#Create Strong Password

[shbub]

[lmsintmedia]

How to Choose Secure Passwords and Avoid Cyber Threats

Cyber threats are everywhere, and weak passwords are an open invitation for hackers. If you’re using “123456” or “password”—stop right now. A strong password is your first line of defense. Let’s dive into how to choose secure passwords and protect yourself from cybercriminals. Why Weak Passwords Are Dangerous Hackers don’t need to be geniuses to crack a weak password. They use brute force…

[americasdick]

i want to find and kill whoever designed Ubisoft's website like this

[afjol33]

[sahiinfo]

#Free Password Generator

Keeping your online accounts secure is more critical than ever, and one of the simplest ways to do that is by using strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to generate secure passwords, check out our #Free Password Generator.

[cantsayidont]

I hate Windows so much, and the only mitigating factor is that I hate OSX and Linux even more.

[themonsterunderthebed]

one thing i've been confused by immediately after moving from germany to the usa: i have to make an account on a bazillion websites to access my health insurance and information? like okay, germany is notoriously behind when it comes to digitalization and i'm a self-professed luddite, but honestly. i need one login for my insurance (perfectly fine, same in germany), another one for my pharmacy insurance? which is apparently separate? but to get the pharmacy insurance login i first have to register myself for a DIFFERENT kind of login which i still don't really understand what it's for? some kind of pharmacy-insurance-uniting login?

and today i went to a walk-in clinic and they just sent me an email saying i could download a summary of my visit today which - great! that's so convenient! so i click on the link and it takes me to the clinic's website, which offers me the possibility to login with yet ANOTHER third-party health login. like what is happening. how do people keep track of all these logins. personally i'm not a huge fan of trusting a password manager with access to my intimate health details. sure maybe my german doctors communicated almost exclusively by phone which was/is hell for people with phone anxiety but there's just something very weird to me about the concept of instant messaging my doctor

[fairyminnie444]

[CONFIDENTIAL]

REALITY HACKER FILES

VOLUME 1

ULTRA LEVEL - RESTRICTED ACCESS

FILE: 001

CODE: I AM

→ Access password to the Creation System.

→ What you affirm to be, the System recognizes and executes.

→ Example: “I AM a millionaire.” Status: Command Accepted.

FILE: 002

CODE: REALITY IS PLASTIC

→ There is no solid matter. Everything is malleable data waiting for a command.

→ You are molding the hologram every second.

FILE: 003

CODE: TIME DOESN’T EXIST

¥→ The only real time is NOW.

→ Past and future are programs running in the loop of your perception.

FILE: 004

CODE: EMOTION IS THE KEYBOARD

→ What you feel commands the source code of reality.

→ Strong emotion = instant execution.

FILE: 005

CODE: OBSERVATION CREATES

→ Attention is vital energy.

→ What you observe, you feed. What you ignore, dissolves.

[█████████████████████] 100%

OFFICIAL SEAL:

█▓▒­░⡷⠂ >>> ＲＥＡＬＩＴＹ ＩＳ ＵＮＤＥＲ ＹＯＵＲ ＣＯＮＴＲＯＬ <<< ⠐⢾░▒▓█

[REALITY HACKER APPROVED]

Authorized Operator: YOU.

[[ ALGORITHM: YOU ARE GOD ]]

[[ COMMAND: MANIFEST ]]

Final Instruction:

“Execute without question. Trust the Code. Your Reality has already been updated.”

[midwesttranssurvivalcollective]

diy hrt: how to safely search & order online

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ONLINE RELATING TO DIY read this <3

as many institutions seem to be already complying in advance and without resistance to gender affirming care bans (eye roll) i wanted to back into posting on here about accessing diy t.

first of all, stop using Google as your search engine. google search histories HAVE ALREADY been used in court, meaning law enforcement could request your search history and use it against you. incognito browsers do not actually give you any meaninful privacy either.

here's your mini digital security checklist:

-download TOR (aka the onion router) a free, privacy-focused browser. it's legit, it's used by many, many people for many different reasons. it has important features that help keep you more private online - their webpage has a great description of how it works.

-download a good VPN. (no VPN you've seen advertised in a youtube video will actually be good.) often they require payment, for a free one the ProtonVPN is fine. as long as you're in a country where usage of TOR is common it's less of a big deal, but still good. launch your VPN before launching TOR.

-while on TOR and your VPN, create a private email. ProtonMail is fine, there are other options if you want to look more deeply. only access this email through TOR, and create a very strong password. when you're shopping for your diy, you'll need to create an account with an email, so use this email for that and not for other things.

-get some bitcoin. it's annoying especially when that pay with paypal/bank transfer/credit card option is so easy, but it's really worth it. we go way into depth about this in the guide but the more familiar you get with using crypto for privacy, the more protected you can be when making purchases online.

the guide in our pinned post has more info including lots of places to look for different btc, mail, vpn, and other privacy services. and add on if you have other digisec checklist items!!

[dungeonzine]

Need help prepping your zine portfolio or could use some pointers? Here’s a brief guide for choosing and organizing your works to make a successful portfolio!

Let’s start with artists.

What format should you use? Simple is usually best! Google Drive folders are often preferred because they easily display your work with no extra steps. Carrds, websites, or curated social media work too, so long as there is not extra material or posts hiding your work. Try to have as few clicks before seeing your work as possible, so no need to separate work into folders and certainly don’t require a mod to search your entire page for it—they may not have the time.

Make sure that your work is publicly viewable! Double and triple check that your Drive folder is shared publicly or your websites are not behind a password.

When choosing which pieces to include, always choose your best and most polished work. All works should be complete, in full color, and be fully shaded or rendered. Try to have at least some of your works be approximately something that would be found in a zine, which usually means about A5 sizing. Backgrounds are an essential skill for zines; make sure you show you can draw them well. Of course, sometimes some of these elements are excluded in a piece as a stylistic choice, but all are important skills to show you have.

If possible, try to include the topic of the zine in your portfolio. It does not need to be every single piece. If you only have WIPs or messy work of the topic, then it may not be worth it to include it and that’s alright (though make sure the zine does not require art of the subject when making that decision. Ours does not).

Most zines ask for featured works separate from the portfolio. These are the first things mods look at when evaluating your application. Choose your strongest three (or however many are asked for) pieces as your featured works. Typically, try to include art within the fandom as a featured work if you can. Try to have those vital skills on display in these as well (backgrounds, rendering, etc) so it’s immediately clear you’ve got what it takes.

No need for every piece to hit every point. Try your best for the portfolio together to hit most of them and meanwhile you can work on creating some art specifically to show off anything you’re missing!

There are some things you want to avoid including at risk of weakening your portfolio. A portfolio is only as strong as its weakest piece, so having less pieces is better than having weaker pieces. Only include polished work you’re most proud of. WIPs, sketches, or isolated character work may give the impression that you won’t provide a complete zine piece. Including multiple styles or mediums (especially ones that you wouldn’t be comfortable using for the zine) may confuse a mod as they might not know which you’ll use. If you include multiple styles, make sure that you are skilled and polished enough in all of them to use them for the zine. It’s totally fine to have a smaller portfolio, especially if you’re just starting out—don’t clog it with art that’s not your finest.

Merch portfolios are very similar to page art portfolios, but focus on character-centric work often without backgrounds. Do research on what makes a good merch design, because not all compositions translate well to physical products.

Photographs of merch you’ve made are excellent, but if you don’t have them then you can make mock-ups to help mods understand what you’re envisioning for the final product. Merch portfolios can be a combination of photos, mock-ups, and designs. Print samples may look very similar to a typical page art piece.

If applying as both a page and merch artist, you will likely want to have separate portfolios, as the roles require emphasis on different skills.

Writer portfolios are similar to artist portfolios in that they should contain only your best work. You may also use a Google Drive folder or another hosting website so long as it is highly curated and does not contain many other works to sift through. Typically, zines ask for 3-6 works under 3k words, but double check these numbers with each project you apply to.

If you’re applying to a specific role, such as poetry or article writing, try to have those kinds of samples ready. It may help to make a separate portfolio for those more specific applications.

Here are some other tips! Of course, there’s an infinite amount of ways to make a great portfolio, so if this guide isn’t working for you that’s totally fine. Experiment with different ways if you’d like!

Our applications open soon. Good luck!

Got additional questions? Send an ask here on Tumblr or on our Retrospring! We’re always happy to help or clarify.

Learn more about our Dungeon Meshi zine here!

[hwaslayer]

the space between us three (jyh) | seven.

⇢series masterlist | series playlist

⇢summary: while juggling the demands of life, yunho continues to do his best to raise his independent 11 yr old daughter, seora. throughout the years, they've built a strong foundation, an unbreakable bond— one that consists of late night talks and food runs, father/daughter dates, and sideline cheerleading at her basketball games. so when you unexpectedly come into their world, things shift. despite the uncertainty and the fear of stepping outside of their comfort zone, yunho and seora eventually learn how to open their hearts and learn how to rebuild a home where three can thrive together.

⇢pairing: single dad!yunho x f. reader

⇢genre: (18+ - minors dni) strangers to lovers, single dad au | fluff, angst, smut

⇢word count: 7.8k

⇢chapter content/warnings: cussing, mature language/sexually implied content, just hella cute moments between these two 😭, lots of kisses, dancing, alcohol consumption and intoxication, making out lol, good vibes and good company, feelings are deep af so we get a glimpse as to how they're both feeling about the future of their relationship, yunho is hella sweet bro fAWK, we also get a glimpse of seonghwa’s ‘afraid of commitment’ headass

When you get into the office, there's a brand new desktop setup waiting for you, along with a cup of coffee, the shop's new sticker for the week and a tiny bouquet. You slowly set your stuff down and smile to yourself, picking up the post-it on top of the coffee cup.

i had to create a temporary password to set up your account on this comp - it's 'yunhoisthebest01' 😊 feel free to change it when you log in (or not)! have a good day today, pretty.  - yunho

You nibble on your bottom lip, afraid someone will catch you smiling too big at the note. Since your date with Yunho, all your time has been occupied by him in one way or another. It was lunch. Small walks. Breaks to grab snacks together. Quick dinner dates. It was either texting all day in between running errands and other obligations, responding to each other through Instagram stories or even late night calls.

⇢FLASHBACK

yunho: are you awake?

you: sure am!

yunho: oh snap, what? lol catching miss pretty during the late night hours?

you: haha stoppp i'm not tired yet!

yunho: can i call you then?

You quickly finish up your night time routine and throw yourself in bed, getting ready to look presentable even though Yunho isn't physically here.

you: yes ofc!

It doesn't take long before Yunho's ringing your phone, the heat creeping up to your cheeks when you settle in bed and hear his deep voice on the other line.

"Hello?"

"Hey cutie. Did you just get in bed?"

"Just about, yup. What about you?"

"Yeah. Seora and I just wrapped up our show for tonight."

"Cute. Is she asleep already?"

"Seora? God, no. She's actually on the phone with her friends right now, too. They're hehe-haha'ing away as we speak." Yunho listens to his daughter's voice raise on the phone before laughing loudly. He typically doesn't mind but when it gets too late for his liking, that's when he'll get into father mode and knock on her door.

"That's so cute. Love that for the girlies."

"Yeah well, if she keeps it up, I'm gonna have to tell her to get off and sleep."

"Yunho." You giggle. "It's the weekend. I'm sure they won't be on for long. Besides, at least I can keep you occupied in the meantime."

"Yeah?" Yunho chuckles. "How are you gonna keep me occupied, hm?" His voice is low. You can tell he's wearing that smirk he always wears, and you can't help but bite your lip at the image in your head.

"Yapping your head off." He laughs.

"I like that." He adjusts his position on the bed, sheets rustling in the background. "What'd you do today, pretty girl? We didn't get to talk much."

"I know, I'm sorry. I ran some errands and met up with Sian really quickly. Came home, deep cleaned my apartment and changed my sheets. Was apparently exhausted at one point and fell asleep while watching my show. Then, I realized it was dinner! So I whipped something up, rewatched the episodes I missed and now I'm here."

"Busy bee. Sounds productive, though."

"Yeah, been needing to get these done. What about you?"

"She had a game again, but we ended up hanging out with some of her friends and their parents afterward. It was a later game so we weren't up too early."

"Did she win?"

"Mhm. I think they might make the playoffs this year, they've been doing really well."

"That's amazing."

"You should watch her play one day."

"Of course." You chuckle a bit.

"Would you think I'm weird if I said I kinda miss you?"

"No, never. I kinda miss you, too. But, you'll see me at work next week." You smile to yourself as you softly respond.

"I don't wanna see you just at work, though."

"Then, what do you wanna do, Yunho? You know I'm always down to go out."

"Wish I could have you here, is all."

"Yeah, I know the feeling." You mean it. You really do. You know the feeling all too well, but you know the circumstances are different. It's not easy. And it's something you and Yunho will have to confront at some point— should this continue going the way it is.

Cause you like him. A lot. The feelings are mutual.

"I'll make it happen."

"Will you?"

"Mhm." 

"That determined, hm?" You tease.

"I am. You know I don't do this unless I'm serious about you."

"So, are you saying you're serious about me?"

"And if I am?" Yunho chuckles a bit.

"Yunho." You whine playfully.

"You smiling, baby?" His voice is low, husky, and it immediately does things to you.

"I'm hanging up on you."

"No, don't." He laughs. "I don't take it back, though."

"Good, I was hoping you wouldn't." He smiles and bites his lip, his need for you growing at a tremendously fast rate and it is scary. But, he enjoys it. He enjoys you.

"You're cute."

⇢END

"Y/N, shut up." Noeul says as she trails in, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. "He did not."

"Yeah, he did."

"He's so fucking sweet. You better give him all that ass and more."

"Okay, Noeul. It's so early." You laugh.

"Is he coming tomorrow?"

"I dunno, he said he was gonna try to swing by if he could. Depending on whether or not Seora would sleepover at her bestfriend's house and if his friends wanted to go."

"I hope so. I'd love to see you two in action even though I already get glimpses of it." You let out a content breath.

"We'll see." You sit and look up at her. "Anyway, are we still on to get our nails done after work?"

"Mhm. Sian said she's gonna have to skip because she promised she'd take her niece out while she's sleeping over at her parents' house."

"Yeah, she should spend time with her. It's been a minute since they've had some quality time."

"We have all weekend with you, though."

"Woo!" You cheer, making her laugh.

"Are you seeing Yunho at some point today?"

"Mm, gonna see if he can grab lunch or something."

"So cute." She giggles. "Full day today?"

"Not too bad, but we'll see if anything pressing comes up during the day."

"Yeah, same. Well let me know if you wanna take a quick walk later. Just text me." You nod. "Have a good day. See you later, babe." You wave her off before returning your attention to your phone and pulling up Yunho's text thread.

you: thank you, yunho. 🥰

yunho: course, cutie. you can finally work productively now!

you: love that for me. hahaha

you: free for lunch later?

yunho: always. i'll come get you around 12:15pm or so.

you: okeeee ☺️ 

You start working away on your new desktop, following up on a lot of pending items before answering new emails coming in. You've hopped in a few 30-min meetings throughout the hours, exchanging updates on the wider progress of the new clinical department already on its way in the main hospital, along with the pediatric end. You've got a few new things to check on, along with new groups to work with to make sure things continue moving. But, for the first time in awhile these past weeks, you feel like you can take a breath of fresh air. Most of the complicated, loose ends have been closed off, and the rest is just figuring out little details— where certain furniture is going, how a typical set up would be, what color blinds they'd like in the department.

The more fun, creative tasks.

Yunho is included in one of the meetings and it's crazy how giddy you feel the moment you see him. This doesn't even have anything to do with you and him, but you love the way he carries himself. You love the way he talks, you love the way he presents and answers questions so confidently. His energy is so undefeated and you can't even begin to understand how someone like him has feelings for someone like you.

You just feel lucky, and you aren't even official. Was that too much?

It's something about him, real talk.

When it gets close to lunch, you're checking off things on your list— giving you to a nice moment to sit back and scroll through social media mindlessly. 

"Hey." Yunho's tall figure pops into your cubicle and sits onto the free chair nearby. "I see you're putting this to good use." He points at your split screen on the desktop— one for your calendar on the browser, one for emails.

"Very much so. Thank you for this. I thought I was gonna have to wait a bit longer. I know provisioning is crazy busy right now."

"Not if I'm around." You laugh. 

"Well, thank you. Life saver."

"You're welcome." He leans forward and gives you a quick kiss on the lips, hidden well in your cubicle. "Ready to eat?"

"Yes, I'm hungry." You stand and begin to follow him out. "By the way, you did great during the meeting, Yu."

"You think so? I winged the fuck out of it." You playfully push him while he laughs.

"So, was it bullshit?!"

"I mean, not necessarily! Whatever I said will work, I just haven't tried it in this case in particular."

"Jeong Yunho."

"That's my name." He swings his arm around you and kisses your temple. "Nah, don't sweat. I always find ways to make it work." He turns to you as you both walk out of the elevator. "So.. I was thinking. If you aren't too swamped today, maybe we can get lunch off campus." Which, isn't unusual coming from Yunho. You and him have gone off campus to grab lunch together. But, that also means you get Yunho alone for a bit and you can already feel the butterflies building in your stomach. Not that you didn't enjoy people's company whenever they joined you two for lunch— it just feels nice to have your time with him, too.

"Yeah, I'm down. It's pretty light for a Friday."

"Good." He slips his hand into yours, leading you to his car in the main staff garage. 

"Yunho, are you sure it's okay?"

"Mhm. Our new hires are starting to get more hands-on with Taehyun and Jihoon. They're actually really good about jumping in and taking initiative."

"Oh, nice! That's great to hear they're doing well."

"Yup! Works out perfectly." He swings your door open and lets you get settled in before sliding into the driver's seat. The conversation immediately picks back up to the meeting you both were in today, Yunho asking about your progress and what else you needed to get done now that the foundation was pretty much solidified. The entire time, Yunho has his free hand in yours— pressing sweet kisses to the top in between conversation at the red lights. You feel the heat rise to your cheeks every single time, shying away when he teases you about it in his usual Yunho manner.

The both of you decide on grabbing sushi from a popular, affordable mom & pop shop near the hospitals. Yunho finds a spot and asks for your specifics before walking in to place an order. It takes about 15 minutes before Yunho is walking back to the car with a full container and a smaller one on top in a plastic bag, setting it gently on your lap before he drives over to a nearby walking trail near a lake that you two can eat and relax for a bit at.

"You excited for your birthday?" Yunho asks as you both dig in and begin to eat, watching the geese flock at the lake in front of you. 

"Mm, I dunno. The age is a little too serious for my liking but we'll see."

"Are you trying to say I'm a fossil? Pre-historic?" You laugh loudly and shake your head.

"No, of course not!"

"You're only a year younger than me." Yunho chuckles. "Still young, still thriving, as Seora says."

"She's so cute. I like her thinking."

"Are you really not excited?"

"I am. I just.. I hope you can come. But, like, I know it's hard so no pressure—" You start to stumble over your words and Yunho smiles at you.

"Just know that I'll always try, okay? I'm sure it'll work out, and then we can celebrate you together."

"It'd be fun."

"When's the last time you've gone out like this?" You shrug.

"Awhile. We've definitely gone to bars with coworkers and do the whole happy hour thing, but it's been a long time since I've gone out to the club and celebrated this way."

"Your brother and his friends are coming along?" You nod.

"Yup! And a few more people from work that we're all close to."

"See, it'll be a fun time regardless."

"Yeah. I guess I am excited. I haven't gone out with my brother like this in awhile either."

"When you guys go on vacation, do you explore and do things together or stay put at the hotel?"

"We always explore. Always." You chuckle.

"A fun duo."

"We try to be." 

"What else are you doing for your birthday, pretty girl?"

"Mm. Sian and Noeul are coming over right at midnight." You laugh. "Then, I think they planned a few things. They didn't give me any specifics but they said brunch and a spa date thingy."

"Cute."

"Me and Noeul are getting our nails done after work."

"Sian isn't coming?"

"Her niece is staying at her parents' house for the weekend so she wants to go spend some time with her while she can."

"Ah, I see. Makes sense." Yunho takes a sip of his water. "Seora would've loved to tag along even if she wasn't able to do anything."

"Aw. Well, I can take her along with me one day." Yunho silently nods with a tiny smile etched on the corner of his lips. He'd love that, and he can already see how well you two would get along.

It's just the fact of how long it'll take to get there.

Kinda makes him sad, but Seora deserves everything and he is always gonna put her first. He knows it won't be easy, and he knows she won't put down her walls immediately. In fact, he knows she'll have a hard time with this and she'll have a hard time with you.

He's so conflicted on what to do. He obviously doesn't wanna lose you and let all of this go. It's been ages since he felt this way and for the first time in a long time, he can genuinely and truly say his feelings run deep for you. He feels comfortable and he feels safe, despite the fears still lingering in the back of his mind. He can't let this go.

He knows life is short and he'll probably never come across something like this again.

But, Seora.

Oh, he hopes she'll understand. He swallows the anxiety that's slowly building every time he thinks about it— afraid to ruin your lunch or even your birthday. He'll continue to go with the flow and keep you happy, and he'll face it when the time comes.

Which, is probably soon with how quick he's falling for you.

"Mm, yeah." Is all he manages to respond with, also feeling stuffed from lunch as you both sit back and enjoy the peace while basking in the sun. Yunho has his arm draped against the back of the bench while you scoot closer and remove the trash from in between. The stillness, the quiet, is nice. You like being able to do this with Yunho.

You are comfortable, and you are safe.

You don't have to do much with him and he still manages to make you feel lucky. To make you feel wanted.

"Thank you again for saving my butt with the desktop." He chuckles.

"Yeah, of course."

"When did you even set it up?"

"This morning."

"You made Seora get up early just to fix my computer?"

"She didn't mind. Her bestfriend is always at school early anyway because her parents have pretty strict early shifts."

"Mm." I hum. "Okay, fair enough."

"C'mere." He looks down at you with a smile. His hand comes down to lift your chin up, kissing you on the lips with nothing but a sweet gentleness behind his actions. Yunho has been nothing short of gentle with you— sharing sweet, tiny moments like this. Nothing more, nothing less.

He doesn't expect anything out of it. Doesn't rush or force you, even though the need for him is slowly growing day by day; the more you spend time with him.

But, it's all in the motions. All in time. This pace works for you two.

You smile against his lips, pressing another few repeated kisses on him before you're walking back to the car hand in hand— ready to tackle the rest of the day before you're off for pre-birthday festivities with one of your bestfriends.

Once the clock hit midnight, you heard a knock on your door before footsteps rushed down the front steps of your apartment complex. You peeked through the peephole, only able to catch an unfamiliar car driving off. Your focus quickly strayed when you noticed the huge flower bouquet and balloons on your doorstep. You gasped to yourself, slowly swinging your door open before taking in the sight of it all. You dragged the balloons in gently, making sure none of them popped as you relocated them safely inside of your apartment. You placed the huge bouquet into a vase before grabbing the small card wedged in between two baby pink roses:

happy birthday, beautiful. - yunho

You snapped a photo and sent it to Yunho with a crying emoji, barely able to send a follow up message before your loud ass bestfriends barged through your door with confetti and all sorts of celebratory items in hand.

Now, you were exhausted and waking up close to noon because of all the drinking and late night talks that happened last night. When Noeul and Sian saw the balloons and the flowers, they wouldn't let the conversation about Yunho go even if your eyes were closing more and more by the second. 

"Birthday girl is awake!" Sian says at your kitchen, already preparing coffee.

"Barely." You sit up and dig your head into your hands. "My head kinda hurts."

"Your birthday barely started, there's more where that came from."

"Please. You guys did so much planning for the club tonight, I need to at least make it inside." Noeul laughs next to you.

"You haven't heard from Yunho yet about tonight?"

"No." You sigh. "But either way, we'll enjoy whether or not they come. He's not obligated to show up and he shouldn't force it if he can't."

"You're right. I'm still praying and crossing my fingers, though." Noeul says before getting up. "Come on, get up. We're gonna enjoy this coffee prepared by yours truly—" She turns to Sian for a quick moment. "Before we take you out for a full day of birthday goodness and see your family for brunch!"

"Then, we get back in time to get ready for tonight's festivities!" Sian adds, making you shake your head as Noeul literally drags you out of bed to throw you in the shower.

Meanwhile, Yunho is at some café downtown after dropping off Seora at Chan-mi's house. He's poking at his food while Mingi and Seonghwa argue in front of him, completely unaware of what said argument is even about.

"Aye, tell him he's wrong." Mingi hits him on the chest, pulling Yunho out of his thoughts.

"About what?"

"He wasn't even listening." Seonghwa cuts eyes at Yunho before sliding in his seat even more.

"Sorry, I'm just—"

"Thinking about Y/N? We know."

"No— well, yeah, but no." Yunho sighs and looks at his friends. "What the fuck do I even wear? I haven't gone out like this in so long, I can't even remember."

"You mean, you haven't gone out for someone you really like in so long?"

"Yeah, that."

"Let's head to the mall really quickly after this." Seonghwa adds. "You can still look good for your girl without doing too much."

"You're right for once." Seonghwa kicks Mingi's foot under the table, causing him to groan.

"I'm always right, you fucking prick."

"That's why I'm the favorite uncle. Cause you're always so grumpy. Besides, who the fuck accidentally spills the beans about his date?"

"It just slipped! I wasn't paying attention."

"Yeah, the hell." Yunho laughs. "You're lucky she didn't bring it up again after that." Yunho takes the last bite of his food before he throws in a crumpled napkin and sits back. "Ready to head to the mall? Do you guys have something to wear or are you buying stuff, too?"

"I'm gonna grab some things."

"Same." The three stand and gather their trash before heading out to the mall. Yunho had picked up Seonghwa and Mingi in exchange for Seora's presence, the two planning to stay the night post-club festivities. Mingi decided he'd be the designated driver tonight with Yunho's car, only coming for the vibes and to support his bestfriend. On the other hand, Yoori wasn't too happy to know Seonghwa wouldn't be getting his time tonight, but he had been spending a lot of time with her lately that he felt the need to give himself some space.

Some me time.

And he's not gonna lie, he's pretty excited for it. So is Mingi, so is Yunho.

The three walk around their favorite stores, grabbing a few key pieces they can throw into their closet rotation. Tonight, Yunho's gonna wear something simple, but enough to [hopefully] keep your attention. He's planning on a black button up and slacks, while Mingi is deciding to throw on a white tee and some slacks. Seonghwa bought a new leather jacket to go with his black top and black jeans. They don't spend too much time at the mall— the three quickly satisfied and calling it a day early on so they can chill until tonight.

Yunho just realized he never told you if he was going or not.

But, he also realizes he can take this and run with it. Surprise you, be with you all night.

He's fucking excited.

For him, the day feels excruciatingly long and stretched out, but for you, the day moves too fast for your liking. The first stop is a popular Thai eatery that is booked for months on end for brunch. When you walk in, your parents, Wonwoo and a few other good friends from work are already sitting at a long table near the back, happily greeting you with their birthday wishes when you approach the table. You automatically feel complete seeing the people you love the most all in one place, eating away at all the delicious food your group ordered while sipping on mimosas. The restaurant has a 2-hr limit due to its popularity, so by the time 2-hrs is up, you're full, you're content, you're ready to walk it off. Your parents smother you in kisses before handing you an envelope with some birthday money, waving goodbye as your brother whisks them away and takes them back home. Wonwoo gives you a quick hug before he's reminding you him and his friends will be over at your place to pre-game for tonight, causing you to nod and shoo him away in return.

You were starting to get excited.

But, Noeul and Sian take you to the next stop: a spa. The three of you indulge in a 90-min hot stone massage— something you truly needed from these grueling weeks at work. As you lay on the table while your massage is on the way, your thoughts hover to Yunho and how much you miss him. He hadn't sent many messages today, and you know he's only doing it to let you enjoy your day with the girls. But, you wish he was here. Or, that he's around.

Or, that you'd see him tonight.

You really hope the universe would align on this one with you. 

All in all, post-massage you feel relaxed. Cool, calm and collected. You, Noeul and Sian grab takeout to eat at the ease of your home— excited to sit around and take a little break before your brother and all your other friends, his friends, come over before the club.

The pre-party before the party.

Time really does fly when you're genuinely enjoying yourself. So much that it's hard to grasp just how fast it's been going.

You slip into your black dress and start working on your hair and makeup with Sian and Noeul. Your other friends trickle in one by one, touching up their hair and makeup while blasting music. Sooner or later, there's loud talking and footsteps hurrying up the stairs to your unit— a familiar voice coming through on the opposite side of the door:

"Yo!" Wonwoo yells, pounding on your door. You hurry to the door and let your brother and his friends in, all of them loudly greeting you and your friends as they come in and fill your space. "Let's get this going so we can head out!"

"Line up the shots!" Soonyoung yells. "Birthday girl, I'm connecting my phone to your speakers!" You nod and give him the thumbs up, doing the final touches to your makeup before heading to the kitchen and whipping out the alcohol for the pre-game session. You bounce along to the music while everyone hypes themselves up for the night, checking your phone for any new texts from Yunho.

There hadn't been any since you responded to him earlier in the day, and it makes you feel a little sad.

Maybe he was busy? Maybe he wanted you to be present on your birthday?

You would've really enjoyed with him around.

Guess the universe wasn't aligning for this one.

"Why are you all quiet? Is your man not coming tonight?" Wonwoo's voice pulls you out of your thoughts. Your brother leans back against the counter as you pop open the Don Julio and start pouring the shots quietly. 

"He's not my man." You shrug. "And I don't know. He never said anything after he said he'd try and I don't wanna ask or make him feel guilty about it."

"Not your man, yet." He teases. "He's probably coming. It's all a part of the surprise."

"Don't get my hopes up, Wonu." Your brother pinches your cheek.

"Simp."

"You're annoying." You shove a shot in his face. "Here. Start passing them out." Wonwoo does as he's told like the good brother he is, calling everyone to start gathering around with their shots. Once you've poured enough, Wonwoo leads the whole birthday speech nonsense before you're all taking the shots straight— many faces being made [groans being let out] at the taste and burn of tequila.

One turns to two.

Two turns to four.

Four turns to you're tipsy as hell.

You leave your studio as is when its time to head out the club, squishing in the backseat of Wonwoo's car with Noeul and Sian. Wonwoo's friend, Seokmin, takes the front seat, helping your brother keep the last bit of sanity he has left with his company during the drive over.

"You guys ready?" Wonwoo looks at the rearview mirror, watching as you and the girls drunkly respond and yell in excitement. He looks at Seokmin in the front seat, laughing while he hears the chaos echo from the back to the front. It's late in the evening, so the roads aren't as packed anymore. This makes the drive over to the club only about 25 minutes long down South. 

It's a fuckin' breeze when you're tipsy and having fun with your bestfriends in the backseat of your brother's nice ass car.

When you arrive and reunite with the other half of the group, you walk to the club together and skip through the tremendously long line down the block. You head straight to the VIP table everyone chipped in for, giving you a good corner of the club to claim as your own.

"Let's go!" Seokmin yells, leading the guys over to the bar to start ordering on everyone's behalf. The night is already off to an incredibly strong start with more shots to take— all your friends living life on the edge by chasing with cocktails.

It feels good to let loose. 

You haven't in a long time.

You begin to dance and have fun with the group, almost completely forgetting Yunho's absence until:

"Bitch, excuse me!" Sian rushes over to you after visiting the bar. "He's here! With his friends!" 

"What?" You squint and lean towards Sian's ear, unable to hear her properly.

"Yunho! He's here with his friends!" She points towards the door, finding the three walking in as they search the crowd for you and the group. 

"See! I knew he wouldn't miss out!" Noeul adds. You smile, waving Yunho over when he finally locks eyes with you in the sea of people, the excitement running through your veins.

He's here.

"You made it!" You say to him as he comes face to face. He chuckles and pulls you into a nice, big hug— his cologne filling your senses when he holds you tight. 

"Course I did. You think I'd miss this?"

"Well, I dunno. Seora?"

"She would never miss an opportunity to sleep over at her bestfriend's house." You look at him, his hands still around your waist. "I wouldn't miss an opportunity to be with you, either."

"Stop." He shakes his head while he watches you shy away.

"Happy birthday, baby." He says in your ear before placing a tender kiss on your forehead. Seonghwa greets you next, pulling you into a hug before greeting your friends. Mingi comes after, also pulling you into a hug even though you hadn't formally met until tonight.

"So, we finally meet!" He says while laughing.

"I know, it's so good to see you! I'm glad you guys made it out!"

"Of course, why not? Plus, we're celebrating you. It's a good reason to be out and having fun." You smile at him before pulling them over to the group sitting at a nearby table. Yunho and your brother have already greeted each other, and now, he's making his rounds for meet and greets with everyone else. 

"Take a shot with us?" Yunho comes back to you after he's done mingling and saying his hello's. "On me." You nod. He takes your hand as Seonghwa and Mingi lead the way to the bar, Yunho guiding you from behind as he tightly laces his fingers with yours. Seonghwa orders more shots, asking you what your preference is.

"I'm only gonna taking this one for you though because I'm driving."

"More than enough for me." You smile at Mingi, grabbing your glass while the other three wait for theirs. The moment their hands are full, you clink your glass against theirs, cheering loudly before you take the shot down the neck— the tequila burning the column of your throat as it travels down. "I don't know how much more I have left in me." You wince at the taste, making Yunho chuckle.

"I just got here. We've gotta keep going." He squeezes your hand.

"By the way, glad your bouquet and balloons made it inside safely." Seonghwa smiles.

"Wait, you dropped it off for him?"

"Sure did! I was on my way home, anyway."

"Thank you." You look at the both of them before the bartender slides down three more shots for you, Seonghwa and Yunho, claiming it was on the house for your birthday.

Once you've taken the shot and sipped on a cocktail to wash away the after taste, you've gotten yourself to a really good level with the alcohol and you don't think you wanna push yourself any further. The DJ starts hitting a good point of his set— you and your group bouncing and dancing along to the music. The entire time, though, you find yourself clinging to Yunho the more you feel the alcohol seeping in.

The more the world spins.

And he enjoys that.

"You okay?" He asks, his arm coming around you.

"Yeah. I'm just happy you're here." He smiles.

"I am, too." He kisses your forehead again. It all starts off cute— with Yunho grabbing you by the hand so you could both sing or rap along to the songs with each other. From time to time, he switches it up; hugging you from behind and swaying along to the beat. Other times, he's got you pressed up against him; hands gently digging into your hips as you work your ass on him. At one point, he's found himself backed up against the wall, watching intently as you dance on him. He's guiding your movements to the beat, keeping up as you continue. Every time you press your back against him, he leaves a kiss on your neck, hands threatening to roam up your chest and give it a good squeeze.

But, he has to remind himself that he's in public.

That this is all the alcohol getting to him and making him act on his thoughts.

That he's gotta do right by you. 

Just.. fuck. It doesn't make it any easier when he gets front row seats to a perfect view of your outfit and everything else about you. He can't help but continue to eye the way your tight, black one-shoulder longsleeve dress falls right below the curve of your ass and the way those strappy heels wrap around your ankles. Yunho keeps thinking about how sexy you look right now, and how much of a goddamn goddess you are.

The way you work him so well.

Your perfume.

Your pretty nail polish.

The way your energy is a match-made in heaven with his.

It's such a turn on.

Especially when the song finishes and you giggle, throwing your arms around his neck lazily while you plant repeated kisses to his lips. One second, he's enjoying the cute intimacy. You've managed to stray a bit from the group, making Yunho feel like he can finally focus on you and you only. His hands are still placed on your hips while you tease away— pecking him sweetly.

The next second, your lips are crashing onto his in a more intense, heated manner; arms still wrapped around his neck while his large hands are now resting on the small of your back to keep you close. He might be drunk, and you might be drunk— the surroundings might not mean shit and this might not make sense at the moment, but what you do know is that it feels like pure bliss to be kissing Yunho. To have him like this.

And he feels the same.

Which is why his hands pull you flush against his body, deepening the moment with every second that passes. His tongue lines your lower lip as a way of asking for permission, smirking into kiss when you push forward and kiss him more eagerly. 

With hunger, an edge with desire.

Right now, you two probably look like a bunch of high schoolers just making out at a party cause it's the thing to do. But to you, to Yunho, the outside world and the extra noise doesn't fucking matter.

It's just you and him.

"You're so fucking pretty." He breaks the kiss briefly to say in your ear. "Prettiest birthday girl I've ever seen." He plants hot, open-mouthed kisses below your ear and right down your neck.

"Yunho." The way you softly moan his name is driving him crazy, he can't help but lower his lips down to your neck— leaving a trail of kisses and soft nips against your skin.

"Wish I could take you back with me tonight."

"You could." You bite your lip when you meet his eyes. He cups your cheek and rubs the surface.

"Gotta do this right, love." He places a kiss to your cheek before slipping his hand back in yours. "Wanna head back to the group? We kinda moved pretty far." You laugh and nod.

"Yeah. It was nice to have the alone time, though."

"No lie about that." He follows behind as you lead the way through the crowd, getting back to your brother and all your friends. Your brother and his rowdy ass friends are all loudly singing along, a couple of new faces joining your group to dance along with them. Yunho plops onto the free space next to Mingi on the couch, while Wonwoo comes around to hand you another drink.

"Drink up, sis. The night is young and so are you." You laugh, taking the glass from his hand. "I see you're enjoying yourself." Wonwoo's cheeks are flushed red and he's smirking, throwing an arm around you to speak clearly in your ear. "Just make sure he takes good care of you, okay?"

"Yeah." You nod. "Just feels kinda complicated."

"Why?"

"Seora. Mom." Is all you say. Because yeah, you don't know how Seora or your mom would feel and you'd hate to make them upset. Wonwoo shakes his head and leans forward again.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure it'll all work out. It'll all play out the way it should." He looks at you. "Let's not worry about that right now, hm? It's your birthday. Keep enjoying yourself." You laugh.

"Thanks, Wonu." Your brother ruffles your hair and begins to dance, causing everyone around you to join in and hype you up. While you're busy with the girls, Wonwoo plops next to Yunho in the free space, sipping on some water while people-watching.

"Thanks for making it out tonight. You made her really happy." He says, turning to Yunho with a smirk. "She was all sad and quiet because she hadn't heard from you today." Yunho laughs.

"Wouldn't miss it."

"Please take care of her and be good to her, alright? Just doing my brotherly duties."

"Course. You have my word." Wonwoo nods before giving his shoulder a squeeze and standing to join his friends again. It isn't long before you find yourself getting tired from all the dancing— plopping onto Yunho's lap when he signals for you to do so. He has his arms wrapped around you while the both of you begin to laugh and flirt around with each other, Mingi and Sian in deep, drunk conversation next to you.

"Where's Noeul?" You gently nudge Sian.

"Girl, I haven't seen her in a minute. Probably out at sea trying to find a man for the night." Sian laughs before returning her attention to Mingi, and now, one of Wonwoo's other friends who has joined the conversation. You continue to look out at the crowd, hoping you can spot Noeul just to make sure she's okay. And, it only takes you about a few seconds before you find a familiar figure.

But, you were not prepared to see her up on Seonghwa like that. Director Yoori's Seonghwa.

"Oh shit." You say, causing Yunho to furrow his brows at you. He squeezes your thigh, making you shift your attention back to him momentarily. 

"What's wrong?"

"Noeul." You nod towards her and Seonghwa. Initially, she was dancing on him and it looked pretty harmless. All for fun. Until her hand starts to snake up to his neck while he holds her close. She's dancing against him, their hips moving in synchronized movements; in harmony. 

"Oh." Yunho says. "Oh shit." He repeats after you when Noeul walks away, but Seonghwa is quick to pull her back in his arms. This time, she's facing him. He's talking in her ear and she's giggling. Then, she's making the first move and kissing him.

He takes it.

"Uh." Mingi leans forward to catch Yunho's eyes and all they can do is laugh it off, shake their heads. But, yeah. Seonghwa's fucked.

"Okay, atta girl!" Sian yells, cheering them on. Sian is obviously more carefree, goes with the flow. Doesn't think much about any repercussions. Doesn't really care much for them overall. She is good at hyping you up, at being a wing woman, at helping you remember who the fuck you are; but, she could also mean trouble.

There is no grey area, it is either black and white with her.

"Are Seonghwa and Yoori official?" You ask Yunho and he shakes his head.

"No."

"Mm." You hum.

"See, then it's a free for all! It's all for the fun of it!" You all shift your attention back to the two, still handsy with each other. Still playfully locking lips before Noeul pulls back and leads him to the group. She avoids eye contact even though she's subtly nibbling on her lip and blushing, Seonghwa instantly pulling her down on his lap.

Yeah, this was gonna be some shit later on.

But, you guess you can worry about that later. It was still your birthday, and quite frankly, all the fucks you could give were temporarily out the window for the day.

The awkward tension settles and everyone is back to minding their own business and having fun. The bottle girls come over to greet you one more 'happy birthday' with the group, giving you energy to party it out for the last two hours of the night. When everything comes to an end, your feet are hurting, your calves are on fire, and you're reaching the sleepy level of drunk.

But, your heart is full and you're ending your birthday happily having spent it with your loved ones. With Yunho. 

"Aye, Y/N! Noeul, Sian! Rally up, ladies!" Your brother says, calling for you and your friends while him and Seokmin stand near the front of the club. Yunho, Seonghwa and Mingi guide you through the crowd, the rest of your friends and Wonwoo's friends already out the door and off to satisfy their drunchies while waving their goodbyes. "Y/N, Sian, Noeul! Roll call!"

"I'm here! Stop yelling!" You yell at Wonwoo, making him and Seokmin laugh while they wait off to the side. "Sure I can't go home with you?" You drunkly pout up at Yunho and he laughs.

"Soon, baby. Plus, you've got the girls and I got them." He quickly looks at the two behind him before turning back to you. "Hope you had fun."

"I did. Thank you guys for coming." You tippy-toe and kiss him on the lips. He continues with repeated soft, sweet kisses to your lips before your brother does another roll-call:

"Yo, for real? In front of me? Come on, now." Yunho laughs a bit and apologizes before kissing you one last time and letting your hand slip from his. Yeah, he hates having to leave you.

"All up in my business for what?!" You playfully push your brother as the five of you make your way to the car. Once everyone is settled, your brother offers to drive to the nearest McDonalds to cure your drunchies. When Wonwoo drops you and the girls off at home, you make an immediate bee-line to the bathroom and take a quick shower before throwing on your pajamas and getting the living room area ready for Noeul and Sian. As soon as everyone is done showering and finally relaxing, the three of you relive the night— making sure to press on Noeul about Seonghwa. She's clearly still drunk and out of it, brushing it off as if it were something that just happened in passing.

But, you know your bestfriend.

You know she'll wake up tomorrow, she'll remember all of this, and she'll already be attached to him. 

So, you let her be. You let her live in this moment, you let her take it. But, when the time comes, just like yours will, you'll be there to help her face it. Figure it out together with Sian. You just hope it doesn't backfire terribly on her. At work. 

And Yunho is thinking the same when he reads into the situation a bit, too. 

They get home, and he quickly peeks over at your parents' home to make sure all looks well. The three of them step in and take their showers to get comfortable and ready for bed. When it's time for them to relax and do their own debriefing, Yunho stands in the kitchen chugging water while Seonghwa and Mingi are getting their blankets onto the couch and the air mattress.

"You and Y/N are cute." Mingi says with a smile. "Like for real. It's nice to see you happy."

"I am happy. She makes me happy."

"Sounds like it's time to make it official."

"Mm." Yunho hums. "Yeah, maybe. I just—" Yunho sighs. "I don't come alone. I come with a package deal. I don't know how she'd feel, and most importantly, I don't know how Seora would take it."

"Ace will be fine. I'm sure it'll be an adjustment, but she'll eventually learn to open her heart to it, too. She wants you to be happy."

"I know. But, it won't be that easy. It can never be that easy." Yunho almost says defeatedly. "Anyway, sorry. I don't really wanna think about it right now. What was up with that?" Him and Mingi look at Seonghwa, causing him to raise a brow.

"Uh, yeah." Mingi laughs and looks at Seonghwa. "What was all that about? With Noeul?"

"I don't know how you're gonna explain this and get out of it." Yunho adds with a tiny chuckle.

"Yeah, I kinda fucked up." Seonghwa rubs his face. "Fuck. Whatever."

"Iono my guy, you looked like you enjoyed it."

"I mean, yeah. I'm not gonna lie about that."

"Time to get your priorities straight." Yunho snorts, taking another big sip of his water to avoid a hangover potentially creeping in tomorrow. "Can't just whatever your way out of this." Seonghwa looks at his phone to the unread texts from Yoori and he feels his heart sink. He's just not sure why, though.

What was the exact reason?

Did his heart sink because he felt bad and he knew he fucked up, or did his heart sink because he felt guilty and knew he was guilty for enjoying it?

"Have you been plotting on her since we walked into the club?"

"I mean, I see her around work, too. She's always been cute."

"Seonghwa." Yunho says with a small chuckle. "You can't keep doing this back and forth with Yoori."

"You're gonna have to decide cause even though you don't have a strict title to whatever you and Yoori have going on, it's clearly pretty deep. You've been spending a lot of time with her, sleeping over. Taking her out on dates."

"I didn't ask to be lectured, okay. I know." Seonghwa scoffs a bit before plopping into the couch and getting comfortable. "Tonight was just for fun."

"What if Noeul didn't feel that way?"

"Well." Is all he says before shutting his eyes.

"This guy." Yunho laughs. "Anyway, goodnight. Thanks for coming along tonight."

"Gonna go text your girl?"

"Yup! The one and only." Yunho teases before heading to his room and shutting the door. The mattress feels divine against his body, sheets keeping him warm and comfortable when he tucks it tightly around his body. He decides to shoot you a quick text, hoping you're resting after a successful and productive birthday.

yunho: you safe and comfortable at home?

you: i am. you? ☺️

yunho: yeah. just wish you were here. maybe i should've whisked you away.

you: yeah. ☹️ 

you: but i'm glad you came & we made the most out of it. thank you, yunho. ❤️

yunho: you're welcome, beautiful. sleep tight, okay? i'll try and see you before i pick up seora.

you: okay. goodnight, yu.

Yunho smiles to himself, setting his phone on the charger. Just as he's about to lie down and get some shut eye, his eyes land on the photo of him, Eunha and Seora on the nightstand, his smile slowly turning to a frown. His heart drops a bit when he lets out a sigh, but this time, it feels a little different. It doesn't ache and clench like it used to, it doesn't make him feel incredibly empty.

"She makes me happy. Really happy." He says as if Eunha could hear. Maybe she can, maybe she can't. But, all Yunho knows is that maybe, he's making progress.

Maybe, this was the beginning of healing.

Maybe, he'll be ready to let go sooner than later.

⇢taglist: @asjkdk @interweab @woojirang @svintsandghosts @cheolliehugs @persphonesorchid @mxnsxngie @jycas @cowboydk @nopension @curse-of-art @thechaotictheoryy @likexaxdaydream @dalsuwaha @enha-stars @yasuraokaa @professormingisglasses @yunyunrin @pommelex @astral-trashcan @laura1399 @domfikeluva @tournesol155 @hwaskookies @yusalterego @hwa-stars @hyukssunflower @chngbnwf @jaytheatiny @lucid-galaxys-world @chaotic-floral @sofkloster @honeyrecommends @hwashua-luv @luvv4bby @spicxbnny @pandyandy71 @sanniesaurus @angel-hyuckie @wolviejex @purpleyou7x

[lihhelsing]

steddie | 888 words | angst | mature

CW: drug use, implicit violence

Written for @steddieangstyaugust Day 3

Prompt: "The sunset looks lovely, don't you think?"

Part 2 | Part 3

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The sunset looks lovely, don't you think?"

Eddie looks up from the joint he's rolling to find the only face he never thought he would see out here. 

"King Steve," he says, and maybe it's his imagination but Harrington seems to flinch at his words. "What can I do for you?"

Eddie goes back to rolling his joint. There's a part of him that thinks this could be a trap. Last week the entire swimming team had to do a test to make sure they were all clean and one of the guys didn't pass it. 

He didn't pass it because Eddie had sold him some stuff the week before so maybe now Steve was here to put Eddie in his place. 

Eddie lights up the joint and takes a long drag. If he's going to get a beating, then he might as well do it while high out of his mind. 

"I was hoping you'd sell me something," Steve says. Eddie looks at him with the joint between his lips, trying to assess him. 

"Sorry man, I'm all out," Eddie knows best than to create evidence against himself. 

Steve looks at the open metal lunchbox on the table and raises a brow. "Really?"

"Really," Eddie says. He doesn't bother closing it and he doesn't mind if Steve knows he's lying. 

"Jordan told me all I had to do was say that bullshit thing about the sunset and you'd get me something." 

Eddie turns his face to blow out smoke. Fucking Jordan. He had come up with that password phrase to avoid getting in trouble. If people really wanted to buy something, then they would have to come up to Eddie and say it. 

"He lied," Eddie says and he can see Steve's getting annoyed. 

He gets up and put his joint out, pocketing it for later. 

Eddie could definitely use a few extra bucks this week because their kitchen sink stopped working and Wayne doesn't get paid until the end of the month, but it's not worth the risk of getting in trouble. Eddie knows the money he brings home is what helps keeping them afloat, even if Wayne likes to pretend he doesn't know where Eddie gets it.

He closes his lunchbox and moves to walk past Steve, but feels a hand wrapping around his wrist, stopping him.

It's not a strong hold, he could easily break free and walk away, but Eddie stops. He doesn't think he ever got this up close with Steve, which is both thrilling and terrifying.

"Please, man," Steve says, his voice is really low and he's wearing sunglasses, so Eddie can't see his eyes. "I just need something to get the edge off."

Eddie looks down to where they are touching and feels a fucked up thrill going down his spine. Steve's hand is big enough to circle his wrist without much effort and Eddie wonders how it would feel to have that in a different scenario. 

He wonders how it would feel if Steve were to grab him and throw him down on the table. He could probably hold both his wrists with one hand, and Eddie would be helpless to do anything but take whatever Steve wanted to give him. 

Steve moves and Eddie doesn't even flinch, thinking he might get what he wished for after all, but Steve just takes out his sunglasses and Eddie's breath catches in his throat.

Steve has a big bruise around his left eye. It's ugly and it can't be older than a day. It must hurt like hell and Eddie has to fight the urge to touch it. 

"My head is killing me," Steve offers. He looks defeated and Eddie can't ignore the way his heart twist at the words. 

Eddie should ignore it. He should pull his arm away and walk out, leave him out here alone. But Eddie is not a fucking monster.

He picks up the barely smoked joint and offer it to Steve, who lets go of Eddie's arm and takes it immediately. 

Eddie decides not to think about the absence of his touch, and instead watches as Steve puts it between his lips and how that essentially means their lips touched, somehow.

Steve is giving him a hopeful look and Eddie should walk away but instead he picks his lighter and lights him up. 

The first drag floods Steve's expression with relief and he lets out a low moan that makes Eddie's whole body tingle. 

"How much do I owe you?" Steve asks, already moving to get his wallet. His arm brushes Eddie's but he doesn't seem to mind the proximity. 

"Consider it a free sample," Eddie says and Steve eyes him suspiciously. 

"You gotta let me pay you," Steve says and Eddie has to stop himself from saying 'you can pay me with something other than money.'

Even if he doesn't say it, Eddie is under the impression the words float around them like ghosts. Steve raises a brow and Eddie has to laugh it off before he starts taking off his clothes. 

"Don't worry, big boy. Enjoy your free sample."

And with that, Eddie retreats before he does something stupid like kiss King Steve. That would get him a beating for sure and Eddie likes a little pain, but he probably wouldn't like that. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Defense (of the internet) (from billionaires) in depth

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

The only way to truly billionaire-proof the internet is to a) abolish billionaires and b) abolish the system that allows people to become billionaires. Short of that, any levees we build will need constant tending, reinforcement, and re-evaluation.

That's normal. No security measure (including billionaire-proofing the internet) is a "set and forget" affair. Any time you want something and someone else wants the opposite, you are stuck in an endless game of attack and defense. The measures that block your adversary today will only work until your adversary changes tactics to circumvent your defenses.

For example, mining all the links on the internet to find non-spam sites worked brilliantly for Google, because until Pagerank, there were zero reasons for spammers to get links to point to their sites. Once Google became the dominant way of finding things on the internet, spammers invented the linkfarm. This principle can be summed up as "Show me a ten-foot wall and I'll show you an eleven-foot ladder."

Security designers address this with something called "defense in depth": that's a series of overlapping defenses that are meant to correct for one another's weaknesses. Your bank might use a password, a 2FA code, and – for extremely high-stakes transactions – a series of biographical questions posed by a human customer service over a telephone line.

I've written extensively about defending a new, good internet from billionaire enshittifiers. For example, in this post, I described how Bluesky could be made enshittification-resistant with the use of "Ulysses Pacts" – self-imposed, binding restrictions on enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/#tie-yourself-to-a-federated-mast

A classic example of a Ulysses Pact is "throwing away the Oreos when you go on a diet." Now, it doesn't take a lot of work to devise a countermeasure your future, Oreo-craving self can take to defeat this measure: just drive to the grocery store and buy more Oreos. This even works at 2AM, provided you live within driving distance of an all-night grocer.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't throw away those Oreos. Depending on how strong your Oreo craving is, even a little friction can help you resist the temptation to ruin your diet. We often do bad things because of momentary impulses that fade quickly, and simply airgapping the connection between thought and deed works surprisingly well in many instances.

This is why places with fewer guns have fewer suicides of all kinds: there are plenty of ways to kill yourself, but none are quite so quick and reliable as a gun. People in the grips of a suicidal impulse who don't have guns have more chances to let the impulse pass (this is also why gun control leads to fewer all-cause homicides). So just because a measure is imperfect, that doesn't make it worthless.

If you're trying to give up drinking, you throw away all your booze, but you also go to meetings, and you get a sponsor who can help you out with a 2AM phone call. You might even put a breathalyzer on your car's ignition system. None of these are impossible to defeat (you can get an Uber to the liquor store, after all), but they all create friction between the thing you want, and the thing your adversary (your addiction) is trying to get. They strengthen the hand of you as defender of the sober status quo, against the attacker who wants you to relapse.

Critically, all these defensive measures also buy you space and time that you can use to organize and deploy more defenses. Maybe the long Uber ride to the liquor store gives you enough time to think about your actions so you call your sponsor from the parking lot. Defense is useful even when it only slows your adversary, rather than stopping your adversary in their tracks.

Scaling up from personal defense to societal-scale security considerations, it's useful to think of this as a battle with four fronts: code (what is technically im/possible?), law (what is il/legal?), norms (what is socially un/acceptable?) and markets (what is un/profitable?). This framework was first raised a quarter-century ago, in Larry Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Code_And_Other_Laws_of_Cyberspace_Version_2_0.pdf

Lessig laid out these four forces as four angles of attack that challengers to the status quo should plan their strategy around. If you want to liberalize copyright, you can try norms (the "Free Mickey" campaign), laws (the Eldred v. Ashcroft Supreme Court case), code (machine-readable Creative Commons licenses) and markets (open access/free software businesses). Each one of these helps the other – for example, if lots of people believe in copyright reform (norms), more of them will back a Humble Bundle for open access materials (markets), and more lawmakers will be interested in changing copyright statutes (law), and more hackers will see reason to do cool things with CC licenses, like search engines (code).

But the four forces aren't just for attackers seeking to disrupt the status quo – they're just as important for defenders looking to create and sustain a new status quo. Figuring out how to "lock a system open" is very different from figuring out how to "force a system open." But they're both campaigns waged with code, law, norms and markets.

We're living through a key moment in enshittification history. Millions of people have become dissatisfied with legacy social media companies run by despicable, fascism-friendly billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and are ready to leave, despite the costs (losing contact with friends who stay behind). While many of them are moving to group chats and private Discord servers,tens of millions have moved to new social media platforms that advertise (though they don't necessarily deliver) decentralization: Mastodon (and the fediverse) and Bluesky (and the atmosphere).

Decentralization is itself a defensive countermeasure (code). When a service has diffuse power, it's harder for any one person to take it over. Federation adds another defensive layer, because users who don't like the way one server is run can move to another server, with varying degrees of data- and identity-portability. That makes it harder for server owners to squeeze users to make money (markets), and gives them an out if server owners try it anyway.

Federation with decentralization is my favorite anti-enshittification defense. It's powerful as hell. It's the main reason I endorse Free Our Feeds, an effort to (among other things) build more Bluesky servers to decrease the centralization and give users dissatisfied with Bluesky management an alternative:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/capitalist-unrealism/#praxis

That said, decentralization and federation are not perfect, set-and-forget defenses. Take email – the oldest, most successful federated system of them all. Email is nominally decentralized, but most email traffic goes through a handful of extremely large servers run by a cartel of companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft, and a few ISPs). These companies collude (or, more charitably, coordinate) to block email from non-cartel companies, in the name of fighting spam. This makes running your own mail server so hard that it is nearly impossible (that is, if you care about people actually receiving the email you send them):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/

What's interesting about enshittified email is that it didn't start with corporate takeover: it started with volunteer-maintained blocklists of untrustworthy servers that most email operators subscribed to, defederating from any server that appeared on the list. These blocklists of bad servers were opaque (often, their maintainers would operate anonymously, citing the threat of retaliation from criminal scammers whose servers appeared on the list). They had little or no appeal process, and few or no objective criteria for inclusion (you could be blocklisted for how your email server was configured, even if no one was using it to send spam). All of this set up the conditions to favor large email servers, and also had the effect of immunizing these large servers from appearing on blocklists. I mean, once three quarters of the internet is on Gmail, no one is going to block email from Gmail, even if a ton of spam is sent using its servers.

The lesson of email doesn't mean email is bad, nor does it mean decentralization and federation are useless. It doesn't even mean that blocklists of bad servers are evil. It just means that federation and decentralization are imperfect and insufficient defenses against enshittification, and that blocklists are useful, but very dangerous. It means that we should strive to keep our systems federated and decentralized, and watch our blocklists very carefully, and not rely on any of this as the only defense against enshittification.

Likewise, both Mastodon and Bluesky are built on free/open code and standards. That means that anyone can fork them, fix them or mod them. What's more, the licenses involved are irrevocable, making them very effective Ulysses Pacts. No one – not a CEO, not a VC investor, not a court or a blackmailer – can order someone to make their GPL code proprietary. The license is perpetual and irrevocable, and that's that.

Free/open licenses are excellent Ulysses Pacts and great code-related defenses against enshittification, but they, too, are imperfect and insufficient. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft have all figured out how to enshittify services that are built on free/open code:

https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/libreplanet-2018-keynote

And then there are all the companies that use free/open code and defeat the freedom and openness by simply violating the license, on the grounds that a decentralized, federated development community can't figure out who has standing to sue, and also can't afford to pay for the lawyers to do so:

https://sfconservancy.org/news/2022/may/16/vizio-remand-win/

That's not to say that code-based antienshittification measures are pointless – only to say that they need other measures to backstop them, as defense in depth. Let's talk about law, then. Both Mastodon and Bluesky are governed by legal entities that are, nominally, organized by charters that oblige them to eschew enshittification and be responsive to their users (Bluesky is a B-corp, Mastodon's code is overseen by a US nonprofit).

These structures are very important. I've been a volunteer board member for several co-ops and nonprofits (I was even once a volunteer for a nonprofit co-op!) and I'm familiar with the role that good governance can play in defending a project from internal and external pressures to betray its mission. That means I'm also familiar with the limits of these governance measures.

Take nonprofits: nominally, nonprofits are legally bound to serve their charitable purpose, and technically, stakeholders have legal recourse if they stray from this. But you don't have to look far to find nonprofits that have violated their charter and gotten away with it. Take the Nature Conservancy, which has become a key player in the market for fake "carbon offsets" that are used to justify everything from fossil fuel extraction to SUV manufacture:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/12/fairy-use-tale/#greenwashing

Or think of ISOC, who get tens of millions of dollars in free money every year from their stewardship of the .ORG registry, but who decided to hand over control of the nonprofits' TLD of choice to a shadowy cabal of hedge-fund billionaires:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/how-we-saved-org-2020-review

Co-ops, too, are powerful but wildly imperfect. REI is a member co-op that does lots of great things…and also busts unions:

https://prismreports.org/2024/07/17/rei-workers-unionizing-fighting-for-agreemment/

But REI is a paragon of social virtue compared to its Canadian equivalent, Mountain Equipment Coop, whose board was taken over by corrupt assholes who then sold the whole thing to a US private equity fund and change the name to "MEC":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/16/spike-lee-joint/#casse-le-mec

B-corps are far from perfect, too: while they are nominally required to serve a positive social purpose, in practice, they can violate that purpose with impunity, whether that through greenwashing:

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240202-has-b-corp-certification-turned-into-corporate-greenwashing

Or Kickstarter insiders taking a $100m bribe to help Andreesen-Horowitz do a crypto pump-and-dump:

https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/11/kickstarter-blockchain-a16z-crypto-secret-investment-chris-dixon/

None of this is to claim that B-corps, co-ops, and nonprofits are useless. Maybe we should just give up on organization altogether and have some kind of adhocracy? If you're thinking this will help, then you need to read Jo Freeman's "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" and learn how a "leaderless" group is actually led by its least scrupulous, most Machiavellian schemers:

https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

At this point, you might be mentally designing a new corporate structure, one that's designed to correct for both the tyranny of structurelessness and the brittleness of co-ops, nonprofits and B-corps. Please don't do this. Rolling your own corporate structure is like rolling your own cryptography or your own free software license. It always ends in tears:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-remove-non-profit-control-give-sam-altman-equity-sources-say-2024-09-25/

I like co-ops, nonprofits and B-corps. They're powerful – but insufficient – weapons against enshittification. They need to be backstopped by other measures, like norms. Normative measures are very powerful! Of course, mass revolts of angry users don't always keep companies from enshittifying:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/30/reddit-moderator-protest-communities-social-media

But sometimes they do. The C-suite of Unity was shown the door after enshittifying their flagship product:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/10/23911338/unity-ceo-steps-down-developers-react

As was the enshittifying CEO of Sonos:

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/13/24342179/sonos-ceo-patrick-spence-resignation-reason-app

And of course, these defensive measures reinforce one another. The public outcry against the .ORG selloff (norms) led to California's Attorney General stepping in (law), and after that, we more-or-less romped to victory:

https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/17/icann_california_org_sale_delay/

Markets are the final antienshittificatory force. If a social network is designed to be surveillance-resistant, it will be (very) hard to implement behavioral surveillance advertising. If a network is designed to support a many clients, it will be easy to implement an ad-blocker. Both factors make advertising-based businesses very unattractive to individual server operators, spammers, and VCs who back companies that operate elements of a federated server.

Same goes for systems that allow users to control the recommendations and other algorithmic aspects of their feeds (including switching these off altogether). The fact that Tiktok's users overwhelmingly use an algorithmic feed that they have no way to control or even understand is an anti-Ulysses Pact, an irresistible temptation for Tiktok to enshittify itself:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

By contrast, it's much harder to pull those shenanigans with services that technologically devolve control over recommendations (code), making it less profitable to even try to attempt this (markets). And of course, if users refuse to tolerate this kind of thing (norms) and can hop to other servers (code), then any system that pulls that nonsense will lose lots of users and go broke (markets).

This defense-in-depth approach to decentralized social media pushes us to analyze both Mastodon and Bluesky through a tactical lens – to identify the weak parts in the defenses of each and shore them up.

Take Free Our Feeds and its attempt to stand up more Bluesky servers. This addresses one of the serious technical deficiencies in Bluesky (the lack of federation), and if lots of Bluesky users try it out, it will normalize the idea that Bluesky is a constellation of independently managed servers (norms). It also creates Bluesky alternatives with radically different commercial imperatives (markets), because the main Bluesky server is backed by venture capitalists, who are notorious for their enshittifying impulses.

But security isn't static – a tactic that works today won't work tomorrow if your adversary can figure out a way around it. Bluesky is a B-corp with an excellent board with some names I have profound trust for, but B-corps can abandon their public benefit purpose, and boards can be fired (and also even people you trust can talk themselves into doing stupid and wicked things, see .ORG).

If millions of Bluesky users flock to a rival service, one run by a nonprofit (markets), Bluesky's investors might be tempted to sever the link between Bluesky and that new server (code). That's what Facebook and Apple did to XMPP, an interoperable, federated messaging system that used to connect Apple users, Facebook users, and users of many other servers. They did this for commercial reasons (markets), to trap and lock in their users (code), and they got away with it because not enough users were outraged by this (norms) that they could get away with it.

When Bluesky's VCs fire the CEO, kick people like Mike Masnick off its board, and then defederate from Free Our Feeds' server, how do we make that more like Sonos or Unity (where the corporation capitulated to its users), and not like Reddit (where the user revolt was crushed)?

With social media, it's a numbers game. Social media grows by network effects: the more users there are in a system, the more valuable it is. It's not merely imperative to create alternative Bluesky servers, it's imperative to make them populous enough that cutting them off from the first Bluesky server will inflict more pain on the company than it inflicts on those other users. That's not a guarantee that Bluesky's future, enshittification-bent management won't go ahead and do it anyway, but it does increase the chances that if they press on, their users will take the hit to defect to free/open servers.

Bluesky has other problems besides its centralization, of course. The reason Bluesky is so centralized is that it's really expensive to run an alternative Bluesky server that provides a home for users who have left the main server (a "relay" in Bluesky-ese). Partly this is down to tooling: because no one has done it, Free Our Feeds will have to invent a lot of stuff to get that server up and running, but people who come later will benefit from whatever Free Our Feeds develops along the way.

But mostly, this isn't a tooling problem – it's an architecture problem. The way that Bluesky is structured demands a lot more of relays than Mastodon demands of "instances" (a loose Fediverse analog to relays):

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/21/the-technological-poison-pill-how-atprotocol-encourages-competition-resists-evil-billionaires-lock-in-enshittification/#comment-4253477

This is a code problem, and it's a hard one, but it's not insurmountable. The history of networked tools is the history of developers figuring out how to break apart large, monolithic, expensive services in cheaper, smaller, easier to develop. In other words, our defense in depth of Bluesky militates for more than one project – not just a "Free Our Feeds" but also a software development project to make it easier for anyone to free those feeds.

Which raises some important questions, the biggest being "Why bother?" After all, there's already a perfectly good Fediverse that could sure use the money and effort that Free Our Feeds is proposing to put into Bluesky. My main answer here is that the point of disenshittification is an enshittification-free internet, not a better Mastodon:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/capitalist-unrealism/#praxis

We want to set Bluesky users free because the problem with Bluesky isn't its users, it's the fact that there's no fire-exits those users can avail themselves of if Bluesky's VCs set it on fire:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/14/fire-exits/#graceful-failure-modes

But there's another good reason to do this, one that involves people who have no interest in using Bluesky: even if you don't want to use a better Bluesky, you likely have very good reasons to reach Bluesky users. Maybe you want them to help you organize against enshittification! Or maybe you just want to operate a real-world venue where people can gather and have a great time and support performers, and right now you're stuck advertising on Facebook and Instagram, and you don't want to end up being forced to use an enshittified, fire-exit-free Bluesky in the future:

https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2025/01/13.html

Of course, there's plenty of reasons to want to make Mastodon better. Many of Mastodon's features are absurdly primitive – the lack of threading support and quote-boosting sucks, and the supposedly opt-in system-wide search doesn't work, even if you opt in. Masto could sure use some of the money that Free Our Feeds is asking for to spruce up Bluesky.

This is true, but also irrelevant. Mastodon is stuck at around a million active users, while Bluesky has twenty times that amount. Crowdfunding a couple dollars per user to pursue software development is a reasonable goal, but raising twenty times that much is a lot harder:

https://mastodon-analytics.com/

The money being raised for Free Our Feeds isn't money that had been earmarked for Mastodon development, nor will abandoning Free Our Feeds redirect those funds to Mastodon development.

Which isn't to say that we shouldn't chip in to fund Mastodon development. I donated to the Kickstarter for Pixelfed, a Fediverse Insta replacement that has Meta so scared that they'll suspend your account if you even mention it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelfed/pixelfed-foundation-2024-real-ethical-social-networks

Adding Insta-like features to Mastodon is great. Fixing search, quoting, and threading would be great, too. We probably need some kind of governance efforts to keep volunteer-run, good faith defederation blocklists from exhibiting the same dynamics that email went through during the spam wars. There's some Bluesky features I'd love to see on Mastodon, like composable moderation and user-controlled, user-tunable recommendations. We also probably need some kind of adversarial press that closely monitors the governance structure for the Mastodon codebase and reports on process in standardization (I cannot overstate how much fuckery can take place within standards bodies, under cover of a nigh-impermeable shield of boringness).

Breaking Bluesky open is a priority. Keeping Mastodon open is a priority. But neither of these are goals unto themselves. The point is to set people free, not set technology free. Willie Sutton robbed banks because "that's where the money is." Right now, I'm interested in anti-enshittification measures for Bluesky because "that's where the people are."

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/23/defense-in-depth/#self-marginalization

Image: Mike Baird (modified) https://flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2354116406

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[petebarton]

VPN Guide

I’ve been asked to put together a VPN guide, especially since Emmerdale episodes are being uploaded to YouTube. This guide will also works perfectly well for accessing ITVX and the BBC iPlayer.

What is a VPN?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a service that helps you stay private and secure online by creating a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet. For this purpose, we're interested in the fact that VPN's can bypass geo-restrictions and allow you to access things you wouldn't normally be able to.

Which VPN should I use?

There are plenty of VPNs out there. I'll be giving three options. Everything I mention here is something I’ve personally used or that my partner's used and tested. While there may be other great options available, I won’t recommend anything I can't vouch for.

As far as I'm concerned, if you can afford to invest in a VPN, I would because I think it's worth the money. I use it alot while out in public, when accessing public wifis, such as in cafe's and airports to protect my data. It does a lot more than just bypass geo locations.

ExpressVPN

I've been using ExpressVPN since 2014, long before I moved to the UK. This is the VPN I used during 2014-2019 era to watch Emmerdale. While it's not the cheapest option out there, I think it's worth every penny because the customer support is great.

Pricing: Starts around €6.40/month (billed annually)

Pros: Fast, reliable, great customer service

Cons: Pricier than others

ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN offers both a free and paid plan. While the free version is useful, it's very limited, you can't choose your server location, which makes it tricky if you're trying to access specific content. For streaming or location-specific browsing, you'll need the paid plan.

Pricing: Paid plans start around €4.99/month

Pros: Strong privacy reputation, has a free option

Cons: Free plan is very restricted

Surf Shark

My partner swears by Surf Shark. It’s the most affordable of the three, with plans starting at just €1.99/month. Despite the low cost, he’s never had a single issue with it so far.

Pricing: From €1.99/month (with long-term plans)

Pros: Budget-friendly, reliable performance

Cons: Slightly fewer server options than premium VPNs

** add on **

Windscribe

@srtazombie has recommended Windscribe, which has a free version, that let's you use up to 10GB monthly.

Tutorial

For this tutorial I'm going to use Surf Shark because it is the cheapest of the three options.

Open your browser and go to: https://surfshark.com

Click on “Get Surfshark” on the homepage.

You’ll see 3 plan options. The 2-year plan (€1.99/month) is the cheapest.

Click “Select” under your preferred plan.

Enter your email address.

Choose a Payment Method. You can pay with: Credit/debit card, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Enter your payment details.

Click “Complete Purchase”.

You’ll get a confirmation email right after purchase.

After payment, you’ll be directed to a page to download the Surfshark app.

Choose your device: Windows / Mac / Linux, Android / iOS or browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Edge). You can also find Surfshark in the App Store or Google Play Store.

Open the Surfshark app.

Enter the email and password you used when signing up. If you didn’t set a password during checkout, check your email, Surfshark will have sent you a link to create one.

Connect to a Server. Inside the app, click “Connect” to use the fastest server. Or choose a country from the list (e.g., US, UK, Germany, etc.).

For the UK you can pick from: London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Then try it out and go to YT and see if it works. If one server is down, just change between them until one works.

Personally, I haven’t come across any free VPNs that work well for changing your geo-location to stream regularly. Most either don’t let you choose the country, or they have extremely limited monthly data, making it impossible to watch shows like Emmerdale, which airs five days a week. For that reason, free VPNs just don’t cut it for daily streaming.

I’ve also heard that Mullvad is also good and affordable option. However, I can’t personally recommend it since I haven’t tried it myself. If anyone has experience with Mullvad and wants to share more info, please feel free to add to this post! Also, if there are free VPNs which work, please let me know!

[superbat-love]

Smallville AU, where Bruce investigates an attack in Gotham by technologically advanced superpowered aliens, tracking them down to Smallville. During his drive into Smallville, he has an accident with Clark and becomes suspicious due to Clark's lack of injuries, suspecting him of being involved.

Bruce, being paranoid, transfers to Clark's high school and quickly becomes Clark’s Enemy No. 1. He intimidates Clark in the hallways, trying to provoke him into revealing his superpowers. Clark also resents that the girls he likes have a crush on Bruce. Tensions escalate when Bruce discovers Clark’s pod on the farm, linking him to the aliens.

Eventually, Bruce realizes things don't add up. There's no way the farm boy, clueless about browser settings and using 'password' for all his accounts, could hack government databases. Clark is just an innocent metahuman with a diary full of complaints about Bruce and pretty privilege, high school crushes, and attempts at short stories (which Bruce has to admit were pretty good).

Bruce switches tactics, seeking Clark’s help to track the supervillains in exchange for information about his origins. Clark, with a strong sense of justice, agrees. Besides, how could he say no to Bruce’s heartfelt apologies, earnest speech about stopping crime and those big blue eyes? (He’s not going to delve too deeply into why he’s been feeling lightheaded around his former high school bully lately.)

They work together to stop the Kryptonian supervillains, and Bruce helps create a training program for Clark to develop his superhuman abilities in a controlled setting.

[twomiddlefingersforthehaters]

We all know what Orochimaru and Kabuto found in 'the Forest of Death':

• Sasuke creating a long password that Naruto cannot remember to lure the enemy out.

• When he was with his other teammate (Sakura) he didn't give up the scroll even though he ran away in fear. But when Naruto shows up he willingly gives up the scroll.

• Sasuke began to fight Orochimaru without fear of death even though he knew he could not defeat him.

• Kabuto found that Sasuke was overusing the Sharingan even to the point of enduring the pain of the cursed seal to protect Naruto.

• They both confirmed Naruto was changing Sasuke's heart

I find it really interesting the way Kabuto talked to Naruto the two times they met in the second part .

“SASUKE-KUN CAME TO US OF HIS OWN FREE WILL. IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU GOT OVER IT. GOING ON LIKE THAT IS HARDLY BEHAVING AS A MAN...”

From the tone of Kabuto's speech I think he is mocking and criticizing Naruto. This phrase often uses to a person who can't get over a breakup lol. 「男のくせに未練たらしいね」 has a nuance that make fun of the man. And this expression also contains the Japanese view of men many years ago that is, "men should always be strong ".

The expression used by Kabuto is 引きずりすぎだ (hikizurisugida). 引きずる (hikizuru) can be interpreted in two ways.

① 引きずる refers to the state of being stuck in sad and painful memories and being unable to escape from the sadness. Those (some kind of) feeling continues for a long time after it has ended.

② 引きずる is the same as ``dragging the hem'' when the hem of a long dress touches the floor and moves, and is also used when things drag on without being resolved. 引きずる - to drag, to pull, to prolong, to extend

e. g: (終わった) 恋を引きずる いつまでも別れた恋人を忘れられない。

(owatta) koi wo hikizuru itsu made mo wakareta koibito wo wasurerarenai.

(It's over) He still can't forget his ex-lover.

The sentence implies that he can't get over it and has a mental illness after breaking up with his ex. He misses his ex a lot.

「〜すぎた」 means ``〜sugi (too much),'' and it depends on the ``heart.'' It means that a certain state is very strong or intense. In other words, the 引きずる state is very strong and intense.

引きずりすぎた -> which means that the unforgettable period was too long. 引きずりすぎだ。is a statement. だ means “It is”. It is another form of です。

So the phrase 「引きずりすぎだ」 kabuto uses means : "you can't get over (a breakup with) someone, you can't forget about that person, or you're still thinking about that person". It's probably because you can't forget about that person even after it ended, in the old way of thinking, such an attitude or behavior was considered 女々しい (Memeshī). The word "unmanly" is a corresponding word in English for 女々しい. It is because of the society's stereotypes that “men should be manly”. It is often said in Japan that men tend to hold on to their pasts more than women.

The term 「女々しい」 is usually used for a man. 女々しい is an independent word, and it can have several meanings depending on the context and situations.

女々しい meanings include:

• mentally too weak

• lacking courage

• 未練がましい (mirengamashī) - someone who cannot give up something and it never leaves their mind. "Too obsessive".

• 未練たらしい (mirentarashī) - bad at taking things too far; bad at giving up; too attached to something in the past and not moving on to the next thing.

• overly sensitive male - (Depending on the context and the speaker's intention)

For example:

1. A person unexpectedly meets his ex-girlfriend on the street. His heart skipped a beat when he made eye contact with the other person. He fantasized about what the other person was thinking, but when he thought about it calmly, he realized that he was an idiot. There's no way the other person is wondering if they can meet again. And he hate himself for remembering the happy times in the past. And he says: “I think that men and women have different views on love, but I guess, the word 女々しい is a word made for men...I feel miserable for being 引きずられる- drag down by past relationships. I can't let go as women do. It's disgusting... I'm sure women would be put off”

-> what he saying is that his ex- girlfriend get over him and he still can't let go of his feelings for her. And he hate that part of himself. This behavior of his will drive other women away from him.

2. 今でも昔の彼女の悪口の言うなん て、おまえは女々しい男だな

ima demo mukashi no kanojo no waruguchi no iu nante , omae wa memeshī otokodana

You are such a pussy to still speak ill of your ex girlfriend.

-> The speaker probably infers that the reason he speaks ill about his ex-girlfriend is because he is still thinking about her. Therefore, the speaker considers his attitude to be 未練がましい (mirengamashī) , and uses the word 「女々しい」 to describe it.

Generally speaking, never heard of the idea that ``women are mirengamashī'' , so it is unclear why the word 「女々しい」 has the meaning of 「未練がましい」. However, maybe this happens from the stereotype that “Men should live with integrity and a positive attitude without worrying about small things” , and that this led to 「男らしくない = otokorashikunai = unmanly」 to 「女々しい」

The example below is another type of stereotype:

👨 : 君は甘いものを食べすぎてい る 。 女みたいだ。 = kun wa amai mono wo tabesugiteiru . onna mitaida = You eat too many sweets. you behave like a woman.

👨: 好きにさせてくれ。 = suki ni sasetekure = Let me do what I want.

This representation reflects gender-based stereotypes. This sentence has the implication that liking sweets is seen as a feminine characteristic, and that men are being criticized for such behavior. This word has the following connotations:

1. The stereotype that liking sweets is a feminine trait. 2. The idea that men should not eat too many sweets. 3. The speaker judges the other person's behavior to be feminine and evaluates it negatively. However, this expression contains gender-based bias and is considered inappropriate in modern society. Food preferences are personal preferences and have nothing to do with gender. Additionally, this expression is sometimes used in conversations between friends or as a joke, but caution should be taken as it may offend the other person.

Let's break it down what Kabuto says:-

Kabuto: サスケ君は望んで我々の元へ来たんだ

Romaji: Sasuke kun wa nozonde wareware no moto e kita n da。

Literal: Sasuke-kun came to us of his own free will.

Raw: 引きずりすぎだよ男のくせ に未練たらしいね｡

Romaji: hikizurisugidayo otoko no kuse ni miren tarashīne

引きずりすぎだよ = hikizurisugidayo = "You are too attached to (your memories with him)." or "You are holding on too much to (him)." Here, 引きずる" (literally, "to drag on") means "not to be able to leave behind those memories or feelings from the past."

男のくせに = otoko no kuseni = even though you are a man; for a man; as a man; despite being a man.

男のくせに is pointing out or criticizing that "it is not manly'' (= `` lacks the qualities that are desirable in a man" or ``That is not the behavior expected of a man''). Furthermore, these points and criticisms are based only on the opinion of Kabuto who said, ``even though you are a man,'' (referred to as his ``view of men'').

e. g:

1. 男のくせに泣くな！

otoko no kuse ni nakuna ！

Don't cry , you're a man!

[I wonder why? Is it because they think it's better not to show their weaknesses? Maybe that's an old-fashioned way of thinking. I remember reading somewhere that up until the Sengoku period, men cried a lot.

In this day and age, where the Heisei era was ended and the Reiwa Era has officially begun, I think this idea that “men shouldn't cry” still exists, but it's become much weaker than it used to be. ]

2. 彼は男のくせに甘いものが好きだ。

Kare wa otoko no kuse ni amaimono ga sukida.

For a man, he likes sweets.

[This sentence implies “Men shouldn’t/don’t eat sweets because sweets are for women.]

3. 「男のくせに」とからかわれたものだ。

“otoko no kuse ni” to karakawareta mono da.

They would make fun of me by saying "Be a man."

4. 他人の悪口をかげで言うのは男らしくない。

tanin no waruguchi wo kage de iu no wa otokorashikunai.

It is not manly to speak ill of others behind their backs.

未練たらしいね = miren tarashīne = "It is unpleasant to see that you can't give him up." Or "It's disgusting that you can't let him go." Here, 「未練」 means "a regret," "lingering affection", "attachment," "persistence," etc., and 「たらしい」 in 「未練 たらしい」 implies that Kabuto finds it displeasing. たらしい (tarashī) is an expression of something that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Overall what Kabuto said have the following connotation:

1. 女々しい (memashī)

2. A man should always be strong.

Men are criticized for such behavior. And Kabuto is judging Naruto's behavior and evaluates it negatively. [And in Japan, there is a tendency to think that it's lame for men to dwell on the past.]

So, Kabuto is criticizing Naruto. And I also think he's mocking him too.

(Kabuto) Raw: フッ 相変わらず サスケ サスケかい...

Romaji: fu, aikawarazu Sasuke Sasukekai...

Literal: Heh, you are still all about Sasuke Sasuke, huh...

相変わらず aikawarazu- means still (not change), It's the same as it's ever been; As always; same as before; have not changed; as ever; as usual. This typically conveys a feeling of sarcasm and criticism. 相変わらず can only be used for comparisons of “past “ and “now” of one thing. フッ is an onomatopoeic expression for sneering.