#and had to like freeze my credit and change my passwords and everything

[madaqueue]

YAY YIPPEE QUINN IS HOME!!!!!!!!! reunited with a VERY excited ham (cat) :33 i hope you all are having fabulous weekends :’) love you MWAH!!!!!!

[sebabestianstan101]

Suit and Tie - 001

Pairing: Ceo!Bucky Barnes x Reader

Synopsis: You’re good at your job as the Secretary in The White Wolf Enterprise for years now, with a great set of friends and co-workers and a really hot boss, James Buchanan Barnes. You have a pretty decent work-relationship with him, even if you have to use all of your strength and self-control to not jump on him at every chance you get. Nothing exciting is really going on with your life, until your boss himself decides to spice things up a bit.

Themes throughout the series: Smut, angst, fluff, slight dom!bucky x sub!reader (nothing too crazy..), swearing, there’s probably going to be more as the story progresses

SERIES MASTERLIST Teaser 002 

Your day has just begun and so far, everything has been absolute shit. 

The top-floor elevator button takes the beating as you vigorously press it, hoping that it would make it go up faster. You say a silent prayer to arrive on time. You can’t be late. It’s unlike you, and your boss wouldn’t be happy.

In exactly 30 minutes, the CEO of Stark Industries, Tony Stark, will meet with your boss to discuss a business partnership that would benefit both parties and is set to raise The White Wolf Enterprise’s profit margins up to 55% at the least. This is a big project and your attendance is expected to take important minutes from the meeting. You’re excellent at your job and you know that Mr. Barnes trusts you more than anyone with these kinds of things, and you don’t plan on disappointing him. 

“Come on, come on…” You tap your foot as you watch the floor numbers increase along with your heart rate. 

It’s not that he’s the typical asshole CEO/Boss that some people unluckily have. You’re not scared of him or anything –– it’s just that you don’t want to disappoint him. You thrive from his approval of your work which is why you’re so good at what you do. It doesn’t help that the reason you’re not as early is because you overslept. You can’t really blame yourself though; you really tried to get home as early as you can from your sister’s wedding last night, which is a 4-hour drive away from where you live. Leaving the wedding reception at 12AM and arriving at 4AM, gave you about 3 hours to get settled. All was well, until you fell asleep on your couch instead of making your way out the door. 

After what feels like forever, you reach the top floor and quickly make your way to the conference room to set up the presentation. You would normally drop by Mr. Barnes’ office before you prepare for meetings, but you didn’t want to risk getting reprimanded and causing a delay.  You dab your sweat that was starting to form in your forehead, careful not to wipe off your makeup. You fumble with the cords and typed in the password, having to take a few tries before successfully inputting it. Damn, you are a mess today. 

Distracted, you tap your nails against the table and your focus was completely on the screen in front of you that you did not realize someone entering the room. 

“You’re late,” a firm voice behind you takes you by surprise. 

A startled gasp escapes you and you swear you feel your neck almost snap with how fast your head turned. 

“Fuck!” 

Bucky raises his eyebrows at your inappropriate language, finding it amusing but keeps a neutral face, nonetheless. He takes notice of your unusual distressed state, the slight bags forming under your eyes making him squint out of concern. Beautiful, he thinks to himself. Regardless of how tired you look, you still manage to stay radiant in his eyes. 

If possible, your eyes widen even more as you notice him squint his eyes, thinking that he was offended by your language. Immediately, you clear your throat and stand still to compose yourself. 

“I apologize, Sir, I didn’t mean to use such, uh, inappropriate terms, uhm,” You can’t help but feel even more nervous by just seeing him stand so confidently. With the way he's looking at you, you don’t know if the fluttering in your stomach is because of fear or arousal. “I did.. Just arrive. I apologize for that as well, I had an exhausting drive back home and I may have.. Overslept,” 

He holds your gaze long enough to make you squirm and break eye contact, preparing to be scolded. What were you thinking? You should’ve just told a stupid lie about how your car wouldn’t start or something rather than oversleeping. You mentally groan and drown in your thoughts that you miss the way the corner of his lips curl upwards as he looks at you with… fascination. 

He smirks as he calls out your name, making you look back at his piercing blue eyes. 

“I don’t think you received the memo from Wanda earlier, but Stark moved the meeting on Thursday. You’re all good.” 

You blink up at him once again, relaxing a bit, but still a bit tense because of how stressful your whole morning had been so far. It didn’t help that he startled you earlier. You almost want to cry because of how tired you are, but you kept your composure and smiled. 

“So.. I’m not in trouble or anything, right?” You peer up at him while giving him a shy smile. You don’t know how you can manage to keep eye contact with him for longer than a minute with the way he looks at you. His gaze is always so deep that you wouldn’t be surprised if he can actually read your thoughts.  

“Well, I could give you a warning for it, but you seem like you’ve gone through a lot at 9 in the morning.” He says, giving you a sympathetic look. 

“Well Mr Barnes, you’re right about that,” You sigh while bending forward to fix up the laptop you were trying to set up earlier. For a brief moment, Bucky lets his eyes drop to your ass that looked so full through your tight skirt. He clenches his jaw to stop himself from taking you right then and there.. He looks back up before you catch him. He’s surprised you haven’t caught him, given that he’s been checking you out every single time he got the chance to for years now. 

“You can settle down for a while - drink some coffee if you can before dropping by my office. You’re going to need all the energy that you can get,” 

You freeze and your eyes snap at him, wide-eyed, not sure if you heard him right. 

 “Sir?” 

He raises his brow while giving you a little smirk, knowing the connotation of his words “Yes, while we discuss some changes with the presentation. Can’t have you on low energy today, Y/N,” 

“Oh! Right, Uhm,” You chuckle nervously, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, “Of course. I’ll be there in a while,” 

He gives you a curt nod before leaving the room, making you release a deep exhale. Boy, does he make you nervous. 

-  

It’s been a few hours, and you’re now typing on your laptop, making the necessary changes for the presentation. From his desk, Bucky has probably glanced at you multiple times as your lips slightly move, murmuring the words you’re reading. It’s a habit that you have, which has brought his attention to your lips from the very beginning. He can almost tell how soft it is and how good it would feel on his own. 

He feels like a freak, fantasizing about you when you’re literally steps away from him. Though, he can get credit for being risky enough to do so. Every time you’re near him, your presence clouds his mind and he just wants to make all his fantasies become reality. Would you go along with it or will you deny him? Would you immediately drop on your knees if he commands you to? Will you be his good girl? 

He’s not oblivious to your long-held stares and how your breathing quickens when he’s near you. He knows the effect he has on you, and he’s almost confident that you’ll be willing to do anything for him. But, he also respects you and the relationship you both have. He’s your boss and he knows how much you value your job. 

“Hm, okay.. I think everything is here?” Your voice breaks his crowding thoughts as you stand up with the laptop on your hand, walking towards him. He clears his throat as he stands up from his chair to double check your work edits. He almost wished that there was an error so you’d stay a little bit longer, but as always, you’ve done everything perfectly. 

“Alright, everything seems to be in place,” He hums, nodding as he hands back your laptop. You give him a grateful smile as you look up at him with your doe eyes. “Have it ready on Thursday and send this to Wanda as well,” 

You nod before asking, “Is there anything else I can help you with?” 

Bucky takes a sharp inhale as his mind, once again, clouds with inappropriate thoughts. Yes, Y/N, you can get under my desk and keep my cock in your mouth as I work. 

He shakes his head along with his thoughts before dismissing you, “I think that’s all we need. Thank you, Y/N. I’ll call you when there’s anything else,” 

You thank him and you gather your things before exiting his office, leaving Bucky on his own with his thoughts once again. He can still smell your lingering perfume in the air, and it’s enough to make his semi-hard member harden even more. He sighs as he makes his way to his bathroom, locking his office door on the way.

002

A/N: OMG OKAY.. she’s here :> Please send an ask if you want to be tagged! 

As usual, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated –– Let me know what y’all think! It’ll really help me improve and provide better content for y’all. Keep safe! 

[petri808]

@kyoruweekofficial One Bed prompt

What do you do when you have two co-workers who obviously have crushes on each other, but neither have the guts to make a move? Well, according to Arisa Uotani, you make it for them. So, with the help of co-conspirator Saki Hanajima, the pair decide to play Cupid and stage a romantic intervention. For you see, Saki is the project manager at their company, and it was her job to schedule conference attendances for the employees. How lucky for them that the perfect opportunity presented itself. Oh, this was going to be good! They just wished they could have been there to see it.

The longer the hotel receptionist talked, the more Tohru could feel her ears burning and her cheeks turning a cherry tomato color. “W-Wait a minute, are you telling me we were booked into the same hotel room?!”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s what your company booked for you and Mr. Sohma. Four days in our honeymoon suite while you attend the conference. Is there a problem?”

“Yeah, there’s a problem!” Kyo Sohma, Tohru’s co-worker grits back. “Our company must have made a mistake, so change the booking to two separate rooms.”

“I’m really sorry sir, but the hotel is at full capacity because of the conference, so I can’t do that. If there’s a cancellation later, I could put in a request, but that’s all I can offer.”

“It’s okay, Kyo,” Tohru’s meek voice cuts in before the man has a chance to respond. “There’s nothing this lady can do and it’s just three days, so w-we can figure something out.”

He turns and realizes just how embarrassed his co-worker looked. Though her eyes were averted to the ground, her rosy cheeks, and the glow in her face, stops him cold. Fuck, she looked so cute like that! “Fine,” he feels the heat in his face increasing, “then just give us our keys please, so we can be on our way.”

Kyo takes hold of both their luggage handles, “grab it from the woman,” he tells Tohru and walks toward the elevator to wait.

“I’m really sorry,” Tohru apologizes to the receptionist. “This was a surprise for us.”

“Don’t worry, mistakes happen ma’am.” She placed the items on the counter. “Here are your card keys that includes the WiFi password on the sleeve along with instructions. If you require any extra amenities, do not hesitate to call the front desk for assistance. You’re scheduled to be here for three nights and four days, with check out at 11am on Thursday. Again, I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Not your fault.” Tohru politely thanks the woman and grabs the items, then joins Kyo to head towards their room.

While he waited, Kyo fumed over the whole situation. Being sent to the same conference as Tohru was the first red flag, but not completely out of the norm since they were working on the same project, so he’d chalked it up to coincidence. But now the receptionist said it was a honeymoon suite. Why would Saki book them a honeymoon suite! Rhetorical question, he had a pretty damn good suspicion on the answer. ‘Those two meddlers!’

“Kyo, I have the keys. The room is on the top floor.”

He’d been so focused on his mental dialogue, Tohru’s voice suddenly right beside him, catches him off guard. His body stiffens for a second as if caught in the act of a crime. “Great.” He acts like nothing’s wrong and hits the up button for the elevator. ‘Just... great...’

As soon as they walk in, the pair deadpan at the interior of the room. What did they expect when they’d heard the worlds ‘honeymoon suite,’ a normal hotel room? ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me?!’ Kyo let’s go of the luggage handles and makes a visual sweep, before landing on the single bed near the window. Not only were they sharing a room, but sharing a bed, and a bathroom for four days! ‘They’re dead. Saki and Arisa are so dead when we get home!’ What the hell were they thinking by sticking us in this kind of a room! ‘If they’re so hell bent on hooking us up, have they ever heard of a blind date?!’

Tohru at this point was faring no better, but instead of frustration her emotions ran more along the lines of simple embarrassment. She was starting to realize that this whole situation was set up by their friends, and she didn’t know if she should thank them or never speak to them again. Because deep down, she was a little excited for this opportunity to be closer to him, and also terrified if Kyo happened to feel the same way. Saki and Arisa were adamant that the man liked her too, a lot, and maybe he, they just needed a push to get things moving. But this was a pretty big push!

“I could just sleep on the floor?”

“What?! No,” what kind of man does she take him for? “I’m not gonna let you sleep on a floor, that’s crazy Tohru. I-it’ll— it’ll be fine,” Adam’s apple bobbing hard, “it’s a big bed, w-we can make it work.” ‘Have to make it work.’

“O-Okay,” she smiles and pretends that everything really is so. If they were going to be stuck in this situation, they might as well make the best of it. “It’s a really pretty room.”

For that Kyo had to agree, and he wondered just how Saki was able to justify its rental in company records. The color ambiance screamed love and romance. Come on, a velvet red bed frame, matching love seat and contrasting white bedding. Red walls, red curtains, and dark cherry oak furnishings really heightened the overall affect. The full bar was definitely getting tapped tonight!

They go about their business pretending everything was fine, hanging up clothes and putting away their things, setting up the bathroom with their items in a ‘his and hers’ manner. If they were going to be stuck together, they needed to be civil and not let things get too awkward. Or so they hoped. At least they had things to prepare for the conference to keep busy, information to go over including a booklet that was sent ahead of time to familiarize themselves with the schedule. The organizers planned on break-out sessions for participants to meet with others working on similar ideas so they could bounce ideas off of each other. It was interesting add on considering these are competitors, but because green initiatives has been a focus for the government, they’ve pushed for more collaborative efforts.

When dinner time rolls around, the pair go to the hotel’s restaurant for convenience, since it was on the property. It had fairly decent reviews on its food offerings, and Kyo was more than ready to have a few beers to settle his nerves. They put the meal on a company credit card. Tohru orders a simple meal, but Kyo spares no opportunity to take full advantage of the most expensive offerings. ‘Saki can kiss my ass on the bill!’

He was quite surprised when Tohru ordered a glass of wine cause he’d heard she wasn’t much of a drinker. Kyo chuckles in his head, she probably needed a relaxer just like him. It irritated him a bit to know other guests probably assumed they were a couple. They sure did look like one, on a date, a romantic one at that, and he swore the server had almost asked, then changed their question at the last second.

By Kyo’s third beer, Tohru’s rosy complexion was really making it hard to stay professional. He knew it was just the alcohol working, but it made her look nervous and embarrassed in a first date kind of way. So innocently adorable, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. They managed to keep the conversation casual, but it was slowly becoming evident, they’d had other thoughts going through their minds.

When the server returns with their credit card slip, the man asks them if they were there for the conference to which they reply yes. “So, you’re co-workers, not a couple?”

“Yeah, why,” Kyo responds to the man.

But instead of answering Kyo, the server brazenly turns to Tohru instead. “I think you’re really pretty, and since I’m about to finish my shift, I was wondering if you’d like to go to a club with me?”

“Eh?” Tohru freezes, “I-I...”

Kyo stands up quick as a flash, getting right into the servers face. He jabs a finger into the man’s chest. “Fuck off guy, or I’ll report you to management!” He then grabs Tohru’s hand and pulls her away from the table, “let’s go!” Oh, he was so pissed! Co-workers or not, the balls on this guy to pull such a stunt right in front of him, what the hell was he thinking?! ‘He’s lucky I didn’t knock him on his ass!’

She knew better than to say a word and simply let Kyo pull her away towards the elevators. It was a little weird, wonderful, surprising, and frankly endearing for him to have defended her like that. Her cheeks were now heating up for other reasons, and the warmth of his hand in hers made her feel special. Did he realize he was still gripping tightly to her hand? Even as they stood there waiting for the elevator and the threat now over, he held on. As she watches his face carefully through her periphery, his serious expression wasn’t wavering. So, hoping not to startle him, and to avoid further embarrassment when he realized what he was doing, Tohru gently squeezes his hand back.

“Yeah?” Kyo’s eyes flare wide. “Oh!” Shit! He lets go. “My apologies.”

“It’s okay,” she smiles softly and keeps her voice low. “Thank you for defending me back there.”

“It was nothing,” he turns his head to hide his blush, mumbling a response. “That guy had some nerve interrupting us like that.”

Safely inside their hotel room, the pair preps for a quiet evening. Tohru changes into a comfortable set of pajamas, while Kyo sticks with a t-shirt and cotton shorts. Nothing racy at all. He offers her another drink as he grabs a beer and again is surprised when she takes another glass of red wine. “You know,” he questions as he pours the glass for her, “everyone said you’re not a drinker.”

She sits down on the bed and takes the offered glass, placing the rim to her lips as if to muffle her words. “I’m usually not,” Tohru answers honestly, but leaves out more details like she needed a bit of courage juice to make it through the evening.

Leaving about a foot of space between them, Kyo sits down on the bed as well. He takes a deep swig of the bottle. “Me neither.” Which was true, he only drank on occasion when he’d go out with friends. But tonight, it was keeping his nerves in check.

They sit there quietly in a companionable silence, sipping their drinks and lost in thoughts of what to say or do next. Kyo would never try to take advantage of Tohru, but the desire to make a move ate away at him, practically screamed to do something to break the stalemate. He’s had such a major crush on the sweet woman for so long, but he always thought he wasn’t good enough for her. As far as Kyo was concerned, Tohru was a perfect complement to his more outgoing nature, and yet deserved someone better. Their co-workers teased him so much about the crush too. Ugh, his cousin Hatsuharu kept telling him if he didn’t make a move soon, he’d steal Tohru. It was a hollow threat considering the man was already seeing another woman, but it still got under his skin.

He could still remember the day Tohru was hired to his family’s company. She was friends with Saki and Arisa, and they’d given the woman glowing reviews so the Co-CEO Shigure Sohma decided to give her a chance. Tohru walked into his office confused trying to figure out where she was supposed to go, and it was love at first sight. That was two years ago.

Tohru could feel the effects of the second glass of wine coming on stronger than the first one had hit her. Which is what she wanted to happen. It made her feel much more relaxed, but not quite drunk, and warmed up in the cooler air conditioning of the room. It wasn’t however, helping with the courage department. She wanted to ask him so badly, just to finally know where she stood, if Kyo had any romantic interests in her. What if he said no? But what if he said yes?!

“That guy was right...” Kyo suddenly breaks the stalemate. “You are very pretty.”

Eh?! “I, um, thank you,” Tohru sputters but goes for the gold. “You’re very handsome too.”

When he looks at Tohru, Kyo finds her staring at the floor with her adorable red cheeks on fire. He chuckles inwardly and places his beer on the nightstand, then reaches over and takes the glass from her, placing it on the table as well. It was now or never. He tips her chin up and forces her eyes onto him. “May I?” His eyes zero in on her lips, communicating his desire. She nods sheepishly with her approval, eyes closing as he leans in and places a soft kiss on her lips.

This wasn’t her first kiss, but it was the best one by far. His lips were so soft and pressured, his fingers gently keeping her from pulling away. They move from her chin to cradles her cheek, his thumb sweeping lightly against her skin as their heads change in angle. Oh, it was such a sweet move! It’d been worth the wait! As he pulls away, Kyo places one final kiss on her forehead.

“We probably shouldn’t rush things but,” he takes her hand and kisses the back of it, “is it too forward to ask if we could cuddle tonight?”

Fuck no! Tohru squeals giddily in her head, but on the outside kept her cool. She smiles and squeezes his hand back. “I’d really like that.” And reminder to self to thank Saki and Arisa when we get home...

[alarriefantasy]

                        Author Spotlight : louistomlinsons

tonight's not over (come over and stay) 

Words: 16k

Zayn doesn’t say anything for a moment, pausing and worrying at his bottom lip. Finally, he asks, “Have you heard that Cox guy is coming out with a new song?” Louis freezes, fingers hovering over his keyboard where they had been typing his password. “No, I hadn’t,” Louis says truthfully. “Where did you hear that?” “Tell anyone this and I’ll kill you, but I’d consider myself a big fan,” Zayn says. His face doesn’t change in expression, completely serious as he admits this to Louis. “Big fan? Like run a blog and everything?” or, harry is a famous singer and louis is a student who just wants to write his novel

fall in love with the moon (and everything beautiful)

Words: 10k

“It’s adorable that you think you can compromise with me on this,” Louis says. He places his hands on his hips and tries his best to look intimidating. “But I am not budging on this. Every book pun you say will result in one quarter in the jar.” “What jar?” Harry asks. He furrows his eyebrows together. Louis rolls his eyes. “Like a swear jar, but now I’m going to make yours ‘Harry’s dumbass pun jar.’ Maybe I’ll have you put a quarter in for every pun you say, not just the ones about books. Niall was right - you tell the worst jokes.” “One time Niall told me I’d never said a funny joke in my life,” Harry says casually. “Funny. He told me that too.” or, louis and harry work in a bookstore together and harry tells dumb jokes and they fall in love

or are you giving it to someone else

Words: 3k

“Dude, last night I couldn’t tell if he was being murdered or having the best sex of his life,” Louis said, taking a sip of his beer. He tried to say it as quietly as he could in the loud pub, worried about who may overhear him. “Is this your neighbor?” Liam asked. He was newer to the group, and therefore, newer to the situation. He had only heard a handful of the stories about the strange things Louis heard his neighbor doing, as opposed to the book Louis could most definitely write about the man. In the hallways, he seemed perfectly normal. He would smile at Louis and sometimes make polite conversation. He didn’t seem like the type to be having loud, kinky sex every night at the craziest hours of the day. But he was. or, louis hears his neighbor having loud sex through the walls and it's not a problem until it is

credit to the owner of the manip

tumblr: @microlouis

[alleiradayne]

An Update

It’s been a millennia since I wrote anything. I know I don’t owe anyone any writing (technically, I do, but that’s a different story, no pun intended). But I wanted to keep my followers in the know.

I have been up to my eyeballs in the dumbest fucking shit lately and I’m not even talking about COVID-19. My work sucks. The only good thing about it is that my team, the immediate people I work with on the regular, are awesome. But I need to get out soon. The actual work itself is fucking soul-sucking and I hate it. I get very little downtime, which is a major contributor to why I haven’t written much lately. Not because I don’t have the free time at work like I used to, but because I don’t have the mental, emotional, creative, or physical energy to commit to writing when I get home.

My daughter is 16 months old. That’s all I need to say about her (she’s wonderful, but a handful).

I’ve been reading way more lately in an effort to relieve stress.

God damn Minecraft.

I had sinus surgery in December and while the recovery was short, the surgery did not achieve the intended results. I still have major allergy symptoms without being allergic to anything. I was sick with sinus infections for the better part of two months and was only finally feeling sort of back to normal before right before I went to Vegas. Now I’m dealing with severe seasonal allergies after the snow melted here.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What has really irritated me lately is this pile of bullshit:

Google as the monolith it is shouldn’t fucking exist. It’s too convenient to get embedded in all their services such that, when one of them breaks, you’re cut off from all of their services. This story is long and convoluted. I’ll do my best to keep it succinct (I’ve already failed, I know).

Back in January, my primary Google account was compromised. After piecing together the crazy puzzle of what happened, I determined that someone obtained my Google account password, logged into the Google Store with it, and made two fraudulent purchases using two different payment methods (PayPal and my credit card, both of which were saved to my Google Pay profile under this primary email account) equaling a very large sum of money (like $4k).

My credit card company, bless their corrupt little souls, texted me immediately about the VERY expensive charge for the second order and I freaked out. I didn’t get any emails confirming these orders because the fuckers that hacked my Google account (I suspect Google had a data breach because they skipped all two-factor authentication I had enabled and I never received any notification of my account being accessed like I normally do) put a filter on my Gmail inbox to mark all Google Store emails as Opened (or Read) and to immediately toss them into the trash. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200.

I immediately resolved these fraudulent charges with disputes. They never even hit my credit card (which was canceled and I was issued a new one) or my bank account (PayPal). Google, however, sucks at this shit. The first purchase was made at 4:30 AM. I never saw it until later that night. Once an hour has passed after a purchase has been made from Google’s store, they cannot cancel it. How fucking ridiculous is that?

So Google Support said to just refuse the FedEx packages. I rerouted them to a FedEx drop location because I didn’t want anyone to steal them off my front step (because that’s what I suspected the scam was all along, why else have them delivered them to my fucking house?) The first package arrived, I went to the drop location which was a Walgreen's, and I told the cashier that I needed to refuse the package and have FedEx return it to the sender. I said this several times to the person helping me. But then she had me sign the FedEx scanner and when I went to leave, she pushed the box to me and said, “You don’t want it?”

It gets worse.

While I felt dumb for signing for the package, when the second package came in the next day, I also signed their scanner but it was to actually refuse the package. I don’t know why that’s how it worked, but it did. 

Package 1: Accepted. Package 2: Refused.

This is important.

During this time, my Google Pay profile under my primary Google account was placed on a temporary freeze. But on February 10th, once everything had been returned (FedEx managed to get the first package returned, I have the tracking numbers, it made it), my Pay profile had been reactivated.

Which was really great because my Play Music and HBO subscriptions had lapsed. So I immediately renewed them.

Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

I tried buying a movie before I flew to Vegas and got a very similar error that I’d seen previously when my account had originally been frozen at the end of January due to the fraudulent charges.

Through several Support chats and getting the run around, I come to find that my Pay profile has been permanently closed because I violated the Google Pay Terms of Service. And that Google’s policy is to not discuss the details of the issue with anyone. And I cannot close that Pay profile and create a new one under that same Google account because it’ll just get flagged and closed again.

While pissed, I resolved to fix it after Vegas because I didn’t have the capacity to handle it while prepping for that trip.

I get back and the problem still exists. A part of me hoped it would just go away. So over the last week I went back and forth with Google Pay support on what the fuck is going on with my pay account. Several times they repeated the same thing to me: account is closed due to violation of ToS, can’t discuss it with you per our policy. Great.

During that time, I noticed that I had like, $200 worth of Google Store credit on my account because of the packages I had unintentionally accepted (I had previously signed up for Google One so I could offload some storage to their cloud, and as a part of that Google One sub, they offer a percent of Google Store purchases as Google Store credit). So I wanted to see if I could actually use it. I kinda figured they’d take the $200 back seeing as that the charge never processed. When I tried to buy something, I finally got an error that said my Pay profile had been closed for violating the ToS.

The Narrator: Can you put that in a folder and label it “Shit I Already Know”?

I filed a complaint with the Attorney General of Minnesota because Google was not allowing me to do anything to resolve the issue. Every email response I sent was met with a similar response of “we’ve reviewed your account and we’ve determined it must remain closed”. I went Full Karen™ on Google Pay support and threatened them with legal action if they did not tell me what the fuck I did to violate their ToS. That was last Thursday.

After a few more emails over the weekend (only like, two), I suddenly received  a response at 6am today stating that my Google Pay profile had been reactivated.

I resubscribed to HBO and Play Music without issue. (I did, however, create another mess with Google Family sharing, but that’s a different story, although very much related to and caused by this one, and I won’t get into it here).

When I checked my Pay profile, the $200 in Google Store credit had been removed. I think they finally checked the tracking numbers on those two orders that I sent back and realized I had actually sent them back instead of defrauding them by making a purchasing, rejecting the charge, keeping the package, and pocketing the $200 in-store credit like they probably assumed.

I also think Google might have a big data breach mess on their hands right now. Change your passwords regularly folks!

TLDR: I’m tired. :)

[moonchild93liner]

Luna - Hybrid AU - Chapter 03

Summary: Y/n is a cat hybrid that had some troubles in her past but after spending a long time in a shelter she decides to try something new in a house with seven men. Pairing: Hybrid!Reader x ? Warning! None Word Count: 1.896 Genre: Fluff

A very special thanks to @loneronthemars who messaged me as soon as I posted about having a hard time, everything is getting better now <3

Chapter 01 Chapter 02 Chapter 03 Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 Chapter 09 Chapter 10

It was just me and Jimin, we took a cab and went to the mall but in the way Jimin helped me set my new cellphone, he told me to download an app so that I could talk to the other guys, he said it would be fun, I had no idea of what I was doing.

(A/N: the hour is not important, I just didn’t remember to crop lol)

After that we got to the mall and there was so many people! Of course I've been to shopping malls before but it has been what? 7 maybe 8 years. My reaction was to hold Jimin's hand because I was so afraid of losing myself... He looked at our hands and smiled, I didn't even care, as long as I wasn't getting lost.

"Don't worry, I won't loose you." He said as his grip tighten. He leaded me to a store of female clothes.

"Listen, we made you this credit card, it has no limits so you can buy pretty much whatever you'd like, we thought it would be nice if you got some new clothes or whatever, so here is the password... You see, this store is pretty chill, I already talked with one of the attendants and she will help you, unfortunately I can't be with you now because, well, number one: this is a woman's store and number two: I have something important to take care of but it won't take too long and after that I will come running to be with you, ok? What do you say?" He explained as he handed me a piece of paper with the credit card's password, how dumb, he should have told me in a more secret way. I looked at the store and it had a good variety of styles, it was very big but it didn't have many people inside indeed. I nodded and waved him a goodbye as I got inside the store where there really was an attendant waiting for me.

"Hi Mrs. Y/l/n, I'm here to help you, Mr. Park already told me some things about you so I'll leave you comfortable, when you need something I'll be behind that counter." The lady said after introducing herself and I started to look for some clothes, the store was almost empty so it made easier for me. I picked some more sweatpants because you can never have too much, I picked some cropped tops because ABS, after some good workout cleaning that stupid shelter I could build up some body. I picked some skirts, more jeans, shorts, dresses... I saw the party clothes section and why not, oh what the hell... I got some tiny dresses, I was in a whole another phase after all. I got inside the fitting room and tried everything, some clothes were too big and luckily the attendant girl who I already forgot the name came after me.

"Mrs. Y/l/n? Do you need some help?" Yes! Thank you!

"Well yes, this skirt you see, I think it's too big" I opened the door of the fitting room and she smiled.

"Yes, let me tell you, you have such a beautiful body! You are gorgeous, from what you were wearing no one could tell you had all of this hidden underneath those big clothes, let me get you a smaller size and it should be perfect!" I liked the big clothes but ever since I was adopted I started to see myself as someone a little different, the essence was still me but the moment I left the shelter I felt free to try new things and why not show a little more of my body since I already feel good about it?

"Here, try this..." She gave me the other piece of cloth. "... So, Mr. Park, is he your mate?" She asked through the door and I could hear her smile.

"No, I don't know yet, I was adopted like yesterday so that makes him my... owner? I like to think of him as my friend." And suddenly I was opening myself to a sales attendant. WTF Y/n. The idea of having anything more than friendship with one of them was much far from where we were right now, I don't even know them.

"I see, sorry to intrude like that, I respect your privacy... So, how's the skirt?" She realized and that made me a little sad, I had the habit of making people back off but it was just a defensive behavior.

"It's actually better, thank you very much! I think I'm ready to pay now, where is the cashier?" I opened the fitting room's door with a huge bag of clothes that she took away from me making me follow her to where I asked previously.

"Thank you again, and sorry if I was rude, I'm still adapting myself to the real world, I've been in a shelter for so long..." She now smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.

"No problem dear, I wish you the best of luck in your new phase, if you need anything else we will always be here for you!" I smiled, people can actually be kind to you expecting nothing in return, life maybe can be good again. I felt another hand on my other shoulder and as I turned I could see Jimin smiling widely.

"So I see you had a great time, thank you for taking good care of her, she's very special." Jimin talked to he attendant and I felt my cheeks blazing a little. She nodded and went away, leaving us and the cashier.

"Here, let me pay this for you, you can use your card with other stuff. I see you choose other things than sweatpants, way to go!" He paid for my clothes and while the clothes were being packed he handed me a black box.

"Now this is a present from me to you, I realized you don't have a collar yet so I picked one myself but if you don't like we can go back and change it right now." I felt all eyes on us and that made me really shy. I opened the box carefully, I had never gotten a present before so I wanted to be extra careful. The collar was black, made with velvet with a little stone, I noticed there was a necklace together with the same stone.

"The necklace I bought because I thought it would look cute together." He giggled shyly and got the collar in his hands. "Do you want to try it?" I nodded.

"Can I help you?" He said almost whispering, he was very careful. I nodded again and he came behind me, as he set the collar on my neck I could smell his essence, it was sweet like vanilla but very faint. I could feel that all of them stopped using perfume ever since I got home but sometimes some rooms would smell very strongly. I think they thought that if they used strong perfumes it could, in some way, bother me. In fact I was used to it because every human has this weird habit of wanting to smell good when everyone already has its own smell and it's not necessarily bad, each smell tells about your personality, of course if you are bad your smell is not gonna be one of the most pleseantly but it's nothing we can't tolerate.

I just didn't have the chance to connect each smell to each one of them, well now I new that Jimin has the sweet scent.

He brushed my hair very very lightly with his hands to open space and locked both the collar and the necklace. I looked at myself from the camera of my brand new cellphone (lol) and enjoyed it to take a picture.

He now turned me and looked me in the eyes smiling, I felt tenderness is his eyes. My cheeks were starting to blaze again so I looked down to avoid his stare.

"Hey, pretty girl!" He giggled as he lifted my face with his finger on my chin, trying to get my attention. "No one's gonna mess with you now, our informations are inside this little stone so now everything is all set, alright?" He explained as he caressed my cheeks with the back of his fingers. I freezed but enjoyed it. I ended up smiling before nodding in response.

"Thanks guys, you were great!" We left the store and came back home, he carried my bags through the way. I was feeling a little tired, all those interactions took me some energy.

When we got home some of them were already in their bedrooms, Jimin went to his bedroom to take a bath and Jungkook called me from the couch.

"Y/n, I've made you some noodles, I asked Jimin where were you and as he told me you were near I decided to prepare it for you so that when you arrive it's hot! I hope you like it." He handed me the bowl with noddles, the smell was pretty great!

"Wow thanks Jungkook!"

"Call me Kookie!" I looked at him and his smile was just the cutest, very energetic and pure. "Hey, where is your phone? Let me show you some things."

I gave it to him and as I was eating he started to download a bunch of apps and stuff, after that he came closer, I put the bowl aside and he started to explain me everything about this new cellphone.

He was so patient but at the same time so excited about technology and games, he was so sure I was gonna play all the games he installed, poor Kookie.

His expressions was of someone still very young, I don't know exactly the relationship between human age and hybrid age but he seemed younger than the other boys. When he smiled his eyes would turn into tiny crescents and his teeth would be a little prominent, I couldn't fail to notice that every time he smiled. Sometimes he would catch me staring at him and I would look away.

I was starting to warm up around them, they all showed me they were willing to take good care of me and even though I only spent roughly a day with them. If anything went wrong I would've noticed already.

Have I mentioned I was very tired? Me eyes were so heavy I think I fell asleep and only woke up with the sound of Yoongi's voice telling us to go to bed, my head was on Kookie's shoulder and he was playing one of the games he himself downloaded on my phone. I looked at him and laughed.

"I'm sorry Kookie, I was so tired I fell asleep, but I swear I was paying attention while I was awake!" He also laughed and put his hand on my arm.

"That's ok Y/n, I asked if you understood everything and you could still answer yes with your eyes already closed, after that I asked if I could play something so you nodded and fell asleep"

"Sorry" Laughing I hid my face behind my hands and he kissed my head.

I blushed, we stood up and when I looked at him to thank him he was showing me how I was sleeping on his shoulder, I laughed and punched him lightly on his arm.

To be continued...

Thanks for reading! I had some trouble to finish this chapter because I had some bad days but everything is working out fine now, I won’t give you the exact day I will update but it won’t take long. Love you all <3 The images are not mine!

[dis-easedfairy]

Impulsive Decision Pt.6

Female Path | Male Path

Chapter 6: Different Feelings

Warnings: Kidnapping | Mentions of Rape | Slight Smut (not really)

Genre: Poly!au, angst, fluff, eventual smut, yandere!au

Pairings: BTS x Reader / Kim Taehyung x Reader / Kim Seokjin x Reader / Jung Hoseok / OC x Reader / Park Jimin x Reader (just a lil bit)

Word Count: 5,654 (sorry got carried away!)

Summary: F/n is the owner of a very wealthy and successful company, Barnanby Inc. F/n attends a BTS show. They make a very impulsive decision to show a loophole in BTS’s security and end up kidnapping BTS and 2 girls. In a fit of panic F/n stashes BTS and the girls in a very luxurious bunker for the time being, but F/n’s world slowly starts to crumble the longer the boys are out of the public’s eye.

A/N: Sorry this took longer than it was supposed to. I’m going to start Pt.7 as soon as I can!

I woke up in what seemed like Jason’s apartment. The room was too bright and I’m sure I puked in the trash near me at some point. I pulled myself off the couch and stumbled to the bathroom. I was wearing black ripped jeans, a white t-shirt, black boots and my father's varsity jacket last night. I had it all on, but the boots weren’t tied right, my pants unzipped, my shirt stretched out. The only thing left untouched was my jacket, thank god.

I wasn’t sure where Jason was, but I turned on the shower and opened the window for fresh air. I began to peel off the clothes, examining the bruises on my neck, chest, arms, legs, thighs, and stomach. I felt an emotional detachment from the bruises, like it was no big deal. I untied my boots and pulled off my pants and socks. More bruises. I got in the shower and just hoped Jason went to the bunker.

After the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and took a shirt from Jason. I put on my clothes from last night and searched for my phone. I found it under the couch.

I headed to the company, went into my office and stood there like nothing happened.

Around lunch I got a call on my office phone. I picked it up as I worked on what it would take to expand to snacks.

“ Barnaby Inc. L/n F/n speaking.” I answered, getting out a pad and pen.

“F/n? What are you doing at the office!? Everyone is worried.” Jason’s voice rang through.

“Everyone? Who’s everyone?”

“Jin, Tae, Hobi, Seongmi, they were wondering why you didn’t come home! I came this morning and thought you’d get here and explain why I just found you laying on the ground by the river!”

“Listen I have a lot of work to-”

“Why do you sound emotionless?” Tae suddenly asked.

“Of course I’m on speakerphone. Just, don’t worry. I’m working. I’ll be home for dinner.” I lied, turning back to my computer.

“Did you eat lunch?” Hobi asked.

“I’ll order something later.”

“F/n, what happened last night?” Jin questioned softly.

“Honestly? I don’t remember, okay?”

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Jason pressed.

“Yes! Just peachy, would you like to know my blood type as well?” I snapped.

I sighed.

“I’m sorry. That was wrong of me, you all just care. I’ll be okay, I just need the day to myself.” I added.

I saw a few interns guiding two men in police uniforms to my office.

“I have to go! I’ll be home for dinner.” I hung up before they could respond and waved them in before the intern could knock.

“Hello, officers? What can I help you with?” I asked, leaning on my desk like I actually cared.

“We’re here regarding the kpop group BTS, you must have heard they’ve gone missing by now?” Officer #1 stated.

Officer #1 looked like he was in his late 30’s. Office #2, however, looked about my age, he was actually pretty hot.

“I have heard. It would be impossible not to. Why?” I questioned.

“The police department would like for you to run an announcement on leads or other police matters regarding the case. We had gone you your sister, Broadcasting, but she stated that you were fully in charge of finalizing everything.” 

What a way to throw me under the bus, Jillian.

I frowned.

“Well, that’s regarding advertisement and lower budget animations. I don’t see why she didn’t let you run it. If you give it to me, I’ll be sure to have it broadcasted and give you the schedule in when it runs. ” I promised, writing when I felt the announcement should be scheduled.

“Thank you, Miss. L/n. That would be greatly appreciated.” Office #1 sighed in relief as he handed me the papers and a USB. 

“Where were you when BTS went missing?” Officer #2 quickly asked, earning a look from Officer #1.

I looked up to meet his gaze.

“With my family. We’re trying to expand to video games so we’ve been very busy here. I was supposed to go to the event but I chose to work instead, I sold my ticket to a random person online and that was that. I heard it was a good show…not considering the aftermath.” I didn’t miss a beat or falter. 

Officer #2 only nodded, dropping his gaze to the floor. I was praying they didn’t check my bank account. I did use my credit card to buy the everyone things, I used cash. They would see that I was using a lot more money than usual though.

I finished the makeshift schedule and signed the bottom of the paper and handed it to Officer #1.

“This is roughly when the announcements should come out, I signed it so your higher-ups will know it’s legit. I’ll be sure to call to tell you the exact times and or if anything changes.”

After the police left I called in an order for lunch, making sure I ate. As I was waiting I foolishly looked at my phone gallery. 

The pictures I didn’t want to see.

The videos that were disgusting.

The recordings that made me actually queasy.

I threw my phone across the room. I hated that phone and everything in it. I gathered my things and on the way out I get out a frustrated sigh. I walked over to the shattered phone and picked it up. I decided to pick up lunch and finally face everyone at the bunker.

As soon as I got out the car my heart started racing and I knew I had to get in there, say what I needed to and get away from everyone as soon as I could. I quickly unlocked the vault door and pinched in the dial code. I went as quick as I could to the double doors and was relieved to see them all gathered around the kitchen island. I grabbed the magnetic pad off the fridge and a pen that was nearby. 

Dog. Cloud. Moon. Stars. Rain. Cat. 

I pulled out the vault key and slammed it on top of the note as my chest felt tighter. I took my phone out my pocket and put it on the counter so I could get my keys from the same pocket and added it to the pile.

“You’re all free to leave tomorrow morning.” I announced, making everyone’s eyes widen,

“F/n, you can’t be se-” I cut Jason off by holding my hand out. 

“The longer you are all gone the worse everything will get. I… I’m an emotional wreck right now. Right now there is so much hitting me right now, but tomorrow I’ll be completely numb. So here is the dial code and the key to the vault. I’m sure Jason won’t mind driving you, just make up a story for him please.” I started quickly as I could feel and hear my heart going a million miles a minute.

“No! Not yet, F/n! At least wait until this partnership goes through!” Jason begged. 

“No! It’s not right, Jason!” I argued as I felt a heaviness on my chest as it tightened up.

“What happened last night!? Why is your phone shattered!? And why did you never pick up when I called you on it!?” Jason demanded.

“Who fucking cares about this fucked up phone!?” I grabbed my phone and threw it in an empty island drawer so no one saw or talked about it. 

The room was dead silent.

“You’re free tomorrow. I figured you’d all be happy.” I struggled a little to breathe with a sad smile as tears started to form in my eyes. 

I quickly left the room and found an empty unfurnished bedroom and sat on the floor as I felt my throat start to close up. I pulled my knees to my chest as my breathing became labored. I wasn’t sad, but a choked sob came from my chest as tears began to gather more. 

I woke up to the sound of the door opening harshly. The light from the hallway was bright. I just saw a figure at the door.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” The person growled.

“Wha-?” 

Jimin closed the door behind him and flicked on the lights. He walked closer to me. His face was twisted with pure anger, but he had tears in his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone!? Why didn’t you go to the police!?” He almost shouted.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” 

Jimin pulled my shattered phone out his pocket.

“I figured out the password. I saw it all! They said their names in the videos, F/n! Those dumbasses showed their faces! You have solid evidence! You have proof that they raped you and yet you sit here doing nothing! Here! Look! ” Jimin got my phone and pulled up a video, holding it close to my face.

I hit his arm away, looking in the opposite direction.

“You’re seriously going to let these disgusting human beings walk around with no punishment!? What if they try to do it to someone else!? What if they come for you again because they think you’re compliant by not telling!?”

“What do you expect me to do!? Eighty percent of the police don’t care, Jimin! Not for my family at least! They will do less than they can! They don’t care what evidence you have that will prove I’m a victim! The fact that I kidnapped 9 people will also be found out if I tell! Jason isn’t out of the woods yet for me to do that!” I shouted back.

“No one deserves that! You don’t deserve that!” Jimin began to pace.

“Linza thinks so.” I spit coldly, making Jimin freeze.

“I mean if I go to the police, I’d be a hypocrite.” Jimin’s eyes widened.

“No! You won’t be! You’re not a rapist!” He suddenly sounded hurt.

“Says who? What if Tae, Jin, Hobi, and Seongmi fell into my ‘sick game’.” 

“Stop! I’m sorry okay!? You’re not a rapist! You’re just a girl who got sca-”

“A psychotic fan who isn’t sure of their sexuality.”

“Stop!” 

“That’s what I was when Linza tried to pin me down to the bed! That’s what I was when you held a knife to my back right!? Let’s keep it that way!” 

Jimin shook his head rapidly. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for yo-” I cut him off.

“I don’t get why you suddenly care about what happens to me. This isn’t the first time this happens, and with my luck, it may not be the last!” I stood up and began to push Jimin out the room.

“Go tell Linza, I bet she’s just dying to see the videos since she wanted to do the same. I’d bet you’d defend her if she tried again.” I snapped. 

Jimin whirled around and grabbed my upper arms.

“No! I promise I won’t defend her anymore! She’s sick! I won’t even look her direction if you don’t want me to! Just tell the police, F/n! They can’t get away with this!” Jimin pleaded.

I thought I actually saw pain in his eyes. I knew better now, he seemed caring and nice but didn’t actually care at all. When the next argument would happen, he wouldn’t defend me. If Linza decided to go after me again, he wouldn’t protect me. I smirked.

“They will.” I pushed him fully out and closed the door, locking it this time.

I shut the lights back off and leaned against the wall. I just wanted sleep, until the cops came. 

I woke up again in a room I couldn’t figure out at first, until I saw two Barnaby plushies on the bed across from the one I was on. I pulled myself to sit up. I looked around the room, trying to figure out why I was here and not arrested.

The door to the room opened. Tae slipped in, he was wearing just a regular gray sweater and black sweat pants. He saw I was awake and smiled.

I was happy to see him if I was being perfectly honest. Meaning they, or at least, he didn’t leave.

“How are you feeling?” Tae asked, quickly taking the place beside me on the edge of the bed beside me.

Numb.

“Uh, I’ll get back to you on that one.” I smiled a little. 

Tae frowned and put his hand on the center of my chest and slowly pushed me back. I lied back, confused as to what he wanted. Tae out his hand that was on my chest on the other side of me so he could hover over me. He was so close, yet I wasn’t even the slightest bit uncomfortable. 

I scanned his face and smiled. I cupped his face and ran my thumb gently under his left eye. 

“I hope people tell you how much your beauty marks make them crazy. ” I said is almost a whisper.

He smiled. He closed his eyes and came a little closer, letting his nose brush against mine. He began to rub his nose against mine, earning a giggle from me. He opened his eyes. Something about the way his half-lidded eyes were staring me made me keep his gaze. His eyes dropped to my lips and went back up to my eyes. 

My heart started to speed up, I’m sure it wasn’t any mental or physical disorders causing it. Just him.

I felt now. I felt wanted. Accepted. Comforted. Loved. His said so much without opening his mouth as his hand slid from the bed up my arm to the side of my neck. His eyes dropped back down to my lips as he tilted his head and softly pressed his lips to mine. 

The numbness was gone as I felt a million emotions at once. I returned the kiss moving my other hand to grip the side of his shirt and tilted my head to deepen the kiss. His other hand held onto my hip as he pulled away slightly to end this kiss. His hands left my neck and hip as they went to the front of my jeans. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going any farther, I just want to make you more comfortable.” He assured be against my lips. 

He unzipped my jeans and began to pull them down. I was suddenly hyper-aware of him seeing my underwear and the bruises littered around my body, but Tae didn’t seem to acknowledge either of them. I lifted up a bit to let him take my jeans off properly. once he got to my ankles, he moved off to the foot of the bed, to my shoes and untied them, taking them off and finished removing my jeans. 

Something about it all seemed very…husband.

He climbed back on the bed and crawled on top of me. Sitting on my thighs as he slid his hands up from my stomach to my jacket. 

“I didn’t know you played sports.” He frowned a bit.

“I don’t. It’s my dad’s.” He tilted his head slightly with a slight smile and pushed the jacket off my shoulders. 

I propped myself on my elbows, letting it slide off more. He climbed off to me and went to the dresser. He pulled out an oversized yellow hoodie and got back on the bed. I pulled my jacket off completely and took off my shirt. He handed me the hoodie. 

I had no idea why I was so comfortable. I even slipped my hands under the hoodie to take off my bra and handed it to him!  He put my bra in the same drawer he got the hoodie from, not even reacting to it. 

“Jin hyung will be in here to force-feed you in a little bit.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

I sighed, Jin would. Tae grabbed a throw blanket off the bedpost and threw it over my legs. Tae came close again, his hand squeezing my thigh. He gave me a quick kiss on the nose and seemed to giggle when heat flooded my face.

“Hobi hyung has been dying to see you too, I’ll see you later night, Girlfriend.” His smiled and made his way out. 

Tae calling me ‘Girlfriend’ always seemed like he was joking and teasing, but maybe all this time he really wasn’t. 

Oh god, I agreed to him rubbing my tits yesterday.

I put my face in my hands (sweater paws) as my face was on fire at this point. I peeked out to look at the clock on the dresser between the two beds. It was 7am. I was surprised I didn’t need to pee. The door flew open, making me jump. 

Jin came in, bowl with a spoon in it in his hand a small foldable table under his arm. He beamed at me.

“Glad to see you’re awake now! ” He set the bowl down on the dresser by the door and set the table up in front of the bed.

He set the bowl down on the table as he sat on the bed. The bowl looked like it was full of yogurt, granola, and several different fruits. Blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, bananas, grapes, peach, pomegranate, cherries, apple and what looked like a drizzle of honey over the whole thing.

“Do I have to force you to eat or will you be good for me?” His words made the heat in my face return.

I tried to hide my face with one of my hands, “I’ll be good,” I mumbled.

“Good girl” He smirked, looking at my face, more heat to my face. 

Was he testing me?? Jin never looked at me like that before. Then again neither did Tae. 

I moved to the edge of the bed and began eating. Jin brushed my hair out my face, gaze similar to the one Tae gave me. He was going to make me choke on my granola-fruit-honey-yogurt if he kept that up.

Stay in your lane, Kim Seokjin.

I began to pay more attention to my yogurt until I felt Jin’s hand move over a squeeze my thigh. He scooted closer to me.

“F/n? You look adorable in that hoodie.” He chuckled.

Why was his voice suddenly more deep??

He took a cherry out my bowl and popped it between his perfect lips. I quickly snapped my eyes back to the bowl. His hands wandered to the throw blanket.

“May I?” He asked in a whisper.

I only nodded. Jin pulled the blanket back. He frowned, tracing a bruise on my folded legs. He stood up, slid the table away and got on his knees in front of me. He lifted my left leg. While not breaking eye contact Jin slowly leaned down and kissed the bruise he was tracing. 

He broke eye contact and he looked for another bruise and kissed that one, then another. I covered my face with my hands, the heat coming off my face could warm the whole room. He didn’t stop until he kissed the last bruise on my thigh. He pushed my legs open and put himself between them so he was face to face with me. 

“Have I ever told you how everyone stares when you walk into a room?” He whispered.

I shook my head, fully shy now. He chuckled at my shyness and pulled my hands from my face. He ghosted his lips over mine.

“I think Taehyung and Hoseok get jealous when everyone stares. I know I do. Yet, I feel so proud at the same time. ”

“Why proud?” My voice was small.

“Because you’re ours and no one else's. Of course, you’d be perfect if you caught my attention.” I feel like he tried to sound like he was joking on the last part.

Yet I felt like the first part had a darker undertone.

He put his hands up to cup my face. So close. I felt his lips touch mine softly. The kiss was soft and slow, soon my hands were sliding up his chest, to his neck then finally into his hair. Jin slid one of his hands down to the side of my thigh and pulled me closer.

Tae filled me with comfort and assurance, warmth and understanding. Jin was this sweet blush. I felt taken care of. Jin was a different comfort I couldn’t explain.   

He pulled away, a smile on his face. 

“Finish your breakfast and rest more okay? I’ll have Hoseok bring you lunch.” Jin stated cheerfully, like he didn’t just get me the shyest I’ve ever felt in my life.

He stood up, moving away from me and pulling the blanket on my lap. He slid the table back into place and bent down to give me a kiss on my forehead.

“Eat up, N/n.” Once again I was left in the room.

“What the actual fuck is happening?” I asked myself breathlessly. 

  I stretched and smelled something heavenly. I looked over at the bed across from me and Hobi was casually playing a game on his phone, nothing out of the ordinary. As soon as I sat up he turned to me, brightest smile on his face.

“You’re up now!”  I’ve never seen someone so excited to see me before.

Hobi got up and got a plate off the dresser and set it in front of me. He sat next to me. 

“Who do I praise because this looks magical!” It was Tonkatsu or a version of it. 

Tonkatsu was basically a breaded and fried pork cutlet that was usually served with rice and its own sauce with different variations depending on where you got it. 

Hobi beamed, “I made it!” 

“It looks amazing, Hobi! Seriously. I tried to make it once, but the breading stuck to the pan, considering all the oil I put. I’m usually a good cook so it really surprised me at the time.” I talked like an excited child. 

I suddenly realized how much closer Hobi was sitting next to me. 

Oh no, I refuse to be blushing and shy this time.

I quickly decided to have the upper hand.

“Hobi?” I asked, my voice softer than usual. 

“Yes, N/n?” He answered, not seeming to notice.

I looked over at him, he was actually checking me out, which made me feel more confident for what I was about to do.

I smirked as I crawled on to his lap, facing him.

“So, Hobi, what were you planning to once I woke up?” I tested, feeling a sense of pride wash over me as he had a surprised look on his face.

I slid my hands up his chest to his shoulders, waiting for an answer. Hobi put his hands on my thighs, closed his eyes and leaned forward, once our lips connected I felt a surge of passion, a surge of dominance. 

I moved my hands from his shoulders to his hair and tugged his head back. He let out a gasp that allowed me to deepen the now rough kiss. Hobi’s hands slid up to my hips. I playfully slid my tongue into his mouth for a reaction and was more than pleased to hear a groan from him. His hands immediately groped my ass, pulling me closer. 

The kiss made me feel raw passion. It was like fire igniting my body, begging for me to go farther. 

Hobi turned and picked me up off his lap to lie me down on the bed. He pulled away, smirk on his face as his hand slid up from my hip, up my hoodie. He lifted my hoodie to expose my stomach and more bruises. He ended up doing exactly when Jin did. Kissing each bruise. 

I swore I felt his tongue brush against a few. He came back up to kiss my lips and fit himself between my legs. He pulled back a little bit, beautiful smile on his face. His smile made my heart face and my chest feel warm.

“You should eat before Jin, Tae, and Seongmi kill me.” He chuckled. 

I smiled. 

“So can I ask what’s going on with you, Jin and Tae?” I pressed. 

He only kept his smile, as he got off of me and the bed. 

“We’ll be here in a bit to eat dinner, you should rest after you eat. Jin says that sleep will help with all the stress.” He waved off my question, giving me a quick kiss on my lips. 

“See you in awhile!” He waved as he closed the door behind him.

Once dinner time came Tae and Hobi pulled in a small coffee table as Jin and Seongmi brought in food and drinks. I attempted to help but was told to just sit down. Once we began eating we heard a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Tae called, mouth a little full.

The door opened slowly and Jimin stepped into the room.

“Can I eat here?” He asked in a small tone, like he was a little afraid.

I frowned at his uncomfortableness and scooted more towards Tae to make room for Jimin between Seongmi and I.

“Be our guest.” I smiled, patting the empty spot.

Jimin smiled and closed the door, quickly taking the spot I offered. I looked over to Tae to ask him something but saw the look of warning he was giving Jimin. Thankfully Jimin was talking to Seongmi and didn’t notice. I playfully hit Tae.

“Why the look?” I hissed at him.

Tae shrugged, pretending not to know and resumed eating. Jimin tapped me.

“Yeah?” I answered turning to him, small smile on my face.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Letting me in. It looked like Hobi and Jin were against it and Taehyung was going to pounce if I came too close.”

“That’s exactly how Jungkook looked at me the first day you guys were here actually.” Jimin’s eyes widened.

“That’s terrifying.”

“I think it was because you looked afraid.” I smiled.

“Jikook is real.” I said under my breath and turned back to my meal like nothing happened, leaving Jimin with a bright blush on his face.

Tae and Hobi started laughing at my comment. Too hard I may add.

“Aw c’mon you guys, leave Jimin alone,” Seongmi complained.

“It’s not that funny!” Jin interjected.

“Sorry, Jimin. I didn’t know they’d suddenly turn into hyenas. ” I apologized.

Jimin gave me a shy smile.

Since when is he shy around me? He was either quiet or challenging me. Even when he was quiet he would give me the death glare. They only vulnerability he’s shown me is when he was trying to kill me.  I was confused, but ignored it and continued eating. I made sure to praise Seongmi, Jin, and Jimin who all cooked.

“Jimin only helped, mixing pots, taking things out the fridge and cabinets, not really cooking anything,” Jin informed.

“It still deserves praise, Jin. I didn’t do anything so I’m praising and thanking those who did.”

“Yeah, Jin! F/n’s just being kind!” Seongmi agreed with me.  

“Were you jealous that F/n praised someone other than you for food, Jin Hyung?” Tae teased.

“She liked my Donkkaseu that I made her for lunch,” Hobi added.

“You made her lunch!? You said she was asleep all this time!” Jin suddenly shouted.

“Wow, Hobi Hyung, you lied to Jin Hyung.” Tae instigated, continuing to eat.

Hobi looked like he wanted to hit Tae with a chair. And just like that Hobi and Jin began to bicker. I sighed.

“Jimin are you still alive?” I suddenly heard a voice ask from Jimin’s pocket.

“The fuck was that?” I asked Jimin.

“Jason downloaded a walkie-talkie app on all our phones so we can talk to each other without internet or cell service. You just heard Yoongi hyung.” Tae explained before Jimin could.

Jimin pulled out his phone.

“I’m fine, Hyung.” Jimin responded.

“...Are Jin and Hoseok fighting?” Suga sounded like he was smiling.

“HOW HARD IS IT TO BREAD AND FRY PORK CUTLET!?” Jin shouted with passion.

“IT’S BETTER THAN FRUIT AND YOGURT!” Hobi clapped back.

“I liked them both, will you stop fighting now?” I asked chuckling.

Tae wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me closer for some reason. I wasn’t sure why he was doing this, but I decided to test a theory.

“So, Seongmi, what were you doing before...well, before I kidnapped you?” I asked, leaning one arm on the table.

“I was actually working for your company. I uh, I’m an animator myself.” She looked at her lap, shy.

“Really? Any that I’ve heard of?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“No, I was just an assistant, it was supposed to help with the experience.” I frowned.

“Did it help?”

She shook her head again.

“Why not?” I was actually curious now.

“Some of the animators didn’t want to teach me anything or I just made coffee and supply run.”

“Those fuckers. You’re not their coffee mule. You’re an animator like them! Ugh, when I get to work I-”

“No! It’s fine its ju-”

“It’s not fine, Seongmi. I want nothing but kindness in my company, we don’t treat someone different whether they are a professional animator or an amateur, if you have a passion for it, they should respect you. If they won’t help you, I’ll ask my mom to.”

Her eyes lit up.

“Really?? You promise!?” She was bouncing up and down.

“You have my word.” I smiled at her adorable reaction.

Seongmi jumped up and held out her arms for a hug. I stood up and hugged her.

“I’ll help you out, you’ll do great.” I promised.

“This is probably what your mom felt when your father helped her out.” Seongmi giggled.

The whole room went quiet.

“You’re mom always talked about your dad. You’re a lot like him. Maybe you’ll get a wife like your mom.” She smiled.

I felt my face heat up.

“I-uh-Wife? I mean, I dunno, I’m pretty average and I’m not even sure of my sexu-”

“You should marry an animator! I know a ton of guys AND girls who have the hots for you!” She teased.

My face heated up more.

“Your mom says you love kids, so you getting married and adopting kids will be a breeze!” Seongmi was not stopping.

“Seongmi, be a little realistic, F/n hasn’t had that special someone yet.” Jin said quickly, almost like he was trying to dismiss what Seongmi was saying.

“Aw, Jin, don’t be ridiculous! Look at her, she’s wife material.” Seongmi started fixing my hoodie’s strings.

I laughed, “I’m in an oversized hoodie and my underwear, Seongmi, you make it seem like I’m in a beautiful gown.”

“You look good either way! Any girl would be lucky to have you, F/n.” Seongmi smiled, resting her hands on my shoulders.

“Seongmi, she likes gu-” She interrupted Hobi.

“I mean, you already know how to treat a woman.” She added with a wink.

She looked down then back up. I looked down. My arms were still wrapped around her waist and we were so close that my stomach was touching hers.

I jumped back and ended up tripping over Tae’s knee and fell on the bed.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize we were that close!” I apologized quickly.

Seongmi giggled.

“You really are adorable, F/n. It’s fine for us to be that close, we’re both girls after all.” She teased.

Just a second ago she was cute Seongmi who was shy and quiet. Now she looked like she would take me in front of everyone just for the fun of it.

I covered my face from embarrassment and shook my head.

After dinner, everyone talked and chatted for awhile. Around bedtime, everyone left but Tae.

He started pulling the blanket back on the bed.

“Jin hyung wanted to have your big bed to himself tonight, so it’s just us. ” He smiled.

“Huh? Am I taking Jin’s bed?” I asked, walking to the opposite bed.

“No, you’re sleeping in mine. With me. Come on! Let’s go to sleep!” Tae said, exited as he got under the covers and patted the space beside him.

I hesitated. He frowned.

“F/n~ Come cuddle!” Tae whined.

This was a trap I was sure of it. It took pure witchcraft to make my heartstrings tug from whining like that. This was pure magic if I’ve ever seen it.

I crawled into the covers and turned off the lamp, as soon as I turned to my side Tae attached himself to my back, wrapping himself around me.

After a few moments of silence, I felt something soft and wet on my neck with a slight ‘pop’ noise. My eyes flew open.

Did he just kiss my neck!??

It happened again. And again. As soon as he pecked a particular spot on my neck, I let out a small squeak. He let out a breathless giggle, trying to be quiet. I tried to squirm away but Tae tightened his hold and kissed my cheek.

“When we get out of here, I want to take you everywhere with us,” He whispered.

Before I could shut down that thought he continued.

“You mean a lot to us. To Jin. To Hobi. I’m sure Jimin’s warming up to you... I want you always be around. We care about you. Promise me, when we leave here, you’ll still try to keep in contact?”

His voice was like honey and I was so relaxed. I cared about them too. About him, about Jin, about Hobi. There was no way I’d just let them leave without them knowing that I did care.

“I promise, Tae.” He hummed in approval and snuggled close.

“Promise you’ll always be around.”

“Promise.” I yawned, my eyes feeling heavy.

( Previous Chapter ) - ( Next Chapter )

[acoolchristianchick2]

Trying to freeze my credit

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from Chase bank. Apparently, I tried to get a credit card with them. I was turned down because I have locks on my credit report and you can’t get anything under my name. Gosh, every time I turn around someone is trying to scam me. It makes me so mad because I try to live a honest life and while I am working hard being honest, people are working hard to take everything away from me. I have been a victim of identity theft quite a bit. So I decided to freeze my credit. Today, I am calling the three credit bureaus to make sure that all is well. 

I have been dealing with this for years. Here are my examples:

On my birthday, someone stole 1k out of my bank account, went down to the hotel down the street from my apartment, stayed for a week and ordered room service. I got the money back but I have no clue how they got my information.

last year, I received 6 letters stating that I have been declined from a credit card, ALL ON THE SAME DAY!! Someone tried over and over to get a card in my name. They tried 6 times!!

I cancelled my WISH shopping account because someone from Russia, broke into my account, changed my user id and password and tried to send themselves high priced item on wish.

I had someone call my home from the IRS and stated that I was in trouble and that I needed to talk to someone, but I knew it was a scam so when I told them to hold the line, I am going to call the REAL POLICE!!! they hung up...lol

I was at work one day and someone sent me a email with my SOCIAL SECURITY on it and said that the police was looking for me to throw me in jail. That day I went down to the real police department and filed a police report. 

Let’s see, what else.

I constantly get people trying to scam me on Facebook, with those love scams..

So, I am calling RIGHT NOW to make sure my credit STAYS FROZEN. My gosh, it is just an inconvenience because if I have to apply for something, I have to find out what credit bureau they are dealing with and then contact the bureau to unfreeze it temporarily. Then after they run my credit, I have to call the bureau to refreeze it. 

If I travel out of town, I have to call the bureaus and my bank to make sure that they know what states I am going to be in because one time in DC I tried to use my bank card and it was shut down because they thought someone was using my card. So I always have to carry cash on me just in case. 

Crazy.

One time I was leaving my town to travel, I got about 10 miles out and went to get gas. This was a weekend. My card didn’t work. I had to call the bank and they were closed. So I have to look up other numbers to see what happened to my bank card. Finally I got to someone and they told me that a person in FLORIDA was trying to charge something on my bank account and they asked if I was in Florida. I said No but they went ahead a froze my bank account. So, they couldn’t fix it until Monday, so I had to return home. 

Things like this is waxing my love cold. Its a shame how bad it is now.   

The police calls for their yearly donation and I do donate but because people are so shady now, I tell them to SEND me the form and I will fill out with the donation and return. 

Every time I turn around there is new scam out there. 

Unfortunately, this is how it is and I just have to be careful.

Be harmless as a dove but wise as a serpent. 

Matthew 24:12 Context

9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

[airbnbfestivals]

Weird hack going on with AirBnB accounts

I just went through this yesterday.​I'm UK Based and someone gained access to my account and made several bookings in Korea and the Philippines. I have push notifications ON in the mobile app and my credit card app too so I noticed it the moment the first booking came through and called AirBnB right away: 10 minutes holding for a rep, no answer.​Decided to call my CC company and they told me that actually there's 3 charges already on my account. I asked them to block it right away and freeze the card (the AirBnB app didn't let me remove my card)​I still had access to my AirBnB app so I was able to see that they were sending messages from my account to these "hosts" explaining that the booking was for somebody else but it was my account paying for them... WTF moment 1.​Called AirBnB again and finally got to speak to a rep, worst interaction with a CS ever. They told me there were 4 bookings already and I told them to stop it all and remove my card from their system. They said they can't do that because there are open bookings in the account. WTF moment 2.​They asked me to change my password... here's when I realise, I never set up a password for the account, I always logged in using Facebook authentication, the rep is unable to understand this and insists I change it. I tell her I don't have a password to change at all. WTF moment 3.​She puts me on hold for 10 minutes to go and ask someone else how to handle this. Comes back and says the issue was been forwarded to another team and she'll send me a link to "recover" my account. I explain to her I have full access to the account but ignores me and also ignores my request to have an email confirmation with the case number.​I got the email with the link to recover the account and it's a process with several steps, one of them allowed me to select a new password without having to input an old one. Another step showed me all the devices that had accessed my account recently, only one suspicious device from 15 days ago (a Windows machine in NJ, USA) I never use windows and I haven't been to the USA or used VPN recently. I remove all devices and complete the process.​A couple of hours later I get several email alerts from AirBnB saying that I've logged on with an unidentified device and a button that says "I didn't do this - review my account" When I pressed it, it didn't do anything but open their homepage. WTF moment 4, this is still happening.​I call them again and tell them that I've done everything they requested and that it seems like even after the change of password (to a very long password from a password management system) somehow people are accessing the account. I spent 40 minutes arguing with them and it's time to go to sleep.​I wake up to 5 more emails alerting me of logins from new devices. I open the website version to review recent devices and I can only see my own in the list.​I'm still trying to solve this but it really baffles me that: 1. they gained access to my account via Facebook Auth and. 2. why was there no unknown device in the list from yesterday (where the bookings were made) and finally 3. two factor authentication is ON on my account (on top of FB authentication), how come this didn't prevent the access? Get $20 off your first AirBnB stay.

[freakflagbyiana]

Identity theft in 2020

January 6th 2020,

You know that scene in Futurama where they are trying to scare Fry by saying “Hello and welcome to the world of tomorrow!” and then Bender acts like a crazy killer robot? My 2020 has started just like that. I woke up Jan 1st 2020 at 3pm, because New Year’s Eve is now the one night a year I DJ at our local goth bar, Elysium. I never usually sleep that late. Little did I know that all the bad things had already happened. I texted a couple of people and realized didn’t have mobile service. Huh. There was a system message that said something unusual.. ”SIM Not Provisioned MM#2” Eventually I look up what that means: ”The main reason of Sim not provisioned mm#2 is because your sim isn’t activated or is suspended from the service provider or isn’t picked up by the cell phone. If you just bought a new sim card then you are likely to see this error because you might have to activate your sim. If your sim was working fine and started giving this error then it can mean two things. The first scenario is that the sim card is dead and, therefore, inactive (in case it’s too old). The second scenario is that your sim card was deactivated from your service provider because you asked to transfer your number to a new sim card.” Which is alarming because I was asleep, definitely not buying a new phone or anything like that. I check my bank account. I can’t even login because my account has been restricted. That’s when I check my email, revealing the horrorshow of how they systematically bypassed all my passwords. It’s called SIM Card Cloning or SIM Swap Fraud. Here’s the wikipedia page. Basically, they duplicate your phone’s SIM card (I don’t know how but it doesn’t matter) then they port out, taking your phone number to another carrier and opening an account with them. This automatically closes your phone account, which is why I had no service or ability to call my banks. Now that they have your phone number and you don’t, they use text verification to get into your email, banks, etc... This means your passwords don’t matter, because everything can be reset with verifying through text. You should still keep your passwords strong, but consider the fact that it may not matter once they’ve digitally stolen your phone. And this happens long distance, one of my gmail login attempts was supposedly in Atlanta, Georgia but {March edit} they were using a VPN because all of the fraudulent transactions occurred in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. All in $50 or $100 transactions at Home Depot or Walmart. I’m assuming it was all Visa gift cards that are as good as cash. The extra clever part of this scam was doing it on New Year’s Day when everything is closed, the stores and their tech support, fraud departments. What’s The Damage? I haven’t been able to calculate it yet because access to my bank account is still restricted, although hopefully in the next 24-48 hours... But what I learned through email is that they made a bunch of purchases I guess with my debit card information, AND opened a new credit card. They didn’t get into my PayPal account directly but they did activate Samsung Pay and linked that to my PayPal... which is crazy, to think they don’t even need to get into the PayPal account itself to exploit it with a smartphone. Also, let this sink in, I’m still tallying the damage. The other night I got more unauthorized transactions. I keep saying, dealing with this type of fraud is like battling a hydra... It’s not a one an done situation, it’s overwhelming how much is suddenly and continually compromised, for days on end. It’s been a week and I still haven’t fully recovered. {March edit} The total damage was $1812.26 which is more than every penny I had. It was everything in my savings and debit accounts, plus $550 that was drained later through PayPal after I recovered the money back from the first time. That first 48 hours, I felt so alone, not only because my phone service was dead but because every institution I talked to had not heard of this type of fraud yet... Hello, I’m Chicken Little and the sky is actually falling, I promise. For example, explaining it to PayPal, an account that had not itself been compromised, was a nightmare. I attempted to chat with a helper - "What are the fraudulent transactions?” “There aren’t any, but my identity has been stolen though my phone” “If there are no transactions there’s nothing to report to the fraud department” - Then a day or two later there’s an unauthorized pending deposit from my bank for $50 and another for $500, but the automatic reporting system wouldn’t let me report it as as fraud since it was “MONEY RECEIVED” - Yesterday I figured out how to call them with Skype and we got it sorted. But for the record, Venmo was much easier to lockdown than PayPal so I will be closing my account with them when this is over. {March edit} My PayPal was compromised around this time through SamsungPay. I think even though I had changed everything, it still went through because it must have been a delayed Jan 1st charge from after my accounts had been locked down. I called them and said there’s a pending transaction that is unauthorized. They said they would “try to stop it but have no real power while the transaction is in process” - cooooool thankssss. I called my bank too, but despite all of that the transaction still went through and I had to recover it after the fact. Now that I have you sufficiently freaked out, and you should be, we come to the point of writing about it in my blog... iana’s list of What Saved My Ass / Prevention / Recovery Steps !! Firstly, put together a sort of post-apocalyptic survival kit but for identity theft. I had recently been given a Shell gas card as a gift and that saved me because I had to drive around a lot to sort most of this out in person. Previously I was using Lyft for transport and that is tied to, you know it, PayPal... so if I hadn’t had a car it would have been impossible to do all of this quick recovery. I am so grateful to have a car now. Inspired by that, here’s my fantasy kit that I wish I had Jan 1st:

a gas card

a gift card like the prepaid Visa kind that you can use anywhere and not linked to bank

CDs or analogue music for the car listening to the one disc I had in there while sorting this out was insult to injury!

A PREPAID BURNER PHONE to keep charged up and ready to go in case of emergencies, you just need it to call banks etc while you recover so you don’t need Data (after all, my smartphone still worked on wifi). I found $30 major network unlimited talk & text flip phones at Target and one $20 which I didn’t recognize but would probably still be fine.

A local secondary bank account Gift cards are probably doing the same thing but this saved me. My main bank is based in San Antonio (USAA) but luckily I had a second bank account at UFCU here in Austin. While I didn’t have enough money in it to pay rent or anything, being able to walk in and get new cards made same-day gave me some peace of mind.

A Google Number This isn’t as useful as the burner phone but it did save me this week. I use one for my work number, so luckily I could still text with it from my phone (on wifi) I just couldn’t use it to call anything. But I was able to use it to verify some stuff (not Venmo) with a number that had not been compromised like my main.

Prevention:

PUT A FREEZE ON YOUR CREDIT : I had never heard about this until it was too late. If you freeze your credit, people can’t just sign up for a new credit card in your name. If you want to open a credit card, you still can, you just have to take extra steps to do so.

2-factor Authenticate everything : hopefully there are some options BESIDES texting your main number that allow for extra security. It’s a pain but easier to tolerate than this mess I’m in now.

LIE ON YOUR SECURITY QUESTIONS : Example “What’s your mother’s maiden name? Blue” - Now this one is really hard for me to wrap my head around because the point is to prove you’re you so it feels wrong like lying in court under oath. But the fact is, if they are hacking your identity and you are using facts that are on record somewhere, that information can be stolen too. So lie, and write it down.

Long passwords are better than complicated ones : I had this explained to me by someone in the field. There are 26 letters, but only 10 numbers and even less symbols. Each time you add a letter you are multiplying the possible choices by 26, whereas each time you add a number or a symbol you are only multiplying by 10 or less. Example “ianaspasswordisverylongandhopefullysecureokaybye” is a better password than “iana123pa$$w0rd!” which is like what I used to do. This was a very interesting piece of the puzzle to put together. When I think about it, the more complicated and “random stuff” the password is, the shorter I make it. But if it’s a run-on sentence, it’s super long yet easy to remember. Of course sometimes you’re required to use a number and a symbol, but if you use the maximum amount of letters and minimum amount of symbols and numbers, it should be solid.

Pay for everything online with CREDIT not DEBIT: Ugh, this is going to be a hard one for me to transition to. But basically this makes it easier to recover if your account has been compromised. They drained actual money from my debit account, therefore the bank has to go track down that actual money and it’s a long process to get it back. If it’s a credit card transaction, they just void the transaction from counting against my balance, I simply wouldn’t owe them more than I legitimately owe, but they wouldn’t have to return actual money to me. {April Edit} I just saw Capital One is now offering virtual card numbers. You use a virtual number for online shopping and then your actual card number is never compromised.

Online Resources:

haveibeenpwned

how to freeze your credit

identitytheft.gov

the SIM swapping bible

prevent a SIM swap scam

delete your old email addresses

March 5th 2020,

In conclusion, I am just now wrapping up this blog because obviously this whole thing has been traumatizing and recovery is a massive work in progress. I wish I had a happy ending for y’all but I’m still cleaning this mess up. My phone is secure, my money is secure... but my credit is going to be royally screwed for some time. My accountant said at least 2 years. I ended up needing extra steps to secure my phone account, btw. They initiated 2 step authentication but I was able to bypass the second step, an 8 digit passcode, with the last 4 digits on my social security number. Get this, when I brought this up to a call center rep, they told me to get a new SSN! As if that’s a thing! Short of being in witness protection or some other person of international interest, the government is not going to issue a new SSN just to prevent my SIM from being compromised again. So I went into the store and brought this up to the manager, fortunately the same person who helped me Jan 2nd, and she was also surprised a 4 digit SSN bypassed everything. She put a priority note onto my account that says in big bold red letters something to the effect of “Do NOT make changes to this customer’s account without them being in-store providing photo ID. this is at the customer’s request” Yeah, you are correct, it is a huge pain in the ass to do stuff now... but it’s locked down. I got so many questions, “Why don’t you just change your phone provider?” and the thing is, it’s not just AT&T. This is a happening across the board and you should be concerned no matter what service you have. At least now I know my account is secure. I now have a complex money funneling system, too. It goes in one account (which I never use online or at gas stations), it gets transferred to another institution and that is the only outbound account for actual cash monies. The outbound account is not linked to the inbound account. Like a canal, only one section of money can get drained and it doesn’t compromise the whole operation. My battle is not over, though. I still have credit reports and the police report to deal with. But I hope this helps you today. Be careful out there, folks!

April 18 2020, post script: Oof, I don’t know if this article will ever really feel finished. I put off posting it because with all the COVID-19 stuff happening, I didn’t want people to panic further or add to unnecessary stress. But after hearing about a few cases of fraud in my friend group, I decided it best to post this sooner rather than later. To ease the impact I’ll be posting something fun right after this one.

[zachthevagabond]

Thursday March 29, 2019

It’s Thursday! Despite my optimistic posts this past week, this week has seemed to really drag compared to the normal pace of my workweek. While nothing disastrous has happened this week, it’s just been one of those “why can’t anything go right for once” type of feelings (imagine me fighting broken printers, various trips to the housing office about my last month rent, a class revolution against an assessment that they thought was to difficult…it’s been a WEEEEEEEEEEEEK). I Just thinking about summer around the corner and spending time at the cottage with my best friends under the sun makes everything a little more bearable…not even to mention being able to hug everyone in my family for the first time in ten months. 

I always remind my working friends back home that “Thursday” translates to FRIDAY for me here in Luxembourg. I can’t even begin to explain the beauty of a four-day workweek and a three-day weekend. Why isn’t this the case for everyone? I am slowly starting to accept that this will most-likely be the only time in my entire life that it will be this good. Sunny summers, however, will always be on my side as long as I’m a teacher…(-;

Just imagining myself next year working 40+ hours a week as a full-time middle school teacher makes me enjoy this feeling a little bit more. The freedom in my work schedule here has definitely made some of the challenges of living abroad a little more bearable. I’m definitely not a lazy person, and I feel excited when I think of my life teaching middle school French next year and taking on new roles back home. I am feeling really prepared and optimistic about the start of this new chapter. The fact that I have a great job waiting for me back home is making me much more content about leaving Europe in June to move back home. 

Getting a good teaching job for next year…CHECK.  The next thing on my “why-can’t-I-sleep list” is my masters degree. Since finishing my undergrad, I knew that I wanted to start to teach right away and worry about my masters later (hence my 4,000 mile move to Europe…LOL…that’s how done I was with school last may!). Unfortunately, the “later” part of my decision has now surfaced. After months of research and advisement from friends and colleagues, I now have my eyes on an online MA in Romance Language and Literature program. It’s a fully-online program via the University of New Orleans, and one of the most common online masters programs for teachers across the country. One thing that’s really important to me about my masters program is finding something that will allow me to teach as an adjunct professor in the future (a cool side-gig for a public school teacher, don’t you think? Some of my favorite professors at college were full-time Spanish/French teachers who taught at the uni for some extra $$ once or twice a week). 

I also need a program that I can complete at my own pace over the next couple of summers and during the school year while teaching full-time. As I look at the course offerings, I’d be able to complete the program by Fall 2021 and sit the masters exam before Christmas that year. I have until August 2023 to get my masters program to keep my New York State Teaching Certification, so this program allows me to have an extra little window of study time/alternative courses before I sit the MA exam and fulfill the NYS deadline. This helps me sleep at night! 

This masters program, with an emphasis on literature, civilization, and linguistics, would make me eligible to apply for adjunct teaching at a college or uni down the road. Classes like “Contemporary French Society and Institutions” “Prostitution in 19th Century French Literature” and “Problems of Grammatical Analysis” are all that I ever imagined of my masters program. While I’m waiting back to hear from the University, I’m anxiously looking at a couple of good classes that start online this summer (June 3). It would be awesome to start online this summer and get some graduate credits under my belt (not to mention some extra $$ my first couple of paychecks in September, as each credit earned towards your masters in New York state earns you a certain amount of raise in pay). You could definitely say “big things are happening” on my graduate studies search. I should be receiving my acceptance results any day now...

Today has just been “one of those days.” I wasted about 45 minutes of my morning here trying to figure out why my computer wouldn’t connect to wifi. Apparently when you change your university email account password, that changes your wifi settings as well. Very strange. Really wish I knew that ahead of time before I wasted half of my planning period. One thing that I’m not going to miss about Europe is the apparent fail of technology EVERYWHERE. 

I remember this being a thing in Montpellier as well…you’re connected to the wifi less than 70% of the time, printers are more often out-of-service than not, and sometimes your lifeline even breaks!  When I say lifeline, I’m talking about the university and school coffee machines. This morning, the coffee machine at school was out-of-service for the first three lessons today. In case you can’t tell by my rambling, it has since been back-in-action and I’m on my third cup to catch-up for my missed morning ritual at 7:30am here today. 

I’m currently typing this in the teachers room at the lycée. Since teachers don’t have their own classrooms in Luxembourg, the teachers lounge is where all the coffee drinking, gossip, and camaraderie takes place over here. There’s currently two fifty-something year old teachers sitting across from me by the window, and I’m pretty sure they’re talking in Luxembourgish about how fast I type. I just looked up and smiled at them, and they nervously smiled back before changing the subject of their conversation. Amazing what you can understand from tone and hearing an occasional French word thrown in there...

I have some teacher friends other than my English teacher colleagues, but I think most of the teachers here don’t realize that I speak French. They typically avoid conversation with me. Once a week, there are still moments where people approach me in Luxembourgish. When this wonderful linguistic exchange happens, I freeze, turn white, and ask them if they “speak French” in French. Sometimes it sparks new conversations and friendships, and other times they walk away thinking I’m “not playing with a full deck of cards” (as my mom would say)! You just can’t win them all! 

Noon has already rolled by, and Taylor will be home for her equally-as-sunny three day weekend today at around 1:30. We’re planning on “cooking” some cheap lunches today together. I think she mentioned this morning that she had part of a sandwich leftover from lunch yesterday. Thinking about what I have it home, I think my gourmet meal will be two eggs over-easy and a spinach shake. Yum. You can tell I love grocery shopping almost as much as cooking. When I think about my mom’s cooking, I begin to salivate. I can’t even decide what I want first...

Tomorrow the weather forecast predicts a high of 67 and sun all day. Tay and I plan to go into the city for a nutritions American lunch of Pizza Hut, and will spend the day in the city visiting our favorite French bookstore and walking around the infamous guind. 

I’m currently sitting here with my sunglasses on my head and ready to go when I leave, so if that isn’t a little surprise on the first day of spring, I’m not quite sure what is! As we say in Luxembourgish, Äddi for now! 

[roamingcandleinthewild]

Michaely and the Adventures of the Lost Wallet

I’ve been in Thailand for about 10 days now, I spent 4 nights in Bangkok, 5 nights in Kanchanaburi (one including Elephant Haven), and last night I slept on a night bus from Kanchanaburi to Chiang Mai. It’s been a blast so far, some setbacks aside. I got to the Shanghai airport after my first 12 hour flight, in line for immigration I met another girl my age, from BC, going to Bangkok as well. It turned out we were staying about 2 blocks away from each other in Bangkok so we agreed to take a cab together from the airport. It was around 11:30 and everything was going great, except I think the cab driver took the long way around because it was more than expected. We got to Khao San Road where Ashlee was staying, I gave her my share of the cab fare, and I explained to him I was getting off at another spot (at this point we didn’t realize HOW close my hostel was to her), and when he insisted I get out and walk, I wasn’t about to argue. Still not realizing I was only an 8 minute walk away from my hostel (no data or wifi on either of our phones), I decided to take another cab from where we were to my hostel. Once I was in the cab I patted front pocket of my backpack only to find that it was empty. It was where my wallet had been. In the new cab, while he was driving, I frantically looked through every pocket of both of my bags, and my wallet was nowhere to be found. I got the cab driver to stop, we weren’t that far from where we started, and I explained I couldn’t find my wallet while holding back panic-induced tears. In a blur of emotion and fatigue I went to where the first taxi had dropped us off and looked all over the street back to where I caught the second one. Nothing. Ashlee had gone back to her hotel, so I was completely alone. I ran into the Burger King across the street and ripped open my bags again, looking through everything, panicking, and convinced I was going to be homeless in Bangkok my first night traveling. After I came to the conclusion my wallet (which had my license, care card, credit card, and debit card in it) was absolutely nowhere to be found, through watery eyes I was able to ask the Burger King employee for the wifi password (I hadn’t had wifi since the Vancouver airport). My phone went off with messages from my mom and dad asking if I had made it. I immediately texted the groupchat I made with my mom, dad, and sister saying “I’m in Bangkok. Someone please call me.” My mom called me almost right away and I explained to her what had happened, we both had no idea what to do. I messaged Ashlee asking if she had accidentally put it in her bag, she checked all of her bags but she couldn’t find it anywhere either. I believe it fell out of my lap Thankfully, she let me sleep in her hotel that night. We were to deal with it in the morning. In the morning I went to the file a report on my wallet to the police. Everyone spoke thai and they weren’t very much help. I emailed my uncle who is also in Thailand, and he was able to help me out a bit and email the taxi companies and the airport asking about my wallet. After filing a report, my mom was able to wire me some money to hold me over through Western Union until I figured everything out. I tried to call multiple numbers on my banks website, but none of them were working. My dad was able to freeze my credit card though, which gave me a little bit more peace of mind. Finally, I was able to find a place where you could pay to make international calls. I called my bank and explained what happened, and they said they could send me a new debit card in 3-4 business days. The trouble was that they needed and address, I had very little idea where I would be then. I decided to give them the hotel address in Kanchanaburi, I would just have to extend my stay a little bit longer. My bank then transferred me to the visa people to deal with my credit card, mind you I was paying by the minute here, and he was the slowest talker in the entire world. The whole call ended up costing me about $40 CAD. Thankfully though, we were able to get both cards sent to this hotel. Fast forward to 2 days ago, after I had told the receptionist at this new hotel that I was expecting a delivery a few days earlier. They barely spoke any English, so I wasn’t quite that surprised that she had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if my mail had came. She called in another lady who worked there, and she also looked quite clueless to the situation. After about 10 minutes of me trying to use google translate and the most basic English I could, they finally understood I wasn’t talking about an email. When this sunk in, the second lady lit up with a look of realization. She pulled out her phone and showed me a picture of a package with my name on it. Yes!!! She knew where it was!! This was it!!! Wrong. Once I confirmed that was what I was looking for, her face turned into one of guilt and disappointment. “No room number,” she said “I did not accept, did not know who for.” After she understood I was in desperate need for these packages, she ran out the door and said “I help you.” The next morning I woke up, and nothing had changed. I still did not have my cards, and no access to anymore money. I was due to check out this morning, and I was leaving on a bus to Chiang Mai at 7:30 that night. This had to get sorted out today. It was about 8:00 in the morning and I went downstairs to see what was going on. She ran into the room and said “11:00 they be here”. Okay yay great, I’ll have money access finally. At 11:30 nothing had happened still, so I went to check out and the receptionist said it would be 30 minutes until my mail. At 12:00 the lady came in, pointed at me, and said “you come with me, we go get mail, 200 baht.” Considering this was my only option to somehow locate my missing cards I complied. We drove about 10 minutes to a warehouse where there was packages and letters all over the floor, which I guess was a step in the right direction. Everyone was yelling in thai and I had no idea what was going on. We got back on the road and it looked like we were heading back to the hotel, but we drove past it about 5 more minutes to the bus station. I thought she was just dropping me off for my bus to Chiang Mai, and that the cards were gone forever. I began getting all of my stuff on my back but she yelled “20 minutes your mail!!!”. So I stayed there. About 20 minutes later, nothing had happened, we were just sitting in a hot car in 30 plus degree weather, so I went to 7-11 and got a water. All of a sudden she starts yelling out her window to a random guy on a moped. He came over and pulled two packages out of his backpack. I was so happy I could cry. I paid the lady the 200 baht (which was dumb because I didn’t ask you to lose my mail, I shouldn’t have to pay you to find it, but whatever), and left to go activate my cards. Overall, I’m very thankful I got my cards back, but if I learned anything (other than don’t lose your wallet in Bangkok), it would be that life goes on. Super cliché I know, but its true. C’est la f*kin vie.