#automated call routing

[zentranstech]

IVRS for 24/7 Availability: Enhancing Customer Experience and Scalability

Dear Zentrans Subscriber, Today is fast-moving, and the need is felt to be in touch with your customers 24*7. This is why we are so excited to bring our newest solution: **24/7 Availability with IVRS**. A high-tech, automated system to have your business

24/7 Availability with IVRS: A Modern Solution for Constant Connectivity Today, with the world moving at a very fast pace, businesses try serving their customers 24/7 to match the expectations of clientele spread across the globe. One good way of doing it is by making use of an Interactive Voice Response System which can give constant availability and make the customer experience better. What…

[precallai]

Top AI Features Powering Next-Gen Contact Centers

Introduction

The evolution of contact centers from traditional call hubs to intelligent customer engagement platforms is being driven by artificial intelligence (AI). In a hyper-connected world where customers expect fast, personalized, and efficient service, AI is playing a transformative role. From automating routine tasks to offering real-time analytics and sentiment analysis, AI is redefining the standards of customer support. Modern contact centers, powered by AI, are becoming more responsive, proactive, and insightful—enhancing both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

This article explores the top AI features that are revolutionizing next-generation contact centers and how they are helping businesses stay competitive in today’s digital landscape.

1. AI-Powered Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

Perhaps the most visible AI application in contact centers is the use of chatbots and virtual assistants. These tools are capable of handling thousands of customer queries simultaneously across various platforms, including websites, mobile apps, and social media.

Key Benefits:

24/7 availability

Immediate responses to FAQs

Reduced workload for human agents

Seamless integration with CRM systems

Advanced AI chatbots use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to understand customer queries better and improve over time. They also support multilingual interactions, expanding a business’s global reach.

2. Intelligent Call Routing

Traditional call routing systems use basic algorithms like round-robin or skill-based routing. AI takes this to the next level with predictive routing, which uses historical data and real-time analytics to match customers with the most suitable agents.

Example: If a customer previously had a billing issue and rated a certain agent highly, AI can route future related calls directly to that agent, ensuring a personalized experience.

Benefits:

Enhanced customer satisfaction

Reduced average handling time

Better utilization of agent expertise

3. Speech and Sentiment Analysis

AI-driven sentiment analysis tools assess the tone, pitch, and language of customer conversations in real-time. This allows agents to adapt their approach based on the emotional state of the caller.

Key Capabilities:

Detect frustration or satisfaction

Real-time alerts for supervisors

Contextual response suggestions for agents

This not only helps in de-escalating potential conflicts but also contributes to training and performance reviews.

4. Real-Time Agent Assistance

AI can provide live suggestions, answers, and prompts to agents during customer interactions. Known as Agent Assist or Co-Pilot systems, these features boost agent efficiency and reduce error rates.

Use Cases:

Auto-suggesting answers based on past tickets or knowledge base

Providing legal or compliance language for regulated industries

Offering upsell/cross-sell suggestions during the call

This enables even less-experienced agents to perform like experts, thereby maintaining service consistency.

5. Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics

Modern AI systems can analyze historical customer data to predict future behaviors and offer prescriptive actions. For example, AI can forecast customer churn and suggest personalized retention strategies.

Key Features:

Trend identification

Churn prediction

Customer lifetime value estimation

Product recommendation modeling

These analytics turn contact centers from reactive to proactive units that can anticipate customer needs and take preventive measures.

6. Automated Quality Monitoring

Quality assurance (QA) in traditional contact centers involves manual listening to a random sample of calls. AI changes this by automatically analyzing 100% of customer interactions for compliance, tone, and performance metrics.

Advantages:

Scalable and unbiased QA process

Immediate feedback loops

Identification of training opportunities

This ensures consistent service quality and helps businesses remain compliant with industry standards and regulations.

7. AI-Driven Self-Service

Customers increasingly prefer solving issues on their own. AI enables robust self-service solutions through intelligent FAQs, voice assistants, and dynamic help centers.

Core Components:

AI-curated knowledge bases

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems

Visual IVRs with dynamic menus based on customer behavior

These systems can deflect a significant volume of queries, saving time and reducing contact center costs.

8. Workforce Optimization (WFO)

AI enhances workforce optimization by analyzing call volumes, customer demand patterns, and agent performance to create optimized schedules and workloads.

Capabilities Include:

Forecasting peak interaction times

Automating shift scheduling

Identifying training needs through performance data

This ensures that the right number of agents with the right skills are available at the right time.

9. Multilingual Support

With global customer bases, multilingual support is essential. AI translation engines powered by NLP enable real-time language translation, allowing agents to assist customers in multiple languages.

Benefits:

Expanded market reach

Consistent support quality

Reduced need for native-speaking agents

Advanced systems even recognize regional dialects and slang, further enhancing communication accuracy.

10. Omnichannel AI Integration

Today’s customers expect consistent service across phone, email, chat, social media, and more. AI enables omnichannel support by centralizing data and ensuring continuity in customer interactions.

Features Include:

Unified customer profiles

Context-aware responses

Seamless channel transitions (e.g., chat to call)

This creates a cohesive customer experience and provides agents with the full context of past interactions, reducing redundancy and frustration.

Conclusion

AI is not just an enhancement to traditional contact center operations—it is a fundamental driver of their transformation. From handling repetitive tasks to offering deep insights into customer behavior, AI is redefining what’s possible in customer service.

By leveraging AI-powered features like chatbots, intelligent routing, sentiment analysis, and predictive analytics, next-generation contact centers are achieving higher efficiency, better customer satisfaction, and lower operational costs. The focus is shifting from handling calls to delivering experiences, and AI is at the heart of that shift.

Businesses that invest in AI capabilities today will be better positioned to adapt to the growing demands of tomorrow’s customers. As AI continues to evolve, contact centers will become smarter, faster, and more human than ever before—setting a new standard for customer engagement in the digital era.

[aivoicesvcs1]

AI Voice Services by Think AI: Revolutionising Business Communication

AI Voice Services by Think AI is revolutionising the way businesses interact with their customers by offering advanced AI-powered voice solutions tailored for seamless automation, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. Designed to integrate effortlessly into existing systems, Think AI’s voice services provide businesses with a scalable and intelligent approach to automated communication.

From AI voice agents handling customer queries to automated appointment scheduling, AI-powered call routing, and personalised voice interactions, Think AI’s services are built to enhance customer experiences while reducing costs. By leveraging natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning, these AI-driven voice solutions enable human-like interactions, ensuring smooth and natural conversations.

Think AI's voice automation solutions are ideal for businesses in customer service, healthcare, finance, retail, and beyond, providing 24/7 availability and real-time responses to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. Whether you need AI-powered call handling, automated voice assistants, or custom voice integrations for CRM and business operations, Think AI delivers state-of-the-art solutions designed for scalability, accuracy, and seamless deployment.

With AI-powered voice agents capable of multilingual support, sentiment analysis, and intelligent decision-making, Think AI ensures that businesses stay ahead in the era of digital transformation. The company also provides custom AI voice models to match brand identity and enhance customer engagement through conversational AI. Visit: https://www.thinkai.co.uk

[roseband]

oh my god i don't speak to my dad anymore cuz hes nutty but i know what he does for a living

and musk is currently pulling a "the software govs use is 50 years old which means there can be no advances"

and that's..... that's what my dad does for a living, he gets paid 500-1k an hour to make software that specifically communicates with old legacy software cause he's a 90s dev who knows the old languages still and it's more efficient to hire a freak who knows how to make something to bridge between the old and new programs than to fully trash the old system

like there's literally consultants that get hired for that specific purpose and as a software guy musk KNOWS this

[redcherrykook]

────꒷꒦ 𝔩𝔲𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔱 [ s & c ]

︶♱︶︶♱︶ ⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺︶♱︶︶♱︶︶

part of ɳσƈƚιʋαɠαɳƚ

↳ ❝ [ vampire!Jungkook universe] ❞

✎ summary: he´s observant, watches his prey like an experienced predator, but in 125 years of age, Jungkook had never craved someone as much as you. he had to have you.

note from cherry: warning!! Stalking., obsessive jungkook, crazy PATHETICALLY DOWN BAD jungkook. part one of our sexy obssessed stalker vampire. We love him here. Mini slow burn? Idk.

︶♱︶︶♱︶ ⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺︶♱︶︶♱︶︶

In the habitual sunday walk through the lush emerald park, the birds accompany your rhythmic heartbeat with their singing. Sunday matchas always taste better once the sun reverts to glow dimly at the horizon, dissappearing goodbye in a tortuously slow departure.

You were never fond of the sunsets as you were sunrises, steadily feeling a clench in your heart at something as radiant as the sun taking it's might to part from the world, vowing to greet you in the early hours of life's next morning. But in the unleashing dark, sometimes the return of the sun felt uncertain.

Almost ashamed to admit it- on rare, eerie occasion, you still feared the ominous that roams empty streets at dead hours way past midnight. Unlike a fairytale or a badly written horror novel- these creatures found themselves in every nook and cranny. Every slither of space, you were brought up to fear them. Never walk alone after sunset. Never look behind the treeline if you felt the presence of their piercingly colorful eyes stalking you every little step.

The world has become much less judgmental nowadays.

"Matcha latte to go?"

The fair skinned man calls out from behind the counter. His purple eyes dull of boredom in typical barista fashion, the smile he shoots you no less polite, although small, pointy fangs flash from it's corners.

"Thank you -" your eyes flicker to his nametag, "Nathaniel. Here's your tip, have a nice day" you reply, automated in that slightly raised frequency you twinge when talking to a stranger.

Your steps take you back through the way you walked initially, crunching on the freshly breeze grass beneath your soles, tracing the familiar route back to your apartment.

It had become utterly familiar to him too. The route was the same- sunday after sunday. On occasion during the week- mostly during exam season, when your body called for an added fuel.

He may have gotten used to the steps he took, synchronizing them alongside your own. However, he'd never get used to your pink lips cupping the straw in their little hold. How you sip the drink with the innocents of a little dove, unaware of the shudders that go through his body, stirr in his abdominal region.

It had captured him wholly. Unexpectedly but calculated nonetheless.

It must have been planned. Seeing your precious little blush, the shirt that snuck up your torso as you put back a book into the raking shelve of the bookstore he works at. It must have been no less than fate, the blood red string of fate that is tugging his nervoussystem in your direction. Letting something awaken inside of him- something of his roots. Akin to his nature- to taunt him of his designation, the realization that he was not merely a simple man.

And his madness grew with each breath of air that filled your lungs. Even when he wasn't around to watch you take them, as long as you inhale the same oxgyen- he craved to breathe you in as though you were his source of essentials.

Chance encounters don't exist- not in 125 years has it happend to him, not a singular interaction devoid of purpose or contrary, filled to the brink with the naked, uncanny urge to engulf this very thing into his chest. That's how he knew you were his calling.

"Hey, sorry, you dropped this"

He taps on your shoulder, unguarded, you spin around, glancing at his face, down his large, faintly colorless hand that held something dear to you.

In the midst of beautifully ordinary walk, you hadn't noticed the drop of your keys.

"Oh god- thank you. That could have ended badly" you offer a small giggle, airy, light. He tries to not let his eyes roll back at the melody, handing you your keys with an aching heart. Soon enough- he told himself- soon enough he will get to enter your space.

"Yeah. Cute guy you got on there. Has he got a name?"

The little, blue bow adorned monchichi keychain catches your eye for a second before they naturally wander up to his deep red eyes. They glint slightly, taking notice of his pointed fangs that he charmingly flashes through a grin.

"Mocha" your answer is polite, small. He knew better than to pry too deep, settles to hum,

"Mocha" he recites, tilts his head the slightest bit, "I think ive seen you at my bookshop before. But i never got to know your name, pretty?"

The instant he asked, he wanted to answer this question for you in place of his theatrically put on questioning expression. Replace it with genuine lust in his voice as he lets the syllables of your name roll over his tongue, just like he's been chanting them in the dark- when no one's watching - when there's no eyes to graze the beautiful sinner he's become once his stiff cock stands proudly in his hand.

You tell him your name regardless. How could you have known that the shadow who seems to follow you around, internalized it like a favourite poem all along.

You were oblivious to his ways, clueless even. He failed to hold back a miniscule slip of tongue, wetting the metal ring in the corner of his pale rose lips.

"Thats a beautiful name. I'm Jungkook"

You bless him with your little giggle for another time, remarking in your head about how easy it was to talk to the handsome creature. The one who's face had been burned into your imagination for quite some time now, tucked away into some box, beneath the litters of faces you've seen at the morisaki bookshop.

"Suits you"

"Is that good?" he asks, showing of his signature grin to which you nod,

"Its elegant"

"Vampires tend to be" he says, vaguely gesturing to your cup, "You like matcha? I could treat you to one, if you like?"

Satisfaction courses through his bloodstream at the airbrushed pink that dusts your cheeks, taking note of the way your pointy gel nails fiddle slightly with your jeanpocket,

Alongside the pleasure, relief floods him in it's soothing tide- he had finally uttered the sentence he meticulously practiced to say over and over again- watch his micro expressions in his reflection to tweak each subtle give away, enhance every unique feature he held within those constructed words.

"I'd like that" you reply, choosing a demure answer that attempts to hide your attraction to Jungkook, your girlish excitement at meeting him again.

"Same time next week?"

Succumbing to his natural charm was inevitable. Nothing could have prepared you for the lull in his voice, how every word he pronounced sounded like those of an ancient spell. The strike in his unusually colored eyes differed so drastically from the fairness of his flawless skin. It was drowning you in its hues.

Jungkook walked home with a use of his speed inflicted upon the pace of a human step. The sight of your lips trembling slightly as you gave him your number, the one he had memorized weeks ago, still playing in his mind's eye like a movie. It would become his favourite memory until he created more explicited ones- though he grew acustom to cumming at the simple sound of your name in his head- spoken by his own voice, now blissfully interchanged with the way you offered it to him earlier.

Patience is a virtue he had mastered inescapably, it grew into his life through vicious blessings, beautiful curses. 24 hours that multiply and blend into unexciting memories.

All strings had gotten loose upon your arrival. How would he be able to await another seven days without seeing you, without hearing you pronounce mundane words or viewing your camera app being opened over a little flower on the pavement.

He couldn't wait, no matter how much patience he had.

His shadow casts itself behind the many cars parking up your street, he zones in on your surroundings- the little shoulder look you give in the dark, as if to spot anything that could endanger you. It made his heart wrench,

"I'd never let you get hurt" he whispers to himself, watching the cold air manifest into transparent smoke as he speaks.

You rattle your keys, unlock the shabby apartment door with stiff fingers, suffering the low temperatures. From your peripheral, it almost looked like a blow- a gust of wind running by your side.

But when you turn around with hitched breath, its empty.

Jungkook exhaled once your figure disappeared into the building. Carelessy, he swung by, wanting to get just an inch closer, an inch away from having his highly receptive senses flooded with your gentle scent. For his yearning heart to get a fraction of gratification.

The closer he is, the more he needs to have. It clouds him like the smoke of a stormy night, rips him into the unknown, the unexplored and hidden desires of digging his teeth into the graceful skin of your neck.

Sunday finally comes around, the end of the week igniting him with a new flame. He'd been painfully dragging himself around in those remaining hours, holding himself back from standing in front of your bedroom window to watch you pick out your outifit, pace around nervously like you did before meeting with your friends on Wednesday nights. A tradition of getting cocktails at least twice a month, you appeared lovely, casual even. But jungkook saw it all behind the curtain of effortlessness, the pile of discarded outfits, your hairbrush thrown on your bed in frustration. The sweet, winged eyeliner that took three songs and four retries to draw on. He'd seen it all, every inch of your skin as you try on dress after skirt, shirt after blouse, no matter how much he restrained himself to avert his gaze.

Now, he's seeing you approach from afar, walking tentatively in the beautifully dim sunlight.

He skips a few steps to be in your vicinity quicker- you blink confused, before breaking out into a small laughter.

"Right, you can do that"

He returns your smile, his heart races at the sight of you so close to him, so attainable.

"Its pretty efficient"

You hum, tracking your gaze from the top of his pierces eyebrow, down his plump lips, taking your line of sight down the contours of his sharp jaw before your focus shifts on the unbuttoned top part of his silky black shirt. His prominent collarbones peak out just enough to make you elicit a barely audible sigh,

In his mind, he's been drifting to your bedroom, to his hands that let the pretty grey fabric graciously fall down the dips of your figure.

"You look really pretty, grey suits you"

Jungkook's smoothe voice guides you through the rest of the joint night.

Along his gentle nature, there is some sort of belonging. A shiver of closeness that runs down your back, even when it's just his knuckles that gingerly bump yours while you walk around the blooming trail. You catch him from time to time, in the midst of your conversation, how he lets himself wander off in thought a bit, yet, he's attentive, responsive, dancing the line of being completely entranced by the string of words leaving your lips.

"Youre easy to talk to" you tell him truthfully while throwing away the empty cup. He chuckles a little,

"Yeah? Well, you make me feel comfortable, i think thats why"

"I do? I feel like i'm so awkward" you chuckle- honestly, maybe you were a bit awkward. Trying your hardest not to let him pay and telling bad jokes about his vampire qualities that he'd probably been told multiple times before. Nothing shy from enticing in his eyes.

"I think youre adorable"

"You're way too honest. Is that a vampire thing?"

His hand brushes a little strand away from your face, stalled in front of the acquainted doorstep of your apartment. The soft hair glides through his slender fingers like liquid gold. From the back of his throat, a small groan of approval sounds,

"No, but I'm bad at lying anyways"

Your lips curve into a grin, mirroring his expression. The thumping in your chest rings so loudly, you're almost sure he's able to pick up the frequency with his immaculate hearing. Its a pounding you haven't yet felt before. It may be the deep night around you- adding to his sexy mystique, the way his eyelids seemed to drop the least bit, following the lure of the moon.

"When can I see you again?" He asks with a quiet, breathy tone. Goosebumps threathen to plaque his dull skin as you bite into the corner of your lip,

"Whenever you want. Just.. text me"

He nods, "Okay pretty"

With that, you smile and disappear into the walls of your home.

Jungkook exhales a long, deep breath. His eyes fall closed, body slumping against a nearby tree. Utter delight crashes his head, grounds him into the world that he is slowly, meticulously creating for you to be part of. For you to be the sun of.

Similarly, you collapse right against the closed door. Smiling stupidly like a giddy teenage girl, running your hand through your hair, you break into a fit of giggles. Immediately pulling your phone out to text your best friend about what had just happend in the last long, dreamy hours.

But before you get the chance to click on her chat log, a message lights up your screen,

Jungkook >.< : cant wait to see you again

He bites back a smile, the reflection of you getting excited over his text dances in his pupils as he stands off to the side of your slightly parted curtains,

"good night sweetheart" he mumbles, gradually turning back to resort back into his own home.

Messages like these had crept their way into your normal days.

Good morning texts, little things that reminded you of each other- mentions of movies to watch together or selfies with meaningless captions like "hard work day :( " decorated your chat in extensive loads. Despite not much time having past since the first date, time has acquired another meaning in its entirety. So much so that you find yourself aimlessly wandering inside a grocery store after suggesting Jungkook should come over for dinner.

He slipped into your life with ease, fitting into a space that seemed to be cut out just for him, and how much you adored him was almost embarrassing to admit.

You had never invited him to your home before, but he didn't mention it. Instead, he typed back that he'd be there at 7 pm, until he remembered that he isnt supposed to know your exact address- quickly adding the question onto his last message.

His breath quickens the instant he's greeted with you facing him, the tulips in his hand feel heavy all of a sudden, wanting nothing more but to drop them and engulf you into his selfish hands instead.

"Come in kook", while wrapping your arms around his taller frame, you can sense the way he tenses, his busy hand clenches the boquet with restrained power, the other one makes it to your back, carefully pulling you into his chest. He inhales your scent in pure ecstasy, button nose nudging the top of your freshly shampooed head.

Once inside- he's looking around the confined space with curious eyes. As many times as he had seen glimpses, being on the other side of your windows felt like a perverted secret. After hours of studying your schedule, analyzing common places, people, interests that are woven into your life, he would finally solidify himself as the most important.

Lucky was an understatement. Jungkook felt blessed- divinely touched to be able to move around the four walls of his angel- his very own godsend gift. His, only his.

The sigh he lets out almost serves as a way to release his overflowing happiness into the atmosphere, let go of his orchestrated hours that took him to his destination- you.

"Pretty place" he compliments, watching you pick out a vase for your favourite type of flowers, "hm, thank you. I love tulips, crazy how you picked them" you say, sparkling innocently as your fingers adjust the petals,

"Good guess right?"

The air thickens with his approaching steps, his aura carries itself over you, there's an undeniable chemistry brewing between you. Presents itself in the quickening of your heartbeat, the tension in his beautifully otherwordly features.

"No garlic i hope?" he jokes, pointing to the ingredients spread on the counter. The thin fabric of your tanktop collides with his cotton tshirt, his muscular arm holding onto the cupboard in front of you. The yearning inside of you leads you to turn around, facing him and essentially, trapping yourself between the kitchen island and his steady body.

Perfect, he thinks.

"Very funny" you giggle, looking up into the deep red you would never get used to. Its mesmerizing to see the color intensify from time to time.

Jungkook reaches his hand out to take your chin between his fingers, tilting your head up into his direction. His face is relaxed but the slight quiver of his lips, as if holding back from letting his canine teeth dart out, doesn't get past your observing eyes.

It doesn't get past him either, how you seemed to nibble on your lip a little, taking deeper inhales with the duration of his gentle touch.

"You're so pretty" he mumbles, growing an inch closer to your face with patience. The proximity makes his blood heat up, he barely has the chance to touch you before every single thought of raw and uncontrollable desire overtakes him,

Your gaze flickers down to his parted lips, the lip ring shines with a slight coat of saliva and you wish for nothing more than a deep collision, just as jungkook craves the taste of you all over his tongue.

As much as he has his instincts under control, he cannot deprive himself any longer.

Rationality vanishes from his thoughts- as his lips press gently against yours, he begins moaning in pure satisfaction. A slight taste of you was all he ever dreamed of having- but he should have known better than that. There was no way of not needing more- he had to have you, taste you, kiss and claim everything you had to give him.

The deep moan makes you whimper into the now passionate kiss- hands having found their way into his tousled hair, tugging at the roots with care. His lips clash to yours over and over, nipping at your bottom lip, licking over it to ask for premission.

You grant it to him immediately, the need to get as close as possible is indescribable, it is more than desire, more than a feeling or a simple word, you pull him in deeper and he whines at your desperation, seeing himself mirrored in you.

"Taste so fucking good. I need you, i need you so goddamn much" he groans against your lips- tongue pushing and tangling with your own, his hands wander up and down your sides as if to soothe himself, holding on to his control for all he's worth.

He steadies himself by breaking the kiss for a breath of air with his forehead meeting yours in a moment of isolation. It was hasty, messy and nonetheless perfect. He craved more, longed for another taste.

You're the first to break the silence, barely letting the words run past your lips in the midst of hightend breathing,

"I like you so much"

He doesn't recall when he last felt this intense amount of pleasure, he doesn't waste another breath on words, kissing you with newfound but always present lust, exploring the softness of your skin hidden beneath the tanktop- his shaky fingers itch at the brief shiver that passes through you- wanting to make you shiver again and again,

"You have no idea how crazy i am about you" he mutters while shifting his attention to kiss along your jaw, his mouth remains open and wet against your skin- running his tongue down your neck so, so gently.

The validity behind those words are something he cannot bear open to you in this moment- but he swore to himself he would eventually.

It takes all his willpower not to sink his pointy teeth into the delicate skin, feeling the pulse running wild like it was begging him to bite.

"Wanna make you feel so good"

Moans of his name fall from your lips, he recriporates each one with needy whimpers of his own, working to touch and worship whatever he has beneath his hands at the moment- already tugging at the bottom of your shirt, before you register it, its lying on the tile floor,

"Hold tight sweetheart"

The nickname adds to the heat pooling in your underwear- supported by simply one of his hands, a reminder of his inhumane strength. You´re lifted to the kitchen island, sitting with your thighs open for him to stand between. The thick bulge that's been present from the moment his lips met yours presses against you every so slightly- providing both of you with tiny amounts of pressure.

His lips run down invisible paths to your bra covered chest, submitting to his urges like a man devoid of free will- of any power.

"Wanna bite you s'bad" he rasps, unfastening your bra and attaching his plump lips to your stiffend bud, rolling the oppsite one in his skilled fingertips,

Institutiavely, your thighs clench around his hips, seeking more friction at the thought of his pretty fangs snaking into your skin. Jungkook completely surrounded you with his scent, his words, his presence.

Serving justice to all the mysteries and tales about his kind- his passion, his groans, his possessive hands are far to good to be the ones of a weak human man- his teeth ghost over you and in that instant, he becomes everything.

"You can- just not - mhmm- too hard"

Interrupted by your own noises of satisfaction, the words come out without any fear. Replaced by the sheer pleasure he lays upon your body, the look of desire in his features as he keeps grabbing, kissing, moaning for you.

He looks at you through his lashes, mouth leaving your chest wet and glistening, his lips are swollen as they breathe out his next words,

"You're a dream, my beautiful angel"

His lips return to your neck, suctioning harsher than previously, grazing the sharpness with every sloppy suck of your skin- and when he finally, ever so slightly indulges in sinking his teeth in- you make the most wonderful noise to him.

The moans of your name fall from his lips naturally, like a continuous prayer to your body, letting his fingers toy with your breasts- allowing his teeth to leave little lovebites in pretty shades of red spread across your neck.

"Youre so pretty, the prettiest angel" he whispers lovingly, gliding his fingers down your arm while admiring his work of art.

His skin burned- burned with the helpless devotion he cannot restrict.

"You´re mine, you´re mine angel all mine, do you understand?"

Posession creeps into the kisses to your stomach- he is touching you, his hands are the ones wandering your body, his lips are the ones marking up near every inch that falls victim to him, but it hardly registers in his head because you scratch along his muscular back- nodding without a doubt in mind,

"Feels so good- oh fuck jungkook please"

You whine- you whine for him and it gets him to nuzzles his nose into your slick lace panties, inhaling deeply to submerge himself in your femininity,

"Anything you want, im gonna fucking worship you baby. Gonna make you come until you beg me to stop"

Jungkook hooks his large hands on the underside of your thighs, kneeling in front of you as though he was actually praying to you- letting your legs dangle over his broad shoulders.

The sight of your wet folds, red and swollen clit all due to him- all in front of his very own diluted eyes made him salivate, he marked your entire thighs with deep red and purple bruises that you met with loud moans, trembling throughout your body- wandering until it´s coming out in your whiney tone of voice that kept asking for him- asking as if he wouldn't burn down the world for you.

"My pretty little pussy, look at that, look at how wet you are for me"

It was so overstimulating to him, hightend all his feelings, blurred his extensive vision at the first drop of your slick on his greedy, relentless tongue.

"Fucking angelic- taste so good" he whines into your pussy- laps and laps at the stickyness with vigour and precision when licking a long strip up to circle your clit.

In between closing your eyes, your droopy sight caught vision of jungkook sitting there, hugged by your thighs, his eyes framed with disshevld strands, glazed and cloudy- mouth wet with messy pleasure smeared along his skin.

"Mhh- kook- you look so hot like this"

The praise thrills him- diving into your need with the large overcast of his own, his cock twitching and aching so badly beneath the blue jeans but somehow- being on his knees for you, listening to your beautiful voice call out for him- it was better than any contact he ever dreamed to experience before.

His eyes roll back into his head upon the arrival of your first orgasm- overcoming you with a loud cry, your thighs clamp around his head, trap him there like you dreaded the separation as much as he did.

"Kook- fuck- ohhh fuck"

You shook, plead for more and his tongue obeyed, thrusting the wet muscle into you fast, his thumb rubbing tight circles on the throbbing pearl of your crying cunt,

"Good girl, good, good girl, come for me- let this pussy know who's it is"

He heard the second high before he saw it- the broken sob, the sniffling that send shocks into his constricted cock, made it beg for attention. It worsened as he glanced up,

"god baby- so fucking cute" he groans so loudly, smashing his lips to your cunt - sucking harshly on your oversensitive clit that endured so much of his suckling and gnawing.

Your moans continue to flow, changing into meek cries of his name, the pearly tears roll down your reddend cheeks ending on your quivering lips that are now covered in the salty liquid.

And at the thought of tasting them, oh so pathetically, Jungkook's cock pulses angrily - leaks with cum all over himself, coating his length in warm, milky pleasure, meeting the sensation of your tangy sweetness blessing his mouth.

"ahh.. mhh.." you stumble out, slowly dropping the slight grinding on his numb and swollen lips, just as jungkook pants and whimpers, having finished untouched- because pleasing you was his priority, his greatest achievement- and he hasn´t even gotten to feeding you every inch of his cock, hasn´t even seen it disappear into your tight, pulsing pussy,

"oh angel, you´re so beautiful, so good, did so so good baby" his lips run his trails back and forth on your thighs, calming their shaking with the addition of his big hands stroking your hips,

You tug at his shoulder and he recieves the silent question, bringing his body up to stand upward, dazed and bathing in your afterglow

It doesn´t take long for your eyes to find the wet patch,

"See that? All because of you. All yours" he says, pulling you into him by the small of your back, like a puzzlepiece, your hands wrap around his shoulders- both of you relish in the company of one another,

How right it truly felt to be held by his magical hands,

To meet his lips in another soft kiss, tasting the remains of yourself on him.

It was right,

He had done absolutely everything in and beyond his power to secure that, now that he had it in his grasp, black and white,

He would always make sure it stays that way, even if it meant digging his teeth into your neck until you bled.

[empty-movement]

Welcome to Something Eternal: A Website Forum in 2023 wtf lmao

It's 2023, and a single belligerent rich guy destroyed one of the primary focal points of uh...global communication. Tumblr is, shockingly, kinda thriving despite the abuse it gets from its owners, but that I will call the iconic refusal of Tumblr users to let Tumblr get in the way of their using Tumblr. Reddit killed its API, removing the functionality of mobile apps that made it remotely readable (rip rif.) Discord, our current primary hangout, has made countless strange choices lately that indicate it has reached the summit of its usability and functionality, and can only decline from here as changes get made to prepare for shareholders. (NOTE: WROTE THIS POST BEFORE THEIR MOBILE "REDESIGN" LMAO)

The enshittification is intense, and it's coming from every direction. Social media platforms that felt like permanent institutions are instead slowly going to let fall fallow incredible amounts of history, works of art, thought, and fandoms. It kinda sucks!

A couple years ago, I posted about a new plan with a new domain, to focus on the archiving of media content, as I saw that to be the fatal weakness of the current ways the internet and fandoms work. Much has happened since to convince me to alter the direction of those efforts, though not abandon them entirely.

Long story short? We are launching a fucking website forum. In 2023.

If you remember In the Rose Garden, much about Something Eternal will be familiar. But this has been a year in the making, and in many ways it's far more ambitious than IRG was. We have put money on this. The forum is running on the same software major IT and technology businesses use, because I don't want the software to age out of usability within five years. It has an attached gallery system for me to post content to, including the Chiho Saito art collection. It has a profile post system that everyone already on the forum has decided is kinda like mini Twitter? But it is, fundamentally, a website forum, owned and run and moderated by us. We are not web devs. But we have run a website on pure spite and headbutting code for over twenty years, and we have over a decade of experience maintaining social spaces online, both on the OG forum, and on our Discord. Better skilled people with far more time than we have can and will build incredible alternatives to what is collapsing around us. But they're not in the room right now. We are. And you know what? Maybe it's time to return to a clunkier, slower moving, more conversation focused platform.

You're not joining a social media platform with the full polish of dozens of devs and automated moderation. Things might break, and I might need time to fix them. The emojis and such are still a work in progress. Because e-mails no longer route in reasonable normal ways, the sign-up process instead happens within the software, and has to be approved by mods. Design and structure elements may change. Etc. The point being, that the forum isn't finished, but it is at a place where I feel like I can present it to people, and it's people I need to help direct what functions and things will be in this space. You all will shape its norms, its traditions, its options...choices I could try to make now, but really...they're for us to create as a group! But the important stuff? That's there. Now let's drive this baby off the damn lot already!

Come! Join us!!

PS. As always, TERFs and Nazis need not apply.

[strawb3rryg2l]

The Temp, Part 2

Characters: Robert Reynolds x (Female) Reader.

Summary: Mel trains a new temp - Y/N. Y/N just wants a normal life, one where she can forget her past as a spy and start anew. When she meets The Thunderbolts, she can't help but notice Robert Reynolds... or Bob, as everyone calls him. He's quiet, shy, and seemingly holding a lot inside. She almost feels the same, even if she doesn't know him personally. They find a likeness in one another and grow closer.

Warnings: reader is an ex-spy, fighting, bleeding, reader gets injured, the void appears, spoilers for the movie (Let me know if there any more warnings I should put).

Word Count: 1341

Note from the author: This is my work and not only will it be posted on this account (@Strawb3rryg2l) . It will also be posted to my account of Archivesofourown (@ Strawb3rrygal). I will link it here once it is uploaded. This is a work in progress, and my first ever fanfiction so please be kind. This movie brought back my love for Marvel, and I'm super excited about this series I will be writing. This is my first attempt of a slow-burn, friends to lovers, and smut (mueheh). So without further ado... Happy reading!

Post Note from the author: I thought I'd add a picture this time hehe:)

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

It started with the alarms.

Shrill. Pulsing. Immediate. The kind that didn’t wait for protocol or polite warning. Red emergency lights flooded the white walls of the compound, casting everything in a warlike hue. The automated voice blared overhead, cold and measured.

“Security breach. Level 3 lockdown initiated.”

Y/N stood in the records wing, her hands still on a manila file. A quiet moment snapped in half. She didn't move right away, not out of fear, but calculation. Her mind flipped through the possibilities, cataloging escape routes, fallback positions, security override codes. She’d been trained for this. Not officially, but enough to know what to do.

She reached into her pocket, fingers brushing the emergency keycard nestled in her coat, and hesitated just a second longer.

Protocol dictated she call Valentina.

But instinct told her to move. She slipped the comms piece into her ear and tapped the button.

“Mel’s coverage. This is Y/N. What’s the situation?”

She heard static. Then a crackle, and a voice she didn’t recognize, tight and rushed.

“—sublevel two. Not ours. Not friendly.”

Her grip on the key tightened. She turned to the wall-mounted security panel, already punching in the first override sequence. A plan formed in her head, one step at a time: lockdown the breach points, isolate the threat, stall them until—

Footsteps.

Behind her.

Fast.

She spun, fists already rising—

“Whoa, it’s me!”

Bob.

His eyes weren’t glowing yet. Not completely. But there was a shimmer beneath the surface that barely leashed power, like something boiling just under his skin.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, voice low.

They stared at each other; he didn’t seem happy to see her in the middle of whatever was going on.

“I’m not leaving,” she answered simply.

And then she turned back to the panel and finished the override.

“Can you get me to sublevel two?”

Bob paused. “Yeah. But if it’s bad—”

“If it’s bad, we deal with it.”

Another beat. He seemed to think about this for a while. Y/N tapped her foot with a little impatience, and then finally he nodded.

They ran. The hallways blurred by in flashing red light. Y/N moved in measured strides, fast but controlled. She didn’t look at Bob. She didn’t need to. The tension in the air between them was almost tactile. She knew Bob wasn’t usually the one to respond to these kinds of breaches. Which had her wondering where the rest of the team was. 

They reached the stairwell to the sublevel just as the compound shuddered with the force of an explosion. A door, farther down the corridor, was ripped off its hinges and hurled into the wall.

Y/N crouched low, back to the wall.

“Visual?”

Bob stepped forward, peering through the smoke and flashing lights.

“Two intruders. Armed.”

“Mercs?”

He glanced at her. “Could be. Or bait.”

“You armed?” Bob asked.

Y/N didn’t answer right away. She reached down, drew a thin blade from her boot, then snapped open a telescoping baton from her sleeve with a clean metallic click.

Bob gave a crooked smile. “I thought you were just the assistant.”

She rolled her eyes. “I am. Among other things.”

Then came the storm.

The mercs moved with practiced aggression too fast and trained to be amateurs. Everything in her narrowed to motion and reaction. One merc lunged, swinging a heavy arc meant to knock her flat. She ducked, stepped in, slammed her baton into his ribs. He staggered, and she was already spinning to meet the second attacker. Her dagger flashed a precise cut, enough to disarm, and disable. Not to kill. She was only trying to temporarily stop these mercs.

She felt it rise in her like muscle memory. The rhythm of the fight, the silence between movements, the thrill she didn’t let herself acknowledge.

Bob moved to engage, but she stepped in front of him. She could see the glow building in his eyes now, pulsing with something alive. He was holding it back. Barely.

The merc she knocked down began to rise again. She pivoted, planted a solid kick to his side. He dropped out cold. The second merc came at her silently, a blade flashing in his hand. She tried to block him but was not fast enough.

A slice. Shallow. Blood began to wet her shoulder. She inhaled sharply. 

Bob’s eyes locked on her shoulder, and the world shifted.

The transformation was instant. An eruption of golden light exploded outward like a sun collapsing in reverse. The hallway shook as concrete cracked, dust rained down, and the air buzzed with raw energy.

Y/N hit the ground hard, wind knocked from her lungs. Her ears rang. When she pushed herself up, the golden blur hovering in the chaos wasn’t Bob.

It was Sentry.

He hovered, untouchable. Burning with energy that bent the very air around him. And he moved, no, appeared before the merc in an instant. A hand shot out and clamped around the merc’s throat. He lifted him and slammed him. The wall cracked with the impact. The merc didn’t get back up.

Sentry didn’t speak.

He floated there, a silent storm wrapped in flesh and gold.

Y/N rose slowly, ignoring the sting in her shoulder. She didn’t reach for a weapon. She didn’t run. Her voice, when it came, was quiet but clear.

“Bob,” she said, “it’s okay. You’re here.”

He didn’t answer. The air around him shimmered, gold dimming at the edges. Flickering and there was darkness. Not just light now, but a shadow. Crawling, writhing. The edges of something else rising behind him.

The Void.

“No,” she whispered. And she stepped forward.

“I know you’re still in there. You don’t want this. You don’t want to become him.”

He turned his head slow, jagged, like it hurt to move. “I can feel him,” he said. His voice was layered. Shattered. “He’s close. I can’t hold him.”

“You can.”

“You don’t know what I am.”

Her gaze didn’t waver.

“I know what it’s like to be shaped into something you're not,” she said. “To have people look at you and only see what you can do for them. What you can destroy.”

Behind him, the shadows thickened reaching, trying to take form. A monstrous echo of something unspeakable. A reflection of fear. Maybe what he feared he was.

She didn’t stop.

“I used to think power meant control. That if I was feared, I couldn’t be hurt again.”

Her steps were steady, even as blood darkened her sleeve.

“But that kind of power? It just makes you disappear.”

The darkness hissed behind him, curling up like it knew she was getting too close.

“I disappeared for years. Forgot what it meant to be more than useful. To be seen.”

She stopped in front of him.

She spoke, low and steady. “I see you, Bob. Not the Void. Not the Sentry. You.”

His hands trembled, not from rage, but from restraint. The gold shimmer around him pulsed like a heartbeat erratic and fractured.

“You don’t understand,” he whispered. “I was made to break things. That’s all I am. I’m not enough to stop this.”

“I’ve felt that too,” she said. “That I wasn’t enough unless I was winning. Unless I was the strongest one in the room.”

The shadow behind him reared. She didn’t flinch.

“You are enough, even when you’re scared. Even when you’re fighting.”

The gold surged then dimmed. As if her words, quiet and true, reached somewhere deeper than fear.

“I’m still afraid,” he admitted, voice cracking.

“So am I,” she said. “But I trust you.”

The shadow screamed without sound and then shattered like smoke in wind.

He fell to his knees, hands braced on cracked floor, breath ragged. Shaking. There was no weapon left, just a man.

Y/N dropped beside him without hesitation. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He flinched. Then leaned in.

No words, just warmth.

And then darkness, as Y/N’s world tilted and slipped out of focus. Her head fell to his chest.

[rottenpumpkin13]

Genesis gets lost in the woods after a tough mission. Radio's broken, there's no food, no water. It's just him, his sword and his brain. Does he wait for Shinra's rescue team to locate him? Does he manage to steal a radio from Wutai troopers? Or does he find his way back to the base on his own?

Genesis is a notorious gossip, so of course he knows exactly how to wring signal out of a PHS in a dead zone. The man once got reception in a mako reactor just to call Angeal and complain about the mako color. He grew up climbing trees in an apple orchard, so wilderness survival is second nature. No food? No problem. No water? He's drinking dew off a leaf like a fae prince. He scrambles up a tree and finally gets enough bars to make a call.

Automated Voice: "Welcome to Shinra Communications Routing Services. If you are calling from a Sector, press its number on the keypad. If you are calling from a mysterious location, press 9."

*Genesis angrily presses 9*

Automated Voice: "To report a mission update, press 1. To request emergency support, press 2. For all other inquiries, press 3."

*Genesis smashes 3*

Automated Voice: "Please state your command chain. If you are under Director Heidegger, press 1. If you are under Director Lazard, press 2. If you are under—"

Genesis: Oh for Minerva's sake.

*Genesis presses 2*

Automated Voice: "Please hold."

🎵 hold music plays the Stamp theme song 🎵

Genesis: <3

Automated Voice: "If you wish to reach Director Lazard, press 1. If you wish to reach Sephiroth, press 2. If you wish to reach Commander Hewley, press 3. If you—"

*Genesis groans and presses 2 because Sephiroth won't lecture him for an hour like Angeal*

Sephiroth: What.

Genesis: I'm stuck in the woods surrounded by enemy scouts and no reinforcements. Send help.

Sephiroth: Are you sure this isn't a metaphor for your current mental state?

Genesis: DO I SOUND LIKE A METAPHOR, SEPHIROTH?

Sephiroth: A loud one, yes.

Genesis: I will die out here.

Sephiroth: We all die, eventually.

*Sephiroth hangs up*

Genesis:

[galiifreyrose]

Never thought I'd be here making a post about how to get involved in local government, but here we are.

If you're anything like me, you're overwhelmed, exhausted, and anxious beyond all reason about America. The question I've been trying to ask myself is: what can I, a full-time engineer, actually get done with the minimal time and spoons I have to offer?

First - Set up a specific email for ALL traffic on the state of the world. I have a dedicated inbox that I only open when I have carved out time to deal with the circumstances.

Second - The absolute single biggest thing I recommend is subscribing to GovTrack.us (direct link).

Once logged in, I subscribed to all of their analysis items (i.e. legislative recap, commentary, etc) as well as (more importantly) setting up the tracker lists to follow my House and Senate representatives.

The reason I commend this so highly is that, rather than having to figure out what the hell is going on, these guys just tell me exactly how my representatives are voting on everything, so if I disagree with something, I know WHAT to call ABOUT.

Here's an example of what I get in my inbox (my reps blacked out for privacy). All of the red text are links to GOV webpages that have the details of the bill/motion/event so you can read more.

This ALONE has made me so much more informed about what's going on. Subscribing to these representatives too, and their mailing lists, has also been helpful.

Third - I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription and routed that same $10 a month I was already spending to the ACLU. Why? They're the folks that are actively suing the administration to do something about this, and they need funding to do that. We've all seen that the courts are the most effective, if only way to take action right now.

Since I started supporting my local chapter, I get emails every few days with direct links to pre-written messages I can send to my representatives, like the one below.

The "act now" isn't a petition - it's an automated system that emails your representatives (and I know it works, because I've gotten emails back from their offices).

There's a lot more I want to do. I'm trying to get involved in local environmental advocacy programs, and want to reach out to the federal lands most urgently impacted by layoffs and lease cancellations. But this is a start.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Brian Merchant’s “Blood In the Machine”

Tomorrow (September 27), I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine. On October 2, I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab.

In Blood In the Machine, Brian Merchant delivers the definitive history of the Luddites, and the clearest analysis of the automator's playbook, where "entrepreneurs'" lawless extraction from workers is called "innovation" and "inevitable":

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

History is written by the winners, and so you probably think of the Luddites as brainless, terrified, thick-fingered vandals who smashed machines and burned factories because they didn't understand them. Today, "Luddite" is a slur that means "technophobe" – but that's neither fair, nor accurate.

Luddism has been steadily creeping into pro-labor technological criticism, as workers and technology critics reclaim the term and its history, which is a rich and powerful tale of greed versus solidarity, slavery versus freedom.

The true tale of the Luddites starts with workers demanding that the laws be upheld. When factory owners began to buy automation systems for textile production, they did so in violation of laws that required collaboration with existing craft guilds – laws designed to ensure that automation was phased in gradually, with accommodations for displaced workers. These laws also protected the public, with the guilds evaluating the quality of cloth produced on the machine, acting as a proxy for buyers who might otherwise be tricked into buying inferior goods.

Factory owners flouted these laws. Though the machines made cloth that was less durable and of inferior weave, they sold it to consumers as though it were as good as the guild-made textiles. Factory owners made quiet deals with orphanages to send them very young children who were enslaved to work in their factories, where they were routinely maimed and killed by the new machines. Children who balked at the long hours or attempted escape were viciously beaten (the memoir of one former child slave became a bestseller and inspired Oliver Twist).

The craft guilds begged Parliament to act. They sent delegations, wrote petitions, even got Members of Parliament to draft legislation ordering enforcement of existing laws. Instead, Parliament passed laws criminalizing labor organizing.

The stakes were high. Economic malaise and war had driven up the price of life's essentials. Workers displaced by illegal machines faced starvation – as did their children. Communities were shattered. Workers who had apprenticed for years found themselves graduating into a market that had no jobs for them.

This is the context in which the Luddite uprisings began. Secret cells of workers, working with discipline and tight organization, warned factory owners to uphold the law. They sent letters and posted handbills in which they styled themselves as the army of "King Ludd" or "General Ludd" – Ned Ludd being a mythical figure who had fought back against an abusive boss.

When factory owners ignored these warnings, the Luddites smashed their machines, breaking into factories or intercepting machines en route from the blacksmith shops where they'd been created. They won key victories, with many factory owners backing off from automation plans, but the owners were deep-pocketed and determined.

The ruling Tories had no sympathy for the workers and no interest in upholding the law or punishing the factory owners for violating it. Instead, they dispatched troops to the factory towns, escalating the use of force until England's industrial centers were occupied by literal armies of soldiers. Soldiers who balked at turning their guns on Luddites were publicly flogged to death.

I got very interested in the Luddites in late 2021, when it became clear that everything I thought I knew about the Luddites was wrong. The Luddites weren't anti-technology – rather, they were doing the same thing a science fiction writer does: asking not just what a new technology does, but also who it does it for and who it does it to:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

Unsurprisingly, ever since I started publishing on this subject, I've run into people who have no sympathy for the Luddite cause and who slide into my replies to replicate the 19th Century automation debate. One such person accused the Luddites of using "state violence" to suppress progress.

You couldn't ask for a more perfect example of how the history of the Luddites has been forgotten and replaced with a deliberately misleading account. The "state violence" of the Luddite uprising was entirely on one side. Parliament, under the lackadaisical leadership of "Mad King George," imposed the death penalty on the Luddites. It wasn't just machine-breaking that became a capital crime – "oath taking" (swearing loyalty to the Luddites) also carried the death penalties.

As the Luddites fought on against increasingly well-armed factory owners (one owner bought a cannon to use on workers who threatened his machines), they were subjected to spectacular acts of true state violence. Occupying soldiers rounded up Luddites and suspected Luddites and staged public mass executions, hanging them by the dozen, creating scores widows and fatherless children.

The sf writer Steven Brust says that the test to tell whether someone is on the right or the left is simple: ask whether property rights are more important than human rights. If the person says "property rights are human rights," they are on the right.

The state response to the Luddites crisply illustrates this distinction. The Luddites wanted an orderly and lawful transition to automation, one that brought workers along and created shared prosperity and quality goods. The craft guilds took pride in their products, and saw themselves as guardians of their industry. They were accustomed to enjoying a high degree of bargaining power and autonomy, working from small craft workshops in their homes, which allowed them to set their own work pace, eat with their families, and enjoy modest amounts of leisure.

The factory owners' cause wasn't just increased production – it was increased power. They wanted a workforce that would dance to their tune, work longer hours for less pay. They wanted unilateral control over which products they made and what corners they cut in making those products. They wanted to enrich themselves, even if that meant that thousands starved and their factory floors ran red with the blood of dismembered children.

The Luddites destroyed machines. The factory owners killed Luddites, shooting them at the factory gates, or rounding them up for mass executions. Parliament deputized owners to act as extensions of law enforcement, allowing them to drag suspected Luddites to their own private cells for questioning.

The Luddites viewed property rights as just one instrument for achieving human rights – freedom from hunger and cold – and when property rights conflicted with human rights, they didn't hesitate to smash the machines. For them, human rights trumped property rights.

Their bosses – and their bosses' modern defenders – saw the demands to uphold the laws on automation as demands to bring "state violence" to bear on the wholly private matter of how a rich man should organize his business. On the other hand, literal killing – both on the factory floor and at the gallows – was not "state violence" but rather, a defense of the most important of all the human rights: the rights of property owners.

19th century textile factories were the original Big Tech, and the rhetoric of the factory owners echoes down the ages. When tech barons like Peter Thiel say that "freedom is incompatible with democracy," he means that letting people who work for a living vote will eventually lead to limitations on people who own things for a living, like him.

Then, as now, resistance to Big Tech enjoyed widespread support. The Luddites couldn't have organized in their thousands if their neighbors didn't have their backs. Shelley and Byron wrote widely reproduced paeans to worker uprisings (Byron also defended the Luddites in the House of Lords). The Brontes wrote Luddite novels. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was a Luddite novel, in which the monster was a sensitive, intelligent creature who merely demanded a say in the technology that created him.

The erasure of the true history of the Luddites was a deliberate act. Despite the popular and elite support the Luddites enjoyed, the owners and their allies in Parliament were able to crush the uprising, using mass murder and imprisonment to force workers to accept immiseration.

The entire supply chain of the textile revolution was soaked in blood. Merchant devotes multiple chapters to the lives of African slaves in America who produced the cotton that the machines in England wove into cloth. Then – as now – automation served to obscure the violence latent in production of finished goods.

But, as Merchant writes, the Luddites didn't lose outright. Historians who study the uprisings record that the places where the Luddites fought most fiercely were the places where automation came most slowly and workers enjoyed the longest shared prosperity.

The motto of Magpie Killjoy's seminal Steampunk Magazine was: "Love the machine, hate the factory." The workers of the Luddite uprising were skilled technologists themselves.

They performed highly technical tasks to produce extremely high-quality goods. They served in craft workshops and controlled their own time.

The factory increased production, but at the cost of autonomy. Factories and their progeny, like assembly lines, made it possible to make more goods (even goods that eventually rose the quality of the craft goods they replaced), but at the cost of human autonomy. Taylorism and other efficiency cults ended up scripting the motions of workers down to the fingertips, and workers were and are subject to increasing surveillance and discipline from their bosses if they deviate. Take too many pee breaks at the Amazon warehouse and you will be marked down for "time off-task."

Steampunk is a dream of craft production at factory scale: in steampunk fantasies, the worker is a solitary genius who can produce high-tech finished goods in their own laboratory. Steampunk has no "dark, satanic mills," no blood in the factory. It's no coincidence that steampunk gained popularity at the same time as the maker movement, in which individual workers use form digital communities. Makers networked together to provide advice and support in craft projects that turn out the kind of technologically sophisticated goods that we associate with vast, heavily-capitalized assembly lines.

But workers are losing autonomy, not gaining it. The steampunk dream is of a world where we get the benefits of factory production with the life of a craft producer. The gig economy has delivered its opposite: craft workers – Uber drivers, casualized doctors and dog-walkers – who are as surveilled and controlled as factory workers.

Gig workers are dispatched by apps, their faces closely studied by cameras for unauthorized eye-movements, their pay changed from moment to moment by an algorithm that docks them for any infraction. They are "reverse centaurs": workers fused to machines where the machine provides the intelligence and the human does its bidding:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/reverse-centaur/#reverse-centaur

Craft workers in home workshops are told that they're their own bosses, but in reality they are constantly monitored by bossware that watches out of their computers' cameras and listens through its mic. They have to pay for the privilege of working for their bosses, and pay to quit. If their children make so much as a peep, they can lose their jobs. They don't work from home – they live at work:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/22/paperback-writer/#toothless

Merchant is a master storyteller and a dedicated researcher. The story he weaves in Blood In the Machine is as gripping as any Propublica deep-dive into the miserable working conditions of today's gig economy. Drawing on primary sources and scholarship, Blood is a kind of Nomadland for Luddites.

Today, Merchant is the technology critic for the LA Times. The final chapters of Blood brings the Luddites into the present day, finding parallels in the labor organizing of the Amazon warehouse workers led by Chris Smalls. The liberal reformers who offered patronizing support to the Luddites – but didn't imagine that they could be masters of their own destiny – are echoed in the rhetoric of Andrew Yang.

And of course, the factory owners' rhetoric is easily transposed to the modern tech baron. Then, as now, we're told that all automation is "progress," that regulatory evasion (Uber's unlicensed taxis, Airbnb's unlicensed hotel rooms, Ring's unregulated surveillance, Tesla's unregulated autopilot) is "innovation." Most of all, we're told that every one of these innovations must exist, that there is no way to stop it, because technology is an autonomous force that is independent of human agency. "There is no alternative" – the rallying cry of Margaret Thatcher – has become our inevitablist catechism.

Squeezing the workers' wages conditions and weakening workers' bargaining power isn't "innovation." It's an old, old story, as old as the factory owners who replaced skilled workers with terrified orphans, sending out for more when a child fell into a machine. Then, as now, this was called "job creation."

Then, as now, there was no way to progress as a worker: no matter how skilled and diligent an Uber driver is, they can't buy their medallion and truly become their own boss, getting a say in their working conditions. They certainly can't hope to rise from a blue-collar job on the streets to a white-collar job in the Uber offices.

Then, as now, a worker was hired by the day, not by the year, and might find themselves with no work the next day, depending on the whim of a factory owner or an algorithm.

As Merchant writes: robots aren't coming for your job; bosses are. The dream of a "dark factory," a "fully automated" Tesla production line, is the dream of a boss who doesn't have to answer to workers, who can press a button and manifest their will, without negotiating with mere workers. The point isn't just to reduce the wage-bill for a finished good – it's to reduce the "friction" of having to care about others and take their needs into account.

Luddites are not – and have never been – anti-technology. Rather, they are pro-human, and see production as a means to an end: broadly shared prosperity. The automation project says it's about replacing humans with machines, but over and over again – in machine learning, in "contactless" delivery, in on-demand workforces – the goal is to turn humans into machines.

There is blood in the machine, Merchant tells us, whether its humans being torn apart by a machine, or humans being transformed into machines.

Brian and I are having a joint book-launch tomorrow night (Sept 27) at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-internet-con-by-cory-doctorow-blood-in-the-machine-by-brian-merchant-tickets-696349940417

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/26/enochs-hammer/#thats-fronkonsteen

[zentranstech]

Automated Call Routing with IVRS

Deep Dive into Features and Benefits of Automated Call Routing with IVRS One of the most important technologies in modern telecommunication is the Interactive Voice Response System. It supports automated call routing and enhances customer experience. It also improves operational efficiency. In this section, we are going to look more deeply into the features of automated call routing using IVRS.…

[precallai]

How AI-Based Contact Centers Are Transforming Healthcare Support

Introduction

In recent years, the healthcare industry has undergone a technological revolution, and one of the most transformative innovations is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into contact centers. AI-based contact centers are redefining how healthcare organizations interact with patients, manage inquiries, and deliver timely support. These advanced systems offer a powerful combination of automation, data-driven insights, and personalized communication that can significantly enhance patient experiences and operational efficiency.

The Need for Smarter Healthcare Support

Healthcare is a complex and sensitive industry where timely and accurate information can be a matter of life and death. Traditional contact centers, which rely heavily on human agents, often struggle to keep up with increasing patient volumes, regulatory complexities, and the need for 24/7 support. Long wait times, inconsistent service, and data management issues have plagued these systems for years.

With growing patient expectations and the increasing demand for telehealth and remote care services, the need for smarter, more efficient support systems is more pressing than ever. Enter AI-powered contact centers.

What Are AI-Based Contact Centers?

AI-based contact centers leverage technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), voice recognition, and predictive analytics to automate and enhance customer interactions. These systems can understand, interpret, and respond to voice or text-based communications in real time.

Key components of AI-based contact centers include:

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants for first-level support

Voice recognition and speech analytics for real-time call routing and analysis

Predictive analytics for understanding patient behavior and anticipating needs

Intelligent routing systems that connect patients with the most appropriate resource

Automation tools for appointment scheduling, billing inquiries, and follow-ups

Benefits of AI Contact Centers in Healthcare

1. Improved Patient Access and Experience

AI-based contact centers provide 24/7 access to information, helping patients get answers to their questions at any time—without needing to wait for business hours or a human representative. Virtual agents can handle common inquiries like clinic hours, prescription refills, and appointment scheduling, allowing human agents to focus on more complex or sensitive issues.

For example, a patient can interact with a virtual assistant to reschedule an appointment or request lab results, improving the overall experience and reducing frustration.

2. Reduced Wait Times and Operational Efficiency

One of the most noticeable impacts of AI in healthcare contact centers is the dramatic reduction in wait times. Automated systems can simultaneously handle thousands of interactions, eliminating bottlenecks. This scalability is particularly important during public health emergencies, seasonal flu outbreaks, or vaccine rollouts when call volumes surge.

AI also streamlines internal workflows by automating routine tasks, reducing the burden on healthcare staff and allowing them to focus on patient care.

3. Personalized Patient Engagement

AI systems can analyze a patient’s previous interactions, medical history, and preferences to deliver personalized support. Whether it’s reminding a diabetic patient to check their blood sugar or notifying a patient about a needed screening, AI enables proactive outreach based on individual health profiles.

Such personalized engagement improves patient adherence to treatment plans and fosters a stronger relationship between patients and healthcare providers.

4. Enhanced Data Management and Compliance

Managing patient data securely and in compliance with regulations like HIPAA is a major challenge in healthcare. AI-based systems are designed to handle data with high accuracy and security. They can automatically log interactions, detect anomalies, and ensure that sensitive information is stored and transmitted safely.

Additionally, AI can help monitor calls and messages for compliance breaches, flagging any potential risks for review and helping organizations maintain regulatory standards.

5. Better Resource Allocation

AI contact centers can intelligently route calls and messages based on urgency, subject matter, and patient history. For instance, a patient calling about chest pain can be prioritized over someone calling for a routine appointment. This ensures that critical issues are addressed quickly while reducing the workload on clinical staff.

Moreover, analytics generated by AI tools help administrators identify peak call times, common issues, and areas for improvement, allowing for better planning and resource deployment.

Real-World Applications

Several healthcare providers and organizations have already implemented AI-powered contact centers with impressive results:

Cleveland Clinic uses AI to streamline appointment scheduling and answer general health questions through virtual assistants, significantly reducing call center volume.

Kaiser Permanente has incorporated AI chatbots into their patient portals to assist with FAQs, prescription management, and test results, freeing up human agents for more nuanced care coordination.

UK’s National Health Service (NHS) piloted AI tools to manage COVID-19-related inquiries, which played a critical role in triaging patient needs and distributing information during the pandemic.

Challenges and Considerations

While AI-based contact centers offer significant benefits, they also come with challenges:

Privacy and Security: Protecting patient data is paramount. AI systems must comply with strict healthcare regulations and implement robust cybersecurity measures.

Accuracy and Reliability: AI tools must be trained on diverse and representative data sets to avoid errors, miscommunication, or bias.

Human Touch: Not all patient interactions can or should be handled by machines. Ensuring a seamless hand-off from AI to human agents is crucial for maintaining trust and empathy in care delivery.

Cost and Implementation: While long-term cost savings are significant, the upfront investment in AI infrastructure can be substantial, particularly for smaller healthcare providers.

The Future of AI in Healthcare Support

As AI technologies continue to advance, the future of AI-based contact centers in healthcare looks promising. Integration with electronic health records (EHRs), wearable devices, and remote monitoring systems will enable even deeper personalization and automation.

Voice-enabled AI assistants may soon conduct basic triage, schedule follow-ups, or assist clinicians in documenting patient visits. Predictive analytics will become increasingly sophisticated, allowing providers to proactively intervene before a patient’s condition worsens.

Moreover, AI’s role in multilingual support and accessibility for people with disabilities could make healthcare more inclusive and equitable.

Conclusion

AI-based contact centers are not just a technological upgrade—they represent a fundamental shift in how healthcare organizations interact with patients. By improving access, efficiency, personalization, and compliance, these systems have the potential to dramatically enhance both patient outcomes and healthcare delivery.

As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, organizations that embrace AI-powered communication will be better positioned to meet rising patient expectations and navigate the challenges of modern care. The future of healthcare support is not just smarter—it’s more human, more responsive, and more connected than ever before.

[snowdropluck204]

Join The Digital Age - Spencer x Streamer! Fem! Reader

So I had an idea of what Spencer would be like reacting to various different video games, what better way to react to games than with a significant other who is a know twitch streamer/gamer type! If people don't like the streamer route, I'll probably change it to just a casual gamer thing! This will probably be a fun little miniseries I write while I'm working on my longer Spencer series so the chapters on this might not be super long... Anyway! Enjoy! Xxx Divider: @animatedglittergraphics-n-more

Stardew Valley

Spencer pov

Coming home to (y/n) has been the highlight of my day for the last two months, since we moved in together. I knew vaguely what she did for a living, she told me she was a streamer, and apparently, quite a popular one. There have been multiple times, whilst out on a date, or just going to the store to pick up groceries, where (y/n) has been recognised, people freaking out over seeing her in person and wanting a picture, or a hug (I was quick to tell her how many germs she could get from hugging a stranger).

I thought it was nice, I knew roughly how much money she made, she always helped with rent, even if she didn't need to, she randomly bought me presents, whether they were cardigans, fidget toys for when I was on a case, or books that I had justified as too expensive to purchase for myself. She spoiled me, and if I was being honest, I was really enjoying it...

Living with a person for even a month, you walk in on various things, some are perfectly innocent, like when I walked in, exhausted after a week long case in New York. I had text (y/n) to let her know I was on my way home, it was late so I was expecting her to be in bed by that point, but she was up, in the kitchen, cooking dinner and waiting on me. Other things I had walked in on, like accidentally barging in on her in the shower (she still thinks I did this on purpose) were... Less than innocent.

One thing I had never walked in on, was (y/n) during a stream. Now her followers knew about me, in that they knew their favourite streamer was in a relationship and had recently moved in with him, they questioned why her background of her set up had changed so drastically, but they didn't know who I was as a person. (y/n) wanted me to keep my privacy as long as we could manage.

But she wasn't in a very secluded space, there wasn't a huge amount of space in my apartment, but we had made room in the living room for her desk and computers, I joked that it reminded me of Garcia's office, they would get along great. So when I entered our place (still gives me shivers calling it 'our' place), I hadn't text her to let her know I was on my way home, hoping to surprise her with take out and a few snacks for a movie night.

I walked in and was frozen, her face was lit up by three separate monitors, one showing her stream chat, one showing her set up prognosis and one with a pixelated game that I had never seen her playing before. She was a sight... She was all smiles, in comfy clothing, laughing at some of the messages, thanking people for following or donating and generally just being the happy ball of sunshine that I fell for in the first place.

But now I realised, her followers could see me entering the apartment in her camera...

(y/n) pov

I smiled as I tended to my animals and crops on my little farm. Hearing a familiar jingle, I looked at the chat monitor, to see that someone had donated five dollars, an automated message from an account called Babygirl79 being read by a chat bot, 'Hi (y/n)! I love your streams, Stardew is by far my favourite game so I was super happy to see you streaming it! Hope you have a good day!'

I smiled, "Aw, thank you so much Babygirl! Be honest, did you just send me that message so I would have to say baby girl on a live?" I giggled, "But I hope you have a good day too!" I went back to my game, making some small comments, but really just trying to keep the cosy, quiet atmosphere that came from playing this simple little farming sim.

Now, I had moderators for my chat, they were working through all of the messages and highlighting any that they wanted me to see in particular, but I still flitted my eyes over to that side of my desk every so often, responding to any messages that caught my gaze, so when I saw repeated messages of, 'Who's that behind (y/n)?', I got kind of nervous.

I turned my head sharply, seeing Spencer, trying to clumsily amble his way into the apartment without disturbing me, now that he realised that I was on stream and he was being recorded. I laughed, seeing him in all his fumbling glory, I turned back to the camera, "It's okay you guys, that's my boyfriend, he lives here." I mentioned sweetly. "Don't bother trying to find him on socials, he doesn't have any, he's a special lil cinnamon roll who doesn't like technology..." I whispered.

"I heard that!" Spencer guffawed from the kitchen, setting down what looked like Chinese food. I chuckled in response, raising a brow in a joking way to my face cam.

"Spence, if you want to, you can come over and say hi?" I offered, knowing that if he felt uncomfortable, he would say no. But surprisingly, he shuffled over, standing rather awkwardly behind my chair, resting a hand on the back rest.

"How many people are watching you playing a video game?" He asked, ever curious. I smiled at him softly, a silent 'hello' and 'welcome home', before answering.

"Right now? About a thousand people, but now that update 1.6 has come out, there's probably going to be a flood of people new to the game..." I mentioned casually. Spencer's eyes widened.

"How do you talk in front of so many people all the time?" He asked, gobsmacked.

I laughed, "You tell me hon, you just did!" I told him, seeing his cheeks reddening at the idea. "But honestly, I just try to be myself, I enjoy the games I play, especially this one!" I told him, and the camera.

Spencer watched the screen as I gave Linus a coconut, seeing the heart pop up above his head, "What exactly are you playing?" He asked quietly.

"It's a game called Stardew Valley, it's essentially a digital farm that you take care of, you can grow crops, adopt animals, make a butt load of money and products and talk to all the NPCs!" I told him with a smile, as I moved my character over to the mountain mines.

Spence tilted his head, "NPCs?" He asked.

"Non-player characters, AI from the game with a set list of dialogue and events." I told him, he nodded along as I explained. I explained that you can befriend and even marry the NPCs, by giving them gifts, how each gift has a different reaction from different villagers and the basic quests of the game.

I looked over at the chat, seeing all the messages, 'Spencer is so cute!', 'They're so cute together!', 'Would love to see them playing together!'. I chuckled at all the comments, mentioning briefly that Spence was a technophobe, leading to his comment of indignation.

Little did I know that later that weekend I'd be teaching him how to play the game, he went out and bought a laptop so he could sit at my desk with me.

Hope this was okay! I know it's short, but I hope you guys liked it, from the response of the poll, it looks like The Last of Us will be the next game we do! Also, should (y/n) meet Garcia?? Love you guys! Xxx

[lockes-woods]

In Bloom (A Side Quest Fic)

MDNI!!!!!!!!!

This is the first one shot I'm writing that parallel the canon of my Stuck universe. So it'd be like one shots that reference my Stuck world, have Himiko/Shanks/Mihawk but do not affect the storyline. I just really miss writing stories in this world, but I have way too much going on right now to sit down and plan the ending.

Pairing: Mihawk/Himiko, Shanks in spirit

CW: Smut, Desk Sex, Vaginal Fingering, PIV, Creampie, Phone Sex, Vaginal Sex, Masturbation, Aftercare, Semi-Public Sex

Prompt: Himiko visits Mihawk at work and things don't go exactly as planned (execpt for Shanks)

Taglist: @nocturnalrorobin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In spite of the loud crowd of tourists flocking towards the hospital’s garden Himiko couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face. Not only because she was able to see the lovely flowers in bloom, but also because it meant she was close to seeing Mihawk. She had only seen him in passing three days ago while she was in the midst of studying. She had just finished her last exam and decided to, in spite of her social anxiety, finally pick him up on his offer to visit him at work. She had packed dinner and brought a thermos of the iced rose hibiscus tea he liked. She crossed the street to avoid mob of tourists, enjoying the soft wind that made the hem of her sundress flutter. She turned the corner and hesitantly walked through the automated door into the hospital. Before she had time to get nervous, she was greeted with a smile by an older Asian women, who was sandwich between two security guards. Based off of her polo in the hospital’s colors it was easy to see that she was a volunteer.

“Hello,” the women greeted once Himiko had made it to the counter of the help desk.

“Hi,” Himiko responded with her own smile.

“Are you visiting or here as a patient?” the women asked, peering over her computer screen.

“Visitor,”

“Are you visiting a patient or member of staff?” the women followed up, as she was supervised by the guard to her right.

“Member of staff,” Himiko replied playing with a fidget ring Mihawk has gifted her for times when she felt like this.

“Oh, and what department are they in sweetheart?” the women asked, looking up at her.

“Surgery, his name is Mihawk, er-sorry,” Himiko paused, taking a breath, “His name’s Dr. Dracule.”

“You’re here for Dr. Dracule Mihawk?” the guard to Himiko’s right asked, giving her a once over.

“Yes?” she responded nervously.

“God, damn,” he responded under his breath as he turned his attention back to his computer.

“Here we are honey,” the older women said, drawing Himiko’s attention back to her, “His office is on the fifth floor of the east wing. You’ll need to take the elevator to your right and make two turns before you follow the hallway straight to his office.”

“Thanks,” Himiko smiled, taking a map with her route traced over it and a visitor’s badge.

“No problem, have a nice day.” Her and Himiko shared a polite smile before Himiko made her way to the elevator.

“He’s got his face on a billboard and a hot piece of ass like that bringing him food,” she heard one of the guards say as she walked away.

“Life’s not fair,” the other agreed, Himiko picked up her pace, before she could overhear any more of the conversation. She could feel her heart race as she white-knuckled her thermos, impatiently waiting for the elevator to get to the fifth floor. She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in as she stepped onto his floor and began to walk to his office. Her heart began to start palpitating again, once Mihawk’s office came into view. The small window in his door had been covered leaving Himiko clueless to whether or not he was alone, she paused for a moment to take a breath before knocking, praying that he was alone; she had had her fill of human interactions for the day.

“Enter,” she heard him call out. She tentatively cracked the door open, before peaking her head in. Himiko was relieved that it was just him. They shared a smile as she fully stepped into his office.

“Hello, darling,” he greeted, taking his blue light glasses off.

“Hey,” she responded shyly, she would never get over how effortlessly attractive Mihawk was. Even in a simple button down and slacks made Himiko feel a spark in her core.

“I brought some dinner and some tea.” She said placing the food down on one of the chairs facing his desk.

“Oh, love you didn’t have to go to the trouble of bringing all that. I would have been content with just your presence .” Mihawk said, his half smile never left his face.

“It wasn’t any trouble,” Himiko said slightly flustered, “I just know you hate hospital food, and I know you’ve been too busy to leave to get anything else.”

“Well, it was still very sweet,” he responded, “Will you do me one last favor love?”

“Sure, what is it?” she answered without question,

“Lock the door,” he replied.

Her breath caught in her throat as the tone in the room shifted. Mihawk leaned back in his chair, giving her a look that she rarely saw out of the bedroom. It never failed to make her feel naked to his pin-point focus. Himiko froze, as her mind buffered. Flustered, she snapped out of it before turning away from Mihawk to lock the door. Her hands clumsily attempted to lock the door. She clicked the lock in the door handle to lock it, before moving up the door to turn the other lock to the left. Just as her fingers gripped the lock, Mihawk’s cold hand enveloped her own.

“Good, girl.” Mihawk praised her as she turned to look up at him. He crowded her space, pulling her in for a desperate kiss. She relaxed her body weight against him, allowing Mihawk’s firm body to mold her into place against the door. She was breathless as Mihawk pulled back from the kiss and rested his forehead against hers.

“Sorry darling,” he panted, sharing a breath with her, “I promised myself I’d hold off until I got home, but fuck I wasn’t prepared for this,” he said, gesturing down to her outfit. She could feel blood rushing to her face simultaneously as the spark in her core grew.

“Do you like it?” she asked, immediately flustered by Mihawk’s desperation. It, for the most part, was a simple outfit of a pair of sandals and a sundress. The dress had a built-in bodice that allowed her to go braless, as it was laced tightly against her chest. Both pushing up and showing off her cleavage. It had a flowing skirt that went just past her knees in rich earth tones.

“I’d say more than like love,” he said pressing closer into her, she could feel his growing problem against her stomach, “I suppose it was good that I left before you, I’m afraid if I had seen you neither of us would have made it very far.”

“Shanks helped me pick it out,” she said, immediately shifting the blame to their redheaded lover. Mihawk huffed a laugh in response.

“Of course he did,” he sighed, “I suppose this is what he meant when he texted me that he had a present for me today.” Himiko hummed, attempting to be inconspicuous.

“Was there something else, love?” he asked immediately seeing through her façade.

“He didn’t just pick out the dress,” she confessed.

“Oh? Was there something else?” he asked, amused by her flustered state.

“He also laid these out,” she said, lifting her skirt, flashing her white lace underwear. Mihawk let out a deep hum, his eyes shifting to something more primal, as he started down at her predatorily. While there were many things in their sexual relationship that they all knew of but never spoke about Mihawk’s obsession with dressing Himiko up in white, or pastel pink lingerie was definitely near the top. While Himiko had an inkling of an idea, she was still learning all of her partner’s quirks that they had learned and established years ago. She knew it had something to do with ruining whatever delicate pieces of lingerie she wore, she had no idea how deep it went. She didn’t know how hard it made him at the mere idea of corrupting her, especially while she was wrapped up in delicate clothing.

“Sir?” she asked, hesitantly. Her voice dragged him back to the present.

“Jump,” he commanded, hands smoothing down her body until he was cupping her ass. Himiko immediately complied, legs wrapped around his middle as he carried her back to his desk. He pecked her lips before pacing her down and immediately flipped her. Her feet barely touched the floor as she laid prone stomach down on his desk.

“Sir?” she asked once again, this time mid-pant as he flipped up her skirt and cupped her sex.

“How attached are you to this underwear?” he questioned.

“Not very? I jus-” she was cut off mid-sentence by the loud sound of him ripping through the crotch of her panties. She couldn’t help but whine as his long finger traced her slit before breaching her pussy. Mihawk leaned down, his front to her back, his hot breath caressing the shell of her ear.

“What’s your color?” he asked, nipping at her neck.

“Green, fuck please Sir” she moaned.

“Alright love, I know we’ve never done this so close to the public before. I need you to be quiet, or I’ll have to stop.” He warned, stroking her inner front wall, while his thumb circled her clit.

“Okay,” she replied softly with a nod of her head.

“Good,” Mihawk sighed in relief as he pulled his member out of its confinement. He gently rubbed the head of his cock up and down her seem before removing his fingers as he began to thrust in a bit at a time. Despite his desperation he tried his hardest to hold back as long as he could. He lost himself in the sensation of her pussy throbbing around him when he was just past halfway. Her sweet little whimpers and pants got to him. He pulled back so that only his tip was in her before thrusting back into her fully. He relished the sound of her gasp. He immediately started at a brutal pace, only slowing down when his desk began to squeak in protest. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to last. It had been over a week since he had his last release, and she was squeezing him so good, while she also tried her best to be quiet. He was overwhelmed with the feeling of love as she tried her hardest to be a good girl, his good girl.

“Sir, please,” she called out quietly, pulling a deep groan from him as her walls closed in against him. Fuck, he wasn’t going to last. He had just opened his mouth to respond when he heard a chime. His hips stilled as he glanced at his pager, he let out a sigh of relief as the music continued from his cellphone. A smirk etched on his face as he flipped it over and saw who exactly was calling. He swiped up to answer it, putting it on speaker phone, as he began to thrust again into Himiko’s tight heat.

“Hey Lov-” Shanks’ voice called out, cut off by the wet slaps of their two sex’s meeting.

“Fuck,” Shanks groaned, “I see you got your present,”

“Mhm,” Mihawk hummed sliding the phone closer to Himiko’s mouth so that he could share in the pleaser of her moans.

“Sir, please,” she panted, once again begging for release.

“Fuck,” Shanks groaned over the phone, along with the unmistakable sound of his zipper.

“Sir,” she called out once more, desperation clear in her voice.

“Ask Daddy,” he grunted, picking up speed, the squeaks of his desk be damned.

“Daddy~” she moaned, “Please, can I cum? I’ll be so good,” she babbled, her resolve fully gone at this point.

“Fuck,” Shanks moaned on his end, the slick sounds of him jerking off and their fucking melding together.

“Go ahead baby,” Shanks groaned. Mihawk smirked to himself as he hung up the call, before once again draping himself over Himiko. He placed a firm hand over her mouth as she spasmed around him. He quickly tucked his head into the crook of her neck to muffle his own moans and he pumped her full of his seed. They both panted, laying together for a moment before Mihawk pulled back. He placed a firm hand on her lower back, stopping any movement to get up.

“One moment darling,” he reassures, slowly easing himself back out of her entrance. He quickly snapped a shot of his cum leaking out of Himiko and sent it off to Shanks. He smirked to himself when Shanks immediately texted back a middle finger emoji. Mihawk tossed his phone to the side, focus moving back to Himiko as he helped her clean up and recover. She sat curled up in Mihawk’s lap, as they shared bites of the dinner she brought with her.

“I love you,” she smiled contently up at him,

“I love you, too,” he replied, pressing a kiss to her hairline.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

Thanks as always for taking time to read my fics ^-^

I hope this series can be a happy medium while I'm too busy to plan/edit Stuck.

Anyway I hope you're doing well wherever you may be 💛

[scotianostra]

On October 16th 1995 the Bridge to the Isle of Skye opened.

Prior to the opening of the bridge the main route to Skye was by the ferry between the 2 villages Kyle of Lochalsh and Kyleakin. The ferry service was operated by Caledonian MacBrayne the short route of about 500m took 5min, at peak times there was often queues to use the ferry.

The bridge construction started in 1992 built by the Scottish company Miller, but designed by a German engineering company DYWIDAG Systems International in collaboration with civil engineering firm Arup.

The main bridge is a concrete arch, supported by two piers. This connect Skye to the small island called Eilean Bàn, the rest of the bridge is level across to the mainland. The total distance across is 1.5 miles. The main arch is about 35m high with around 30m clearance for boats on high tide.

Eilean Bàn (White Island) is the small island upon which the main arch of the bridge rests.

The island has a 21m high lighthouse just below the bridge arch. The lighthouse keepers (before automation in the 1960s) stayed in the cottages on the Island. These cottages where then purchased by Gavin Maxwell who is best remembered for is work with otters. Maxwell did many interesting things including writing wildlife books, his most famous is called "The Ring of Bright Water”.

These days the island is a wildlife reserve being managed by the Bright Water Trust. One of the cottages is now the Maxwell museum. This is a reconstruction of Maxwell’s 40ft living room, containing original artefacts, recreated by Virginia Mckenna of the Born Free foundation.

Most people wanted the bridge, but the way in which it was funded was conversional. Rather than the UK government paying for it, the government allowed it to be privately funded. Then granted a licence for the private company to charge tolls. It was said to be the most expensive road bridge in Europe.

This clearly upset many people. Locals on Skye setup a campaign group called SKAT (Skye and Kyle Against Tolls). After years of campaigning, legal challenges and then the setup of the new Scottish parliament in 1999 the leading political parties made it a priority to have the tolls abolished.

On the 21st of December 2004 the bridge was purchased by the Scottish Government and made free to cross.

[carionto]

Space Truckin'

Freight transport! The lifeblood of all modern civilizations and the backbone of the Galaxy.

Trade routes, supply chains, relocation efforts, deployment actions - everything rests on the shoulders of the transport class vessels. Well, within their bowels, but that's a less sexy phrase. Or when they haul larger things externally and have extra engines and hyper drives inside instead, does that become a horse metaphor now? Or an ox pulling a... uhh, that farm equipment before we had tractors, um...

Anyway.

There's billions of transports of literally every size and shape constantly buzzing about the Galaxy delivering perishables, non-perishables that the still existing copyright laws prevent from being printed near the destination instead, and people, who technically count as perishables, but due to other laws get their own category.

Where was I?

So, most of these are fully automated and do very basic food and other consumables runs, and require maintenance maybe once a century at most. Human ones need them once a year, since their hyperdrives don't need a stopover at a charging station, but run the tiny risk of CATACLYSMIC FAILURE BECAUSE THEY RUN ON MINIATURE STARS THAT BY NATURE CONSTANTLY EXPLODE BUT IT'S OKAY THE HUMANS SAY THEY HAVE FAILSAFES AND THOSE ONLY HAVE A 3/100000 FAILURE RATE THEMSELVES AS IF THAT'S BETTER THAN THE BIG FAT ZERO THE REST OF THE GALAXY HAS AS STANDARD!!!

Ahem.

What I was trying to get at is - Humans are nostalgic for a lot of things. Everyone has personal memories and collective history they cherish dearly, but Humans often tend to try and bring it back to life, regardless of the impracticality.

There is this one group of transports, who call themselves the "Space Truckers" and their vessels have...

wheels with tires

let that sink in

no really

actual rubber tires with air-filled liners and everything

in space

and they insist on landing on them

yes they are stupidly overengineered and can in fact hold up a ship that weighs four million tons and the inner liner air pressure is perfectly fine at around 700 atmospheres

because they can

oh and a few of them look like this

but are a lot bigger

like the size of a small city

the biggest tire is 382 meters in diameter

and yes, the biggest "truck" is called Optimus Prime and they blast Deep Purple songs all the time

and no, I don't know if it can transform

they say it can't, but I don't believe Humans when they say they "can't" do something

they always figure out a way to do it

fucking Humans