#How to hire a hacker now

[freelancersozol]

Hire a Cell Phone Hacker: What You Need to Know

Hire a Cell Phone Hacker: What You Need to Know

hire a cell phone hacker are an essential part of our lives. We use them to communicate, work, socialize, and entertain ourselves. But what if someone else could access your phone without your permission? What if they could spy on your messages, calls, photos, videos, location, and more? What if they could steal your personal or financial information, or even blackmail you?

This is where cell phone hackers come in. Cell phone hackers are people who have the skills and tools to hack into any phone, regardless of the make, model, or operating system. They can remotely access your phone’s data, camera, microphone, and other features, and monitor your activities in real time. They can also install malware, ransomware, spyware, or other malicious software on your phone, and cause damage or harm to you or your device.

Why would someone want to hire a cell phone hacker? There are many reasons why people might want to hire a cell phone hacker. Some of the most common ones are:

To catch a cheating spouse or partner. If you suspect that your significant other is being unfaithful, you might want to hire a cell phone hacker to find out the truth. A cell phone hacker can help you access your partner’s phone and see their messages, calls, contacts, social media accounts, photos, videos, and more. You can also track their location and movements, and see if they are lying about where they are or who they are with.

To monitor your children or employees. If you are a parent or an employer, you might want to hire a cell phone hacker to keep an eye on your children or employees. A cell phone hacker can help you access their phones and see what they are doing, who they are talking to, what they are browsing, and more. You can also set parental or employee controls, and restrict or block certain apps, websites, or contacts. You can also protect them from cyberbullying, online predators, or other threats.

To recover lost or stolen data. If you have lost or deleted some important data from your phone, or if your phone has been stolen or damaged, you might want to hire a cell phone hacker to recover it. A cell phone hacker can help you retrieve your data, such as messages, photos, videos, documents, and more, from your phone’s memory or backup. You can also wipe your data remotely, and prevent anyone from accessing it.

To test your phone’s security. If you are curious or concerned about how secure your phone is, you might want to hire a cell phone hacker to test it. A cell phone hacker can help you find out if your phone has any vulnerabilities, such as weak passwords, outdated software, or open ports. You can also learn how to improve your phone’s security, and prevent hackers from breaking into it.

How to hire a cell phone hacker? If you are looking for a cell phone hacker, you might be wondering how to find one and how much it will cost. There are many ways to hire a cell phone hacker, but not all of them are safe or reliable. Some of the most common ways are:

Online platforms. There are many online platforms that offer cell phone hacking services, such as Cyber Lord, Javelin Cloud, Hackvist, and others. These platforms claim to have a wide range of hackers available for hire, all with different skill sets and experience. You can browse their profiles, reviews, and ratings, and choose the one that suits your needs and budget. You can also communicate with them directly, and pay them securely through the platform. However, you should be careful when using these platforms, as some of them might be scams, or might not deliver the quality or results you expect.

Dark web. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet that is not accessible through regular browsers or search engines. It is a place where hackers, criminals, and other shady characters operate, and where you can find almost anything illegal or illicit, including cell phone hacking services. You can access the dark web using special software, such as Tor, and browse through various websites, forums, or marketplaces, where you can find cell phone hackers for hire. You can also communicate with them anonymously, and pay them using cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. However, you should be very careful when using the dark web, as it is very dangerous, and you might encounter hackers, scammers, or law enforcement agents, who might try to trick you, rip you off, or arrest you.

Personal contacts. Another way to hire a cell phone hacker is to use your personal contacts, such as friends, family, colleagues, or acquaintances, who might know or recommend a cell phone hacker. This way, you can trust the hacker’s reputation, skills, and reliability, and you can also negotiate the price and terms directly with them. However, you should be discreet when using this method, as you might expose yourself or your contacts to legal or ethical risks, or even damage your relationships with them.

The cost of hiring a cell phone hacker will depend on various factors, such as the type, complexity, and duration of the hack, the hacker’s experience and reputation, the market demand and supply, and the negotiation skills of both parties. Generally, the cost can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the service you need.

What are the risks and benefits of hiring a cell phone hacker? Hiring a cell phone hacker can have both risks and benefits, depending on your situation and goals. Some of the risks are:

Legal risks. Hacking a cell phone without the owner’s consent or knowledge is illegal in most countries, and can result in fines, lawsuits, or even jail time. You might also violate the privacy or intellectual property rights of the owner or other parties involved, and face legal consequences. Therefore, you should be aware of the laws and regulations in your jurisdiction, and consult a lawyer before hiring a cell phone hacker.

[nottslove]

ON CAMERA

Pairing: hacker!theo x spy!reader 1.1k words Summary: theo nott, professional, wanted hacker, has been keeping a close eye on you, the spy hired to track him down. little do you know, the more you search, the harder the search grows— mainly because theo knows you're looking for him. after following a lead blindly, you somehow land in danger and theo, who has been watching you, calls the cops to pull you out of your risky situation. as a thank you, he expects a little show...

Warnings: 18+, smut under the cut, voyeurism, somewhat stalking, exploitation, semi-public, dirty talk, cursing, not for minors.

WATCHING you had become an obsession. That was almost all he did, day and night.

Every room, every corner of your house was monitored. At first, he tried to convince himself he was doing it because it was his job. But when he began to skip sleeping to watch you sleep, he realized it ran much deeper than just that.

You, of course, were clueless about the whole ordeal. You performed your routine as you normally did, without ever suspecting that you were being hacked, watched.

You woke up early, trained in your private training room, practiced firing shots, worked out in your personal indoor gym, went for a swim, then ate and used your computer to follow up on your latest mission.

You were supposed to find one of the most wanted hackers in the country, whose identity was a complete secret, and you were positive you had a name, and perhaps a location.

Theo was watching, a smirk plastered across his lips as you searched for him. But he was too good.

His identity had remained a secret for a long time, and would continue to remain so until he decided otherwise.

"Oh, pretty girl, you'll never find me," he crooned, a soft chuckle spilling past his lips as every link you clicked took you to a dead end.

Frustrated beyond measure, you finally decided to search a dating website for something, anything.

And then, you found someone whose profile matched the one you were looking for.

"Bingo—" you whispered victoriously, staring at the profile of a young man in his early twenties.

"Hate to break it to you, Princess, but that's not me," Theo murmured to himself, lighting a cigarette as he watched you through one of the little screens around him, zooming in on your low-cut top. "Cute top though... Nice rack you got over there..."

Your laptop screen was duplicated across his as you created your own profile for an online dating site, after you came across your suspect on the website.

He was there, reading all those messages you sent, all the flirting between you and your suspect, his blood boiling with every picture you kept attaching to keep this man interested.

And then, you agreed to meet this suspect of yours. You hadn't bothered with a wire, you were confident you could handle him on your own— with two knives strapped to one thigh and a gun strapped to the other underneath your satin minidress.

Little did you know, Theo had already bugged your phone, already gotten your every movement displayed all over his screen.

He tracked you entering the restaurant, he tracked you waiting there for hours... then, he noticed you taking the shortcut back home, walking through the park... but when he noticed you moving towards an abandoned alley on the map across his display, he instantly called the cops and gave them your exact location.

Turns out, you were wrong. Your suspect was just another suspect, and the real guy you were hunting was still out there.

This guy just turned out to be some nasty creep who faked his profile to prey on young women.

You didn't know how the cops knew your exact location, or how they found out, but whatever it was, you were grateful because the cops had arrived before the creep could hurt a single hair on your head.

And when you reached home, you entered the shower first thing, trying to relax a little, before you fell asleep, unaware that Theo had zoomed into your bedroom, so that it now covered his entire screen.

"I deserve a thank you for that, don't I, pretty?" he remarked, even though he was well aware you couldn't hear him at all, zooming in on your figure, who had just come out of the shower and was now wrapped in a tiny towel that barely covered you. "After all, I did save that pretty little ass of yours back there... Gonna give me a little show?"

As if you had heard his words, you picked out a pair of satin shorts and a matching camisole, placing it on the bed as you pranced around your room in your tiny towel.

You were unaware of his watchful gaze, observing you, unaware he was so fucking hard underneath his joggers, his ringed fingers resting on his waistband as he watched you with bated breath, his eyes dark, jealous of every tiny, water droplet that clung to your sacred skin.

After you dried your hair, you took off your towel and let it slide to the floor while you got changed.

Unfortunately for Theo, your back was towards the camera. A groan slipped past his lips when he realized he wouldn't be able to see those pretty tits of yours.

Fortunately for him, he would have a nice picture of your ass.

And when he zoomed in to your plump rear, he nearly came in his pants.

He could feel his precum stain his new boxers, a loud groan leaving his lips as he slid his joggers down, taking out his cock and fisting it, spreading the precum down the length.

He gives it a few pumps, just imagining what it would be like to bend you over the bed and fuck you from behind, pull your hair back into a ponytail and manhandle you the way he wants, because he knows you can take it.

He closes his eyes, groans spilling past his lips as he begins jerking his cock in his hand, his eyes opening when he hears a small grunt of frustration from his screen— your pajama top fell when you were about to put it on.

As you bend over, you give Theo the most beautiful view of your ass, his eyes glued to the screen as he jerks off.

"Fuck—" he hisses, pumping his hand up and down his shaft, quickening his pace as he approaches his climax. "Such a cute fuckin' ass..."

Right before you slide your shorts on, he takes a screenshot, then closes his eyes, grunts of pleasure leaving him.

His cock throbs and pulses in his hand, his rings adding a delicious friction as he slides his hand faster, not even bothering to conceal his moans.

He gasps your name as he finally climaxes, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, his lower abs clenching with the surge of pleasure that flooded through him, the thick, sticky liquid now sliding down his screen, across the screenshot of your pretty, little ass.

Not even bothering to clean his mess up, his eyes flicker over to his other screen, where you're scrolling through your phone, tucked under the sheets of your bed, completely oblivious to it all.

His head slams against his table.

"Fuck— I'm screwed..."

not proofread, wrote this in such a hurry. lmk if i missed anything.

tags: @the-sylver-dragon, @clairesblouse

profile; nav;

©nottslove 2025. do not copy, steal or claim any works/graphics as your own.

[foone]

Have you heard about the Polish Train company, Newag, and the bullshit it turns out they got up to?

So, the regional rail operator Koleje Dolnośląskie bought some Newag Impuls back in 2016 . In late 2021, some of them need to have major maintenance done, as they've been in service a while. So the company SPS (Serwis Pojazdów Szynowych) gets the contract to fix them. They basically take the train apart, replace a bunch of it, following all the rules in the documentation Newag gave them, and... it won't move. The train says everything is fine, the brakes are off, there's plenty of power, but you push the throttle up and it won't move.

SPS spends a while trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong, with no luck. So they hire some hackers from the Polish security group Dragon Sector. Dragon Sector figures out how to get into the code of the computer system that runs the train, and OH MY GOD.

So it turns out there's a secret train-lock system. If it's on, the train won't move. This will be triggered in some situations you might think are normal: the clocks are wrong, the serial numbers of the various parts have changed, and a firmware mismatch between the main computer and the power system. Now, the fact that it makes sense to not run the train in these situations until someone can check it? that doesn't extend to the fact the train uses a SECRET lock system, rather than just popping up an error message telling you what's wrong. There's also the problem that while these are all potential error problems, they can't be cleared by anyone with the technical manuals, which are supposed to cover everything about how to run these trains. Only Newag themselves can reset this system.

Which, you know, keeps SPS from properly fixing them. Only Newag can fix them now, but not because SPS lacks any technical ability, but because Newag sabotaged their own trains. But don't worry: it gets worse.

So now that Dragon Sector knows what's happening, they get to look at other trains. It turns out the trains aren't all running the same software, and there are other tricks in there.

One of them is a "how long has the train been stopped?" check. If the train hasn't hit 60 km/h in 10 days, the train locks itself and won't move until Newag can clear it. So, like, if a train is ever out of service, like it's going to a repair place... it'll break itself. Unless the repair place is owned by Newag.

But two of the trains go further: See, these trains have GPS built in, right? You may be able to guess where this is going...

THEY JUST MAKE THE TRAIN CHECK IF IT IS PARKED AT THEIR COMPETITORS' REPAIR YARD AND BREAK ITSELF IF IT WAS.

The sheer audacity of this move. This is frighteningly bullshit anti-competition self-sabotage.

This has, obviously, made some parts of the Polish government to start investigating this. Newag may be (and hopefully will be) in a lot of trouble.

For more info, there's a great video of a presentation by the three people from Dragon Sector who did the hacking, which was presented at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.

Ars Technica also has an article on it, but it predates the presentation so it doesn't have some of the later details.

Anyway, the good news is that in the end the hackers at Dragon Sector were able to unlock most of the trains: A few had additional trickery that they didn't want to hack around, because it might break the train's certification. For the others, they discovered undocumented "cheat codes" in the software that they could use to bypass the secret lockouts... presumably the same ones that Newag would have used when they "repaired" trains.

[caffeinatedvigilantewriter]

So Dani got herself into trouble. Again.

First it was the Italian mafia, then that human trafficking rink, but the last straw wasn’t the Meta human kidnappers, no, it was the assassin cult trying to convert her to assassiness.

She hates to say it, but the US was the safest place she could be at the moment.

The GIW are idiots, so the only person she would have to worry about was Vlad. And that meant she had to go somewhere when Blad would never dream of entering.

She distinctly remembers Vlad complaining about a man named ‘Wayne’ and a city named ‘Gotham’, calling it a ‘playground for psychopaths’.

So, Gotham it is.

The problem is no one in Gotham would hire a 12 year old with papers, a guardian, or even an identity. And there was no way she would go to Vlad for help.

One day she over hears a group of people talking about they new un and comping crime boss, Red Hood. About how he pays well and offers protection for kids. Hell, Dani didn’t even mind that he decapitated people as a hobby!

So she did what any desperate kid would do. She created a resume and walked into Red Hoods office, dropping it in the desk.

He hired her a messenger. Claimed phones were too unreliable and he witnessed first hand how she could sneak around.

She adopted the name cryptid and even wore a mask like Hoods to conceal her identity.

Jason is very confused at to why he suddenly wants to protect a random girl looking for a job. Something inside him is screaming to PROTECT PROTECT PROTECT

Shenanigans that follow

-Dani taking a nap on the couch in Jason’s office when Nightwing walked in hoping to try and make a truce. He leaves thinking that he has a niece.

-all of Hoods men thinking that Dani is his kid, which is why he hired her. This leads to a lot of Hoods enemies and Gotham’s rouges trying to kidnap her

-likewise, she gets mistaken as a Wayne kid

-Dani underestimated Vlad and he did have the balls to show up in Gotham and he showed up in Hoods office asking for her. Jason’s, seeing how scared Dani was, called in a few favors to make sure he wouldn’t come back

-the phantom trio graduates high school. Sam and Danny head to Coast City as a couple while Tucker goes to Gotham bc he got hired by WE the moment he received his diploma.

-Tucker runs into Dani the first night he in Gotham and is like ‘ok come live with me’ and Dani’s like ‘bet I’m not homeless anymore’

-Tucker finds out about Dani’s job and demands a meeting with Red Hood to discuss why he let a 12 yo work for him

-if you want Tucker x Jason, then during the entire meeting Hood kept flirting with him, unfortunately, a week later, Tucker became smitten with a man named Jason

-Jason and Tucker met at a bookstore. Jason was buying a book and Tucker was getting something for Dani’s education. They hit it off immediately.

-Hood ‘hires’ Tucker as a hacker for his gang, and Tucker accepts because then he could keep an eye on Dani

-Dani goes to GA and makes friends with Damian Wayne, who’s a bit older than her. Damian is now wanting a younger sister and decides that Dani would be perfect

[scam-alerts]

🐝Scams to Bee Aware of on Tumblr: 🐝

(posted: 2/6/25 - Updated 2/12/25)

The art commission scam.

Are you an artist? Were you DM'd, sent an ask by a blog with no posts or little to no content, or had a comment on a post asking about a commission and to DM them? Did they ask you to draw their son, daughter, or pet? Did hey offer you $200-$500? If so, you should learn about this scam and how to avoid it.

The sugar baby/daddy scam. / Free money scam.

Did you make a post asking for donations? Did someone DM you wanting you to be their sugar baby or promising you money in exchange for something? Did they tell you that you need to send them money to verify you want to 'do this' or pay for 'shipping' or 'transaction' fees? You're about to get scammed!

The muse scam.

If you post photographs frequently, you may find your posts receiving comments from 'artists' saying how 'inspired' they are and how eager they are to make art or a mural for your work. This is a fake cheque scam and you should avoid it at all costs!

The (read more) / Click here! scam.

If you see a post ending in a link that says (read more...) or Click here! This is an attempt to get you to click a link that will lead to a malicious website in an attempt to steal your information, or possibly even install malicious files onto your phone or computer.

is Now Hiring! Scams. ✨New(ish)✨

See a post like this on your dash or in a tag you frequent? Was the user once a normal user and now they're spamming ads like this in unrelated tags? This likely means that user got their account hijacked by clicking the link via a different post. Avoid clicking links like these at all costs!

HRT Medicine / Therapy services ✨New(ish)✨

This scam is targeting transgender people, and is likely stealing peoples personal information and likely their credit card information. If you see or find a blog like the above commenting on your posts, in #transgender or other such related tags, block and report them immediately. (Selling stuff like this is illegal btw.)

Recruitment for the Illuminati.

This scam tries to recruit people into the Illuminati by offering people mass amounts of wealth, homes, and even cars. This is all an attempt to steal your money, or worse, your identity...

Recovery Scammers.

If you make a post talking about how you've lost money, be it bitcoin, crypto, or were scammed in any sort of way, you may find yourself receiving an ask from a recovery scammer. These are people claiming they can offer 'recovery services' while claiming to be 'ethical hackers' that have 'back end knowledge' to online services. Claiming they can retrieve your money, account, photos, and other such lost items. All you have to do is give them your account information and some money! :) (Do not do this, obviously.)

These scammers also target people who post in #scam and/or other related tags like #scams or #scam alert, posting things like this in the comments on peoples posts:

Dropshipping Websites. (Curtsy of @ai-art-thieves)

See a post of an object or a piece of clothing by a popular tumblr user that has 10k+ notes, does it say 'I got this here!' or '>>GET YOURS HERE<<' at the bottom with a link to a store? That user is a part of a dropshipping advertising scheme and are being paid to advertise these scummy websites. These websites are usually malicious in the manner that they sell cheaply products. In the worst case you'll get a bootleg or flawed product, or even a different product completely, or in even worse cases, you'll never get it at all.

(Or they will steal your information in the case of those shopify websites that popup online with deals you 'just can't refuse!!!' So buyer beware.)

Campaign boost/mutual aid support scams. (By @kyra45)

If you or anyone you know has posted looking for donations, and you receive an ask, DM, or even a comment about someone offering to 'assist you in boosting your account/campaign,' all you have to do is pay them <amount>, then this is a fake check scam you should definitely read up on and learn about to avoid.

Pet donation Scams. (by @kyra45)

See a post about someone needing help with a vet bill? Do they stress the pet is in peril and will die soon? Is their PayPal from the Philippines yet the vet bill is from the United states? Those are just two things to look out for with this scam.

Donation / Mutual Aid scams. (by @kyra45)

One of the most common and well known scams on tumblr to this day. These scams mainly revolve around brand new accounts made within a day or week reblogging very few posts and then suddenly asking for money via donations through PayPal. These blogs will send out the same copy/paste ask en masse to dozens if not hundreds of people, change their name frequently over the course of days if not weeks, and will even lie about being Palestinian, stealing stories from legitimate gofundmes, and even having conditions such as diabetes while not even knowing how it works.

Here is a current list of documented PayPal scammers: Part 3

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Some helpful blogs to follow:

@kyra45 @ai-art-thieves @u-reblogged-a-scam

Tags to follow/check if you need to check on scams:

#scam #scams #scam alert #scammer #scammers

I also have a very extensive list of scammer call out posts on my main blog, @slenbee under my #scam tag which can be found here if anyone's interested in scrolling through it. Just note that I kindly ask that minors do not follow that blog as it is my personal blog and is not a blog dedicated to scam busting/documenting.

You're 100% ok with looking through the scam tag and reblogging things from it, as well as checking out the links on my pinned post. :)

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I think that's it for Tumblr scams, If I think I need to add more later I'll update the post and make an update note about it.

Take care everyone and don't get scammed!

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Check out the Index of important posts I've made!

Here's a post on some tips and tricks on spotting scam blogs.

How to guide: Reverse Image Search. (now with web extensions!)

Scammers pretending to be Palestinian v6 by @kyra45

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A profoundly stupid case about video game cheating could transform adblocking into a copyright infringement

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Here's a weird consequence of our societal shift from capitalism (where riches come from profits) to feudalism (where riches come from rents): increasingly, your rights to your actual property (the physical stuff you own) are trumped by corporations' metaphorical "intellectual property" claims.

That's a lot to unpack! Let's start with a quick primer on profits and rents. Capitalists invest money in buying equipment, then they pay workers wages to use that equipment to produce goods and services. Profit is the sum a capitalist takes home from this arrangement: money made from paying workers to do productive things.

Now, rents: "rent" is the money a rentier makes by owning a "factor of production": something the capitalist needs in order to make profits. Capitalists risk their capital to get profits, but rents are heavily insulated from risk.

For example: a coffee shop owner buys espresso machines, hires baristas, and rents a storefront. If they do well, the landlord can raise their rent, denying them profits and increasing rents. But! If a great new cafe opens across the street and the coffee shop owner goes broke, the landlord is in great shape, because they now have a vacant storefront they can rent, and they can charge extra for a prime location across the street from the hottest new coffee shop in town.

The "moral philosophers" that today's self-described capitalists claim to worship – Adam Smith, David Ricardo – hated rents. For them, profits were the moral way to get rich, because when capitalists chase profits, they necessarily chase the production of things that people want.

When rentiers chase rents, they do so at the expense of profits. Every dollar a capitalist pays in rent – licenses for IP, rent for a building, etc – is a dollar that can't be extracted in profit, and then reinvested in the production of more goods and services that society desires.

The "free markets" of Adam Smith weren't free from regulation, they were free from rents.

The moral philosophers' hatred of rents was really a hatred of feudalism. The industrial revolution wasn't merely (or even primarily) the triumph of new machines: rather, it was the triumph of profits over rent. For the industrial revolution to succeed, the feudal arrangement had to end. Capitalism is incompatible with hereditary lords receiving guaranteed rents from hereditary serfs who are legally obliged to work for them. Capitalism triumphed over feudalism when the serfs were turned off of the land (becoming the "free labor" who went to work in the textile mills) and the land itself was given over to sheep grazing (providing the wool for those same mills).

But that doesn't mean that the industrial revolution invented profits. Profits were to be found in feudal societies, wherever a wealthy person increased their wealth by investing in machines and hiring workers to use them. The thing that made feudalism feudal was how conflicts between rents and profits cashed out. For so long as the legal system elevated the claims of rentiers over the claims of capitalists, the society was feudal. Once the legal system gave priority to profit over rent, it became capitalist.

Capitalists hate capitalism. The engine of capitalism is insecurity. The successful capitalist is like the fastest gun in the old west: there's always a young gun out there looking to "disrupt" their fortune with a new invention, product, or organizational strategy that "creatively destroys" the successful businesses of the day and replaces them with new ones:

https://locusmag.com/2024/03/cory-doctorow-capitalists-hate-capitalism/

That's a hard way to live, with your every success serving as a blinking KICK ME sign visible to every ambitious person in the world. Precarity makes people miserable and nuts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

So capitalists universally aspire to become rentiers and investors seek out companies that have a plan to extract rent. This is why Warren Buffett is so priapatic for companies with "moats and walls" – legal privileges and market structures that protect the business from competition and disruption:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-explains-moat-principle-164442359.html

Feudal rents were mostly derived from land, but even in the feudal era, the king was known to reward loyal lickspittles with rents over ideas. The "patents royal" were the legally protected right to decide who could make or do certain things: for example, you might have a patent royal over the production of silver ribbon, and anyone who wanted to make a silver ribbon would have to pay for your permission. If you chose to grant that permission exclusively to one manufacturer, then no one else could make it, and you could charge a license fee to the manufacturer that accounted for nearly all their profit.

Today, rentiers are also interested in land. Bill Gates is the country's number one landowner, and in many towns, private equity landlords are snappinig up every single family home that hits the market and converting it to a badly maintained slum:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

But the 21st Century's defining source of rent is "IP" – a controversial term that I use here to mean, "Any law or policy that allows a company to exert legal control over its competitors, critics and customers":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

IP is in irreconcilable conflict with real property rights. Think of HP selling you a printer and wanting to decide which ink you use, or John Deere selling you a tractor and wanting to tell you who can fix it. Or, for that matter, Apple selling you a phone and dictating which software you are allowed to install on it.

Think of Unity, a company that makes tools for video-game makers, demanding a royalty from every game that is eventually sold, calling this "shared success":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Every time one of these conflicts ends with IP's triumph over real property rights, that is a notch in favor of calling the world we live in now "technofeudalist" rather than "technocapitalist":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Once you start to think of "IP" as "laws that let me control how other people use their real property," a lot of the seemingly incoherent fights over IP snap into place. This also goes a long way to explaining how otherwise sensible people can agree on expansions of IP to achieve some short-term goal, irrespective of the spillover harms from such a move. Hard cases make bad law, and hard IP cases make terrible law.

Five years ago, some anti-fascist counterdemonstrators hit on the clever idea of blaring top 40 music during neo-Nazi marches, on the theory that this would prevent Nazis from uploading videos of their marches to Youtube and other platforms, whose filters would block any footage that included copyrighted music:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/23/clever-hack-that-will-end-badly-playing-copyrighted-music-during-nazis-rallies-so-they-cant-be-posted-to-youtube/

Thankfully, this didn't work, but not for lack of trying. And it might still work, if calls for beefing up video copyright filters are heeded. Cops all over the place are already blaring Taylor Swift songs and Disney tunes to prevent their interactions with the public from being uploaded:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/07/moral-hazard-of-filternets/#dmas

The same thinking that causes progressives to recklessly argue in favor of upload filters also causes them to demand that web scraping be treated as a copyright crime. They think they're creating a world where AI companies can't rip off their creation to train a model; they're actually creating a world where the Internet Archive can't capture JD Vance's embarrassing old podcast appearances or newspaper editorial boards' advocacy for positions they now recant:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

It's not that Nazi marches are good, or that scraping can't be bad – it's just that advocating for the use of IP to address either is a cure that's not just worse than the disease – it's also not a cure.

A problem can be real, and still not be solvable with IP. I have enormous sympathy for gamers who rail against cheaters who use aftermarket hacks to improve their aim, see through buildings, or command other unfair advantages.

If you want to tell a stranger how they must configure their PC or console, IP ("any law that lets you control your competitors, critics or customers") is an obvious answer. But – as with other attempts to solve real problems with IP – this is a cure that is both worse than the disease, and also not a cure after all.

Back in 2002, Blizzard sued some hobbyists over a program called "bnetd." Bnetd was a program that provided a game-server you could connect to with the Blizzard games that you'd bought. It was created as an alternative to Battlenet, Blizzard's notoriously unreliable game-server software that left gamers frustrated and furious due to frequent outages:

https://www.eff.org/cases/blizzard-v-bnetd

To the public, Blizzard made several arguments against bnetd. They claimed that it encouraged piracy, because – unlike the official Battlenet servers – it didn't check whether the copies of Blizzard software that connected to it had a valid license key. Gamers didn't really care about that, but they did respond to another argument: that bnetd lacked the anti-cheat checking of Battlenet.

But that wasn't what Blizzard took to the court: in court, they argued that the hobbyists who made bnetd violated copyright law. Specifically, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans "circumvention of access controls to copyrighted works." Basically, Blizzard argued that bnetd's authors violated the law because they used debuggers to examine the software they'd paid for, while it ran on their own computers, to figure out how to make a game server of their own.

Blizzard didn't sue bnetd's authors for pirating Blizzard software (they didn't – they'd paid for their copies). They didn't sue them for abetting other gamers' piracy. They certainly didn't sue them for making a cheat-friendly game-server.

Blizzard sued them for analyzing software they'd paid for, while it was running on their own computers.

Imagine if Walmart – one of the biggest book-retailers in America – had a policy that said that you could only shelve the books you bought at Walmart on shelves that you also bought at Walmart. Now imagine that Walmart successfully argued that measuring the books you bought from them and using those measurements to create your own compatible book-case violated their IP rights!

This is an outrageous triumph of IP rights over real property rights, and yet gamers vocally backed Blizzard in the early noughts, because gamers hate cheaters and because IP law is (correctly) understood as "the law that lets a company tell you how you can use your own real, physical property." Hard cases make bad law, hard IP cases make batshit law.

It's more than 20 years since bnetd, and cheating continues to serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle in batshit new IP laws. In Germany, Sony is suing the cheat-device maker Datel:

https://torrentfreak.com/sonys-ancient-lawsuit-vs-cheat-device-heads-in-right-direction-sonys-defeat-240705/

Sony argues that the Datel device – which rewrites the contents of a player's device's RAM, at the direction of that player – infringes copyright. Sony claims that the values that its programs write to your device's RAM chips are copyrighted works that it has created, and that altering that copyrighted work makes an unauthorized derivative work, which infringes its copyright.

Yes, this is batshit, and thankfully, Sony has been thwarted in court to date, but it is steaming ahead to the EU's highest court. If it succeeds, then it will open up every tool that modifies your computer at your direction to this kind of claim.

How bad can it be? Well, get this: the German publishing giant Axel Springer (owned by a monomaniacal Trumpist and Israel hardliner who has ordered journalists in his US news outlets to go easy on both) is suing Eyeo, makers of Adblock Plus, on the grounds that changing HTML to block an ad creates a "derivative work" of Axel Springer's web-pages:

https://torrentfreak.com/ad-blocking-infringes-copyright-ancient-sony-cheat-lawsuit-may-prove-pivotal-240729/

Axel Springer's filings cite the Sony/Datel case, using it to argue that their IP rights trump your property rights, and that you can only configure your web-browser, running on your computer, which you own, in ways that it approves of.

Axel Springer's war on browsers is a particularly pernicious maneuver, because browsers are the best example we have of internet software that serves as a "user agent." "User agent" is an old-timey engineering synonym for "browser" that reflects the browser's role: to go out onto the web on your behalf and bring back things for you, which it displays in the way you prefer:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet

Want to block flickering GIFs to forestall photosensitive epileptic servers? Ask your user agent to find and delete them. Want to shift colors into a gamut that accounts for your color-blindness? Ask your user-agent:

https://dankaminsky.com/2010/12/15/dankam/

Want to goose the font size and contrast so you can read the sadistic grey-on-white type that young designers use in the mistaken belief that black-on-white type is "hard on the eyes"? That's what Reader Mode is for:

https://frankgroeneveld.nl/2021/08/24/most-underused-browser-feature/

The foundation of any good digital relationship is a device that works for you, not for the people who own the servers you connect to. Even if they don't plan on screwing you over by directing your user agent to attack you on their behalf right now, the very existence of a facility in your technology that causes it to betray you, by design, is a moral hazard that inevitably results in your victimization:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

"IP" ("a law that lets me control how you use your own property") is a tempting solution to every problem, but ultimately, IP ends up magnifying the power of the already powerful, in contests where your only hope of victory is having a user agent whose only loyalty is to you.

The monotonic, dangerous expansion of IP reflects the growing victory of rents over profits – income from owning things, rather than income from doing things. Everyday people may argue for IP in the belief that it will solve their immediate problems – with AI, or Nazis, or in-game cheats – but ultimately, the expansion of a law that limits how you can use your property (including your capital) to uses that don't threaten neofeudalists will doom you to technoserfdom.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/29/faithful-user-agents/#hard-cases-make-bad-copyright-law

[mckinlily]

Imagine a world where Bruce Wayne did not become Batman. Instead, he is just a Normal Dude. Or as normal as a billionaire deeply dedicated philanthropy in a city as insane as Gotham can be.

Because make no mistake: just because Bruce is not Batman does not mean Gotham is not Gotham.

There are a few new players though—on the Rogues side.

Timothy Drake is the teen business tycoon of Drake Industries. Absent of the inspiration of Batman and the socialization and warmth of Dick Grayson, he is ruthless and logical to a fault in pursuit of his goals and just as viciously chaotic as the disaster little brother Jason knows.

In other words, he’s Gotham’s youngest supervillian. The only good news is his chosen nemesis is Lex Luthor. Maybe. Timothy doesn’t care much about collateral damage. It’s not his goal to harm civilians, but he certainly doesn’t include their safety as a priority in his convoluted schemes to mess with Luthor.

Talon is an undead murderer who slaughtered a huge swath the Gotham’s 1% five years ago and, despite being spotted many times since, has never been apprehended. He appears when he wants and disappears just as readily, and Gotham just has to accept there’s a killer stalking their streets and there’s nothing they can do about it. Sometimes Talon has been known to rescue people, especially, but it’s never clear how or why exactly Talon chooses who is victim verses aggressor. And the end is always brutal and bloody for those Talon deems aggressor.

Damian is still Bruce’s biological son and raised by Talia in the League of Assassins. But when he was left in Gotham and met his father, this Bruce was so baffled and thrown by a child assassin that Damian immediately takes as rejection and runs away. (He doesn’t even stay long enough for Bruce to be sure it wasn’t a hallucination or very strange dream).

Damian is almost immediately found and adopted by Talon, so now Gotham has TWO bird-themed killers liable to jump down on you from nowhere and for any reason.

Oh, and god help you if you so much as make Talon’s baby Owlet sad. If you’re lucky, it will be the last thing you do.

Barbara is an ordinary librarian…who can be hired as a mercenary hacker for the right price. The public isn’t afraid of her because they don’t know she exists. More than one politician or public figure has been ruined because of the blackmail she unearthed on them. But what side exactly is the police commissioner’s daughter on? And how much of Gotham does she have under thumb?

(Is she a secret ally and accessory to Timothy Drake’s many plots?)

Steph, thank god, is actually NOT a villain, super or otherwise. She’s the one vigilante attempting to help Gotham. Spoiler has connections among some of the caped community like Supergirl or Wonder Girl. But without Bat training or the police cooperation forged years ago by Batman, she’s mostly just striving to survive while taking on Gotham’s many, many gang. Make no mistake, she’s impressive. But desperate. Spoiler comes with guns and explosions. So. Many. Explosions. Gotham has never heard of the “no kill” rule. And likely never will.

(Cass also lives in Gotham. But no one will ever see her or even know she’s there.)

Jason….well. Baby Jason never stole any Batmobile tires and never was adopted by a strange but kind billionaire. He was never killed at 15.

He died in the winter before he turned 13.

And then one day, Adult Canon Jason gets thrown into this dimension. And somehow Gothan is WORSE?! How is that even possible? Also his siblings are running around being super villains and killing people? Bruce! Control your children!!

But this Bruce does not have children (he’s still mostly convinced Damian was a prank or hallucination). He is horrified by the idea of children fighting crime. He has absolutely no idea how to handle exceptionally talented chaos machines with too much passion and no sense of self preservation. And he’s frankly a little disturbed by Jason himself and his guns and refusal to “work within the system” and Jason nopes out of there so freaking fast.

Jason also, slowly, has to become okay with the realization that his siblings are not insane because they were made Robin. They became Robin because they were already insane. There was no way to create a normal human being out of any of them.

(Jason does not want to look too closely at what that says about him.)

In the end, Jason teams up with Steph. He connects her with Dick/Talon, who is more than happy to have a new Owlet to train and preen, and Damian only slightly stabs her. They manage to persuade/threaten Tim into caring enough to help get Jason back to his dimension with misuse of Drake Industry research equipment. Damian very much does stab Tim. Tim retaliates by locking Damian in an industrial freezer. Dick thinks they’re bonding. Jason introduces them to Babs, but frankly he has no idea what he’s hoping to achieve from this. Probably nothing good because Dick, despite being an under-socialized undead assassin with some weird mannerisms and ways of speaking, still manages to pull a woman way out his league like Barbie. And Babs seems to have no problem with the “murder” part that description.

Jason never realized how much Bruce’s strict moral code and “the Mission” were key to the rest of them becoming remotely positive influences in society. Or how little Bruce has to do with his siblings getting into dangerous, violent situation. He doesn’t like anything about it.

They work out how send Jason back, and he returns to his dimension with the feeling he’s just left Alternate Gotham to a gang of supervillains.

…at least they’re together?

And Talon Dick won’t let any of his new Owlets die and will rain bloody vengeance on anyone who tries. So that’s good. For them at least.

(Jason feels absurdly like he should be apologizing to this universe’s Bruce. Or. Someone. He doesn’t. But he feels like he should.)

Back at in his dimension and at the Batcave, Jason pauses and just stares at Batman for a very, very long time. Finally, he takes a deep breath and solemnly nods just once before taking off into the Manor for Alfred’s cookies.

Bruce has no idea what the fuck just happened.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Okay Mid Year Here We Come!

Pun intended.

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

May 2025 Week 5

Ongoing Series - Thai

Knock Out (Fri WeTV ) ep 3 of 12 - Sometimes, on my more philosophical days, I feel like this BL is the backstory of the brother & boyfriend characters who run the gym in Wandee Goodday. 

Meanwhile, massage oil scene with the secondary couple was excellent. Kind of came out of nowhere. (Presumably so did he.) But I’m not gonna complain. (Presumably neither did he.)

My Stubborn (Sun iQIYI) ep 5 of 10 - Sorn literally cannot keep his hands to himself. This show is the poster child for workplace sexual harassment. That said absolutely every employee seems to be doing it, so perhaps it was a hiring mandate. Company bonus? Your paycheck comes with a side of kabedon?

Pit Babe 2 (Fri iQIYI) ep 5 of 13 - Serving us a season 2 like no BL before has ever served. I am in awe. Mostly of Kenta's tatas on a platter and the cast joking about them and wardrobe's wholesale investment in their importance. Which is true. Very important work Pit Babe is doing for us right now.

Where was I?

What is happening?

I can’t with the scooters. I just can’t.

The plot (or whatever you wanna call it) continues a pace. There’s a lot of vrooming and canoodling.

Oh who cares, let us return to what really matters - black shirt tata chacha chacha.

Kenta brought a knife to a car fight. Best thing to happen in BL in years: a vroom vroom rescue.

Kim's protective doughnut of Kenta was, in fact, (as the kids would have it) legend. I am officially calling this maneuver the Bangkok Drift (and you can't stop me). I got nothing left to say. It spun out my brain meats.

(I should invent a very strong cocktail called the Bangkok Drift. I'm taking mixer suggestions in the comments.)

Also Kim = brimming with BDE. OMG is this couple BDE vs BTE (big tata energy)? Yes, yes they are.

Carry on Pit Babe, you clearly know what you're doing, even if no one else does.

(I should clearly be doing a Trash Watch of this but it's too late now.)

The BangkokBoy (Sat Gaga) ep 6 of 12 - Ooo hacker cutie, just what we all needed in our lives. Should we talk again about how incredibly hot Top is? Goes without a saying, I suppose. Also too pretty = likely the mole. (Too much to ask him to put that hacker up against a wall?)

I am still very much enjoying this, but I wish it was a bit less gangster and a bit more BL.

Eye Contact (Weds WeTV) ep 3 of 12 - NO SINGING. I figured it out. This is Make it Right goes to college and that's why I like it. That said, the terrible editing is beginning to grate on me. Perhaps if I were able to watch the extended version it wouldn’t be so bad. But as it stands  I’m losing patience with the whole WeTV platform in general, so I won't be upgrading on principle.

The Next Prince (Sat iQIYI) ep 5 of 14 - I'm enjoying it for the fantasy aspect. But we have got couple bloat happening. There’s too many. I am kinda into and excited by most of them (except maybe the leads), but still it’s too much for this show.

They aren’t Pit Babe, they can’t get away with it. (To be fair, Pit Babe really isn’t getting away with it either, it’s just so chaotic it doesn’t matter.)

While whipping boy is a favorite trope, and I did squeak in delight when that dog lead came out - Thailand going kinky rarely works out well for us. This pair is very "someone's been reading too much Slytherin slash."

My Sweetheart Jom (Fri YT) ep 3 of 12 - It's fine, but pretty missable. I dont get much chemistry from the leads. More parental tolerance meets childishness. I mean, if they’re aiming for a Daddy/brat dynamic, it’s not working.

I like that the same actor is playing the same psychopath in both shows currently airing. Aon is very good at being wild-eyed crazy.

On a completely different note wouldn't he be great as Song Qi if Thailand did a remake of Moon and Dust?

Boys in Love (Sun iQIYI ) ep 6 of 12 - I don’t know. They’re losing me on this one. It doesn’t seem to know where it wants to go or what it wants to do. There’s no major through line. And while that has worked for me in the past with pre-branded existing pairs (e.g. We Are) the profound lack of tension isn’t really working in this show for me. I hate Shane’s parents. Hate them. 

That is all.

Sweet Tooth Good Dentist (Fri iQIYI) ep 10 of 12 - Jimmy is back, yay! This ep was all backstory and dealing with past drama. I wish we got a little bit more of Sant’s story. But also I am v bored.

The Ex-Morning (Thurs YT) ep 2 of 10 - I don’t have much to say about this show. I found this episode dull. Krist is always the same character in BL, and frankly it’s an archetype that I intensely dislike. More importantly, I always fail to understand why any love interests are ever interested in dating this personality type. Frankly he’s a jerk and a bully. Were this any other couple and any other production house I would have already dropped it.

I Promise I Will Come Back (Mon WeTV) ep 2 of 10 - It’s a bit touristy for me. Look I don’t like seeing anybody’s travel photos, not even my own. This is not a framing convention I enjoy in my BL. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sweetheart Service (Korea Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - this installment was rough, confrontations but also successes. I feel sorry for the bartender character. But it is interesting to watch Strongberry tackle a true love triangle.

It's okay Taeha, there is a whole other cutie just gagging to be taken care of by you.

Just look to the left.

Moon and Dust (China YT) ep 2 of 6 - Is both absolutely terrible and terribly great. All of the triggers! But if you didn’t know that going in why are you even bothering to read my blog? You can't be taught.

Okay so just stepbrothers (not blood related). Fine.

White/black outfits? This is perhaps the least subtle BL of all time.

Fair price, China.

And so fucked up. Bite him! Yay!

Excellent.

None of this is going to end well for any of us but I am ALL IN.

Give me the fuck-up-a-tude. GIVE IT TO ME.

Fight for You (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - This is common with Taiwanese BLs... once they are together and boyfriends they’re absolutely adorable, incredibly gentle, and very sexy - domestically beautiful. Meanwhile, add another to the Official Roster of Fantastic Grans in BL. This one is such a bad ass. Love her and her spoon - we soulmates. I wack at people with spoons if they come in while I'm cooking all the time.

The Sparkle In Your Eye (Singapore Sun Gaga) eps 1-4 of ? - Yet another celebrity BL (trend noted) but I am curious about Singapore's take on the genre. However this is one of my least favorite power dynamics (younger less powerful character has crush on older popular guy who doesn't like him). Also, far beat it for me to predict what a BL from Singapore will be like (when we have had so few) but the fact that they’re speaking in Chinese is indicative that this is gonna have that style, which means I’m not sure we can depend upon it to end happy.

It's airing but......

Loy Kaew First Love (Fri YT) ep 3 of 6 - Didn't drop for me. MDL says it aired but not where (usually means YT or Gaga, but not for me). I’m not particularly motivated to hunt. So I’ll let this one slide until I figure out how to get it or it ends badly and spies tell me... whichever comes first.

Top Form (Thurs WeTV) ep 11 end - Apparently I’m never gonna be able to see this final ep unless I pay for WTVs VIP? Which I’m simply not doing. If their interface or app were better and didn’t crash and have a bazillion other bugs, I might consider it. But the technology is terrible. Can’t condone this kind of behavior. So I guess I’ll live never knowing how this ends. I assume they're happily together blah blah blah.

Season of Love in Shimane AKA Ai no Kisetsu: The Season of Love (Thai) - Sequel to Kiseki Chapter 2 which I intensely disliked. I won't watch this.

Mission to the Moon (YT) 2 of 12 - Watching but I can't keep track. Too short, too many, too YT. I will report at end.

Next Week Looks Like This:

I've started including Thai holidays so we know why something might not be airing that day.

Coming Next Month

(I'm not confident on any of these, mostly rumor-based.)

6/2 Reset (Thailand iQIYI) - Yet another time travel kinda thing this time with Pond & Peterpan (we love this idea) but what a melodrama! And (shocker) celebrity romance again. On the night of his greatest success, famous actor Armin dies after being betrayed by his lover. However, death is not the end. Going back in time and meeting mysterious fan TD, the path to superstardom begins again.

6/5 Ball Boy Tactics (Korea Gaga) - After retiring from gymnastics, Han Ji Won thought his biggest challenges were behind him. Turns out, winning Olympic medals was easy compared to surviving university as a painfully shy ex-superstar. Enter Kwon Jeong U — campus heartthrob, basketball star, and a whole new world of trouble wrapped up in a perfect smile.

6/13 I Became the Lead in a BL Drama 2 AKA Zoku BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita (Japan ????) - Another 2nd season I certainly did not want. This time the story tells what challenges they have to face as a relationship. Also the story of the managers continues.

6/20 Depth of Field (Japan Fuji TV)

6/?? Revenged Love (China) - A remake of 2015's Falling in Love with a Rival. Wild.

2025 Line Up

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 1

BL Announced for 2025 - PART 2

20 BLs Announced for 2025 That I'm Really Excited About

GMMTV 2025 Line Up - My Totally Biased and Wildly Flawed Feels

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Well, see the Pit Babe 2 car rescue. Possibly best BL moment of 2025.

I can't I'm just eating this BL up. It's is beyond toxic. Are we in Forbidden Love territory? Will we go all the way to necrophilia? Depends on who dies first, i suppose.

Oh, someone's dyeing.

It was a really good kiss. As it should be! They have some seriously good "through the net" action to go up against. One of them from Taiwan.

What? It was a GREAT scene.

May I please point out that I called Boat as a great lead for a BL when he was a very minor side (and only good pairing) in the horrendous My Secret Love in 2022? I believe my case was made based entirely on this screen cap:

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[vapolis]

You’re a mercenary, gun for hire, assassin, information extractor, delivery person – call it what you want, because the people that hire you for your services don’t give much of a shit what you call yourself as long as you actually get them what they want.

Your last delivery ended with you – or rather the body you have decided to take over that day – as well as your delivery getting killed. The boss is pissed now and demands you fix your mistake or else you’ll be a head shorter. Not really a look you think you can pull off so you set out to fix what you fucked up, if it just weren’t for that mask wearing asshole that wants to cut your adventure – and life from the looks of it – short.

REMEMBER, YOU WILL DIE is an interactive novel playing in the fictional city Vapolis, where you take on the job as a mercenary with a very special ability, looking to find out who has their deadly sights set on you.

gender & sexuality choice

five unique romance options, including one whose gender you can decide

a club called saints & sinners (yes, really) that becomes your second home

and the choice to wear heart-shaped sunglasses all day and if that doesn’t interest you, I don’t know what will

ORLA [ female ] your boss and the owner of the saints & sinners. orla has been around for as long as you can remember, always working from the safety of her club und gathering as much dirt on people as she can get her hands on. she never tells you what she does with the info she has, but if you know her at all, you can guess why no one tries to run her off the streets of vapolis.

JAX [ male ] as bouncer of the saints & sinners and right hand man of orla, jax knows what is going on in the dark underbelly of the city. he is the man you call when it is time to get rid of a body or you need extra firepower, seeing he is almost as mysterious as he is good with a gun in his hands.

ROYAL [ non-binary ] royal is a little bit of everything. bartender and hacker, they know how to track you down wherever you are. often underestimated, they have learned to see the positives in flying under the radar and are incredibly good with a SocialLink in their hands and a couple of minutes of uninterrupted time.

DANTE/DELILAH [ gender cust. ] only having recently met them in this life, you are not yet quite sure what to think of them. there’s a certain darkness in their mismatched eyes you grow to recognize in your own.

ECHO [ non-binary ] as the arms dealer of your choice, echo has been around quite a lot. their shop has become somewhat of a safe haven to you when jobs got too much, or you simply needed Intel no one else offered for the right price. their disdain for anything orla or the saints & sinners isn't lost on you, though, and it's a mystery you hope to uncover sooner rather than later

THE MERC [ main ch. ] taking on the role as the merc in vapolis, you are somehow infamous for your approach to jobs and are never out of work. you might be a terrifying character on the streets of vapolis, but you’re by far not the deadliest.

prologue + five chapters

267k words

DEMO - PLAYLIST - FAQ - CHARACTERS - FORUM - KO-FI - PATREON

[devotedfem]

Isn't a threat a promise? - Part II

Synopsis: Where you're an assassin hired to finish the mysterious and poweful gang of seven eccentric men, but you're oblivious of how unpunishable and untouchable they were. You were bred to kill, but they were bred to rule over the mafia. They will break little by little your mind, reminding you that not even a hired assassin can beat them.

BTS OT7 x f. Reader

3.8K words.

Genre: Mafia and hitman au | Enemies to lovers | yander-ish.

Tags for this chapter: Organized crime, mafia BTS, hired assassin reader, hidden identity, fake identity and name, Bangtan breaking reader's mind slowly, panic attacks, anxiety, threats of abuse, non consensual touch, they watched and stalk reader like hawks, obsessive and yandere tendencies, power dynamic, more lies, reader's not just an assassin but an actress too. Be careful while reading, it's pretty triggering at the end.

Series masterlist.

Navigation Masterlist.

Chapters: I, II, III, IV.

SECOND BULLET II:

. . . . . . .

You stand in front of your wall, watching all the pinned photos of Bangtan with a red string connecting all of them. The string was bonding their faces with natal cities, possible families or relatives, and also, schools, universities and friends they might have in their past.

You were collecting information since yesterday. You started your investigation as soon as you got home after meeting them. You didn’t sleep at all, but lucky for you, you had some friends that were hackers and computer programmers that helped you to get more information about Bangtan’s past.

It wasn’t easy to try to discover their past, in fact, there is a big void of information about them. Just two of them had social media years ago, now inactive; belonging to Jimin and Jungkook, the others don’t have many information about them on the internet.

They were like ghosts, not that it surprises you though. It was pretty common to not find many information about the people working in this business. But even though, they usually have some kind of digital footprint, unless they faked their dead to exist as someone else, as some ghost with no past.

“What are you guys hiding that forced you to getting erased from earth,” you muttered to yourself, with your fingers on your chin and eyes narrowed at the wall.

This was becoming even more interesting than before. Not many targets of yours acted like shadows hiding their identity, that was your job. You were breed for this type of life, for lying and killing. You have no digital footprint and no real identity attached to you. You were a ghost, but so were they.

Filth lures filth. But the similarities and the challenges only made you even more excited.

The real mystery was; why were they erased from life? Why did they bother if they were just a small criminal organization, one that doesn’t have a lot of enemies.

Hiding and faking deaths were for spies only -for hitmen-, not gang members.

You bit your bottom lip watching every bit of information you have collected. Nothing about that information was certain or proved to be true, they were just assumptions.

Your phone ringing pulled you out of your thoughts, you frowned when you saw Jungkook’s name on your screen, but you answered the call anyway.

“Yes?” You didn’t even say hello, it was rude to call at three in the morning. But you were also curious of why was he calling you.

“Uhm hi, I’m-I’m sorry for calling you this late, I just… uhm, I need your help, it’s really important.” He stuttered, sounding hesitant of your reaction.

You hummed at his words, glancing at his pictured pinned to your wall.

“Sure thing, where’s the body?” You teased, hearing Jungkook’s chuckle at the other side of the phone.

“Don’t worry, I don’t need your help for that stuff,” he teased back.

You blinked, taken aback by him again.

“So…?”

There was a couple of seconds of silence between you two, until he took courage to speak up again.

“My hyungs never take me seriously, they-they believe I can’t control my emotions, that I can’t contribute with something… good. I feel like a puppy to them sometimes, although I have so much to thank Namjoon for… I still feel left out.”

You listened carefully to his blurted words, recording the call and taking mental notes of some interesting points, like him being grateful to Namjoon to the point that he thinks he owns him obedience.

And also, the supposed lack of control of his emotions.

Everything he said can be weaponized against him.

“I think I already know where’s this going. You want me to include you in my plans, am I right?”

“Please,” he whispered, with desperation written on his voice.

You grinned widely.

“All right, let’s do that.”

There was silence again, one that made you feel uncomfortable.

“You aren’t hiding something from us, right? Like your identity? I mean… everybody hides something, but faking an identity it’s just plaint betrayal.”

His tone dropped an octave. His words felt like a dangerous threat hiding underneath fake naivety. You felt shivers on your body.

“I’m real.” It’s all you said, regretting not elaborating more.

He let out a dark chuckle.

“Good, because I like you, and I don’t like liars. There’s a reason why my hyungs don’t let me… deal with people, because when I’m hurt, I can get a little bit… crazy.” He whispered lowly, but you heard his every word loud and clear.

You felt like throwing up, and you don’t know why.

“Bye Jungkook,” you were too uncomfortable and too tired to do this at three in the morning.

“Bye my little Ann, remember our little secret… deal. And don’t worry about my hyungs discovering us, I’m good at protecting what is mine.” He said it like a warn before hanging up the call.

Your heart was pounding and your hands trembled. You inhaled and exhaled sharply, trying to calm yourself down, but it was useless; you were having a panic attack.

You sat on a chair, covering tightly your ears and shutting your eyes close.

I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe I’m safe.

You mumble those words to yourself like a prayer in a loop, believing that if you say it more times and more loudly, the bad thoughts will stop tormenting you.

You had some heavy childhood traumas, but you tried to cope with them with your work and success. But things like people finding out your plans and making you feel dumb, served as trigger for your deepest insecurities.

Your Bruderherz was right, they were a difficult task. And for the first time in your life, you were doubting your skills.

Fuck Bangtan, you won’t let them outsmart you that easy.

But maybe they will; whispered that ugly and cruel voice at the back of your head.

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

You weren’t feeling okay. You felt dizzy and exhausted, Jungkook’s words haunted you even in your dreams, making you unable to sleep a blink last night.

Your mind wasn’t present at all, and someone in the room noticed it.

“What are you thinking about?” Asked Yoongi scrutinizing you with narrowed eyes, his stare was fixated on you since the moment you put a foot in their mansion.

You blinked, pulled from your thoughts by his question.

“Nothing important,” you said back with a shrug.

Yoongi stands inches in front of you, looking straight into your eyes. There was a little frown in his brows, and his cat eyes glinted with inquisitiveness. He can see right throughout you, and you didn’t like that at all.

 “What?” You snapped at him, but he didn’t even flinch, unbothered by your menacing stare.

“Tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it, I want your full attention on this plan, on us.”

You widened your eyes, taken aback by his words. But his concern was unnecessary, because the source of your worry was one of his friends.

“It’s okay, don’t bother. I’ll pay more attention.” You cleared your throat, dropping your gaze on the digital map of the tactile screen from the table.

You felt fingers gripping and turning your chin towards Yoongi again. His eyes were intense, studying carefully your expression.

“Who’s bothering you? Tell me now,” he commanded with a deep frown. Impatience flashing his dark eyes.

You didn’t say anything at first, you won’t tell him that Jungkook’s been plotting behind their back, at least not now. You’re saving that piece of information for later, so you can have something to use against Jungkook and to tear their gang apart.

And also, you would never tell him about your stupid panic attacks, so you have to make up a good lie.

“It’s my dad, he’s been… insufferable lately. But I guess he’s just worry about me being far away from him.”

Yoongi didn’t say anything back, nodding slowly at your words with his arms crossed over his chest. You weren’t sure if he believed you or not.

“If I were your dad, I’d lock you up, considering how reckless you are.” He teased with a mocking smirk curling on his lips.

“I like that idea very much,” said Jimin coming from nowhere, grinning mischievous at the both of you.

You rolled playfully your eyes at him, although the uneasy feeling churning in your stomach didn’t disappear.

People sometimes tend to say truths throughout “harmless” jokes. And coming from them, you’d take seriously everything they say.

You became aware of them throwing glances at you and taking notice of your grumpy demeanor. That’s why you changed your sulking behavior, giving them your full attention and participating more in the plan.

You almost forgot the most important rule; you can’t show them insecurity, you can’t show them weakness, or they’ll eat you alive.

You shield all of your emotions and thoughts. Standing tall, making a room for you in this kind of meeting, and holding everyone’s gaze, even though you were anxious in the inside.

Your plan of getting rid of them was becoming more difficult as the days goes by, and that’s starting to worry you. You knew they wouldn’t be an easy target, and that this plan will take some time, but they’re suspecting you, watching your every move more carefully, warily.

“You’ve been acting strange all day,” Namjoon’s deep voice coming from behind you made you startle. You turned around to face him with your heart pounding in your ears.

You look up at him, holding his gaze. He was staring down at you with curiosity.

“Yeah, I noticed you all staring at me like hawks. I just had a bad day with my dad, that’s all,” you said crossing your arms over your chest, and then uncrossing them, remembering that that’s a way of showing defensiveness through your body language.

Namjoon took noticed of the movement, looking lost in thought.

“For some reason, I don’t believe you.”

He didn’t state it as an accusation but as a fact, like he genuinely believes that you’re being dishonest with him.

You were truly impressed by the sharp mind of these guys, but you won’t let them win, not now and not ever.

“I’m just… so tired of this lifestyle so to speak, and yes, I know you warned me before, but I want my dad to let me live my life for once, just for once, here, in this city.” You said biting your bottom lip in worry, averting your gaze to the side.

You mixed your real feelings with lies, because that would make your vulnerable act more credible.

Were you really tired of this lifestyle? Of fucking course, but you were more tired of not finishing their lives quickly. You want your trip to Europe so bad, to take a break from a life you didn’t ask for.

You watched him frowning at your words, with concern flashing his eyes. You noticed that he was the type of person that worries a bit too much about other people, that’s why he’s the one in charge, because he knows all too well the weight of taking responsibility for others.

“I see.” That’s all he said, with his dark gaze piercing you, trying to see right throughout you.

You noticed his gaze shifting to behind your back, and a devilish smirk curling on his lips.

“Hello there, grumpy girl,” whispered hotly someone into your ear, making you gasp and startle. You turned your head back to meet with Hoseok, he gripped your shoulders while looking into your eyes with mischievousness.

“Why don’t we bring this spoiled and absent-minded girl to Seokjin?” Said Namjoon staring piercingly at you, making you frown.

“What-“

“Shall we?” Asked Hoseok with amusement.

And before you could say anything, Namjoon gripped tightly your hand, almost dragging you towards Bangtan’s office where Seokjin was sitting in front of the desk, with all of the other members sitting comfortably on the couch. They looked at you immediately after you put a foot in their office.

“Here she is,” hummed Yoongi.

“Ann, please take a seat,” Seokjin gestured to the chair in front of the desk. You did as he said as smoothly as possible, not wanting to show them the turmoil of thoughts racing your mind.

“What’s up guys? I feel like I’m being scolded by the school’s principal,” you chuckled with a forced smile, trying to ease the tension of your shoulders and of the room.

You heard Jimin giggle at your back, but Seokjin’s poker face and tight lips made you feel even more worry.

“I- well, we noticed that you weren’t mentally present at all in the meeting.”

You couldn’t help to huff and roll your eyes at him, they were acting really dense with the topic, you have never met someone in your life that cared that much about your attention and inner conflicts.

“I already told you all why, it was just a personal issue with my dad.”

Irritation flashed Seokjin’s narrowed eyes. You supposed he didn’t like your attitude at all. But well, not only were you feeling drained by them, but your character is supposed to be a spoiled girl who doesn’t know boundaries, even with dangerous people like him. Maybe that’s why he said nothing to your rude tone.

“Yes, you say it a hundredth times. But I don’t want to talk about your dad, I can’t care less for him. I want you to fix whatever that problem is, because we need everyone in this room to be present physically and mentally at all times.”

There was a sour expression flashing Seokjin’s face, but besides that, he looked very professional, cold and composed.

They weren’t playing around with their business; you should’ve known better.

“And also… we can help you with your little problem, in fact, we’re looking forward to it.” This time, a wolfish grin curled on his lips, and his eyes glinted with intensity, fixated piercingly on you.

Your heart stopped at his words. You frowned glancing around the room to look at the members, they were staring at you like wolves circling their prey, and you didn’t like that at all. You felt trapped. But you felt even more confused as to why were they so eager to help you.

“But… why?” You muttered, looking back at Seokjin.

Seokjin’s grin widened at your question, leaning his upper body closer to you across the desk.

“Because as long as you work for us, we own you. And we took really good care of our proprieties, even if they’re temporary. We’re a very territorial group, and we like to protect each other, otherwise we wouldn’t be here alive.”

You widened your eyes and parted your mouth with genuine shock, you felt as if he had poured a bucket of cold water on you.

His tone felt possessive, they really think you belong to them. They see you as their property, according to Seokjin’s literal words. You couldn’t believe what he just said, you wanted to hysterically laugh on his face, in fact, you bit your bottom lip to stop yourself from cracking up with laughter. They were so, so funny.

“Oh, that’s really interesting. So that means you all belong to me too, temporary, of course.” You teased, feeling the confidence return to your body.

“Yes, of fucking course sweetheart,” purred Jimin from the couch, devouring you with his half-lidded gaze.

Your smile fell a little, they were so strange.

“We all belong to each other in this room, that’s why you should be careful to not betray us. You need to trust us and earn our trust; we are a really loyal group.” Remarked calmly Namjoon, as if he was talking about the weather and not about owning you like a pet.

“Well, they said that betrayal comes from the people we trust the most, and I am a simple stranger for you guys. I won’t be a disloyal rat, I get it okay? Because I’ll be in danger. Let’s move on from that topic, shall we?”

Your patience was running thin, you felt the primal need to flee from this den of wolves.

“Don’t get too cocky, you belong to us but that doesn’t mean you have power over us,” Growled Taehyung from behind you.

“Taehyung,” warned Yoongi with a frown.

The boy got up of the couch, walking away with clenched fists. You didn’t know what set him off this time. He always looks angry.

“Don’t take it personal, he’s just afraid of liking you too much,” said nonchalant Yoongi, making you feel surprised.

“You’re dismissed, Ann.”

You take happily your leave, taking notice of Jungkook smirking and winking at you before you leave the office. His gesture made you feel shivers.

You learn two important things today; 1) they took notice of everything; nothing escapes their sight. And 2) They were really, but really loyal to each other, so much that it scares you a little.

But all of that can be used on your favor, as they say; divide and rule. If you can turn them against each other, then you will have power over them.

You felt a rush of greed run your veins, the five million of dollar worth nothing in comparison to owning and stealing their legacy. You can rule Bangtan and get rid of them, killing two birds with one stone.

You just hope that they never found out who you really are, because if so, you chose to die before letting them get their crazy hands on you.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

You were yanked towards a dark room in your way to the mansion’s doors. A hand on your mouth muzzles your screams, your eyes tear up with fear when you were dragged into the room, watching another male closing and locking the door behind you, trapping the three of you inside.

“Shhh, it’s okay we just want to have a chat with you, we won’t hurt you.” You recognized Jungkook’s voice, he mouthed those words with your back glued to his front body.

“We’ll be nice only if you cooperate,” hissed Taehyung walking towards you.

You blink quickly your eyes trying to accommodate them to the darkness of the room. You spot Taehyung’s silhouette inches from your body, he looked even more threatening this closely.

You nodded slowly after seconds of uncomfortable silence. Jungkook let go of your mouth, but his arm gripped your waist instead, pushing you harder into his chest.

You gulped your fear and discomfort away. You can’t show them weakness, or they’ll eat you alive.

“What do you want from me? Wouldn’t it be easier if you asked me like normal people? This is unnecessary, even if you want me to bury a body, I would help you guys, no need for the theatrics.” You scolded with a sigh, trying to arrange your shirt down but Jungkook’s arm didn’t let you.

“You always have an answer for everything, don’t you?” Taehyung huffed with annoyance, leaning his body even closer to you, making you stiffen. “We drag you here to have a private conversation, without our hyungs.”

That spike your interest very quickly, you quirk a brow, wanting to know their intentions.

“I’m all ears,” you said, resting your back deeply into Jungkook’s front, you heard him inhale sharp.

Taehyung explained to you how he needs to participate more in your plan, and he heard from Jungkook how you will help the younger. Long story short; the both of them basically want you to include them more, like little boys wanting to have more credit to impress their hyungs. It was almost adorable.

And you will help them, but that help will come with a price.

Divide and rule.

“Glad to make business with you,” teased Taehyung after the three of you came with an agreement.

You tried to pull away from Jungkook’s grip but that boy didn’t let you go, and before you could say anything to him, Taehyung’s body brushing yours made your heart stop.

His nose was near yours, with his hot breath brushing your lips. You were trapped between the both of them, and suddenly you felt claustrophobic, like a weak prey cornered into its predator’s trap.

“Now, what do you want?” Your voice quivered, betraying you.

Although you couldn’t see their smiles, you could felt them anyway.

“We’ll give you a little show of what will happen if you try to turn us against our hyungs.” Threatened Taehyung lowly.

And then Taehyung’s body crashed against yours, making Jungkook ram into the wall behind them, dragging you with him. The both of them were glued to your back and front, making you feel asphyxiated. They were stronger, making it impossible for you to free yourself from their python grip.

You felt Jungkook’s lips kissing your neck, with his tongue lapping slowly the skin like a thirsty dog. The grip of his arm around your waist tightens painfully.

Taehyung spread your ankles apart with his foot, positioning his groin uncomfortably closer to yours, you felt his lips brushing your cheeks, melting you with desire and fear. You didn’t want this, but your body reactions were out of your control, and you hated not being in control.

“You’ll rape me? You think that will scare me?” You defy them breathless.

The both of them chuckled at your words.

“Oh, you have no idea what we’ll do, our hyungs will participate too, and believe me; they’re crazier,” mouthed Taehyung near your lips, his words made you feel shivers.

“If you get into their hands, you won’t see the light of the day ever again. You’ll be our little puppy, trained to obey us,” coed Jungkook behind you, sounding eager for that to happen.

You felt dread at their words, your worst fear was being deprived of your freedom and autonomy.

“Okay okay! I get it, let me go please,” you plead, and they stopped immediately, letting you go.

You felt your knees wobbling when Jungkook stopped holding you, like a baby dear learning to walk.

That day you got to your home with a blank gaze, ignoring your hackers’ work partners.

And when you sleep, you dream of ropes and devilish smirks, tying a leash around your neck.

You were fucked up.

Taglist:

@demonshauntingthedoves @pynkgothicka @itlover8000 @monochromaticfawn @devilzliaison @11thenightwemet11 @deluluisdasolulu @shailari @queenc22x

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Hackin'

King: i can't believe elon's grok is pretending i'm friends with him King: i need to stop that AI before everyone believes it! King: i've got to hire a hacker King: franz, you've got to help me Franz Kafka: what? me? Barker: steve, no

Kafka: i'm not a hacker King: oh i thought franz was a hacker Barker: what gave you THAT impression? King: you know, with the cat ear headphones and the striped thigh socks Barker: no steve that's something ENTIRELY different Kafka: n-no it isn't, on second thought yes I'm totally a hacker

Kafka: it means i'm a hacker, nothing else Barker: sure franz Kafka: it does! it totally means i'm a hacker! Barker: franz, go play with your blahaj plush, the adults are talking here

Barker: you know who you need? you need william gibson Barker: the best hacker money can buy King: william gibson? how do i contact him? Barker: you don't Barker: he'll contact you

King: can you really hack grok, william? William Gibson: [wearing black duster and fingerless black gloves] my hacker name is shadow gigabyte King: oh sorry Gibson: can i hack grok? listen kid i was cyberbyting the megabyte mainframe when you were just rebooting your motherboard mouse data bandwidth modem email King: wow!

Gibson: my CPU is a neural net processer, a learning computer King: wow he really sounds like he knows what he's talking about! King: that definitely sounds like hacker talk to me Gibson: CD Rom Gibson: internet Joe Hill: dad can i talk to you for a second King: not now joe daddy's hiring a hacker

Gibson: [wildly slapping keyboard] i'll re-index the mega bit blaster cyber codex Gibson: [wildly slapping keyboard] now we'll cybersecurity the lock box data center King: hey what happens if you push that button? Gibson: what the-- no!! [klaxons sound] King: what's that mean? Gibson: shit Gibson: we've got company

Gibson: sentient cyber virus electronic guard cyberbots Gibson: real high tech Gibson: state of the art in bio-tech wetware neural-data scrapers Gibson: [putting on sunglasses with red laser scope] and they ain't friendly

King: what are we going to do?! Gibson: kid, you keep your hands to yourself unless you wanna become roadkill on the information super highway!!! Gibson: hold on to your CPU (central processing unit)!!!

Gibson: [wildly slapping keyboard] gotta reconfigure the darkweb logistics for ethernet wavetech Gibson: [wildly slapping keyboard] upload the memory downloader for dumpware backup Gibson: [wildly slapping keyboard] uncodify the cyberpatch modifer aaaaand Gibson: i'm in

King: wow, you hacked twitter?? how did you do it? Gibson: the greatest hackers never reveal their secrets [earlier] Gibson: [wearing fake mustache] hey elon its me catturd Gibson: could you give me your password? Elon Musk: sure it's "picklerick420"!

[nottslove]

— HACKER!THEO

WARNING: 18+, exploitation, not for minors.

HACKER!THEO, who has been obsessed with you for god knows how long, who has gotten addicted to stalking you on the internet.

HACKER!THEO, who has hacked into your home security system, and has every, single room of your house on his screen.

HACKER!THEO, who knows your daily routine better than you do, who knows exactly what time you'll go for a run, and what time you'll go swimming.

HACKER!THEO, who jerks off to you swimming in those tiny bikinis you decide to wear, thinking no one else is around to see you.

HACKER!THEO, who watches your every move through his screen, who jerks off to watching you change your clothes right after you come from the shower, thinking you're all alone.

HACKER!THEO, who watches you touch yourself at night before you go to sleep, simultaneously jerking off and moaning your name.

HACKER!THEO, who hacked his way into your onlyfans.

HACKER!THEO, who knows all your likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams and aspirations.

HACKER!THEO, who had originally been hired to investigate you, but ended up falling so fucking hard for you.

so i randomly got the idea for hacker!theo and now i can't unsee it!! so excited for this, and i can't wait to write more for him.

this idea is original, please do not steal or copy.

profile; nav;

©nottslove 2025. do not copy, steal or claim any works/graphics as your own.

[dreamescapeswriting]

Dancing In The Shadows ~ LF [MATURE WARNING]

CONTINUATION OF THIS PIECE

WORD COUNT: 5.4K

GENRE: mafia AU, hacker reader, felix technically kidnapping her, insta love (sorry but its fun to write hehe) enemies to lovers? Cute, fluffy, SMUT MINORS DNI, protected sex, public sex (kinda) links into the other stories too ehe

PAIRING: Felix X Fem!Reader

⤜Copyright: © DreamEscapesWriting - February 2024

⤜MASTERLIST

Felix sat behind his imposing mahogany desk, his eyes fixed on you as you stood before him, pulling on the sleeves of your hoodie nervously as you waited for him to say something. You were the reason for his recent financial troubles...well, not really, Felix had more money than he knew what to do with but you'd been the one with the balls big enough to steal from him. The one who had infiltrated his bank accounts with such skill and finesse that even Felix had to admire your audacity. Felix wasn't stupid though, he'd done his research before he'd "hired" you, taking you from your boss with the impression he'd bring you back but it simply wasn't true.

Once he had you he simply wasn't going to just throw you back, you were a once in a lifetime catch and he wasn't dumb enough to drop that. In the hacking world, you were simply known as Firecracker. No one knew who you were by physical appearance but the jobs you would do told people what they needed to know. 

You stole from the rich to give to the poor, a real modern-day Robin Hood. If Felix wasn't so rich he would have been pissed off at you for trying it on him.

"You've got guts, I'll give you that," He finally spoke, his gravelly voice breaking the silence and making butterflies flutter inside of you, you hated them for it. Ever since he'd taken you from work you couldn't stop the tingles in your back or the butterflies whenever he'd touch you or speak to you. 

"Hacking into my accounts takes some serious skills. I should be mad, but I'm impressed." All things he'd already told you in the office but was going back over on his own, leaning forward he studied you closely. He wanted to know more about the elusive Firecracker that no law enforcement or underworld man had been able to catch. 

"So, what? You're going to kill me now?" You'd seen the man standing outside of his office with guns, he might have promised you a job when you were at work but who was to say it wasn't just some ploy to get you to go with him.

"I gave you my word. I take that seriously," Felix said as he leaned back in his chair, a sly grin playing on his lips as he watched you. While you were faking confidence he could see the nerves seeping out of you and it impressed him more than he would have liked to admit.

"I want you to work for me," He declared, you arched an eyebrow at him. 

"You've proven yourself to be quite the asset, and I could use someone with your talents, you already stated my computer security sucks...So fix it." He turned his desktop computer around and you blinked at the screen before turning back to face the man who was watching you closely.

"And if I refuse?" It wasn't like you had much of a choice but you wanted to know the repurcations.

"Then I'll have to resort to less pleasant methods of persuasion. But trust me, you'll find it much more lucrative to be on my payroll." Kissing your teeth a little you looked back at the computer. Despite your better judgment, you found yourself intrigued by the offer. You'd never worked for anyone but yourself in the security way before, but the idea of being affiliated with one of the most powerful crime families in the city was undeniably tempting.

"I have conditions." You weren't dumb, you were going to do this with rules in place. You'd seen enough movies and read enough articles about the underworld that you had to be prepared.

"I would be surprised if you didn't." A slight smirk played on his lips as he watched you scramble to think of something but he couldn't help but think about how beautiful you were, how cute he found it whenever you'd play with the sleeves of your shirt.

"I want full access to your network. I need to know everything about your system if I'm meant to be fixing it." He nodded at you, it was his full intention to give you anything you asked for. Hell, he'd give you a house and a more stable job if that was something you wanted from him.

"Okay. What else?" He got out a notepad, ready to write down a list of everything you wanted but you just stared at him,

"Lastly. Once I've fixed it, I'm out. No strings attached." The pen in his hand stilled as he stared down at the notepad, it had never occurred to him that you would want to leave but he nodded,

"Fine. But I have a feeling you'll want to stick around." He tried to make it seem as though he was joking but you shook your head.

"Nothing will make me stay, Mr Lee." You sounded so sure of yourself and maybe you were but now that Felix had you there was no way he was going to let you go so easily.

"Hmm. We'll see." He mumbled, getting up and readying his office for you to use.

With determination and skill, you set to work. You fortified Felix's digital defences, erecting layers of encryption and implementing state-of-the-art security protocols. It was insane how poor his security was for someone who was supposed to be the best of the best. You thought you would have been working alone but Felix watched you work the whole time. You spent every night in your own room in his huge house, the two of you would eat meals together giving you time to get to know each other which was something you were feeling unsure about.

The more time you spent with him the more you wanted to leave, growing attached to someone was never an option for you and getting attached to a criminal? Never. 

But Felix found himself falling for you and hard, every day you'd work he would watch you with a mixture of fascination and admiration, impressed by your intellect and resourcefulness.

But as the days turned into weeks and your job neared completion, Felix found himself growing reluctant to let you go. He had his men ruin some of your work so that you'd stay around longer but it was getting harder and harder to do that with how good your work was. He had grown accustomed to your presence, your sharp wit and unwavering confidence a welcome distraction from the monotony of his daily life.

You pushed your chair away from his desk, smirking to yourself. You were unbelievably proud of how well you'd done your job, despite the obstacles that had been thrown in the way. 

"I've fixed your security systems, Lix," You announced, Felix's smile dropped from his lips as he stared back at you. He knew this time would be coming but he thought he would have more time than this. 

"It's time for me to move on." You stretched in the chair, your heart breaking at the thought of leaving him but you weren't going to listen to it. Felix's heart sank at the thought of losing you.

"I- I still need your help," He stuttered a little, he hated that he was stuttering but you were the one person who turned him into a nervous wreck with just one look.

"I fixed everything Lix, everything is unbreakable." You weren't going to allow yourself to stay any longer, you'd already felt yourself falling and you wanted to stop it in your tracks.

"Firecracker...Come on, you're the best of the best. I need you around," He sounded desperate but he honestly didn't care, he didn't want you to leave. Not when he was so close to you now. As soon as you were gone he'd be alone and the thought of that terrified him.

"You'll find someone who's just as good." You shrugged, you knew people who could replace you and if he really wanted you could get him their names.

"I can't let you go." He said simply as the door to his office opened,

"You promised." Your voice was strained as you realised what he was going to do.

"I'm sorry."

"You said you kept your word!" You screamed as two of his men stood at the door, holding their guns another led you to the room you'd been staying in.

"I hate you!" You screamed at the door, Felix' stared down at the floor. He knew he could get you to like him, he just needed a little more time with you.

You were trapped, despite your skills, you'd been no match for Felix and his powerful organization. Reluctantly, you resigned yourself to your fate, knowing that you were at Felix's mercy.

It had been a few weeks since Felix had taken you in, every day you were forced to spend meal times with him. You hated him but at the same time, your heart was still falling for him, despite him taking you hostage. 

"Yn, you have to speak to me eventually," Felix stated as he watched you walk away from him. You'd spent most of the meals in silence, with Felix taking the conversations and talking about his day mostly. 

"Why? You want me to be some trophy in your grasp, trophies don't speak." You mumbled. It was the first time he'd heard you speak in weeks and even though it was a mumble it was music to Felix's ears. In the dimly lit confines of the home, tension hung heavy in the air as you turned on your heels to face him.

On one hand, you hated him for taking you but on another, he had taken you away from everything you hated about the real world. You were given the freedom to explore - with an armed guard by your side. You had no bills to pay, no responsibilities, it was nice...It would have been nicer if it hadn't been against your will.

"Yn, you have to understand," He pleaded, his voice tinged with desperation as he tried to justify his actions as if that was even possible. 

"I didn't take you hostage because I wanted to. I did it because... because I couldn't bear the thought of losing you." You scoffed a little, your eyes flashing with anger as you met his gaze, your fists clenched at your sides. He was unbelievable.

"That doesn't excuse what you did," You retorted, your voice sharp with reproach. 

"You can't just kidnap someone and expect them to forgive you because you're afraid of being alone." You grumbled at him, folding your arms across your chest, you weren't just going to forgive him for kidnapping you just because he gave you some piss-poor excuse.

Felix winced at your words, the weight of his guilt pressing down on him like a suffocating blanket. He knew that he had crossed a line, and had violated the trust of the one person he cared about more than anything else in the world. Even though he'd barely known you, part of him knew the two of you were meant to be together and he wanted it to work more than anything.

But if he'd let you leave when you were supposed to, he never would have seen you again and this had been the only logical part his brain could come up with. 

"I know I messed up,"  He admitted, his voice thick with remorse, it was now or never to make it up to you. 

"And I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I swear. But please, just give me a chance to prove that my feelings for you are real, that I'm not just some monster trying to control your life." Your anger softened slightly at his words, your heart aching with the weight of his confession. 

"I love you...I have a shitty way of showing it but I do." You blinked at him. Love? He barely knew you. 

"Your idea of loving me is to kidnap me and force me to stay against my will?" A pang of guilt shot through his chest as he stared at you.

"I'm sorry, Yn, I know I messed up and I'll do whatever it takes to make it right, but please...Just...Just give me a chance to prove to you my feelings are genuine." You wanted to believe him more than anything in the world but it was hard when everyone in your life had used love as a weapon.

"I want to believe you, Felix," You whispered, your voice tinged with uncertainty.

"But you have to understand that trust isn't something you can just demand from someone. It has to be earned, and right now, I'm not sure if I can ever trust you." Felix's heart sank at your words, the realization of his mistakes hitting him like a freight train. 

"I'll do whatever it takes," he promised, his voice trembling a little, he was willing to do anything to get you to agree to be his. 

"I'll make things right, I swear. Just please... please don't give up on me." You stared at him, biting the inside of your cheek as you thought about it.

"I'll have conditions." If you were going to give this a real chance then you were going to do it with your own conditions and speculations.

"Anything." He breathed out, relief sounding in his voice as you finally agreed to him.

"I want to go out more. Alone." You stated plainly, that all you wanted was time alone. Time to go out without someone watching your every move.

"Anything but that." He bit off a little, his tone unsure of what to make of that. What if you ran? What if you found a way out and never came back?

"You said you want me to trust you but you won't trust me," You snapped at him angrily, the anger bubbling over and finally spilling.

"Yn-"

"That's the only thing I want. Time alone." He sighed a little and rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking back to you before nodding.

"Fine. You'll come back?" You knew running would be useless but part of you didn't even want to run.

"I promise." You whispered as he watched you, his eyes narrowing a little as if he were trying to figure out if you were lying or not.

"There's a ball coming up. A charity one, you can go shopping for a gown and accessories." He told you,

"I don't have money," With that, he handed you a black car with a smile on his lips.

"Buy yourself something nice," You stared down at the black card. Oh, you were planning on buying something nice, but it wasn't just going to be one thing.

You found yourself decked out in silk and diamonds, courtesy of Felix's card that you'd kept on you ever since you'd gotten back from your little trip. Felix carefully walked you through the grand hall and smiled as he looked around, the event was in full swing as people began to mingle with one another. But you were the only person Felix wanted to spend all night talking to. Felix escorted you through the grand ballroom, all of these things had become to the same for him over the years but he would always make sure he came to them to donate a wealthy sum before leaving.

Only tonight, he wanted to stay. He wanted to take you out on the dance floor and show you off in the stunning dress you'd worn and let everyone know that you were his.

"This place is so beautiful." You gasped out, you couldn't believe your eyes. The opulent chandeliers cast a soft glow all over the room, soft music played through the hall and people chatted among themselves. 

"You look beautiful," He whispered in your ear, smiling to himself as he looked at you. Ever since you'd walked down to him that night he hadn't been able to keep his eyes off you, not that he ever did before. Your attention slowly turned to Felix who was dressed in a tailored suit, looking as handsome as ever.

"You look handsome," You whispered, part of you wanted to hate him for keeping you hostage but after almost maxing out his card - or so you'd hoped - you were starting to feel a lot better about everything.

Felix began to navigate through the crowds of people and the more you walked the more out of place you began to feel. All of the people in attendance were wealthy and powerful people, you were a hacker who had a chance incounter with a man worth more than you could possibly think about. The further you walked the more aware you were of the curious glances and whispered rumours that were being passed around. Felix didn't even seem fazed by them as he reached for a tray of champagne and handed one of them to you.

"To a wonderful night," He cheered to you, both of you drinking from your glasses until his phone started to ring inside of his pocket, smiling weakly he pulled it out.

"Hello...Yes, this is he," He mumbled into the phone before turning to look at you, and you smirked already knowing what the phone call was about.

"200K...Hmm," He hummed as he stared at you, he had to admit he was a little impressed with how much you'd managed to spend on the card he gave to you.

"No, not to worry. That wasn't fraud, just my future wife throwing a tantrum. Alright, thank you."

"Future wife?" You giggled a little as he licked his lips slowly and shook his head at you,

"200K? What did you even buy?"

"A whole computer system, a whole new wardrobe and some diamonds." You showed him the earrings you were wearing and he couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"You didn't give me a spending limit," You shrugged it off, you expected him to get mad but Felix was quite impressed. He never thought you'd be able to spend that much in one day.

"For you? There's never a limit baby," He smirked before kissing your lips softly. For a fleeting moment, you forgot about the dangers that lurked outside the ballroom walls, or that you'd been taken hostage by Felix. You just allowed yourself to feel happy, wrapping your arms around the back of his neck and kissing him back deeper this time. 

Tonight, you weren't just some hacker girl that Felix had brought along to the ball to play Cinderella for the night and you weren't his captive. You were simply a woman lost in the enchantment of the moment, captivated by the enigmatic man at your side.

As you slowly pulled away from one another there was something different in Felix's eyes, 

"What's wrong?" You were almost scared your kiss had been bad but he shook his head at you, hesitating for a moment as he thought about what he could say to you. He wanted to let you go, to let you leave the home if that was what you truly wanted but part of him was scared you'd never come back. Taking in a deep breath he reached out, his hand trembling slightly as he cupped your cheek,

"Yn, there's something I need to tell you." Your heart skipped a beat as you stared at him, waiting for him to say something but your heart raced faster with anticipation. 

"What is it?" Your voice barely came out above a whisper as you stared at him. With a sigh, Felix searched your eyes, his gaze intense and unwavering. 

"I know that our relationship began under... unconventional circumstances," he admitted, making you smirk a little.

"But as I've come to know you, I've realized that you are so much more than just a skilled hacker. You're intelligent, brave, and fiercely independent—a woman unlike any other I've ever met." He had no idea where he was going with this, it wasn't something he'd rehearsed. But your heart was fluttering at his words, your chest swelling with warmth you'd never felt before.

"And...I find myself, drawn to you in ways I can't quite explain." Your hand slowly moved to cup his cheek and you felt how hot he was getting,

"You've become an integral part of my life. And I don't want to imagine a world without you in it."

"Felix..."

"I know I technically held you captive so...I understand if you don't want to stay with me but I needed to let you know my feelings are true." He looked at you, swallowing a lump the size of a boulder in his throat,

"But I'm going to let you go. You can leave the house, you can move out."

"Lix," You whispered, your voice trembling with emotion as you stared at him. His confession washed over you as you watched him closely, you felt the same way for him and hearing him say he was willing to let you go made you only want to stay.

"I feel the same way, I-I never wanted to...I always thought love was   just a weapon but you..." You didn't even know where to start with him.

"You care for me more than I ever thought possible." You whispered to him before Felix' blushed,

"Dance with me?" You added before he nodded, taking your hand in his.

As you swayed in each other's arms, the world around you faded into insignificance, leaving only the gentle embrace of the music and the warmth of your shared connection. Your head was rested against Felix's chest, your heart racing with a mixture of nerves and excitement. Despite the lavish surroundings and the curious glances of the other guests, you felt safe and protected in his arms, as if nothing else mattered but the two of you at that moment.

Felix held you close, his touch gentle yet possessive as you moved together in perfect harmony around the floor. With each step, he felt the weight of his past sins and regrets fall away, replaced by a sense of peace and contentment that he had never known before.

"Lix," You breathed out as you stared up at him, your eyes sparking a little as he stared down at you. In a moment of unspoken understanding, your dance slowed, your movements becoming more intimate as you gazed into each other's eyes. The soft melody continued to play, wrapping around you like a cocoon as you drew closer, your breaths mingling in the air.

With a gentle touch, he cupped your cheek, his thumb brushing against your skin as he leaned in, his lips hovering just inches from yours. your heart raced in anticipation, your eyes fluttering closed as you surrendered to the inevitable. You'd kissed before but now there felt a sudden pressure for this one.

Your lips met in a tender, electrifying kiss—a silent declaration of the feelings that had been simmering beneath the surface for so long. Time seemed to stand still as you lost yourselves in each other, the world around them fading completely as you shared a moment of pure, uncontrolled passion.

"Follow me," You breathed out, grabbing his hand in yours as you made your way through the crowds, ignoring the people who were staring and mumbling. Right now you needed Felix and you didn't have time for pleasantries as you made your way through the hall.

"Here?" He chuckles as he lifts you up onto the countertop of the bathroom you'd just dragged him inside of, your heart racing as you watch him closely.

"What if someone comes in?" He arches a brow at you before you drag him closer to you by his tie. He knew no one would come in, his men had followed him to the door and were no doubt waiting outside refusing anyone entry if they tried.

"Then they'll see we're busy and leave." You grumbled before kissing him, this time the kiss was deeper and more intense as you pushed off the blazer he was wearing onto the floor and worked on the buttons of his shirt.

"Someone's very needy." He chuckles to himself as you glare at him, you weren't in the mood for any games, you needed him and you weren't afraid to show it.

"Shut up and do something about it then,"

"Gladly." He groans, his hands rolling up your dress until he exposes your bare core and he smirks to himself,

"No panties?" He arched his brow at you and you giggled spreading your legs for him to get a better view. His eyes run down your body, his tongue darting out to wet his lip.

"You're so fucking beautiful," He groans, his hands drifting to your thighs, his knuckles catching on the edge of your pussy making you whimper.

"You take my breath away," He tells you breathlessly,

"Prove it." You demand, spreading your legs, his eyes drop to your pussy and he groans instantly falling to his knees. You were the only woman he would ever drop to his knees for like this. Having the great Lee Felix on his knees for you sent a power trip through you like no other. You grab his head as he trails his tongue along your slit making you whimper a little at him,

"Please." You plead with him, your hips bucking a little toward him as he chuckles softly sending vibrations all over your body. His tongue touches your clit, circling it, then tracing it down your centre and dipping inside of you, lapping you up hungrily. Your hands tighten in his hair, pushing his face closer to you as you grind against his tongue. Your eyes fluttered shut as your head rolled back against the mirror behind you.

"D-Dear God, Lix, please." You moan out as he removes his tongue, licking his head to look at you as he licks his lips.

"You taste like paradise," He groans before dropping his head and eating you out like a man starved, His eyes meet yours as he keeps his face buried between your thighs, your hips trying to get more friction as you cry his name out loudly.

"Felix!" You scream, his teeth gently biting on your clit as he sends you over the edge. Ecstasy washed through you as your hips shuddered beneath him, a giant smirk toyed on his lips as he got up from the floor.

"That was fucking hot," He moans out before kissing you deeply, your legs wrapped around his waist as you yanked him closer to you. The kiss was desperate, raw, filled with a need so strong you began to grind against his pants.

"You'll make a mess, firecracker," He chuckles softly before you pull away, unbuckling his belt and kicking his pants down leaving him bare in front of you. Felix was quick to reach for his wallet, grabbing a condom from the inside and rolling it onto himself as you wiggle your eyebrows at him.

"This is going to be quick," He winks at you, he could hear a commotion happening outside but you smirked at him. The two of you were at a ball filled to the brim with rich people and you wanted them to hear you getting fucked by him. 

"Lix, don't make me beg," You whine before he slams into you, holding you tightly as you groan, throwing your head back against the mirror so hard you were afraid it was going to break. You scream his name out as he pulls back and thrusts into you again, your legs wrapped around his waist as you bring him closer to him.

"Felix!" You cry out as the door handle jiggles, making you giggle as Felix chuckles to himself.

"Felix! Is that you?!" A man yelled from outside the door, you whimpered a little but Felix only continued to plow in and out of you.

"I'm busy fucking my girl, we'll be out soon!" He calls out before slamming into you again, your head rolling back as your hips bucked toward him. You dig your heels into his ass urging him on and his hand presses onto the mirror behind you, the other on your hips as he fucks you. His thrusts wild and hard as he groans your name out.

"L-Lix." You moan out as he continues to drive into you, your hands digging into his shoulders as you yank him closer to you, your release drawing closer as you cry out his name.

"I've got you, you can come, firecracker," He moans out, reaching his hand down and rubbing your clit roughly. Your release rushes over you unexpectedly as you cry out his name loudly, whimpering and bucking uncontrollably. Felix chuckles to himself, completely in love with the way you come undone around him but he doesn't stop.

He continues to fuck into you, one leg over his shoulder as he hits you at a different angle,

"G-God, YES!" You cry out as he smirks to himself, his fingers rubbing your clit as you whimper his name out, your third orgasm of the night already fast approaching as you whimper his name again and again.

"Come for me, firecracker. One last time," He grunts, thrusting harder as you cry out his name, your stomach clenching as you cum around him once again, clenching so tightly you send him over the edge and he spills into the condom.

The two of you stay like that for a few seconds until Felix carefully lowers your leg down and leans his forehead against yours, panting heavily as you let out a tiny giggle.

"Think people will stare when we go out there?" You leaned back against the mirror and watched as Felix smirked and nodded.

"Who cares?" He chuckled before slowly dressing himself. A loud banging sounded on the door as you rolled your eyes, someone was clearly desperate for the toilet or for Felix's attention and you hated them for it.

"I've got info for you!" Someone yelled from outside the door as Felix stuffs himself back into his trousers, did himself up and checked that you were dressed before opening the door he wasn't going to risk anyone but him seeing you.

"Minho," Felix greets with a smirk on his lips, the man glances in your direction before looking over his shoulder.

"Kitten, take Felix's date to the girls for a chat. The men need to talk business." You glanced at Felix to make sure it was okay first and he nodded, kissing your cheek quickly before you ran off with the woman Minho had spoken to.

The girls you'd been standing with were all so friendly and each of them had been telling you about their dates, you since learnt that all of them were with a criminal madman which had made you feel a lot better about yourself and Felix.

"I hate you," You grumbled, jokingly as Felix stood behind you, his lips brushing against the skin on your neck making your body shiver. The bathroom sex wasn't enough, you wanted to go back home and fuck until you saw the morning sun,

"I hate you more, my little firecracker" Felix smirked down at you before you swatted his hands away from you, but he successfully managed to get his hands around your waist and he smirked.

"Excuse us, ladies but we have some making up to go and do." Felix chuckled before dragging you away without a second to even say goodbye to them all.

"Hey I was having fun, who knows when I'll see them again?" You pouted a little, but Felix spun you around and pulled you into a tight embrace.

"You'll see them at our wedding no doubt." He shrugs as if it was the most casual thing in the world for him to say and you roll your eyes at him,

"You're that sure I'll marry you?" You quipped, he was. In fact, he was willing to put money on it.

"I'm sure I can convince you after a few more orgasms," He winks before you shove against his chest and make your way out to a car.

@chiisaiblog @sw33tnight @kaitieskidmore97 @laylasbunbunny @stayconnecteed @saymyspringrain @toplinehyunjin @katnisspeetaprim @acciocriativity @just-aelia @choisoorin @straykids5star @midnightfrog625 @beccaskz @scarletemeterio @halesandy @junhannies @gothic4under4lord @lixie-phoria @soulphoenix1618 @aerastus @jin-from-the-block @lensfilm @elizaschuyler18 @piratequeen-impact @kpopsstuffs @chaeyoungs @delulu18 @xyahrinx @katsukis1wife @anthropologymajorkpopmultistan @blairscott @4-chan-inpadella @niktwazny303 @moonlight-the-writer @armystay89 @hadassahchan @yxngbxkkie @myyouthdonut @extrhotjne @ca11me3mily @elissasimp

[suzukiblu]

Thank-you sentences for u-h-h-g-h behind the cut; "Tucker is having a normal one". (( chrono || non-chrono ))

“So like, what happens when they take the glasses off?” Playboo Centerfold asks. “We got a backup plan for that?” 

“Yeah, don’t sweat it, they literally never do that, ‘cuz then they couldn’t see ghosts,” Tucker replies, still very urgently trying to get his brain back online with . . . very limited success, he is not gonna lie. Zero success, one might say. Un-success, even. 

“. . . as in the fake hacker ghosts that are fake and hacked?” Haunted Sex Symbol asks skeptically. “Those ghosts?” 

“No, like, literally any ghost whatsoever,” Tucker clarifies. “None of the GIW’s agents are even a little bit liminal. Actually if you test at all ‘ecto-contaminated’ they not only won’t hire you, they’ll probably lock you up.” 

“. . . huh?” Spectrally Spicy asks, looking way confused. 

“Oh, yeah, ghosts are actually like a real actual thing–like I don’t know how in the loop you are here but it seems to be a limited amount, so yeah–but like, not-dead people can’t see them,” Tucker says. “Like it’s fine if you’re mostly alive, but you do also have to be, like, at least a little bit dead. Like just one drop of dead, never mind my shitty choice of phrasing there. But yeah I swear I’m not a crazy person, or at least I’m not making this up: ghosts are actually a real actual thing and the GIW wears the glasses ‘cuz they can’t see ‘em without ‘em and they don’t wanna get turned into ghost-kibble. Because ghosts are actually a real actual thing, I swear.” 

“No, yeah, obviously ghosts are real,” Poltergeist Porn Star says, rolling his eyes like he thinks Tucker’s being ridiculous. Which is admittedly sort of a relief but is also sort of annoying, because look, Tucker is speaking from experience here and the “experience” is that nobody outside Amity Park ever just believes you about frickin’ ghosts being frickin’ real, okay? “But like I have seen ghosts before, and I was definitely not dead at the time?” 

“That is crazy fascinating and I wanna hear all about it over that coffee later,” Tucker says, because even if Honey-Haunt is being a little bit annoying right now, he still looks like the second coming of Elvira, so Tucker is magnanimously willing to forgive that. Though he does make a mental note about that “at the time” in there. Like, just that might explain some things in this situation, maybe. “But generally yeah, no, you gotta be dead or dead-adjacent enough to count to see ‘em, thus the glasses and all the tech contained therein.” 

“Your glasses don’t look like theirs at all, though,” Mister Right Now says with a frown. 

“That would be because I don’t need tech to see ghosts, I just need it to see farther than three feet in front of my face,” Tucker replies matter-of-factly. 

“. . . wait, are you dead?” Big Boo asks, squinting doubtfully at him. 

“Like literally or percentage-wise?” Tucker asks. “‘Cuz either way the answer is ‘enough to count’, but yeah.” 

“Oh, okay,” the Spirit of Naughty Penthouse Letters Past says. 

Well cool, then, dude took all that real well, Tucker figures. That’s convenient. Like very convenient and very helpful, too. Usually the “convincing people he’s not insane” part takes up a lot more time. 

Though it is real friggin’ weird the guy apparently just . . . could see ghosts already, somehow? Like obviously now that he’s had the ecto-spa treatment he’s gotta be ecto-contaminated enough to, but that should very much not have been a thing pre-ecto-spa treatment. Like it very much should not have, yeah. 

Though if it was a thing, well–yeah, that’s another thing that might explain some things in this situation, maybe. 

So yeah Tucker is very much gonna need that coffee date to chat it up on that one. That is just very much gonna have to be a thing. 

[thezombieprostitute]

Tech Tuesday: Johnny Storm

Summary: You may have gotten the drop on him, but Johnny's not ready to surrender.

Warnings: Bad food combinations. Please let me know if I missed any.

Previous

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

"Look, Johnny, this isn't a performance review or anything," Syverson assures. "I'm just worried about ya. You've been actin' a lot more withdrawn lately. Is everything goin' okay?"

"Yeah," Johnny shakes his head. "Just...got into a funk. It happens." Inwardly Johnny grimaces at lying to his boss. But what is he supposed to tell him? Oh yeah, boss. A big time hacker has my information and now I gotta do her favors or she'll dox me. No, he'd handle this on his own. He got himself into this mess, he'll get himself out. Preferably without getting himself fired.

Syverson sighs. If he knows there's more to it, he isn't telling. "So long as you know you can talk to me, Pine, hell, anyone. Alright?"

Johnny nods, "yeah, I know. So can I go now?"

Syverson nods, almost in defeat, and Johnny practically runs back to his desk.

Johnny knows he's been more withdrawn lately but if Syverson is noticing he's going to have to be more careful. He doesn't like when people know he's upset. Especially not when it's because he messed up. If DarkAngel was able to get his information, it was because he got sloppy. Overconfident. He's not going to make that mistake again.

He's stopped in his tracks by the sight of the G's at his desk. They gesture for him to take a seat and he knows better than to argue. As soon as he's in his chair they bring out a few canisters of wasabi peas, a small bag of atomic warheads and a giant bottle of chocolate milk.

"We know you've been troubled lately," Geralt starts.

"Don't know the details, don't need to," G adds.

"You're clearly in the midst of battle," Geralt continues.

"And you can't do proper battle without the proper gear," G says, pointing to the food.

"How did you guys know?" Johnny asks, bewildered. He thought he'd been doing a good job of hiding it, but between Sy and the G's, he's worried everyone knows he's having problems.

"It's been quite some time since you pestered us for snacks," G tells him.

"We initially thought it was a nice break, letting us focus on work," Geralt sighs.

"But now we can't focus because we keep expecting you and you're not showing up," G grumbles.

"And we're certain the others in this department have been feeling the same," Geralt nods.

Johnny lowers his head in embarrassment. "Well, thank you."

"May your victory be swift," Geralt encouraged.

"And decisive." G concludes.

Johnny smiles genuinely for the first time in weeks as the G's leave his cubicle. He opens up the first round of snacks, taking in the unusual mixture of aromas, and sets to work.

------

You have to admit, having TheHumanTorch69, now simply JStorm, under your thumb has been very good for business. With his help, you've been able to crack a lot more virtual safes than usual. You really don't understand how someone with his skill could be happy with the corporate life. Did he also dream of a house with a white-picket fence? You roll your eyes at the thought.

No. You like being in the wind. It's safer for you. Can't be doxxed if you're never in one place too long. Plus, if you don't have to worry about rent or a mortgage you can spend your money on actually important things. It's genuinely comforting to know you never have to worry about money.

There's a signal on your laptop. Johnny's signed in. He sends you a message and your smile drops. It's your mug shot from ages ago, before you stepped up your precautions.

JStorm: This you? DarkAngel: That was me. I don't get caught anymore. JStorm: Then how'd I find this? DarkAngel: Obviously you hired O'Malley. Can't believe you can afford him. JStorm: Excuse you! I got your name and everything on my own! DarkAngel: Bullshit. I've seen your work. You're not good enough to catch me. JStorm: You trying to convince me or yourself?

That makes you pause. You were just thinking about how good he is. Have you gotten so sloppy in covering your tracks? Wait! This photo was taken ages ago! It's only one of your old identities.

DarkAngel: You're right. If you'd hired O'Malley you'd have more recent information. Not stuff from over a decade ago. JStorm: Okay. Yes. This is all I could find for now. But I needed something for leverage. DarkAngel: Fine. We're done. We'll just avoid each other from now on. JStorm: I don't know that we can do that. DarkAngel: The internet is a large place. We can avoid each other. JStorm: We have personal information about each other that others might want. DarkAngel: Don't you dare threaten me! JStorm: Right now I just want to talk. DarkAngel: That's what we're doing. JStorm: In person. DarkAngel: Fuck no!

You've been down this road before. It's an obvious trap. Did he really think you were so dumb?

JStorm: I saw the pattern in your targets.

You don't respond. You should just close the chat and move on. But you're curious about what pattern he's seen. You've been careful to only give him bits and pieces so the true target wouldn't be known.

JStorm: Your hacking into the communications of some very bad people. DarkAngel: You planning on selling my info to them? JStorm: Not my style. I'd report you to the authorities. DarkAngel: As if they could do anything. JStorm: That why you got into this? The bad guys got away with everything?

Your eyes tear up as the memories come back. The misplaced hope in the system. The crushing realization that money determines guilt or innocence, not facts. The despair and anger that's lived with you since.

DarkAngel: What are you? My therapist? JStorm: Oh hell no. I'm not good at helping others with their mental problems. I've got too many of my own. DarkAngel: Then what do you want? JStorm: A truce, for starters. I need to know you're not going to release my information. DarkAngel: I'll consider it. What else? JStorm: I need my HumanTorch name cleared. I've got a job to do and I can't do that if everyone's suspicious of me. DarkAngel: More difficult to do. But might be possible if you make it worthwhile. What are you offering? JStorm: Obviously, I won't release that mugshot and other personal information. But I'd also like to offer my services. DarkAngel: I already have your services. JStorm: No, you have my reluctant servitude. You free me, we work together, more like partners, and you'll get my full arsenal of skills. DarkAngel: I knew you were holding back. How much time do I have to think about this? JStorm: I need an answer now. DarkAngel: Asshole. JStorm: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ DarkAngel: Okay. Truce for now. I'll get to work on clearing your name. But don't think I'm not ready for you to betray me. JStorm: I can promise you, that ain't my style.

We'll see about that, you think. Trusting others leads to nothing but pain. Johnny will turn out no different from all the other people in your life that let you down as soon as things got tough. But, until you can find a way to purge your criminal history, you'll have to play along. You got sloppy and now you're paying the price.

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech’s benevolent-dictator-for-life to authoritarian pipeline

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/10/bdfl/#high-on-your-own-supply

Silicon Valley's "authoritarian turn" is hard to miss: tech bosses have come out for autocrats like Trump, Orban, Milei, Bolsonaro, et al, and want to turn San Francisco into a militia-patrolled apartheid state operated for the benefit of tech bros:

https://newrepublic.com/article/180487/balaji-srinivasan-network-state-plutocrat

Smart people have written well about what this means, and have gotten me thinking, too:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/why-did-silicon-valley-turn-right

Regular readers will know that I make a kind of hobby of collecting definitions of right-wing thought:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/29/jubilance/#tolerable-racism

One of these – a hoary old cliche – is that "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged." I don't give this one much credence, but it takes on an interesting sheen when combined with this anonymous gem: "Conservatives say they long for the simpler times of their childhood, but what they miss is that the reason they lived simpler lives back then wasn't that the times were simpler; rather, it's because they were children."

If you're a tech founder who once lived in a world where your workers were also your pals and didn't shout at you about labor relations, perhaps that's not because workers got "woke," but rather, because when you were all scrapping at a startup, you were all on an equal footing and there weren't any labor relations to speak of. And if you're a once-right-on tech founder who used to abstractly favor "social justice" but now find yourself beset by people demanding that you confront your privilege, perhaps what's changed isn't those people, but rather the amount of privilege you have.

In other words, "a reactionary tech boss is a liberal tech boss who hired a bunch of pals only to have them turn around and start a union." And also: "Tech founders say things were simpler when they were running startups, but what they miss is that the reason no one asked their startup to seriously engage with the social harms it caused is the because the startup was largely irrelevant to society, while the large company it turned into is destroying millions of peoples' lives today."

The oft-repeated reactionary excuse that "I didn't leave the progressive movement, they left me," can be both technically true and also profoundly wrong: if progressives in your circle never bothered you about your commercial affairs, perhaps that's because those affairs didn't matter when you were grinding out code in your hacker house, but they matter a lot now that you have millions of users and thousands of employees.

I've been in tech circles since before the dawn of the dotcoms; I was part of a movement of people who would come over to your house with a stack of floppies and install TCP/IP and PPP networking software on your computer and show you how to connect to a BBS or ISP, because we wanted everyone to have as much fun as we were having.

Some of us channeled that excitement into starting companies that let people get online, create digital presences of their own, and connect with other people. Some of us were more .ORG than .COM and gave our lives over to activism and nonprofits, missing out on the stock options and big paydays. But even though we ended up in different places, we mostly started in the same place, as spittle-flecked, excited kids talking a mile a minute about how cool this internet thing would be and helping you, a normie, jump into it.

Many of my peers from the .ORG and .COM worlds went on to set up institutions – both companies and nonprofits – that have since grown to be critical pieces of internet infrastructure: classified ad platforms, online encyclopedias, CMSes and personal publishing services, critical free/open source projects, standards bodies, server-to-server utilities, and more.

These all started out as benevolent autocracies: personal projects started by people who pitched in to help their virtual neighbors with the new, digital problems we were all facing. These good people, with good impulses, did good: their projects filled an important need, and grew, and grew, and became structurally important to the digital world. What started off as "Our pal's project that we all pitch in on," became, "Our pal's important mission that we help with, but that also has paid staff and important stakeholders, which they oversee as 'benevolent dictator for life.'"

Which was fine. The people who kicked off these projects had nurtured them all the way from a napkin doodle to infrastructure. They understood them better than anyone else, had sacrificed much for them, and it made sense for them to be installed as stewards.

But what they did next, how they used their powers as "BFDLs," made a huge difference. Because we are all imperfect, we are all capable of rationalizing our way into bad choices, we are all riven with insecurities that can push us to do things we later regret. When our actions are checked – by our peers' social approval or approbation; by the need to keep our volunteers happy; by the possibility of a mass exodus of our users or a fork of our code – these imperfections are balanced by consequences.

Dictators aren't necessarily any more prone to these lapses in judgment than anyone else. Benevolent dictators actually exist, people who only retain power because they genuinely want to use that power for good. Those people aren't more likely to fly off the handle or talk themselves into bad places than you or me – but to be a dictator (benevolent or otherwise) is to exist without the consequences that prevent you from giving in to those impulses. Worse: if you are the dictator – again, benevolent or otherwise – of a big, structurally important company or nonprofit that millions of people rely on, the consequences of these lapses are extremely consequential.

This is how BDFL arrangements turn sour: by removing themselves from formal constraint, the people whose screwups matter the most end up with the fewest guardrails to prevent themselves from screwing up.

No wonder people who set out to do good, to help others find safe and satisfying digital homes online, find themselves feeling furious and beset. Given those feelings, can we really be surprised when "benevolent" dictators discover that they have sympathy for real-world autocrats whose core ethos is, "I know what needs to be done and I could do it, if only the rest of you would stop nagging me about petty bullshit that you just made up 10 minutes ago but now insist is the most important thing in the world?"

That all said, it's interesting to look at the process by which some BDFLs transitioned to community-run projects with checks and balances. I often think about how Wikipedia's BDFL, the self-avowed libertarian Jimmy Wales, decided (correctly, and to his everlasting credit), that the project he raised from a weird idea into a world-historic phenomenon should not be ruled over by one guy, not even him.

(Jimmy is one of those libertarians who believes that we don't need governments to make us be kind and take care of one another because he is kind and takes care of other people – see also John Gilmore and Penn Jillette:)

https://www.cracked.com/article_40871_penn-jillette-wants-to-talk-it-all-out.html

Jimmy's handover to the Wikimedia Foundation gives me hope for our other BDFLs. He's proof that you can find yourself in the hotseat without being so overwhelmed with personal grievance that you find yourself in sympathy with actual fascists, but rather, have the maturity and self-awareness to know that the reason people are demanding so much of you is that you have – deliberately and with great effort – created a situation in which you owe the world a superhuman degree of care and attention, and the only way to resolve that situation equitably and secure your own posterity is to share that power around, not demand that you be allowed to wield it without reproach.