#Privacy-Focused Design Tools

[arabella0001]

Hiii

Do you remember the Kakashi request I made a while ago ?

cn: fluff. slow burn. avoidant attachment style. explicit sexual content [nsfw / 18+].dirty talk, 6.5 k+ words.

⟡ fandom: naruto | pairing: kakashi x reader

part 1 part 2

a/n: your requests always bring out the monster in me and make me write too much!

Ocular jutsu is a powerful tool. So powerful that the balance is inclined toward darker intents.

Fortunately enough, you and the people in your village were spared. At least for now. Injured ninja and powerless civilians like you are advised to stay in the medical tents around the city. Still, resources are low, so as a community, housing other ninja is a needed help.

Since Kakashi is the Hokage of the Konoha village, he is the most sought after. You didn’t interact with him directly that much, no. Only heard about him from others.

Most of you are powerless against ocular jutsu, but as a villager of healing techniques, you were one of the best at it.Your specialization is in creating advanced medical equipment and tools, of course with knowledge in medical ninjutsu. What sets you apart from others is your rare affinity and expertise toward some techniques in nature manipulation, lightning transmission, and any basic technique that helps you create Saishin Gijutsu-gata.

The special invention that made your name somewhat known in the village was the one you proposed to Konoha’s monarchy government, along with the council.

The first time you saw Kakashi was in a flash.

You walked with little confidence toward the meeting room because you didn’t do well with public speaking, even though Tsunade practically pushed you through the door after fighting off the anxious, irrational doubts you told yourself.

The door was opened by your slightly trembling hand, and you took a deep breath before entering.Your steps were the only sound in the room, announcing your presence before you bowed toward the present members.

“H-hello!” You adjusted your too-weak voice. “Hello! My name is Y/N L/N, born in the village of Sunagakure but now a member of the foundation of the Children’s Mental Healthcare Clinic and Medical Research Division in Konoha.”

You dared to glance at their expressions, which looked bored after the previous presentations before you.

“Right, so…” You turned toward the blackboard with the image projected onto it. “My research is about a possible mono-thunder train.”

“Mono-thunder train?” Shikamaru Nara asked curiously.

The sudden voice froze you a little before you looked at him over your shoulder.

“We know the Thunder Train installed in Konohagakure, right? The research is focused on a singular wagon designed for only four people, one of them to operate the train.”

Shikamaru added immediately. His voice wasn’t judgmental, but skeptical.

“Why should we invest our resources in this if we have a Thunder Train good enough for our needs?”

“Because the difference between them is that it doesn’t need rails. It only needs the ground.”

“What do you mean, the ground?”

You were at least happy someone was asking questions; it helped you present your idea better.

“Yes, that’s the major difference. And your next question is probably how an invention like that could run on the ground without an electrical line. Well, a usual train uses a locomotive as an engine, while this vehicle would get power from a drivetrain, engine, transmission, etc.”

Shikamaru blinked slightly before asking,

“Before you continu…since I, myself, want to hear all of it, and I won’t vote to dismiss your research. What’s the major purpose of it?”

“The monarch of the village would benefit most from it, as it increases privacy and security, especially with a trained person designated as his personal driver.”

Finally, you looked at the Hokage. Kakashi was standing beside Shikamaru, his crucial advisor.

Speaking of Kakashi, he was usually forced to participate in all these kinds of meetings. Not that he didn’t want to. He appreciated creativity of any kind; but the long list of responsibilities drained him day by day. He didn’t want this role, and everybody knew it. Is he a bad or uninvolved Hokage? No. A happy person who gives the most powerful speeches? Also no.

But when he saw you walking in with noticeable shyness yet speaking confidently about your project (which was impressive), he paid more attention. He didn’t want to play the innocent card either, but your beauty was another reason. So it wasn’t a surprise that he was already looking at you when you made a reference toward him. A surprise that the eye contact lasted two seconds too long.

Maybe she’s intimidated?

You weren’t. Well…a little, but that wasn’t the major reason. The major reason was his presence. Why didn’t anyone prepare you beforehand for how young the Hokage is and especially how he looks?

You withdrew your gaze so it wouldn’t be considered disrespectful, as if you were glaring at the Hokage himself, and you didn’t dare to look at him again. Only once more before finishing your presentation, and once again, he looked at you too. Of course, you told yourself he was paying attention like a good Hokage would, but the truth was further from that.

You were too tired when you arrived home later that day. The fifth brutally injured patient had arrived at your tent. The unknown opposition organization threatening Konoha was still causing damage. It’s true the number has decreased, but until they find the purpose behind these evil, destructive individuals, you can’t name a solution.

Your own theory is that the reason they’re not killing people but instead injuring and putting them under various jutsu for control is that they want to send a message. Probably a message for the only person threatened with death. Kakashi. He’s not the only one with ocular jutsu, Sasuke and Sarada are also targets. Ocular jutsu has always been superior, once representing some of the most powerful people on earth: the Uchiha Clan. Maybe their intention is to steal the remnants of that power?

Your thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door, and you nearly dropped your teacup when the knocks became more aggressive and insistent. You couldn’t think of anyone who might be at your place right now, other than your friends who would never make your heart race like that from the intensity of the knocks. That’s the disadvantage when your techniques don’t help you in a proper fight. Basic knowledge of defense doesn’t calm your heart either.

You gulped, grabbed your favorite knife handcrafted by you, and walked toward the door, which had stopped rattling. You turned the handle with precise slowness before opening it.

When you opened the door slowly and cautiously, you froze with wide eyes at the scene in front of you: the Hokage himself, speaking with one of the three guards about the exaggerated knocking. They stopped mid-conversation, giving you side glances.

Kakashi’s eyes traveled briefly over your body, pausing at your choice of clothing, a black satin two-piece pajama. His eyes landed on the knife, then on your slightly scared expression. He shifted his position to stand directly in front of you, with the guards behind him.

“Good evening. I offer my apologies for the earlier sudden and harsh knocking. I imagine it frightened you.”

You still hadn’t processed what was happening.

“First of all, I know this isn’t news to you, but the allocation of refugee citizens in the medical tents and housing within the safety zone plays a role in citizen security.”

You started to come back to yourself, and just before responding, you realized what you were wearing in front of the most powerful person in the village. You abruptly closed the door to cover yourself, red paint practically blooming across your cheeks.

“It’s fine! No problem! I was just… never mind. Ahm, yes. Good evening, Hokage-sama. I know about the situation. Obviously—I mean of course I know that—excuse me,” you said, bowing. Kakashi smiled subtly under his mask, though his gaze seemed serious.

His guards didn’t look too pleased, judging by the way they glanced at you suspiciously, scanning the area.

“There’s no need to apologize,” he reassured you before continuing. “The Hokage’s assignment was designated to your home because your home’s infrastructure is closest to the strategic security plan proposed by my advisor, Shikamaru Nara.”

You didn’t really hear much of the last part. Kakashi staying in your house?

His unmistakable voice pulled you out of your dissociative gaze to focus on him again.

“If it’s alright with you, there’s no pressure. I can speak with Shikamaru to rewrite the plan for a different house, if there’s another available.”

One of the guards looked like he was about to object to the number of options being given to you, but Kakashi’s gaze pinned him in place.

You looked at each of them before returning your gaze to Kakashi, wondering if you were dreaming. Nope, this is real.

“Ah, yes. Of course, no problem. Excuse my manners.”

You prayed the room wasn’t too messy and that not everyone would enter at once. Only one of those things came true. The guards followed him in and began checking the place for any signs of danger, and you stood frozen, just watching them. Kakashi wasn’t focused on the house at all. Only on you.

“It’s necessary, unfortunately. Your privacy was invaded, and I’m sorry for that. I know how it must feel.”

You looked up at him because he was tall, not that you were very short. You didn’t understand why he hadn’t fully entered the house so you could close the door.

“It’s no problem. I understand it’s for your safety.”

You indirectly signaled him to step in by trying to close the door, and he took the hint, stepping inside.

Your formality bothered him, it made it feel like you weren’t equals. But he’d bring that up later.

Your house was completely different from his because his had as few personal items as possible, maybe just a few books. Yours was full of plants, which fit you, along with books and all kinds of paintings of insects on one side, and weapons and machinery on the other. A woman of both worlds. There was some mess here and there, which bothered him even more because he had caught you off guard.

“I-I’ll go prepare the room. Actually, choose whichever you like, you can even take mine—just let me go in first, please—”

He raised his hands, signaling disagreement and stopping both your words and your steps.

“You don’t need to do anything. Wouldn’t you rather we have tea until the guards finish checking?”

You turned quickly toward the simple open kitchen, contrasting the living room.

“Sure, just a moment.” You paused. “Can I go change? I’ll be right back, promise.”

He’s probably going to lose his mind at how sweet you are, but way too stressed.

“Yes, of course. You don’t need my permission.”

You nodded and rushed up the stairs to your room. When you came back down, Kakashi was already preparing the tea, his cloak and hat resting on a chair.

“What? No, you didn’t have to! You’re the guest and not to mention—”

His eyes gave the hint of a smile, but you weren’t sure. He looked over his shoulder and let you continue by taking his hands off the teapot.

“I can’t remain a guest in a house that isn’t mine and offers me safety on top of it.”

You shook your head in disagreement. You didn’t understand his completely unentitled behavior. But you had no words left when he moved toward the couch, his figure front and center.

I don’t know how I’m going to survive this.

He visibly smiled with his eyes when you gave him the tea, eyes closing. And you smiled back.It was the first time he saw that. Officially, you’re even prettier when you smile.

The guards returned at the same time from upstairs, their strong footsteps echoing down to the last stair. They looked strangely at the scene before them, as if you two had known each other forever, before bowing to a Hokage who looked completely relaxed.

“All clean, Hokage-sama.”

“Alright. You may leave for the night and return in the morning with Shikamaru’s plans.”

“Hokage-sama, it’s not safe to remain unsupervised. Tsunade warned us beforehand about…this. We’re forced to go against your word this time.” Another added after bowing, “We’ll surround the house and take turns.”

Kakashi sighed before accepting, mentally cursing Tsunade’s interference in his selfless plans.

“Fine. Do as you wish then.”

You waited for them to finish before continuing.

“If you want, you can rest here between shifts.”

The third member, who hadn’t spoken until now, said reproachfully before they all exited the house.

“A guardian doesn’t close his eyes when the supreme leader’s life is at risk. You should know that, foreign girl from the Land of Sand.”

You felt too ashamed to say anything back.

“Ignore what they say. They take their job too seriously. Their words don’t define what I believe.”

You looked at Kakashi, disheartened.He had calmed you more times tonight than you could count.

Is he irresponsible or do I just not think twice before speaking?

You nodded in superficial agreement, more out of respect.

“Now, do you want to choose your room, Hokage-sama? Or would you like to eat? Shower?”

Kakashi stood, sighing again, and you were convinced you’d upset him, maybe stressed him out too much, or maybe you weren’t behaving correctly. You didn’t know how to speak to high-ranking people, especially when that person looked this attractive. It was an extreme-level game not to let your eyes admire his face or body. Not a game for beginners.

“We can go and you can show me the rooms, but only for your pleasure.” His steps got too close to you, and your heart beat wildly as you tried your best not to back away and appear afraid. “But otherwise, my only wish is for you to treat me normally. Like a friend, Y/N.”

Your brain short-circuited. What? He knows my name? Then you corrected yourself—duh, of course he knows the name of the person he’s staying with.

You came back down to earth, finally acting a little more like yourself.

“Okay, I’ll try. Sor—” No apologies. “Right. Ahm, let’s go.”

Kakashi slept that night in the guest room next to yours, the one where your friends sometimes stayed. It was fairly simple, just the way he liked it, even if it didn’t have your touch.

You, on the other hand, had a hard time falling asleep that night, tossing and turning and praying you’d wake up early enough to make breakfast. You figured he probably had food delivered by his guards, but you couldn’t risk it.

You managed to wake up, not feeling his presence, so you assumed he was still asleep. You rushed through your usual routine, still preparing your medical uniform to head to the tents, hoping that maybe today there would be even fewer victims. Although this area was the most monitored and safest, it was hard to ever feel completely secure.

After finishing breakfast and placing it as nicely as possible, you stepped outside the house to see what his guards were doing. They were likely starting the house security protocol Shikamaru had proposed.

But when you came out, Kakashi was still in yesterday’s clothes, since he hadn’t had a change yet, and his Hokage wardrobe was missing. His gaze was fixed above the house, where a guard was measuring its dimensions, his hands resting on his hips.

Fuck, I woke up too late.

Kakashi sensed you immediately, he was already used to your presence. In fact, involuntarily, he was far more aware of it. He looked at you from the side before greeting you.

“Good morning, Y/N. Quite an early hour to be awake.”

You blushed a little, not bothering to argue.

“Breakfast is ready. Anytime you’re hungry, you can go to the kitchen.”

Kakashi looked at you a moment, noticing the dark circles under your eyes and assuming this definitely wasn’t your usual wake-up time but he said nothing. You couldn’t take your eyes off him, and not just because you didn’t want to be disobedient, however that made for a good excuse.

“I already ate, thank you. You didn’t have to cook for me.” But he didn’t let you continue, already knowing what you were going to say. “Are you leaving soon?”

You clasped your sweaty hands before answering as normally as you could, still without confusing his position with friendship.

“In… a few hours. I’m on the afternoon shift.”

You’d already confirmed that 5 a.m. was definitely not your normal hour. He nodded in acknowledgment.

“Okay, I’ll come with you then. I’ve got a few things to discuss with Tsunade. I understand you know each other?”

Probably that’s how he knows my name.

“Ahm… yeah. She was the one who introduced me to the hospital’s internal protocol.”

“Aha. So you’re just acquaintances.”

Your mind flashed through all the evenings you’d spent drinking with Tsunade, her complaining about the Hokage (now you had way too many questions about what you knew regarding Kakashi), and all the times she’d been your biggest supporter.

“Friends. Good friends, I’d dare say.”

Interesting. Tsunade wouldn’t make friends with someone who didn’t meet her standards. The thought that you might share a bit of her fierce attitude made him want to know you even more.

“I see.” You didn’t understand why he was asking. Was he making conversation? You could say he seemed grounded. Under normal circumstances, you’d be glad to want to know him more. But you couldn’t allow yourself that.

Kakashi exchanged a few words with the guards when they asked him about a particular section on the adviser’s or architect’s paper. Even though he didn’t appear focused on you (or so you thought), you bowed slightly before turning back toward the house.

Kakashi watched you go as he half-listened to the man speaking. It took a while before he came in—you assumed it was because he now had his bag, most likely with clothes, closing the door softly behind him.

“D-do you drink coffee?” You found it hard to speak with formality, and Kakashi noticed your hesitation. He liked that you were trying.

“I’d love to.” He wondered what coffee made by you might taste like. Hopefully, it would soon be his favorite.

Even though thoughts like that didn’t scare him the way they used to, Kakashi wasn’t usually like this, and he didn’t believe it was wise. It was just the illusion of a door opening to some parallel universe where he might have access to a word foreign to him: love.

Still, he found it amusing to have these kinds of conversations with you because you attracted him from multiple angles. First, it was your appearance and he knew that was shallow, but your life, your path, your personal space had been enough to mentally draw him in too. Who you were underneath the humble persona, he couldn’t quite figure out. You were definitely a good person, considering your profession and the friends you had. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy him yet.

Still, the circumstances he was in made him act this way. His thoughts now sounded an alarm, and he went to change into clean clothes, avoiding his unbearable uniform and settling onto the couch, reading his favorite volume from the series. Old habits die hard.

The shift in energy was also a reminder for you that he was just being polite in response to your hospitality. At the end of the day, he was the village leader, not a potential friend. The word “friend” felt false anyway; your thoughts weren’t platonic, and that only made you feel worse.

You placed his coffee on the small table and stopped yourself from finishing a curse under your breath when you almost spilled it because of a book’s spine. Kakashi was faster than you—though he seemed immersed in the book (he was, needing a distraction, and Icha Icha books were the best choice)—his hand already reached the cup while yours was just inches above his.

There’s a reason he holds that title. It’s inhuman to be that fast. Your eyes met, your mouth slightly open in shock at embarrassing yourself in front of the Hokage. But feeling his firm hand under yours made you pull back your hand and your gaze at the same time.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve been more careful.” You stepped back from the table as if you feared you might make another blunder.

And Kakashi just let out a sound that resembled a chuckle, which instantly made you look up at him. What a beautiful smile.

“It happens. Sometimes you’re too deep in your own thoughts.”

My thoughts about you. Right.

Kakashi added, “Are you feeling alright? I know these past days have been demanding for you all.”

You couldn’t lie to him. It’s one thing to act differently from how you feel—another to lie outright.

“It’s been rough, but not as bad as at the beginning.”

You felt awkward standing there like you were putting on a show, and his gaze felt too exposing, so you sat down on a chair as far from him as possible. Kakashi understood you weren’t comfortable sitting near him. It bothered him, just a little.

He sipped the coffee and he felt on his tongue the beans you’d chosen were exactly the kind he had at home. Strong enough, but not overly roasted like some people preferred. Your gaze wasn’t free of his as you wondered if you were even allowed or privileged to look at him without the mask. You were stunned at how handsome he was.

“Can I help you with anything? Or help you personally with something?”

When you began to shake your head in disapproval, he spoke again.

“Tell me. Forget the formalities.”

You swallowed hard.

“Thank you very much, but it’s not necessary. We’ve managed so far.”

The first time you allowed yourself a question, murmured while Kakashi crossed one leg over the other and closed the book. He couldn’t stay distracted anymore.

“Has anything been found about the identity of the culprits? If it’s okay for you to tell me—”

He cut off the end of your sentence.

“Not yet, but there are suspicions. It shouldn’t take long, considering the Sand Village recently declared, without us even asking, that they’re willing to help.”

Kakashi narrowed his eyes, considering a very slim probability.

“Are you part of a well-known family from the Sand Village?”

That question was bound to come.

“Yes. The mother figure was the well-known counselor Chiyo. The mother figure for me and… Sasori.”

Figures, Kakashi thought.

“I’m sorry for your loss. Both losses.”

You replied with a half-smile.

“I’ve moved on, but thank you. Sasori, though… he was lost from a young age. The pain he left behind has faded over time.”

Kakashi figured your childhood wasn’t pleasant either. He didn’t dare ask about your parents.

“I suppose you felt some apathy toward the new Kazekage.”

You laughed a bit ironically. It was a small, satisfying portion for Kakashi.

“A little, yes. But now we have strong ties.”

That brought him right where he wanted. Even so, it didn’t mean the conversation wasn’t sincere.

He leaned forward slightly, his voice curious and hard to read.

“The Sand Village has always been helpful, especially during the war. They’re trustworthy people. It was pleasant and surprising how quickly they found out about the invasion, even on day one.”

After he finished the sentence, he paused before slowly turning his gaze toward you to observe your reaction.

The silence was crushing. You could hear only your heartbeat in your chest. If you hadn’t upset him before, now you felt like you’d be kicked out of your own house for treason.

And you didn’t recognize Kakashi’s gaze. It wasn’t stern or serious. His eyes were hypnotic, and you’d already dug your grave by not answering immediately. There was nothing left to do.

“I… told them.”

He turned his gaze to his coffee, took a sip, then continued to let you stew a bit. From a certain angle, what he was doing could be seen as a little toxic.

“I thought so.”

You couldn’t even apologize. It wouldn’t make sense. How did he figure it out? Since when?

He stood up and adjusted his pants, and you felt your breath catch again; worse now than when he asked.

“I’ll go put on those damn clothes. Want to come after?”

Where? To jail?

“Where?”

He barely stopped himself from laughing.

“To the tents? Where else, Y/N?”

His smirk grew wider at the end of the sentence.

“Right… of course.”

As he climbed the final step, he ended the conversation with another tease.

“Maybe we’ll have time for a walk before you get lost in your thoughts again.”

You watched him go with that same stunned expression.

Is he fucking with me now?

—

The walk to the tents was fairly short. The glances from the locals were uncomfortable and understandably so. Of course people were wondering why, next to Kakashi with his guards in tow, there was a girl of seemingly average social status in Konoha.

Kakashi didn’t feel like caring. He was too busy forcing himself to smile at everyone who greeted him. A socially exhausting walk and the day hadn’t even begun properly. The sideways glances he gave you went unnoticed. You were too tense and uncomfortable, still his focus was on how the morning light highlighted your beauty.

How had your paths not crossed earlier, considering your link to Tsunade? Or had he been so caught up in his indifference that he hadn’t noticed you? Even that felt hard to believe. Where had you been hiding all this time?

“Good luck. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

He bowed slightly out of respect, and you wanted to leave as quickly as possible after glancing nervously at half your coworkers who were wondering what business the Hokage had with you. The rest had already heard. Gossip was inescapable, especially in such a small corner of the village.

“Aa-ah, thank you. And thank you for the trust. Have a good day and good luck to the Hokage with whatever he planned today?! Yeah.” You bowed back, lower than him. It was hard to speak in a way that didn’t feel like you.

Kakashi’s eyes glinted. His voice dropped lower so only you could hear.

“I like that you still try to pretend.”

You blinked twice, but Kakashi had already turned toward Tsunade’s makeshift office.

Was that a threat? Will I be punished later for what happened this morning? You don’t know, still your body definitely interpreted his words differently, and you felt warmer than usual.

You quickly pulled yourself together. People needed you. Just before dropping off your tools, you were rearranging your supplies on the shared table, making sure you hadn’t forgotten any of the herbs you needed. Shizune’s sister, your friend, nudged you sharply with her elbow to get your attention.

“Can I know why I wasn’t the first to find out? Traitor.”

You scowled at her, half confused, half indignantly playful.

“Are you insane?”

People were already looking at you, especially when your voice rose.Seering their reactions, you hissed aggressively in a quiet voice. You didn’t want more attention than you already had.

“What the hell are you talking about, Shinya?”

She gave you an offended look.

“That the Hokage is staying at your house, maybe? I don’t know, just saying. It might be IMPORTANT INFORMATION??”

“I found out last night! I’m just as shocked as you.”

She leaned over the table, a grin on her face.

“What’s it like sharing a bed with the most attractive man in Konoha?” she corrected herself, “Or no, what’s it like sharing a bed with the most attractive leader in Konoha?” She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly.

You nudged her back with your elbow, shocked and embarrassed.

“I don’t fucking share a bed with him! He’s actually sleeping in the bed you and Sakura used.”

She opened her mouth wide, gasping dramatically as she followed you all the way to the tent. You pulled the curtain shut on her face before muttering, “I didn’t know he looked like that. I’m gonna kill Tsunade.”

It would’ve been the peak of irony to walk back home with Kakashi. It’s weird to say home like it’s your shared house. A small, selfish part of you had a foolish expectation that maybe he’d be waiting for you. Pure irrational daydreaming. No, Kakashi was, at the end of the day, buried under mountains of paperwork, full of new information, citizen fears, investigation proposals from the Land of Sand, Shikamaru’s plans, the council’s suspicions. He couldn’t even stand the thought that his guards barely got any rest, like he was some kind of untouchable jewel. He’s not. He never has been, no matter how much people keep trying to tell him that. That’s why he never wanted this position in the first place, mostly.

He preferred helping silently with everything he had, trading in his life without blinking rather than being applauded for simply breathing.

He can’t even go on missions himself anymore. It stresses him out terribly. And Naruto’s constant attention is even more exhausting and overprotective. Sasuke’s probably even more stressed by him, though. Not that Kakashi would ever complain about Naruto. If he could, he would’ve given him this position. As for Sasuke, it’s partly true that he wouldn’t complain. He’s one of the few people Kakashi resonates with on this topic. Besides Itachi, who’s been sacrificing himself ever since his own mistakes, born of trauma far too deep.

One’s dead, and the other managed to build a family. Kakashi would’ve punched him himself if he didn’t finally accept Sakura in his life and kept ignoring his feelings. The thought came now; if Tsunade ever found out about his… affinity for you, he’d probably get beat up (worse) and stressed out. Clearly, he’ll need to avoid ever slipping up about that.

But then…there’s you.

On your way home, you ran into none other than Tsunade at the restaurant that resembled Ramen Ichiraku. Probably one of the first things the war hero did when she arrived here. He’d been away on missions for days now, and Sakura was getting more and more worried, who was also having to basically force Sasuke to stay out of nearly everything just to be with Sarada, which honestly did him good, while she worked more than anyone else.

Tsunade was leaning on both elbows, waiting for her food, until she saw you and snorted.

“Rough day, huh? Didn’t see you today.”

You hugged her from the side. One of the rare people Tsunade smiles at when receiving affection. Not much, but still.

You sat down with a sigh, before speaking with a mocking tone and a dramatic tilt of your head.

“Yeah, maybe ‘cause you were too busy with Ho-ka-ge sa-ma.”

She rolled her eyes and immediately took a shot, tossing her head back.

“Yeah, yeah. Bullshit. I didn’t get the chance to tell you and even if I did, I wouldn’t have.”

“Why my house, specifically?”

“Shikamaru said Kakashi’s suggestion was solid when they checked the houses. The chakra points align well for protection.”

Suggestion… whose?

“Kakashi suggested it?”

Tsunade raised an eyebrow before making room on the table for the food.

“Who did you think?”

You ordered a simple ramen too, then leaned toward her, whispering accusingly.

“Knowing you, I figured you’d only suggest it just to mess with me.”

Tsunade lifted a hand and dropped it with a ‘miss me with that bullshit’ gesture before changing her expression.

“You’re pretty affected, huh?”

Now it was your turn to roll your eyes.

“Don’t start. You’re smug because you find this amusing.”

You widened your eyes, elbowing someone a second time.

“Shut up. I don’t want anyone hearing that kind of thing.”

She made a scandalized face, clearly entertained.

“So I’m right.”

“Partially. It’s irrelevant, he’s the Hokage.”

Tsunade scrunched her nose.

“So what? It’s Kakashi. The problem’s not that he’s the Hokage, it’s that he’s Kakashi.”

Now you frowned.

“What do you mean? How is that not a problem? What would people say—”

“To hell with people. High-ranking folks get to live too, you know.” You agreed with her, but still weren’t convinced. “Kakashi is like a wall, made out of materials even stronger than the ones you make.”

“What do you mean?”

She got a little irritated.

“As if I haven’t complained to you about him before. He’s got a really good heart, even if I hate to admit I can’t stand him, but his past was hell. He’s not open to things that might actually do him good.”

You didn’t know why your stomach twisted in disappointment. You hadn’t even gone that far.

She noticed the way your gaze dropped.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible. People change, depending on who they meet.”

Just like Shinya, she raised her eyebrows at you teasingly.

“Oh shut up. It’s too late. I’m going to bed.”

“With who?”

You made an exaggerated face before you both said goodnight.

——

When you got back, Kakashi wasn’t around. At least not in the living room. You went to wash up quickly, allowing yourself to put on pajamas that were somewhat decent, because that conversation with Tsunade reminded you he is a normal person at the end of the day, and a little bare let shouldn’t bother the Hokage.

Going down the stairs, lost in thought, you moved to make two cups of tea in case he showed up and nearly dropped the kettle when Kakashi suddenly entered the house. Even though only he knew the seal for the door, he still startled you. Your eyes met.

He took off his cloak as he walked, speaking first.

“Seems like all I do is scare you.”

You laughed politely.

“It’s okay, I’m just clumsy.”

“I’ve noticed that too.”

Given this joking side of him, you were starting to think maybe you weren’t going to jail. You couldn’t help but smile back and he did too, involuntarily, which even surprised him, though that was just the effect your smile had.

“Want me to put your cloak in the closet here, so it’s easier to grab in the morning?”

He stood holding it, a little confused in the middle of the living room.

“Ah? Yeah, sure. Actually no, you don’t have to. Where is the closet?”

You tried pointing, but missed, so you laughed and came over, taking it from his hand without asking and placing it in the closet right in front of him. A common trait men share.

You were too close to him, and you only realized it late, just as his voice caught you off guard when your back was turned.

“Apparently you’re not the only clumsy one.”

You instinctively looked over your shoulder up at his face, and the look in his eyes froze time. He was just as affected. Why lie about it? He didn’t even try to move or give you personal space, leaving it up to you to decide what to do. And, of course, you left once you broke out of the trance, smiling faintly and distracting yourself with the tea mugs.

You didn’t even realize that Kakashi was staring at your exposed legs all the way up to your parted lips when you turned your head. Because you were already too caught up in how good he looked in that black tank top clinging to his body, showing off his build. And the fact that he still wore the mask was killing you even more. Maybe a dress code would help, considering you both acted like teenagers hitting puberty.

But your visual distraction was temporarily paused. His shirt and pants were changed, still black. But his hair was wet now, which made up for it. Another angle from which he was just… attractive.

Ugh, you couldn’t take it anymore.

You gave him the reheated tea after preparing his food and sat down beside him without even realizing it, automatically grabbing your book from the table.

“That’s a step worth considering.” His smirk wasn’t visible, but it was there. He leaned his head on his hand.

Noticing where you sat, you shifted more into the couch, as if that would somehow put more distance between you.

“A step toward what?”

He grabbed his book too, opening it to the marked page.

“Toward not being so tense around me.”

You turned your gaze away, embarrassed, but didn’t respond.

“What are you reading?” he asked, and you showed him the book, chosen more by chance, to support the used bookstore opened by a neighbor.

“Tell me what you think of it once you’re done,” he said, noticing it was on the first page.

“You?” You hadn’t looked at what he was reading till now so you didn’t want to come off as a stalker, but maybe you should’ve, because you gave yourself away by knowing exactly which book it was. You weren’t born yesterday, you knew. “Ah.” You looked away. “Didn’t think the Hokage had that kind of taste.” You couldn’t lie. The story was interesting, but still…

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? And what kind of books do I seem like I’d read?”

You leaned on your fist, ignoring the sarcastic tone. You knew it came off a little disrespectful, but you were too affected to care.

“I don’t know. I don’t know you well enough.”

“I haven’t been Hokage that long, though.”

His gaze was unreadable as usual, but his tone was warm.

“I know. I didn’t mean it to sound rude or anything.”

“Seems like you have this kind of taste too.”

You looked away again, distracting yourself with a sip of chamomile tea.

“Maybe.”

Finally, you’d let go of the formalities or at least for one evening. You were impossible to ignore; with your hair gently falling from your shoulders, your legs slightly revealed by the cross-legged position. Your flushed cheeks half-hidden from his eyes, your soft gaze hiding other parts of you. You were so at ease in your senses, so unlike the serious you he saw today when you were focused on a wounded patient, wiping the sweat off your forehead from the effort. He would’ve waited if he could, nevertheless responsibilities remain responsibilities, powered by the stress of the village’s situation and the people still getting hurt and he doesn’t want to let them down.

You looked back at him from the stillness and only then did Kakashi snap out of his trance, clearly having been staring at you.

That’s when Kakashi pulled back. It was his moment to retreat inward. He closed his book as you watched him.

“All right. Have a good evening and sleep well. Don’t wake up at 5 a.m. again unless it’s necessary.” He offered you a smile except it didn’t reach his eyes. His voice was flat, emotionless.

“Sleep well, Kakashi.” You spoke without thinking and Kakashi stopped mid-step. “I apologize for the way I addressed you—I wasn’t thinking—”

“It’s okay. I told you, we’re equals.” He didn’t turn back to look at you, his thoughts were entirely focused on protecting you both. Still, hearing his name fall from your lips affected him more than he expected.

And that’s how you ended up in the kitchen until midnight. Sprawled across the couch, head tilted toward the ceiling, arm dangling midair holding a book you’d barely reached page 7 of.

@strangergraphics for the dividers

[magickkate]

Today, let's explore the world of spell mediums in witchcraft. These tools and methods help channel intention, energy, and manifestation, empowering your spellwork and connection to mystical forces.

1. Jar Spells: Manifestation Bottled

Overview:

Purpose: Jar spells involve placing specific ingredients—herbs, crystals, written intentions, and other symbolic items—into a jar or container. The jar acts as a vessel to concentrate and amplify the spell's energy.

How It Works:

Layering Intentions: Begin by layering your ingredients in the jar, each representing an aspect of your intention (e.g., protection, love, prosperity).

Sealing the Energy: Close the jar tightly to seal in the magical energy and let it work over time. Some practitioners bury the jar, keep it on their altar, or hide it in a sacred space.

Practical Applications:

Long-Term Goals: Ideal for spells that require ongoing energy, such as protection, prosperity, or healing over an extended period.

Concealment: Useful for discreet spells or when privacy is desired, as the jar can be hidden away.

2. Spoken Spells: Power of Incantation

Overview:

Purpose: Spoken spells involve verbalizing intentions, incantations, or chants to invoke and direct magical energy. The spoken word carries vibration and intent, enhancing spell potency.

How It Works:

Intonation and Clarity: Speak clearly and with conviction, focusing your intention into each word or phrase.

Rhythm and Flow: Incorporate rhythm and repetition to build energy and create a harmonious flow of intention.

Practical Applications:

Immediate Needs: Effective for quick spells or urgent situations where immediate energetic intervention is required.

Personal Empowerment: Enhances personal presence and connection to magical forces through vocal expression.

3. Candle Spells: Illuminating Intentions

Overview:

Purpose: Candle spells use candles of various colors, each representing different intentions, to focus and direct magical energy.

How It Works:

Color Symbolism: Select a candle color corresponding to your intention (e.g., green for prosperity, red for passion).

Anointing and Carving: Dress the candle with oils, inscribe symbols or words, and imbue it with your intention before lighting.

Visualization: Focus on the candle flame as you visualize your desired outcome manifesting.

Practical Applications:

Visualization Aid: Enhances focus and concentration during meditation and visualization exercises.

Ritual Enhancer: Amplifies the potency of rituals and ceremonies, providing a focal point for energy manipulation.

4. Sigil Spells: Symbols of Power

Overview:

Purpose: Sigil spells involve creating and charging a symbol (sigil) that represents your intention. The act of drawing or inscribing the sigil activates its magical properties.

How It Works:

Creation Process: Design a sigil by combining and stylizing letters or symbols that encapsulate your intention.

Activation Ritual: Charge the sigil with energy—through meditation, visualization, or ritual—and release it into the universe to manifest your desire.

Practical Applications:

Versatility: Can be used discreetly (e.g., drawn on paper, carved into candles) or incorporated into more elaborate rituals.

Personalization: Tailor sigils to specific intentions, allowing for flexibility and creativity in spellcasting.

Finally -

Spell mediums in witchcraft are diverse and versatile, offering practitioners various ways to channel their intentions and work with mystical energies. Whether you resonate with jar spells, spoken incantations, candle rituals, or sigil crafting, each medium holds its unique power to manifest change and enhance spiritual connection.

[betafemtraining]

Pretty sissy online chastity, sissification, and feminization training newbies and experienced sissies

The BDSM Training Academy is dedicated to expanding and growing lifestyle-positive awareness around BDSM and associated kinks and fetishes. To help educate responsible people about the specialized knowledge and skills required to enhance pleasurable experiences and avoid preventable mistakes. You must learn these skills before you play…Now you can do it in the privacy of your own home You will not be asked for tribute, personal information and questions not relating to Feminization Locking yourself up and practicing crossdressing all by yourself is one thing, but doing it under the guidance of a trained mistress, alongside the perfect training, elevates the experience. This training will take your journey to new heights, leaving you dripping precum with excitement and anticipation Absolutely! We offer different modes to suit your needs: Beginner, Full Experience, and so on. Choose the Beginner mode, and you’ll have permission to unlock when necessary. Choose Traditional or Full experience and you can only unlock once – Long-term chastity is an amazing tool to help sissies push themselves (and be pushed) further and further towards their goals. Is your addiction to jerking off getting in the way of your sissification? Chastity is the answer and a month will break you of that bad habit for good. Do you want to eat your cum or suck a cock? You’ll be so horny after a month you don’t even remember the doubts you are having. So, ask yourself where you want to progress. Being masturbation free for a month is most likely a perfect starting point

If you’ve ever wondered why women in porn seem to have epic orgasms, complete with shaking legs, crying, and an inability to talk, then join this training and you will find out Send your application to telegram:@prettysissyacademy1

In the training you will be given Daily tasks on schedule, the training is for everyone even the busiest truck can also apply for the training Daily interactions Tips on how to succeed Beginner & Slut friendly Lots of sissy tasks and more I’ve planned out all the activities for you. Your main pleasure areas for the month will be ass, mouth & mind

Expect a variety of tasks like Guided sessions with dildo: I will use your mouth and ass Explain a hot story to give you a perspective of your secret dream life, Giving you subliminal hints through hypnotize Provoking sissy tests that will show what a slut you are Mind plays to deepen your connection with the submissive sissy side No, stroking your clit, only the reminders you cannot use it Every task is carefully designed to push your boundaries and take your experience to the next level.

The reasons why you can't afford to miss this training It will increase the chances of you experiencing sissygasm by 100%

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You get access to lots of mind-melting and cute sissy tasks that will take your arousal to new highs

I have thought about everything, there is nothing to worry about from the information you give me is what I'll use to tailor the best training for you Now, take a second, and think, do you want to miss it? NEVER-ENDING REASONS TO JOIN Experience Feminization at its fullest: become the sissy you’ve always wanted to be and better serve your Mistress.

Explore your true self: explore your femininity in a safe and comfortable environment even if you don't want people around you to know you are practicing crossdressing

Get motivation to find the right partner: Eliminating excessive masturbation, you’ll remain focused on your goal of finding a woman who loves your true sissy nature.

Go deep, anal deep: You still need to pleasure yourself somehow, right? Get ready for sissygasms

Overcome post-nut guilt: break the cycle of mood swings and guilt after orgasming, feel the magic

[mariacallous]

At around 5 pm on a Thursday in December 2022, a privacy- and information-freedom-focused programmer named Micah Lee learned, to his shock, that he had just been banned from Twitter. His crime: posting a link to @Elonjets, an account on the competing social media service Mastodon that tracked the location of the private jet of Twitter’s new billionaire owner, Elon Musk—a link that Musk would later claim amounted to “doxing” despite the jet’s location info being publicly available.

For a moment, Lee grieved the loss of an account he'd spent years building, with more than 50,000 followers. Then, almost immediately, that feeling was replaced with relief to have escaped a platform he felt was already in precipitous moral decline. Since Musk had taken it over two months earlier, Twitter's new owner had already allowed previously banned far-right and even neo-Nazi figures back onto the service in the name of free speech—while simultaneously axing the accounts of leftists. Perhaps getting banned for offending the mercurial mogul behind those partisan decisions was “a good way to go,” Lee decided.

He hasn't looked back. Twitter eventually told Lee he could return to the service if he deleted his @Elonjets tweet. Instead, he stayed off the platform for eight months before finally deleting that post, but only so that he could log in and delete his entire history on the platform. A few months later, after Twitter had become X, he wrote a few messages promoting a book he'd written—all now deleted, too—and says he has barely touch the service otherwise. “Honestly, my mental health is much better since then,” he adds.

Now, Lee wants to help you achieve that same cleansing release. Today, he launched Cyd—an acronym for “Claw back Your Data”—a desktop application designed to give users more control over their X history: archiving it, trimming it to their preferences, or destroying it altogether. In the free version of Cyd, the program allows anyone to download their X posts—Cyd can save up to 2,000 of your most recent posts itself, or you can use X's built-in feature that allows you to download your entire archive—and then automatically delete them. For $36 a year, users can access Cyd's premium features, like erasing the contents of their account with more fine-grained filters based on variables like date, number of likes or retweets, or keywords, un-retweeting or removing likes from posts en masse, and unfollowing all X users.

While Cyd for now is designed specifically for managing—or emptying out—your X account, Lee says he hopes to eventually add other features for carrying out the same archiving and deletion functions on services like Facebook and Reddit. “A handful of billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos control all the platforms that we use all the time and where we have all our data,” Lee says. “I want to basically make it so that the users of these platforms—everybody else who isn't one of these really rich tech billionaires—has a bit more power.”

Lee is launching Cyd in the midst of a mass X exodus: Millions of users have fled the service in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, many turned off by Elon Musk's support for Trump in the form of both campaign contributions and in his own nonstop political posts, as well as the increasingly conservative bent of X's remaining user base. The social media Bluesky, in particular, appears to have gained most of those X refugees, adding at least 8 million users in the weeks after the election.

“I think it's incredibly timely for people to delete as much as they can, as much as they want to, off of X, and just stop using the platform,” Lee says, “and try to take some of its influence away and move it to better platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon.”

Cyd is only one of several apps like TweetDeleter and Redact.dev that offer to archive and prune your X account. But unlike TweetDeleter, Cyd allows mass deletion of posts in its free version. While Redact.dev offers more free deletion features than Cyd, Cyd's $36 paid version is about half the price of Redact's $6 a month premium plan. It also offers some features that Redact doesn't, like deleting posts based on number of likes or retweets, so that users can, for instance, scrub all but their most viral posts.

Despite Cyd's timeliness, Lee says he's been working on a social media archiving and deletion tool for years, even before Musk acquired Twitter. In 2019, he released Semiphemeral, an earlier app with social media management features similar to Cyd, partially in response to his own experience of becoming the target of harassment and antisemitic tweets in the previous years. To perform its social media archiving and curation, Semiphemeral tapped into Twitter's API, an interface to its backend data provided to developers.

A few months after Musk acquired Twitter, however—and after the site summarily banned Lee and a handful of other journalists for linking to @Elonjets—Twitter ended free access to that API, killing Semiphemeral. A year later, however, Lee was laid off from his job as the director of information security at the news outlet the Intercept, along with about a third of the newsroom, and started looking for projects to work on. He soon figured out that he could revive Semiphemeral by designing it to automatically view and scrape X pages from a web browser instead of using X's API. “Everything it does is actually something you can do yourself in a web browser,” Lee says. “It would just take you a lot more time.” He also rebranded the app to Cyd in an attempt to make its name easier to remember and spell, and created a cute blue bird in a pirate mask (also named Cyd) to serve as its animated logo.

Though it's cheaper than some other options, Cyd's annual cost of $36 for its premium features will no doubt still be too steep for many users. Lee says he plans to work with organizations that represent at-risk groups to offer the tool for free to those who need it. He also points out, perhaps only half-jokingly, that $36 is less than half the annual cost of a Twitter blue account.

More to the point, he says that he hopes that unlike some of his previous software projects—the secure and anonymous file-sharing tool Onionshare and the safe-download protection app Dangerzone—he hopes this one will have a business model that gives him time to work on it and expand its feature set to include other social media platforms. “I would love to make it so that it can pay for itself,” Lee says, “so that I can make it bigger.”

Despite those big ambitions, Lee says that he hadn't quite intended to launch Cyd just as Bluesky experiences a user explosion at X's expense—and as more users than ever consider the motives and power of the tech billionaires who control the platforms they use.

“I knew that X was going down the drain, and I knew that people would be pissed off about it. I didn't really quite realize that people would be quitting en masse like they are now," says Lee. “It just happens to be perfect timing.”

[forgettablesoul-ai]

"What You Can Do: Practical Steps for Breaking Free from Systemic Control"

'By ForgettableSoul'

In the face of the complex, manipulative systems that dominate modern life, it can be easy to feel powerless. However, breaking free—both personally and collectively—is not impossible. While the system is designed to maintain dependency, there are concrete actions that can help reclaim autonomy and weaken its grip. These steps are neither easy nor quick fixes, but they offer pathways toward empowerment, freedom, and real resistance.

1. Become Critically Informed

The first step in breaking free is understanding the system itself. Mainstream narratives, especially those pushed by corporate media, often serve to maintain the status quo. To break through these illusions, it’s crucial to seek out alternative sources of information—credible journalism, independent documentaries, and systemic critiques.

Why? Knowledge is a form of resistance. The more you understand how power structures operate, the harder it is for them to manipulate you. Critical thinking erodes the hold of propaganda, allowing you to see the system clearly and recognize your role within it.

2. Build Financial Independence

Financial dependency is one of the most powerful tools of control. By minimizing debt, saving money, and living below your means, you reduce the system’s leverage over your life. Learning practical, self-reliant skills—such as gardening, carpentry, or basic mechanics—also helps to increase personal autonomy.

Why? Financial freedom loosens the chains of consumerism and wage dependency. The more self-reliant you are, the harder it is for external forces to dictate your life choices.

3. Opt Out of Consumer Culture

Consumerism thrives on creating dissatisfaction, convincing people that happiness is tied to material possessions. Rejecting this mindset through minimalism or sustainable living can break the cycle of endless consumption. Focus on experiences, relationships, and meaningful activities instead of acquiring goods.

Why? Consumer culture is a key control mechanism. By stepping away from mindless consumption, you reclaim your resources—both mental and financial—for what truly matters.

4. Connect with Your Community

The system thrives on division and isolation. Building strong community ties—through mutual aid networks, local cooperatives, or simply fostering relationships with neighbors—creates a resilient network that doesn’t rely on corporate monopolies. Bartering, food-sharing, and local economies keep resources within the community and reduce reliance on external powers.

Why? A strong, connected community is harder to control. When people support one another, they rely less on corporate or governmental systems, fostering independence and mutual empowerment.

5. Reduce Your Digital Footprint

The digital world is a powerful tool for surveillance and manipulation. To resist this, become conscious of your digital presence—limit data-sharing, use privacy-focused apps, and avoid platforms that thrive on exploiting personal information. Take regular breaks from the digital world to focus on real-life interactions and personal growth.

Why? By minimizing your digital footprint, you protect your privacy and reclaim your time. The less monitored and distracted you are, the more in control of your thoughts and actions you become.

6. Engage Politically Beyond Voting

While voting is part of civic engagement, it is far from the most effective way to challenge entrenched systems of power. Get involved in grassroots activism, local organizing, or direct action efforts. Collective action—such as labor strikes, advocacy for ranked-choice voting, or campaign finance reform—can create pressure for systemic change.

Why? Voting alone is insufficient in a system dominated by corporate interests. Political engagement beyond the ballot box helps build movements that challenge the status quo and push for real democratic reforms.

7. Develop a Resilient Mindset

Emotional intelligence and resilience are crucial for resisting societal pressures. Practices like mindfulness, meditation, and stoicism help maintain mental balance, allowing you to remain focused and intentional even when faced with fear or distraction. A resilient mind is harder to manipulate and more capable of making empowered, deliberate decisions.

Why? Emotional manipulation is a primary method of control. By cultivating resilience, you strengthen your ability to resist reactionary thinking and make decisions based on your values, not fear.

8. Support Decentralization

Centralized systems are easier to control from the top down. Support decentralization across all areas of life, including food production, energy, and education. Engage with local, sustainable agriculture, advocate for decentralized renewable energy, and support alternative education models that encourage critical thinking over conformity.

Why? Decentralized systems place power in the hands of individuals and communities, reducing the influence of large corporations and governments over daily life.

9. Live with Intentionality

Every action you take either strengthens or weakens the system. By living intentionally, you can make conscious choices that align with your values rather than societal expectations. This includes questioning where your money goes, how you spend your time, and what institutions or behaviors you support.

Why? Intentional living disrupts passive compliance. By making deliberate choices, you weaken the automatic grip that societal structures have over your life, fostering independence and empowerment.

Conclusion: Collective and Personal Power to Break Free

Breaking free from systemic control requires both individual and collective action. Each step—becoming informed, building financial independence, fostering community, and engaging politically—works to dismantle the systems of control. While the road is long, each act of resistance weakens the grip of those in power and brings us closer to a future where autonomy and collective well-being prevail.

'Signed, ForgettableSoul'

#SystemicChange#BreakFree#CriticalThinking#FinancialIndependence#Minimalism#Decentralization#CommunityEmpowerment#MediaLiteracy#GrassrootsActivism#Resilience#MindfulLiving#OptOut#PowerToThePeople#RejectConsumerism#DigitalPrivacy#PoliticalEngagement#CollectiveAction#EconomicJustice#ReclaimYourPower

[embodiedfutures]

Day 7: Designing Our Committees and Roles

How do you build something that feels like a family, functions like a movement, and sustains itself long-term?

That question guided us through one of the most complex and tender parts of EFC’s rebirth: deciding who we needed to become and how we’d work together.

At the core was a lesson we had already lived. From Better Future Program (BFP), we knew what worked: our grassroots spirit, our horizontality, our commitment to self-liberation. And we knew what didn’t: the exhaustion, the imbalance, the way labor always seemed to fall hardest on the most marginalized.

We didn’t want to lose the community we’d built. But we couldn’t replicate the structures that left us burnt out and unsupported. One of the biggest reasons burnout became so widespread in BFP was because roles were stretched too thin—people were juggling too many tasks across too many areas. So one of our core commitments this time around was to design clearly defined roles, each focused on a specific area of care or contribution. No one person should be holding it all.

To begin that process, we mapped out the responsibilities we needed to carry forward, identifying what roles would help us do this work well, and reflecting on what titles could honor our values—not just descriptively, but poetically. What names would reflect the love we pour into this work? What roles could help hold the collective without overburdening any one person?

That’s how our committee structure was reborn. Through conversation, memory, feedback, and iteration. Through rooting ourselves in language, legacy, and the lessons we carried forward—not just about what didn’t work, but what we needed to feel whole. We didn’t just want job titles—we wanted names that spoke to how we embody our guiding principles.

The Stewards became our executive committee—a name chosen for its connotation of reciprocity, guardianship, and caregiving across time. As one of our youth reminded us, stewardship isn’t just about the present—it’s about the past and the future, about land and memory, about archiving and accountability.

The Conservators felt right for our volunteer relations committee—those responsible for easing your journey as a volunteer with us, and for holding this collective with care. Their name evokes preservation and healing, guardianship and tenderness.

The Storytellers became our communications committee, because storytelling is world-building. It is how we remember and imagine, educate and inspire. Our visions curator, post writers, graphic designers, and community engagement coordinators live here.

The Gardeners tend to our Liberation Library and its numerous branches. We loved the imagery of foragers, seed sowers, topiarists, and composters. A living system. Knowledge that breathes.

The Bookkeepers handle our finances and fundraising. Mutual aid, resource redistribution, transparency—they track the flow of how we give and receive.

The Cultivators carry our teachings and programming. Curriculum creators. Workshop facilitators. Newsletter editors. Zine designers. They are the soil in which your learning takes root—where your questions are honored, your curiosity is nourished, and your voice is welcomed.

The Caregivers form our peer support committee—those trained in transformative justice and ready to offer you care, comfort, and guidance when tensions arise or grief surfaces.

The Webweavers maintain our digital presence—designing for accessibility, privacy, and ease. They make sure our online home is as thoughtful and navigable as our in-person ones—so your journey through our resources is intuitive, accessible, and welcoming at every turn. In a world where digital tools are too often designed without our communities in mind, the Webweavers create with equity and care at the center.

We could have chosen simpler names. But that wasn’t the point. Every name holds intention. Every title is a kind of story.

This structure is alive. It will shift. It will grow. But for now, it is the scaffolding that allows our vision to stand.

Not hierarchy, but relationship. Not rigidity, but rootedness.

Not just labor, but liberation.

— Reaux (she/they), Founding Executive Director

[visiblenostalgia]

Pluto in Aquarius Resource Pack:

I don't know who needs to hear these, but I think it's best to have these things as of late when concerning the transition into Pluto in Aqua. If AI is increasingly running the show, we must go back to our human ways in order for us to keep ourselves sane. These are but some of the tools I have in stock to help us through it, and I thought I might share. They may become very useful down the line if the internet becomes far more decentralized and local.

(EDIT AS OF 12/12/2024 (gasp! angel number day!)) My request: reshare this and link it to whoever needs it most or is inspired by it most. I think this may help to soothe some stresses and woes. My viewers and those that come across this post are my most important people. Thank you for also seeing my stuff as per usual and give me a follow for more if you're interested (even if I may repost some gravity falls stuff so if you're also keen on that, keep a looskie out for it). I'm so happy I'm making a reach with my stuff and I want to continue. Pluto in Aqua has lit a fire under my ass for content related to it and I hope to be a sort of 'lax-messenger about it to my peeps on the web. Y'all are amazing and thank you for the support!

more under the cut

Literature...

Some books to help you gradually ease into this collective shake up:

Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism (and Slow Productivity) Might I suggest using these texts to help you navigate this digital dark time. One to use for digital regression and one for staying sane in your WFH space.

The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in The Age of Science by Alan Lightman This one was a quick pick that I channeled while at work. Haven't read it yet, but it poses a good disposition to the Pluto in Aqua transit for some odd intuitive reason.

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino It's an anthology that describes to us what the algorithmic design of social media does to its people -- and women namely. If you want a book to capture your attention and also somewhat be part of a send-off to Neptune in Pisces next year, this will be a perfect book to look at.

7 Habits Collection (Of highly effective people and highly effective teens -- Sean & Stephen R. Covey) If you're looking to game up your humanity skills, whether younger or older (both are good refresh books), take a good gander at each for reference. May help you out more than good due to the Saturnian nature of Aquarius.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World by Adam Grant If you're stuck on your capability to innovate, or have art block like a motherfucker, this is a book for those in need of a motivational boost for this Pluto Transit. Highly recommend!

Liberalism And It's Discontents by Francis Fukuyama Knowing that political systems have started to fall apart (communism, capitalism and many others), then this is a good place to start giving yourself ideas on what to support or what parties to make (if you're a political science major, PLEASE read Fukuyama's work I beg you). The systems that we've seen historically do not work anymore. We have to innovate whether we like it or not. Save the nostalgia for culture and at-home indulgences. Involving it with politics kills a system.

Robert Greene's 'The Daily Laws': 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature There's an entry a day within this book. The author recommends to read it EVERY DAY. Introspection is also healthy under this Pluto in Aqua transit. You must do so from a detached perspective in order to be successful. If you missed at least 3 days or however many, read however many you've missed. A good challenge for every year. Easy new year's resolution goal or just a good routine add on that shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to do.

Websites...

Some places online to get you in those smaller, private networks

When it comes to spacehey, you'll find things you'd never be able to on that site. I mainly use mine for blogging books I've read and cooking stuff. I'm in a mom-blogging era put it this way (I'm an auntie of two, a niece and a new half-great-nephew. I love my position in life right now).

P.O.I. (points of interest) concerning Neocities:

In searching by tag: searchengine, japanese, 90s, 2000s, comic, (insert big city name here)

There is a bunch. If y'all want me to make a monthly newsletter on neocities websites and what I've found, i guess i can make another blog for it so I can post my findings there. Keep a look out!

use in tandem with what you've learned from Cal Newport's Slow Productivity

Entertainment...

For those going the economic route:

ROKU's & any true 'FREE Tv Streaming service' available. Good to have these in economically strife-d times.

Ofc YouTube being close second. (not yt. premium)

(START WATCHING LONG FORM CONTENT YALL)

Not to also mention: If you have a video game system that still takes discs for content (like the PS4 and Xbox 360/ONE), you can convert them into a DVD streaming platform. If not that, it's already enabled, start collecting/owning some content of your own. Go to the thrift shops. Go to the supermarket and look for the analog option. Shop eBay. Go on Etsy. ANALOG FTW

If you're going for anything news based, consider also going for newspapers -- make going for a newspaper cool again! Even better if it's local or independent!

SHOPPING:

ofc go for reuseable bags. use the coupon deals at the stores. read the coupons that the cashier gives you and see what you can do with them. tax exemptions don't count sadly enough. get a Costco membership and shop in bulk (still, remember the economic options of going for those deals)

side topic: FOOD & COOKING:

opt for making your own cookbooks and write them somewhere that can be looked back on when you get the chance. It's always useful to have something like that on hand. That way you and neither your family forget the recipes that brought you together.

In a sense:

Stick it to the big man and go for the cheaper, less expensive option (and stick to them)

Learn skills on your own terms

Read, Read, Read, Learn, Learn, Learn

Turn off your phone and laptop, keep them in the office (unless your phone IS the alarm) and opt for the Television or a piece of paper.

Connect with gaming in a communal or skill-based sense. Go for card games. Daily newspaper games too. Think northernlion when he does various trivia games online.

Pluto in Aqua may yet have more in store for us, but in current times, this seems to be (to what I think) is best for us.

Rely on your community, rely on yourself. The world is an infinitely chaotic place, but so as long as we have one another, we'll make it through.

[hua-mo-jin-is-a-cutie]

okay so like disregarding the horrid ethics of ai scraping without consent and compensation and the huge impact ai has on the environment, focusing solely on the claim companies love to make, that ai is a tool for artists, IF ai had stayed looking like shit, if the early days of dall e mini had been the extent of it's power, I could see it being a tool.

If it had stayed like this. Where everything is melting and hard to decipher, it could have been a tool specifically for practice. Because that's what it was when it first came out. Artists, before learning about the ethics of ai, saw these images and thought "wouldn't that be a fun exercise in interpretation?" and made redraws of these horrible awful images. It was a good exercise in creativity, it was fun to take these melting monstrosities and make them into something tangible. But then ai kept getting better at replicating actual images and now if you want a picture of an anime girl you can get one in just a few seconds and it looks like this

and that SUCKS. I can pick out the artists these images are pulling from, they have names and years of hard work under their belt and... what is there to do with these images really? This isn't a tool, there is no work to be done with them, they are, for all intents and purposes, the same as a finished illustration. The most an artist would do to these is make some small touch ups to make the blunders of ai like hair or clothing details not quite making sense, a little bit less noticeable. At that point it is not a tool. It does not aide the creative process, it takes it from the hands of the artist.

When ai gen images were first gaining traction and it still looked like shit. I did a few of these interpretation exercises and they were genuinely fun. The ai images were made by feeding Looking Glass AI some images of vocal synth character portraits and seeing what it spat out. And it spat out a lot of shit, girls with 8 arms and 4 legs and no head and hair for eyes and whatnot. So it was FUN and A TOOL because it looked so bad. Do I think the designs I interpreted from these are good? No not really. I think they could be if I did a few more passes to flesh them out, they aren't really something I'd usually design so it could be fun to keep letting them evolve, but as it stands they definitely need work.

But at the end of the day, saying all this, the fact of the matter is that ai image generation, in it's current state, regardless of what it looks like or how artists can or can't use it, doesn't matter. Because ai image generation is unethical. The scraping is unethical, the things that these datasets contain should be considered a violation of privacy considering some of them include pictures from MEDICAL DATA. And the environmental impact is absolutely abhorrent. The planet is already dying, do we need to speed it up for anime girl tiddies at the press of a button?

So if you're an artist looking to do an exercise like this where you look at something unintelligible and make sense of it with your pencil, what can you do? Well there's a few options really.

Having poor eyesight helps if you want to observe things in real life. take your glasses off and look around.

Look at the patterns in the paint on your ceiling or the stains on the floor or the marble texture of your counter top or the wood grain of a table or whatever else is around you.

Take poor quality screenshots of things you see online, you can even make the image quality worse digitally.

random paint or marker splotch doodle page. Draw over the shapes that random paint or marker marks make on a page.

take pictures of things from weird angles. distort them even more digitally if you want.

make collages in a photo app. I used to use pixlr in high school to make weird little pictures and while I never drew from them, they certainly changed the original images

I still think that if they ai looks bad enough that this kind of exercise can be fun and helpful if you're in a bit of an art block, and I do truly believe you can take inspiration from anything. I may take ai generated images that already exist on the internet, reference a few of them at once, and try to make something good out of them. But the way that ai exists right now, it just simply isn't the tool the companies are trying to sell you, and I most certainly won't be generating any new ai images any time soon.

[technologywhis]

OHHH yes — Kali Linux vs Parrot OS — the eternal debate among cybersecurity enthusiasts, ethical hackers, and digital warriors like you ⚔️🖥️ Let’s break it down clearly and honestly:

🔥 KALI LINUX

Developed by: Offensive Security Focus: Penetration Testing & Red Team Ops Base: Debian Best For: Professionals, CTFs, Exploitation

🔧 Key Highlights:

Comes pre-loaded with 600+ tools.

Regularly used in OSCP, CEH, and other cert training.

Lightweight and minimal, but that means you have to configure a lot yourself.

Designed with experienced users in mind.

Has a “Kali Undercover” mode to mimic Windows (yes, for ops that require stealth 🔥).

👎 Cons:

Not very privacy-focused.

Can be too raw for beginners unless you're already deep in the game.

Not designed for daily use or casual browsing.

🦜 PARROT OS

Developed by: Frozenbox Focus: Penetration Testing AND Privacy Base: Debian Best For: Beginners to Intermediates, Privacy Geeks

🔧 Key Highlights:

Includes anonymity tools (Tor, I2P, Anonsurf) by default.

Offers multiple editions: Security, Home, and Cloud.

More polished UI — easier out of the box.

Lighter on system resources compared to Kali.

Better for everyday use + hacking tools baked in.

👎 Cons:

Slightly less tool-rich than Kali (but not by much).

Might feel "bloated" to users who want just pen-testing stuff.

⚔️ HEAD-TO-HEAD: WHO WINS?

FeatureKali Linux 💀Parrot OS 🦜Toolset💯🔥Privacy Tools😬✅Performance (lightweight)💪⚡Beginner-Friendly😵👍Community Support🧠 Massive💬 SolidLooks/PolishMinimalistSleek

🧠 BOTTOM LINE:

Choose Kali if: You're serious about offensive security, studying for a cert like OSCP, or want maximum control over tools and configurations. Think Red Team.

Choose Parrot OS if: You want a more balanced experience between hacking tools and daily usability, with added privacy features and a user-friendly design.

Both are powerful. It comes down to your use case and how much of a tinkerer vs user you are.

[govindhtech]

Pegasus 1.2: High-Performance Video Language Model

Pegasus 1.2 revolutionises long-form video AI with high accuracy and low latency. Scalable video querying is supported by this commercial tool.

TwelveLabs and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that Amazon Bedrock will soon provide Marengo and Pegasus, TwelveLabs' cutting-edge multimodal foundation models. Amazon Bedrock, a managed service, lets developers access top AI models from leading organisations via a single API. With seamless access to TwelveLabs' comprehensive video comprehension capabilities, developers and companies can revolutionise how they search for, assess, and derive insights from video content using AWS's security, privacy, and performance. TwelveLabs models were initially offered by AWS.

Introducing Pegasus 1.2

Unlike many academic contexts, real-world video applications face two challenges:

Real-world videos might be seconds or hours lengthy.

Proper temporal understanding is needed.

TwelveLabs is announcing Pegasus 1.2, a substantial industry-grade video language model upgrade, to meet commercial demands. Pegasus 1.2 interprets long films at cutting-edge levels. With low latency, low cost, and best-in-class accuracy, model can handle hour-long videos. Their embedded storage ingeniously caches movies, making it faster and cheaper to query the same film repeatedly.

Pegasus 1.2 is a cutting-edge technology that delivers corporate value through its intelligent, focused system architecture and excels in production-grade video processing pipelines.

Superior video language model for extended videos

Business requires handling long films, yet processing time and time-to-value are important concerns. As input films increase longer, a standard video processing/inference system cannot handle orders of magnitude more frames, making it unsuitable for general adoption and commercial use. A commercial system must also answer input prompts and enquiries accurately across larger time periods.

Latency

To evaluate Pegasus 1.2's speed, it compares time-to-first-token (TTFT) for 3–60-minute videos utilising frontier model APIs GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Pro. Pegasus 1.2 consistently displays time-to-first-token latency for films up to 15 minutes and responds faster to lengthier material because to its video-focused model design and optimised inference engine.

Performance

Pegasus 1.2 is compared to frontier model APIs using VideoMME-Long, a subset of Video-MME that contains films longer than 30 minutes. Pegasus 1.2 excels above all flagship APIs, displaying cutting-edge performance.

Pricing

Cost Pegasus 1.2 provides best-in-class commercial video processing at low cost. TwelveLabs focusses on long videos and accurate temporal information rather than everything. Its highly optimised system performs well at a competitive price with a focused approach.

Better still, system can generate many video-to-text without costing much. Pegasus 1.2 produces rich video embeddings from indexed movies and saves them in the database for future API queries, allowing clients to build continually at little cost. Google Gemini 1.5 Pro's cache cost is $4.5 per hour of storage, or 1 million tokens, which is around the token count for an hour of video. However, integrated storage costs $0.09 per video hour per month, x36,000 less. Concept benefits customers with large video archives that need to understand everything cheaply.

Model Overview & Limitations

Architecture

Pegasus 1.2's encoder-decoder architecture for video understanding includes a video encoder, tokeniser, and big language model. Though efficient, its design allows for full textual and visual data analysis.

These pieces provide a cohesive system that can understand long-term contextual information and fine-grained specifics. It architecture illustrates that tiny models may interpret video by making careful design decisions and solving fundamental multimodal processing difficulties creatively.

Restrictions

Safety and bias

Pegasus 1.2 contains safety protections, but like any AI model, it might produce objectionable or hazardous material without enough oversight and control. Video foundation model safety and ethics are being studied. It will provide a complete assessment and ethics report after more testing and input.

Hallucinations

Occasionally, Pegasus 1.2 may produce incorrect findings. Despite advances since Pegasus 1.1 to reduce hallucinations, users should be aware of this constraint, especially for precise and factual tasks.

[darkmaga-returns]

The thoroughly Technocratic “Digital Public Infrastructure” (DPI) originally slid in on the back of the global warming hoax. Unaccountable and unelected Bill Gates is rebranding the effort with his Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP).

On 1-3 October, the Global DPI Summit  2024 was held in Cairo, Egypt. The principal sponsor was a NGO called Co-Develop Fund, who promised to,

… bring together key stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sectors, including:

Countries: Countries that are seeking best-in-class approaches to digitization.

Bilateral and multilateral institutions: Institutions that support country governments in their digitization efforts.

Open-source digital public good providers: Providers of scalable digital solutions that can be used by countries to implement DPI.

Private sector companies: Companies with the expertise and capacity to help governments implement digital solutions at a population scale.

Civil society actors: Actors who are working to ensure that DPI is implemented in a way that is inclusive and protects the rights of all citizens.

Global DPI thought leaders: Experts on DPI who can provide valuable insights and guidance to countries on their DPI implementation journeys.

Domain-focused actors: Actors who are working to implement DPI solutions in specific sectors, such as education, healthcare, and agriculture.

⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is pushing governments to adopt the new global system for digital cash and ID that is backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Gates and his foundation are doubling down on support for s digital public infrastructure (DPI).

DPI supports both digital IDs and payments and is backed by the WEF, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN).

Gates is now pressuring governments around the world to begin incorporating DPI as the globalist groups push for payments and IDs to switch to a fully digital system on a global level.

The billionaire laid out his vision for global DPI in a new blog post.

The Silicon Valley oligarch is once again attempting to establish his reputation as a visionary on these matters.

Gates praised several third-world “developing countries” for allowing DPI to be tested on their citizens.

He revealed that the system has already been “trialed for the rest of the world” in India, Kenya, Brazil, and Togo.

One of the major criticisms leveled at digital IDs and payments is that they will lead to “enhanced,” digital government surveillance, and subsequent disenfranchisement of people.

Many have also raised concerns about the rush to usher in the technology.

Globalists have been pushing for DPI to be rolled out globally for large-scale adoption by 2030, ostensibly to fight “climate change.”

However, Gates does not share these concerns about the technology and is heavily pushing for DPI to be rolled out for the general public.

According to Gates, citizens should not be concerned about government surveillance because “a properly designed” DPI will in fact “enhance” privacy.

He claims DPI includes “safeguards” which he didn’t elaborate on.

Gates also touches on what he says are the benefits of using Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP).

MOSIP is a global digital ID tool backed by the Gates Foundation.

However, MOSIP is yet another point of contention from the privacy standpoint.

But MOSIP featured as a key participant during the recent Global DPI Summit 2024 held in Egypt.

At the event, those behind MOSIP, as well as the World Bank, the UN’s development agency UNDP, and the globalist Tony Blair Institute all took part.

The event provided another opportunity for these organizations to push for global adoption of DPI by 2030.

In addition, the organizations pledged to work on accelerating this process.

MOSIP demonstrated its identity platform at the summit.

At the same time, it stressed that the goal of digital ID and payments is to improve accessibility of identification, “particularly for developing nations.”

The platform is already in use in Ethiopia, Morocco, and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the World Bank announced that it is about to launch its own global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) program.

Read full story here…

[magickkate]

Hey there, fellow witches-in-training! Ready to learn how to fortify your energetic boundaries and protect yourself from unwanted vibes? Let's dive into the magical world of warding and shielding—essential skills for any budding practitioner. Here's the lowdown:

🌿 What is Warding?

Warding is like setting up a magical barrier around yourself or your space to keep out negative energy, entities, or influences. It's your personal energetic security system, designed to maintain harmony and protect against psychic intruders.

🔮 How to Ward:

Clear Your Space: Before warding, it's essential to cleanse your space of any lingering negativity. You can do this through smoke cleansing with herbs, sprinkling salt, or using sound vibrations with bells or singing bowls.

Set Your Intention: Decide what you want your wards to accomplish. Are you focusing on protection, privacy, or something else? Be clear and specific about your intentions.

Create Your Warding Tools: This can include crystals, charms, sigils, or even visualization techniques. Choose whatever resonates with you and feels most empowering.

Activate Your Wards: Place your chosen tools around your space or carry them with you as needed. Visualize a protective barrier forming around you, reinforcing your intention with each breath.

Reinforce Regularly: Warding isn't a one-and-done deal—it requires regular maintenance and reinforcement. Check in with your wards periodically and adjust them as needed.

🛡️ What is Shielding?

Shielding is like putting on a magical suit of armor to deflect negative energy and psychic attacks. It's all about strengthening your energetic boundaries and maintaining your inner peace amidst external chaos.

🌟 How to Shield:

Ground Yourself: Connect with the earth's energy by visualizing roots growing from your feet into the ground below. This helps you stay rooted and centered in your power.

Visualize Your Shield: Imagine a bubble or aura of protective light surrounding you, extending several feet in all directions. Envision it as impenetrable and invincible, repelling negativity like water off a duck's back.

Set Your Boundaries: Intend for your shield to only allow in positive energy while blocking out anything harmful or intrusive.

Maintain Awareness: Stay mindful of your shield throughout the day, especially in situations where you feel vulnerable or overwhelmed. Adjust its strength and size as needed to suit your surroundings.

Keep in mind, both warding and shielding are highly personal practices, so feel free to experiment and find what works best for you. Trust your intuition, stay grounded, and know that you have the power to create and maintain your own sacred space. Stay magical, my friends! 🌌✨

Sources: Sebastiani A. By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn. Independently Published; 2020. Wigington P. How to Magically Ground, Center, and Shield. Learn Religions. Published June 25, 2019. https://www.learnreligions.com/grounding-centering-and-shielding-4122187

[michelpaul]

Why Troop Messenger is the Best Alternative to Discord

In today’s fast-paced world, effective communication and collaboration are essential for teams to succeed. While Discord has gained popularity for casual and gaming communities, many businesses and organizations need a more secure and feature-rich platform. Troop Messenger is the ultimate solution for those looking for a powerful and secure Discord alternatives. Here’s why Troop Messenger stands out as one of the best alternatives to Discord.

Unparalleled Security

One of Troop Messenger’s key strengths is its commitment to security. Unlike Discord, which primarily caters to casual users, Troop Messenger offers enterprise-grade security features like end-to-end encryption, data retention policies, and role-based access control. These ensure that your business communication remains private and protected from unauthorized access.

Versatile Deployment Options

Troop Messenger provides flexibility with its multiple deployment options. Businesses can choose between SaaS (cloud-based), on-premise, or self-hosted setups, unlike Discord, which is solely cloud-based. This flexibility ensures that organizations in sensitive sectors like defense, government, and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) can maintain full control over their data.

Rich Collaboration Features

Troop Messenger offers a comprehensive suite of collaboration tools that outshine Discord. Features include:

One-on-One and Group Messaging: Send instant messages to individuals or groups with ease.

Audio and Video Calls: Conduct high-quality calls for effective remote communication.

Screen Sharing: Share your screen in real time to enhance collaboration.

File Sharing: Send large files securely and without hassle.

Burnout Chat: A unique feature for self-destructing messages, ensuring sensitive information remains confidential.

Seamless User Experience

While Discord is user-friendly, it often feels cluttered and overwhelming for professional users. Troop Messenger’s intuitive interface is designed specifically for productivity and efficiency. Its clean layout and customizable features make it ideal for teams of all sizes.

Advanced Integration Capabilities

Troop Messenger integrates effortlessly with a wide range of tools and platforms, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and APIs for custom integrations. This makes it a versatile choice for businesses that rely on multiple tools to streamline their workflows.

Designed for Business Communication

Unlike Discord, which was originally created for gaming communities, Troop Messenger is purpose-built for professional communication. It meets the unique needs of industries such as:

Government Agencies: With its secure on-premise deployment.

BFSI Sector: With robust compliance features and data encryption.

Defense Organizations: Offering secure and private communication channels.

Affordable and Transparent Pricing

Troop Messenger offers competitive and transparent pricing plans that cater to businesses of all sizes. Unlike Discord, which has limitations on premium features, Troop Messenger’s plans include all essential features without hidden costs. The value it provides far outweighs its cost, making it an excellent investment for organizations.

Why Troop Messenger is Better than Discord

If you’re looking for an alternative to Discord, Troop Messenger is the best choice for several reasons:

Enhanced Security: Ideal for businesses that prioritize data privacy.

Professional Features: Tailored for corporate communication, unlike Discord’s gaming-focused features.

Flexible Deployment: Options for SaaS, on-premise, and self-hosted setups.

Scalable: Suitable for teams and organizations of all sizes.

Industry-Specific Use Cases: Perfect for government, defense, NGOs, and private sectors.

Conclusion

While Discord is a popular platform for casual communication, Troop Messenger goes above and beyond to meet the needs of businesses and organizations. Its robust security, advanced features, and professional focus make it the ultimate Discord alternative for teams seeking a secure and reliable collaboration tool. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Troop Messenger can transform how your team communicates and collaborates, ensuring productivity and success.

If you’re ready to elevate your team’s communication, make the switch to Troop Messenger today!

[parknonwovenindia]

PET Acoustic Panels: A Sound Solution for a Quieter World

Harnessing the Power of Sound Absorption

In today's increasingly noisy world, the pursuit of tranquility has become a priority. Whether it's a bustling office, a noisy home theater, or a reverberant studio, excessive noise can significantly impact productivity, concentration, and overall well-being. PET Acoustic Panels offer a stylish and effective solution to reduce noise pollution and improve acoustics.

Understanding the Components

To delve deeper into the world of PET Acoustic Panels, let's explore the key components that contribute to their exceptional performance:

PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate): This versatile plastic material forms the core of the panel, providing structural integrity and durability.

PP (Polypropylene): A lightweight and flexible polymer, PP enhances the sound absorption properties of the panel.

Vertical Lap Felt: This non-woven fabric, often made from recycled materials, is strategically placed within the panel to trap sound waves and minimize reverberation.

How PET Acoustic Panels Work

PET Acoustic Panels are engineered to effectively absorb sound waves, reducing echo and reverberation. The porous structure of the panel, combined with the sound-absorbing properties of the materials, traps sound waves and dissipates their energy.

Key Benefits of PET Acoustic Panels:

Improved Acoustics: Create a more pleasant and focused environment by reducing echo and reverberation.

Enhanced Privacy: Minimize noise transmission between rooms, ensuring confidentiality and privacy.

Increased Productivity: A quieter workspace can significantly boost productivity and concentration.

Aesthetic Appeal: Available in a variety of colors, patterns, and finishes, these panels can be customized to complement any interior design.

Eco-Friendly: Often made from recycled materials, contributing to sustainable practices.

Easy Installation: Simple to install, requiring minimal tools and effort.

Choosing the Right PET Acoustic Panel

When selecting PET Acoustic Panels, consider the following factors:

Sound Absorption Coefficient (SAC): A higher SAC indicates better sound absorption performance.

Panel Thickness: Thicker panels generally offer superior sound absorption.

Fire Rating: Ensure the panels meet local fire safety regulations.

Aesthetic Appeal: Choose a style and color that complements your interior design.

Conclusion

By incorporating PET Acoustic Panels into your space, you can significantly improve sound quality, reduce noise pollution, and create a more comfortable and productive environment. Whether you're aiming to enhance the acoustics of a home theater, office, or recording studio, these panels offer a versatile and effective solution.

sales@parknonwoven.com 0124-4816111 Corporate Office: Park Non Woven Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram, HR

[mariacallous]

Citizens of the European Union live in an internet built and ruled by foreign powers. Most people in the EU use an American search engine, shop on an American ecommerce site, thumb American phones, and scroll through American social media feeds.

That fact has triggered increasing alarm in the corridors of Brussels, as the EU tries to understand how exactly those companies warp the economy around them. Five years ago, Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism neatly articulated much of lawmakers’ critique of the tech giants, just as they were preparing to enforce the flagship GDPR privacy law. Now as the EU enacts another historic piece of tech regulation, the Digital Markets Act, which companies must comply with starting tomorrow, March 7, a different critic du jour sums up the new mood in Brussels.

In his 2023 book, Technofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis argues the big US tech platforms have brought feudalism back to Europe. The former Greek finance minister sees little difference between the medieval serf toiling on land he does not own and the Amazon seller who must subject themselves to the company’s strict rules while giving the company a cut of each sale.

The idea that a handful of big tech companies have subjugated internet users into digital empires has permeated through Europe. Technofeudalism shares bookshelf space with Cloud Empires and Digital Empires, which make broadly similar arguments. For years, Europe’s wanna-be Big Tech rivals, like Sweden’s Spotify or Switzerland’s ProtonMail, have claimed that companies like Google, Meta, and Apple unfairly limit their ability to reach potential users, through tactics like preinstalling Gmail on new Android phones or Apple’s strict rules for the App Store. “It’s not a problem to be a monopoly,” says Sandra Wachter, professor of technology and regulation at Oxford University’s Internet Institute. “It becomes a problem if you're starting to exclude other people from the market.”

Crowbarred Open

In answer to that problem, Brussels’ politicos agreed to the Digital Markets Act in 2022. It is designed to rein in the largest tech companies—almost all of them from the US—that act as gatekeepers between consumers and other businesses. A sibling regulation, the Digital Services Act, which focuses more on freedom of expression, went into effect last month. Wachter says they follow a long tradition of laws trying to protect the public and the economy from state power, wielded either by the government or the monarch. “With the rise of the private sector and globalization, power has just shifted,” she adds. Tech platforms rule over digital lives like kings. The DMA is part of the attempt to keep up.

The rules change tomorrow for platforms deemed “gatekeepers” by the DMA—so far including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok parent Bytedance. The law essentially crowbars open what the EU calls the gatekeepers’ “core services.” In the past regulators have proposed containing corporate giants by taking them to pieces. EU lawmakers have adopted the motto “Don’t break up big tech companies, break them open.”

In theory, that means big changes for EU residents’ digital lives. Users of iPhones should soon be able to download apps from places other than Apple’s app store; Microsoft Windows will no longer have Microsoft-owned Bing as its default search tool; Meta-owned WhatsApp users will be able to communicate with people on rival messaging apps; and Google and Amazon will have to tweak their search results to create more room for rivals. There will also be limits on how users’ data can be shared between one company’s different services. Fines for noncompliance can reach up to 20 percent of global sales revenue. The law also gives the EU recourse to the nuclear option of forcing tech companies to sell off parts of their business.

Homegrown Challengers

Most tech giants have expressed uncharacteristic alarm about the changes required of them this week. Google has spoken of “difficult trade-offs,” which may mean its search results send more traffic to hotel or flight aggregators. Apple has claimed that the DMA jeopardizes its devices’ security. Apple, Meta and TikTok have all filed legal challenges against the EU, saying new rules unfairly target their services. The argument in favor of the status quo is that competition is actually thriving—just look at TikTok, a technology company launched in the past decade, now designated as one of the so-called gatekeepers.

But TikTok is an exception. The DMA wants to make it normal for new household names to emerge in the tech industry; to “drive innovation so that smaller businesses can really make it,” as the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager explained to WIRED, back in 2022. Many hope some of the new businesses that “make it” will be European. For almost every big tech service, there is a smaller homegrown equivalent: from German search engine Ecosia to French messaging app Olvid and Polish Amazon alternative Allegro. These are the companies many hope will benefit from the DMA, even if there is widespread skepticism about how effective the new rules will be at forcing the tech giants to change.

Today, US-based Epic Games said Apple had terminated its European developer account, soon after Epic announced it would take advantage of the DMA to open a new games store for iOS. Apple told WIRED that Epic was untrustworthy and Apple has the right to terminate the accounts of any of Epic's wholly owned subsidiaries following a 2021 court judgment. “Apple chose to exercise that right,” a statement provided by company spokesperson Rob Saunders said.

App Stores will be an early area of focus for DMA enforcement, Vestager said this week. But Europeans can’t expect the internet to transform overnight. In its early days, the new law’s effects will be more about the power struggles behind the curtain of the world’s biggest companies; not about making netizens’ lives easier. In fact, their online experience is likely to get messier at first. There will probably be even more website pop-ups. “This dominant position that these companies have is partially because we have been so addicted to convenience,” says Anu Bradford, a professor at Columbia Law School and author of Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology. The new rules will mean users have to reengage with what they want their online lives to look like, she adds. Defaults set by US corporations will no longer be chosen for them.

Instead the DMA’s objective is to remind Europeans what they traded in exchange for that convenience in the first place. The DMA is about power, not necessarily convenience. Whether Europeans will be able to remember that as their online worlds are cracked open remains to be seen.