home, she would tell great tales of quests undertaken to be able to return, as she wasn't supposed to have died yet. Leona was often criticized or mocked; people thought she was some sort of demon or spirit, only there to torment those who had lost her. They didn’t believe she was actually Leona, so she ended up alone, but she continued to live until she died a natural, peaceful death well at the end of a normal Altean lifetime." Allura sighed softly.

"However, this is just an old Altean folktale. There's no way to prove Leona was real or that she really returned from the dead. I would have dismissed it completely if not for the many other stories and the slight similarities to this situation." Coran warned with a firm voice.

"You're saying though… that there may be a possibility Lance is alive? That the paladin on Armenia may be him?" Keith's voice was much louder than he intended, but he couldn't seem to get it under control, not when there was a chance he could get Lance back. "The Galra are looking for reinforcements to take whoever that person is out. If there's even the slightest chance it may be Lance, we need to go there now." Keith stared at Allura, daring her to say otherwise.

“It’s a very old fairy tale, Keith. We will go and see, but please, let’s not get our hopes up. They could be an imposter who stole the blue paladin armor and bayard. There is no hard evidence that Lance is among the living again. I’m sorry, Keith, but I don’t want you getting hyper-fixated on it being Lance when… the most likely scenario is that is isn’t him.” Allura’s voice was soft and hesitant, and Keith could see that she desperately wanted Lance to be alive too, but she didn’t want to set herself up to be crushed if it turned out to not be him. He sighed softly and looked at the melancholy expressions of the other paladins.

“Okay, Allura. You’re right, we’ll treat this as a simple scouting mission. If it is someone who stole Lance’s armor and bayard though… I call dibs on breaking his face.” Keith demanded, and Allura smiled at him gently, and agreed with a small nod.

“Get some rest paladins. We leave first thing in the morning for planet Armenia. It’s been a rough few weeks, but tomorrow we get back to work.” Allura smiled at the paladins around her. “Be careful out there tomorrow.” It was something Allura had never told them before, but Keith knew why he was saying it now; they all did. She couldn’t handle losing anyone else important to her again. Keith understood that feeling well.

Slowly, each paladin murmured goodbyes as they left the bridge and headed to their rooms. They all knew that tomorrow was going to be long and trying. Despite Allura’s warning, he knew that everyone aboard the castle was still hoping that the person they met the next day would indeed be Lance, even if it was highly improbable. They all just wanted Lance back, safe and sound.

Early the next morning, you could practically see everyone’s nerves charging the air on the bridge as Allura fired up a wormhole to Armenia. Hunk started pacing as soon as the wormhole appeared and Pidge couldn’t stop bouncing and shifting in her seat restlessly. Coran was fidgeting with all sorts of things and Allura was tapping her foot incessantly as she steered the castle through. Shiro and Keith stood together against the wall; Shiro radiated nervous energy while Keith was wringing his hands nearly painfully.

The nervous energy only got worse and worse as they traveled through the wormhole. When they finally got to the other side and the wormhole snapped shut behind them, it was like everything froze. Armenia was ahead of them, and from this distance, Keith thought it looked a lot like Earth with its various landmasses and large oceanic bodies. Except that the oceans were purple, of course. Keith looked at Allura expectantly, and as soon as she nodded, all four paladins were racing towards their lions.

No matter what they found, Keith wanted to get down there as fast as possible. He was ready to either hug Lance or punch an imposter, whichever one ended up applying.

He really desperately hoped he’d get to do the first option.

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thousandsonpyrae · 5 years

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++ Outer System Astropath Alarm: Probe-sentry Breach

++ Alarm Identification...

++ Xeno Origins. Classification: Ork

++ Naval Element Defense?

++En route...

++ALERT ALERT ALERT IMMATERIUM DISTURBANCE

++ IMMATERIUM DISTURB-

Imperial Agriworld Leboth - Great Toll-Fields of Marbod

Titheworld of XVth Legion Jurisdiction

“WAAAGH!”

The warcry of the greenskin horde roared over the once beautiful plains of Leboth’s northwestern continent, Marbod. The brutality of these warmongers was nothing short of inhuman barbarism. The farmers and servitors of rebels and traitors tooling on the foods that were destined for the billions of themselves and the worlds tied to their labors cleaved by churning chainweapons and brutish cleavers, hammers and mace.

The clean machines ploughing for new fields and uprooting the fresh crops torn about and bastardized into pollution-belching weapons of death the moment the enemies’ grubby fingers grabbed and corrupted what their greedy, insidious eyes set upon.

Limbs juicy of meat and blood crunched and tore into tusked mouth and needle teethed maws. Above these thousands of diminutives and hundreds upon hundreds of their musclebound masters, there was Him. The greatest of these howling upright beasts - of flesh, muscles and cybernetics - crushed one of his own yapping lessers under the metallic boot and clamped his great iron claw. The cruel sneer of boredom fresh on his face before seeing the darkness piercing through the crackling storm of stratosphere break.

One of his Kruisers exploding into a brilliant blossom of fire and burning scrap. Then another and another until the fires became yawning maws of righteous hate, turning onto others to devour as great serpents. It was unnatural and wyrd. Next to him, his great wierdboy gawked with a cackling smile as his nose bled from an overcharging of new powers.

“Wha’ is it, ya zappy git?” The great warboss Bleeksmakker questioned, clamping his klaw again in idle threat. Those dark green orbs that the Wierdboy called eyes stared even more. “Waaagh, Boss.” He answered with his cackling growl and threw his arms up to the air as if embracing the coming carnage.

“It iz the WAAAGH that I have promised!”

At the upheaval, great ships pierced through the debris like leviathans following an even greater one. Scarlet-skinned with glistening trims of gold, the fall of vengeance slamming like an angry knife onto a table. Each strike of torpedo hammer crushes pockets of the ground, taking ever ork in it. Another and another with lightning crashing all the same.

Then came a rain of objects. Dropships. Droppods.

Seeing the great destruction as his own Kruiser and ships was coming to meet with the enemy, the Warboss smiled for once in this month-like raid. “Yea...now this is wha’ I want. A real fight. A real...WAAAGH!!!”

#xv legion #thousand sons #orks #30k

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frankrodriguez3-blog · 3 years

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Learn How to Shut Down Home Intruders With These 7 Safety Strategies

01 Oct 2021

by Frank Rodriguez

According to the FBI, more than one million burglaries are committed in the United States each year, with victims suffering an estimated $3 billion in combined property losses.1 Fortunately, there are some proven tactics you can use to decrease your likelihood of a home invasion.

Most burglars won’t go to extreme lengths to enter a residence. They are looking for easy access with minimal risk. A monitored security system can be an effective deterrent—homes without one are 300% more likely to be burglarized—but it isn’t the only way to protect your property.2 The strategies below can help to maximize your home’s security and minimize your chances of being targeted by intruders.

Thinking about listing your home? We have some additional recommendations for you. Contact us to find out the procedures we use to keep our clients and their property safe and secure during the buying and selling process.

1. Check Your Doors and Windows

According to home security company ADT, the most common entry point for a burglar is an unlocked front door (34%) followed by a first-floor window (23%) or back door (22%).3 So securing these points of entry is essential.

Evaluate the condition of your doors and locks.

A steel door is generally considered the strongest, but many homeowners prefer the look of wood. Whatever material you choose, make sure it has a solid core and pair it with a Grade 1 or 2 deadbolt lock with a reinforced strike plate.4

Add window locks and security film.

Aftermarket window locks are an easy and inexpensive upgrade that can provide an additional layer of protection for your home. Choose a lock that is compatible with your window frame material and a style that is appropriate for the window type. And consider using a specialty film on windows that are adjacent to a door. Security film holds shattered glass in place, making the windows more difficult to penetrate.5

2. Landscape for Security

When it comes to outdoor landscaping, many of us think about maintenance and curb appeal. But the choices we make can impact our home’s security, as well. Thieves target homes that they can enter and exit without being detected. Here are a few tweaks that can make your property less appealing to potential intruders.

Increase visibility from the street.

A privacy hedge may keep out nosy neighbors, but it can also welcome thieves—so trim overgrown trees and shrubs that obstruct the view of your property. According to police officers, they offer an ideal environment for criminals to hide.6

Place thorny bushes and noisy gravel below windows.

Don’t eliminate shrubbery altogether, though. Certain hedges can actually offer a deterrent to robbers. Plant thorny rose bushes or sharp-leaved holly beneath your first-story windows for both beauty and protection. Add some loose gravel that crunches when disturbed.

3. Light Your Exterior

When it’s dark outside, criminals don’t need to rely on overgrown shrubbery to hide. Luckily, a well-designed outdoor lighting system can make your home both safer and more attractive.

Install landscape lighting.

Eliminate pockets of darkness around your yard and home’s perimeter with strategically placed outdoor lights. Use a combination of flood, spot, well, and pathway lights to add interest and highlight natural and architectural details.

Use motion-activated security lights to startle intruders.

The soft glow of landscape lighting isn’t always enough to dissuade a determined intruder. But a motion-activated security light may stop him in his tracks. And if you choose a Wi-Fi connected smart version, you can receive notifications on your phone when there’s movement on your property.

4. Make It Look Like You’re Home

Motion-activated lights aren’t the only way to make an intruder think you’re at home. New technology has made it increasingly possible to monitor your home while you’re away. This is especially important since most burglaries take place on weekdays between 10 am and 3 pm, when many of us are at work or school.2

Turn on your TV and leave a car in the driveway.

A survey of convicted burglars revealed that the majority avoid breaking into homes if they can hear a television or if there’s a vehicle parked in the driveway.7 If you’re away from home, try connecting your TV to a timer or smart plug. And when you travel, leave your car out or ask a neighbor to park theirs in your driveway.

Install a video doorbell.

In that same survey, every respondent said they would knock or ring the doorbell before breaking into a home. A video doorbell not only alerts you to the presence of a visitor, it also enables you to see, hear, and talk with them remotely from your smartphone—so they’ll never know you’re gone.

5. Keep Valuables Out of Sight

Few home invasions are conducted by criminal masterminds. In fact, a survey of convicted offenders found that only 12% planned their robberies in advance, while the majority acted spontaneously.8 That’s one of the reasons security experts caution against placing valuables where they are visible from the outside.9

Check sightlines from your doors and windows.

Don’t tempt robbers with a clear view of the most commonly stolen items, which are cash (think purses and wallets), jewelry, electronics, firearms, and drugs (both illegal and prescription).6 Take a walk around your property to make sure none of these items are easily visible.

Secure valuables in a safe.

Consider the possessions that are on display inside your home, as well. It’s always a good idea to lock up firearms, sensitive documents, and expensive or irreplaceable items when you have housekeepers or other service providers on your property.

6. Highlight Your Security Measures

While it’s prudent to hide your valuables, it’s equally important to advertise your home’s security features. In surveys, convicted burglars admit to avoiding homes with obvious protective measures in place.7,8

Install outdoor cameras.

Security cameras are the most common home protection device and for good reason.10 Not only do they help prevent crime (burglars are known to avoid them), they can offer peace of mind for homeowners who want to sneak a peek at their property while away.11 And if you do experience a break-in, security camera footage can help police identify your intruder.

Post warning signs.

Security system placards and beware-of-dog signs are also shown to be effective deterrents.8 Of course, you should back up your threats with a noisy alarm and loud barking dog for maximum impact.

7. Limit What You Share on Social Media

Social media platforms can be a great way to stay connected with friends and family, but it’s easy to reveal more than you’ve intended. Be thoughtful about what you’re posting—and who has access.

Delay posting photos or travel updates.

It can be tempting to upload a concert selfie or pictures from your beach vacation. But these types of photos scream: “My house is unoccupied!” Try to wait until you’ve returned home to share the photos on social media.

Set privacy restrictions on your accounts.

Think twice about connecting with strangers or casual acquaintances on social media. If you enjoy sharing family updates and personal photos, it’s safer to limit your followers to those you truly know and trust.

YOUR HOME IS SAFE WITH US

We take home security seriously. That’s why we have screening procedures in place to keep our clients and their homes safe when they are for sale. We also remind our buyers to change the locks before they move into their new homes and provide referrals to locksmiths and home security companies that can help. To learn more about our procedures and how you can stay safe during the buying and selling process, contact us to schedule a free consultation!

Sources:

Federal Bureau of Investigation – https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/burglary

Bankrate – https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/house-burglary-statistics/

ADT – https://www.adt.com/resources/how-do-burglars-break-into-houses

National Crime Prevention Council – https://www.ncpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/locking-your-home-reva-1-pdf.pdf

SafeWise – https://www.safewise.com/blog/10-simple-ways-to-secure-your-new-home/

Forbes – https://www.forbes.com/sites/houzz/2014/03/20/how-your-landscaping-can-keep-burglars-away/?sh=2a8addf27429

KGW News – https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/86-burglars-say-how-they-break-into-homes/283-344213396

Science Daily – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130516160916.htm

org – https://www.security.org/home-security-systems/home-invasion-protection/

SafeWise – https://www.safewise.com/resources/security-stats-facts/

The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/18/former-burglars-barking-dogs-cctv-best-deterrent

Frank Frank Rodriguez

I've been selling real estate in and around Houston area for 19 years. Over that period of time I have worked for small and big real estate brokerages, but not to long ago something amazing happened. I got a life changing phone call 3 years ago for me to have an open mind to take a look at a new business model that was changing and disrupting the real estate industry. Fast forward - I have been with EXP Realty for almost 3 years and I love how EXP has given me the opportunity to provide a better service to my clients as well as helping my business grow. Being a realtor for many years, I know that you deserve a Real Estate Team who is committed to helping you buy or sell your home with the highest level of expertise in your local market.

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kathleenseiber · 3 years

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Adverse reactions: Guillain Barre, TTS and the fine mesh net

The COVID vaccines have rare – but serious – side effects. Based on 21 million vaccinated Australians (and 5.6 billion globally) we can base our calculation of benefit versus risk on hard numbers. (See rollout risk versus benefit.)

But some of my vaccine-hesitant friends are getting alarmed by a very fluffy set of figures.

Credit: Cosmos Magazine

These are the adverse effects that are reported following immunisation. From January to August of this year, 52,849 events and 476 deaths have been recorded in the publicly accessible Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN). This database has captured a huge number of events – because Australia is extremely vigilant about monitoring the vaccinated.

Those on sentry duty feel their responsibility keenly. As paediatric immunologist Kristine McCartney, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), explained to me, Australia had ramped up its vigilance in the last 10–15 years after some batches of flu vaccines caused extremely high fevers in children, while others were potentially linked to an increase in Guillain Barre Syndrome (more on GBS shortly).

In the 2000s, the system relied on doctors to tick the boxes against a checklist of predicted side effects. Now the limited checklist is gone and the net has been cast much wider. “Our message to the doctors is report, report, report,” says McCartney.

On sentry duty – paediatric immunologist Kristine McCartney.

As well as capturing information from GPs, NCIRS established a fully automated surveillance system that sends out texts to people three days after vaccination to ask them about side effects. It’s known as AusVaxSafety – and so far it’s received 2.4 million replies. Self-reporting is not as accurate as a doctor’s report, but the trigger for AusVax to follow up is if there’s been a hospitalisation, says McCartney. These data also give valuable information about people who aren’t experiencing any issues – something missing from the doctors’ reports. A third arm of vaccine surveillance sweeps across hospitals.

With such a fine-meshed and widely cast net, it’s inevitable that events that have nothing to do with the vaccine will be captured. Indeed the database reads like a laundry list of every malady known to woman or man, including one report of foaming at the mouth, another of hair loss and a third of painful erections. Just what you’d expect if you care to ask about the health of more than 10.9 million people (as of 22 August) who have received their first dose. Vaccination against COVID certainly doesn’t make other ailments disappear.

And people will still die in the period after getting vaccinated. Some deaths clearly have nothing to do with the vaccine, for instance those occurring in late-stage cancer patients, or those with severe heart disease.

But then there are grey areas.

So how do you decide what is related to the vaccine and what is sad coincidence?

With such a fine-meshed and widely cast net, it’s inevitable that events that have nothing to do with the vaccine will be captured.

That’s where the Therapeutic Goods Authority (TGA) comes in. Like detectives at the scene of a crime, their job is to trawl through the 54,000 suspects caught in the net.

TGA head John Skerritt described to me the tools his team uses to pare away the bystanders from the true culprits.

For starters, they check the background rate of certain ailments. For instance, as younger women have become eligible for vaccines, the database has captured reports of heavy menstrual bleeding. So far, says Skerritt, analyses show that these reports are not higher than the background rate – heavy menstrual bleeding is reported as a common problem affecting 25% of women of reproductive age.

Similarly ‘ordinary’ blood clots are not infrequent – some 17,000 are reported in Australia each year, 46 each day. So it’s no surprise that many of those receiving Astra, who tend to be older people, would present with a blood clot in the weeks after vaccination. Haematologist Huyen Tran, who heads the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Unit at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, is confident that these cases are not linked to the vaccine.

It’s the unusual cases that alert the TGA to follow up, especially if the symptoms have a clear biological link to the immune system, and if they occur within four weeks of vaccination. (According to the WHO, most vaccine-related events occur within a month of vaccination as the immune system is mobilising its forces.) To trawl through the list of possible suspects, the TGA assembles a detective team composed of statisticians and medical specialists to interrogate the medical history of each patient.

TTS blood clots

A clear-cut case of a vaccine-related adverse effect is thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia syndrome, or TTS, first reported in the UK in March after the mass rollout of the Astra vaccine.

Blood clots are not unusual – they occur in about 1 in 1000 people each year. But mostly they occur in older people and in the legs or lungs.

TTS clots are highly unusual. They were occurring in people under 40 (where the normal rate is about 1 in 10,000 per year), and in unusual places: in the brain (cerebral vein) or the intestine (splanchnic vein). And besides excessive clotting (thrombosis), these people were also experiencing excessive bleeding (thrombocytopenia).

As of 9 September, the TGA detective team has picked up 132 of TTS cases out of 10.2 million Astra vaccine doses. There have been 8 deaths. So the average risk of contracting TTS is around 1.3 in 100,000. The risk of death is less than one in a million. The risk of dying from COVID is 1 in 100. (See rollout risk versus benefit.)

Credit: Cosmos Magazine

Occasionally the TGA are faced with borderline cases. The 22 August COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report described five mild cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia syndrome, or TTS, in older people that were associated with a second shot of the Astra vaccine.

An independent group that included experts in infectious disease, vaccinology, haematology, respiratory medicine, immunology and public health was called in to review these cases.

The panel were able to clearly dismiss the vaccine as the cause of two cases and were dubious about the other three. However, according to the report, “further testing to clarify this is underway and an update will be provided once test results are available”.

The tone of the report illustrates the fine-toothed comb that is being run along the reported cases. “I don’t think we’re missing much, we have excessive awareness,” says Tran.

Guillain Barre Syndrome

While most TTS cases stand out like a sore thumb, other suspects are much more difficult to confirm as true signals above the noise.

Guillain Barre Syndrome has long represented an unsolved problem when it comes to vaccines. It is a creeping paralysis of the peripheral nervous system, usually starting from the toes up. In severe cases, people can end up on a respirator. But for 75–90% of cases, the effects are temporary.

While most TTS cases stand out like a sore thumb, other suspects are much more difficult to confirm as true signals above the noise.

Vaccines aside, GBS typically crops up in people a few weeks after they’ve recovered from a viral infection. After fending off the virus, the immune system mistakenly directs its fire against the myelin sheath of peripheral nerves. Mercifully that friendly fire is rare: GBS occurs at a background rate of about 1.7 in 100,000 people and is more common in flu season.

The unsolved question is: can that friendly fire also be elicited by vaccination? In 1976 in the US after a rollout of swine-flu vaccinations, public health authorities saw a slight increase of a further 1 in 100,000 above the background rate. Ever since, health authorities scrutinise GBS numbers after every new vaccine, says neurologist and GBS expert Geoffrey Herkes, at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital.

Up to 5 September, the TGA has received 110 reports of GBS associated with 10.2 million shots of the Astra vaccine This equates to 1.1 in 100,000. No one is really sure if this is a true signal above the noise.

As the weekly TGA safety bulletin puts it: “Following an investigation, the TGA, along with other international drug regulators, have so far been unable to establish a clear link between GBS and Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca).”

Herkes says the data from the UK, which has delivered far more Astra vaccines than Australia, suggests the maximum possible increased risk could be one extra case per 100,000. “Coincidence or not, this is not a reason to panic about getting an Astra shot,” says Herkes.

YOUR COVID TOOLBOX: This article is one of a five-part series where Cosmos editor-at-large Elizabeth Finkel hunts down all the facts and figures you need to understand COVID-19 vaccines.

Elizabeth Finkel: A letter to my vaccine-hesitant friends

Are COVID-19 vaccines experimental?

The rollout: The danger of vaccines vs the danger of COVID

What we know about Ivermectin: correlation is not causation

Adverse reactions: Guillain Barre, TTS and the fine mesh net published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

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groovytastemakerunknown · 3 years

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How to set up a network camera

Network cameras (a.k.a IP cameras) are gaining popularity rapidly among consumers due to their ever-improving quality, features and declining prices. An HD network camera that normally cost over $300 in 2012 can be bought under $60 in 2021. Traditional typical users of network cameras are enterprises that have professionals for installation and maintenance. Many consumers choose the DIY approach to set up their cameras. This article is meant to help these users. It by no means can replace the help from professionals that is needed for a variety of reasons – complexity of a video surveillance system, user lacking required basic computer/network knowledge, demanded expedition…

There are literally thousands of models of network cameras in use. It is impossible to have a set of instructions fitting every model perfectly. We use a popular model (M1034-W) by the network camera inventor – Axis – in this article. The setup steps for the vast majority of other network cameras are either identical or very similar to the ones described here.

A word about ONVIF?. Detailed explanation about ONVIF is beyond the scope of this article. An average user may only need to know that ONVIF is an international standard. An ONVIF conformant camera offers the maximum compatibility and interoperability with many software and hardware on the market. Generally speaking, ONVIF conformant cameras have more features and better quality than traditional non-ONVIF network cameras.

You can find numerous ONVIF conformant models on any popular online stores such as Amazon or eBay

For this article, we assume the reader has very basic computer and network knowledge. Technically savvy users may find many parts are too rudimentary for them.

Network configuration

Network cameras are different from web cams and analog CCTV cameras. Web cams are connected to computers by USB cables. Analogy CCTV cameras are connected to servers by coax cables. Network cameras are connected to a network for access just like computers are connected to networks. Each network camera is actually a computer with a CPU and memory. I process images from CCD (Charge-coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor) sensors, send to clients (e.g. apps) and hosts a web server.

Configure Apps

Most users want to access their network cameras outside their LANs (e.g. outside their homes). The next section will explain how to access the cameras via Wide Area Network (WAN) (e.g. via cellular connections). Unless you are experienced with the camera and its configuration, it is extremely important to make sure the camera works on your LAN first. This is because the WAN access will never work if the LAN access does not work. If it works on your LAN, it will be very easy to diagnose any issues with the WAN access.

Many apps have automated the setup process to a great degree, and it usually takes less than 1 minute to set up a camera before starting enjoying its video.

The following is for setting up a camera with apps Onvier for Android, and IP CENTCOM for Windows 8.1/10 and Windows Phone.

What is a Video Codec?

A small article about how the video codec work and why this software is very important for the modern media industry.

Background: the idea for this article was born out of a discussion with my friends about media software: how it works and why it’s important. After that, I understood that what’s really needed is a short, simple article about it. So here I’ve explained why we need codecs and given an overview of how they work.

What is the Internet of Things?In the broadest sense, the term IoT encompasses everything connected to the internet, but it is increasingly being used to define objects that "talk" to each other. "Simply, the Internet of Things is made up of devices – from simple sensors to smartphones and wearables – connected together," Matthew Evans, the IoT programme head at techUK, says.By combining these connected devices with automated systems, it is possible to "gather information, analyse it and create an action" to help someone with a particular task, or learn from a process. In reality, this ranges from smart mirrors to beacons in shops and beyond."It's about networks, it's about devices, and it's about data," Caroline Gorski, the head of IoT at Digital Catapult explains. IoT allows devices on closed private internet connections to communicate with others and "the Internet of Things brings those networks together. It gives the opportunity for devices to communicate not only within close silos but across different networking types and creates a much more connected world."Why do connected devices need to share data?An argument has been raised that only because something can be connected to the internet doesn't mean it should be, but each device collects data for a specific purpose that may be useful to a buyer and impact the wider economy.Within industrial applications, sensors on product lines can increase efficiency and cut down on waste. One study estimates 35 per cent of US manufacturers are using data from smart sensors within their set-ups already. US firm Concrete Sensors has created a device that can be inserted into concrete to provide data on the material's condition, for instance.Subscribe to WIRED"IoT offers us opportunity to be more efficient in how we do things, saving us time, money and often emissions in the process," Evans says. It allows companies, governments and public authorities to re-think how they deliver services and produce goods.

"The quality and scope of the data across the Internet of Things generates an opportunity for much more contextualised and responsive interactions with devices to create a potential for change," continued Gorski. It "doesn't stop at a screen".

The latest Internet of Things newsWhere does the IoT go next?

Even those who have purchased one of the myriad smart home products – from lightbulbs, switches, to motion sensors – will attest to the fact IoT is in its infancy. Products don't always easily connect to each other and there are significant security issues that need to be addressed.

A report from Samsung says the need to secure every connected device by 2020 is "critical". The firm's Open Economy document says "there is a very clear danger that technology is running ahead of the game". The firm said more than 7.3 billion devices will need to be made secure by their manufacturers before 2020.

“We are looking at a future in which companies will indulge in digital Darwinism, using IoT, AI and machine learning to rapidly evolve in a way we’ve never seen before," Brian Solis, from Altimeter Group, who helped on the research said.

IoT botnets, created using a network of out-of-date devices took large websites and services offline in 2016. A Chinese firm later recalled 4.3 million unsecured connected cameras. The ease of bringing down the internet using IoT devices was revealed when instead of malicious purposes, the botnet was revealed to have been created to game Minecraft.

But aren't there privacy implications?

Everything that's connected to the internet can be hacked, IoT products are no exception to this unwritten rule. Insecure IoT system led to toy manufacturer VTech losing videos and pictures of children using its connected devices.

There's also the issue of surveillance. If every product becomes connected then there's the potential for unbridled observation of users. If a connected fridge tracks food usage and consumption, takeaways could be targeted at hungry people who have no food. If a smartwatch can detect when you're having sex, what is to stop people with that data using it against the watches' wearer.

“In the future, intelligence services might use the [internet of things] for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials,” James Clapper, the US direction or national intelligence said in 2016. Wikileaks later claimed the CIA has been developing security exploits for a connected Samsung TV.

What is Battery-powered 4G Camera?

The 4G camera is the mobile monitoring cameras that use 4G LTE network to deliver live-view and send instant alerts. (Similarly, 2g/3g security cameras refer to the ones that work with 2g/3g network)

As the above definition indicates, 4G cellular CCTV cameras require a separate mobile service plan to work. And the cellular data consumption of 4G IP cameras varies, depending on how often you watch live streaming and receive motion detection alarms, etc.

Reolink Go is one of the best choice for the newly-emerged 4G surveillance cameras.

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