#how to View Windows 10 Hidden Files

[pascalispunkczechia]

Rules I Break For Him 6

Masterlist for this fic here

I wake up to bright morning light. The sun’s blasting through the windows. Javier’s still next to me, breathing steady. It’s nice. But we’ve got work.

“Javier,” I whisper near his ear. “We gotta get up.” I kiss his cheek lightly.

He stirs, blinks, and looks at me with a lazy grin before kissing me back. Still tastes unfairly good. Seriously, how?

“I need coffee,” he mutters and gets out of bed. He’s completely naked. Of fucking course.

Javier fuckin’ Peña is walking around my room in the nude like it’s nothing. And sure - he’s already done things to me that should’ve permanently short-circuited my brain, but damn. The view of that ass? And yeah, let’s not skip the front - makes my thighs clench automatically.

Anyway, no time. Work calls.

We clean ourselves up in the bathroom, turn back into functioning humans, and head out.

Coffee and food? Still a fantasy. My fridge’s a crime scene. But honestly, if Peña wasn’t fucking me into another dimension every night, I might’ve actually had time to grocery shop.

I smirk. He catches it, gives me a questioning look. I just wave it off with a grin.

We each take our own car. No need to give the station a reason to gossip about… whatever this is. Javi pulls out first, I follow close behind.

By the time we park at the station, we manage to meet at the entrance like it’s pure coincidence. Brilliant camouflage. So subtle. So adult.

Inside, it’s the usual chaos - overlapping voices, ringing phones, shuffling papers.

“Morning, boss,” detective Miguel calls out across the floor.

“Morning,” I reply.

The day rolls on pretty quietly. Until evening. That’s when Miguel bursts into my office. “Intercepted phone calls gave us a solid lead on Cali. We’re thinking we might’ve identified one of their primary coke labs. If we shut it down, we cut off a major supply chain.”

“Alright. I’m taking point on this,” I say without hesitation.

Right then, Javier knocks once on the door and walks in like he owns the place. Which, let’s be honest, he kinda does. He doesn’t say anything, probably heard enough. Just walks up to us, eyeing me like he’s trying to read a fucking classified file.

“Sorry, boss,” he says with a tilt of his head, “you’re taking point exactly how?”

Miguel wisely excuses himself.

“I mean, agent Peña,” I say sweetly, “I’m going into the field. You’re coming with me. We’ll bring two more units. That should be enough.”

“Will it be enough?” he asks, sharp.

“Based on the file Miguel handed me, and what I scanned through, yeah. 10 minute departure window,” I say, then walk out.

It’s been a while since I’ve worn a tac vest. Strapping it on feels heavy. But right. I grab my weapon. Already know Javi’s pissed. If we weren’t surrounded by half the office, I don’t even wanna think about what he’d do or say right now. That thought alone sends a shiver down my spine. Still, I stay calm. Professional. On the outside.

“Let’s move,” I command.

We get to the location around 7 pm. It’s dark enough to work in our favor. Nobody expects DEA at night. We get out of the vehicles one by one, Javier’s up front, I’m right behind him.

The building’s entrance is barely closed. We slip inside. The lab’s supposed to be on the second floor. Guns drawn, we move up the stairs, step by step. When we reach the door, Javi nods to Miguel, then at me and kicks the thing in like he’s been waiting all damn day. And yep. There it is. The full setup. And a handful of armed narcos to go with it.

Gunfire. Fast and loud. We get a few of them cuffed and hauled out. The rest scatter like cockroaches. Whatever. We got enough. And hopefully, one of these assholes sings. Javier and I exchange a look, guns lowered and holstered, both of us about to start rifling through the desk before calling in the techs.

But then… a click.

Behind me, one of those almost invisible wall-doors swings open. Hidden. Probably a closet. I don’t even get time to think before a strong arm wraps around my waist, yanking me back. My weapon goes flying from its holster.

Javier reacts instantly - gun up, aimed at the fucker behind me. “Let her go!” he shouts, voice already past the breaking point.

But the bastard pulls me tighter, using my body as a shield. His arm presses hard into my throat. I can’t breathe right. My eyes start to sting, tears pressing forward from the lack of air.

“Drop the gun, asshole,” the dealer hisses at Javier. “Or I blow her fucking head off and have a little fun with what’s left.”

I feel sick. But his grip loosens just slightly when he sees Javier lower the muzzle.

“Easy,” Peña says, voice rough, steady… but I can see it. In his eyes. A flicker of something sharp. Fear. Real fear. And that scares me more than the man behind me.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

What now? That piece of shit’s not letting go. Where the hell are Miguel and the rest? They’ll come check on us if we’re gone too long, but until then?

I’m out of fucking time.

He’s got a goddamn knife now. Pressing it against her neck. Too fucking close. She’s pale, but her eyes - they’re fire. Anger.

And me? All I’ve got is fear. Fuck, I’m scared out of my goddamn mind.

Then, finally! Miguel and the guys rush in. Dealer doesn’t even have time to think. He jerks the knife, slices her neck… not deep, but fuck!

They take him down hard.

I grab her, drag her away from that bastard like I need to physically erase the fact that he ever touched her.

Miguel gets him cuffed. They haul him out like the trash he is.

I hold her close, hands already at her neck, checking the cut. It’s shallow. Thank fuck! But I was this close to losing my goddamn mind.

She leans into me. I pull the edge of my shirt up and wipe the blood from her skin. It’s all I’ve got on me. I don’t give a shit.

“Oh god. This was… I’m such an idiot. I should’ve checked the closet,” she breathes, voice cracking.

“Hey,” I snap. “That wasn’t your fucking fault, alright?” My voice comes out rough, almost a shout. “You hear me? You’re not an idiot. That guy was already hiding the second he heard us coming. He planned that shit.”

She doesn’t answer, but she’s still clinging to me. I don’t let go.

I call in the techs. Everyone else is busy hauling narcos to holding. Let them stew. We’ll get what we need tomorrow.

“Let’s go,” I say quietly, guiding her out with my hand on her back.

Outside, there’s only one car left. Mine. So we get in. No words. Just drive. The op dragged way longer than expected. By the time we’re back at the base, the place is dead. No surprise. Colombian work ethic: legendary. Which is why it’s always up to us DEA gringos to keep this shit running.

Straight to her office. Grab the med kit. Fix her up.

She gives me this look - half grateful, half ashamed. “Thanks,” she says, voice tiny. Still blaming herself.

I finish cleaning the cut. Touch her wrist, firm and warm. “Baby, listen. This wasn’t your fault, okay? Shit like this can happen to anyone. There’s no such thing as a perfect mission.”

She gives me a little smile. Tired. But real. “Ever the gentleman, agent Peña,” she says softly.

Then I remember. Bottom drawer. Whiskey. “Hang on. I know exactly what we’re missing.” Three strides, I’m at my desk. Grab the bottle. Back to her office.

She arches a brow. “Well, that’s gonna help. Glasses are over there, por favor.”

I pour. We clink.

She sits behind her desk. I drop into the chair across from her. We knock back the first one like it’s water.

I pour myself another. She waves me off. Doesn’t want more.

I look at her. And it just comes out. “You know… I was fucking scared today.” Sip. “Like actually scared. Thought he was gonna shoot you. Or stab you. Or worse.” I look down at my glass. “I don’t think I could’ve handled that.”

Another pause. Then I say it. “I realized… you matter to me. More than I expected. You’re important, alright?”

Eyes burn. Fucking hell. I’m not gonna cry. Not in front of her. But shit, I feel it.

I’m not lying. She really does mean something to me. Never thought I’d say that… especially not about someone I met a few days ago.

But right now? I’d fucking kill to protect her.

She looks at me. Really looks. Then stands. Comes closer. Eyes locked on mine.

“Javi,” she whispers. “Fuck me. Right here. On the desk. I need you.”

Jesus Christ. Did not see that coming. But fuck if it doesn’t set me on fire instantly.

I take her hands and stand, already unbuttoning my shirt, tossing it somewhere behind me. I pop open her pants, pull her in, lift her up, set her on the edge of the desk. Kiss her hard.

She buries her fingers in my hair.

My cock’s already straining against my pants. No fucking way I’m lasting long. I undo my belt, shove everything down to my knees, underwear included.

She looks straight at my dick and bites her lip. That’s it.

I grip her hips, yank her closer, shove her panties to the side, and slide into her in one rough thrust.

No prep. No hesitation. She’s fucking soaked. I start moving, fast and deep. Her moans echo around the office. She’s saying my name over and over… like a prayer, like a fucking curse.

I don’t care which. It’s hot as hell.

I pound into her harder, faster, losing myself in the rhythm, in the heat, in the fact that we’re fucking on her desk in an empty station.

She starts to clench around me. Yeah, she’s close. So am I.

We come together. Her nails dig into my back, body tight as she pulses around my cock. I explode inside her - every ounce of rage, fear, lust - emptied into her in one brutal release.

After a few seconds, I pull out. Lift her off the desk, hold her against me. Her legs wrap around my waist. I sit back in the same chair I had earlier, holding her in my lap.

Still inside her warmth. Still fucking here.

I light a cigarette. Exhale slow. Never underestimate the post-orgasm smoke. It hits different!

“Give me one too?” she asks quietly.

I pull another from the pack, place it between her lips, light it for her.

We sit there in silence. Breathing. Smoking. Holding each other.

Then she speaks. “You know… I wanted to thank you. For being here. Whatever this is… it’s not just about the sex. Even though… yeah, that helps too,” she says, cheeks flushing.

I nod. Cup her face in my hands. Kiss her nose. And then we’re kissing again. Softer this time. Like we’ve got something to lose.

Adrenaline’s still running through my veins. From nearly getting killed on a raid. From fucking on my own desk. From kissing him and feeling something I still don’t fully understand. And mostly - from what he said!

That I matter to him. I’m not gonna get ahead of myself. No conclusions. No daydreams. I don’t even know what the fuck this is.

Us.

Whatever’s happening between us. Whatever the hell it means when just being around him makes me feel like this… like I’m not in control of my own skin.

Javi’s got his fingers tracing slow circles down my back. He’s watching me like he’s trying to figure something out.

“What?” I smile at him.

“Today was insane,” he says, voice gravelly. “Think I’ll suggest to my boss’s boss that maybe she shouldn’t ride out with me anymore.” He smirks.

The teasing’s back. The edge is softer now. Like he’s letting go - or trying to.

“Oh yeah? Well, your boss doesn’t agree. She’s gotta keep an eye on you too,” I grin and scrunch my nose.

“Uh-huh. Like she did today?”

“Okay, touché,” I admit.

We’re both laughing now. God, we needed that. The release. The shift in air.

“Alright,” I say, unwrapping myself from his arms and standing up. “We should go. Tomorrow’s gonna kick our asses.”

“Mmm.” He squeezes my hand gently. “If you say so, boss.”

He gets up too. We both zip up. Javi throws on his shirt and slings that black leather jacket over his shoulders like a fucking movie star.

Lights off. We head out.

The night air hits colder than expected. I shiver. Javi notices - of course he fucking does - and wraps an arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward my car. “I’ve gotta take care of something, baby,” he says low, almost reluctant. His eyes flick toward me like he’s checking my reaction.

“I’m a big girl,” I say with a wink. “I can make it home alone.” A million questions spark in my brain: What’s he doing? Where’s he going? Why now? But I don’t ask.

“Alright. Call me if anything comes up,” he says, tapping the radio clipped to my belt.

“Yes sir,” I joke, giving him a mock salute. Then I slide into the car, shut the door, roll the window down.

“See you later,” he murmurs, reaching in to brush my cheek.

I smile. “Take care, whatever it is you’re handling.” I turn the key in the ignition and drive off, headed home. Headed for a shower, a bed, and a few hours of sleep.

Hopefully.

I watch her car disappear down the street. Then slide into mine. I’m headed to Vanessa’s. Or, hell, the brothel. Whatever the fuck you wanna call it. No idea if this is smart. But I need to end it. For real. It’s been six months. Haven’t touched her since. She’s been calling. Texting. Still won’t quit.

But I can’t give myself to her not if this shit’s like Vanessa still clinging to me. She deserves better. And I’ve gotta be clean when I show up at her door.

I pull up fast. Street’s loud. Girls hanging everywhere. Don’t recognize most of them. Vanessa’s probably the last one left I still know.

“Hey there, handsome,” a too-young voice calls.

I shut it down. “DEA. Just here to handle something.”

She eyes me hard. Then walks off. Mumbling something to the others.

Good. Let them think I’m just another agent on duty. It’ll keep this cleaner.

I head up the stairs to Vanessa’s room. Stop at the door. Deep breath.

Knock.

Silence.

Please don’t let her have a client in there.

Door opens. It’s her. Hair a mess. Dark circles. She looks… rough. She didn’t used to look like this. Eyes light up when she sees me. And then she’s on me - arms around my neck, fingers already grabbing my ass. “Javi!” she shrieks, practically purring.

“Wait. Wait,” I mutter, grabbing her wrists. “I’m not here for that.”

Her smile drops. “You’re not? Then what the fuck are you doing here?”

I exhale. Keep it simple. “We should’ve had this talk a long time ago. Back then, things were different. I’m not the same. And there’s no more us.”

“No more what?” She’s laughing now. But not the nice kind. The sharp, hysterical kind. “You show up after ignoring me for months… using me for fucking intel, which could’ve gotten me killed… and now you think you can just end it?!” She starts hitting me. Hard. Fists on my chest, my arms.

I take it. I fucking take it. Not raising a single hand. “I don’t mean this as personal. I’ve just… moved on. This,” I motion around the room, “this isn’t me anymore.”

“Oh, it’s not?” she spits. “So what, you got yourself some little bitch now? Some DEA princess who doesn’t know where the fuck you’ve been?”

I don’t answer. But she sees it in my face.

“There it is. It is some whore,” she hisses. “You know what I think?” she sneers. “I think it’s that American bitch. The one you brought to the bar. Maria saw you. Told me you walked in with her.”

She starts shoving me toward the door. Tears in her eyes. Rage on her face. Right before she slams the door on me, she looks at me like she was waiting for something else to happen. A different ending.

“Sorry,” I mutter.

“Go to hell, you son of a bitch!”

I don’t wait around. I’m gone. Fast. Car. Ignition. Pedal down.

Home. Gotta get home. Gotta fucking breathe.

My head’s a fucking mess. What the fuck do I even tell her? Do I lay it all out? Do I tell her about Vanessa? Will she throw me out the second she hears it?

Don’t know. Still gotta do it. The drive goes quick. Before I know it, I’m parked out front.

Her light’s still on.

I knock.

She opens with a smile. A curious look. “That was faster than I expected,” she says. “This little errand of yours.”

“Yeah… uh…” I clear my throat. “Can we go over to mine instead? Need to talk. And, no offense, you don’t keep whiskey stocked.” I raise a brow.

She laughs. “Right. Whiskey. The cornerstone of every serious conversation.” She’s in a tank top and sleep shorts. Cute as hell. And I wanna wrap her up in my arms like she’s mine already.

What the fuck is happening to me?!

We walk down the hall to my place. First time she’s ever been here. Shit. Should’ve cleaned.

She steps inside. Glances around. Gives me this amused little smile.

Okay, it’s not a pigsty. Just clearly not a place anyone lives in. Just survives. But it’s got a good couch. And a solid bed.

I tell her to sit. Grab two glasses, pour us each a decent hit, and walk it over. “You hungry? I’ve got empanadas,” I offer, nodding toward the kitchen.

She shakes her head. ���Nah, just ate. And yes, before you ask, I finally stocked my fridge. Except the whiskey, obviously.”

Smartass.

I smirk. “Good. I’m not hungry either. This,” I lift the glass, “will do.”

She takes a sip. Leans back into the couch. “So… What is it you needed to talk about?” Her eyes are steady. Curious. Totally unaware of the storm I’m about to dump in her lap.

Here we go. It’s time to tell her everything.

NEXT CHAPTER HERE

FOR MORE FICS -> MASTERLIST

[develthe]

Future-Ready HR: How Zero-Downtime SAP S/4HANA Upgrades Slash Admin Effort and Boost Employee Experience

Reading time: ~9 minutes • Author: SAPSOL Technologies Inc. 

Executive Summary (Why stay for the next nine minutes?)

HR has become the cockpit for culture, compliance, and analytics-driven talent decisions. Yet most teams still run the digital equivalent of a flip phone: ECC 6.0 or an early S/4 release installed when TikTok didn’t exist. Staying on “version lock” quietly drains budgets—payroll defects, clunky self-service, manual audits—until a single statutory patch or ransomware scare forces a panic upgrade.

It doesn’t have to be that way. A zero-downtime SAP S/4HANA migration, delivered with modern DevOps, automated regression testing, and business-led governance, lets you transform the HR core without stopping payroll or blowing up IT change windows. In this deep dive you’ll learn:

The five hidden HR costs of running yesterday’s ERP

A phase-by-phase playbook for near-invisible cutover—validated at mid-market firms across North America

Real KPIs in 60 days: fewer payroll recalculations, faster onboarding, and a 31 % jump in self-service adoption

Action kit: register for our 26 June micro-webinar (1 CE credit) and grab the 15-point checklist to start tomorrow

1. The Hidden Tax of Running on Yesterday’s ERP

Every HR pro has lived at least one of these nightmares—often shrugging them off as “just how the system works.” Multiply them across years and thousands of employees, and the cost rivals an enterprise-wide wage hike.

Patch ParalysisScenario: Ottawa releases a mid-year CPP rate change. Payroll must implement it in two weeks, but finance is in year-end freeze. Manual notes, off-cycle transports, weekend overtime—then a retro run reveals under-withholding on 800 staff.Tax in hours: 120 developer + analyst hours per patch.Tax in trust: Employee confidence tanks when paycheques bounce.

Security DebtRole concepts written for 2008 processes force endless SoD spreadsheets. Auditors demand screenshots for every change. Each year the HRIS lead burns a full month compiling user-access evidence.

UX FatigueESS/MSS screens render like Windows XP. Employees open tickets rather than self-serve address changes, spiking help-desk volume by 15–20 %. New grads—used to consumer-grade apps—question your brand.

Analytics BlackoutsReal-time dashboards stall because legacy cluster tables can’t feed BW/4HANA live connections. HR must export CSVs, re-import to Power BI, reconcile totals, and hope no one notices daily-refresh gaps.

Cloud-Talent SprawlRecruiting, learning, and well-being live in separate SaaS tools. Nightly interfaces fail, HRIS babysits IDocs at midnight, and CFO wonders why subscription spend keeps climbing.

Bottom line: Those “little pains” cost six or seven figures annually. Modernizing the digital core erases the tax—but only if you keep payroll humming, time clocks online, and compliance filings on schedule. Welcome to zero-downtime migration.

2. Anatomy of a Zero-Downtime SAP S/4HANA Upgrade

Phase 1 – Dual-Track Sandboxing (Days 0–10)

Objective: Give HR super-users a playground that mirrors live payroll while production stays untouched.

How: SAPSOL deploys automated clone scripts—powered by SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) and Infrastructure-as-Code templates (Terraform, Ansible). Within 48 hours a greenfield S/4HANA sandbox holds PA/OM/PT/PY data scrubbed of PII.

Why it matters: Business owners prove statutory, union, and time rules in isolation. The tech team tweaks roles, Fiori catalogs, and CDS views without delaying month-end.

Pro tip: Schedule “sandbox showcase” lunches—15-minute demos that excite HR stakeholders and surface nuance early (“Our northern sites calculate dual overtime thresholds!”).

Phase 2 – Data Minimization & Clone Masking (Days 11–25)

Data hoarding dooms many upgrades. Terabytes of inactive personnel files balloon copy cycles and expose PII.

Rule-based archiving: Retain only active employees + two full fiscal years.

GDPR masking: Hash SIN/SSN, bank data, and health codes for non-production copies.

Result: 47 % smaller footprint → copy/refresh windows collapse from 20 hours to 8.

Phase 3 – Sprint-Style Regression Harness (Days 26–60)

Introduce HR-Bot, SAPSOL’s regression engine:

600+ automated scripts cover payroll clusters, Time Evaluation, Benefits, and Global Employment.

Execution pace: Two hours for end-to-end vs. 10 days of manual step-lists.

Tolerance: Variance > 0.03 % triggers red flag. Human testers focus on exceptions, not keystrokes.

Regression becomes a nightly safety net, freeing analysts for business process innovation.

Phase 4 – Shadow Cutover (Weekend T-0)

Friday 18:00 – ECC payroll finishes week. SLT delta replication streams last-minute master-data edits to S/4.

Friday 21:00 – Finance, HR, and IT sign off on penny-perfect rehearsal payroll inside S/4.

Friday 22:00 – DNS switch: ESS/MSS URLs now point to the S/4 tenant; API integrations flip automatically via SAP API Management.

Monday 07:00 – Employees log in, see Fiori launchpad mobile tiles. No tickets, no confetti cannons—just business as usual.

Phase 5 – Continuous Innovation Loop (Post Go-Live)

Traditional upgrades dump you at go-live then vanish for 18 months. Zero-downtime culture embeds DevOps:

Feature Pack Stack drip-feeding—small transports weekly, not mega-projects yearly.

Blue-green pipelines—automated unit + regression tests gate every transport.

Feedback loops—daily stand-up with HR ops, weekly KPI review. Change windows are now measured in coffee breaks.

3. Change Management: Winning Hearts Before You Move Code

A seamless cutover still fails if the workforce rejects new workflows. SAPSOL’s “People, Process, Platform” model runs parallel to tech tracks:

Personas & journeys – Map recruiter, manager, hourly associate pain points.

Hyper-care squads – Power users sit with help-desk during first two payroll cycles.

Micro-learning bursts – 3-minute “how-to” videos embedded in Fiori. Uptake beats hour-long webinars.

Result? User adoption spikes quickly often visible in ESS log-ins by week 2.

4. Compliance & Audit Readiness Baked In

Zero-downtime doesn’t just protect operations; it boosts compliance posture:

SoD automation – SAP Cloud Identity Access Governance compares old vs. new roles nightly.

e-Document Framework – Tax-authority e-filings (Canada, US, EU) validated pre-cutover.

Lineage reporting – Every payroll cluster mutation logged in HANA native storage, simplifying CRA or IRS queries.

Auditors now receive screenshots and drill-downs at click speed, not quarter-end heroics.

5. Performance Gains You Can Take to the Bank

Within the first two payroll cycles post-go-live, SAPSOL clients typically see:

60 DAY RESULT

Payroll recalculations   92/year   –38 %

Onboarding cycle (offer → badge)   11 days  –22 %

ESS/MSS log-ins   5 500/month   +31 %

Unplanned downtime  2.5 hrs/yr   0 hrs

One $750 M discrete-manufacturer counts 3 498 staff hours returned annually—funding three new talent-analytics analysts without head-count increase.

6. Case Study

Profile – 1 900 employees, unionized production, dual-country payroll (CA/US), ECC 6 for 14 years.

Challenge – Legacy payroll schema required 43 custom Operation Rules; security roles triggered 600+ SoD conflicts each audit.

SAPSOL Solution

Dual-track sandbox; 37 payroll variants tested in 10 days

GDPR masking reduced non-prod clone from 3.2 TB → 1.4 TB

Near-Zero-Downtime (NZDT) services + blue/green pipeline executed cutover in 49 minutes

Hyper-care “Ask Me Anything” Teams channel moderated by HR-Bot

Outcome – Zero payroll disruption, –41 % payroll support tickets, +3 % Glassdoor rating in six months.

Read our case study on Assessment of Complete Upgrade and Integration Functionality of ERP (COTS) with BIBO/COGNOS and External Systems

7. Top Questions from HR Leaders—Answered in Plain Speak

Q1. Will moving to S/4 break our union overtime rules?No. SAP Time Sheet (CATS/SuccessFactors Time Tracking) inherits your custom schemas. We import PCRs, run dual-payroll reconciliation, and give union reps a sandbox login to verify every scenario before go-live.

Q2. Our headquarters is in Canada, but 40 % of the workforce is in the US. Can we run parallel payroll?Absolutely. SAPSOL’s harness executes CA and US payroll in a single simulation batch. Variance reports highlight penny differences line-by-line so Finance signs off with confidence.

Q3. How do we show ROI to the CFO beyond “it’s newer”?We deliver a quantified value storyboard: reduced ticket labour, compliance fines avoided, attrition savings from better UX, and working-capital release from faster hiring time. Most clients see payback in 12–16 months.

Q4. Our IT team fears “another massive SAP project.” What’s different?Zero-downtime scope fits in 14-week sprints, not two-year marathons. Automated regression and blue-green transport pipelines mean fewer late nights and predictable release cadence.

Q5. Do we need to rip-and-replace HR add-ons (payroll tax engines, time clocks)?No. Certified interfaces (HR FIORI OData, CPI iFlows) keep existing peripherals alive. In pilots we reused 92 % of third-party integrations unchanged.

8. Technical Underpinnings (Geek Corner)

Downtime-Optimized DMO – Combines SUM + NZDT add-on so business operations continue while database tables convert in shadow schema.

HANA native storage extension – Offloads cold personnel data to cheaper disk tiers but keeps hot clusters in-memory, balancing cost and speed.

CDS-based HR analytics – Replaces cluster decoding with virtual data model views, feeding SAP Analytics Cloud dashboards in real time.

CI/CD Toolchain – GitLab, abapGit, and gCTS orchestrate transports; Selenium/RPA automate UI smoke tests.

These pieces work behind the curtain so HR never sees a hiccup.

9. Next Steps—Your 3-Step Action Kit

Reserve your seat at our Zero-Downtime HR Upgrade micro-webinar on 26 June—capped at 200 live seats. Attendees earn 1 SHRM/HRCI credit and receive the complete 15-Point HR Upgrade Checklist.

Download the checklist and benchmark your current payroll and self-service pain points. It’s a one-page scorecard you can share with IT and Finance.

Book a free discovery call at https://www.sapsol.com/free-sap-poc/ to scope timelines, quick wins, and budget guardrails. (We’ll show you live KPI dashboards from real clients—no slideware.)

Upgrade your core. Elevate your people. SAPSOL has your back.

Final Thought

Zero-downtime migration isn’t a Silicon-Valley fantasy. It’s a proven, repeatable path to unlock modern HR capabilities—without risking the payroll run or employee trust. The sooner your digital core evolves, the faster HR can pivot from data janitor to strategic powerhouse.

See you on 26 June—let’s build an HR ecosystem ready for anything.Sam Mall — Founder, SAPSOL Technologies Inc.Website: https://www.sapsol.comCall us at: +1 3438000733

[iptv2026]

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For iOS Users: Install the app from the Apple App Store.

For Windows/macOS: Download the software from the official IPTV player website.

For Firestick: Use the Downloader app to install the APK manually.

Step 3: Install IPTV Smart Player Lite

On Android, enable "Unknown Sources" in settings and install the APK.

On iOS, simply install it from the App Store.

On Windows/macOS, run the installer and follow on-screen instructions.

On Firestick, enter the APK URL in the Downloader app and install.

How to Use IPTV Smart Player Lite?

Once installed, follow these steps to start streaming:

Open the App and navigate to the settings.

Enter Your IPTV Subscription Details (M3U Playlist or Xtream Codes API).

Load Channels & EPG to see available content.

Enjoy Streaming live TV, movies, and series.

Best IPTV Services Compatible with IPTV Smart Player Lite

Here are the top IPTV providers that work best with IPTV Smart Player Lite:

1. IPTV Trends

A premium IPTV provider offering 20,000+ channels and HD streaming.

2. King IPTV

Reliable with fast servers and stable streaming quality.

3. BestBuy IPTV

Great for sports, movies, and international channels.

4. Sportz TV IPTV

Perfect for sports lovers, offering live matches and pay-per-view events.

5. Apollo Group TV

A well-known IPTV provider with a vast content library.

6. Xtreme HD IPTV

Offers 4K streaming and premium sports channels.

7. The Amazing TV

A popular IPTV service with a user-friendly interface.

8. Yeah IPTV

Affordable with great content variety.

9. Beast TV IPTV

Provides high-quality streaming with minimal buffering.

10. Necro IPTV

Known for its wide range of entertainment options.

Why Choose IPTV Smart Player Lite?

If you’re looking for a free, easy-to-use, and reliable IPTV player, IPTV Smart Player Lite is a great option. It offers: ✔ Unlimited Streaming with no restrictions ✔ Multi-Device Support for seamless access anywhere ✔ Customizable Viewing Experience with advanced settings

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is IPTV Smart Player Lite free?

Yes, the player is completely free to download and use. However, you need a valid IPTV subscription to stream content.

2. Can I install IPTV Smart Player Lite on my Smart TV?

Yes, the app is compatible with Android Smart TVs and Firestick.

3. Does IPTV Smart Player Lite come with preloaded channels?

No, it doesn’t include channels. You need to add your IPTV provider’s playlist.

4. Is IPTV Smart Player Lite legal?

Yes, the app is legal, but make sure your IPTV service provider follows copyright laws.

5. How can I fix buffering issues?

Ensure you have a fast internet connection (10 Mbps for HD, 25 Mbps for 4K).

Use a VPN to bypass ISP throttling.

Choose a reliable IPTV provider with strong servers.

Conclusion

For those looking for a lightweight, free, and feature-rich IPTV player, IPTV Smart Player Lite is one of the best options. It allows users to stream content from IPTV providers in HD and 4K resolution, offering a seamless entertainment experience.

By following the simple download and installation steps, you can start streaming your favorite TV shows, live sports, and movies effortlessly.

Sources

Wikipedia - IPTV

TechRadar

CNET

Forbes Tech

Tom’s Guide

[technologyrentaluk]

Exploring macOS: Hidden Features Every MacBook Pro Owner Should Know

MacBook Pro users often rely on their devices for productivity, creativity, and entertainment. While macOS is known for its user-friendly interface, it also houses a variety of lesser-known features that can significantly enhance your experience. From time-saving shortcuts to advanced customisation options, here’s a guide to hidden macOS features every MacBook Pro owner should explore.

1. Quick Look for Instant File Previews

Quick Look allows you to preview files without opening them in their respective apps. Simply select a file in Finder and press the spacebar. This works for images, PDFs, and even videos. You can navigate through multiple files using arrow keys while Quick Look is active.

How to Maximise It:

For more functionality, use Quick Look to add annotations to PDFs or trim video clips without launching Preview or iMovie.

2. Split View for Multitasking

Working on multiple tasks? Split View lets you use two apps side by side, boosting productivity. To activate it, click and hold the green full-screen button in the top-left corner of a window, then drag it to one side of the screen. Choose another app for the opposite side.

Why It’s Handy:

Ideal for comparing documents, referencing research while writing, or attending a video call alongside note-taking.

3. Spotlight Calculator and Conversions

Spotlight is more than just a search tool. Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight, and you can perform quick calculations or unit conversions. For instance, type “50 GBP to USD” or “10 kg to pounds” for instant results.

Bonus Tip:

Spotlight can also search for specific file types or locations using terms like “kind” or “folder.”

4. Customisable Hot Corners

Hot Corners transform your screen corners into triggers for specific actions. Go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Hot Corners. Assign functions like starting a screensaver, locking your screen, or displaying your desktop.

Best Uses:

Set up Hot Corners for quick privacy during work or rapid access to mission-critical files.

5. Text Replacement for Faster Typing

If you frequently type the same phrases, macOS has a built-in text replacement feature. Navigate to System Settings > Keyboard > Text. Add shortcuts like “omw” to expand into “On my way!” or “sig” for your email signature.

Pro Tip:

Combine this with customised keyboard shortcuts for seamless writing across applications.

6. Universal Clipboard for Seamless Copy-Pasting

Copy text or images on your iPhone or iPad and paste them directly onto your MacBook Pro. Universal Clipboard works across devices signed into the same Apple ID with Bluetooth and WiFi enabled.

How It Enhances Workflow:

Perfect for transferring content quickly without emailing or using cloud services.

7. Automator for Task Automation

Automator helps you automate repetitive tasks, such as renaming large batches of files or converting image formats. Open Automator from the Applications folder, choose a workflow type, and drag the desired actions into the workflow panel.

Examples of Use:

Set up a workflow to resize images for specific project needs or create custom alerts for calendar events.

8. Screen Time for Mac

Screen Time isn’t just for mobile devices. On macOS, it helps monitor your app usage and set limits to avoid distractions. Find it in System Settings > Screen Time.

Stay Focused:

Create App Limits to restrict time on social media or set Downtime for uninterrupted work sessions.

9. Safari Reader Mode

For a distraction-free reading experience, Safari’s Reader Mode strips away ads and clutter from web articles. When you’re on a compatible webpage, click the Reader button in the address bar or press Cmd + Shift + R.

Additional Perks:

Customise Reader Mode by changing the text size, background colour, or font to suit your preferences.

10. Secure Notes with Passwords

The Notes app lets you lock sensitive information. Select a note, click the Lock button in the toolbar, and set a password. This ensures that private information stays protected.

Best Practice:

Use this for storing personal details, secure project notes, or financial information.

Final Thoughts

These hidden macOS features can transform your MacBook Pro experience, making your workflow more efficient and your tasks more manageable. Whether you’re a creative professional or a business user, mastering these tools can help you unlock the full potential of your device.

For those considering upgrading their setup temporarily or for specific projects, a MacBook Pro rental is an excellent way to experience the latest macOS features without committing to a purchase.

[techwebdevelopment]

How to show hidden files on Windows 10 and 11

Certain files in Windows are hidden from the user's view by default. This is usually to prevent tampering with files that can cause instability, but sometimes, access to these files is important, whether it's for troubleshooting steps or something else. Thankfully, viewing hidden files is fairly easy, especially in Windows 11. Source: xda-developers.com The post How to show hidden files on Windows 10 and 11 appeared first on TECH - WEB DEVELOPMENT NEWS. https://tech-webdevelopment.news-6.com/how-to-show-hidden-files-on-windows-10-and-11/

[interstateremovalist]

Setting Up Your New Workspace After an Interstate Move

An interstate move marks the beginning of a new chapter, both personally and professionally. As you settle into your new location, one of the top priorities is getting your workspace up and running. 

An organised and efficient workspace can significantly impact your productivity and overall work experience. In this blog post, we'll guide you through the process of setting up your new workspace after an interstate move, ensuring a seamless transition to your new professional environment.

1. Plan Before Unpacking

Before you start unpacking boxes, take some time to plan your new workspace layout. Consider factors like natural light, available outlets, and the arrangement of furniture. Visualise the flow of your workspace to optimise functionality and comfort.

2. Unpack Strategically

Unpack your office items in an organized manner. Begin with essentials such as your computer, monitor, and office supplies. Label boxes clearly to easily locate what you need. As you unpack, resist the urge to clutter your new workspace; instead, opt for a minimalist approach.

3. Set Up Furniture

Position your furniture in a way that aligns with your planned layout. Place your desk near a source of natural light, if possible, and ensure your chair is ergonomically positioned to reduce strain. Assemble furniture carefully, referring to manuals if needed.

4. Organise Cables and Electronics

Cable management is crucial for a tidy workspace. Use cable organizers or clips to keep cables untangled and hidden from view. Set up your computer, monitor, printer, and any other electronics according to your planned layout.

5. Personalize Your Space

Add personal touches to your workspace to make it feel like your own. Decorate with items that inspire you, such as photos, artwork, or plants. Creating a personalized environment can enhance your mood and motivation.

Also Read: Essential Tasks for a Successful Interstate Removals

6. Organize Storage

Allocate designated areas for storage. Use shelves, cabinets, and drawers to keep documents, supplies, and personal items organized. Invest in storage solutions that maximize space without compromising aesthetics.

7. Ergonomics Matter

Prioritize ergonomics to ensure a comfortable and healthy workspace. Adjust your chair, keyboard, and monitor to prevent strain and discomfort. Invest in ergonomic accessories if needed, such as a keyboard tray or an adjustable monitor stand.

8. Proper Lighting

Good lighting is essential for productivity and well-being. Position your desk near a window for natural light during the day. Additionally, incorporate task lighting, such as a desk lamp, to reduce eye strain during evening work sessions.

9. Tech Connectivity

Ensure your workspace has reliable internet connectivity. Set up your Wi-Fi router or connect to a wired network if available. Test all electronic devices to make sure they're functioning properly in your new location.

10. Establish a Routine

As you settle into your new workspace, establish a daily routine that aligns with your work habits. Define your work hours, breaks, and tasks to maintain a structured and productive workday.

11. Test and Adjust

Once your workspace is set up, take some time to test its functionality. Sit at your desk, work on your computer, and assess the overall comfort and efficiency. Make any necessary adjustments to optimize your setup.

12. Stay Organized

Maintain the organization of your new workspace by adopting effective habits. Regularly declutter, file documents promptly, and clean your workspace to ensure it remains a productive and inviting environment.

13. Reflect and Adjust

After a few weeks of working in your new workspace, reflect on your setup. Are there any adjustments you need to make? Is the layout working as intended? Address any issues that arise to create an optimal workspace.

Also Read: How to save money on an interstate move

In Conclusion

In the context of professional transitions, interstate office removals represent a significant change. As you set up your new workspace, remember that this process embodies growth and adaptation. 

The arrangement of furniture, attention to ergonomics, and infusion of personal elements all contribute to fostering a productive environment. 

Much like an interstate office removal signifies a fresh start, your newly established workspace becomes the canvas on which your professional journey unfolds. With careful consideration of every detail, you're not solely in the process of setting up an office – you're actively crafting a workspace that will fuel your aspirations and facilitate your success in this new chapter.

[definitesolutions]

How to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 10

In this tutorial we are going to show you that how to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10. Some files and folders are already hidden. 

Some files and folders are already hidden when you install Windows in your PC when you explore your Windows drive. This protects important files from being removed mistakenly so that Windows isn't damaged. If you want to make some tweeks and need to change these files settings then you can unhide files by following few simple steps.

[respectable-username]

🔐 Why You (Probably) Don't Need A VPN

A rant by a software engineer sick of VPN ads from her favourite YouTubers

TL;DR:

Here are some legitimate reasons the average internet user might want to use a VPN:

To connect to their company's internal network

To bypass the Great Firewall of China (or other types of website blocks at country or organisation level)

To watch Netflix etc as if you were in another country

Here are absolutely rubbish reasons to use a VPN:

Privacy

And today, I'll tell you why.

Hang on, won't a VPN stop hackers from stealing my passwords?

I mean, it does encrypt the web traffic coming from your device.

You know what else encrypts web traffic coming from your device? Your browser.

Yes, in the year 2021, pretty much all websites on the internet are accessed over HTTPS. The "S" stands for "secure", as in "your request will be securely encrypted". If your browser is using HTTPS, nobody can capture the data you're sending over the internet. More detail in the "I like too much detail" section at the bottom of this post.

It's very easy to check if you are using HTTPS by looking at your URL bar. In most browsers, it will have a lock on it if secure:

(From top left to bottom right: Chrome on iOS, Safari on iOS, Chrome on Windows, Edge on Windows, Firefox on Windows, and Safari on Mac. Screenshots reflect the UI at the time this post was written. Oh gosh this has taken over 4 hours to write.)

But isn't moar encryption better? What if somebody breaks HTTPS?

For starters, nobody's breaking your HTTPS, and there isn't any benefit from double encrypting. This is because of the maths behind encryption/decryption!

Encryption works kinda like a lock and key, except the lock is maths and the key is a special number only known to the person allowed to unlock the information.

The important thing is, without the key, all the locked data looks like complete and utter garbage. Completely unusable. Barely distinguishable from random noise. There's absolutely no way to tell what the original data was.

The other important thing is that the key is nearly unguessable. As in, with current technology, will generally take more than the lifetime of the universe to guess by chance. And when technology gets faster, we just make the numbers bigger again until they're once again secure.

For any major website you use, they will use a strong encryption algorithm (ie lock) with big numbers so your keys will be strong enough to withstand an attack. This means your data is safe as long as that lock icon is in your URL bar.

A VPN will not make the existing garble any more garbled. The extra $10/month or whatever you're paying for does not buy you any extra protection.

If you want to know more about how encryption and HTTPS in particular work, see the "I like too much detail" section at the end of this post.

Something something viruses

How's a VPN going to stop viruses? It controls the path your internet traffic takes, not the content that gets sent down that path. I guess it could block some known virus-giving hosts? But if it's known to the VPN provider, it's probably also known to the built-in antivirus on your computer who can block it for you.

(Oh yeah, 3rd party antivirus is another thing that's not worth paying for these days. Microsoft's built-in Windows Defender is as good as the third party options, and something something Macs don't get viruses easily because of how they're architected.)

Honestly though, keep your software up to date, don't click on anything suspicious, don't open files from sources you don't trust, and you'll be right most of the time.

And keep your software up to date. Then update your software. Hey, did I mention keeping your stuff updated? Update! Now! It only takes a few minutes. Please update to the latest version of your software I'm begging you. It's the number 1 way to protect yourself from viruses and other malware. Most major software attacks could have been prevented if people just updated their damn software!

But my ISP is spying on me!

Ok, it is true that there are TWO bits of data that HTTPS can't and won't hide. Those are:

The source of a request (your IP)

What website that request is going to (the website's IP)

These are the bits of information that routers use to know where to send your data, so of course they can't be hidden as the data is moving across the internet. And people can see that information very easily if they want to.

Note: this will show which website you're going to, but not which page you're looking at, and not the content of that page. So it will show that you were on Tumblr, but will not show anyone that you're still reading SuperWhoLock content in 2021.

It's this source/destination information that VPNs hide, which is why they can be used to bypass website blocks and region locks.

By using a VPN, those sniffing traffic on your side of the VPN will just show you connecting to the VPN, not the actual website you want. That means you can read AO3 at work/school without your boss/teachers knowing (unless they look over your shoulder of course).

As for those sniffing on the websites end, including the website itself, they will see the VPN as the source of the connection, not you. So if you're in the US and using a VPN node in the UK, Netflix will see you as being in the UK and show you their British library rather than the American one.

If this is what you're using a VPN for and you think the price is fair, then by all means keep doing it! This is 100% what VPNs are good for.

HOWEVER, and this is a big "however", if it's your ISP you're trying to hide your internet traffic from, then you will want to think twice before using a VPN.

Let me put it this way. Without a VPN, your ISP knows every website you connect to and when. With a VPN, do you know who has that exact same information? The VPN provider. Sure, many claim to not keep logs, but do you really trust the people asking for you to send them all your data for a fee to not just turn around and sell your data on for a profit, or worse?

In effect, you're trading one snooper for another. One snooper is heavily regulated, in many jurisdictions must obey net neutrality, and is already getting a big fee from you regardless of where you browse. The other isn't. Again, it's all a matter of who you trust more.

For me personally, I trust my ISP more than a random VPN provider, if for no other reason than my ISP is an old enough company with enough inertia and incompetence that I don't think they could organise to sell my data even if they wanted to. And with the amount of money I'm paying them per month, they've only got everything to lose if they broke consumer trust by on-selling that data. So yeah, I trust my ISP more with my privacy than the random VPN company.

But my VPN comes with a password manager!

Password managers are great. I 100% recommend you use a password manager. If there's one thing you could do right now to improve your security (other than updating your software, speaking of, have you updated yet?), it's getting and using a password manager.

Password managers also come for free.

I'm currently using LastPass free, but am planning to switch after they did a bad capitalism and only let their free accounts access either laptop or mobile but not both now. I personally am planning to move to Bitwarden on friends' recommendation since it's not only free but open source and available across devices. I also have friends who use passbolt and enjoy it, which is also free and open source, but it's also a bit DIY to set up. Great if you like tinkering though! And there are probably many other options out there if you do a bit of googling.

So, yeah, please use a password manager, but don't pay for it unless you actually have use for the extra features.

No I really need to hide my internet activity from everybody for reasons

In this case, you're probably looking for TOR. TOR is basically untraceable. It's also a terrible user experience for the most part because of this, so I'd only recommend it if you need it, such as if you're trying to escape the Great Firewall. But please don't use it for Bad Crimes. I am not to be held liable for any crime committed using information learned from this post.

Further reading viewing

If you want to know more about why you don't need a VPN, see Tom Scott's amazing video on the subject. It's honestly a great intro for beginners.

I like too much detail

Ahhh, so you're the type of person who doesn't get turned off by long explanations I see. Well, here's a little more info on the stuff I oversimplified in the main post about encryption. Uhh, words get bigger and more jargony in this section.

So first oversimplification: the assumption that all web traffic is either HTTP or HTTPS. This isn't exactly true. There are many other application layer internet standards out there, such as ssh, ftp, websockets, and all the proprietary standards certain companies use for stuff such as streaming and video conferencing. Some of these are secure, using TLS or some other security algorithm under the hood, and some of them aren't.

But most of the web requests you care about are HTTP/HTTPS calls. As for the rest, if they come from a company of a decent size that hasn't been hacked off the face of the planet already, they're probably also secure. In other words, you don't need to worry about it.

Next, we've already said that encryption works as a lock and a key, where the lock is a maths formula and the key is a number. But how do we get that key to lock and unlock the data?

Well, to answer that, we first need to talk about the two different types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption such as AES uses the same key to both encrypt and decrypt data, whereas asymmetric encryption such as RSA uses a different key to encode and decode.

For the sake of my writing, we're going to call the person encrypting Alice, the person decrypting Bob, and the eavesdropper trying to break our communications Eve from now on. These are standard names in crypto FYI. Also, crypto is short for cryptography not cryptocurrencies. Get your Bitcoin and Etherium outta here!

Sorry if things start getting incoherent. I'm tired. It's after 1am now.

So first, how do we get the key from symmetric crypto? This is probably the easier place to start. Well, you need a number, any number of sufficient size, that both Alice and Bob know. There are many ways you could share this number. They could decide it when they meet in person. They could send it to each other using carrier pigeons. Or they could radio it via morse code. But those aren't convenient, and somebody could intercept the number and use it to read all their messages.

So what we use instead is a super clever algorithm called Diffie-Hellman, which uses maths and, in particular, the fact it's really hard to factor large numbers (probably NP Hard to be specific, but there's no actual proof of that). The Wikipedia page for this is surprisingly easy to read, so I'll just direct you there to read all about it because I've been writing for too long. This algorithm allows Alice and Bob to agree on a secret number, despite Eve being able to read everything they send each other.

Now Alice and Bob have this secret number key, they can talk in private. Alice puts her message and the key into the encryption algorithm and out pops what looks like a load of garbage. She can then send this garbage to Bob without worrying about Eve being able to read it. Bob can then put the garbage and the key into the decryption algorithm to undo the scrambling and get the original message out telling him where the good donuts are. Voila, they're done!

But how does Alice know that she's sending her message to Bob and not Eve? Eve could pretend to be Bob so that Alice does the Diffie-Hellman dance with her instead and sends her the secret location of the good donuts instead.

This is where asymmetric crypto comes in! This is the one with private and public keys, and the one that uses prime numbers.

I'm not 100% across the maths on this one TBH, but it has something to do with group theory. Anyway, just like Diffie-Hellman, it relies on the fact that prime factorisation is hard, and so it does some magic with semi-primes, ie numbers with only 2 prime factors other than 1. Google it if you want to know more. I kinda zoned out of this bit in my security courses. Maths hard

But the effect of that maths is easier to explain: things that are encoded with one of the keys can only be decoded with the other key. This means that one of those keys can be well-known to the public and the other is known only to the person it belongs to.

If Alice wants to send a message to Bob and just Bob, no Eve allowed, she can first look up Bob's public key and encrypt a beginning message with that. Once Bob receives the message, he can decrypt it with his private key and read the contents. Eve can't read the contents though because, even though she has Bob's public key, she doesn't know his private key.

This public key information is what the lock in your browser is all about BTW. It's saying that the website is legit based on the public key they provide.

So why do we need symmetric crypto when we have asymmetric crypto? Seems a lot less hassle to exchange keys with asymmetric crypto.

Well, it's because asymmetric crypto is slooooow. So, in TLS, the security algorithm that puts the "S" in "HTTPS", asymmetric RSA is used to establish the initial connection and figure out what symmetric key to use, and then the rest of the session uses AES symmetric encryption using the agreed secret key.

And there you have it! Crypto in slightly-less-short-but-still-high-enough-level-that-I-hope-you-understand.

Just realised how long this section is. Well, I did call it "too much detail" for a reason.

Now, next question is what exactly is and isn't encrypted using HTTPS.

Well, as I said earlier, it's basically just the source IP:port and the destination IP:port. In fact, this information is actually communicated on the logical layer below the application layer HTTPS is on, known as the transport layer. Again, as I said before, you can't really encrypt this unless you don't want your data to reach the place you want at all.

Also, DNS is unencrypted. A DNS request is a request that turns a domain name, such as tumblr.com, into an IP address, by asking a special server called a Domain Name Server where to find the website you're looking for. A DNS request is made before an HTTP(S) request. Anyone who can read your internet traffic can therefore tell you wanted to go to Tumblr.

But importantly, this only shows the domain name, not the full URL. The rest of the URL, the part after the third slash (the first two slashes being part of http://), is stuff that's interpreted by the server itself and so isn't needed during transport. Therefore, it encrypted and completely unreadable, just like all the content on your page.

I was going to show a Wireshark scan of a web request using HTTP and HTTPS to show you the difference, but this has taken long enough to write as it is, so sorry!

I could probably write more, but it's 1:30am and I'm sleepy. I hope you found some of this interesting and think twice before purchasing a VPN subscription. Again, there are legit good uses for a VPN, but they're not the ones primarily being advertised in VPN ads. It's the fact that VPN ads rely so heavily on false advertising that really grinds my gears and made me want to do this rant. It's especially bad when it comes from somebody I'd think of as technologically competent (naming no names here, but if you've worked in tech and still promote VPNs as a way to keep data safe... no). Feel free to ask questions if you want and hopefully I'll get around to answering any that I feel I know enough to answer.

Nighty night Tumblr. Please update your software. And use a (free) password manager. And enable two factor authentication on all your accounts. But mostly just update your software.

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of Warcraft 3′s Menus

It is possible to modify WC3′s menus such that UI elements are drawn offscreen, transparently, or not at all.

Note: this guide was written for older releases (v1.29 and below) and may require changes for newer versions, especially those available through the Activision launcher.

Modifying MPQ archives

As a patching mechanism, WC3 first searches for a file called War3Patch.MPQ  when loading content. You’ll inject your edited files there.

Step 1: Overriding FDFs

To hide the remaining UI elements, we’ll need to modify the game’s FDF files. This format defines a menu’s components and/or layout in plain text.

Use Ladiks MPQ Editor to export UI/FrameDef/Glue/StandardTemplates.fdf as well as those specific to the menu screens you are targeting. You’ll need to modify menu elements’ coordinates so that they are positioned offscreen. For example: SetPoint TOPLEFT,"LoadSavedBackdrop",TOPLEFT,-10, -10.

Re-import your modified FDFs into a patch MPQ, with a folder structure that matches the original files, and launch the game to verify.

While editing, you may have noticed that many FDF components define a BLP skin. We’ll learn how to hide those elements in Step 2.

Allow Local Files shortcut

Whereas modified FDF files must be tediously imported/exported from the game’s MPQ archives, there’s an easier method for overriding WC3′s BLP skins.

A hidden developer setting tells WC3 to first try loading assets from the Windows file structure instead of MPQ archives. Create a registry script (example name: AllowLocalFiles.reg), paste the following text inside, and run it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III] "Allow Local Files"=dword:00000001

With that setting in place, we can now override any BLP with a local file, so long as we match the directory structure and filename of the asset as it is found inside the MPQ.

Step 2: Overriding BLPs

We’ll use an approach of providing a “blank” asset as a replacement for those texture s used to draw menu UI.

First, create a transparent 1x1 pixel PNG in the image-editing program of your choice. Then, use BLP Lab to convert this to a BLP skin.

Finally, make several copies of this outputted BLP. Rename each to match one of WC3′s existing menu textures. For example, (paths are relative to your WC3 root directory):

UI\Widgets\Glues\GlueScreen-Button1-BackdropBorder.blp

UI\Widgets\EscMenu\Human\editbox-border.blp

If you launch Warcraft 3 at this point, you should notice some missing menu graphics.

Step 3: Overriding campaign strings

By editing a file called CampaignStrings.txt, we can make the text on WC3′s campaign menus disappear. Simply replace the header and name strings inside with blank strings. Interestingly I found the associated buttons were still clickable, but only within a tiny area.

Guess and check

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 as necessary until all UI elements either draw with “blank” textures, or offscreen altogether.

Consider that each menu screen has multiple states, and some of which have more complex UI that will be tricky to hide. Also consider that navigating menus with your mouse may become impossible as you gradually remove elements, so you’ll need to use hotkeys to get around.

Animated sprites

Some menu elements, like the chains and gears on the main menu, are seemingly hardware-accelerated 2D sprites. To override these we’ll need to override the relevant BLPs which found inside Textures rather than UI\Widgets.

Alternate camera angles

Some of WC3′s menu dioramas are designed to be viewed from multiple angles. For example, the main menus of RoC and TFT both transition skyward when players navigate to the Battle.net lobby.

To execute these animations, one can simply delete all sequences other than the desired one by using the Sequence Manager inside War3ModelEditor. Then, import the modified MDX file back into the MPQ archive.

Widescreen display

Although WC3′s “glue” dioramas were designed to be viewed in 4:3, we can nonetheless render them in 16:9, revealing the variously finished geometry at the edges. The easiest way to do this is the RenderEdge MIX file. 

We can also render widescreen menus through Warsmash. Just add the following to your active INI file:

FullScreenMenuBackdrop=1

Additionally, Retera added a UI toggle to menus, activated via Alt + Z. However I found this clashed with Nvidia Shadowplay's hotkey, so I changed it:

if ((character == 'f') && Gdx.input.isKeyPressed(Input.Keys.ALT_LEFT)) { .. }

Extracting sounds

Use the Sound Browser panel of WC3′s World Editor to export the desired assets. You can also use MPQ editor to do this - you’ll find a few files which World Editor doesn’t list e.g. MIDI sequenced ambient tracks.

[kerie-prince]

We’re Worlds Apart (1)

Draco Malfoy x American No-Maj/Muggle fem!reader

Post-Battle of Hogwarts

warnings: language

series m.list | general m.list

summary: Draco Malfoy is a pureblood wizard. Magic runs through his veins and has been since his birth. You're a Wiccan No-Maj; a non-magical being with ordinary blood through your veins, but practices what you call magick. And this very practice upsets your neighbor.

(gif cred)

"They want... me?"

Draco Malfoy sat across his supervisor in his office at St. Mungos. His eyes widened at the offer he was given.

"Well Mr. Malfoy, you've certainly shown us around here that you do well at your job. If I must say so myself, I believe you're ready for the job," his boss has explained. Draco had recently finished his Fellowship and became a remarkable Healer. So much so that the Santa Marie Hospital for Maj Persons in Buffalo, New York contacted his supervisor to offer him a position as Head Healer. It was an incredible opportunity, one that a person could only dream of.

Draco sat still in his chair, shocked that of all Healers from his department, Santa Marie wanted him. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco was determined to change the views people had of him. He was no longer the prejudice prat that he was at school. Draco Lucius Malfoy is now a matured, capable young man. He worked hard and was proud that he did everything on his own. No help from daddy dearest, no pressure of the Malfoy name. It was all him.

"I would love to take this job. When would I start?"

Draco finished filing his paperwork at the Ministry of Magic that was to be sent to the Magical Congress of the United States containing his work permit and all the necessary identification. Walking around London, he grew excited about it. It was a feeling he hadn't felt since he got his letter for Hogwarts.

The next thing he has left to do was to find housing. There was an office located in Diagon Alley that specialized in international real estate. Draco walked into the brightly lit office. Much to his surprise, Daphne Greengrass stood at the reception desk.

"Well, well. Long time no see, Malfoy," she said with a smile on her lips. He was quite relieved to see a familiar face. "Good to see you too, Daph. I'm checking in to see Ms. Moreau. I'm moving to America soon." Daphne was both shocked and impressed that Draco would be making such a big move. They chatted momentarily about the reason for him moving and she congratulated him. Soon enough, the real estate agent walked out and called Draco into her office.

She sat at her desk and gestured for him to take the seat opposite her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Malfoy."

"The feeling is mutual, Ms. Moreau," Draco had slightly bowed his head.

"Please, call me Gwen," she smiled as she reached to shake his hand, "I see from your paperwork that you're moving to America, correct?" he nodded his head in response. "Fantastic! Now, looking at the locations for Buffalo, we have quite a bit of selections from houses to flats. Of course, in America they're called 'apartments'. With your budget, you would be able to get this nice house that is just a 10 minute drive to the Apparition office to Santa Marie's." She showed Draco pictures of the house. It was quaint. An all white, one story house that had three bedrooms, a lifted porch, small kitchen, two bathrooms, trimmed green grass in front and a dark stained wooden fence that went around the house. Draco nearly fell in love with it. Its contrast to the Malfoy Manor was warm and inviting.

Gwen had shown him pictures of the other places she had gathered for him, but none of them peeked his interest as the first house did. It was quite silly as he thought about it. Most likely, he would be working long hours at the hospital to even be able to appreciate the home. It made more sense to get an apartment as he would most likely just use the space to sleep and eat. But the house was begging for him to live there. After about an hour long session, Draco made his final decision on the small house.

"Excellent choice, I had hoped you'd love it. Now, before I contact the sellers about your offer, I must let you know this before you sign anything," Draco shifted in his seat. Of course there had to be a catch. A house this perfect needed one thing to go wrong. Was it busted windows? A terrible neighborhood? Shitty pipelines? He nodded for her to continue.

"This is an integrated neighborhood. Both muggles and wizards live around and you might not know which are which for a while." Muggles. He sat in silence, staring down at the photos of the house. Did he really want a muggle neighbor? No, you're past this Draco thought. The old Draco wouldn't even give the place a second thought. But he wasn't him anymore. "I don't care. I'll take it."

—

You woke up in the morning, stretching your arms and legs out of the thick blanket. It was currently 8:47 am, your alarm clock beside you still had 13 minutes to alert you to wake up. Deciding to just get a head start on the day, you walked into the your bathroom and started your shower. The water was at the hottest you took and you went about your daily routine. You said your repeated incantations in the shower as you lathered yourself with soap:

Water, water, wash away. Water, water, cleanse today.

Walking out your shower, you grabbed your towel and recited the next spell as you dried yourself:

By the earth in the soap,

by the air in the steam,

by the fire that heats the water,

by the water that cleanses,

I am cleansed, clean, and ready for the day.

When you were 12 years old, you used to watch your grandmother perform Wicca in her bedroom. Your mother didn't particularly join in on the belief, but also didn't oppose to you starting alongside your grandmother when you turned 18. Now, you were almost 26 and still kept on the same practices.

On the contrary to people's interpretation or views of witchcraft, you called yourself a White Witch; someone who performs good magick upon selfless reasons. You never hexed anyone nor wished any ill fate. The Laws of Nature was surely watching at all times and if you did, expect to get the same fate but in threefold. Not that you even had any reason to do such things, anyways.

After getting ready, you grabbed your bag, keys — which held a protection charm — and went on your way to work. Your cat sat in her tower located in your living room and she watched you walk out. Getting into your car, you noticed movement next door. A big, moving truck was parked and a crew of movers carried furniture into the house. Finally, someone new you thought.

Feeling nosy, you sat patiently to figure out who it was moving next door. Was it a family? An elderly couple? Maybe newlyweds. Right when you were about to pull out of your driveway, a handsome blond stepped out of the house guiding the movers where things were going to be placed. You couldn't hear his voice, but could tell from the distance that it had to be attractive.

He looked around the street and caught you starting from your car. You hesitantly raised your hand to wave at him but was cut off by a man walking up to him with a clipboard gesturing where to sign. You looked at the time on your watch and nearly panicked at how the time passed, leaving you with only 15 minutes to get to work. Hauling ass, your car let a screech out as your foot punched the gas pedal. You'll be able to introduce yourself later, Y/N.

—

A few days passed and Draco was headed for the Apparition office to his new workplace. He had leased a new car to drive there. According to the Magical Congress, wizards and witches that lived in integrated neighborhoods must check in at Apparition offices to not raise suspicions from No-Maj. Seemed quite silly at first, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. He remembers the first time he went to Diagon Alley with his father through the Leaky Cauldron, finding it hidden with a wall that required taps against it. Behind it, a magical alley hidden from muggles.

He pulled into the office building lot with ease. It was clean on the outside and had a sign on top that only read MCA Co,. At the front door, there was a pin pad with numbers on it that kept it locked. Draco pulled the paper from his pocket and dialed the number. The door made a clicking noise which signaled that it was unlocked.

In the front was a young man sat at a reception desk typing away onto a computer. It was a strange sight for Draco as he's never seen one before. He walked up to the desk and waited for the person to acknowledge him.

"Hello, sir. Welcome to the Magical Congress' Apparition Office. May I see your ID pass, please?"!the accent was unfamiliar to Draco, but he nonetheless reached for the pass clipped to his trousers and gave it to the receptionist. He scanned the pass, handed it back to Draco and raised up from his chair to guide Draco to the door which had a direct line to the hospital. "Have a good day, sir!" were his last words before he went back to his desk.

Draco looked at the address once more before appariting into Santa Marie's. Here goes nothing.

—

It was a long day at the office. Setting up appointments with new clients, greeting all the new people he'd be working with, and a surprise welcome party to end it. Everyone he met had different variations of American accents. Some from Chicago, some from California, and some from the native state of New York.

A man by the name of Ian Parker helped Draco navigate around the building. Draco was quite relieved to hear that Ian had lived close by, just two blocks and a turn away. They had lunch together and talked about just simple things about each other. It felt nice to meet somebody and they not know who you are and things you've done in the past.

Once he got home, the first thing Draco did was start to run the shower, gathering his sleepwear as the water heated up. Not meaning to, Draco noticed how his bedroom window had perfect view of yours. To him, it was extremely odd.

You had faux vines that curled around your four-poster bed, a couple of plants that hung against the wall and posters of movies that Draco knows for a fact he's never seen in his life. You walked into your room and went up to a small drawer and dug through it. After a few seconds, you grabbed out some incense sticks, lit them and stood them on the stand that laid on your dresser. Afterwards, you sat on the floor with your legs crossed and started taking deep breaths.

Draco caught himself staring for too long and was about to head into the shower until he saw movement from the corner of his eye. There you sat, but this time, you held items in your hands. One held what Draco thought to be just some colorful rocks. The other hand held a bundle of herbs on fire at the tips. Your lips moved and it had Draco curious. Your hand with the herbs moved in a specific pattern, creating smoke around you. Once you finished, you set the rocks and herbs down at a table and left the room. That was odd. Draco thought. He passed it off and went on about his night.

—

"It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. And trust me when I say that Hogwarts has its fair shares of odd moments," Draco sat in the break room with Ian and two other people, Ashley and Blaine. They laughed at the description Draco had of you and settled after Ian began his explanation.

"It seems that your No-Maj neighbor is considered a Wiccan." What in Merlin's name is that?

"Pardon? What's do you mean?"

"It's what they call witchcraft," Ashley added, "it became a popular thing after the Salem Witch Trials. Of course, there's no real magic to it like what we can do, but they nonetheless believe it works."

Draco couldn't believe what he was hearing. Muggles are trying to be witches? This was probably the last thing he ever thought he would hear. Inside, a familiar feeling had ignited. A feeling he had, or he supposed still had, for a certain species. He didn't like it but to find out that what he is had become a fantasy to be was upsetting. He was born into this life, not them. Not you.

—

It had been a really nice day at work. People had been kind and you sold out of a new oil you made. As you entered your home, your cat ran up to your legs and purred against you. You smile down at her and made your way to prepare your dinners.

She nibbled away at her bowl and you watched in content.

Outside, you heard a car pulling in. It's probably him. You peaked out the window in the living room and your guess was correct. He stepped out of a black car and walked to his door. You tried catching his attention by waving your arms about, hoping he glanced your way. When he did, you waved excitedly to him.

He stared at you with a straight face, no hint of any feeling. It was odd, people usually like you and wave back but this guy was just looking at you. Not doing anything. You looked around to see if there was something behind you, only to look back and see that he was gone. Ooo...kay?

You grabbed your sweater and decided to introduce yourself to your new neighbor. It had been almost a week and it seemed that he still hadn't acquainted himself to anyone on the street. The cool, spring breeze sent a pleasant chill down your spine as you walked on the sidewalk.

Once you stepped in front his door, you knocked three times. No answer. Three more times. No answer. The lights that were on had turned off and curtains had been shut in almost a blink of an eye. He had made it clear that he was not in a mood to talk to anyone. It slightly hurt your feelings, but you told yourself to not dwell on it. He's just tired from work. Just then, an idea popped in your mind as you headed back home.

—

"Stupid fucking muggle clock," Draco cursed as he was running around his bedroom getting dressed. He overslept by an hour and had 10 minutes to be in the Apparition office to go to work. Damn American laws.

He grabbed an apple, not his usual sour green one but a sweet red one this time, grabbed his bag and ran for the front door. Something taped to the door caught his attention and he halted his movements. It seemed to have been a note someone left. He unfolded the paper and read it to himself;

Hello! My name's Y/N and I wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood! I hope we can become good friends~ if there's anything you need or if you'd ever like to get acquainted over coffee, please feel free to knock on my door! It'd be nice to get to know you :)

At the bottom of the note was a small drawing of a witches pointed hat and Draco immediately knew who left the note. Almost on instinct, the note caught on fire in his hands and the ashes fell to the ground. He dusted his hand off and went to work. As if we would ever become friends.

—

next chp

taglist: @beiahadid @malfoy-styles-wife @fivenightslaughter

[osvaldrps-archived]

how can I get my Photoshop settings back if I have to reinstall the program?

Hey y’all !  Did you know that you can save your Photoshop settings to use them after reinstalling your program if you don’t have Creative Cloud or Sync Settings is turned off, or when you're going to install Photoshop on your second computer and want to have the same workspace, custom keyboard shortcuts, styles, actions, etc.?

All you need to do is (before you uninstall the program) find the Photoshop Settings folder, copy it somewhere (e.g. on your Desktop) and then (after reinstallation) paste the folder to the exact same place.

for Windows users it’s stored here:

C: > Users > [your username] > AppData > Roaming > Adobe > Adobe Photoshop [version] > Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

e.g. on my computer: C:\Users\Osvald\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2020\Adobe Photoshop 2020 Settings

* If you don’t see the AppData folder in your username folder, it's because usually AppData is hidden. To show it, follow the instruction below.

Windows 10:

In the search box on the taskbar type “Folder”, then select Show hidden files and folders from the search results. Under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and click OK.

Windows 8.1 

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then select Search (or if you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then select Search). Type “Folder” in the search box, then select Folder Options from the search results. Select the View tab. Under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then click OK.

Windows 7

Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization. Select Folder Options, then select the View tab. Under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then click OK.

for MacOS users:

Users > [your username] > Library > Preferences > Adobe Photoshop [version] Settings

* Library is also a hidden folder, so to access it, in the Finder choose Go > Go to Folder. In the Go to Folder dialog box type ~/Library and click Go.

[whats-rambled-rambled]

Smoke & Mirrors - part 4

Neil x Reader

Chapter 4: Save me

(see chapter 3, 2, 1)

summary: what’s gonna happen if we lock them together for some time...?

warnings: some violence, language and other explicit things, 18+ 

author’s note: 4,8k words, just because I thought I needed to add more plot to it because you wanted 2 shorter chapters instead of a longer one. Who’s laughing now? 

Reading this may cause a slight whiplash. Sorry, not sorry. 

song for this chapter: Aimee Mann - Save me 

Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think, please?

----

The Protagonist’s eyes darted at Ives. 

“And what did she say?”

“Short answer? Nunya,” Ives shrugged, closing the door behind him.

Wheeler giggled and TP looked at her in confusion.

“Long answer,” continued Ives, joining the other two by the coffee machine, “is that as long as they're doing their job, it doesn’t matter who they are fucking in their free time.”

“And are they?”

“What, fucking? I thought we’ve already--”

“No, doing their job,” TP pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I have a mission for them, but it requires locking them together for a significant amount of time.”

Wheeler took a sip from her cup. “If they don’t bond, they’ll bone, and I’d say it’s better than killing each other.”

Ives snorted, clearly amused, but TP hid his face in his palms and groaned lightly.

“Was that your plan all along?”

Wheeler gave them an innocent smile. “Wasn’t yours?” she asked, and as she caught the exchange of looks, her eyes lit up. “You’re welcome.”

-----

You found the car parked near the front door and you had to admit - that grey-ish sedan was the dullest, most ordinary vehicle you’d seen in a while. And that’s why it was perfect.

Neil tossed you the keys and proceeded to load your bags into the trunk. You went to check the GPS setting. The total route was calculated for a little over 5 hours, which gave you enough time to go over the details of the assignment at least once on the way there.

As your mission partner took the passenger seat, you handed him the tablet with all the documents loaded up and ready to go. He nodded, fortunately sparing you the small talk and unnecessary comments, and started reading through them out loud as you followed the GPS directions to your destination.

What you didn’t expect was an almost insultingly short length of reports from the previous stakeout teams, and even a slightly more detailed operation brief was not enough to keep you occupied for too long. Exhausting all the work-related topics, you tensed, suddenly uncomfortable in the silence between the two of you. Especially since you caught Neil’s stare, because if his furrowed brows could be any indication, you had a feeling he might start asking way too many questions any minute now. 

As the radio crackled again, you groaned in frustration. There were still two hours left of traveling through the middle of nowhere, and you’d appreciate any distraction that wouldn’t make you want to drive into the nearest tree. Unlike talking to your partner. 

Neil opened the glove compartment and searched through its contents. He found a thick CD case and started flipping through pages curiously. With the corner of your eye, you saw a grin lighting his face when he finally picked one. 

As you heard the familiar piano notes, your knuckles on the steering wheel turned white. Oh, fuck no.

You glared at Neil, who was gently swaying his head, eyes closed, fighting himself to keep a straight face. When the lyrics started, he pressed his palms to his chest right over his heart and looked at you as he mouthed the words.

//When I was young

I never needed anyone

And making love was just for fun

Those days are gone//

You gritted your teeth and focused back on the road, trying to keep in check the rising anger already boiling the blood in your veins, as Neil was clearly feeling the song more and more with every line.

Well, at least this time he wasn’t--...

And then just as the chorus was about to hit, Neil mimicked the opening drum sequence and spread his arms wide, singing along:

//All by myself

Don't wanna be

All by myself

Anymore//

“If you don’t change that fucking song in the next 10 seconds, be ready to walk all the way to the city--...”

“Come on, it’s a classic!” he complained, the biggest smile not leaving his face even for a moment.

You smacked your tongue, finding your most casual voice, “...and I’m not gonna be bothered with pulling over.”

Neil turned down the volume so the music was barely audible, and while it was not what you’d asked him to do, he didn’t give you a chance to scold him. 

“I bet you’ve spent at least one evening listening to that song with a big box of ice cream on your lap,” he smirked, closely watching your reaction to his words.

You could feel your ears burning. Fucking hell, you really hated his guts.

“No,” you scoffed, but even you were not convinced by the sound of that. Judging by Neil’s expression, neither was he. You winced and groaned, ”...shut up!” 

“Nothing to be ashamed of,” - he shrugged - “been there, done that.” 

“Of course you have,” you couldn’t help but snicker at the image planted in your head. 

The blue eyes studied you for a while longer before focusing back at the view outside the window. Meanwhile, the song ended, getting replaced by an instrumental track. You turned the volume up and for the next minute or two, you drove in silence. 

When you heard a light chuckle, you glanced at Neil again. There was something peculiar in the look on his face, a soft gaze in contrast to a knowing grin.

You sighed.

“Do I wanna know what you’re grinning about now?”

Neil raised a brow and his lips parted in an even wider smile.

“Probably not.”

You shook your head, drawing a long breath, wondering how you were going to survive the next forty-something hours together. You could just hope that being at the actual location and starting the real work was going to make it easier. 

Grounding yourself, you stared into the darkness stepping back under the car’s headlights as dusk slowly turned into night. You noticed a faint glow of city lights reflecting in the clouds over the horizon and you relaxed slowly, tuning out anything other than the road ahead. 

Just as the CD player jumped back to the first song again and you switched to a local radio station, now clear of static, you realized your companion had been unusually quiet for the last half an hour. You looked at the passenger seat only to find Neil deep in his sleep and your heart started beating a little faster. Suddenly, everything about the sight seemed endearing - the peaceful face under the ruffled blonde hair, the slightly open mouth almost hidden behind the turned-up collar of the dark navy jacket, the way he wrapped his arms around himself in a little self-hug…

Your lips curled into a fond smile and as your chest clenched painfully, you turned the radio down, wishing you could do the same thing to your feelings just as easily.

-----------

The second you pulled over in the alley at the back of the abandoned hotel, two figures emerged from the door and rushed in your direction. You recognized the fellow agents and jumped out of the car to make the exchange as smooth as possible. 

“Ten-minute window until the patrol comes back,” you said to a short brunette, taking your bags out of the trunk and passing her the car keys.

“Got it,” she nodded, handing you the room key in return. “Our report should be ready before we reach HQ, I will send it to you ASAP.” 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that the lack of an easy escape plan is intentional,” said Neil as he grabbed one of the bags and looked around.

“But it is,” you shrugged, walking into the building and heading to the nearest staircase. “No loose ends. You’re either good enough to make it out undiscovered and alive, or you get revealed and --...”

“...and then even having the cavalry on call is not going to make a difference, I get it,’ he sighed, matching your two-steps-at-once pace up the stairs, “Can’t say I like it, though.” 

“So let’s try not to do anything stupid so we don’t get caught, shall we?”

A corner of your lips twitched as you heard him scoff at your remark, but to your surprise, he didn’t take the bait. Huh.

When you reached the room, you turned the lock and looked around, taking mental note of the location of every piece of equipment left by the previous team - two cameras, night vision binoculars, and a parabolic microphone placed by the windows. Some parts of the blinds on the windows were broken, others were missing, but the remaining parts still provided a decent cover from the curious eyes peeking up from street level. Other than that, the room was exactly what you would expect from a stakeout location - peeled-off wallpapers of an undefined color, a small table with an electric kettle, a couple of chairs, a mini-fridge, and a mattress. 

As you went to check the last few minutes registered by the camera, Neil started unpacking the supplies. Seeing nothing interesting on the feed, you grabbed one of the water bottles he’d just put on the table and took a seat by the window, your usual first-hour-of-stakeout enthusiasm fending off the tiredness you felt after the long drive.

Neil took a laptop and sat on a chair at the other window, alternating glancing outside and typing in a message to TP with a quick update on your situation.

Your main objective was to observe the building on the other side of the street, especially one loft that was suspected to be a meeting place for one of the smuggling cells’ bosses. Snapping photos of the vehicles pulling over, of the visitors, and reporting any odd activity straight ahead. The usual. But it was past midnight already and your targets were having a pretty quiet night, apparently. 

As Neil finished filing in the paperwork, he stretched his arms and groaned.

“Tea?”

You rubbed your eyes, a sudden wave of sleepiness flooded your brain as soon as you lost focus on the mission. 

“Yes, please, there should be a box with a green one somewhere.”

“Ah, pity, I don’t know how well it’s gonna mix with the biscuits,” said Neil in a ridiculous posh accent, making you facepalm in response. 

Partially, to hide an amused smile. 

You really were that tired, huh?

“I take my tea with no sugar, no biscuits, and no snarky comments, thanks,” you huffed as your eyes followed him to the table.

“I, too, don’t like talking over a cuppa.”

“What did I just say--” you groaned, smacking your thigh in frustration.

Neil giggled and rolled his eyes, now lit by a playful twinkle. “All right, one ‘green tea no bullshit’ coming right up.”

“Thank you,” you sighed, glancing up to the ceiling as if it was supposed to help with the alarming level of annoyance in your system.

Less than two hours on-site and you already wanted to strangle him. 

Among other things.

And before you could stop your tired brain, it brought up a memory of that karaoke night. 

His hands roaming through your body. The sound of a belt buckle hitting the floor. Your frantic gasp when you felt him inside you. His firm grip on your hips. The heart racing in your chest. Your longing body pressing itself into him even further. His uneven breath on your neck. The quickening pace of his thrusts. Your eyes squeezing shut. His muffled moan when you tugged at his hair. The cold wall against your cheek. Your fingers interlocked. His arm wrapped around you tightly. The things whispered into your ear---

“Your tea.”

“Hmm?” you mumbled, blinking rapidly and focusing your gaze on a thermal cup in front of your face. “Oh, thanks.”

Neil studied your expression curiously, a sly grin hiding in the corner of his mouth.

“Pleasant daydream?”

“Maybe,” you sent him a smug smile and raised a brow.

His lips parted slightly at the implication. Drinking his tea, he schooled his features and sat back on the chair. 

You spent the next moments enjoying the hot beverages, the silence becoming more comfortable with every sip you took. But as the time went by and you ran out of tea, the peacefulness turned into boredom. 

Finally, Neil shuffled in his seat and turned your way. 

"We should play a game."

Even though it sounded tempting, you didn’t trust those roguish sparks in his eyes. 

“We already had a chance to play ‘yellow car’,” - you shrugged - “not my fault you chose a nap instead.”

His puzzled face gave you a hint he didn’t get the reference. Pity.

“I was thinking about some sort of...questions game,” he said and cleared his throat, shifting in his chair again. "To get to know each other better."

"Why?" you stared at him with your mouth open, suddenly taken aback. 

He gave you a half-smile. "Don't you think it's weird that the only thing I know about you is all the ways to turn you on and piss you off?"

"Wouldn't be so confident about that ‘all’ part…" you huffed and lost a train of thought as you spotted the familiar flare in his gaze.

"You’re sure you wanna challenge me like that right now?"

A cold shiver ran down your spine at the way his voice got lower. You gritted your teeth as your mind started racing to find a way out of the dangerous waters. 

"Aren't you a master of multitasking?" you teased, batting your eyelashes.

"And aren't you scared of having an actual conversation?" Neil narrowed his eyes and grimaced slightly. 

"Fine!” you fumed as you tossed your hands in the air in defeat. “Why don’t you get straight to the point because I have a weird feeling you have a very specific question in mind."

A silence that dropped after your words was heavy and you realized you’d made a mistake.

"Actually, I do,” he said, tilting his head and locking his gaze on you. “What's up with you and kissing?"

...shit, walked right into that one, huh? 

You pulled one leg up on the chair, glancing outside the window to avoid the blue eyes boring into you. "It's nothing."

“Didn’t look like nothing to me.”

Sighing, you rested the chin on your knee and wrapped your arms around it, as if that little bit of comfort was enough to make the conversation easier. Your ears were burning, your heart pounded heavily in the clenched chest, and it all was only adding to your frustration. Because it really was nothing. Or maybe it should have been, and that was the issue.

“If you don’t wanna talk about it--”

Your eyes darted at Neil only to meet his soft look. A shadow of concern on his face wasn’t helping, but you were grateful that he was willing to give you a way out.

Although at that moment, you felt you owed him an explanation. 

“No, it’s just that it’s a bit silly,” you said, wincing. “I’m gonna tell you, but if you laugh, I will murder you in your sleep.”

Neil smiled lightly in encouragement.

“Got it.”

So you took a deep breath and squeezed the first word past the lump in your throat.

“It’s just that kissing to me was always something… special,” you cringed, fully aware that you sounded like a flustered teenager. “Like it really meant something. Do you know where I’m going with this?”

Neil’s brows knitted together.

“I think so, yeah.”

“Good,” you sighed, forcing yourself to breathe again. “And some time ago, I made a mistake and opened up too soon, burning myself. Fuck, it’s pathetic, I know, I just…” you hesitated and looked away, feeling the rising panic. You were exposing yourself, again. “...maybe I’m just wired that way and we should leave it at that. And never talk about it again,” your voice was hollow, the result of your brain’s desperate attempts to keep your emotions bottled up, just to keep you safe. 

And after what felt like forever--

“Okay.”

You shot him a thankful look, too overwhelmed to say anything. 

Neil got up, moving his shoulders in small circles to get rid of the stiffness. As he walked by you on his way to the bathroom, he patted your arm lightly. Reassuringly. The tip of your nose tingled and you bit the inside of your cheek, cursing a sudden wave of softness clouding your mind.  

A few minutes passed and Neil was back. He fell on the chair heavily, slowly massaging his temples with the tips of his fingers. Catching a question in your stare, he shook his head and grinned.

“What?” you asked, squinting suspiciously.

Neil chuckled, leaning back and spreading his legs. “Trying to figure you out is giving me a headache.”

You rolled your eyes and scoffed, focusing on the view outside the window. 

“Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two different things, you know.”

“So it’s all an act?”

You looked back at him, suddenly perplexed. “What is?”

“This,” he gestured vaguely in your direction and shrugged. “Or rather your usual behavior.”

You snorted. “Oh, I am a real ray of sunshine, but somehow being around you makes my inner bitch jump out,” you teased, meeting his amused gaze. A corner of your lips curled and you exhaled slowly. “I don’t know, after some time you learn life is easier that way, and at one point the line blurs,” you stopped for a second and frowned, wondering what had gotten into you tonight. “Does it make any sense to you?”

Something new tainted Neil’s features as he looked away, smiling sadly.

“You have no idea.”

Just as you opened your mouth to ask what was wrong, the blue eyes darted back at you.

“I’ll take the first shift, already had my nap after all,” the little laugh escaping his mouth felt forced. “You must be exhausted. Try to get some sleep.”

Oh you were exhausted, all right. But all of the sudden it felt as if he wanted to get rid of you and you couldn’t help feeling a bit hurt by that. There was something in his presence that gave you a hint that it wasn’t the best idea to pressure him about it now, and you slumped your shoulders, nodding.

“Thank you,” you said quietly, getting up. All that held-back fatigue was going to hit you in full force any minute now, and you really wanted to be laid down by then.

A few moments in the bathroom and you were back in the room again in more comfortable clothes. You rolled out a sleeping bag on the mattress and slipped into it, covering your mouth as you let out a small yawn. 

“Wake me up if anything happens or you need me to take over, will you?”

Neil shot you a quick look from his chair. 

“Sure thing,” he gave you a weak smile. “Goodnight.”

“‘Night,” you mumbled. 

You curled up and closed your eyes, hoping the heaviness you felt in your chest would be gone by the morning.

--------

It took your still half-asleep brain a moment to remember where you were and what was going on. You looked around as much as you could without moving your body to avoid revealing that you were no longer asleep. Oh right, the stakeout. 

You noticed Neil sitting on the floor by the only floor-to-ceiling window near the corner of the room, looking outside. The early morning light seeping through the blinds was reflecting in the disheveled blonde hair, a fitting addition to his overall tired appearance. It seemed like he’d spent most of the night working through whatever bothered him after your last talk, but he seemed more at peace now. You studied him in a little moment of sleep-deprived self-indulgence, musing over the dark quarter zip pullover, those absurdly long legs in khaki pants--...

Okay, enough. You sat up, rubbing your face.

“How’s the mattress?”

Hearing Neil’s raspy voice made you quite tempted to invite him over to check for himself.

“Passable,” you replied instead, stretching your arms and wriggling out of your sleeping bag. You nodded at the cameras. “Anything?” 

“Not really. One visitor, already on the list,” he said as his eyes followed you around the room.

“All right,” you sighed, flipping the switch on the kettle. “I need coffee, you want some?”

“No, thank you, but if you could pass me a bottle of water--”

You grabbed one and tossed it to him, heading to the bathroom. 

When you finally looked and felt like a decent human being again, you went back to finish making coffee. As you walked to the windows with the thermal cup in your hands, you caught Neil’s resigned stare. You sat down on the floor in front of him, leaning your shoulder against the wall. A glimpse of internal battle clouded his features and you tilted your head, waiting for him to speak up first.

“I didn’t want this,” he blurted out, and when nothing else followed the statement, you cleared your throat. 

“You have to be more specific, I’m afraid.”

Neil clenched his jaw. You noticed a hint of frustration in his eyes, but then his shoulders dropped and he let out a nervous chuckle, fastening his gaze on the view outside the window.

“I wanted to do things by the book. When TP recruited me… I thought I’d be just another field agent and I was okay with that,” he sighed and grimaced. “But he insisted on fast-tracking me, even when I told him it wasn’t fair to the rest of you.” Neil shook his head slowly and a corner of his lips twitched. “He promised me one of his best agents’ help on the way though. Imagine my surprise when the agent in question kept snarling at me and shoving me around instead.” 

When Neil looked back at you, you realized the meaning behind his words and your mind went blank. You stared into the blue eyes with your mouth open, trying to process everything you’d just heard and its implications.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you breathed out, feeling light-headed.

“Why?”

“Nobody told you…?” you asked, but his confused expression was his only answer. And you simply couldn’t believe that he hadn’t known all this time. “I’d been working my ass off for that position,” you huffed, studying his reaction to your words closely. “And then you showed up.”

Neil’s face dropped as he finally connected all the dots. “Fuck...I had no idea, I’m sorry.” 

Seeing his sincere look, you sighed, raking fingers through your hair. Fucking hell, what a mess. The impossible mix of emotions swirled inside you and you giggled hysterically, suddenly finding the whole situation absolutely hilarious. 

“And I had no idea I was supposed to babysit you,” you said as you stretched your legs, positioning them alongside Neil’s. 

“Thought we were having a moment here,” he scoffed, smiling lightly.

You smirked and tapped his thigh with your foot.

“Think again.”

Neil tapped you back, stifling a chuckle. “You’re insufferable.”

“Too bad you can’t do anything about that now, huh,” you teased, wiggling your brows as you nibbled at your bottom lip.

The blue eyes lit up. “Just you wait till we finish the job,” he said slowly and placed a hand on your ankle.

But before you could respond, you heard a phone alert and Neil jumped at his feet.

He read the message quickly. 

“Seems like we are about to see some action after all,” he said, pressing the phone to his ear. You downed your coffee and joined Neil by the table.

“Hold on, I’m gonna put you on speaker… okay, now”

“Hope you two are rested,” TP’s voice filled the room. “We intercepted a phone call. Our target is expecting a delivery in the next hour or so. Significant enough that from this moment on, the mission objective changes.” You exchanged looks with Neil, knowing well what was coming next. You walked back to the windows to keep an eye on the street. “We have a chance to prevent this shipment from spreading to different sellers. I’m sending the cavalry your way. But you’ll need to assess the situation as it progresses.”

“Means we might have to engage early, got it.”

“It’s your call, Neil. And as we have enough intel now… no loose ends. Good luck.” said TP and hung up.

Neil tossed the phone on the table and dashed to the bags to prep the equipment. You noticed movement in the loft across the street and snapped a few pictures before looking back at your partner.

“Are you good to go? You haven’t slept tonight.”

He glanced at you and gave you a smug smile. 

“How nice of you to worry about me.”

You could feel the usual annoyance mixed with a new emotion, but maybe you were just glad to be back on familiar waters.

“Nah, I’m worried about the mission,” you snorted. “Especially if we may end up going in there alone.”

“I’m okay. How does it look out there?”

You looked outside again and tensed as a van appeared at the end of the street. “We’ve got company.”

Neil changed you by the window and you rushed to get ready.

-------

After clearing the back entrance, you found yourselves in the underground garage. 

Splitting up, you took down the guards one by one without raising any alarms. 

Neil checked the van and then you both made your way upstairs. You knew there were at least five more people in the loft, but you had to rely on the element of surprise because the cavalry was still on their way. 

As you got to the door, you cocked your pistol and met Neil’s determined stare. You nodded. 

Bursting through the door, your instincts kicked in, allowing you to put a bullet into two men before they had a chance to realize what was going on. In the next second all hell broke loose. You knew one thing - you somehow underestimated the numbers. And just as you thought that maybe you got lucky and got every last of them, someone grabbed you from behind and you felt something cold and sharp pressed against your neck. Fuck.

You dug your fingers into the arm wrapped around your shoulders, but a stinging pain made you stop any further attempts at breaking free. The blood pounded in your ears and everything seemed to slow down. 

You noticed Neil standing in front of you with a gun pointed right next to your head. 

He secured a grip on his pistol and the man holding you yelled something at him, but you didn’t listen, focusing completely on the blue eyes, now filled with a silent question, looking straight into yours.

You let out a shaky breath and blinked slowly. 

A gunshot echoed through the room.

The pressure on your neck lowered and you heard a thud of a body fitting the floor behind you. 

Neil lowered his gun. 

You stared at each other for what seemed like forever.

“Nice shot,” you said, composing yourself first.

He gave you a weak smile, and just as he opened his mouth to say something, your comms filled with a familiar voice.

“We’ve missed all the fun, eh?”

------

Neither of you said anything on the way back to the HQ, not counting the short answers to the questions asked by Ives, but even he gave up after a while seeing you weren’t in the mood for talking.  

You got your duffel bag out of the trunk and looked around. Neil was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the building, talking on the phone. You walked up to him slowly, waiting for him to finish the conversation.

“Do they need us to get in to file a report?” 

“No, I convinced TP to give us the rest of the day off,” he said, hiding the phone in the pocket of his jacket. “We can do that first thing tomorrow, I’m just gonna drop the equipment now.”

“Great, thanks.”

You couldn’t wait to get back to your apartment. You tossed the bag on your arm and smiled at the thought of a long hot shower and crashing in your own bed. 

There was just one thing you needed to do first.

Neil took a step towards the building and without thinking too much about it, you reached out for his hand.

“Neil…?”

He stopped and turned around, puzzled. His eyes dropped to your joined hands and slowly moved up to your face. 

You gave him a nervous smile.

“Thank you.”

His features softened and he squeezed your hand gently.

“Don’t mention it.”

And then he smirked.

...of course.

“Guess that makes us even.”

(next chapter->)

[timextoxhajima]

HOSTIS, Chapter II: Antiquum Fabulum, The Old Story

Previous Chapter (I: Primi Foederis)

Member: Lee Hyunjae (tbz)

Genre (by chapter): angst, drama, comedy 

Category: Short Novel/ Long Series

“you’re the reason why I will never know who to trust anymore.”

~~~~~~ 10 YEARS AGO ~~~~~~

one of your legs were perched atop the seat your butt was planted on, and the students trudging past couldn’t help but steal little glances at you. if your parents were out here right now, they’d be pulling your right knee away from your chest, telling you to ‘sit properly’. 

just because you were wearing a skirt doesn’t mean you had to sit like you were at some formal event; your defense was always the extra layer of shorts you wore underneath. 

but your parents weren’t next to you, and if there wasn’t a camera mounted into the wall right opposite you, you would’ve ran your fingers into lee hyunjae’s eyes by now.

he was sitting in the same row as you with one empty seat in the middle, his hair was in a mess and he was busy redoing his tie.

yeah, the one you yanked loose. 

the clean, ash-brown locks of your mother’s hair were bobbing up and down that particular grill of the window that was blocking your view of her face, but your father. who was easily a head taller than her, had a look of almost... astonishment, while the principal filled them in with the details. 

lee hyunjae’s mother was in there somewhere too, but thanks to the useless posters that the principal had plastered to the window facing outwards, it saved you the pain of seeing her. 

but you couldn’t stop a smug scoff from exiting your nostrils when you looked yourself in the mirror, completely unscathed while lee hyunjae looked like he just got out of a dog fight. if you were a boy, there would be absolutely nothing to stop him from getting into a brawl with you.  

though you did hurl some of lee hyunjae’s stationery out the classroom window and yanked on his tie and pulled his hair, it’s not like he didn’t break your water bottle and scribbled all over your worksheets which you spent so much time on. 

the funny thing about this whole sticky situation the both of you were in, was that you were sure that nothing was going to happen to you. 

or lee hyunjae for that matter.

not only were the two of you the top students in the class, both your parents were working jobs of elite professions. it was the ugly reality that helped you realise how much of a sucker the school was for parents who were doctors and lawyers or rich people. 

you came from a long line of medical practitioners, and as far as you were aware, lee hyunjae’s father owned some insurance company and his mother had the luxury of sitting around at home.

the commotion in the room dies down, and you notice the oily, greasy hair of your principal float towards the door. it swings open, and you hear all three parents apologise to the principal. 

the look of tolerance and patience the principal had on his face disgusted you, because you knew that if it were any other student besides you or the one you just tried to kill, he would’ve immediately sent them to detention or gave them a suspension notice.

long story short, you were well aware that you were safe from any punishment only because your parents were important beneficiaries to the school.

his mother looks at you with a mixture of confusion and apology; she’d be pissed with her son for destroying your work, but you did inflict some kind of physical pain on her little, baby boy. 

“y/n,” the stern, but familiar voice calls out to you, and your leg immediately drops to the floor, hands patting down your skirt as you got off the seat. “apologise to him.”

without needing a mirror or a reflection for you to see your own facial expression, you already knew that your face was contorted with extreme dissatisfaction and pure pettiness. 

all you could think of was how grateful your parents should be that their slightly rebellious thirteen-year-old hasn’t killed this son of a--

“apologise, y/n.”

his mother gives lee hyunjae a little push as well, face printed with a small frown as she nods her apologetic head to your parents.

the hell are they apologising to each other for?

“i’m sorry i broke your bottle and drew on your worksheets.”

if your body could produce steam and heat and have it pushed out through all the holes in your head and face, you would’ve looked like the polar express. there was a disgustingly fake look of remorse on lee hyunjae’s face, and you would’ve retched right there and then just to tell him it took one fakeass to know another.

but not with your parents around you couldn’t.

“hyunjae’s already apologised, don’t you think you should too?” 

your father chimes in, and he looks at you with soft eyes you knew you couldn’t resist. he was the parent who always came to rescue you from the scary one after all. 

angrily shoving your two rows of teeth against each other and avoiding eye contact with lee hyunjae, you let the words roll off your tongue with complete zero weight of sincerity. 

your mother opens her mouth to protest against your lack of respect, but your father holds her back from aggravating the situation.  

from that day on, you and lee hyunjae were nicknamed ‘ares and ares’; two of the same kind who will never get along.

initially, you thought ‘athena and ares’ would’ve been a more suitable nickname, but athena was loved and ares was hated. 

despite you knowing for yourself that you would’ve totally claimed the ‘athena’ role, it was nauseatingly difficult to pretend that lee hyunjae didn’t constantly have love letters hidden under his desk before school started. 

though the name bestowed upon you, by literally tens and you dare say, hundreds of students in your school, was pretty cool, the idea of being placed into the same phrase and being associated with him in any little way was adequate to make you wish you were born in another era. 

you spend the next four years of school living up to the name of ‘ares and ares’. every year, lee hyunjae found a way to piss you off, and it started becoming an effortless game of ping pong. 

if he pissed you off, then there was no way you were going to let him go without pissing him off. 

by the time the both of you were seniors, students who you didn’t even know existed were betting on who would emerge as the top student after national exams.

it wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that the school population was just treating the two of you as a source of entertainment when your scores for the national exam were tied. 

the fight you had with your mother over which school to apply to after your primary school national exams was astronomical.

while you were genuinely losing brain cells worrying about a game you were playing in your own head, your mother had completely no idea how much you didn’t want to be in the same school as lucifer. 

all you could think of was: 

what if he’s thinking the same thing as you and applies to the second best school in the area?

what if the both of you got into the second best school because the two of you had the same mindset?

even if you applied to the top school, thinking that he’d apply to the second best school, he might still end up in the top school with y--

“y/n! does it really matter if you’re in the same school as him? isn’t the most important thing yourself?” your mother preaches while she runs through her patient files. the same type of files that’s kept both her and your father away from you for so long. 

sometimes you wish they weren’t doctors so they could be more aware of your life, and in this case, more aware of the hatred you harboured against lee hyunjae.

“and i’m doing this important thing for myself so that i don’t end up in the same school as him,” you snap back without thinking much, your fingers dragging across the keys on the laptop.

apparently your tone was “too rude” for your mother to tolerate, and it took her two weeks to talk to you again. 

frustrating, but you couldn’t be bothered less, and it was honestly pretty funny. 

but that fun didn’t last for long. 

~~~~~~ 6 YEARS AGO ~~~~~~

“you have to be shitting me.”

not only was he your classmate, he was taking the exact same combination of subjects as you, which meant you’d be seeing him in every class, every day, for the next two years before you graduate and go to university. 

all that mind-fuckey reverse psychology i was worried about when applying for school did absolutely nothing. 

you would’ve tried to outdo the look of disgust and agony that was cemented into lee hyunjae’s face every time he saw you, but that would’ve just been too petty and you decided it wasn’t worth your time. 

after awhile, and by awhile you mean nearly a year, your mind started to wander off ares and your attention begun to gravitate to other men worth your time and attention. 

lucky for you -- though you couldn’t care less -- so did hyunjae. 

so why did he decide that messing with your experiment equipment was such a great idea? you may never know. 

you were settled with the idea that he was just a sore loser merged with ares’ desire to win.

the rage and fury that you tried with the strength of every single cell in your body to contain it was not enough. not when your chemicals began blowing up and spitting itself all over your workspace during a graded test. 

you knew exactly who would’ve done this. 

you remember pulling lee hyunjae off his own girlfriend in the hallways of the school right after the test, and his collar gets crumpled in your fists as you shove him against the lockers. 

his girlfriend was such a wuss, she didn’t move a muscle when she saw the way you violently locked him against the metal doors. 

students pulled out cellphones and started to crowd around, watching you seethe anger and drill almost murderous glares into lee hyunjae’s face. 

the beauty of being surrounded by a bunch of 17-year-olds who were thirsty for drama was that nobody would’ve been dumb enough to run off and looked for a teacher, and you didn’t need to worry about getting into trouble. 

not when the school had ‘so much trust in their elite students’.

“you’re a fucking asshole, you know that? did you do it only because you didn’t want me to beat you?” by investing all your body weight into pressing his neck against the lockers behind him, he would require more than a comfortable amount of energy to remove you off him. “how big of a pussy do you have to be to tamper with my shit just so you can secure your own grades?”

the veins on your hands were on the verge of bursting through your skin, and you could feel your face reddening with dangerous amounts of wrath and resentment. 

lee hyunjae’s chin was tilted upwards, giving himself enough space to breathe with your knuckles digging into the skin of his neck, and a vein exposes itself on his forehead where his temples were tightened.

he breaks out into an arrogant sound, and his words leave his lips like little stabs in the chest. 

“you have no proof that i did it, do you? what makes you think that confronting me like this is going to do any good?” 

you suck in a deep breath so hard, your chest began to ache. the grip on the collar of his shirt tightens, and the anger fuels you with enough energy to pull him away from the lockers and slam him back against it, the impact of his body against the hardness echoing throughout the halls. 

“you want to talk proof?” the strained grit between your jaws were replaced with a smirk. 

lee hyunjae reads you easily, not that you were trying to hide it, and you could see a small pang of fear start to glimmer in his eyes.

“i’ll show you proof.”

releasing him and pulling your phone out your pocket, and find that one special picture you had of him in your gallery, and you hand it to his girlfriend without saying a word. 

your eyes dig into his as he starts to pick up on the situation, and you soon start to hear his whiny, pathetic girlfriend start to weep and sob. 

you take a step back and pull the phone out from her grip as he rushes to her and begins defending himself. the overwhelming sensation of satisfaction pulls your lips further up your cheeks into a wide smile, and you were nearly on the verge of bursting into loud, maniacal laughter when his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend, shoves him off her and runs away in the opposite direction.

the crowd no longer had their phones in the air because it took you to cause a break up for them to decide that the situation has become private. now, everybody was shooting harsh, disapproving glances at lee hyunjae for not only tampering with your experiment equipment, but being caught cheating on his own girlfriend. 

your chin tilts upwards, arrogance spilling out every single pore on your skin and pooling around your feet in complete content. lee hyunjae calls out for his girlfriend, but the silence tells you that you’ve won this round. 

“you--” he grabs your arm and nearly throws you into the lockers, but you lock your feet into the ground, and his rough, hard pants hit your cheek, not doing much besides add on to your ego. “you are the reason why i will never know who to trust anymore.”

a loud scoff hits the ceiling from your throat, and backing down wasn’t an option for you. not when you’re an ares, to his ares.

“you should keep your own credibility in check first before you talk about trust.”

lee hyunjae grits his teeth so hard, his glare was somehow becoming coated with a layer of wetness. he shoves you off, turning on his heels and storming off with clenched fists. 

but where ares triumphs, ares will always be humiliated, or so the myths and the greek legends describe his downfall.

it doesn’t take you long to notice all the looks of disgust students were shooting you as you strode towards your boyfriend in the classroom. after the whole showdown with lee hyunjae about your graded test -- that you failed -- it was safe to say that the both of you shot yourself to fame in the new school. 

“do i want to know what happened now? why’s everybody looking at me like they want to kill me?” you drop your bag next to younghoon and look at his strained facial features, staring at his phone screen blankly. 

you rest your chin on his shoulder and scan the contents of the page, only to have it ignite a fire of bitterness and malice in your chest.

“wait--” you snatch the phone out of his grasp, and a fear of losing him washes over you like darkness swallows a dying soul. “you don’t believe this shit, do you?”

younghoon looks at you with sad eyes, eyes that you never wanted to see, eyes that you would never want to be the reason of. 

the tweet was blowing up with comments by students from your school, and there was a picture of your lab teacher kissing someone who looked like you. 

‘no wonder her grades are so good’

‘should’ve known she’s not that great compared to lee hyunjae’

‘and she told him to check his credibility? what a fucker’

the entire world around you crashes down on you violently despite the deafening silence of the classroom. 

like the way athena bested her brother in war and drove a guided spear through his ribs, lee hyunjae had bested you by taking away the first boy you’ve ever loved. 

what was the fire started by and what was fueling it? ares was the god of war, and he was just as brutal as he was cruel; it was the world’s most accurate label to paste on both of you. 

had the two of you been placed into a ring of fire and you had to fight to your death to win, there was something about the way lee hyunjae never backing down that reminded you of you; that he would fight till the end. 

was the fire ignited because you didn’t want to lose to him? did you see nothing but blood and black when it came to him? 

graduating and deciding to pursue medicine outside the country was a surefire way to avoid the ares to your ares, and for about four years, that was the case. choosing prestigious schools located in the same country nearly threw you off the ball, but the relief in you when you realised the schools were 66 miles away from each other tasted like sugar on your tongue. 

you wonder if it was just a plain coincidence for the number 6 to appear when it came to lee hyunjae, the lucifer in your underworld. 

so for four years you lived your life the way you wanted to. without anybody to sabotage you or ruin your chances at becoming the doctor you were meant to be. you had all that there was, and you started to believe in a life where you weren’t tormented by the last person you’d want to be. 

but it just so happened that athena never killed ares, for ares is a deathless god. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter III: Aemulatio

[nonstoplover]

For The Better ~ Michael Corleone

masterlist

Summary: Michael scolds his wife for acting without his approval and things escalate quickly, not quite the way Michael imagined.

Words: 2.3K

Approximate reading time: about 10 mins

A/N: i had this idea one night when i couldn’t sleep, pretty proud of the base situation actually, considering that i wrote it at like 3am and english is not my main language. let me know what you think. hope all you fellow Corleone-fans enjoy this ♡

He slams the huge pack of files on his desk in anger, stepping back towards the window.

“You’re going around making decisions all by yourself that you shouldn’t be without talking to me about it first.”

His tone proves the amount of tension his body shows as he’s standing with his back facing me, eyes probably focused on the view outside the window.

All the previous joy and proudness I felt is swept away in a single moment. It felt so good to do something for other people. People in need. It made me feel worthy again.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself before I’d accidentally let anger take control over me and make me speak words I wouldn’t want to otherwise.

“Darling, have you forgot who you’re talking to or simply having a full day with your so called clients made you go blind?” Pure sarcasm drips from my words and I see him stiffen, whole body freezing. “It’s me, (Y/N), your wife, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Michael turns back, his eyes sparkling with such anger that it feels like lightning is being thrown at me.

“I am supposed to be the leader of this family. And I start to feel like I’m being less and less in charge of it,” he growls. “I feel like I’m starting to lose control.”

“Oh so you’re gonna make yourself the poor one that needs to be felt sorry for, huh, now don’t you?” My previous trying to stay calm disappears within a second and I feel the same venom-like feeling bubbling in my chest. “Well, which one of us had to sacrifice her whole life just so she wouldn’t be a problem and a cause of worry to her lovely husband? Was it you? Oh, I’m so sorry, dear.”

I pause for a moment only to let out a huff, something that shows off clear disappointment. After another deep breath and the few steps taken that remained until I reached the other side of his table, I press my palms into the wooden surface, speaking up with a newly found anger poisoning my words.

“Well, please imagine what it is like for me. My family rarely talks with me anymore and when they do, they carefully watch if I slip and say something that proves we did something actually unlawful. They wouldn’t even mind sending their own daughter or sister in prison. God, I wouldn’t even be surprised if they’d hire a secret cop to follow my every move,” I let out another huff in disbelief and I can see Michael taken aback from my sudden burst of anger. “And which one of us had to quit her job that she very much loved, again? You?”

I wait for a few seconds, let my words sink in, but as soon as I see him open his mouth again, I continue speaking again.

“NO, it was me, in case you forgot. And for what? To sit around in a house all day long, waiting until my kind and loving husband finally returns back to spend some so called quality time with me?” My fingers signaling a quotation mark several times high up in the air as I speak. “To not be able to walk around any of our houses without accidentally stumbling upon territories I shouldn’t even know exist and then being scolded about it like a child who did something bad?”

My voice raises more and more until I’m shouting with almost full force, but I’m unstoppable now, not even his shocked, wide eyes and slightly opened lips can do anything to make me stop saying the thoughts I’ve been holding in for so long.

“And when I finally find a way to do something useful, something for a good cause, helping people who need me, and I make one tiny decision by myself being the fucking grown ass woman I am, then I’m being told I’m the reason you started to lose control over leading this family and that I’m messing your perfect life up? Well, thank you, but I don’t need that. I’m better off alone than having to bear with this any more.”

My eyes get watery, making everything blurry in front of me as I choke back my tears, my anger all of a sudden changing into a sad, disappointed kind of hurt.

When I blink the opacity away and I’m able to focus on his features again, I can see Michael standing in a shocked silence, the thoughts seemingly racing in his head, trying to process the words of my speech.

“What, now you don’t have anything to say?” My voice gets even more choked up, wet sounds of hidden crying filling up the air whenever I take a breath.

When he finally speaks, it’s almost inaudible, his voice so weak and quiet. “You really feel that way?”

“Yes.” I sniffle, a small movement of my head confirming.

A tense silence fills up the air of the room as we stare into each other’s eyes, thinking about the situation we got ourselves into.

“I said yes back then ‘cause I was hoping for a marriage filled with unconditional, endless, hell, even undoubted love and caring and understanding, but now I do doubt every tiny piece of it.”

I wait for him to finally say something, to try and talk himself out of it, blaming the complexity of his job as he always does, but he says nothing. He just stands there, facing me without a single movement of his body, and I can’t help but let my eyes wander up and down his whole appearance, taking in his beauty and hating myself for thinking about it in such a heated, negative moment. But he’s just like a gorgeous marble statue I’d adore in a museum, so handsome that it’s still almost unreal.

And I feel my heart break because he looks exactly like the man I once married, the man I fell in love with, and I hate to speak these things out loud, but I know we can’t go on like this without causing terrible, incurable damage in each other.

Few moments pass, and it’s more and more unbearable, and then a feeling comes over me, telling me that I can’t take the silence anymore, I have to do something before I take everything back just to be able to run over and feel his embrace around me again, his arms making me feel safer than ever as they always do.

But as I think back to what I was speaking about only minutes before, I feel the same bitterness building up in me again, venomous words swiftly replacing the loving thoughts in my head.

“God, I don’t even know what I was thinking. The head of the mafia doesn’t have time and capability to love.” Bitterness drips from my words, making the tension in the air even more poisonous.

Suddenly I feel weak, needing to sit down and taking a half step towards the arm chair next to me, I slump down on it. My palms almost involuntarily move up to cover my face, tears freeing themselves to slowly roll down my cheeks, leaving wet stains behind on the warm skin.

“You think I don’t love you?” Michael speaks up, and after my fingers wipe the salty drops off my face, I glance back up at him. He looks at me in disbelief, his question clearly written on his features.

“Well, don’t blame me if I do. It’s not like you often show me signs that you do,” I let out a sigh, eyebrows suddenly furrowing as the next though reaches my mind. “Actually, to be exact and honest, no. You never show me any signs of love, instead drowning me in all the scolding and pity and angry sentences you throw at me. I don’t even know what I’m doing here anymore.”

My voice trails off once more, by the end of the sentence it’s so quiet that I don’t even know if he’s able to hear it as reality sets in inside my mind, just in time with my words.

I shake my head, shaking it unstoppably, fingers disappearing in my hair, tearing at the roots as I try to get rid of the things I feel and think.

“I love you, (Y/N). I thought you knew.” Michael speaks once more, voice gentle and careful.

The only thing I’m able to do is shooting him a dirty look, letting him know that it’s not enough. He can’t make everything right with saying these words. Not this time.

He takes a shallow breath before his lips open again to continue. “I couldn’t be more sad and heartbroken to hear such things come out your mouth. You should’ve told me earlier this is how you feel.”

“I wanted you to realise it on your own or otherwise it would only happen again.” I shrug, the backs of my hand carefully wiping away at my cheeks, trying to dry it up.

“I promise it’ll never happen again. I’ll change,” his voice is much more sure now, he speaks with a new force, trying to make me believe him. “I’ll change because I love you, and I’d never want to hurt you or let you feel this way ever again. You’re the goddamn love of my life, (Y/N), I can’t lose you.”

Hearing those words make my heart beat just a tiny bit faster even in the state I am in, but it’s not enough for me to forgive and forget.

“I honestly don’t know if I can take it anymore. Maybe I should really just go and disappear from this life, from this kind of world you’re living.”

My voice is quiet, unsure, I don’t even know myself what is it that I want, that I feel.

“Please, love. Give me one more chance. Just one more. I promise I’ll let you go if I screw it up again. But I need you by my side. I behaved terrible and what I did is unforgiveable, but just give me one more chance,” Michael says, slowly starting to move around the table. “It’ll be what you imagined it to be. Exactly like that and more.”

He kneels in front of me, one of his hands reaching out to touch my jawline, thumb caressing my cheek gently and very carefully.

“I was letting all my anger out on you and I should’ve never done that. I’m so honestly sorry about that and I’ll prove it to you if you let me. I truly love you with all my being, (Y/N).”

I take a shaky breath, mind racing a thousand miles per hour. I still can’t decipher what I want.

Do I want to give a second chance to him? Is it worth it or will he just do the same things again like today has never happened?

Raising my glance back up to stare deeply in his eyes I notice something strange. Something I’ve never seen before.

Michael’s crying. Teardrops silently roll down his cheeks before falling on the silky material of the shirt he’s wearing.

My hands instinctively reach out to wipe them away. I’m not used to see him so vulnerable, so open.

It’s like he’s the same young boy again that he was when I first met him. When his father was still alive, leading. When he was just an innocent kid, with a desire to finish college.

Not even fighting in the world war changed him like taking the role of the leading Corleone did.

My fingers gently tap away on his skin, trying to dry the wet stains on it.

“I’m sorry.” He repeats in a whisper, voice breaking.

I shush him, still deep in thought to find out how I’ll end the current situation.

“Michael, I love you with all my heart. You know that,” my tone is smooth and caring as my hands force him to raise his head and look into my eyes again. “But you have to understand that I’m truly hurt. A tiny crack appeared on my heart.”

The words form on my tongue before I even have a chance to double check what I want to say, my mind and all my rational thoughts fighting hard to take control over the love in my heart.

“I guess we should try being apart for a little while.”

His heart breaks in front of my eyes, hearing the words he never wanted to hear from me, and I almost take it back, almost, before I close my eyes and take a breath as a reminder that it’s for the better.

“I’m not saying that I want a divorce and that I’ll leave you forever. I just need a little time on my own, okay? It’s for the better.” I whisper, fingers still caressing away on his face.

“I have to earn you coming back to me, I know.” Michael replies, his voice only a raspy mumble as he accepts what I’ve decided.

A small, sad smile makes its way on my cheeks as I move to stand up. He does nothing to stop me, stays in the same position.

I walk towards the door, taking each step slowly since I feel so weak I’m afraid I’d collapse from a quicker pace.

When I glance back at him from the doorway my heart goes cold from the sight. It seems like all energy and life exited his body, shoulders slumped, head hanging low. Quiet sniffling can be heard from him every other second, but otherwise he’s motionless.

No matter what I see and how terrible it makes me feel, I know that there’s no turning back now.

I said what I said, and I meant all of it. If I truly love him and he truly loves me, we have to take this step.

So with the knowledge that I won’t be able to feel any emotion for quite a long while again, I turn my head away and step out of his room.

.::the end::.

masterlist

would you guys be interested in a part two for this one? ---> since there came so many likes and reblogs (thank you, love you), i wrote it:

part two

[saladejin]

Call An Uber? | 10

BTS x Reader | idolverse au, uber driver!Reader, translator!Reader | Fluff, flirting, super slow burn, angst and hurt/comfort, mature themes and eventual smut

Summary: Your normal life with a normal, yet inconsistent job gets drastically changed when your dreams come true. Sounds boring right?

What happens when all of this occurs, but you’re still doing something you love AND getting a large sum for it? Now there’s something to think about, and it’s definitely not what you’re thinking.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2.5k

< masterpost >

»»————- <<prev | next >> ————-««

  Red, Red, Brownish? Brown, I guess.

Well, things had definitely taken a turn.

Brown, even darker brown.

Was my brain even working? It had been days, but I still didn’t even know the answer to that question. Ever since I had returned to my apartment that night, things had been hard to grasp. The cogs were in tiny pieces, littering the floor inside my head.

Brown, brown.

My finger stopped and tapped the can in front of my eyes, almost as if trying to calibrate my scattered thoughts and feelings at the same time.

Black. 

Okay, so now my life had truly reached a peak of existence. People very rarely lived their dreams, but here I was. A very much living and breathing instance of such luck.

I’d expressed my shaken gratitude to Bang PD right before he had to go. He had many important things to see to back at his company, and I had no intentions of keeping him waiting in the carpark just because I couldn’t flounder any more with my words. I really hoped he would forgive me for my moments of delay...in the mind, at least.

“You’re a blessing.”

Am I a blessing? I think I’m just the blessed one here.

The plastic bag was gently taken from my fingers and I looked up to see the slightly concerned gaze of the stylist raking over me. “Are you okay, (Y/n)-ah?”

I smiled and shook my head in pure disbelief. “I’m sure I’m fine. Sorry if I seem a bit dazed, it’s not something to be worried about.”

The stylist tilted her head fondly, and I rolled my eyes when she jerked her hand forward to pinch my right cheek. “You’re so cute, please say you’ll stay with us for a bit longer?”

I frowned and looked down pointedly at my wristwatch, seeing that my small break was almost due to finish up. The hopeful tinge alighting the taller woman’s eyes flickered out as I sighed and shook my head.

“Sorry, I have work to do. And this room is slowly killing me, I swear,” I whined to try and lighten the mood. I didn’t want the workers to feel sad just because I had to leave and do my actual job. The fact that most of my break had been spent driving down to the shop was sad enough on its own.

“You know we’re trying to get better ventilation,” another woman piped up from where she was organising makeup supplies, and I smiled when every person in the room let out an amused groan simultaneously.

“Our lungs are a small price to pay,” a male stylist snorted with disdain.

I left the room to joke amongst themselves, having already spending way too much of my time in there as it was. The basement was becoming like a second workplace, but it was only because I finished my jobs as an interpreter quite swiftly as the day went on. Practical things like interviews were happening rarely at this point in time, but I knew once the boys had their comeback, things would change greatly.

I passed the brightened practice room as usual and smiled to see some of the boys already delving right into their daily routines. This time, every single one of them could be seen warming up to the sound of the choreographer’s snappy instructions. I felt proud and awed at the sight of their determination to practice so hard, getting every minuscule move down to the point of perfection.

“Hello.”

I grunted with surprise as my attention was torn away from the narrow door window. I hadn’t even realised I’d stopped to observe through the glass, but now a deep and somnolent voice had broken me from the trance.

“Yoongi, damn you’re quiet.” I laughed airily, resisting the urge to clasp at my chest to calm the rapidly beating heart contained within. I glanced at the man in front of me, noting his attire to be fairly casual but sporty at the same time. His faded hair was partially hidden under a black cap. I remembered him mentioning it was due for a cut sometime soon.

“Sorry, but you’re just too easy to scare. You remind me of Hoseok-ah.” He smiled a tiny smile and leaned forwards to glance into the practice room. I watched as his facial expression grimaced slightly.

“You don’t want to head in yet?” I took a few steps, so I was out of the door window's view, and leaned against the adjacent wall. I didn’t want to accuse him of anything sly or sluggish, but it was quite clear that he was reluctant.

“It’s not that,” he began, and I was surprised when he moved to stand in front of me slowly. It seemed he also didn’t want to be accidentally seen by the other members practising inside the room. “I’m just being lazy, and I already practised so much yesterday that I’m worn out already by looking at them.”

I knew that wasn’t entirely true, as the rapper had a lot of stamina when it came to spending long hours at a time performing. Just as they all did, in fact.

“Poor you, why don’t you take a few minutes to chat with me then?” I suggested jokingly, and saw him raise an eyebrow before grinning with amusement. That gummy smile could literally brighten any of my gloomy days.

“If you insist.” He nodded thoughtfully, and I held back a betrayed gasp at how quickly he’d turned the situation around to be in his favour. All that escaped was an abrupt noise of protest, and he laughed again at my widened eyes.

“I seriously did want to talk with you though.”

He looked down, but his voice remained of the same calm levelled tone. He messed around with the drink bottle in his hands while I nodded and rested my back against the wall more comfortably.

“It’s about the other night. I actual...I actually wanted to thank you.”

My mind slowed to process his words. He had lifted his gaze to meet mine intently, and I was so surprised to see how much their inky depths had softened from their initial sharpness. I couldn’t help but suddenly notice how much livelier he looked, compared to when I had taken him on a car ride that one time.

“The concert night? I think I have more to thank all of you for.” I smiled at the thought, memories of the experience flooding right back through me.

“While that is true, I wanted to thank you for what you did for Jimin,” he continued on a serious note, his hands fiddling even more with the plastic bottle. I knew it was hard for him to open up to others so quickly into a conversation, let alone admit the vulnerabilities he and his bandmates shared. I only wished I could communicate how grateful I was for the sentiment.

“When he gets like that, I must admit that it confuses me a lot. We all know he works the hardest to be the best he can, and even then he has this belief that it’s never enough. I don’t think I can ever understand where he gets the negativity from, but in his mind he views the smallest mistake as something bigger.”

I nodded in agreement, but felt sickeningly bad at the same time. I didn’t want to talk too deeply about Jimin and his insecurities when he wasn’t there to hear my thoughts. I wasn’t sure why, but it just felt rude for me to launch into something I had so much to say on.

“I just wanted to thank you for the comfort. I mean, we all have our doubts especially when it comes to performing, but I’m glad you were there for him when we couldn’t see it,” Yoongi finished bluntly, and I knew he had a similar feeling of guilt when it came to talking about the younger member. It truly moved me to hear his outward display of care and appreciation.

“I’m… so happy you’re saying this, I’d love nothing more than to be honest with all of you and let you guys know just how talented and inspirational you are. The doubts will probably never go away, but I believe they can be changed with hard work and confirmation. That – That's why I’ll try and provide that in any way that I can.”

Yoongi’s eyes widened the smallest fraction before they returned to normal, and I didn’t miss the sharp exhalation that fell from his lips as he cast his gaze downwards.

“Wow, you…”

He stopped and I watched as his face broke out into a shy smile before he sniffed and continued to smile while looking straight at me instead. I hoped I hadn’t overwhelmed him too much.

“That’s all we can ask for, thank you. I literally don’t know what else to say.”

“It’s fine, I don’t expect anything more in return,” I chuckled to break any deep and emotional tension resting on our shoulders.

“Just keep making music. We love it as much as you do, I hope you know that.”

Yoongi nodded, a proud smirk working its way gently onto his face.

“Well that goes without saying, I don’t think I could ever stop.”

I glanced my head to the side, watching to see if anyone was approaching before pouting.

“If you did, I think I would have to file a complaint. You’d have more than a few hundred girls suing you then.”

He raised both brows and huffed quietly. “Would I now? My money is disappearing before my eyes.”

My giggle was cut short as the door to the room opened and the bright light filtered out into the hallway where we were talking. A curious Namjoon appeared and held the door open as he trailed his eyes from me to Yoongi, then back to me.

“Hey (Y/n).” He dipped his head formally, then turned a questioning glance to his older bandmate.

“How long have you been out here, hyung?”

Yoongi looked around aloofly and shrugged, turning on his heel to start making his way through the door. Namjoon looked taken aback, and as a result I covered my mouth with one hand to stifle a snort of amusement.

“Sorry, it was my fault for making him chat,” I explained while calming down, waving my hand in an apologetic manner. Yoongi paused with pursed lips.

“Well, I talked, so it was both our fault.”

Namjoon also shrugged and looked behind his shoulder quickly.

“Well, you know how he gets when you’re too late,” the leader warned with a hushed tone so nobody inside would hear him. Yoongi nodded in a brooding thought before turning back to where I was still standing pressed against the wall.

“See you (Y/n).”

I waved my goodbye and returned Namjoon’s small nod of acknowledgement before the door was slowly brought to a close once more. The air of the hallway felt colder now that I was left alone in it, and I shivered before rushing over to the elevator doors to make my escape.

~

The day was now drawing closer to nightfall. I blinked my eyes tiredly at the computer screen in front of me, barely having had any rest for the past couple of nights just because I was positively brimming with excitement over the thought of touring. I really wanted to bring it up with the boys to hear their thoughts, but the earlier conversation with Yoongi hadn't been the right time or place really. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut forever, so it was either they found out some other way or watched as I inched my way into their day to day schedules; ready to let the cat out of the bag.

I finished up a few translating tasks that were sent via email and breathed a deep sigh at the sight of sent work. It was somewhat a struggle to remember the last time I’d experienced such an intense sense of release. At least now I could go home and treat myself to some wine and snacks whenever I pleased.

“(Y/n), I just got a message from downstairs,” one of the other office workers said with a slightly confused expression painting his features. “Said they had a surprise?”

I hummed suspiciously before standing up straight and letting the wheeling chair roll away behind me. My hair, which had fallen out from being tied up all day, now flowed over my shoulders in an uncontrollable manner. I let my eyes gain a dramatic glint.

“If I don’t come back, call the police.”

The man laughed before shaking his head, and I smiled before packing up my desk and preparing to head to the elevator yet again. How many trips had I done just today?

I seriously need to pick a place to work and stay there.

The ride down seemed to take milliseconds, as I was so full of anticipation that time lost all presence. What were the stylists meaning by surprise? This could literally be anything, so I was a little scared to be completely honest.

I nervously shifted from foot to foot once halted outside the large door, raising one tentative hand to rap lightly on its surface.

To say I was unprepared would be an understatement and a half.

The door drifted ajar with an audible creak and I jumped when Seokjin’s face appeared from around the edge. He looked worn out from the day of practising, but the tall singer instantly broke into a grin when he saw me loitering outside the entryway.

“Hey (Y/n)!”

Then his face fell as he threw a quick glance into the room behind him.

“Um, what brings you here?”

Things were weird, I could tell by the way he was purposefully holding the door to block off my curiously wandering eyes.

“Oh, (Y/n)-ah! Come in, come in!” The excitable voice of my stylist unni broke through the heavily guarded atmosphere, and I watched as Seokjin furrowed his brows in semi-protest. It seemed like he truly didn’t want me to see what was happening behind the door, but it was obvious he was going to lose the battle one way or another.

“Hyung let her in!” 

Taehyung’s voice now perked up from somewhere within the room, and I couldn’t let the flames of my curiosity dwindle anymore. I giggled with triumph as Seokjin’s shoulders sagged in defeat. He swung the door open to let me pass following another two beats of hesitation. I wondered why he was so defensive, but soon learned when my eyes drank in the scene.

The boys were seated in front of the mirrors lining the makeup room, but some were walking around while either looking at their phones or chatting to stylists. Each one looked up when I entered the strongly scented space.

I tried to avoid crinkling my noise at the sharp aroma of dye, but the notion fell to the back of my mind when I fully registered the sight before me.

Because now, every single one had their hair coloured black. 

            Copyright © 2020 by salade. All rights reserved.  

tagged: @joyful-jimin, @l4life, @gee-nee​, @m0chilattae​, @rossemayme​, @doilooklikeinoe​, @jeon-joker​, @topthis808​, @justyouraveragerando​,@xcastielbabyangelface​

[publishingfox316]

Dev C Hex Editor

Dev C has been downloaded over 67,796,885 times since 2000. Embarcadero Dev-C is a new and improved fork (sponsored by Embarcadero) of Bloodshed Dev-C and Orwell Dev-C. It is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and code editor for the C/C programming language. HxD is a freeware hex editor, a tool that can open and edit computer code. In the right hands, it's a powerful utility that can inspect, compare, and verify files, disks, disk images, memory,.

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Version2.5.0.0 (February 11, 2021)What's new?OSWindows XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8 or 10

Version1.7.7.0 (April 3, 2009)What's new?OSWindows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, or 7

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Disk-Editor

To use the disk editor under Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 and higher you have to be an administrator or have the appropriate privileges.

Starting with Vista you need to manually unmount the hard disk to successfully write to it, or in other words: make sure the disk you edit has no mounted file system. More details in this forum thread. A system drive (the one where Windows is installed on) cannot be written to while Windows is running. In order to still accomplish that, you will have to execute HxD from a boot CD/DVD like PartBE or VistaPE and edit the system disk from there.

Windows NT 4

If the RAM-editor doesn't show any processes under Windows NT 4 you most likely don't have PSAPI.DLL installed on your system. You can get it from Microsoft (PSAPI.DLL Download) and copy the DLL into the %windir%System directory. HxD was only tested for Windows NT 4 SP 6, though it should work with versions prior to service pack 6.

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Interesting pages about data recovery, disk structure, boot managers, hex editing, assembler and other low level stuff: The Starman's Realm

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