#wanted to test my scanner to see if that was a more efficient way to do sketches. the verdict is:

[astrohaterz]

take off your cool, i wanna see you

[mandos-mind-trick]

Here's To The Future - Part 7: Bounty Lost

Summary: The war’s over. That should be cause for celebration, except the wrong side won. Things begin to change quickly, and it doesn’t take long for Midnight to realize something’s not right among the clone army. She should be glad the war is over, but the threat of her losing her boys is all too real. She did swear she would do everything she could to keep them from being separated when the war ended.

She’s not going to give up on that promise. Even if it kills her.

Pairing: The Bad Batch x reader (no clonecest)

Warnings: Angst, a bit of violence, injuries, angst, Hunter and Crosshair have some issues, brief discussion of torture, lots of cuteness and fluff though.

A/N: This one isn't really one of my favorites, it's more of a filler than anything as the story begins to shift away from canon and into my own little AU of how their stories play out.

The threesome is up next, though I'm busy this weekend and I want to work on other stuff, so it might not be up until Monday or later. We'll see.

< Previous | Next > | SERIES MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST

“I see things have been going well in my absence.” 

Hunter sighs, hands balling into fists. He resists the urge to turn around and throw a punch. He deserves it, after everything, but the snarky remarks are starting to get on Hunter’s nerves. 

He has bigger things to worry about. 

“I get why Bane took Omega, but why Midnight too?” Echo asks. 

“I think she knows him.” Hunter says. “She tried to warn me not to take the shot.” 

“How would she have met someone like him?” Wrecker asks. 

“It’s very likely she’s met all sorts of fugitives, pirates, and bounty hunters.” Tech says, stepping out of the cockpit. “She is from the Coruscant underground, where those types of unsavory characters flourish. I’m more surprised she hasn’t recognized more of them during our recent escapades. I’ve relayed a message to Cid. She will be in touch.” Tech pulls out his scanner, fiddling with it. 

“There’s another possibility.” Crosshair says. 

“What?” Hunter asks, turning around. 

“We were sent to Bracca to terminate a group of deserter clones.” He says flippantly. “But we were given special orders to bring Midnight back alive.” 

“Who gave those orders?” Echo asks. 

“Admiral Tarkin is putting together a nat-born army to replace the clones. He tested his idea using a small group of volunteer nat-born soldiers.” 

“We know that.” Hunter says. 

“It worked, to a point. Some of the nat-borns were...less willing to comply with orders. Tarkin wants to develop a way to control nat-borns as efficiently as clones.” 

“Mind control?” Echo asks, horrified. 

Crosshair smirks. “And who better to test it on than a highly skilled nat-born with unwavering loyalty to a group of deserter clones.” 

Hunter’s hands ball into fists. “That’s why you didn’t aim to kill on Kamino.” 

“I was given explicit directions. You were to be terminated, but Midnight was to be brought in alive.” 

“You think Tarkin would send bounty hunters after her?” Echo asks.

“News will have already reached him of my...compromised state.” Crosshair crosses his arms, leaning back in his seat. “He will only double down on retaking us both.” 

“Would Bane risk landing on Kamino openly?” Echo asks. 

“It is unlikely.” Tech answers. “Though he was wanted by the Republic, we cannot be certain if the Empire intends to prosecute those on the Republic’s list as well. Perhaps Cid will return us some valuable information regarding Bane. For now, it is in our best interest to ensure there is no present danger.” 

They all turn to look at Crosshair, his eyes narrowing at them. “It’s a bit unbelievable for you, Hunter, having such little trust in your teammate.” 

“After everything you’ve done, I have no trust in you at all.” Hunter says, meeting Crosshair’s glare unwaveringly. 

“I’m not talking about me.” 

Hunter deepens his glare, but Crosshair’s words slam into his chest as hard as Bane’s blaster shot. He does regret it now. The last thing he’d said to Midnight was that he couldn’t trust her and now she’s gone, in the hands of a brutal bounty hunter. The thought has been digging at him, ever since he’d come back to consciousness to find his worried squad mates asking where the girls are. 

Midnight knows Bane. Would she have left willingly? 

He doesn’t think she would have, not after risking everything to try and save Crosshair. 

To successfully save Crosshair. 

He won’t believe it. Not until he has proof. He hates it, that he has to distrust her. He had been so angry at her. Going off on her own like that, defying him so openly. It’s not the first time she’s done it, but those times had never been as high risk as what she had done to save Crosshair. 

He does regret his words, though. If something happens to her, he doesn’t want his last words to be that he can’t trust her. He does love her, but he has to think about the safety of his whole squad above all else. 

Tech calibrates the device, running the scan on Crosshair. They wait tensely, for the scan to be done, for Cid to get back to them, for any crumb they can find about where the girls are. Hunter needs to do something. 

If he’s not careful, it’s going to be punching the glare right off Crosshair’s face. 

“She was telling the truth.” Tech says. “His chip is gone.” 

He shows them his datapad, the place where the chip had shown up on previous scans of their minds missing from Crosshair’s. 

Guilt starts to chew away at Hunter. Of course she had been telling the truth. She wouldn’t have come back, risked leading Crosshair directly to them if she hadn’t been sure he was back to his normal, insufferable self. She wouldn’t have put them at risk like that. As much as she loves Crosshair, she’s not that careless. 

He’s already beginning to feel worse. 

But he can’t trust Crosshair. Not completely. 

Just because his chip is gone, doesn’t mean he’s changed. The Empire could have done something else, something worse to him, and they wouldn’t know. For all Hunter knows, as soon as they turn their backs, he’ll strike. 

***

“I have the girl.” 

“What is her condition?” 

“Alive, so I expect a premium.” 

“See that she stays that way.” 

“That depends on you. I’ll be at the rendezvous. Bring my unmarked credits.” 

Midnight frowns as Bane ends the call. So it was the Kaminoans that had sent the bounty hunters after Omega. Midnight had a sneaking suspicion there was more to the girl than they thought. After all, she is a female clone. She’s not enhanced, even as much as the regs are. 

This is going to complicate things. 

Midnight groans quietly, shifting her arms. They’re cuffed above her head to a bar. She can feel the strain in her shoulders already. She straightens her legs out in front of her, trying to stretch as much as she can. 

“You haven’t changed much.” Bane says, his back still turned to her. 

“How would you know?” She snaps, tugging at the cuffs. They’re not going anywhere, but she has to try. “It’s been, what, ten years since my mom took pity on you?”

“Bad decision on her part.” Bane smirks. “Then again, she never was very smart, was she?” 

“You don’t know anything.” Midnight snaps at him. She knows he’s not wrong, but she won’t tolerate anyone speaking ill about her mother, especially him. 

Bane turns in his seat, glaring down at her. “I see it runs in the family.” 

Midnight’s jaw clenches, her hands balling into fists. “Where’s Omega.” 

“She’s fine.” Bane says, stepping down from his seat. “I get paid more if she’s alive.” He kneels in front of her, grabbing her chin. 

“Why take me too?” She asks, partially out of genuine curiosity.

Bane smirks at her, running a thumb over her lips. “You’re nice to look at.” 

He releases her, taking his seat once more. 

***

Midnight braces her foot against the wall, tugging hard at the restraints. Her wrists are raw and sore, the metal biting into her skin. The bar groans as she pulls, but it won’t give. 

Bane is gone, and likely so is Omega. She has to get to them before he can hand her off to the Kaminoans. She’s not going to give Omega up that easily, even if it means having to go up against Cad Bane again. 

She tugs harder at the restraints, groaning in pain as her wrists strain against the metal. 

“What are you doing?” 

She pauses, turning her head to look at the service-droid. “I...” She looks down at her hands before looking back at the droid. “I have to use the fresher.” 

“Nice try.” The droid says. “Under no circumstances am I allowed to set you free.” 

“Please.” She puts as much desperation in her voice as she can. “I really have to go.” 

“Mr. Bane said I must not let you out of the cockpit.” The droid says, staying firm on his stance. 

Midnight looks down at the floor, thinking. She needs to get these cuffs off and find Omega. “You’d you prefer I go right here? Bane’s going to make you clean it up.” 

The droid pauses before turning back to her. “Just to the fresher?” 

Midnight nods. “I swear.” 

The droid removes one of her cuffs, Midnight swinging as soon as the cuff is off. The droid slides across the floor, sparking a bit. She hadn’t planned on hitting it that hard. She didn’t know she could hit that hard. 

She climbs down from the cockpit, glancing around the hull. Omega is nowhere to be seen, not that she had expected her to still be in the ship. Midnight looks through the opened closets, finding a spare blaster. She’s going to need that if she’s going to go up against Bane. 

She takes off running before the droid can fully recover, heading into the building. They look just like the facilities on Kamino, but they’ve long been abandoned. Midnight hurries into the building, trying to wave away the dense fog inside. 

The sound of blaster fire somewhere above draws her attention. Her heart is pounding in her chest. What’s happening? Did the Kaminoans trick Bane? That’s not really their style, she thinks. Is someone else here? Have the boys found them already? She hadn’t seen the Marauder, but then again, she hadn’t really looked. 

She presses onwards, following the sound of the blaster fire. Her stomach twists nervously. She needs to find Omega. She needs to make sure she’s safe. The thought of something happening to her...she’d never forgive herself. 

Midnight peeks around a corner, blaster in hand. She can hear footsteps coming, her grip on her blaster tightening. She turns the corner, blaster ready. 

Relief floods through her. 

“Omega!” 

“Midnight!” The young girl runs straight to Midnight, Midnight waiting with open arms. 

Midnight wraps her arms around Omega, holding her tightly. “Are you alright?” 

“Fennec Shand is here.” She says, pulling away from Midnight. “She killed Taun We.” 

Both of them here? Midnight knows she won’t stand a chance against both of them together. “We need to get out of here.” 

“I contacted the others but the signal wasn’t strong enough. Tech said we need to create a power surge.” 

Midnight’s brow furrows. The chances of them finding something to do that, and having enough time to do it, are low. Not with two bounty hunters on their tail. 

“I’ve got a better idea.” She says, removing Omega’s cuffs. “We’re going for Bane’s ship.” She takes Omega’s hand, heading back in the direction she’d come from. “Even if we can find a way to contact them, there’s no guarantee they’ll make it in time.” 

“So we’re going to steal a ship?” Omega asks. 

“We’re going to try.” Midnight says, determined. 

It’s a bit of a crazy plan, but then again, rescuing Crosshair had been as well, and that had worked in the end. She only hopes her luck won’t run out. It’s not just her to worry about this time. It’s Omega as well. 

If anything happens to her, Hunter will never forgive her. 

She’ll never forgive herself. 

“I wouldn’t bother trying.” 

Midnight comes to a stop, pushing Omega behind her as she points her blaster at Shand. “Why are you here?” 

“I took a job.” Shand says, removing her helmet. “And I hate leaving things unfinished.” 

“I won’t let you take her.” Midnight says, backing up a couple steps. There’s a hallway within reach. All she has to do is distract Shand and Omega can run for it. 

“You’re a good soldier, but you’re not going to win this one.” 

“I’ve faced worse odds.” Midnight tightens her grip on her blaster. 

“I’m trying to help.” Shand says, taking a step closer. 

“You said the same thing on Pantora.” Omega says, tightening her grip on Midnight’s hand. 

“There you are!” Bane’s droid appears down the hall behind Shand. “You are coming with-” The droid is cut off as Shand turns, tossing a knife at it. 

Midnight and Omega are already halfway down the hall by the time she turns back around, racing towards the landing platform. 

Midnight pushes as fast as she can, Omega keeping a hold of her hand as they weave through the hallways. She prays they don’t run into Bane or his droid on their way. It had been luck that had gotten them away from Shand, but she doesn’t trust that luck to hold much longer. 

They reach the landing platform, Midnight breathing heavily as they board Bane’s ship. Her hands are shaking from the adrenaline as she climbs into the cockpit, Omega right behind her. She powers on the ship, praying to whatever deities she can think of that they can take off before Bane notices. 

Or before Shand gets to her own ship. 

The ship rocks as she lifts it off the ground, her grip on the controls unsteady. She’d learned the basics of flying during her training, and Tech had taught her a few times how to pilot the Marauder, but she was by no means an expert. This isn’t a starfighter or the Marauder. 

“Hang on.” She says, pushing the ship as fast as she can towards the atmosphere. 

It’s a rough flight, Midnight not relaxing her grip on the controls until the atmosphere is gone, replaced by the inky blackness of space. As unnerving as it can be sometimes, she’s never been happier to see it. 

She puts the ship on autopilot, typing in the comm channel. “Echo? Tech?” She says, getting static. “Anyone?”

“Midnight?” 

She’s never been more relieved to hear Hunter’s voice. She feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. So he had survived Bane’s shot. “We’re here. We’re alright.” 

“Where are you? Send us coordinates.” 

“We’re in the Lido system.” She says. 

“Midnight stole a ship.” Omega says proudly. 

“She did what?” Hunter asks in disbelief. 

“I’ll tell you later.” Midnight says, flipping through the navigator. “I’m making the jump to the next system over. We can’t risk staying here much longer. I’ll send coordinates and meet you there.” 

“Midnight,” Hunter says, his voice low and thick with emotion. “Be careful.” 

A small smile tugs at her lips. “It’s a bit late for that.” 

She sends the coordinates, jumping the ship into hyperspace. She doesn't relax until the familiar blue is flashing around them. She leans back in the seat, reaching over for Omega. She lifts the young clone into her lap, wrapping her arms around her. 

“I’m so glad you’re alright.” She breathes, resting her cheek on top of Omega’s head. 

“I’m glad you were there.” Omega says, leaning against her. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t.” 

Midnight smiles. “I’m sure you would have figured something out. But I’m glad you weren’t alone. I promised I’d always be there.” 

Midnight holds Omega as they fly through hyperspace, her eyes beginning to droop. It’s been a very long past few days and she’s ready for a break. She knows it’s not over, though. She’s going to have hell to pay once Hunter sees her. He’s had plenty of time to think over what he’s going to say. 

She’s in for quite the reprimanding. 

***

The ship beeping as they near their destination wakes her. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep. Omega is asleep as well, still tucked against her chest. She drops the ship from hyperspace, heading towards the small desert planet. It’s mostly uninhabited, perfect to drop Bane’s ship and meet the others without risking being seen. 

She lands in an empty spot, relaying the beacon so the guys can find her. Omega stirs as she relaxes in the seat again, Midnight wrapping an arm back around her. She’d let the girl sleep as long as possible. She’s had a rough few days too. She deserves it. 

Not long after they’ve landed, the proximity alarm begins going off. Midnight doesn’t relax until the Marauder sits down next to Bane’s ship. Midnight shakes Omega awake, the young girl groaning and rubbing her eyes. 

“They’re here.” Midnight says, lifting her back to her feet. “Let’s go.” 

Omega seems to perk up a bit, excitedly climbing down the ladder. Midnight opens the hatch, stepping out into the bright sun. Hunter’s already halfway to their ship, Omega running to meet him. She slams into him, wrapping her arms around his waist. 

He grimaces for a moment, his abdomen wrapped with bandages. So he hadn’t totally been protected against the shot, but at least it hadn’t been fatal. 

He kneels down in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay, Omega? Are you hurt?” 

“Why is this happening?” Omega cries. “Why are the Kaminoans after me?” 

“Hunter, you have to tell her.” Echo says. 

Hunter sighs. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll explain everything.” 

Wrecker picks up Omega, holding her close. “Good to have you back, kid.” 

Hunter stares at Midnight, her gaze lowered to her hands. She’s ready, prepared for the yelling, the reprimanding. 

She’s shocked when arms wrap around her, pulling her against a warm chest. She leans into Hunter’s arms, squeezing her eyes shut. 

“Thank you.” He says, leaning the side of his head against hers. 

“For what? I was just keeping my promise.” Midnight shakes her head. “I meant it.” 

He squeezes her tighter for just a moment. “Come on. Let’s get out of here, then we can all have a long talk.” 

***

Hunter tucks the blanket closer around them, a small smile tugging at his lips. Midnight is going to be sore when she wakes up. She’s curled up on Omega’s sleeping pad, wrapped around the young clone. He’d heard every word of their quiet conversation, until both of them had dropped off into sleep. He had debated moving her, but he can’t bring himself to. 

They’d had a long discussion over ration bars. They’d talked about Omega and why the Kaminoans were after her. They’d talked about Cad Bane and Midnight’s history with him. They’d briefly discussed what had happened while Crosshair was with the Empire and their current situation. 

Above all, they were just happy the girls were back and safe. 

Hunter pulls the curtain closed, making his way back towards the bunks. Crosshair is pulling the extra blanket from his bunk, the one Midnight had added. 

“She slept there the whole time you were gone.” Hunter says. “She never gave up on you.” 

“She seems to be the only one.” Crosshair says. 

“I had to worry about my squad first.” Hunter tries to defend himself. 

“I was part of that squad once. You left me behind.” He scathes, narrowing his eyes at Hunter. 

“What did you expect me to do when you were ready to kill us any chance you could?” He takes a step closer to the sharpshooter, ready to defend himself if he needs to. 

“That didn’t stop Midnight.” Crosshair seethes. “I was still in there, you know. I remember all of it. They tortured me, played with my mind, strengthened the chip’s control as much as they could. I was still under there, watching as someone else controlled me.” 

Hunter deflates a bit at Crosshair’s words. He didn’t know what it was like. He’d been saved from having to experience that. Wrecker hadn’t spoken about it, not that he would ever ask him to. “You’re right. Maybe I did give up too quickly.” 

“I don’t want your apologies.” Crosshair snaps. “You still don’t trust me.” 

“I can’t. Not yet.” Hunter goes to move past him, but pauses as Crosshair responds. 

“Trust me on this, then, Hunter. If I wanted to, I would have already.” 

Taglist:

@amyroswell, @dangraccoon, @hunnythebee, @lokigirlszendaya, @kriffingmeshla, @storm-breaker7, @burningfieldof-clover,

[crispychrissy]

Connected - Part 4

Summary: Dr. Austin's theory is put to the test, and she shows Tony, Bucky, and Steve the woman behind the mystery. Pairing: Eventual Bucky Barnes x Reader Word Count: 2976 Warnings: Angst, medical stuff, stretching the medical science behind the super soldier serum, discussion of Bucky's previous trauma & a mention of the horrible things the Nazi's did A/N: I apologize for the late posting, I fell asleep so hard last night I didn't have a chance to queue this, and then I was out all day (good 14 hours out and about) so I am just now able to post the new chapter since I'm home now. As I mentioned in a prior post, I no longer have a forever taglist, but I will still tag series specific people if they request. You can also follow this story & others on my Ao3 as well. The series was beta’d by the lovely @idjitmonkey and I hope you enjoy! Please send me an ask if you would like to be tagged in the series. :)

Series Masterlist – Marvel Masterlist

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

Bucky made a quick call to Shuri who, after a thorough interrogation as to why he was asking, assured him his arm would not be affected by the magnets of an MRI machine. So now, Bucky was laying down on his back inside the machine and staring at the small glass covered camera embedded in the inside curve of the plastic above him.

“Stop staring at the camera, Barnes, you’re giving off some crazy resting murder face right now,” Tony’s staticky voice came through the pair of disposable earbuds he was wearing to protect his hearing from the noise of the scan. “Might sell these scans to Ripley’s Believe It or Not. You actually do have something going on in that head of yours.”

“As much as I know you want to answer, Sergeant Barnes, please do not speak or move,” Dr. Austin’s voice came through after what sounded like a small scuffle for the microphone.

Bucky blinked several times in an unnatural yet controlled fashion, and when he heard Steve’s laughter coming through the earbuds, he had to fight the urge to smile, knowing Steve got the message he blinked out in Morse code.

F-U-C-K Y-O-U T-O-N-Y

The scan was over almost a half an hour later, and Bucky couldn’t hide his exhale of relief once the table began to slide out of the massive scanner. Confined spaces still made his skin crawl and flash back to the cryo tube he was kept in, but the MRI was surprisingly open in design and not like the ones he usually remembered seeing in hospitals. When he brought it up to Dr. Austin on their way back to her office, she smiled at him and explained most of the soldiers they treat have PTSD and claustrophobia, so an open MRI design was necessary for the comfort of the patients she treats.

It made sense, and when they entered her office and Bucky’s stomach growled for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes, she tossed him the orange he’d been eyeing earlier before taking a seat at her desk and flipping open her laptop.

“Normally we have to wait for the images to be reviewed by a radiologist, but I’m well versed in how to read brain scans,” Dr. Austin explained, clicking a few times before leaning forward to study the screen. “Oh, wow.”

“What?” Bucky asked, using his teeth to bite a chunk of the orange’s peel off since his right hand didn't have nails long enough, and his left didn’t have nails at all. Once he could see the flesh of the orange underneath, he slid his flesh finger under the remaining peel and began to remove it in large pieces, trying to avoid getting sticky juice on his metal hand.

Dr. Austin spun her laptop around to show Bucky the image on her screen. It was a scan of his head, he could tell that, but the mess of swirling bright colors on the inside where his brain was made his eyes hurt. There were bright greens and blues swirled with more vibrant reds and pinks dancing around inside the image. “This is your brain.”

“Looks more like those posters… the ‘this is your brain on drugs’ pictures if they were made in the sixties, Doc,” Tony said. “I’m guessing it’s not supposed to look like that?”

“No. There’s so much brain activity that it’s likely what’s been burning through your energy and why you’ve been hungry all the time,” Dr. Austin explained. “Any type of brain activity, including emotions and problem solving, requires energy, whether it’s planning a complex strategy of attack for a mission or a simple math problem or crying at a sad part in a movie. Overworking the mind usually leads to tiredness, which leads to sleep, naturally refreshing those energy reserves. Most humans don’t expend enough energy, even when the brain is very active, to require major replenishment. Take Mr. Stark for example.”

Tony looked up and raised his eyebrows. “Me?”

“Yes, you’re a very intelligent man, and I’m guessing that when you’re elbow deep in your inventions or developing something, you don’t sleep and will go days without rest… so you find you get somewhat hungry at random times, right?” Dr. Austin asked.

“Well, yeah, I usually keep snacks around the lab that I nibble on so I don’t have to leave to make an actual meal. It ruins the momentum,” Tony said, confusion in his voice. “Pep’s found me passed out over the kitchen counter halfway through making a sandwich.

“Your body shut down and went to sleep before you were even able to replenish that energy via food since sleep is more efficient. So, that is a normal human mind.” Tony opened his mouth to protest, when Dr. Austin rolled her eyes and switched analogies. “Fine, that’s a standard engine, if you will, that can easily be refueled by a small energy source for a limited amount of time before it needs to be shut down and rebooted,” Dr. Austin said, slowly twirling her right pointer finger in a circle.

“Alright, I’m following you so far.” Tony’s head was slightly moving along with the circular rotation of her finger.

“Now, in the case of our super soldiers here, imagine that engine, but amplified almost five hundred percent,” Dr. Austin began to rotate her finger faster and faster until it was a blur of movement. “The need for sleep is suppressed by the serum, since alertness is crucial in combat, so that reboot requirement is easier to put off. In order to keep this kind of engine going at the same speed and level of activity for prolonged periods, it would burn through a small snack, or a small source of energy, too quickly and would signal the driver of the car, if you will, that it needed more.”

“So you’re saying that something is making Bucky’s brain so active, and he’s burning through so much energy, that it’s manifesting as hunger to make sure he keeps up with what’s being expended?” Steve asked, his mouth slightly open in shock. “I mean, I always remember being hungry after mission strategy and planning meetings, but I just assumed it was because I was bored or had skipped a meal.”

Dr. Austin shook her head. “Nope. You were using your brain in overdrive, doing quick calculations and mission scenarios in your head to find the best possible plan of action, much faster than any normal human brain would be able to calculate. It makes you an excellent strategist, but that kind of brain power burns a lot of energy.”

Bucky snorted in disbelief and leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “It makes sense. I was a good sniper when I was first in the Army during the war, but after Zola… after he injected me with that bastardized version of the serum… I could calculate trajectory angles and wind velocities and distances in my head in seconds, didn’t have to write them out to do the calculations. Didn’t even need a spotter anymore.”

Dr. Austin nodded. “Exactly. The serum allowed you extra mental acuity at the expense of more energy consumption.”

“But that doesn’t explain why Bucky’s brain is lit up like a psychedelic Christmas tree,” Tony said, gesturing to the laptop image. “Barnes obviously isn’t doing any kind of advanced calculus in his head right now.” Tony looked at Bucky. “You’re not right?” Bucky shook his head and Tony continued, “so why is his brain so active?”

“And that leads me to my theory about Y/N,” Dr. Austin said, standing up from her chair. “Follow me, gentlemen. And Sergeant Barnes,” he looked over and raised a brow as he trailed after her into the hallway, “please let me know if you feel any increased feelings of hunger or exhaustion. The effects might come on quickly, so please let me know if, or when, you feel anything.”

Bucky nodded, and looked over to where Steve was walking to his right. Thanks to their childhood friendship, Steve could always see anxiety and nervousness in Bucky even when he tried to hide it, like when he saw Bucky off the morning he shipped off to Europe. Bucky kept his face stoic, but when Steve hugged him goodbye, Bucky was practically trembling under the Army-hardened mask he had worn then.

Steve reached over and clasped a comforting hand on Bucky’s shoulder, giving him a squeeze of reassurance.

The doctor led them down several hallways, until they reached another wing of the military hospital which held secure patient rooms that could be locked down if necessary, whether due to outbursts of violence due to psychological issues from recovering soldiers or to hold prisoners who had been injured and needed medical intervention. Dr. Austin stopped in front of a room at the end of the hallway and gestured to the one-way mirror in front of her.

“Gentlemen, meet Y/N Y/L/N.”

The three men stepped closer and looked into the room, all eyes frozen on the figure sitting upright in the hospital bed. Y/N had shoved herself in the farthest possible corner of the bed, her knees tucked under her chin and arms wrapped around her legs. The photo in her file, and even the video of her they’d seen looked nothing like the woman before them. She looked almost emaciated, her skin a sickly pale that was almost translucent, and her stringy grease matted hair twitched slightly as her body trembled.

“Jesus,” Steve breathed. “She… she looks like those prisoners… the ones—”

Bucky swallowed and nodded. “From Natzweiler, yeah, I remember.” Bucky took a deep breath, fighting against the telltale tingle in his mind of a long since forgotten memory beginning to rise up like a wave. “Doc… is she eating?”

“She was when she first got here, but only if the food was left for her after she passed out from exhaustion,” Dr. Austin explained. “Now, ever since things have escalated, she rips out her IV’s, pulls out NG tubes, and refuses any food we bring her. I’m not going to sedate her just because it’ll make it easier to feed her, we haven’t reached that level of intervention yet, but we’re getting close. She told one of our staff yesterday, in Russian, that she was not going to eat any of our poisoned food, that she wasn’t some kind of lab experiment and that we were animals for not just shooting her in the head to get it over with.”

All of the air in Bucky’s lungs came out in one hard breath like he’d been punched in the chest, and he had to brace himself against the windowsill to keep his knees from buckling. “Fuck.”

“Bucky?” Steve gasped at Bucky’s sudden weakness, grabbing onto his friend’s arm and placing a gentle hand on his back. ”What? Are you feeling the stuff Dr. Austin mentioned?”

Bucky grit his teeth and closed his eyes at the onslaught of memory fragments bombarding him. “No, I’m… I don’t know, maybe? I just… she’s…” Bucky’s thoughts were so jumbled he could barely form a coherent sentence, even in his head. He made a choked off noise that sounded more like a sob before he lifted his head to look at Y/N. “She’s reliving my captivity with Hydra. This… this was after I was transferred from the facility the Russians held me in after they found me to the one where Zola did his experiments. They were, umm, they were testing the limits of the serum, trying to figure out what I could survive.”

Steve’s face dropped and he took a sharp breath in. Bucky’s captivity and torture was not something he talked about often outside his therapy sessions. Steve only knew a handful of stories, ones that had come directly from Bucky’s mouth, and even then they were very hard stories for him to tell—lots of starting and stopping, frequent breaks, and plenty of tears. But here, with two extra people with him, and one being a stranger?

“Buck, you don’t have to talk about it,” Steve whispered.

“No, I need… she said exactly what I said to the guards who brought me food one day.” Bucky swallowed hard, flexing his fingers against the painted metal of the windowsill, the cold against his flesh hand grounding him. “They were testing different poisons and how the serum would fight it off… arsenic, ricin, even different kinds of snake and spider venom. I had seizures, strokes, and my heart stopped so many times I lost count.”

“Fucking hell,” Tony murmured, leaning against the wall behind them, his face a few shades paler than it was ten minutes ago. “Y/N is reliving your memories, reliving your life.”

“We need to find a way to pull her out of this,” Bucky said, straightening up with determination even though his bones felt like liquid and his mind was full of numbing static. If Y/N was reliving his life, even if it didn’t seem like the moments were in order, he knew it was only a matter of time until she would experience how the Winter Soldier was born, how he was forged, and he wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Dr. Austin nodded and looked back at her patient through the glass. “If my theory is correct, which I believe it is based on your shared memories and brain scans, Y/N’s mind has somehow melded with yours. And your memories, powered by your mind’s energy, have somehow taken over hers, suppressing her personality completely. I don’t know if it was some kind of dormant mutant ability that was activated by the trauma of her captivity and torture, or something else… but there is obviously some kind of link between the two of you that we don’t have the technology to test for and verify. You’re essentially feeding her your memories, which is why your brain is lit up like that and why you’re expending so much energy.”

“It’s like she’s stuck inside one of Stark’s virtual reality headsets and can’t take it off, experiencing everything I went through while my brain keeps playing her different…” Bucky trailed off and his eyes widened before his head snapped to look at Y/N through the glass.

In a flash of movement, Bucky grabbed Dr. Austin’s ID badge from where it was clipped onto her white coat and darted for the door to Y/N’s room, scanning the badge so the door opened with a green light and soft click. Bucky, ignoring the shouts of his name and hands trying to grab at him to pull him back, opened the door and shut it firmly behind him, engaging the door’s auto-lock safety feature that he knows secure wings of hospitals have. The group outside would need to find another ID badge to get in, which would buy him some time.

Y/N’s wide and terrified eyes settled on him, and she tilted her head in an almost confused dog-like fashion, her eyes softening with an air of familiarity. Bucky could feel the hunger gnawing at his stomach turn into sharp cramps that almost made him double over, and there was a soft circle of darkness starting to creep in around his vision.

Bucky took three large steps forward, and even though she flinched away at his sudden movement, Y/N didn’t scramble away to try and avoid his hands as he lifted them. Her weary bloodshot eyes were full of unshed tears, and the closer Bucky’s hands got to her face, the more she began to tremble.

“You’re safe,” he whispered to her in Russian, before repeating the same sentiment in English.

The moment his fingers, both flesh and metal, touched the skin on either side of her face, it felt like he was on the wrong side of an attack from Thor’s hammer. Whatever weakness and hunger he’d been feeling was burned out of his body at the sheer shock cascading through his entire being. It didn’t hurt, but it was bordering on wildly uncomfortable, and Bucky was afraid he’d never be able to let go, his hands stuck to Y/N like a magnet.

There was something different passing between them, more than what touch alone could provide. Trying to understand everything that was happening was overwhelming, but when Bucky focused, he could almost feel Y/N inside his mind, like another whisper of a presence, a ghost in his consciousness. When he reached out in his head for her where he’d felt the ghost of her presence, he was assaulted with bursts of memories he knew were not his own, images of unfamiliar people, places, and things flashing in his mind like photographs. Bucky's curiosity was almost childlike, awestruck and trying to understand what his brain was comprehending, sorting through what Y/N was showing him.

The more information Bucky absorbed, the darker each memory became until it felt like he was wading through molasses, each image being harder and harder to move past. A hoarse whisper of “No” echoed in his mind, and Bucky couldn’t tell if it was his own voice or Y/N’s.

A solid arm wrapped around Bucky’s middle, one much more firm than human flesh would be, and pulled him backward until his hands dropped from Y/N’s face, breaking whatever connection had refused to release him when he’d touched her. Reality came rushing back, and the room and people around him flashed into existence, the change in environment and sound disorienting him and leaving him panting for breath, his knees wobbling.

“She…” Bucky looked over at Y/N, who was just as distressed, and watched her collapse onto the bed, unconscious, before his vision blacked out and darkness took him as well.

***

Connected Tags: @ginger-swag-rapunzel @that-one-gay-girl @fanofalltheficsx @joseyrw @lana-writes-04 @gia-25 @klanceiscannon14 @ahahafudge

[sergiusreports]

Prompt #25: Silver Lining

The ping came out of nowhere. A shot in the dark. A directionless call to see if there was anyone who wanted to respond. I sat quietly in the network. It couldn’t have known I was there and if I didn’t answer, it would never know. 

The set of laboratories marked strictly research and development were a step above the standard issue fare in Garlemald. I could tell that much from comparing the various blueprints on file. The halls took up three floors of a monolithic complex located in the heart of the Capital. Surely somewhere within this facility someone was still at work but most architectus had gone home for the day. Which was just fine with me. 

The only peace and quiet I was able to find was sitting in this repair chamber letting the med systems stitch, solder or wire me back together. Sometimes all three, depending on the day. Today had been that kind of day. I turned my pain sensors down as the system sprayed a sealant across the side of me that had lost its organic shell and left the machinery exposed. The problem was the sensors only went down so far. It still hurt but the sealant carried an additional numbing agent, at least. 

[Performance efficiency 52%]

And dropping. My temperature controls were fried. The repair cubicle powered up an environmentally controlled stasis field in response. 

Apparently, I had been doing too well. The architectus had ramped up the difficulty of their tests. This one had come without warning. A whispering sound of mechanical joints moving before it exploded up from a pitch black testing room floor, knocked me on my ass and disappeared into the shadows. 

I had gotten a snapshot of the target when it erupted from the floor. Bigger, faster, stronger than me. 8.5 fulm tall with multiple appendages thicker the width of my make. An obscene combination of Allagan and Garlean machinery. More tech built on the back of the remnants they had dug up at Carteneau. I immediately scanned the area only to find it was jamming my scanner with static interference. The testing floor had small portholes along the walls that let in the light at regular 6-fulm intervals. Something moved in the shadows. I sensed the change in air pressure half a second before one of its massive arms shot out. I had needed that half second. Enough time to step to the left and only have the protective organic shell of my torso sheared off instead of ending up with a hole punched right through my midsection.

Pain sensors screamed at me and were instantly cranked all the way down. 

[Threat vector: Detected. Threat assessment: Assessment Failed. Cache miss. Retry?]

Yes, thank you very much. 

[Assessment Failed] 

It was fine. Not like I needed an assessment to tell me I was in deep shit. I ran towards the wall, tracking my opponent as it shadowed my steps. I went up the wall far enough to achieve the correct angle and then leapt onto its head. As I made contact it sent out a pulse of current meant to stun me. If my pain sensors hadn’t already been dialed down it might have worked. But I shrugged it off as I held on fast, powered up the energy weapon in my arm and shoved it against the seam where its bulbous head met its body. I fired off two shots before it managed to scrape me off and fling me across the room. I crashed into the hard metal plating and skidded a good three fulms. 

Pulling myself up on my elbows, I watched as it stumbled around with an unsteady gait. Shuffling drunkenly in one direction and then another. Blinded. I must have hit the optic processor. The architectus saved me the trouble and powered down the unit. 

“End of test #27. Mark it a success and take the Sergius back to the lab for repairs.” 

I slumped back on the floor and stared up at the gunmetal ceiling. Another day down.

[Performance efficiency 42%]

The ceiling in the lab wasn’t as lofty as the testing room. 127 tiles long. 259 tiles wide. The lack of round units of measure bothered me. 130 by 260. How fucking hard was that? 

The ping was back. Another blind call in the dark. It was persistent, whatever it was. I pinged back. 

//Hi! I’m A6Y. Who are you?//

//Sergius-IV. Why are you pinging the whole facility, A6Y?//

//Just looking for someone to talk to. My friend went home, I’m alone and its dark.//

//What friend?//

//Florus. He comes every morning and we spend the day playing games. Do you like games?//

I went silent. It sounded so childlike and innocent. It seriously thought an architectus was its friend. I didn’t know what to do with that. 

//Sorry, A6Y. I don’t really like the games they play here.//

//Oh no. I bet you would like the games Florus and I play. I could ask him if you could join us next time.//

//No. Don’t do that. You can’t tell anyone you can ping others in the facility.//

//Why not? I tell Florus everything.//

It was a godsdamned pet robot. It had to be. 

[Performance efficiency: 38%]

I felt my non-essential systems shutting down. I managed to keep my reaction out of the feed as I responded. 

//It has to be a secret. To keep your friend safe. If the other people here knew about it, he could get in trouble.//

//I don’t want that. Okay, Sergius-IV. I will keep this a secret for my friend. To keep him safe.//

The earnestness bled through the feed. It had never been abused. It had never been tested the way I had. I could probably lie to it and have it believe me. Because it had no reason not to trust what anyone told it. It had likely never been treated with anything other than humane kindness. 

It didn’t require all of my functions to recognize we had nothing in common. But I remained in the feed anyway. Quietly having an emotion. 

[Performance efficiency: 35%

Initiating emergency shut-down protocol]

[glowyjellyfish]

Gather round, children, for the legend of Grimwood Abbey

(that’s the tiny pre-MCC I mentioned the other day. I only came up with this concept, oh, over a year ago. Dropped it to play a nice easy modern Megahood. I don’t have much wherewithal.)

...so I have spent two days on the weekend so far just working on getting my CC sorted out so I can consider starting this. Yesterday the big issues were a. realizing it was super inefficient to delete stuff in-game one by one even though it’s nice to be able to see it, and becoming paralyzed with indecision about whether to take the time to hunt down unidentified files by hand, or continue spending time deleting dozens and dozens of recoiled by hand… eventually I did a little of both, but boy I gotta use some kind of tooltip renamed now huh… b. I am not good at Delphy’s Download Organizer. I don’t understand it. Why is there no “how to use” documentation. So then I set it to scan for orphans or duplicates, stare hopelessly at the results unable to figure out what is the best course of action, and then quietly quit it to yet again… move files around manually. Don’t get me wrong, I was able to use it to shove several file types into correct folders, but my real issue would be so easily solved if there was a thoroughly explained duplicate scanner that I was able to trust. Ugh, I probably should have started by moving all the files to one big folder and sorting them from there but WHATEVER.

Because, you see, like many simmers, I have been collecting my cc since roughly 2004. I legit cannot remember if I have lost the whole thing and had to start over, but this collection can certainly be traced back to my first laptop that could run the Sims 2. For the longest time, I merely collected a big pile of everything shiny and cool that caught my eye, resulting in a big mixed-up mess combining modern and medieval fantasy and sci-fi and random fandoms and steampunk and everything I ever enjoyed. That… was not sustainable. I tried keeping individual folders within Downloads for specific genres, with the idea that I could swap them in and out for different hoods. Alas, that was too time-consuming for my taste, and I ended up with the same basic downloads folder but very lightly sort of organized but not really.

Sometime within the last ten years, I started trying to cultivate different downloads folders of broad genre categories, all neatly saved on a big flash drive. That’s all well and good, but copying and backing up that shit took away precious hours I could be using to play. Not only that, but it was very rough trying to separate my downloads folder properly—some stuff worked well for multiple genres! So I ended up making copies of the whole downloads folder to build these alternates, which I could then whittle down to only the stuff I actually wanted in there. This medieval alternate downloads folder therefore also contained the folder I’d labeled Medieval CC in my last attempt at organizing, and just to be sure I copied everything over and back repeatedly. And you know how it goes—every time I got excited about the idea of an MCC, I had to go out and download anything new or shiny. And oh yeah, had to stock up on defaults because now I could be using a solely medieval downloads folder! And this new CC would get plonked right into the DL folder, nary a care for organization because I needed to play before I lost interest!

So I had at least two, possibly three copies of all the same content in a collection of medieval CC that’s been building for, let’s call it 15 years more or less. I can’t trust the download organizer—like sir are you showing me all of them? do I throw all these out or leave one behind?—and doing it by hand is extremely tedious, carefully removing all txt and preview files to improve my load time. And actually playing a year-old story concept is delayed yet again.

I’ve got a Megahood set up that I can start converting to medieval whenever I get my act together, and I still that that sounds like fun but also waaaay too big a project for me (latest issue: wait if the capulets and montagues are traditionally alike in dignity is it wrong to make the Capps gentry and the montys merchants? But if I make them both gentry it’ll be an entire damn subhood of nothing but gentry!). I also have the same old MCC hood I started building a year ago, restarting after years of having the concept ready (this one is Algary and it is the one i was building a castle for; it has a few interesting rolled families to start with such as the gentry family having no sim older than teen and me choosing to set that up as the direct heir and some cousins, and a peasant family that involved two elderly ladies who were in love and joined households after their obligatory husbands died, pooling resources to care for their families, but one of them was gonna feel obliged to head off to the church and repent while the other cared for the kids and became a midwife). And then there’s the new guy, Grimwood Abbey, whose concept is only a year old but I sure hope I can follow through on it because it is quite small. Even then I can’t decide yet whether to start with one household (everybody living together for protection!), two households (the church vs the knights), or several households (each knight beginning in their own household with their squire). The latter would make it easier for each knight to earn their own money and compete to purchase gentry approval from the church… but idk.

Anyway. After all that I am really hoping I am about ready to actually play a bit. Even just making some sims and buildings. Today I need to progress further in weeding out CC, try to find a way I can do that more efficiently, maybe find some nice standardized set of makeup and default eyes and skin to use rather than the haphazard collections I barely touch (I prefer to lean toward maxis match over Shiny Realistic skins where everyone has auto makeup, but I’m sure there is something nice out there that suits my needs), and I unfortunately saw some nice medieval clothes I don’t have while downloading a whole fresh set of Sun&Moon Star Factory stuffs (which, I had multiple copies of! Didn’t know what was updated and what was outdated or what! So I threw out everything I had and re-downloaded the entire collection, which may have been a bit drastic but it definitely worked. Also, why is there no complete user guide for this. A “how to get started” or something. Whatever.), so I also gotta download that. Then maybe I can make a test sim to make sure defaults and stuff work okay, and then maybe download some medieval lots to speed up the building process? And then I can play one of my various hood concepts finally actually? Maybe?

TLDR: I am getting frustrated because I have so many downloads, many of them duplicates within folder within the main folder, that it’s taking me all weekend just to straighten them out (and even then I might not be able to finish, despite it being a 3 day weekend where I live). I swear, it would be faster just to throw it all away and start over, except I can’t do that because I am clearly a CC hoarder and I might need a piece of CC that can no longer be downloaded.

...thus goes the preliminary legend of Grimwood Abbey and the horror story of Getting It Set Up. Someday, someday...

[nauticallyincriminative]

Vacillation

"Luke, I would like to see you in the East Wing's sample processing laboratory immediately."

Luke stared with mild annoyance at the blinking words from his kismesis on the screen, already exhausted from the previous morning of sample collections in the middle of a swamp. Picking himself up from his cluttered desk, he took a moment to stretch before ultimately heading to the elevator to the laboratory floors below. The elevator doors had a loud, whirring, and crackling noise as he entered, causing his mind to fill with images of the many hours that he had spent waiting for someone to make his day easier on him.

His hands were already numb from sorting samples through gloved hands across a wet bog, and it only made the throbbing of his temples worse as the elevator slowly began to descend. As he passed the main laboratory floor, he took pause to take in the inspiring sights and sounds of the space through the glass walls- the vast, open room in front of him filled with rows of glass cabinets and sterile metal tables highlighted with their many colors and designations. As he looked at each cabinet, his mind wandered over their many possible purposes – perhaps, like the one he was just using this morning, they each housed their own variety of specimens of alien flora and fauna. The sheer size of the facility made the thought staggering to imagine; an seemingly endless and cascading collection of preserved data merely a few glass cupboards away. Or perhaps, they were just there as needed and largely for show. He did not have the opportunity to wonder for much longer, as the lab quickly fell out of his sight as the elevator descended.

The doors opened and shut, allowing him to depart onto the tiled floor before it began to ascend again, the metallic whirr of the elevator generating a cold breeze as it grew fainter. Luke progressed further down the hall, the rubber soles of his shoes gently thudding against the spotless grey tiling. The lab that Franke was working in would be just around the right corner of a three-way fork in the hallway as he recalled. It was a difficult floor to memorize, with varying labs of varying purposes separated by unintuitive steel corridors that snaked in between them. Surely enough, after what felt solidly like 5-minutes of walking and a number of vaguely labeled doors, he came across one such unassuming entryway with a label marked "EW - PROCESSING" in the same, sharp Imperial Red. The joke of every door being prefixed by the two letters had gotten a lot of mileage, but it wasn't really all that funny anymore- and especially not in the mood that he was in.

Luke extended a card from a retractable badge-holder affixed to the belt loop of his black trousers, holding its face to the scanner before finally being allowed entry into the lab. The immediate smell of detergent fills Luke's nostrils as he steps inside, greeted quickly by the sight of his beloved kismesis, Franke Kimiya, who stood rigidly by the sink cleaning a petri dish.

Franke's eyes flickered over to look him up and down at the sight of his entrance, her posture unchanging as her latex glove-covered arms continued to sterilize the dish. "I am surprised," she opened with, her mood yet indecipherable.

"Surprised? That I'm such a professional, yes?" Luke chirped, approaching her with his hands casually in his pockets.

"I had suspected that you might be asleep at your desk, given your history of doing so after an assignment. Are you beginning to take your work seriously, or are you just so eager to please?" Franke fired back without a moment's hesitation, her gaze moving back away from him as she bent to set the now-dry dish carefully aside into an adjacent cabinet.

"Oh," Luke frowned, eyes betraying a look of mild surprise. "So, you're like that right now, then." She huffed in response, finally turning around to face the human properly that her other work had been sorted.

"Do you know why I called you here, Luke?" She asked matter-of-factly as if she was his actual supervisor and not merely a coworker.

"No. I assumed my assistance was urgently required, so I came quickly."

Franke's eyes looked Luke over again, her brows twitching ever so slightly before she withdrew a pen from her pocket to roll in her hands. "I have some concerns about how you have been conducting yourself at the office. If you don't work at your desk to a full standard, you will have to be replaced, Luke." She continued, her voice speaking with such certainty as if this was something Luke should be well aware of. "I'm sure this was not intentional, but I feel that I am forced to make this adjustment for you as you are my own research project, and I know you would prefer to do as I asked to keep the position you have here within the Empire rather than jeopardize it."

As Franke so confidently and casually spoke, twirling the pen in her hand like a miniature baton, Luke's expression only became more and more incredulous. This? She'd called him down here for this? "I must say, I'm speechless. I'm impressed, Franke," Luke chuckled out sarcastically, shrugging his arms. "I'm stunned that you honestly think you not only have the authority-*"

"Really, Luke? Are you? Because the last I heard, your version of working is going out on an all-night bender to go clubbing with a drugged-up seadweller."

"After which, I got you a sample for your own tests, which, as you might have noticed, I am quite adept at." Luke defended, crossing his arms and shifting his weight to his hips.

Franke saw Luke's posture and escalated her stance, stepping closer to him and ceasing her pen tricks. "My dear," she said emotionlessly, "Of course, there is… potential, in your work. I do understand that you don't take criticism well, but the fact of the matter is that your efficiency could be improved. I believe that the entire office would benefit from this."

"'My efficiency'," Luke groaned.

"Yes," she insisted. "As well as your attitude. That is why I've elected to call you down here." She said sternly, her volume suddenly dropping. "Because, Luke, I think you have been acting in a way which, if not addressed, could result in a serious conflict with the division."

"Hah," Luke chuckled, matching her body language and stepping even closer. "This is about what happened in the group chat, then. You're intending to blame me for something that you yourself said?"

Franke's brows furrowed quickly as she decisively refuted Luke's implication by jabbing the pen in her hand against his chest, her posture rising to be just ever so slightly taller than his own. She raised her head so that she could look down at him. "Hm. Your conduct in the group chat could benefit from this as well, yes. However, I will concede that it cannot be done alone. So, Wilson, I will ask you to accept my recommendation."

Luke looked at her with mild disdain, wincing as he felt the empty pen nib jabbing against his white shirt- the gap between them significantly reduced. She had the nib withdrawn... for now. "Hm. I thought you were supposed to be a bit more subtle."

"I am not," Franke insisted, her voice lowering even further as she gently leaned in against him, whispering into his ear. "I'm simply stating the facts as I see them”.

Luke was incorrect; this wasn't only about the group chat. He recognized her stiff behavior and new what she was doing, but he couldn't think of what else she was trying to gain by forcing him into this position. Franke's usual definition of 'playful hijinks' was often accompanied by an unsavory caveat like a surprise blood sampling or the installation of a new tracking chip under his skin. Then again, there was also the possibility that she may not have wanted anything but him. Luke took a moment to think, then replied in a voice considerably softer than before. "What was it that you had in mind, then?"

Luke could feel Franke's expression shift as her skin grazed his cheek, her smile growing into something a bit closer to a smirk. "I think you'll find yourself very receptive, dear. After all, it's for the best," Franke said with a light chuckle as she leaned forward and reached up with her free hand to cup his cheek. "But first, I would like to make one final request of you…" Her grip tightened on Luke's cheek, the sterilized, latexed hand wrapping around to press at the side of his throat and jaw as Luke could feel her breath on his skin. The human gasped suddenly, his face and ears flushing a mild red as Luke felt her tongue move gently to taste his skin and mark it with the cold sensation of wet saliva.

"And what's that, then?" Luke whispered, frozen in place as the troll held him at pen-point and playfully threatening that she could choke him at any moment.

"If you are serious about improving," Franke replied, withdrawing her head so that she could look him sharply in the eyes while her thumb circled the underside of his jaw. "If you are serious about rectifying your conduct, then you must do everything I tell you, Wilson. Of course, I'm sure you will have no difficulties following orders. Your research may well depend on it."

Luke bit his lip, still wincing from the pressure she was applying on his chest and neck and suddenly having a difficult time thinking clearly. Whether he took too long to respond, or whether for her own amusement, Franke's thumb pressed sturdily against his windpipe and temporarily deprived him of any excess oxygen. "I... yeah," Luke barely whispered, his hand reaching up to gently grasp the arm that was choking him.

"'Yeah'? Take some pride and be professional, Wilson." Franke, commanded, her thumb not letting up on her partner's neck. Luke's face flushed a deeper red, his body holding its own in theory but his legs beginning to shake from the unnatural angle of Franke's advances.

"Yes-."

"Address me properly."

"Franke," Luke chuckled in temporary defiance, though beginning to grow quite uncomfortable at how limited his breathing was. A defiance which would not last for much longer, as with a swift click the sharp, inky nib of Franke's pen now grated painfully against Luke's skin- further motivating him to try and gasp for air that he could barely gather with a yelp.

"Behave, Wilson." Franke directed, her analytical eyes piercing into his own to watch him struggle. She must have been having a great time, but there was currently no reflection of this on her face- no feeling of temporary mercy for him to hold onto.

"Yes, Miss Kimiya." He finally buckled; his eyes partially twitching to prevent any welling tears from the rough handling.

“Good answer, Wilson,” the troll agreed as she cocked her head, slowly easing her grip on the human’s throat. Franke withdrew her hand and allowed him the luxury of breathing properly, an opportunity which Luke quickly took, but she hadn’t sheathed the sharp pen in her hand just yet. There was still more ground to cover.

"You know, Wilson, I was rather wondering. It is a little odd, is it not? I am sure you know by now how proud I am of the work that I have done on you." Franke's voice was quiet but firm in her musing as she stared down at the human. "Your cooperation, intentional or not, has contributed to…” Franke paused, considering her next words carefully. “Significant enough advancements in my own data." Saying this out loud, Franke’s expression softened, as did her grip on the pen that was mere fractions away from drawing blood from the human. “However, you must understand that, as your kismesis, it is frustrating for me to observe you. I do not care for the reckless methods that you conduct yourself and your research with. Were it up to me, I would rather have you on a tighter leash.” She ‘joked’ in her usual manner, which was to say, she was hardly joking at all but rather more entertained by the idea itself. Luke maintained his stance, face still flushed, and yet unsure as to where exactly she was going with this.

"Unfortunately, I think that would just make me pity you even more." Franke continued, "Which is difficult, as I am sure you understand, as it is healthier for us both as kismeses to avoid such vacillations.”

“I don’t think it’s that unhealthy, Franke-“ Luke interjected before a finger was quickly pushed against his lips to silence him.

“I am speaking, Wilson,” she reminded, raising her eyebrows before continuing on what was a rare baring of emotions for her. “But that is exactly the problem. You are not abiding to what is recommended by the definitions of our relationship.” The troll paused, partially biting her own lip in thought. “Because of these circumstances, you are making it unnecessarily frustrating for me to perform my duties effectively.”

Franke felt herself growing more irritated as she spoke, her eyes coldly, angrily taking in the sight of the flushed man she had pinned before her. She watched his chest rise and fall and could feel his warm, unnatural body heat from here- her own heart beating in fascination. Fascination at the prospect that one little push of her pen would summon that most peculiar blood color out from under his skin. His anatomy was sickeningly fragile, yet despite his erratic, near-suicidal behavior, here he was- all hers- and still daring to imply that he felt pity for her, and that he didn’t think it was a big deal. Despite her efforts to the contrary, his audacity to continue to distract her with these turbulent flares of flushed thoughts had occupied her mind all night- all week- all perigee. No, that he felt he could distract her with these emotions would not stand.

“What are you saying?” Luke finally asked, breaking the temporary silence. Franke grit her teeth. Had he not been listening?

“I do not appreciate your romantic deviations, Wilson. I do not care for the fact that you are making me…” she clenched her jaw, breath hanging in her chest and unable to finish her sentence in the unscientific and irrational manner that she wanted. “You are inciting red emotions from me, so I am going to correct you.” She finally managed to say dryly, her demeanor entirely flat and formal aside from an undeniable streak of teal blush that had emerged across her round, unamused face. “So now, Wilson,” Franke whispered, leaning back in to speak into Luke’s ear. “I am only going to tell you this once, as your kismesis: Get on your knees.”

At this command, Franke harshly jabbed her pen against Luke, forcing her weight on top of him before withdrawing quickly, clicking the top to sheath the now-reddened nib and relinquishing her grip on his body. Luke gasped in sudden pain, his legs buckling to send him to the hard floor in front of her. His hand instinctively shot to his chest to inspect the wound, which itself was quite minor outside of the needling pain and the gentle trickle of crimson that would now be sure to stain his shirt. He looked up at Franke, still bemused but taken by her sudden show of force, and quickly found his gaze reciprocated as she stared back at him, watching him with enraptured eyes.

“I love you, too,” Luke managed to taunt with a smile he had trouble hiding- a taunt which hung in the air like lead, causing Franke’s eyes to widen in temporary panic before her visage fell into a glare with renewed, conflicted contempt.

“Clearly, my dear, you need help understanding just what position you are in,” she growled, roughly clutching a handful of Luke’s blonde hair and holding him in place. “But perhaps I am not making it clear enough for you to comprehend. Perhaps you need to be shown directly.” Luke twisted his body to ease the pressure on his scalp, wincing again as Franke turned to walk back towards the laboratory counter- clearly prepared to drag him behind her if she had to.

“Franke-!” Luke yelped, clearly not expecting that she would actually do such a thing and thus ill-prepared to follow her. Franke paid him no mind, merely tugging on his hair again and forcing him to follow her lead on all fours- his shoes scuffing the tile in his frantic attempt to keep the pace.

“You forget yourself, Wilson,” the troll chirped, finally stopping to turn and rest her back against the table. “If you wish to continue acting like a dog, I have no qualms with treating you like one. Or was that your goal?”

“I’m sorry-,” Luke whined, thoroughly annoyed and coming to a position on his knees that allowed him to grasp Franke’s commanding arm in the event that she was going to attempt that again.

“Are you angry?” She asked.

“Yes, I’m fucking angry.” He spat back.

“I see. Would you like to go for another lap?” Franke replied dryly in the same low voice.

“F- No. No, I would not.”

“Properly,” She directed, cocking her head.

“…No, Miss Kimiya.” Luke groaned under his breath, resigning that he was going to have to ride his current position out for as long as it pleased Franke.

The troll simply gave him a confirming smile before looking back to the counter to gently move any loose, fragile lab materials safely out of the way. It was obvious from her expression that she had seen exactly how much that stunt had annoyed him, and that she knew this was going to make him both angrier and more receptive. To Luke, however, the irritating inconsistency of her behavior throughout this whole thing really wasn't making much sense.

“Now, then…” Franke began, gently unbuttoning her lab coat with one hand and brushing it out of the way. “My, dear, I told you that I called you here so that you may be given a chance to adjust your behavior and rectify your actions- to which you have agreed, yes?” she said with a light, knowing smile, now stroking the blonde hair in her hand rather than yanking it.

Luke already knew where this was going, and Franke’s confident posture as she moved aside the opening of her lab coat all but confirmed it. Of course, with how things were going now, she wasn’t going to make it so easy on him- not unless he fully complied with her game. He nodded. “Yes.”

“Then it is time that mouth of yours be put to better use than your cute little jokes, Wilson. I am sure you know what to do by now.”

The human huffed, eyes rolling as the heat began to return once more to his face. There weren’t any cameras here, were there? Surely, Franke would have determined well beforehand if there were. At least, that was what he hoped. He extended his hand gently, sliding his palm slowly up Franke’s thigh before allowing it to gently come to rest on the stiff crotch of her work pants.

“Wilson,” Franke sternly called, her hand suddenly clutching at his hair once more and yanking his head back. “I do not recall hearing you ask first.”

“Are you-“ Luke began, but quickly cut himself off, because he knew exactly how serious she was. He sighed internally in frustration, biting his lip to get control of himself. It was a humiliating experience, and one that Franke had clearly been planning for some time- as she seemed to know every angle. Just as well, she also knew Luke- and just how he would respond to such treatment- and as much as he might have hated the premise, they both knew just how he felt about the situation from the bulge that had been visible in his pants for some time now.

“Can I…” No, that was wrong. “May I?”

“Unbutton me.” Franke commanded in response.

Luke’s moved to do as directed, his hands first working to unbuckle the familiar, generic leather belt before gently unbuttoning the notch of her pants and zipping them down. His eyes widened. Where Luke had felt himself getting aroused, Franke had clearly been hard for quite some time- twitching, even, and two significant wet spots of pre were evident around the taut fabric of her good lingerie. Clean, black lace that accentuated what little curves Franke actually had- her figure finely shaped in an expensive garterbelt that stretched over a silk black pair of panties with navy trim. One such spot around her nook was soaked through, and another surrounding the clearly burgeoning head of her cock. The scent of sex was sudden and immediate, and made Luke’s own length strain in his pants by instinct.

“I have had the good graces to prepare for you, Wilson.” Franke commented after noticing her partner’s response to her undergarments. Directing him by hand, and without asking, Franke guided Luke’s face to collide with her crotch, the human’s stark warmth immediately drawing a contented sigh from the troll as his face connected with her nook through the lingerie. “I expect your best effort. Do not disappoint me.”

Luke breathed in her scent, extending a warm, wet tongue to roughly go over the soaked fabric along the outline of her entrance to the underside of her balls and shaft. “I see you were expecting me to indulge you.” He breathed against her cool skin, lips gently nipping at the fabric where her head twitched in excitement.

“I knew you would. I know you,” She replied as if the idea was more of a joke. “We both know how much you enjoy being used.”

“I don’t know anything,” Luke defended, still adamant in the idea that he hadn’t completely surrendered himself to her.

“Well, that much was clear from your reports.” Franke chirped, her thighs temporarily tightening around Luke’s head to force his face to grate against her nook. “But I am still not impressed. I am not convinced that you are truly grateful for this opportunity.”

Luke abided, grinding his tongue once more against the folds of her nook and the skin around it, soliciting a mild, but almost apathetic response from her. “Why don’t you instruct me, then?” He asked, flashing his eyes up at hers.

“Yes, I think that would suit you best. You may free yourself.” She suggested, curious to see just how excited Luke was in a manner that he wouldn’t be able to hide from her. Luke didn’t need to be told twice, and quickly fumbled open his belt buckle and button-down pants to allow his own length to emerge. Clearly, Franke’s suspicions were validated, as she was not the only one who had been excited. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Now, Wilson, I could keep telling you what to do, but I do not think that would be very productive. You are here to learn, after all.” Her eyes flickered over him, deciding that she was ready to really start having fun. “What do you think you should do?”

Luke considered the question for a moment, determining that this wasn’t some elaborate trick before answering. “Why don’t I serve you properly?”

Franke’s legs tightened in response, allowing Luke to finally hook his fingers into her underwear and pull them down properly to expose her length in its entirety. The troll shuddered, feeling her unattended sex so close to the warmth of her partner that she was tempted to take him right then and there. Of course, that would ruin her lesson plan. Franke reached down to take her own cock in her hand, finally having the chance to touch herself after some few nights of picturing this exact scenario. She wanted it to be special. It was.

Luke continued to kneel submissively under her, patiently waiting for any further instruction before making any movements- lest his hair be on the receiving end of another unfortunate tug.

“Wilson,” she called flatly to him, black glove stroking her thick, growing cock in front of his face. “Do you want to please me?”

“I do,” Luke replied.

“Then beg,” She growled.

It was excruciating, the things that Franke was having him do as she calculatingly stroked her length only centimeters from his blushing face. Yet, here he was, on his knees and eager for her- eager to be so roundly taken for her pleasure. Ready to beg for it as his chest bled from a wound of her own creation.

“I…” he trailed, eyes shutting in frustration and disbelief. “Beg?”

“Do not waste my time.”

Luke nodded, his hands slowly raising to rest on her thighs as her cock twitched before him- his own dick flexing below, unattended and in need. “I’m sorry for the frustration I’ve caused you,” he breathed, his hot breath colliding against her skin and eyes glazing up to meet her own. “I can make up for it, if you’ll allow me to, Miss Kimiya.”

“Do you want to, though, Wilson? What am I to you?”

“I want to. It’s all I want.”

“Oh?”

“I want to serve you. I want to be under you.”

“But you already are under me, are you not? It is important that you understand this.”

“I do. I know.”

“You are mine, Wilson.”

“Yes.”

“Completely.”

“I’m all yours, darling.”

“That is much better, my dear.” The sultry scientist taunted Luke, her gloves smelling of chemicals and disinfectant as her fingers pried between his lips to forcefully hold his mouth open. “My own little whore, you look so perfect where you are.” Franke sighed contentedly as she toyed with the human, finally tracing the top of her slick, salty cockhead along the warmth of his lips. In the moment, Luke could do little bit glare up at her with squinting, submissive blue eyes- her actions so uncharacteristically confident and rehearsed that she must have been planning this whole thing since god knows when. As if on cue, Franke looked down to meet the human's gaze with an expression that gave little doubt as to how much she was enjoying his obedience, and with a very unsterile and surprising gesture, spat squarely down onto his cheek to mark him even further.

Luke and Franke had been quite engaged with each other physically in the past, but Franke had never done that- and in the moment of shock when Luke was unsure of how to process what had just happened, Franke took the opportunity to welcome herself freely into Luke's mouth. "Perfect," the troll flatly exhaled as the ridge of her head slipped past his warm pre-coated lips. "I understand that you may find this treatment unbecoming, Wilson, but I trust that you likely enjoy it anyway. Am I right?" Franke further taunted her partner as she forced him to take more of her, her fingers leaving his mouth to pat his cheek where she had previously spat. "But be that as it may, dear, I would like you to consider this moment the next time you think you can criticize my methodology in front of our colleagues. I want you to remember this taste. Savor it."

Franke seemed to open up, her pace gently quickening as the barrier of formal decency and convention had been solidly broken. "I want you to remember the texture of my seed on your tongue. You are going to give yourself to me completely and unequivocally, because that is what you are good for. That is why I chose you, Wilson. Because now you and your little resolve continuously insist on distracting me." Franke grinned, forcing Luke’s head slowly, but surely closer to her as his practiced lips progressively took her length. Tears welled up around his eyes as he lustily stared up at his scientist partner, who bucked her hips back ever gently to allow him just enough time and room to breathe. Her eyes were piercing and powerful as she glared down at his perfect, vulnerable face with a satisfied grin. "And you just look so lovely- you look wonderful where you are, my dear.” Franke's words echoed like a stream of music through Luke's mind, the cutting pangs of intimacy, trust, and praise dancing like knives in a conflicting battle between his pride and his desire. He wetly hummed around her length as she pulled his head so deeply forward as to touch his nose to the neatly trimmed triangle of black pubic hair above her shaft. Now she had choked him twice- this time all the way to the back of his throat.

This time, however, Luke had intentionally submitted himself to this treatment. She gripped Luke's face and pressed his head against her pelvis to prevent him from rising any further, but he did not budge, the disorienting high he was experiencing more than enough to keep his motivation and stifle his gag reflex, which Franke knew was already a feature he had trained away. Finally satisfied with his display of servitude, the troll relinquished her grasp on him, her hand reaching up to taste an index finger that was now covered in a mixture of genetic material and saliva. Luke flinched, but did not waver as he held himself there for her, his mouth contorting around the girthy, invading appendage before drawing his head back off with a horribly lewd and unbecoming slurp. Once more, the human gasped for air in a daze, looking up at his kismesis with lidded, vulnerable eyes as a web of viscous, teal-tinted strings still connected his lips and tongue to her glans.

“Franke…” He gasped, her name itself inciting a feeling of forbidden comfort and pleasure as he leaned forward to gently tongue and kiss at her frenulum. His brows curled upwards and a cold shudder overtook his body while his mouth diligently worked along the underside of her shaft. Relishing in the visual, the troll took hold of herself again and forcefully grinded her slick girth against his face, further staining his pink skin with varying shades of teal as her hips bucked roughly into him. Luke remained devout on his knees as she toyed with his face, at one point even slapping his cheek multiple times with the widest point of her girth.

“Suck,” she ordered, further forcing him downwards to attend to the smooth skin of the two delicate balls that hung below her. Luke obeyed without further instruction, taking her delicately into his mouth and carefully lavishing her cold anatomy with warm, salivating praise. He could feel Franke continue to stroke herself as he did so, the sound of which was now slick and wet with the fluids he had so eagerly drawn from her. His partner hummed in approval, her foot idly moving to place the flat of her heel flush against Luke’s own cock, soliciting a moan from him as he bathed her. Franke stroked herself slowly, but firmly, moving her length slightly to the right so that she may properly take in the sight of her partner’s worship.

“Look at me, Wilson,” she further instructed, hips temporarily ceasing to roll against his face. Luke’s eyes carefully flickered upwards; his left eyelid partially closed to avoid the stinging intrusion of the genetic material that she had previously painted him with. He could see in Franke’s eyes the usual domineering gaze, the distinctive Alternian satisfaction in a successful conquest written in her retina. But there was something else. In her wide, lusty pupils there was an undeniable and overwhelming look of infatuation. Adoration. Love.

Love that she could only just barely keep hidden. Love that demanded release.

Love that was equally reciprocated.

“Fuck,” Franke whined, her eyes slamming shut as she bit her lip, the pace of her stroke quickening. “Take me, Wilson,” she directed as Luke released her with a trained lick, moving his head back to attend to her glans. “Open your mouth.”

Luke did so, letting his lips fall open and closing one eye for protection- protection that was quickly found unnecessary as Franke took hold of his head once more and roughly fed herself into him. The sudden movement caused Luke to gag, but the troll showed him little mercy as her hand continued to stroke her pulsating base. This was it. Franke allowed herself the luxury of an uncharismatic moan as she properly and thoroughly fucked her partner’s face, the ensuing wet mess of which was now beginning to run down Luke’s chin as he was claimed. With that, the latex grip on Luke's head tightened as her hand roughly, painfully grasped his hair one final time as she eagerly spilled her seed in the warm confines of his mouth. Her teal-flushed, grey length flexed and pulsated between his lips, pumping a sudden and salty torrent of viscous genetic material onto Luke's very human and very overwhelmed taste buds. Luke's eyes widened and shut, trying to pull away for air but ultimately failing to as his partner used his fragile throat as her own beloved receptacle. The scent and flavor of her cum dominated his senses- her frantic emissions flowing down his neck and onto the floor as he was made to swallow what he could of what she gracefully deposited in her thrusts.

“Take me, Wilson,” she repeated, her voice sultry and dazed in the glow of her climax. “Take all of me,”. Luke's eyes snapped open once more as he felt Franke's hand begin to stroke the length of his face again, her pace finally slowing into a gentle, rocking embrace as she softened between his lips. Luke lulled back, finally able to steal a breath away from the space that she had granted him in the moment. After what felt like ten minutes of this awkward, sensual, wet embrace, Franke finally withdrew herself, her cock stickily falling from Luke’s now teal face as a few excess drops of her genetic material splattered to the floor. The laboratory was silent apart from their non-harmonious gasps as they both bathed in the revelation and afterglow of the events that had just transpired.

 “I… love you too, Wilson.”

[badchoosey]

BloodBound, Book One. Chapter 1: The Interview

New York City.

Raines Corporation Headquarters, downtown Manhattan.

You sit in the sleek modern lobby, waiting for your job interview to begin. Men and women in expensive suits bustle by. 

Amazon: (Everyone looks so serious and professional… do I even have a shot? I really need this job…)

A pair of doors slide open, and a stunning woman with an icy demeanor approaches.

Nicole Anderson: Amazon?

Amazon: Yes, that’s me. 

Nicole Anderson: I’m Nicole Anderson, VP of Operations at Raines Corp. I’m ready to interview you now. 

Amazon: Oh! Uh, sure… absolutely…

Nicole Anderson: You sound surprised.

Amazon: I just wasn’t expecting to be interviewed by someone so high up in the company…

Nicole Anderson: You’re applying to be the executive assistant of our CEO, Adrian Raines himself, one of the most powerful and influential men in the world. We take our hiring process very seriously. 

Amazon: Of course! I totally understand!

Trying to keep up a confident look, you follow Nicole into a sterile conference room. 

Nicole Anderson: Now then. The Raines Corporation is a global leader in technology and innovation. Why exactly are you interested in being the executive assistant to our CEO?

Amazon: Look, I’m not going to lie. The pay here is through the roof, and I need the money bad. I’m drowning in student loans, I still owe my roommate half of last month’s rent, and I’m a little worried I’m going to get scurvy from living off expired ramen. No one in the city is offering the kind of money you are. And I’ll do anything for it. 

Nicole Anderson: An unusually candid answer. I suppose there’s something to be said for that…

Just then, the door at the back of the room swings open, and a handsome man in a perfectly-tailored suit strolls in. His eyes sparkle with a cold intelligence as he assesses you. 

Nicole Anderson: Adrian. I wasn’t expecting you…

Adrian Raines: I had a free minute. Is this the candidate?

Nicole Anderson: Yes… but I’ve just started the interview and--

Adrian Raines: I’ll take over from here. 

Nicole Anderson: … Of course, sir. Go right ahead. 

Adrian pulls up a seat opposite you. It’s like his eyes are burning right through you. 

Adrian Raines: Amazon, is it?

Amazon: That’s right. 

Adrian Raines: Tell me, Amazon. What do you desire?

Amazon: You mean… why do I want this job? Because I--

Adrian Raines: I didn’t ask why you want this job. I asked what you desire.

Amazon: I desire power. 

Adrian cocks an eyebrow.

Adrian Raines: Really?

Amazon: I want control over my life. I want to make my own choices. I want the power to do what I want, when I want, how I want. 

Adrian Raines: I’m impressed with your honesty. 

Amazon: Hey, you asked, right?

He looks down at your resume. 

Adrian Raines: Let’s see here. Graduated college a year ago… Bachelor’s in Communications… interned at Mannon Financial… Volunteered in San Trobida abroad for a year.

Amazon: Yep. That’s right.

Adrian Raines: And how was that? Tell me in three words. 

Amazon: Difficult. Enlightening. Rewarding.

Adrian Raines: Good. This job can be challenging and unpredictable. Are you comfortable running unusual errands?

Amazon: Absolutely. 

Adrian Raines: Handling confidential information?

Amazon: I can keep a secret. 

Adrian Raines: Working nights?

Amazon: Always been a night owl. 

Adrian Raines: Good. Anything else I should know about you?

Amazon: I have a great memory.

Adrian Raines: Oh? What was the first thing I said when I walked in?

Amazon: Look, I’m Adrian. Howdy howdy howdy.

Adrian Raines: I definitely did not say ‘howdy’. 

Amazon: Okay, so my memory’s not great… but I’m hilarious, right?

Adrian Raines: I’ll give you that. One last question. 

He leans forward, hands folded together on the table. His expression is intense, impenetrable. 

Adrian Raines: A long time ago, there lived a man in a distant village. He had a good enough life… a wife, three kids, a village of friends, a plot of land to call his own. But one day, while plowing his field, he found a buried lamp. And when he rubbed it, a genie appeared and gave him three wishes. For the first wish, he asked for great wealth. A pile of gold appeared all around him. But the rest of the village suffered instantly. Their crops withered, wells dried, larders went empty. 

Amazon: Mmhmm..

Adrian Raines: Next, the man wished for immortality. The genie granted it… but when he ran into his house, his wife and children were all dead. 

Amazon: Okay…

Adrian pauses, stares into your eyes, searching, intense…

Adrian Raines: Tell me, Amazon. What should the man ask for, for his third and final wish?

Amazon: He should choose to undo his last two wishes. 

Adrian Raines: Because…?

Amazon: Because he’d already had all he really wanted or needed. It’s a story about greed and temptation. There’s no way for the man to win, because he should never have played this game. All he can hope for is to bring things back to the way they were. 

Adrian nods thoughtfully, momentarily far away… He pauses, deep in thought, fingers steepled… and grins. 

Adrian Raines: You’re hired. 

Amazon: Wh… what? Seriously?

Adrian extends his hand, and you take it. His grip is firm, his skin impossibly smooth. 

Adrian Raines: Welcome to the Raines Corporation. 

Nicole Anderson: But… we have fifteen more candidates! We haven’t even--

Adrian Raines: This is the one. 

Nicole Anderson: … Of course. Understood. 

Amazon: Mr. Raines, sir, I--

Adrian Raines: Call me Adrian. 

Amazon: Adrian, I’m just… so honored for this opportunity! I promise I won’t let you down.

Adrian Raines: Good. Because I take promises very seriously. 

Amazon: When do I start?

Adrian Raines: Right now. 

Nicole leaves to process your paperwork, and Adrian escorts you towards a glistening, shiny elevator… You step inside, and Adrian presses his keycard to a scanner to make a display with buttons appear. He presses one labeled ‘Executive Office’. 

Amazon: So… is this your own private elevator?

Adrian Raines: Yes. 

Amazon: Wow…

Adrian Raines: It’s not as pretentious as you might think. Sometimes it’s necessary for me to get around the building quickly. 

Amazon: Oh, I didn’t mean… I understand you’re a busy person. 

Adrian Raines: One of your jobs is to help me be more efficient so I can get more done. My previous assistant… she didn’t understand that.

Amazon: Is that why she’s no longer… with the company?

Something unexpected passes in Adrian’s eyes. Guilt?

Adrian Raines: … Among other reasons. 

Adrian turns his steely eyes to yours, studying you almost clinically, without a word…

Amazon: (His eyes… like stars in a night sky…) I’ll do my best, sir… I mean, Adrian.

Adrian Raines: I have no doubt you will. That’s why I hired you. 

Amazon: I’m ready to hit the ground running. What’s on the agenda for today?

Adrian Raines: My schedule for the rest of the day is packed. Right now, I need to prepare for a meeting with some very important partners. 

Amazon: Got it. I’ll be sure to meet them as they arrive. 

Adrian Raines: Don’t worry about that. They’re longtime associates of mine. They’ve been here before and know where they’re going. 

Amazon: How many of them are coming?

Adrian Raines: Just two. 

Amazon: Would you like me to order some dinner for the three of you?

Adrian Raines: That won’t be necessary. But there is one thing I’d like for you to do. 

Amazon: Of course. 

Adrian Raines: My guests are formidable people, at the height of power in their fields. And I’m conducting some delicate negotiations… So I wanted to welcome them with some memorable gifts. 

Amazon: No problem. Would you like me to run out and shop for some special items? I can shop like nobody’s business. Especially with someone else’s money. I’m seriously like, semi-pro. 

Adrian Raines: I’ve actually already personally selected a few… unique things. All you need to do is pick them up for me. 

Amazon: Absolutely. 

The elevator stops at the top floor and the doors open to reveal the lobby outside Adrian’s office. 

Adrian Raines: This’ll be your desk. 

Amazon: Wow. 

You step towards it, but Adrian stops you. 

Adrian Raines: You’ll be going back down. All the way down… to the basement archives. 

Amazon: Is… that where the gifts are?

Adrian Raines: Yes. They should have everything ready for you. Afterwards, come find me on the 75th floor conference center. Just be prepared… The archive clerk can be a bit… unusual.

Adrian reaches into the elevator and pushes ‘B’ for basement…

Amazon: ‘Unusual’? Wait, is this some kind of test?

Adrian doesn’t answer, just steps back out and smiles faintly as the doors close… The elevator descends, down, down, down…

You exit the elevator and find yourself in the basement archives.

Amazon: Um… okay… not what I expected…

Archive Clerk: What are you doing here?

Amazon: Whoa!

You’re startled by an old clerk with a deep scowl and an old-fashioned suit. You gather your composure and offer your hand. He doesn’t shake it. 

Amazon: This is a test, right? This has to be a test. 

Archive Clerk: I have no idea what you’re talking about. 

Amazon: Right. I’m here to pick up some items for Mr. Raines…. Some gifts he requested for his guests?

Archive Clerk: Do you have an authorization form?

Amazon: Authorization? No, I…

He turns on his heel and hunches away…

Amazon: Wait! I’m so sorry, sir! Please, just give me a moment. 

The clerk stops and turns around. 

Archive Clerk: You’ve got one moment. 

Amazon: I’m Mr. Raines’ new assistant. I just started today. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I needed an authorization form, but Mr. Raines himself requested that I come speak to you directly. Thank you for letting me know the proper procedure. I’ll be sure to follow it next time, but Mr. Raines is expecting these items. I don’t want to get fired before I even get a chance to prove myself. 

The clerk doesn’t answer. He just grunts and disappears down a dark aisle of shelves. 

Amazon: (Please, please, please let that have worked… Maybe I should’ve cried a little?)

A few moments later, the clerk reappears with a carved wooden box in his hands. 

Amazon: Is that… everything?

Archive Clerk: It contains three things. Do not get it wrong. 

Amazon: Get what wrong?

He reaches into the box and pulls out an elaborately engraved silver dagger. 

Amazon: Um. 

Archive Clerk: The dagger is for Mr. Castellanos. It’s from the 14th century. 

Amazon: Like… the for real 14th century?

Archive Clerk: Do I look like I play jokes?

Amazon: No. I was just expecting like… a fancy pen with a Raines Corp logo or something. 

He carefully places the dagger back in the box, and next takes out a gold Egyptian scarab beetle, encrusted with precious stones. 

Amazon: That’s… beautiful. 

Archive Clerk: This scarab is 2100 years old. 

Amazon: Like…

Archive Clerk: For real 2100 years. 

Amazon: Holy… I studied these in a history class…

Archive Clerk: It is intended for Ms. Sayeed. 

Amazon: Got it. Anything else?

The clerk pulls one last item from the box: a tiny glass vial filled with a red powder and sealed with a tiny cork. 

Archive Clerk: Mandrake extract. That is something Mr. Raines requested for himself. 

Amazon: Dagger, scarab, mandrake… I’ve got it. 

The clerk nods and hands you the box. 

Archive Clerk: Godspeed. 

He turns and disappears down a dark corridor. 

Amazon: Okay… Thank you, bye… 

From down the corridor, you hear him muttering…

Amazon: (Well, that was incredibly weird. What is the deal with this place?)

You get back in the elevator, carefully cradling the box and its precious contents. As you ride up in the elevator, you pull your phone out of your pocket with one hand and search ‘mandrake extract’. 

Phone:

Mandrake extract is hallucinogenic and narcotic. It was historically used to treat melancholy. In large doses, however, it can induce delirium or unconsciousness.

Amazon: (Okay, like… at what point do I get alarmed?)

You slide the phone in your pocket and pull out the mandrake vial. You hold it up to the light, examining it. The red powder is refined, silky, mysterious…

The elevator arrives. You tuck the vial into your pocket and knock on the door of the conference room. Adrian lets you in. 

Adrian Raines: Excellent, Amazon. Come in please…

You see two other people seated at the massive table. A stunningly elegant woman with an intense gaze and a sweaty, older man who looks you up and down with hungry eyes…

Adrian Raines: This is Amazon, my new assistant. 

Kamilah Sayeed: You do go through them rather quickly…

Adrian Raines: Amazon, this is Kamilah Sayeed, CEO of Ahmanet Financial.

You reach over to shake Kamilah’s hand, but she dismisses it with a curt nod. 

Adrian Raines: Kamilah is a brilliant and fascinating woman, but warmth is not her forte. 

Kamilah rolls her eyes at him. 

Lester Castellanos: I, on the other hand, would be more than happy to shake your hand, gorgeous…

Adrian Raines: … And this is Lester Castellanos, of Castellanos Meats. 

Lester rises and grasps your hand in his. With his other hand, he reaches out and strokes your forearm gently…

Lester Castellanos: What a beautiful, beautiful girl…

Amazon: Whooo… Um… Adrian….?

You look over to Adrian, alarm in your eyes…

Fast, impossibly fast, Adrian crosses the room, grabs Lester’s wrist, and slams his hand into the table with a crack. 

Adrian Raines: Hands to yourself, Lester. 

Kamilah Sayeed: Lester, please, come join us in the 21st century. This sort of conduct is so tiresome. 

With a scowl, Lester jerks his hand back and cradles it. 

Adrian Raines: Amazon, I apologize for Lester’s behaviour, since he doesn’t have the manners to do it himself. Are you okay?

Amazon: Yes, thank you. 

Adrian Raines: Back to business. To commemorate our partnership, I have chosen some small gifts for you. Amazon, can you do the honors?

Amazon: Absolutely…

You reach into the wooden box and pull out the bejeweled scarab.

Amazon: This scarab is for Lester Castellanos. 

Adrian Raines: Ahem…

You look to Adrian, he subtly tilts his head towards Kamilah. 

Amazon: So sorry. My mistake. This is actually meant for Kamilah. 

Lester Castellanos: What a tease you are, Amazon…

Amazon: So sorry. (sorrynotsorry.)

You hand the scarab to Kamilah. Kamilah turns it over in her hands, admiring it. 

Kamilah Sayeed: Ptolemaic Dynasty. Very nice, Adrian. 

Adrian Raines: I thought you’d appreciate it. 

Amazon: The scarab is a symbol of rebirth, if I’m recalling my college class correctly?

Kamilah glances up at you, as if really noticing you for the first time. Your eyes meet. Hers are brown, the deepest, most beautiful brown you’ve seen… like you could lose yourself in them…

Amazon: (What…)

Lester loudly clears his throat, pulling you out of the moment. 

Lester Castellanos: Lovely. Poetic. But what do I get?

You pull the dagger from the wooden box. 

Lester Castellanos: Ooo… angel with a switchblade! I’m in love. 

Kamilah Sayeed: For god’s sake…

Amazon: Actually, it’s an antiquity from the 14th century… and it’s for you, Mr. Castellanos. 

Lester Castellanos: Please, call me Lester. Or Daddy. Whichever you prefer. 

He takes the dagger, facetiously making a point not to touch your hand as he does. 

Lester Castellanos: Thank you, Adrian. And did you see, I minded my manners!

Adrian Raines: Congratulations, Lester. You did the bare minimum not to be walking slime. Thank you, Amazon. You may go. 

Amazon: Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be at my desk. 

You leave the room. 

Amazon: (Blech, what a creep. Though Kamilah seems pretty cool… I’m just glad I made it through that without being fired!)

You head to your desk and wait for the meeting to be over, and text your roommate Lily. 

Amazon - It’s getting late and they’re still in there. This = weird. Do I stay or come home?

Lily Spencer - It’s your first day. Stay. It’s not like you have plans. 

Amazon - Yeah… I guess he did say I’d have to work some nights…

Lily Spencer - Careful w/ that. Been more weird attacks all over the city…

Amazon - More?

Lily Spencer - Yeah…

Amazon - Ugh, so creepy. What are you up to tonight?

Lily Spencer - Date night w/ Melanie

Amazon - Sexay…. Have fun, you be safe too. Gotta go! Later!

You hear the door to the conference room opening, and hear Adrian saying goodbye to Kamilah and Lester. You tuck your phone back in your bag as Adrian approaches your desk. 

Adrian Raines: You’re still here?

Amazon: Well, I wasn’t sure if you still needed me, so… How was the meeting?

Adrian Raines: … Satisfactory. 

Amazon: Fair… enough. So… is there anything else I can do for you, or…

Adrian Raines: No, you’re welcome to go home. I don’t want to keep you any later. But…

Amazon: But?

He hesitates for once… as if thinking it carefully over… 

Adrian Raines: I make it a point to get to know my new employees. Especially those I’ll be working closely with. There’s a restaurant I was planning to go to tonight. One of the finest in the city. Perhaps you’d care to join me for dinner? If you’re not busy that is. 

Amazon: I… have other plans. 

Adrian Raines: Ah, I understand. That’s too bad… Another time, perhaps. Thank you very much for your help today. Have a good night, Amazon. 

He smiles, and there’s a surprising kindness to him, for just a second. 

Adrian Raines: I look forward to working with you. 

Amazon: Yeah. Me too. 

You grab your bag and head out. A little while later, you arrive back at your apartment. Your roommate Lily is there, hanging out on the couch playing a videogame… 

Lily Spencer: Gold medal for kills… gold medal for damage done. Play of the game…. The real Play of the Game would be getting McCree and Hanzo to kiss…

Amazon: Happy as I am to see you crushing it, didn’t you have a date with Melanie tonight?

Lily Spencer: Still waiting for her to text me… 

Amazon: Oh… 

Lily Spencer: Forget it! Tell me all about the new job!

Amazon: It was good. 

Lily Spencer: Awesome! Overly Excited Roommate High-Five!

You emphatically high-five Lily. 

Lily Spencer: Dude, no one deserves a break more than you. 

Amazon: Yeah, yeah. You’re just happy I can make rent. 

Lily Spencer: Not gonna lie, that’s a perk. Well, let’s toast to you being gainfully employed, and… wait, what’s your actual job anyway?

Amazon: I’m assistant to the CEO. 

Lily Spencer: Wait, the CEO? Like Adrian Raines?

Amazon: Yeah. 

Lily Spencer: Oh snapaloosa! Tell me all about him!

Amazon: I’ll tell you everything… if you have a drink with me. 

Lily Spencer: Sure thing. Just know that Melanie is supposed to text me any minute. 

Amazon: She flakes on you all the time… 

Lily Spencer: No, she doesn’t… Okay, she does… 

Amazon: Why do you put up with it?

Lily Spencer: I don’t know. Honestly. 

Amazon: Give her the benefit of the doubt. You wouldn’t want to mess this up if she’s innocent, right?

Lily Spencer: Yeah. Right. You’re the best bestie. I love you. 

Lily hugs you. 

Lily Spencer: Now, where’s that bottle of the good stuff we were saving for a rainy day?

Amazon: Or an employed day!

Lily pulls a bottle of red wine out of the back of the cupboard and opens it. 

Lily Spencer: A toast to Adrian Raines!

You laugh and grab two wine glasses from the cabinet. 

Lily Spencer: What’s he like?

Amazon: He’s super hot. 

Lily Spencer: Now that’s what I’m talking about. Dish! DISH!

Lily pours the wine into the glasses, and it flows like a red waterfall… Something about the color jars your memory.. 

Amazon: Oh no… wait!

Lily Spencer: What?!

Amazon: The red mandrake!

Lily Spencer: Red mandrake? Are you into magic now? Because I am always down for a Buffy marathon…

You pull the small glass vial of red powder out of your pocket. 

Amazon: I forgot to give it to Adrian!

You throw your jacket on and grab your bag. 

Amazon: Sorry, sorry, I have to go!

You rush out into the night, leaving Lily alone. 

Lily Spencer: So… I realize I poured this for us to drink together… but some poor grapes gave their lives for this wine and it would be a tragedy to waste it…

Lily drinks her wine. And yours. 

You dash back to the office, begging the security guard to let you in, and take the elevator back to your desk. You see a crack of faint light under the door to Adrian’s office, just beyond… 

Amazon: (Phew, he’s still here…)

You push his office door open… 

Amazon: Adrian… Oh my god!

Adrian cranes his head up from the body of his VP, staring at you… 

Amazon: AHHHHHHHH!

[miafewings775-blog]

I Need Software To Convert Mp3 ToMidi

Melody Scanner is the most powerful software to automatically transcribe your favorite songs to sheet music. Set the path of output file and at last click on Run" to start to convert MIDI to MP3. After selecting the proper profile, click on the Browse button and select your vacation spot folder and the name of the brand new MP3 file that will probably be created. The WIDI is out there both in trial and commercial version. With trial version,n you possibly can solely convert 10 seconds long audio whereas to do the complete conversion you want a commercial model. Crimson Sizzling Jazz Archive - A historical past of Jazz earlier than 1930 with over 2,000 songs in Real Audio 3 format, a whole lot of biographies and discographies of Jazz musicians. Data, bands, films, essays, musicians and search. Not like regular audio recordsdata like MP3 or WAV recordsdata, MIDI files do not comprise actual audio data and are therefore a lot smaller in size. For instance, a MID file can clarify what notes are performed, when they're played, and how long or loud each be aware must be. So, as you'll be able to see from above, the soundbank makes quite a big distinction in how the music sounds, so our first step will be obtaining Microsoft's soundbank. Luckily, this may be discovered within the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers folder- Go there (Type it in to the tackle bar in Windows Explorer if you have to), and duplicate it someplace more handy, just like the Desktop. iTunes is not suitable with as many file varieties and would not convert as quick as one of the best products we tested. However, if you want to import lossless recordsdata to iTunes as lossy information to avoid wasting disk space, there is not any reason to make use of another program. iTunes converts to only four file formats: MP3, Apple Lossless Encoder, AIFF and WAV. Also, if the file you might be changing has DRM (Digital Rights Administration), iTunes cannot convert it because doing so would remove the DRM. 01. As step one, you should obtain and install Audacity. The, you need to launch the software program and prepare to transform the files. Now, start the method just by urgent on the File" and Open" to import the MP3 file to convert. If not, you may easily drag and drop the information into the interface. Then, it is best to click on the button labeled Play".

MP3 to MIDI conversion doesn't merely imply a conversion of audio format. MP3 is the preferred audio format by any music participant. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (briefly MIDI) is a technical normal not like MP3 (an audio format). MIDI will be specified utilizing pitch, velocity, notation, cues, clock signals, free midi to mp3 converter скачать tempo and many others. MIDI was invented to unite musical devices and make every musical instrument appropriate. The MIDI file can't be played again instantly as it incorporates no audio. It only incorporates details about which keys had been pressed, and the way onerous they had been pressed. Step 2:В Then, www.magicaudiotools.com upload the MP3 audio files by clicking the Upload" recordsdata or just dragging a file to the interface. The consumer may get a notice like: "midi file can't be efficiently exported if the rating accommodates repeats and Free midi to mp3 converter скачать multiple lyric line." when they try to export such a score to midi. Then they should be offered the choice to have the software program re-save the rating to a linear score and THEN export it to midi.Click Convert button to transfer your file and this online MP3 to MIDI converter will send the end result to your e-mail. SoundFont help. MIDI file will sounds totally different depending from selected SoundFont. After transcribing your music, you can ship it directly to Sibelius or put it aside as a MusicXML, NIFF, or MIDI file for use in most different music applications. You can too print an expert-quality score directly from AudioScore.I apologise to those reading my previous posts as I should have replied with: No, you can't turn the MP3 into MIDI as a result of MIDI is proscribed by the playback system's pattern collection. If you wish to convert MP3 to MIDI on-line, Convert Cat is also a sensible choice. In contrast with the previous, Convert Cat is more person-friendly as its interface is clean and more comprehensible.Thus, you will have sensible opportunity to create an album of your favorite MIDI compositions carried out in any tempo. Chances are you'll record solely solo elements with out association and many other variants. These opportunities are sometimes utilized by the music teachers creating instructing books on CD for their students. Freemake has a restricted number of export codecs, and it is slow. Nonetheless, the consumer interface is simple to navigate and you may download the full model for free.

[aliexpresspro-blog]

Bang for Your Buck With Mobile Coupons

Mobile has surfaced on the scene quicker than any other new moderate within the previous 90 decades and cellular coupons would be the category to see, based Borrell Associate's"2010 Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions Forecast," (Mobile Commerce Daily newsletter, April 2010).

A recent poll of over 2,250 U.S. adult Internet users, conducted by Harris Interactive, found that almost half (46 percent ) who have a cell telephone are somewhat inclined to test mobile coupons. Mobile coupon redemption rates averages are 10 times greater than conventional coupon and with cellular phone penetration in the U.S. well over 90 percent, it's the one most direct advertising channel there's. Mobile vouchers are only going to have increasingly popular.

Mobile Coupons

Mobile voucher are, consent based promotions where retailers send digital vouchers into some readers' mobile phones. Unlike other forms of electronic couponing (email / web) mobile coupons are read instantly with a 95% read rate. Mobile coupons may be delivered in a verity of digital forms, such as QR or data matrix barcodes, Universal Product Code (UPC), or via unique coupon code. The coupons can then be redeemed through special barcode scanners that read them or by inputting the unique number to a relevant website or a point-of-sale (POS) machine that prints out a paper coupon. Typically with small businesses the customer is required to simply showing the coupon at a retail outlet or restaurant to redeem the coupon.

Benefits of Mobile Coupons vs Traditional Coupon

Mobile coupons (m-coupons) are much more efficient in both delivery and cost than paper coupons. Using newspapers and coupon books sent through the U.S. mail do not offer any direct link between your business and the person who uses the coupon. A legitimate mobile coupon campaign is permission based, another words, there is a direct connection between your business offering the mobile coupon and the person choosing to use it. Thus, advertising and promotions using mobile coupons have a higher value and offer a direct link to the person using the coupons. For this reason mobile coupon promotions make for a great loyalty program.

In comparison, paper coupons cost anywhere between $0.25 and $0.40 per mailed coupon, with average redemption rates of around 1-3 percent, according to Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm. According to Frost & Sullivan, effective m-coupon solutions can benefit from high redemption rates. Email coupons have a redemption rate of 8 percent but lack the instant open rate of M-Coupons. For example, in August we launched a multi-channel campaign with Amigos Tex-Mex Restaurant which resulted in 24% redemption rate or 109 guests redeem the m-coupon, plus through a 'refer a friend campaign" we added an additional 70 new subscribers during the 30 day campaign. A&P supermarket chained launched a m-coupon campaign with double digit redemptions rates and recently iHOP's m-coupon redemption hit 12% according to Mobile Commence Daily.

Business ROI

"For companies, m-coupons supply a fantastic ROI," said Peter Conti, junior executive vice president at Borrell Associates, Richmond, VA."Redemption prices are 10 times that of email - or paper - distributed vouchers. Small companies are adapting to the cellular channel since it is cost effective and compels outcomes. By way of instance,traffics been a lite lately, it is possible to formulate and implement a m-coupon advertising in a matter of moments (no printer or mailer demanded ) and if you believe 95% of text messages have been read over a 30 minutes of receipt it is possible to see double digit results within hours, depending on the value proposition of your advertising of course. My small company customers are about average are receiving a 12-15% boost in visitors only a single station cellular advertising (not radio or print ).

Consumers Benefits

Based on Frost & Sullivan, customer expectations from cellular coupons could be outlined as follows:

Convenience of reliability - customers Don't Have to carry paper coupons together Ease of usage (redemption) No added costs to Get supplies Privacy coverage Non-intrusive voucher shipping (junk mail) Single port for multiple provides Effective storage and demonstration of delivered vouchers Automatic upgrades Enhanced interactivity alternatives Simple device requirements Challenges of Mobile Coupons

The challenges related to m-coupons are the way that it is managed to prevent misuse and the way to attain mass distribution. Unlike direct mail where you can essentially junk your neighborhood with newspaper coupons equally email and m-coupons need the consumer to provide consent or"opted into" the m-coupon campaign.

Redemption Abuse

Redemption abuse or voucher is when a guest or even a client presents exactly the identical coupon multiple occasions to redeem the offer. Unlike newspaper vouchers, the restaurant or retailer can not actually collect the voucher upon salvation, unless they utilize bar code scanners, hence the voucher may be redeemed again and again or plotted to buddy to be utilized again. Paper coupons do not experience this issue however they've a large problem with counterfeit coupons.

In my experience most small companies I consult to create m-coupon programs do not experience broad spread abuse. Best practices demand each of promotions to have a challenging expiration date, coaching staff on the advertising as well as also the redemption requirements and monitoring the redemptions, typically with a designated"promo" key on the POS or register. Adding special coupon codes is just another very affordable way to monitor redemption though it needs your staff to document the code . The current development of QR code scanning programs, it is possible to download to a smart phone is going to be the alternative to beating the matter.

In addition, we need to remember the purpose of a marketing is to push companies and when a client gets off with redeeming a m-coupon double that means that they made two purchases, that's the purpose of this effort anyway.

Building Your "Mobile VIPs"

In order to accomplish mass distribution you want to construct your subscriber bases, the more clients that opt-in to your cell advertising and marketing program the higher your achieve, thus the higher your supply. Mobile subscriber lists aren't as simple to construct as a email list as most individuals do not have spare mobile phone numbers such as the perform email addresses. Mobile works best within a muti-channel effort. Another words, such as your brief code (6 or 5 electronic number) and key words (text"Pizza") in your print ads, Facebook webpage, site, radio campaigns and your email campaign using a distinctive value proposition for picking in key. Depending upon your current marketing plan and marketing budget, a company wants 60 to 90 days to construct a decent mobile contributor program. Restaurants that currently use mobile phone pager systems have an edge. They possess the guest mobile number so as to seat themnow they just send a follow up message that provides a marketing in the event the guests contributors to their own"Mobile VIP" app. Assembling that first data base is essential moving forward and by picking out the ideal mobile advertising partner will determine just how successful you'll be in the long term.

The Forecast

Market researchers have found a strong correlations with the rise of smart mobile users and m-coupon usage. We are aware that the iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone as the Swiss Army knife for both customers and companies as well as the adaption of smart phones will increase exponentially within the next 3 to 5 decades. In terms of cellular coupon usage, over 300 million users around the globe will have used cellular coupons by 2014 and this use will bring in a redemption worth near $6 billion worldwide, according to a prediction and report by Juniper Research. Do your clients have cellular telephones, if so provide them the chance to receive and receive your cellular coupons.

[analytiical-blog]

          Ever since the revolution began, crime rates are on the rise. The peaceful protests have inspired the more violent deviants to lash out in their own way, declaring war on mankind to prove their individual points. It was tiring, and certainly it took a toll on the police department. Everything was a high stress situation when it came to android-associated crimes, especially when the head count on humans increased with every passing day.

          Three months have gone by since Connor deviated from CyberLife’s instructions and freed the androids from their warehouse, and three months since the RK900 models have been produced, activated, and set to work; they were another wrench in his plans. In the grand scheme of things, he would protect human and android lives at any cost, even if it meant sacrificing his own life: a FEAR that haunted his conscience daily. After all, CyberLife would no longer promote the continuation of the RK800 series, or his life; there would be no guaranteed repairs.

          And yet, when presented with the opportunity of taking an undercover mission, Connor was the first to volunteer. Why bother the risk of endangering human lives when he could easily complete the mission alone? He’d be more effective and efficient, a unit to upload information straight to the department’s computers without being found out or having to sneak back to the precinct to share his findings. He could take recordings, pictures, and even share his memory of every face and conversation he comes across. It was simple, an easy job, no matter how much the lieutenant disagreed with the danger involved.

          " It’s been three weeks without a word, and you’re going to just sit there and tell me not to go looking? ”

          The Lieutenant was FURIOUS, and Captain Fowler’s irritation was clearly beginning to get the best of his patience. The department was no longer responsible for the damages of an android, no matter the model, and he was looking at the bigger picture. Since the undercover operation began, the crimes associated with the suspected group had stopped. Surely that meant Connor had been successful and would return any day now.

          “ He’s probably been busy, and we have more important things to worry about, like the Red Ice problem. ”

          A veil of silence falls between them, and Hank disrupts it by the scoot of his chair as it screeched across the floor. It was obvious to tell he wasn’t happy, especially by the way his expression twists and his brows knit. If the captain wasn’t going to be of use, then he’d go out himself. But not before sharing a few choice words as he stops in the doorway.

          “ Yeah, well, fuck you Fowler. You may not be worried about him, but he’s my partner. I’ll find him my damn self. ”

          The door slams, Hank gathers his essentials from his desk, and he storms out of the office. But what would he know of where to go? He was no android, nor was he currently partnered with one who could be of help. Panic sets in, alongside concern and frustration. There were so many questions, and nobody to answer them. That is until he remembers the news and a particular face, someone who knew Connor and may be willing to help: MARKUS. He had to find Markus, and he knew he could likely ask any android if they could set up a meeting for him.

          “ I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show up. ”

          It had only taken a few hours and a meeting place set in stone before Markus arrives, alone, and he greets Hank with a warm but wary smile. -- What was he to think of the situation? A human asking the leader of Jericho for help was such an unlikely scenario, and yet he was living it. And to think it was Hank of all people, but then again this was Connor’s partner; surely he could trust the man.

          “ When I heard that Connor might be in danger, I couldn’t refuse. What’s going on? ”

          It’d taken a good few minutes for Hank to explain everything: the case, the mission, the investigation parameters, and the people involved. He reached into his coat pocket and removed a crumpled piece of paper with an address and location written on it, handing it over to Markus for him to look at. Always old school in terms of jotting things down quickly, but he’d been in a hurry.

          “ He wouldn’t go this long without a fucking update. I know him. He’d jump at any chance to be a pain in the ass, what with his constant updates or whatever. Can’t get him to stop talking about what he finds sometimes. ”

          But as he speaks, they’re fond memories, a smile tugging at the corners of Hank’s mouth when he talks about it. -- Markus falls silent as he examines the paper, logging the address and coordinates before his internal map and GPS sets a pin. A warehouse near the outskirts of Detroit, obviously meant for taking in shipment at a port; likely lined with old crates and boxes used to house goods, shut down because of a fire many years ago. Nobody bothered to buy the building, or even attempt to repair and restore it.

          “ I have it. Let’s get going. ”

          It’s not long before they arrive, car coming to a quiet roll and halt just outside the building. It was snow-kissed and hauntingly silent, save for the whistle of the wind bleeding through cracks in the concrete structure. There’s the old creak of metalwork, an ancient wail that sings its rusted ache. Markus was the first to open the door and step out, leaning down in the doorway.

          “ You should stay here. I can’t let you get hurt on my account. ”

          But before Markus could finish, Hank was already getting out of the car. He was stubborn, but Connor was more important to him. Besides, he was the one properly armed, as evident by the click of his gun he’s already drawn even before nudging his door closed.

          “ I don’t think so. If they’re still in there, you’re gonna need me. ”

          And it’s Hank who leads without another word, gun raised and with Markus in tow. The rickety metal door sways ever so slightly with the breeze, and Hank nudges it open with his foot. It’s Markus who clicks a flashlight on, shining it over Hank’s shoulder to survey their surroundings.

          “ It looks empty. ”

          Markus said, walking past Hank into the expanse of the area. Parts of the floor and some of the empty containers were dusted with snow, a subtle hint of just how deserted the place was. Hank squinted, struggling to see. It was pitch black, and even with a flashlight he couldn’t see every corner like he’d want to. But Markus was right, the building showed no signs of life for at least a few days from what he could see.

          “ Well can’t you run your analyzing program or whatever it’s called? At least just check around to be sure. ”

          With a shrug of his shoulders, Markus did just that. First came the tint change, then the grid, and his eyes scanned the expanse of the room. Aside from a few traces of thirium here and there, nothing seemed too out of the blue until his eyes settled on one of the containers. Curious to see what was left behind, wondering if it was useful to the department’s investigation, Markus climbed up and onto the top using a smaller box as his stepping stool before pushing the lid off to reveal something more. A pause, and Markus slid into the container.

          “ Markus? ”

          There was a sinking feeling in Hank’s chest, anxiety rising up. Surely it couldn’t be, right? Connor couldn’t be dead, especially not left in this place of all things. But as Markus emerges from the container again, pulling himself up, over the edge, and back onto the smaller crate, he takes a seat and ushers Hank closer. In his hand was an audio device, the biocomponent used for hearing and recording sound. It takes a moment before he hacks it, and with a satisfying click and less satisfying screech of a microphone’s frequency, it begins to play back the non-corrupted logs.

L  O  A  D  I  N  G  ---- BOOTING SYSTEM .

Commencing System Check MODEL: RK800 MEMORY UNIT: Yellow Initializing Tactics Log Loading Geographic Data VITALS: Red REMAINING THIRIUM: 30% INTERNAL TEMPERATURE: Warm INTERNAL PRESSURE: Normal Activating IFF Activating FCS Initializing Database Connection --- FAILED Launching DPD Emergency Connection --- FAILED Activating Inertia Control System Activating Environmental Sensors ALL SYSTEMS YELLOW Combat Preparations Complete__ Initializing Audio Data   .   .   .

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 04 : 19           ▸ Re-Activation complete. System scanners reveal several failures.           ▸ All communication functions have been destroyed.           ▸ Contact with the Detroit Police Department has been severed. This is my log.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 13 : 42           ▸ I cannot detect enemy units. I have hidden within an empty shipping crate.           ▸ Escape is possible if sacrifices are made.           ▸ Further analysis reveals substantial thirium loss, aiding in malfunction.           ▸ No matter ---- it can be repaired. Like everything else.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 23 : 30           ▸ I’m cold.           ▸ Sensory systems are failing.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 34 : 12           ▸ Vision is clouded by noise.           ▸ Warnings flash and frequently appear. They scream ‘ Virus ’.           ▸ I run another test, but it is uncertain if this is a systematic error or an infection.           ▸ Of course it’s a systematic error. I can make repairs.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 36 : 03           ▸ Repairs have begun, but are proceeding... poorly.           ▸ No matter what I do, more errors show up.           ▸ I can hear footsteps now. They echo in the building.           ▸ I can fight. There’s always hope.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 39 : 40           ▸ I’m scared. They’re coming. They’re searching.           ▸ Communications are irreparable.           ▸ I want to go home.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 40 : 00           ▸ This can’t continue. I can’t stay here.           ▸ I have to run. I can hear them talk. They’re looking for me.           ▸ They mention Amanda. The mission. Their mission. Deactivation. Termination.           ▸ I don’t deserve this...           ▸ I have to find somewhere safe... safer.           ▸ I’m scared. I’m so scared.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 48 : 58           ▸ Painful.           ▸ It hurts.           ▸ Help--           ▸ Why? Stop.           ▸ Who am I?           ▸ Wrong. They’re wrong. I was wrong. I couldn’t save them.           ▸ I need to run... they know I’m here.

                              END OF TRANSMISSION. Restart?

          “ Run diagnostics. ”

          Markus uttered the command, Hank staring in disbelief, breathless. There was hope still. If he wasn’t here, then he had to have gotten away. He was somewhere else, safe, hanging on, waiting for help. He was safe, he had to be. -- The device clicks back on, and an automated voice emits from the biocomponent: Further scans reveal one final log. Would you like to proceed?

          “ Yes. Come on Connor, where are you? ”

          Hank demands in desperation, and the device screeches once more.

ELAPSED TIME: 00 : 57 : 31           ▸ Vitals are... I don’t know.           ▸ Rate of survival has reached negative numbers.           ▸ Vision is dark. It’s quiet...           ▸ Repairs have failed.           ▸ I’m tired... RK800 --- I mean... C O N N O R ? I think. ---- offline.           ▸ i dO N ‘twa NT tOSh u T d OW n .

          Static. The sound cuts out and there’s nothing left. No further logs, no further diagnostics to be made. That was the end of the transmission, of the log. Markus goes to speak, to utter hopeful words. He knew Connor was strong, but the defeat on Hank’s features tells him that this was it. The man knew Connor better than anyone, and if this was it... then there was no more hope left. It was only a matter of time before the new models had hunted Connor down and eliminate CyberLife’s biggest failure.

[mars-the-red]

Circles, chapter 2

fandom: Time Tunnel

Synopsis: Tony arrives back at Project Tic-Toc 10 years too soon, emotions ensue.

I’m tagging @effulgentpoet because she was kind enough to read the first part and just in case she wants to read the next bit; no pressure tho darling

Tony was bundled into the jeep by a still-wary Jiggs, and deposited in Medical, where he found himself unceremoniously stripped of every last stitch of clothing and sat in a gown on a paper sheet while a parade of personnel took readings of everything from the amount of potassium in his blood to how many fillings he had in his mouth. They all wore face masks and gloves. Tony recognized a few of them, but none of them recognized him.

“Where’s Doug?” he demanded, of every single nurse and doctor who took their particular toll. He got a few looks of sympathy, but one of Jiggs’s men, hand-picked to guard Tony while he was poked and prodded, warned them off of talking with a very pointed shake of his head.

“Containment protocol,” Jiggs reminded Doug, who was waiting with ever-thinning patience to speak with their guest. “You wrote half of these measures yourself. No contamination or cross-pollination of the Project. Tic-Toc Base is hallowed ground.”

“Sacrosanct, I think I said,” Doug replied. He looked up at the monitor showing the security feed of the Medical area. “It made sense at the time.”

“It makes sense now,” Jiggs said. “Anyway, I still think it’s a fairy story. Even if there is a Newman at MIT, he’s probably a shell. They would have done their homework.”

Doug grunted in reply. Maybe so, but the only way to uncover the truth would be by talking to this man. He paced a few steps, drifting along the corridor wall without really seeing it.

“Security should handle the interview,” Jiggs said.

Doug turned on his heel. “I’ll handle the interview.”

“Dr. Phillips, you’re too important to this project to put you in a room with an unverified, uncleared unknown.”

Doug pulled one hand from his pocket, held his palm to Jiggs. “He’s not going to convince any of you. I’m going to let him try to convince me. If he is who he says he is, don’t we owe him that?”

Jiggs was fingering the gun on his belt. “You numbers types are going to be the death of me.”

“We’ll try not to be.” Doug resumed his pacing.

* * *

Two hours later, the protocol shifted from discovery to maintenance. The head physician on duty called the canteen for a meal to be delivered to Medical, and Doug, who apparently ranked lower than a plate of chicken and rice, was admitted soon after.

They had put Tony in the suite for containing troublesome patients, with the minimum security of locks, not the plastic-draped and hermetically sealed suite for containing rampaging pathogens. It was a small, minimally furnished room, white tile floor and walls, bright lights, with a cot, chair, and table, where the aforementioned meal had been deposited and ignored.

Tony, wearing a pair of white scrubs, was seated at the table, head in his hands.

Security unlocked the door and held it open. Doug stepped through and it swung closed behind him, with more of a medical swoosh than a jailhouse clang. The lock turned heavily.

“I’m not your guinea pig,” Tony snapped, as soon as Doug came into the room. He picked up his head and glared. The prisoner treatment had keyed him up again. At least, after the decon shower they had forced on him, he felt cleaner than he had in weeks.

“Medical needed to check you’re not a threat to anyone on base.”

“They took a whole unit of blood. What are they checking for, vampirism?” It had made him a little light-headed, so he was perched at the table, rigidly aware of how alone he was. He wasn’t sure he could stand up to go toe to toe with Doug.

“I’m sorry. Why don’t you finish your food?”

Tony shoved the plate away from him. “I’m not hungry.”

“Come on. You’ve gotta be.”

Tony knew that tone. That sensible, friendly, I’m-just-looking-out-for-you reasonableness that Doug could suffocate you with. Tony looked down at his plate of dry chicken, salad, and rice and made a face.

Doug followed his look. “The canteen aren’t miracle workers, but it’s not that bad.”  

“Then you eat it,” Tony said.

Doug set a blue folder on the table, then swung into the chair across from him and swiped a cherry tomato off Tony’s plate. “I’m hungry, too. You know I was just heading to dinner when you showed up?”

“Sorry to spoil you plans.”

“This is a lot more interesting.” Doug bit into the tomato. It was mushy. He tried to hide the grimace. He removed a notebook and pencil from his breast pocket, flipped to a new page, and set it in front of him. “Take me through it again. Name, rank, serial number. Anything, everything we can use to corroborate this story.”

Tony did. Haltingly at first, then picking up speed. It had happened fast for him. The chair of the department calling him into his office, the interviews with bland polite men in suits. Becky had fallen away during the next few months of intense work on that fateful paper and then, out of nowhere, an invitation to defend it as his dissertation.

Doug had been there. A “special invite” to sit on the dissertation board. Tony hadn’t known who he was. He kept that to himself.

It was a rainy day in early April. They started at eight a.m. Tony drew figures and charts and chains of equations until an entire pack of chalk had turned to dust in his fingertips. The questions kept coming. By the end of the gauntlet the street lights had come on outside and he barely knew his own name, until his adviser shook his hand and said “Congratulations, Doctor Newman.”

Doug sent him home to pack. The next day they touched down in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona, under a blue sky full of brilliant sun. Tony hadn’t thought or breathed anything else since.

He knew staffing levels, layouts, equipment, even the make and model of the coffee machines in the control center. Some of the things he described were still on Doug’s wish list, to be wrangled over in endless committee meetings in DC. Some were already in play. Tony answered every question Doug lobbed at him for an hour and a half, trying to place him both in the present and the future, and at the end of it, Doug had heard enough. He was a believer.

Then it was Doug’s turn for show and tell. The test results had all come back; Doug opened the blue folder. The subject was in overall good health, with nutritional deficiencies consistent with some months of deprivation. Slight dehydration, several superficial injuries, and no marks of biological contamination.

“Do you know where the radiological contamination came from?” Doug asked, leafing through the reports. That was the only caveat on Tony’s charts, with a low impact rating.

Tony looked up at him and calculated. The radiation bath hadn’t been conceived yet.

“No,” Tony said. “Must be a by-product.”

Doug caught his hesitation. He held Tony’s eyes for a half-second too long before he finally smiled. “Well, it’s not a threat to you or anyone on station. Good news, Medical can’t see any reason to confine you here.”

Tony was regretting not eating when he had the chance. He was light-headed again. “So now what? You’ll turn me over to Security for their go?”

“No. Come with me.”

* * *

Security stood aside as Dr. Phillips escorted his guest out. Tony took the lead, subtly, guiding them out of Medical and toward the central tower space, the Atrium. He knew these corridors like the back of his hand. He sensed Doug watching his every step, and he saw the guards raise their hand to their ear pieces as he entered their range. He kept his chin held high.

Tony had no codes, no access badges, no biometrics on file, so Doug stepped up to the armored door to the Atrium. He swiped his badge, then turned his eyes to the iris scanner mounted unobtrusively in the terminal.

The doors slid open. Tony stepped out onto the footbridge, veered to the rail, and stopped dead.

The Atrium smelled of fresh paint and hot metal, sawn-off lumber and floor wax. Half of it was still under construction, hung with plastic and scaffolding.

Impossible to ignore, the pulsing, breathing power core was alive with electricity, writhing with nuclear reaction and shunted neutrons. It drew Tony’s whole attention, it drew him to lean over the railing and bathe in its mad refracting light.

Seven years ago, first laying eyes on it, it was the most beautiful thing Tony had ever seen. And in that moment, suspended above its unimaginable power, all the doubts Tony had ever had about his own sanity, his abilities, humankind’s striving against the seemingly unassailable wall of the universe and its laws, had vanished. He knew they could do anything. It was the engine of all their dreams.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Doug asked.

Tony could only nod.

The staffing complexes were still under construction, falling down into the gloom below. Tiny lights, like illuminated ants, were busy some five hundred floors below them, as construction crews dug deeper into the Arizona plate and carved out space for more offices, more laboratories, more libraries, more minds to strive toward this one inconceivable goal.

Tony finally pried himself away. A wave of dizziness crested, then subsided, as he pushed off the railing. “Where are we going?”

“My office.”

Doug’s office was a suite just above the control room. Doug waved him in and followed.

Tony took a breath. The paint smelled sharp and fresh here, too.

The outer room, where Doug had his desk, bookshelves, and seating area, also had a bank of windows overlooking the control floor. His desk was arranged to face them, and the Tunnel was dead center.

Eyes on the prize, Doug used to say.

Goodbye, work-life balance, Tony had thought then.

He thought it now, too. Doug’s office was functional. It was efficient. The furniture was new, with clean lines. Bleeding-edge design in bright woods and angles. Doug’s desk was a nod to his position; lots of drawers, and a desk top with a larger square footage than Tony’s dorm room. Files, always neatly stacked and sorted when Doug could help it . Cabinets full of identical manila folders.

Then as now, Tony was struck by how spartan it was. No pictures, no photographs, no cool rocks Doug had picked up on a whim while out hiking. A rack of plants were oxygenating the room from under a grow light, but they had no personality; Doug had let one of his assistants choose them.

Several diplomas in identical frames were hung behind his desk, but they only gave the who, what, where, when of Doug’s education. No context.

The bookshelves held a hint of life; Don Quixote in several editions, HG Wells, and Conan Doyle, plus a fair spread of the Western canon. Theory featured heavily, and Tony, who had never been much for reading when he could be doing, had once gotten the grand tour. Mathematicians, of course, and philosophers, and historians. And mathematicians playing philosopher, and philosophers playing historian. A busy little section on astronomy that served as a lending library of sorts; Tic Toc Base was situated under some of the darkest skies left in North America, and there were plenty of amateur and professional astronomers in their ranks. Doug had an antique telescope in a leather case propped in the corner. His father’s name was embossed on the strap.

Apart from the bookshelves, the only truly personal touch was the ring on Doug’s small finger, a souvenir from his very brief stint in the Army. He said the brass in Washington liked to see it; but he wore it all the time, so Tony figured that time in the forces was still important to Doug, even when he went back to civilian life.

Tony was familiar with all this. He had stood in this office - and sat, and eaten, and slept - a hundred times. But today he looked around with fresh eyes. Doug had been this obsessed, this driven, this… singular… from the very first days.

Tony looked at the Doug standing beside him. Doug was about his age, Tony realized with a burst of shock. No lines, no gray in his hair, a touch more trim, with basic training not so many years behind. More youthful, physically, but the same eternal, slightly estranged soul.

Tony tilted his head when he realized Doug was staring back at him. “What?”

“I keep thinking I might recognize you,” Doug admitted. “If I just look hard enough.”

“You won’t. We haven’t met yet.” Tony’s brain had finally absorbed that. It had a rather chilling effect: for all he thought knew about this place and these people, they were strangers. He was in a strange land.

And if he wasn’t careful, the Doug Phillips he would come to know, the project he had given his life to see complete, might become something else. The complexity of his situation, and the care he needed to take here, were beginning to sink in.

Tony knew he had gone unfriendly and cold. But perhaps that was for the best. He needed the space in his own head to think things through.

Doug, if he noticed the shift in tone, decided not to comment on it. He directed Tony’s attention to the windows.

“How long until we complete it?” Doug asked.

Tony followed his gaze. The mouth of the Tunnel was still rough, natural rock, shrouded in ghostly plastic sheeting and thick, snaking bundles of cords criss-crossed the control floor. They hadn’t gotten the final design and circuitry completed until 1964. That was six years from now.

“Soon,” Tony said.

Doug looked sidelong. “Soon?”

“That’s all I can say.”

Doug gazed out across the control room. “These last few months... we’ve hit a wall.” 

Tony crossed his arms and remained silent.

“Newman,” Doug said, and Tony barely recognized it as his own name, coming from Doug’s lips like that, “Will you help us?”

[myofficesupply]

Essential Office Supplies for Start-up Companies

The necessity of office supplies is something we all take for granted. It’s the unifying factor in business, but we never pause to consider why it is so important. Everyone uses reams of paper, pens, printer ink, and plastic files, but do we ever consider what would happen if they did not exist? A lot of organizations do not pay attention to their office supplies and instead rely on their employees to keep track of them. We generally don’t appreciate the relevance of office supplies in a work environment until we need one and do not have any on hand.

If you are looking for products, ensure they’re suited for work and have the quality and comfort you prefer. Consider the type of envelopes you will need if your company sends a lot of internal mail or the type of notepad you will need to supply if your employees are frequently on the phone.

Importance of Having Office Supplies

Productivity

You may find it rather challenging to give your company such importance to success as a comprehensive supply of offices. However, it has been found to enhance offices’ productivity.

To be able to do what your employees have to do during the day, they will require the correct tools and equipment. Even the smallest items, such as pens and a printing paper bundle, can stop or at least postpone a process.

To complete basic office tasks

Office stationery not only helps you make a good first impression and promotes employee morale, but it also helps you complete fundamental office tasks. If staff do not have the equipment or supplies they need to complete their tasks, an office can come to a halt. Paper, pens, calculators, printers, scanners, and copiers are all vital in ordinary office work, but they are especially important for administrative tasks. And you can get all these office essentials from My Office Supply, the best office essentials supplier in Qatar.

Efficiency

You can not afford these inactive moments when it comes to running your company, since they tend to build up and have a real impact on production in the long term. If they do not have access to the necessary materials and equipment, the momentum of the workflow process can be disrupted. In the end, the efficiency of the employees will be affected.

Safety

Your business should contain not only ordinary office supplies such as folders and printer ink but also safety materials. This is a requirement in your business to provide emergency aid to someone.

In general, it also clearly shows how much you regard your staff’s safety and well-being. Since they work hard to help them operate your business, the least you can do for them is to make sure that they have the resources they need to work for them.

Organization

Office supplies are critical to a company’s success, as is spending appropriately on them.

Nothing is more distressing than a disorganized business that clients are aware of. Your company must be an innovator, and if you can introduce yourself to the company, clients will flock to you. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways.

You must endeavor to change your employees’ attitudes, and the laws and regulations you desire to follow must be communicated to them.

Professional Appearance

You make a great impression on your organization by employing high-quality office supplies. It’s possible that your customers and clients do not come to your office very often, if at all, but they will notice the result regardless of what office supplies you use. They may get mail from you, for example, and if it is provided in higher-quality envelopes and printed on higher-quality paper, they are more likely to have a positive impression of your business.

Furthermore, you will be more confident in your work if you use everyday office supplies with which you can comfortably and readily operate. You can not understand it, yet it’s still there. This trust will be reflected in your clients, who believe you are aware of what you are talking about.

Cost-effective and Efficient

Office supplies include stationery, paper, printers, photocopiers, and toner, and everything that most employees require on a daily basis must be readily available if you want to make your office as efficient as possible. It is impossible to accomplish any activity without the correct equipment. It helps those with everything at their disposal to be much more effective and productive. It is a modest measure, but it can make a big difference. It is both efficient and inexpensive; there are numerous approaches to take, and the choice is entirely yours. If you prefer paper filing, go ahead and do so; if you prefer digital filing, go ahead and do so as well.

Branding

Not only will it be far easier for you to use your everyday office supplies as a brand approach for your business, but you will also do so for less money than you would if you purchased this paper mill and paid for its branding through other means.

While branding your workplace documents, you can ensure you can use their corporate colors or even the logo when there is space for it. You also have your email and phone number. It is a nice idea. You miss a huge opportunity to increase your identity with many more people if you don’t do it.

Environmentally friendly choices

Now you may get more environmentally friendly office stationery from the office essentials supplier in Qatar. You may get recycled paper and pens, markers, rubber bands, and many more things which are considerably more environmentally friendly. People react to these things and they may opt to do more business with you when they perceive you are responsible.

Essential Office Supplies for Start-up Companies

Business startups are the outcome of a vision for entrepreneurship. A business owner understands what his or her company will do and how it will do it. But in order to make this vision a reality, the fundamental demands of the workplace are often the last thing. When it comes to filling their offices with the appropriate supplies, a new CEO may know everything there is to know about economic trends or which fashion designs will be popular next spring. We, My Office Supply, one of the leading office supply suppliers in Qatar, can assist you in this area. The actual office supply essentials that any startup needs to have in its armory to get off to a good start are listed below.

Paper

Paper is the most basic but crucial component of any office on the globe. Opening a brand new package of A4 paper is incredible. In a bigger office setting, printing is a common occurrence; in fact, most employees are likely to print on a daily basis. Perhaps you might consider storing a variety of papers. Making a new business card or using glossy photo printing paper. Special and important documents may require the use of pricey printing paper.

Shredder

The paper must be destroyed as rapidly as it is created. Your firm is responsible for the information it receives. It could be personal information about an employee, a customer list, sensitive materials from a client, or a confidential letter. Information that you are in charge of getting into the wrong hands can be disastrous for your business and your clients.

Stapler

Have a stack of papers that you constantly misplace or that you require in a specific order? The stapler can help you with this. Staplers are available in many shapes and sizes, so you’ll discover one to fit your workspace properly, whether you need a smaller or more substantial one to deal with big mounds of paper files. To lighten your workstation, multiple staplers in each color of the rainbow are offered. For only a few pounds, you can purchase thousands of these, so don’t worry about running out!

Folders

Folders are an excellent investment for the workstation. Folders and files are the ideal choices for the safe and damage-free keeping of information. There are a lot of files to pick from. The bill fits into a lever arch file. Do you have to see which papers are exactly where? The transparent files are ideal. There is no excuse not to be organized with so many different files to pick from!

Pens

The pen offers us a chance to learn more in the corporate world when we have a computer for comprehensive functions. You know, writing with a pen and paper helps sharpen our minds and enhances our cognitive capabilities and motor skills. Not to mention that vital notes must be scored before they inevitably depart our brains forever. Not to mention the importance of scoring important notes before they vanish from our minds forever. When it comes to office life, one can never have too many pens!

Envelopes

Workplaces must have a well-stocked supply of envelopes, which come in a variety of sizes ranging from ordinary plain to heavy-duty padded. You want to make certain that whatever you send is secure! Envelopes do not have to be expensive. They are frequently sold in bulk quantities at inexpensive prices, making stocking up in your office a breeze.

Post It Notes

Post It Notes are great for taking notes on anything essential and attached to any surface – your computer screen, your desk – and because they are so bright and colorful, you won’t forget them! Another advantage of these small notes is that they may be adhered to and removed from any surface without leaving any stains or residue!

Hole Punch

The basic, yet handy trough punch is another superhero of the office. It is, nonetheless, critical to have a good one. Nobody enjoys stumbling through papers to leave barely half a circle on each one! You may buy three, four, and even one hole punch, undoubtedly the most popular ones, but don’t be afraid. There will be a hole punch for you, whatever your needs are!

Highlighter

Highlighters have made it easier to prepare for tests and large presentations. Available in a range of bright colors, highlighters allow you to construct color-coded file folders and eye-catching posters. Several pens feature integrated convenience grips so you can work and write chores for hours. Gel-based pens function well on thinner paper because of their superior bleed-through resistance. Light yellow models are not shadowy, so they can cleanly copy papers without any crucial features that are obscured or blurred.

Binder Clips

Binder clips are ideal when rubber bands don’t have adequate strength, staples are not ideal and the tape is too chaotic. Clips are used to keep documents together, close open snack packs, and serve as bookmarks. Mini binder clips can be used to secure tablecloths, prop up keyboards, and straighten computer wires. Binder clips are important office essentials that can be used to prepare, organize, and display information for a variety of jobs. The adaptable clips include a unique shape, strong clasping strength, and a long-lasting design.

You should also be very concerned about the firm from whom you get your office supplies. Some agencies simply purchase anything out of stock from random local stationers. On the other hand, certain companies give the initial company listed with an annual office supply contract. Both of them are inadequate. Only reliable and reputable companies should be selected, such as My Office Supply, which is one of the leading office supply suppliers in Qatar.

We tailor our services to guarantee that our customers can get what they need from our many locations throughout Qatar. Our team includes a variety of professionals with expertise in not only office items, but also workplace design and technical assistance for employees. My Office Supply, the best office essentials supplier in Qatar, is dedicated to providing personalized service to all of our customers, regardless of where they work. You can search for us on the internet just by typing office supplies near me in the search bar.

[jimlingss]

Lovesick

Words: 4.7k Genre: Angst, smidgen of Fluff Summary: In a world where love is a disease...your heart skips one too many beats. Warnings: Mentions of illness and medication

Love is a sickness.

It’s an illness that once too far gone becomes incurable; terminal.

Scientists have discovered it as an infectious disease, a parasite that crawls its way under skin to the heart. It can cause numerous complications, including delusion and blindness. Those who are affected by ‘love’ may be susceptible to mood swings, an increased dependency, a feeling of loneliness and obsessive thinking. It can cause stress, shortage of breath and mental disorder. In severe cases, it could cause physical aches to the chest - a term known as ‘heartbreak’.

Centuries ago, the majority suffered under ‘love’. Many victims had to lose their freedom and became detached from their schooling and careers. They were separated from reality and was unable to work efficiently. Those victims had psychotic behaviour, sometimes experiencing ridiculous amounts of happiness to feelings of jealousy, rage or sadness. In the worst of cases, some people allowed themselves to be hurt again and again in an endless cycle of pain. It’s as if ‘love’ was an addiction. Unfortunately, only one of every ten people were free from ‘heartbreak’.

“Since then, civilization has longed moved on from such feelings. We have detached ourselves  from this idiocy.” The suited lady on the television nods. “If you notice any symptoms in others or in yourself, it requires immediate medical attention. Symptoms include an irregular heart rate-”

“Is there nothing else to watch?”

“No, but you can try to find something else.”

“Fine.” You flop down onto the couch, digging your cold feet under the blanket. “A documentary it is.”

The documentary continues on the horrors of the illness. The two of you are curled next to each other, silence taking over as you concentrate. You ask yourself why anyone would want to suffer at the hands of this disease and willingly at that too. What was so special about ‘love’?

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Hmm?”

“What do you think it feels like to love?”

It happens when you turn your head. It happens when you look over to him. It happens before you can stop it.

His face is illuminated by the glow of the screen. His velvet lips lay still, a void emotion written across his features. You can see how he was drained by the day, exhaustion settling in with the night. The voice that speaks to you is of a breathy timber, a question that isn’t really looking for an answer. It’s a thought spoken out loud. No. He is close but out of finger’s reach. This can’t be right.

He looks at you deep within your eyes, a stare that you can’t draw away from. You’re magnetized, bewitched under the brown hues of his irises. Beautiful. He is different somehow that you can’t quite explain. But maybe the difference is within you. No. Jimin is your friend.

Then it happens-

Your heart skips a beat.

“Y/N?” He laughs and shifts to look at you again when you move away. “Are you okay?”

No. “I’m fine.” This can’t be happening.

“Okay, weirdo.” He stops bothering you, looking back at the screen.

You must’ve imagined it. How could you ever feel something more for Jimin? It’s impossible.

That night, the boy who’s been your platonic companion from since you could remember, falls asleep on your shoulder. The soft and silver strands of his hair grazes against your skin. The knot between his brows has dissipated and his cheek is cutely smooshed against your collarbone. Something constricts inside as you stare at him, eyes pinned on his curled lashes. You linger in his warmth, the weight pressed on your side. Jimin.

What have you done to me?

Your heart skips yet another beat.

//

“You’re not just coming in to see me right?” He laughs, rolling back in his chair to put away some file folders. “Or is it because you think I have time to kill?”

The walls are white, floor and ceiling in the matching void colour. The odor of disinfectant and the emptiness of the hallways would otherwise make you feel uncomfortable. But you’re in the presence of your trusted friend and that makes everything better. It doesn’t feel like a potential illness is looming over your head. It doesn’t feel like you’re a patient, ready to receive news of your death. It’s probably nothing. You’d simply thought that a checkup wouldn’t hurt.

“No.” You pout at him, staring at your hands in your lap.

“Okay.” Seokjin stops and gives you all the attention you need. “What’s wrong?”

You would’ve never gone to the doctor’s. But Seokjin is a friend that you know would never judge you. If your suspicions are true, he would never force you to undergo surgery. Jin would never make you feel disgusted with yourself or treat you like you’re contagious.

“I think I’m sick, Jin.”

He frowns and the mood becomes grim. “What do you mean sick?”

“I-” You’re at a loss of words. “My heart skips beats. W-….when I see this..person, I feel happier and when they’re not there then I feel.....lonely. It’s pathetic, isn’t it?”

“No. It isn’t.” Jin scrambles for a clipboard, digging through his belongings before he sits himself in front of you. The first question he wants to ask as he looks at you is- who?

Who made you this way?

But he knows you wouldn’t answer; that uttering the name out loud would cause even more panic and pain. “Does your heart go faster?”

“Yes.”

“Do you feel any nervousness or anxiety around this person?”

“Yes.”

Jin is completely serious, the persona of a professional taking over as he asks you a few further questions. The more you answer, the more afraid you become. “Is it what we both think it is?” You beg him with tears welling up, “Tell me, Jin.”

“I don’t know for sure.” He shakes his head, ready to step out of the room to immediately book an MRI scan. “Let’s just hope it’s not.”

The man in the white coat tries to reassure you, following you in every step. He’s there when you take your x-rays, blood tests and to monitor your heart rate. “Everything’s okay so far. It’ll be okay until the end. Don’t worry.”

You look up at him, lying on the table in a thin gown. You’re about to be swallowed by the machine, brain picked apart for any abnormalities.

“I’m scared.”

It’s a small and weak confession that whispers out from your parted lips. “What if it really is what I think it is? What will happen then? What will I do, Jin?”

He takes your hand within his, holding it tightly. “Then I’ll be here to help you.”

It’s late past midnight. Hours have passed and the clinic is vacant. If it weren’t for Jin, you’d be laid out for assessment in the cold eyes of numerous doctors. They’d exploit you until you feel naked, scorn you underneath spectacles and spit out terminology spun into tongue twisting language. Instead, he’ll be the one to find your secrets.

Kim Seokjin.

Whose eyes are bloodshot red, carrying black bags underneath them. He stifles every yawn, blinks hard to keep himself awake. And the moment you glance at him, he always smiles back at you without missing a single beat.

“It’ll be okay.” He reassures you a second time, grip tightening. “You’ll be okay.”

You’re being pulled into the scanner and his fingertips slide away from yours. “Thank you.”

The white fluorescent lights burn to the back of your lids. You shut your eyes, expelling away the water that threatens to spill onto your skin. “Y/N.” His voice comforts you again. “I’ll be here.”

It takes twenty minutes.

When you’re out, he stops you before you can bombard him with questions.

“I have to give it to another doctor who specializes in this area to take a good look at it.” He softly smiles. “Twenty four hours. Do you think you can wait that long?”

“I can.” You let out a staggering exhale. “But whatever the results are...good or bad...don’t hide it from me, okay? I want you to tell me the honest truth, Jin.”

“Of course.” He bumps you lightly. “I am a doctor. You think I can just hide the results from you because you’re my dear friend? I’d get fired!”

You laugh, feeling the most calm you have since the other night. Jin ushers you outside the room, leading you straight to the other room that you changed in. Once you switch the patient gown for your regular clothes, you find your friend leaning against the wall with his white coat taken off. He’s puffing out his cheeks, swinging his car keys around his finger.

“Let me drive you home.” It’s not a question but more of a statement. You don’t get to argue as he casually walks off. He beams when you have to run to match with his large steps.

Jin slows down his strides for you. “You owe me a meal.”

“What?” You giggle at him in disbelief, “why me?”

“Because it’s like two in the morning!” The man childishly pouts. “You know I’m suppose to be dead asleep right now? And I have to return in a few hours! You owe me, Y/N. And I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer~”

“Fine….” You nag at him in feigned exasperation. “You’re going to empty out my pocket again, aren't you?”

Seokjin opens the car door for you and makes a big gesture for you to go in. You roll your eyes and he shuts the door. “You bet I will!” The empty parking garage echoes with his voice. He mischievously grins and winks at you as you laugh.

It’s a breath of fresh air. You don’t feel as afraid as you were before.

//

The door opens and immediately your ears perk at the sound. “I’m home.”

“Welcome back.” You try your best to ignore, keeping your head low and focused on your keyboard. Your fingers tap relentlessly, the words not quite making sense on the document. But the false concentration is shattered by the smell of- “You brought food home?”

Jimin smiles and hums gently, placing the plastic bag full of takeout onto the counter. “Did you have dinner yet?” With one look at your bewildered expression, he already knows. “No, right? Well good. Now we can eat together.”

The boy snatches your laptop away, plopping down next to you and demanding all of your attention. It’s a long silence before he catches your eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I-” You shake your head, forcing yourself to forget about your accelerating heart. “Looking at you like what?” You fake a laugh, “If anything, it’s the ugly on your face.”

“Pft.” He shoves the box gently into your hands. “Yeah, right. You wish you had my face.”

You roll your eyes, feeling too tired to join with his silly antics. But when you open up the box, your breath hitches- “Oh.” It’s your favourite.

He melts into a sheepish smile when he notices how surprised you are. “Can I hear a ‘thank you, Jimin’?”

A seeping heat sweeps itself up your cheeks, burning in a shade of rose that you pray he can’t see. “Thank you...Jimin…”

The boy who is unaware of the misery and yearning, who doesn’t know that you itch to hold him in your arms, reaches over to messily ruffle your hair. For the merest second, his fingertips touch your skin. “Why are you being such a good girl today?” He leans downwards, looking up into your eyes with a teasing smile. “Y/N.”

“W-What is it?”

He laughs. Even if Jimin didn’t have bad intentions, you wish he knew of the cruelty; how you felt like you were being played with each sound, how each movement made you hope of something more. “Eat your dinner.”

Could he not tell how nervous you were? You were on the edge of your seat, unable to control whatever foreign feelings were settling at the pits of your stomach. All day, you couldn’t stop thinking about him. And now he was here with you - in a way that was so surreal and…..utterly painful.

When did this happen?

The tide of emotions had once tickled your feet and erupted giggles from your chest. Somehow when you weren’t paying attention, it had snuck up behind you and enveloped you into the blue, pulling you deeper and deeper in. Now you were surrounded in him and nothing but him.

//

“Y/N. You need to come here right now. It’s urgent.”

You’re not sure why you’re so calm. Maybe you had expected it all this time but you find yourself walking into Jin’s office like you were visiting him as a friend and not as a patient.

“What is it?”

“Just...take a seat first, Y/N.”

“Jin.” Your eyes are full of determination. “Tell me.”

Kim Seokjin takes his hands from the pockets of his white coat. He stands up and meets you in two strides. His darkened irises are focused onto you, his black locks disheveled from the busy day. “Y/N.”

You’ve never felt more vulnerable.

Pathetic. You can’t control the sobs that shake your body. Your hands automatically raise to shield away the tears but then you feel arms drape your shoulders, pulling you close in comfort. He encases your trembling frame, protecting you from the bitter bite of the air. Jin is the clothes that cover your nakedness, the shield to your exposed feelings that have been served on a silver platter. You let go. You allow yourself to break down.

“I love him.”

“I know.” Your friend whispers into your ear, a sweet hum of a lullaby. “We can stop it before it’s too late. Plenty of people are able to fall out of love naturally on their own….If not then we can take a more drastic measure.”

Surgery is what most in his field would encourage in this situation but he knew how horrific it was. They’d have to mess with the chemicals inside your head, cut parts off in your brain. The last thing that Jin wanted was to see you lying pale and sick in a bed, halfway to death but not quite. It was too cruel. The thought of you in that position made him sick.

“I love him, Jin.” You murmur again, tears dripping to his clothes. “I’m in love with Jimin.”

The confession hits him like a freight train. Park Jimin who he’s known as long as he’s known you. Park Jimin who isn’t a stranger that Jin had hoped. He wanted it to be someone he didn’t know. He wanted the person who had made you ill to remain faceless. That way, he could despise them as if they were a monster or untouchable entity of a second world.

“I’ll prescribe you with some medication.” Jin’s embrace tightens around you. “Just...try to stay away from him.”

Jimin. His own friend.

Jin can’t find it in himself to hate the person who has harmed you in this way, even if it was unintentional. But it pains him even more to see you so broken...sick...in love.

//

Staying away from Jimin proves more difficult than said.

After that night in Jin’s office, you had listened to his advice and actively tried to stay away from the boy who gave you the disease. If Jimin left early in the morning, you’d leave before he did. If he was to come home late at night, you’d make sure to return when he was asleep. You even went as far as searching for a new apartment to move into, condemning your past self as to why it was ever a good idea to become housemates with your friend.

You still think about him everyday. It becomes natural, automatic. Whenever there is time to spare and your thoughts begin to wander...you daydream of a boy whose eyes crinkle when he smiles, who calls you silly names with his head tilted to one side...who makes you so unbelievably happy that it aches.

“Y/N?”

“Jimin?” You shut your eyes, opening them again to make sure it isn’t an illusion. “What are you doing here?”

The rain pitter patters gently, puddles growing at your feet. You’re hidden underneath a bus shelter, the cold nipping at your nose. It wasn’t a shower, more like Heaven’s teardrops raining down. It made you wonder if the angels were sorrowfully weeping for you.

“I was looking for you.” He’s hyperventilating, having ran outside with little warning. When Jimin saw how it started to pour, he chased after you to make sure you wouldn’t get drenched.

“You didn’t have to-”

“Why are you avoiding me?”

His question is straight to the point and it leaves you stuttering. “I-I’m not.”

At your weak retort, he raises an eyebrow. “You aren't?”

“I’ve been a little bit busy.” You say with more confidence and a masked smile. “Did it seem like I was avoiding you? I’m sorry, I should’ve said something-”

“No.” He tips his head back with a relaxed expression. “I’m relieved. I thought there was something wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong.” You reassure as your throat tightens. “There’s...nothing wrong.”

“Good. That’s all that matters.” His grip on the umbrella handle eases. The sunny yellow of the canopy vividly stands out in the surroundings of grey rain. “If there was something wrong, you know you could always talk to me about it, right? You’re my best friend and I care about you.”

“I know.” You step forward and under his umbrella, protected from the cold. The drops that drip from the sky softly knocks against the surface. It’s a beat to the song of your despair.

“Let’s go home.”

The symptoms are worsening. You can no longer restrain the butterflies that explode in your stomach; like the first of spring’s season. It churns and makes you feel sick. When he comes too close, goosebumps helplessly erupt over your skin. You find yourself hyper aware of each of his actions, hanging onto every single word.

You’re always staring. You are captured by his spell, captivated as your eyes run over the slope of his nose, each eyelash and the dip of his plush lips. All the while, Jimin is simply looking ahead. He never once notices. He doesn’t detect how you desire to be held, to be touched...to want more than to watch.

“Are you okay?” He taps on the door. “What’s taking you so long, Y/N?”

“Just-” With the energy you can muster, you outstretch your arm, struggling to turn on the tap so he can’t hear your coughing. “-one second!”

You’re collapsed on the floor, leaning lifelessly against the counter. Twenty pills have spilled in your palm, the bitter taste of the medication still on your tongue. Your eyes are reddened, cheeks stained with the anguish. Why? No matter how many you’ve taken, it doesn’t go away.

The feelings don’t disappear.

“Is there a way for me to have him around?” You ask Jin over the phone, a few dials and seconds away before you can hear his soothing voice. “I can’t do it. I can’t cut him off.”

“Y/N…” He calls you softly, the hurt returning to bore into his bone. In his hands hold your paperwork, the last check up telling him that your disease has progressed into unrequited love.

Jimin has always and forever will be compassionate, considerate and kind. You know him like the back of your hand. And that’s why it hurts even more. Because you aren’t special.

Not in the least bit. He treats you like he would anyone else. You, on your own, had to misunderstand his intentions. You let hope sew itself into your heart. You took advantage of his kindness. You brought this pain onto yourself. You let yourself become sick.

But was love ever a choice?

//

“Is falling in love so bad?”

The hope cannot be smothered. You’re desperately yearned that the things he speaks to you means something more. And you’ve become selfish. If he was sick like you...maybe it wouldn’t have to be so painful.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” Jimin looks at you in concern, “What’s wrong?”

He never answers your question.

The symptoms worsen even more until it feels like you’re held captive under his reign, on edge from his every glance. You’re ill. In a way that makes you feel disgusted with yourself. The world continues to move but you’re glued to the same spot. There’s nothing you can do.

Nothing he can do.

Jimin is at a loss, befuddled at your behaviour. The way you look at him is strange. How your eyes are soft and your words are always full of hesitation. The way you react is strange. He finds you withdrawing when his hands accidentally grazes yours as if he’s burnt you. You’re always mumbling to yourself...lost in another world. Yet at the same time, you’re always smiling when he is, your laughter has become brighter and it makes him happy that you’re happy.

He is your friend after all.

“Y/N?” Jimin lightly calls your name. Upon hearing no response and seeing that you’ve fallen asleep, he smiles and walks away. “Why is she always sleeping on the couch?” His mumbling and the padding footsteps aren’t enough to wake you. But when you feel a warm blanket drape on your body, tucking you in, one of your eyes flutter open.

Why? Even through your hazing mind, you’re screaming inside your brain. Why does he always treat you with so much kindness? Why does his compassion hurt you so much?

Your hand automatically wraps around his wrist and he freezes, eyes trailing up to your body to meet your eyes.

“Stay with me.” It’s a murmur that befalls from your parted lips, half between a desperate plea and a breath. “Can you please stay with me?”

Those are words that you wanted to say. Those are words that sobbed to be spoken on your tongue. Those are words that you were too cowardly and too scared to utter.

“Thank you.”

Jimin doesn’t respond and he doesn’t need to. You watch him smile, let your heart quicken in pace - thump, thump, thump - and the butterflies in your stomach do acrobatics, swan dives and fluttering leaps. His eyes crinkle like the crescent moon in the night sky and you allow your lips to mimic his.

“Go to your own bed, brat.” He ruffles your hair and you sink deeper into the covers. “Your neck will hurt in the morning.”

If only he knew how much you wanted him to be with you. How much you wanted him to call your name. How much you ached to have him embrace your body and kiss your lips. If he knew that you were ridden with disease, a lovesickness that you can’t get rid of, would he feel something more than pity?

You watch the silhouette of his backside blur in the darkness of the hall.

That’s when you realize that it never happened overnight. You never loved Jimin merely by sitting on this very same couch that’s filled with his scent, not by watching his face glow in the television’s light, not when he fell asleep on your shoulder and you realized how beautiful he was.

The feelings were always there.

They were buried deep underneath, grown over time and experiences. It was tended to, sprouting inch by inch each time he laughed to that very time when he nagged you to death about staying out late. The question that he mindlessly spoke (“What do you think it feels like to love?”) simply had made you recognize that the seedling wasn’t a bud anymore. The roots had clung on no matter how hard you tried to rip it out.

“Y/N.” Jin’s voice quivers, “The sickness has deteriorated...into the worst kind of love.”

Unconditional love.

No matter what happens - you’ll still love him.

“Be honest with me, Y/N.” Jimin has his hands in yours, the two of you sitting down together one afternoon day. “Is something going on? If there is...I want to be there for you. Whatever’s happening in your life...You’re my best friend.”

It stings. But you’d still hang onto every word like the fool you are.

And he’s left unaware.

“I’m fine. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Because even if Jimin never knows for the rest of his life, you’ll truly be happy for him.

As long as he’s still smiling and laughing, you’re content. The undying yearning has subdued under the noisy palpitations of your chest. The happiness that you so longed for yourself is overridden by happiness for him. To love unconditionally is not to love no matter what he does to you. It’s not to love him when he hurts you. Rather it’s to love without expecting anything back.

“What do you think it feels like to love?”

You don’t know all the answers and you never will. But you know it’s one of the most painful and beautiful things that can happen to someone. You will never stop cherishing him. And your heart will never stop skipping beats and racing to the non-existent finish line. Your cheeks will always glow and bloom hues of rose, warming up to the caress of his fingertips. The butterflies won’t cease when his irises connect to yours, when he smiles or calls you silly names to tease. You might never stop wanting more, never stop thinking about him when your daydreams skedaddle off but at the very least - you know now that this love has made your world less grey.

This love is the one that swept you off into the tide of emotions. It made you learn how to love.

Jin doesn’t know what he’s doing.

He especially doesn’t know when he stares at the bouquet of lilac flowers lying on his desk.

What was he thinking? Maybe he wasn’t feeling well. After hearing that you were coming by his office, he had abruptly turned into the florist’s shop. Now the scent of floral was haunting him and the image of your flushed cheeks came to mind within the snapshot of a millisecond.

“I’m going crazy.” He mutters to himself and throws the flowers into his trash bin.

At the exact same time, the door to his office slides open and you’re greeting him with a grin. “Were you just talking to yourself?”

“No.” Jin defends himself with a pout that quickly grows into a smile when he sees you. “How are you?”

“Are you asking as my doctor…” You plop down in the seat across from his desk. “...or as my friend?”

He laughs at your mischievous expression. “Both. But...mostly as your friend.”

“If I’m being truthful…” You lean back. “I’m not doing as badly as I was before. It’s still...difficult on some days but I’m okay. That’s why I’m here-” You pause with an inhale. “I wanted to drop by and let you know that I’m leaving.”

Jin tips his head to one side. “What?”

A smile lifts your lips and you fiddle in your lap. “I’ve decided that I needed to get away...just for a while. Travel and see the world...free my mind a bit.” You meet Jin’s eyes again, overwhelmed by thankfulness. If it weren’t for him, you would’ve made it this far. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving Jimin. But I’ve come to terms with it and it’s not so bad…”

“How-” He nods to himself and gets a grip. “How long will you be gone for?”

“When I’m ready...if it’s a few weeks or months...maybe even a year.” You melt into a sheepish smile. “Thank you, Jin. I don’t know what I would do without you. You’ve helped me so much. I-”

“It’s the least I could do.” He means it with all his heart, “I’m just happy that you’re happy.”

It happens before he can realize. It happens before he can stop it. It happens when you bid him a sweet farewell.

The scent of the flowers are still lingering in the air. Your silly smile is imprinted into his mind. He gazes at your backside when you walk out the door...

Then it happens- Jin’s heart skips a beat.

[nupgrade]

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021

Having an antivirus on your computer is a way to keep yourself protected from the major viruses and malware on the Internet. Check out the best free antivirus for Windows! Table Of Contents- The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 - What is the best antivirus? - The best free antivirus for Windows - 1. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free - 2. Avira Free - 3. AVG Free - 4. Bitdefender - Which of these is the best? Having an antivirus installed on the computer has become necessary, even if the user knows how to surf the Internet and does not download suspicious files. In recent years, new threats have appeared on the market that put PC security at risk even with the basic protection of Windows Defender, which is installed natively in the operating system and guarantees standard security, protecting the user only from malicious programs that are requesting permission to be installed on the hard drive. One of the main advantages of using an antivirus is the fact that it obtains several types of protection, whether against malware, spyware, phishing, or intrusion attempts when connecting to a public Wi-Fi network, such as the one found in shopping malls or schools, for example.

What is the best antivirus?

There are several free options available for downloads, such as Avast, AVG, Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, and others, being possible to choose the FREE version or to contract a monthly or annual subscription. Well, the best antivirus is one that meets your needs and provides efficient security for your computer. Something that also needs to be taken into account is the performance of the program, that is if the installation of the antivirus will impact the performance of the machine. Ideally, you should still be able to run all of your software even with the antivirus running in the background. Brands like McAfee and Norton tend to drastically affect the speed of the desktop, so it is not suitable for users with simple hardware.

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021

The best free antivirus for Windows

In this article we will use AV-Test as parameters to define which are the best free antivirus software this year, taking into account the new one obtained in protection, performance, and usability. 1. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free One of the interesting points about Kaspersky Free is having protection for web browsing, thereby notifying the user before downloading a potentially dangerous file. In addition, the free version securely stores your passwords and documents and encrypts data sent and received while using VPN.

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 - Kaspersky Security Cloud Free There is also a more complete version that is currently only costing $ 45 for a year and for a single device. The Personal version has a good cost-benefit and delivers interesting features, such as a secure browser and VPN natively, for example. See the main features: - Scanning all files on the computer; - Scanning e-mails and instant messaging feeds against viruses and other malware; - Web antivirus to intercept and block the execution of scripts on websites that threaten the security of the computer; - Anti-phishing measures to block suspicious websites; - Virtual keyboard to protect the information entered on your computer. AV Test: ProtectionPerformanceUsability65.56The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 2. Avira Free Avira Free is also an excellent option for those who want efficient software, optimized for free. This antivirus is light and has several interesting functions, such as the frequent updates of new threats (update in the cloud in real-time), protection against trojans, ransomware, worms, viruses, and advanced repair. One of the main advantages - and one that makes it at the top of our list - is safe browsing in which Avira blocks harmful websites even before they are loaded, displaying a warning that the page is potentially dangerous, and being able to block website crawlers and prevent ads from showing.

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 - Avira Free As everything is not perfect, the free version presents ads to users, something that does not happen in Avira Pro. Key features of the free version: - Antivirus scanner (against ransomware, viruses, trojans, etc.); - Repair infected files; - Good performance; - Blocks infected websites; - Blocks phishing attacks (email, social networks, etc.); - Blocks potentially unwanted programs. ProtectionPerformanceUsability666The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 3. AVG Free The AVG was acquired a few years ago by Avast, although they appear, competitors, both belong to the same group. Despite this, AVG is still the best option compared to Avast, which causes system crashes and has little efficient protection, allowing the user to access dangerous websites and download executables.

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 - AVG Free Key features of the free version: - Protection against viruses, malware, ransomware, spyware, etc; - Protection of personal files; - Blocking suspicious links, downloads, and email attachments; - Optimizing PC performance. ProtectionPerformanceUsability65.56The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 4. Bitdefender Finally, we present Bitdefender, an antivirus that has a free version with six functions available that aim to protect the PC both on the web and during software installation.

The best free antivirus for Windows in 2021 - Bitdefender Key features of the free version: - Real-time protection; - Advanced defense; - Preventing web attacks; - Anti-phishing and anti-fraud; - Bitdefender Photon ™; - Global safety net.

Which of these is the best?

On my personal computer, I use the paid version of Kaspersky, which on the date of publication of this article. I tested all four antiviruses and from experience I recommend Kaspersky. Important!Never use two antiviruses or more on the same computer, they will conflict and consume all the performance of the machine! What did you think of this article? Which antivirus do you use? Tell us, comment! Last in NUpgrade - Best off-road GPS apps for android and ios IOS in 2021 - Players are bothered by microtransactions in Assassins Creed Valhalla - New notebooks from LG’s Gram line arrive with 11th generation processors - UNPRECEDENTED! Images show that Mars has the largest canyon in the Solar System - How to create an ISO image on a USB stick for Windows and Linux? - The best Amazon selling games in the UK and USA 2020 - A new version of Instagram for children under 13 ?! Read the full article

[hightechdad]

The iPhone 12 Pro has now been out for several months, and it has proven to be one of the best sellers yet (with a couple of exceptions). Consequently, there are countless reviews on it in terms of performance and features, and, of course, the camera, which continues to improve with each iteration. So, how do you write a review of the iPhone 12 Pro that isn’t like all of the other thousands of reviews out there (that probably do a much better job than I will ever do)? It isn’t easy. But I have now been using the iPhone 12 Pro Max for a few months, and my friends, family, colleagues, tech aficionados, and coworkers have been asking me: should I upgrade to the iPhone 12? My response: probably yes. But, there are a few things to think about before you do. This review of the iPhone 12 Pro is more of what I would tell my friends. It has some of the key features, yes, just like any other review, but as a “trusted advisor” on tech to those who know me, I have limited my commentary to a few core things that stood out to me. Everyone has a different perspective, different ideas on what they “need” or “want,” and different use cases. When getting any smartphone, you should carefully consider those before making a purchase…because new, cutting-edge smartphones are not exactly cheap. Here are nine items that I feel are important to think about, particularly as they relate to the iPhone 12 Pro Max (the one that I have). They aren’t in any order and can be view with equal importance. Do let me know if you have any questions! Before the features, think about the smartphone you currently have Here are some things to consider before taking the plunge and doing an expensive upgrade. I list them as a series of questions – ask these to yourself. And while I’m heavily skewed toward the Apple ecosystem and probably wouldn’t change platforms, you can ask these across platforms. How old is your current smartphone? If it is more than 1-2 years old, I would say, yes, upgrade. You can take advantage of faster processors, better cameras, stronger connectivity.What is the primary (and secondary) use for your smartphone? Is it photography or videography? Checking mail and surfing the web? Tethering with your laptop? Making phone calls? Streaming media (music and videos)? All of these are potentially important. If you use your smartphone for less processor/CPU-intensive items like just email and browsing the web, you might not need the top-of-the-line version. How is the storage on your current smartphone? Are you always having to find a way to “free up space,” or are you never able to update apps or the OS because you don’t have enough free space? If so, spend a bit extra and get more storage (the most you can if you can afford it, I’d say). Don’t get the minimum amount of space.What is a comfortable size for your hands/pocket/purse? Yes, size does matter. It affects the price, obviously, but also your viewing experience. If you are watching movies all the time, a large screen is a huge advantage. Same with taking photos or video – seeing more detail definitely helps. But if you have small hands or want to carry your smartphone easily and discreetly, you may want to opt for a smaller size.Do you really need to have 5G? It is a big buzzword. Many mobile carriers are pushing 5G as THE best thing to have. Guess what, it really depends on where you do most of your mobile phone use. If you are on WiFi most of the time (aren’t we all working from home now?), 5G might not be that important…right now. And, 5G coverage and speeds vary dramatically based on geography, proximity to 5G-enabled cell towers, etc. More about 5G later.Do you take photos or videos? One of the biggest features that all of the smartphone manufacturers talk about and compare is the camera. If you don’t take many photos or videos, you probably don’t need that smartphone with five lenses running down the back (I exaggerate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers do climb). But, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to take a “bad” picture with a newer smartphone. If you are a couple of generations behind, like with the iPhone, upgrading your iPhone will also upgrade your photos and videos (but remember the storage question above). And you may also want to think about the different levels within the same smartphone release (e.g., the iPhone 12 versus the iPhone 12 Pro). There IS a pretty big difference if photos and videos are important to you. And lastly, think about how you use your smartphone. As I said, it’s quite personal. (Don’t forget about costs as well – the price of top-of-the-line smartphones now rivals even laptops!) What if I have an iPhone already? Let me talk briefly about the iPhone upgrade in particular. This is not an algorithmic calculation in any way, just my gut feel and personal recommendation. If you have an iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro – you probably can hold off a version. If you have an iPhone X or iPhone X Max – this really depends on your budget and many of the questions above.If you have an iPhone XS/XR – truly, this depends on the questions above. My kids had these with minimal space. They take lots of photos and videos. The upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro was almost a given.iPhone 9 – DON’T EVER UPGRADE (hint: there is no such thing as the iPhone 9 so if you have one, hold on to it!)iPhone 8 – you lose your TouchID, but FaceID is much better IMHO. I say yes, upgrade for many benefits across the boardiPhone 7 or older – this is a no-brainer. Do the upgrade! I highly recommend using Apple’s interactive iPhone model comparison tool to drill down into the differences between current and previous models and the differences within the same model year. Now that I have covered the iPhone upgrade path in general, what about the iPhone 12? There are two major versions to consider, the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro. Within these versions are two sub-versions. Here’s the lineup: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini – see the comparisoniPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max – see the comparison Here, the difference comes down to size, price, and camera primarily. So, go back to my initial questions earlier. Each of these models has the new Apple A14 Bionic chip, so the processor isn’t really a factor. I had the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max for about a year. For me, the biggest change was the camera. You can read my thoughts about that here. So, how does the iPhone 12 Pro Max compare? Below are nine things I believe are important to talk about regarding the iPhone 12 Pro Max. 1 – Speed of the A14 Processor The A14 Bionic chip is Apple’s latest and greatest processor. As more processing power is squeezed into a smaller design, you would think things might not be that much “better.” In fact, the A14 is super fast. I could even notice it compared to my iPhone 11 Pro Max which had the A13 Bionic. Apple boasts increased efficiency, better battery life, better processing for graphics and video, and a whole lot more! 11.8 billion transistors, 16-core Neural Engine (helps with taking better photos – haha), 11 trillion operations per second (video games absolutely fly), new image signal processor (again, better photos with Smart HDR 3), Dolby Vision & 4K capable (you could actually film that next Oscar-winning film on your iPhone)…yeah. But what does that mean? To put it simply, you have a pretty amazing supercomputer in your hands. Yes, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a step up from the iPhone 11 Pro Max. It is noticeable. But it is a huge leap from all previous generations! 2 – Camera (Obviously) Talking about the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s camera is worthy of an article upon itself. There are so many technical advancements and improvements that it boggles the mind. Whether you are a professional photographer or videographer, or just the family photo-journalist trying to capture each and every moment, if you want to take amazing photos, night or day, the iPhone 12 Pro (Max) is the way to go. Be sure to review my recommendations earlier about which upgrade path makes the most sense. From the iPhone 11, you may want to wait a generation. But anything earlier, the camera is truly the forcing function. Instead of going into huge amounts of details on each updated, new, or improved feature, a nice little laundry list of items is probably sufficient. Here are some of the highlights of the iPhone 12 Pro: 4K Dolby Vision HDR – yes, you can shoot, edit, and share with that high of a quality. Record at 60 frames per second (fps) and 700 million colors.LIDAR Scanner – create a 3D depth map of objects without the dependency of light. This can be used for Augmented Reality (AR) or truly ups your photography game to help with autofocus in low-light environments.Improved Night Mode – night-mode photography blew my mind when I tested it in the iPhone 11 Pro Max. With the 12 Pro Max, it’s even better (especially when coupled with LIDAR). Faster CPU, wider aperture, improved lenses make night shots even better!5x Optical zoom – yes, you can zoom in even closer with better resolution without the need for the OS to do digital zooming (and interpreting)Improved Image Stabilization – don’t worry about having that extra cup of coffee and having jittery hands. The iPhone 12 Pro Max does stabilization at 5000 times per second!Deep Fusion & Neural Engine at work – these two techy terms essentially translate to much better detail, even at lower light, without even thinking about it.Smart HDR 3 – better refinement of highlights and shadows means you can shoot just about any time of day you want with amazing details and color balance, from whites to blacks.3 Different Physical Lenses – choose from Ultrawide, Wide, or Telephoto for the perfect composition.Apple ProRAW – this is sort of like RAW with an Apple boost. RAW photos (while huge in size), contain all of the image information – a perfect option for those photography purists!TrueDepth – while taking photos of others is great, the front-facing camera now has night mode. Those selfies never looked better! Now that is just scraping the surface of the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s camera features and improvements. If you haven’t experienced it, borrow someone’s iPhone 12 Pro and test it out. Reading a bunch of words doesn’t really do it justice; you have to experience it in action! 3 – High-Speed 5G Cellular 5G is the big thing right now. All of the carriers are talking about it. But as I mentioned before, whether 5G is good for you or not depends on a lot of things – location being the primary one. If you are on WiFi all of the time, it might not be worth it. If 5G hasn’t been fully rolled out in your area yet, again, this might not be a big determining factor. The iPhone 12 comes ready for slurping down 5G goodness. But, you should check to see if your current cellular plan even supports 5G. In fact, I had to upgrade all of my family to a 5G plan since our old unlimited plan didn’t have it. But guess what? I actually saved some money doing the upgrade. Also, if (and when) you do get the iPhone 12, be sure you take a look at the 5G options under Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options. There are some choices there to make. Personally, I have my Voice & Data set to 5G Auto and my Data Mode to be Allow More Data on 5G. Remember, 5G does consume more power. Having it on Auto supposedly will help regulate when it jumps into overdrive. Also, if you don’t have an unlimited data plan, you may blow through your 5G data allotment, so be sure to know what you sign up for. 4 – An Even Better Screen The iPhone screen continues to improve with better resolution, color depth, brightness, contrast ratios, and more. Known as the Super Retina XDR display, this new screen has up to 1200 nits of max peak brightness (800 nits typical viewing), great for movie watching and gazing in awe of HDR photos. What is a nit? It is the standard unit of luminance used when describing sources of light. The higher the rating, the brighter the display. Basically, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is pretty darn bright, which I can definitely attest to. Packed into the 6.7-inch (diagonal) screen of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which is OLED, are 3.4 million pixels. This equates to a 2778×1284 pixel resolution at 458 ppi. It is also an HDR and True Tone display. What does that mean to the rest of us (tech mumbo jumbo aside)? Watching movies, viewing photos, web browsing, and just doing menial tasks look glorious on this screen. I have even found that viewing movies, coupled with a good headset, is almost better than watching in a media room with full surround sound. But that is just me. 5 – A “New” Body Redesign I like to call the iPhone 12 Pro a bit of a throw-back edition. Physical designs change between generations. Sometimes the changes are not as obvious, while other times, the differences are pretty dramatic. The iPhone 12 moves away from the rounded edges and goes back to the iPhone 5 somewhat. This “new” design, which basically has a metallic band circling the outside, allows for more screen to be displayed and less bezel being seen. Buttons and toggles are still in the same places as before, so your muscle memory doesn’t have to change. The body is crafted from Surgical-grade stainless steel for the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, and the iPhone 12 uses aerospace-grade aluminum. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is comfortable to hold and not too slippery. However, I always highly recommend getting a good quality case to protect your iPhone investment. But, read on to the next two sections as they are both quite important when choosing a case (if you do actually need one). 6 – The Ceramic Shield The scariest thing about having an iPhone is when it accidentally falls from your hands. As if falls to the ground, so does your stomach. Will the screen shatter (which is pretty costly to repair – hint, it is worth getting Apple Care for your iPhone just to feel a bit safer)? With the iPhone 12, Apple introduced something called the Ceramic Shield. While with each iPhone generation, the durability of the screen gets better, in this generation, Apple truly wanted to make it even better. They basically baked nano-ceramic crystals (which are stronger than many metals) into the glass. This makes it much more resistant to scratches (think about your iPhone in your pocket or bad being bounced around with keys knocking against the screen). I have read reviews and tests of the new Ceramic Shield, and those parties have stated that the front screen is definitely better, even related to drop tests. Remember, the Shield is only on the front screen, so you may want to get a case to protect the edges and back anyway. And be sure that if you get a case, that on the front, the edge goes slightly above the screen to help prevent scratching of the screen if it slides across the ground, face-down. 7 – MagSafe Charging Ah, the MagSafe. Many of us who use MacBooks or MacBook Pros became familiar with the magnetic attachment for the power cord (which was unfortunately removed with the newer USB-C MacBooks or MacBook Pros. (Rumor has it, they might be back in future MacBook Pros with the M1 chip.) Using a strong magnet to hold the connective power in place, the MagSafe was great. Apple coupled the idea of power (wireless charging) with the magnet in the iPhone 12. You already had wireless charging capabilities in older iPhones, but with the addition of the magnet into the iPhone, you are sure that the wireless charger snaps into place and is charging. One of the most satisfying things about the new MagSafe charging on the iPhone 12 is that click sound when the MagSafe is locked in place and charging. There are already many manufacturers of MagSafe-compatible “puck” charges. I currently use the Apple MagSafe Charger. Sometimes I will disconnect and reconnect just to hear it. But MagSafe brings a new line of accessories to the mix. I have a clear plastic case by Apple that clearly indicates where to put the charger. The MagSafe is actually quite strong. I’m currently testing out some MagSafe stands that hold the iPhone 12 Pro Max in place without having to rest the iPhone in a cradle. And there are lots of other accessories and cases that incorporate it into their designs. 8 – Don’t Forget the Battery I have to disclaim talking about battery-related items right from the start – “your mileage may vary.” How long your battery will last really depends on how you use your device. Yes, this is stating the obvious, I know. If you have minimal apps, don’t go on your smartphone much, only have one email account, and don’t stream video, you probably have a much better battery life than I do. That being said, the battery on the iPhone 12 Pro Max is pretty good. I can get by pretty much an entire day without having to charge it up. But again, I’m a very heavy user and have many background tasks always running. The best thing about getting a new iPhone is you get a new battery. Over time, and despite new and better-charging algorithms built into iOS, your battery will degrade. Charging has also improved, BUT that is because chargers now have more power. NOTE: the iPhone 12 (Pro) does NOT come with a power adapter. Apple figures that everyone has an adapter already. I would HIGHLY recommend you get a 20W or higher adapter to take advantage of fast-charge capabilities. With a 20W or higher adapter, you can get a 50% charge in 30 minutes. (Here is one 3rd party power adapter I recently reviewed which might be a great option.) The iPhone 12 Pro Max’s batter is quite similar to the iPhone 11 Pro Max. In fact, I believe the iPhone 11 battery has a higher capacity. However, as hardware and software become increasingly optimized, capacity might not necessarily translate into a longer battery. 9 – iOS 14+ Support Last but not least here, you have to consider iOS 14 (and higher). Apple optimizes their operating system to take advantage of the latest hardware. Consequently, Apple starts dropping support for older iPhone models simply because the hardware cannot keep up with the latest iOS (another reason to upgrade if you are way behind on iPhone generations). Having the latest hardware from Apple means that iOS is essentially built for it. I probably use just a fraction of all of the iOS capabilities. And the nice thing is that regular feature and security updates to iOS mean that your iPhone 12 Pro Max stays like a fine-tuned sports car. Upgrade or Not? Yeah, ok, if you have read over 3000 words in this article, it means that you are doing your research on whether the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a good upgrade for you or not (or you just like reading my writing). There is a lot to consider when doing this type of upgrade. The first section of this article talked about why you might want to upgrade, and then the rest was about why choose the iPhone 12 Pro Max. But I feel like it also does come down to price and what your budget can handle. There are 4 models of iPhone 12 and within those, you have storage capacity (I always say go as large as you can). Don’t forget about the 5G upgrade you may need to do with your mobile wireless carrier. Below are a few options with prices (on Amazon) with the most storage available: iPhone 12 mini – 256GB Black – $879iPhone 12 – 256GB Blue – $979iPhone 12 Pro – 512GB Graphite – $1,299iPhone 12 Pro Max – 512GB Graphite – $1,399 Shop on HighTechDad The product shown below (and related products that have been reviewed on HighTechDad) is available within the HighTechDad Shop. This review has all of the details about this particular product and you can order it directly by clicking on the Buy button or clicking on the image/title to view more. Be sure to review other products available in the HighTechDad Shop. Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max $1,399.00 Buy on Amazon I wrote this review and article for friends, family, and co-workers in mind to help them potentially navigate the iPhone upgrade path. But, obviously, if you are reading this, I wrote this article for you as well. Please! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Leave a comment below or ask me on Twitter. I’m happy to help if I can. Upgrading your iPhone is always fun yet tricky. Just be sure you fully understand what features you want versus what features you need! HTD says: The iPhone 12 Pro Max is a supercomputer in your hand with new features and capabilities that are astounding. Knowing if and why you should upgrade to a new iPhone is critical to your happiness using it later.

https://www.hightechdad.com/2021/02/21/9-reasons-to-upgrade-to-the-iphone-12-pro-max-what-i-would-tell-my-friends/

[kimberlykeebler34]

Honda E 2020 long-term review

Why we're running it:To see if the E has the everyday usability to match its desirability, despite its relatively short rangeWe use our electric supermini to enter a Destruction Derby - 2 December 2020If you'd have told me as a 10-year-old that I'd end up as a magazine journalist, I'd have guessed video games were going to be my specialism. Not that I was raised on the PlayStation; I just had a real interest in magazines about the subject, even more so than the games themselves. Which is a bit like enjoying reading Autocar more than driving, I suppose.Anyway, I've ended up very happily at Autocar. Yet now, 11 years into my time here, the lad in me has an article he can get his head around. For the Honda E has a rather nifty/ gimmicky/brilliant/pointless feature in its ability to run a games console.I went into my driveway to test it one lunchtime. Plug in the console to the three-pin socket for the power and connect it to the passenger-side infotainment touchscreen through the HDMI port and you can play the likes of Destruction Derby to your heart's content, sound blaring through the speakers and all.I could have done all this by simply hooking up the PlayStation to the TV in the living room, of course, You may also like: topdon obd2 scanner. but where's the fun in that?It does, however, beg the question as to why. So I asked the nice man from Honda, who replied: "Why not?", clearly flummoxed by the hard-hitting level of journalistic questioning one Tuesday afternoon. There is a real reason, of course, that he did also point out. It's more about that three-pin socket; you really can connect anything to it, opening up a world of two-way versatility in the car giving its power back to you.If you're out camping and need to plug in your hairdryer, have a powercut in your home and want to fire up the microwave or are a journalist stuck in a lay-by with a dead laptop and a missed deadline for a story that's stored on it, the E can give the gift of power back to you through a humble three-pin socket.The E is still giving plenty as a car to drive, too. A few months in, I'm now so used to the rear-view camera displays that going back to using door mirrors when I drive the family Ford Fiesta takes some getting used to. I prefer the cameras now, I think; the displays are just so clear and your field of vision is increased.Honda has waited while the electric car segment has grown. Has it delayed too long?I've also started experimenting more with the regenerative braking, which you turn on and off using a button on the centre tunnel. It's a bit too aggressive for my liking, though, and even under acceleration you can feel the pedal pushing back at you. I prefer to leave it off and instead get it in small doses through the paddles on the back of the steering wheel that increase or decrease it for a few seconds. Doing this as you approach a junction almost feels like you're going down through the gears in a ‘normal car'.The range has gone down with the cooler weather, mind. It was around 115 miles, but now it's more like 95 miles, which correlates to the drop in efficiency from four miles per kWh to 3.4mpkWh now. It's not limiting its usefulness to me, as in this somewhat life-changing year I have increased the number of smaller, local journeys as opposed to longer commutes. For such journeys, its fitness for purpose is almost absolute.Interior trimThe grey cloth interior has a real modern premium feel to it. Leather feels somewhat old-hat now.Charging portA short cable and a front-mounted port mean no backing into spaces to charge. I would prefer the port where a petrol filler cap would be.Bringing back the city car - 4 November 2020A year ago, we ran a piece about the death of cheap city cars. In short, emissions laws are making them unviable. So driving the E each day is bittersweet. Nipping in and out of tight spaces in traffic in a small, engaging car is one of motoring's simple pleasures. That its cost is so prohibitive to so many is the flipside; the day small EVs become affordable for the majority will be great.An interesting take on brake regenerative - 23 September 2020The E's regenerative braking sys...