#as a collection of the train's camera data and stuff

[hydrophilicdaisy]

So, about the black box in The Bifrost Incident

I keep reading fic that includes the black box and describes it as like. a literal black box. which. is fine, and honestly I can't say much, since until a couple weeks ago I also pictured it like that, but now I know, so: fun fact! there's an actual thing in planes called a black box that records flight data.

there are usually two in a plane, one in the front that records cockpit audio and radio signals and one in the back that records things about the actual flight (airspeed, altitude, heading, etc). they're used to investigate plane crashes and other incidents

now do I think all descriptions/renditions of the blackbox should make it look like this?

yes, actually. get to it /j

[faef43]

PLS LOOK THE REBLOGGED POST I MADE OF THIS POST TO CONTINUE MY TIPS

HERE ARE SOME TIPS PLUS STORES TO AVOID

ALWAYS ADDING MORE SO CHECK BACK

I’ve been lifting for awhile and have collected some good tips and tricks on how to not get caught or be put in a system

-CAMERAS/MAIN TIPS-

I mainly lift small things like makeup, jewelry, small skincare, rings, pins, if it’s a good day maybe small lotions, but lifting clothes tips are coming soon!! (fixing spelling/grammar errors <3)

First of all, wear a mask and if you can style your hair in a way you usually don’t or use a beanie, bucket hat, baseball cap, never a sun hat way too suspicious. Ex. for hair: braids, space buns, slicked back, etc. I wouldn’t suggest lifting if you have brightly colored hair unless you want to go as far as to wear a realistic enough looking natural wig. Never wear sunglasses with a mask or a hat on, very suspicious, they will catch on. While finding blind spots never just turn around to face the wall and start stuffing your pockets and bag(s), instead stand at a 3/4 angle and be slick, I suggest lifting things while walking through a crowed isle, section, or doing it while walking, this one usually works if you have something small you can make it look like you’re adjusting your sleeves. ALWAYS GRAB 2 OF THE ITEM U WANT 2 LIFT, make the second one less apparent you have it, but if you take two and always keep one apparently in your hand, the cameras will be fooled. You have to have some sort of fingernails to scratch off price tags/barcodes/stickers, trust me when lifting you don’t want those on there. Take them off, rip them up and stuff it in your pocket or stuff somewhere non apparent, never throw them on the ground, super obvious. Don’t wear all baggy clothing, it’s really suspicious, always do the half half trick, half of your outfit baggy, half tight. Ex. Really tight shirt, hella baggy pants, really baggy hoodie, tight ass jeans or leggings. That way they won’t suspect you. If doing the baggy hoodie, always wear a secure sports bra underneath if u wear bras, great for slipping stuff into when pretending to adjust your bra, make sure your double of the product you want to lift is visible. By all means do not steal from target, they have high trained LP, workers that dress up as normal shoppers that they send to areas where they seek suspicion to spy on you, they keep you in a data base and share info/pics of you with other targets, cameras are nearly always monitored, store security is present, they let you walk out with things but eventually will confront you. The decision to call the police has already been made, target is a scary place, if you are gonna lift do only a 3-6 dollar thing, only once. Their employees count clothes for dressing rooms often times, pretty scary place stay safe. Some cameras are smoke detectors/speakers,boxes on the ceiling ect. Usually they’ll have some sort of light that’s always on, they look a little chunky or too far away from the ceiling. Claire’s has a ton of these so be carful, but their earrings don’t have any censors on them so they’re a great store for beginners. Interact with this post and I’ll add more too this blog♡ . -CLOTHING TIPS- If a clothing store does not have fitting rooms, don’t even try, they’ll immediately catch on+security cameras are your number one snitch. You’re gonna want to pay attention to if store employees suspect you. Ex. Fixing up areas that you’re at or around u, constant asking if you’re finding everything ok, maybe they’ll offer a store basket or bag, asking if you need anything in specific, any constant attention really. If they are leave the store, come back like a week later and try again. Your gonna wanna bring a hook with you to remove ink tags/clothing alarms while in fitting room, keep it down and try to pick a fitting room away from others to avoid suspicion. Some stores have employees stand in empty stalls next to you and listen so be aware and careful. If there are price tags try stuffing them behind the mirror or on in the landings on the floor, they’re sometimes rubber, don’t leave shit on the floor, if they already suspect u, they’ll check the fitting room when you come out. As for the alarms/ink tags, put them in ur pocket and discreetly shove them in another piece of clothing, remember to ALWAYS CHECK POCKETS ON CLOTHING.im abt to max out, look at repost of this from me 4more

ALWAYS CHECK POCKETS/COMPARTMENTS ON CLOTHING. Other lifters could have stuffed clothing alarms or price tags in there, be safe and check before trying to lift. No as where to conceal these clothing items, if you have the baggy hoody, (I suggest wearing a baggy shirt underneath too, always wear that sports bra if u wear bras{binders can also work it’s just hella uncomfy I’ve tried it})put 1-3 tops on under ur baggy T then put ur hoodie back on. Make sure they don’t count items b4 going into changing rooms. If they do, try taking a hoodie on some sort of hanger, taking it off the hanger, putting 1-2 shirts on the hanger, then put the hoodie/zip up back on. Great for lifting, if they confront you say you didn’t know and you were just tossing things in the cart, get out of there fast afterwards. It’s suspicious if you come in with a ton of clothes then don’t buy anything, sometimes you gotta buy some to win some. (Ex. I’m wearing 3 shirts under my og shirt which would add up to about 35 bucks, I buy a cheap tank top for 15, they don’t suspect me and I get freebies)

[noodle-anime]

I skimmed the last few chapters because I was so exasperated about taking a comedy break right after killing a major character in an abrupt and unsatisfying way without indicating that there's any resolution incoming. The way Gojo's death was portrayed is so odd that I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back again, but the shounen I've read/watched indicates that it's entirely possible that's just how it's going to be left. Meanwhile I have no brainspace to care about the backstory of a new character and the tonal whiplash left me disconnected.

On the other hand, 244 suddenly places us in a legal drama! And I realized that I dig that the way powers and domain expansions work in JJK means that it's a story where genre-hopping is a thing both in-universe and out-universe. A very loose generalization would be that the power system of JJK is a subjective one, influenced by human belief (like Discworld) where the very act of perceiving changes reality, rather than an objective one (like Captain America, barring the dark depths of comic lore) where there are rules that operate independently of understanding which you need to learn.

Semantics aside, comedy and law are ways that humans cope with life. Domestication and challenge (ten shadows), the science of gravity and the collection of data (limitless/six eyes), the division of time or space into measurable units (nanami's stuff), barriers (tengen, general skill), and cameras (that. uh. zen'in guy) are all different...things that we can use to break down the unknowable into the knowable. If you have a hobby or job like writing or music or engineering, sometimes you process the world through it! It's a worldview thing. I often use story and storytelling as touchstones. I'm just following a train of thought so don't take this as gospel but the ocean curse and patchwork and the volcano dude (i'm bad with names) are all primal fears. We don't understand the wholeness of the ocean. We don't understand why our bodies do what they do*. We can't control a volcano. Curses versus cursed techniques, the things that are beyond our understanding and control and the way we break them down into understandable pieces we can control, right?

So genre-hopping is a fun meta-level on top of that, where chapters that focus on cursed techniques are temporarily applying different lenses to the same problem/story. The timing was too awkward for me to actually enjoy chapters 241-243 or whenever the comedy guy showed up but the concept is cool. And besides that I'm looking forward to this new version of Itadori vs Sukuna.

*this link is for an article called "Guts" by Julia Armfield that's my favorite piece of writing on why having a body can be so scary

[hedgiwithapen]

Beth finds the cameras

No ask I'm just mean. set 3x1

Beth sat cross legged on her bed, one hand absently pulling at her blanket where the fabric was starting to pill. Chuck had been combing through files for hours, but she could hardly fault that. The Gambler was his nemesis, after all.  And he was back in Blue Valley, clearly trying to pull something. Chuck had been certain of it, and Beth had to admit the logic was sound. Courtney seemed to think he might have been telling the truth, about wanting to turn over a new leaf, but that was who she was. Beth admired and envied Courtney that, always able to see the best in people. Beth tried, she really did, but after everything that had happened in the last year, with supervillains, and people actually trying to kill her and her friends? She needed data to back people up, not blind faith. Chuck had agreed before she even had to voice the concern. So they’d spent the last few hours pouring over every scrap they could find, Chuck doing most of the work while Beth finished her math homework.  Thus far, they’d uncovered nothing but emptied bank accounts, scam sites left unchecked for weeks, phishing emails still in drafts. “Not even a fraudulent facebook market scheme,” Chuck reported,  sounding as close to a lament as an AI could get.

“Maybe he was telling the truth,” Beth mused. “Or he could be building up to something.” “You’d think he'd at least want his money back,” Chuck agreed. “Don’t worry, the accounts are safe.” Beth nodded, unnecessarily. She’d kept only a small portion of the Gambler’s stolen fortune last fall, set aside for college funds for the team. Investing in their future was a very good cause. She clicked through another set of tabs, frowning.  There had to be a reason Gambler was back. He could have apologized from Aruba, or Scotland, or Markovia, if that was all he’d wanted to do. “Oh, can you check the Zarrick collection?” she asked.  “Maybe there’s something in there he’s after. Like how the Shade wanted to find the Black Diamond?” Of course the Shade hadn’t been trying to kill them,  like the Gambler probably was. “Good call, Beth,” Chuck praised. “Hacking into the American Dream  now.” “Huh,” Beth tilted her head, looking at something on Chuck’s display. “What’s that?” “Security camera feed. Must be new, it was not  there the last time we hacked in.” “Really new,” Beth said, puzzled. “Dad hates when they put in cameras. He always complains and he hasn’t mentioned this yet. “Beth, it’s not just at the American Dream. Look,” Chuck  flashed up a map of Blue Valley. Dozens of lights pinpricked around it. The school, the American Dream, the Pit Stop, Ripped City, the trailer park on the road to the woods… and just outside her house.  Inside Courtney’s house. “Oh, no,” she whispered.  “Oh, that’s bad. We gotta warn everyone.” She jammed her feet into shoes, even as Chuck worked on tracing the feeds, grumbling about the Gambler’s tech.

“JSA stuff,” she yelped at her mother’s raised eyebrow, slamming out the back door. There was a time and a place for closing a door quietly, and this was not either.  She’d call Court, ask to meet her, but where? Where was safe?

“The Park,” Chuck flashed in bold green letters, displaying the map for her again. There were no camera pinpoints there.  “Yeah, ok. Text the groupchat. Park, but don’t say anything out loud, and I’ll explain everything there.” She felt her phone buzz as Chuck did exactly that. Everyone needed to know, and fast, and without letting anyone who’d put Cameras in Courtney’s kitchen knowing that they knew.

She had to take a longer route, uncertain of how much the cameras in Ripped City or in other places on her map could pick up. She panted as she reached the soft grass of the park and the safety of the gazebo. She was really going to have to take Yolanda up on the offer of endurance training at some point. That would be safer than taking Artemis up on her offer.

She was relieved to see she wasn’t the first to arrive.

“Sylvester! I mean, Mr. Pemberton. Hi!” she lowered her voice “Did you bring the Staff? Is Courtney here?”

He held up his severely outdated phone. “No, sorry. It’s Courtney’s staff, she’s on her way. I was just in the area already. What’s wrong? It sounded urgent.” “Someone’s spying on us,” Beth said, lowering her voice even more. “ I found cameras.” “You found cameras? How--oh, the goggles.  Right.  Charles was right to leave them with you. Good work, Beth.” He beamed at her.

“Chuck did the hard work. We think we can trace them. But everyone has to know.” she said, serious. “So what’s our next move?”

“You just leave that to me,” Sylvester glanced over the top of her head towards the treeline, in the direction of Rick’s house. Beth turned, hoping to see Rick’s car. “Beth,” Chuck said in her ear, low and urgent, “watch--”

An avalanche of white fur burst through the flimsy gazebo roof, splintering it, before Chuck could finish a warning no one would ever hear.

[citynewsglobe]

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[thefoxlady]

I thought up of an Where's Waldo/Where's Wally Assassin AU so I might as well talk about it.

Waldo is apart of an assassin group called the Red Question, a group of assassins that stealthily kills their target without being spotted or noticed, they are hard to spot, even in crowded areas. Wizard Whitebeard has trained Waldo and his friends the art of stealth and killing quickly, Waldo has been in the Red Question the longest and is a well trained assassin thanks to Wizard Whitebeard's teachings.

Wizard Whitebeard leads the Red Question and trains assassins on stealth, kills, melee, and even how to endure torture. Wizard Whitebeard would give Waldo and his friends a hit job that he received from a client and gives hints on where and when they should assassinate the target with the help of Wenda gathering info on their target.

Woof was taken in as a puppy and taught how to be a good dog assassin. Although he rarely goes out on hits he acts like a guard dog in the Red Question hideout.

Wilma used to be apart of the Red Question, she took her job seriously because of the fact it required stealth and discipline. She met Waldo during her time working as an assassin and started dating Waldo after some time together doing hits, Waldo and Wilma were a couple up until Wilma betrayed them because she was secretly working with a rival of the Red Question called the Shadow Birds, the Shadow Birds were able to manipulate Wilma into betrayal when they promised to give her credit and respect because the Red Question doesn't give her enough credit for most of the hits and being more deadly than Waldo would give her more respect. After their fight, Waldo broke up with her, he was actually hurt when she betrayed them and his heart was broken. Wilma is now apart of the Shadow Birds.

Wenda, just like her twin sister, collects data on their targets and hacks security cameras to make sure their hit is successful and no one can check the cameras. She is considered a good hacker and a necessary part of the Red Question, when her sister betrayed the Red Question she was in disbelief that her own sister betrayed them just because Wilma wanted to be noticed and to be given respect despite how much Waldo and Wenda respected her and knew how many hits she has under her belt.

Odlaw, just like Wilma, used to be apart of the Red Question and has been in the group as long as Waldo has but has betrayed the Red Question when he wants Waldo's magical walking stick but Wizard Whitebeard says Odlaw isn't ready to use a magical walking stick. Odlaw became a rogue assassin and will do anything to steal Waldo's magical walking stick.

The weapons of the Red Question assassins will carry weapons like daggers, poisons, guns, and magical walking sticks (magical walking sticks are secret weapons that are given to assassins of the Red Question when an assassin is ready to have such a deadly weapon, it can hit like a boe staff and can shoot like sniper rifle). They also carry an umbrella that can be opened and used as a shield (like in the Kingsman movie) during a gun fight if needed, just like the magical walking stick it can be used as a melee weapon.

Red Question assassins will make sure no witness sees them when they kill or after they kill and the witness suspects any of the assassins by using a dart that can make the witness forget what they saw and who did it.

To know if someone is apart of the Red Question, you must look at the back of their necks, there's a tattoo of a red question mark, this tattoo is hidden thanks to clothing like scarfs or collars of shirts or by long hair.

Weapons and other stuff:

(Fun fact: I based the Magical Walking Stick on a short comic by ColmsComics where Waldo is a hitman and his walking stick is a gun, I thought that was cleaver, sorry if the Magical Walking Stick doesn't make any sense if it were an actual gun.)

I thought up this AU when I imagine a Where's Waldo anime where Waldo and his friends are assassins and think about what an anime battle between Waldo and Odlaw would be like, you can thank the spongebob anime for that. I also imagine Waldo going apeshit during his fight against Odlaw.

[dronesstuff]

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[baglove]

(via cat lovers Mask by mohammed elhachimi)

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chill out city claire andrews claireandrewss classic clout clout goggles college colour colourful country cowabunga dancing, skeleton dark blue dead head death designs disco dolphin donut doodle dorm down drake dude edm elephant elephants emoji eno equal pay eyes fall fat buddha fist floral flower flowers font four stars fries fruit fry funds fye gd50 girl gang girl girl girls

[wildlittlefoxsworld]

Booker x Fem Reader Unlike your family you're not a soldier, more of the tech nerd of the group but that doesn't mean your some damsel in distress! It be good of your family to remember that so when you get kidnapped by people with a grudge, the kidnappers aren't the only one in for a surprise! Also if you could maybe add Angst 6,8 and Random 11,29,36 from the prompt list into the story if you can no pressure Thanks!❤

Badass wife | The Old Guard | Booker x Fem!Reader

Warnings: rape (but only mentioned), reader is kidnapped, torture (only mentioned), angst with happy ending

Words: 3k

Prompts:

-Angst

6. “Don’t you ever do this again.”

8. “Nobody’s seen you in days.”

-Random

11. “You’re insane.” “You love me.” “Not right now, I don’t.”

29. “How is my wife more badass than me?”

36. “That was kind of hot.”

Masterlist

***

If you were honest, you never enjoyed or loved being immortal. Of course, your immortal life had a lot of benefits. You couldn’t get ill, you were forever young and beautiful (that was what your husband said all the time to you), you spend the eternity with the love of your life. Sometimes it was very great, but sometimes you hated it. Your loved ones died a long time ago and you saw all the people in the world getting old, and you wanted that with your husband. Growing old, playing with your grandchildren, remembering a wonderful life.

But you had a family and currently you were the second youngest of your group. A few months ago Nile joined your little family and she was a former marine. Nile was a soldier, like the others in your group. You weren’t a soldier; you never learnt how to fight before you died for the first time. You were born in 1985 and during your time in school it emerged that you were a genius, primarily in mathematics and biology, but you focused your interest mainly in computers and other kind of this stuff later in high school. You made money with programming security and anti-virus software for companies to protect their data.

The first time you had died wasn’t something really special or spectacular, but you had died on smoke poisoning after a fire was breaking loose. You had woken up in the mortuary in the hospital and you couldn’t believe what happened. You had been disoriented and confused, so you just wrapped the white sheet tight around your body and searched for a way out of the hospital, because you wanted to go home. But you hadn’t come far… that was when you met Joe and Nicky for the time. Joe had explained you quickly that you had died, because of a fire in your house and they were there to help you. Nicky had wrapped you in his leather jacket and carried you in his arms, because your feet were bare.

That was six years ago in 2015 and you were now married with Booker for four years, these were the happiest in your life. Booker and you had become very close immediately and you couldn’t ask for a better man or husband. Booker was good with all the technical stuff, but you showed him skills that he only had dreamed off and fast you were responsible for finding persons or hacking any websites, searching for information and made sure that all the tech stuff ran smoothly. You felt sometimes like the fictional figure Ramsay from Fast and the Furious.

The time in your little cell gave you enough time to think about your life. You were here for three or four days now and your kidnappers thought you had find out information about their criminal business, and you had gave the info to the FBI, which was true, but the criminals couldn’t prove that. So they had water-boarded you already and now they were trying to starve you, so you would tell them what you did and what exactly you told the FBI.

You had a little worry that your family couldn’t find a way to rescue you or that it was very difficult to break in the building where they hold you hostage. You wore a little location transmitter under your skin, not only one, but four in different places. This was your first idea after you joined the team, because it would be easier for the team to track someone if one or more of you got kidnapped. You hoped the others already found you.

You were sitting on the floor with chains cuffed to your ankles and wrists when one of your kidnappers opened the door. It was Paul, the at least friendly one of the men, but he wasn’t very talkative. He checked the chains and brought a new bottle of water, but clearly no food. You didn’t eat something in the last seventy-six hours and you were very hungry, but you wouldn’t beg for food. You weren’t weak or easy to break, but your kidnappers didn’t know that and maybe your family members would rescue you in the next coming hours. You would definitely eat a cheeseburger and a large portion of fries.

“Do you want to tell me something, sweet girl?” Paul asked you with a gentle voice and little smile, but you only quirked an eyebrow and looked dumbfounded at him. Did he really think you would talk so fast? Andy had one rule; don’t say anything about their missions no matter what they would do to you. It was easy to follow the rule. Of course, you were afraid that they would water board you again. That wasn’t very pleasant, but they could do other things and you didn’t want to think about it.

“It’s very sad that you don’t want to talk with me and it’s impolite, too. You should show us more respect and answer a question when someone asked you.”

With two fingers he tipped your chin up, but you refused to look him in the eyes.

“No, I have nothing to tell you.”

“Well, that is bad… for you. My boss said that I have to make you talk and that I could do anything with you what I want. You have a pretty face, you know, I would really like to kiss your lips. But your body is more interesting, I ask myself what you hide under all your clothes. What do you think… can I take a look?"

That was the first time you gave him a glance and you were disgusted by the smug grin on his face.

“Fuck you,” you cursed and spit him in the face. Your spit landed on his cheek and mouth and brushed with his hand the wetness from his skin.

“Don’t you ever do this again!” he warned you with an angry voice and slapped you across the face, so that your head flew to the side. Your cheek burned where he hit you with the back of his hand, but you only turned your head slowly to him and grinned slightly. “That was your answer.”

His eyes were filled with rage now, because he had thought you were just a pretty little girl who he could threaten and you would sing like a bird. In the next moment he pressed his mouth hard on yours and his tongue tried to invade your mouth, but you bit him as hard as you can on the lip that you could taste blood in your mouth.

“You bit me, you little bitch. You will wish you were never born when I’m done with you.”

“I think it will be the opposite,” you considered and he shoot you a death glare. He came closer to you for a second time and you watched the blood dripping from his torn lip.

“You really want to be hurt, right?”

“No, but it seems you want to,” you replied and kicked your knee into his stomach. He gasped and fell backwards on his butt.  You didn’t get much time to put your plan into action. The chains around your ankles were tied to the ground, but the ones around your wrists were connected with a chain. You stood up fast to your feet, ignored the dizzy feeling in your head from sitting so long and wrapped the chain around his neck. You pulled tight to cut his air supply and he tried helplessly to inhale the much needed air. You used all of your strength to strangle him, because he started trying to put his fingers between the chain and his throat. You noticed how strong he was and he scratched the floor with his feet helplessly. You couldn’t give up now, you know there would other men come, but maybe he had any keys that you could use to free yourself from the shackles.

You felt how slowly his strength faded, but it did and you collected all of your strengths to pull the chain tighter. You thought it took you minutes until he gave fighting, but it was only a few more seconds until he went limp and you counted to sixty in your head to be sure he didn’t fake it.

 You searched in his pockets for any keys and you were successful. You thought why they were so stupid to give Paul the keys, but you thought that they weren’t smart enough to assume that you could have overpowered him. But you could only free yourself from the chains around your ankles, your hands were still in chains and you cursed that you couldn’t defend yourself properly. They weren’t very tight, you could have freed yourself earlier from them, but you would have to dislocate your thumb and break your hand in the process, and you weren’t brave enough to do it. Maybe you would find the keys somewhere else, you weren’t happy how the situation turned out, but at least you weren’t raped by Paul and you took Paul’s gun to your defense, then you walked on wobbly legs out of the little room. You didn’t know if there were any cameras, but you assumed they had a few, because you heart already shouting and appearing footsteps from down the long hallway where you stood now helplessly. You didn’t know where you were or how they got you here. Normally you weren’t active in any mission, you were the tech nerd and you stayed often with Nicky when he searched for the perfect position for his sniper rifle. But the last time you were with Nicky, he needed to change his position and you decided to stay in the first place he had chosen. You always had a gun with you and Andy had trained you, but you weren’t used to fight against so many men that had approached you after Nicky was gone. You were sure Nicky was crestfallen, because he left you there alone and Booker freaked out probably in the moment.

You thought about which way you should take and it would have been probably stupid if you would go into the direction from where the shouting was coming.

“She’s this way, boss,” you heard a familiar voice from behind you and your heart began to beat faster. That was your husband and the shouting was from the other criminal men, when the team had surprised them. You were glad that they finally came for your rescue and started running towards them.

“I hope they didn’t hurt her or I will them kill all over again,” Booker said maybe to Andy, because you didn’t know if all of them were in the building.

“She’s moving fast into our direction,” you heard him gasping shocked. In the next moment you ran around the corner and directly into his arms when he recognized you. Booker his arms around your body and you buried your face in the crook of his neck; you inhaled his familiar scent that helped you to calm your nerves slowly.

“Nobody’s seen you in days,” he joked chuckling in your ear and you laughed along with him. Of course, he had to make a stupid joke in the middle of a rescue mission. “I’m so happy that you are with me again.”

“Are you alright, Y/N?” Andy asked while she observed your surroundings. You looked up and she gave you short glance.

“I’m okay, but my hands are still chained.”

“How did you escape?” Booker asked and you quirked an eyebrow at him.

“The bad man wanted to touch me, so I killed him.”

“How?” – “I suffocated him with my chains.” I held my hands up in demonstration and Booker nodded in admiration.

“How is my wife more badass than me?” he said stunned.

“I trained her. Now let’s go!” Andy replied impatiently and let the direction to get out of the building.

The three of you ran down the hallway from Booker and Andy had come and you saw all the dead men on your way to the exit. You counted the corpse, twenty-four. You were still impressed, because you hadn’t often the opportunity to see the others in action. You saw a lot of flesh wounds that Andy had caused with her axe and the others had bullet holes from Booker’s guns. You hoped you would leave this building without meeting more of the men, but you didn’t come far when you heard again footsteps coming into your direction.

Andy gave a sign to slow down your tempo and you tightened your grip on the gun. You didn’t know how to describe your feelings in the moment, because you hated to be forced with the enemy. You felt tired, because you hadn’t eaten in days and you used the last bit of your strength to kill Paul. You were mostly pissed that they had you taken and they were still stupid enough to stand your in way to freedom. You were glad that you weren’t alone, because when you arrived in a great hall where they stored their stolen guns and drugs and all the other ware which they made profit with.

“I see you managed to escape. You killed one of my best man, you slut.” You knew the voice very well, it was Paul’s boss and he wasn’t happy about what you did to Paul. You saw his angry red face and the gun he pointed at you.

“I’m bulletproof… but please, don’t shoot me. I really hate the feeling of bullets in my body,” you answered him and he looked dumbfounded at you for a second.

“What are you talking about? Are you already gone mad? Well, I don’t care. You killed my man, so I’m going to kill your man, then the crazy axe lady and in the end I will torture until you beg me to stop and you will tell me your little secrets, and maybe then after every one of my men had their fun with you, I let you die.”

“You’re pathetic. You will pay for what you did to my wife!” Booker screamed and tried to push you behind, but you didn’t let him, you were too angry.

“You’re disgusting, Antonio. I make you a better offer: I will shoot your balls off and let you bleeding out like a pig, while you can watch how we kill the rest of your men and then we will blow up this whole building.”

You grinned like a mad woman when you aimed to shoot him between your legs and you didn’t hesitate a second until you heard the echo of your shooting. Antonio screamed in pain and felt down to the ground. You could shoot him again, but his men already began to fire in your direction and Booker pushed your forward, so you could get out of there finally. It took a lot of bullets and fighting until you were even near to the exit and then Joe came through the large door of the hall and shot two of them precisely in the head which left only two of them in the end.

A dark haired man fired a bullet into Booker’s leg and he winced in pain, but kept running. But you got so angry that they had the nerve to shoot your husband, when it was clearly that they were going to lose. You stopped and turned around to shoot them, but you were out of bullets.

“Fuck,” you cursed. That was definitely your favorite swear word. You used the handle of the gun to hit the dark haired man on the cheek and you heard the satisfying cracking of the bone. He tried to punch you, but you crouched down and tackled his body with yours, so you fell on the ground. The man had no time to react when you grabbed his head with both of your hands and smashed his head on the hard floor four times.  

Andy killed the other one with her axe while Booker pushed off the dead of the dead man and out of the building, and that was when you inhaled fresh air for the first time in nearly eighty hours.

“Are they all dead now?” Joe asked still aiming the door, but you couldn’t answer him, because you were pulled in tight hug from Nicky.

“Thank god, Y/N. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I’m perfectly fine, Nicky. Are you okay?”

Nicky watched me confused. “You’re asking me if I’m okay after you had been hold hostage for more than three days.”

“Ah yes, you seem very distressed.”

“You’re insane,” he mumbled when he kissed the top of my head.

“But you love me,” you replied laughing.

“Not right now, I don’t. You made me leave you alone there; I will never let you alone again.”

“Isn’t that my husband’s part?” You said still laughing when Booker hugged you from behind with his arms around your waist.

“He can share,” Nicky prompted snorting and both men cuddled you between them.

“Can we go home then?” Andy asked still impatient.

“Yes, boss,” all of you saluted and Andy rolled her eyes on you.

The ride home was silent. Joe and Andy switched on driving and you sat with Booker and Nicky in the backseat. Nicky was peacefully snoring beside you and you were cuddled up in Booker’s lap. When you got in the car earlier he had kissed all over of your face and then your mouth, he let you feel all his love for you.

“When Nicky had told us that they kidnapped you… I thought I would never see you again, but then I remembered how brilliant you were to get us the location transmitter last year and it was easy to find you, but to get in the building was so much harder. Please tell me, he didn’t get a chance to touch you? I can’t bear the thought that he might took you with force… I…”

“Shh, my heart. He didn’t touch me. I killed him before he got a chance. At least I was lucky enough to overpower him… don’t think about all the other possibilities how it could have ended. We are together again and that’s all what matters.”

“You’re right, sweetheart. I love you so much. Please, never leave me again.”

“How could I ever leave you, Sebastien. You are the love of my life and our life had only just begun. Wonderful five years, yes, but I hope it will be at least five hundred more.”

Booker chuckled at your words. “I will five thousand years at least, and more.”

Your lips found each other again and you know that as long as Booker was at your side, you would be never alone.

“I hope you can free me from this chains as soon as possible,” you told Joe and he only grinned at you.

“Don’t worry, we will make it when we’re at home. But are you sure you want to be free so soon? I can tell you that they’re perfectly for role games in the bedroom. Nicky and I had a lot with chains in the past.”

You looked back at Booker questionly. “Sounds like an interesting idea. You know when you hit and tackled the man down on the ground. That was kind of hot. It turned me really on.” The last words Booker whispered in your ear and you knew you wouldn’t leave the bed in the next days.

[studentville-struggles]

A Double Life

Chapter 4!

A self-indulgent Daniel Ricciardo fic.

Summary: Returning to old passions results in the start of chaos and living a double life. We say we hate chaos, but the thrill is unlike anything else.

Words: 1,709

Masterlist // Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

You may have been young but that did not mean a FIA gala wouldn’t result in a two day hangover. God bless past Rachel for booking the day after off. You couldn't actually communicate appropriately just how crap you were feeling and your film crew were loving it. They may not have been able to go into the gala with you but they did get to do a good before and after comparison. Unfortunately for you, you had to return to the lab on the second day of your hangover and your office mates were oh so giddy at calling out how deathly you looked.  

Despite the severity of your hangover, you could remember a surprising amount of the night. Although, you did wake up with a mysterious number texting you and didn’t remember giving it away so that might have been a lie.  

You remembered dancing with teammates new an old. You remembered collecting your award. You remember telling Lewis, Daniel looked fit as fuck. Oh shit. Damn that free wine. You remembered Lewis dragging you over to chat to Daniel and Max, disappearing as soon as you were chatting.  

You remembered rolling your eyes at something Daniel said, you remembered him taking your hand to twirl you around in your dress, complimenting the style. You remembered laughing. You remembered thinking he wasn’t a dick. You remembered him walking you to your taxi. You weren’t sure, however, how accurate your memory was of the feeling of his lips on your cheek as he said goodnight.  

What the hell happened and where the fuck was Lewis.  

Other than the whole Daniel fiasco, the night had been possibly the best of your life. Your friends in F2 were buzzing with team mix ups and a couple of you progressing up. The people you knew in F1 were lovely and very complimentary of your season. So many people were congratulating you on your new contract that you could barely stop smiling from thinking of the season to come.  

Dancing for hours on end, everyone seemed to be happy. The feeling of being overwhelmingly happy, nothing but joy and laughter, was one would could never forget.

However, despite the remaining headache to remind you of the night, you were back in reality, roasting in your lab. Happy with the explanation that you'd ‘had a big night’, your lab-mates were happy to joke and poke fun at your mis-fortune. With your office being on the 9th floor, and your lab on the 11th, it was always on the warmer side of things. You could definitely testify that a loud, warm environment was not where you wanted to be when you were hungover.

A couple of weeks after the gala you were fully into your newest off-season training programme, but with all the other drivers not having the limitations of a second job, they were feeling far more social than usual. There were more texts, more twitch streams, more fun. You were, however, in your final year of your PhD, drowning in lab work and data that needed analysing. You didn’t know if you could handle any more stress and yet life was continuously saying ‘lol sure’.  

Seeing the lighter side of your friends in the driving world was nice. You couldn’t wait to have that freedom after your PhD. You loved it, you truly did. You loved science; you loved the methodical nature of it, you loved the sample preparation – no matter how much you complained about do it. It was wonderful, but you knew your heart was truly in driving and you couldn’t keep up doing both. It was slowly taking its toll, you knew that. Burn out was inevitable really.

One more year. You just had to do one more year, and a little more because let's face it you were going to run over time on this... you worked three days a week instead of five or seven.  

Lewis was becoming an evermore important person to lean on and learn from. The odd weekend you spend with him when he was on his uncle duties brought you so much joy and reminded you of the need to spend time with family and friends and keep a social life.  

Sitting down with Lewis, one of the rarer times you allowed your mentor times to be filmed, you sunk down into the sofa and got comfy. You may have been in a reality show but the illusion that every waking moment is filmed, is in some cases, well an illusion. You hadn’t planned anything for this meeting so you had assumed this would be a more personal one. Though you couldn’t quite have imagined just how personal.  

“Heard you had a rough couple of days after the gala” You scowled at him

“You would know, you facetimed me every other hour to laugh at me.”  

Lewis had found your exceptional hangover hilarious. You did not appreciate that. Although now you were no longer hungover you could definitely see the funny side of things.  

The two of you sat and discussed your various plans for the off season; what family time you had planned and when you were hoping to go travelling and where. With the first race of the year being in Australia, you couldn’t wait to get out there and explore, as well as acclimatising as much as possible to give yourself the best possible start.

Somewhere deep in the back of your mind was a niggling thought, a small suggestion of ‘what if you bumped into Daniel when you were out there?’. You pushed that right back down as soon as it reared its head. There was no way you’d bump into anyway – Australlia is bloody massive! Also why Daniel? Ricciardo and yourself had only spoken a handful of times since the gala, although to conceded he was only a little bit of an arse now.  

Almost as if he could read your mind, Lewis dived right into the ‘any boys’ line of questioning.  

“I don’t exactly have time for a relationship right now; between the training, race prep and all my lab work I have to catch up on” You explained, a small amount of panic starting to rise as you began remembering all the work you have planned, papers your supervisor wants written.

As Lewis began shaking his head at you, a notification popped up on your phone.

“Heard you’re heading to Oz early.” Dan’s message caught you off guard. You’d only very loosely planned things with your family about travelling out. Although almost as soon as you’d finished reading a strange warm feeling was making itself known, a little lopsided smile gracing your cheeks.  

“What’s got you grinning like a school girl?” Lewis asked, leaning over to try and get a glimpse of your screen.  

“Nothing!” You locked your phone and tucked it under your legs, a guilty grin now facing Lewis.

Perhaps you wouldn’t have to bump into him after all.  

You didn’t know what was going through your head but you didn’t like it. You couldn’t be getting warm non usual feelings for anyone that was a competitor. Friendships were good, we liked those, until you sort through weird drunk gala memories, you were not okay with the weirdness stirring within.

After heading home a couple of hours later, you lay in the darkness of your room, tucked under the safety of your sheets, finding yourself texting back the one person who might cause you trouble this next year.  

Arguably the most intense and important year of your life, and what were you doing? Adding to the chaos.  

You did say you lived for the drama. All you would have to do is wait for the end of the off-season and see what Australia would bring for you.  

Australia brought a lot. Mostly heat, but a lot of other stuff too.

Australia was a stunning country, and having a local tour guide definitely helped. You knew how important family time was for Daniel when it was off-season, it was the worst kept season in F1. He very graciously offered to be your tour guide for the couple of days that you were spending exploring Perth.  

He took you around the local spots; the best shopping, the best food, the best bars and the best beaches. You couldn’t deny that there was a definite friendship blossoming between the two of you. Things just seemed to click, it was easy now.

Getting back into the paddock was a feeling you could never describe. It was relief, excitement, joy, nerves, it was a mix of everything. It was like a switch was flipped in your mind. You could feel the buzz of being back in the car again rushing through your veins.  

Although first; media.  

Being your rookie season, there was a lot of attention on you and what you could produce. A lot of people were excited by your arrival back on the racing scene. Some were pissed beyond belief. Some hated the fact you were a woman in F1; how dare you take a man's seat in this sport. It was safe to say a lot of people were expecting, if not hoping, you would fail and fail fast.  

Thankfully a good majority of the fans you met were lovely and put a huge grin on your face. Cheeks almost hurting from all the smiling you were doing.  

your favourite interview was with Sky Sports F1, a bit more informal as you were wandering around the paddock towards the end of thursday. It was just fun. They chatted about your comeback, how you seemed to be dominating everything you tried; they chatted about your budding friendship with Max and Lando on twitch; the importance of having a mentor like Lewis. It was everything you wanted in an interview. The last question you found the best.

“How are you finding the new media world and increased interviews. Does it feel weird having all the cameras around now?” You couldn’t help but smile. You turned ever so slightly and pointed off to the side where you could see some of your production team for the tv show.

“My life is already filmed 24/7; I am very used to it.”

[phoenotopia]

2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism. 

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build. 

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

[edspageds]

Reddie 18+ Drabble - The Challenge

For a request by @candy-gothic Technically this ran a slight bit longer then a drabble, but I liked the idea, and I hope you enjoy!!!

Summary: Eddie is pretty tolerant of Richie’s pranks, turns out, this is a very good thing.

Pairing: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier

Warnings: notSFW, exhibitionism, naked man challenge

Word Count: 1.5k

Eddie likes to think he’s not easily fazed. Faced with the kind of idiots he works for day-in and day-out that like to make demands with little idea of how possible the job actually is, it’s amazing he hasn’t blown up in his superior's face more than twice. 

When faced with the kind of idiot he has at home, well, let’s leave it at living with Richie has prepared Eddie for even the most surprising of events. 

His endless patience combined with his unsurprised demeanor make it so he’s given Richie free reign to attempt whatever comedy thing he likes involving Eddie- within reason. He doesn’t understand the draw to any of those online internet comedy videos, but Eddie’s not really a comedy guy in general despite living with a literal comedian. He has final say on what is and isn’t posted, and when a joke is taken too far. Only issue there is, it takes a lot for Eddie to deem something ‘too far’.

Clearly, Richie took that as a challenge.

Eddie’s on a zoom conference, just taking a sip of his hot tea while the meeting droned on, and out of the corner of his eye he sees Richie. He doesn’t think anything of it, Richie likes to do his own thing, but be in Eddie’s company when he’s doing work stuff like this. It’s romantic, that he just likes being in Eddie’s presence even if they are doing separate things. That being together brings him a comforting blanket of warmth.

But, then he sees Richie, and chokes on his tea.

“Kaspbrak, shit, are you okay?” He doesn’t know which one of them asks, and really has to strain himself to suppress the reaction his body wants to make at the sight of Richie, buck ass naked, standing proudly in front of him recording.

He clears his throat, coughing, and schools his face into a bored expression. "Yes. Thank you for your concern. Please continue."  

His customer service voice takes over, and the meeting progresses. But Eddie’s lost any bit of the little attention he's paying it as Richie glides a hand down his chest wiggling his brows suggestively.

As if there was a way to take this that wasn't fucking suggestive. Eddie keeps his face neutral, but flips Richie off just out of sight. 

His grin grows, the little shit, and he points at his face and then his phone mouthing something along the lines of 'smile for the camera'. With startling clarity, Eddie realizes this is a prank. 

He wants to kill him. 

Instead of murder, he keeps his expression dull. “-and for the quarterly assessments, Kaspbrak?” 

“Yes, sir. If you’ll see the flow chart on page 23 of the packet I emailed you…” While he speaks, he palms his cock through his jeans, completely out of sight of his work call, but completely in-sight of Richie. 

Richie's breath goes ragged, laser focused on Eddie's hand, grip faltering on his phone as he quickly realizes his joke backfired spectacularly. And now he's standing naked, in their living room, with his incredibly irresistible boyfriend watching him out of the corner of his eye on the couch rubbing his crotch under the tv tray he's perched his laptop on, teasing Richie with what he can't have because he's on a goddamn work call. 

Or at least, that's what Eddie thinks is going through Richie's mind. That Eddie’s proved his point, and they'll settle this later. Clearly, he underestimated the depth of Richie's horniness and lack of shame when instead of escaping back up the stairs to jack off leaving Eddie in peace, Richie wraps a hand around his shaft pumping in a smooth stroke, hairy thighs flexing. 

Eddie covers his involuntary moan in a cough, quickly downing a sip of his tea in between talking. He could put a stop to this, shoo Richie off and focus on the current meeting. Get his half-hard cock to calm down, and pretend that he cares about what’s going on in the slightest.

But, that would imply Eddie wanted to stop. That his blood wasn't racing in his veins as Richie watched him through the lens of his camera, stroking his thick cock till it was red and weeping at the head. 

Eddie forces his expression to remain neutral as a dark flush works its way up his torso, beads of sweat budding on the surface of his skin like the growing wet patch on his boxers where his cock pleads for attention straining against his pants. "...It's hard to give an estimate here without more on-site data, but initial estimates by picture evaluation is included." 

He says the words on auto-pilot, having reviewed his notes more than twenty times. He tries to keep his eyes straight forward, but he can't help letting his gaze track to Richie. 

Richie licks his lips, thumbing the head of his dick, the hot length of him twitching in want. Eddie's nerves are a live wire as he pops the button on his jeans, slipping the zipper down slowly. Richie shivers, squeezing his cock as a heavy bead of pre-cum leaks out. Fuck, Eddie wants to push all this to the side and lick it up. His mouth practically watering, he has to audibly swallow the excess saliva.

He hopes the group just thinks he's nervous, or any number of normal explanations for his red complexion, even while he palms his tented boxers, Richie practically shaking in want but holding himself back till at least Eddie finishes talking.

"...any questions?" Richie steps forward, panting harshly as he pumps his cock not even two feet away pupils blown wide with lust.

"Only a few Mister Kaspbrak, what about the…" Richie actually whines low, but no one seems to hear it, and it just makes Eddie smile, shifting to nudge down his pants and boxers so his cock springs free, hard and aching for attention. While he keeps his expression cool and collected, he teases his length with feather light touches that have him arching forward. 

Richie is practically overwhelmed with desire, eyes locked on Eddie's cock, still angling the phone to capture all of Eddie's blatant debauchery. 

Eddie wonders if Richie will watch this later. Maybe while he's away on tour, and craving everything about Eddie. Think about touching Eddie everywhere but his cock, let him squirm trying to keep a good look for the camera while practically rutting up into the underside of the table desperately wanting touch in all his most sensitive places. Wanting Richie's touch in all his most sensitive places. 

He stutters briefly, squeezing the base of his dick, blinking a few times to keep his focus. 

Now, Richie's just behind his laptop. Large form making Eddie's balls tighten in want, the manly frame of him enough to have Eddie stumble over his words. He can't help being distracted, not when Richie's eyes are on him devouring him with reverent desire and affection. Eddie keeps talking mindlessly, and hopes his shitty speakers continue to be shit so no one hears the slide of Richie's hand over his cock. 

He wants him to cum all over his thighs, paint him white while Eddie fools his colleagues into thinking he's perfectly proper, even as he fucks into his own fist slicked by Richie's cum.

"...and I believe that concludes our business. Thank you all, see you in the office on Monday. Enjoy your weekends." 

Eddie doesn't even get in more than a half cut off 'Goodb-' before Richie shuts the laptop shoving it and the stand to the side crowding into Eddie's space to slot their lips together in a messy slide of tongues. The harsh burn of Richie's scruff dragging against his lips. Desperate to touch, Richie’s hands rove over his body, and Eddie's skin lights a trail of fire in his blood everywhere they touch. 

He shucks off his pants, Richie pressing close in between his legs, man handling him to get their cocks rubbing together. Eddie surges forward licking a strip up Richie's throat, savoring the taste of his musk. They can't stop, not now, not so close. 

Richie gets his hand around both of them, and Eddie's toes curl, fucking up into his fist and the slide of skin on skin, so delicious. It drives him wild. Richie drives him wild with thrashing, feverous wanting dipping and soaring through his blood. Like a stampeding herd vibrating throughout his entire body. Until he's on the edge, lips shiny with spit, slightly swollen from their aggressive mouths. 

Richie pulls back, camera still trained on him, as he cums, undone. 

It doesn't take much for Richie to tumble after, and into him, panting heavily on his shoulder. Bubbling great waves of warm affection making his limbs weak and his eyes heavy. Eddie smatters the side of his head in light pecks, warm content stewing. 

Cuddled close on the couch, catching their breath, it probably goes without saying, but Richie doesn't get to post his video.

[oangela76]

What is the best free duplicate photo cleaner?

Sort photos made incredible by having our good modern duplicate photo cleaner

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Brand-new duplicate photo cleaner with a lot of essential gadgets for eliminate duplicate photos and manage photos

This stuff is usually a massive concern for a lot of electronic photographers, marketing experts, web creators, image designers, as well as picture specialists they merely come with a great deal stuff on their disk drive what locating particular data ends up being nearly difficult. Put simply, find duplicate photos program makes up a duplicate photo cleaner that is made intended for every one.

One of the major features of photo manager software which we possess simply discussed yet is certainly its potential to locate duplicate photographs.

It really is actually additionally suited to everyone as well who requires to attend to image management during the course of my working hours. Certainly, their program is similarly suited to occasional freelance photographers, also.

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Simply because it has quick to operate drag and also decrease commands in addition to a handy help program constructed into it, duplicate photo finder attracts attention from other duplicate photo cleaner collections for PC users. My updated viewing technique is simply to explore a file format which reveals photographs on their message directories. Note that photo organizer even supplies various methods for checking out photos. Briefly, everybody can manage the photos along with that tool in almost some process anyone please.

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The minute photo organizer looks for duplicates it will erase our duplicate photographs it has probably discovered for you. Yet still, their software likewise works flawlessly well along with techniques provided on that laptop.

[philipholt]

Looking back on Software Development in 2020 and forward to 2021

I think we can all agree 2020 sucked. Hopefully 2021 will be better.

I've been a remote worker for 13 years by choice but in 2020 I HAD TO DO IT because, well, most programmers and tech workers did. I wrote about how Remote work != Quarantine Work while our whole division and then the whole company moved back home! We were a fairly remote-friendly company before but I have to admit I didn't always think my coworkers had really deep empathy for the remote...until they, too, were forced to be remote.

Last week on the podcast, I got to speak with Amanda Silver. She's a CVP in the Microsoft Developer Division who has been coding and thinking deeply about coding for many years. She's leading the creation of tools like Visual Studio, Visual Code, Live Share, Code Spaces, IntelliCode, and other collaborative productivity products. She's always thinking about what coding will look like in 1, 5, and even 10+ years.

We talked about her thoughts on moving the division remote and whether it would slow us down. Would it change how we develop software? What about when everyone comes back? After talking to her about her thoughts on 2020 and where she thinks we're heading, I got to thinking myself and wanted to put those thoughts down.

2020 broke everything, and developers like to fix things

Somewhere in the spring as we started into lockdown, developers started making sites. Sites to track COVID, GitHub projects with scripts to scrape data and analyze it. Javascripters started making D3.js visualizations and codepen users started building on top of them. Bots on twitter would tweet out updates and parse new data.

When there's a problem - especially a scary or untenable one - developers run towards the challenge. Necessity breeds invention and 2020 was definitely a year where we were collectively reminded there was a bunch of stuff that was always possible, but we needed a push. Cameras and mics were upgraded, ring lights were purchased, home networks got fancier, and everyone who could called their ISP and got an upgraded plan. We could have done all this before, but why? Remote work happened for the first time in 2020, and I say that having worked remotely forever.

We HAVE to collaborate remotely now

Back in 2010 I spoke to PhDs at Microsoft Research about how people feel when they are remote and what they can do to be more connected. Ten years! Folks thought it was pretty "out there" but I sure needed my virtual cubicle buddy this year.

2020 accelerated what was possible with remote collaboration. I spent hours coding with Live Share, pushing text and coding context over the wire, not a ridiculous 4k worth of pixels. Having two cursors (mine and my friends) - or even 10! - in one Visual Studio seemed like magic. Even more magic is me pressing F5 and my coworker hitting their localhost and seeing our app running! We needed tech like this more than ever in 2020.

I heard one story where a company sent everyone home but folks had disparate desktops and laptops so they set up 100s of Virtual Desktops over a weekend so everyone was able to log into secure work systems from their home machines.

For us, since we use Github and Azure DevOps here in DeviDiv, our collaboration model is asynchronous and distributed whether we are in the office or not. Can you imagine everyone working remotely while using a locking source control system in 2020? I feel bad for those who are in that predicament.

Can something be BETTER remotely?

Many of us miss being in the same room with co-workers, and we will be together again one day, but are there some things that the constraint of being remote can make better? In the podcast episode Amanda said that our new hire bootcamp was so much better remotely!

She said (paraphrasing a bit):

We have a bootcamp for anybody who's newly started on the team. They actually fly out for two weeks. And the first week is introduction and the second week is our customer driven workshop. And our customer driven workshop is basically this really intense team project where you break up into groups of five to six people, and you're given a business assignment like - how could we double the number of Python developers using Visual Studio Code.

You're basically doing like stickies on the wall the entire week - that's how you collaborate. I've been so amazed that that has transitioned to be remote first. And it's better. It's better. That was a brainstorming process that I thought was only possible in person it's better.

When we moved remote, we had to essentially reboot the way that we thought about our meeting culture to actually make it much more inclusive. And if we go from 40 to 50% of the people participating to just 2 people participating, that's a huge, not only degradation, but you're wasting people's time. Right?

Now if we can actually take six people who've never met each other before and get them to work super collaboratively on a new problem area that they've never worked on before. It's incredible. And the thing that's also really awesome about it is they are forced by nature of the fact that this is remote to actually create it as digital content. Whereas in the beginning they would literally walk us through sticky notes on the wall and they had fantastic ideas, but it was really kind of somewhat unorganized and, and it was hard to be able to see and, and retain and share out afterwards what these incredible ideas were that they came up with.

But when remotely starts with this digital format by necessity because everyone is remote first, we actually now have all of these things archived. We can come back to them, we can go back and actually see, you know, what was the genesis of the thought and, and pursue a lot of these things that we really weren't being able to pursue previously.

Constraints breed innovation!

It was nice to be reminded that People are People

2020 normalized being a person. Having a boss welcome a sad child to sit with them during a meeting reminded me that, what, my boss is a person? With a life and kids? Having meetings while going for walks, talking about treadmill desks, and video called parties with family, and OMG when will this be over is the most horrible team building exercise ever.

It's forced us to rethink our group's culture, how our interpersonal dynamics work, how many meetings we have (let's have less), and it's given everyone the joy of somewhat flexible hours. We talk more now about 'is everyone in this meeting being heard?' than ever before. We use the "hand raising" tool in Teams to make sure all voices get a chance to speak.

If 2020 hadn’t happened, we may not have made these important leaps forward. MAYBE this would have happened by 2025 or 2030 but COVID was the pivot point that forced the issue.

Here's some other blog posts that are both reflecting on our last year and hopeful for the coming year:

Software Development in 2021 and Beyond by Amanda Silver

4 Open Source Lessons for 2021 by Sarah Novotny

Low-code Trends: Why Low-Code Will Be Big In Your 2021 Tech Strategy by Dona Sarkar

PODCAST: Living through 2020 as a Remote Developer

Sponsor: Looking for free secure coding training but don’t know where to turn? Check out Veracode Security Labs Community Edition to start hacking and patching real apps online. Try it today.

© 2020 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.

      Looking back on Software Development in 2020 and forward to 2021 published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

[zvaigzdelasas]

Do you know that Amazon also owns Alexa and they think that it will be the next "thing" after smartphones, meaning that everyone will own a voice based stuff that listening to them all of the time in order to perform what people will think will be useful tasks. It's scary to me

Oh yeah of course, though with any non-targeted mass data collection, it's less an issue of hearing private stuff or wiretapping ppl or whatever (which is entirely possible), and it's more 'every time you talk to your phone you're helping to train the AI behind Siri/Alexa for free without compensation'

If you're concerned about privacy, other than not going out of your way to buy a wiretap, you can also buy a PinePhone, where if ur rly paranoid you can physically turn off power to the microphone or camera etc. And if you still want a voice-based that doesn't spy on you (esp useful for ppl w disabilities), look up smth like Mycroft, or some other flavor of Open Source voice assistant

[baglove]

(via cat lovers Pet Bandana by mohammed elhachimi)

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