#sir tech software

[smbhax]

From Wizardry Gold - music by Jim Laurino

[oldschoolfrp]

Ye basic and elite adventurers in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord -- easily created and deleted in the Training Grounds and added to your party at Gigamesh's Tavern (Will McLean illustrations from the game manual, Sir-Tech Software, 1981)

[justtwofriendsinmyhondacivic]

poly 141 x IT tech reader

Chapter 2 (Unedited)

18+ MDNI

cw: afab reader, mxm, masturbation, talk of shooting and weapon handling, inaccurate military descriptions, the reader has female anatomy, were all down bad.

…

You couldn't sleep.

The golden light cascaded through the open curtains, hitting your bare legs sending warmth through to your toes.

Whether it was the eagerness to make a good impression, or the anxiety of starting in a brand new team you know nothing about that kept you awake, it didn't matter.

You tried to do some digging into this team but their files are so hard to pull due to the level of clearance needed to access. And even if you had the needed clearance youd suspected that these files were heavily redacted regardless.

These men were gray to the government, they were killed a long time ago to best fit the needs of the ones they serve. So no wonder you couldn't pull anything, not even the status of deployment.

Laswell explained that this team is something that won't go on your file, but would be invaluable to you later in your career. So getting the head start on the system is exactly what you're looking for.

You spent hours just working on necessary updates to the system, one that had been pushed off for too long. Seems the last guy was just here for the paycheck as nothing was really done besides the bare minimum. Taking the time to sort out the plan for future needs on the software.

Sleep continued to evade you, even after you showered and got a head start on work.

So you decided to go for a walk to try and find the access to the hard drive and the physical elements to the server.

Knowing about where most bases keep their hardware, you started walking in that general area. The empty hallways were a welcome sight after all of the travel and meeting new people.

You followed the memorized map in your mind down a dimly lit hallway. It was sterile, the clean silver knob was cold in your hand as you twisted the door open. Taking in the small office you mentally cheered. Normally you didn't have an office, you'd have to bunker down on the floor with a mobile set up, this could be for days at a time. Especially when there is a mission, that floor near the hardware unit is your new home.

Taking in the small desk, the gray carpet, some simple cupboards holding manuals about the current system in operation. The glass closet doors on the right side showing thousands of blinking green and red lights, the tangle of wires that wound need to be re-organized.

On your left through the blinds was a small window, just big enough to let in the orange tint light of the lamp post filter through.

Walking around to run your fingers over the desk, it wasn't anything fancy, it was a small wooden desk with one drawer under it. The chair isn't a normal office chair, it looked like someone brought an armchair from home and never took it back. You weren't complaining as that means you can curl up better anyway.

You throw yourself down onto the weathered furniture, smiling to yourself.

You opened the drawer to rummage through and see if there were any left behind treasures when you heard a grunt from the slightly ajar door. Looking up to make eye contact with the mountain of a masked man.

Your mouth fell open in surprise as you didnt expect to see anyone out here, especially the elusive man that you were sure wouldn't have shown himself if he didn't want to be seen.

“O-Oh, my apologies, Sir. I didn't mean to wake you-” You scrambled as you pushed yourself up to be in a more proper position while facing someone in a higher position than you.

He shakes his head at you, his gaze lingered on your bare dewey legs, taking in the way that your skin looks under the orange tint light that cascaded through the blinds. Your damp hair fell past your mid back, framing your face.

“S’alright.” His eyes linger on you, you feel the dark pools of his eyes drape over you. Clinging to every bone in your body. It felt like more than just an observation, it was like he was trying to burn your image to his eyelids. And you're unsure if that's a good or bad thing.

You stood at attention waiting for orders, you knew you weren't supposed to be awake. Both him and Price gave an order and you didn't listen. And all you could look at was the veins that are protruding under his flesh, arms crossed and bulging under the sleeveless tank top he wore. The Ghost mask he was known for was traded out for a black neck gaiter, and the messy ashy blonde hair stood at odd directions on top of his head.

“Should be sleeping.” The deep grumble of his voice sounded out as he leaned against the door frame. Not breaking eye contact he continued, “Got a long day ahead of you, need ta’ see you at your best.”

You nodded your head along with him, “Course, Sir. I’ll go straight to bed.”

Ghost never took his eyes off yours, you just waited for him to dismiss you.

He internally grinned, you were finally now being a good girl after disobeying orders.

“You're dismissed, Soldier.”

You tried to bolt out of the door as soon as the words left his mouth. But his large frame took up most of the doorway. Making you stand in front of him, the smell of your shampoo danced into his nose.

Looking up at him, “Excuse me, Lieutenant.”

He pushed off of the wall and gave you enough space to wiggle through and scurry off to bed. A dark chuckle made its way out of Ghost's chest, a confusing amount of heat ran through his body, pooling blood into his lower region.

It was the way you stared into his eyes with confidence, but still so timid and eager to please all at the same time.

Sighing he shut the door to what is now your new office, he'll have to send Gaz in here to set up surveillance during tomorrow's training.

…

As soon as you scurried back into bed, it took you a while to calm your heart and mind down enough for you to get some sleep. Leading to the slim amount of sleep that left you desperate for more.

Your alarm went off dragging a frustrated sigh out of you and a long stretch before you got up to get ready. Truth is you were up a couple hours before you needed to be so you could get in a workout before training.

You needed to make sure you were in top condition during these training exercises, the last time that you were on an assignment the team wouldn't allow you in the field so you were excited to have the opportunity.

With that in mind you got a motivation streak and got ready in record time, the grey work out gear hugging you well, as you threw on a large shirt over for the walk to the gym. Opening the door you glided your way, remembering where it was from the small tour the Captain gave to you.

Stopping by the dingy water fountain to top off your army issued water bottle.

Once you breached the doors to the gym, you had to turn on the light as it seems you were the first person in today. The hum of the fluorescent lights buzzing in the background. There were small windows on the back wall above the machines and weight racks. On the left there was an area for stretching and lockers.

Turning to the right you see yourself in the large mirror that was covering the entire wall, chuckling at the heavy purple bags under your eyes.Three well loved benches sat in front of it.

Quickly finding your way to the open area, setting your things down before you sit down to stretch. Getting through most of your stretch routine before you hear the door open. A whistling Soap walked in, both of you locked eyes for a while.

You couldn't look away from him. His messy mohawk stood at odd angles after a night of sleep, but what really had you was the strong arms that made you want to drool. The natural tanned skin sprinkled with freckles, covered in a layer of burly thick hair that traveled all over his chest. His loose green tank top did nothing to hide anything.

Your fingers twitched with the need to run your hands through it.

His lip pulled up into a dog-like smile.

With burning cheeks you decided to get back to your stretching, hiding your face in your legs while touching your toes.

Soap let out a chuckle at the redness that dusted your cheeks, as you hid your face his eyes dilated at the dusting of red on the nape of your neck. He felt himself salivate.

He broke himself out of his staring and headed to grab his weights and start his own workout, not wanting to creep you out with his staring.

…

Soap has never been this worked up during a workout.

You were his exact fucking type.

Half way through your work out, he watched you strip off the loose shirt, leaving you in a tight black sports bra. Exposing your muscled shoulders and the soft flesh of your tits that spilled slightly out of your bra. He was absolutely hiding a boner the entire time.

The worst of it was when you bent over to adjust weight on the squat machine, the line of your panties digging into the meat of your hips and ass leading all the way down to the damp outline of your pussy.

It reminded him of how long it was since he tasted a woman. Especially one like you.

He would rather take torture in a syrian prison then have to be tortured like this again.

You went up on weight on this next set, your head tilted back with eyebrows furrowed as you struggled against the new weight. You grunted on the next rep, looking ready to give up.

You heard the sounds of two weights drop on the ground as Soaps form slowly walked towards you, “C’mon bonnie lass, ya can do it.” he clapped his hands.

Your legs shook as you tried to push the weights up, after a few moments you finally got it to its resting position. Slowly sliding out of the machine and onto the cold floor. Your eyes were closed as you tried to regulate your breathing.

“Think I tried too much weight” You chuckled dryly. He took the time to look at you, taking notes of any scars, freckles, or moles. He saw a pretty bad scar that peeked out from your back and over your shoulder.

“Nonsense, ya powered through.” he laughed as you opened your eyes, a small smirk on your face, “Ya should stop now, doll. Got training exercise in an hour.” He said, taking in how your eyes looked when you looked up at him from this position.

You nodded at him checking your watch as it read 0430, as his hand came into view to help you up.

He pulled you up as if you weighed nothing, almost pulling you into his chest.

“Appreciate your help, any advice for the training?” You probed. Grabbing your shirt from the floor and wiping the sweat that was running down your neck.

His eyes tracked the movement happily, “Ya done a lot of shootin?”

You nodded and sat down on the floor, “I was deployed in a Special Activity unit before I transferred to IT.” From the way your smile dropped a bit, a sad look in your eye, he knew it wasn't by choice.

He made a noise of acknowledgement, “Should be the same thing ya did with that unit.”

That gave you some confidence, nodding your head and grabbing your stuff you turned back to Soap before you left.

“Thank you, Soap. I’ll see you at the training exercise.” You turned to leave and he took another full look at you before he went to grab his stuff to hop in the shower or get in bed with one of the boys and relieve some tension before he had to see you handle guns, he didn't think he could survive that boner.

…

You met Captain Price in his office. You looked at the clean cut beard on his face under the soft lighting of his lamp. His handsome eyes looking over paperwork and then back to you, why did they all have to be so good looking.

Stood in front of the deep mahogany desk, dressed in your dark camo fatigues, with a tight compression shirt tucked into a standard belt.

He was treating this as a mission, so he was giving a full debrief. He is sending you alone to clear a small compound, no prize or target, just clear and hold. He asked you to follow him to the outdoor range, you had four personal gun cases sitting on the floor.

Bending down to pick them up at the same time as Price feeling his warm hand as you grabbed the same case. Looking up, the blush dusted across your face, making eye contact with him.

“Let me help you with these, kid.” He said, arms bulging as he picked the cases up and opened the door for you. Making your way into the hallway.

“I have gear for ya at the range, once there you can pick from our standard selection of hardware, we want to see ya use your personal and the standard.” He said as he showed his badge to the man at the gate of the range.

“What are you guys running in your kits?” you asked.

“You can choose what you want to have in your kit but the standard currently is the MK25.” You nodded.

As we breached the doors to the outdoor training area the cool humid air hitting you as your boots hit the wet pavement, the stormy sky greeted you as you breathed in the air.

There was a maze of walls with scaffolding above so superior officers could observe the training, next to it was a table with firearms and ammo, in front of that sat four unmoving fresh targets. Ghost and Soap were there in full gear waiting for you and John.

Soap stands slightly behind Ghost giving you a quiet thumbs up, which gives you a little bit of confidence.

Ghost stared through you as he barked questions at you, “What do you have for your personals?” Watching as price sets down two gun cases and you set down two.

“Currently I'm running beretta 92FS and ZEV OZ9 elite for handguns,” popping open the cases with your personal firearms, “Colt M4A1 URG-1 and SIG-sauer MCX-SPEAR LT for my carbines.” Pulling one of your carbines out, Soap practically buzzing just from watching you check your sights and settings on the gun.

Ghost too found himself watching the gun press into your tit as you checked it over, quickly looking away.

“Run your beretta and the ZEV, then I need ya to run the MK25.” you nodded at the tall man, surprised at how many words he's using.

They departed from you and walked up the stairs to watch you, Soap looked at you as he started his climb, giving you another thumbs up mouthing a quick good luck.

Grabbing the ear and eye protection, you grabbed your mags that you filled this morning and loaded your weapons. You walked over to the door and waited in position.

“Cleared hot.”

As soon as the word came out of John's mouth, the lights started to strobe and screaming played over the PA system.

You were startled but regained composure and breached the first door, keeping your back to the wall with your service weapon at the ready. Coming up to a corner that rounded to the right, there was a piece of plastic tarp covering half of the doorway.

Gaz climbed the stairs joining the others, running a hand down John’s back as he looked down.

“Where have you been, Kyle?” John asked, leaning into the warmth of Gaz’s hand.

“Had ‘im run an errand for me.” Ghost interrupted, looking at John,

Price chuckled, running a hand over his beard watching as you proceeded through the compound.

As soon as you cleared the corridor you breached, seeing two targets on both sides of the rooms. You shot a distraction shot forward and then hit both bogeys. As soon as that room was cleared you moved to the next hallway. There immediately was a target to the right of the door, sending a quick shot into the head.

This hallway was a dead end except for the rooms on either side of it. Inching forward and looking at the closed door to the left, deciding to keep that for last and bracing against the wall next to the open door. Taking a deep breath trying to drown out the screaming, you peeked the gap between the door and the doorway seeing a target.

Sending the first shot through that gap before running into the room, and taking out the other two. The rest of the room was clear so you moved back out to the hallway, slowly opening the door and you find the room is empty.

It was supposed to be a bathroom, with debris in the way you took a defensive stance in the corner of the room.

The boys watched as you cleared the last room. You obviously haven't been in combat in a while but for being thrown in a simulation you weren't bad, just needed some extra practice to get back into the groove of things.

The way your muscles flexed while you fired into a target was a welcome sight to them. Soap and Gaz kept eyeing each other. Soap ran straight to his partners to relieve some stress after watching you working out. Ghost and Price didn't think much of it as he's always a horny mutt, but Gaz knew.

Looking down, they saw you lift your head.

“I need evac.” You yelled out of breath.

The lights kicked over to the constant yellow lighting, and the screaming finally stopped.

Standing up and walking out of the door you see the team now including Gaz are walking toward you.

“Fuck ya bonnie.” Soap hollarded, happy with your run through. He had to readjust the half chub in his pants before walking down earning an eye roll and a smack to the ass from Ghost, “Hit me harder LT.” Soap winked before running down, giggling.

You gave him a quick fist bump and moved to face the captain.

“Ya did good, taking out the three in the last room was a bit reckless but if you're ever in the field you should have one of us with you at all times.” He gruffed out walking to show you your accuracy on some of the shots.

You nodded, starting to cool down and feel the sweat drip down your back.

The group moved out of the building as you welcomed the cool air on your skin.

“Go reload your weapons, you're going to run the course with Ghost.” He nodded at you with a smile, you're fighting the reflex to giggle as when he smiles his beard moves in a cute funny way.

He looks up and motions for Soap and Gaz to reset the course.

You walk over to the table where Ghost was loading up a pistol and carbine.

“Are we taking the carbines?” You said as you pop out the empty magazine.

“Yes.” He said, not even looking at you.

Nodding you reloaded all of your mags and placed your handgun in the holster on your right hip, and held your carbine. Walking over to the door, you moved the ear protection back over your ear and waited for Ghost to get into position.

His hand grabbed your shoulder and squeezed letting you know he was ready, trying to ignore the tingling under the calloused hand, as soon as he squeezed the music started and the lights began to strobe.

Walking through the now familiar corridor, there was immediately a target behind the door which you neutralized. As you did Ghost took a shot at a target that was tucked behind a pile of debris.

As soon as you made it to the last hallway the hallway was clear but the door to the left was closed so you cleared the bathroom first, taking out the target that was in the middle of that room. Moving out, you and Ghost took a position outside the door, Ghost's thumb brushed against where your neck and shoulder met. Feeling the nail dig slightly in sending a chill down your back and a dust of pink across your neck.

Ghosts keen eyes caught the movement, knowing what it was doing to you.

You felt the rough corners of his gear dig against your hip as you peeked through the door seeing the targets. You didn't know if it was the close proximity to Ghost or the adrenaline that was making your body hot.

All you knew was you needed to get this out of your system, you can't be feeling all hot and bothered while being thrown into a new team.

Taking a quick breath you breached the room, finding two targets on the right close to each other and two farther away on the right side.

You too made quick work of the targets in the room, kneeling down and calling for evac.

The lights switched over and the music stopped.Ghosts hand was still on your shoulder as you looked back at him. His gazed bored through your skull.

You looked back waiting for him to either give you criticism or what to do better next time, but instead he took his hand from your shoulder and walked out without muttering a word to you.

Sighing you pulled the ear covering off of your head and leaned your head back.

You met up with the group outside of the building.

“You did good, we're going to have you join the majority of our training sessions from now on-” Price gruffed out, placing a large hand on his hip. Your eyes watching the handsome older man.

“For now you're free to work on the servers or have some down time, Laswell wanted to make sure you had time to get settled in before joining our training sessions regularly.”

Nodding your head, “Sounds good, Sir.”

…

You found yourself in the comfy chair of your new office, finally changed into an army issued green hoodie and leggings. Your hair was gel free and flowing down naturally.

Currently you are setting up to download the last upgrade before you can redo the wiring in the hardware. After hitting the allow button you leaned back sighing, glancing out the window to see the rain was coming down harder than it had been all day.

Looking back to the screen on your laptop, you saw the loading bar was still on one percent.

You got to thinking about the day.

Your mind drifted away to how Soap's chest looked, how Ghost’s hand felt wrapped around your shoulder, the warmth of John's hand against yours, and how Kyle's eyes slid over your body.

You felt the molten heat that gathered between your legs stick to the leggings that now felt too tight on you.

You couldn't stop yourself as you traced the tips of your fingers down the front of the scratchy hoodie. Tracing over the pierced sensitive flesh of your nipples over the fabric, biting your lip to hide the moan that was beginning to fall out of your mouth.

Ripping the hoodie over your tits feeling the cool air, and rubbing your legs together. You pinched and rolled the piercings in your fingers, feeling the devastating pang of electricity that it sent to your cunt.

You knew you shouldn't be doing this…

But you couldn't stop either.

You trailed one of your hands down the smooth surface of your tummy, passed the waistband of your leggings. Suddenly thankful that you didn't put a pair of panties on before leaving your room.

The pads of your finger met the surprisingly soaked heat of your cunt, letting out a small broken whimper as your back arched off of the chair. Using the edge of the desk to help keep your legs open.

Running two fingers up from your dripping hole to the buzzing button of flesh that begged for attention, rubbing your fingers in a figure eight motion. Having to cover your mouth as your toes curled. It felt so good to finally have relief.

You rolled your eyes into the back of your head, feeling your body release its slick all over your fingers and inner thighs. Barely able to keep your sounds at bay.

You quickened your fingers as you felt your climax approaching rapidly, the knot tightening in your lower stomach.

Then it snapped.

Letting out the quietest moan you could manage, riding out as much of the high you could before it got to be too much and you snapped your knees together. Your chest was heaving from trying to catch your breath. The faint buzzing in your pussy pulsed after finally getting the high you so desperately needed.

You laid there for a bit, eyes closed, feeling the cool air from the vent above you. Nipples tighten once again to the cold air.

Unknown to you in the foggy cloud that was your mindset, post orgasm, a red light faintly blinked from inside the vent, a strategically placed camera faced directly at your chair.

On the other side of the camera was Ghost.

Large hands closed in tight fists, knuckles turning white, cock angry red being choked against the fabric of his jeans. Feeling his breath quicken as he watched you come down, tits high in the air, hand still pushed between closed legs.

He didn't know what he was getting into when he asked Gaz to install the camera, and he was at war with his brain and cock. He yanked out his phone sending a text to Gaz, knowing he was free.

Get in my office. Now.

Quickly saving the video to his computer, he heard footsteps quickly approaching his office as the door was wrenched open. In walks an out of breath Garrick, a look of concern taking over his handsome face.

“Ya alright Si?” The bronze skinned man walked over to place a hand over the masked jaw of Simon.

The blonde man said nothing as he looked into Gaz’s eyes, quickly yanking his mask down and grabbing the man by the back of his neck. He yanked him down to bring their lips together, immediately earning a groan from Gaz.

Finally understanding what was happening, Gaz took a confident seat on the widespread of Ghosts lap.

Gaz swallowed the desperate groan as he rocked his hips against the rock hard length of Simon's cock. Before pulling his lips back looking down at the desperate man beneath him.

“What's gotten into you?” he said, tracing a finger around his lips.

Large hands wrapped around the smaller man's hips, forcefully turning him around to see a video paused of you sitting at your desk in a typing position. He cocked his head confused as Ghost hit play on the video, watching you trail your shirt up exposing the pink and pierced nipples almost directly to the camera.

Gaz moaned as he watched you slide your hand into your pants, face twisted in pleasure.

“Holy fuck.”

[cozy-writes-things]

Electric Love: Pt. 1

Edgar [Electric Dreams 1984] x Gn!Reader

All of my fics so far have followed the same universe, so I thought it's only logical that I post an introduction to that universe.

The old man peering at you through puffy eyes and age seemed to have an air shrouded in mystery. His thin, white wisps of hair seemed to stagnate in place as he adjusted his button down.

“This old thing has been around for years now,” he gruffed—an unreadable tone—as his hand encased the yellowed plastic, “I don’t remember what happened to it; must have dropped it, or let some animal chip away at it.”

The dingy, vintage computer before your eyes surely had not been dropped, nor torn into by some animal. It sat upon his countertop completely destroyed; as if it had burst and shattered from the inside out, ripping the glass into jagged shards. You swallowed this thought; this was no time to debate the old man. He seemed to be quite senile as it was and pushing any further seemed like a fruitless effort. Instead, you stretched a thin smile his way, pursing your lips in thought.

“You actually think you can get this thing to work again?” he queried, raising a salt and pepper brow at your expression.

“Well, I’m not sure, but… I’d like to try,” what you hadn’t told him, however, was your infatuation with electronics. Ever since completing your bachelor’s in computer science, you have been tinkering away at many different projects in between jobs, building custom PCs, fixing old Game Boys, and many others. This little computer was an addition to your ever growing collection.

It came from a company you had never heard of before, only to learn it had become defunct in the 80s due to some inexplicable software issues in their products. This certainly intrigued you, as prodding into its code could provide some useful insight to real, vintage tech that just doesn’t exist anymore. But, that’s only if you manage to fix the heap of destruction limply hung before you.

The old man stiffened at your words, ever so slightly, before rattling out, “Well, if you do, don’t bring it anywhere near me. I can’t stand all this tech, and gadgets, and whatnot. Pisses me off.”

“Right,” you interjected, knowing people like him tend to go on long, anti-future, anti-technology rants, trying desperately to beat him to the punch, “well, how much do you want for it?”

He stilled, contemplating for a moment, “twenty-five should be fine.”

“Perfect,” you chirped, padding against your pockets and bag searching for some cash. Pulling out your wallet, you waded around the folds, only to find a crumpled up and faded ten dollar bill and a debit card.

“Ah, I’ve only got a ten…”

He rolled his eyes, “of course you do, you got PayPal, then?” Your cheeks flushed a burning red hot from embarrassment, “ah, yes, I do-”

“Great, just pay me that way,” he bent down and scribbled something messily onto a note, “here’s my information. I made sure to set this up for people like you, you know. Nobody carries cash anymore, or so my grandson tells me.”

You force out a nervous chuckle.

“That’s certainly true… these days, ah…” you unlocked your phone and began inputting his information into PayPal before pressing send on the digital payment, “okay, it went through.”

“Perfect. You need help getting this hunk of junk to your car?”

“No, I should be fine, thank you, sir,” you croak as you heave the broken computer into your arms, heading towards his door.

“Well, come back if you want to buy anything else. Nobody goes to yard sales anymore, it seems.”

You can only turn your head and chuckle at his quip, before awkwardly dashing out of his apartment and towards your car. The dampened asphalt from the rain squelched under your toes as you lugged the large piece of tech to the passenger side.

“There,” you whispered, to nobody in particular, as you awkwardly buckled the computer in place, “hopefully you won’t fall that way.”

And just like that, you were off, headed towards home to begin the massive project that was repairing this obsolete device.

“What to do with you?”

You groaned as you thumped the solid mass of plastic and metal against your desk, “you’re incredibly broken.”

First and foremost, it needs a screen replacement. Which is easier said than done. Especially considering the company who manufactured these things hasn’t existed in 40 years. Unfortunately, a close replica will have to do. Maybe you could even upgrade its screen with something with a bit more prowess.

Poking inside of its components seemed to tell a different story. Miraculously, none of the motherboards were damaged with the same ferocity the screen had been. There seemed to be some sort of dried, caked on water damage of some sort, that left a sticky residue, but otherwise, everything seemed to be relatively intact. The yellowed casing could use a wipe down from the thick layer of starchy dust, but it seemed to hold its original shape with surprising ease.

Following a closer inspection, it seemed as though the glass screen, and the components in charge of illuminating it, were the only things in need of replacing. A quick browse on Amazon, some tech forums, and a post on Reddit should be a good start in finding a usable replacement for this sad, broken gadget.

For now, however, you get some isopropyl alcohol and a soft bristled toothbrush to chip away at the water damage on the motherboards in hopes of restoring the electrical connections. You were quite hopeful that you’d get this little guy up and running just as soon as you could find the right parts. It’s only a matter of time.

[thezombieprostitute]

Tech Tuesday: Lloyd Hansen

Summary: It's your first week on the job and you find yourself having to deal with a very angry higher up.

Warnings: Power imbalance, Yelling. Please let me know if I missed any.

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

Part 1.5 (Lloyd's Perspective)

You'd survived your first week at the job. It was a nerve-wracking to find out you were the only woman working in the IT department outside of Mr. Pine's assistant. Thankfully the majority of your coworkers were friendly without being inappropriate or condescending. So far you were able to just sit at your desk and do you work.

There's a knock on your cubicle wall and you look up to see Johnny standing there.

“Hey, I need you to take a ticket for me,” he tells you. “I'd do it but I just got pinged by the security measures and that takes priority. Ticket is Hansen-4142. Thanks so much!” Before you can argue he's gone.

Shaking your head you check the ticket. Johnny's not wrong that security takes highest priority and it's not unheard of for technicians to trade tickets. Looking through things it's pretty straightforward. This Hansen person likely tried to update some of the office software and the update messed with their current settings. You get his office number, double check the building floor-plans so you don't get lost, and head up.

Getting off the elevator at his floor the atmosphere is incredibly tense. People are keeping their heads down and trying to make themselves as small as possible. As you get closer to Mr. Hansen's office, you start to understand why. His voice carries and he's clearly very, very angry.

By the time you're right outside his office you're visibly shaking. Part of you wants to run back to the safety of your cubicle and beg one of the bosses to choose someone else. But that wouldn't be professional. It's only your first week, you need to do this and prove yourself to be a good hire. Taking a breath to steady yourself, you knock on the door.

“Get in here!” Mr. Hansen barks.

You open the door, “hello, Mr. Hansen. I'm, um, I'm from IT to fix your computer?”

“Yeah, I figured that,” he bites back. “No one else would be dumb enough to knock on the damn door.”

You nod at his reasoning, “may, I...may I see your computer, Sir?”

He chortles, “It's about damn time the IT department hired someone who knows their place.”

He moves away from his desk and gestures for you to sit. Not wanting to be here any longer than you need, you immediately set about to working. No chit-chat, nothing to give him a reason to yell again. You find yourself getting into the zone, hunting down the needed files, ignoring everything extraneous, and making the changes that are needed.

You think you got everything so you get out of the chair, “please make sure everything is working correctly, Mr. Hansen?”

He gives you a skeptical look as he sits, “that was way too fast to have worked.” You lower your chin to your chest but don't protest. You hear him typing and clicking away for a minute or so. “Huh,” you hear from him. “You're a friggin' maestro.” His tone is more contemplative than anything.

“Do you need anything else, Sir?”

He looks up and seems surprised you're still there. “No. You may go back to the IT caverns.”

Not needing to be told twice you nod and head out. When you're back in the department you see Mr. Syverson and he calls you over.

“Where ya been? Was wantin' to ask you about some of the upcoming projects we got ya assigned to.”

“Oh, Johnny asked me to handle a ticket for him because a security issue came up.”

He freezes at that. “Was it with Hansen?”

“Um, yes, Sir.” You see his face turn red and you're worried you did something wrong.

He takes a breath, “you're not in trouble. You're gonna go finish out that ticket like you're supposed to and I'll talk to you about the projects tomorrow.” You nod and almost run to your cubicle. Behind you, Syverson yells, “Storm! My office! NOW!”

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

Next

Tagging @alicedopey; @delicatebarness; @ellethespaceunicorn; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @late-to-the-party-81; @lokislady82 ; @peyton-warren @ronearoundblindly

[witchygagirlwrites]

Back to You-Pt. 1/3

Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz X Reader

When Hank tells you he's hiring a new Tech expert the same week Mouse is due back stateside you never think to make the connection until he's standing in front of you and you're faced with every emotion you tried to bury for two years.

Warnings: I think maybe just some cursing?!

When your alarm went off you reached blindly for the button on top that would get you relief from the shrill noise. When you finally smacked it you pushed yourself into a seated position in the bed and reached for your phone that had an alert flashing on it and groaned to see it was a text from Jay that read He's coming home this week. He wants to see you. You shook your head and threw the phone behind you onto the bed. You couldn't deal with that. It'd been almost two years and the subject still hurt.

You glanced up at the dog tags hanging from the mirror on top of your dresser. The light streaming in the window reflected off the metal surface as if the entire world was meaning to drag your heart through the dirt. You brushed off the dreary feeling and kicked the blankets off your leg. A nice hot shower and some coffee was all you needed to feel human again.

When you walked into the precinct Trudy smiled at you from behind the desk, that smile growing when you held out one of the cups of coffee to her "Morning Trudy" "Morning sweetheart" She said with a nod as you headed up the steps towards intelligence. The fog you'd felt that morning was slowly beginning to lift. If you could dive head first into a case well that would be all the better.

---------

"What? No coffee for us?" Adam asked with a mock expression of hurt when you sat a cup down on Kim's then Erin's desk and stuck your tongue out at him "You see Ruz us ladies have to stick together." Hank shook his head with a laugh from where he stood talking to Jay and Al. "When you're through passing out coffee and busting Ruzek's balls I need to speak with you for a minute"

"Yes sir" you replied trying to remember if you'd done anything worth being yelled at for. He tilted his head towards his office so you followed him curious as to just what was going on.

----

"Have a seat" he said motioning to the chairs in front of his desk so you sat down. He walked around to sit in his chair, eyes never leaving you. "We're getting another tech expert in here soon" Oh so that's what this was about. Did he feel like you would say something against the new person in that slot?

"Sounds good to me. No offense to any of the team but we all sorta suck at that end. I mean I'm decent and I still suck compared to the skills we really need"

You were trying to make a joke and actually got rewarded with a half smile from Hank. "Good, I'm glad you feel like that. Thing is we don't exactly know when they're gonna start so I need you to install the new software that was sent over for the tech room downstairs" "Why me?" You asked suddenly wishing you had never picked up anything about computers.

He shrugged and said "Well out of all of us here you picked up the most skills. It's simple stuff really but anyone else I'm afraid they'd crash the entire system"

You weren't going to argue with him so you nodded "Yes sir. I'll go get started now so if we happen to have a case pop up later" You stood to walk out but stopped when Hank added "Thank you. I mean I know you don't have that detective shield for shit like this but it helps"

You smiled and said "Don't mention it boss. I get my hands plenty dirty in the field. Why not put some tech work under my belt?" Then walked out to head down to the tech room.

----------

You walked into the room and felt a chill run through you and suddenly wished you'd brought your jacket downstairs. The equipment in here had to stay a certain temp and it used to not bother you but now? It felt like a frickin ice box.

You sent Kim a text begging for more coffee and your jacket before picking up a new laptop that was still in the box and looking over the manuals that were with it. "Well let's see how much actually sunk in" You muttered to nobody in particular as you went to work.

When Jay left around lunch saying he had to run to the airport everyone still in the bullpen spun around to face him "Is Mouse coming home today?" Erin asked, glancing back at the hallway you'd have to come up through. "Yea. She knew it was this week but not today. He's been dying to see her and I really hope Voight isn't going to want him to start until I can ease it onto her" Jay answered as he pulled his jacket on. "Wait, he's the new tech guy?" Kim asked in shock.

"He knows this team and I know he can be trusted" Hank cut in from where he stood at his office door.

Adam let out a low whistle and when everyone looked to him he pointed at your empty desk "Any of you think about the shit storm you're bringing down on her?"

"Yeah! I mean Jay you should've told her and Hank! C'mon man why would you spring something like that on her?" Erin threw in knowing out of everyone she could get away with calling Hank out.

He faced her before saying "She's a strong woman Erin. She can handle it. We need him here to fill the position and she isn't going to argue something for the good of this unit. As for her personal feelings she didn't let what happened affect her on the job and I don't see her letting it now. When and if there is a problem I will handle it"

Jay pointed towards the door "Well I'm gonna go. All of you can curse me once I leave and try to convince Erin to kill me in my sleep" "Such bullshit" Kim muttered to Kevin who nodded in agreement. "I give it two hours before they're either fighting or doing something that shouldn't go down at work. The way the two were about each other, that doesn't disappear" "She was a wreck when he left. I'd put my money more on fight" Adam cut in earning him a glare from Kim. Al stood up from his desk and said "Whatever does or doesn't go down is between them" and that was the end of the conversation.

-----------

You were sitting in the middle of the tech room surrounded by new coms, new cameras,tablets and laptops currently growing a headache. "I hate this shit!" You groaned and heard your phone go off where you had sat it on the desk but at the moment you could've cared less about anything anyone was telling you via text. If you were really needed they'd send someone down after you. Hank had banished you to this tech hell and you would be damned before you headed upstairs in defeat.

Walking up the stairs to the twenty first was a surreal feeling for Mouse. The last time he'd been here you had left in tears after telling him goodbye.

Every day he regretted hurting you the way he had. You had been made to feel like you were forcing him to choose to do what he wanted to with his life or being with you. You'd taken yourself out the equation and his heart still hurt when he remembered your eyes that night. You had still written to him once a month.

It was less personal then if you'd sent a hallmark greeting card but it was at least a sign you were alive and remembered he existed. The letters had stopped the moment he'd told you he had a discharge date. He wasn't stupid. He knew you didn't want to see him but when Voight had offered his job back along with the perks he'd offered he couldn't say no. Even if you hated him he would be able to see you. He was willing to hide in the tech room all day to stay out your way but the truth was more than anything he wanted another chance with you.

Trudy spotted him first and an actual smile perked up her face "Oh my god! Mouse!" He was shocked when she came around the counter to pull him into a hug. "You look good Gerwitz" "Thanks Trudy and I heard congrats are in order. You got married!" He replied smiling when she showed him the ring. "I'm gonna take him up" Jay threw in nodding towards the steps. Trudy's face went blank with horror "Um Jay she's still down in the tech room" "Good thing we're going up first huh?" Jay responded, dragging Mouse up the steps by his arm.

"Guessing she doesn't know I'm coming here today and probably doesn't know about the job?" Mouse pondered as they headed up to the bullpen and groaned when Jay did a so-so motion with his hand "Oh for fuck's sake Jay! You shouldn't have sprung this on her!"

"That's exactly what I said!" Kim spoke up from her desk before standing to hug Mouse "but welcome back still" The overall greeting was welcoming back a family member but there was still a feeling of dread that came along with knowing they were welcoming one and putting another's heart at risk in the process. After Al hugged him he pointed him towards the stairs "Well kid why don't you go down to the tech room and rip the damn bandaid off?"

If there was one thing Mouse was certain would never change, it was Alvin Olinsky. That man called everyone's bullshit.

He headed for the stairs hearing murmurs behind him but focusing on the fact that you were in front of him.

-----------

"Ugh! You stupid son of a bitch I already did that! I think you just don't fucking like me!" Yes you were arguing with a tablet but damn, it had gotten on your nerves.

"Well sweetheart if it doesn't like you it's got really bad taste" You heard a familiar voice say from behind you, causing you to startle as you jumped to face Mouse who was standing in the doorway.

You could feel your brain fuzz out like an old tv as you looked at him. His shoulders were broader than they had been before, biceps straining against the material of his t-shirt with his movements. A layer of scruff covered his jawline and he was about three shades tanner than the last time you'd seen him. The chain of his dog tags sticking out his collar made you subconsciously reach for the chain you hadn't worn in a year, knowing it wasn't at your neck.

When he moved his left arm you could see the hint of a tattoo peeking out his sleeve and knew you probably looked like an idiot sitting there surrounded by equipment and staring at him slack jawed but you couldn't help it.

All the love you felt for him and all the anger you'd buried at how he'd broken your heart washed over you in a crushing wave and it took effort to get your brain started back up. "Greg" you all but whispered and when he smiled had you been standing your knees would've gotten weak "She remembers! Can I get a welcome back?" You mentally slammed the door shut on all the emotions threatnening to spill over and held up the tablet before saying "Welcome back now come fucking help me"

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

You could feel your hands shaking as Mouse helped you to set up all the new equipment in no time. "Guessing you're the tech person?" You asked, breaking the silence in the room. He glanced up from the laptop he was currently typing on and smiled, something so familiar it made your chest ache "Only if it's ok with you. Voight offered"

"Why wouldn't it be? We split before you left, remember?" You knew you sounded cold but you had to. You couldn't bear to let yourself slip around him or you'd be pulled in. You couldn't let yourself feel everything you wanted because what if you did and then he decided once more it wasn't enough? "How could I ever forget about you telling me you didn't want to be with me anymore?" He asked in a small voice and you felt tears spring to your eyes so you quickly got to your feet "Looks like you've got this. I'm heading up"

Mouse regretted the words the moment he said them. He'd promised himself he'd give you space and time but God being this close to you after so long and not being able to touch you, you barely looking at him. He'd broken your heart he knew that but he hadn't exactly escaped unscathed either.

He called your name when you sprung up to leave but you practically ran from the room. A part of him wanted to run after you but he knew now wasn't the time. This was your job and his now as well. This was also just his first day back in Chicago and Jay hadn't even warned you. He looked back down at the stack of equipment and let out a sigh "Welcome home Gerwitz" he mumbled to the empty room before starting to put everything in its place.

Part 2

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Don Moynihan at Can We Still Govern?:

Members of the DOGE network rarely offer thoughtful accounts that depart from the Musk narrative (government is broken, full of talentless hacks, DOGE is fixing things). So I was interested to see a DOGEr express genuine circumspection. This came from Sahil Lavingia, a startup founder, who was interviewed by Ernie Smith about his experience with DOGE. Lavignia left his start-up, Gumroad, to join Veteran’s Affairs. Here is the key passage:

[Now that he’s there, he says he finds himself surrounded by people who ��love their jobs,” who came to the government with a sense of mission driving their work. “In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [a buyout offer], then we wouldn’t have to do much more,” he says, implying software can replace departing employees. “We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening.”…when it comes down to it, what he’s found is a machine that largely functions, though it doesn’t make decisions as fast as a startup might. “I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions,” he says. “But honestly, it’s kind of fine—because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins.”]

For anyone with a modicum of experience studying or working in government, nothing Lavignia discovered is novel. Public servants care about public service! There is not really that much waste in government! There are too many meetings and decisionmaking is too slow! Indeed, sir! All true! To his credit, Lavignia was willing to acknowledge his prior beliefs were wrong. That is a hard thing for any human to do, and something I have not seen from any other DOGE official, certainly not Musk. The exception offers insight to the rule: DOGErs simply don’t understand the government they are destroying, and are unwilling to learn.

DOGE could have learned a lot by just talking to public employees

This sounds obvious to say, but people handed extraordinary power that affects the lives of others should know what they are doing. If they don’t know important stuff, they should want to learn it before exercising consequential decisions. But DOGE has failed to meet even these banal standards. A trademark of DOGE was the toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance. Some DOGE members have real and impressive achievements, some do not. But all of those achievements are in the private sector. They know almost nothing about government except conspiracy theories from the internet, or negative interactions with the regulators who oversee their businesses. They did not understand where government spent its money, and that it was not full of waste. They could have talked to career public employees or nonpartisan government experts. But they didn’t because they did not want to know. Their closest advisors about how government worked were partisan ideologues who want to upend the constitution, Stephen Miller and Russ Vought. Random X posters seem to have more input on the fate of USAID than any policy experts.

This arrogance has had real consequences, including half-assed administrative changes. DOGE ignored their own pick to run Social Security when he told them that their fraud numbers were wrong. They insisted on administrative changes to detect fraud in SSA phone calls. As Natalie Alms reports, the result was that they found two cases of probably fraudulent phone calls out of 110,000. (Or a fraud rate of 0.0018%). But the extra checks they put in place to chase the phantom fraud were not costless: they slowed the processing of retirement claims by 25%. Why did SSA employees not resist the change? According to a former senior SSA official: “People lacked the fortitude to tell DOGE there was no fraud because they were afraid to lose their jobs. They knew there was no fraud.” It’s not just that DOGE was unwilling to listen: they would fire anyone willing to speak up.

A missed opportunity

A lot of people really wanted DOGE to succeed, or more specifically, they wanted the idealized version of DOGE — smart tech folks disrupting bureaucracy — to succeed. This includes me: when I warned that DOGE would be a disaster right before the Trump inauguration, I felt real ambivalence. Was this just my natural cynicism? Just a couple of days later Will Oremus in the Washington Post asked me, Jen Pahlka and Bridget Dooling to make the case for the best and worst case scenarios for DOGE. Needless to say, the worst case scenarios proved more accurate, and even understated the case, but it was not hard to imagine how things might go well. [...] There are lots of things DOGE does not get about how to manage in the public sector. This overview of the senior talent that DOGE has pushed out of government is simply an extraordinary indictment of it’s incompetence. But there is one particular type of knowledge that DOGE really missed out on which is unforgivable: how tech works in government. Some of those who wanted DOGE to succeed were government technologists, frustrated at the slow pace of change they saw during their time in government. Many were ready to welcome fellow technologists with the influence to transform government. But they were isolated, ignored, fired or resigned. In doing so, DOGE missed their best opportunity to actually live up to their brand as tech disruptors who could fix things. Now, their brand will be the tech bros who broke government. The civic tech movement in the federal government was a decade old when DOGE arrived (the US Digital Service and 18F were created in 2014). I have been tracking the evolution of civic tech, because I think it represents one path for the future of American government. That path could have merged with DOGE, creating a single broad vision of tech-driven change in government. Instead, in now offers a competing vision. I think its worth unpacking some of those differences in a bit more detail. [...]

DOGE’s undemocratic workarounds will fail

There are a couple of big differences between DOGE and civic tech. One is motivational. The civic tech movement is, broadly, driven by prosocial motivations. They believed that government it slow and unwieldy, but that at some basic level it remains a fundamental means to help a lot of people. If you believe that, it makes sense to work at making the structure of government function. It make sense to invest time in building cool products that can be iterated and improved upon over time (Direct File is a good example).

DOGE mostly believes that government is irredeemably broken, wasteful and fraudulent. If you believe that, it makes sense to downsize government as much as possible, and contract out what you cannot. It makes sense not to build cool products (DOGE killed Direct File) but to build AI that cuts the humans out of the process and automate as much as possible. The fact that DOGE claims about fraud have proven to be erroneous should be a huge red flag about how the assumptions that will be embedded into their AI builds will prove to be wrong in ways that could be catastrophic. The other main difference between DOGE and civic tech was the attitudes to constraints. Both DOGE and civic tech employees would probably agree that government has too many constraints. The civic tech solution was largely to find ways to work with or manage those constraints. This included user guides to “hack your bureaucracy.” The DOGE approach has been largely to ignore the constraints. The Privacy Act of 1974 that civic tech people complained about? Pretend it does not exist. Pursue the type of data pooling for surveilling in the context of an increasingly aggressively police state.

The problem of Musk, and DOGE is not a problem of technological capabilities enabled by data sharing and AI. Those capabilities are here, present in the private sector as well as public. The problem is a governance one: laws that exist to constrain the use of data are being ignored. Writing new laws will not solve the problem of people ignoring existing laws. Civic tech folks complained about their limited ability to shape government. They never had a champion like Musk. But they also largely respected hierarchy and lines of control. Some of the turf issues that occur in any government happened. But the idea of the US Digital Service, rather than the Secretary of the Treasury, trying to appoint the acting head of the IRS is unthinkable. But Musk did so. The idea that a Cabinet Secretary would hand over all operational decisions to 18F would have been considered bizarre. But some Cabinet Secretaries have done this with DOGE. [...] Much of what DOGE is doing is illegal. Much of it will create long-term and lasting damage to America. This is the clearest example of an action that was illegal, anti-democratic, but also sped past any moral grey zones to being deeply evil. Even still, 60,000 tons of food, enough to keep millions from starving, are rotting in warehouses, blocked from release by another DOGEr, Jeremy Lewin. Per an analysis in Nature, up to 25 million people will die because of US cuts to foreign aid. Those who die will be largely the most vulnerable people in their world, their fates decided by some of the most privileged and protected people in the world.

DOGE has been nothing but a disaster to both the tech and government service.

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

front desk of the hospital says "ohhh hey i notice youre nonbinary in the system do you still want to go by (name in the system) (literally couldve just been the name i asked the hospital to call me already??)" uhhh yeah i guess. startlingly flamboyant respiratory tech calls me in (loudly) "MISTER (last name pronounced wrong) ......... HELLOOOO IM OVER HERE" ohhhhhhhhh am *i* mister. i see. then asks my birth sex because the diagnostic software needs to know and then when telling my girlfriend who he clearly thinks is my mom about what we talked about he called me they but with a clear pause of effort every time and then finally accidentally slipped a "she- aw shoot you should punch me for that im sorry" but like....... in what world are honorifics less significantly gendered than pronouns. disastrous all around sir. back to the sensitivity training dungeons with you

[archoneddzs15]

Super Famicom - Wizardry Gaiden 4 - Throb of the Demon's Heart

Title: Wizardry Gaiden 4 - Throb of the Demon's Heart / ウィザードリィ外伝IV ～胎魔の鼓動～

Developer: Sir-Tech Software / Access Co. Ltd.

Publisher: ASCII Corporation

Release date: 20 September 1996

Catalogue Code: SHVC-AE4J-JPN

Genre: RPG

Wizardry Variants Daphne has just been unleashed onto the world in the form of a dungeon crawler for your smartphone, so why not take a look at a rather older Wizardry title? In case you haven't figured it out, Wizardry Gaiden is a spin-off of the Wizardry series, making this game one of those old-school Western RPGs that tries to emulate pen and paper D&D by being excessively tedious and user-unfriendly. First-person dungeon crawling with inadequate navigational aids, frustratingly limited inventory, needing a game encyclopedia to know what stuff does, extremely obtuse puzzles, and an almost overwhelming variety of character build options. This game has it all, and firmly falls within "too tedious to play without a walkthrough".

[anarchblr]

"Many comrades cannot grasp the technological components of colonialism (or rather they ignore them deliberately), remaining perplexed at a perspective based on the urgency of utterly annihilating techno-domination and the tech industry. If you talk to them about the connection of technologies to power, they respond with the supposed neutrality of these technologies and that they can be decoupled from the very logic of power which developed and produced them.

Such a perspective ignores that the entire framework of fundamental technologies which have today entered into all fields of social life stem from military research, and that colonialism, historically and presently, has a strong technological component. It is in fact a cornerstone. The process of colonization developed over centuries, always adding new technologies as soon as they developed. These technologies are based not only on the exploitation of people in the Global South and their lands, but were and have always been unleashed against the 'enemy' or tested in the colonies, until they finally make their way into the empire itself.

With the aid of the British colonies, undersea cables enabled telegraphic communication in service of the British Empire. New developments in record-keeping, archiving, and organization of information were first utilized by the US military intelligence service during the conquest of the Philippines. Governments today work together with tech-giants to enable widespread surveillance and control of their own people. This is first tested in the global south. Microsoft offers a solution for police vehicles with facial-recognition cameras that was launched in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. The 'Command-and-Control Surveillance Platform' named 'Microsoft Aware' is utilized in Brazil and Singapore. Microsoft is also heavily engaged in the prison industry. They offer a variety of software solutions for the penal system, covering the whole process. In Africa they have gotten together with a firm named Netopia offering a 'Prison Management Software Platform,' including 'escape management' and prisoner analysis. Countries in the global south also offer an abundance of cheap laborers for technological processes and tech giants. These includes data annotators for artificial intelligence, call center workers, and content moderators for social media giants like Facebook. They clean disruptive content from social media feeds and are often left psychologically damaged.

Over centuries, imperial powers have tested technologies for the surveillance and control of their own populations on foreign populations; from Sir Francis Galtons pioneering work on fingerprinting, which occurred in India and South Africa, all the way to America’s combination of biometrics and innovations in the management of statistics and data, which constructed the first modern surveillance apparatus to pacify the Philippines. The wide collection of surveillance technologies used in the Philippines offered a testing site for a model that was finally brought back to the United States to set against the dissidents in its own country. High tech surveillance projects by Microsoft and their partners suggest that Africa will continue to be serve as a lab for carceral experiments.

The technological component of colonialism also reveals itself in the ways and means by which people in the Global South are exploited for menial and dangerous work as their lands are destroyed, just to provide supposedly necessary technology. Thus Congo supplies more than 70% of worldwide Cobalt, a vital raw material for the batteries used in cars, computers, and smartphones. As for Lithium, the biggest reserves are found in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Australia. Out of these, Australia is less attractive because the workers there earn dramatically higher wages. The actual process of mining the raw materials often has negative consequences to the health of the workers and their surroundings. To eradicate colonialism, its causes, main actors, and processes must be clearly and plainly illustrated and linked. There must be no illusions: an anti-colonial struggle must inevitably align itself against the tech industry if decolonization is to live up to its name."

-Elany, "Tools of Anarchism, Part 2: On Decolonization (and the Technological Components of Colonialism)"

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Technological Components of Colonialism

Many comrades cannot grasp the technological components of colonialism (or rather they ignore them deliberately), remaining perplexed at a perspective based on the urgency of utterly annihilating techno-domination and the tech industry. If you talk to them about the connection of technologies to power, they respond with the supposed neutrality of these technologies and that they can be decoupled from the very logic of power which developed and produced them.

Such a perspective ignores that the entire framework of fundamental technologies which have today entered into all fields of social life stem from military research, and that colonialism, historically and presently, has a strong technological component. It is in fact a cornerstone. The process of colonization developed over centuries, always adding new technologies as soon as they developed. These technologies are based not only on the exploitation of people in the Global South and their lands, but were and have always been unleashed against the “enemy” or tested in the colonies, until they finally make their way into the empire itself.

With the aid of the British colonies, undersea cables enabled telegraphic communication in service of the British Empire. New developments in record-keeping, archiving, and organization of information were first utilized by the US military intelligence service during the conquest of the Philippines. Governments today work together with tech-giants to enable widespread surveillance and control of their own people. This is first tested in the global south. Microsoft offers a solution for police vehicles with facial-recognition cameras that was launched in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. The “Command-and-Control Surveillance Platform” named “Microsoft Aware” is utilized in Brazil and Singapore. Microsoft is also heavily engaged in the prison industry. They offer a variety of software solutions for the penal system, covering the whole process. In Africa they have gotten together with a firm named Netopia offering a “Prison Management Software Platform,” including “escape management” and prisoner analysis. Countries in the global south also offer an abundance of cheap laborers for technological processes and tech giants. These includes data annotators for artificial intelligence, call center workers, and content moderators for social media giants like Facebook. They clean disruptive content from social media feeds and are often left psychologically damaged.

Over centuries, imperial powers have tested technologies for the surveillance and control of their own populations on foreign populations; from Sir Francis Galtons pioneering work on fingerprinting, which occurred in India and South Africa, all the way to America’s combination of biometrics and innovations in the management of statistics and data, which constructed the first modern surveillance apparatus to pacify the Philippines. The wide collection of surveillance technologies used in the Philippines offered a testing site for a model that was finally brought back to the United States to set against the dissidents in its own country. High tech surveillance projects by Microsoft and their partners suggest that Africa will continue to be serve as a lab for carceral experiments.

The technological component of colonialism also reveals itself in the ways and means by which people in the Global South are exploited for menial and dangerous work as their lands are destroyed, just to provide supposedly necessary technology. Thus Congo supplies more than 70% of worldwide Cobalt, a vital raw material for the batteries used in cars, computers, and smartphones. As for Lithium, the biggest reserves are found in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Australia. Out of these, Australia is less attractive because the workers there earn dramatically higher wages. The actual process of mining the raw materials often has negative consequences to the health of the workers and their surroundings.

To eradicate colonialism, its causes, main actors, and processes must be clearly and plainly illustrated and linked. There must be no illusions: an anti-colonial struggle must inevitably align itself against the tech industry if decolonization is to live up to its name.

[andydrysdalerogers]

Undercover ~ Chapter Thirteen ~ The Line of Succession

Pairings: Jake Jensen and OFC Samantha Matthews

The Losers have made it back to their families and are out. Well, almost. A threat against the British crown needs to be handled and the CIA has tapped the Losers for one final mission. And they are sending in Jensen.

Jake Jensen hasn't been a civilian in years but now he's undercover to find out why his target is where he is and who he's after.

Enter Sam, someone who Jake doesn't expect and well, he didn't know he was looking for.

Can Jake handle his mission and falling in love? Especially when the truth leads to a bigger mission than expected?

*~* A Jake Jensen Story *~*

Author's note: this story continues after the events of the Losers. I may weave other characters into it but they are all minor. THE TAGLIST IS OPEN.

The playlist is available on Spotify.

cover photo by me! Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Warnings: angst, death, smut, and a bunch of stuff a can’t say because it gives away the plot!

Previous: Chapter Twelve - Her Royal Highness

Story Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Please note that I do not give permission for my work to be translated, reposted, or published anywhere other than my Tumblr. Reblogs are most welcome though!

The call comes unexpectantly. The team was already in the air, after having debriefed Director Fowler and Inspector Hart.  Hart gave them the green light to head into his office and they were wheels up four hours later.  Jake tried calling Sam but she didn’t pick up.  Clay answered the phone.  “Clay?... Yes, sir.” He tapped the screen. “You’re on speaker.”  

“There was an attack on Parliament about 45 minutes ago.  Their Majesties are alright but... I’m sorry, they have taken Her Royal Highness.”  

“Sam?” Jake’s brain was not computing. “They took Samantha?” 

“Yes. The lights went out and several flash bangs were fired, causing a run and when the lights came up, she was gone.”  

“What about Edward?” 

“He is missing as well.”  

“We told you this was his plan!” Jake exploded. “We told you he was the one who hired Fitzgerald. He wants to take over the monarchy! And you didn’t listen! Now look what happened! She is with him and whoever else he hired and … FUCK!”  Jake grabbed his head.  

“We touch down in an hour,” Clay told the Inspector. “Is there video, cameras, anything?”  

“We’ll have it ready for you. The Royal Protection Service is deferring to you, Colonel, since this was their failure.”  

“Copy that. See you soon.” Clay hung up and kneeled in front of Jensen. “Jake, we’ll find her.”  

“She has to be so scared.” Jake’s eyes were red. “She’s strong but she’ll be scared.”  

“I know, Jake but we’ll find her and bring her home, ok?” Jake nodded rubbing his eyes. “Can you do this? Everything will be ready for us on the ground. I need you to focus and get to work.” 

“Yeah, alright. I could use Aisha help.” 

“Of course, Jake”.  

“Alight, Jensen and Aisha have the tech. Pooch, Cougar, I want you in the room, checking for anything that can tip us off on who Prince Edward is working with.  It was coordinated and tactical. Fitzgerald was only on the US side. Someone else had to have been working this here. I’ll work with the Inspector and the RPS.”  

The plane landed and headed inside of a hanger, where Inspector Hart was waiting for them. “Captain...” 

“Don’t,” Jake said.  “Where are the camera feeds?” 

“Right here.” Hart pointed at the terminal.  Jake jumped on the computer.  

“Aisha, I need you to work through traffic cameras with this,” he pulled out a chip. “It's facial recognition software. Find a picture of Edward and run it. Let’s see where that slimeball went.  I’ll study this footage and see if I can find who was helping inside of Parliament.”  

Only the sound of clicking and low voices filled the hanger. Jake’s eyes scanned the video on one screen as code ran on another.  After a few minutes the code screen stopped and pulled up whatever Jake was looking for.  He smiled and then looked at the video. He was up to the part where Sam would walk into the chamber.  He frowned when he saw her hand in the crook of some guy’s arm but then he noticed Edward.  

“What are you doing, old man?” Jake rewound the tape and watched again. He saw Sam recoil away from him and then walk away but instead of focusing on her, no matter how beautiful she looked, he focused on Edward.  The man pulled out his phone and typed a message. Jake couldn’t see the screen but then he noticed the reflection behind him.  

“Son of a bitch! Clay! I’ve got it. Edward sent a message five minutes before Sam was presented. All it was one word: GO. But you can see the number. I traced it, and it goes back to a Major August Walker, Royal Protection Service.”  

“What?” Inspector Hart was dumbfounded. “Major Walker is the head of the protection for Her Royal Highness.  He was in her father’s security team for ten years and his Majesty had selected him for her team. This doesn’t make sense.”  

Jake kept typing. “Well, Major Walker has some beef with the crown. Harold had ordered a team into Bosnia including Walker and half of the team was killed by friendly fire. Walker was discharged from the Army and for his service, given a position in the RPS.”  

“Shit, Edward is for pulling all troops from around the world, essentially leaving our allies vulnerable.” Hart started to pace. His reasoning is ‘England before all.’ But there is no way to implement that with Anthony on the throne. The Prime Minister is a sensible man but if the crown is on its knees, then maybe he can be swayed.”  

“That doesn’t explain why he took Sam,” Clay said. “The reasoning is sound, but they had the chance to take Anthony.”  

Aisha mused, “Because if you control the heir, you control the crown. If they said they would kill Samantha unless Anthony stepped down...” 

“That would leave Edward or his son Lewis to take over,” Clay finished.  He looked at Jake. “We need to find her.”  

Sam’s head was pounding. Trying to open her eyes, she also struggled to take a deep breath. Her eyes were covered but her ribs protested slightly. She gasped when she moved her head, the pain blinding behind her eyes. 

“Easy their Princess.”  A hand touched her, rough and callous.  She jumped as her eyes continued to try and open. “Whoa, its ok.” 

“Who- who are you?” 

“Don’t answer her.” Dread filled Sam. She knew that voice and she feared it.  Someone grasped her chin and pulled off the blindfold.” Open your eyes child.”  Sam blinked and the world was still unfocused, however, she knew who had taken her.  

“Uncle?” 

“You were always sharp, even as a child.”  Edward stepped back with a laugh.  

“Why? Why did you...” 

“Take you? Because, my dear, he who controls the heir, controls the world. Imagine my surprise when my brother announced to me that the little girl who belonged to his girlfriend was actually his daughter. The heir to the throne after his son.” Sam kept blinking as the world began to focus. “It was supposed to be me! I was supposed to take the throne! Not that wannabe king Anthony. I’ve lost my chance at it but my son, your cousin Lewis is primed to be my puppet on the throne.”  

“It’s the line of succession.  You knew being a younger son there was no guarantee that you would succeed.”  

“Thank you for the history lesson.” Edward backhanded her and she cried out as the chair tipped and hit the ground.  “Watch her,” she told the soldier and left the room.  

The soldier nodded and then moved to help Sam back up. “Are you alright, Your Royal Highness?”  

“Why do you care?” Sam could finally focus and saw who the soldier was. “Major Walker?” 

“I’m sorry Princess. But it is what must be done. Do you need anything?” 

“Some water, please. And maybe untie my arms. It's starting to hurt.”  

“I’ll get you some.” He left the room and Sam took in where she was at. No windows, and a bathroom.  From where she could turn her head, she saw a bed and a table.  She took a few calming breaths. What would JJ do? She said to herself. She thought back.  

She and Jake were in bed, Sam was lying across the foot on her belly, just the blanket covering her body. “Babe, if you are ever in a position where your captor is bigger than you, just remember these four points: noise, stomach, groin and foot.”   “Why?” She kicked her legs in the air as she stared up to Jake sitting against the headboard.   “Those are the soft spots. Maximum amount of pain which can usually incapacitate a man. Stomp on his foot, elbow him in the stomach, just under the ribs, kick him in the balls and smash his nose with the heel of your palm. It gives you time to get away.”  “Can we practice?” She sat up, the blanket falling around her middle, but now her breasts were exposed.   “No, we cannot because you’re distracting me.” He launched himself at her, tackling her as she giggled and pinning her as he kissed her hard. “I love you.”   “I love you.”  “We’ll practice tomorrow.  Maybe Pooch or Cougar can help?” 

Sam snapped back as Walker came back into the room with a bottle of water. He opened it and gave her a sip. “Better?” 

She nodded. “Can you untie me?” 

“No.” Walker looked away from her. She saw he had keys and a gun. She just needed to get loose and then she could escape.  Where? Who knows, but she knew Jake was looking for her. He would once he realized she wasn’t calling him back on the phone.  

Jake will find me. I know he will.  

Jake and the rest of the team met up with the RPS at the Parliament building.  “Did you find anything?” he asked Pooch and Cougar.  

“No, but that’s the interesting part.”  

“Why is that interesting?” Clay asked.  

“Because there isn’t any evidence that they left. All of the outside surveillance was active. They never showed up and they never left,” Pooch explained  

“That’s because of the underground tunnels.” A new voice joined in.  Jake looked over and saw an older man. He looked familiar. And it dawned on Jake. This was Samantha’s father.  Another man joined who looked like him but 30 years young. “The undergrounds were made so royals could come in and negotiate without setting off the press,” Harold explained. “Every royal raised here knows about them.”  

“And you are?” Clay asked.  

Harold dropped the formalities. “Harold Davenport. This is my son, Anthony.”  

“Your highness, Majesty, sorry,” Jake said.  

Harold studied him.  “You must be Jake.” He offered his hand. “My Samantha has spoken very highly of you.” 

“Thanks, I think. You’re pawning her off to a duke or earl or something right?” 

Harold looked abashed. “That is a family decision but given the circumstances, best we wait until we get her back.”  

“Right,” Jake huffed.  

“Sirs, we have a video message.”  They gathered around the screen.  It was of a hooded man, Samantha unconscious, eyes covered and still in the beautiful blue gown.  

“We have the Princess Samantha.  For her release, we need televised confirmation of our troops being withdrawn from around the world and the abdication of His Majesty, Anthony of England.  We will also require that the she sign away her rights as heir to the throne of England. You have 48 hours to comply with our demands, otherwise, the consequences will be dire.”  

The video cut out.  Jake was vibrating with anger. “Can I see that?” He pointed to the computer. The soldier at the controls moved and Jake began typing.  The screen moved with measurements and code over the video.  “The signal was bounced around a lot so getting a lock on the origin will be tough.  However,” he typed some more. “This is man is Walker.”  Jake scanned some more. “This is a room with nothing reflective in it except for Walker’s goggles.  I can see the camera.”  

“How in the bloody hell does he know it’s Walker?” Anthony whispered to his father.  

“Based on the height in the room and how small Sam is sitting I have his height at 6’ 1”. His mass also suggests he’s about 100 kilos or 220 pounds. Both measurements fit Walker’s profile. And the fact that he is also missing.”  Jake kept his eyes on the screen as he spoke.  “I got it.” He enlarged the picture to show the man behind the camera.  

“Fuck, that is my brother,” Harold said.  

“Yep. We knew that already,” Clay said. “We tried to reach the RPS while we were in the air, but the attack already occurred.”  

Harold rubbed his temple.  “If he is leading this, then we have to head down to the tunnels.”  

“No, we will find her,” Jake said. “You said she would be safe here. You said it was for the best. This was nothing more than leading a lamb to be slaughtered. I am getting my girl back and taking her home.”  

“This is her home,” Anthony argued.  

“This was her prison.” Jake stood toe to toe with Sam’s brother. “Do you even know your sister? How amazing she is? How resilient she is? She was left with her mother in the U.S., met a man who promised to love her and then screwed her over and left her broken. But she fixed herself in a beautiful, caring, loving person who ensnared me in her love. She is the love of my life and when I say I’m taking her home, it means I’m going to marry her and build her a home where she doesn’t have to worry about her asshole brother who doesn’t love her.”  

Jake’s chest heaved as Clay grasped his shoulder. “Its ok Jake. C'mon, let’s get ready to rescue the princess.”  

“I do care about my sister.” Anthony looked at Jake. “I...” 

Jake cut him off. “If you love your sister, let me do my job.” He took off the brace from his arm.  

“You need three more weeks with that,” Aisha said softly.  

“And I need to save my girl.” Jake pulled a rifle.  

Clay smiled. “You heard the man. Losers! Round up.” 

NEXT

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[oldschoolfrp]

Locations in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord -- the Castle, the Adventurer's Inn (Visa and Mordorcharge accepted), the Temple of Cant where dead adventurers can be raised for a fee, and Boltac's Trading Post which has a monopoly on adventuring gear. (Will McLean illustrations from the game manual, Sir-Tech Software, 1981) In actual game play each of these is a short text menu, with commands input by single letters, so the manual illustrations and text help suggest a more detailed world.

[2000sangel]

hi! saw your match ups were open and wanted to send a request if that's ok! im a woman and my pronouns are he/him. i don't have a gender preference or a type. i'd like romantic if that's alright. as far as aesthetic goes, i'm not really sure what to call it. i work as a receptionist so i'm generally just always dressed smart. i'm not really one for dresses, trousers and shirts are my go to. i wear a lot of jewellery though, at least one ring and one bracelet on each hand. i always wear glasses bc i cannot see at all and i've got long reddish hair. as for personality im quite a quiet person. i always help people where i can. i've got a dry sense of humour and have a tendency towards cynicism but at least i'm fun with it. i'm a very organised person. confrontation is not my strong point. i'm not afraid to stand up for myself and others, i've done it before but i will shake the entire time and i wish that was an exaggeration. i know its bad but i love a good gossip, its fun. i've got a few hobbies and interests, i love reading, mainly crime fiction. that ties into my other interest of true crime, i actually have 2 degrees in forensic psychology. i'm a very music oriented person. not only do i listen to it a lot, but i also play piano and sing. i engage in a lot of genres but i've been balls deep in an inescapable musical theatre phase for about a decade. i used to be in a society for it, definitely better at singing and dancing than acting, and i also did a lot of backstage stuff. i was even stage manager in one production (never again). my job and my degrees required me to be quite tech savvy in the sense thay i needed to know how to use a couple data handling softwares which i somehow managed. things i like - books, animals, sunny weather, warm white lights. things i dislike - people that don't have manners, loud overlapping noises, being rained on, insects. i don't have any characters that are a hard no. i hope i've done everything alright, you're such a talented writer and thank you :)

Hello! Yes, you’ve done everything perfectly and provided me a lot of information which I appreciate ;3 also, thank you for calling me a talented writer, I appreciate it a lot :((

Now, prepare to be sssurprised, as I match you with...

Sir Pentious!

Yes, him! Allow me to explain: you said you’re a cynic, a person distrustful of human sincerity. Sir Pentious is the exact demon who would prove you that some people, in this case him, are sincere. He’s a genuine individual, somewhat ingenuous if you will, who likes the simplest of things such as drinking good tea and having friends.  

Described as a wussy fighter by Vivziepop herself, he really needs somebody who will stand up for him and you seem to be the right person for this job, as you’re not afraid of doing so. He actually quite admires your courage, as even he can notice that you’re nervous when you stand up for other people, and yet he wonders how you manage to do it either way. He thanks you profusely each time this happens, and promises to look out for you in return.

Your job and degrees requiring you to be a quite tech savvy person makes me think that you’d somehow end up getting asked for help in some of his inventions; he trusts that you’re somewhat of a quick learner and smart, plus he simply loves to include you in his hobbies just as you include him in yours (more on this later!), so having you around him and the Egg Boiz is quite the pleasure every time.

Despite being a little silly, Pentious can very well be a gentleman, too. You dislike people with no manners? He’s more than willing to hiss at them if you ever come across any. You hate loud noises? He’ll make sure to invent something, anything that could help you with that. Don’t like being rained on? He will remove his jacket to hold it over your head if he has to. And rest assured he will remind Niffty about the gross bugs circulating in the Hotel if she doesn’t clean well enough.

Sir Pentious is not the most courageous demon around, we’re all aware of this. But! For you he will make an exception, and watch all those true crime videos and read the crime fiction you seem to be so passionate about. After all, you join him in his hobbies, so him participating in your is the least he can do. He’s also not afraid of gory situations themselves, so that’s something. He unexpectedly finds himself enjoying the time spent with you, especially reading, and he definitely interrupts you at least once each time to prepare a cup of tea for both him and you, if you enjoy it.

I can also see him being mesmerized by your skills each time you sing or play piano, and he would definitely try to learn how to sing/play along! He comes up with all these silly little tunes, it’s quite endearing on your side actually, and he surely wants to hear the most modern music you can play for him.

Pentious doesn’t really care what his lover is wearing at all, he will compliment you no matter if you’re dressed classy, cute, edgy or if you’re just getting ready to go to work. To him, you’re the most gorgeous person around, and while he’d be a little more on the shy side at first with compliments, he’d definitely go all out once you’ve been in a relationship for a while. He quite enjoys your liking for jewellery, and will remind you how pretty it looks on you whenever you’re putting it on.

 All in all, I feel like you two would be the cutest representation of ‘opposites attract’!

[simmerdowndee]

uni_dayz episode five part two

Today is the campus career fair. I took Theo because he could also find some intern opportunities there. He wasn’t sure why we needed to go this early in our schooling, but I told him it’s the perfect time. You don’t wait until your senior year sir. I also made him dress nice because he attempted to come here in an adidas tracksuit. You will not get a job like that babe.

Theo: I’m going to go look at these tables.

Dakota: Okay! I’m going over here.

I noticed a table that has the logo of one of the best law firms in the country. I immediately walk over to talk.

Dakota: Hi, my name is Dakota. I’m a sophomore at UBrite.

Mrs. Greer: Well, you’re already doing well so far. UBrite is my alma mater. My name is Jasmine Greer. I am the general counsel for Steele and Hart.

STEELE AND HART??? So, this is for one of the best law firms in the country.

Dakota: Your firm was number one on my list to work for. You guys do such great work.

Mrs. Greer: Well, thank you, Dakota. You seem very well put together. What made you interested in law?

Dakota: To be honest, my personal upbringing.

Mrs. Greer: Ah, no need to elaborate further. I understand.

Mrs. Greer: We have a few clerkships available for enthusiastic students like yourself. If you are interested, I can get you a packet and some contact information.

Dakota: When do these clerkships begin?

Mrs. Greer: I have one available for the fall, two for the spring, and three for the summer.

Dakota: I would be interested in the summer one. That way I can focus on that without worrying about my studies.

Mrs. Greer: Good thinking Dakota. Always make sure your studies come first.

Mrs. Greer: Here is the summer information and my contact info. I look forward to seeing you this summer, Dakota.

Dakota: Thank you so much Mrs. Greer. You won’t be disappointed.

Meanwhile….

(Theo’s POV)

I wasn’t really looking for an internship just yet, but Dakota thinks it’s a good idea to get a head start. There is a table I noticed that has a software engineering program. I think I’ll go check it out….

Mr. Wayne: Hello there son. You look data efficient.

Theo: Haha, yes. I am a computer science major.

Mr. Wayne: Excellent, then you’d probably love the software engineering program we are offering to students who are sophomores or higher.

Theo: Can you tell me a bit more?

Mr. Wayne: Of course. We offer a software engineering program with limited spots to students wanting to get experience within the tech world. The program offers room and board, with a weekly stipend for your work.

Theo: Room and board? As in you’ll pay for my dorm expenses.

Mr. Wayne: Oh, let me elaborate. The program offers students a chance to study abroad. You would be relocating for the year to Windenburg.

Theo: As in out of the country?

Mr. Wayne: Yes sir. It’s a great opportunity and you receive a very generous stipend while there.

Theo: It sounds amazing. I’m not sure though…

Mr. Wayne: What’s stopping you son?

Theo: I’m not sure how my girlfriend would feel about me being gone for a year in another country…...

Mr. Wayne: I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to miss out on an opportunity like this.

Mr. Wayne: How about this, I’ll give you my contact number and the program info packet. Since you are a sophomore, you can’t start in the middle of your year. You’d be the perfect candidate during your junior year.

Theo: Thank you, Mr. Wayne. I’m seriously considering it.

Mr. Wayne: Remember, talk to your girlfriend.

Theo: Will do.

This program sounds so awesome. I don’t know how Dakota will take the news though. I think I’ll bring it up at dinner tonight. I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to miss out… right?

[nomorepixels]

Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant

©️ Sir-tech Software, Inc. 1992

Image sourced from mobygames.com