#ruining our public services while someone lines their pockets

[reiverreturns]

probably a good thing i don’t live in london because i might be inclined to hunt this man down and kill him with my bare hands xox

#i am so sick of this island lmao #PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD TO EAT OR HEAT THEIR HOMES #CAN'T AFFORD TO PUT SHOES ON THEIR CHILDREN'S FEET #'we all have to do our bit' while our gov passes multmillion £ contracts to their rich pals #ruining our public services while someone lines their pockets #large corporations consistently dodging tax and getting away with it #this IS the bad place honestly #fuck the tories

[earthlyemily]

I’m struggling so much financially and honestly just wanted to vent somewhere. I’ve always lived in poverty and I think in my whole life I’ve had maybe 2 years where I didn’t have to stress about money and not be able to buy groceries or pay rent or be put into collections for not being able to make payments etc and that was when I was in college. For at least the past 5 years I’ve been struggling but I never talk about it. I don’t even know where to start haha I don’t even know what it’s like to not stress financially and be in debt. I’ll just start with the first things that come to mind with what I’m owing maybe. So it’s Dec. 23 and rent was due yesterday because we moved into this small suite attached to someone’s house on Nov. 22. It’s $1200 which is so expensive, but also the average price for BC if not even cheaper for a one-bedroom with a yard, utilities included. and no first and last, no pet deposits, etc because this is just short them for 4 months until the end of March because i reached out and asked and they said yes.

After 1 month I already remember why we went into the trailer almost 2 years ago and it’s literally because we can’t afford any other lifestyle. I think that’s the difference between us and some people that live in trailers, vans, etc. like we lived in a mouse & mouse shit infested trailer for 6 months breathing in their feces and urine and having it all over all our belongings. i literally had to take my whole life to the dump and we officially have no food storage because they ruined it all. there were at least 50-60 mice because a few birth cycles happened in the ceiling. I could write a whole post about my experience of living with field mice, but now isn’t the time so for rent, i only had $600 yesterday so that’s what I gave them. thank goodness they were okay with me asking for a few more days to make the other half. but I don’t even know when that’s going to be :(

my etsy shop veganveins has been doing so bad lately for more than one reason, most of my orders are just postcards and stickers, and while I’m grateful for them, that $1-3 profit isn’t going to keep my business going. and it’s so hard for me to work lately. the wifi doesn’t work sometimes for hours and I always get distracted by shawn and the dogs working from home in a small space. I need to get better at my time management. I got up at 8:30 today which is actually early for me so I’m proud of myself. I’m chronically ill and I really need to go get a blood test and see what’s happening because I haven’t gotten one since being diagnosed with graves disease again 1.5 years ago. anyways. i switched to a print on demand method this year for veganveins for some shirts and sweaters because i couldn’t afford to keep ordering shirts in bulk, and it’s honestly been so, so expensive and i barely make any profit. I’m currently owing my t-shirt printer $999 on one invoice (it was originally $2196 so I’ve at least paid half of it) but that was 2 weeks ago and I still need to pay it. Mario, my t-shirt printer has been with me since I started veganveins and I’m so grateful he gives me extensions on paying the invoices. every other t-shirt printer I’ve ever asked has said no. in addition to the $999 there’s going to be another $2200 invoice I’ll be receiving this week for my last order. I think because of the holidays he’s going to give me some time to pay off that too, but the problem is when I have outstanding invoices he doesn’t print new orders for me. He’s closed now until Jan. 4 so I just need to somehow make that much before then.

btw I don’t have a credit card ($8500 all used on veganveins and it got put into collections last march) and I had a fully used $5000 line of credit but I got a debt consolidation loan for $16,000 1 month ago and my payment for that is $167 a month. it fully paid off and closed my credit card and line of credit + $3000 overdraft which is nice. but now I don’t have any extra money except for what comes in. my credit is only 640 which is really bad in canada so I won’t get approved for a new credit card or loan until I build that up, which is going to be a few months of regular payments. so for regular payments, the $167 for the loan is due on Dec. 27. Yesterday the trailer loan which is literally unliveable from what the mice did until we renovate it came out for $260, that’s how much I pay once a month for it on the 22nd. I didn’t have $260 in my account so it got rejected and I got charged a $48 NSF fee. omg if anyone is reading this long i’m shook. i’m genuinely just writing this for myself to process my feelings and in case anyone was curious about my financial situation here you go haha. maybe some of you can relate, maybe some can’t. anyways. so now I somehow have to get $260 in my account for that for when they try to take it out again in the next few days.

another payment that was supposed to come out yesterday but hasn’t, but I’m sure will come out today is our truck loan. they deferred it for 8 months because of covid which was so nice, but we started paying it again 2 months ago. for both those months I called and made my payment a later date and that helped, but there’s barely any service here so when I called 4 times yesterday to try and change the date the payment comes out, I was on hold for 20-30 mins then my phone would disconnect and hang up. so that’s $586 and it will come out today, I have $0.46 in my account right now so it will get rejected and I’ll get charged another $48 NSF fee. this is why being poor always costs more and the banks are always harsher on those who don’t have money. today I’ll try calling again to see if I can ask for it to come out on a different day like january 10 instead, so I can first have time to pay rent and the trailer and also our $190 truck insurance which got rejected from my account 3 days ago, which was another $48 NSF fee. oh and something else i’m so stressed about is CIBC is going to put me into collections on December 28 if I don’t pay $1000, $700 of which is purely their fees. I have a $300 overdraft which they said i have to cover by then and the $700 is literally their $48 fees added up over the past 3 months. I got a text from them today saying my account is over and it’s because an amnesty international $11 monthly donation came out and obvi there’s no money in there, so that’s another $48 they charged. they’ve already given me a month to pay it and don’t want to wait any longer :(

I owe everyone in my family money, my sister $1650, my mom $700 and my brother also lent me $700. none of my siblings have money either and my mom definitely doesn’t so I hate that i had to borrow that much, and it’s literally been months. thankfully they’re so patient but i can’t wait to not owe them that

omg and i can’t even think about the amount of money shawn’s grandma has lent us. she’s genuinely the only reason we haven’t been completely homeless. but it’s a lot. like i don’t even want to say the number on here. she let us use it from her line of credit over the years and we’ve been slowly paying her back, but she lets us go months at a time without making a payment which i honestly hate doing, but have no choice. i’ve felt a lot of shame and guilt about this, but I also know that she genuinely would rather help us than see us suffer.

so i’m gonna talk about a big reason I’m broke this month especially - saving a pig named buster. his rescue cost me $1850 out of pocket that I didn’t have. but otherwise he was going to be killed in 2 days, he was my baby and I loved him so I had to do it. I somehow made $1350 that went towards it but I’m still owing $500, which I just asked for an extension for today until the new year. i’m not really supposed to talk about it but everything I’ve ever posted here has stayed here, so that cost was literally just from me buying the pig off the farmer. myself along with everyone else ive talked to is disgusted that he charged that much, but he wasnt budging and if that’s what it was going to take, of course I’m going to do it. I wouldn’t think twice about doing it for my dogs and Buster was smarter and more affectionate than them. i love him and I’m so happy he was saved. a non-profit organization transported him to a sanctuary and it was my biggest wish come true and the happiest moment I’ve had all year. my eyes are literally tearing up haha i love him so much. i could write a whole post about his neglect but basically he hasn’t had fresh water in weeks, he was only being fed handfuls of mixed nuts, he was constantly dirty in a muddy enclosure with an electric fence that he was always getting shocked on. he never got true love or affection except for when I gave him it. i posted an instagram story about him and asked people to message me and that i needed help, 2 people donated $111 and $120 each, and 2 other people donated $15 and $12. Someone also e-transferred me $20. These 4 donations equaled almost $300 ($277) and I was so grateful for those people wanting to help me help buster. if anyone else wants to help me with the cost of his rescue i still do need help and would appreciate it so much. this feels really weird and vulnerable for me to do and i’m sorry if anyone is annoyed by this post, I just genuinely am struggling and figured if someone does have extra and wants to help, there isn’t harm in that. but i do feel guilty for asking because i know there are so many other people struggling out there that need even more help than i do :(

i haven’t talked about it publically but i guess I will now, this farmer that I bought buster off of is the owner of the organic vegetable farm i was living and working at this past spring and summer. we worked really hard all summer to be able to stay there and park for free in the winter, but this past fall he told us no one was allowed to stay at the farm anymore, including us, so we had to find a new place to bring our 14ft trailer in to live. so that was an unexpected bummer and if we had known we wouldn’t be allowed staying there anymore (despite doing the labour of $1200 a month for free harvesting organic kale, for an off-grid spot he told us was worth $350 a month to park) we wouldn’t have driven 8 hours with the trailer and we would have stayed in the snow in northern BC and sucked it up and lived on the land we got the opportunity to rent this fall. Donna, the woman who is renting the land to us has been the biggest blessing in my life this year. I love her so much. Basically, she’s letting us live on 170 acres for $600 a month. letting us do whatever we want on the land (building a cabin, setting up rainwater catchment systems, having a solar passive greenhouse and a huge garden) LIKE WHAT. we could even open a farm sanctuary if we had money, i wanted to so bad but obviously that dream didn’t even come close to being reality. opportunities like this literally don’t exist in canada, especially not in BC. i cant even process my gratitude, i cry everytime i think about it. when we go back in the spring it’s going to be the beginning of the rest of our life :) i want to rescue so many senior dogs. everything we’ve always wanted to do we’ll be able to do, assuming we have money haha. but i want to have an organic farm and grow veggies to donate to families in need, especially since we live on stolen indiginious land and I see how the goverment actively restricts their access to fresh healthy produce. but anyways by then it was too dangerous to drive 8 hours back hauling a trailer in the snow and it was just easier to stay in the okanagan until the spring. i know the farmer probably doesn’t realize this and he’s also probably struggling financially but not being able to stay at the farm for the winter months we worked for, and buying buster for that price is a big reason I’m in the financial stress I am now so I figured i’d talk about it.

anyways. i think this is long enough and i think anyone reading this gets the point, i’m drowning in debt, my small business is almost costing me more to run and i’m not making nearly enough profit to live, the past few months ive been living off grid (not by choice) and just focused literally on surviving and not freezing and getting water etc and not having service or internet has affected me negatively. there’s internet now in the suite I’m in, it works really good in the morning and not as well at night, like for example tumblr doesn’t work past 5 pm for me to post photos. but ive been in a bad sleep schedule since i got here that i need to change. im sick and i need to heal myself. tomorrow i’ll set my alarm for 7:30. hopefully i make some money today. i got a social media managing job and it will end up being $1000 a month once i do the 3+ hours a day of work which im already feeling like i barely have time for my own basic life tasks. but i can do this.

if anyone reading this wants to help me out a bit, my paypal email is [email protected] or http://www.paypal.com/paypalme/veganveins

and my e-transfer email is [email protected] i have auto deposit so you won’t have to ask a question :)

this is my first time in 7 years i’ve made a post like this or asked for help. i won’t do it again but figured i have nothing to lose. if you read up to here i love you a lot and thank you so much for being here <3

#personal #finances #broke #poor #vegan #small business owner #graves disease #saving animals #off grid #I wonder if anyone will even read this all #debt #life update lol #p

[vikingpoteto]

we don’t have to dance (to the beat of their songs)

Chapter 3 on AO3 ______________________

Relationships:  (Gen) Tim Drake & Jason Todd

Tags: Battle for the Cowl, Alternate Canon, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Mental Health Issues, Past Child Neglect, Domestic Fluff, Canon is not valid I am, and I want them to be friends goddamnit

Summary: In the middle of their battle, Jason asks Tim to leave the nest and be his Robin. Tim decides it's not a bad idea, after all. ________________________

When the cast comes off his leg, Jason sighs in relief. Casts are a bitch and he can’t believe he survived four weeks walking around like a zombie.

And, well, he technically is a zombie, but still.

The nurse barely has time to set aside the now useless pieces of cast before Jason eagerly stretches his arm. He tries not to take offense in the patronizing smile the man gives him. Jason supposes he isn’t the person acting like having their arm in a cast is hell  — because it is — but he can go without the little smirk, thank you very much. He would’ve removed the damn thing on his own, except it’s his dominant arm stuck in the cursed thing and he didn’t want to risk any new injuries. It’s the first time in over a month that he has no major wounds. And that’s considering that the pit gave him a faster healing rate than your average Joe.

“There’s a crack here,” the nurse comments.

“Hm. I had to fight a criminal. They were annoying, so I hit them with my cast,” Jason says.

The nurse gives him a forced chuckle as though he thinks Jason is joking. Or, well, that Todd Peters is joking. He doesn’t need to know Jason’s real name or that he’s completely serious. He must be new. They’re not in Gotham, but they’re close enough that having to beat a random crook with a cast shouldn’t be that outlandish.

The annoying noise of the saw fills the room again and Jason does his best to stay put. While telling Dick to fuck off after their fight had been satisfying  — a silver lining after having his ass handed back to him, if you must  — letting himself fall to what could’ve been his second death wasn’t Jason’s smartest move. And definitely not worth having to drag his own broken ass home, ruin his wounded body even more as he struggled to change into civies. Never mind having to face the humiliation of seeking a public hospital and pretending he had somehow walked away from getting hit by a bus. That had been fun, but he would not recommend it.

“There you go,” the nurse says. “You’re free as a bird, Mr. Peters.”

Jason flexes his fingers in relief. As a bird. What a joke.

When he walks out of the hospital with a medical bill that will most certainly never get paid  — although it’s tempting to send it to Wayne Enterprises just to let them know Jason is alive and now ready to kick their asses again  — he remembers the second time someone told him he could be Robin.

It had been Tim.

He hadn’t thought about that night in quite a while, mostly because he couldn’t believe it really happened. It was before they freaking sent him to Arkham, but after Jason got rid of (most of) the green mist in his mind that had him foaming at the mouth with unchecked anger. Robin swooped in right in the middle of one of Jason’s busts and somehow managed to knock out as many criminals as he protected from lethal shots. After they were done, he had approached Jason and deadass asked him if he would consider being Robin again.

Just like that. Jason thought he was joking.

Then Tim Drake, in all his 14 year-old glory, his voice still cracking a bit, deadpanned: “I only took over because someone had to. But now that you’re back, it only makes sense that you go back to your family.”

Jason was so stunned he doesn’t remember what he said next. Probably something about shooting the kid if he caught him in his territory again. He’s pretty sure the little shit rolled his eyes at him before jumping off the roof. Jason had the distinct feeling that Bruce never heard about that small mishap.

For quite a while, Jason tried his hardest not to think about what he left in Gotham. It was hard when he was too injured to move, but books helped him through it, as always. Now, however, he was free as a robin and he has a decision to make: what is he going to do next?

The trip to the shitty motel he’s staying at takes no time at all, his feet getting him there while his mind was elsewhere. He’s thinking so hard of Gotham that at first he thinks he’s losing his marbles when he sees a familiar face. Jason freezes on his tracks.

Tim Drake is casually leaning against Jason’s door. He tilts his head to the side and cocks an eyebrow in challenge, as though letting him know that he is very much real and not an hallucination.

“How the fuck —” Jason starts. Then he decides against it. “You know what? I don’t want to know. Forget you found me.”

Tim rolls his eyes. “I happen to have a really good memory, though.”

“It sure doesn’t look like it, considering it seems you forgot I tried to kill you last time we saw each other.”

“You mean when you could’ve killed me, but you didn’t?”

It takes all of Jason’s flimsy self-control not to punch him. Tim stands there, his arms still crossed, his eyebrows vanishing under his too-long bangs, and it’s almost as if he’s daring Jason to hit him, to lose his cool. Doing so would be letting him win and Jason isn’t about to do that.

He has half a mind to appreciate the fact that Tim had been waiting for him in the hallway, though. Even Dick hadn’t been that considerate in the past, always favoring the good old breaking into people’s homes like Bats taught them. It annoys him to no end that the kid somehow always knows what little things will mulify Jason.

“I just wanna talk,” Tim says.

“I haven’t been active lately”

Tim doesn’t even flinch. “That’s a lie.”

“How did Dick find me?” Jason groans.

“He didn’t. I did,” still in that annoying flat voice.

“And you want me to believe he didn’t follow you?”

“I don’t think so, since I haven’t seen him in a month.”

That catches Jason’s attention. He considers the boy in front of him. Rumor has it that Tim Drake manages to be even more elusive than the rest of them, and Jason believes that.  He believes that a child that stalked Batman and Robin for so long is nothing short of impressive. He heard Tim was the only person able to lie to Batman.

Something makes him think Tim isn’t lying now.

With a sigh, he fishes the keys from his pocket and opens the door. Pretends not to see the kid’s annoyingly cocky smile.

Jason doesn’t know much about Tim other than his M.O. as Robin and parts of how he joined the Bat cult. He knows he was already a rich kid before becoming Robin, but if the kid has any reaction to Jason’s crappy hotel room, he doesn’t show.

Jason drops on the couch with a groan. Tim stands around with a blank expression and, if Jason didn’t know any better, he’d think the kid is nervous. He gestures at the empty mismatched armchair by his side, and only then does the kid take a seat. Silence stretches.

“So? You said you wanted to talk. Talk.”

It’s almost impossible to notice, but Tim takes a slow breath before starting: “When we fought… you asked me to be your Robin,” he says. “Did you mean it?”

Jason quirks an eyebrow up. “What kind of question is that?”

“Did you seriously consider taking me as a sidekick?” Tim insists. “It’s a yes or no question.”

Jason sits back and crosses his arms, keeping his expression schooled into something neutral. He hadn’t thought about that night  — at least not on purpose  — since then. However, in the fleeting moments his mind forced him to relive it, he couldn’t help but think about his spur of the moment offer. Because that’s what it had been. An impulsive thought.

However…

“I meant it,” he says, his voice neutral. “In our field, it’s a pain to work alone. I know you have skills, so having you work for me would’ve been useful.”

And that’s the truth, or at least most of it. Tim presses his lips into a tight line and nods slowly, as though he’s readying himself for something.

“And you still think that?”

“What kind of game are you playing, Replacement?” Jason snaps.

“I’m not playing anything. I’m here to offer you my services, sort of.” Tim gives him a crooked smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “We can go over my resume, if you want.”

Jason’s chin drops. He can’t help it. His stunned silence lasts long enough that Tim’s fake smirk slips from his face and, despite his best efforts to keep the cool facade, Jason can see he’s distraught somehow.

“You said that that would mean working for a psychopathic killer,” Jason reminds him.

“I remember distinctly saying sure, why not? to your offer, too. Also you called me worse things, you don’t get to be sensitive about name calling now.”

“Why?” Jason presses.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Tim deflects.

“I asked first.”

“I asked second.”

Jason sighs. “You suck at job interviews.”

“To be fair, I’m a trust fund baby. I’m not supposed to go through job interviews.”

Jason sighs. He doesn’t know what to think. On one hand, he is a detective. He was trained to recognize lying, to know when he’s being played with. On another, the boy in front of him isn’t your everyday crime alley crook, but an equal. Maybe superior, in some circumstances. He could have a plan inside a plan to completely fuck Jason over  — and he kind of should, considering Jason almost killed him a couple of times… and Damian… and Dick.

“What does Bat 2.0 think of you switching career paths?”

“Again, I haven’t seen him in a month.”

“Yeah, I’m not buying that. I haven’t kept close tabs on what’s happening in Gotham, but I know Batman and Robin are still active.”

Tim hesitates. Jason waits patiently. Finally, a little annoyance in his voice betraying his frustration, the younger boy admits:

“Dick fired me. There’s a new Robin.”

Jason snorts. “You’re fucking with me.”

Tim looks down, saying nothing.

Jason starts laughing out loud. “Oh my God, you’re shitting me right? So the Replacement has been replaced! And you decided to come to me of all people for a new job? You want us to be Evil Batman and Evil Robin to good ol’ Bitchard?”

It’s funny, if you think about it. The Robin that got killed and the Robin that got dumped, joining forces to represent failure as the holier than thou golden boy becomes the epitome of heroism. He can’t stop laughing.

Jason expects Tim to get angry. He expects Tim to lash out and tell him to fuck off, say that he knew coming here was a waste of time and storm off. The longer Jason’s mockery goes, however, the quieter the boy gets. His expression is carefully empty, although there is an unnameable storm behind his gaze. Sometimes, Tim is so similar to Bruce  — stoic, a mind like a maze, a smug little shit - Jason forgets about all the ways in which he’s Bruce’s complete opposite. Tim doesn’t do lashing out. Not usually, at least.

When Jason’s hollow laughter dies, the kid is sitting there as though nothing phases him. Not because he is a big bad bat with no emotions, but because he knows better than to show them.

The older boy breathes out slowly. “Alright, I’ll bite it. What exactly are you thinking, Pretender? Be brief and straight, I don’t have all day.”

There’s a beat. The kid is clearly trying to organize his ideas. That’s a first. Little Timmy usually has a plan from the get go.

“I want to be useful,” he says. And that’s the truest thing Tim said all day. There is something raw in his voice that grabs Jason’s attention. Something that Tim hides before Jason can name it. “You said it yourself. We can do better if we work  together. Not as Batman and Robin, of course not. Just as ourselves.”

Jason crosses his arms and starts tapping a finger to his arm. “I don’t believe you’re planning on killing anyone.”

“Good, because I’m not going to.”

“Then? You’re gonna watch while I do the dirty job? Or you think you can stop me?”

There’s a subtle quirk of Tim’s lips. Jason curses inwardly knowing the little satisfied smirk is there because Jason is negotiating. As though he already accepted this insane proposition.

“I don’t think I can stop you every time,” Tim concedes. “We can make a deal, though. With me by your side, you won’t have to resort to murder that often. You promise me you’ll only kill if there’s no other way and, in exchange, I promise you I’ll make sure your cases will be solved a lot faster.”

“You’re awfully confident for someone that just got fired,” Jason deadpans.

“I got fired a month ago.”

“You’re awfully confident for someone that’s been sitting on their ass for a month.”

“I was actually working with the League of Assassins.”

That gives Jason a pause. “I’m sorry, you were what ?”

“There was a case I couldn’t solve on my own. Dick wouldn’t help. Ra’s did.”

“And, what, after working with Ra’s freaking Al Ghul you just decided it was time for a change of scenery?”

“I mean, for starters I like you a lot more than Ra’s. Second, Ra’s kinda fired me too.”

“Again, you’re really bad at this job interview thing.”

Tim smirks. “To be fair, I took everything I needed then ruined a lot of League business before bailing on him, so…”

And then there is that. Jason can count on one hand the things he knows about Tim Drake. One, he found out the identities of Batman, Nightwing and Robin II at age nine. Two, he was a rich kid and neighbor to the Waynes and now he has no family left, just like Jason. Three, he is annoyingly perfect and it makes Jason feel like shit. Four, he is the most unpredictable little shit to ever exist.

And last but not least, he trusts Jason. Jason doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know if that makes him stupid or a genius in a way mere mortals can’t comprehend. Nonetheless, he has this unshakeable faith in Jason like no one had before. Not even Dick, who was supposed to be his brother. Jason doesn’t know what to make of it.

“So Ra’s is after your stupid ass and you want me to be your bodyguard?”

“When Ra’s comes for me, I’ll have a plan to deal with him. Whether you’re a part of it or not, that’s up to you. Don’t worry about it for now.”

He sounds like he has everything under control. Jason knows how to sound like that, too. All of the batlings do. Their entire lives they’re just playing it cool, looking dark, brooding and mysterious while inside they have no idea what’s going on nor how they’ll survive.

“Come on,” Tim says, rolling his eyes. “You worked with back up and you worked alone. You know which one is better.”

“I’m a literal crime lord,” Jason reminds him.

“That’s not the same. Having someone that knows who you are behind the mask makes all the difference in the world.”

Neither of them are addressing the elephant in the room, though. The biggest question looming over them. That’s also a bat thing. Both are aware, none speaks of it, and a taste of something unsolved is making their mouths bitter. The worst part is that they know the answer, even if it’s left unsaid, but do they really? Are they really arrogant to assume they know each other enough, that they’re smart enough to be aware of the truth?

Why did you offer to take me in?

Why do you want to join me now?

Two questions. One answer.  

“I’ll think about it,” Jason says.

Tim’s smile is blinding. He knows a backhanded yes when he hears one. “I’m looking forward to hearing from you, Hood.”

“Piss off before I shoot you.”

Tim snickers and stands to leave. Jason keeps listening after the door closes, after the footsteps vanish down the hallway. He can still hear the sounds of traffic down the street, maybe the indistinct chatter from the neighbors. It still feels too quiet and the egg sized apartment could as well be as big as a manor after Tim leaves.

The answer to both questions is I don’t want to be alone anymore .

#red hood #jason todd #red robin #tim drake #batfam fanfic #batfam #poteto writing

[parabellum-rpg-archive]

Congratulations, Joss! You’ve been accepted to play Aaron Murphy (previously Aaron Khan, last name changed to fit the new FC’s ethnicity). Your request to change his FC to Bob Morley has also been approved. Please make your page and send it in within 24 hours.

Admin note: Joss, you’re absolutely flawless. You make it very easy to fall in love with your writing, and you’ve given Aaron so much depth! I can’t wait to see him on the dash! - Admin V

IC INFORMATION —

CHARACTER DESIRED Aaron Khan DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER IN YOUR OWN WORDS If you told Aaron to turn out his pockets and show what he’s accomplished in life, you might see it as just empty hands, but to him, being a dealer is the only thing he’s ever been really good at. He’s got learning disabilities, dyslexia and ADHD, that prevented him from ever really settling into a normal life or doing well in school, but when it comes to weed, he’s a fucking prodigy. He can tell the weight of a bag just by looking at it or holding it, he can tell from the smell if product is good or not, and he knows how to spot an undercover cop at 100 yards. His greatest skill is in being able to read his customers. He can tell from the moment you approach him what strain you’re going to need, how much, and what you’re willing to pay. He’s friendly, never tries to force you to be his friend, and always stands by his product. If weed were legal, he might be paying taxes and living the good life at a cannabis dispensary. As it is, he’s the guy on everyone’s cell phone under “Aaron Green”. People usually assume when you say your home life was bad that someone was smacking you around or there was no food, maybe your parents were junkies or crackheads. But it doesn’t have to be that dramatic to be bad. Sometimes your family can just forget you exist. Aaron was one of eight kids and none of them ever really had a chance. He disappeared in among his siblings so that no one ever noticed when he never came home at night. His home was loud, but there was never any real love in it. His parents were immigrants who’d come to America as children and never gotten out of the ghetto neighbourhoods of Detroit. They never had enough money and worked all the time, and when they came home, they would just stare blankly at their children, as if to say, “are you still here?” Aaron doesn’t think they were ever even in love; certainly the photographs never show people who looked happy to be together. Sometimes he lets himself wonder if they were like him, with dreams that they could never achieve and a burning need to do something, and if they just got beaten down by life, but it’s not like he can ask anymore. Chicago was the farthest Aaron could get from Detroit on the money he’d saved up, and it seemed like a town that still had hope, while Detroit was just dying slowly around him. He had a cousin there whose couch he crashed on (Aaron has cousins everywhere, they come out of the woodwork whenever one of them needs somewhere to crash), and a few job possibilities lined up, but he’d get itchy if he got stuck working behind a counter or washing dishes or shifting mail around, needing more stimulation than entry-level jobs provided. If he’d had the money to do training in a trade or something, maybe he could’ve done something with his hands that kept him occupied, or trained to be a tech expert, since he loves video games and can play them for hours if need be. Instead, he asked his dealer if the guy could hook him up with a gig, and one thing led to another. Working for the Costellos is mildly terrifying at times, but it feeds that part of him that needs to move and stay active. He doesn’t deal anything too hard, just weed and some party drugs, and he’s a favourite of club kids and college students for the quality of his product and his innovations when it comes to packaging and branding. He’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea about a new line of edibles like peppermint chocolates for the on-the-go buyer who doesn’t want to overindulge, or flavoured strains of CBD oil laced with hash to give a smooth high without any paranoia, or making their own line of e-liquids for vapes (something he’s very into, do not get him started on the unfair legislation around vaping rights), and spend the next three days making it happen only to crash once his latest masterpiece is complete. He could probably survive without a roommate at this point (though he’d have to live somewhere shady to do so and he’s become a little too comfortable to move back to the hood), but he used the excuse of needing one to let Corinna into his life. She’s the first person he’s lived with that he doesn’t feel anything but uncomplicated affection for, and the idea of having friends that you’re not either also selling to or working for is new and interesting for him. He’s a genuinely nice person (more so when baked but also overall), and he’s always happy to share his groceries or just sit up with her and listen to her talk. He may even someday tell her about his family, though that remains a subject he doesn’t address.   WRITING SAMPLE “Hey, man-bun!” Aaron turned around by reflex, even though someone yelling anything at you out of the blue was, at best, 50/50 gonna be a shitty situation. “That’s what your mom called me last night. At least I think that’s what she was saying, there was a lotta moaning going o-” Aaron didn’t get to finish his sentence, the punch catching him straight in the jaw. He looked like he could handle himself in a fight, but his muscles were all for show. Staggering back, he checked to see if all his teeth were still there. That was one thing that hadn’t gone wrong yet. “You sold me bad shit, motherfucker! Gimme my money back, or I’m gonna end you!” If this had been back in Detroit, Aaron might have taken this conversation more seriously, especially because he’d just gotten punched in the face, but this was Chicago, and he worked for the Costellos. Some little trust fund baby wasn’t gonna roll up on him and try and get a fucking refund. “That’s a shame. You still got the stuff? I’ll trade it in for new shit.” They were outside a bar in Costello territory, and the guy squaring up at him looked like he rowed every day and ate ivy for a living. Sure, he was dressed like he was living that thug life, but c'mon, no one’s teeth were that straight in Chiraq. That was the problem with cities like this, everyone thought they could front. Nobody in the suburbs would’ve even bothered, they’d have probably said please and thank you, but out here, people watched too many movies and thought you had to act like an OG. His friend, cuz of course he had a friend, punks like this never tried anything when it was a fair fight, just stood slightly off to the side and switched between grinning and sneering. “Are you fucking stupid? Did you hear me? Gimme my fucking money now! You’re lucky I don’t call my boys down and fuck your shit up for giving me lousy stuff!” It had gotten to the point where Aaron wasn’t really a street dealer primarily anymore, he was the guy you called when you needed something. He did deliveries and hung out at parties and clubs. When you were selling a product people wanted, you didn’t have to pound the pavement to sell it. But he was doing another favour for Holden. Aaron always did favours for Holden, no matter how many times the other man asked. He couldn’t help it. And normally he could spot an asshole a mile off and choose to refuse service, but Holden needed his quota to stay up, so Aaron had been a little too liberal with his sales tonight. Figures he’d get punched on his night off. “Like I said, I can do a trade if you’re unhappy with the product, but this isn’t a Target, man. We don’t do refunds. So hand over the shit, and I’ll give you some primo Afghani Kush. I’ll even top up the bag free of charge, cuz I wanna preserve our relationship.” The kid wasn’t having any of it. “I already smoked it and it did jackshit! I’m not even high! We even mixed it with some coke and it did fucking nothing!” Oh boy. So on top of assholes, they were idiots too. “You can’t mix it with coke, man. That just ruins both highs. If you’d said you’d wanted something to blend with uppers, I coulda-” Aaron was prevented in continuing with his sales pitch when the kid pulled out a gun. The fucking sikik seemed to think he could draw down in public. Granted, it was a shit neighbourhood, but it was still a Neighbourhood. “C'mon guy, this is a bad move. You really wanna think this one through, you know?” This whole evening was really turning into a bummer. If he got shot by this at hırsızı, he’d never live it down. And he didn’t have health insurance. The kid’s gun didn’t waver, and his friend had pulled a piece too. Awesome. “You coulda just given me the money, now I’m gonna take everything, and I’m gonna kick your ass too, you piece of shit fag-” The conversation ended abruptly with a squealing of tires and bright lights. Aaron jumped out of the way, rolling across the sidewalk and dragging himself up when there wasn’t immediate gunfire. The kid and his friend were now lying in the road groaning in front of a red Ford pickup. The door opened and Holden got out, looking at Aaron with bewilderment. “What the hell happened?” Stumbling forward, Aaron had the sense to kick the guns away from the two kids as he limped over to the truck’s passenger side. “Just a difference of opinion, don’t worry about it. But I’m thinking we talk about moving you to somewhere a little more high-class. This neighbourhood is going to shit.” As Holden slammed into the car and peeled away, the neighbourhood returned to normal, like it had never happened. It was Chicago, weirder things happened every day. Aaron leaned his head against the glass and dug a joint out of his pocket, inserting it between his lips and expertly lighting it with his lucky Zippo. “Don’t smoke that in the car, you’ll make it reek in here.” Laughing, Aaron rolled down the window. “You’re the weirdest dealer I know, man. C'mon, night’s still young, let’s hit Lake Forest and make some money off the preps out there.” Holden, shaking his head, took the turnoff and headed for the suburb. “You ever take anything seriously, cabron?” Aaron winked. “Not unless I can’t avoid it, kaşar.”

#accepted

[peacefulwriter88]

One That Got Away - Chapter 6

Steve Rogers x OFC

Chapter 6: Around the Horn

Universe: Marvel Canon

Rating: M for Mature (Language, Sexual tones eventual)

Previous Part 

It’s amazing the things human reveal about themselves when they don’t think other people are listening. Humans are simple creatures by design – inspired and ruined by the same motivations. It's only when they are aware their voice is heard that feelings like guilt and apology come into play.

Steve used to think his super hearing, like most of his abilities, was a curse. It forced him to be witness to peoples move private and intimate conversations – forcing him into strangers lives. Over time, he had to learn how to tune humans out. He was tired of hearing the same things, tired of the anxiety that arose from jumping from one conversation to another. While he believed in the beauty of humanity – believed that him and his species were worth fighting for – it was becoming dull to have to listen to the same conversations repeat themselves, to never pinpoint the simpler of solutions.

That humans were restless and craved conflict.

He should know.

It was how he felt 90% of the time.

So, as he stood in a stadium that had the capacity to hold over 54,000 he had realized the error in his ways. He was trying to find you – the service on his cell phone had failed him at his current location and the only sure way he knew how to find you in a crowd was to listen for your voice. But to listen for your voice meant he had to jump into the world of the thousands of people around him and his brain was feeling overstimulated, not used to ingesting so much stimulation and data at once, not since he trained it to do otherwise in social situations like this. Between the yelling and screaming and laughing – the people who were moving past him quickly and brushing against his body he felt like screaming, like bursting out and finding safety at higher ground.

It was how he felt back when breathing felt like a chore and the only time girls laid eyes on him was when they realized he was Bucky’s sad best friend.

Being in crowds made him insecure. Which is why he preferred to watch from the wings.

He looked down at his screen, trying to see if the text he typed for you was sent but his phone was still doing that circling thing that Bucky called the wheel of death, so he assumed not.

He should have been more specific. Texting was more of a chore than a convenience.

He had given in to finally getting the writing service on his phone, right after he had made amends with you in your office. He had immediately asked Bucky to meet him at the cell phone store he had purchased his flip phone at to get texting put on the older device. Which had caused Bucky to guffaw because he really needed a new phone but Steve was insistent on keeping his old one and Bucky wasn’t going to argue against it for the uptenth time again. So he patiently helped Steve figure out the simple buttons to send you a text, which had been a bust the next day when he was ready to send you a message.

It was Sam that stood next to him after their morning training, patiently helping  him click out the words over stiff buttons to send off to you,

I have texting on my phone so I can be better at staying in touch with you. How is your day?

The message had taken him an ashamedly twenty minutes to get out but he did, hearing from you immediately. The week continued with that cadence, you texting him goodnight and him texting you good morning. Finding opportunities to get to know each other a bit more, your texts coming in long paragraphs that his phone broke up in 5 pages while he sent multiple smaller texts, frustrated with the machine. So when you had texted him earlier that afternoon with the simple message of,

Excited to see you tonight! Yankee’s Stadium, 6pm. SW entrance

He hadn’t thought to follow up to ask which southwest entrance. There were at least four, and they were all crowded and similar and he was feeling anxious trying to find you among the waves and waves of people walking in.

He was tempted to walk and find an area where he would find service, where he could call or text you to get clarification, but it's at that moment he senses someone walking behind him, not as silent as they were hoping as they lift their hands. Its instinctual as he turns, easily catching your wrists that are in mid air quickly as you gasp, your eyes growing larger as you let out a breathy “Oh.”

Even though his breathing is measured, his heart is beating fast as he allows his eyes to take you in, to realize that he’s in a public space and you don’t mean any harm to him, the people around him. You shift your wrists in his embrace and he realizes that he’s grabbed them too tight and he immediately pulls away as you give a side smile, your eyes relaxing as you let out,

“Serves me right, thinking I could sneak up behind you. I just wanted to see if you could guess who I was but that was a short lived idea.”

You’re laughing, not offended at all as you pull out your phone and start scrolling through it. You look back up at him and smile, nodding for him to follow you into the long line to get into the stadium. He wants to tell you that he hated surprises, that they usually always resulted like this, him aggressively and unexpectedly ruining a nice gesture because he was always on edge. Instead, he pushes it down as you look back up at him, the first time he’s seen you relaxed and happy around him since the start of your relationship and he smiles back,

“I’ll give you credit for trying. Not a lot of women bold enough to try to out play me but unfortunately for us both, I’ll always be quicker. My DNA gives me that advantage.”

“Ohhh humble are we,” you say as you show the man your tickets on your phone, motioning it's for you and Steve as he ushers you towards security. “You’ll never surprise me because I’m smarter, faster, stronger. Ok Kanye.”

Your voice is teasing as you give the security guard your purse to look through, before you walk through the security strip. It takes a beat and grants him the opportunity to quickly pull out the small notebook he keeps in his back pocket, to scribble down how he thinks one would write Kanye (with a C like the pepper?), multiple question marks beside it before placing the small book back in his pocket. He follows your lead through security, remembering a time where you could trust the people in the world to not cause havoc at places of joy as he tries to pinpoint the reference you’ve dropped.

What the heck was a Kanye and why was everyone in this city always referencing him? If you brought it up it must be somewhat important so he’d make sure to ask Sam or Clint next time he saw them.

He’s surprised when he’s moved through security and you’re no longer standing in the spot you had been previously, waiting for him. Instead there’s just the group of people passing by, trying to get to their seats. He feels panic rise in his chest, his hands going damp.

Where could you have gone that quickly?

It’s seconds later he’s rewarded to you throwing your body on his back, your arms wrapping around his broad shoulders as your legs squeeze around his middle,

“How about now soldier?” you whisper in his ear, your voice dark and sultry, “Is this quick enough for you?”

Its intimate the position you're in, his hand instinctively finding the back of your thighs as you tighten around him. He shifts you higher up on his back, causing you to squeal as you tighten your hold around him and he likes the sound that slips out your mouth, wants to see how else he can pull it out of you.

“You just had to prove me wrong didn’t you?” he states, trying to look over his shoulder and you giggle, moving enough to look back into his eyes,

“Don’t tell me I’m not fast enough, even for you. You should know now,  I will dedicate every minute of my life to proving you otherwise. I don’t do ‘can’t’”

Your breath hits his face, the mixture of mint mingling with your perfume. He becomes aware of how his hands tease the soft muscle underneath your thighs, the soft way your stomach and breast press against his hard back, the way the bills of your hat awkwardly hit each other, causing you to drift closer.

“You’re ridiculous. But point made.” He smiles at you, giving your legs a squeeze and you giggle, biting your lip as you wiggle in his embrace.

“Ok Mr. Rogers, now you’ve made your point and you’ve impressed me. You’re able to lift my thick figure with ease. But I'm sure the hoards of New York and Boston baseball fans that are pushing around us aren’t as appreciative of your skills.”

You move to fall down from his back, laughing as you adjust to being back on ground. He wants to tell you that he likes your thick figure, that you have meat on your bones that compliments you and you weighed nothing at all. But you’re onto the next thing, your eyes surveying the place.

“Ok, first things first. We find beer. Then we find our seats. Then you have to impress me with your dazzling baseball knowledge. And if you impress me, maybe you get a second date. Or….you get stuck in the friend safe zone if I find you unable to keep up.”

“Oh really?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow at you.

“Yeah. You were the one who stood me up, remember.”

You were right about that.

“Fair. It's your call. This time.”

“You saying there’s going to be a next?”

“I know there is.” he says confidently and you laugh as you pull the straps of your purse as you put your phone back into the satchel before your smiling up at him,

“Ok Cap. Follow me.”

You move quickly, fast surprisingly considering the thickness of the crowd, but he’s able to keep up with your frame. He wasn’t used to this, someone else taking charge that wasn’t Tony and he likes how confident you are, the fact that you knew what you wanted and wasn’t afraid to go for it. You get him to the escalator with speed and smile at him as the moving stairs give you the vantage point of temporary high ground

“What does it mean to have box seats?” he finally asks, curious as you both look around in silence. “Everyone at the tower are impressed that you’re able to provide them and I'm not sure why?”

“Means we have one of the best views in the park and never have to leave the space for booze and food. It's just a fancy word of saying you are isolated from the public and get good amenities along with the game.”

Oh.

You didn’t seem like the kind of girl who liked to sit in isolation, away from it all in areas of athletics. While he could appreciate the privacy, he was always nostalgic of watching a good baseball game with others.

There was nothing like comradery amongst strangers.

You flicker your eyes back to him, note he’s uneasy as you clear your throat,

“That sounded cocky. Let me correct myself...the seats aren’t mine. Honestly, there the companies. They’ll be three other people, journalists with us in the box. It's honestly just a nice place to watch the game if you’re also trying to write down highlights for your article. Outside of that it's just convenience and a way to isolate from the crowd. Which really bums me out once I’m done working, half of the fun at baseball is the crowd.”

Steve nods, looking around him,

“I know it may not seem it, but I like watching the game with a group of people too. I’ve seen some of the best games and had some of the best conversations with just kind, random strangers.”

You watch him curiously, leaning against the rail of the escalator before saying,

“I suppose you were able to see some of the best baseball in the history of baseball on this soil. Box seats wouldn’t impress you much, now that I think about it. Hmmm.”

You give a wry smile and he realizes that he’s done that thing again, where he’s embarrassed you by defaulting to his simple ways and he’s quick to place a gentle hand on your hips,

“Hey, I’m excited! It’s a new experience and I get to talk with you and three other people who study baseball for a living. But mainly, I get one on one time with you.”

That was at least true. While he would prefer normal seats, the only upside of this opportunity was being able to be so intimately close with you. You respond by laughing, resting your hand on his shoulder,

“You're kind Steve. I didn’t even think you’d mind being with others….that was a selfish oversight of mine. My friend asked me to come to help him with his article, he likes my input and I thought it would be fun for us. But I see now….I shouldn’t have thought you were the kind of man who would have found it interesting. And maybe...maybe I was trying not to make a big deal out of this date.”

He chuckles, his hands squeezing your hips,

“Why? Because I disappointed you once and you were worried it would happen again so you wanted back up.”

You giggle as you lean into him, giving his shoulder a swat,

“Can you blame me! You real life disappeared for days….and it was after I was already speculative of letting you in the first place.”

Your voice is light but you keep your eyes focused on everything but his face and he realizes that he had really disappointed you. Which, in turn, makes him feel disappointed in himself.

The last thing he wanted to do in any capacity was hurt you.

Especially when you were making it clear that you were still unsure about having anything to do with him.

“I’m sorry about that and I promise you it will never happen again. I even got texting on my phone!” he makes a point to pull out his phone, that automatically causes you to erupt in laughter, causing strangers to look over.

“Holy shit. You must be serious….I bet getting texting on that thing was a migraine for the technician.”

Your smiling back at him, the one that is all teeth and causes his stomach to dance and he squeezes your hips one more time.

“Bucky can happily let you know the pain I went through for you. Or more so that technician.”

You both reach the top of the escalator, stepping off for the second level and you look around. Your quick as you find your target, causing him to stumble after you as you make your way to the daughter and father duo,

“Hello, sorry do you have a few seconds to talk?,”  you pull your badge out of your bag as you continue “I’m a reporter for ESPN and I have a proposition for you.”

The father looks at the badge, impressed as the daughter tugs on his legs, looking out onto the field.

“I have these box seats for the game and my friend and I kinda want to be in the crowd – we’ve been there all season you know. Would you be ok with switching? I know it's last minute and super random but it's just other reporters and you’d have some first hand advantage for any bets you might have? And I much rather give my seats to you than some rowdy douchebag.”

Your voice is light and sincere and the man looks at you in disbelief before asking,

“Are you Ariadne Bellamy? The Ariadne Bellamy who writes for All Bets on Me?”

You scrunch your eyes together before nodding,

“Yeah…..”

“Oh my god – you helped me so much last season with your blog. Yes! We’d love that. My daughter has really gotten into the sport and it's fun being in the ranks but it'd be nice to watch a playoff game away from all the rowdiness. Besides I can tell all my friends how the Ariadne Bellamy gave me her seats.”

You both exchange email addresses, sending him your box suite information as he exchanges the tickets in his hands. When you return back to Steve, you do so with a large grin on our face.

“You didn’t have to do that Ariadne.” Steve says quietly and you roll your eyes, shrugging.

“Jacob jumps on the opportunity to talk with real fans. Helps his article. And honestly, he’ll text me if he really needs help. I want you to be comfortable for our date and if you’d prefer to be down with the others, I’m game. Though I’m still using my company credit card for beer. That’s the best perk.”

“I mean, you didn’t have to be so nice to a stranger and yet you were.”

“Captain America questioning my moral code of conduct? Oh boy.”

You have that teasing tone in your voice again and he laughs, grabbing your hand and giving it a small squeeze,

“Not at all. It’s just….refreshing. Of all the people you could have given it to, you were intentional to give it to someone who you knew it would mean a lot to. It’s a unique kind of selflessness that's hard to find nowadays. It’s makes you an exceptional person….” he drifts as you look up at him, softened features etching your face and he clears his throat, “Anyways, you got us into the game. Let me take care of the rest.”

You don’t object as you both head to find your seats, neither of you stopping to pull your hands away from the other.

You both miss most of the first inning, the line to grab cheap hot dogs and beer longer than he’d like. You lean into making this experience authentic, though he’s pretty sure that your arguing to hold two baskets of hot dogs and beers is a learned behavior from your overprotective and natural maternal relationship with Ellie. When he insists that he’ll carry the beers and you can focus on the dogs you hesitantly agree, though by the time your walking down the steep stairs to your seats you give a grateful sigh that you weren’t stuck with the bitter, golden liquid he was balancing behind you. It's not until your both sitting down that he automatically regrets his decision.

“You know what the difference is between watching the 1932 Yankees then versus now?” he asks as you look over at him, “I was a lot smaller. When did stadium seating get so….compact?”

You laugh as you shake your head, falling back into your seat and leaning into his large frame.

“Always! They just make it for small people. If you have curves or a large Adonis frame like ourselves, you just gotta get up and grab more beer to deal with the stiffness in your legs.”

He smiles as he hands a beer to you,

“Well, to authenticity.”

“To authenticity.”

You both toast, the promise of a fun night hanging in the air.

The game is fast paced. After you both inhale your hot dogs, you’re never given the opportunity to sit down. The teams are too equally matched in skill, causing the stadium to spend most of its time standing and yelling at the field, at other fans, you and Steve included between alternating grabbing drinks. There’s a few people that recognizes him, he can see the wide eye glimmer in their eyes before they look away but he’s lucky that they haven’t boldly gone over to ask for his autograph or photo. It’s in contrast to you, who has multiple people stopping you between grabbing beers and innings - mostly men he notices - who are itching to hear your opinions on plays. You don’t seem too bothered about it, answering questions gracefully before pointing out you’re on a date and he wonders if this is standard for you, if it’s the true reason you prefer your box seating.

It’s another question for another time - this wasn’t the setting for that kind of reflection so instead when he gets a chance he asks,

“You know - you don’t seem like a baseball watching kind of woman to me.”

You laugh at him as you finish scurrying into your seat, the two beers in your hand splashing over your fingers.  You blow on them, the sun had set hours ago and the cold east coast air was starting to bite through your Yankees lined bomber jacket. This was round number four for you both and you still had three innings left.

“I’m not.” You nod as the horn signaling the end of the seventh inning goes off. You both opt to sit down, taking the opportunity for the next five minutes to rest your feet.

“But you are quite knowledgeable about baseball. I think even beyond what you need to know for your job.” Steve counters and you smile, shaking your head as he throws his arm around you, allowing himself to be bold and you lean into his embrace easily.

“I am.” You take a sip of your beer watching him.

“So…..the story goes?”

You laugh again, nodding your head to the side, biting your lip. When the time in your relationship came, he was going to learn how to tame that habit of yours. It was driving him crazy.

“Nothing complicated. I’m a New York girl. My grandfather took me to games, then my father. I liked sports so it was easy, learning the intricacies of the game. I guess…..I was close to my grandpa – my dad. So it’s a way to keep them close to me, you know.”

He nods and you lean into him, blinking up at him innocently,

“What about you? What got you into baseball.”

Steve laughs, shaking his head.

“Two words. 1927 Yankees.”

“Murderer’s Row.” You whistle underneath your breath and he smiles, nodding.

“I saw Babe Ruth play in this stadium. Lou Geghrig. Dimaggio. That was…to see that group of men play a sport with the athletic finesse they did -  you just didn't get any better than that you know? I think it was the games in 1932. Bucky and I spent any free dime and nickel we could get our hands on to go. So much so that during the Yankees winning streak, we had drained our resources and right around my birthday. I was devastated. Bucky could only spare so much - his pop had died a few years back in the war and with three younger sisters to feed he felt guilty as it was to spend the money selfishly on the games.

But unbeknownst to me, my mom had been working double down at the factory despite the cancer that was eating at her to get me and Bucky tickets. She knew how much I loved baseball and wanted to get me a nice gift for my birthday. Bucky was thrilled, charmed a dame to buy us a hot dog we had to share and we had to hitchhike back home because we didn’t have enough bus or subway fare but….standing in that stadium and watching that team play against the Pirates. Nothing like it.”

He remembers how hot it’d been, that it had triggered his asthma no matter how many layers he peeled off. It was the smoke from the fireworks that had resulted in pneumonia the next day and he had been out of commission for a week.  It hadn’t mattered, standing beside Bucky in this stadium, watching a group of men play a game that made him forget for a few hours that he was feeble, sick Steve Rogers but just a part of the crowd, the memory makes him smile. Makes him feel like himself.

“That sounds like a nice memory.” You whisper to him and it causes him to shift his eyes back to you, pulling him back into the present.

“It was. Feels like yesterday” He looks back onto the field as the game starts up and you nudge him, your hands finding his own and intertwining with them.

“Where were you sitting when it happened?,” you look around, squinting before smiling and point to the north side of the stadium. “I was sitting over there my first time. Fucking nosebleeds but Derek Jetter had been on fire that night. My grandfather was so happy and excited, the Yankees winning the most games that season in a long time. He had been grooming me on baseball for years, he was so enthusiastic about the sport and my family pitched in to get us the tickets.

It was exciting to take the train from Queens to the The Bronx. It was the first time I’d been on the subway that long, my eight year old self eagerly drinking in everything as my grandpa quizzed me on the basic rules of baseball. He could’ve taken anyone - my older brother loved baseball as much as him and he had been pissed when I got the ticket but grandfather was insistent it had to be me. Said there was something special about my voice when I talked about sports. I like to come here and remember how I felt in that moment...”

Your face has washed over in nostalgia, smiling deeply as you lean into his shoulder, trying to block off a gust of wind that was blowing through the stadium. Steve looks around, before looking up and pointing,

“It was actually in this section…but also in the nosebleeds. It had a beautiful view of everything and Bucky and I sat there every time we got our hands on a ticket,” he laughs, shaking his head and drawing you closer to him, rubbing your arms as you shiver underneath your jacket. “Bucky had to carry me up the stairs every time toward the end, I couldn’t breath after the first three flights. I'm pretty sure I went through my whole inhaler between the wet air and those stairs.”

You laugh as you look up at him, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Sports bring people together. That’s why I do it - write. There’s all the fucking politics and shady shit around it sure but it brings out this. Those happy moments that define us as humans.”

He’s not prepared for you. Doesn’t think he’d be able to be, life had thrown you in his path when he had made peace with functioning alone in the world. He doesn’t want that now that he’s met you, wants to spend every second of his breath moving forward in being a part of your world in some way.

There’s a moment that the loud stadium noise fades away, where he forgets where he’s at as you both look at each other and there’s the familiar knot that spreads in his stomach since he’s met you. You’re a siren calling him home and he leans down to press his lips against your own, needing to see.

You taste like a first kiss. Your lips are feathery and lush and he moves his beer between his legs so he can press his cold hand against your warm cheek, pull you closer to him. Your perfume overwhelms him and he doesn’t need anything deeper than the satisfaction of your lips on top of his own. To feel your hand wrap over his as you kiss him back sweetly, the game an afterthought.

He was in trouble.

You were in trouble.

Both of you are too involved with the other to notice the fan that discreetly snaps your photo.

Tag List:  @geminimoonbeamx @ssweet-empowerment@capsofwinchesters@tacohead13@harleycativy@pietrotheavenger@francezka10@papichulosebastian@obsessionsofmynerdheart@melaninmarvel@avengedqueen26@nasteaxluvgal@winterbuttmunch@nys30@buckyslongasshair@ohlumi@wellthirsted @gifsbysimplysonia @misskenni @harleycativy@maraudereestauderelb@chrisevans-sexualfrustrations @xceafh@misskenni

TAGS ARE STILL OPEN! 

#Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers AU #Steve Rogers x Reader #Steve Rogers x OFC #Chris Evans #Sam Wilson #Bucky Barnes #Anthony Mackie #Sebastian Stan

[duoseb]

3/25/2020

Between December 2019 and March 2020, a global pandemic grips the entire world, spreading faster than any coronavirus before it: Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, originally infecting residents from the Hubei Province of China before it spread globally throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and Western nations. In January, 2020, everything seemed normal. Reports of Covid-19 were frequent, but life went on as it always did; the earth turned, the sun rose and set across the sky. I had an office job, and I was working hard to help keep my dysfunctional, traumatized family together. It was working. We were all trying to move forward, at our own pace. It felt like a brand new life, a brand new chance to do better. It isn't an easy journey but it was one that I wanted us to take together: to grow into better versions of ourselves, free from the oppressive restrictions of a bigotry-embracing society. My parents grew up in a world that forced them to conform and comply, to trust America's pro-business anti-employee conservative authoritarian regime disguised as democracy. Governments underestimated the virus. People underestimated it. Young, fresh-faced twenty-somethings, elderly, and middle-aged alike ignored the warnings of medical experts, and gathered in large crowds, spreading the disease. Stubborn, reckless young adults felt no concern for the deaths they could potentially cause. The deaths they HAVE caused. In that time, medical facilities and governments scrambled to maintain the order of "society," to protect "society." Damage control. Hospitals and governments of nations such as China, South Korea, Japan and Germany offered free healthcare and a rapid pandemic relief response: as their hospitals began reaching capacity, and new, temporary ones were built to accommodate the speed in which the virus spread, universal healthcare and citizens heeding the cautions of virology experts is what finally stabilized their country. 

The United States of America's response was not as effective. In 2018, President Donald Trump disbands the Obama Administration's pandemic response team. At the cusp of his Republican nomination for President in 2020, reputable sources from an presidential staff have alleged that President Trump purposely ignored warnings by CDC experts about Covid-19, fearing it would hurt his campaign for reelection. According to the Washington Post, in an article written by Shane Harris, Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey and Ellen Nakashima: "U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting." The news came too little, too late, in March 21, 2020, as the virus began spreading rapidly throughout all 50 states. March is when everything went to hell. Is still in hell. This is what's happening to the world. On a micro level: within the first week or two of the month of March, my mother's father dies of an infection festered by his diabetes and declining health. David O. Sablan Jr. was a terrible man, an absent father, a crooked cop, and a pervert who leered at his granddaughters. If there were any redeeming qualities about him, it was drowned in the ocean of his sins. In his last moments, he was sorry. I don't know what to think about that. I don't think he actually changed as a person, he only got older, weaker. Too weak to be cruel. He certainly never apologized to me. Not even as he stared, bug-eyed, up at me from his bed, crying and begging me for death, for the pain to stop. I forgave him, in that moment. I comforted him. That's all he needed. He was like a child again, wanting someone to pay attention to him, to consider his feelings. Less than a week later, he died. There's no dignity in death. Even when you're surrounded by people who love you, it will still hurt, it will still be humiliating. I knew my granddad. I knew he would not have wanted people to see him look the way he had looked the last time I saw him:  frail, deteriorating. That's his legacy, now: a body ruined by drugs and anger and greed. He looked so sad, so alone, so I forgave him. He had lost my respect and my trust a long time ago, but I forgave him. I don't know if that's good. I don't know if it was the right thing to do. I don't know what that means, now. Should I stay angry and bitter, or move on? I remember thinking about the day he would die. I remember knowing it was going to be painful, because he had had an unhealthy lifestyle. I never expected how it would make me feel. I didn't feel anything. Not the day he died, when I received the news from a tearful aunt. Not during his viewing, as his body was displayed for us in a nice suit my mom bought for him, and I was surrounded by crying relatives. I wasn't happy, and I wasn't sad. I felt relieved. Relieved that he had died somewhat peacefully, painlessly. I felt relieved that the suffering was over. Right now, as I write this, I feel... pity, empathy. The weeks before his death had been excruciating for him, both physically and mentally. His family paraded his sickness all over social media in a manner that would have made him furious and ashamed. They cleaned his wounds, which was a painful process, but rarely offered emotional comfort. In his dementia-addled mind, they were punishing him, abusing him. He was confused. The last time I saw him, I told them to talk to him. To comfort him. To explain why they need to change and clean his infected wounds, that it was to help him, that it was out of desperate, desperate love; to continue explaining it to him because his mind won't always remember it quickly. My aunts and grandma looked at me as if they were realizing these things for the first time, as if they had never thought that emotional connections were that important in being a caretaker. Then again, the only emotion my granddad ever showed his family so freely was anger. It was only as his health began to fail him that he began becoming more vulnerable, and maybe they weren't used to that. I took a flight to Saipan, where he was born and where he had died, on a Thursday afternoon. March 9, I think. He was going to be cremated on Saturday. I didn't want to go. I knew it was going to be exhausting. And, when I arrived there, it was. Every day, I woke up before the sun rose and I helped my parents, spent time with family, smoked weed (medicinal, but also recreational, but also I wanted to avoid talking about my dead granddad while sober; there's always so much talking about our mortality when someone dies, it's a bummer). Monday morning, I went back to Guam. "Mourning" was over. I was slightly sad to go, because I love them, but my mother's side of the family are people that you can only enjoy for a limited amount of time before you feel drained. I love them, I genuinely do, but that doesn't change the helplessness I feel around them. Monday morning, the first day of our self-quarantining began. Businesses were closed all over the island; only a handful of retailers and service workers remained. My office was closed, and the Government of Guam declared that the island is under a Public Health Emergency status, closing down all non-essential government agencies, including schools. All over the world, thousands of Covid-19 cases were recorded in a matter of weeks. Thousands of deaths. Mostly in Italy, Iran, and China. The U.S.A. and Spain are rapidly accumulating new cases of the virus, and every other nation is right on their heels. America's for-profit system is being exposed as a failure, weaponizing poverty as a violent authoritarian act on every U.S.  citizen; their suffering from the country's ever-growing wealth disparity is what lines the pockets of billionaires and career politicians. This is the year that America's failed capitalist system is in full, disgusting display. In front of our own eyes. In front of the world's eyes. This is a cataclysmic event in history that can't be forgotten or swept under the rug. This is too big, too terrible. Today, March 25th, 2020, is my second day of quarantine. I am writing this, because these events are important. I will try to be as honest as I can.

#ql-001

[littlekaren01]

Cima Solutions Group

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data – backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

.wp-post-image{display:none;}

#Managed IT Services #Cloud Solutions

[weavermarilyn]

What Is Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data - backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

#Backup and Disaster Recovery #RightGOV #Asset Management

[ambercallhoun]

What Is Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data - backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

.wp-post-image{display:none;} source https://www.cimasg.com/2020/06/what-is-managed-backup-and-disaster-recovery/ source https://cimasg1.tumblr.com/post/619814086279135232

[cimasg1]

What Is Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data - backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

.wp-post-image{display:none;} source https://www.cimasg.com/2020/06/what-is-managed-backup-and-disaster-recovery/

[cimasolutionsgroup]

Cima Solutions Group

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data - backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

.wp-post-image{display:none;}

#Managed IT Services #Cloud Solutions #Infrastructure Solutions #Cybersecurity #Backup and Disaster Recov

[eriicarmstrong]

What Is Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Are you looking for a way to protect your IT systems once and for all? Do you need data backup and recovery services at your doorstep yesterday? With managed backup and data recovery services, we’re right there to assist you with any of your technological needs. Without our services, your company may remain vulnerable to security breaches, natural disasters, malware/hackers, and lost wages. How quickly can you recover your data operations after they’ve decided to take a trip south? Outages might be hampering your employee productivity without you even knowing it – that’s why we offer complete protection for all of your most important systems, data, and personal information.

The Steps We Take to Secure Your Company

Offering the most complete recovery of all your data involves being thorough from the very start. This means that we design our IT plans with your business in mind – custom offsite information storage means that each plan we create is personalized for your company. We begin with the most basic measure of saving important data - backing it up.

If your system ends up going down, have no fear for what will happen next – simply call our data recovery planning and strategy team to schedule the implementation of an IT plan.

If there is any server downtime, rest assured that your company will also face fewer disruptions – because we provide services quickly to get you back on track, downtime is quickly resolved no matter what the case may be. In addition, you can expect to experience the joy of having a company that only charges a flat monthly fee for dozens of services by your side. Truly predictable budgeting can be yours by working with us.

We can help you plan for many kinds of emergencies, including the loss of data through a hard drive crash or user error, a fire or flood impacting a server or external hard drive, electronic theft or a security breach, accidental file deletion, damaged physical IT equipment, and corrupted file backups.

Eating into your bottom line can be avoided, and optimal business productivity often depends on how well your networking services can perform when compared to those of your competitors.

Our solutions are precisely sized to give your company the guarantee of full data recovery no matter what. With completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services at your side to protect what you care about most, you can rest assured that our company has yours covered.

The Wonders of Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery

Protect Your Data Without Using Costly Infrastructure

As your company grows, it will most likely need to be protected from ransomware, hackers, security breaches, and even user error. As your business adapts to the ever-growing and changing demands of the internet, protecting your personal data without hiring a full IT support team (which can be costly and is often unnecessary for small to medium-sized businesses) becomes even more important.

That’s where our services come in – we can protect your data without needing to use costly infrastructure that can end up costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Instead, for just a small monthly fee you can have all of the best disaster recovery services managed and taken care of. As data becomes more available online and less available via hard disk, cloud servers become even more important for your business recovery services.

Security and data protection are two challenges our company faces when we recover your most sensitive data. Maintaining mobile productivity is yet another challenge your company must face in the interim of an outage – with cloud-based storage data recovery services, now you can get thousands of dollars in lost productivity back in your business’s bank account.

Remote work – work done by employees making use of public Wi-Fi or on their home networks – has never been easier to monitor thanks to our PC backup services, which are designed to both protect your mobile workforce and keep them operating in a productive manner. This can all be done without the hassle of hiring a full-support IT team.

Why You Should Outsource Your Disaster Recovery Plans

The backing up and restoration of data is no easy task and outsourcing your disaster recovery services to our corporation can free up time for your employees. Businesses looking to have the secure, competitive edge they need to get back up and running after unforeseen circumstances tank their revenue work with us – they know that our disaster recovery services are fantastic for meeting the specific needs of a small to medium-sized business without needing to hire an expensive IT support team.

Our disaster recovery services encompass any variety of potential and unforeseen circumstances, and we aim to tackle the challenges involved with growing your business and protecting your data at the same time. Our processes involve creating a data protection plan that meets your company’s specific needs. We then manage and monitor that program every single day to make sure that your business is prepared for data loss and disaster recovery situations.

Our managed data backup services are chock-full of potential wealth – in the event your business experiences an outage, you can get right back to where you left off faster than you’d be able to otherwise. Lost time is lost money, and outages can translate to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. Outsourcing your disaster recovery plans to our corporation gives your company the peace-of-mind and assuredness it needs to function properly, without fear of a natural disaster ruining someone’s career. We ensure that our programs are executed effectively and swiftly, so that your downtime doesn’t last for days or weeks. Instead, it might last for hours – putting money right back into your pocket when your employees report to work on Monday morning.

How Else Can Managed Data Backup and Recovery Services Benefit Your Company?

Our managed data backup and recovery services can benefit your company in a variety of ways – some being financial, and some being priceless. As a company, our data protection experts will work with you to define the specific needs of your business. These needs may eclipse your backup, recovery, archiving, retention, and disaster recovery capabilities, and that’s where our job becomes important.

Our installation of a customized data protection program to better manage your business continuity works to protect your most sensitive information. An all-in-one, multiple-purpose physical backup appliance is used to store your data – that way, if something like a fire or flood incapacitates your company’s physical location, your personal and business data remain safe. In addition, we upload and monitor your data backups to the cloud on a daily basis to keep the most current copy of your sensitive data on hand.

Doing this enables us to restore lost servers within seconds – physical dangers are no match for our completely managed data backup and disaster recovery services. What would happen to your business if there were some kind of natural disaster? Would you be able to easily recover your most sensitive information? Or would you be like sitting ducks, waiting for something bad to happen? Rest assured that your pricey (and priceless) data is safe with us and get back to running the other important factions of your company.

How Our Service Works – Our Step-by-Step Guide

We install a physical backup appliance within your network for keeping backups and data restoration quick and easy to conduct.

We then copy, encrypt, and duplicate your data to the cloud – we keep two copies of your data on hand. If one gets destroyed, we always have another.

Your cloud service provider will perform ongoing testing of your data and recovery backups in order to verify two things: firstly that your information is recoverable and secondly that it meets your specified recovery time objective (RTO). Verification for your specified recovery point objective (RPO) is also conducted – we check to make sure that we always have all of your information on file. Your recovery time objective is the amount of time you need your business operations restored within after an outage, while your recovery point objective dictates the amount of information you’d like to have restored.

We also maintain a disaster recovery environment in the cloud for your most sensitive information – keeping two copies of your info allows us to always have a copy of it on hand, should you request it. Keeping a second copy of data on hand is important in case your first copy is somehow compromised and storing it within the cloud ensures that it’s always accessible.

When an outage occurs, information is easily restored from any location – whether it’s your local appliance or from your private cloud storage servers.

If you’re interested in our complete managed backup and disaster recovery services, reach out today! Don’t wait to give us a call or an email – your company could depend on it.

Via https://www.cimasg.com/2020/06/what-is-managed-backup-and-disaster-recovery/

source https://cimasg.weebly.com/blog/what-is-managed-backup-and-disaster-recovery

[feynites]

do omegaverse solas and lavellan ever get to get it on? or will they long for each other impotently forever?

They do! Though I haven’t written it out yet. But this finally got me writing more of this au anyway, so I hope it will suffice! Warnings for a/b/o tropes, as usual.

Two days after her meeting with Mythal, Uthvir is sent outon an urgent assignment.

They are uneasy with the implications of that. Whatevermeasures they have taken did not include sudden and express orders from Mythalfor them to be elsewhere, it seems. They discuss the matter in the evening. Themission does seem to legitimately pertain to matters with the Nameless, but thetiming can’t exactly be brushed off as a coincidence.

Uthvir doesn’t have a lot of recourse to refuse dutiesstraight from the top, though. It’s pretty apparent that the choice is betweenall of them going rogue, now, or letting Uthvir leave and still trying tohandle the situation themselves.

Lavellan doesn’t really take a long time to make a decision.She would leave if it was just about herself, but she won’t ruin Uthvir andThenvunin’s lives. Thenvunin still seems convinced that he can settle matters,at least, and while she’s growing more and more certain that he can’t, everyoption in front of her seems as bad as the next.

In the end, she supposes that if someone has to suffer, shewould rather it be her.

She can tell her parents are making their own plans, evenso. Holding out their own hopes, or coming up with their own contingencies. Themore she considers it, though, the more she thinks that she’s going to havebeat the shit out of this alpha.

Not kill him; more bodies would make more problems, and shedoubts she could cover up a murder as easily in Arlathan. But Elvhenan’s alphasare, by and large, a proud bunch with reputations to uphold. This alchemist probably isn’t going to be in a hurry totell their peers that their new omega apprentice mopped the floor with them,and, luck willing, that could work to her advantage. The man doesn’t sound likea trained fighter, at least.

Uthvir goes.

Thenvunin heads out to more vague meetings and‘discussions’. Four days after Mythal’s conversation with her, he goes toArlathan, with the intention of meeting ‘this alchemist’ in person. But hecomes back empty-handed, and that evening he confesses to her that he’s runninginto something of an unexpected brick wall.

“Renathel seems to be reclusive,” he admits. “From what Ihave gathered, when they were younger they were too unruly and mediocre to makemuch of a name for themselves. They spent most of their accumulated credits onventures in the Pleasure District, and were nearly bonded to one of the omegasworking there, before the match was denied by one of the city managers on thegrounds of Renathel’s lacklustre prospects. Reputedly, Renathel became more withdrawnafter that. Depressed, I suppose. For a few centuries now they have mostlyshied away from the public, and events, and anything other than their requiredduties. Clearly, they are a most unsuitable match for you, but… it is difficultto use social pressures against someone who has apparently disdained them forthe better part of three hundred years. How this person has managed to even maintain their position in Arlathan is…well. If I have anything to say about it, they shall not hold it for much longer.”

Something in her sinks, definitively, at his admission. Butafter a few minutes, she manages to muster herself again.

“Do not worry, Papa,” she tells him.

She doesn’t really have a lot of assurances to offer beyond that, but telling each other notto worry seems to have become habitual between them.

Not long after that, Mythal has her meeting with Mirena. AndMirena…

Mirena doesn’t do what Uthvir has done, or what Thenvuninhas done, or even what Pride has done. Pride, who has steered very clear of hersince they spent an evening together. Who has been even busier than usual, itseems, to the point where she’s worried about what kind of deals he might be trying to make. And whatkind of limitations he also might be discovering, even know, after theirthorough cataloguing of the restrictions on omegas.

Mirena comes to her, and has Thenvunin leave the room.

“Your apprenticeship with me is currently concluded,” shesays, in an inscrutable tone.

Lavellan feels a rush of dread.

Mirena moves in close, and wraps her arms around her. Shesmells like incense and spices, and the subtle cues of an alpha who isperfectly happy with her unbonded state. Her grip is tight, as she leans in abit.

“Do not be afraid, my dear. Change is hard. But, sometimesit comes with unexpected opportunities. You will be alright. And I will makeglowing commendations of your apprenticeship, which you have completed in anexemplary fashion.”

She swallows, and thinks of running. Of fighting. Of hiding.

Her transfer to the service of a new alpha should onlyhappen when Uthvir and Mirena are both present. But she’s not entirelysurprised when, the next morning, Thenvunin is called away early to see to someissue in the gardens, and a messenger comes, and takes her to the palace’seluvian chamber. Where one of Mythal’s other attendants – Tarensa, it seems –is waiting to do the honours of escorting her to the city. In light of herparents ‘indisposal’, and her grandmother’s sudden and unexpected need to beelsewhere.

Tarensa manages a sympathetic look. But she’s Mythal’s,through and through, and her hand is firm as she threads Lavellan’s arm throughher own, and escorts her through the crossroads.

“Working in Arlathan will be an important experience foryou,” she reasons. “And it will be very stable. Much less travel than with yourgrandmother. You will be able to see your parents more often as well.”

Lavellan doesn’t respond.

“Renathel is not to mistreat you,” Tarensa continues. “Thisis not a punishment, and Mythal does not tolerate disgraceful alphas.”

She almost snorts, at that. Mythal more than toleratesdisgraceful alphas. She is one herself.

But that kind of talk would only make things worse, at thispoint. She bites her tongue, and lets herself worry more about her parents thanherself. Uthvir can generally be trusted to keep their composure even in theface of unexpected issues, but she’s often the exception to that rule. AndThenvunin will probably be distraught when he realizes that she’s gone.

Don’t be rash, shethinks. Don’t be, don’t be.

It’s easier to worry about that then to think about what’swaiting for her in the city.

They exit the crossroads near to the Market District. Thebanners flying over the market square are golden today, which means that thereare trade renegotiations afoot. Spirits of Greed and Cleverness, Fortune andGuile all flit through the air. Most of the market stalls are closed, though,and the majority of street activity is centered around the crafters’ shops andrequisition offices instead. The windows of the Trade Centre are shut tight, asthe merchants and managers deal amongst themselves.

The lack of the usual bustle makes it rather easy to noticethe elf waiting by the eluvian.

Average height, Lavellan notes, and golden hair, and browneyes that squint a lot in the daylight. They have a pallor to them that makesher thinks of scribes and researchers, and other types of people who spend dayson end either indoors or mostly up at night. Their clothes are an eclectic mix.A nice jacket thrown over a shirt with odd stains on it. Gloves tucked into thepocket of some poorly tailored pants.

Lavellan assesses the alpha the way she might assess adragon she knows she’s going to have to fight.

The alpha, in turn, wrinkles their nose at her, beforelooking at Tarensa.

“I thought I was getting an omega for my apprentice,” theysay. “I specifically requested that, on the paperwork. I wrote myself, so Iknow it was on there. Manager Gilith told me I could specify, that it mightmean a longer wait but I have no need of some foul smelling beta cluttering upmy shop.”

Well, she thinks. At least they’re not salivating or something.

Tarensa looks unimpressed.

“Lavellan is an omega,” she says. “She meets all yourrequested qualifications and requirements. Her father is one of Mythal’s owntreasured attendants. She finished her last apprenticeship with resoundingcommendations, and Our Lady is being mostgenerous in entrusting you with her care and assistance.” Letting go ofLavellan’s arm for a moment, Tarensa strides over to Renathel, and looks downher nose at them.

“A word of advice, Alchemist. Mind your manners. If youforget them, I would hate to have to wait at the back of the line of alphaseager to re-educate you on the consequences of overstepping respectableboundaries.”

Lavellan thinks she might appreciate the threats on herbehalf a bit more if she didn’t know that Tarensa was going to leave her withthis alpha all the same.

Renathel does not quite meet the tall woman’s gaze. Theyraise a hand, and grimace, just a little.

“I… apologize,” they offer, glancing towards Lavellan. “Theomega is acceptable, of course. I only could not scent her. A misunderstandingon my part. I am only too grateful for Mythal’s consideration, in accommodatingmy request.”

Tarensa regards them for a moment longer, and then stepsback.

“See that you do not forget it,” she declares. “I am here inlieu of Lavellan’s nanae and grandmother, but do not mistake their absence fora lack of concern over this transition.”

And yet, there is definitely an implication, she thinks, insending her here without her family, that she is being at least somewhat discarded. Of course, Mythalwas probably not ready to trust Uthvir with this particular task, all thingsconsidered.

Renathel inclines their head.

A tense and awkward moment ensues. Lavellan uses it toseriously contemplate just bolting. The eluvian is right there, but that wouldbe the obvious choice. There is a bridge nearby. She thinks she could make itbelow the archway before anyone realized what she was doing, and by the timethey gave chase, she could be dashing through the lower city.

But there will probably be better opportunities to justplain run. Tarensa is very fast, when she wants to be, and Lavellan would havetroubles hurting her if it came to a fight.

Renathel steps forward, and stiffly offers her their arm.

“Well, we should go, then,” they decide. “There is work tobe done.”

Their jacket crinkles, as Lavellan takes their elbow, andgrips it.

Hard.

“Of course,” she says, placidly.

Tarensa gives her a look, as if she means to say somethingmore. There is something oddly close to an apology in her gaze. But then shecloses her mouth, and only nods in approval, before turning and heading back tothe eluvian herself.

Then Renathel is walking briskly down the city street. Overthe bridge with Lavellan had contemplated moments before. They place a handover the one she has on their elbow. Their palm feels clammy, and they wince ather grip.

“A little more gently, if you please,” they say, in a voicealtogether less snide than the one they had employed in front of Tarensa.

Lavellan is surprised at it. Enough so that, reflexively,she accommodates their request.

Renathel lets out a breath, and gives the back of her hand apat that seems almost absent-minded. Not a gesture she would have expected.Uncertainty comes into her, a strange misgiving that she doesn’t know quite howto place as they carry on. They make their way past a few of the more prominentworkshops, heading down in the general direction of the Pleasure District.After a while they turn off of the main street, and onto a winding side one,with buildings painted a steely almost-blue. Signs for stylists, alchemists,perfumers and even a few butchers dot the doorways they pass, marked with thesymbol for the services they provide, and an annotation identifying whichEvanuris they serve, and what the rank of the craftsperson who runs the shop is.Most are mid-ranking and Mythal’s, here, though she also sees the symbolsdenoting Sylaise and Ghilan’nain.

At last, they come to a narrow shop, sandwiched between a perfumerof Sylaise and a stylist of Mythal’s. The sign denotes alchemy, high rank, andhas Mythal’s tree beneath it. But there are no goods in the windows. Most ofthem are shuttered, and there is another sign on the door stating that walk-incustomers are not welcome, and commissions should arrange for meetings by wayof consultation.

How anyone is supposed to get a consultation seems to be something of a mystery.

“This is your shop?” she checks.

Renathel deactivates the lock, and pushes the door open.

“Yes,” they confirm. Lavellan hesitates only a moment on thethreshold. The building is narrow. Close-quarters. But it’s also dark andhidden and private. Perfect for if she needs to make a point with violence,just so long as the alchemist alpha does not prove to be unexpectedly gifted inhand-to-hand combat.

Still.

It feels like a trap, as she walks inside.

More and more, when she actually sees the interior of the ‘shop’.There are shelves in the front, lined with bottles and vials, but none of themlook fresh. The stale scent in theair makes her think that, somehow, no one has even been inside of this placefor a long while. Months, at least. From the front door she can see a backroom –the work room – but the equipment is silent. Nothing brewing, steaming,frothing, or cooking. No scents beyond the must in the air.

Incongruously, though, the narrow set of steps leading tothe second floor look as though they have been recently cleaned.

Lavellan does not bother to disguise her tension, as shelooks over at Renathel.

The alchemist smiles.

“I am terribly sorry for all of this,” they say. “It wasquite a production, I know. And you have probably spent the past while feelingvery alarmed. But, we could not afford to raise any suspicions. There was toomuch risk that simply trying to orchestrate things would raise suspicion in andof itself, and if Mythal had so much as an inkling of what was going on, youwould probably be banished to some village in the middle of her territories,and shackled to the most martially proficient alpha there.”

She blinks. Renathel’s voice sounds notably different, andshe thinks…

The alpha gives the room around them a careful look over,and then their features shift.

Golden hair gives way to black, and their frame changes. Theoutfit remains the same, but the fit on everything save for the trousersworsens. Long, dark nails stretch from fingers that are a different sort ofpale, and brown eyes lighten and shift colour. Magic whirls for a moment, inshifting motes of light. Not unlike the dust in the room.

It only takes an instant, and then Lavellan finds herselfface to face with Melarue.

No ‘Renathel’ at all.

“…Uh,” she manages, intelligently.

Melarue reaches over to one side, and pulls a chair awayfrom a small table by one of the windows.

“Not to be presumptuous, of course, but all thingsconsidered, I think it may be best if you took a seat and caught your breath,”they say.

...Yeah, maybe.

Still wary – but also with a building relief – Lavellan takesthe offered chair.

“So… where is Renathel?” she asks. That seems like animportant question, right now. Though with the evidence all around them, shehas her suspicions.

“Alas, they managed to outlive my patience for them,”Melarue admits, taking the seat opposite from hers. “It might ease you to knowthat they were never what one might call a respectablesort. They had a bad habit of fixating upon, stalking, and harassing myworkers. I managed to put a stop to it once I had accumulated a fair amount ofblackmail on them, and they served some uses as a private supplier of sorts.But, they were redirecting their impulses onto some of the omegas in the lowerdistricts, and of course, your own circumstances conspired to create anopportunity to put a permanent stop to that.”

Her gaze drifts back towards the stairs.

“So they are dead,” she concludes, plainly.

Melarue gives her an assessing look, and then inclines theirhead.

“I sent in the petition,” they admit. “Several of mycontacts conspired to suggest this as a convenient means for Mythal to ridherself of you, in light of her… disapproval, over your companionship with herwhite wolf. There were no guarantees, of course, but it lined up nicely enoughfor her that it was not an unreasonable bet. However, too much pushing or toolittle resistance would have made her suspicious.”

“And then she might have investigated, and found Renatheldead,” Lavellan surmises.

Melarue shrugs, though.

“Oh, I would have figured out a solution for that,” they assure her. “One reclusiveand little-loved alchemist would not have interested her so much as theapparent desire to get you into the city. But, that is idle speculation, now.The plan has worked, and here you are.”

“Here I am,” she agrees. “Please, do not take this the wrongway – I was not eager to get to know Renathel, and your description has made meglad that is not even an option now – but… is there a plan from here on out? Iam supposed to be apprenticed to an alpha who is dead now.”

“Exactly!” Melarue says, with a satisfied nod. “A reclusivealpha, not known for being seen around the city much as it is. It would hardlydraw suspicion for you to take over the daily, ‘pithy’ tasks of your master,such as delivering orders, accepting shipments, requisitioning goods, filingpaperwork with the city… this shop is entirely functional, and if ‘Renathel’ isever required to make an appearance, having to dig them out of my districtwould surprise precisely no one.”

Ah.

She sees where this is going, now.

The relief settles over her more firmly.

“So I am to take over as your alchemist?” she guesses.

Melarue smirks, just a bit.

“The arrangement is not purely selflessness on my part,”they confirm. “Though, as Mirena’s grandchild, I would have done what I couldfor you anyway. But now we have a mutual requirement for one another. I am inneed of your skills, and have confessed a terrible crime to you. And you are inneed of a post that seems to get you out of Mythal’s way, and would not wouldbe… very easy to frame for Renathel’sdeath, at this point in time.”

Lavellan meets their gaze for a moment.

And then inclines her own head.

“Well, I suppose-” she begins, but is cut off by a veryurgent-sounding knock at the door.

Melarue purses their lips, and then sighs.

“Thenvunin,” they tsk.

“Papa?” Lavellan blurts. What is he doing here? Well, no,she can guess. Oh, no. She hopes hedidn’t do anything to get himself into trouble back at the palace.

When she glances back at Melarue, they are wearing Renathel’sform again.

“I suspect he will batter down the door if we leave him,”they say, and a moment later, Lavellan hears him shouting for her. Onlyfaintly; the sound-proofing is apparently good, but not impenetrable. Orpossibly just one-sided.

“We should tell him,” she thinks. He must be incrediblyupset. A rush of guilt runs through her, even though she doesn’t really knowwhat she has to feel guilty about.

Melarue shakes their head, though.

“Ah, no. I loveyour father very much, and secrets like these are of the sort that, on a badday, will get anyone who knows them executed. He is much, much safer, in hisown right, if he does not know. If things go horribly awry, then he will not belying if he pleads ignorance. Where Mythal is concerned, that may well matter.”

Lavellan frowns, conflicted. He is going to worry so much.But…

Murder is a steep charge, and she has already tempted fateon that front. Not that she regrets it.

Thenvunin shouts again, and she relents.

“For now,” she permits. “If he is going to do somethingterrible over this, it will be much more dangerous than him knowing a secret.”

Melarue nods in a manner that conveys ‘fair enough’ quiteably, and then finally heads over to the door. They unlock it again, and innearly the same motion move out of the way, as Thenvunin bursts into theworkshop. His fear is a palpable wave which follows him in, but it calms quitea bit when his gaze lands on her.

Lavellan has barely finished standing up when she findsherself crushed to his chest, his arms sweeping fiercely around her. She canfeel him crying even before he moves back again, and looks her over. Obviouslychecking for damage.

“Are you alright?” he asks. “Are you hurt? Did the fiendtouch you?”

“Papa, I am fine,” she assures him, patting him as well asshe can manage to with the grip he has on her. She barely gets the words outbefore he is hugging her again, squeezing her as though she is child-shapedagain. After a few minutes of this, more of his tumultuous cloud of emotionsbegins to calm down.

Melarue clears their throat. All at once, then, Thenvuninseems to recall that ‘Renathel’ exists.

He moves just enough so that Lavellan is tucked under one ofhis arms, and levels them with a look of pure venom.

“You! How dareyou?” he snaps. “Accepting such a transfer without the proper alphas present isan unbelievable insult, you – you reprehensible cur! And just look at thisplace. Do you mean to keep my daughter here?! In this filth? While you show her nothing but disrespect? Absolutely not!There is no excuse for this level of insult, you knew full well that you were gettingan apprentice, and yet you could not even be bothered to maintain a simpleworkspace. Disgraceful. There is no chance I am permitting Lavellan to remainhere, under the circumstances it is clear that another situation must be found,and I am certain Mythal will agree with me when I present her with the facts-”

Melarue shuts the door to the shop.

Thenvunin’s grip tightens around her shoulders, as they aresealed into the room.

“Open that door!” he demands. “Do not think you canintimidate me, my alpha is the mostskilled hunter left in the empire, and if you so much as raise a hand to us,they will make certain you regret it for a century at least!”

Melarue spreads their hands in a placating gesture.

“Pease, Thenvunin,” they say, in their regular voice.

Lavellan lets out a breath of relief. They aren’t lying.Good. She wasn’t at all convinced that she could manage it, if Melarue hadinsisted. But instead they shift their features again, and some of Thenvunin’stense outrage and enduring fear manage to melt away into confusion instead.

“Wha…?”

Melarue’s smile is distinctly rueful, this time. They foldtheir hands in front of themselves.

“I had almost forgotten how much you take after Mirena,”they say. “My mistake.”

Thenvunin still isn’t loosening his hold on her. Lavellanreaches up, and closes one of her hands over top of his. When he looks down ather, she offers him a reassuring smile.

“Papa, it is alright,” she says. “Grandmother arranged somethings with Melarue, to try and help me. Renathel was a ruse.”

He looks at her for a long moment. Longer and sharper thanshe expects, as he seems to take in as much of the situation as he can. But atlength, he sags, and when he hugs her again, there is more relief than panic inhis arms.

“Oh, thank goodness,”he says, tearfully. “Thank goodness, thank goodness. I was so frightened, ohyou must have been so frightened, too, my poor child…”

She was, truthfully. And it is impossible not to concede it,not with Thenvunin holding her and confessing his own fear like that. She rubsat his back and manages a nod, throat suddenly thick. Stomach still just slowlyuntying itself from all of its knots. She’s thankful twice over, now, forMirena and Melarue’s scheme. If Thenvunin had tried to take her back to thepalace with the actual Renathel present, she has no idea what would havehappened. But she has the ugly feeling that it would not have gone well forhim.

Melarue waits, politely, as the two of them take a moment torecover. Lavellan gets Thenvunin settled into one of the chairs, and offers togo and try to find him a glass of water. But he waves the prospect off, andkeeps hold of her hand as if he is loathe to let her out of his sight for now.

When he is looking more like his usual self, and less like aman on the verge of blasting the workshop to splinters, Melarue explains thesituation to him. Their approach, Lavellan wryly notes, is far less business-like,with Thenvunin still sporting tearstains on his cheek. She doesn’t actually see any guilt in their aura, but shethinks she detects some in their expression, just the same.

Once that is finished, Thenvunin looks around the workshopagain.

“But… Lavellan cannot possibly stay here,” he insists. “Itis horrid.”

“It is a ruse,” Melarue counters. “Renathel is reclusive andnotoriously unconcerned with aesthetics, and we are not aiming to imply that aspring romance has worked some wonders on their disposition. People will expectthem to be more present, in that case.”

Thenvunin frowns.

“Well, I may not be an expert on ruses, but I can tell youthat I would never let my childremain in such deplorable conditions,” he insists.

He has a point, too, Lavellan supposes. Melarue taps afinger against the back of their own hand, and seems to consider that.

“So what would youdo, Thenvunin, in the event that you could not extricate your daughter from herunfortunate circumstances?” they ask.

Thenvunin seems caught off-guard by the question for amoment. He looks at her, and then at the workshop again. Lavellan keeps hold ofhis hand; it seems to be steadying for him, and she’s maybe getting a littlebit of support from it, too. In her books, of course, the musty little shop isreally not so bad. Cleaning would probably not be unexpected of her. Opening awindow or two would probably also fall within the realms of reasonablebehaviour.

“I… I suppose,” Thenvunin says, as he looks back at Melarue.“I suppose I would petition Mythal to let me stay in her city holdings. I sometimesdo work here, so it would hardly be an inconvenience. And I would try to makethis place more livable, and keep my daughter company, and make certain thatthis Renathel was not mistreating her. Insofar as I could.”

Melarue considers it a moment, and then nods.

“Then, that is what you will do,” they decide.

Thenvunin lets out a breath, brows furrowed, and nods alittle. But then he glances towards her again.

“Uthvir,” he says. “We must tell them. I am certain thatthey have picked up on my distress through our bond, by now. They would not letthis stand, not at all.”

Before Lavellan can respond, Melarue interjects.

“The fewer people who know, the better,” they say. “This ismy secret as well, now, and I do not trust your Uthvir.”

Thenvunin straightens at that.

“Well I trust themvery much,” he counters. “And they are much better at deception than I am. Ifyou want this to work, they will have to know, or else they will simply whiskLavellan off to the wilderness to save her.”

Melarue does not look thrilled about it. But after a moment,they concede the point.

“Mirena says your Uthvir reminds her of me,” they admit,with a sigh. “If that is remotely true, then I suppose they might do as yousay.”

“Pride,” Lavellan interjects, her own mind turning towardshim. Does he know, yet? He had worked so hard to prevent this. Had promised hewould, even though she had known entirely that his actions would be limited;and had seen the definitive signs of failure beginning to wear on him already.She doesn’t blame him. Apparently, he not only had Mythal working against him,but Melarue, too.

He isn’t going to like this. And she’s not thrilled aboutthe prospect of deceiving him, either.

“The wolf? Absolutely not,” Melarue says, with far morefinality than they had offered at the prospect of Uthvir. “I can trust a parent’sdevotion, under the right conditions. But your paramour is Mythal’s. If youtell him, then we are done here. I will devise a suitable death for youralchemist and let Mythal place you where she pleases, next.”

Thenvunin looks affronted at their assertions. But notenough to argue with their sentiments towards Pride, Lavellan notes.

She feels inclined to argue herself. She trusts Pride.Against her better judgement, sometimes. And in this life, at least, he has notlet her down. It would cruel to let him think that he had failed her, whenthings had more or less turned out in the end.

But she’s not a fool.

Melarue wasn’t wrong to say that ignorance can be safer, inits own, strange way. Particularly here, where the truth can be wrested frompeople if there is sufficient means of doing it. She cannot assume that Melarueis bluffing with their threat. And…

And she knows that are circumstances where Pride would puthis concepts of duty and obligation above all else.

“…Alright,” she concedes. “I will think of something else totell him, so that he does not worry as much.”

“Renathel would not have been terribly pleased with you,”Melarue offers, as if in consolation. “You are not their type, I must say. Luckily, Tarensa did an unexpectedly fine job ofestablishing why they should put up with you anyway. But it would not be far-fetchedto presume that they would use you for drudge work, and little else.”

“I can work with that,” she agrees, with some relief. Just ajob, then. She need not feign being a ‘claimed’ omega. And if her parents come tostay in the city… she will not be particularly vulnerable on that front,either.

Though, that would leave Pride to fend for himself along, atthe palace.

She will have to think of something to help with that. Thenotion twists in her gut, unpleasant in its possibilities.

What would Mythal do, she wonders, if she were to simplycontinue visiting Pride and the palace in her free time? Would she take further‘measures’? It seems doubtful that she’d simply throw her hands up into the airand admit defeat.

She puts the problem aside, for the moment. Pride is not –to her knowledge – in imminent danger, and Thenvunin is straightening up andlooking very determined, now.

“I must go and tell Uthvir what has happened,” he says. “Iimagine they will be heading back, now. And I should lodge a complaint overthese living conditions with Mythal, along with a request to be transferred tothe city, to better attend the issue. But… I would not leave Lavellan with thelikes of Renathel, not so quickly or easily.”

“Renathel will be heading off to the Pleasure District,fortunately,” Melarue declares, shifting shape yet again. “He is quitedispleased with the state of his unruly omega – my apologies, dear. There issimply no accounting for taste sometimes.”

“No offense taken,” Lavellan assures them. “I suppose I willstay and start organizing the shop. If I am to be doing Renathel’s job, I willneed working equipment and supplies.”

“Just so,” Melarue agrees. “They have several commissionsongoing at the moment. The relevant information is in the upstairs desk. If youneed help with anything, come and find me.”

Lavellan wonders how complex those orders might prove. She’sdeveloped skills in this field, no doubt, but she’s not a master by any means. One problem at a time, she thinks. Someawkward stares are exchanged, and then finally Melarue bids the first farewell,and ‘Renathel’ heads off to his questionable pursuits and likelyrumour-mongering. Thenvunin delays a bit longer, despite his insistence that heshould go before Uthvir gets ‘over-alarmed’. He hugs her several more times,and then takes a brief tour of the workshop with her – tsk’ing over the spaceand looking horrified when they get upstairs, and he realizes that thebedchamber has no cleaning spellwork on it. Only the exterior seems to, in fact– Lavellan finds herself explaining that cleaning spells tend to not combinevery well with the craft.

“I am getting you a new bed,” he insists, nevertheless. “Donot touch that one. We will burn it.”

A rush of fondness runs through her, fervent enough that itspills outwards, and gets her another hug.

But, finally, she gets him out of the door, and is leftalone in this strange little slice of space within the city. Somehow,unexpectedly, and essentially, her workshop. A thing practically unheard of foran omega in Arlathan.

Everything is a mess,she finds herself thinking, looking around at the dirt-stained corners anddusty surfaces, the odd grime that has accumulated in neglected places.

And yet, it is still a terrible relief.

#a/b/o #filled prompt #kind of #Anonymous

[pomeparadox]

The Effects of Nothing (work in progress)

Chapter 1

…..

This is my first journal entry since they told me to record my life upon joining the task force. I still don’t know the name of the task force and whenever I ask someone what it is I always get a different answer. They told me I should record anything about my life I wish to remember because, for some reason, after people join this force they tend to forget a lot about their past.

 Before I was recruited, I lived with my single mom; my dad had died from a sickness that doctors couldn’t cure because they lacked the medicine they needed to cure him. A year later, the hospital closed its doors and became an apartment complex; all they did to change it was remove all the medical equipment. Many of the doctors that worked there couldn’t find work and died on the streets. This was normal to me, people were always dying on the streets, either from starvation, sickness, or by straight up murder. My mom was a recycler and was always afraid of losing her job because, this fact.

 Despite the horrible conditions, my mom would tell me stories about our people’s greatest achievements. I would always stay up until she was finished and I would cling to every word. I wish I could remember them all but, it’s been so long I don’t recall them all. Every night she’d tell me one, each a different tale full of wonders, excitement, and sometimes failure. She’d tell me that I needed to be strong, patient, and dedicated like the heroes of the past. I still don’t know why she told me this, but I’d always dress up in a cape and act out the stories that she told me the night before. My mom was dedicated to teaching my life lessons, math, science, history, persuasion, and even magic, although that was the only thing I ever did with her. I didn’t mind this though; I wish she would have played hero with me. Because, she never allowed me to go outside and play with the other children. She told me that now was the time to learn not the time to play.

 However, this all changed one day, when my mom came home early. When I asked her about it, she just took out her usual teaching materials. She then taught me for the rest of the day and by the time she closed the last book it was more than an hour past my bedtime. She then told me, “although it’s an hour past your bedtime, I need to tell you stories about our people’s history.” This was normal to me except for the late bedtime, which she was strict about.

 Once I had settled down in bed she began her story,” Our people had been around since the beginning of time. Because of this, they became the most advanced race in our universe. They even discovered magic, some of which had to destroy matter to perform. After years of using this magic, they declared it dark magic and outlawed it, because it was destroying to many of their resources. This caused a public outcry because many people wanted to use it for research and its power far surpassed other magic.  This was the cause of the dark war, a war that only stopped once the whole of the universe was nothing but this near barren planet and the star it orbited. It ended with the compromise to only use this, dark magic, in absolute dire situations. The only magic allowed, otherwise was, light magic.”

 I stood there speechless, this was the first time she ever mentioned dark magic. I not only had no idea that there was dark magic, but I had no idea that there was a Dark War and that it caused our world to be reduced to ruins. With these new revelations, I finally began to make sense of everything she had taught me. I wanted to ask her about why she had never told me this, but I just couldn’t seem get make my mouth work.

 After finishing she tuck me in and told me good night, there was without a doubt that there was something off about her that night and when she left my room and closed the door but, I was so tired that I shrugged it off and fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up on my own and was deeply confused about.

 “Why has mom not come in my room to wake me up, as she always did,” I asked myself. I then decided to get dressed then head to the kitchen to eat something. After getting dressed I then headed to the door, “maybe she woke up late too and went to quickly make breakfast.” I then made my way to the kitchen stretching and yawning as I walked. When I got to the kitchen I noticed that my mom was nowhere to be seen, “hmm, she must have left for work already,” I then shrugged and went to open the fridge, I saw there was note on the fridge so I tore it off. “I’ll read this while I eat” I told myself.

 I took the leftovers from the previous night and sat down at the table and began to eat. With a mouth, full of meat, I began to read the note, that my mom had left. It read “Alzar, the time has come for me to leave you. You have completed your training so I’m returning to my home across the sea. I’m so sorry to tell you this, but at the same time I’m glad that the burden is over. Please call the special services and tell them that Floren sent you.”

 After reading this note I felt sick to my stomach, I then dropped my fork and reread the note over and over. “Her children? What the hell does that mean? I’m not her son!” after this outburst it started making sense to me this was why she never treated me like her son, why she didn’t cry when my father died, why she always looked sad and distant, and why she was always making secret phone calls. I went over to the phone and called the services. After ringing four times a woman picked up on the other line. “State your name and business you have or I’m blocking this number” she sounded very stern tone.     “I’m Alzar Calidota, and I’m calling because, a woman named Floren requested me to.” I was quickly cut off by a sigh.     “So, you’re the kid Floren told us about, I’ll send some staff over to get you” she said exasperatedly. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into but, I soon found out when the staff came.

 It was about an hour later, when two men busted open the door and yelled, “Grab your stuff and come with us!” They were about 7ft tall and yelled in deep husky voices, they also yelled in union which I found strange. I quickly jumped up and grabbed my clothes and stuffed them into my bag. I then followed them down stairs and into their car. They spoke nothing the entire ride and only stared me down, which intimidated me too much to ask questions. Once the car stopped they took me inside the special services facility. After arrival, they took me to a lady, who was tall, slim, had red curly hair, and was called Vivian. She took me to my room and told me, “this is where you live now, meals will be served in the morning and in the evening” she then closed the door behind me. I went to my bed to sleep, “what a day!” I said as I closed my eyes.

 The next day I took me to a room to test me. They gave me test on the subjects that I was taught by Floren, with each test they gave me seemed to only increase the need to test me. At first testing was easy to the point I started to lose interest and it became a chore rather than a test. Only one person would watch me take the test, but after a while the amount of people watching began to increase as I took these examinations. However, after a 30-day period of testing the test began to become challenging to the point I began to feel more motivated. Every day the test would rise to a new level and I would have less time between test until all I did was test. This although enjoyable began to force me to rely completely on my magic abilities to keep myself awake.

 Although, they seemed to be very impressed by my efforts, they never once rewarded me for it. until one day when I woke up expecting them to quickly feed me and rush me over to the testing station, but this time it was different instead of a staff member waking me and giving me a piece of bread, I woke on my own to a delicious smell of roast meat. I turned toward the source and to my surprise there was a heaping chunk of meat placed on my nightstand I quickly started to tear it apart eating as fast as I could. I had eaten it almost completely when I heard people talking in the hall, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying, they sounded very excited.

 Seconds later I heard three swift knocks on my door. “that’s weird normally they just barge in” I thought to myself. I then heard a second more impatient knock that seemed to rattle my whole room, curious about why someone would knock I answered timidly, “Come in.” In came a large, muscular man with a shaved head wearing a dark suit with a purple rose in the pocket. His eyes were obscured by sunglasses he walked in a very respectful way and held a very straight posture as he walked in. Following closely behind him was Vivian, her dark gray eyes followed the man’s every move in a very lustful manner. She wore a pink apron with a blue shirt and pants, and she played her red curly locks as she stared at the man.

     “Hello there, and what would your name be?” Said the man in a strong but gentle voice that seemed like it was meant to sound calm, but I could clearly hear his excitement.    “I’m Alzar, who are you?” I said, not fully trusting the man. He chuckled a little but it almost sounded forced, “you can call me G.m, Alzar I’ve heard you took some test…” G.m said, but I somewhat impatiently cut him off, “I didn’t take some test! I took three months worth of test! So get to the point,” G.m chuckled and continued, Vivian glared at me but, quickly went back to staring at G.m, her eyelashes fluttering a bit.     “And we were quite impressed with the results and would like you to come work for us so pack your things, I’ll be in the lobby” G.m walked out and headed down the hall.

 Vivian smiled at me after watching G.m walk out and close the door behind him.    “You’re going off to do everyone a huge service,” she beamed “it has been such a long time since we had someone qualified for the job, Oh I’m so excited! Let me pack your things you go get cleaned up.” She then started to pack my stuff, “Wait I’m not even dressed yet,” I said grabbing my toothbrush and a pair of clothes. I then headed out of my room and made my way toward the restroom “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!” I thought to myself “what kind of test were those and why is everyone acting so happy.”

#sci-fi & fantasy #story #character development #chapter 1 #most likely shitty #making a game based on it

[jodieelliswritings-blog]

Killer Code

Piece for NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge 2017

Genre: Spy, Subject: Counseling, Character: A hostage

Word Count: 2453

A special agent is faced with an old enemy seeking revenge; the father of a young girl he had killed accidentally in a siege gone wrong. With only his student, an ex-vigilante hacker, by his side, he must try to save the lives of his wife and infant son. 

Three years had passed since the death of Leo Bianchi’s daughter. Charlize was only fourteen, still clad in her school uniform when she was shot in the head during a firefight between Bianchi’s men and the government special agents who had been targeting the crime family for years. I knew the anniversary was coming up because I still had nightmares about that day and they intensified the closer it got. I still feel my finger pulling the trigger. I still see the life fading from Charlize's blue eyes. Almost every night I hear Bianchi’s tormented cries as he realized his little girl was dead.

When I have those nightmares, I have to go into my son’s room and cradle him for a little while. My wife, Manon, calls him “Houdini” because he always finds a way to escape from his confines. By hook or by crook he will get around every baby safe gate and playpen to find us.  Even though he was growing up and becoming a little character, I still cradle him as though he was a tiny newborn, and as I do, I understand the sound Leo Bianchi made.

After the accident, I took a leave of absence. I didn’t want it, I wanted to bury my head in the sand, but I’m glad I was forced to take it. The lawyers managed to worm me out of any criminal charge; Bianchi’s men had killed many more of our's, but I was still moved to a newer clandestine unit that my bosses were developing, training special agents to work like hackers and take down targets remotely. I ended up with a more supervisory role, giving orders rather than getting into the dirty work. I wasn’t trusted out on the field, yet, so I stayed behind. I still kept my service pistol with me at all times, because of the paranoia that someone may one day make me pay for what I had done to Charlize.

It was getting easier and easier to monitor targets these days. With better gadgets more accessible and affordable, the public put anything and everything online. They buy things with their electronic wallets, they tweet their locations for lunch, they send their most private photographs to their lovers. And when everything is online, everything is easier for the wrong hands to get a hold of.

Chosposi Austin used to be those wrong hands. She was a millennial who, somehow, managed to hack into the most secure network in the world. Cho faced an ultimatum; use her skills for the good of the government, or face a prison sentence.

Cho was one of my targets, the best I had ever seen. I still don’t know exactly how she managed to break down every single firewall we had and gather the most closed off documents; documents even the President couldn’t get his hands on. She had no qualms about using the sensitive information against anyone and everyone. She was the perfect candidate for the new, highly skilled technicians we needed. Vigilante hackers were always going to be better than us. Where we had the connections and technology to break down barriers, they had the guts and brawn to do it on so much less.

It wasn’t just the fact that she was highly intelligent that caught my attention, and she was one of the most gifted people out there. Cho flew through the special agents testing like we were asking her “What color is the green ball?” And yet she wasn’t this reclusive, nerdy girl with little social skills. She was a vibrant extrovert who went shopping at the mall with her friends and drank beers at bars on a Saturday night. She lived on a reservation with her family, working at a clothing store four days a week and tending the horses the other days. She was a normal girl, with a normal life to everyone on the outside. That was what caught my attention, her ability to appear just like everyone else. Hiding her true identity like a millennial Clark Kent. She fascinated me, captivated me.

Maybe suggesting that she would make a valuable asset to our team was entirely for selfish reasons. I saw potential to make her one of the good guys and I wanted to be the one to steer her in the right direction. Teach her how to use everything that she had taught herself for the greater good instead of filling this void that she had somewhere inside of her. Maybe I was using her to fill the void I had inside of me. Coaching her and guiding her towards this greatness that I took away from myself when I killed Charlize.

When I first started working with Cho, I thought it was going to be a breeze. Intelligent and fast-thinking, I thought she was going to grab the bull by the horns and rise to the top of the hierarchy faster than anyone had before. But what I found was that she had issues. There was no obvious reason for it, but she thrived on being powerful. The power she held when she had the worst of your past organized neatly in a laptop, ready to make you do whatever she wanted you to because, if she chose, she could ruin your life.

She found out about Charlize pretty quickly. Obviously, the first person she planned on manipulating was her mentor. Cho was met with something she hadn’t before, though. I was stone-faced, unmoved by her exploitation. No matter how hard she tried, her manipulation techniques didn’t work on me. She couldn’t find anything else about me online, so all she had to go on was that one legal document. That’s when I finally broke through and she started to listen. That was the moment she started to learn and understand that this opportunity she had was going to help her channel that itching feeling of powerlessness into something productive. Something good. That Cho could fill the void she had by doing to right thing. By being the hero instead of the villain.

Cho was desperate to finally get out on the field and crack down on a target of her own. She wanted the action that I had experienced and told her stories about, she wanted to be a real special agent. I tried to explain to her that the person sat in front of the computer was composed and steady, five steps ahead at all times with every situation planned for in advance. When the screens were taken away, she was reckless and impulsive, her immaturity and superfluous thrill-seeking making her an easy prey. Cho needed to learn how to keep the composure she had in front of the screen when face to face with her target.

We worked together solidly for a year and a half. It wasn’t just me teaching Cho how to become a special agent, either. She taught me so much about technological warfare. Even though I’d been in the department for more than a year, there were things hackers could do that I couldn’t even fathom until she showed me. How easy she found it to hack a nuclear power plant, to cut the power or to combust a reactor. Cho told me she even knew how to hack a pacemaker, but she never tried it out.

She also helped me deal with what I had done to Charlize. Cho was the only one the only one I told my side of the story to, warts and all. Although I was resistant on showing my emotions, due to the agent training and my annoying stubbornness, Cho could see straight through it. She saw human emotion like a hard drive; just needing to be studied before rewiring it.

On the night of the anniversary, Cho asked me to go for a drink with her after work. I politely declined, partially because I don’t drink, but mostly because I didn’t know what her intentions were for the drink. Drink away the memories? Drink until I forget my wife? I instead invited Cho over to my house for dinner. I warned her that dinner would be a Thai takeout and not a fancy, home cooked meal, but she accepted anyway.

Arriving at my home, we found the door barged open. Where other people may have gone into a blind rage, storming the house, the years and years of training had me remaining calm, even if the hostages or victims were my wife and infant son. When Cho turned to me and parted her lips to say something, I swiftly placed my fingers over them and motioned for her to keep quiet. I had a light compact revolver hidden in my coat pocket in the armoire in the hallway, I took it out and gave it to Cho. I had considered telling her to hide, but I knew she wouldn’t. It was easier to just give her orders I knew she wouldn’t disobey.

The house was dark, whoever broke into my home did so while it was still light outside. Manon was terrible for leaving every light on in the house. I swept the entire ground floor; nothing was out of place, not even a picture frame out of line. I motioned for Cho to follow me outside. There was a staircase that led up to the balcony of the master bedroom. Soft orange light glowed against the white exterior wall from the french windows.

As Cho and I crept up the stairs, she grabbed my arm, signaling for me to listen. There were three voices, from what I could gather, whispering in Italian. Cho heard it too. She mouthed “Bianchi” at me, and I felt the color drain from my cheeks. She shook her head as I reached for my pistol, her eyes telling me more than words could. She wasn’t guessing, she knew it was Bianchi. I didn’t want to believe what my gut was telling me, but she knew it was him.

Our heads both snapped towards the top of the stairs when the sound of the door caught our attention. Leo Bianchi stood proudly before us, fresh from high-security prison, feet wide apart and arms crossed. He asked us to join him in the bedroom, Chosposi and I. When I stepped through the balcony door, I saw my wife kneeling on the floor, cradling our infant son. She whimpered, hyperventilating from the panic, her lips turning a soft purple.

“My old friend,” Bianchi said, his baritone voice bounced off the walls in a thick, Italian accent, “I was informed that you took your wife’s name when you married her. I feel it must be some kind of, what is the English word? Redenizone, redemption. Stripping yourself of, well, yourself. Bousignac is much more exotic, though,”

Bianchi took strong strides over to my wife, kneeling down before her and gently wiping away her tears. He moved his hand to stroke the black hair on my son’s head, so softly and delicately, the well practiced touch of a father. He was taunting me, showing me he had complete control and ability to do harm and choosing not to. “Raphael is a very stoic name you chose, Manon, mia cara. Names are very important. My wife chose Charlize, but I never call her that. Patatina, little potato, that’s what I call her. A silly name, but traditional,”   

His gentleness mocked me while his goons were stood with assault rifles aimed at my wife and precious child. He was giving me time to take it all in. Giving me time to feel wretched and sick before he took it all away. Cho was breathing heavily next to me, the revolver I had given her lay on her thigh, no sign she planned on shooting.

Bianchi stood up from his crouch, turning to face Cho and me again. “Chosposi,” he said, “I told you to keep him away for a little longer. Ma non importa. You’ve done well, mia cara. I understand this must have been very difficult, but you were a good teacher to my boys, they have been thriving with their online business. And, again, grazie, for getting my sentence reduced,” Cho had betrayed me, I thought I was training a special agent, and she was training as a double agent. "A very clever girl you have here, Friars- oh, excuse me, Bousignac. She is a credit to you, she can take on the world with just a computer,"

He was taunting me again, throwing it in my face that my student was my enemy. I could no longer keep the stone-faced composure I was taught to keep, that I taught Cho to keep. Before I could lift my pistol an inch, I heard a clamor of gunshots.

There is a myth that when you’re shot, you fall to your knees, but you don’t. I felt the burning pain move up my torso before I looked down at my abdomen, my shirt staining with the blood that oozed from the gaping wound. My vision had begun to blur, but still, I looked to Manon and my son. She was laying on the ground, a bullet wound in the exact spot I shot Charlize. Bianchi’s goons lay dead on the floor too. I looked around feverously, confused about what had just happened, my breath catching as I clung to my stomach.

Bianchi stood with his hands up, the fear in his eyes as he blathered in Italian. Cho came into my field of vision as I finally fell to the floor. She was aiming the gun right at him. She told him that she deserved a lot more credit than he had given her, that the websites his men were running were now easily tracked and that his whole organization was about to fall. That she was going to laugh as she watched it all happen. Then, she put a bullet into his skull.

Cho came to me, once Bianchi was dead. She asked for my forgiveness, but they were going to hurt her family if she didn’t do as they asked. That without me she never would have been able to double cross them like she did.  I could barely speak, I could only manage a few words. “You’re amazing,” I told her.

The only thing that kept me from slipping into the embrace of death was the sound of my son’s cries. I hoped he was crying because of all the noise and not because he knew his mother lay dead beside him. He was all I had left.

No, that wasn’t true. I had Cho, too. My redemption didn’t feel so far away, anymore.

#( .all. ) #( .all ss. ) #( .comp. ) #( .ss spy. ) #my writing #writers community #writers on tumblr #short story