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doesavpnsecuretexts · 1 year ago

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do you really need a vpn for the deep web

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do you really need a vpn for the deep web

VPN for Deep Web

Title: Navigating the Depths: The Role of VPNs in Accessing the Deep Web

The Deep Web, a hidden realm beneath the surface of the internet, harbors a wealth of information, ranging from legitimate databases to illicit marketplaces. Navigating this clandestine network comes with inherent risks, making the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) essential for both privacy and security.

VPNs create a secure encrypted tunnel between the user's device and the internet, shielding their online activities from prying eyes. When accessing the Deep Web, anonymity is paramount, as it safeguards users from potential surveillance and protects their identities from malicious actors.

One of the primary benefits of using a VPN for the Deep Web is masking one's IP address. By routing traffic through servers located in different geographic locations, VPNs obscure the user's true location, making it difficult for adversaries to trace their online activities back to them.

Moreover, VPNs add an extra layer of encryption to data transmissions, safeguarding sensitive information from interception. This is particularly crucial when engaging in activities such as anonymous browsing, communicating in encrypted chat rooms, or conducting financial transactions on hidden marketplaces within the Deep Web.

However, it's essential to choose a VPN provider wisely. Opting for a reputable VPN service with a strict no-logs policy ensures that user activities remain confidential, minimizing the risk of exposure.

In conclusion, while the Deep Web offers a plethora of opportunities for exploration and information discovery, it's not without its hazards. Utilizing a VPN is not only prudent but imperative for safeguarding one's privacy and security in this clandestine digital landscape. By encrypting connections and anonymizing online identities, VPNs empower users to navigate the depths of the internet with confidence and peace of mind.

Deep Web Security

The Deep Web, the hidden part of the internet not indexed by search engines, poses various security challenges to users due to its anonymity and lack of regulation. Deep Web security encompasses measures and practices designed to protect individuals and organizations from potential threats while accessing this obscure online realm.

One of the key aspects of Deep Web security is maintaining anonymity to shield personal identity and sensitive information. Users can achieve anonymity by utilizing specialized software like Tor, which routes internet traffic through a network of servers to conceal the user's IP address. Employing strong encryption tools is also crucial for safeguarding data shared and stored on the Deep Web.

Another vital consideration for Deep Web security is exercising caution when interacting with unknown websites and individuals. Due to the unregulated nature of the Deep Web, it is rife with illicit activities, scams, and malicious actors. Users should refrain from sharing personal information, clicking on suspicious links, or engaging in transactions without verifying the legitimacy of the parties involved.

Furthermore, keeping software and security systems up to date is essential for mitigating potential vulnerabilities and minimizing the risk of cyber threats on the Deep Web. Regularly updating antivirus programs, firewalls, and other security measures can enhance protection against malware, phishing attacks, and other cyber risks prevalent in this clandestine online environment.

In conclusion, navigating the Deep Web safely requires a proactive approach to security that combines anonymity tools, encryption methods, cautious online behavior, and robust security protocols. By adopting these practices and remaining vigilant, users can better safeguard their privacy and data while exploring the hidden depths of the internet.

Benefits of Using VPN

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a powerful tool that offers numerous benefits to its users. One of the primary advantages of using a VPN is enhanced online security and privacy. By encrypting your internet connection, a VPN ensures that your sensitive data, such as passwords and financial information, remains secure from hackers and cybercriminals. Additionally, using a VPN enables you to browse the web anonymously, masking your IP address and preventing websites and online services from tracking your online activities.

Furthermore, VPNs allow users to access geo-restricted content and services. By connecting to servers located in different countries, you can bypass censorship and access websites, streaming services, and other online content that may be blocked in your region. This feature is particularly beneficial for travelers who want to access their favorite websites or services while abroad.

Another advantage of using a VPN is the ability to secure your connection on public Wi-Fi networks. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are notorious for their lack of security, making users vulnerable to various cyber threats. By using a VPN, you can encrypt your connection and protect your data from potential intruders while using public Wi-Fi.

Moreover, a VPN can improve your overall internet experience by reducing throttling and improving connection speeds. Internet service providers (ISPs) often throttle internet speeds for certain online activities, such as streaming or gaming. By using a VPN, you can bypass these restrictions and enjoy faster and more stable internet speeds.

In conclusion, the benefits of using a VPN are numerous and diverse, ranging from enhanced security and privacy to accessing geo-restricted content and improving internet speeds. Whether you are concerned about your online privacy or simply want to unlock the full potential of the internet, a VPN is a valuable tool that can greatly enhance your online experience.

Online Anonymity

Online anonymity refers to the ability of internet users to conceal their identities while browsing the web or engaging in online activities. This concept has become increasingly important in today's digital age, where privacy concerns are at an all-time high.

There are several reasons why individuals may choose to remain anonymous online. For some, it is a matter of personal security and protection against identity theft. Others may wish to avoid targeted advertising or data tracking by websites and online services. Online anonymity can also enable individuals to express themselves freely without fear of repercussions or judgment.

One common method of achieving online anonymity is through the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxy servers, which mask a user's IP address and encrypt their internet connection. Tor, short for The Onion Router, is another popular tool that routes internet traffic through a series of servers to obfuscate a user's identity.

While online anonymity offers a layer of protection for users, it can also be misused by individuals engaging in illegal activities such as cyberbullying, fraud, or hacking. As a result, many websites and online platforms have implemented measures to verify users' identities and discourage anonymous behavior.

Overall, online anonymity presents both benefits and challenges in the digital landscape. By understanding the risks and implications of remaining anonymous online, users can make informed decisions about their privacy and security while navigating the vast world of the internet.

Deep Web Privacy

The Deep Web, often confused with the dark web, is a part of the internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines and requires special software to access. In contrast to the surface web, which is easily searchable and accessible, the Deep Web offers users anonymity and privacy due to its unindexed nature. This privacy attracts individuals seeking to protect their online activities from surveillance, censorship, and tracking.

One of the main reasons people turn to the Deep Web for privacy is to safeguard their personal information and browsing history from third parties, such as advertisers and government agencies. By using encryption and anonymizing tools like Tor, users can mask their IP addresses and browse the web without revealing their identities. This level of privacy is particularly appealing to journalists, activists, whistleblowers, and individuals living in oppressive regimes who rely on anonymity to communicate and share information safely.

While the Deep Web offers a layer of privacy and protection, it is also important to note the potential risks associated with accessing this hidden part of the internet. Illegal activities, such as drug trafficking, arms dealing, and cybercrime, are prevalent on the dark web, and users need to exercise caution and discernment when navigating its depths.

In conclusion, the Deep Web provides a valuable sanctuary for individuals seeking privacy and anonymity online. By understanding the risks and taking precautions, users can leverage the Deep Web's privacy features to protect their digital footprints and communicate securely in an increasingly surveilled and interconnected world.

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ailtrahq · 2 years ago

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In a notable discovery, Arkham Intel, a leading blockchain intelligence platform, has identified $25 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) reserves held by Coinbase, the prominent US-based cryptocurrency exchange. This revelation puts Coinbase at the forefront of the Bitcoin landscape, positioning it as the largest Bitcoin entity in the world alongside the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto. The uncovered reserves amount to nearly 5% of the total Bitcoin supply. Coinbase Emerges As Top Bitcoin Holder Arkham Intel’s comprehensive analysis has successfully tagged over 36 million Bitcoin deposits and holding addresses associated with Coinbase. Remarkably, Coinbase’s largest cold wallet alone contains around 10,000 BTC, serving as a testament to the scale of their holdings. However, Arkham Intel suggests that Coinbase’s actual Bitcoin reserves may extend beyond the identified addresses. Based on Coinbase’s recent financial reports, it is highly likely that the exchange possesses thousands more BTC that have yet to be tracked and labeled. Moreover, Arkham Intel’s platform reveals that Coinbase holds substantial amounts of other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin. The US-based exchange is reported to possess approximately 1.68 million ETH (Ethereum) valued at around $2.69 billion. Additionally, Coinbase holds 68.59 million LINK (Chainlink) tokens, estimated at $471 million. Coinbase Holdings as of today. Source: Arkham Intel Platform. The stablecoin USDC (USD Coin), pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, is also part of Coinbase’s portfolio, with holdings totaling 222 million USDC. Lastly, Coinbase holds a 921,000 BNB (Binance Coin) valued at approximately $194 million. Base Emerges As Top Contender Surpassing Solana In TVL Rankings In a noteworthy development for the exchange and its new Layer-2 (L2) blockchain, Base has emerged as a formidable contender, surpassing Solana in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). According to the latest statistics from Defillama, Base, Coinbase’s L2 solution boasts a TVL of $370 million, surpassing Solana’s $310 million. This achievement signifies an important milestone for Base, highlighting its growing prominence and influence in the industry. Notably, Base’s TVL positions it ahead of prominent blockchains such as Cronos, Kava, Defichain, Bitcoin, Fusion, Pulsechain, and Cardano. With its current TVL, Base accounts for approximately 0.96% of the overall $38.14 billion TVL in the DeFi space. Base surpassed Solana and took the 9th place of protocols in terms of TVL. Source: Defillama. Base has secured its place among the top protocols regarding TVL, ranking just behind Mixin, Polygon, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum, BSC, Tron, and Ethereum. This accomplishment highlights the growing prominence of Coinbase’s L2 blockchain within the DeFi landscape. Data from Dune Analytics reveals that since its L2 launch, Base has successfully bridged a total value of $426.81 million. Of this, 54.4% or $232.19 million comprises 143,467 ether, demonstrating strong support and adoption from the Ethereum community. Additionally, approximately 27.2% of the bridged assets to Base consist of 115,993,548 USDC stablecoins. COIN stock’s extended downtrend on the daily chart. Source: COIN on TradingView.com However, it is not all good news for the firm. Coinbase stocks, traded under the name COIN, are experiencing a significant decline that has been ongoing since July 20. The stocks have declined from the $111 level, followed by the lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the firm and Binance. Presently, the exchange’s stocks are trading at $71.78. Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com Source

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rickie-the-storyteller · 2 years ago

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Your wish is my command, @harleyacoincidence (and @bones-malone-and-the-spooky-boys, and anyone else that might be interested)!

Here comes another chapter to the story.

Enjoy!!!

Chapter 2:

Mr Utterson, driven by an insatiable curiosity and a relentless desire to unveil the enigma behind the intertwined digital presence of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, delved even deeper into the intricate web of encryption and secrecy that shrouded these two personas. His quest for answers led him to reach out to his longtime friend, Dr Lanyon, a brilliant programmer and tech savant who was reputed for his exceptional ability to navigate the darkest corners of the internet with ease. He also shared Utterson's passion for peeling back the layers of the virtual world and getting to the bottom of things.

During a secure virtual conference, while Lanyon was away at a conference in York, Utterson shared the strange details of his discovery with Lanyon, who listened intently.

"So, you're telling me that the same email links Jekyll's educational haven to Hyde's online chaos?" Lanyon mused, fingers tapping rhythmically on his high-tech keyboard.

Utterson nodded. "It's confounding, Lanyon. It's like they're two sides of the same digital coin."

Lanyon's eyes gleamed with technological excitement. "Well then, my friend, it seems we've stumbled upon a binary enigma. I'm in. Let's unravel this mystery together."

"Can you imagine what everybody online is going to think?!"

"I know! I was literally just thinking... the internet is about to lose it's mind if this does turn out to be true."

___

Meanwhile, a young journalist named Gabriel John (G.J.) Enfield was captivated by the unfolding drama across the virtual expanse of the internet. G.J. was an intrepid investigator of internet culture, always searching for the next big story. He had a significant following on YouTube, where he shared his opinions on news and pop culture events. Somehow, he learned about the unusual connection between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and sensed that it could be a headline that would break the internet.

G.J. reached out to Utterson and Lanyon, both experts in the field of technology. He proposed a collaboration that would bring their collective knowledge and skills together to unravel the complexities of the digital world. The trio formed an unlikely alliance, each bringing their own unique strengths to the table. Utterson, a cybersecurity expert, offered his knowledge of system vulnerabilities and security protocols. Lanyon, a programming genius, contributed his coding skills and expertise in software engineering. G.J., with his unmatched talent for developing compelling narratives, brought the power of storytelling to the table. Together, they knew they could uncover the truth behind the enigmatic digital duality of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

___

As the investigation progressed, Utterson discovered that the email address linking Jekyll and Hyde was registered to a nondescript building in a neglected part of town. The trio decided to pay a visit, and their journey into the digital unknown took a physical turn.

The building turned out to be a state-of-the-art tech research facility, shrouded in secrecy. It was owned by a reclusive tech mogul named Sir Carew, who had made a fortune through cutting-edge advancements in artificial intelligence.

Sir Carew welcomed the trio into his futuristic lair. He explained that he had developed a groundbreaking experiment in digital identity, allowing individuals to maintain multiple online personas seamlessly.

"The internet is a vast stage, and we are all performers wearing different masks," Sir Carew declared, his eyes glinting with this concerning mixture of pride and something else. Something akin to madness.

As the truth behind the digital duality unfolded, Utterson, Lanyon, and G.J. found themselves entangled in a web of technology, ethics, and the age-old battle between order and chaos. Little did they know that the consequences of their investigation would transcend the digital realm and shake the very foundations of their understanding of the interconnected world.

(Added a few more iconic characters from the original story. Let me know what you think!)

Jekyll+Hyde modern AU where Dr. Jekyll is a very put-together middle-aged man who runs an educational YouTube channel where he, like, sits in front of a backdrop of books and explains the history of various scientific discoveries (with extensive sourcing!) His editing is perfect and he never swears on camera and teachers love to show his videos in class.

Meanwhile Mr. Hyde is a controversial twitch streamer who everyone assumes is like 17. He's never done a face reveal, he's a huge troll, and he's been cancelled on twitter multiple times.

The plot kicks off when someone notices that both of their accounts have the same recovery email...

#rickie-the-storyteller #writerblr #jekyll and hyde #dr jekyll and mr hyde #modern AU #chapter 2

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scammerpaybackblog · 4 years ago

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12.12.20 live stream

“I think I just blew their mind”

Tech scam: Sean and Spasean

Start point on stream:1.40.31 to 3.14.21

Total call time: 1.33.40

Scammer’s knowledge is tested while trying to sell Charlene a “cyber security firewall” with “7 layers of protection”

2.28.38 – 2.29.43

….do you guys sell a SIM at all that maybe I could use so that I can, you know, run queries on all of that data and get events and log correlation based off of all of these firewalls that you’ve shown me and all these devices and all this data...its way too much for me to protect so I’m gonna need something that’s gonna do a little bit of better correlation for me across all these different data points because if you’ve got the Cisco firewall you know or maybe even Cisco advanced malware protection and that’s popping up a bunch of false positives you’ve got IBM you have SonicWall that’s maybe looking at the network layers showing me some greater visibility on the network, how do I know to be able to correlate what’s happening on my regular endpoint systems vs all the network even mobile devices as well, right, maybe all that together could possibly, you know, if there’s a way…I don’t want my computer lighting up like a Christmas tree you know! I’d like to be able to maybe go into a SIM and run some queries off of that to be able to have, you know, greater visibility to whatever’s going on – right! Scammer: (long pause). 2.31.35 to 2.33.39

..If you think about it, firewalls, it’s just like a gate; it’s like you open up the gate, you close the gate, you open up the gate you close the gate. But what about, you know, valid ports that could be opened: valid IP addresses, maybe VPNs and proxies that are being utilized by the haggers and the scammers, right, that are trying to take my money, they’re utilizing you know benign processes and benign behaviors on my endpoints and I have no idea what’s going on, they’re using things like Powershell and Symantec’s not gonna be able to block that, McAfee’s not, right, and then they’re utilizing data exfiltration policies through things like Cloud operating systems through different ports that are very readily available like port 80 or 443 right, they’re utilizing these types of ports that the firewalls aren’t gonna be able to do so I’m trying to get more towards a behavioral-based mechanism that I need greater visibility, I need detections based off of behaviors and not just, you know, 1s and 0s, this is bad this is good, because when you have firewalls that are just blocking an IDS an IPS based off of good or bad, a lot of times you can’t just say everything’s gonna be good or everything’s gonna be bad you have to look at the correlation between what is this incident or what is this behavior that’s happening. Maybe I had outlook.exe that was spawned and then from there other processes were spawned and then all of a sudden Powershell was run they were doing a netuser right for instance, all those things together could be bad but if I were just to go to the command prompt and put in netuser right and change the password then that doesn’t look bad but in the whole scheme of things when running a discovery scan on the network to see what other devices are on there and then you move them laterally to other systems I need a lot more, this could all be under the nose of the traditional firewall protection and that’s why I’m saying I need a little bit more holistic of an approach that brings all this together from these firewalls, endpoint security devices, all correlated within a centralized incident and event manager so that’s why I was asking if you have something possibly that would be able to satisfy that.

Scammer: (long pause)

Charlene is now passed to the Billing Supervisor, Sparsean

2.54.13 to 2.56.30

I have a couple of questions because this gentlemen was talking about the 7 layers of protection but we never really got into some of the behavioral analytics that go on from a machine-learning and behavior base because I actually like to better detect from an anomalous behavior vs a signature or a firewall IDS IPS host-based firewall approach, right, which you’re either kinda letting something in or letting it out, because a lot of the haggers now are using common protocol and common practices on the endpoint systems as well, as well as the network to be able to move laterally, they’re utilizing things like Powershell on my system and the traditional types of systems that you guys are trying to sell me aren’t gonna be able to protect that because I have a lot of those traditional things in place already and I just want greater visibility, maybe there’s a way that you guys can maybe if it’s as a service, a security incident, an Event Manager, I didn’t know if you all sold any of those like a Splunk or a QRadar or LogRhythm or something like that. I see you have IBM that was on there before, but SonicWall I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of I think their efficiencies around management centralized isn’t very very good - I’d like a next generation firewall possibly like a Palo Alto Networks and then I’d also like something from an endpoint and a mobile standpoint that maybe work together with all of that so I can have greater visibility, greater protection. But I’m really gonna need even email security, I tried to ask the last gentleman about phishing attacks and if you guys did any Cloud sandboxing technology? I’d really like to be able to protect against that not necessarily just spam, because everybody can block spam, but those targeted attacks, I don’t wanna be Patient Zero right and I’d really like to have some real-time protection if I did happen to click on that link what would happen if it goes and opens up Google Chrome goes into y’all sandbox you check it against your technology, I’m sure you have billions and billions of probes that are out there, check against that technology: if this is a known phishing site if this is a wormhole site, if this is a spoofed site you name it right, I’d like to be able to have that visibility and block it in real time if I were to actually click on it. I hope that makes sense.

Scammer: (long pause)

3.14.34

Pierogi: I think I just blew their mind

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chicago-reeed · 6 years ago

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PHCK ME - Reed900 Fic Rec List

Hello!!! You might not remember, but awhile back I mentioned I had the start of a fic rec list that I planned to post (which I never did). To celebrate all 1K+ of you, I thought I would finish the list for you! It is my duty as a loyal reed900 servant.

DISCLAIMER: This list of reccomendations was made purely out of personal opinion. I by no means want to discredit any other fics/authors. Some may not agree with my choices, and that’s totally understandable. I just wanted to share these fics because I personally enjoyed them <3

I didn’t include some fics because they haven’t been updated in a long time, or I didn’t remember them enough to give them accurate reviews. Also, I’m sure there are many more fics that I forgot to put on here (these are from my ao3 bookmarks). I might include them in a future update.

Anyways, all of my recs are under the cut! There are a lot!! I had eight pages worth of them in my documents haha

Mint Condition - by itsdefinitive - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - Reed could see what they were going for there -- the whole infallible super-soldier thing. A monument to testosterone made perfect, cast in steel within plastic. It was actually really creepy. Maybe that was on purpose.

The first reed900 fic I read, and it’s honestly what got me into the pairing itself.

Charon - by Vapewraith - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin Reed, a mess of a human being, just wants to be left to his self destructive tendencies. RK900, an android designed by the most brilliant minds in the world to be the perfect machine, is desperate to grasp the full range of emotional freedom now afforded to him. The two will need to find an equilibrium before their incompatible personalities—and an eccentric serial killer with a dangerous piece of tech—swallow them whole.

I can’t even describe how much I love this fic. I’m a slut for horror, and there’s plenty of that in here. It might just be my favorite. Definitely recommend.

Two Sides of a Vaguely Similar Coin - by ZombiBird - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 13/? - RK900 is lost.

It’s been months since the Revolution and he’s still no closer to figuring out what the hell he’s supposed to be doing with himself. He feels like an outsider in his own body. Completely detached, nothing more than a quiet observer; like he’s looking down at the world through a layer of glass instead of fully living in it.

Gavin Reed is a temperamental asshole.

This isn’t news, okay? Gavin’s fully aware of what he is. He burns bridges instead of building them. Bites hands instead of shaking them. Would rather drown in a sea comprised of the consequences of his faults and misdeeds than try to change the way he is. Because people like him? Maybe they deserve to drown.

[Alternatively: Both lost in different ways, Gavin and RK900 try to figure their shit out and end up learning that, sometimes, it takes two people who have absolutely no idea what the hell they’re doing to get a goddamn clue.]

I don’t remember much about this fic, if I’m honest. Not that the story is forgettable, it’s just been awhile since I read it. However, the title definitely stood out to me so I know it was very good :P

Captcha Encryption - by Cerulaine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 18/? - It's a little over a year after the android uprising and it's still the end of the fucking world.

Back in the day when things became shit he used to enjoy a drink or two. Or Five. It all depended on how long the shift ran. After 'The Accident' he can't even cough without Nines breathing down his neck anymore.

He just wishes everything would go back to normal, but if there's anything Gavin has learned it's that you can't unring a bell once it's been rung.

Or whatever. Fuck if he knows.

Similar situation to the last fic: I don’t remember much about it (my memory SUCKS), but I do remember thoroughly enjoying this one.

Daydreamer - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 21/24 - Large purple bruises twined prettily around the corpse’s throat, every finger defined in perfect cruelty. His eyes tore away from the handprints as a cold finger traced the lightning strike scar across the center of his face—drawing his attention to a small, blue lipped smile.

“Do you think you’ll ever leave this town, Gavin?”

________

When a series of Detroit murders are linked as originating in his hometown, Gavin Reed is unwillingly assigned the case. Fowler insists that his history with the place and people will hugely benefit such an investigation.

He was fucking wrong.

This fic is one big holy shit moment tbh. Really fantastic. Really makes you wonder why these authors aren’t paid to do this.

All Aboard the Underground Railroad - by Senjihae - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 11/? - What starts as sticking it towards his half brother evolves into something with the potential to rewrite android history as he knows it. Gavin doesn't realize what he gets himself into until he is mistaken as the 'Android Messiah' of all things. It's not like he goes out of his way to help them, but his life gets a lot harder once Hank is assigned a shiny new boy toy ('sent by CyberLife').

Things only get worse when he's gifted a heap of metal of his own ('sent by Elijah Kamski').

(Yeah, fuck off Elijah)

Very interesting fic. Gavin is RA9 so that’s a thing. A nice slow burn!

Dragon Become Age - by errantwheat - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content Warnings - Chapters 11/? - Y’all wanted me to write dragon age!au so I did :)

YES! YES! YES! DRAGON AGE AU! YES! YES! YES! (it’s really gud)

Warmth - by TheRedPaladin101 - Teen and Up Audiences - No Warnings - Chapters 1/1 - Gavin frowned, the aching in his shoulder fading from his mind for a moment. “Then give me my jacket.”

“Your jacket is in no condition to keep you warm,” he stated. “For now, use mine and stay warm while we wait to head back to the station.”

----

Five times RK900 gave Gavin Reed his jacket, and one time Gavin gave his in return.

Very wholesome. Lives up to its title. Some good ole hurt/comfort!

Letifer - Terminallydepraved - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 19/19 - Gavin Reed is a DPD beat cop determined to make detective by any means possible, and putting an end to a string of murders looks like the quickest way to accomplishing that goal. Unfortunately for him, he fails to account for the real culprit— or the thought that perhaps he isn't the only one on the hunt for a killer.

(Now with cover art by Leetmorry!)

I love beat cop!gavin. It humbles him. And vampire!nines is scary and amazing. Love how the author wrote both of these characters (and the others too!). I definitely recommend this one!

A Strange and Beautiful Creature - by LittleLalaith - General audiences - No warnings - Chapters 7/7 - Scientist Nines is called in to Amanda's lab to assist with a new discovery - a genuine Mermaid.

While Amanda is indifferent to the creature's circumstances, Nines builds an unlikely connection to the specimen and they grow a little closer than either of them expected.

(AKA Gavin is a sassy sea slug and Nines thrills in breaking the safety protocols)

Mermaid au! Nines wants to save mermaid Gavin, and it’s all very wholesome.

I Think You Do - by spotlightonmringenue - Teen and Up Audiences - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/? - “Son of a bitch, there’s another one. What the fuck is it doing,” Gavin says, grip going white on the gun as the android continues to stare at him without acknowledging Connor.

“RK900, my name is Connor. I’m part of a group called Jericho that recovered you from Cyberlife’s Production Center late yesterday. We are currently in the Detroit Police Department Central Station. Are you feeling okay?”

“It doesn’t feel shit,” Gavin mumbles, resisting the urge to step back as the RK900 takes a step closer. It holds out the cup, and Gavin’s eyes dart to it for only a second before flipping between Connor and his doppelganger.

“You requested coffee,” it says, and Hank sighs, leaning back against his desk while rubbing a hand over his forehead.

Quality ‘enemies to friends’ content. Nines is intimidating. Gavin is confused. Good times.

Flying with Crooked Wings - by UnCon - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 20/? - “Listen, kid,” Gavin started, cutting off the desolate child. Sure it was sad his dog had died but it wasn’t Gavin’s fault no one taught the little twerp chocolate was a dog’s kryptonite, “he’s in a better place, alright, so if you’d just stop asking for him to come back—it’d be much appreciated.”

“You promise?” the eight-year-old asked, his big brown eyes looking like glass—fragile and sparkly.

“Yeah,” Gavin lied, looking away as he did it—his halo going a bit crooked. To be honest, he wasn’t sure where dogs went after they died, only that he was tasked with calming the little boys and girls who despaired after them—at least until his punishment was up. “So just, you know, go to sleep and all that.”

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In a world where angels and demons inhabit the same earth, both searching for a way to overthrow the other, both failing--Gavin sits right in the middle, with a crooked halo and a pair of wings to match. It's not enough to be a bit mischievous, however, he also has to get caught up in the demon brothers' scheme to take over heaven. Perfect.

Really good! This fic has the interesting dynamic of Gavin as an angel and Nines as a demon. Check it out!

The Red String Will Still Connect Us Ten Thousand Miles Apart (and to the moon and back) - by Jillflur - Teen and Up - Content warnings - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin, an ‘unlovable’ man without a Soulmate. He was used to it, never had one since he could remember. However, that little fact changes when he wakes up one day and realizes that he suddenly has a Red String connected to his ring finger. It only gets worse when months later, an android walks into the precinct who apparently is his new Soulmate!

Can androids even have Soulmates?!

To make everything even more complicated, a sudden new killer is on the Streets, and he murders people by cutting their Red Strings!

A soulmate fic by our very own jillflur! So good. Amazin. I love the red string trope so much. Yall should big read.

the prince & the reed - by Pence - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 2/? - "I wanted to marry you," the prince murmured, polished armor gleaming as he stared down at the injured man--icy eyes tinged with sadness. Regret.

A guttural scream ripped from the soldier's throat as a heel dug into his wound, arm coated crimson from his weeping shoulder.

The soldier's teeth were stained pink as he jerked his chin up to grin toothily at the other man, bloody fingers scrambling down his thigh in search of the dagger tucked into his boot.

"Then drop to your knees and ask me properly, Nines."

Okay this fic is only two chapters and hasn’t been updated in awhile but GOT DAMN do I love how the author set this medieval fic up. I’m a slut for the medieval au’s, so that’s just extra points.

Not a teacher but I can teach you a thing or two - by Adishailan - Teens and Up - No warnings - Chapters 20/20 - Gavin owed the walking hunk of plastic. He owed him. Ugh, Gavin hated owing people stuff. It gave him a horrible feeling in his stomach, like indigestion, except worse because it involved emotionsTM. This, coupled with the fact he was pumped up with drugs and suffering a concussion, was why he was about to make a terrible, terrible mistake.

“‘Kay. Fine. Thanks or whatever. Lemme know if you ever need anythin' prick.”

RK900’s LED went yellow at this, and this time Gavin was pretty sure he was doing the processing thing. It was still yellow even when he nodded in a serious way and said:

“That would be useful.”

Oh man this one is BIG CUTE! It’s so soft, and is a fantastic slow burn. I totally recommend this fic.

O May I Join the Choir Invisible - by BanishedOne - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 13/? - Gavin Reed was a new inmate at a prison where the infamous killer, R. Nathan Kearney, was on death row. Circumstances led to an unfortunate encounter.

Okay don’t quote me on this but I think you can find the rest of this fic on Twitter. It was posted in a bunch of seperate posts and it was really confusing but there was definitely extra chapters. You can find the post here (or at BanishedOne on twitter). Other than that, this is a really good fic! The boys get into a lot of trouble!

Neon Maps - by caffienefueledfeels - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 11/11 - Everyone has their limits. Gavin is about to discover several of his own.

He's broke, barely scraping along, and struggling to keep an aggressive black-mailer off his back. On top of that, the grey-eyed distraction in his bed is about to test his heart in more ways than one.

Cyberpunk fic!! Super interesting! Go check it out!

Computers Are Elaborate Cat Beds, Actually - by errantwheat - No Rating - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 6/? - “Marvelous find, Gavin. They’ll promote you for this, surely.”

Gavin pulled an exaggerated frown. He was awfully animated for a robot. “Jesus, What kind of human are you? I’m waving a fucking kitten in your face and you’re still a bitch.”

Really cute. I’m pretty sure there’s some art to go with this fic. Super duper cute reverse au!

More Than a Woman, More Than a Bride - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Content warnings - Chapters 38/? - When Gavin’s life is threatened for the last time by a violent gang expanding the production of a new drug in Detroit, Captain Fowler must come up with a plan for his safety. Perhaps forcing a marriage between Nines and Gavin wasn’t the best solution he could come up with...

Oh man. This fic. Let me tell you. I’ve been with this fic since the beginning and it is one hell of a roller coaster XD. The author updates constantly, it’s really impressive.

More Like You - by Mooneye - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 1/1 - “This next bit’s going to get awkward. I’m going to interface with you.”

At that he could feel the collective confusion in the room. His eyes darted up to look at Hank and then Nines. They both seemed eerily still and were possibly thinking that Gavin had surely lost his mind.

Gavin has kept his prosthetic arm, with good reason, a secret from humans and androids alike for as long as he’s had it. The prospect of losing Nines threatens to unravel everything, but perhaps it’s worth the cost.

The idea of Gavin (an android hater in-game) having a prosthetic-android arm is definitely interesting!

An Unforeseen Union - by AvixiLynn91 - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 16/16 - Gavin and Nines are sent undercover to investigate a slew of brutal murders at a gay counselling and therapy resort for androids and humans. They're forced to pose as a couple, but soon feel their relationship becoming more than an act as real feelings develop.

I loved the dramatic whodunnit vibes in this fic! It gets crazy :P

The Great DPD Kink-Off - by connorssock, LittleLalaith, Skye_Willows, Stujet9rainshine - Explicit: only suitable for adults - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 24/24 - It started out as a bit of rivalry and turned into a competition. Who was the kinkiest android in town?

If you like smut, then read this. That is all I will say.

The Black Nights, The Long Dark - by bvssbot - Explicit - Content warnings - Chapters 8/12 - translation of an amazing russian fic тёмные ночи, долгая тьма (the dark nights, the long darkness) into english

An unknown catastrophe was the reason Gavin ended up stranded alone on a godforsaken Canadian island. Having almost made peace with the thought of living in solitude for the rest of his days, he saves the life of a pilot named Richard, whose airplane crashed in the middle of his humanitarian mission.

Shit, I loved ‘The Long Dark’ and I love this fic. I don’t speak russian, unfortunately, so I must wait to read the end. But this is still amazing and you all should read it.

Detroit: Outlast - by Cardboardghost - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 1/? - Connor Upshur is a down on his luck reporter, who spends his nights getting drunk and passing out at home. A mysterious email calls him to Mount Massive Asylum, owned by the Cyberlife corporation. Armed with nothing but a camera and his wits, Connor must brave the asylum's horrors and find way to save the people Cyberlife stole from him.

Gavin Park is a beat cop looking for a more well paying job. So when an offer to work private security at the Cyberlife corporation all but falls into his lap, how could he refuse? Gavin quickly realizes things are not what they seem, and in an attempt to expose Cyberlife, he ends up further in their clutches. Now he and Connor must work together to claw their way out of the asylum's depths, and the familiar faces that wait inside those walls.

This fic only has onw chapter, but go check out Cardboardghost’s art if you finish reading this!! They have provided so much quality content for the Outlast/DBH crossover I didn’t know I needed.

Gin & Tonic - by limchi - Explicit - No warnings - Chapters 8/? - People didn’t like Gavin Reed. Gavin Reed didn’t like people. It went together like gin and tonic, you can’t have one without the other. Nines hated him and he hated Nines. Those were the rules they played by, the rules that couldn't be changed - until fate decided they could.

It turned Gavin into pretending to dislike and Nines into a dense idiot with a crush, unable to grasp the concept of love. Both in utter denial. The catch: gravity worked against them, pulled them together at a frightening pace. Push against and defy the rules of nature or go along the prevailing forces?

Your friendly neighborhood reed900 fic. Very epic slow burn and fluff (and a hint of angst tbh). I definitely recommend!

Bitter Half - by turnabout - Mature - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 5/5 - Gavin Reed was born unmarked, and had spent his entire life expecting to die like he lived - alone. It isn't until Tina points out the new serial number on his chest that he realizes everything is about to change. Whether that's for better or for worse is up to him.

I’m a sucker for soulmate fics and this one does not disappoint!

K-900 - by Serazimei - Teen and Up - No warnings - Chapters 3/3 - Gavin and Nines were a great team. Unfortunately they were both huge workaholics. That's why when Nines' body gets busted on a job and the needed parts aren't available yet chaos is inevitable. Needing to choose between waiting and potentially being of no use at work or participate in one of Kamskis experiments and transfer his mind into an Android dog the decision is easy to make.

Who knew being in a dog body could become such a hassle? Not Nines, that's for sure.

Nines is a pup!!! I don’t believe I’ve seen a fic like this yet, so it’s really cool!

Thanks I'm Hating It - by Lupo (LupoLight) - Explicit: only suitable for adults - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Gavin goes to a fast food burger joint and Nines judges him. Then he realizes that Gavin isn't as much of a dick as he used to be, except he is, but in a different way. He isn't sure how to react to this knowledge.

QUALITY reed900 content

Bloodstains - by DeviantAlicee - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 12/? - Nines is an interrogator & detective for the DPD with a dark past. His thick skin & smarts helping him to be one of the most valuable members of the department. He's cold & daunting.

GV200 is one of the first police android models who's partnered with a cruel beat cop who not only hates that his partner is an android but doesn't think GV can feel any of the cruel things he does or says to him. The android doesn't speak up due to the fear of being shut down.

Nines has no clue that the android he bumped into at a bar is in fact a police android. He just thinks that he might be somebody in need of some help. But, as time passes by & a new drug that can be used by androids begins to circulate, Nines begins to realise the situation is a whole lot more convoluted than he originally thought.

This is a really interesting reverse au! Check it out!

Team spirit - by ilse_writes - Mature - No warnings - Chapters 4/4 - Someone had the unholy idea to go camping with the department, all in the name of 'team building'. Gavin is not liking it very much. That tall instructor with his haughty manners and cool eyes... that one he likes very much.

I don’t think I’ve seen another au quite like this one. Very epic content, can we hit Gavin Reed?

Wake Up - by SkySquid22 - Mature - Content warnings - Chapters 6/? - “Gavin!”

GV200 slipped out of his stasis. He didn’t get a chance to open his eyes before a file came down on his face, smacking him.

“And here I thought tin cans didn’t sleep.”

Something was wrong.

Something was very very wrong.

DIS GOT ME F U C K E D U P!!! Bruh @skysquid200 really out here shaking my world with this fic. I was hollering while reading this like I got HYPED

Natural - by Erik_Heinrich - Teen and Up - Author chose not to warn for content - Chapters 1/? - They are all wing people.

Gavin gets partnered with Nines. As expected hes not too happy about it, but their partnership seems to be going well. That is until spring comes along. Nines wings seem a bit fidgety and Gavin is nesting. Nines doesn't realize he's been trying to court Gavin, and Gavin is just as oblivious.

or. They are both complete idiots the whole time

WING FIC WING FIC WING FIC!!!! Yall dont know how long I’ve looked for a reed900 wing fic. My homie @phckingusername out here doin God’s work <333

Thank you all so much for 1K!!! Being able to hop on Tumblr everyday and talk to you guys makes me so happy!! I really hope I didn't f up this rec list anywhere lol. Hope u guys like it!!

#thank yall so much #i cant say it enough #dbh #detroit become human #gavin reed #rk900 #nines #reed900 #fic rec list #reed900 fic recs

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keevansixx · 6 years ago

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A Machine did Dream of Electric Sheep...

it was in the mid 22nd century that mankind finally made it to mars.

Humanity’s technological prowess finally resolving many of the logistical problems their ancestors could not quite overcome in their time. We had abandoned hope of ever reaching our red sister for over a hundred years, as domestic troubles on the earth stymied technological and scientific research from progressing towards a dream of walking on a distant world.

The nation of China made the first steps towards Mars...by developing the means to survive on the moon. the lunar colonies were a sincere victory towards the pursuit of mars colonization. Without the benefits of the lunar habitats, and the vital life support technologies developed during humankinds occupation of the moon, we would not be able to live and thrive on another world.

The second steps were taken by the nations of India and Pakistan, who set aside their old animosities by working together to develop the infrastructure and engines necessary to transport what we needed to live on the moon from our mother earth in the most efficient means possible.

the third steps were taken by a joint Russia/EU/America coalition. Tentative though it was, the coalition provided the manpower, logistics, and bodies necessary to man the lunar colonies by training astronauts, engineers, and other members of the science community on how to live in a zero g environment, and overcoming the challenges that may arise when things go wrong.

The final journey was completed by private charter, as the whole of our solar system was finally opened up to corporations and manufacturers scrambling to establish toe holds in the resource rich locations within the Kuyper belt, on the moon, and other rich targets all on the backs of technologies developed by the scientific community, and many space agencies run by various governments. Space became our new frontier.

The first mars colony was a private affair. Established by a international think tank of scientists and engineers, backed by corporate sponsorship and resources, and built as a testing ground for colonial habitats. Without that necessary link, humanity would never have been able to establish the colony cities, and begin transporting immigrants to mars. The iron rich Martian soil making it easy to fabricate ships, engines, and structures necessary for survival, and the low Martian gravity a boon to building the superstructures necessary to place stations and manufacturing plants throughout our solar system.

In the year 2269, on the 200th anniversary of humankind first steps on a foreign soil outside our own world, did we find her....

It started off as a lark....a “what if”. What if we found her? What if we brought her back home? What if she still worked after all these long years? It became a sort of competition between the harvesters scouring the surface for iron oxide for the manufacturing plants back in the fabrication domes. Yet, What started out as a friendly competition between colony workers, quickly became a zealous search for lost NASA and other space agency tech, with corporations ponying up hefty sums of money as a reward to the first persons to find the old probes. Almost every Martian kid carried a copy of the old NASA wake-up protocols on their datapads, just in case. Many harvester techs toted a bevy of metal detectors, signal boosters, and a shovel or two should their rigs ping on a solid metal signal....mostly, they just find a plethora of meteor pieces that they just shrug, and toss into the catch bins of their harvesters.

Some of the rewards were already claimed...by lucky techs or citizens who dredged a small bit of old probe up from the Martian dust, and dug on hands and knees to uncover the rare finds. they found the old Viking probes that way, a couple of Russian orbiter probes that fell out of orbit, mangled landing gear from various probes, Beagle 2, Spirit, the sojourner....over the years, since humans first landed on mars, the search for old tech proved too irresistible a challenge for any government to repress, so they encouraged the search and salvage of historical artifacts by Martian natives with the hopes of recovery and return to mother earth..

When they found her, it was not some dusty tech that dredged past, or a maintenance crew on their way between repair stations.....no....it was a family of four on holiday across the Martian plains, crater hopping for meteorite samples for their eldest child’s research paper on “meteorological differences in crystalline alignment between various impact samples within crater impact sites”. It was the youngest child that noticed the shiny glint in the dim sunlight, the corner of a solar panel sticking up at an odd angle.

While the rest of the family were busy gathering samples, the child starts digging at the panel with the toy shovel mom and dad provided to keep the kid happy and occupied while they snap pictures and spectroanalyize samples for their older kid. The youngest giggles while they work, removing layers of dirt from the solar panel inch by inch exposing more and more. A foot scuff in Martian soil uncovers part of a camera lens and the child starts digging around until they uncover a long cylinder attached to a mounting arm in the loose mars soil.

By this time, the rest of the family has joined the youngest after hearing the giggles, and make a concerted family effort to dig out the old rover. Spending several hours removing as much dirt as they can from the solar panels, while talking excitedly amongst themselves, and congratulating the youngest on their discovery. Most of the body, part of the wheels, and the tool arm limply resting beneath the rover now exposed to the sky once again, the family dusts off the rear panel where the words “NASA” and underneath that in smaller lettering “ Opportunity” were printed on the structure panels.

the child squeals “Oppy!” while the parents shed a tear, running down their cheeks and unable to wipe away....their joy and happiness evident over the discovery. The eldest tinkers with some wires underneath the solar panels, and attaches them to a spare battery out of their rented land transport while keying in old codes from the colony database. They wait....

After what feels like an eternity, they could see the twitch of gears, the slight tilt of the camera as it resets, the wheels being tested one by one. the camera head slowly swinging around to look at it’s body...

By this time, the word had gotten out on mars that another lander had been found, which got everyone on mars excited, and flocking towards the now broadcasted coordinate location at best speed, as old monitors in every station lit up with the words “Hello....I am awake, and warm.”

There was quite the reception accumulating at the find site as harvesters, personal transports, mars government officials, everyone not tied down arriving from all directions, and forming a reverent circle around the lander, of vehicles and people.

Caring hands, from all walks of life, pitch in to lift her out of the hole she was currently in, and gently placed the 400kg astronaut back on flat land to the cheers and adulation of the assembled Martian people

The teen types in a series of warmup commands, which takes the lander a few moments to process from her aging memory banks, but her cameras shift, the panels weakly soaking up what little ambient lighting there was. she slowly holds up her tool arm and proceeds to cycle through them testing functionality.

There is not a dry eye in the entire assembly of humans, standing on the Martian plains on that historic day......when they hear the melody of an old Billy Holliday tune being played faintly with Opportunity’s tool arm.....after all that time, it seems she remembered us after all...

We finally found her....and now.....she begins her journey....home.

#opportunity #humans are space orcs #writing-prompt-s

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wolfliving · 5 years ago

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Vulns in “Cisco Delivery Protocol”

*Another day, another embedded and unfixable IoT hack

https://www.wired.com/story/cisco-cdp-flaws-enterprise-hacking/

(...)

The flaws lie in the implementation of a mechanism known as the Cisco Discovery Protocol, which allows Cisco products to broadcast their identities to each other within a private network. CDP is part of a network's "Layer 2," which establishes the foundational data link between network devices. All devices use some sort of identity broadcasting mechanism, but CDP is Cisco’s proprietary version.

"You’re going to have to own a lot of devices, but once you own all of them you’ve literally taken over every single piece of the network."

Separating Cisco products out by having them use CDP has some logistical benefits, but Seri points out that it also creates an easy way for attackers to find Cisco products once they're inside a network. And since all Cisco products use CDP, one vulnerability can be used to automatically and simultaneously target many devices at once, or to take over crucial devices like network switches and move laterally from there. Any Layer 2 protocol can have bugs; vulnerabilities in CDP simply provide a particularly efficient route to attacking ubiquitous Cisco products.

Armis disclosed its findings to Cisco at the end of August, and today the networking giant is releasing patches for all five vulnerabilities. There are so many because Cisco implements CDP in slightly different ways depending on the product; Armis found related bugs throughout the disclosure process and worked with Cisco to patch them all....

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aiprobably · 6 years ago

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Follow us @aiprobably . Yersinia Package Description Yersinia is a framework for performing layer 2 attacks. It is designed to take advantage of some weaknesses in different network protocols. It pretends to be a solid framework for analyzing and testing the deployed networks and systems. Attacks for the following network protocols are implemented in this particular release: Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP) Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) 802.1q 802.1x Inter-Switch Link Protocol (ISL) VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) #hacker #hacking #linux #tech #hack #technology #cybersecurity #python #programmer #computerscience #code #developer #security #computer #software #kalilinux #php #webdeveloper #cyber #ethicalhacking #anonymous #engineer #privacy #ai #geek #google #android #malware #internet #dataprotection https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx4p9csgAnc/?igshid=io5adn3fsxkw

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katsitting · 7 years ago

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Black Mambo

Rating: M

Ships: Volmione/Tomione

Warnings: Alien Tom Riddle, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Researcher! Hermione, Referenced Murder, Brief Mentions of Mutilation, Choking

AO3 link (x)

A chair screeched in the room, but Hermione didn’t flinch. No harm would come to her here. Not when there were guards pressed alongside the walls of the perimeter, taking care to watch the resident held within its walls.

Hermione slung her leg over the other, crossing it at the knee, from underneath the table. Her eyes did not shift from the figure sitting at the center of the room, buried behind impact-glass and two feet of concrete.

It was a bit of overkill, in her honest opinion. But she could understand their concerns. There was no telling what the creature was capable of, after all.

Especially when it had somehow killed two orderlies in the span of 48 hours.

“Hermione--”

Her gaze did not waver from the hunched figure behind the glass, scrutinizing it for any sign of understanding--awareness-- of where it was. It didn’t so much as flinch when another chair was yanked back, the wood screeching against the floor to stop at Hermione’s side. A redheaded man sat to her right, but Hermione didn’t look at him. It wasn’t necessary. She knew who he was, and knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Any ideas what this could be?”

There was a brief pause where Hermione said nothing, tracing the bumps in the creature’s spine, before she sighed.

“I’ve no bloody idea, Ronald.”

With a purse of her lips, she reached for her notepad and pen, dragging it onto her lap to write down precisely what she was seeing. This creature had similar features to that of a snake, but--

Brow furrowing, Hermione’s breath caught when it turned its head and a humanoid face stared back. Its eyes were a deep red, and even from where Hermione sat in her seat--which was not a short distance by any means--, it was not difficult to tell that it was noseless and hairless.

it had all the trappings of a human male, but its face was deformed. Its naked body was littered with snake scales that flashed and twinkled beneath the fluorescent lights of the cell.

The creature's eyes stared at them through the glass, and Hermione’s hold on her pen weakened, unnerved at the way it cocked its head. It was almost as if it could see them, but no--

That was silly. Anyone on Hermione’s side could see into the room, but there was no possibility that it could stare back. The glass they used was of the special variety. The same kind that officers used in their precincts when conducting an interrogation.

Calm down, Granger.

“I’ll have to run some tests. Maybe get a closer loo--”

“Absolutely not. You’re not going in there when that thing has already killed two people, ‘Mione.”

Hermione’s lip twitched before she whipped around on Ron, startling the poor bastard enough that he fell off the chair and onto his arse.

Serves him right.

“Don’t start with me, Ronald. I have a bloody job to do. I’m all this damn facility has got.”

Ron grumbled, the chair screeching beneath his weight when he propped all of his weight on it to get up. He threw a sour expression in her direction, knowing better than to argue with her on this. He knew she was right.

She was all they had until they can fly in more researchers. The few that hadn’t run with their tails tucked between their legs at the discovery of this creature, had outright refused to go near the thing. After the whole fiasco with the orderlies, it was in her best interest to follow their lead--

And yet--

Hermione began writing again, now noting down the way the creature cocked its head, its lipless mouth twisting into a parody of a smile. It raised the hackles in Hermione’s spine, but she didn’t dare look away, didn’t stop writing.

How could she stop when a real-life, flesh and blood alien was sitting just several layers of concrete away from her? This was the opportunity of a lifetime even if it was dangerous.

“Fine. But I don’t have to like it,” Ron shot, tearing her thoughts away from the creature. She tried not to scowl, shifting her attention back to her ex-boyfriend. “Just be careful. People have died, ‘Mione.”

The frustration bubbling in her chest melted at the genuine look of concern in his periwinkle blue eyes. They may have ended things in less than stellar terms, what with him losing his patience and her losing her temper, but she knew that he still cared. She did too, even if half the time she wanted to strangle him for hindering her work.

“I will, Ron. Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”

Ron's shoulders relaxed at her words, the color on his cheeks quickly returning.

Huh.

Hermione didn’t know when he’d gone pale. It wasn’t a surprise, but still, that was a rather extreme reaction nevertheless. One would think the monster was out of its cage, bearing its teeth straight at him.

“Now then, if you’ll excuse me. I have a specimen to examine.”

Ron swallowed at that, what little color he had regained, vanishing almost instantly. Hermione tried not to roll her eyes, a snarky remark sitting right on the tip of her tongue.

Honestly.

You would think she’d never observed a dangerous predator before.

After days of arguing with the heads of the department, Hermione was finally given the opportunity to inspect the creature in person.

She was positively glowing with pride, with joy, at the idea. No more did she have to sit behind the glass of the interrogation room, tucked away in the dark to catch a sight of its body slinking in the dark.

Now she could come closer, could press up to the glass and watch the way its ribcage contracted with each breath it took.

Ron had not been thrilled, having gone against her back to the heads to complain about the ‘suicidal’ decisions by Dr. Granger.

But no more. She had won her case when the alien had killed no more guards, remaining docile and well-behaved behind the glass after weeks of observation.

Anticipation curled in her stomach, a literal pep in her step when she got out of that hour-long interrogation.

Nothing would keep her away from this discovery. Not Ron, and most certainly not the department heads.

Hermione tried not to scowl at the fleet of armed men flanking her, her hold on her equipment and notes giving her no time at all to smack the lot of them in the back of the head.

She was more than aware that the creature was dangerous, but Christ, did they have to send half of the bloody army to guard her on the way there? She guessed that there were at least twenty of them, and that was being kind.

The only perk to all this was that she didn’t have to open any of the doors, what with her hands being otherwise occupied and all. But still, she walked with the echoes of their footsteps at her back, her annoyance mounting with each time she had to wait for the group to decide who would open the door next.

The relief when they finally reached their destination was almost palpable. Even if that relief was shortlived when the guards began to squabble in earnest now, no one wanting to be the first to open the door and scope the lab.

“Beckham already we--”

“Alright, enough of that,” Hermione snapped, shoving past two arguing guards while the rest of them hung back. Hermione tried not to roll her eyes at the way they squirmed where they stood, some even glancing mournfully down the hallway. You would think she was sentencing them to death. It wasn’t like they had to get up and personal with the fucking alien.

“Just open the godforsaken door and let me through. I don’t have all bloody day.”

They were quick to comply, swiping their key card before Hermione could swing the cases in her arms. They knew she would, more than aware of just how easily she lost her temper when tested. Her and Ron’s tumultuous relationship was more than evidence of that fact.

“Thank you,” Hermione said before trekking into the room, an army of guards in tow.

The icy chill of the room greeted her from the moment she took her first step into the room. It burrowed into the meat of her hands, curling through her white coat and the sweater she wore underneath.

With a shudder, Hermione ambled deeper into the room, eyeing the glass window that gave her a complete view of the creature’s prison from a whole new angle. The glass was just as fortified as the one at the opposite end of the building, but--

Something about being in this room, in particular, made things more intimate. Smaller and nestled. Almost like a nursery save for the fact that this room was not decorated with bright and cheerful colors nor adorned with comfortable furniture.

“You lot handle the controls. I’ll need to get a closer look if I am going to decipher just what sort of creature this is.”

There were some murmurs in the room, nervous and restless, but neither one chimed in to refuse her command. Several men made a beeline for the controls, already hard at work to get the second cage lowered.

“I’m going to ask that you all be prepared for anything. And I do mean anything. If something goes wrong in there, and I am still inside, you know what the protocol is.”

No one said a thing, even when Hermione’s eyes stared each of them in the eye, letting them all know that she wasn’t afraid. If shite hit the fan, she would be left in the room with no means of escape. It would be unsafe for the general public to have this creature unleashed.

Hermione was more than willing to sacrifice her life if it meant keeping that thing away from the outside world.

“Dr. Granger.”

Hermione spun around on her heel, dropping her equipment onto the floor. It was one of the men--Marcus? Hermione wasn’t sure, there were so damned many of them--she’d ordered to manage the controls who had spoken.

“It’s ready. The creature has been contained.”

Hermione nodded, satisfied.

“Alright then, boys,” Hermione hefted her things once again and took a step toward the door separating her from the creature lying in wait. “Let’s get to work.”

The days of observing the creature bled into one another, and Hermione hardly minded.

This was what she wanted. How could she complain when every morning she had the chance to observe a live alien and make observations about the creature?

No one else had been given this privilege. No one else was brave enough, had the nerve to sit back on a tiny metal chair and write down notes about the smallest detail.

She knew more about the creature than even the military that had found it, and that was something that made her heart swell with pride, that made her toes curl with pure delight.

This was her discovery, her mission. No one else would be nearly as humane, as kind as she was being to a creature that had murdered two men the moment it had arrived at the facility.

“Did you miss me?” Hermione asked when she entered the room, ignoring the worried glances from the guards standing by the doorway as she took her seat.

They thought her mad for talking to it.

Hermione didn’t care for it, for any of their opinions. She refused to treat the alien like it wasn’t a living, breathing thing. It deserved her kindness. To be spoken to, to be treated with as much respect as she could without arousing suspicion and discomfort in the people up top.

As much as she wanted to bathe, clothe, and give the alien space to do things in private--even if it didn’t seem like there was much going on behind its red eyes--Hermione was nothing but ethical.

She refused to test him, to do anything more invasive than watch, than scribble down some notes on the way it behaved when she entered the room, or when others, like Ron, perched up at her side and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione wiped the sweat that had formed on her forehead, her curls escaping the tight bun she’d wrested them into. She’d been in the room for a little over an hour, observing the creature as it circled around in the tiny cage it’d been confined into.

It was fascinating, really. Watching it move and slink about; it was like watching the coils of a python furl and unfurl.

Her hand ached from scribbling down onto her clipboard, ink smearing along her thumb and the meat of her palms to get everything she saw down onto paper.

As she had noted previously, the creature did have all the trappings of a human male. It was shaped like a human man, down to the top of its head and to its feet. Its thighs were thick and its calves thin. The rest of it was muscled, too, littered with scales that were most concentrated on its face and abdomen.

They were a gorgeous shade of teal, the light catching on scales making it almost gleam blue or even green depending on the angle. She wanted to touch it, to feel it and learn if it was just like a snake, truly.

But that was for another day. She knew that. There were too many variables, too many dangers to trying to tranquilize it. There was no telling how the creature would react to the use of human barbiturates--it could either end terribly, with the creature having an outright adverse reaction or even worse still, where it did work, but the creature woke up too soon while she was in its cage. It was too risky to do something that rash now, so--

Hermione watched. For now.

She took in the smooth shape of its head, the red of its irises and the cat-like slits of its eyes. Her eyes missed nothing, noting with excruciating detail even the flap of skin between its legs, furled and wrinkled. It was uncanny, how, even after days of observation, she was still struck by how much its genitals resembled that of a human male’s.

“Dr. Granger.”

Hermione jumped, attention so consumed by the specimen in front of her that she didn’t notice when a guard had stopped beside her.

Pressing her hand to her chest to stop her heart from crawling up her esophagus, Hermione cast an annoyed glance at the man. He was dark-haired, with eyes such a pale green that they almost glowed.

Hermione, for the life of her, could not remember his name.

“Yes? Is there something I can help you with?” Hermione asked, masking her irritation as best as she could. There was no need to chew the man out. Lord knows how long she’d been in that room already, starting at the alien’s body. Anyone would be concerned about her mental health.

“We’ve been here for three hours, doctor. We understand how important your work is, but--”

Hermione lifted her hand up and the man stilled in his words instantly.

“You can relieve yourselves, if that’s what the fuss is all about. I can take care of things from here, as you can see.”

Hermione gestured to the creature safely contained behind a smaller glass cage, as if to prove that she had everything handled. The guard did not look convinced, however.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, ma’am.”

Hermione groaned, as if pained, her hand coming up to rub against her temples. Had she not made herself clear? She was not leaving. Nothing short of an actual nuclear disaster was getting her off this damned chair.

“I understand the concern, but as you see, there is still much to be done. The specimen has been well behaved--no one else has died save for the two men when we first transported it here. However, if you’re so worried about my wellbeing, you can leave one of your men behind to keep an eye on me.”

The guard opened his mouth as if to argue, but then he clicked it shut. Victory swelled in Hermione’s chest instantly. She had won, could tell in the way the guard lowered his shoulders and his lips pinched.

“Alright. We’ll leave someone outside who will manage the controls while you're still in here. If anything happens, and I do mean anything, they will come for you.”

Hermione nodded, eyes already making their way to the specimen that had stopped its pacing in the cell, its eyes now trained on the both of them.

Interesting.

She didn’t look away from it when the man excused himself, the sound of his footsteps disappearing and the door closing announcing his departure.

A grin spread along her lips, excitement bubbling up her belly.

Finally, they were completely alone.

Weeks passed, and Hermione found that the guards had become more amenable to leaving her alone with the creature.

She was grateful for that, happy to work without the scrutinizing gazes of the guards on her back as she sketched and diagrammed different areas of its body.

Although from a glance, the creature did look human in many ways, that was where their similarities ended.

When the creature had opened its mouth once, Hermione could not help but shudder at the row of sharp teeth inside. There were rows of them, not one but two, the back of them flat--similar to that of humans in that it mashed up whatever food it ate.

But those canines.

They were large and sharp enough to cut through meat, to break bone down. She almost wanted to test its jaw strength, to throw in a device that would test just how much strength it had.

She didn’t, though. It was enough to watch it eat, to see it chew and snarl through raw meet with a pearly white bone poking out from the flesh. The fact that it could tear through raw meat that easily, without making a mess of blood and flesh on the floor was telling of how powerful it was.

It was a good thing, indeed, that she was out there and the creature was in there.

Hermione had abandoned her chair in the midst of her observations, no longer satisfied with remaining in her seat when she could get a much better view of the way it breathed pressed close to the glass.

The creature had stopped its movements altogether, its eyes looking at her curiously--a hint of something Hermione could not define in its gaze. It was...amazing.

A real-life alien. She couldn’t contain her zeal, walking around the box, and reveling in her excitement with little reservations now that she was no longer under the careful eye of the guards.

The only one that remained was outside of those doors, and Hermione pressed her hands against the glass, eyes wide in wonder when the creature stood on its legs as a man would and placed its hands against the glass where her hands were.

Oh my--

Hermione was vibrating with energy, unable to tear her eyes away from where their hands were separated from the glass.

“Did you enjoy the view?”

All the air rushed out of her lungs, brows knitting together despite herself. Surely, the creature couldn’t possibly be speaking--

“Oh yes, I most definitely am.”

Hermione backed away from the glass as if burned, shock fueling her movements until she was standing right at the corner of the room.

The creature had not torn its eyes away from her, a glimmer of amusement and interest gleaming in its inhuman eyes. They were no longer dull with unawareness.

It was intelligent.

Hermione couldn’t quite decide whether to be terrified or awed.

The box was made for an unintelligent specimen. It wouldn’t be able to hold something that could think outside of eating, killing, and defecating.

“H-how long?” Hermione asked, eyes widening with horror when the creature cocked its head to one side and the glass cracked, splintering into millions of tiny fissures within moments.

Oh god.

“From the very start.”

She sprung from where her legs had been rooted on the floor, running to the door at the end of the room. She pounded on its surface, blood rushing up to her ears.

The door refused to move.

“Open the god damn door,” she shouted, hysteria making her words crack at the end, but still, the guard outside refused to open the door for her.

Was he even still out there?

“They won’t come for you, you know.”

Hermione trembled when the crack of glass shattering exploded behind her, shards of it sailing through the air and pelting her with the crystals. She didn’t turn around but continued to pound on the door, her heart lodged in her throat.

No. No. No.

The mutilated bodies of two men flashed behind her eyes, and Hermione thought she might be sick. She’d been personally there when the autopsy had been conducted, wanting a closer look at the extent of the damage to feel out the alien’s abilities.

“You and I both made certain of that.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Hermione stopped banging against the door. It was useless. If what the creature said was true, then she wasn’t going to get out of this unscathed.

She’d just have to find another way out, then.

Hermione spun around, leveling the creature with the bravest look she could muster. There was nothing brave or strong about her emotions. They were messy and alive with hysteria, but she had to calm down.

Panicking would get her nowhere.

The creature was standing in the remains of the glass box, its eyes trained on hers. Hermione tried not to shrink underneath its scrutiny, wondering faintly if this was how the creature had felt when she’d been roaming over its body with her eyes.

“What have you done? How could you have done anything when in that cage?”

The creature cocked its head to one side, as if weighing whether to answer the question or not, before he stepped out of the glass box. The crunch of its bare feet stepping onto the glass made her wince.

“Now now, Dr. Granger, that would be telling.”

Her lips twisted into a grimace, hating the way its lips stretched into a delighted smile. It was fucking terrifying.

“Why should I answer your questions? Why should I indulge your curiosity? You have no power here.”

Anger bloomed in her chest, toxic and acidic. It made her see red, it made her want to lunge at the monster and do something foul.

Hermione bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood, in a pitiful attempt, she might add, to calm herself down.

It’s baiting me.

“I beg to differ. You’re not setting one foot out of this facility without my say so,” Hermione said through gritted teeth, hating the way the creature began to purr. Its eyes roved over her, from the top of her head and down to her feet and back. It was invasive, oddly probing. It was as if it were looking for something.

Hermione hoped it didn’t find what it was looking for.

“And what makes you think I could not have escaped already? That I am not here because I have elected to stay?”

All the breath rushed from her lungs, horror shooting through her insides at the thought.

Then, the creature began to move, its steps slow and sinuous despite the loud crunch of glass sliding along the floor. Squaring her shoulders, Hermione tried not to let her fear show, eyes whirling about the room for something she could snatch to defend herself.

A shard of glass winked at her from her left, and Hermione didn’t wait. She sprung from her perch against the door, screaming when the creature was suddenly on her, its hand snatching her coat.

With a roll of her shoulders, she forced it off of her before the creature could get a stronger hold, grunting when there was a loud tearing, the sound like nails to a chalkboard.

Hermione snatched the massive shard of glass and turned, pointing it out at the monster that now stood only a foot away, its massive height making her crane her neck to maintain a clear view of its face.

Her coat was in its grasp, and Hermione shuddered when it pressed the cloth nearer to its face, its eyes sealing shut to breathe in her scent from the fabric.

“You smell just delightful, Dr. Granger.”

Nausea wrenched her stomach, bile burning up her esophagus at the guttural sound and the way its eyes snapped open to pierce her with a look of total hunger. Hermione’s grip on the glass tightened, the corners cutting into her palms. She hardly felt the sting, not when there was pure adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"What do you want?” Hermione snapped, taking a step back when the creature lifted its head away from the fabric, eyes never leaving her face. There was something shrewd about the look it gave her. Cruel. As if it were toying with her, stringing her about like some puppet on display.

It made the teeth in Hermione’s mouth ache, her fear and anger coil like live eels in her stomach.

“Why are you here if you chose to be here?”

A high hissing sound rumbled from the creature’s throat, and Hermione stiffened, incensed. It was laughing at her.

“Come now, what fun is there in giving you all the answers? You’re far brighter than this, love.”

A chill swept through her, thoughts rushing a mile a minute. But no matter how hard she thought of this, of its intentions, it was like grasping at straws. She didn’t understand.

None of this made sense.

It was an alien from god knows where in the universe, and it spoke to her. In English, with a British accent no less--

“Still don’t understand? Would you like a hint?”

Gooseflesh rippled up her arms when the creature began to move toward her again, and Hermione lifted her weapon, pointing the shard of glass at him in the hopes that it’d stay away.

“Two human men have died. What is it that they have in common?”

For each step he took, Hermione took another, the corner of her eyes keeping an eye on where she moved, so as not to force herself into a corner. She’d seen enough bloody horror movies to not make that mistake.

What did they have in common?

Surprise hit her like a blow to her stomach. She wanted to be sick, to press her hand to her mouth to repress the nausea that overcame her, her lunch that afternoon threatening to climb up her esophagus and greet her shoes.

Both of their skulls had been cracked open like an egg and their brains scrambled. Salvaged for something.

“Oh g-god, you--”

The creature only smiled, a wicked glint in its eyes. It looked pleased, thrilled at the horrified expression on her face.

“Their minds were of little note, but it was enough to give me the tools I required to learn your pitiful language. You cannot imagine my frustration at being able to delve into your mind what with the language barrier--”

Hermione limbs had locked, her mouth opening and closing both in horror and fascination. The creature had eaten their brains, quite literally, to speak their language. And now--

Now it will eat yours too.

“Nonsense. I will do no such thing.”

Hermione was far from comforted by this fact.

Wait. Had the creature just replied directly to her thoughts?

“After all, I am here for you.”

All thoughts of the monster melted away when the creature crept closer, and she began to move again, eyeing the way its body slid and slunk like that of a coiled snake, ready to sink its fangs into its prey. Her mind was thinking a mile a minute, unable to make sense of what it was even saying.

For her?

The creature was there for her? No, that couldn’t be true. That would mean that two men died because of her. That two lives were lost, their brains utterly scrambled like bloody soup for her.

“No,” Hermione denied, a sharp sting spreading over her palms when the glass cut into her palms. She was clutching the shard so hard her knuckles went white, but the cut on both of her palms, the potential infection, was the least of her worries. “You’re lying. You couldn’t possibly--”

“But I can. I am.”

A scream ripped from her throat when the creature rushed her, moving so fast she couldn’t see its movements, and grabbed one of her wrists. It squeezed her hard enough to bruise, and Hermione cursed and kicked, dropping the shard from her shaking fingers from the pain.

“I will admit. I didn’t plan to play captor and captive for very long. It is rare for me to remain in such a state when I am used to taking what I want from inferior species.”

She kicked and clawed, her free hand raking it across its arm, shoulders, and chest. She was fighting with everything she had, but the creature wasn’t phased by the blows, in fact, its eyes were glowing with mirth, a stupid smirk gracing its lips.

“But your smell,” it rumbled, the purr of its voice making the hairs in the back of her neck stand on end.

Oh god. No, No. No--

“It is mouthwatering, Dr. Granger. I simply had to find the source, to see for myself just what human possessed such a delectable scent.”

Then, the creature was lifting her up by her wrist, the pain in her joints shooting up and down her arm like a shock of electricity. She cried out, toes barely touching the ground as she tried to struggle, but couldn’t find the leverage to do any damage.

“And to my surprise, I find a human girl and a researcher no less. How tempted I was to take you while you were tucked away in that little room, your little eyes fascinated by something as innocuous as my naked back. It would have been delightful to watch your eyes widen with fear as I tore that human male’s throat out before your eyes--”

Hermione flailed about, tears burning at the corners of her eyes from the agony. Her shoulder felt like it was about to be pulled out of its socket, but still, she refused to cry. She wouldn’t.

She wasn’t weak, damn it.

“But I refrained. I wanted to see what you’d do, Dr. Granger. The fascination in your eyes, the furious way you took notes of each painful detail that you could see, your knowledge: all of it had sealed your fate.”

Abruptly, the creature released her wrist and Hermione fell back with a loud cry, her back hitting the ground so hard that her teeth rattled in her mouth. The creature slinked over her, and Hermione couldn’t move, could scarcely breathe from the agony shooting up her back and the red eyes staring into her eyes.

“You wanted to know what made me tick, to understand my capabilities, to see for yourself just what I can do.”

The creature’s mouth parted into a wide grin, teeth gleaming beneath the lights above their heads. It pressed closer, until its forehead was against hers, the chill of its skin enough to spur her into action.

Her hands came to claw out its eyes, her feet kicking at its chins, squirming and punching at its body. The monster blocked her kick when she aimed it at the wrinkled flesh between its thighs, wanting--no, needing--to see if it would end in the same result as it would a human male.

The high-pitched laughter that escaped its throat was enough to make her snarl, to make her desperate, but the creature, as if being done with the theatrics, snatched her flailing hands in one of his own and slammed them above her head.

The bones in her wrist protested, a twinge of agony forcing a pained whimper from her throat.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck--

“Let me show you, Hermione, just what it is that I can do.”

Then, there was a shift, and the question sitting on her tongue, the one that urged her to demand how it knew her name, fell away. Lost to the wind when there was a faint sound, one that Hermione could have almost missed had she not been hyperaware of every twitch the creature made above her.

Its body began to contort, to ripple like millions of droplets on a placid lake. It was both fascinating and horrifying to watch, to see how its teeth began to recede into its mouth, how the slits of its pupils rounded into that of a human’s. It was transforming, becoming something else--someone else.

She was at a loss for words, frozen by both her mute terror and fascination, as hair began to grow from atop its head, the bald head replaced by a head of soft waves of dark hair. A nose began to grow from the flat part of its face, sharp and angled.

The rippling didn’t stop until it was a human face staring back at her. One that Hermione had never seen before, but would never forget.

Its eyes were still red, still a malignant shade of cruel, but it didn’t matter now. The monster had become the most beautiful human being she’d ever set her eyes on. It was as if the monster had taken the best features from a human male and took it for his own.

A hand pressed against her throat, human and warm, unlike the cold flesh that had touched her forehead, and Hermione swallowed, unable to speak when its fingers dug into the skin.

“At a loss for words?” The creature asked, a teasing note in its voice that made her stomach clench. It no longer spoke with a high and reedy tone, but masculine drawl. It was as rich as sin, and Hermione wanted to shrink into the floor and disappear.

This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening--

“Oh, but it is. I am just like you, Hermione. I can be anything if I wished it, could lift from your very mind the faces you’ve seen in the past and become them.”

Hermione wanted to vomit, eyes unable to tear away from the creature’s when those, too, began to change. Darkened.

The creature spoke on as if it didn’t mind that Hermione had yet to say a thing.

“You’ve been a wonderful host, Hermione. But I think I’ve overstayed my welcome in this facility, don’t you agree?”

Hermione swallowed through the lump in her throat, a wheeze escaping her when its fingers squeezed her throat, blocking her airways. It could strangle her if it wished. Snap her neck, if it so desired. The possibilities were limitless. Hermione shook her head furiously, in spite of that. Nothing would make her happier than to see the creature leave.

“But of course, I must take you with me. We have great need of a human with your skillset.”

No.

Its fingers tightened, and black began to creep over her vision, specks of color dancing along his face. She squirmed beneath him, moving to dislodge the hand curling over her neck while his thumb slowly trailed over her pulsing carotid artery.

Panic bloomed in her stomach at the look of malicious glee in its eyes, at the way its face glowed with satisfaction at her weak squirming.

“I cannot simply let you go. You know far too much about me, Hermione.”

The hand pressed onto the sides of her neck, careful not to dig into her trachea and snap her neck, and then--

She was floating, sailing through murky depths, unable to hold onto what remained of her consciousness no matter how hard her mind screamed for her to stay awake.

She fell, and fell, and fell--

Its laughter, the last thing she heard before she was swallowed by darkness.

#Volmione #Tomione #I did a thing #shit got real #always wanted to write a creature fic

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chipsterai · 2 years ago

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Windows Ethernet Card Settings & Registry Optimizations to Reduce Latency & Buffer-bloat UDP GUI Applications

Offloading Settings

Note that some of the "TCP offload" settings should be applied both globally at the OS level, and in the Network adapter properties. It can help reduce CPU utilization and power consumption, and it can improve throughput in some scenarios. However, some offloads (TCP Offloads, LSO Offloads) can can also add some latency to the connection, and introduce issues.

****Recommend enabling only Checksum offloads, and disabling other types of TCP offloads, because of many buggy driver implementations causing timeouts, incomplete file transfers, known SQL server issues, etc..**** (Remember this when you get to the end.)

IPv4/TCP/UDP Checksum Offload: Enables the adapter to compute the IPv4/TCP/UDP checksum of packets instead of the OS, which reduces CPU utilization, and may theoretically increase adapter performance. This should be set to "enabled" in most common scenarios.

Offload TCP Segmentation: Allows the adapter to perform any necessary TCP segmentation of outgoing packets instead of the host OS, which can help increase transmission performance while also reducing CPU utilization. Recommend turning this off because of buggy implementations.

Large Send Offload / Large Receive Offload: This is enabled by default on many Intel/Broadcom adapters, however, there are known issues with its implementation. I recommend disabling this setting to avoid incomplete FTP file transfers and other sporadic internet issues.

Receive/Transmit Buffers: The buffer size of system memory that can be used by the adapter for received packets. This can be increased to help improve performance of network traffic, at the expense of some system memory. Intel adapter drivers usually have this setting under the network adapter properties -> Advanced -> Performance Options: "Receive Buffers" and "Transmit Buffers". Default is usually between 128 and 256 for both, it can be increased to 512, or even up to 1024 on systems with plenty of RAM to spare. This recommendation is true for both gaming/latency and pure throughput optimizations. Generally these buffers shouldn't be set to less than 256, as they can cause dropped packets and performance degradation if exhausted. For example, with a Realtek Gigabit LAN, increasing transmit buffers from the 128 default to 256 can give up to 30% transfer speed boost to a NAS.

ARP Offload: Enables the adapter to respond to ARP requests, which prevents the computer from having to wake for them when asleep.

NS Offload: Enables the adapter to respond to Neighbor Discovery Neighbor Solicitation requests, which prevents the computer from having to wake for them when asleep.

***Disable these to decrease overhead unless you need them.

- Client for Microsoft Networks - allows a computer to access resources on the MS network

- File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks - necessary to share local folders

- Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) - necessary logical connection between network devices, superseded by the newer IPv6

- QoS Packet Scheduler unless needed for server/vlan

- Microsoft Network Adapter Multiplexor Protocol

- Microsoft LLDP Protocol Driver - Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is a protocol for network devices to advertise their identity and neighbors, used for a network map.

- Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

- Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver

- Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6)

Network Throttling Tweak

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile]

"NetworkThrottlingIndex"=dword:ffffffff (DWORD, default: 10, recommended: 10 for media sharing, ffffffff for gaming and max throughput, valid range: 1 through 70 decimal or ffffffff to completely disable throttling)

It is only recommended to change this setting in saturated Gigabit LAN environments, where you do not want to give priority to multimedia playback. Reportedly, disabling throttling by using ffffffff can also help reduce ping spikes in some online games, video chat applications.

System Responsiveness Software Tweak

(TCP Optimizer "Advanced Settings" tab)

Exists in all versions of Windows from Vista to 8.1/10/2012 Server.

Multimedia applications use the "Multimedia Class Scheduler" service (MMCSS) to ensure prioritized access to CPU resources, without denying CPU resources to lower-priority background applications. This reserves 20% of CPU by default for background processes, your multimedia streaming and some games can only utilize up to 80% of the CPU. This setting, in combination with the "NetworkThrottlingIndex" can help some users with audio/ video streaming. We recommend reducing the reserved CPU for background processes from the default of 20%.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile]

"SystemResponsiveness"=dword:00000000 (default: 20, recommended: decimal 10 for general applications, 0 for pure gaming/streaming)

Note: In Server operating systems (Windows 2008-2012 Server), SystemResponsiveness is set to 100 by default, denoting that background services should take priority over any multimedia applications.

Congestion Control Provider

The TCP Congestion Control Algorithm controls how well, and how fast your connection recovers from network congestion, packet loss, and increase in latency. Microsoft changed the default "congestion provider" from CTCP to CUBIC with the Windows Creators update.

Recommended: CTCP for gaming, video chat and latency sensitive apps, CUBIC for pure throughput.

To see the current setting, in PowerShell use: Get-NetTCPSetting | Select SettingName, CongestionProvider (in later Windows 10 builds, the default used template "SettingName" is "Internet".

Note: If using CTCP and with lossy connections (good possibility of congestion/packet loss), you may also want to enable ECN.

OS level more info/

Disable Large Send Offload (LSO)

(Editable with the TCP Optimizer) Windows 2010 & 2012 Server, not available in earlier Windows versions

Large Send Offload lets the network adapter hardware to complete data segmentation, rather than the OS. Theoretically, this feature may improve transmission performance, and reduce CPU load. The problem with this setting is buggy implementation on many levels, including Network Adapter Drivers.

Intel and Broadcom drivers are known to have this enabled by default, and may have many issues with it. In addition, in general any additional processing by the network adapter can introduce some latency which is exactly what we are trying to avoid when tweaking for gaming performance. It’s recommend disabling LSO at both the Network Adapter properties, and at the OS level with the setting below.

Default: adapter-dependent

Recommended: disable (both in network adapter properties and in the TCP/IP stack at the OS level)

Disable-NetAdapterLso -Name * (disable LSO for all visible network adapters)

Enable-NetAdapterLso -Name * (to enable LSO for both IPv4 and IPv6 on all network adapters, not recommended)

Get-NetAdapterLso -Name * (get a list of network adapters that support LSO)

Receive-Side Scaling State (RSS)

It is sometimes useful to disable RSS if you need to reduce CPU load. This is useful on systems with older/slower CPUs where applications tax the processor up to 100% at times. This isn’t very common for daily use.

Router Level Tips

WMM of course

Segment your device (Vlan if possible. This is another discussion).

Upstream QOS or Shape your Upload traffic.

Block certain ports/open them.

Watch your logs for bad traffic & change MAC IP if needed.ppp

(Will Have Examples For WiFi6 & QOS)

TCP/UDP Timeouts - tweaking the TCP/UDP timeouts can have a noticeable impact on your connection by freeing up resources for active connections.

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