#How To See IP Address On Windows

[19burstraat]

ketterdam dashboard simulator

goedmedbridge420

who up boeking they canal

10,345 notes

drydens follow

I can't believe some of you log on here and thirstpost about barrel vagrants. it makes me so sick. these men are the very pits of society and have never honoured ghezen a day in their lives. there are so many other young men who make their living in a reverent way. have some dignity.

#ghezen #inghezenssight #ghezenhonouring #churchofghezen #handofghezen

2 notes

kooperomno1fan

lionsroar12 follow

omg HOW is kaz brekker winning this he's SO problematic he's not even good for the economy he killed members of his own gang and kidnapped councilman van eck's son

dregsundrained

cranky coz your gang fell apart aren't you

17,860 notes

oskervoexchange follow

guys is this a mandela effect or what bc I SWEAR this painting used to be in the university district art museum, I literally saw it this week??? but I went today and it was GONE?????? there wasn't even a plaque?? guys pls I'm so confused why is everyone acting like this is normal for ketterdam? do priceless antiques just VANISH? am I being gaslit?

450 notes

stadhall-clerking

guys I'm so sorry I've been MIA :( I found out that my landlord was using my rent on the staves rather than fixing my black mould problem so I pushed him out the window and told the stadwatch he must have fallen and died because he wasn't honouring ghezen and got away with it. anyway I think maybe the black mould explains the dirtyhands/sturmhond fic I was writing sorry :( but I WILL finish my fairy queen of istamere meta post once I've moved into my new lodging

670 notes

dregsconfessions follow

SUBMISSION: sometimes I lie awake thinking about the time I fell down an entire flight of stairs at the slat when kaz was at the bottom, and he just stared at me (still lying on the floor), and then asked if I'd changed the beer kegs at the silver six yet. GIRL NO?!?!?!

#submission #dregs #dirtyhands #admin comment: laughed so loud my upstairs neighbour threatened to shoot me

546 notes

dregsconfessions follow

ADMIN NOTE: if the razorgulls don't fucking stop sending anon hate to this blog we'll tell dirtyhands n he'll send you your own IP address back

#see what happens you hack job seagulls

500 notes

kerchtourismboard

it's us, the real kerch tourism board, here to tell you what we're putting in the new summer season pamphlet. we got 1) three pages all about kaz brekker that end up being more of an advertisement than a deterrent 2) list of slipperiest spots in the barrel where you will fall over and get a concussion when ur drunk 3) top 10 ways to get your wallet stolen by a child in broad daylight 4) paintings of the komedie brute 5) advert for sten's stockpot 6) map of public toilets

570 notes

kerchtourismboardreal follow

we are not affiliated with any degenerate impersonator accounts who claim to be us. we are the only real kerch tourism account.

23 notes

kerchtourismboard-real follow

grafcanal smells like piss and you should bite everyone you see wearing the mister crimson costume

450 notes

stensstockpot follow

it's all 'fuck sten's stockpot' and 'I got food poisoning from the special at sten's stockpot' until you realise you don't have the money for cilla's fry, and then you come CRAWLING back to the loving arms of sten's stockpot and our special. you fucking traitors. you'll be back! you'll all be back

canaljumpings follow

what's in the special sten's stockpot

stensstockpot follow

it's a surprise ;)

bertskerch follow

nah I thought this was the real stens lmao

stensstockpot follow

bert smit you still have 45 kruge to pay on your tab and if you don't cough up we'll send our debtors to break your legs

230 notes

exchangingbabey follow

my grisha girlfriend who still wears a kefta and says things like 'nikolai lantsov is a bastard': ugh they're still debating whether or not the council of tides should be able to control kerch shipping, I hate inter-country politics

me: I think I hauve the queen's lady

4500 notes

(insp) (insp)

[dwarf-vader-of-middle-earth]

An important life tip for parents who block your wifi on PC/laptop (Windows 10)

I found a workaround that's suiting me so far. How it works is, wifi is blocked through the router by detecting your computer's IP address, and blocking said address. Now, it seems complicated because there are tons of methods to use for changing your IP. But so you don't have to go through the same steps every time, do this:

Make sure you're connected to a wifi network that you're blocked on. You can check by going to the Windows search bar, type "settings", hit enter, and select "Network & Internet".

It will show you the network you're currently connected to. If it says "connected, no internet" or something along those lines, you're good for the next step.

Next, go to the tab on the left labeled "WiFi". There, you will see a setting labeled "Random hardware address", and a slider beneath it that is most likely greyed out. Select it, making sure it turns blue.

Then, you're going to hit the tab on the left labeled "Status". From there, just beneath where it says you're connected to a router without internet, click the grey button labeled "properties".

Where it says "Network profile", click the "Public" setting, so that other devices in the house cannot discover your computer or connect to it, and therefore reach its files and settings.

And lastly, scroll down to the section labeled "Random hardware address". There is a drop down menu. Open the menu, and select "Change daily". This will change your IP address on a daily basis, meaning your computer will be unblocked until the IP is discovered, but once the next day arrives, it will change again and unblock it.

Hope this helps y'all as it helped me. Do not let fucking shit block you from the most essential resource in the modern world. Internet connects you to every necessary thing in existence. It's a basic necessity at this point, by ethical standards. Regain access to it however you can, wherever you can, whenever you can.

[illmoraineakoi]

AU where Victim discovers his Creator’s location long before AvA season 3/without Chosen getting captured, and Victim has his corporation make a machine to try to bring his Creator to the facility.

But something goes wrong; the machine is untested, it has defaults because it was rushed (due to Victim getting impatient), and it malfunctions, badly. Instead of bringing the Creator to him, it sucks Victim in and sends him hurtling to the Creator’s location.

Or, Victim thinks it would have, if the machine didn’t keep malfunctioning. The receiving end of the connection keeps snapping between different places: websites, other IP addresses, different random devices and online accounts.

So when Victim is spat out onto a desktop, he doesn’t think he’s arrived at the right place. He has no way to double-check where he is, or determine he’s in the right place.

Because Victim never really saw his Creator through the screen, all those years ago. Looking through the screen to the world of the Creators had been difficult back then, because something something old 2006 monitors sucked. His view of the outside world through the screen had been blurry/foggy, so he never saw his Creator’s visage clearly enough to memorize identifiable features. He had just been a vague looming shadow of shifting form and color.

Nor does he even know his Creator’s name. Victim never got to see a chat window or login usernames or even the computer user account name, because he never made it out of Flash. And his Creator never spoke, only snickered and laughed.

So when he suddenly finds himself on a desktop, very much not according to any of his plans and something he’s completely unprepared for, faced with five other younger sticks, a cursor, and a shockingly clear view of the being who controlled that computer…

Victim doesn’t recognize Alan.

And Alan doesn’t recognize him.

Needless to say, being on a computer again is a not a very pleasant feeling for Victim, and his first reaction, his first instinct, is to try to flee. To get off the computer, to return to the Outernet, to the safety of his facility. Being on a computer wasn’t safe, the Creator controlling the cursor could delete him at any moment, end his process, erase him, or even enslave him. He was powerless here, not in control, his cunning and resourcefulness would only aid him for so long, only delay his potential death. He had no hope of overpowering the cursor, not here. He needed to leave.

But there is no way for him to leave, because the malfunctioning machine was a one way trip and he doesn’t actually know how to get off the computer. He doesn’t know about the Wi-Fi escape route, and even if he did, he doesn’t have powers to make a portal.

So Victim is stuck on the desktop, fairly certain he’s in the wrong place, with no idea how to get back to the Outernet. Under the constant attention of the looming Creator on the other side of the screen, who can keep pace with his movements and escape attempts with frightening ease. To say nothing of the other five who manage to efficiently outmaneuver him and nearly bring him to the ground several times, clearly assisting the cursor and its operator in trying to capture him.

Victim doesn’t have time to dwell on that. He can only run and run and run and try to find a place to hide, if only the other five weren’t so fast, if only he could escape the cursor’s focus for just a moment—

He’s cornered. The other five backed him into a corner and surrounded him. He has nothing to fight with, he’s overpowered and outnumbered. He curls up, and braces for deletion.

But things don’t go as Victim expects/fears they will…

Because he isn’t attacked. He’s not captured. He’s not deleted or ended or erased.

He’s only confronted, approached, like a frightened wounded animal by one of the other sticks, their movements slow and careful and deliberate. Assuring him that he was okay, they weren’t going to hurt him, he was safe. They ask him if he’s alright. They try to calm him down.

They ask him for his name, innocently giving him their own.

He doesn’t give them his name. He gives them the name Charcoal. They can call him Charcoal. They accept this, without question.

Their naivety is a shock to Victim. He’s dumbfounded by it.

He is a stranger who just appeared on this desktop, and they’re treating him like a friend. With so much genuine and childlike kindness that Victim doesn’t know how to process it. They trust him, almost instantaneously; for no reason. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t comprehend.

How could anyone be so trusting so quickly? Did they not know the danger of it? Did they not know how awful and unfair the world was? Did they not know how easily they could be taken advantage of, manipulated, ensnared in a web of control they had no way of escaping from? Did they not know they had to protect themselves, guard every bit of themselves, else the rest of the world would use their weaknesses against them?

How did they not see him as a threat?

Or did they not fear him because he didn’t have any powers, so they thought he was weak?

The cursor was worse. It doesn’t attack him. It doesn’t hit him. It speaks to him too. Asking him questions, like where he came from and how he got there, and offering answers and information in return to Victim’s own demands. Victim had not even realized it was possible to communicate with a Creator. Yelling and screaming had done nothing with his own.

It did not seem malicious…

He doesn’t know what to think about that.

He didn’t know what to think about the entire situation he’s found himself in. He is entirely out of his depth.

Here he was, stuck indefinitely with a seemingly benevolent Creator and five rainbow stick kids who are way too happy and upbeat for sticks who live on a computer. Five sticks who eventually start to insist on including him in their activities and adventures; teaching him how to play their games and sharing their hobbies with him. Who carve out a space on the desktop for him, adding a room onto their strange house for him.

It’s bizarre.

The Creator, too, treats him well. Lets him stay and explore the computer as much as he wants until a way to leave was discovered, so long as care was taken to prevent damage to files and data. But it also interacts with Victim, too. Includes him in the little games it plays with the others. Invites him to join it and Orange during their drawing sessions. It – he – was undeniably friendly towards him.

Victim, who had long become bitter and hateful towards the Creators ‘humans’ not just because of his own torment but also because of the horrible mistreatment he’d witnessed the aftermath of upon the refugees arriving to the city, is now faced with the uncomfortable dilemma that not all Creators ‘humans’ are vile evil beings, which challenges a fundamental part of his world view. He is forced to realize that this Creator human, this animator, Alan, was genuinely kind and loving towards the other sticks, and to Victim himself as well. That the color gang genuinely loved Alan, and were well taken care of. Victim never once sees Alan hurt them.

It’s something that Victim had never even conceived of being possible, before. Creators, human, hurt sticks. That's just how it was. Except now it wasn't...

And it’s this that finally confirms to Victim that he was definitely on the wrong computer.

Alan was not his Creator. He couldn’t be; the dissonance was too large.

And as the weeks turn into months of him still not able to figure out how to get back to the Outernet, Victim, too, begins to slowly start trusting and liking Alan. Opening up more, relaxing more. Learning things about himself that his tireless quest for power and then vengeance hadn’t allowed him the time nor opportunity to discover. Becoming genuinely fond of the Color Gang, sharp irritation and antisocialness mellowing into a soft, if exasperated, attachment. Especially Orange, who he feels the most kinship with due to a copious amount of shared interests.

(It was hard not to get attached, the kid’s cheerfulness was borderline infectious.)

Victim had never had real friends before. The closest he ever had were the copies of himself, and they were never really separate identities from him, despite the Box’s best attempts.

He started to feel like he belonged, here. Like Alan and the gang had become a sort of family he never had before. It was enjoyable. It’s nice.

…Right up until Victim finds AvA1 on Alan’s YouTube channel.

[graysnetwork]

Love, S. R. — Chapter 2

Warnings: Stalking, B&E, drinking

Simon Riley x Reader

Don’t read if stalking is an uncomfortable topic!!!

Months had gone by, you were still getting those anonymous messages and gifts. The gifts weren’t being given on holidays, they were small everyday gestures. Flowers, coffee, Amazon packages. It was getting harder to ignore your stalker when he was always trying to talk to you.

You told your friends about the stalker, one of them being in a relationship with a cop told you to go to the station. You laid out the entire situation and when they tried to find him they couldn't. They couldn't track down his IP address at all. That was weird.

Instead you decided to continue ignoring him, thinking that one day he’d get bored of talking to someone who wont reply. Oh how wrong you were.

Simon couldn’t get you out of his head, you infested his mind in the best possible way.

_______

Another day of living in constant fear, but tonight your friends were determined to give you one night of stress free partying. The plan was simple; they will pick you up, youll go to the club, drink a lot, dance, have fun, come home, sleep with no worries for the first time in months. It was the perfect plan.

Until you got out of the shower and started doing your hair. A pit in your stomach appeared as you heard the ding from your phone. You dreaded that noise every day now, knowing it would be another message from “unknown.”

Unknown: Going out, doll?

You peeked out of your window, staring out at the street below, checking for any men on the sidewalks, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Your neighborhood was quiet, peaceful—save for the fact that you were always being watched—but the people who lived in the other houses were normal.

You returned to your vanity, ignoring the message from him. Maybe it was biased to assume it was a man stalking you but your gut told you so.

Unknown: Ignoring me again?

Unknown: C’mon, sweets, just talk to me

Unknown: It’s getting annoying.

Unknown: Just reply, sweetheart

Unknown: I just wanna know if your going out

Unknown: I wanna keep you safe

Unknown: Answer me.

…

You: Leave me alone.

Unknown: You know I can't do that, sweetheart

You: Don’t call me that?

Unknown: Call you what? Sweetheart?

You: Yes

Unknown: Why not?

You: Its annoying, I don't know you, and you're creepy

Unknown: You wound me, my love

Unknown: You know me, I know you. I can call you whatever I like

You: how have you been watching me?

Unknown: Way to switch the topics, my love

You: How?

Unknown: You should close your curtains

You: fucking creep

You hit the block button again—to no avail.

He continues sending texts while you get ready, close your curtains, and lock up the door. You made your way to your friends’ car and whisk away the thoughts of your stalker.

Hours later you arrive home, the lock seems different but you don't think anything of it. You've had much more than enough to drink tonight.

You walk into your home, tossing your bag and keys on your couch. Huh, was that light on when you left? Again, you think nothing of it, you were dizzy, drunk, and so ready for bed. You make your way into your bedroom, the bed was made—not how you left it—you thought you’d left your entire wardrobe on it when you searched for an outfit earlier. You sit down, take your heels off and flop back against the bed, watching the ceiling spin until you force yourself up.

You did only the basics; change into pajamas, tie up hair, brush teeth, wash face.

You heard a thump, assuming it was the neighbors on the other side of the wall you continued washing your face without checking your room. You walk into the dimly lit room, the only source of light being the moon. You definitely closed those curtains, right? You rubbed your eyes, staring at the window, everything’s blurry. Finally, your eyes focus and you see him, a tall dark figure standing right by the window.

“I’m so drunk” you mumble to yourself, reaching out to shoo the apparition away. You get close before the figure's hand wraps around your wrist. “Not imagining things, love” a deep, gruff, British voice reassures you, he steps closer to you, the moonlight only helps you see a little more of him. Short hair, a stubble that covers the expanse of his jaw and above his lip, he wears a hoodie, jeans too—you think, you're not very sure of anything right now.

“Who are you?” you whisper. “Yours” he responds, taking a step closer and grabbing your waist. You giggle, you would laugh at anything right now, even a bad knock knock joke. “Seriously” you smiled at him as he guided you towards your bed, a small smile touches his lips but disappears when you don't comply and lay down. He’s annoyed you won't just lay back but he also loves the way you're staring at him; doe eyed.

“Simon, but don't tell anyone” he says, smiling at the giggles that leave your mouth. “Say my name, love” “simon?” you said softly. He could get used to this, listening to you like this every night, he should've done this much sooner.

“Do we know each other, Simon?” You ask, wondering how he got into your house, why he got in. “We’ve met. We’ve texted, remember? “Unknown” ring a bell?” “You're the stalker?” “Wouldn’t say “stalker,” love, more like a secret admirer, and you've seen me now so it's not secret anymore.”

You hum as he finally gets you to lay back on your mattress. “You comfy, love?” he asks, pulling the blankets over you. You hum again. He smiles and strokes your hair out of your face, pressing a gentle kiss on your forehead. “Drink some water” he whispers and holds the bottle for you as you drink from it. “Now, get some sleep, love” he whispers, kissing your temple, and stroking your hair with his fingers to coax you to sleep. It works perfectly, you're out like a light, in dreamland while Simon sits beside you and watches your sleepy, relaxed form.

“I love you,” he whispers, kissing your head throughout the night.

The last kiss is the most painful for him, he leaves an aspirin water bottle on your bedside table, he’s tempted to leave a note but he’s sure it’ll send you into a panic when you wake up later. He leaves your room, fixes the lock on your door since he broke it when he broke in last night. And finally, he leaves.

[warningsine]

what is the best way to get safer/more anonymous online

Ok, security and anonymity are not the same thing, but when you combine them you can enhance your online privacy.

My question is: how tech literate are you and what is your aim? As in do you live in a country where your government would benefit from monitoring private (political) conversations or do you just want to degoogle? Because the latter is much easier for the average user.

Some general advice:

Leave Windows and Mac operating systems and switch to Linux distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu (both very user friendly). Switch from Microsoft Office or Pages/Numbers/Keynote (Mac) to LibreOffice.

You want to go more hardcore with a very privacy-focused operating system? There are Whonix and Tails (portable operating system).

Try to replace all your closed source apps with open source ones.

Now, when it comes to browsers, leave Chrome behind. Switch to Firefox (or Firefox Focus if you're on mobile). Want to go a step further? Use LibreWolf (a modified version of Firefox that increases protection against tracking), Brave (good for beginners but it has its controversies), DuckDuckGo or Bromite. You like ecofriendly alternatives? Check Ecosia out.

Are you, like, a journalist or political activist? Then you probably know Tor and other anonymous networks like i2p, freenet, Lokinet, Retroshare, IPFS and GNUnet.

For whistleblowers there are tools like SecureDrop (requires Tor), GlobaLeaks (alternative to SecureDrop), Haven (Android) and OnionShare.

Search engines?

There are Startpage (obtains Google's results but with more privacy), MetaGer (open source), DuckDuckGo (partially open source), Searx (open source). You can see the comparisons here.

Check libRedirect out. It redirects requests from popular socmed websites to privacy friendly frontends.

Alternatives to YouTube that value your privacy? Odysee, PeerTube and DTube.

Decentralized apps and social media? Mastodon (Twitter alternative), Friendica (Facebook alternative), diaspora* (Google+ RIP), PixelFed (Insta alternative), Aether (Reddit alternative).

Messaging?

I know we all use shit like Viber, Messenger, Telegram, Whatsup, Discord etc. but there are:

Signal (feels like Whatsup but it's secure and has end-to-end encryption)

Session (doesn't even require a phone or e-mail address to sign up)

Status (no phone or e-mail address again)

Threema (for mobile)

Delta Chat (you can chat with people if you know their e-mail without them having to use the app)

Team chatting?

Open source options:

Element (an alternative to Discord)

Rocket.chat (good for companies)

Revolt.chat (good for gamers and a good alternative to Discord)

Video/voice messaging?

Brave Talk (the one who creates the talk needs to use the browser but the others can join from any browser)

Jami

Linphone

Jitsi (no account required, video conferencing)

Then for Tor there are various options like Briar (good for activists), Speek! and Cwtch (user friendly).

Georestrictions? You don't want your Internet Provider to see what exactly what you're doing online?

As long as it's legal in your country, then you need to hide your IP with a VPN (authoritarian regimes tend to make them illegal for a reason), preferably one that has a no log policy, RAM servers, does not operate in one of the 14 eyes, supports OpenVPN (protocol), accepts cash payment and uses a strong encryption.

NordVPN (based in Panama)

ProtonVPN (Switzerland)

Cyberghost

Mullvad (Sweden)

Surfshark (Netherlands)

Private e-mails?

ProtonMail

StartMail

Tutamail

Mailbox (ecofriendly option)

Want to hide your real e-mail address to avoid spam etc.? SimpleLogin (open source)

E-mail clients?

Thunderbird

Canary Mail (for Android and iOS)

K-9 Mail (Android)

Too many complex passwords that you can't remember?

NordPass

BitWarden

LessPass

KeePassXC

Two Factor Authenticators?

2FAS

ente Authenticator

Aegis Authenticator

andOTP

Tofu (for iOS)

Want to encrypt your files? VeraCrypt (for your disk), GNU Privacy Guard (for your e-mail), Hat.sh (encryption in your browser), Picocrypt (Desktop encryption).

Want to encrypt your Dropbox, Google Drive etc.? Cryptomator.

Encrypted cloud storage?

NordLocker

MEGA

Proton Drive

Nextcloud

Filen

Encrypted photography storage?

ente

Cryptee

Piwigo

Want to remove metadata from your images and videos? ExifCleaner. For Android? ExifEraser. For iOS? Metapho.

Cloak your images to counter facial recognition? Fawkes.

Encrypted file sharing? Send.

Do you menstruate? Do you want an app that tracks your menstrual cycle but doesn't collect your data? drip.

What about your sexual health? Euki.

Want a fitness tracker without a closed source app and the need to transmit your personal data to the company's servers? Gadgetbridge.

[dragobread]

the swap au doodle page is done :D + headcanons under the cut

to reiterate, in this au the main 6 have their personality traits swapped with each other and that’s it. any other stuff like history and culture remains the same

and bonus art of their full outfits

(there may be some overlap between my headcanons for the original and swapped characters)

California

Tough outdoorsman who will absolutely rub in your face how much better he is at surviving in the wilderness than you.

Also very annoying about how his state having the largest population is more important than Alaska having the largest land area and will go on a 6 hour rant about it

The patch on his neck is a burn scar

Seems “at peace” when he’s in natural landscapes like mountains or canyons, some people think he’s just doing it to be pretentious but he genuinely does feel relaxed in nature.

^This is also partially the reason why he feels uneasy sleeping in a room that doesn’t have windows where he can see the night sky.

Florida

Overworked vacation planner who is the embodiment of all your travel anxiety. Did you remember to bring your passport to the airport? Because he’ll be on your ass about it every 2 minutes.

Would unironically make one of these tombstones that says “here lies Florida’s hopes and dreams”

“You have to be at the airport a MINIMUM of 3 hours before your flight”

A part of his soul dies every time tourists trash his beaches. And also every time the other states rent timeshares so that they can be in uncomfortably close proximity to him

Needs everything to go according to plan and gets really pissed off at sudden schedule changes

Gov

One could argue that this is just canon Gov if he crashed out..

Stereotypical loud American who puts USA flags on everything he owns. And also has no volume control. He is literally the worst person to be around if you’re hungover or tired.

Overuses “i know your IP address/i know where you live” jokes…but he’s literally the government so he’s not even joking when he says it. He is the reason why VPNs were invented.

The song lyrics in the doodle page are from here btw

Has a motorcycle and crashes it into the state house for fun. And then he does the sad hamster face when he has to face the consequences of his actions.

Louisiana

Gator hunter + fisherman who wants everyone to leave him alone >:(

Sort of like swap!California in terms of being a survivalist who thinks he’s better than everyone, but he doesn’t show off as much because he really doesn’t want any reason to be around other people

Will take care of you if you’re sick/injured but very begrudgingly and he’ll judge you the whole time. He won’t let you leave until he knows for sure that you’ve fully recovered. Unless you slander his state then he’ll just throw you out the window

^He doesn’t like sharing his house with others, but despite that he’s still the best caretaker out of the main 6.

Wants everyone to be scared of him even though he looks like this to them

New York

New York actually tolerates being around people now??😧not clickbait??😱

Usually found at one of the many nightclubs in NYC. I mean, it’s not called the “city that never sleeps” for nothing…

Good at coming up with puns/dad jokes on the spot. May or may not overuse them to the point of pissing off the other states.

Most people think he’s incapable of taking things seriously, but he just doesn’t like worrying about things unneccesarily.

Texas

Country boy i love you…

Still has that Texan pride, he’s just a lot more passive-aggressive about it now. Like if someone insulted his state, he wouldn’t fight them face to face, he’d just vaguepost about it on twitter that night.

^Despite this, he is a lot nicer than canon Texas. Maybe he’ll finally get along with Austin?

Has protective instincts over anyone or anything that looks vulnerable, but he gets scared at the sight of blood and other such things so he’s not as good of a caretaker as Louisiana

Has a bunch of Applejack plushies that he cuddles with in his sleep

[angellurgy2]

Pull The Trigger

your favourite freak's writing agaain! you ever wanted to read a story about a homophobic gamer boy getting doxxed and raped? well here u go! ^-^ part two coming soon

cw: noncon, forced gay, slurs, shit like that

sandstone brick, towering ahead. trapped in a corner, waiting, ak-47 comfortable in hand. listening, watching, pixel-perfect gaze. the soft pitter patter of booted footsteps approaching on sand. spin, shoot before you see. three shots of triple-round burst to centre mass. dead. 

multiple pings hit the wall ahead of him, pelted at while his back was turned. losing health rapidly. he flicks and sends his barrel spinning 180 in the opposite direction, blind trading fire. 

he screams into his bulky turtle beach headphones as the body in front of him ragdolls, screen blurring with bloody low health warnings. “YEAAAH FAGGOT, YOU LIKE THAT?”

he’s swiftly popped into the win screen, all chat and winner microphones switched on to offer a chance to flaunt or whine. 

[ALL] TriggerFinger: get GUD fags i’ll wipe u in the next one 2 lmao

[ALL] XxxGr1mR3eaperxxX: dude you suck u just got lucky

[ALL] TriggerFinger: i bet u kno a lot about sucking huh?

[ALL] TriggerFinger: just like your MOM

trigger clicks on to queue for the next game, a satisfied gleam plastering his face as everyone else is gone to the aether.

in the top left of his screen as loading screens trawl pops a message from an unfamiliar user. not on his friends list, rather it looks like they’re in the ‘recently played with’ section. probably just another noob coming to rage.

[PRIVATE] Anonymous-Specter: that was pretty rude, you know.

‘ThAt WaS pReTtY rUde-’ what a beta.

[PRIVATE] TriggerFinger: why shld i care? get a life faggot. lmao

[PRIVATE] Anonymous-Specter: you really shouldn’t talk to people like that.

this guy’s clearly got some form of retardation keeping him from getting the hint. but trigger’s got better shit to do. the loading screen for this game always takes so long. he grabs a pack of shrimp tempura cup ramen off the nearby shelf and fills it with day-old water from his water bottle, shoving it in the microwave for a couple minutes. he numbly trawls through social media feeds, doomscrolling the beautiful faces on instagram before that gets boring, then the stale porn on twitter, then the ragebait on 4chan. nothing satisfying his appetite except this one clip of some guy eating shit on his first try skateboarding, which too is ethereal in the drips of serotonin it gives.

ding!

he grabs his soppy steaming meal and brings it back over to his computer, stirring it with a stray fork before moving back into the screen. the first thing he sees is another message from the same person as before. he rolls his eye and opens the notification.

[PRIVATE] Anonymous-Specter: this you? 78.222.0.13

[PRIVATE] TriggerFinger: TF?? 

he thinks he’s so cool. trigger quickly tabs over to chrome, typing into the address bar ‘whats my ip ad-’ before it autofills. he clicks in, praying for the release of the little ball of stress slowing spreading in his chest. only to have it implode. IPv4… 78.222.0.13

ok. well, he’s probably just trying to scare you. theres not much you can do with a few numbers. he remembers the streamers he’s watched being ddos’ed and how freaked out they’d always get. he can’t find that humour in the angered horror on their faces now, though.

[PRIVATE] TriggerFinger: thats not my fuckin IP asshole. ur not funny

[PRIVATE] Anonymous-Specter: i think it’s pretty funny.

[PRIVATE] Anonymous-Specter: see you soon :)

trigger looks around his surroundings. nothing around, just the same open bland studio basement. mattress on the floor, check. couch, check. tv, check. tiny window that shows literally nothing but a foot of grass? check. its hard for him to hide the scowl of hatred at this empty rotting enclosure. shit, did you lock the door? he runs up and flicks it locked like how a child runs up the stairs when they’re scared a monsters behind them. not because of this ‘specter’ though. just normal precaution. he wouldn’t let another man take up space in his mind like that.

trigger sits. unable to pull his focus enough to start another game, or to divest himself entirely. stuck in a limbotic resting space. he grabs the monster can sitting on his desk - one of many - and pours it down his throat with anxious franticity. after staring at the screen for long enough, with nothing else he can see to do, he types.

[PRIVATE] TriggerFinger: What r u talking about? fuckin weirdo

10 minutes pass.

[PRIVATE] TriggerFinger: hello?

nothing at all. empty threats and childish games. who puts in that much effort just to cause a little scare? freak, probably a faggot too.

he sighs and switches over to spotify, plugging his favourite XXXtentacion album into his grindy bluetooth speaker and grabbing a pre-roll from his weed drawer. a rusted old lighter folds between his fingers. flick, flick. hot choking mist fills his mouth and then suffuses his screen as he blows it back into the stale air. he lies idly spinning in his gaming chair, puffing until its gone and until the words leave his head. empty.

but not for long, apparently.

a resoundingly loud knocking thuds at his door. earthquaking enough to shake him out of his seatlock. but the tremors remain, rocking through his veins. he gingerly lowers his eye to the peephole. a short man looks up from a foot away, holding some sort of black bag. this is it trigger, time to man up. he paces back with soft steps, pulling a steak knife from the block and holding it behind his back. no more games, this is real life. no more being harassed by that bitch landlord, no more bad looks when mom and dad visit. when the police find him beaten and you on top you won’t have to feel bad anymore.

he opens the door.

“Hello. uber for trig?”

he doesn’t remember ordering any food, was he really that faded?

“it’s… trigger. but that’s me, yeah.”

the man passes trigger an unlabelled brown bag from the bigger unlabelled black bag. something liquid seeps out of the corner.

“have a great night, sir!” 

trigger tosses the bag onto the table already scattered with trash. throwing the knife onto the counter along with it. being paranoid is the sign of a weak mind, you need energy. he thinks about the shrooms his bro gave him a couple weeks back, saved for a special occasion in a box under his bed. the devil and angel on his shoulders scream.

he examines the food. taco bell crunchwrap and spilled soda, amazing. he begins to clean it up right as a CLFBKGBNJ clanging from the kitchenette behind his back rings out. he turns to see a tall, muscley imposing man already towering over him from there. backing up slowly, like hes a blind animal that’ll pounce at any moment. 

“hey there.”

“hi???” his words spit out with a spiteful acidity, tantrumic. 

“you must be trigger.” his monotone face twists upwards into a cruel mockery of a smile. he examines trigger up and down, who shivers at being ogled like meat.

he hears his dad in his head. puff up your chest, faggot. you can’t let people walk over you like a little bitch all the time. he straightens his back, stops retreating. his voice mimics a tough deepness.

“you need to g-get the fuck out of my house.” 

specter tilts his head with curiosity. trigger can feel the aftershocks of monster and adrenaline crumpling his heart as he looks into the intruders eyes. a dark jade gazes back, blank. empty. like null space inside his skull, giving off only the aesthetic of a watching being. beyond the entrancing holes, partially hidden behind curtains of frayed brown locks, a jagged scar cuts through his face, curved and serrated with the impression of its assailant. 

“it’s not really your house though, is it?” 

trigger stares back dumbly. specter lifts up a chiseled arm and knocks on the roof, indicating where the landlord resides. “it’s theirs, really.” he takes a step forward.

“what’s your fucking problem man?”

another step back. guarding facade broken as quickly as it was put up. you’re weak. pathetic. he can smell it on you, just like they all can.

“here to give you an attitude adjustment.” he says it so monotone, like reading a script. as if you should know what that means. specter gives a wide scan of the interior. sizing up your crime scene? this won’t be going the way you think it will, buddy. “this is a pretty shit place you got here”

“not any more shit than the goon cave you probably got, bitch” 

the molded smile on specter’s face drops in a second. in 3 sudden steps forward he closes most of the gap between them, the air between the two grows cold. trigger has no choice but to back up more to keep the feeling of safety. the distance between handler and beast, but there’s no leash here. and there’s no medic to save him.

“listen.. s-specter? right?” he looks into those dead eyes with a quiver hes kept hidden for so long.  “i'm sorry i insulted you or- or whatever i didn’t mean it okay? that’s just online shit, this isn’t real.”

specter takes another wordless step, and trigger hits the wall. this isn’t real.

“why so quiet all of a sudden?” his hand reaches out and cups triggers chin, his face too frozen with animalistic chemicals to react. forcing trigger’s weak inebriated gaze to meet his, dead yet malevolent. “are you scared of me?”

trigger spits in his face. “you- couldn’t. scare me.”

untrimmed nails dig sharply into the base of his skull. “i will.”

“my dads the chief of police. you don’t wanna do this.” he tries to put on monotone the best he can, head as swirly with emotions as it is.

specter chortles. “no he’s not”

the music emanating from trigger’s desk scratches hard as it changes into a fast-paced track. specter’s eyes and ears twitch in its direction like a bat.

“this is what you listen to?” his smile almost looks genuine this time. he gestures at the ground below them. “stay here.”

he turns and moves to walk past trigger, when he jumps into action, leaping at the man with a guttural yell.  “AA-”

immediately cut off by searing blunt force ripping through his gut, sending him crumpling to the floor with the force of extraneous gravity. so you’re a warlock, subclassed into gravitational magic, is that it? he gets up onto his hands and knees, a trail of saliva connecting his lips to the dirty linoleum floors. he chokes on each breath he tries to take in. the pain is unlike anything his soft and unexplored body has experienced before. 

specter walks away to the booming speaker, pulling out a black rectangle from the pocket of the black jeans sticking to his legs.. the speakers switch to a new track, unfamiliar to his ears. some kind of aggressive rapping, underscored by a metallic sharp noise groove. he tries to listen for words, analyzing the rhythm and slotting it with memories of other songs to try and figure out what it is. but before he can comprehend the first words to come out, a rigid boot crashes into the side of his ribs.

dazed on the ground, heaving for the little pieces of air that’ll fit through his trachea, cartoons birds twirling over his head as he stares up into the ceiling. 

a sharp sound cuts through his stupor. “you’re funny” says specter, “i really thought you’d have more fight in you.”

PHWACK. the sound of some elastic material slapping against skin, a black glove clinging to specter’s boney hand.

trigger’s shocked by the feeling of cold on his bare stomach, face twisting with rage but the rest of the body betrays him with frozen fear. specter begins to slowly lift triggers shirt, feeling up his concave flesh with rubber digits.

specter flinches back as a red handprint manifests on his cheek. i wasnt even thinking i didnt mean to i just-

a vice grip takes hold of his windpipe, holding it hostage. the hand begins to rise upwards, holding him against a wall that wasnt there two seconds ago, and then he has to fight with his noodlish body to stand up before it rips his throat right out. “you’re so weak. how did you make it so long, bullying people like that?” his other hand then puts itself to use. the cold rises up triggers body slow and nerve-wracking. he tries not to feel it and to just keep his eyes on him. the tangible, hurtable, beast. 

his mind lags from his body, not realizing he’s on the ground before he already is. terrifyingly strong knees spreading his legs apart ever so slightly, invading hand-shaped ghosts pinning him into the dirty floor face-first. months of uncaring habitation coming back to bite him in the ass all at once. his eyes jump from little pieces of dust and crumbs, filling his vision more than their existence is intended for. brought low with the trash. maybe you should’ve listened to mom.

a bottle squirts loudly out of his sight. he tries to spin his head around but he’s just met with increased pressure on his neck, pinning him down like meat on a butcher’s table. fuck this. thrashing out with all the strength in his limbs- it forces specter to change up his positioning, but even then you can’t make a single scratch, slapping at this very real intruder like a whiney little girl. 

“stop it.” he says it like he’s talking to a petulant child, dry and tired.

“fuck you! get off me!” 

a rubbery object shoves itself down his throat as he opens his mouth to yell more obscenities. fingers ripping open his jaw, dispelling his pleas into inhuman garbling.  

“reht rre throo!” 

he looks around, there has to be something he can do. everything is dark blobs because of his eyes wetting from the fingers assault of his uvula. heavy whispers assault the back of his neck, venom in his blurred ears. “i could take out a tooth. how about that?”

he shakes his head, as much as he can crushed between these manly hands. 

water trickles down from the corners of his eyes. fuck, don’t let him see you crying, that’s the ultimate defeat. man card revoked. the only benefit of this positioning is that only the tile can see your face’s treason.

the hand abruptly leaves and moves back to the rest of his body. not preferable, but at least now his eyes will stop coating themselves in water. there has to be something on this floor somewhere if he can look. 

blood coats his vision. bloody floor, bloody nose, face shoved into a pool of it. he can feel his nose contort under the hard material, head bouncing off it with a loud crack.

‘look’, you shouldve known better. thousands of hours of experience watching torture scenes in COD, and you think he’s gonna give you a break? you’re not the shooter like you thought you were, you’re just the dead russian snitch. 

slender hands dip under the waistband of his sweatpants, threatening with slow dragging downwards. fuck, he is a fag. so much screaming in his head, be a man be strong fight back faggot stop being a fucking BETA. but the weak trembling in every inch of his nervous system won’t let go. the part that knows what you are. weak little soyboy. shit, was it the burger king? he looks at the softness of his tiny arms splayed out in front of him, thinking back to all those impossible whoppers he had during that first (and last) year of college. sure there were the conspiracies but- he had to lose some weight and it was right next to his dorm and surely a little bit of hormonal meat couldn’t hurt anyone. well, apparently not. he shudders at the thought of all those tiny little girl particles running around in his bloodstream.

coldcoldcoldcoldcold fuck. something cold and wet drips down his ass, sending rippling twitches through his body. something small pokes and prods, forcing the wet inside, already he feels speared through, he has to purposefully hold his face together to not burst into open sobbing. 

“shhh sh sh. it’s okay. you’ll take it.” 

it pulls out, a hot emptiness filling all feeling. another squirt, and more wetness shoved so deep he cant handle in the choking cries. “please. please don’t. i don’t- i’m not-” cut off by the finger pulling out again, leaving his hole gaped. “Fuck stop im not gay pleasepleasepleasepl”

a sweaty palm wraps over his mouth.

something warm and hard and fleshy begins to rub circles around his hole. pressing up so close his breath hitches in fear it might go in and then pulling back and then repeating.

“be a good boy and stay quiet, trig.”

pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing

“HEEEEELPP WAIT PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE HELP NONONONONONONO STOPP#&$*%9

&$#%^#^%)#!($#$^%

##&% %%#(% %$$*$#&

*#$&$THELP

* * *

specters hard chest presses up close and warm against trigger’s back. hot, heavy breathing forces its way into his ear. they stay there for a moment, frozen in time. a breaking point cut, getting a cinematic view of his own ruination. what a shitty fucking movie this is. 

“mmhng-” specter pulls back, breaking the trance, almost making trigger wish he would’ve just stayed inside. he grunts at the feeling of trembling boyflesh seizing on his cock, shaking with each inch moved in either direction, clenching for dear life. he grips a handful of trigger’s hair and pulls it back, forcing his limp and drooling expression into specter’s vision.

 “so, what was it?” the burning rod of pressure starts to move faster, thrusting with detached force, muscular hips bouncing off trigger’s ass. “dad beat you?” another assault forward, enunciating each bit of words with the slapping of their flesh. “mom molest you?” it hurts sososososososososo bad but he cant feel anything other than the pain nothing but searing waves of some long-forbidden feeling. “or- fuck- you just get bullied too much in those squishy formative years?”

boiling hot rain streams down his face, terror burning his eyes blind. choking sobs spit out little bits of snot and saliva pooling with his tears below him in a sad filth soup. 

“oh c’mon-” specter reaches in closer, thoughtlessly pushing his cock into a switch that turns triggers legs to jelly. a waterfall of tears overlaid with shameful noises, the kind he’d before only ever heard through the speakers of a computer. each one abrading his will even more. he was supposed to be on the other side, not this. anything but this. 

“please stop”

“it’s too late.” his hand brushes triggers cheek, mimicking a comforting motion with uncomfortable skin, “you can never take back what’s already happened… and what’s about to.”

[turquoisedata]

There are a lot of refund requests for the Kickstarter and Terry's estate is struggling to process them all. If you haven't heard back, make sure you got the auto response. They won't necessarily respond before tomorrow's deadline but they will honour the request, according to the faq.

The deadline if you want a refund is TOMORROW. Friday 7 February 2025.

Email is kickstarter@terrypratchett.com

NG isn't getting the proceeds. He's quite possibly received a one-off payment, but that likely won't change depending on how many copies are sold and how many refunds requests are received. We can't know for sure but it's still his IP and the statement was carefully worded.

I'm not saying I think you should get a refund. I'm not saying I think you shouldn't. I haven't even decided myself. The idea of cancelling makes me cry. The idea of not cancelling makes me cry. I am in no position to tell anyone anything. But that's the deadline, folks. I'm just passing it on.

Text of the screenshots under the cut

Here, you will find the key information for the Good Omens Kickstarter, and PledgeManager.

*** FOR THOSE WHO HAVE CONTACTED THE ESTATE FOLLOWING THE JANUARY 2025 KICKSTARTER UPDATE ***

6 Feb 2025: To confirm: anyone who has been in touch during the refund window that ends of 7th February will be refunded, or have their pledges altered, as requested. We are working through a high number of queries and appreciate your patience.

What if I haven’t heard back before 7th February?

We have received a high number of queries and though we have tried to respond, we are unable to address all queries as they come in and are now focusing on refunding as the priority. We are now replying as we are processing the refund, or as we require more information to action the request. We apologise for the inconvenience on this, or perceived silence – as a small team we are working through these as quickly as possible but want to emphasise that if you have been in touch we will get back to you and aim to have responded to everyone by Monday 17th February.

What if I haven’t been refunded before 7th February?

You will still be refunded. We have been processing refunds across the week since the Kickstarter update, however the Kickstarter system is not optimal for processing refunds at this scale, so these are being done in waves. We will get back to you as soon as we are able.

3 Feb 2025: We are currently receiving a higher volume of emails and Kickstarter messages than usual, and are working through them as quickly as possible.

Please note that any requests received by the 7 February deadline will be honoured, as per the update. Do not worry if your refund or product alterations has not been processed by then – we will be working through everyone who has been in touch during the window and will continue until they are all fulfilled, for as long as it takes to clear everyone who has been in touch. We anticipate this may run across the month of February.

If you have emailed and received the autoreply – that is your confirmation that we have received your email. If you have been in touch via Kickstarter, there is no autoreply, but your message will have been safely received if you can see it in your sent messages. We are working through these chronologically where possible, so please note repeated chases keep pushing your messages further down the inbox, and so we apologise if it seems we are taking longer than expected to reply.

We appreciate your patience and will continue working through everything.

– The Terry Pratchett Estate

[starrgaziinggg]

SMAU | UNDERCOVER JYP-U

chapter thirty eight -> swings and roundabouts (written 2.5k words)

directory | next part ->

The stress of exams was finally over. Classes were back to normal. You and Hyunjin couldn't be in a better place since the aftermath of the party. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

The only exception to this was the fact that you still didn't know who the evil mastermind behind the undercover JYP-U account was.

As much as you tried to push it out of your mind, it plagued your every thought. Who knew all these secrets about your friends? Why did they lie about Jeongin? How hadn't you been able to figure it out yet?

It was Jisung’s idea to get everybody together to discuss an action plan for figuring out the perpetrator and taking them down, which he had relayed to Chan. The first victim of the account was still as pissed off as everyone else, and although the repercussions for him hadn't been as severe as some others, he felt the exact same as you. You couldn't just sit back and let this account attempt to deface and destroy you all.

Chan had managed to snag a free room at the campus coffee shop, a secluded area, allowing you the privacy to talk about the subject without lingering people. You had to get away from the prying ears of your fellow university students. It was beyond time, you thought, for some action to finally happen against the account owner.

"So," Chan starts, student body president mode on. You sat to the left of Yuna and to the right of Hyunjin, listening to him intently. Everyone else in your friend group, bar Lia, was sat around too. "I've tried to trace the IP address - dead end. I've tried to contact the people who run the social media website and they've been useless."

"It's all dead ends," Jisung confirms solemnly. "Whoever it is knows what they're doing."

"So if we can't figure out who it is from a technological standpoint," Jeongin speaks up. "We're just gonna have to do it the old fashioned way."

You nod, shrugging your shoulders. "There's someone out there who knows all these secrets and we have no idea who they are. Doesn't that seem impossible?"

"Completely, but it's clearly possible," Minho sighs, giving you a half smile. "They knew about an injury I didn't speak a word of. Unless they got their binoculars out and watched me bandage up my leg through my window, I don't see how anyone could have figured that out."

Changbin snorts at that, quickly trying to compose himself. As much as Minho was trying to make the situation more light hearted, it was serious, and you weren't about to find out who was behind the account by cracking jokes.

"So let's just start naming people," Felix suggests, his eyebrows raised. "Go through anyone we suspect and cross them off the list if there's reason to."

There's a collective nod at that, everyone in agreement that this was the best way to go about things.

"What about Lia?" Jisung says, grabbing everyone's attention. He looks at everyone perplexed. "What? I'm serious, it could be her. We hardly know her."

Lia was the only person not in attendance at your meeting. You didn’t want her to bin off the extracurricular that gives her extra credit for her degree, so she’d given the meeting a miss. It might have been for the better anyway, since it was Jisung's first guess.

"Okay," Yuna sighs, her fingers pressing into her temples. "Let's think about this properly. Lia's a literal sweetheart, you really think she's behind this torturous account?"

"Sometimes people aren't what they seem," you shrug, a sad motion. You feel Hyunjin place a hand on your thigh and you smile up at him, glad to have the comfort. "And we've known her less time than anyone else at this school, so who knows what she could be capable of."

"That's true," Seungmin smiles at you sadly, looking as though it's paining him to talk about Lia like this. You knew the two of them were getting on well.

"But that's exactly the thing," Ryujin sighs exasperatedly. "We've known Lia for the shortest amount of time, but she's known us the same, so how would she ever know all these things about us?"

"That's true," Minho says, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Perhaps Yuna was drunk one night and let her secret slip without realising, and she found the old lyrics to Ji's song in class and whatever else; how would she ever know the details to my injury? Or about Seungmin's dad, which nobody else knew about? And why would she lie about Jeongin cheating?"

There's a couple seconds of silence as everyone takes in Minho's words, a nod of agreement running through your group. The silence continues when a worker comes into the room you're all in to clear some of the used mugs away, a clear indication that you did not want this conversation to get into the wrong hands.

"Unless Lia is just some psycho who wanted to wreak havoc, there's no real reason for her to want to spill these secrets," Jeongin says quietly once the worker leaves, putting it plainly, and you nod at him.

"And, I think we're all kind of forgetting something," Felix says almost sheepishly, as if he doesn't want to bring it up.

"What?" Ryujin asks without thinking twice, everyone's heads turning to Felix. You catch the way Changbin almost glares at Felix, and you realise he might not be as okay about their secret as you initially thought. Although Changbin and Ryujin had ended, it was still pretty fresh.

"Lia wasn't there that night, you know," Felix says with a cringe, desperately hoping everyone knows what he's talking about. You all do, easily, so you speak up to avoid tension as Felix attempts to hide in his baggy hoodie, letting his blonde hair fall in his face.

"That's true - Lia was sick in her room," you agree, remembering the night of the party. "She looked awful the whole two days beforehand, too, so unless she managed to somehow run to the frat and back whilst having a 39.5°c fever, I think we can start to cross her off our list."

"I can vouch," Yuna says, nodding her head with wide eyes. "She was so unwell, there was no way she could have known about that unless either of you two had told her."

"We didn't tell anyone," Ryujin mumbles, and you can tell she does not want to hang onto this topic of conversation long.

"So if we've concluded it can't be Lia, all that does is give us a whole lot of nothing since we still don't know who it actually is," Jisung groans, frowning. "This is a living nightmare."

"You can say that again," Minho yawns, checking the time on his phone. "At least we know who it's not."

"Hold on," Ryujin speaks up, a thoughtful look etching her features. "We're forgetting the one person who hates all of us."

All eyes turn to her as she tilts her head, staring back at everyone. "Yeji."

The thought had crossed your mind a million times. You'd basically kicked Yeji out your friendship group after all the drama she had caused, so who else would hate you enough to spread gossip about you all?

"I did think that," Yuna says, nodding her head at Ryujin. "But I don't really know anymore. Firstly, she's been almost MIA this whole semester."

"That's true," Jeongin nods, adding onto what Yuna was saying. "She attends classes and then heaps of study sessions and from what I've seen hardly goes out anymore."

"I don't think she's that spiteful," Chae says, and although you know she's trying to defend her, you can't help but agree. "Yeah, she could be a real bitch, but would she really waste her time on something like this?"

"Jeongin said the same thing to me before," you agree, watching the younger boy nod his head at you. "I've suspected her the most out of anyone, but I think at this point it's a stretch. Unless she did some serious digging, she wouldn’t know any of this shit about us. And, if she's as up to her ears in work as Jeongin says she is, how the hell would she have the time?"

Minho nods, sitting back in his chair lazily. "If I know Yeji, and unfortunately I do, she wouldn't bother her rats ass about getting 'revenge' on us. She has much more important things going on in her life."

"I agree with that," Hyunjin speaks up. "I know the way her family works. She'll have a lot of responsibilities that literally make it impossible for her to have the time to do this, and on top of her coursework? Doubt it."

You don't think twice about Hyunjin's comment, knowing that he probably knows how her family works because they're just as high up on the social hierarchy as his.

"Could it just be some random we go to school with?" Chae asks, deep in thought. "Someone who doesn't like the fact that our group is well liked?"

"I thought about that too," Changbin says. "But there's no intent. It would be genuinely psychotic for someone who hardly knows us to want to ruin our lives like this."

Jeongin looks around the room then. “Who hasn’t had a secret revealed about them?”

“Me, Hyunjin, Chae, Changbin, Chan, Lia…I think that’s it,” you respond, met with a chorus of nodding heads.

“Save from Lia, we’ve all been friends for years,” Chan speaks up. “And the secrets have impacted us all. If the person behind the account was someone at this table it wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever. Why would one of us want to attempt to destroy our own friendship group?”

“Exactly,” Seungmin chimes in, shooting you a grin. “It can’t be one of us.”

"This is bullshit," Jisung interrupts, rubbing at his eyes. "We've traced the IP address and it lead us to fucking nothing, we've contacted the website to shut down the account and they've done Jack, the uni can't do anything about it - how the hell are we supposed to figure out who this bastard is?"

That kind of leaves everyone stumped, because god if any of you knew. Nobody says anything for a while, just sitting in relative silence, until Chan speaks up.

"Look, we can't give up. This fucker has caused us all too many problems this semester for us to just forget what they've done. Nobody should be able to get away with spreading personal information like that with no consequences, and I'll be damned if I just sit back and let it happen," he says, and you swear it's the angriest you've ever seen him.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Jeongin says, inciting a bit of hope within you. "You know that school gossip page? What if they're behind it? They just put out that weird statement, but what if they’re just trying to cover their tracks now that things are getting serious?”

Everyone kind of looks at each other then, as it's something none of the rest of you had considered.

"I mean it would make sense, considering they're always spreading the drama after the account posts. Plus, we don't know who runs that account either, so if we find out whose behind the gossip account it could lead us closer to whose behind the JYP-U undercover account," Seungmin agrees.

"Knowing who it's not gives us a good start, we just need to keep looking for clues and narrowing it down," Chae adds on, trying to boost the groups morale as usual. "Why don't you guys trace the IP of the gossip account and see what you find and we can go from there?"

Jisung nods, looking towards Changbin and Chan. "We can get on that tomorrow, let you know what we find?"

The guys nod in response, and it makes you feel a little better knowing you at least had something to go off of.

Chan sighs after that, placing his hands on the table. "It's getting late, and we're all clearly exhausted. I say we go home, get some rest, keep doing our best to figure this out and reconvene when someone's got something. Hopefully the gossip account gets us somewhere."

There's a collective agreement that runs through the group, and it doesn't take long for you all to get your shit together and go your separate ways.

Hyunjin walks you home, hanging back so it's just the two of you. He intertwines his hand with yours easily.

"Do you realistically think we will figure out who this psycho is?" He asks, his hand enclasped with yours. You give his hand a squeeze in response.

"I think we will. It's only a matter of time before the truth comes out," you reply hopefully, walking up to your dorm building. He turns to you with a sinister look.

"It's not you, is it?"

You push his arm, laughing in response. "No it's not me, you idiot. And it's not you?"

"Never me," he replies, which makes you laugh even more. He pulls you in tight for a hug as he always does when you inevitable have to depart, kissing your forehead before pulling away. "Get some sleep, yeah? Big date tomorrow and all that."

"Yeah," you respond quietly, trying to take your time basking in his presence, excited about this surprise date he’d decided you were going on. "I wish you'd just tell me what we're doing, you know. I hate surprises."

"A master never reveals his secrets," he says cheekily, giving you a chaste kiss before turning on his heel, waving at you when you use your key card to open the main door to your dorm building. Once you get inside your dorm, the girls are silent for once, and you can imagine they've all crashed as soon as they hit their beds.

You can't help feeling dejected. The only good thing to come out of that whole conversation was that everyone was on the same page about who the account wasn't run by, yet nobody had a solid idea of who it was. You hoped something would come out of finding who was behind that gossip page, but you weren't sure. It seemed like opening Pandora's box; a task that was so impossible you didn't even know how to begin.

But you pushed those thoughts to the back of your mind once again, doing your best to focus on preparing for the date you were more than excited to go on.

and we’re finally getting somewhere with figuring out who it is!! I’m estimating 10-15 chapters left, but god knows because I didn’t think this SMAU would be over 30 chaps nor last a year ahhahah

@cursed-mars-bars @imasimplol @hyunverse @aestaeticous @dorisnumber1fan @amnmich @detectivedoodle @amara-mars @end0rchans @raresevng @nhyunn @lixie-phoria @beomgyusonlywife @seolarpower @cuddlethebear @weird-bookworm @ceelestic @worcesheshestershiresauce @hyuneyeon @downbadreading @where-is-innie @weird0o0 @sxhxnax @moretinyideas @realrintaro @pinkcherryblossomangel @tesywesy @beaann @cutesince2000 @lynlyndoll @furryenthusiastbread @nyasstars @eyearebee @lynlyndoll @seungminindabuilding @chans1aptop @victio

[canmom]

very brief torrent security primer

some brief comments on piracy safety for @goblin-thembo who has been asking a lot of questions in the notes of that post...

OK, so when you download a torrent, you are downloading some files. The BitTorrent protocol makes it almost impossible to substitute a different file than the one you request, but you have no way to be absolutely certain that the original file is 'safe' - that depends on the properties of the file, and what you do with it. Some types of file are safer than others.

Here's some jargon you may find useful.

torrent: a file that describes how to download some files through the BitTorrent protocol. we won't go into the technicalities, but when you load a torrent into your torrent client, you will connect to other people who have parts of the files, download the pieces, and reassemble the files you want.

seeding: providing a copy of the files in a torrent to other people.

ISP: Internet Service Provider, the company that connects you to the internet.

IP address: your computer's identity on a network, notably the public internet. When you connect to a website, they know your IP address. Your IP address is assigned by your ISP.

From an IP address, you can determine someone's broad geographical location (which country they're connected in) and which ISP they are using. You can contact the ISP, who will be able to associate it with a specific user.

swarm: the collection of users downloading or seeding a particular torrent.

VPN: Virtual Private Network, a relay service which hides your IP address from the public internet. People who connect to you will see the VPN's IP instead of your real IP. Your ISP will be able to know that you connected to a VPN, but not what you send through it. So they wouldn't be able to tell if you are using BitTorrent. VPNs usually cost a fairly small amount of money as a subscription service.

Threat model

In security we talk about a 'threat model', which is what you think you need to protect yourself from. There are two major threats when downloading files using BitTorrent.

copyright claims: your computer's IP is broadcast when you use BitTorrent. Copyright holders will often put 'sniffers' on the network which will monitor the IPs in the swarm of popular torrents. They will then send a takedown letter to your internet service provider (ISP), who will usually send you an email to stop sharing copyrighted media on their network, and then cut off your internet on multiple offences. This can easily be circumvented using a VPN. I strongly recommend using a VPN if you download any copyrighted content through BitTorrent.

attacks through the file you download: someone might upload a virus as a torrent, presenting it as a file you might be looking for (e.g. cracked software). So let's go over different types of file you might download and how they could be used to attack you.

Executable files, such as pirated software, are not safe. If you download a program and run it, you are potentially giving the author full control over your computer. So you should make damn sure the uploader is trustworthy. If you're downloading open source software from the maintainer's github release page, you're probably good. If you're downloading cracked art programs or games... good luck lol.

On a public torrent tracker, to which anyone can upload, there is no guarantee that any file is what anyone says. You have to make your own determination of which uploaders are trustworthy. I can't give you great advice on this, since I generally do not download cracked executables. For games, FitGirl Repacks is generally a pretty good source.

If you are on Windows, the default Windows Defender software should be used to scan any file you download. (Paid antivirus software is of somewhat dubious utility, often pushing ads and using CPU resources in its own right.) Fewer attackers will target desktop Linux or OSX, which doesn't mean you're guaranteed safe, but Windows is the biggest target as the most widely used operating system.

Videos, music and images are generally safe. I say 'generally' because it's possible, in theory, to create a video that exploits a vulnerability in your video player (e.g. mpv or VLC) and uses it to execute code. So far as I know this is largely theoretical, and known vulns have been patched, but make sure to keep your player up to date to mitigate against known vulnerabilities.

Any compressed archives (zip, rar, 7zip) can be used to create something called a 'zip bomb', which is a file which goes into an infinite loop when you try to decompress it, swallowing up more and more memory and hard drive space. I've never seen this actually be done, but it's possible. More subtle attacks would attempt to attack the program you use to decompress the file. Keep your software up to date to mitigate against known vulnerabilities.

Besides taking care about what you download, on Windows you should either not run your main account as an admin account, or make sure to set User Account Control to require a credentials check for admin operations, and also keep your operating system and software up to date. Make sure file extensions are visible so you don't get fooled by a file disguised as a different file type. And y'know, if the torrent tracker has comments, check to see if a lot of people are saying it's a virus.

What could happen if your computer gets infected? Well, they might use your computer to mine crypto at the cost of your CPU performance, they might encrypt and ransom your files, and they might steal your credentials for online services (including banking and the like). There are various measures you can take against this, such as making sure to encrypt sensitive data such as passwords, but the best defense is to not infect your computer in the first place.

The most likely time for people to upload viruses is when something is in high demand and there isn't a single authoritative high-quality source out yet.

Ultimately you get to decide what you consider an acceptable level of risk. There is no such thing as perfect safety. I would recommend using your own initiative to learn about computer security and not badger random tumblr users to explain it to you, but hopefully the above guidelines should help you avoid doing anything too dangerous.

[antiroadkill]

My blog is a catalogue of evidence against you. But here’s some technical details you may have missed, @bi0mass-is-the-roadkill-fairy

Just because you delete or deactivate doesn’t mean the data is erased. It’s just not accessible by YOU. For legal reasons, social media companies don’t just wipe out data. They set it to a “deleted” or “deactivated” state but it’s not removed from the servers. This means every single thing you’ve ever posted is still on tumblr’s servers.

Tumblr staff can see what email address you’ve used. If you signed up for multiple accounts under the same email address, they can see that.

Your internet service provider has detailed records of your traffic. This includes every IP address you’ve used. Various websites you’ve accessed have these logged as well.

A VPN does not keep you safe from legal action. Your ISP can track when and where you access the VPN. The VPN services takes over from there and provides details of your traffic history.

Your local system has detailed records and cached files that reveal your internet history.

Incognito/private browser windows only prevent local data from saving, your ISP can still see that

Cyber crimes investigation teams can easily piece together your internet activity across multiple devices, accounts, and even through a VPN. They have access that your victims would not. Like getting the exact IP addresses all your accounts were accessed from.

Hey, do you know what a MAC address is? It stands for Media Access Control. It’s a long string of numbers and letters that’s a unique device identifier. It is visible to any network you’re attached to and never changes.

We have more than enough evidence to prove you’ve committed SEVERAL crimes. I have the emails from asks you sent me doxxing Jade. We only need to provide proof that a crime occurred. The specifics of who did it and linking them to that evidence falls to law enforcement. Can you convince them of your innocence given just how much detail is tracked between tumblr, your ISP, and your vpn?

[damnfandomproblems]

8798

Adding to the convo, the internet is a public space on default. Unless the website clearly marks itself as hosting adult material, it is a public space. And you what kind of people are allowed in and shouldn't be forced out of or made unsafe in the public? Minors. Minors are people and deserve to access to the public like everyone else.

Entities that create websites or otherwise digital places need to treat it like they would if it was physical building and do their own due diligence. They need to CLEARLY mark their website as a place that hosts adult material and either put the adult material behind some kind of barrier (password locked accounds, email verification/invite, etc) and take banning underage users found to be crossing those barries or adult users posting outside of those barriers extremely seriously. Or they just need to outright state that children aren't allowed and will be IP/email banned (and cookie banned i think? I know there is something you can do with cookies to more throughly ban someone but I can't remember what's it called) if found out and follow through, or outright state that adult material isn't allowed and follow through to the same extent.

Websites hosting adult material need to be treated as if they existing in the public because they are, in the same way a sex shop exisits in the public, and clearly mark themselves as a private place catering to adults and set up barriers so that way parents can, y'know, actually identify which sites are adult or not and block the web addresses on their children's devices either before they have the chance to access them or after they access them.

"Blame the parents" but in this current state of the internet they would just need to break their children's interweb accessing devices too keep them from seeing adult material before they are age.

The internet as a whole also needs to get safer so websites hosting adult material, like physical 18+ adult places, can safely process IDs and use those as a barrier to entry. If you have to show your ID to look at porn IRL, it should be the same online. I accept this isn't the case yet because every corporation that gets money off of, or every other website that wants to get more traffic and veiws on their ads, by peddling sex to kids wants to handwash away responsibility, but that is something that needs to change. "Blame the parents" but then everyone screams abuse and over controlling when they ban them from the internet until they're 18 because of how impossible it is to otherwise protect them from adult material (both porn and graphic violence, if not outright IRL murder and or torture videos).

Yes, erotica material should be allowed to exist online, but it should be allowed in the same way it is offline—in private adult only spaces or behind barriers that will otherwise make it more difficult for minors to access, where both entities running the business/gathering places and the individuals are responsible for being reckless and needlessly exposing minors to adult material.

The internet is a public, and should be treated as such. You can't whip out your phone and start blasting porn on the bus where kids (and other nonconsenting people in general) can see and hear it without getting a sexual harrassment and indecency charge, and neither should you be able to smear penises and vaginas where a child can see it without at least getting a hard ban from the website itself to minimize the chances of a repeat incident. A manager can't tape posters of naked women and men on their window without a fine, and sites can't host adult material anywhere that isn't behind a barrier/the digital equipment of a locked door.

Both the parents and the people running and using the internet hold responsibility. In the same way everyone has responsibility towards one another when sharing the public space.

Parents need to block adult websites and adult websites need to clearly mark themselves. Websites that aren't adult need to block adult material. Websites that are half adult and half public need to mark themselves as such, and make blocking the adult half extremely easy and accessing it harder, and parents need to either block of the adult half or the website altogether.

"Blame the parents" but how about you stop trying to make the internet a private, adult only space unless you're fine with it being made illegal for minors to be online (illegal in the sense the parent will be punished and the child put under greater supervision if caught, not like the child being shipped off to juvie of course. I think this is obvious but this is also Tumblr, and also specifically the damnfandomproblems blog. Common sense isn't always common here sadly).

(Ps, i know I used website alot, but this goes for apps to. All places adult, even just partially adult, need to mark themselves and take responsibility.)

(Ps x2, i have visually problems so if they're are any typos, sorry but also get over it. It is what it is, I'm not straining my eyes to proof read a tumblr ask of all things)

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[plum-pitt]

Holy shit. I just realized i’ve never even yapped about my headcanons for the rise guys. This is a criminal offense on my part! Must be rectified immediately!!

Disclaimer: Don’t think there’s a lot of hot takes here, but feel free to disagree and talk about your own interpretations if you’d like!! Headcanon is fun and i love discussing it. it’s all fictional and since the text doesn’t give us much concrete shit on these topics we’re all free to make our own, equally valid readings of it. :3

Leo- Transmasc He/Him, gay as fuck who here could’ve guessed, ADHD haver, definitely smokes weed. Fluent in spanish from watching telenovellas as a child. Wants to be a flirty whore/aff so fucking bad but whenever he sees someone he’s legitimately attracted to any charisma he might’ve had gets thrown out the window and into a woodchipper in favor of helpless stuttering. His portalling mishaps early in the series have led him to silly sidequests all over the world that he just,,,, doesn’t really talk about. This won’t come up until they’ll end up in some random ass place and find out just how well travelled and connected he actually is. He’s also got a job at Hueso’s for fun and extra cash to fund his addiction to pot and ordering stupid shit he doesn’t need online. He’s a server, wears rollerskates to “move faster” on the job, just ends up running into shit more often than not. Great with the kids tho, performs little sleight of hand magic tricks and tells jokes to make them happy, never had a fussy kid he couldn’t calm down in a snap. Calls himself Hueso’s nephew and nepotism hire, ignoring the fact that he’s actually a decently competent and well liked employee outside of the several skating related accidents. Shell was cracked badly in the invasion, when they sealed it up, he asked Mikey to paint the healed cracks gold, mimicking the japanese practice of Kintsugi.

Mikey- Definitely queer but not into labels ;3 He/Him is what he defaults to, but any pronouns work for them. Semi fluent in italian, don’t ask me why, just feels right, let chef boy speak italian dammit. One of those mfs on instagram who insists on posting pictures of the food he makes, except his actually looks good and not painfully mediocre so they get a pass. Has been tagging walls in hard to reach spots all over the city for years at this point, after Raph confronted her abt it, fearing that he’d get caught someday, he told him that he’d stop. Yeah, that was a lie he kept doing it, just sneakier now. Makes money off of art commissions, still broke as hell tho cuz he spends it all on bougie ass ingredients and art supplies. Post canon definitely delved more into mystics and spirituality, trains with draxum but also took up meditation in his free time. Fucks with weed and the occasional psychedelic when working on art, says it helps get the creative juices flowing. Considering asking donnie to forge some documents for him so he can attend college online and earn a psych degree. His speech patterns flip on a dime between vague, wise fortune cookie therapist man and typical gen-z slang so abruptly it gives anyone not already familiar with him total whiplash.

Donnie- NonBinary They/He Bisexual but i can’t decide if they’re the kind that can’t stop pulling or can’t pull to save his life. Fluent in several languages, ASL, French, Russian, Japanese. Actually one of their few acedemic endeavors that he doesn’t typically show off and gloat about, makes it all the scarier when his siblings hear him muttering vaguely threatening sounding shit in russian when shit doesn’t go their way. Has tried most substances for “research purposes”, ultimately decided he doesn’t like the feeling of their big ol brain being hindered under the influence, this has a few exceptions tho, mainly when it’s with Leo. Has John Bishops IP address and threatens to drop it on 4chan to “see what happens” every time he tries messing with their family or stopping him from “borrowing” material resources from the US government. Almost considered bs-ing his way into college before they used a cloaking broach to shadow april at school for like 2 days. It was there they learned that the education system fucking sucks and he probably knows more than most professors about his topics of interest anyway. Does freelance work for cash, as far as their brothers know they’re not building and selling anything dangerous (which is code for probably arming both sides in a far away military conflict with deathrays). Spends his free time cyber bullying children on roblox and twitter, and caring for their greenhouse of plants that all have names. (yes he grows weed. his GeniusGrown™️ zaza is known far and wide for its consistently excellent quality. and no, Leo does not get a family discount. Mikey does tho.)

Raph- Someone please send the big man some help😭 he/him(?) Definitely queer in some way shape or form but refuses to confront any identity crisis because he’s just so busy keeping his dumb ass siblings outta shit. Tried weed once and will never touch a substance again, makes his anxiety spike real bad when he doesn’t feel in full control of himself. Runs around with Cassandra and sometimes Jr to do vigilante justice on the side of he and his siblings’ usual patrols. Living garbage disposal and i mean that quite literally. He has and will eat anything, rocks, toys, silverware, sometimes on accident, sometimes on a dare, and sometimes just because he wants to. He grew up gnawing on the legs of furniture, rusty sewer pipes, really any nonliving thing that he could fit his choppers around (unlike donnie who just bit any living creature within a 5 mile radius of his location). Since the invasion made Leo step up as leader Raph has been able to step back a little bit and not have everything in a chokehold, he has a mini crisis about his place in the family and his sense of identity without being a leader. Tries to hide how much it’s affecting him but ofc, living with mikey, this does not last and his ass FINALLY gets chucked (very lovingly) into therapy. Loves to knit, definitely in some kind of old lady facebook group centered around it (he has so much nursing home gossip floating around in his brain hehe)

Alright that’s all for the teetlez. lmk if yall wanna hear about my thoughts on the rest of the main cast, or some of the side cast! Can’t promise i’ll have this much to say on all of em but i’ve definitely got thoughts lol. I might even make a post diving into different character dynamics. idk tho, my fingies are tired typing all that shit😭

Anyway i hope u enjoyed my ramblings, have a lovely day :3

[vonpharma]

W[H]IP WEDNESDAAAAAY

sorry im late my bank account was fucked and i needed to be mad for a while. here's something from my day 9 of sicktember!

Rolling to her side, Maya feels the congestion shift in her skull, bump into the back of her eyes before sinking down into one nostril and damming it fully. The movement burns as it comes and goes, sparking into a horrible itch that builds and builds and builds, and the tissue box is on the other side of the bed, and all Maya can do is curl into herself and sneeze desperately and viciously into her bunched-up comforter. She doesn’t have to look at the aftermath to know how disgusting it is—it’s been like this all night, tossing and turning in her empty apartment in a desperate attempt to get even a few minutes of rest.

Looking past the cover of the blanket, she can see her phone flipped onto its back, in desperate need of charging. She can’t put it on the charger, though, because to put it on the charger would mean to touch it, and to touch it would mean to fight the biblical temptation to open and check it, and Maya’s not strong enough to resist or brave enough to face what she might find there.

Instead, Maya stares. Stares at her phone in a hell of her own making, breathing painfully through her mouth and running through invasive thought after invasive thought that tells her she blew her chances for good, flaking out the way she has. Downhearted, Maya lets her eyes flutter shut in resignation, trying to guide those thoughts toward anything but Franziska von Karma. 

Franziska von Karma and her silky-rich voice. Franziska von Karma and her curving, enchanting accent. Franziska von Karma’s long, elegant fingers, her always-shimmery hair, her conniving half-smirk, her crystal-blue eyes—

Maya’s phone vibrates, several inches away. It tickles at her cheek, brights her eyelids in the split second before they snap open, before she dives for the thing and flips its pink finish back. In the haze of illness, her oversore eyes need a moment to adjust—she fumbles with the arrow keys, desperate to check her texts. At 2% battery, she’s on an unfortunate time limit, and so she races to her messages and selects the newest one without processing anything about it and sees—

[MagiSteel Trashlord]: Good afternoon, Maya. Forgive me for contacting you unprompted like this, but I was wondering if you were still at the Cerise address?

Right. Just Edgeworth. Who was she to expect anything different?

Feeling twice as low as before, Maya replies with a simple ‘yeag’ and closes out of the window. Whatever plans he wants to make, they can wait until she’s done mourning all the face-sucking she’s not doing with his crazy-hot sister. 

And Maya knows. She knows she shouldn’t. She knows it isn’t going to make her feel any better… but if her phone is already in her hand, she might as well check. Get it out of her system, and get back to wallowing and eventually moving on.

An attempt is made to take a deep breath, but it really just ends up making her cough the second it hits her tender throat. Regardless, Maya powers through—clicking herself one down to the message she’d sent at six in the morning. There on the lip of her bathtub, hair dripping a puddle onto the failing bathmat as she shivered. Her clothes laid out on the counter in preparation the night before—she would not be late, she would not get distracted, she would impress the pretty girl with the eye for perfection, enough that maybe someday she wouldn’t have to.

So much for that.

Hovering over the send button for what must’ve been a good hour. Jaw set, face tight, trying not to cry—crying would just make the headache worse, and she only had enough tissues in the house for a breakdown or a common cold, not both at the same time. Poking and prodding at the phrasing, the word choice, the grammatical structure—things Maya never even dreamed of caring about before she met Franziska. Why do I care so much? Why do I want her to like me so bad?

A thirty-third readthrough. Above her, the failing bathroom fan stutters in tandem with her wavering heart.

[Me]: Hey, Franziska, I hope you’re doing well. I’m really sorry to bail on you like this but I caught a pretty bad cold and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better. I feel like hot garbage and I figure I’m not exactly date material right now, you think we can reschedule? 

And there at the top of her screen it remains.

Maya’s almost grateful for her dinosaur of a phone. If she lived in a world of read receipts, she’s certain her despair would be tenfold, right now. For so long she’d given Nick shit for that dilapidated brick he carried around, but knowing how anxious of a creature he could be, maybe he was just being smart. More likely, he’s just a notorious cheapskate, and skimping on tech comes with at least a few benefits.

Defeated, Maya snaps the thing shut and throws an arm over the pressure bursting behind her eyes. By now, the sunlight has crept in through her dented blinds, illuminating the offwhite of the walls and turning it into a sleep deprivation chamber. Maya knows she’s not going to be able to squeeze any more rest out of this day.

She should get up and fix her fitted sheet. She should get up and throw her snotty blankets in the wash. She should get up and plug her phone in. She should get up and answer her door.

Instead, she just lays there, an invisible weight balanced on her chest. The bathroom fan is still humming. The traffic outside joins it. The knocking at her door grows urgent, and in her head Maya wills the solicitor away. No one should be forced to see her, right now. She barely wants to see herself.

Gripped loosely in her fingers, then, her phone vibrates.

Another deep breath. Maya thumbs the thing open, poised there on her one-sided plea for even a modicum of Franziska’s time. She’s ready to hit the back button, certain it’s just Edgeworth following up, already having accepted her heartbreak when her eyes fully adjust again and—

[Prosecutie]: Answer your door.

Her phone dies.

“Shit!”

[farcillesbian]

Hey Peach I won't ask anything super incriminating or anything but do you need a VPN to torrent stuff? Or really good antivirus?

I know I should look into how to do that stuff but before I attempt anything of the sort, I wanna know if I should beef up my security before I start sniffing around.

Im really out of my element here 😭

hi hi, so there are a couple of things I do to keep my computer/data safe when torrenting - first of all, yes, a VPN is a great idea!! the one time I forgot to turn on my VPN before torrenting something at my parents house my dad got a letter from our internet provider about it 😵‍💫 (it basically was something about "your IP address was used to download copyright infringing material, don't do it again").

it's generally best practice to have some type of VPN set up before torrenting! try to stay away from free VPNs, from what I understand they're not the most reputable and oftentimes they're profiting off selling your data (the ol' "if they're not making money off the product then *you're* the product"). I hear good things about Mullvad and ProtonVPN - I believe at least Proton does have a free tier that just has a limit to how fast you can download things with it!

as far as antivirus goes, it's got its pros and cons. I actually don't always have it turned on, and I'm not a big fan of the built in Windows Defender (it tends to have a lot of false flags) - I like MalwareBytes and I'll do an occasional scan of my computer after downloading stuff & before actually running things. I personally find that antivirus programs tend to quarantine video game installation files when I try to run an installer for a game I torrented, which causes the installation to fail and then I have to go manually check the antivirus to un-quarantine the files 🙄 which is why I end up not having mine running all the time. but if it makes you more comfortable def keep it on, and just remember to check for quarantined files if you're having weird errors trying to install anything!

however I do also make sure that I'm visiting sites I generally trust so that lowers my chances of downloading anything sketchy (though not 0 - be mindful of what you download and open on your computer, especially executables (.exe files)!!) I find all sites I use either via direct recommendations from trusted friends who are very knowledgeable about information security and stuff, or from the r/piracy subreddit's megathread (they have a lot of recommendations for all different kind of media, and also a lot of helpful info about cautious pirating in general)

also, make sure that the torrent client you use is good! I've always used qBittorrent - it's pretty easy to use and set up, it's straightforward, open source, ad-free, and also has a lot of handy features (one of them being a feature in the advanced settings where you can have it only do things with your torrents while your computer is connected to your VPN, which is good for keeping your real IP address secure. if you want help figuring out that setting just reach out again and I'm happy to help!) whatever you do, please don't use μTorrent lol, that one sucks. also, you don't have to update it every time it comes out with an update, but it's generally a good idea to check the qBittorrent subreddit when an update does come out just to see if it deals with anything important security-wise - just recently, a pretty major backdoor vulnerability was identified and fixed, so it was actually pretty critical that everyone update to the latest version (to anyone reading this, make sure you're on 5.0.1 and nothing older than that!)

and also, a good Adblock like ublock origin will help keep you from accidentally clicking on nefarious links when trying to download things on the internet, so make sure you have that set up too!

also also, some regular websites (especially streaming services) HATE VPNs so if you have one running and you're trying to watch something on like, Netflix or your cable provider's streaming site and it's not working, pause the VPN till you're done! and that's where having your torrent client set up to automatically pause all torrents while your VPN is off comes in handy.

also also also, a note on torrenting etiquette - when you are torrenting something from other people (aka peer to peer/P2P file sharing) you are considered a "peer" and the people who have the full files and are sharing them with you via torrent are called "seeds". peers need to be connected to seeds to be able to receive the file. you will also have a ratio for each torrent - this is the amount of data you have sent vs how much you have received. a ratio of over 1.0 means you've sent more than you've received and is considered to be "good form". I usually stop seeding a torrent once it reaches above 1.0, and I do also often go stop seeding a lot of stuff below the 1.0 ratio if it looks like it has a lot of seeds, but I like to keep seeding when it seems like I'm the only one or just one of a few people seeding, especially for media that I already had a hard time finding, to make it a bit easier for someone else trying to torrent it. there are some things that I've waited months to finish torrenting just because nobody was seeding at all for a while 😭 so I do what I can to keep torrents alive myself.

sorry this ended up longer than I thought it would be, and probably longer than you expected, but I hope this is helpful! happy sailing the digital seas, anon :D

[lyricalchrysanthemum]

OOOOO YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT THE TRAGEDY OF KRIS OOOOOO

KRIS LORE LETS GOOOOOOOO

This is going to be a bit about Bill too because they are very connected but I promise the main point here is Kris’s tragedy.

OK so. I’ve mentioned before that there’s a timeline 0 and that consists of RGBY and GSC. And the world was so unstable and on the verge of collapsing in on itself by the end of that timeline that Arceus had to essentially reset the timeline and basically create patches so that it couldn’t happen again.

But the problem is that the work was very shoddy, and various fragments of the old world continue to haunt the new one, with only two people even remembering that there was an old timeline. One of these ghosts was Kris Kawamoto, and the only two people who remember the old timeline is her, and her uncle Bill Sonezaki, the man who destabilized an already unstable world.

But what HAPPENED? You may ask.

See, Kris was a regular bright eyed trainer who was exploring Johto, trying to complete her pokedex. She had her childhood friend Ethan and a strange boy named Silver traveling with her off and on. She was a little feisty and hot tempered but she still had a good heart, love of adventure, and reckless courage.

But that reckless courage ultimately would get her killed in a freak accident involving her trying to register Lugia on a stormy night.

And her uncle, who loved her like a daughter, was DEVASTATED. So much so to the point where he he took to using his box system to try and preserve her soul and have some way to keep her around. Again, he loved her like a daughter he never had, and she meant a lot to him.

It’s a bit difficult to explain how the box system works in the first place but essentially, pokemon can be compressed into data and stored in computers. Only certain Pokémon can go through this method and still roam not just an individual’s PC box, but the entire web, one of these being porygon. And with porygon as the base of his design, he went to work trying to save his niece’s life in any way possible.

But, even with Celebi giving him its blessings, because Bill was using science to play god with his already very iffy design, the existing cracks in the universe began to show themselves more, and it started to collapse. Arceus steps in. The world gets reset.

All’s good right? The world gets reset, meaning nothing happened, even if Bill gets punished with the memories of the existing timeline, and all’s good right?

Well.

A little anomaly, a bug if you will, slipped by Arceus’s notice. It was just one soul after all, even a god would miss that among a sea of god knows who many.

And that anomaly was the soul of Kris, who managed to attach itself to the PC box system after all.

And so when the world gets reset, the box system is created, Kris wakes up with every memory of the existing timeline, including her final moments where she was killed by Lugia. But she isn’t able to roam the world with her own two feet, in fact she’s stuck in a network, stuck behind computer screen after computer screen. Viewing the outside world from other people’s desks.

She doesn’t even realize the world’s restarted, until she comes across a comes across a PC under the name that’s just like her last name, with an IP address that looks awfully familiar, and a desk that looks just like hers. In fact it is her desk. She would recognize her childhood cyndaquil plush anywhere, that picture of her parents on her wall anywhere.

But that’s not her on the other side of the computer screen, it’s a different girl. A girl she doesn’t recognize, but wears pigtails just like she does, and has parents who look just like and have the same exact names off. A girl by the name of Lyra.

She’s been replaced with a girl who’s nothing like her, while Kris is stuck watching her live a world behind a window.

And eventually she would meet Lyra for real and they would talk, getting to the point where Kris starts going along with her in Lyra’s pokewalker. But whenever Kris calls for her parents while Lyra steps away, they can’t understand her. They just hear beeping. Lyra has no clue who she is, or what she even is in this world. (It’s only until later that Kris breaks the news about it to her.)

And then Lyra starts going on a journey like she does, she goes with Ethan Hidaka who’s supposed to be HER friend, she meets Silver Watanabe who’s supposed to be HER rival with Ethan, she goes on a journey with a Cyndaquil just like hers and gets to go and complete the pokedex like Kris could never finish.

A porygon for a friend isn’t a replacement for an entire team of six that the girl in front of her has taken from her.

Sure Lyra takes her along, and for some odd reason Silver and Ethan can understand her through the weird tamagotchi thing and the PC whenever they’re in a pokemon center. So she acts like she’s friends with the other three. But she’s boiling with hatred for both Lyra and her uncle.

She’s stuck in a little computer watching a world where she should have had a place in while she watches a completely different girl in every way but place in the world, have the adventure she wasn’t able to finish.

She was supposed to be dead.

Instead she’s living through something that feels worse.

But she’s not even sure if she could consider it living.