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mattzerella-sticks · 5 years ago

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Caught (a 9-1-1 fic post-s3 finale)

Photobooths are prime for catching special moments and making them last forever, even if they are less both and more open spaces with a backdrop. When Athena, Bobby, and Michael stumble upon one such moment between Buck and Eddie, what will they do?

And how will it affect Maddie and Chimney?

T, 3.7k, Athena/Bobby, Buck/Eddie, Maddie/Chimney

Athena finds operating a laptop with only one hand maddening. Typing up an e-mail takes double the time, she needs breaks when shopping online, and scrolling through social media becomes dangerous when she accidentally likes pictures she didn’t mean to. If she had her choice, Athena would be on her phone. But the hired photographer from May’s party e-mailed the pictures from the photo booth, both Bobby and Michael nearby when her phone pinged. Instead of having her husband and ex-husband crowded at her shoulders, Athena pokes her password into the given space while the men gather snacks. When she finally has the first picture loaded, Bobby places the bowl of popcorn by her sling and Michael hands off a soda.

“I think we’ve never looked better Bobby,” Michael laughs, pointing at the screen.

Athena snickers into her drink, studying the picture. Bobby’s jaw dropped in a faux yell; guitar hugged tightly against his chest. Fingers hooked as if he were playing something. Michael’s expression mirrored his except the tinsel wig on his head making it immensely funnier. “Don’t you be trying to steal my man from me, Michael,” she warns, attempting severity, “You already got a doctor eating out of your hand.”

“Okay you two,” Bobby settles his arm across Athena’s chair, chuckling, “we’ll never get through these if you two are bickering. Athena, click onto the next picture?”

They kill the next half-hour like that, pausing every so often to laugh at a few pictures. Like Maddie with May, the two women back-to-back and imitating an old spy poster. Or Chimney and Hen battling with the inflatable guitars like they were axes. Although not every picture was funny. Michael and Athena thought May and her boyfriend gravitated closer than necessary for a simple photo. And Athena needed a moment, collecting herself from the sheer adorableness of Buck and Christopher’s faces pressed cheek-to-cheek.

The next few pictures included Buck as well, except Christopher’s father joined in the fun in his son’s place. Eddie sipping a drink while Buck played the guitar. Him raising a leg mid-kick while Buck locked eyes with the camera. Smoking on a corncob pipe as Buck runs wild behind him. Flexing, playing the guitar, and jumping. One picture had half of his face cut off.

Buck must have landed closer, because Athena clicked on and they occupied the same breadth of space. Eddie, non-plussed, while the younger man messed with him. Grinning, swinging beads in his face. Then wincing when it struck the soft spot between his brows. Brushing gently over his nose in a cursory inspection, too close. Followed by –

“Oh, my,” Athena gasped, hand over her mouth. She felt Bobby tense at her side and Michel mutter a curse under breath.

The photographer, with perfect timing, captured the briefest of pecks. Buck’s lips on Eddie’s, both puckered. Expectant. None of them can decipher who initiated the embrace. Only that it happened and there was no mistaking the intention

“Well I’ll be damned,” Michael says, “this is…”

Athena glances at her husband, “Did you know about this?”

Bobby shakes out of his stupor, turning to her. “No, I… I had no idea,” he says, “I mean, they’re close but I always thought it was more like… brothers?”

Michael snorts, drawing Athena’s attention. “Do you have anything to add?”

His mouth thins, and he inches back. “No, I’m as shocked as you both are… A little intrigued… and embarrassed I didn’t notice those boys swung on my team before… But shock is at the forefront.”

She sighs, sagging in her seat. Her finger scrolls onto the next arrow except she cannot continue. Athena finds herself staring at the picture again. “What should we do?”

Bobby hums and squeezes her shoulder. “We can pretend this didn’t happen and let them come to us in their own time?” He nods at the screen, “For the first month at least. If they don’t say something past then, I will have to bring it up anyway seeing as fraternization between coworkers requires tons of paperwork.”

“Okay, then I guess we keep this to ourselves until they own up on their own,” she says, moving on, “or you need evidence if they try and deny it altogether.”

“Always thinking like a cop,” Michael laughs, nudging her, “you’ll be back on the streets soon enough.”

“We’ll see.” She finally clicks onto the next picture, another Eddie and Buck. More bashful and with ruddy cheeks. If there were any confusion about the prior scene, this added the final layer of context. “They do make an adorable couple.”

“And a hot couple…”

Athena elbows Michael with her good arm, scowling. “Hush up. Think about your doctor.”

The mood returns, not at the same level it was before the discovery but there the same. They finish viewing the album and then spend more time dividing it. Creating folders for their friends and family so they can have their pictures. Athena finds the kissing scene again and immediately puts it, and the accompanying aftermath shot, in its own folder. She forgets it when they start compressing the files for ease of sending.

Unfortunately, when attaching Buck’s pictures to the e-mail, his zip file contains two folders.

-----------------------------------------

Buck find Eddie in the kitchen, pouring milk into two bowls of cereal. His heart skips a beat at the scene of pure domesticity. The way sunlight streams through the thin curtains and makes Eddie glow in its beams. Makes him look more irresistible than he already is. He tugs his shirt down over his chest and walks over, wrapping his arms around Eddie’s chest. “Breakfast? Really?”

“What – not a fan of Fruit Loops?”

“I love Fruit Loops,” Buck chuckles, kissing at the bruise on Eddie’s neck he made earlier. “But I don’t know if three o’clock is the perfect time for them.” Still, he takes the bowl from off the counter and opens a nearby drawer.

Eddie grabs spoons for them both. “Breakfast isn’t a meal… it’s a state of mind. It’s the first thing you eat when you get out of bed. And since we haven’t left the bed since now…”

“We could’ve left earlier,” Buck reminds him, “If you weren’t so damn horny.”

“I wasn’t the one practically crying for dick in my ass –“

“Hey, hey!” Buck cuts him off, cheeks burning hotter the longer Eddie laughs. “I wasn’t crying, I was… heavily suggesting.”

“Sure…”

He scowls, sticking his spoon in Eddie’s bowl and stealing a bite. “If you didn’t want a second round, all you had to do was say so. But don’t go complaining because I was making sure you were having a great time while Christopher’s at camp.”

“Oh, no,” Eddie shakes his head, grimacing, “please don’t quote my son’s card while we’re talking about sex.”

“You started it,” Buck smirks, pointing with his spoon. “Your fault if you can’t handle the heat.”

Eddie shoves at him, jostling the milk and spilling some onto his shirt. A soggy Fruit Loop dove from his bowl and landed on his foot, near his big toe. Buck retaliates with a push of his own, although Eddie catches his wrist and drags him into a kiss that makes him forget about the milk stain, dropped Fruit Loop, and Eddie’s teasing.

They break for air, foreheads pressed against each other. “We should really be eating.”

“Yeah.”

It’s another five minutes standing there. Balancing bowls of cereal and trading kisses. When they finish, Eddie guides Buck into the living room. They cuddle on the sofa, Buck crossing his legs under him and flicking the television on. Flipping through channels until he finds a cartoon he likes. Halfway through the SpongeBob episode, he feels a heavy stare. Buck turns, cheeks stuffed with cereal, to find Eddie watching with a small grin. “What?”

“Maybe I should have sent you to camp alongside Chris,” Eddie says, “that way you could have had fun with all the other kids.”

He swallows, glaring. “Shut up…” Eddie leans forward and brushes his lips across Buck’s cheeks, halting any further protest. Unwilling to let Eddie win, however, Buck redirects his attention elsewhere. Namely his blinking cell phone, resting on the coffee table since last night. Buck must have forgotten it sometime between Eddie kissing him and Eddie carrying him out with Buck’s legs around Eddie’s waist.

Buck opens it, wincing at the number of messages.

Eddie peers over his shoulder, spoon in his mouth. “Popular?”

“Something like that…” He scrolls through the notifications. At the tagged pictures on Instagram and the missed calls, choosing his texts first. Sees five from Chimney asking about where his is and if he can come over. Then twenty from Maddie progressively growing angrier the longer Buck didn’t respond. Buck types back on the last message. Answers her ‘Buck I am not kidding you better answer me asap we need to talk’ sent at one-twenty-three with a ‘Sorry b there soon’ at three-thirteen. “I gotta go to Maddie’s…”

“What for?”

Buck scans through the texts again, shrugging. “Doesn’t say. But it must be important if both her and Chim were on my case.”

Eddie knocks shoulders with Buck. “Want me to tag along?”

“I’d appreciate it,” Buck tells him, “but if we’re supposed to keep this low-profile, I doubt showing up together will help.”

“But we always show up together,” he argues.

“Not after having fantastic sex.”

“You’re right,” Eddie concedes, thoughtful expression transforming into one more devious. His fingers tickle Buck’s thigh before he squeezes Buck’s cock. “I’d rather show up after mind-blowing sex.”

“Eddie, you’re killing me,” Buck whines, “I’m too tired.” Except he lays his bowl on the table alongside Eddie’s and happily relaxes onto the couch. Lying underneath the other man while he licks at his collar bone. Buck giggles while his friend’s stubble rubs against his skin. Absentmindedly Buck looks at his phone, scrolling through more apps. He opens his e-mail and sees the message from Athena labelled: ‘May’s Graduation Party Photos’. “Hey Eddie, the photos from May’s party are here.”

“What?” Eddie asks, rising momentarily for air.

“Pictures!”

“Another time, Bucky…” he presses a sloppy kiss at his jaw, smirking. Toying with Buck’s shirt. “Be with me now.”

“Let me take a quick look.” Buck ignores Eddie’s pleading, opening it. Downloads the file and clicks the icon, switching apps. He opens the first folder, a photo of Buck and Maddie greeting him. “Oh, these came out nicely…”

Eddie continues dropping kisses on different points of his body while Buck scrolls through each picture. “Really, Buck,” he gasps after sucking a mark onto Buck’s hip. A feat that usually leaves him panting, sweaty, and writhing in Eddie’s embrace. “Can’t this wait? Feeling unappreciated…”

Buck threads his hand through Eddie’s hair, patting it. “Almost done,” he tells Eddie, “There’s another file here… looks like it’s only two –“ He cuts off, eyes widening.

Startled, Eddie raises a brow at him. “Buck? You okay?” Nothing. Eddie crawls up and forces Buck’s gaze away from the phone and towards him, tilting at his jaw. “Speak to me. What is it?”

He cannot speak. So he shows Eddie his phone, watching the blown pupils retract as the mood shifts.

It’s a photo from the party, one they hadn’t realized was captured. Their first kiss. When Buck was so overwhelmed with happiness and warmth and, staring at Eddie, crossed the divide without thought. A quick peck that left them stuttering and blushing and unsure where they stood. Buck ran away, not waiting for Eddie. Moving until the other man dragged him into an empty room to explain himself.

Buck had nothing. No reason why he kissed Eddie except that it felt right. Which he proved by pressing him against the wall and kissing him again. Eddie answered in kind, flipping him around and hauling his leg up. Thumb brushing his kneecap.

They broke, muted sounds of the party filtered through the door. Eddie cleared his throat, “We still need to talk about this.”

“Definitely…”

Both men said their goodbyes, five minutes after the other. Promises that when Christopher left for camp, they would restart their conversation. Eddie drove straight over, card still in hand when he knocked on Buck’s door.

Buck hung it on the fridge before they tripped up the stairs in hurried excitement, shedding clothes and tumbling on the bed.

Talking came after the sex.

“What do you think it means?” Buck asks, “Why would Athena send this?”

Eddie shrugs, mouth flapping worriedly. “I don’t know,” he finally says, “Maybe she… maybe she sent without looking?”

Buck rolls his eyes. “Karen and Hen had their photos taken but I don’t have any of theirs. She definitely saw this.” His mind works double time, connecting loose threads into a makeshift sweater. “Wait,” he says, pushing Eddie off him and onto his knees. “Wait, hold on… do you think this is what those texts were about?”

“Texts? What texts?”

“Chim and Maddie,” he reminds Eddie, “the urgent texts that – that didn’t mention what made them so damn urgent. Do you think… Athena sent this photo to them, too? To Hen? Everybody?”

Eddie sighs and runs his hands up and down Buck’s shoulders, added warmth like a candle fighting an iceberg. “Athena wouldn’t do that,” he says, “I’m sure this was nothing. Maybe even a… a simple way of letting us know she knows and she supports us?”

“Still…”

As if seeing the smoke billowing out his ears, Eddie stands and offers a hand. “Come on.” Buck squints up at him, curious. “You think Maddie and Chimney know about us. You won’t know by sitting here spinning out. When we get there, we can see what they have to say.”

Buck fights his smile, but a tiny smirk still appears. “We?” he asks.

“Yes, we,” Eddie tells him, “So let’s move. I think I have a shirt that’ll fit, but it might be a little short?”

“What about my clothes from yesterday?”

“Please,” Eddie matches his smirk, “we’re not sure if they know about us. Why make it obvious by doing that.” Most of the tension from moments ago disappears with their laughter, Eddie ridding him of the rest by hauling Buck into a tender kiss. “Hurry,” he whispers, “because if we stay here any longer, I won’t want to leave the house until tomorrow.”

“Tempting…” Buck pushes off, smiling. “Very tempting, but I already promised Maddie. She’s mad enough at me as it is.” Eddie tries catching his wrist one more time but Buck, aware of this trick, dodges at the last second and bounces off. The other man chases with great speed.

The playfulness helps distract Buck from the impending appointment with his sister and their friend. And leaves him grateful that he and Eddie crossed over in their relationship, onto the next level. Into what it was always meant to be, what it kept building towards over the years. Abby’s return the final push giving Buck the clarity he needed in understanding his feelings.

When the hurt finally stopped, the loneliness he expected to follow didn’t. Because Buck had his sister. The one-eighteen. Christopher and Eddie.

�� Especially Eddie. Especially when his lips tickle his neck, and delays them further.

-----------------------------------------

Maddie paces the floor, chewing on a bite of pickle. “What’s taking him so long?” she asks Chimney, her boyfriend watching from a nearby couch. “I swear, if he isn’t in this room in the next five minutes…”

Chimney stands, walking towards her. “I’m sure he has his reasons,” he tells her, “he didn’t answer his phone until – what? Three? Maybe he was busy.”

“Too busy to answer a text?” She pokes his chest, huffing. “Too busy to get his ass over here and learn that he’s about to be an uncle?”

“Well, you didn’t tell him he was going to be an uncle in the text so he probably didn’t think it was that urgent.”

She glares, readying another onslaught. Luckily for Chimney they hear the buzzer for his apartment ring. Maddie shoves the rest of the pickle in her mouth, nodding at the door. “Let them in and bring them into the dining room.”

“Anything else, my queen?”

Maddie ignores him, setting at the table with her hands folded. Listens while Chimney speaks into the intercom and lets Buck up. In the minutes between that and Buck arriving, she thinks. About what it felt like seeing both plus signs appear on the pregnancy tests and the cocktail of emotions erupting within like a volcano. Happiness and excitement, but also fear. Worry over whether she was ready, or if she would be a good parent. Memories of her own childhood flooded and distracted Maddie until she broke free from their chains and realized Chimney spoke to her in the living room.

He tried, but in the days that followed Maddie’s party her nerves only shredded further. She needed her brother. And when Maddie mustered the strength and reached out, he kept her waiting.

Anger won out when she laid eyes on him, incised further when she notices Eddie. “Is that why you weren’t answering me? Too busy ‘hanging out’?” The exaggerated quotes make Buck flinch in a way he hadn’t in years. Not since he was a little kid. And she finds herself back in Hershey once more. And Maddie’s doubt in her skill doubles.

“Sorry Maddie,” he says, stepping into the dining room, “time just got away from us and… we came as fast as we could?”

She glances between them, both men with reticent expressions. As quickly as it arrived, the fire inside fizzled into embers. “I’m sorry,” she says, kneading at her temple, “I’ve just been… a little stressed.”

“Stressed, why?”

Chimney answers, “Because of recent developments. Recent developments that we wanted to speak to you about.” He glances at Eddie, frowning. “Eddie…”

Eddie points at the living room, shrugging. “I can wait in there while you talk –“

“No,” Maddie stops him, “no you can join.” She looks at Chimney, smiling. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t be here, right?”

“I guess.”

Buck and Eddie share a cryptid look, slowly sitting across from Maddie and Chimney. Her brother fidgets, tugging on his fingers in the nervous way he would when mom or dad lectured him after landing in trouble. Although why he did it now, Maddie was unsure of. She reached across and grabbed his hand, waiting for when their eyes met to speak. “There’s something we need to tell you.”

His brows scrunch up, “Yeah… I get that.”

“It’s about,” Maddie searches for an entry point, unsure where she should start. “Well… you know at May’s party?” He tenses in his seat. “How we left a little early? That’s because Chimney noticed something and I – I put things together, and we had to go –“

“Maddie I can explain –“

“Because all these signs added up and,” Maddie stops, blinking. She pulls away from Buck, “What?” Buck stares at the table, shoulders hunched high. “Look, I was going to tell you but, well, we know what would’ve happened if this came out so soon after Abby showed up. And the party was the worst place if we wanted to keep this secret, I didn’t mean for it to happen there it just did! We thought it was better to take it at our own pace and – and let people in when we were ready, y’know?”

“Slow down Evan,” Maddie grabs his hands again. Squeezes until he gives her the floor. “What are you talking about?”

He pouts. “I was… you brought me here because you and Chimney saw us, right? At the photo booth?”

“No,” she says, “I wanted you here because I found out I’m pregnant.” Buck chokes, seizing under her grip. “But what are you talking about? Us? You and who else… and why should it involve Abby?”

“You’re pregnant?” he asks, eyes glistening with unshed tears. Buck tries closing his mouth but he cannot force his jaw shut. “I’m… I’m gonna be an uncle?”

“Yes, Buck, you are,” Chimney adds, leaning over the table. “But can we go back? What happened at the photo booth?”

Maddie studies her brother slowly shed his shock. Replaced with cheeks redder than his birthmark, failing at subtlety when glancing at Eddie. Eddie hides his face, Maddie imagining it in a similar state. With nothing there, her attention drifts and latches onto the first clue she finds.

A circular bruise on his neck near his collarbone. There’s no mistaking what it was.

“Oh my God,” she says, “Oh my God!”

Chimney sighs, “What? What is it!”

“Buck. You and Eddie?”

“Buck and Eddie – oh,” He sees them in new light, understanding dawning. “Oh my God, you two are dating!”

Eddie reveals his own ruddy cheeks, hands switching tactics from shielding to squeezing Buck’s shoulder. “And you thought they knew!”

“I, I – uh…” Buck splutters, cornered. He points at Maddie, “You’re pregnant! I think that’s more important!”

“But you and Eddie,” she insists, “you and Eddie!” Maddie laughs, stress from the past few days seeping out of her. “I can’t believe – you and Eddie!”

“Yeah, yeah, me and Eddie…” Buck slumps into his seat, glaring. Clearly uncomfortable with the attention.

She sees where his thoughts drift, though, and tosses a lifeline. “I think it’s great, Evan,” Maddie says. Waits for when their gazes lock again. “Really.”

His stiffness eases the longer they stay like that, until a gooey smile spreads across his face. “Talking about great things,” Buck says, gesturing at her and Chimney, “a baby? You’ll be a mother and – and you have to tell me how it happened.”

“I think you know how it happened, Buck,” Chimney chuckles, “Plus, I think we should be asking that of you two.”

Eddie rolls his eyes, slinging his arm over Buck’s shoulders and pulling him closer. Buck instinctively leaning into Eddie’s side. Maddie pauses, stunned by how well they fit together. Hindsight makes everything obvious but she should have seen this coming. “We can compare stories,” Eddie says, “but since baby trumps new relationship, you two can start.”

Maddie nods, sliding one hand free from Buck’s hold and to Chimney’s. Tangling their fingers together. Uniting their family as they take their next steps into unfamiliar territory. Maddie expects the next nine months will be difficult and taxing. Not only with the baby but working while pregnant and then planning what comes after.

With her family at her side, Maddie feels confident in handling whatever challenge comes her way.

#911 season 3 #911 on fox #athena grant #bobby nash #michael grant #athena x bobby #athena/bobby #evan 'buck' buckley #eddie diaz #buddie #buddie fic #buck/eddie #buck x eddie #maddie buckley #howard chimney han #maddie x chimney #maddie/chimney #911 on fox fanfic

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loquaciousquark · 6 years ago

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E63 (May 21, 2019)

Sorry it’s late, guys. @eponymous-rose has narrowly avoided being blown away by tornadoes and I’ve narrowly avoided drowning in equally dangerous paperwork, so here we are at the end of all things. Preroll is post-its of donors for Red Nose Day.

Tonight’s guests: Sam Riegel & Liam O’Brien.

Tonight’s announcements: We’re opened by Mark Hulmes instead of BWF. He dabs. No one blinks an eye. After the music open, we find out BWF’s neighbor’s kid stole his keys and then he lost his wallet. It hasn’t mattered, because he’s about to be Mr. Ashley Johnson & people just keep giving him what he needs. They’re still raising money for RedNoseDay. Thursday morning, the Colbert one-shot airs on the Critical Role Youtube. You can donate at critrole.com/rednoseday. Mark Hulmes joined Taliesin & BWF today for an episode available on the CR Twitch.

Episode 63: Intervention

CR Stats: Caleb cast his 700th spell, Gift of Alacrity, on Caduceus. Nott rolled her 40th natural 1 this episode to understand the local sewer system. This was Caduceus’s first HDYWTDT. Everyone mourns that someone stole the Golden Snitch from Matt’s bag.

It’s more stressful not knowing everyone’s motivations, both within the party and the game world. Sam talks about Yasha’s mysterious past and Beau’s dangerous ties to the Empire, especially given how much they understood in the first campaign about (at least) who the bad guys were. Sam feels like once they have a shred of information, he wants to jump on it ASAP and make big, bold decisions on them. He’s dealing with the discovery that this might be not as great an idea. He’s not experienced this kind of “trepidation, failure, uncertainty...I don’t like this game. I don’t like it at all!”

Caleb likes using the little bit of dunamantic magic as a taste of a drug--each little hit makes him want more and more and more.

Danimancy? Make a Carrcana check. Sigh, Sam.

Sam made two big mistakes in the last fight: he missed the gender of the dragonborn, so he thought that one of the other voices Matt was doing was actually the dragonborn giving orders (and therefore the one in charge, while the drow was the one taking orders). He also saw the dragonborn leaving and was worried that he was waiting on the party to give him (Nott) the go-ahead to kick things off. He recognizes he put Caleb in a terrible position both in a meta yes-and sense and in the Nott-Caleb team sense.

The world devolves into campaign slander and propaganda. Everyone’s in it, including BWF and Dani. #samforpresident

Caleb told the Brightqueen about his past because he feels like they’re on a very tight timeline, looking for very slight drips of information like gold. He thought it was worth the shot.

Sam desperately wants to know what the missing years in Yasha’s memory hold. BWF tells him to get what he can out of her while she’s here; her show’s been renewed for another season. He sounds genuinely bitter as he says it, but he notes at least it’s the last one. :(

They ask Mark Hulmes about what Charm does for people. He helpfully tells us it doesn’t say if they remember or not. Sam also points out Nott has blown up Caduceus before, so doing a few more points to Yasha is *wigglehands*.

Caleb did not mean to kill the horse on purpose. Sam tries to get him to confess that on camera, but instead Liam needles him about not cuddling Henry.

Cosplay of the Week: @andy_srivastava’s cosplay of Beau. Gorgeous!

Both Sam and Nott feel the fight’s outcome was his/her fault. He expects her to feel very guilty next week. Sam genuinely felt and still feels bad about it. He also prefers hashing out reactions the night things happen instead of having to wait a week for the next Thursday. He feels it’s more genuine.

Caleb is very worried about Jester’s mom and Astrid’s crew finding ways to use her mom as leverage. He’s also worried about the kid, but is glad Shakaste is going to get him. Liam also always imagined running into his old crew against the backdrop of the Empire, and is now very worried that if he runs into them soon he’ll have the added perception of being a traitor since they’re in the Dynasty.

Liam and Caleb both were surprised he was given hints of dunamancy so freely. He looks forward to learning more.

Liam totally understands how easy it is to miss things now. He’s constantly looking things up and reading in an attempt to understand his spells, and therefore missing parts of the battle. He greatly sympathizes with Marisha. Sam, on the other hand, is finding it hard to adapt to rogue life; he doesn’t like the necessary “out there, bold choice” nature of rogues in D&D and having the pressure of making big decisions very fast. He prefers Scanlan’s nature of sitting in the back, casting spells, and being more reactionary than instigatory. Liam always is afraid of picking the wrong spells, and finds it much harder than Vax. BWF: “Dagger dagger dagger...dagger dagger dagger dagger?” Liam: “I kept track of that fine, it’s everyone else that was wrong.”

Sam is shocked the D&D Beyond campaign bit has dragged on. BWF calls his rebuttal “bogusly weak,” and Sam looks genuinely aghast. It’s hilarious. “I don’t know how he got to you, Brian, but this feels like coming on Fox News! You’re a partisan hack! I won’t take it anymore, but I love attention, so I will stay.”

Nott is super interested in the dodeca’s ability to give people different bodies, but Caleb is still the clearest path to getting her body back. It’s complicated because the Dynasty souls are “chosen” and Nott’s not likely to be so.

Liam is very excited to see this magic system Matt has created in dunamancy. Did he create it in response to Liam or had he already thought about it? Sam tells us he’s always been thoughtful about fate and the subverting of it. Liam is so pumped because in campaign one, fate strings existed and were uncontrollable, but in campaign two we’ve “developed physicists, tinkering.”

In re: Essik, Nott’s just happy Caleb has found a friend. She wishes he’d bring him home more often.

Sam finally busses Henry’s cheek and affirms to us that he actually loves dogs. Everyone in his family is voting for a new dog except for his daughter, who wants a cat.

Liam doesn’t want everything to be cat-themed, but likes retouching a few spells here and there for flavor. He also wanted to differentiate it from Scanlan’s Bigby’s Hand. Sam thinks he should reskin more spells.

SPOILERS FOR C1 IN THIS QUESTION. Sam talks about rogue high-stakes moments as genuinely, surprisingly stressful. Liam says Vax was stressful but exhilarating, especially when it came to moments that conflated poor meta decisions vs roleplay decisions. He specifically mentions Raishan’s chase as a terrible in-game decision but one that was right for the character. He and Sam will always do what’s right for the character, even if it’s bad narratively in the moment. Sam says he got a lot of support from the group thread this past week, though. END SPOILERS FOR C1.

Fanart of the Week: a gorgeous Caduceus portrait by @larndraws.

Nott trusts Shakaste to get Luke traveling safely. Sam also drops a bombshell on the world by telling us Luc is spelled Luc. It’s just that no one’s ever asked. Heavens!

Caleb’s made an effort to tell people he cares for them, but he fears it at the same time. He’s afraid he’s going to be put in a position where he needs it too much. Brian asks if he believes he’s truly irredeemable: Liam says there’s a certain road where he could feel he atoned, and there’s a road that might lead to balance, but there’s never a brass ring that he could reach that could let him relax entirely. I don’t entirely understand the metaphor, but I get what he means.

Sam likes that the theme of this campaign seems to be “atonement and reconciliation” compared to the first campaign’s “finding family.” There’s a bit of that in this campaign too, but he likes how everyone has something in their past that they’re clinging to, and he’s interested to see who will be able to resolve it, who will be able to handle it, and who won’t be able to let it go.

Mark Hulmes come on to talk about the Stream of Descent, which happened last weekend. He’s the DM for High Rollers, which airs at 9am Pacific on Sundays.

BWF talks about how C1 had a lot of the Hero’s Journey in various forms, and C2 feels a lot like “what it means to be good.” He doesn’t feel they fit the “antihero” archetype very well.

Liam thinks that if Caleb were going to leave the campaign, he’d have done it already.

Part of Caleb’s generation was to create a character the world would shun, and seeing if he could find a way to find compassion for them. He mentions the poem written for the Boston marathon bomber a while ago. BWF talks about how it’s a really interesting character choice because it depends on the rest of the table being willing to stick around and seek out that redeemable quality in your character, even when you’re making decisions that are true to the character but bad for the table/the rest of the group. You can’t always expect that to work with every group you play with.

Mark talks about Calliana being the other end of the spectrum from Caleb, because she also has a history of having done very terrible things, but she was taken in by a family who helped her understand she’d been manipulated and it was not her fault. He’s desperate for his recently mentioned package to be picked up because she has some messages for Caleb in it. Now she tries to see the best in everyone she meets as a result of her history. He has a whole folder of fanart of Calliana on his wall. Awwww.

It’s still never gotten old for Liam or Sam either.

Mark endorses Sam for President. Good job, foreign fellow. Is it Thursday yet?

#talks machina #talks machina spoilers #critical role #critical role spoilers #long post for ts

211 notes · View notes

wastedkookies · 8 years ago

Text

sequestered - four

genre: angst / fluff / secretly dating au warning: some sexual themes pairing: yoongi / reader summary: the self-proclaimed photography hipster and the OG linguistics queen absolutely love - I mean loathe each other words: 1.9k a/n: inspired by WINE(inst) by suran and produced by suga

He ruffles your hair and you push him away in disgust, scowling when he attempts to come near you again.

“C’mon, I’m going to be your brother-in-law soon, can’t you be a little bit nicer?”

“You wish, Min Yoongi. Just because my sister’s getting married to your brother doesn’t mean I should start treating you differently.”

“Why do you even hate me so much?”

“If you hadn’t ‘accidentally’ thrown all my notes into the fire, then this wouldn’t be happening!”

“It was an accident!”

“Fuck off, Yoongi.”

“I’d rather fuck you instead.”

You scoff, turning to walk away when he grabs your wrist, spinning you around. You’re suddenly too close to him, his warm breath fanning across your face. Yoongi smirks, leaning closer to you. You feel heat rising up your cheeks — embarrassment or anger, he’ll never know — and without warning, your foot connects with his crotch and he screeches, instantly releasing his grip on you.

“Get out of my sight, Yoongi.”

There’s always something about the dark room that makes Yoongi happy. The place where photographs are developed, the colours bleeding into the paper slowly, swirling and mixing around before forming one cohesive picture.

It’s even better when those colours form you.

You, holding your hand up in attempt to snatch the camera away with a wide grin upon your face. You, with one hand propping your chin up but still on the verge of dozing off anyway. You, studying into the depths of the night with a cup of coffee in hand.

Yoongi smiles as he takes them down, examining them the moment he steps out of the dark room. Yes, the colours did come together nicely after all.

“Hyung!”

He places the pictures into his folder tucks it under his arm hurriedly, spinning around to find Jimin with a wide grin on his face.

“What do you want?” Yoongi asks, clearly showing signs of irritation, but Jimin doesn’t budge.

Instead, he shows his phone to Yoongi, a picture of a nice café is displayed, along with the faces of three other girls that he does not recognize.

“I’ve set us up to go on a group date tomorrow!”

“Count me out.” Jimin follows him to the courtyard, in attempt to convince Yoongi to go.

“Hyung, why not?” He whines. “It’ll be fun! Besides, we need three guys!”

“Why don’t you ask Jin?”

“Jin will just scare the girls away, and you should start getting interested in girls too!”

Yoongi’s eyes fall onto you, who was crossing the courtyard with your friends hurriedly, each of you holding a huge stack of books. Jimin follows his gaze and laughs.

“Well, I guess you could go for her.”

Yoongi glances at Jimin. “What’s wrong with that?”

Jimin shrugs. “I mean, she’s kind of a pompous bitch, isn’t she? And she’s such a nerd, constantly focusing on her work rather than going for social events. The two of you can be quite cute when you’re squabbling, but she’s kind of uptight and stuck up, isn’t she? I don’t think she’s even girlfriend material to begin with.”

Yoongi clenches his fist tightly. “Don’t talk shit about someone you barely know, Jimin.”

“It’s true though! I only see her at parties like what, once a year? Most of the time she’s in her room living in her books!”

“I rarely go to parties, aren’t I uptight too?”

“Yeah, but you at least know how to have real fun. Her idea of fun is learning how to read and speak Old English, whatever that is.”

Yoongi frowns before letting out a huff and turning away. “Forget about the group date. I ain’t going.”

“Okay, tell me your thoughts — does this track fit the cover art?”

The both of you are seated on his bed, with you practically on his lap as he brings up several files on his laptop. Jin wasn’t home, so it meant that you could wear one of Yoongi’s loose t-shirts and your underwear without the fear of Jin bursting into the room with some weird — but undoubtedly good — dish that he created upon impulse.

Yoongi presses ‘play’ and a sweet melody fills your ears before the bass is added into the mix. He quickly pulls up the image, displaying it to you proudly. You listen to the track as you examine the picture of a girl looking directly into the camera, hair tousled while the backdrop is filled with bright, vibrant colours in contrast to her pale skin.

A small smile forms on your lips as you start to nod your head in time with the beat, glancing over at Yoongi who’s clearly enjoying the track as much as you do. You rest your head on his shoulder, letting the music wash over you, and he places one hand on top of your head. You giggle when he turns it up louder, mouthing the words “This is my favourite part.”

You hum, shifting your position so that now you’re sitting on his lap, and he wraps his arms around your waist.

“I think it’s perfect,” you whisper.

He bows, a smug smile on his face as he tells you, “Of course it’s perfect. I produced the track and made the cover after all.”

“I retract my previous statement. I think it’s shit.”

There’s a soft thump as Yoongi smacks the back of your head playfully, you laughing as you swat his hands away. You pout when the track ends, turning to face him.

“Put it on loop, would you?”

He grins, reaching for his laptop and playing the track once again before putting it on a never-ending loop and setting it down on the floor. Your hands make their way to the back of his neck, playing with the ends of his hair as you lean against his chest.

The track restarts and you lock eyes with Yoongi, who smiles fondly at you, reaching out to caress your cheek. You lean into the warmth of his palm, purring when his other hand starts to rub your back gently. He kisses your forehead, then your temple, then your nose, then your cheek, then your chin, and finally, your lips. You hold onto his hand, eyes fluttering shut as his tongue slides over your bottom lip.

“You taste like peppermint.”

“Taehyung brought candy canes,” he tells you with half-lidded eyes, peppering your neck with little kisses, causing you to groan. “He said that we needed to get ready for Christmas.”

“It’s only November.”

“Well, that’s Tae for you.”

Yoongi nips at your skin in a playful manner, chuckling when he feels your hand tugging at his hair. He glances up at you, eyes closed and relaxed jaw, the lines of stress slowly ebbing away. Your warm breath against his ear causes a light shudder to run down his spine — oh, how he loved that.

He makes his way back to your lips again, and your tongue slips inside his mouth, gentle but demanding all at once. You relish his taste, finding yourself wanting more and more, releasing his hand and letting it run up and down your bare legs. Yoongi sets you down on the bed gently, the both of you still kissing as he straddles you. He pulls away, and the string of saliva between your lips was left to connect the both of you.

A group date? Why would Yoongi ever go for that when he had you — a pompous snob who thinks fun is dragging him into helping you study, an uptight bitch who stuck her nose up at him when he had no drive to accomplish his tasks at hand. Who needs one of those ditzy girls with high-pitched voices and absolutely no wit whatsoever when he had you, who would constantly engage in intelligent banter and squabbles with him whenever you felt like it.

Intelligence is most definitely sexy.

You moan as his hand slips under your t-shirt — well, more like his t-shirt — squeezing your side gently. Your legs wrap around his waist, pulling him closer to you as the kiss gets even more heated, this time with his tongue slipping into your mouth and exploring its depths.

Taehyung flashes a toothy grin when Jimin reaches for yet another candy cane.

“Yoongi-hyung’s been acting weird.” Jimin huffs, shoving the candy cane into his mouth. “He wouldn’t go for the group date with us.”

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Taehyung laughs, propping his legs up on the table. “What’s so weird about that? He never came with us for any group dates in the first place.”

“Nah, the weird part is the fact that he kept staring at everyone’s favourite linguistics queen.” Taehyung raises his eyebrows.

“Do you think hyung likes her?”

“If anything, they’re probably already together,” Jimin says, pulling the candy cane out of his mouth and waving it. “I found him shoving pictures of her into his folder earlier, and he also got super defensive when I started calling her uptight.”

Taehyung leans forward, interested. “But doesn’t he say that to her?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Jimin sighs, sinking back into the couch. “How weird. When did they get together without either of us realising?”

Taehyung grins. “Wanna go pay hyung a visit?”

“Why not?”

He rolls off you, short little pants leaving his mouth. Your clothes are strewn all over the floor, but you couldn’t care less, your legs clinging onto Yoongi’s legs tightly as he throws the covers over the both of you. The track continues to play and you brush away his hair that was sticking to his forehead.

“This track is so chill, I love it,” you mumble, a lazy smile spreading across your lips as his hand rests on your butt.

“I made it with you in mind,” he replies. “It can be our chill song, yeah?”

“A chill song that leads to hot, intense sex? I can dig that.”

“You dig anything, really.”

“Shut up!”

You rest your head on his shoulder, letting out a contented sigh. Yoongi strokes your hair endearingly, until his eyes fall on the folder sitting on his desk. He sits up abruptly, placing one hand on the floor and leaning over in attempt to reach for the folder without having to leave the bed. You giggle, applauding when he is successful, sitting up to peer into the folder.

“I got to take a few pictures of you last week and I got them developed,” he explains, handing you the folder. “Here, from me to you. Hang them up in your room or something.”

You wiggle your eyebrows playfully when you see the photographs. “Talk about aesthetic, Min Yoongi!”

“Hey, aesthetic is my middle name.”

Your laughter fills the air, bouncing off the walls of the room. You turn to glance at the clock before sighing.

“Well, I should probably get going, right?”

Yoongi nods dejectedly. “Yeah. I’ll walk you back.”

The walk back is silent, but his fingers are intertwined with yours. You give his hand a gentle squeeze, and he smiles softly.

“Do you think it’ll snow this Christmas?”

“Hopefully,” he answers. “Then we can finally have that White Christmas you’ve been dreaming about.”

“I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…” You sing, and he shakes his head, but the smile on his lips is still evident.

For it to disappear completely when the both of you bump into Taehyung and Jimin, with both your hands still locked and in sight.

more fics // request

#bts #bangtan boys #bangtan #cmbnetwork #min yoongi #suga #bts suga #fluff #angst

16 notes · View notes

lucaspsi-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Lately, WordPress continues to be tremendously targeted by hackers. Since WordPress utilizes MySQL and PHP, it's not hard to find a vulnerability in WordPress.

Here I'm sharing some newbie ideas to secure your WordPress site. These are basic tips, but occasionally overlooking these basic ideas can lead to losing your WordPress website to a newbie.

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read:

How Hackers Hack Your Password

Create A Strong And Smart Password

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Log into a WP dashboard and upgrade your WordPress core files.

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Opinion and Let us know what you believe.

0 notes

reshopgoufa-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Security in WordPress

Lately, WordPress has been tremendously targeted by hackers. Since WordPress uses MySQL and PHP, it is not hard to discover a vulnerability in WordPress.

Here I'm sharing some newbie tips to secure your WordPress site. These are basic hints, but occasionally overlooking these basic tips may result in losing your WordPress site to a newbie.

WordPress powers about 25 percent of the websites in the world & is now the most popular CMS besides dedicated blogging software.

I can confidently say that being a person of this amazing CMS for the past 6 years, I simply love the fact that I can select from tens of thousands of plugins in the WordPress plugin database. The plugin database has never failed me.

Furthermore, there are endless choices when it comes to topics, also, right from the Genesis motif to Thrive subjects to numerous others.

That's the fantastic part, but where there's good, there's also evil too. My site was hacked nearly 6 times previously by some Arabian and Turkish hackers (at least that's what they claim). They infiltrated my site and abandon it with an ugly black backdrop featuring GIF images of skulls and ravens.

Nowadays, it's now a requirement to perform each the preliminary safeguarding measures to keep these hackers.

1. Configure Backups

Though I've given a great deal of proven hints below to safeguard your WordPress blog, you want to make sure that if something happens, you won't remove anything.

Not having a proper WordPress backup solution set up is the largest error you may possibly create. Every time a big site like Sony or Dropbox could be hacked, then your WordPress blog will be somewhat simple to be deciphered by a hacker.

So the very first issue is to ensure you're taking a daily copy of your site.

If you're earning money from the website, I propose using VaultPress for getting backups that just costs $5/month.

You may argue that your hosting company offers copies, but this is simply a fantastic option if they save the backup on another server.

Your WordPress setup is only software installed onto a server. The base of a secure website is a server which has enough protections which ensure that your website is safeguarded against hackers. A totally free company is a big no-no & some thing you should avoid.

Be confident your hosting company includes appropriate rules set in place and contains firewalls to avoid an assault on your website.

I know that it's Difficult to understand that hosting company is reputable against hackers & that is why I've made this quick list of hosting companies that offer great security on their host:

Bluehost: Certainly one of the top rated hosts that provides excellent security.Get Bluehost voucher Here.

InMotion Hosting: Founded in 2001 & are famous for great hardware quality and security infrastructure. They also migrate your existing website for free.

WPEngine: A managed WordPress hosting company that is suggested for company WordPress websites with low or moderate traffic. They provide security and copies on multiple levels.

Kinsta hosting: This is ideal for WordPress site with higher traffic. ShoutMeLoud.com can also be hosted on Kinsta hosting.

3. Update WordPress

Keeping your WordPress software current is the most basic security tip for any WordPress programmer. This is something that you never should miss.

Whenever WordPress is sending an upgrade, it means they've fixed some bugs, added some features, and most importantly, added some security features and fixes.

These days, with only one click upgrades, it is quite simple to improve your own blog.

Make sure your plugins and theme are compatible with this latest version of WordPress. If an update was rolled out and it is not a security upgrade, I advise that you wait around for 5-6 days until other users prevent reporting bugs in the latest version.Save your money using this bluehost voucher of 2018.

4. Update WordPress Plugins

As I mentioned previously, WordPress provides an upgrade to fix bugs and security holes, and also the exact same goes with plugins.

Many times, a vulnerable script or plugin might cause an entry point in your WordPress site. 1 such issue which we have seen before is the Timthumbvulnerability. This was due to a script, and many plugins that were utilizing this specific script became vulnerable too.

It is important to keep your plugins upgraded. Consistently use plugins which are continually upgraded and have good support. Being dependent on plugins that aren't upgraded is a lousy idea.

Let us assume that you do not have those two moments to upgrade your WordPress core files. If you are running an old version of WP and everybody knows it, then trust me, you're doomed.

Most theme designers Nowadays remove it for you, but just to make sure, Go to Your functions.php and include this line:

6. Utilize A Complicated Login Password

password

ilovejesus

123123

Brilliant.

Please create your passwords complicated, include a couple of special characters (%&#), and also keep changing it every 5 or 6 weeks.

I would also like to urge a plugin called Login Lockdown. This plugin will record all IPs and time stamps of failed login attempts. After a particular number of unsuccessful attempts from a specific IP, the IP will be blacklisted. This really will help a great deal to protect against any brute-force attack. It's also feasible to utilize popular WPS conceal login plugin to conceal your login URL and make it difficult for hackers to try brute forcing in your login page.