#Firewall Friday

[noob2networking]

Firewall Friday: MTU - Maximizing Your Network Performance

When it comes to network performance, MTU is a term that you might come across. MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit, and it refers to the largest packet size that can be transmitted over a network. In this Firewall Friday post, we’ll dive deeper into what MTU is and how it can affect your network performance. We’ll also provide some tips for maximizing your network performance by optimizing…

[ghoulangerlee]

we had to suddenly update 20 something of our managed firewalls yesterday bc of a vulnerability identified within the firewall's OS and you would not believe how many people approved it vs the people who keep arguing with us about "do I really need this update"

[vcherry-kai16-art]

i need to stop being inactive. merry christmas

[snaileer]

My Best Friend Is A Dead Teenage Robot

Tony is annoyed to say that he didn’t even know about the kid until his presence was impossible to ignore.

It comes in the most startling of ways.

Specifically, by FRIDAY ignoring his question.

“Friday?” Tony says again to the open air, still devoid of the music he’d asked for.

“I apologize sir, I seem to be on a bit of a delay-“ there’s a pause as her voice sounds notably distracted, “The majority of my processing power is being used to maintain a firewall. There is a disturbance on level 23, sir.”

Alarms blare in the back of Tony’s mind as he immediately turns back out of his lab. What disturbance could take up the majority of Friday’s processing power?

She ran the tower for Pete’s sake!

Needless to say, it is not what he is expecting when the elevator doors open to reveal one of his R&D labs being torn apart by the new bionic herding bots and a young man furiously coding in the middle of the room with an armed robot not unlike Dum-E defending him with a soup thermos.

“It seems you have found the source of the disturbance, Sir.”

The man stuck in the middle of it turns to Friday’s voice, spotting Tony standing with one foot out of the elevator.

His dark skin goes impressively pale.

“Dannyyy!!! If you’re gonna stop Technus, do it now!!” He yells, slamming enter on his keyboard before kicking away a robot dog getting close to him.

“On it.” A voice speaks. And the one armed bot from before zooms over to hold down the dogbot, letting the man plug something in and just as quickly yank it out.

Too fast for Tony to understand, the thermos is uncapped and what he now realizes is a USB drive, is dropped in.

The movement of the room drops with a clatter.

“Hey…. Dr.Stark…” the man says,

Tony blinks.

He looks at the kid. Then at the cluster of engineers trembling against the wall.

Then at the ceiling. There’s a hole.

Plaster rains down, drawing his eyes to the one armed robot.

It waves cheerfully.

“Put your fricking arm down Danny!” The man whispers forcefully.

The robot arm lowers.

He’s standing in the middle of the wreckage in front of Tony, as if awaiting judgment. Slowly, the young man lifts his own arm to a half wave, “Please don’t fire me for this.”

Tony blinks again-

“Why do you get to wave and I don’t!?” A voice says, almost whining.

The young man kicks the robot next to him. It silences.

Tony smiles, “What’s your name kid?”

He hesitates, “.. Tucker.” There’s a pause, “.. uh, Dr. Stark, sir.”

Tony smiles again, the one that Pepper says means PR trouble, “Please kid, call me Tony. Anybody that can make an AI like mine deserves to call me Tony.”

Tucker freezes at being obviously caught, “A what?”

His AI’s voice also answers damningly, “A what?”

[agapi-kalyptei]

crowdstrike: hot take 1

It's too early in the news cycle to say anything truly smart, but to sum things up, what I know so far:

there was no "hack" or cyberattack or data breach*

a private IT security company called CrowdStrike released a faulty update which practically disabled all its desktop (?) Windows workstations (laptops too, but maybe not servers? not sure)

the cause has been found and a fix is on the way

as it stands now, the fix will have to be manually applied (in person) to each affected workstation (this could mean in practice maybe 5, maybe 30 minutes of work for each affected computer - the number is also unknown, but it very well could be tens (or hundreds) of thousands of computers across thousands of large, multinational enterprises.

(The fix can be applied manually if you have a-bit-more-than-basic knowledge of computers)

Things that are currently safe to assume:

this wasn't a fault of any single individual, but of a process (workflow on the side of CrowdStrike) that didn't detect the fault ahead of time

[most likely] it's not that someone was incompetent or stupid - but we don't have the root cause analysis available yet

deploying bugfixes on Fridays is a bad idea

*The obligatory warning part:

Just because this wasn't a cyberattack, doesn't mean there won't be related security breaches of all kinds in all industries. The chaos, panic, uncertainty, and very soon also exhaustion of people dealing with the fallout of the issue will create a perfect storm for actually malicious actors that will try to exploit any possible vulnerability in companies' vulnerable state.

The analysis / speculation part:

globalization bad lol

OK, more seriously: I have not even heard about CrowdStrike until today, and I'm not a security engineer. I'm a developer with mild to moderate (outsider) understanding of vulnerabilities.

OK some background / basics first

It's very common for companies of any size to have more to protect their digital assets than just an antivirus and a firewall. Large companies (Delta Airlines) can afford to pay other large companies to provide security solutions for them (CrowdStrike). These days, to avoid bad software of any kind - malware - you need a complex suite of software that protects you from all sides:

desktop/laptop: antivirus, firewall, secure DNS, avoiding insecure WiFi, browser exploits, system patches, email scanner, phishing on web, phishing via email, physical access, USB thumb drive, motherboard/BIOS/UEFI vulnerabilities or built-in exploits made by the manufacturers of the Chinese government,

person/phone: phishing via SMS, phishing via calls, iOS/Android OS vulnerabilities, mobile app vulnerabilities, mobile apps that masquerade as useful while harvesting your data, vulnerabilities in things like WhatsApp where a glitched JPG pictures sent to you can expose your data, ...

servers: mostly same as above except they servers have to often deal with millions of requests per day, most of them valid, and at least some of the servers need to be connected to the internet 24/7

CDN and cloud services: fundamentally, an average big company today relies on dozens or hundreds of other big internet companies (AWS / Azure / GCP / Apple / Google) which in turn rely on hundreds of other companies to outsource a lot of tasks (like harvesting your data and sending you marketing emails)

infrastructure - routers... modems... your Alexa is spying on you... i'm tired... etc.

Anyway if you drifted to sleep in the previous paragraph I don't blame you. I'm genuinely just scratching the surface. Cybersecurity is insanely important today, and it's insanely complex too.

The reason why the incident blue-screened the machines is that to avoid malware, a lot of the anti-malware has to run in a more "privileged" mode, meaning they exist very close to the "heart" of Windows (or any other OS - the heart is called kernel). However, on this level, a bug can crash the system a lot more easily. And it did.

OK OK the actual hot lukewarm take finally

I didn't expect to get hit by y2k bug in the middle of 2024, but here we are.

As bad as it was, this only affected a small portion of all computers - in the ballpark of ~0.001% or even 0.0001% - but already caused disruptions to flights and hospitals in a big chunk of the world.

maybe-FAQ:

"Oh but this would be avoided if they weren't using the Crowdwhatever software" - true. However, this kind of mistake is not exclusive to them.

"Haha windows sucks, Linux 4eva" - I mean. Yeah? But no. Conceptually there is nothing that would prevent this from happening on Linux, if only there was anyone actually using it (on desktop).

"But really, Windows should have a better protection" - yes? no? This is a very difficult, technical question, because for kernel drivers the whole point is that 1. you trust them, and 2. they need the super-powerful-unrestrained access to work as intended, and 3. you _need_ them to be blazing fast, so babysitting them from the Windows perspective is counterproductive. It's a technical issue with no easy answers on this level.

"But there was some issue with Microsoft stuff too." - yes, but it's unknown if they are related, and at this point I have not seen any solid info about it.

The point is, in a deeply interconnected world, it's sort of a miracle that this isn't happening more often, and on a wider scale. Both bugfixes and new bugs are deployed every minute to some software somewhere in the world, because we're all in a rush to make money and pay rent and meet deadlines.

Increased monoculture in IT is bad for everyone. Whichever OS, whichever brand, whichever security solution provider - the more popular they are, the better visible their mistakes will be.

As much as it would be fun to make jokes like "CrowdStroke", I'm not even particularly mad at the company (at this point - that might change when I hear about their QA process). And no, I'm not even mad at Windows, as explained in the pseudo-FAQ.

The ultimate hot take? If at all possible, don't rely on anything related to computers. Technical problems are caused by technical solutions.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Risky Business: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.2k

Summary: The repercussions of being in prison finally take a toll on you. You're yelling at everyone, short and curt, and you're in a constant state of wanting to cry. Will this bitter cycle ever end?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

As soon as he is done at the hospital, the police station is exactly where Chris ends up at. You, Derek, and Spencer are talking to him in a private room but he isn't saying anything. He's nervously playing with his fingers which is enough to paint a pretty picture for you. The picture is of his dad with his hands around Chris' throat.

His dad's been hurting him. There's a reason why you don't like him.

"Christopher, we know you've been going through a lot since your mother died," Derek starts. "When bad things happen to us, we get frustrated, kid. Sometimes we act out and do things we're not proud of."

He's not engaging in the conversation. He can barely look at either one of you. It's almost Friday and you're not a single step closer to finding out who made the website. If he doesn't talk, people will play it and die. Hotch seems to think that as long as he's here, he can't post.

You have a sick feeling he's not the one monitoring that website.

Penelope immediately did a search for Chris and his family. It's not a shocker that he's a loner but it's a shock that he's moved three times since his mother died. His father cut off his peer support. Three new schools in two years. That's a lot of adjustment for one kid to have to make.

"I want you to know that we're going to be confiscating your computer," Spencer says. "Our analyst is going through all of it so we can uncover the truth."

"Sure you will," Chris scoffs. "Truth."

As you're talking to him, Penelope is trying to get into his computer but can't. He's got a segmented hard drive, serious firewalls, and major-league encryption. There is no reason for all that protection unless he is hiding something. That's why Chris isn't worried. He knows Pen can't get into it.

You look at the clock and see it's 12:01 AM. One minute into Friday, and the videos start piling into the website. Kids are still playing this game despite the warnings you gave. Chris isn't going to give anything up so the two men leave but you still stay seated across from him. He looks at you nervously and you cross one leg over the other.

"What?"

"How long has your dad been choking you?" He leans back in his seat from shock. How the hell did you know that? He stutters out a response but it's nothing you can understand. "Has he always been this way? What about with your mom?"

If he wasn't going to answer questions before, he's certainly not going to answer them now. You get up and leave the room. Hotch wants Penelope to go in and try because if anyone will get him to talk, it's her.

"Hotch, his dad is choking him. He's hurting him. I saw it."

"Hi, I'm Penelope. Can I sit down?"

"You're the cop," he says sarcastically.

"Do I look like a cop to you?" she chuckles and sits.

"Yeah. What, you aren't?"

"No. FBI tech analyst. I just have some administrative cyber crud to go over with you. Just a geekette."

"Cool," he nods.

"You are glum. Time is a great healer."

"You have no idea how I feel."

"I lost my mom and my dad when I was about your age. I don't know. I think I have a pretty good idea of how you feel, and I felt totally alone. Till I found the netizens."

"BTDT."

That means been there, done that.

"Hey, I'm not lying to you. It'll totally get better. BTW, I like your nails," she smiles.

"Thanks. You into goth?" he asks.

"You know, I don't think I'm supposed to be anymore, but the love is still there."

"So, you're FBI?"

"Yeah, I know. It's crazy, but I love it. I enjoy your earring, too. Where did you score that?"

"Ebay. It's supposed to be Johnny D.'s from that pirate movie."

"Most awesome," she smiles.

"She's good," Rossi says. "She established rapport when Morgan, Reid, and Y/N couldn't."

"We should bring her out all the time," Hotch chuckles.

"Okay, your whole PGP disc encryption system is like crazy impressive."

"Yeah, I'm into that kind of stuff," he smiles.

"Stuff? Dude, you do not understand. I am jealous. That is state-of-the-art technology the feeb does not have."

"Whatever," he waves her off but is smiling.

"Okay, how did you get your anonymizing service?"

"I got it from some link from some dude online. What do you care?"

"I just think it's uber cool how you set your whole system up. Like how you use an e-shredder to obliterate your net activity and a window wiper as your secondary trash eraser. Who does that?"

"Everybody does that."

You turn when you hear someone coming in angrily. Chris' father is here and he isn't happy you're talking to him without him. He demands to have his son back and Hotch is forced to give him back since you're not arresting his son. Plus, he's a minor. His father has every right to take him away from here.

"The interview's over. His father invoked," Hotch says to Penelope.

"Dad."

"I'm getting you a lawyer. I screwed up and failed you when your mother died. Not this time. Unless you people have something to charge him with, we're leaving."

Will takes his son away and you look at Hotch in disbelief. 

"You heard what I said and you're still letting them leave? He's hurting his child!"

"There's no evidence of that."

Anger flares in your chest but before you can say or do something stupid, you back away.

"Sir, I'm sorry, I tried," Penelope says.

"If he invokes, he invokes. Concentrate on cracking the encryption."

"Yeah."

Everyone is sure Chris is the culprit so they dive deeper into his life while Penelope works on his computer.

"Judging by sheer volume, Christopher's mother was sick quite a bit. His father brought her into the ER repeatedly. She's described as being violently ill each time. She spends a couple of days in the ICU and makes a miraculous recovery only to be repeated time and again. No diagnosis, no discernable cause."

"There's another video going up," JJ announces.

"That's four kids playing in half an hour."

"How many kids go to this school?"

"Its catchment is the whole county. It's almost two thousand. Garcia, we really need to gain administrative access to the website. I've written down a number of things Christopher may have used as the password. I've already eliminated birthdays, holidays, pet names, and pop culture icons," Spencer says.

"No, there was something pathetic about him, not criminal. When he was leaving, he said he missed his mom. What's his mother's name?"

"Cynthia Summers."

Penelope tries her name and it gives her access.

"That's it. Alright, I'm logging in as an administrator and shutting down the main source, but kids are still posting videos through independent servers."

"Pull up the website history and see if you can learn anything from historical posts," Spencer says.

"Christopher's ER eval shows his bruises were caused by manual and ligature strangulation over time," Emily reads over his medical file. "He's also shown to have layered bruising on his sternum."

"It looks like a CPR artifact but there's no record of resuscitations."

"Wait, all these transmissions are transcripts of the same administrator?" Spencer asks Penelope.

"Yeah, there's only one handle."

"This is weird. In the posts, his voice changes. At times he's using more articles and more precise verbiage like he's trying to throw us off. That's pretty sophisticated behavior for a kid. A writer can disguise his own writing style to make himself appear younger or less educated."

"Yeah, but it's virtually impossible to pull off making yourself appear older and more educated than you actually are," Derek says.

"There are actually two distinct writing styles. Two writers using the same screen name--one teen and one adult. Christopher was being manipulated by an adult."

Hmm. I wonder who that can be. You roll your eyes and sit back in your chair while they come to the same conclusion you did half an hour ago.

"The mother's death is a textbook case of Munchausen by proxy. The kid has been choked and revived on multiple occasions."

"You said the father worked for the fire department, right?" Spencer asks Rhonda.

"Yeah, for a couple of months now.

"In what capacity?"

"As an EMT."

"That's our unsub. It's Chris' dad. He's been hurting his own son."

Everyone looks at you. You can choose to make some snarky comment about how they didn't listen to you again, or you can choose to be quiet. You choose the latter.

"So, the father poses as a classmate and invites local kids to join the game. He bumps up the stakes and encourages them to use their riskiest methods."

"He works on Friday nights," Rhonda says."

"Which means he gets called out to do the rescues. He's not just collecting video tapes. His Munchausen has evolved," Spencer says.

"I'll put out an APB for his truck."

"He'll have to find a place to download the videotapes. They're his trophies. After that, he'll clean up his mess."

"Christopher's the only witness against him."

Your team heads to Chris' house but of course, he and his father aren't there. After a quick search, you end up finding piles upon piles of discs from where Will saved every child that has died because of the game he created.

"There are dozens of discs here."

"I was right here. I never even looked around," Rhonda sighs guiltily.

"We only had consent for the laptop and he knew it was encrypted. We didn't have probable cause for a warrant. Mr. Summers didn't have a chance to come back and get his trophies. He'll definitely try to download the videos tonight."

"This kid was doing everything he could just to survive. The extreme abuse conditioned him to shield his father. When his father came into the room, he seemed genuinely relieved like his burden had been lifted. He was elated when his father rescued him. We need to rethink everything. Now, let's focus on the behavior. What's the pattern?" Hotch asks.

"Christopher knows his father's pattern. In his mind, it will never end unless Chris decides to end it."

You take out your phone, call Penelope, and put her on speakerphone.

"Pen, when you were talking to Chris, did he say anything to you to suggest that he was giving up?"

"Giving up?"

"Like he was trying to say goodbye."

"I don't understand."

"Did he give you anything?"

"Yeah. How did you know that?"

"What did he give you?"

"When we were talking, he gave me this pirate's earring."

"He's made up his mind. Suicide is the only victory over his sadistic father. He may also see it as reuniting with his mother. The father's going to want to download those videos from somewhere, Pen, and we have to stop that process."

"I'm already on that. I replaced the website with a phishing site. I'm downloading it to the servers now. When he logs onto that website, he's going to be rerouted to our server, and we can capture his information."

"Stay on that site, Garcia. It will buy us some time," Hotch says.

"Where are they headed?" Emily asks before the lightbulb goes off in her head. "Wait. What about the mother? It's all about the mother. Garcia, where is Cynthia buried?"

"Oaklawn Cemetery, halfway between here and Glenrock."

"Chris would willingly go there with his father thinking it's some sort of refugee, but Will still needs to download the videos. He needs a power source."

"There's a chapel," Rhonda says. "They use it for burials."

"Let's go. Garcia, we'll call you from the car," Hotch says.

You drive to the cemetery and spot Will's car right outside the place.

"Sir, Mr. Summers just logged on. He's caught in the phishing site."

"Is he downloading the files?"

"He's trying to but all he's gonna get is snow," Pen smirks.

You head into the chapel with the team with guns raised only to see Will with hands around his son's throat. It's safe to say that he doesn't get very far but Chris needs to be hospitalized after what his father did to him.

Without the distraction of a case, everyone is forced to think about you and how you've been behaving since getting out of prison. You never wanted to be the one to treat them badly. You're such a loving and kind soul that it kills you to hurt the ones you love.

"I'm sorry," you announce to everyone. "I'm sorry for what I said before." Two tears fall down your cheeks. "I'm not okay, and I'm trying but it's so hard. I didn't mean any of it." You look at Penelope who looks like she is about to cry with you. "I love how happy you are because I see such darkness every day. You are light." You look at Derek. "I appreciate your tough love because it helps me be a better person." You move on to Emily. "I love how you try so hard because that shows you care. I don't ever want to lose someone like you." You look at Rossi. "It's because of your experience that helps me. I'm going to make mistakes but I can always count on you to make things right. Prison did something to my mind. I want to be here for this team. I want to do my best..."

You can't even finish your sentence. Spencer reaches over and grabs your hand and you look at him with tears in your eyes.

"We're here for you just like you've always been here for us," JJ says.

"I'm trying, guys. I'm sorry."

"We know. You're doing your best and that's all we ever ask of you," Rossi says.

You're honestly so lucky to have people as amazing as the ones on your team. You don't know if you're going to be okay but you do know you have people to fall back on if you're not.

"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My god, do you learn." C.S. Lewis.

x

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[priestessame]

Succubus 101

Aahhhhhh omg this is one brain rot I cannot get out of my head.

§.•´¨'°÷•..× 🎀 one shot 🎀 ��..•÷°'¨´•.§

Nerd Tartaglia x Novice Succubus reader

Summary: An unsuspecting Tartaglia accidentally summons a real succubus. Warnings: penetrative sex, slight awkwardness, choking, FLUFF, Tartaglia being pussy drunk, overstimulation, dirty talk. AFAB reader.Switch reader sub-Tartaglia, needy Tartaglia.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 0 ♥---- (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 0 ♥---- (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 0 ♥---- (っ

Ajax dragged himself back to his room. Judging from the mess Scaramouche had left behind, it looked like even his emo roommate had things to do on a Friday night.

Childe tried not to overthink it. After all nothing wrong with solitude. And he was even looking forward to the time alone until he stepped inside. The empty room dawned on him, no matter how much he tried to cheer himself up he could press the bitterness of the situation down.

He looked over at his side, at one of his biochemistry textbooks lying open on his bed. Suddenly regretting not taking up the offer to go drinking with itto and the others, now that he knew exactly how his evening was going to play out.

Not long after he was already switching tabs, typing in the name of his go-to hentai site. Palming himself through his pants as he scrolled through the video icons. It wasn't new for him to spend the night pumping his cock watching some random hentai. It was almost routine to him at this point. It felt fucking great while jacking off, but by the time the high wore off, he just felt very alone.  After a few minutes of scrolling, he finally found a video he found somewhat appealing. Showing a lovely pink-haired anime girl, playfully flashing her breasts.

He groaned as the click instead made 3 other pop ups appear, sending him to random corners of the internet. With an annoyed grunt, he pulled his hand out of his pants.

He tried to find his way back to the porn site, but another click sent him to a pop-up article on how porn was harmful.

'Did you know that watching porn also can also cause you to lose all cerebral fluid??!' it said in bright yellow lettering.

"yeah sure." Ajax chuckled to himself, clicking away from the weird website. He should have gotten the new firewall system Albedo was telling him about. Maybe that way he could go back to watching hentai without all these damn pop ups.

"What now?" He complained aloud. The screen seemed to have gone completely blank. The white cursor froze on the screen.  He moved his mouse but the cursor remained where it was. Ajax felt a pit in his stomach, if his computer actually caught some virus right before the end sem- He clicked at the screen aggressively. Slamming random keys to get some kind of reaction. 

The computer screen glitched suddenly, with a sharp hiss that made him jump. The lights in the room flickered before going out with an eerie 'woosh'. For a few seconds, Ajax sat in the complete dark blinking.

The computer screen lit up, bathing his face in a red glow. Ajax brushed his curls from his face. The language on the screen was nothing like he has ever seen before. It had flickered on just as the room had darkened from the short circuit. White and red runes appearing out of nowhere. All placed around the screen in strange concentric patters. If he stared too long it felt as though they moved across the screen like some optic illusion.

His blue eyes peered over his glass, "what in the world… is that Enochian?" He murmured. At this point, Ajax had started to get a little scared. His ears rang, eyes playing tricks on him as he frantically tried to find the cursor. All he really wanted to do was get off this cursed ass site.

"Like the coding on that one? I did it myself!"

Ajax jumped violently, spinning around in the dark to see a figure sitting casually on his bed. With a gasp, Ajax slipped from his chair, landing on the floor hard. "What the actual fuck!" He cried out. You gave him no reaction, continuing to read through his textbook sheepishly.

"Biochemistry." You sighed laying down on your stomach, your tail flicking lazily, "honestly I would have preferred someone who was studying humanities."

He stared at you, "okay so I have lost all my cerebral fluid and gone completely mad."

You tilted your head to the side, "i don't think loss of cerebral fluid causes hallucinations though."

Ajax was still too much in a daze to hold a conversation with you, "All I fucking did was click that website, and it would cause a whole ass person to appear."

You pumped up your fist in the air, "I KNOW RIGHT?! it works!" You said, rolling on to your back, and kicking your legs happily. "God that's bound to get me an A, I mean not to brag but I might have just revolutionized the plane for succubi-human interactions!"

Right. A strange half-naked woman had suddenly appeared talking about demonic coding. And he still had his cock out. Ajax held up a hand, while furiously trying to zip up his undone pants.

"Okay hold up. So you're telling me you're a… Sex demon?" "A Succubus," you corrected him pointing at the little black horns on your head, Still, on the floor, Ajax gave out a hollow laugh, slapping his forehead, "there's a sex demon on my bed."

You frowned at him, "I'm a Succubus, it really isn't that uncommon of a word." Ajax continued to stare at you, now perched cross-legged on his bed. With your outfit, you looked more like an adult cosplayer than an actual demon. Firstly the small bat wings on your back were more cute than daunting. The black spade-tipped tail swished lazily. Your skirt god save him, was just perfect on you. The leather digging into your skin lightly. Ending right your mid-way thigh, with gorgeous slits down both sides. And the leather halter top had a heart cut out for your chest. Fuck they looked so soft-

He forced himself to look at your face. If it wasn't for that ominous Golden glow in your eyes, he would have thought you had walked out of one of his hentai videos. "With that outfit, you don't really look like a demon."

Your eyes slit, and the lights in the room flickered. The temperature around him dropped so suddenly that his ears popped. Your golden eyes flashed at him teasingly, "Wanna see proof?" You warned. Ajax felt his cock twitch at your tone. "Nope." He gulped, attempting to stand up.

He tried to get his brain working again. "So I summoned you? Through that website?" He asked. You smiled proudly, clearly very pleased with your academic endeavor, "that's right." He cocked his head to the side, a lopsided smile that meant trouble appearing on his face. "So that means we have a contract ?"

Your fingers fiddled with the hem of your skirt. "I was just testing out my website, but I guess it does."

You looked up at him, unable to keep the desire from pooling between your legs. You really liked this cute human before you, and you'd love to indulge him more. You patted the mattress beside you softly, watching him practically trip over himself trying to sit down. Ajax bit back a moan as you settled onto his lap. Warm core pressing up against his bulge.

His fingers rested on your skirt. Your breasts squished up against his chest. God he loved this outfit on you. He couldn't help but run his hands along your sides.

Ajax scratched his head, "So this is like your job?" "It's not my job" you snapped at him, "It's how I collect souls."

Ajax's face paled, cerulean eyes wide.

You gave out a soft giggle, "I'll make an exception this time." You promised, "after all.. your voice trailed off.

"You're kinda my first." You completed with a blush.

He arched an eyebrow "So you're a virgin succubus?"

You give him a pout, "you see, virginity as a construct is much more human than you realize, doesn't really apply to demons."

"I don't know, I thought you would have had some… Practicals." He said.

"T-that's not what they covered in class." You murmured.

"So what do they teach in succubus 101?"

You looked at him as if it was apparent "You know, consent and stuff!"

Ajax ran a hand through his hair, "Of course." Your thigh dug into his growing erection. "You know if you want… I mean now that I am here." You started, breasts almost aching with need. "I could you know, help you out?"

Ajax felt his mouth go dry. "You really want to?" His cerulean orbs drank in your curves, what he would give to actually be able to touch you. You grinned at him, sliding your hand down his abs over his aching cock. You leaned in close to his face, "I'd love to~"

He pulled you in a breathless kiss. Hands running down your body greedily. His touch grew hotter with every second, fingers sliding under your top, rubbing up against your soft mounds. His hot tongue ran down your lower lip, needing, begging you to let him taste you more. You squeezed his cock lightly before rubbing your finger along the sensitive slit, oozing precum. Tracing the fat vein down to his base.

Ajax gave out ragged laugh against your mouth, "Fuck, it's like you can read minds."

You stared at him. His smile slipped. "YOU CAN READ MINDS?" He asked.

You grinned at him, "From any dirty thought, down to every pathetic porn search, you have ever made." You replied with pride. "My mind-reading skills are pretty good."

"So if you're feeling a little embarrassed to tell me what you like…~~"

His stomach dropped, "Don't you fucking dare -"

But the mischievous grin you had, told him it was already too late. Your eyes flashed a molten gold, as demonic magic churned inside, a small smile on your red-painted lips. "Choking? Really?"

Heat crept up his face, he opened his mouth but you shut him up with a little coo. You leaned in hands sliding up his torso towards his pretty neck.

"Like getting your neck squeezed sweetheart? Like it when you're tied down all helpless and can't even breathe?" You took his disgruntled yelp for a yes.

"Aww, you just wanna be a good boy for mommy~" You mumbled against his mouth, urging him to kiss you more. His tongue meeting yours. You loved how hot the kiss was. How he flicked his tongue to keep up with you. Following your lead almost obediently, soft lips parting for you.  He tasted like the ocean. You slipped your hand over his cock, guiding the tip towards your entrance. Your thumb brushing over the leaky mushroom tip. Ajax moaned into your mouth. His tip brushed sloppily against your folds and he threw his head back. You reached forward to kiss the corner of his mouth.

"Want me to ride you, baby boy?" You asked.

Ajax gave out a low groan, "Oh God, fuck yes. Please, please ride me." His fingers dug into the flesh of your hips as you lowered yourself on his cock. You felt him tremble under your touch as you sink down to his hilt. His blue eyes widened as you wrapped your fingers around his neck. You felt him get harder inside you.

"You like that baby?" You cooed, tightening your grip slightly. Your laughter was straight out of hell, ringing in his ears as his vision blurred. Poisonously sweet. Fuck he wouldn't even mind if you took his soul at this point. Till the time it meant he could keep milking his cock with your sweet cunt he would even give it to you voluntarily. Fingers wrapped tightly around his neck as you bounced on his cock. Fuck it was too much. Too much.

He gasped as you tightened your grip. Small hearts forming in your eyes, "cum for me big boy? Pretty please~" Ajax was already seeing stars, just cumming inside your warm pussy felt like a fucking dream. He practically came on command as you squeezed another orgasm out of him, cock still throbbing as the leaky tip slipped out. He panted out head rolling back. Mind blanking from the most intense orgasms he had ever had.

Ajax was too gone to answer you. You kissed down his jaw, along the fine lines your fingers had left around his neck. His head rolled back. Giving you more surface to drag your mouth over. You scrape your small fangs against the hollow of his throat, as you felt his fingers wrap around your shoulders. His grip on your shoulders was firm as he drew you back. When he raised his head again, the gaze was practically feral. Eyes darker and hooded. You licked your lower lip. You might have just awakened something darker. Your pussy squeezed with excitement.

You squealed as he flipped you over. The mattress sank under your weight as he climbed over you. Your tail curled around his torso almost protectively. He sank into you again, making you give a sigh of pleasure. Your walls squeezed his cock as he dragged it out, You loved how needily his cock twitched inside of you, pulsing as he tried to push it in deeper. Like he still couldn't get enough. How sweet, honestly you didn't mind. All you wanted was to play with your pretty man all night long. Make his pretty cock fill you up over and over again until it dripped down your thighs.

Oh hell, you had really gotten yourself such a pretty boy at that. The faint flush on his face, the freckled cheeks. You wrapped your legs around his waist, watching his face twist with pure pleasure. You looked up at him with half-lidded eyes, a feverish haze of pleasure taking over you. His fingers ran over your stomach, finding your breasts. "It's still a few hours till sunrise right?" He panted out.

You smiled at him stupidly, "yup, still time."

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Ajax loved fucking you from the back. The way your little wings flapped lightly as he thrust into you, his balls slapping against your ass. And perfect breasts he couldn't help but grope. He could just get off of how much you seemed to love getting fucked by him. Arching your back as he fucked into you and squeezing his cock just so good. God, he knew your Succubus cunt had practically ruined him for anyone else. His tip hurt from the friction now, but he felt like he just couldn't stop. Your pussy just felt so warm and so perfect it was driving him insane.

His fingers slid against the base of your tail. Your knees buckled. With a yelp, you stumbled forward into his whale-printed duvet.

"So the tail's sensitive huh?" He asked. His thumb dragged along the spade-shaped tip. Your legs trembled. "W-wait" you tried, the touch on your pretty tail was overwhelming. It sent chills of pleasure right down your spine, making you quiver under him.

"So cute, so pretty" he purred out. You couldn't help but fuck your hips back into him. Practically mewling as he stroked your lovely tail.

"You won't mind me being a lil rough with it do you?" He asked, You shook your head, as you felt him curl his fingers around the base again. With a teasing caress, you felt him yank your tail as he bottomed into you. Your vision doubled as Your pleasure finally peaked.  You came hard on his cock with a whimper. Your walls squelched around his girth.

"Ah fuck-" Ajax moaned, wrapping his hands around your waist as he continued to rock into you. Fucking you through your own orgasm. He groaned against your ear, "fuck, I'm gonna fall in love with you.' "You don't have to disappear right away, do you?" He panted against you. You sank into his warmth, arms protectively against your body. "I guess I don't." You replied.

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[kitcat992]

Identity Within - Chapter 13 - Unlikely Alliance (PREVIEW)

“You have to be shittin’ me!”

Clint’s frustration wasn’t just heard in his shout. The loud smack of his hand bounced throughout the room; his palm struck the table he sat at, disrupting the lingering, ongoing silence that came from their collective focus.

It drew attention from everyone but Tony.

“Not a damn thing! I’ve been stifling through footage for hours, and not a damn thing!” Pushing himself away from the computer, Clint let the wheels of his chair take him halfway across the room — passing by Mantis on the way, still sitting cross-legged on the floor. He paid her no mind. “Facial recognition hasn’t found anything even remotely close to him, the entire state of New York is coming up empty—”

“Coming up empty for Peter, yes,” Rhodey curtly interrupted, looking up from his own monitors and locking eyes right on Clint. “For Norman, no. So you keep looking.”

There was a gravity in Rhodey’s tone that said everything he didn’t need to. A gravity that Tony had scarcely heard before — and standing off to the side of the room, with his back against the wall and his forehead heavy in his hand, Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to think back on the times he’d heard his friend sound so grim.

The situation shook his bones, seized his muscles — he couldn’t move, couldn’t think past the same haunting, indelible reality. The same one that he’d been fighting against all year, the same one he’d been fighting to protect Peter against—

It was happening.

This was happening.

Tony suddenly pinched at the bridge of his nose, hard, and swallowed a mouthful of reflux that came surging up his chest.

Osborn had gotten to him.

This was real, and it was happening.

They all worked swiftly, urgently. But when Thor had returned to the compound empty-handed of answers, and Strange still struggled with magic that was supposed to surpass them all — well, Tony fully understood why Rhodey sounded how he did.

Every minute was critical. And the minutes were passing by quicker than they could work.

“There’s no telling how Osborn got to the church.” Clint wasn’t oblivious to the Colonel’s tone. Still, his frustrations showed. “The last any camera picked up on him, he’d entered the F.E.A.S.T shelter one week ago, and it’s only safe to assume that’s him leaving exactly forty eight minutes later.” A finger pointed to the further monitor ahead, and he kept it there for some time. The tremble was almost noticeable. “You try keeping tabs on every person in New York who looks like that — that, right there, is your average vegabond drifter! I’ve got a five hundred and sixty eight results that come up for each minute of the day when trying to narrow down facial recognition to that! The man went off the damn radar, he’s as a good as gone!”

“Keep looking,” Natasha didn’t spare Clint from the obstinacy in her voice. It was a feat she could speak at all, with her focus unbreakable on the multiple different screens that she watched. Her eyes darted them without delay. “As long as Rhodey keeps these firewalls down, you have unlimited access to every red light camera, traffic camera, speed camera—”

“—and they’ve all got nothing, Nat!” Clint threw his frustration right back at her. He wheeled his chair in the opposite way, rolling back to the computers ahead — though not eager to get back to the task at hand. “We can’t pin-point Osborn when he looks like every homeless bum wandering around in the city, and that parking garage was the last place any camera picked up on Peter—”

“Recognition algorithm for identify facial features complete,” FRIDAY’s voice announced from above. “No results found.”

Across the room, Tony managed to bury his head even deeper into the palm of his hand. His fingers massaged the temples of his forehead with enough force to fracture his skull into a dozen tiny pieces.

“Try again.” Tony didn’t even look up when speaking to his AI. It wasn’t the first time he made the request. But each time he did, he prayed it would be his last.

Clint, once again, let his frustrations show — this time in the sound of a low-throated growl that overtook each keystroke his fingers rapidly made. The screens changed as he multi-tasked, typing and clicking with a nearby mouse, the haste of their situation evident in his every move.

“Maybe he vanished,” Sam suggested, twisting his chair around to face the others across from him. Only a few looked his way. “You think we have another Mysterio on our hands?”

Of the few still standing, it was Thor who turned to look at Sam — a confused furrow to his brow highlighting the unfamiliarity behind his eyes.

“Mist-tier-io,” Thor repeated, slowly — curiously. He looked to Tony, and then to Steve; both close enough to one another that he didn’t need to turn far when sparing each a passing glance. “This creature you speak of sounds very odd.”

Sam couldn’t hold back his scoff. “Oh, you have no idea.”

“There’s other possibilities,” Natasha sounded from the opposite side of where Sam was stationed. She spun her chair around, just slightly, somehow keeping one eye on the screens while she looked to the others scattered about the room. “Peter’s phone was found on the fifth floor of the Main Street parking garage. The last any camera had him, it was the fourth floor. According to the blueprints of the garage, there’s a blind spot in the turn leading up to that level. And there’s no camera’s in the stairways.”

Standing with his arms firmly crossed against his chest, Steve gave Natasha his full attention, a deep frown looking like confusion that was masquerading his concern.

Natasha knew him well enough to see that concern a mile away.

“If Norman purposefully went for dead zones, it would make sense why they both went off the radar,” she spoke what they both didn’t want to hear.

“Clever son of a bitch,” Sam muttered underneath the clacking of his keys. He pressed firmly on the spacebar before turning his chair to face Natasha. “Escape down the stairway, hide his face from any facial recognition, take Peter away from street camera’s — make a getaway, essentially creating a ghost trail. He knew what he was doing.”

Natasha looked to Sam, her brow arched high. “He planned what he was doing.”

Steve took a deep breath in and dipped his chin low, the drop of his shoulders practically taking his gaze down to the floor.

He really didn’t want to hear that.

He tried not to let his stress show, especially with Tony so close — he refused to let the man out of his sight, even if all he was doing had been leaning up against the wall, with his head buried so deep into the palm of his hand that it was a feat he could breathe at all.

It wasn’t that he was worried Tony would go and run off on his own — it was that he wanted to make sure the man knew he didn’t have to. Even if that meant never leaving his side to make that known.

Steve tried to stay composed, but even he couldn’t deny that the weight of what could be ahead of them made the daunting task of leadership chew away at his reserves.

Looking behind him to Tony, he quickly forced himself to pushed those feelings aside.

“Recognition algorithm for identify facial features complete,” FRIDAY’s voice was laced heavy with her Irish accent, and sounded no different than the few minutes that she spoke before. “No results found.”

Tony barely moved at her announcement — didn’t respond, didn’t look up — the muscles in his knuckles flexed as he squeezed at his temples, but it was all he did.

Steve noticed it.

It was less than five steps separating them. Steve was speaking before he even made three.

“We’re not going to let anything happen to him, Tony,” he insisted, reassuringly, with a tone as hard as rocks.

Suddenly, Tony shot his head up; a scoff shaking his back so hard, it pushed him right off the wall.

“There are times when you astound me with your nativity, you know,” he easily responded, smooth enough that it was almost impossible to tell he was fighting for control — of what, exactly, didn’t matter. It was clear he just needed it, any sense of control he could get his hands on.

Everyone kept working around them, determined — dedicated. But so far, they came up with no answers. Just more questions that were starting to push Tony to the brink of his patience.

Steve frowned. He could tell.

“We knew this was ahead of us with Peter,” he said, seriously, firmly, right to Tony’s face. “All of us, we’ve all been preparing for this.” Steve took another step forward, his dress shoes hitting the floor with resolute. “And we’re all prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure Norman doesn’t harm him in any way. You have my word on that.”

For what it was worth, Tony met his look — his eyes stayed as hard as Steve’s, the fear that painted his expression one that Steve wasn’t fond of seeing.

“Right…right —” Tony swiped at his nose, quickly. “Like all the people who’ve been involved in OsCorp’s experimentations?”

Tony, no different then Natasha, also wasn’t afraid to speak what no one wanted to hear.

Even Clint looked uncomfortable at what had finally been vocalized, turning back to his monitor without any remark.

Meanwhile, Tony didn’t break his attention away from Steve.

Steve didn’t look away from him, either.

“The Mysterio’s, the rock android’s, the re-assembled, violently programmed Chitauri bombs.” Tony took a step forward, closer to where Steve stood. “How about those unsuspecting, hung up of some quick cash college students who found themselves electrocuted until they became farm grown vegetables? Or the outright revolting archives of Experiment X that I saw first hand — or, I know, how about the symbiote project—”

“Stop,” Steve firmly interrupted. He shook his head, hard. “You can’t think like that—”

“—for all we know, the kid’s strapped to a table right now being dissected like a frog,” Tony choked out, forcing the words to sound through a throat that was tightening by the second. “Osborn knows what he needs — now he has it. And there’s no telling what he’ll—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Quill wasn’t shy in interrupting what was clearly a tense conversation.

He made his way towards Steve and Tony, both whipping their heads over to face him — Tony far more agitated than Steve — but not even that got Quill to slow down his footsteps.

“You guys haven’t mentioned that this fella of yours tortures people,” Quill, for once, sounded serious in tone — even as he made a face that crinkled his brows into one long line across his forehead. He shook his head while quickly marching forward. “Not awesome, man.”

Tony couldn’t have thrown Quill a more wild expression if he had tried, with his eyes wide enough that they were a threat to fall out of their sockets and down to his feet.

“I’m sorry,” he stressed, each word tighter than the last, “was I talking to you!? Does this involve you!?”

Tony’s shout could’ve echoed the R&D room, if the noises from computers and machinery didn’t already sound over their own voices. The video footage kept playing and keys continued to clack on, and each minute they stood around agitated his nerves harsher than the last. He could feel himself starting to crack at the seams.

“Dude!” Quill returned Tony’s look with his own — somewhat insulted, but still sincere. “It’s kinda hard to mind your own business when people are talking about other people being experimented on!” Quill pointed a finger firmly against his chest. “I’m part people, I kinda care about that!”

A inquisitive hum sounded not far behind Quill.

“That is right,” Drax spoke up, staying in the corner where he sat away from the others, sitting on a stool that hunched his body forward. “You are half weakingly. I forgot this about you.”

[misfit0789]

Rule 12 | Abby Scuito

Y/n's POV

"Tony, how's my little niece?" I ask my brother over the phone. He and Tali had just left Washington to travel after Ziva died. He changed for the better once he found out about Tali.

"She's fine Y/n/n, she misses you," he says, I sigh.

"I miss her too, I'll try and visit you guys soon," I say walking back to my living room in my apartment. Tony asked if I wanted to stay in his old one but after finding out about the people dying there I wasn't for it.

"Sounds good, I got to go. I'll call you later sis," He says hanging up before I got the chance to reply. I pull the phone away from my ear and roll my eyes.

"Idiot," I shake my head and sit on the couch turning Netflix on. One thing is my brother and I are both big movie people, we would always watch them when we were younger and just enjoy ourselves. We were basically all each other had.

Just as I'm about to put on Spider-Man 3 someone starts banging on my door. "Y/n open up!" I groan and get up walking to the door. I open it and glare at whose standing there.

"Can I help you Ellie? It's 11 o'Clock at night," I groan leaning on the door frame. She gives me a sheepish smile before holding up a fast food bag. I sigh and step aside letting her in. She laughs and walks past me handing me the bag as she goes to sit on the couch.

"Is it so wrong for me to want to see my best friend?" She asks, I roll my eyes eating a fry out of the bag, "No, but when it's 11 o'clock at night and you know I spend my Friday nights watching movies and hate being interrupted," I pause and pretend to think," yes," I say sitting next to her and pressing play on the movie and grabbing my burger out of the bag, taking a bite.

"Oh stop it, you can survive one night not watching a movie, besides I need your help," she says going quiet. I swallow the piece of my burger and look at her confused. "El, what's going on? Is Jake still bugging you? Because I will happily beat his ass for you...again," I say mumbling the last part but she still heard me as she shoves me to the side. "What? I had to do something. The asshole thought it was okay to cheat and expected you to take him back. Bitch no! You cheated you pay the consequences." I say getting pissed as I think about that bastard.

"No, it's not Jake, but thank you for being so protective. It's actually case related..." She trails off. I haven't been to the office since Tony left. It just didn't feel right to me to be there with my brother not there. Ellie is the only one I've kept in contact with since he left 3 months ago. She's kept me updated on everyone. McGee is gonna propose to Delilah, there's this new guy named Torres, and Gibbs is well Gibbs.

"Bishop you know I don't feel comfortable being there since Tony left. I fell like everyone judges me," I say setting my burger down on the bag on my coffee table in front of us. "You'll be fine, besides, Abby needs you," She says the last part in a slow teasing manner causing me to snap my head up and glare at her. "El stop, I told you, that was a one time thing," I get off the couch and grab what's left of my food bringing it to the kitchen. She gets up and follows after me.

"Please Y/n/n? It's the firewall on the victims computer, none of us can crack it and you're our only other option, please?" she pouts, I groan walking away knowing I'll crack.

"No"

"Please"

"No"

"Please"

"No"

"Please"

"No"

"Please"

"Ughh okay fine I'll help, now leave me alone so I can watch Toby McGuire in peace." I say falling back on my couch and lay across it giving Ellie no where to sit. "Thank you, I'm sure Abby will be pleased to see you," she smirks pushing my head up and sitting down causing my head to fall on her lap. I groan but don't respond continuing to watch the movie.

Time Skip

"Dude chill," Ellie says. We're in the elevator on the way to the squad room but I can't stop shaking my leg. "I'm sorry El, I don't even know why I'm so nervous. I guess it'll just be weird being here without Tony." I say, she rubs my arm in a comforting manner, "It'll be okay, I'll be with you the whole way," She says, I smile and give her a nod thanking her, she smiles and gives me a nod in return. The elevators ding and we walk off the elevator towards her desk.

Ellie sits at her desk while I stand behind her wall divider and lean on it, watching as Tim and some other guy talk to each other facing the monitor. "So where is this firewall THE Timothy McGee can't crack?" I ask making my presence known to them. They both turn around confused before Tim's face lights up, as he begins to walk towards me.

"Is that Y/n DiNozzo I see?" I laugh, pushing myself off the wall and meet him in the middle pulling him into a hug, "Hey Tim," I say, "How are you? How's Delilah?" I ask. He smiles, "We're both doing great, Thank you, She's actually in Dubai right now but she should be back soon. You'll have to come over for dinner soon." He says, I nod agreeing. We pull back when someone clears their throat. I look and see the guy Tim was talking too standing there with a big smile on his face.

"Hola, beautiful. I'm Special Agent Nick Torres," he says reaching for my hand, taking it in his and kissing the back of it. I look at him in disgust causing Bishop and McGee to laugh leaving Torres confused. "What?" he asks offended, letting my hand go.

"She's gay Torres," Bishop says in between laughter. He blushes in embarrassment and walks back to his desk. I join the other two in laughter. I immediately stop when I see Gibbs come in with a cup of coffee in his hand, while the others continue, I try to stop them but it doesn't work.

"Something funny McGee?" He asks, Tim immediately stops along with Bishop. "No Boss, just talking to Y/n," he says. Gibbs turns and looks at me, I smile and wave shyly. "Y/n," He smiles pulling me in for a hug, I slowly hug him back surprised at his actions. Gibbs and I never really talked when I'd visit Tony at the office so this is a big surprise.

"Uhh hey Gibbs, I just came by because Ellie mentioned some trouble with a firewall..." I trail off, he pulls back and nods. "Yea, Abby has been in the lab all night trying to crack it. Some new fresh eyes may be helpful. Do you still remember where the lab is?" He asks, I nod and give him a smile. "Yea, I should be able to make it there. I'll see you guys later." I wave to them, Bishop gives me an encouraging look. I nod and smile in thanks before turning and walking towards the elevator. I press the down button and wait for the doors to open. Looking down and noticing my shoes untied I kneel down and tie it.

As I'm tying them I hear the doors open followed by a gasp. I look up a bit and see shoes I know all to well. I slowly stand up and come face to face Abby Sciuto. "Oh uh hey," she says avoiding eye contact. "Hey," I say, "I was just on my way down, Bishop had mentioned something about a firewall." I say slowly standing up, almost eye level with her, as I'm a few inches taller even when she's wearing her boots.

"Oh, yeah, um I was just coming up to get Bishop but I guess you'll do," She says, turning back around and walking into the elevator. I stand there in a daze, "You coming or what?" She asks, I shake my head snapping out of it and follow her into the elevator. She presses the button for the floor of her lab and we are left in awkward silence.

The doors open and I let her go out first before following behind her into her lab. I stop at the door and look around smiling at the memories we shared in here when I would visit Tony.

"Y/n?" I snap out of it and look to see Abby looking at me confused, "You okay? You keep zoning out," She asks worried, I nod and give her a fake smile, which if she notices she doesn't mention. "Sorry, just got caught up in my head," I apologize, she nods and turns back to her computers.

"So, the petty officer was big into security software and ended up creating his own firewall for his computer and none of us can seem to figure out how to crack it. Bishop suggested you might be able to help." Abby explains, I nod and look at the code on the screen and smirk.

"None of you could crack this? I did this my freshman year in college. This is easy, may I?" I ask motioning to the keyboard, she nods and steps to the side letting me go ahead. I nod in thanks and step closer to her and start decoding the firewall. I get into decoding it I don't notice how close Abby and I are, nor that she is staring at me.

"Done," I say with a smile as the petty officers home screen appears. I turn to Abby and gasp at our closeness, I look down slightly and glance from her eyes to her lips as she does the same to me. Just as I'm about to lean in Gibbs comes in the room with two Caf-Pows and Bishop and McGee behind him, I jump away from Abby and clear my throat. Gibbs pays no mind while McGee and Bishop share a look and smirk at us causing me to glare slightly at them.

"Whatcha got Y/n/n and Abs?" Gibbs asks handing us both our Caf-Pows. "I was able to crack the firewall and get into his laptop but we haven't had a chance to-" Abby cuts me off before I can finish.

"Got something" I look at her surprised. "Turns out our dead petty officer had a thing for military blueprints," She pulls up the different blueprints that were on his computer.

"Never mind then," I mumble under my breath as Abby continues on talking to Gibbs. "You alright?" Bishop comes up to me and puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. I nod and take a sip of my Caf-Pow. "I will be," I sigh, she gives me another comforting squeeze.

"Bishop, McGee lets go, Abby got a lead on where the petty officer was getting the blueprints from." Gibbs says, giving Abby a kiss on the cheek and walking out with Bishop and McGee not far behind leaving Abby and I in her lab...alone.

"So... about earlier before Gibbs interrupted us..." She trails off. "Oh yeah, um we can just forget that ever happened." I say rubbing the back of my neck nervously. "But what if I don't want to," she says stepping closer to me leaving little space between us. I gasp causing her to smirk. She steps even closer and wraps her arms around my neck.

"Nervous?" She asks leaning up, with a sudden burst of confidence I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her even closer to me so our bodies are pressed up against each other. This time she gasps. "No, are you?" I ask leaning down slightly, she slowly shakes her head. Tired of all this teasing I lean down fully and pull her into a kiss, she gasps but kisses back, tightening her grip on my neck.

We both get lost in the kiss, having missed the feeling of being close to each other. We pull back since breathing is still a thing. "Whoa," I whisper, after we pull away. "Yeah," she whispers back looking up into my eyes. I see something I've never seen in them before but before anything else can be said my phone goes off. I look at Abby apologetically but she waves me off and lets go making me, I sigh at the loss of contact but answer my phone anyways.

"DiNozzo" I sigh, watching Abby move around so effortlessly. "Hey sis, did I interrupt something?" Tony asks, "No, just working in the lab with Abby, the team needed my help on a case," I explain to my older brother. "Ohhh, just working?" He asks, I can hear the smirk. "Stop it, what do you want?" I ask annoyed now.

"Just checking up on you, you know how I can get when I don't hear from you." He explains, a smile appearing on my face. "I know Tony, thank you and sorry, I've been with the team all day."

"Don't sweat it, just making sure you're good. Besides Tali wanted to say hi," He says, I hear shuffling and soon I hear the little voice of my niece speaking through the phone. "Aunt Y/n/n!!" she yells. "My little Tali! How are you?" I say back just as enthusiastically a her.

"Good, when will I see you again? I miss playing tea party with you," She asks, most likely pouting. "Awww I'm sorry sweetie, hopefully soon. I miss my little princess Tali," I say, she cheers. I'm assuming she gave Tony back the phone since he's who I hear next.

"She really does miss you Y/n/n," He sighs, I sigh too, "I know and I'm sorry Tony but it's hard for me to just drop everything and leave. My supervisor has been an ass lately and takes credit for all my work resulting in our boss pushing me harder. I got lucky to even have today off." I say walking and sitting on the chair at Abby's desk.

"I'm sorry sis, look I got to go, I'll call you later. Love you," He says. "Love you too Tony," I hang up, placing my phone on the desk and putting my head down.

"Everything okay?" Abby asks, walking over to me. I sigh and shake my head, "Not really my supervisor is an ass and keeps taking credit for everything I'm doing which makes our boss push on me even harder while my supervisor just sits there and does nothing leaving me with twice the work. It's not fun," I say leaning back in the chair throwing my arms over my eyes.

"Hey, I'm sure it'll all turn out alright. You're one of the smartest people I know. I mean aside from Bishop, McGee, Ducky, Gibbs and-"

"I get it Abs, thank you," I say laughing a bit. We sit in silence for a few before I decide to break it. "So I think we should talk about before," She sighs and nods.

"Yeah... look I like you Y/n and I have ever since we...you know. It's just I don't know. I'm scared." She says looking down.

Hey, it's okay," I reach out for her hands and pull her closer to me so she's standing in between my legs, while I'm still sitting. "I'm scared too, but I like you and I can feel something between us. Besides we don't work together all the time so there's no going against Gibbs rules." I try and joke causing her to let out a small laugh, "But if you don't want to be anything I understand," I say slowly letting her hands go.

"Y/n... I like you too, and I do want us to be something" She says taking hold of my hands again. I look up at her with a smile on my face which she returns. "Really?"

"Of course you dork," She laughs moving to sit on my lap and wrap her arms around my neck pulling me into a kiss. I pause before wrapping my arms around her waist holding her close.

"So does this mean you're my girlfriend?" I whisper as we pull away, she nods and gives me a quick kiss. I smile and give her a quick kiss.

Time Skip

Abby and I have been sitting in her lab talking for the past few hours, when Gibbs comes in the lab. "Y/n I need to speak to you," he says, I gulp but nod and stand up, walking over to him.

"Yes?" I ask. "I know how things at your job now are and after your help today I think we could use you." He says with a smile.

"What are you trying to say?" I ask him confused. "Welcome to the team Y/n," he says with a smile before walking out. I turn and look at Abby shocked.

"So much for not breaking his rules," I sigh.

[idontknowreallywhy]

WIP Friday

Because the words are coming out slow on the bit I actually need to post next…

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨���

Shortly before midnight Virgil was clearing up in his studio when John popped up on looking serious but not in the usual way.

“Evening John, what’s up? Do we have a situation?”

His brother cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Virgil, Scott asked EOS to hack a couple of… databases.”

Virgil frowned and turned off the tap, spinning to face John’s hologram with paintbrushes still dripping, “What databases? Whose databases?”

John cleared his throat. “The UK Home Office and the GDF War Archives.”

Virgil cursed as one of his more delicate brushes snapped in his fist. “And… did she?”

“Of course she did, he’s the Commander. Honestly, Virgil, I’m beginning to think she listens to him more than to me.”

“Well it’s better that they get along, I suppose. But John, what are they up to? Why?!”

“She said she was instructed not to reveal the details but has interpreted that instruction to mean she can tell me the basics without detail. She’s quite proud of how quickly she got through their firewalls. Virgil, maybe you should put those down?”

He looked down at the expensive brushes he’d been mangling and flung them into the sink.

“When was this?”

[therealgchu]

WIP Wednesday

holy crap, finally got the next chapter drafted. now to edit. hoping i can have it finished by friday.

in the meantime, a little sneak peek:

“I turned a bunch of guys into dogs. Does that count?” she asked.

Sam jumped, “Shit, I didn’t hear you! Don’t do that!” Andreja laughed. He turned to her, “You probably heard her, huh?” Andreja nodded; Sam sighed. He turned back to Hwa, “What do you mean you turned a bunch of guys into dogs?”

“Best bar fight, right? Well, that’s my best bar fight,” she said, not clarifying a single thing.

Sam nodded, then shook his head. “You gotta explain this. Is this magic? A metaphor? Or am I missing something?” he asked.

Hwa shrugged. “Best bar fight. A bunch of us were drinking one night. We were getting pretty sloshed. One of the guys dared me to hack into security’s database. He thought I was way too drunk to do it, you know, shifting passwords and firewalls, and all. So, I hacked in and changed the identities of all of the guys there into dogs. It really messed a lot of shit up for them. A couple had a trip planned for the next day, and they couldn’t get clearance to leave since a dog can’t fly a ship.”

Sam stood there a little gobsmacked. Andreja laughed riotously. “I think she wins, Sam.”

“Well, I did cheat a bit. I had a 1024 bit cracker program that I had coded and saved on a slate that I kept on me at all times. So, most of the time I’d just need to network the slate to whatever I was trying to crack,” she said sheepishly. “I had it hid in my lap when I hacked into the database. Though,” she paused, thinking, “maybe I could have hacked into there without it. They had piss-poor security.”

[neonseperatedau]

Donnie’s Log Entries 1244 to 1364

A fragmented retelling of Cass apocalypse series @somerandomdudelmao  Donnie edition because I’m still suffering, and rereading all the comics helps me numb the pain. TW: Medical descriptions and major character death A grand panel sparks to life as you approach it. The screen asks for a password, glitches out and without you doing anything, you are offered several files. One of them contains a great number of written entries, you skim through them: Log entry 1244: Located another cyberattack on my firewall. They are getting more frequent and cleverer, but not clever enough. Still, I need to brief my ‘assistants’ again to make sure they might detect these attempts to digitally invade our base, on their own. Insert dramatic sigh. Log entry 1247: It amazes me that Casey continues to find silly ways to pass the time and get everyone else involved in them as well. Well, mostly Leo succumbs to the shenanigans. He might deny it, but he is the kid’s surrogate father at this point. Never considered my brother to be THAT kind of family guy. Log entry 1250: This status report has been delayed due to receiving severe damage during a retrieval mission. Casey blames himself for it and to be honest, he is not entirely wrong. His eyesight is not optimal, and he tends to register danger with a slight delay. Perhaps this could be countered with the appropriate equipment. His mask might be a potential candidate, though I am not sure if he would ever willingly part with it for even a second. I am glad he is okay. Log entry 1262: Restoration of Raph’s mechanical body is complete. The stark difference in materials I had when I built him in contrast to what I have now at my disposal is infuriating. Log entry 1263: The fourteenth attempt to recreate a coffee substitute has been semi-successful. Everyone else might not be amused by my all-nighters, but they are for the sake of the resistance. My ruined sleep schedule feels like I have reclaimed a part of pre-apocalypse normalcy.

Log entry 1267: Rejuvenation Serum, Series IX shows great promise. For the first time, Mikey appears physically altered and his energy reserves are replenished. The effects of Hamato Ninpo on the body do not exactly follow common physics, which troubles any concrete estimates of the serum’s durability. More tests might be necessary. Log entry 1268: It does not adhere to any logic, that we prioritize the life of one human over that of many. Especially Leo should be more impartial in these cases, yet keeping his emotions and his tasks separated has never been his strong suit. Log entry 1269: We harvested our first batch of tomatoes that are entirely grown in an artificial environment. Recreating a proper day-night cycle has been tricky. Most seeds will be repurposed and thus our yield will continuously grow. I am looking forward to Mikey’s home-cooked pasta. It has been ten years. Log entry 1270: Casey has been affected by an ooze-quito. Presumably one of the few remaining on Earth, which is in itself a discovery. It is a shame he hangs around my twin brother so much or else I would have finally acquired a mutant of the same species as mine. Would have been quite useful for some of my experiments. I am torn whether I find the distrust that my family openly expresses toward me amusing or offensive, maybe both. I should contact Draxum soon. Log entry 1274: I blame it on the non-existing education system that Casey has a rather unique understanding of the term ‘dad’. I bet Cassandra would have been amused, too. I also finalized a prototype of a Donnie-trademark-hockey-stick. Not that these things are in any way related. Log entry 1277: We received notice of high casualties in our Boston base. The few security cameras I could tap into confirm the eye-witness reports. Log entry 1281:  April has returned to home base. Watching a vintage JJ recording has been scheduled for next Friday. The coffee substitute gradually loses its effectiveness. I need to increase the caffeine dosage to ensure its efficiency. Log entry 1300: Regular entries have been on halt for a while after I accidentally dropped some of the Rejuvenation Serum, Version X on myself. I do not remember much from this period. Merely loose impressions of some sort of blue cotton fabric, a bloody human nose, and overall blurry surroundings. It made me think of the time when I was the first one out of our batch to walk and explore the world and how much trouble I would cause our father because of this. Log entry 1303: Despite tripling my coffee consumption, I sleep in longer intervals. With the Kraang regrouping near our base, I cannot allow my body to be weakened. As soon as I am able to, I will run rudimentary tests on my vitals to ensure my continued work. Log entry 1310: Today’s health report shows anomalies in my bloodstream. To not alarm the others, I am going to conduct further tests only when they are asleep. Its source or effects are yet to be determined. Log entry 1311: Even with a regular intake of sufficient nutrition, my body mass has decreased. I need a detailed analysis of the serum portion of a blood specimen. Not an easy task when any kind of clinical equipment had been destroyed, but I would not be able to call myself the ‘last genius on Earth’ if something like that would stop me. Log entry 1313: I determined the anomaly in my blood to be of Kraang origin. It acts similar to an influenza virus. A Kraang variant with a diameter of 20 nanometres is unheard of and surely not a standard procedure if you go by the warfare strategies that they have displayed so far. I should feel honored that they devised something like this specifically for me…taking out one of the most dangerous threats from the inside sounds like something I would also come up with. After locating the specifics of this virus, I will dedicate one of my servers to run simulations of potential counteragents. Log entry 1316: Injecting antidote number 4. No signs of recovery. I keep optimizing my battle shell to fit my shrinking body, but I fear I cannot keep this up for long. Log entry 1317: Switched to pullovers, admittedly a make-shift solution. I am staying at the base for most of the time anyway and with an all-time high number of missions, everyone is too occupied to notice. I suspect either Casey or Leo will, sooner or later. They are both much more perceptive than anyone else gives them credit for. Perhaps that is why they make such a good duo. Log entry 1320: Everyone knows. I hoped to stall for more time, but after I had collapsed my family pressed me for answers. Somehow a part of me also hopes that sharing this information might aid my search for a cure. Log entry 1325: The virus behaves in no way akin to Earth variants. I keep recalculating how much time remains. Visiting the greenhouse today to notice that the Magnolia tree we could rescue from a botanical garden in Florida has recovered well and will be in full bloom next month. I hope everyone will enjoy such a rare and magnificent sight. Log entry 1327: My server found the optimal solution to my problem. However, it requires a blood product identical to mine and that simply does not exist. To recreate my blood artificially would take an environment that ceased to exist 15 years ago. I broke the news to Leo. I wanted to set his mind at ease so that he can stop reaching for insufficient options while also having to lead pivotal missions. He…didn’t take it well. Log entry 1333: With my focus shifting from searching for an antidote to securing and preserving my work and the home base for any form of contingencies was a productive decision. Not everyone agrees. Do they believe it is easy for me to just transfer some of my work to someone else, with the perfect awareness that they will not continue it with the same kind of efficiency? In all honesty, it drives me mad. My family’s rejection of taking some of my work over immediately is equally frustrating. At least their more regular presence at my lab is a welcome change of pace. Log entry 1343: Today is a great day because I got to tell the Kraang to eat shit. To be fair, I did not tell them this with mere words. Instead, I used my mystic arsenal and I mean ALL of my mystic arsenal. Consider it a kind of firework to commence the end of a great era: Mine. I could have also metaphorically dented their hull a bit further if Leo had not picked me up and dragged me away to safety. This did not diminish my sense of victory. Payback is a bitch, after all. Log entry 1355: My brothers take turns hovering over me, which hinders my work, but I do not complain. I try to focus on one task at a time and not plan far ahead. The only future that matters to me is the single logical end game: the end of this war. Log entry 1364: My heart-rate monitor woke me up today, warning me that the intervals of my heartbeat had decreased. I diagnosed myself with local paresthesia in both legs after falling off my bed, which is not a great way to start the day. Leo put me back on my mattress and said he would get Mikey, which gives me not much time to write any further notes down. The numbness spreads to my arms right now, the virus appears to have accelerated its corrosion of my nerve system. I might have a week, a few days, or hours. Just in case I activated the automatization protocol. When I do not respond to the system within 24 hours it will switch to autopilot. Not everything is ready or accounted for, but it will hold until this is all over. Nardo, if you are reading this (and I assume you will because you have always been nosey) please refrain from crying. The keypad is translucent but the hardware on my desk is not waterproof, and you will need it to - It appears the text stops here. Either the author couldn’t continue, or the rest got deleted, you don’t know for sure.

[vcherry-kai16-art]

for those who follow me, first of all: i'm so sorry for the inactivity it will probably happen again

second: for those who do not know, i have a friend who makes his own FNF music!!

so here's a comic i drew featuring his character- Greatness- and my sona(Cherry), based on a funny thought i had after he showed me a song he made called Studio(which you can listen to here pls go follow him)

[canyousonicme]

Behind the Scenes at "The Diary of River Song" with Alex Kingston | February 2022

Professor River Song returns in four new adventures. She encounters royalty, killer robots and her own, occupied tomb, before being reunited in the digital afterlife with Proper Dave. [x]

10.1 The Two Rivers by Tim Foley

River Song finds herself on an irresistible mission - investigating the tomb of the legendary River Song! Except the statues don't resemble her and the tomb contains the body of someone very different... or does it?

10.2 Beauty on the Inside by Lizzie Hopley

It would seem to be a perfectly ordinary painting of a forgettable royal family - so why did a biochemist smuggle it out of a closed colony at the cost of her own life? River is determined to find out.

10.3 Black Friday by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle

Omnia Forum might just be the greatest shop in the galaxy and it’s celebrating two hundred years at the heart of the retail sector. But when River attends the celebratory gala she finds it less ‘everything must go’ and more ‘everything has gone’… apart from the Autons.

10.4 Firewall by Barnaby Kay

River is living her dream life with her dream husband. But every paradise has a serpent and this husband might not quite be up to the task.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

This Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

#20yrsago RIAA streamlines confiscation of customers’ life’s savings https://www.wired.com/2003/10/riaa-croons-a-new-warning-tune/

#20yrsago Google softens AdSense ToS https://memex.craphound.com/2003/10/18/google-softens-adsense-tos/

#20yrsago What’s Radical About the Weblog Form in Journalism? https://web.archive.org/web/20031112231950/https://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2003/10/16/radical_ten.html

#10yrsago UK government sends 40,000 texts to semi-random foreigners (and some Brits): “You are required to leave the UK!” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/18/labour-answers-40000-go-home-texts-immigrants

#10yrsago TSA admits “terrorists in America are not plotting against aviation” https://professional-troublemaker.com/2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/

#5yrsago A data-driven look at the devastating efficacy of a far-right judge-education program https://elliottash.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Ash-Chen-Naidu-Ideas-Have-Consequences-Impact-Law-Economics-American-Justice.pdf

#5yrsago US veterans operate in Yemen as mercenary assassins for Middle Eastern autocrats https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-assassination-us-yemen-uae-spear-golan-dahlan

#5yrsago Slaves – including children – make the bricks for Cambodia’s housing bubble https://static1.squarespace.com/static/596df9f8d1758e3b451e0fb2/t/5bc4d7cdc83025e41e7b10a0/1539627177544/Blood+bricks+high+res+v2.pdf

#5yrsago Deleting Facebook is not enough: without antitrust, the company will be our lives’ “operating system” https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/facebook-autocracy-app/

#5yrsago Nobel-winning economist Joe Stiglitz on how the US economy became a “rigged, inherited plutocracy” and how to fix it https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-american-economy-is-rigged/

#5yrsago City of Seattle’s official tow partner impounded a homeless woman’s stolen car and wanted $21,634 to give it back https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/a-21364-bill-how-a-homeless-woman-fought-her-way-out-of-tow-company-hell/

#5yrsago GDPR: Good for privacy, even better for Google’s dominance https://cliqz.com/en/magazine/study-google-is-the-biggest-beneficiary-of-the-gdpr

#5yrsago Radical expansion of Australia’s national firewall will censor search results and websites https://www2.computerworld.com.au/article/648404/new-anti-piracy-laws-target-search-engines/

#5yrsago Anaheim’s living wage ballot measure pits big corporate donors against union money https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disney-unions-anaheim-elections-20181018-story.html

#1yrago Being good at your job is praxis: The FTC can mandate Right to Repair without (further) Congressional authorization https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[shinigami-striker]

[PS Blog] Best Multiplayer Experience | Friday, 12.15.2023

Here are the nominees for "Best Multiplayer Experience" down below (voting ends after Sunday, December 17 at 11:59:59 P.M.):

Baldur's Gate 3

C-Smash VRC

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Crash Team Rumble

Dead Island 2

Diablo IV

Exoprimal

Firewall Ultra

Meet Your Maker

Mortal Kombat 1

Nock

Pavlov VR

Street Fighter 6

The Crew: Motorfest