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btsmosphere · 4 years

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Crossfire | KTH

Moodboard Masterlist

~summary: The night your life blew up sent you on a collision course with the campus bad boy, Kim Taehyung. Though you were well aware of his reputation, it was his doorstep you ran to when you were bleeding with nowhere to go.

~word count: 5k

~gang!au, mafia!au, college!au, angst, fluff, action, strangers to lovers, friends to lovers

Warnings: swearing, mentions of cheating (warnings apply to each part individually, please read them)

~a/n: this week our gal gets some shit done and comes to a realisation due to Yoongi... also I am once again thanking everyone for supporting this story💜💜love you all,, n for those of you who haven’t heard I’m going to be posting a spooktober story soon so stay tuned...

“I want to help.”

Tae paused in the doorway, a steaming plate in each hand, staring at you with a dumbfounded expression.

“Huh?”

“I want to do something to help, you know, with the plan,” you eagerly pressed on.

“Oh,” Taehyung nodded, but a pout remained on his face as he kicked the door shut gently behind him, “the plan with Shinhyuk?”

“Yep.”

Nervously eyeing him as he shifted onto the bed, you waited for him to speak. Instead, he just passed you one of the plates and began to tuck in.

“Taehyung?”

“Mmm,” he hummed indistinctly, looking up at you, cheeks full of food.

“So… can I help?”

For just a moment, his bewildered stare was all that greeted you and his chewing slowed.

“Mmhmm,” he nodded, as if it was obvious.

“Oh. Okay.”

Admittedly, you hadn’t expected it to be that easy. As you began to eat yourself, Taehyung quickly went back to devouring his own meal without a second thought.

For once, the two of you were inside together during the day as it was the weekend and he wasn’t required for anything except a meeting, which was happening at his place anyway. With him here, you didn’t really need anything else to pass the time, but he had still vowed to bring you some more books soon, given that you had worked your way through the first pile completely now.

After last night, and if you were honest with yourself, even before that, any worry about being around Taehyung had faded away. Not only could you easily pass the time chatting, you very much enjoyed your time with him.

However, once you had both finished your food, it wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door announcing the arrival of the boys and the start of the meeting.

Only four had come as Jimin and Yoongi were out, doing ‘something’. You didn’t ask for details.

Taking the seat furthest from the window, hopefully hidden by Taehyung who sat beside you, you simply stayed quiet for most of the conversation. They didn’t need your input anyway; the plan sounded like it was progressing as well as it could be.

First of all, Jungkook and Namjoon confirmed the first members of Shinhyuk’s group they had managed to pick off, including the leader of a base inside his territory, though the rest were low-level: drivers, informants, dealers, fighters. Not enough to make his gang disappear by any stretch.

Not yet anyway, as Namjoon kept saying in encouragement.

As they resolved to keep digging through rival members, the real challenge was finding an in within Shinhyuk’s immediate circle – the ones who apparently were mainly stationed at what used to be your house.

“All I have is names,” Jungkook sighed, “even though I’m one of them, no one reveals anything about themselves.”

“Even the names might be fake,” Jin reminded him.

“I know,” Jungkook jammed his hands through his hair, “and there’s one – Jintao – he really doesn’t trust me. Makes it difficult for me to do anything. Always has his eyes on me.”

“Y/N can help,” Taehyung cut in then, causing four heads to turn sharply in your direction. You refused to squirm under their glares.

“Tae…” Jin was the first to speak, “it’s dangerous. I’ve been staking out Shin’s clubs and I’ve almost been caught so many times trying to talk to people-“

“She doesn’t have to go out on missions,” Tae reasoned, “a lot of snooping can be done from inside, and since she doesn’t have much else to do…”

“We have access to hackers, Tae,” Namjoon dismissed.

Biting your lip, you looked down. Since Tae had accepted your request to help so easily, you weren’t exactly prepared for this analysis. Perhaps it was stupid to think you would be able to assist these boys.

“She’s just as much a part of this as we are,” Taehyung surprised you with the ferocity in his voice, “she’ll be able to help. And I’ll let her even if you guys don’t.”

Namjoon in particular looked shocked by the younger boy’s unwavering words, but you watched in relief as he gave his assent with a nod, the others raising no further argument.

“What raids are coming up, Jungkook?” Hoseok brought the meeting back on track, prompting Jungkook to relay all the dates Shinhyuk had deals or attacks planned.

You listened as the boys decided which to focus on, though again they were frustrated by their lack of progress. Until Jungkook felt safe again, they weren’t going to counter any attacks, but they could make sure no one would be in the target properties to keep their allies out of danger.

Overall, the meeting left each of you feeling unsatisfied. This war with Shinhyuk was like having an unbearable itch while your hands were tied behind your back. You could only hope their careful preparation would eventually lend them the upper hand when they felt confident enough to retaliate.

With restless minds but nothing to do, Taehyung asked his friends to stay and a movie was agreed upon. As you had observed before, the boys relaxed remarkably quickly, and you were soon laughing with Hobi and Tae as you poured out snacks in the kitchen.

As you collected the packets, Hoseok returned to sit down. You and Tae had barely set foot around the corner when Hoseok let out a yell.

Startled, your head whipped around to find Yoongi standing silently in the doorway, leaning against one side, arms folded and a murderous expression.

“I didn’t see you there,” Hoseok breathed, laughing with a hand over his heart.

Before you could stop it, a snort escaped you, barely choked back, remembering exactly what you had said about Yoongi the night before. Luckily, you weren’t the only one, as you heard Taehyung beside you laughing through his nose, more successful at suppressing the sound.

“I hope there’s good news from the meeting,” Yoongi glared at you two, “I’m going bloody insane dancing around Shinhyuk like this.”

Everyone switched straight back to business mode around you, but you made the mistake of glancing over at Taehyung.

As soon as you made eye contact, neither of you could control yourselves and you had to fight to keep in your mirth. The dark warning glances from the other boys did nothing but fan the flames. Taehyung bit down on his lips as they threatened to break out into laughter; your cheeks ached.

Sinking onto the sofa, Taehyung looked pointedly away from you, shoving his fist into his mouth, shoulders still shaking.

With the tears brimming in your eyes, you didn’t care to listen to Yoongi as he talked about whatever he and Jimin had just come back from. When Jimin came in, a strangled laugh leapt from your mouth before you clamped it shut again, but you had set Tae off again.

The orange-haired boy across the room stared at you both like you were crazy.

“What’s your problem?” Yoongi’s sour face only made it harder to remove him from the ridiculous cartoon stereotype and Taehyung finally broke, guffawing loudly with his head thrown back, before falling against you and clinging to your shoulder, tears running down his face.

Shocked to find Taehyung’s head suddenly pressed into the crook of your neck, your breathless laugh was finally cut off. All you could do was stare down at him with a smile as he pulled himself together, wheezing dramatically the whole time.

At last, he seemed to realise himself and abruptly let go of your shirt. Pulling back, you were face to face for a second, expressions reflecting each other’s surprise, before he closed his mouth and turned back to Yoongi with a flawless poker face.

“Nothing.”

And then you were laughing again.

The prospect of Yoongi almost definitely hating you now didn’t bother you anymore. In the days following the meeting, you had begun to work through the list of names Jungkook had scribbled down of the members of Shinhyuk’s current inner members:

-Gi Beomho- has a Gwangju accent?

-Chaewon/known as Seb

-(Lee?) Minho

-Soonjae

-Jintao

Taehyung had told you his laptop password and you began trawling through the internet for any traces.

Though you were by no means a hacker, one of your friends at college, Jake, had once showed you a few things he knew how to do from his course in computing. Not to mention you were able to stalk someone very efficiently on social media from investigating the hot guy Lisa had seen on the street, or finding Soo’s mysterious girlfriend she refused to introduce to your group.

Now, though, there were no friends laughing around you as you tried to take apart the gang that was living in your house.

After your first afternoon of searching, nothing fruitful came up. When Taehyung had come back in the evening, you were more than happy to abandon the task and join him in your usual dinner routine, falling asleep soon after when you settled down together to watch a film.

But as the days progressed, you became more determined and frustrated in equal measure as you came across few things. You had worked your way through 3 people, giving up only after you had exhausted every avenue you could think to investigate.

Lee Minho took you even longer than the others to rule out, though you suspected from the beginning it was an alias since he shared the name with the famous actor, meaning there was an immense amount of unrelated material cluttering any path to finding the gang member, no matter what you searched.

Slumping back against the headboard, you set the laptop aside and flipped it shut.

Your attempt at working your way through the newest stack of books Taehyung had brought you was much slower than the first time around. Until he came back home, you barely took in the words.

At your side, a notebook containing the few possible leads consistently stole your attention instead.

You had managed to gain access to a couple of police reports on a Gi Beomho in Gwangju, but you would have to verify with Jungkook whether the photo was of the right person, or if you were barking up the wrong tree entirely.

When Tae finally arrived, you anxiously greeted him. Today Shinhyuk had planned his largest attack yet, on a shop that was a front for gang activity, and you knew all the boys had been on standby.

Taking in the scattered books, paper and laptop on the bed, his shoulders slumped.

“Nothing yet?”

“No, sorry,” you confirmed with a sigh.

“Don’t apologise,” he reached out and rubbed a hand along your upper arm to your shoulder. There it lingered, fingers slowly massaging for a moment.

“Were you hurt today?”

In only the short time since he came in, he had only squeezed out a smile once as he tried to reassure you.

At the shake of his head, you felt a knot in your chest release. But he still wasn’t happy.

“So what happened?”

“We didn’t go in at all. It was a lost cause,” he sat on the bed and kicked his shoes off without energy, “he shut the whole place down. It’s done for.”

With another huff, he fell back to lie on the bed. You did the same.

Weighty silence hovered over you both.

You had no idea how long you merely stared up at the ceiling, paralysed, before Taehyung moved. Slowly, he reached his hand out, fingers finding yours. As he intertwined your hands where they lay between you, you simply let your eyes slide shut, squeezing back.

“I know you’ll find something.”

Though you appreciated his support, he said it to assure himself as much as you.

Whether he could see or not, you nodded.

Just then, Tae’s familiar ringtone chimed in the silence. Pulling his phone from a pocket, he held it above him, checking the caller. Deciding it was worth it, he reluctantly pulled his had from yours to push himself up as he swiped across the screen and held the device to his ear.

Sitting up too, you could hear Jungkook’s voice crackling out from the phone.

“Hyung, I think I-I messed up-“

“Woah, Jungkook, what happened?”

“I was in Shinhyuk’s car, and I saw a file in there, he was looking through it, and it had you guys in it! It was labelled ‘bangtan’ and it’s full of information on everyone- I didn’t know he had that, but I just- I panicked, and I stole it, and now I have it but Shinhyuk’s leaving before me and he’ll notice it’s gone and- fuck-“

You caught Tae’s eye as you both listened in horror to the scared maknae.

“Where are you Kook?” Tae demanded, eyes breaking from yours.

“Um, at Y/N’s,” he replied, “the others are just packing away-“

But before he could finish, you had reached over and pulled the phone right out of Taehyung’s grasp.

“Jungkook,” you hissed into the receiver, “there’s two loose floorboards under my wardrobe at the back, they’re pretty quiet to move, can you hide it in there?”

“Uh, yeah,” the boy responded, “thanks.”

You lowered the phone to return to Tae, but suddenly brought it back to your ear.

“And don’t look at any of the stuff that’s already in there!”

“Oh- okay,” the boy sounded startled, but Tae seemed to find your miniature panic hilarious as he took the phone back and hung up.

Saying nothing, he wiggled his eyebrows and smirked at you.

“Oh, shut it,” you ignored the heat rising in your cheeks and shoved him lightly back onto the bed, where he only laughed louder.

“It’s not even- oh you are ridiculous,” you cried as he pulled you down on top of him, only making you turn redder.

In your embarrassment, you tried to wriggle away from him, pushing on his chest, but he grabbed your wrists, bringing you back down, grin ever-present on his face.

“Hey!” you protested, and then, “Ya! Stop! Tae-“

His hands reached down to tickle your sides, and you squirmed away from him again, only to have him follow, ending up on top of you as he mercilessly continued his attack, enjoying himself far too much.

“Ohmygod, ahh, Tae, please, aaaahahaha…”

Struggling, you writhed around, legs kicking out as you shrieked in protest before you finally reached his sides and exacted your revenge. He curled in on himself, giggling and apologising to get you to stop. You did, eventually, only to throw a pillow right at his face, though he easily caught it in the hands he had held up in surrender.

Both collapsing back onto the bed, you turned your head to one side, but you found he was already looking back at you. His laughter had dissipated into a smile which you returned.

“Thanks for helping out Kook,” he said earnestly, eyes boring into yours, “I told you that you would be helpful.”

This time, your heart soared with his praise.

You weren’t hopeful about finding ‘Soonjae’, or anything that could bring him away from Shinhyuk. Having gone through half the list already, the remaining two were the people Jungkook had the least information on.

Trudging through the morning, you were reluctant to take to the computer and be met with more inevitable defeat. Today you felt particularly tired, which didn’t help.

It was strange since you had slept for a long time, waking only after Taehyung had gone, leaving you missing his presence, even if you barely touched him while you shared a bed.

Nonetheless, you found yourself sifting through links and articles online, far from the first page of Google filled with celebrities and international news. With the little information you had on the man, you ended up reading through anything and everything containing the name Soonjae. Facebook profiles, comments on newspaper articles, a GoFundMe page…

Taking a sip of water, you scrolled idly to the bottom of the GoFundMe, which was for a child after all, no gang member, and read the ‘recent’ donations (the most recent being over a year old) and comments. Nothing.

Clicking on ‘show more’, you pulled up the full comment list and scanned through. For what, you weren’t sure. Most donations were small bits and pieces, but among the ones from three years ago, one was a little more sizeable. Along with it came an interesting comment: a woman called Sara was apologising for her ‘previous words’ and wishing the boy well.

You frowned as you read it. Though it was almost certainly unrelated, you were undeniably curious as to what she might have said to target an ill child.

Clicking next on the woman’s account, you decided to try and log in. After employing the password tricks Jake had showed you, you made it. The account had been created the same day as the donation was made on little Soonjae’s page, and appeared untouched since. You supposed this tangent had come to nothing, though you were certainly pleased with your skills after getting into the account.

Closing down the tab, you searched next for ‘Soonjae GoFundMe’. There was the campaign you had already seen, followed by a few that proved to be unrelated as well. You selected ‘next page’ with little hope.

Then something caught your eye.

About halfway down, the name Sara.

Quickly selecting the page, you found yourself on Facebook instead of GoFundMe, but what you found was certainly interesting. It was the same woman from the earlier page. This time she had posted a status:

If anyone on here donates to Soonjae’s fucking gofundme get ready to be cut out of my life XD cheaters don’t deserve your pity

That was certainly interesting. No wonder she had apologised to the boy – it also explained her big donation – probably given out of guilt.

But re-reading the status, you realised she couldn’t possibly be talking about the boy. Unless by ‘cheater’ she meant that he had cheated on a test in school, but you suspected that was not the case.

You clicked on her profile.

Her profile picture showed her holding a little boy that must be around ten, standing on a beach. Flipping through her older profile images, they stopped three years ago. Perhaps she had deleted all previous ones?

Only friends can see Sara’s photos

Only friends can see Sara’s timeline

“Not just friends…” you muttered, getting to work.

Unluckily for Sara, she had used the same password as on her GoFundMe, so you logged in easily.

The first thing you saw was that she reportedly lived in your city: a promising start. Scrolling through to three years ago, you saw only one other post close in time to her attack on Soonjae and his fundraising page:

Sara is feeling: heartbroken X(

That lead you nowhere, so you made your way back up her feed, seeing photos of her son and meals with friends. Few stuck out as anything but happy, all possibly related to the mysterious events of three years ago.

That’s right, delete your fucking facebook. I don’t need to worry about blocking you now XD

Sara is feeling: defeated☹: Just got out of court. Nrs

What was the point in all this? Just to prove something? Well you did, you proved I was right all along

Now you really were intrigued. You needed to find out what was going on, she was definitely linked to a Soonjae in your city, so you had reason to investigate further. Still, as you clicked on the messages icon, you felt very much like a trespasser.

Searching for ‘Soonjae’ at the top, two conversations were pulled up, both from three years ago. One with ‘Park Soonjae’ and one with ‘Help Soonjae’.

First choosing ‘Help Soonjae’, recognising the profile picture as the same image used on the GoFundMe, you read the exchange of messages.

Sara: What the fuck is this?

Sara: I can’t believe you’re pulling the pity card after what you’ve done

Help Soonjae: Excuse me?

Sara: You know what I mean

Help Soonjae: Ma’am, I don’t know you but please calm down. I will block you, this page is only trying to raise hospital funds for my son. I’d thank you to explain how this is ‘pulling the pity card’

Sara: Wait… Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!

Sara: I can’t apologise enough, I thought this was my husband’s page, he has the same name as your son! I didn’t check the page before messaging, I didn’t mean to offend you or your son

Sara: I’ll make a donation to your page to make up for this. I wish your son the best

Read 15:47

And that was the end of that. Wincing with second hand embarrassment, you quickly moved on to ‘Park Soonjae’.

Soon, you realised that the message history was long, but it all ended three years ago. You gave up on scrolling your way to the top, seeing that most messages consisted of ‘I love you’s and reminders to buy milk. The final conversation, however, gave you a lot more information.

Sara: What the fuck is this?

Then followed a screenshot of a GoFundMe page: Help Soonjae win Custody

Sara: You cheated. Maybe you should write that in your description.

Soonjae: Sara, I’ve told you I’m sorry

Sara: And I’ve told you that’s not enough. We are over

Soonjae: I can understand that. I just can’t understand why you want to keep my son from me!

Sara: HOW CAN YOU NOT TELL?!?!

Sara: I never want to see you again, and I don’t want kai to either

Soonjae: How can I make it up to you without going to court? I can’t afford the fees and you know it

Sara: You can’t ‘make it up’ to me. And it’s not my problem anymore if you can afford it or not. I’m blocking you

And that was it.

You wasted no time in opening Soonjae’s profile in a new tab, before taking a screenshot of the messages and logging out of Sara’s account.

Soonjae’s account was indeed deleted, confirming him as the target of Sara’s earlier status update. One search for new profiles under the same name showed no one promising. Your ‘breakthrough’ seemed more trivial now you had taken a step back from it. Without a picture of the Soonjae you had found, you couldn’t confirm if you were on the right target.

You had one last option, and searched for the GoFundMe Sara had sent a screenshot of. At last you found it, though it took a while as it had been declared finished and was from so long ago.

But, once you opened it, it turned out Sara’s screenshot hadn’t included the full photo at the top of the campaign. It had only showed a baby cradled in someone’s arms, but on the site, the full photo extended to show the man’s face.

This time, you did not scroll down.

You just stared.

There would be no need for Jungkook to verify if this was the right man. Those eyes had stared at you before from underneath a hoodie in your own bedroom not so long ago. And the hands that held his son had given you the wound in your side.

“Holy shit…” you breathed, taking a screenshot when you recovered from your shock.

Then you proceeded to scroll down. And it seemed like you had hit the jackpot.

The description had been updated, and the last lines read:

Thanks for the generosity. This page will be deactivated as I have now sourced funding from a private benefactor. Will update those who donated on the court result.

“Tae! Oh my god-“

You froze on the stairs.

On hearing the door opening downstairs, you had presumed Taehyung had returned, but instead, Yoongi stood in the hallway.

“Hi,” he said coolly.

“Sorry,” you murmured, but didn’t retreat back upstairs. Staring back at him, laptop and notebook clutched in your arms, you felt the need to share your breakthrough.

After a few seconds glaring at you, Yoongi moved away down the hallway. Taking a breath, you followed.

“Um, sorry, I thought you were Tae,” you spoke from the door.

“Ok,” came his short reply as he rooted in the fridge.

“Actually, er,” you pushed, making the boy at least turn around and acknowledge your presence, “I wanted to show him something. But… I can show you instead. You know how I was searching up Shinhyuk’s closest members, well, I think I found something.”

His unimpressed face vanished at least a little, and he nodded, taking a swig from the drink he had picked.

“Okay,” you placed the laptop on the island and opened the screenshots you had saved, “so I found this woman’s messages with a Soonjae in the city, they were getting divorced but he couldn’t afford the legal costs to fight for custody of their son.”

Yoongi leaned forwards to read the screen and you stepped aside, worrying your lip. Watching him read, you leaned against the counter to support your tired legs.

“Bastard,” he muttered.

“Pardon?”

“He cheated on her,” he said simply, gesturing towards the screen, drink in hand.

You hummed in agreement and flipped onto the second image.

“He set up this GoFundMe, but see how it says he then received funding from elsewhere.”

“Could be Shinhyuk, definitely,” Yoongi agreed, “I can send Jungkook this guy’s picture-“

“Actually, you don’t have to,” you cut in, “I, er, I recognise him. He was one of Shinhyuk’s that broke into my place.”

“Shit,” Yoongi breathed, turning to take a look back at the man on the screen, “good catch.”

“Thanks,” you couldn’t help but smile, “so… what now?”

Setting his drink aside, Yoongi bent over the counter and opened a new tab, sending the images to his own email, along with a final one of Sara’s details on Facebook.

“I think we have enough to work with. We can use the details for leverage and approach him.”

“Nice,” you couldn’t keep yourself from smiling. Even if only Yoongi was around to see it, you were just proud to have hopefully helped bangtan get another rival under their belt, and get closer to defeating Shinhyuk.

It seemed Yoongi had finished with the laptop, even though he hadn’t yet left the kitchen or even picked his drink up again. Awkwardly, you stepped closer to shut the laptop and slide it off the counter.

Taking a stride back towards the door, you hesitated.

“Well, erm, thanks, I’ll just- yeah.”

“Wait.”

You turned back around, surprised at just how small Yoongi’s voice sounded. Not knowing what to say, you waited as he stood shuffling his feet.

At last he cleared his throat and spoke.

“Listen, I’m sorry for, you know… trying to kill you that time,” he said. His voice was quiet, as if a lower volume would allow him to pretend he never said it.

“Well there’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear,” you chuckled.

“No, I really am,” he spoke stronger this time, actually looking at you, “I know I haven’t been the nicest and-“

“No, it’s okay,” you flashed him another smile, “I know you were just trying to protect Tae.”

He fell silent again for a moment, and you thought that might be it. But something was still on the tip of his tongue and he looked down, one hand coming to scratch his ear.

“I want to tell you I’m happy for you guys. You seem… well, really nice, and I know Tae thinks so too, and I trust him, so… yeah.”

Gulping, he looked up at you, trying to hide his mortification at the barrage of emotion he had just released. You just stared back at him, lost for words.

Maybe he had said something wrong?

“A-and, thank you for doing this work on Shinhyuk’s gang, it’ll really help us. What you did was really impressive-“

“I-I’m sorry,” you finally spluttered out, “what did you mean when you said you- you’re… you’re happy for us?”

Looking back at you, his eyes widened.

“Shit, are you guys not-“

You tried to swallow down any signs of how flustered you were, clutching the laptop tighter in front of your chest. Perhaps he didn’t mean what you thought he might-

“I thought you guys were dating. Shit.”

You couldn’t agree more with that last sentiment.

Just as you opened your mouth, without knowing what you planned on saying, you were saved by the bell. Or rather, the door.

Tae had finally come home. It would be an understatement to say he was surprised to find you and Yoongi together, in conversation too apparently. Hopefully Yoongi had finally quit his tough act and exposed his softness that Tae had insisted you would find eventually.

Yoongi was quick to inform Tae of what you had dug up on Soonjae. Taehyung put his hand on your shoulder, sending you a proud grin that made your heart race as he told you he knew you could do it.

The whole time you were aware of Yoongi watching the interaction, and you excused yourself as soon as you could, leaving the boys to themselves.

Practically running up the stairs, you were left panting as you closed the door to the bedroom. Just one short burst of speed had knocked you out, but that concern barely crossed your mind as you surrendered to the mattress, thinking only of what Yoongi had told you.

He thought you were dating? Ridiculous…

But then why had the suggestion got to you so much? Sure, you shared a bed with the guy, and you enjoyed being with him, and liked it when he held your hand or hugged you…

Fuck.

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dustofbrokenheart · 4 years

Text

The Covenant: Tech Guy

Reid Garwin x Reader

Word Count: 3,826

Summary: After renting a laptop from your campus library, you run into a download problem. A call to Library Tech Services for help introduces you to Tech Guy. Good at his job, but with questionable people skills, you learn to work with him. It certainly helps that he has an attractive voice.

This was not good, not good at all. It was less than an hour to midnight, the sun long since having set, and time seemed to pas faster, not slower, the later it got.

Now, you considered yourself to be pretty good with technology, perhaps not a computer genius but good enough to be able to troubleshoot most of your problems. It was pure bad luck that the night your capabilities failed was the night before you had an assignment due in Graphic Design.

Your own laptop had been ruined after an accident in the library had left the screen nothing more than a web of shattered fragments, but thankfully the library also carried laptops for checkout which saved you from having to fork out money that you didn’t have to buy a new one. You thought that checking out a laptop would be a quick fix to your problem, but you underestimated how high their demand was.

The librarian you spoke with at the circulation desk put you on a waiting list much to your disappointment and you left the building empty handed, unsure when one would become available.

The answer was six days later, the night before you had something due.

When they left a voicemail on your cell phone around seven o’clock to tell you that it was ready for pick-up, you immediately hopped on a bus bound for the library. The anxiety should have been somewhat alleviated because you could actually start to work on it now but when you got back to your dorm room and opened it up, another problem presented itself: the program you needed wasn’t installed.

Bad luck 1 – You 0.

Every time you tried to install it a message would pop up prompting you to enter an admin username and password in order to start the process. You had never seen that message before and innocently tried your own username and password. When that didn’t work, you tried three more times just to be sure.

Next stop was the internet, everyone’s favorite place to ask questions. You ran a quick search describing the problem and read through a couple of chat room threads. Disappointingly, nothing really applied to the situation at hand.

In hindsight, you shouldn’t have spent so much time trying to fix it because all that came of it was a lot of wasted time and you still hadn’t installed the program. You really didn’t want to take another trip to the library tonight if you could help it.

Frustrated and stuck you opened up the library’s webpage to see if there were any answers to be found. They didn’t but you did find the phone number for Library Tech Services, which was miraculously open even this late in the night.

Punching in the numbers you dialed and waited for someone to answer and when they did, it was short and to the point. “Library Tech.”

“Umm, hi… my name is y/n and I’m having an issue installing a program on my laptop rental.”

“Hmm. What’s the problem?” Again, not much to go on but the you could admit that tech guy’s voice sounded attractive.

“Well. I clicked on the install button, but as soon as I did a message telling me that I needed admin permission to continue flashed on my screen.”

“Did you try your university username and password?”

“Yes.”

“Did you double check that you typed everything correctly?”

“Yes.”

“Did you try Google?”

“Of course, I did,” you answered with exasperation. He snickered and you felt your hackles rise. You called the number to get helped, not to get laughed at. Attractive voice be damned.

“I promise I exhausted every trick I know, I’m not stupid. But I do have something to finish tonight so if you can help me out here, that’d be great.”

For a split second you felt bad for being short with him but the aggravation was quick to return. He was the one providing terrible customer service… why should you feel bad calling him out on it?

He must’ve gotten the hint because he cleared his throat and started being serious. “The library puts restrictions on its laptops because they don’t want people downloading stuff willy nilly. What do you need to install?”

“Just Adobe Illustrator.”

You heard him typing on a keyboard in the background. “Sounds okay to me. I’ll just give you the admin credentials so you don’t have to make a trip over here tonight.”

You started to say thanks until you processed the end of that sentence. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“Normally we require people to come in person to fill out a form. Once the request is approved, a person is supposed to enter in the admin stuff, but I’m going to give it out over the phone to save you some time.”

His words left you speechless. You had no idea there was a whole process to do something so simple as install a program; you should’ve asked more questions before you walked out with it. It was a good thing to remember for next time. And the earlier guilt returned, too. He was being so nice now, bending the rules so you didn’t have to make another trek on the bus, which was quite frankly a gamble after dark.

You thanked him profusely, the tension draining from your shoulders. Once you told him the laptops id number and he was able to confirm that it was rented out to your account, he shared the username and password with you.

With baited breath, you typed in exactly what he told you to and couldn’t help the happy noise that escaped you when it worked. It was impossible that tech guy saw your chair dance through the phone but he laughed again, making you question if he somehow knew anyway.

“Thanks, you’re a life saver!”

He cleared his throat and said “Glad to be of service.” Then he hung up without another word.

You pulled the phone away from your ear and looked at it blankly. What the heck was that about? Thinking back on the conversation left you feeling very confused but you threw yourself into getting your images drawn up on Illustrator and soon lost yourself in the work.

You ended up staying up late well past your normal bedtime but the deadline was enough motivation for you to push through the drowsiness and yawns. Around 3:30 you finally finished and emailed it to the professor so you wouldn’t have to worry about it in the morning.

Sleep came easy that night and you vaguely remembered dreaming about tech guy’s voice which was utterly ridiculous. He hadn’t even mentioned his name, for goodness sakes! Plus, he was so hard to read, bouncing between jerk and nice on a whim. Nope. You were not going to stoop to finding out who he was. Not a chance.

After yesterday’s incident, your first course of the new day was to go grab a cup of coffee. You weren’t an easy riser on a good day, even less so after being up until the wee hours of the morning and caffeine was going to be essential for powering you through your classes.

Your go-to place was a campus coffee shop two blocks down from your dorm. It was still winter but you found that as long as you bundled up, the walk over went quickly and the cold air worked wonders for organizing your thoughts. But the real reason it was your favorite was not its closeness, it wasn’t even for the coffee; it was because of the heavenly pastries they made daily. The croissants, the eclairs, the danishes… they were all excellent. None was above their banana chocolate chip muffins.

A little bell chimed as you opened the door and the blast of heat from inside the shop felt nice against your chilled cheeks. The familiar worker at the register looked up and smiled when they saw you. “Hey, y/n! Should I start working on your cappuccino order?”

“Yes, please!” You approached the counter, removing your gloves to make it easier to take out your card from your wallet. A gleaming dessert case also caught your eye and you tried to glance over discreetly. As subtle as you tried to be, the cashier knew you too well after serving you for the past couple of years.

“Oh, sorry. We’re out those again.”

“Again?” you questioned sorrowfully.

He gave you a sympathetic shrug. “They’re very popular, they always go fast.”

It used to be that you could get your hands on a banana chocolate chip muffin whenever you wanted one but the secret must’ve gotten out to the rest of campus because you’d struck out for the past weeks. With a dramatic sigh, you settled for a chocolate croissant. It was no muffin but it was something to tide over your stomach until lunch.

“You know,” you started conspiratorially, “How can someone be so talented yet stupid simultaneously? If that no-good-baker bothered to make more of them knowing how fast they sell, this wouldn’t happen.”

You had never actually met the baker that was the source of the yummy pastries. In fact, you’d never even seen him and only knew that he was good at what he did and that he never came out to the front of the shop. There was really no reason why you ragged on him that morning other than you had major plans for that muffin that now had to be put on hold.

The cashier chuckled as he rang you up and looked back at the door to the kitchen for a moment. “I’ll pass along the message.” He slipped the croissant in a brown paper bag and handed it, along with the travel coffee cup, over to you. “Have a good day. See you next time.”

You accepted it with a “You, too,” and were out the door to catch the next bus to your class.

***

Later that week, you ran into a familiar problem with the laptop. This time you needed to add Photoshop but figured that it shouldn’t be an issue now that you knew the password. So when you typed in the exact same thing as last time and the computer told you it was incorrect, you dragged a hand down your face and groaned. Well, you weren’t going to make the same mistake twice.

Swiveling around in your chair you grabbed your phone and called the Tech Services line again. The only thing that would make this even better would be if tech guy answered again, that’s how your luck was going that week. And sure enough, “Library Tech Services.”

You refrained from groaning again. Out loud anyway. “Hi, it’s y/n again. I was the one who called about the admin credentials Monday night?”

“What’s up?”

“I’m trying to install Photoshop right now and it’s telling me the username/password is incorrect, which is impossible because it’s what I used the last time.”

“Right. We had to change the password for our monthly maintenance, it’s a security thing.”

“You’re kidding,” you said surprise coloring your voice. “Any chance you can share the new one with me?”

“Technically, I wasn’t supposed to give that to you last time.”

It was time to turn on the charm and convince him like you managed to previously. As you pleaded with him to do you this favor he interrupted you.

“How bad do you need it?”

What was wrong with you that hearing him say that put your mind in the gutter? He definitely hadn’t meant it that way when he said it! He was much chattier this time around so you were able to appreciate his voice better and his voice just did it for you.

You cleared your throat. “It’s not an emergency this time, no impending next-day deadlines, but I do want to get working on this new assignment…”

“Okay, okay. You’re lucky I like you.” That was news to you because you didn’t get that vibe based on the last call. It was nice to hear though. Some clicks sounded from the other end of the line and you waited silently for a few moments before he was ready to say the new password.

“Whew, we’re good to go,” you updated him as the Photoshop installation started. Another moment of silence passed.

Finally, he said a quick, “Good.”

You weren’t caught off guard when you heard the click that signaled he had hung up. Unlike the last call, he hadn’t seemed rude and he did mention that he liked you. Maybe he was just an awkward sort of guy, despite his killer voice. That might explain why he worked an IT job, weren’t those kinds of guys supposed to have terrible people skills?

You worked with Photoshop for a bit and when you reached a good stopping point, you got ready for bed. That night you laid awake for a while, unable to drift off to sleep. Instead, you replayed the conversation with tech guy over and over in your mind.

He was very helpful when he wasn’t giving an attitude and he this was the second time he had bent the rules for you. That pesky word ‘like’ kept rattling in your brain and you started to wonder if that nice voice belonged to a nice face. Furthermore, was there a chance that he found your voice attractive as well?

***

Sunday morning on a college campus seemed like a smart time to visit the coffee given that most of campus wasn’t up yet, which increased the chances of you getting your hands on a banana chocolate chip muffin. Maybe even two or three if you were honest, to make up for the past several failed attempts.

The sun hadn’t been up long when you opened the door, the little jingling bell announcing your presence. A barrage of delicious aromas caressed your nose and to your extreme delight, one of the scents you detected was a banana-chocolate combination.

You walked up to the counter and the cashier smiled as he told you good morning.

“So… can I get three banana chocolate chip muffins?”

He merely smiled and started working on your cappuccino. “Of course. Reid just finished them so they still in the kitchen, piping hot.”

Reid must be the baker that was responsible for the muffins as well as responsible for never making enough. “Finally! This is a long time coming for me.”

“I passed him your message, I think he took it to heart.” He handed over the drink and turned to go to the kitchen. “I’ll be back with the muffins.”

He pushed the door open and for a split second you caught a glimpse of a side profile belonging to a blonde guy. He was too far away to distinctly make out any facial features but he had nice shoulders framed by his black tee and obvious blonde hair that was hard to miss. He looked cute to you, at least from a distance.

Those two details were the only things you took note of before the door closed, effectively blocking you from more staring. Too bad. It was totally ridiculous to think about but tech guy’s voice would be a good combination with baker guy’s looks.

You picked at the lid of the coffee cup while you waited for the rest of your order already anticipating how they would taste. Your plan was to only eat one this morning and to ration the rest, but you were honest enough with yourself to know that you might enter a feeding frenzy and have all three finished by lunch.

When the door opened up again your eyes searched for the seemingly cute baker but there was no sign of him. There wasn’t a chance to get down about it, however, because a smile lit up your face as soon as you saw the medium sized brown paper bag that held the muffins.

“Reid says these are especially for you,” the cashier said as he lifted the bag over the register.

You were quick to raise your hands to take it from him and made sure to thank him as you left, not questioning why Reid, a person you’d never met, would make a comment like that, figuring that he was referring to how you complained that the muffins were always sold out.

The morning air was especially cold as you trekked back to your dorm, your breath condensing into a fleeting, frozen cloud around your face and the only thing keeping your hands warm was the cappuccino you held between gloved hands. Still, the trip to the coffee shop was definitely worth it and you were hoping that it was a good omen to start the day off with.

***

Perhaps you were still experiencing the high of the morning victory at the coffee shop, but later on that night while you were working on homework once again, you started thinking about tech guy again. There wasn’t any need to call him; you now had both Illustrator and Photoshop on the laptop and there wasn’t anything else that you needed to install.

Still, you debated calling him. Not because you needed to but because you wanted to. Which was weird, even to you, but you had missed him the past couple of days, bad people skills and all. After the second call, you felt even more confident that he wasn’t as condescending a guy as you had first thought him to be. And you wouldn’t mind getting to know that awkward version of him better.

The hard part was you literally knew nothing about him other than he worked the night shift at the library. You didn’t have a name, a face, not even a work schedule to confirm whether he was working tonight or not. Reid must’ve been serious when he told the cashier those muffins were made especially for you because there had to have been a secret dose of recklessness mixed in there. How else would you explain this strange, and potentially creepy, call you were about to make?

The dial tone rang and you took a deep breath, not sure how this would turn out. On the fifth ring, someone finally picked up. “Library Tech Services.”

You laughed in relief. Tech guy was the on the other end of the phone. “Hey.”

“Hey, y/n. Having another crisis?” On one hand you felt a little embarrassed that you no longer had to say your name for him to recognize your voice but on the other, the possibility that he enjoyed talking with you, too.

“It may come as a surprise but I can get through a day without having a tech issue that needs solving.”

“Oh, really?”

“I swear.” You crossed your heart even though he couldn’t see you.

“Well, what do you want then?”

Time to be brave. “Actually, I called for you.”

“I would hope so, I’m the only who works this shift meaning I’m your only option.”

“No, um, I meant I wanted to tell you thanks for helping me out with installing that stuff on the laptop. You were a lifesaver.”

“I try.”

“Seriously! I definitely would’ve missed one graphic design deadline, potentially two if you hadn’t come to the rescue.”

That seemed to get his attention. “Is that your major? Graphic Design?”

“Yep. Don’t I give off bumbling artist vibes?”

“Hmm you seem pretty confident to me but there’s nothing wrong with that. My grandma was—” He started that sentence but abruptly cut off and you couldn’t help but laugh.

“Are you saying I remind you of your grandma?”

“Shit,” he grumbled. “My friends told me to stop bringing her up when talking to hot people.”

“Don’t sweat it, she sounds like she was awesome so I’m honored. But back to the part where I’m hot… do you really think so?”

“Obviously. Do you think I hand out library secrets to every person who calls? Your voice is strong and you sound super smart so I tried my best to be cool with you.”

“Okay but future tip: hanging up on people and not telling them your name is rude, not cool.”

His embarrassment was tangible through the phone and you let him sweat momentarily before speaking. “Luckily for you, I like dorks such as yourself and am willing to look past it as long as I get your name.”

“It’s Reid. Reid Garwin,” he rushed to say.

Now that was interesting. You fell back on your bed, your brain trying to make connections. The name while not super common, wasn’t rare either and what were the chances that you met two of them on the same day. If Reid with the nice body and tech guy, er, Reid with the nice voice were one in the same, you wouldn’t be upset. Quite the contrary.

“Reid as in Reid who bakes my favorite sugar fixes on campus?”

“One in the same. You seen me there before?”

“Only once,” you reveal. “When I went to pick up some muffins this today.”

It was his turn to laugh. “Wait. Are you saying that you’re that customer who called me stupid the other day?”

“…Maybe.”

“They don’t let me out front cause I’m ‘too much’ for people but rest assured that the door isn’t that thick. I feel like an idiot for not recognizing that it was you though.”

The revelation that Reid was baking a tech hero, a winning mix by the way, thrilled you all the way from your head to your toes. At the moment you didn’t even care that he heard you calling him names at the coffee shop although you were sure the mortification would set in later.

“Would you like to go out sometime—”

“You do want to go out with me sometime—”

The two of you spoke at the same time and when you realized that the other had read your mind, you both giggled.

“After you,” you assured him.

“Shit, would you like to go out sometime? There’s a restaurant downtown that’s really good and I promise not to bring up grandma Garwin again.”

The plan was to pretend to think about it but your excitement overrode your brain and you said, “Deal as long as you promise to tell me more about her, not less.”

He started to answer you but stopped suddenly and you could vaguely hear him getting scolded by someone, reminding you that technically he was still on the clock.

“Sorry,” he grumbled, “The librarian on duty told me to stop flirting and get back to work. Stop by the coffee shop tomorrow though and we can talk more.”

You said your good-byes and rolled around your bed, the comforter thoroughly rumpled by the time you stopped. It seemed that your luck may be turning around for the better.

_______________

Thanks for reading my most self-indulgent piece to date. Also my longest! Reid may consider himself to be mister cool, but he is also an awkward bean who would make a great tech guy. It's also my first time experimenting with moodboards, let me know what you think :)

#the covenant #reid garwin #reid garwin x reader #imagines

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marleahsblogs · 3 years

Text

✨ Internet Safety ✨

For our generation today, the internet is probably the safest place to be in. People can be whoever they want, express whatever they want, and enjoy themselves however they want. I must admit, I would also say that I couldn’t live without the internet. Internet is just the solution to every problem, right? Now, we can even earn money in the comfort of our rooms with the help of the internet. Should we spend hours travelling just to buy stuff? Nah, we got the internet! With just several clicks we can already make an order and just wait on our couch to receive it. Oh no, COVID-19 ruled the world! No worries, we are backed up by the internet. Online classes, online transactions, online dating. You name it. The internet is there for us, or is it? Is it our safe haven?

We have put so much trust in the internet, but we didn’t know it can also be our biggest predator. Online transactions were fun until you got scammed and lost all your money. Online dating them feel loved until the person they were talking to is a catfish. Streaming online made him famous and rich, until his account got hacked. And there are still millions of stories out there that should awake us from believing that the internet is the safest thing in the world.

Below are some possible dangers you could encounter online.

1. Cyberbullying

I’m sure many of you have heard of this. But even though we are fully aware of it, it is still one of the major problems until now. As we casually scroll in our social media feeds, it is already normal for us to see people making fun of or “bashing” other people. It became so prevalent that we could call it a normal thing. According to UNICEF (2019), one in three young people has said that they have been a victim of cyberbullying and that it affected almost half of the Filipino children aged 13-17. We need to know that even a single word like “tanga” or “bobo” we see in our social media platforms and online gaming worlds could affect or traumatize us greatly.

2. Data Being Stolen

Some people nowadays are getting better at doing this. They can steal your money from your accounts, apply for a loan or credit card using your name, or sell your information to an online criminal as well. The hidden website is packed with criminals who purchase and sell stolen personal data. If your data is stolen, you can experience spam attacks. But most of these data thefts try to steal sensitive information, such as your credit card or personal information to commit identity theft.

3. Exposure to Inappropriate Material

Another risk especially for children and teenagers are exposure to inappropriate materials that are sexual, hateful, or violent. The chance and probability for children to look at anything inappropriate rely on how much they do online as they get more active online at a younger age. Whether it's a free-time graphic pop-up commercial, children's cartoon characters in adult circumstances or a self-harm forum, an innocent search might expose these children to contents that make them feel puzzled and angry. Some of the inappropriate content includes pornographic material, content containing swearing, sites that encourage racism, violence, terrorism, or even suicide, sexism sites, or gambling sites, and so on.

Based on my own experiences, here are some tips I would like to share to you to look after your privacy and secure your internet safety:

1. Keep your software up-to-date

Not only will you get a better program experience, but you will also be able to iron out your security issues. But the reason why you must keep it updated is that hackers are fast enough to become aware of certain software’s vulnerabilities, thus could harm your computer system and personal data. If you avoid doing these updates, you are bound to face persistent bugs, data loss, malware infection, and of course security issues.

2. Update your passwords

Why do we need to constantly change our passwords? So that we can reduce the risk of other people having access to our accounts, thus corrupt our personal data. Using strong passwords is necessary for us to prove our identity in our accounts, websites, or our computer itself (Wright, 2021). My tip in creating passwords is random characters with a symbol, number, and at least one capital letter. The reason for this is that using weak passwords, such as patterns of letters and numbers, or simply your name and some important date you know can cause hackers to guess and open your account, hence impersonate you to commit fraud and other crimes.

3. Use two-factor authorization

Familiar with this term? Yes, a two-factor authorization (2FA) is an extra step to keep your accounts more secure and avoid getting hacked by others. One of the most common 2FA methods is one-time codes sent through SMS or email, authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator, and security keys such as U2F tokens (Drozhzhin, 2018). This one for me is the best 2FA authorization because only your private key will confirm your login. If someone will try to log in to your account with the wrong security key, they will not be granted access to your account. So, there you go. A series of two-factor authorizations that will secure your accounts the best way possible. You’re welcome!

4. Be careful what you click on

Have you heard of phishers? They are attackers that send a fraudulent message designed to trick and victimize us into revealing sensitive information to them. As scary as it sounds, we need to be aware of what we click on to avoid experiencing this. Phishing is usually done in an email when they get your email address from somewhere. These phishers try to create a fake website to trick you into typing in your personal information. It’s much easier for them to hack our accounts this way. To avoid this, you can check the URL’s legitimacy by using the Google Transparency Report or simply avoid suspicious emails which require your personal information. Think before you click!

5. Back-up your data

Data back-up and recovery has many advantages. Some of these are protecting and saving your data, provides ease of management, ensures accurate information of your data, quick access to data, scalability, and such (Becker, 2021). There are many other ways to back up your data, but here’s a simple way to manually back up your data in your phone is to open your phone’s settings app, tap system and click backup or search backup in your settings app, then tap back-up now. It’s that simple.

6. Set up notifications for your most important bank accounts

As online bank account holders, it is our responsibility to making sure our accounts are protected. Online accounts are one of the easy targets of hackers to whisk away our money with just a couple of keystrokes. To safeguard our online banking, we may choose an industrial-standard security bank or credit union that utilizes text or e-mail warnings avoids the use of public Wi-Fi access and periodically changes your password.

7. Protect your personal information

This might be difficult for those who like to express themselves on social media, but we must protect our personal identity to avoid any sort of online threats. To protect our identity, we must limit the amount of personal information we share or provide. We shouldn't share or provide this information online: exact home address, your place and schedules of classes or work, birthday, cellphone number, and most importantly our passwords or account information. Another tip is to write down in a small notebook all your passwords and keep them safe in a secure place away from your computer.

8. Use parental controls and stay present

With the pandemic going on right now, parents should be extra careful of what their children see and hear about themselves and who they encounter on the internet. To protect your children from internet risks, talk to them frequently, utilize tools to safeguard them and watch out for their work. Monitor the time of your child, especially the younger ones, about when and how long they stay online. Keep your computer at a central location in your house, where it's easy to watch what your children do and look at online. You may configure them for mobile devices to forget Wi-Fi passcodes for your kids not to go online without knowledge. Review privacy and location settings, parental control and use secure browsers, apps, search engines and YouTube search settings. Lastly, limit camera and video to prevent your children from accidentally taking photos or videos of themselves or others.

The internet does not usually hurt us unless we react to suspect material and websites. The first reason you don't know what you're doing is because of internet damage. Secondly, you may react or click on links such as appealing advertisements, infected software and communications when you have other forces. To ensure internet safety, just remember those tips above and these three things: secure your network, be responsible, and make the internet child-safe.

References:

Becker, D. (2021). 6 Advantages of Data Backup and Recovery. IT Central Station. Retrieved from https://www.itcentralstation.com/articles/6-advantages-of-data-backup-and-recovery

Drozhzhin, A. (2018). SMS-based two-factor authentication is not safe — consider these alternative 2FA methods instead. Kaspersky Daily. Retrieved from https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/2fa-practical-guide/24219/

Wright, J. (2021). Why Is it Important to Change Your Password? Small Business Chron. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/

Online bullying remains prevalent in the Philippines, other countries (2019). Unicef Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/online-bullying-remains-prevalent-philippines-other-countries

25 Best Internet Safety Tips for Every Situation (2021). The Neeva Team. Retrieved from https://neeva.com/learn/25-best-internet-safety-tips-for-every-situation

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ohkiyo · 4 years

Text

pairing: Semi Eita x Reader

warnings: slight manga spoiler, mentions of the characters' future occupation, alcohol consumption.

word count: 5.2k

a/n: This story was inspired by this picture I found on Pinterest. Also, try to see which part of the story my vocabulary decided to fail me.

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shiratorizawa navigation || main navigation

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Pushing the glass door open, your heels click behind you as you walk through the hallway, your bag hanging on your shoulder, a cup of steaming hot coffee on one hand and your coat on the other. Greeting the workers who have arrived early and some of the utility workers you walk pass as they clean the office to prepare for the day.

Entering your office, you sat down on your desk placing your bag on one of the empty chairs beside you and arranging the papers on your desk as you finish your coffee. Swinging in your swivel chair side to side, watching through the glass divider as people walk past, chatting amongst each other as they ready themselves for another day at the office.

You watch as your friend, Utsumi Himari, enters and sat herself down on her own desk, a sigh leaving her lips as she brushes her hair out of her eyes. Her hair looking disheveled, her face bare of any make-up she usually wore for work, and her blouse tucked halfway in.

"Did you slept in?" you ask, motioning to her state as she pulls out a brush from her bag. You stood up, walking over to her and taking the brush and combing her hair while she does her make-up.

"Sleep through all three of my alarms" she answered applying a red lipstick and topping it with some gloss then finishing her look by spritzing herself with her perfume as you tie her hair into a neat bun. Giving it a pat once you have finish tying it.

"Maybe we should really do buy that travelwey home LED digital alarm clock we saw on Amazon" you walk back to your desk, grab the remote and turned on the air conditioner “Let’s see if you’ll still sleep in then”

Your friend just laughs as she fully tucks in her blouse and slipping in her coat and turning on her computer.

"What were you even doing last night anyway?" you leaned back in your chair, clasping your hands together and resting it on your stomach. She types her password in her computer before she turned to you fully, a knowing look on her face and somehow you know what she's going to answer.

"Talking to some guys on my DMs" she grinned at you as you try to resist the groan from leaving your lips. Picking up a crumpled piece of paper and throwing it at her, only for her to catch it easily. "...and speaking of guys, I want you to meet some of them, they're really nice"

You let out a sigh, tuning her out as she starts rambling on about the men she had been talking to in the dead of the night, choosing to focus on your computer. She had been trying to set you up with some guys for the last couple of months, saying how you should be dating already now that you’re in your mid-twenties.

You don't mind it really, she means well and you appreciate her effort because even you yourself couldn't deny the fact that you wanted to have a boyfriend as well. Unfortunately, the men she introduces to you weren't really clicking, there was just no spark, as what they would call it.

"Hey, (Y/n) are you listening?"

You straighten up in your chair and you nodded your head "Y-yeah" you didn't even realize you were just mindlessly refreshing your emails while your friend was talking earlier.

The door to your office opened, as one of your supervisors entered "Utsumi, do you have the reports Umeda sent?"

Himari nodded her head, pushing back her chair as she opens one of the drawers beside her desk and pulled out a thick banded paper and giving it to your superior.

"Thank you" she sat down on one of the chairs placed in front of the desk as she skimmed through the papers, humming once in a while when she sees something she likes and frowning when she reads something questionable or wrong.

"Oh right, our bonds are scheduled for renewal in two days and our usual representative is on leave" she looks up from the papers she was reading "Is there anyone you know that's available right now?"

"I'll go" you volunteered "I can go to the Finance Bureau right now. I've finished all my work yesterday, so I'm free"

"Thank you so much (L/n), the folder with all the requirements is in my office" she stood up from the chair walking out of your office as you followed after her. Waving your friend goodbye as she continues doing her work alone.

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The big white building came into view as the Japanese Flag hanging from the flag pole waves along with the wind. You parked your car, checking your appearance one last time before grabbing your needed things, and stepping out of the vehicle. Walking up the ramp and entering the air-conditioned building, soft instrumental music playing in one of the speakers, installed in the building's lobby.

There were two offices one on the right and one on the left, and since it was your first time you don’t really know which one to go, you could’ve asked the receptionist as the front desk but you could see that no one was there. Following your instinct, you chose the one on the left as it was the one with people going in and out with folders, envelopes, and some other documents in hand.

An intern greets you, a student intern to be exact, flashing you a smile as she gestured for you to take a seat at one of the chairs.

“Is this for the bonding?” you inquired, just to make sure you were in the right department.

"Yes ma'am, new or renewal?"

"Renewal" she gave you a pink-colored paper and your priority number, filling in the information needed while waiting for the man who you assume was the one in charge for bonding finish talking to his current client, once he was done. He called onto the next one and you stood up, walk over to his desk, and sat down on the chair the previous was occupying.

"From what agency ma'am?" he looked up from the paper he was reading and you were finally able to have a clear look at him. Your breath hitch in your throat as you stared at the beautiful man in front of you.

You cleared your throat, adjusting yourself in your seat "Japan National Bank"

He looks down on his paper again and started flipping through it, not noticing the barely noticeable blush on his cheeks as well. You look around the room for a moment, distracting yourself from this handsome man in front of you. He has ash-blond hair, neatly arranged on his head and piercing brown eyes, his facial features were sharp, a bit intense if you might say, but there’s just some sort of gentleness underneath it, and it was very attractive in your opinion.

"May I see your requirements" you pulled out all the papers from your folder and gave it to him. Watching as he laid them in front of him, checking everything especially the signatures. He returned them to you and started writing on the pink paper you gave him as you neatly place your documents back inside your folder.

"Kurokawa" he called and the student you were talking to a while ago stood up and walk over "Can you please look for Ma'am Takeuchi and have her signed these two" he gestured to the two spaces reserve for signatures with his pen as the girl nodded her head and went to do her task.

As you move to another chair, you notice that they have a lot of student interns here. In the department alone where you are right now, they have at least five, probably because they're always busy entertaining clients, and you saw at least three more walk pass.

You were confused at first but then you realize that this branch of the Finance Bureau was smaller. From what you remembered before when you came here for a meeting, there were only 20 employees working, and with it being a government agency, they are always busy and always processing documents, meaning paperwork after paperwork, so they need all the help they need.

Moments later the girl came back telling something to him as he called you over once again "The persons for the last two signatures are not here right now” he gave to you the paper as you look at the two names with no signatures “They're currently in Miyagi for a meeting. Can you come back again on Monday?"

You nodded your head, inwardly feeling happy at the fact that you have a valid reason to come back and see him again "Of course, so after I pay for this at the bank I can keep the paper?" you wave the pink paper in your hand.

"Yes, bring it again on Monday when you come back so we can have it signed"

He smiled at you, it was small, just a simple close lip smile but you felt your heart skip a beat. You had to will yourself to stand up and walk out, but the fact that there were no more clients in waiting were proving it very hard. However, you still have to go back and report to your supervisor, thanking him you walk out of the door.

You look over your shoulder, just to have a look at him one last time but what you did not expect was for him to already be looking. His smile still on his face, he lifts his hand for a wave as you returned the gesture not noticing the glass door and accidentally hitting it with your whole body. Embarrass, you didn't even look up to see their reaction as you push the door open and sprint towards your car, heels be damned, you just want to hide yourself.

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

“We’re still going to that newly opened bar tonight right?” you ask as both you and Himari walk towards your car, swinging your keys on your index finger.

“Yep” she chirp, a skip on her step as you opened your car “Remember that band I’ve been talking about?”

You nodded, starting the engine and going out into the road “They’ll be performing at that bar tonight and I wanted to come see them live. Oh (Y/n) you’re going to love them, their frontman has a really good voice. Not to mention they’re all good looking too”

She pokes you on the arm while lifting her eyebrows up and down, you smiled shrugging your shoulders in response. Silently challenging her, now that it was Friday you were more than willing to indulge in your friend’s shenanigans, and who knows, you might find someone in that bar tonight. But you can still never forgot of the man you met this morning, his appearance etch into your mind.

You drove through the traffic back to your apartment, taking a shower and dressing yourselves up before going to the bar to start your Friday night escapades.

"It's nice" you commented, walking across the wooden floor and taking a seat on the table just in front of the stage. The waiter taking your orders as the staff prepares the stage for the night's performers.

"Right? This might be my new favorite" she took her phone and snap a few photos and posting it on her socials. The tables being slowly filled up by people, tables filled with bottles or buckets of alcohol, and a plate of hot steaming food accompanying the cold drinks.

"It's starting" you turned your chair so you could look at the stage properly, the lights going low as you can see silhouettes of the performers standing on stage.

Karadajuu no saibou ni hi wo okosu you ni Meippai ni kuuki wo suikonda

Your ears perked at the voice, it was smooth, a bit deep but it goes so well with the tune of the song.

Chi to ase wo nie ni akogare wo seika ni FURU BORYUUMU de sakebe yo

You were familiar with the song; it was one of the many classics you play in your room during your college days while cleaning up, doing your chores, or studying.

Hikare are!

All the lights turned on and you were finally able to have a proper look at who was the frontman, and you have to say, he was pretty good looking. His hair was tousled, strands sticking out front each side. His choice of attire was a bit unusual, a long fur coat, black jeans, and blacks boots and you could even see a cross necklace hanging from his neck, but who were you to judge? It looks good on him anyway.

Himari pulled you from your seat and towards the open space in front of the stage where the other customers in the bar were already jamming to the song. Jumping and singing along, the both of you weave through the crowd. Standing at the very front and screaming along to the lyrics of the song.

One of the guitarists kneeled down at the area where your friend was standing and blew her a kiss, laughing at her dumbstruck reaction, you just pat her back as she slowly turns to you, mouth agape, her hands clutching her dress. Your eyes move to focus on the singer once again, to see that he was looking at you already. You two shared eye contact him singing the lyrics before he shot you a smile and a wink.

You grinned back at him, getting even more hyped up jumping along with the crowd, screaming the lyrics from the top of your lungs. You downed the last bit of your drink, you don’t even care anymore, it’s Friday, you were going to enjoy the night and no one was stopping you.

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

You were now sitting in the bar counter, another drink in hand. You were feeling a bit tipsy now, but you can still think straight, you have no idea where your friend went though. You hum along to the song that another band was now performing; you took a sip of your drink, the cold drink going down smoothly in your throat.

You felt someone slid down in the seat beside you “Enjoying yourself?” the person asks as you turn your head to see the same guy that was just rocking it at the stage a while ago.

“Yes” you smiled at him, turning your body to face him properly and sticking out your hand “I’m (L/n) Y/n) by the way”

He took your hand and giving it a firm shake “Semi Eita"

"That was a really good performance you know, your voice is really good"

"Really? Thank you" he smiled at you, now that you have a closer look at him, you could see that the tips if his hair were dyed black, which you find cool by the way since you could never pull it off. However, what really caught your attention was how he looks eerily similar to the guy you saw earlier, you can never be too sure, it was just probably the alcohol messing with you.

"You know, I feel like I've seen you from somewhere" you point your finger at him, racking your brain for anything.

"A look-alike probably" he offered as you nod your head in agreement.

After that, both of you just keep talking to each other, sharing some stories from when both of you were still students, and becoming quite surprised at some of the things you learned from each other.

"Wait, wait. So you're telling me you went to Shiratorizawa in high school? And was a part of the school's volleyball club?"

“Yeah”

"What was I doing in high school?" you whispered as you run a hand through your hair and tugging on it "We were literally schoolmates and I've never heard of you? Members of the boys' VBC is famous around school!"

He snorts, waving his hand in dismissal "Shiratorizawa's a pretty big school, not everyone knows us"

"But still..." you trailed off, as you scrunch up your face thoughtfully. If only you were a bit more socially active back in high school, attending events, and whatnot, you would have probably met him years ago. You shook your head, finishing your final drink and placing the glass back on the counter.

"Hey..." he taps your arm then pointing to a table just at the corner; far away from other people "Is that your friend?"

He was referring to the couple making out at a table on a dimly lit part of the bar, you could not really see their face properly but the dress the girl was wearing and the hairstyle gave it away that it was your friend. Your jaw drops, watching as she sits on the guy's lap, his hand wrap around her waist, shamelessly sucking at each other’s faces at a crowded bar.

"...and that's your bandmate" you realize that it was the guitarist guy who blew her a kiss during their performance.

Turning away from the scene, you stood up, collecting your bag and letting out a sheepish chuckle "Guess I'll be going home alone tonight then"

He stood up as well, pocketing his hands "I'll walk you out"

Both of you exited the bar, walking out into the crowded streets, maneuvering through the people walking by.

"I really enjoyed myself tonight, thank you" you smiled at him taking a piece of paper and a pen from your bag and writing down your number "Text me when you can?"

He took the paper, folding it neatly and pocketing it "Definitely"

Stepping back as a taxi pulled up in front of the both of you. You went in, waving him goodbye as the taxi drove back to your apartment.

You pulled out your phone from your bag, sending your friend a quick text before a message from an unknown number entered.

From: Unknown

Be safe, text me when you get home :)

-Semi

You grinned, sending him a quick reply, and saving his number under the name Mr. Punk Rockstar

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

Semi stared at the picture on his phone, a picture of him in his get-up when doing his gig before swiping to another picture of him at work. He kept swiping left and right, taking a proper look at each picture to see the difference.

'Do I really look that different?' he thought taking one last look before closing his phone and placing it on the table. His friends told him so many times before how he was like a completely different person when he’s at the office working and when he’s out doing his gigs.

He took out a mug from the lower drawers on his desk and a Tupperware from his bag before standing up and walking towards the pantry. The good thing though, both of you exchange many messages during the weekend, and you even sent him a good morning text moments after he woke up, which was a good way to start the day.

"Good morning Semi-san" he smiled at the students sitting at the table, greeting them back as he continued preparing his coffee before taking a seat.

"You guys are early" he said, opening the Tupperware he was carrying to reveal a very delicious stack of fried dumplings "Help yourselves"

"We didn't want to get caught in the morning rush" Kurokawa replied, as she took a dumpling and bit on it.

"It was already packed when we got to the station, it was so crowded"

"It’s a good thing I have a car then" they laugh before he asks them again "So how's school?"

They all collective groan and he could only smile at them, listening as they rant about the stress they were currently experiencing, from their thesis, to their other academics, and to their other requirements. Just by listening to them he could feel just how exhausting it was, he was a student before and he knows just how demanding school can be.

'I wonder how Tsutomu's doing' he thought biting into a piece of dumpling 'Kenjirou and Taichi too, I told them to update me when they can'

He gave himself a mental note to call his three juniors later, even though they're not in the same school anymore nor playing in the same team. They still manage to keep their friendship going strong, they were a tight-knit group, after all the things they went through back in high school, and when everyone was free, they'd have a get-together and check how everyone's doing, giving each other updates on what’s happening in their lives.

They continued conversing with amongst themselves as more employees arrive and when it was near 8, they stood up, cleaned their mess, wash the mugs, and went to their respective departments, all ready to tackle the day.

It took his spot in his desk, calling the clients that were already waiting.

"Good morning" he smiled, as you took a seat.

"Good morning"

"I'm here to give this back for the signatures, and the receipt from the payment is also there" he nodded his head taking the paper from your hand.

"Okay, I'll give this to Ma'am Takeuchi. I'll be back"

With that he left, disappearing into the back where the table for the department’s head was placed. It was a good thing you decided to come in early because you were the only client there so far.

You notice that there was an organizational chart on the wall just above his computer, their pictures, names, and position displayed for everyone to see. You search for his picture, immediately reading his name.

Semi Eita it read and you remembered that you had met a person that is in a band with the same name. Your eyebrows furrowed, as you fish your phone from your bag and opened a photo you took with him last Friday. You leaned to the side, so you could have a proper look at him standing beside his superior’s table while she signed the papers. He had his back turned to you back you can clearly see the dyed tips, similar to the ones the guy on the picture has.

The hair color was the same the only difference was the way they styled it. Their height was the same and body build, and when he turned around was when you finally realize.

It really was him.

"Okay here you go" he gave it back to you as you place it inside the folder you were carrying. Thanking him and walking out but not before sending him a quick text.

Semi felt his phone vibrate in his pocket,

From: (Y/n)

Imagine my surprise when I found out that this was you.

It read with a picture of him in his band get up attach below. Semi chuckled typing in his reply before going back to work.

Let's talk about it later, want to have dinner with me?

From: (Y/n)

I'd love to. :)

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

You sat there an amused smile on your face, your eyes twinkling with mirth as Semi just stared back at you.

"What?”

You just shook your head, placing your elbow on the table and resting your chin on your palm "Now that I have a proper look at you, your face does look different. Like…" you gestured to his whole face "…just a few tweaks with your hair and you're already a completely different person"

"Oh really?" Semi cocks an eyebrow at you.

"Yes!" you exclaimed "I never realize I was actually talking to the same person" you chuckled, leaning back on your chair and crossing your legs.

Semi runs a hand through his hair, messing up its neat and arrange style as it goes back to its usual messy state "Still different?"

"Now you just look like a punk rockstar trying hard to look like a common salaryman" You leaned forward taking a lock of his hair and twirling it on your finger "Maybe I should start calling you Mr. Punk Rockstar"

Semi groaned, palming his face as he shook his head "God please no, my friend use to call me punk team mom"

"Well, now mom had an upgrade" You grinned at him watching as the server arrives with a tray filled with your order and carefully placing it on the table.

After that dinner date, both of you fell in the routine of having dinner together at least once a week, which later turned into twice a week, until he was coming over to your house and eating your homecooked meals.

Staying over the night when the weekend comes and accompanying him to his gigs when he has any. It was safe to say that both of you were mutually attracted to each other.

Even your friend says so.

"He's definitely in love with you, he's just taking things slow to make sure you're comfortable" was what she had said one time when you talk to her about your relationship standing with Semi "It's hard to find guys like him these days, so don't let him get away"

So you headed her advice and waited.

Right now, both of you were in a bar. One that was in between a university and some corporate buildings. Walking towards the bar counter, both of you sat down, looking at the menu for the drinks they serve, some music playing in the background as the tables in the middle were already packed with stressed-out office workers concluding their week with numerous bottles of alcohol.

"Good evening, what can I get you?"

Semi almost wants to slap himself when he saw the bartender on duty 'I forgot Taichi works part-time here'

He took a glance at Kawanishi, who was already side-eyeing him his lips curling up into a smile as he waited for you to place your order.

"I'd like the margarita please" Kawanishi wrote it down on a notepad he’s holding as he turned his attention to Semi.

"The piña colada for me"

The ginger-haired boy nodded his head and started gathering the ingredients for the drinks.

"I'll be right back, I need to go the comfort room" Semi nodded his head as you walk away, disappearing into a corner.

"So..." Kawanishi started "Is she your girlfriend or just a friend?" pouring the drink into a glass and sliding it over to him before he starts preparing your drink.

Semi pause for a moment, realizing just now, what really is your relationship with him? Both of you were obviously beyond the territory of friendship, those countless nights of you two making out on his couch and in his bed, was definitely one of the many reasons "Honestly, I don't even know anymore"

"Well better put a label on it then before someone snatch her away"

Semi cocked an eyebrow at him, sipping his drink "Since when were you giving love advice?"

"It comes with the job apparently" Kawanishi place your drink in front of your seat, taking a clean rug and wiping his hand on it. Semi chuckled, finding it ironic how the most aloof member of the club, who refuses to talk to anyone aside from the first string members is working in a bar. A place where entertaining customers and talking to them is part of the job description.

College really did change them for the better from what he had noticed, Kawanishi's becoming more open with everyone, a bit more talkative in his opinion, Shirabu got a little nicer and Goshiki wasn't that overexcited, oblivious kouhai he used to remember. He was grown now and more mature, more aware of the things happening in the world.

"By the way, do you know where's Kenjirou?"

"I'm here" they snap there head to see the mentioned boy standing there, bags under his eyes, and his hair a mess.

"I thought you passed out in a coffee shop somewhere" Kawanishi teased "The usual?"

Shirabu nodded his head, letting out a yawn as he situated himself on the seat beside yours "I'm drinking all my problems away tonight" then he pointed at Semi "and since you're here you're paying"

He was wrong, Shirabu definitely did not become nicer.

"I’m back sorry I took long" you sat back down on your seat and taking a sip of your drink as Shirabu cock an eyebrow, tired eyes observing your interactions with his former teammate before turning his attention to Kawanishi for an explanation who only shook his head and passing him his drink.

So he stayed silent, he can ask for the details later opting to watch the both of you slowly get drunk, and hoping that something entertaining might happen. Drinks after drinks were ordered, some were alcoholic, some were not, and the funny thing is, you were the one mostly drinking it all. While Semi had settled himself with his second glass of piña colada.

"I think it's time we go home" you giggled, letting out a hiccup as you slowly stood up from your seat. Grabbing Semi’s hand for support as he took out his wallet and paid for the both of your drinks and Shirabus then leaving a hefty tip for Kawanishi, who was more than grateful with the extra income, whispering to himself "Finally, I can buy real food"

He waves them goodbye, as he escorts you out of the establishment. A hand on your waist as he carries your bag for you.

"Semi" you slurred, catching his attention as you stop walking. Turning your body to face him, holding both of his hands and giving it a squeeze "What are we? Like what do we call this?”

He frowned, biting his lip as he removes his hand from your hold and cupping your cheek, remembering what Kawanishi said to him a while ago “To be honest, I wanted to ask you the same thing but I’m scared you’ll run away” he rests his forehead on yours “So let me ask you”

He looks at you in the eye “Will you be my girlfriend?”

You smiled at him “Yes”

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

The next morning you woke to your head pounding, a groan leaving your lips as the sunlight peeking through the curtains hurting your eyes. You sat up looking around the room and noticing that you were in Semi’s bedroom.

"Good morning" Semi greeted, walking into the room with a glass of water and a pill in hand. He sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping at his weight “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I got hit by a truck” you massage your temple, taking the water and pill from him. Hoping that it would at least alleviate your headache.

“Well, you did drink a lot last night” he reminded you, walking to the window and adjusting the curtains. The room becoming a bit darker as you let out a sigh of relief.

“Did I do something stupid?”

“Unfortunately, no”

You punch him on the shoulder pulling his hand as you laid back down under the covers, too lazy to get out of bed and do something productive.

“Did you remember what happened last night?” he asks, looking at you as he rests his hand on your cheek caressing his with his thumb “Before we went home?”

“Of course” you scooted forward, pressing a kiss to his lips “I’m more than happy to call you my boyfriend”

He drops his hand to your waist, pulling you even closer as he captures your lips into a kiss.

«──────────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ────────────»

a/n: This one took a lot longer than expected, everytime I sat down so I could finish it. I always find myself getting distracted.

#haikyuu #semi x reader #semi eita x reader #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!!#haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu oneshot #semi eita scenarios #semi eita imagines

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eldritchteaparty · 3 years

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Chapters: 4/? Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Rosie Zampano, Oliver Banks Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It, Scars, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, I'll add characters and tags as they come up, Reference to injuries and blood, Character Death In Dream, Nudity (not sexual or graphic), Nightmares

General summary: Following the events of MAG 200, Jon and Martin find themselves in a dimension very much like the one they came from--with second chances and more time.

Chapter summary: Jon and Martin head back to the Magnus Institute, where Martin goes on an interview outing with Tim and Jon starts to catch up with Sasha’s “statements.”

Chapter 4 of my post-canon fix-it is up! Read above at AO3 or here below.

Tumblr master post with links to earlier chapters

***

Shortly after Martin’s phone flickered to life, he found a lot of messages waiting for him—and they were almost all from the same person.

Are you ok?

Message soon please.

Do you need anything?

Answer when you can.

Still worried…

He glanced at Jon, sitting on the other side of the bed and looking through his own phone.

“Sasha been messaging you too?” Martin asked him.

“Yes. And I’ve got one from Tim.”

Martin had that one also. “Telling you to answer Sasha?”

“Yes—and calling me something I won’t repeat.”

Ok, so he didn’t have exactly that one.

“All right,” Martin said a few minutes later. “Let’s do this, then. I’ll message Sasha back.”

“Wait—what are we doing? What’s the plan?”

He typed out a simple message to Sasha telling her they were ok and he was sorry for not answering sooner. “We lie to them.”

“Hm.” Jon seemed uneasy.

“Did you… want to tell them the truth?”

“Well…” Jon thought. “Obviously, we can’t. I’m just concerned that—”

“Exactly. And even if we did tell it to them, they wouldn’t believe it.”

Jon still looked doubtful. “Martin, I’m not sure if I—”

“Look, sometimes there are good reasons to lie. We just need to keep it simple, make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.” He read the message one more time and hit send. “Anyway, don’t act like you don’t know how. You’re actually quite good at it when you want to be.”

He didn’t mean to add that last part; it just came out, and it came out bitter. He looked at Jon again and regretted it immediately. He had come to realize he much preferred Jon’s anger to his sadness, especially when he was the cause. He opened his mouth to apologize, but as he did his phone began to buzz. They stared at each other.

“Jon, I didn’t mean that. I’m—I’m sorry—forget it, ok? I have to—hang on.”

He answered Sasha’s call on speaker, turning away to concentrate.

“Hey, Sasha.”

“Martin? Are you all right?”

“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t answer you sooner. It’s been—”

“How is Jon, do you know?”

“Yes, he’s—he’s with me. We’re both ok.”

“Oh, thank god.” Her relief was clear, even over the speaker, and Martin felt a pang of something in his gut. He hadn’t had a moment to consider how much he’d missed Sasha, how unfair it had all been, and how much it felt like she’d somehow come back. It would have been so easy to think that way—except their Sasha was still dead, and he may very well have been responsible for the death of the person she thought she was talking to.

“You do sound better,” she continued. “Look, I really didn’t want to tell you what to do, but—tell me you went to a doctor or something?”

Martin cleared his throat, aware Jon was listening to the conversation. “We did, actually. We did end up going to the hospital. I think we were maybe in a bit of shock after all.”

“No kidding. What happened? What did they say?”

“Physically, we’re—we’re all right.” He thought about all the blood again, and decided he should add a little more. “I mean, we were very dehydrated. They put us on a drip for a bit. And—and antibiotics, just in case. But they said we’re healing well, I guess?”

“That—that’s good. What else? What about—not physically?”

“Well, they did a lot of tests. The kind where they asked a bunch of questions. They didn’t want to call it amnesia, exactly, but we’ve—we’ve got some memory loss.” Experience told him the less specific the lie, the better. “Neither of us really remembers what happened. And it’s possible… we might have forgotten some stuff from before, too. We don’t really know how bad it is yet.”

“Oh. That’s terrible.”

Martin looked over his shoulder at Jon, who had crept closer to hear better. He nodded, and Martin turned back.

“It’s not great, but the good news is they don’t think there are any deeper issues. I mean, they’ve got us signed up for all kinds of therapy, but they don’t think there’s any—how did they say it—no lasting cognitive impairment.” Cognitive impairment was a phrase that maybe came to him too easily after caring for his mother; he felt like he was maybe pushing it a little.

“Well, that part’s good. How are you feeling, though?” Sasha asked.

“A lot better.”

“Did they feed you? Do you need anything? Can I bring you something?”

“No, that’s all right. We’re—actually, Sasha, we were wondering if we could… maybe come back. To work.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, and Martin cringed and held his breath through it; he didn’t look at Jon. He might have gone for it too soon.

“You want to come back? Already?”

He exhaled quietly, away from the phone so Sasha couldn’t hear it. “They said the more we could normalize things, it might—help? I mean, I know there might be some issues rehiring us—but maybe if Elias hasn’t replaced us yet—"

“No, I mean—you know Elias, he hasn’t even taken you off payroll. It just seems… fast. Are you sure you want to?”

“Well, if you’re worried, we don’t have to come back right away.” Jon grabbed his arm and Martin frowned at him, shrugging him off. Wait, he mouthed. “I know we might not be up to our usual workload, and we’re going to have to take some time off for therapy and all… I’m really only bringing it up because they thought it would help, but it’s completely fair if you don’t want to take—”

“No! No, I don’t mind.” She sounded upset, and he felt bad. “That’s not it at all. And we could use your help, honestly, but I really don’t want to put pressure on you while you’re recovering. Do you promise you’ll let me know if it’s too much?”

“Yes,” Martin answered. “Yes, of course. Jon too.”

“Well…” said Sasha, “When are you thinking about coming in?”

Um… hang on.” He muted himself and turned to Jon.

“What do you think?” Then, before Jon answered, he added, “And do not say today. It’s already after 2 pm and that would just be weird.”

“Fine. Tomorrow, then.” Of course. He sighed.

“Sasha?” He said, unmuting the phone. “Jon says—Jon says tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Really?”

“Yeah. Yeah, actually. If you’re all right with it.”

There was more silence.

“And I mean Sasha, I wouldn’t—I wouldn’t mind being around people. It would be nice.” That wasn’t even a lie.

“Ok. Sure, Martin.” It had done the trick. “Take your time getting in though, ok? And get some sleep tonight.”

“Will do. Thanks, Sasha.” He hung up, and turned his head slightly in Jon’s direction. “Happy?”

“Thank you,” Jon answered, putting an arm around Martin to press his mouth briefly to his cheek. Martin couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah, all right. Just don’t exhaust yourself. Remember, you’ve got to eat real food and sleep real sleep now.”

“Mm.” Jon was already headed out to the sitting room where his desk was.

“What did I say, Jon?” he shouted.

“Eat and sleep,” Jon shouted back.

Martin grumbled to himself.

The rest of the day was spent washing the one set of clothes that he had, and going through the phone to learn what he could about his current situation. His passwords and fingerprints opened all the apps, but that didn’t faze him anymore. He was able to figure out from email and voicemails that the apartment building where this world’s Martin had been living had indeed kicked him out, but thankfully his belongings were being held in storage. He could pay two months of back rent and a late fee if he wanted to reclaim them, although it wouldn’t be until the following week.

Fortunately, Sasha had been correct that they hadn’t been taken off payroll—not only had they not been taken off, but Martin had been paid his full salary for the last two months. If he hadn’t already been convinced that Jonah Magnus was not running the institute, that certainly did it.

***

Although he didn’t successfully get Jon off the computer for it, he did manage to get him to eat most of a meal that evening at his desk. And while Jon didn’t get in bed at the same time he did, Martin was still up to hear him come in.

“Hey.”

“Sorry,” Jon said softly. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No, that’s all right. You didn’t. I actually—something’s been bothering me. I wanted to apologize for what I said right before Sasha called today. About… you. Lying. I mean, we need to talk about it—what happened—but not like that.”

“Martin…” Jon shifted under the covers. “I want to talk about it. I do. You deserve that. I’m just…”

“You’re not ready yet.”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll—I’ll try not to push,” Martin answered, closing his eyes again. “I want to do this right. Or at least better than we’ve been doing things. Just… you try too, ok?”

There was a moment of quiet before Jon answered. “Ok.”

***

Going back to the Magnus Institute in the morning already felt much easier than it had the first time. It didn’t hold the same sense of discontinuity—it felt less like déjà vu and more like returning to a place he had genuinely spent a lot of time. Rosie was away from her desk when they arrived; Sasha and Tim were in Sasha’s office with the door closed, and they could hear muffled conversation through the door. Jon sat at his desk, but Martin decided he’d wait for Sasha before he even pretended to do something, and sat on the sofa instead.

“So,” he asked Jon, “how are you feeling, now that you’re here?”

“Good, I suppose,” he answered. “Well, not bad, anyway. I’ll feel better once I can start looking through some of Sasha’s statements.”

“They’re not statements, Jon. I expect you’re going to be disappointed if—”

“I just meant that I’ll feel better once I have some understanding of…” He trailed off. “Why do I need a pin?”

“Hm?”

“My laptop. I need a pin.”

“Wait, didn’t you have one before?”

“No. Sasha kept telling me to set one, but…” Jon sighed. “This would be a lot easier if we could remember things about this place when we wanted to.”

A thought occurred to Martin, something they hadn’t talked about yet. “Are you going to be all right, Jon? With Sasha being the archivist here?”

“She’s not the Archivist. There is no Archivist here. Not even me, right now.” Martin could hear him typing, trying different combinations of numbers, and could also hear his frustration growing.

“Hang on, let me try a couple things before you go getting all worked up.” He got up and went to join Jon at his desk. “And no, you’re right, of course—I just meant, are you ok with her being the head archivist here? At the Institute?”

“I don’t care.” Jon leaned back from his desk so Martin could reach the number keys. “Wait—is that the sofa that Tim brought in when—”

“Yes, it is. And it was a good idea.” The pin would have to be something Jon would easily remember, and knowing Jon, probably also too easy for someone else to guess. He tried Jon’s birthday; it didn’t work. He tried the street number of Jon’s flat, and that didn’t work either. “Hmm…”

“Well, I suppose professionalism isn’t as important when your entire area of research is—”

“Jon, hush.” Last four of Jon’s phone number?... Nope. He stared down at the keys and a wild thought entered his head. No reason he couldn’t try it, though. He typed the four-digit combination and was surprised to find that it worked.

“Oh.” Jon leaned forward. “What did you type?”

“I don’t know,” Martin lied. “I was just trying things. I don’t remember what I did.”

“Well, how am I supposed to get back in next time?”

“You’re going to have to change it.”

“I don’t want to change it.”

“Sasha’s going to make you change it.”

“How is Sasha going to know that—”

“Because I just saw Martin type it in for you,” Sasha said from the door of her office, smiling.

“Hey, Sasha.” Martin let himself smile in return—it was easy, if he forgot the last four years of his life. “Thanks again for letting us come in today.”

“Honestly, I’m already wondering if it was a mistake. I told you to take your time and really, it’s first thing in the morning.”

“Well, Jon just couldn’t wait to get back,” he said, reflexively rubbing the back of his neck. “He—hang on.”

He snatched the mouse away from Jon and clicked through to the screen where he could change his pin, while Jon did his best to appear extremely inconvenienced. “Oh, stop. Type the new one, I’m not looking.”

Jon grudgingly did as Martin instructed.

“So why were you so eager to come back, Jon?” Sasha asked.

“Oh.” Jon cleared his throat. “I, um…”

Martin interceded. “He’s actually been very concerned about—about the things you said have been happening here since we were gone.”

“I wondered if that was it. I’ve been thinking about that myself,” Sasha said. “I know you don’t remember anything, but the timing was just so… Jon, I know you’ve always been a skeptic—”

“And I still am. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for everything.” Martin thought maybe Jon would catch on after all. “But it would be quite the coincidence if it were unrelated. I was actually wondering if I might review some of the notes you took during your—interviews.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Sasha replied. “To be honest, I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with them. They aren’t exactly typical archive material. Maybe you can help me—”

“Morning, everyone.” Tim cheerfully disrupted the conversation as he slipped into the room behind Sasha. “How are we all feeling?”

“All right,” Martin answered, when no one else did.

“Great. Especially coming from you, Martin, because we are going on an adventure today.” Tim made his way to his desk and picked through a few papers.

“Oh?” Martin looked at Sasha.

“What Tim means is that if you are up for it, there were a few people who contacted us but couldn’t come in, and we haven’t had a chance to get back to them. I haven’t felt comfortable sending Tim to interview people alone, and well—it’s not really our job, and I’ve got more than enough actual work to take care of since—well, we’ve gotten a bit backed up.”

“What do you think, Martin?” Tim asked, waving the papers toward him. “Up for it?”

“Oh, well, I—I guess I could, yeah.” He glanced at Jon, who was suddenly sitting up very straight in his chair.

“Martin, I—are you sure?”

“I think so,” Martin replied.

“I’m just thinking that if something were to happen…”

“What—what sort of thing?”

“Yeah Jon, what sort of thing?” Tim echoed. They both turned to look at him and found him with a curious look on his face. “Oh look, if you two need to consult about this, please go ahead. Don’t mind me.”

“Yes, thank you, Tim.” Jon spoke through gritted teeth, indicating the sarcasm hadn’t escaped him. “Martin, just—come talk to me.” He stood up and took Martin by the arm, leading him out into the reception area and closing the door—but not before Martin saw Tim bite back a grin.

“Jon, what—”

“Martin, we have no idea what’s going on, or who or what could be out there, or—”

“Do you want Tim to go by himself?”

“Well—no, but—”

“Look.” He took Jon by the arm now. “I know we haven’t been apart since—well, not for a long time. And I know every time we have been apart, it’s been bad. But things are different now. This is different. You’ll be all right here with Sasha, and I’ll be with Tim and—”

“And with anything else that’s shown up since we got here. And if something happened, I—” Jon stopped and looked toward the floor. “I wouldn’t know about it.”

“Yeah, well, welcome back to being a normal person.” He squeezed Jon’s arm. “Look, if you’re really worried, I’ll come up with some excuse. But Jon, we’ve got to—we’ve got to try and be functional here. Plus, if you really want to figure out where things are—if you’re here going through the interviews, doesn’t it help for me to be out there? Talking to people? You know—like I used to do for you by myself all the time?”

Jon pressed a hand to his own mouth, thinking.

“Jon, I’ve got my phone.”

“Technically you had your phone when you went to look for Jane Prentiss.”

“Ok, I see why that’s not that reassuring, but do you realize how long it took for Jane Prentiss to—become what she was? And I will be with Tim, and—”

“Yes, you’ll be with Tim. Great.”

“Jon.” Martin sighed. “He’s just concerned. Ok, what if I—what if I look through the contact forms before I leave? Make sure I don’t recognize any names on them? Like—no bad names?”

“We don’t even know if it works like that.” Jon thought for another minute, but Martin could see his resistance starting to come down. “Look, I don’t want to… maybe I am being overprotective.”

“You think?” It didn’t really bother him to hear Jon say it; in fact, he got a bit soft knowing Jon felt that way, but it wasn’t going to help the situation to admit it.

Jon finally gave in. “All right. Do look at the names though—and if anything happens—”

“I’ll let you know right away. I won’t do anything dumb.”

“I know. Martin, I—” Jon looked up at him again. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” He leaned down for a quick kiss, which Jon returned. “I’ll be fine, ok?”

Jon nodded, reluctant.

***

Despite another look from Tim, Martin did check the names as promised; there were only three for that day, and he didn’t recognize any of them. By the time they left, the thought of spending time alone with Tim made him more nervous than their actual task. He imagined that as soon as they were out the door, Tim would start peppering him with questions about where he and Jon had been, what had happened between them, or both.

As it turned out, though, their time together was quite enjoyable. Martin had forgotten how easy it was to be around Tim—that he had that thing he could do that just made everyone comfortable when he wanted to. They took the tube out to a suburb, and on the way, they talked about the weather a little bit. They talked about a new café that had moved in down the street a few weeks ago; Tim said it was all right for an occasional something different, but nothing special. They talked about what Tim had been up to in his free time. As it turned out, his brother Danny was getting married soon to a girl Tim absolutely adored. Martin suddenly remembered when Danny had come into town and visited Tim at work one day a few years ago, and he’d been amazed by how similar the two of them had been when they stood side by side.

I’ve met Danny Stoker. The urge to smile hitting alongside that awful catch in his throat was becoming a strangely familiar feeling.

Their first interview was with an older woman in her home. She had gotten in touch with the Institute after receiving their information through a friend of a friend, who’d heard a story from yet another friend. Martin really thought there wasn’t anything to it. Well, he supposed it was possible there was a ghost living in her television set that just happened to have moved in after her daughter had tried to help her set up a new voice assistant—but in all fairness, it seemed unlikely. The second interview was equally unimpressive.

Once they finished up, Tim made a phone call to their third interview subject, and announced they were headed back to central London. The man didn’t want to meet at home, but he was willing to meet them somewhere public; Tim arranged to meet him at a deli not far from the Institute. The ride back was pleasant enough, if a bit quieter.

“It’s getting late,” Tim said, after glancing at his phone. “We have time to eat first, if you’re up for it.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Martin was pretty hungry again by the time they sat down with their food. He supposed he’d missed being able to enjoy food, but having to eat multiple times a day was sort of annoying when it came down to it. He was just wondering if he should send Jon a reminder to eat, when he realized Tim was staring at him; he hadn’t touched his sandwich yet.

“Everything ok?” he asked.

“What happened?” Tim asked. “To you and Jon.”

“Oh, I—” Martin swallowed the bite in his mouth. “I assumed Sasha told you. We don’t—”

“Don’t remember.” Tim cut him off. “Really, though? Like—nothing?”

Well, here goes. “Really. Nothing.”

Tim regarded him thoughtfully. “We looked for you. Me and Sasha, we looked everywhere, for weeks. Well, everywhere we could think of.”

“Tim, I’m—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” That was the truth. In fact, he was sorrier than he was going to be able to explain.

“Sasha took it really hard, you know?” Tim said. “I mean, you were at work when it happened. She felt responsible. Like it was her fault.”

That sounded familiar.

“It wasn’t,” Martin replied. “It wasn’t her fault. It had nothing to do with her.”

“I told her that. Every day. I don’t think it made any difference, though. And I’m sure it hasn’t really sunk in yet that you’re back.” Tim picked a small piece of crust from his sandwich bread and chewed it carefully before swallowing. “I mean, it almost seems impossible, doesn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were gone for two months, you left no sign of what had happened or where you were—and then you just show up again one day, making out on the landscape, covered in your own blood.”

“We were not making out,” Martin snapped.

“You were too,” Tim answered. “What’s that about, anyway?”

Martin didn’t answer him.

“Look, I have no idea what happened, but… I’ll admit, I’ve always wondered if you maybe had a thing for him. I mean, the man’s always been a bit of a wreck, and I’ve watched you defend him and try to take care of him ever since we all started working together. And it’s not like you got along that well, but I know you and it just seems like the kind of thing you’d go for. But I never thought—”

“You really don’t like Jon, do you?”

“What? No, I like him just fine. You know that. But I like him for who he is, and this just seems like… it seems like a lot after two months.”

“Tim, it’s complicated, and I don’t know how to explain it. You don’t—you don’t know what we’ve been through. What he’s been through, or what he’s—”

“I thought you didn’t either.”

Martin’s heart skipped, and then beat double to make up for it. “I just meant—look, I don’t know what happened, but I—I feel things I can’t explain. And I can say that it feels like it’s been a lot longer than two months since—since we disappeared.”

“Is that so?” Tim asked. “Just tell me. Do you not remember, or do you actually not remember?”

“I—I really don’t remember.”

“Why did it sound like there were quotes around that?”

“There weren’t.”

“Right.” Tim said. “Well in that case, I ‘believe you’”—he paused to make large air quotes— “and I ‘definitely won’t keep asking.’”

“Tim—”

“It’s fine,” Tim said as he finally took a large bite of his sandwich, then continued with his mouth full. “Whatever happened, I am glad you’re back—and whenever you’re ready to talk about it, I’m here.”

As hungry as he was when he’d sat down, Martin couldn’t touch the rest of his sandwich. He kind of resented the way Tim was able to keep eating. Tim had always been that way though, hadn’t he? Able to say what he thought without worrying about the consequences. It had taken on a different flavor after he’d found himself trapped at the Institute, of course, but even then, he’d stood up to Elias without any fear of what might happen. Even when he’d died, he’d gone out the way he’d wanted too—no regrets.

Martin wanted so badly to tell him the truth in that moment. Instead, he sat in silence and watched him eat.

A short time later, Tim grabbed a napkin to wipe his mouth. “I think that’s him. Our interview. Yellow shirt, black jacket.” He raised a hand toward someone coming through the door behind Martin.

“What was the name again?” Martin asked as he turned around.

“Hang on—” Tim pulled out one of the contact forms. “Here we go. Antonio Blake.”

Wait. Wait, there was something familiar about that name—shit. He’d thought about it too quickly that morning. He’d completely forgotten about the alias.

Jon is going to lose it when I have to tell him this.

“You’re—you’re Oliver Banks,” he said to the man now standing directly in front of him.

Oliver looked suspiciously from him to Tim and back again. “I didn’t—how did you know that?”

“I—don’t know. It just came to me.” Given what Oliver had to be going through, maybe there was half a chance he would find that plausible.

Tim gave him a look. “You know him?”

“Not—not really. Please, sit.”

Oliver continued to hesitate. “I’m not sure I want to.”

“Look—I am sorry, I didn’t mean to—I’m Martin Blackwood, from the Magnus Institute. This is Tim Stoker.”

Tim stood up and offered his hand in that easy, open manner he had, and Oliver tenuously accepted it.

“Please,” Martin said. “Whatever you have to say—we’d like to hear it. It might be important. Maybe we could… help.”

He didn’t feel great about himself for adding that last part.

Oliver slowly pulled out the third chair at the table and sat down. Martin didn’t know what he’d expected him to be like, but somehow this wasn’t it. He felt sad for this man. He looked so tired, but at the same time so ready to run. He reminded Martin a bit of Jon, actually, during the year after Jane Prentiss had come to the institute and before they’d realized that Sasha had been murdered. He supposed that made a lot of sense, the more he thought about it.

Tim spoke again. “You didn’t leave a lot of detail in your message, so—do you want to just walk us through what happened to you?”

“Well…” Oliver looked from one to the other of them again. “I’m really not sure you’ll believe me. To tell the truth, I’m not sure anymore that I’m not going crazy. I’ve—I’ve not been sleeping much, and it’s…” he trailed off.

“You don’t want to sleep because you’re afraid you’ll dream again.”

Oliver re-focused on Martin. “How do you keep—”

“It’s all right.” Martin said. “I just want you to know that I’ll believe you. If you want to tell us.”

They sat in silence for several minutes. Martin didn’t want to say anything that might send Oliver back out the door, and Tim followed his lead. Finally, Oliver spoke, quietly enough that it took some effort to hear him.

“It was a dream. Or it started with a dream. The first time, I dreamed that I was walking near Canary Wharf—I used to have a job there years ago, and—well, I don’t need to get into that, do I… The point is, I know the area. There were people around me, people I don’t actually know, like happens in a dream, but they all had these—I don’t know—tendrils.” He paused and made a motion with his hands, like he was holding something heavy. “I don’t really have another word for it. Like snakes, almost, but not alive like snakes. Just tendrils, everywhere, and they went through these people—like their hearts, or their heads, or around them somewhere. I really didn’t like it, you know, but also I think I knew I was dreaming. Everything was sort of pulsing and—and I was trying to ignore all of it, but when I headed home in the dream… Well, it was my landlady. She had lots of them, like black veins, running into her chest, or her lungs, really, somehow I knew it was her lungs. I woke up not long after that.”

Martin tried to keep his expression neutral. This was so much like the statement Oliver had made years ago in their world, to Gertrude, but it was also so different. Most obviously, it wasn’t a statement at all, it was just Oliver talking. That made sense. There was no Archivist here, either with them or in general, which Jon had so intently pointed out that morning. The words weren’t just pulled out like Martin was used to, thank god. And certainly, the people Oliver had first dreamed of in their world would have passed years earlier. The basic story, though, was the same.

“OK.” Tim nodded, scratching down some notes. “But I assume there’s more?”

“Well, the thing is—not even two weeks later, she—she died. Lung cancer. It was sudden. Undiagnosed. I’d almost forgotten about the dream, to be honest, but that… it shook me.”

“Understandable.” Tim nodded again. “So you think your dream was a—a warning?”

“Well, I mean—of course I was sort of struck by it, that day, but after a little time, it didn’t seem like such a big thing. She smoked her whole life. I know sometimes people know things they aren’t really conscious of, and maybe I just—knew she was sick. But then… it happened again. A man at the bakery near the shop where I work now. I barely knew him. It was his heart. And I—I dreamed it again. The whole thing. A week before it happened. And I just started wondering if—if every person I see in that dream…”

Tim frowned and looked toward Martin, which prompted Oliver to do the same.

“What do I do?” Oliver asked, and Martin swore a shiver ran through him—maybe it was from nerves or too much coffee or not enough sleep, or maybe all three. “I thought maybe you would—know something about this. Maybe you’ve heard of it before. Do you think—do you think I could help them? If I found them, if I talked to them—”

“No,” Martin answered. “I mean, I have heard of it before, and… no. You can’t help them. I’m—I’m sorry.”

Oliver worried at his lip. “I’m not—I’m not causing it somehow, am I? I was thinking that maybe—if I keep trying to stay awake—”

“No.” Martin shook his head. “No, you’re not causing it. You—you should know it’s not your fault. And if you sleep, or if you don’t sleep—they’ll still… they’ll still die.”

Oliver nodded his head, digesting the information. “So I can’t do anything. I just get to know they’re going to die, and I can’t do anything about it.”

“I’m sorry.” Martin wondered what he would have said if he’d had time to think about it. Would it have been any different? Would he have thought of something better to say, something that didn’t fall so flat the moment it left his mouth, something that could have actually helped?

Would Jon have said something better?

“All right,” Oliver replied softly, bringing Martin back from his thoughts as he stood up from his chair. “Thank you for listening. I—I think I’m going to go.”

“If you need anything—if we can help—you know where to find us.”

Martin wasn’t sure if Oliver even heard him.

“What the hell was that?” Tim asked loudly, once Oliver was out of sight.

“Nothing,” Martin answered.

“That wasn’t nothing. You knew that man. You knew what he was going to say.” Tim pointed at the door, waving his finger for emphasis. “And then you…”

“Tim, I can’t explain it right now.”

He turned his finger on Martin. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like this.”

“I’m sorry. I wish—” His phone, which he had set on the table, buzzed at him. It was a message from Jon, asking if everything was ok. “Let’s go back now, all right?”

Tim shook his head in disbelief. They didn’t speak on the walk back.

***

Jon jerked up from his desk when they walked in, which was now covered in numerous hand-written notes and manilla folders. Martin suspected he’d maybe been taking an unintentional nap. “How did it go?”

“Fine,” Martin answered. “Did you eat?”

“Not—not yet.”

“Here,” Martin said, tossing the rest of his sandwich onto Jon’s desk. “I didn’t finish it.”

“Oh.” Jon peeked under the wrapper. “You barely ate this at all. Are you sure you don’t—”

“Yes.”

“All right, well—thank you.” Jon took a quick bite and set it aside as he resumed reading.

“Well?” Tim said.

Martin ignored him.

“Are you going to tell him about your friend?”

“What friend?” Jon asked, eyes still on the paper in front of him.

“I didn’t catch his name, actually,” Tim replied. “But I do know it wasn’t”—he pulled out the now-crumpled contact form— “Antonio Blake.”

“What?” Jon immediately stopped what he was doing.

“Jon—”

“You saw Oliver Banks.”

“Oliver Banks.” Tim deliberately overpronounced the name. “That’s right. Thank you, Jon.”

“Tim—”

“How could you miss that?” Jon stood up.

“It was fine! Nothing happened. I would have—”

Jon didn’t even need to speak to cut him off; the look in his eyes was enough. “We need to talk.”

“Please,” Tim cut in. “One of you talk, at least.”

“In private. Come on,” Jon said, once again taking Martin by the arm. Rosie was back at her desk now, but Sasha had temporarily stepped out, and they spoke in her office with hushed voices, without bothering to turn the light on.

“Jon, it really was fine, I—”

“Stop.” Jon reached up to take Martin’s face in his hands. “It’s ok. I just want to know what happened.”

“Nothing, really. He—he’s had a couple dreams, that’s all. He wanted to talk about it. He wanted to know if there was anything he could do to—to help them. I told him he couldn’t. I felt bad for him.”

Jon closed his eyes and breathed out, then opened them to look at Martin again.

“Jon, I don’t see what the big deal is. I mean, what does he even do? He sees people’s deaths, and wakes up other people’s”—he paused— “Archivists.”

“It’s not funny. Or that simple.” Jon let go and turned to face the wall. “Martin what if—what if he had seen your death?”

“Well then—at least I’d know? I guess?”

“Or what if he’d seen Tim’s? Or—or mine?”

Martin could sort of see Jon’s point then—but only sort of. “Ok, but—I still think we weren’t really in any danger. Yes, I messed up, and I should have caught that, but—”

“It’s too dangerous,” Jon interrupted. “You can’t do this again without me. And—and neither can Tim.”

“Oh really,” Martin responded. “And why do you—”

“It’s not just Oliver,” Jon broke in again. “I found some things in the—in the interviews Sasha did. Do you remember the thing we called the Anglerfish?”

“Yes?”

“And do you remember Laura Popham?”

“Um—”

“She went caving with her sister and—”

“Oh, right. Lost John’s Cave.”

“They’ve… they were in there, in the interviews. Already. In just two months.”

Martin was starting to understand Jon’s reaction.

“And I was hoping it was just those sorts of things,” Jon continued, “and no… avatars, but if Oliver Banks is already connected to the End—”

“I see.” Martin stepped closer to Jon to put an arm over his shoulder. “All right, I get it. Things are happening fast.”

“Well… most things.” Jon sounded a little offput.

“Wait.” Martin almost laughed, but not because he found it funny. “Wait, are you upset because you aren’t connected to the Eye yet?”

“Upset isn’t the right—”

“Now who’s jealous of Oliver Banks?”

“Technically that would be envy, not jealousy—”

“Technically yes, but that isn’t the—”

“—and I’m not,” Jon finished. “I just—I feel like I know it’s coming, and I’d like to get it over with.”

“Right.” Martin rolled his eyes, but only because Jon couldn’t see it in the dim office. “So what do we do now?”

“First, if there are more interviews to be done, they could be important, but… we do them together. You and me.”

“There are. And… if Sasha is ok with it.”

“And then I keep going through Sasha’s notes. And then I go back before that, just to—”

“Jon, you’re going to exhaust yourself.”

“Then I do.”

“No. It doesn’t do anyone any good if you—”

They were interrupted by Sasha’s voice.

“Jon? Martin?”

“Yes,” Jon answered. “Sorry, I needed to speak with Martin, so we borrowed your office.”

“That’s fine, but you didn’t need to do it in the dark,” she said, switching on the light. “So I was just talking to Tim, and it sounds like today was… eventful?”

“That’s not exactly what I said, but I suppose that’s the polite version.” Tim followed her into the office.

“Well, I have something to report, too.” Sasha sat down behind her desk. “I know I said I was going to get back on regular archive things today, but… well, let’s just say I got curious, and may have found a back door on the web to access certain matters of official police business.”

“Really?” Tim’s grin was back. “That almost sounds like someone’s misbehaving.”

“I’d feel bad about it, but let’s also say I wasn’t too pleased with the way a certain missing persons case was handled.”

“Good for you.”

“Thank you, Tim.” Sasha did seem very pleased with herself. “But that brings me to my next point. Tim, I know you have some… contacts at some of the local police stations who might be able to—supplement the information I’m getting? I could use your help with that.”

“Sure, boss,” Tim said. “And that should work perfectly, actually, because I believe Jon was just getting ready to forbid Martin from going on any more interviews with me.”

“That is not—” Jon started over. “I would like to go with Martin on any further interviews, if that’s agreeable.”

“I mean—that’s fine, and I certainly don’t want anyone going out alone,” Sasha answered, “but what about catching up with everything here? It seemed like you felt that was pretty important.”

“I’d like to keep doing that too. I might need to put in a few extra hours.”

Sasha sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that. Maybe? Let’s see how you’re doing next week.”

“Sasha, I’m—”

“—already worn out, and a very bad judge of your own health.” Martin nodded in agreement, and shrugged without sympathy when Jon glared at him. “For the rest of this week, if you come in, you’ll both stay here. Jon, you can keep going through my notes, and Martin—would you mind helping me catch up on some of the filing and patron requests? I don’t even want to think about how far behind we are. Those other interviews have waited this long, they’ll wait a few more days. Especially if Tim is able to help follow up with the police angle.”

“Of course,” Martin answered. Even if Jon didn’t think he needed to take it a little bit easy, Martin was more than willing to acknowledge his own limitations—and sometimes Jon’s, even if it wasn’t appreciated. “Oh, and Sasha—we’ve got therapy tomorrow morning, so we’ll probably be a little bit late.”

“Good,” Sasha replied. “And for now, don’t take any of those notes home, Jon.”

Jon stared daggers at Martin, but he didn’t regret it—especially not after Jon fell asleep on him on the couch during dinner a few hours later.

#the magnus archives #tma #mag pod #tma spoilers #jonmartin #tma fanfic #my writing

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alicejohnn9087 · 4 years

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Best Way to Share Massive Files and Folders

Sharing a business file or any massive storage space-eating folders can feel like an enormous task. The problem increases with the size and number of folders you want to share. Even if you try to transfer the files via Gmail, it will allow you to transfer data up to the limit of 25MB only. Moreover, these files consume additional space in the sent folder.

Fortunately, there are some great ways through which we can share files online without running into storage issues. Below we have mentioned some of the most useful tricks that will let you share data easily.

Use an external hard drive

An external drive offers you the fastest lane to share and transfer your files and folders without using the internet. Cloud service providers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon allow you to move massive files using a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Using the Microsoft Azure services will cost you $75 per storage device connected to it. Despite the benefits, you should always keep a personal drive handy. The similar thing goes with Amazon’s web services. Google users can sit back as it uses third-party.

Your ideal storage space choice of an external drive should be about 20TB. It will cost you around $700 to $800, as it depends on the brand you choose. Despite being high priced, the services you’ll get in exchange will be equivalent to the price. Before saving any important file to it, make sure you keep a copy to yourself and encrypt the HDD for a secure transfer.

Set Google Drive at work

We mentioned earlier that Google also brings you excellent services for file storage and transfer. One such place to share your files would be to use Google Drive that offers you multiple options, like creating a link to share the data on any platform you want. Google Drive users get a 15GB of storage space by default, using which you can repeatedly share a chunk of files or folders, images, videos, etc. without paying a penny. However, if you run out of space, you can purchase extra storage for up to 100GB. The prices may vary on your location.

Use VPN services

Virtual Private Network (VPN) will help you share your files, but most of it depends on your service provider. Some internet service providers use a broadband traffic management tool to manage the uploading bandwidth. Some of the best VPN services fail to determine the type of file you’re uploading to share, which leads it to not applying traffic shaping to your account, resulting in making the procedure easy. You can also use the peer-to-peer (P2P) method for sharing a massive file or folder. It will move your folders in a single type of content which, further, boils down the priority list. But your experience will vary based on the VPN and services you have chosen.

File compression

This one will be a lifesaver as it’s the easiest method of all. The best way would be to use a cross-platform like the 7-Zip. 7-Zip will compress all your massive files and folders in one folder at once. But remember that a single large file will transfer more than a folder containing multiple small files. Windows, Mac, and Linux users can effortlessly use it to compress many files into regular ZIP format or to various other formats offered by 7-Zip. The procedure is so hassle-free that you don’t even have to install any additional software. For a more secure experience, you can password protect your files.

Lately, MediaFire has earned popularity due to the benefits it offers. You get 10GB of free storage as soon as you register yourself to their services. To obtain additional space of up to 40GB, you have to connect your social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter), install MediaFire’s mobile app, and share referral code with your friends and family. It will let you generate a link to your files (like Google Drive), or you can directly upload the files from your mobile or computer. The link generation method will direct others to the MediaFire page from where they can download your files.

If you require more space, then you can subscribe to their paid plans that can get you the storage of up to 1TB, and it will remove ads and captchas. Also, the procedure will become more secure as the people (with whom you shared the file link) won’t be able to download the file with the same link twice. The link will expire after one use. Use either of these methods to get the best and hassle-free services. Apart from these ways, you can use platforms like Dropbox, Send Anywhere, WeTransfer, etc. to get your job done. They offer limited storage space, but there’s nothing that you can’t customize.

Source : Best Way to Share Massive Files and Folders

#best #way #share #massive #files #folders

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bankofindiaministatement-blog · 4 years

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Prime Factors Why On line Banks Make Sense Nowadays

The best online banks are not so difficult to find. Actually, they have recognition in new years. You can find banks that work as net just banks. However, additionally, there are old-fashioned brick and mortar banks offering online banking for their customers. How do you choose the best on the web bank for you personally and your family? Here are some tips.

Establish your needs. Just what do you want from an on the web bank ? Can you travel a lot? Do you need to transfer a lot of money from one consideration to some other? Do you usually pay retailers and corporate records regularly? Or do you really need a net banking bill just for yourself and your family?

If you sit down and analyze your preferences, you can easily search for the features which will interest you. Many internet banks have the same features-online expenses payments, transferring funds in one account to another, etc. But once you learn the various ways in that you simply will utilize this ability, you are able to maximize it for yourself.

Evaluation the features of the web-based bank. Next, you need to examine the characteristics and facility of the bank. Which of these characteristics will you be applying regularly? You might need to pay for a few of the options that come with the bank you'll use. But if the feature is worth every penny, then it is possible to justify the fee associated with it.

Open an account. Set aside some amount for starting an account. It could be a savings consideration, a checking account, or perhaps a credit card or loan account. In the event that you start an consideration, you may want to organize a few papers such as for example your Cultural Safety Number, a government-issued ID, and any document the bank can question from you. You may want to visit a bank and start an account. It's only easy. The tellers and consideration managers of the bank can certainly manual you through the process. Some banks also allow you to start an bill on line as long as you provide all the necessary information.

Bank of India Mini Statement

Enroll online. Aside from opening an bill, you may even require to register on line to use the web banking facility. But it is rather easy. When you yourself have questions, it is simple to contact the contact center of the bank and look for support and guidance.

Secure your on line account. Ensure that you workout homework and prudence in controlling your on line account. Do not reveal your passwords with anyone. Avoid clicking any mail concept asking you to verify some bill data or details. This modus operandi is called phishing and several individuals have missing thousands of dollars to these scammers and hackers.

Today, persons no longer have to go to true bank divisions to be able to transact their banking needs. As an alternative, they just turn on their computers and log on for their on line banking accounts. After a couple of minutes, they total a number of transactions such as spending expenses and transferring money.

It is a superb experience to visit a bank branch. The staff and the tellers are friendly, all the time. Nothing may also change the heat of other individual beings. However, plenty of smaller limbs of banks have closed. That means that likely to the bank might require a visit to a more impressive community or even to the city.

That you do not need to leave your home! Imagine your self sitting in your chosen sofa at home. Your notebook is open and you are connected to the Internet. When you head to the website of your bank , you are able to look after almost all of your banking needs! That's ease and comfort! You may not even need certainly to rush to the bank before their ending time. Actually during the night, whenever you remember that you have a previous due bill payment, you are able to manage it! When you have other issues about your consideration, you can even contact your bank's customer service while looking at your bill! You can look at your bill facts and keep in touch with a telephone banking specialist at once!

You can even go on line to test your consideration statements. You should not watch for the paper statement to reach each month. You can check always the transactions in your savings account and also bank cards back again to a few years. Needless to say, various banks give various number of information. Unlike a pile of report statements, you can use the search tool of your bank's website to check any past transaction you made. In the event that you need to have a report statement, it is simple to print what is on the web and you do not have to wait or purchase it.

At the click of one's mouse, you can easily transfer funds to an bill used in your bank. It is also probable to transfer to an bill held in another bank so long as you enroll that account. In case a family member calls you asking for financial support, you can easily make them out! That feature is also useful in case you need to move funds to a credit card, a bank card or still another account that you use regularly.

In crisis circumstances and you will need to utilize for a loan, most online banking systems today allow you to apply for one online. Some banks can provide you with a decision straight away, with regards to the credit standards collection in their system. You may also spend that loan easily through the same on the web banking facility. If you go to the bank for this kind of loan, it might take you an hour or so to get the part, a couple of minutes to fill in an application, and probably days before finding feedback on the approval of one's loan.

In the occasions before on the web banking , you'll need to attend for the bank statement to arrive in the send one which just establish the transactions you have made. Days past are over. You are able to monitor your consideration daily! If you prefer overall control around your financial transactions, you can easily do that. In the event your bank card got missing, or some one hacked into it, you can easily check always transactions which were not given by you! Another crucial implication of checking your account on the web, is that you don't get overdrawn in your examining accounts. You can spend less from financial fees and you may also check your paying always.

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vetdownunder · 5 years

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Phone Interview Survival Guide

Applying for a veterinary job in a distant location is nothing short of terrifying. You don’t entirely know what you’re getting into, there are far more factors to consider (accommodation, lifestyle, work visas and flights, to name a few), and there is much more at stake if the job doesn’t work out. Even more concerning, you need to make a judgement of a vet clinic based on a half hour phone call!

In the last week, I’ve had 5 Skype interviews for veterinary positions in the UK. This was an entirely new experience for me and I had no idea what to expect. I shook and stumbled my way through the first interview, and by the last, I was interviewing like a pro! Ok, maybe not that great, but I wasn’t nervous anymore!

So if you’re about to brave a phone interview, here’s what to expect and how to succeed without really trying:

Arrange a day and time. Make sure they are aware of the time difference and organise to talk at a time that suits you both. To avoid any confusion, specify whose time you’re referring to (for example, “I’ll call you at 3pm your time”).

Decide on the call medium. Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp and a straightforward phone call are the obvious options. I decided on Skype because everyone has it (even the oldies!), it’s on the computer (so you can be hands free), and you can see each other (making it as close to a face-to-face interview as possible). Share your number or username ahead of time. I recommend checking that you remember your password and testing your camera beforehand too. To video call or not to video call? I’ve had a couple of uncomfortable interviews where my camera was on and theirs wasn’t! Nothing makes you feel quite so exposed and vulnerable as being on display while talking to a black screen! To avoid this, you can answer the call by clicking on the normal phone button (not the video call button), say hello, assess the situation, and turn on your camera once you can see them.

Be punctual. Punctuality is my middle name, so I found myself sitting in position 15-30 minutes before the scheduled interview time! That is obviously a bit excessive, but make sure you’re ready at least 5 minutes before. You can judge the clinic by how soon after the arranged time they call. I had one interviewer call 40 minutes late, making it 11:40 pm my time! I was tired, irritated and not impressed!

Be polite, friendly and smiley. This will go a long way towards making a good impression. Employers seem to place more weight on personality than experience. After all, they have to work with you all the time! My lame attempts at humour (like when I was asked “what’s your weakness” and I replied “interviews!”, or when they mentioned working in snow and I joked “what’s that?”) made everyone laugh, lightened the mood and relieved the tension! … And if they don’t laugh, do you really want to work for them?

Make eye contact. Easier said than done with video calls. I had a couple of interviews where the interviewer didn’t have their camera on, and another where the interviewer’s camera was sideways! Not ideal. Try to look into your camera when speaking and avoid looking at yourself or the interviewer’s face.

Be prepared. As with any interview, re-read the job advertisement, research the clinic, stalk them on social media, and ask people! Get to know as much about them as you can. Google common interview questions and write down answers beforehand so you have some pre-prepared responses. Common questions I encountered were: “What experience do you have with smallies/production/equine?” “Why do you think you would be a good fit for our team?” or “what can you contribute to our team?” “What would you do in this scenario?” (I was asked to talk them through a cow caesarian!) “What are your long term plans?” “What are your special interests?”

Take notes. All of my interviews started with the interviewer launching into a ramble about the position, practice, salary, benefits, hours, out of hours rota, holidays, etc. In my first interview, I tried to absorb all the info and only realised once I’d hung up that I couldn’t remember a thing. It’s a good idea to have a pen and paper handy, and just jot down some numbers while they’re talking, even if not looking at the page. Alternatively, if you can find a way to record the conversation, it’s great to be able to go back over the details when comparing practices later.

Ask questions. I was asked if I had any questions in every one of my interviews. Prepare a list of questions beforehand. This shows you’re interested in the position and have given it some thought. Remember interviews are a two-way street! This is your chance to see if the position is the right fit for you. Some great questions I like to ask include: “What is the split of animals your practice sees (smallies/production/equine/exotics)?” “What support and mentoring do you offer to new graduates?” “How long did your last new graduate stay?” “Do you offer accommodation and a vehicle?” “Do you offer/encourage continued professional development?” “When would you like your new vet to start?” “How long are your standard consult times?” (this one gave me an idea of how chaotic the clinic is likely to be - I’m yet to test this logic but I’ll keep you posted on my findings)

Thank them for their time. Remember they likely had to sacrifice their coffee break or record-writing time to speak with you. They will probably offer to answer any more questions you may think of via email. They should also tell you when you can expect to hear from them.

I hope these points will shed some light on what to expect and help you nail those phone interviews! Take a deep breath and smile. In a few days, your inbox will be flooded with offers of employment! Good luck!

#vet #vetstudent #vetschool #veterinarian #interview #vetlife #job #jobapplication #vetmed #medlife #medstudent #phoneinterview #phone #jobsearch #jobhunt #employment #veterinary

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comp6841 · 5 years

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Lectures - Week 5 (Mixed)

Vulnerabilities

One of the most fundamental concepts in security is the idea of a vulnerability - a flaw in the design of a system which can be used to compromise (or cause an unintended usage of) the system. A large majority of bugs in programming are a result of memory corruptions which can be abused to take control - the most ubiquitous example of this is the buffer overflow; the idea that you can overwrite other data alongside a variable which can change both data and control of a program. The common case is when programmers fail to validate the length of the input when reading in a string in C. Another fairly common bug relates to the overflow of unsigned integers; failing to protect against the wraparound can have unintended consequences in control flow.

‘NOP Sled’

Richard also mentioned in the 2016 lectures the idea of a NOP sled which I found quite interesting. The idea is that due to run time differences and randomisation of the stack, the address the program will jump to (from the return address) can sometimes be difficult to predict. So to make it more likely it will jump where the attack wants, he converts a large set of memory to NOP (no operation) instructions which will just skip to the next one; then finally after the “NOP sled” his code will execute.

printf(”%s Printf Vulnerabilities”);

One of the most hilarious programming vulnerabilities related to the usage of the printf function. Basically if you have an input which is accepted from the terminal and you plug this (without parsing) into a printf, an attacker could potentially feed in an input such as “%s”. (i.e. the title) Now since you haven’t specified a 2nd argument, it will just keep reading all the variables in memory until you hit a “\0″. In fact you can abuse this even further to overwrite memory with the “%n” format string - it will overwrite an integer with the number of characters written so far.

Handling Bugs

Many of the bugs we know of today are actually reported in online databases such as the National Vulnerability Database or Common Vulnerability & Exposures (CVE) Databases. There is actually lots of pretty cool examples online in these, however most of these have been actually fixed - we call them zero day vulnerabilities if the vendor hasn’t fixed them (and if they are then abused then zero day exploits).

When working in security, it’s important to understand the potential legal consequences associated with publicly releasing damaging vulnerabilities in software. This is where responsible disclosure comes in - the idea that if you find a bug you disclose it to a software vendor first and then give them a reasonable period of time to fix it first. I think I discussed an example from Google’s Project Zero Team a couple weeks ago - however just from a quick look there was a case in March where their team released the details on a flaw in the macOS’s copy-on-write (CoW) after the 90 day period for patching. (it’s important to note they gave them reasonable time to fix it)

OWASP Top 10

This was a pretty cool website we got referred to mainly regarding the top bugs relating to web security (link); I’ll give a brief overview here:

Injection - sends invalid data to get software to produce an unintended flow of control (i.e. SQL injection)

Broken authentication - logic issues in authentication mechanisms

Sensitive data exposure - leaks in privacy of sensitive customer data

XML External Entities (XXE) - parsing XML input with links to external bodies

Broken action control - improper access checks when accessing data

Security misconfigurations - using default configs, failing to patch flaws, unnecessary services & pages, as well as unprotected files

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) - client injects Javascript into a website which is displayed to another user

Insecure deserialisation - tampering with serialization of user data

Using components with known vulnerabilities - out of date dependencies

Insufficient logging and monitoring - maintaining tabs on unusual or suspicious activity, as well as accesses to secure data

Some Common Bugs

Just a couple of the bugs that were explored in some of the 2016 lecture videos:

Signed vs unsigned integers casts - without proper checks can lead to unintended control flow

Missing parenthesis after if statement - only executes next line and not all within the indentation

Declaring array sizes wrong - buf[040] will be interpreted as base 8

Wrong comparators - accidentally programming ‘=‘ when you intended ‘==‘

A lot of the more common bugs we used to have are getting a lot easier to detect in the compilation process; GCC has a lot of checks built in. Valgrind is also a really awesome tool to make sure your not making any mistakes with memory.

WEP Vulnerability

I actually discussed this idea already in the week 1 lectures here - just for the sake of revision I will give a basic overview here. The basic idea is that WEP uses a stream cipher RC4 which XORs the message with a key; however the issue is that we know information about the structure of TCP/IP packets. Within a local network the local IPs are usually of the form A.B.C.D (i.e. 192.168.20.4 for a specific computer) where each letter represents a byte in the range 0-255. (0-255 are usually reserved and not used for computers in the network) Due to subnetting (i.e. with a subnet mask 255.255.255.0 on private network) the last byte D is usually the only one that changes - this means we effectively have 254 combinations.

Since we know where the destination address is located within the packet, an attacker can potentially record a packet and modify this last byte - they can send out all 256 possible combinations to the router (remember it’s encrypted so we can’t limit it to 254). The router will then decrypt the message and then encrypt it with the key used for communications with the attacker - and voila the system is compromised.

Hashes

Richard gave a brief overview of the basis of many of our hash functions which is the Merkle-Damgard construction. The basic idea behind it is to break the message into blocks - the size varies on the hash type and if its not a multiple of the required length then we need to apply a MD-compliant padding function. This usually occurs with Merkle-Damgard strengthening which involves encoding the length of the original message into the padding.

To start the process of hashing we utilise an initialisation vector (number specific to the algorithm) and combine it with the first message block using a certain compression function. The output of this is then combined with the 2nd message block and so forth. When we get to the end we apply a finalisation function which typically involves another compression function (sometimes the same) which will reduce the large internal state to the required hash size and provide a better mixing of the bits in the final hash sum.

Length Extension Attacks

I think after looking at the Merkle-Damgard construction it now becomes pretty obvious why using MACs of the form h(key|data) where the length of the data is known are vulnerable to length-extension attacks. All you need to be able to reverse in the above construction is the finalisation function and the extra padding (which is dependent upon the length which we’re assuming we know); then you can keep adding whatever message blocks you want to the end!

Digital Signatures

The whole idea behind these signatures is providing authentication - the simplest method of this is through asymmetric key encryption (i.e. RSA). If your given a document, you can just encrypt it with your private key - to prove to others that you indeed signed it, they can attempt to decrypt it with your public key. There is a problem with this approach however - encryption takes a lot of computation and when the documents become large it gets even worse. The answer to this is to use our newfound knowledge of hashing for data integrity - if we use a hash (’summary of the document’), we can just encrypt this with our private key as a means of signing it!

Verifying Websites

One of the hardest issues we face with the ‘interwebs’ is that it is very difficult to authenticate an entity on the other end. We’ve sort of scrambled together a solution to this for verifying websites - certificate authorities. (I could go on for ages about the problems with these being ‘single points of failure’ but alas I don’t have time)

The idea behind these bodies is that a website will register with the entity with a specific public key. The CA will then link this public key (in a “big ol’ secure database”) with the ‘identity’ of the website. To understand how it works its best to consider the example of when you access any website with HTTPS. (i.e. SSL) When you visit www.example.com, they will then provide their public key and a digital signature of key (signed by the cert authority’s private key) in the form of a X.509 certificate. The user will have access to CA’s public key as part of their browser and will then be able to verify the identity of the website. (the cert is encrypted with the CA’s private key - see above image) An attacker is unable to fake it as they don’t know the certificate authorities’ private key.

Attacking Hashed Passwords

Given there is only a limited number of potential hashes for each algorithm, there is a growing number of websites online which provide databases of plaintext and their computed hashes - these are what we refer to as hash tables. We can check a hash very quickly against all the hashes in this database - if we find a match, we either know the password or have found a collision.

Rainbow tables are a little more complex - in order to make one you need a hashing function (the same as the password) and a reduction function; the latter is used to convert the hash into text (i.e. a base64 encode and truncation). These tables are made of a number of ‘chains’ of a specified length (let’s say we choose 1,000,000) - to create a chain you start with a random seed then apply both the above functions to this seed. You then iteratively do this process another 1,000,000 times (chosen length) and store the final seed and value (only these). In order to try and determine a match to the rainbow table, you apply the same two functions to the password for the required length - however, at each step you compare the hash to the result of each of the chains in the table. If you find a match, you can reproduce the password.

Both of the attacks against password hashes described above rely on an attacker doing a large amount of work in advance, which they will hopefully be able to use in cracking many passwords in the future. (it’s basically a space-time tradeoff) An easy way we can destroy all the work they have done is through a process known as salting. Basically what you do is generate a random string which you concatenate with the password when creating a hash - you need to store this alongside the password in order to check it in future. This means an attacker can’t use pre-computed tables on your hash; they have to do all the work again for your particular salt!

Richard discussed another interesting concept called ‘key stretching’ in the lectures - it’s basically the idea that you can grab a ‘weak password hash’ and continuously hash it with a combination of the (’hash’ + ‘password’ + ‘salt’). This process of recursively hashing makes it insanely difficult for an attacker to bruteforce. This is combined with the effects of a ‘salt’ which (on its own) renders rainbow tables (’pre-computed hashes’) useless.

Signing Problems with Weak Hashes

One of the problems with using a hash which is vulnerable to second-preimage attacks is that it becomes a lot easier to sign a fake document. Consider the example of a PDF document certifying that I give you $100. If you wanted you could modify the $100 to $100,000, however this would change the resultant hash. However since it’s a PDF you could modify empty attribute fields or add whitespace such that you can modify the hash an enormous amount of times (i.e. to bruteforce the combinations). Since the hash is vulnerable to second-preimage this means that given an input x (the original signed document) we are able to find an x’ (the fake signed document) such that h(x) = h(x’).

Dr Lisa Parker (guest speaker)

I wasn’t able to make the morning lecture, although I will try and summarise my understanding of the key points from this talk:

More holistic approaches to systems improvement have better outcomes (’grassroots approach’ is just as important as targeted)

Unconscious bias is present across a wide variety of industries (i.e. judges harsher before lunch, doctors prescribing drugs for free lunch)

Codes of conduct intended to reduce corruption; pharmaceuticals try to dodge with soft bribes, advertising, funding research

Transparent reporting reduces malpractice

Enforcing checklists useful for minimising risk

OPSEC Overview (extended)

We traditionally think of OPSEC has been based in the military, however many of the principles can apply in more everyday scenarios:

Identifying critical information

Analysis of threats

Analysis of vulnerabilities

Assessment of risk

Application of appropriate OPSEC measures

A lot of the ideas behind gathering information (recon) revolve around collecting “random data”, which at first may not appear useful, however after managing to piece them together, they are. One of the quotes from Edward Snowden (I think) I found quite interesting, “In every step, in every action, in every point involved, in every point of decision, you have to stop and reflect and think, “What would be the impact if my adversary were aware of my activities?””. I think it’s quite powerful to think about this - however at the same time we don’t want to live with complete unrealistic paranoia and live as a hermit in the hills.

One of the easiest ways to improve your OPSEC is through limiting what you share online, especially with social media sites. Some of the basic tips were:

Don’t share unless you need to

Ensure it can’t be traced (unless you want people to know)

Avoid bringing attention to yourself

You can try and conceal your identity online through things like VPNs and Tor Browser. It is important that in identities you have online that you don’t provide a means to link them in any way (i.e. a common email) if you don’t want someone to be able to develop a “bigger picture” about you. For most people, I think the best advice with regards to OPSEC, is to “blend in”.

Passwords (extended)

I am really not surprised that the usage of common names, dates and pets is as common as it is with passwords. Most people just like to take the lazy approach; that is, the easiest thing for them to remember that will ‘pass the test’. Linking closely with this is the re-use of passwords for convenience - however for security this is absolutely terrible. If your password is compromised on one website and your a ‘worthy target’, then everything is compromised.

HaveIBeenPwned is actually a pretty cool website to see if you’ve been involved in a breach of security. I entered one of my emails, which is more of a ‘throwaway one’ I use for junk-ish accounts on forums and whatnot - it listed that I had been compromised on 11 different websites. I know for a fact that I didn’t use the same password on any of those; secondly for most of them I didn’t care if they got broken.

I think offline password managers are an ‘alright way’ to ensure you have good unique passwords across all the sites you use. (be cautious as they can be a ‘single point of failure’) However when it comes to a number of my passwords which I think are very important - I’ve found just randomly generating them and memorising them works pretty well. Another way is to form long illogical sentences and then morph them with capitalisation, numbers and symbols. You want to maximise the search space for an attacker - for example if your using all 96 possible characters and you have a 16-character password then a bruteforce approach would require you to check 2^105 different combinations (worst-case).

The way websites store our passwords is also important to the overall security - they definitely shouldn’t be stored in plaintext, should use a ‘secure hash function’ (i.e. not MD5) and salted. I’m pretty sure I ranted about a mobile carrier that I had experiences with earlier in my blog, that didn’t do this. This means if the passwords were ‘inevitably’ all stolen from the server, the attacker just gets the hashes, and they can’t use rainbow tables because you hashed them all. Personally, I really like the usage of multi-factor authentication combined with a good password (provided those services don’t get compromised right?). Although, you want to avoid SMS two-factor as it’s vulnerable to SIM hijacking.

#week5 #lectures #reflection

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dedicated-server-atalnetworks · 2 years

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How to Keep Online Data Safe from Prying Eyes!

Online data is a significant source of personal information and sensitive data. Everyone from professionals to students have access to online data through their online accounts or online devices. The Internet is a perfect place for individuals to connect with other people who share their interests and form a social group. However, it can also be used to taunt users into giving away sensitive personal information or sell their account. When using the internet in any capacity, be sure to keep your personal information as safe as possible. Use effective security practices, implement strong passwords, and limit access only to authorized users. Here are some things you can do to keep your online data safe from prying eyes!

1. Secure All Data Access Requests

As the internet continues to develop, so does the security of online data. The same goes for sensitive personal information like credit card numbers, purchase orders, and social security numbers. The good news is that these data are almost never touch-base able without the customer's express written permission. That being said, it is always a good idea to secure all data access requests from prying eyes. One way to do this is to use encryption protocols such as encryption software. Another way is to implement a two-factor authentication system that requires a user to enter personal information such as their credit card number and address before the app can access the data. Make sure to use a strong password and use a database that requires a password in addition to the key. In other words, use a database that requires a password in addition to the key!

2. Protect Your Data From Unwanted swaying by third parties

One of the most frequent online harassment targets is the user who facilitates or facilitates an online transaction. The easiest way to keep online data safe from prying eyes is to use strong passwords and use a password manager. A password manager can provide you with all the tools you need to create and manage a strong password that is easily remembered. Another key step is to use a strong password manager. Again, this applies especially to mobile devices. A password manager can securely store your login credentials and allows you to create strong passwords that are easily remembered. However, using it on a computer is a different story. That is because a Strong Password (SP) measure requires a password to be written and remembered on paper. A password manager such as a password manager for computers is not only necessary for data protection but also provides a convenient way for you to create and manage strong passwords. This can be especially important for users who want to log into multiple accounts and manage sensitive information.

3. Use Secure Servers

One of the best ways to keep your online data safe from prying eyes is by using secure servers. This means that all of your data is encrypted and stored securely on computers or servers that are physically located in countries where encryption is legal. This can be a problem in countries with weak data encryption such as China, where the average user has very limited access to secure computers. That being said, IT organizations can also use secure servers to keep their online data secure. For example, if you work for a company that maintains an online presence, it can easily use a secure server to store and securely share information with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Using a secure server, all of your online data is encrypted and stored securely. That means no one can access your emails, social media posts, or other online data without your express permission. This can be especially important for small businesses that need to keep their online data secure from prying eyes. It can also be very helpful for users who want to log into multiple accounts and manage sensitive information. Plus, when someone who has access to your server needs to clean off your data, they can't easily steal it. That's what happens when someone changes computers or hosts. That's what happens when someone uses a remote access device that alters files or deletion requests. That's what happens when someone knows your password. That's what happens when someone has access to your server. That's why using a secure server is the best way to keep your online data safe!

4. Limit Access to Only authorized users

One of the most frequent online harassment targets is the user who facilitates or facilitates an online transaction. The easiest way to keep online data safe from prying eyes is to use strong passwords and use a password manager. A password manager can provide you with all the tools you need to create and manage a strong password that is easily remembered. Another key step is to use a strong password manager. Again, this applies especially to mobile devices. A password manager can securely store your login credentials and allows you to create strong passwords that are easily remembered. However, using it on a computer is a different story. That is because a Strong Password (SP) measure requires a password to be written and remembered on paper. That means prying eyes can't easily pull up your passphrases and access your emails or social media posts. That's what happens when someone changes computers or hosts. That's what happens when someone uses a remote access device that alters files or deletion requests. That's what happens when someone knows your password. That's why using a secure server is the best way to keep your online data safe!

5. Use a Strong Password

One of the most frequent online harassment targets is the user who facilitates or facilitates an online transaction. The easiest way to keep online data safe from prying eyes is to use a strong password. A strong password protects your data from all outside threats including hackers, sn Chance, and bots. It is also required for logging into websites and using apps that provide login functionality. A strong password can be difficult to remember but is done when doing so. It is also important to remember that a password is only as strong as the password manager you use. It can easily be stolen, changed, or stolen in an emergency. That being said, make sure you have a strong password that is easy to remember and changes every year. That way is better than having a hacked password.

6. Report Incorrect Account Access

One of the most frequent online harassment targets is the user who facilitates or facilitates an online transaction. The easiest way to keep online data safe from prying eyes is to use a secure server. This means that all of your data is encrypted and stored securely on computers or servers that are physically located in countries where encryption is legal. This can be a problem in countries with weak data encryption such as China, where the average user has very limited access to secure computers. That being said, IT organizations can also use secure servers to keep their online data secure. That can be especially important for small businesses that need to keep their online data secure from prying eyes. It can also be very helpful for users who want to log into multiple accounts and manage sensitive information.

7. Conclusion

The Internet has changed our lives and has given us the ability to connect and share information with others. However, it has also made it more challenging for individuals to protect their data. One of the most frequent online harassment targets is the user who facilitates or facilitates an online transaction. The easiest way to keep online data safe from prying eyes is to use a strong password. A strong password protects your data from all outside threats including hackers, sn Chance, and bots. It is also required for logging into websites and using apps that provide login functionality.

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gaiatheorist · 6 years

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Improvising, and unpaid labour.

Half past four in the morning, I’m working around how to make a pie and a curry at the same time, with my ‘limited capacity’. I’m also factoring in energy costs, the impact of processes on end-products, and how to maximise my use of the ‘dead’ time between stages. My disabilities have an impact on my available functional hours, the hyper-vigilance that comes with my PTSD perversely helps me to portion-out my productivity. (Thanks, Mother, you didn’t teach me how to cook, or clean, or budget, but some other things you didn’t do mean that I can.)

Oliver Burkeman in this morning’s Guardian, is using the term ‘shadow work’. Most of us have always acknowledged that we have to do our own cooking, household chores and such. The category on my PIP award that scored the highest number of ‘points’ was ‘preparing and cooking food’. In reality, I actually find some of the other descriptor-categories more difficult, dangerous, and draining, but I was able to list more adaptations to my food-processing practices. If you don’t eat, you die. (Yes, that’s dramatic, it would take weeks to starve to death. If I miss too many meals, the blood sugar dip impacts on my background fatigue. I forget to turn the heating on, or take painkillers on schedule, and there’s that foggy-fugue state, where I’ll just stare at the phone until it stops ringing. I also sleep too much, not to escape the hunger-pangs, I don’t feel those, but because my body realises I have no energy, and effectively CTRL/ALT/DEL shuts me down.)

‘Shadow work’ takes on a different meaning when there’s a disability to factor in. It’s not just the “I’ve put it in the bag, you beepy bastard!” annoyance at the self-scan checkout, or remembering dozens of passwords for online utility billing and such, it’s varying degrees of everything.

Necessity is the mother of invention. I had a short discussion with an acquaintance earlier this week, he’s damaged his ankle, and has a cast and crutches for a minimum of nine weeks. This is the first week, and he’s finding a huge number of basic tasks difficult. I’ve actually offered to go to his house and help out during this initial adjustment phase. By week four, he’ll be managing everything much more easily, and by week six, he’ll quite possibly be finding uses for the crutches that the NHS wouldn’t like endorsing. It’s what people do, we improvise and adapt. That particular chap ‘only’ has nine weeks of this, but it’s still a useful analogy. Cast-and-crutches, or one arm in a sling, or your car off the road, after the initial “Well, this is an absolute disaster.”, you start to work around things.

I’m looking at the idea of ‘shadow work’ from multiple angles. Head-on, the increase in automation of some previously-human employment will flood the labour market with the people who used to do a job that a machine does now, that’s increased competition for jobs, which will be a concern for me when I’m fit-for-work. Historically, I objected to part of my previous job becoming automated, which was at odds with my principles, and odd in that I’d streamlined another part of my job, to need as little human-input as possible. The future is computers, though, and it’s none of my business how that all-singing-all-dancing software actually works in practice.

Recently, I’ve been entangled in doing shadow work for DWP, ‘Sleeping with the enemy’ to provide information that they already have, for their fancy new system. (Pride goes before a fall, but I’m probably using it more effectively than the staff paid to use it, they could have cut a significant number of person-hours if they’d followed my initial straightforward suggestion, instead of their convoluted one. They’re making part of my payment manually while I chase the ex to change the tenancy agreement, instead of a 30-second check with HMRC. They’re also making me ill, boo-hoo, poor me.) I saw a quote, I can’t remember the source, someone within DWP stating that claimants weren’t allocated any payments during the first week of a claim, because “The claim process won’t give people time to write a CV.” Furious, me? (I’m always furious, frontal lobe brain injury.)

Despite peripheral issues in an imminent brain-scan, and providing evidence to student finance, I managed to fill in the forms, and find the additional evidence that was behind the ‘beware of the tiger’ tab. (Wasted trip to the cash-point, thanks to Kenneth on the help-line, who’d told me to take an advice-slip issued on the day, when what the system actually asked for was two months of bank statements.) Luckily for all concerned, the new work coach barely glanced at the bank statements, I was fully expecting the Spanish Inquisition on the plethora of Amazon purchases after the PIP money went into my account. Mostly disability-aids for ‘normal’ household tasks, and repairing/replacing things I hadn’t been able to do while I was living on fresh air and food bank parcels as it goes, but I’d overheard enough “You don’t NEED Sky Sports, cancel it.” interviews to know there was the potential for them to pick through the statement.

I’d filled in the forms, secured the requested evidence, and moved onto the next task on the ‘to-do’ menu, because it was there. “Oh, you already have a CV uploaded, that’s great!” and “Did you write these? They’re excellent.” I’d done my work coach’s job for her, and I’d done it very, very well. (Arya Stark “You want to watch that one.” and such. That’s not a threat, it’s a reference to the conversation my previous work coach probably thought I couldn’t hear, “She will already have done it.”) *Liam Neeson voice over* “I am a nightmare.” It’s the paranoia that keeps me three steps ahead, I know I’ll have days when I’m less functional, so I ‘bank’ tasks before they’re due, to avoid missing deadlines, I did that before the disability, to mitigate against working hours lost to migraines, and ensure I never left colleagues in the s*it if I was absent. Now, with ‘please log in today’ emails pinging to my phone all over the place, that anxiety is compounded, my work coach has confirmed that my claim won’t be ‘stopped’ if I don’t respond same-day, and noted a mitigation/reasonable adjustment that I’m less functional later in the day, but there’s still that anxiety about missing a computer-generated ‘task.’ and incurring a sanction. My phone battery is wearing down faster because I’m repeatedly logging into my email, in case one has come through while I’ve been in a signal dead-spot. Shadow-work, the coach probably ‘should’ have made me an appointment in a month to review my Claimant Commitment, and another a month after that to write a CV. It’s done, she doesn’t ‘need’ to see me again until January, except she will, because I’ll have to produce a copy of the tenancy agreement once the ex sorts it out.

That’s not the only shadow-work I’ve done for DWP. There was the pointless ‘Work Capability Assessment’, and the horrendous PIP process as well. Almost half of women taken through the WCA process have attempted suicide. I know I contemplated it once or twice, and that’s a major admission coming from me. (I don’t know why that statistic only focused on women, unless it’s because men are more likely to complete suicide, due to choosing different methods, that’s a different scenario, ending-all as opposed to reaching that point, and still having to live through it.) 70% of PIP applications that are initially declined are accepted at Tribunal. It took me 17 months, from applying for PIP this time, to having my ‘award’ granted at Tribunal, and it wasn’t 17 months of sitting on my behind just waiting for it to happen. There are agencies and individuals who can assist with WCA and PIP processes, but they’re stretched too thin to cover everyone who needs help, and I’m a bugger for prioritising the needs of others over my own. (I’m also something of a control freak, I’m very difficult to work with when I perceive others working inefficiently, my “Oh, you’re making a right mess of that, give it here!” streak is strong.) During the UC/WCA/PIP process, I was over-stretching myself, and I became very frayed as a result. I was over-stretched in part because I should have asked for help sooner, and in part because when I did ask for help, it was too stretched and fragmented to be of any use. A social prescribing case-worker, a social worker, a welfare rights advocate, and two ladies from Citizens Advice. Little old brain damaged me, sitting in the middle of this fragile web of support, asking one party not to duplicate work being done by another, to save them work-load, and trying not to bang my head on the desk and say “It would be easier if you did it *this* way.”

Shadow-work. Providing the same medical evidence to two different parts of DWP. “Rolling six benefits into one”, my arse, the ‘disability’ part is still separate from the ‘unemployment’ part, I have an award of PIP for three years, which is completely distinct from the one year notice of ‘limited capacity for work’. Both departments have exactly the same evidence on me, I know, because I photocopied the files myself. (At 10p a page, I’ll have you know.)

The PIP process, and the WCA strand not only involved a hell of a load of shadow-work in terms of admin and coordination from me, they also cast light, and, paradoxically, shadow on my improvisations. Back to the crutches/cast analogy, you look at where you are, and where you need to be, and you figure out whether you can get there. You fall over a bit, and adjust your methods to avoid falling over again. Unless you can’t get up, and the police end up breaking in when the neighbours report the flies, and the smell. There are hundreds, or thousands of things I can’t do ‘normally’ any more, so I’ve had to make my own ‘reasonable adjustments’. (Some of them are bizarre, some are profoundly maladaptive, but they get me through most days without major incident.) Those improvisations, the additional shadow-load that’s on me every single day of my life, for functions that used to be so simple they required no conscious processing are a Very Bad Thing when it comes to PIP and WCA ‘assessors.’ “You said you had difficulties with x, I have decided that you can x.” over and over again. I didn’t say I “couldn’t”, I said I have difficulties, but some bloke in an office somewhere can ‘decide that I can.’, and that’s supposed to be case-closed. At that point, I was supposed to ‘just get on with it’, to limp around my various disabilities as best I could, because a decision had been made that I wasn’t disabled enough. Physically, I can’t do that, but, more importantly in my twisted little head, emotionally, intellectually, and socially I can’t do it, without my deficits placing myself or others at risk of significant harm. If I have a bad fall, or a cognitive lapse, not only is my life at risk, but I could place others at risk when they have to fish me out of whatever mess I’ve landed myself in. I won’t do that.

Another layer of shadow-work for DWP, painfully describing my improvisations in more detail. That part alone is enough to deter some people, it’s demeaning to have to explain, yet again, how you get on and off the toilet without assistance from another person. (Also the PIP system keeps the descriptor activities the same, but alters the qualifying thresholds without telling anyone. “Can you walk 200m?” has somehow morphed into some ambivalence about being able to move that distance, regardless of how long it takes, how difficult or painful it is, or what aids or adaptations are needed. They haven’t so much ‘shifted the goalposts’ as changed the game altogether.) I knew from the outset that the ‘computer says no’ would be the outcome, that the ‘assessors’ wouldn’t see the additional adjustments I have to make every day, they’d just bounce back that I ‘can’ complete all of the descriptors. Not repeatedly, reliably, or within a reasonable time-frame, though, and only with a massive degree of improvisation, which is physically and mentally draining, compounding the fatigue-element of my condition. (Shuddering at the thought of ‘home help’ assisting me with washing, dressing, or toileting, but that’s the PTSD, and PIP claims only deal with your most-recent condition, not anything underlying that compounds it, bizarre system.)

You’re damned if you do improvise, because DWP/PIP will tick the ‘can’ box, the ‘fit for work’ box. You’re damned if you don’t, because some faceless decision-maker will decide you’re just not trying hard enough. What about the people that can’t improvise? The ones who are already stretched to the limits of their functional capacity? Have they tried just not being disabled/depressed/dependent?

“Making work pay.” is a cute tag-line, but underneath it is the reality that vulnerable and disabled people are being churned through a workhouse that doesn’t work. We’re inputting our own admin. I have some cognitive issues, but nowhere near as high a level as some people. I have some visual issues, and my left hand doesn’t work properly, reading and typing are time-intensive, and painful, but I ‘can’ do it for a narrow window, given plenty of screen-breaks, some people can’t. It’s not hyperbole at all to say that this government has blood on its hands, it does, and it will have more to come while these systems are in place. People will fall through the gaps in the system, which will suit statistics, because ‘unemployment figures are falling.’ People. People are falling, into a shadow-realm of not being counted as ‘anything’. Some people’s improvisations to deal with that will be brutal. Domestic violence will increase when the ‘dole money’ suddenly stops going into bank accounts. Street robberies and burglaries will increase when people run out of their own things to sell. Referrals to social care and food banks will continue to increase. Evictions will increase, placing additional strain on local authorities to provide emergency accommodation, and I seriously doubt that people in emergency accommodation will be able to satisfy the conditionality of checking their online account for ‘to-do’ actions. Two-for-one sanctions there, I wonder if there are bonuses for that?

This isn’t working, I genuinely don’t believe it was ever meant to, I think that the intent all along was for it to be so complex and intensive that people would just opt-out. All well and good if that opt-out is into gainful employment, some of the opt-outs will be of a more permanent nature, and the government will still have to allocate resources to deal with the very long shadows this shadow-work will create.

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cynthiasebatina · 3 years

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Everything’s going mobile lately and eLearning too has tailored itself to support mobile learning. However, mobile learning strategy can be tricky to those who are unfamiliar with it. Therefore, we will start with the basics before going into the details. First we will discuss developing mobile learning strategy and then take up enhancing the mobile learning course.

The following are the steps involved in developing a mobile learning strategy:

Target audience and primary objectives: The first step is concerned with identification of your target audience and determination of your primary objectives for the mobile learning course. Target audience is the people who will actually be accessing the information you provide. Remember that usually the target audience for a mobile learning course is people who are pressed for time. It is highly likely that a person chooses a mobile training course because he wants to access the learning management system (LMS) from anywhere at any time. This would mean that the course content you design should only include information that is highly essential and can be comprehended in less time. Therefore, you will have to stick to relevant and concise course content rather than comprehensive and long.

Course distribution choices: The second step deals with determining how your mobile learning course is going to be distributed. You may be planning to make your content available for all mobile platforms or could be either one or two popular ones such as iOS and Android. In the ideal scenario, mobile learning course will be distributed in all platforms and all devices but practically this can be very difficult as this would involve tailoring your content as well as the graphics in it to mobile devices with different screen sizes, resolutions and other specifications. However, your course distribution choice should depend on factors like your target audience, subject matter and the content itself.

Security: Security is an important aspect of every mobile learning program. You have to make sure that your mobile learning platform has enough security measures including encryption and password protection to prevent unauthorized entries and allay other security related concerns. Keep in mind that smartphones are small computers which have the capability to download information and perform unethical tasks involving retrieval of personal information. Therefore, keep all information encoded or carefully guarded.

Social media: Mobile learning is extremely personalized and asynchronous as it involves each learner take his time learning and adopting a program or plan that suits him best. Mobile learning typically doesn’t involve any group activity or teamwork and learning takes place at an individual level. However, it is highly beneficial to integrate social learning strategies into your mobile learning platform. This means that with the help of social media you will be able to transform your mobile learning experience into an interactive as well as engaging social learning experience. Social networks, collaborative learning tools and group activities help to bring social learning elements in your mobile learning program.

Testing: Testing is the last step that precedes the official launch of your mobile learning course. Testing lets you identify technical errors or bugs and glitches that you overlooked. Quality control is a term used to refer to the assessment or evaluation of performance of developed work or product. Quality control is done to ensure that your mobile learning course works well on all platforms and devices you intended for it to work on. Testing is usually followed by revision where the errors that were identified are rectified.

Next step is launching but that is not the end of the mobile learning strategy. An effective mobile learning strategy always involves continual assessment of the effectiveness of the mobile learning course and strategy. Therefore, mobile learning strategy can be seen as a never ending exercise always in progress. Once you launch the finished product in the market, you need to continuously assess the performance of your mobile learning platform especially by getting feedback from the real users through surveys and other methods. A mobile learning strategy will only be successful if it remains effective as time goes on. That is why it needs to be constantly evaluated and subsequently improved upon.

Furthermore, ensure that the assessment system of your mobile learning platform is useful. The goal of assessment is not to ascertain that the learners are getting good scores. A good assessment system will let you know whether the audience understands what is being taught to them. If the learners cannot grasp the concepts clearly then the whole learning process is a waste of time. That is why the assessment system should measure how much the learners have understood. This involves asking interesting and thought provoking questions that engage the learners. Too much theory and long questions will only scare the learners away.

Now it is time to look at the ways to enhance the effectiveness of your mobile learning course. The following are top five guidelines:

Bite-sized lessons: Since the learners are using mobile devices and are also pressed for time, keep your lessons small. The learners usually access information on-the-go and prefer lessons that are brief and to the point. If you are thinking of creating videos, keep it brief i.e. in the range of 2-4 minutes. Short videos provide information in a convenient form which keeps learners engaged and also enables rapid absorption of information. Since your target audience will be accessing information from a variety of places, it is better to keep audio narration to a minimum.

Involve active discussions: Mobile learning experience is complete only when there is an opportunity to effectively communicate and collaborate with peers. Also, the learners should have the opportunity to interact with their instructors and receive support from their part. To make your mobile learning platform collaborative in nature, you can integrate mobile apps like Twitter chat or Google Hangouts to allow learners to interact with each other. Active discussions can keep the learners engaged in the learning process; it also provides enough motivation for them to continue wherever they find themselves in a tough situation. Discussions allow learners to share their experience and explore ideas at length. This gives every member of your learning program an opportunity to voice their views and opinions to fellow-learners without any need of the physical classroom setting.

Encourage participation: Give the learners an opportunity to apply their learning. For example, let the learners become instructors once they gain enough information. This not only gives them a unique experience but also helps in effective retention of information they already learnt. Give the learners an opportunity to explore the subject matter on their own and put the main ideas in their own words. Various mobile tools like survey poll and quiz creation apps aid in participatory activities.

Promote online research: Irrespective of the age of your target audience, promoting online research will only make the learning experience more effective and meaningful. When you integrate online research exercises into your mobile learning strategy, the learners will get an opportunity to explore the topic on their own and thereby expand their understanding of the topic. This can be used to supplement the core learning program.

Send notifications to their mobile devices: In order to keep your mobile learning course more organized, you can make use of reminders and announcements. These could include course updates and even links to additional information via push notifications on the mobile phones of the learners. This method helps to keep the learners updated and in touch with the mobile learning course.

An important point to remember is that every mobile learning course should evolve along with the needs of the users and the technological advancements and trends in order to be successful. A stagnant mobile learning course will never remain effective even if the best strategies were applied to develop it. Dynamism is an important element of every mobile learning course. That is why a feedback system is a must for a mobile learning course. Feedback gives invaluable insights into the needs of the learners and what changes need to be made in the mobile learning course if it has to overcome the challenges faced by the learners. Getting invaluable feedback also is not sufficient. Changes should be made in the mobile learning course as and when feedback is received from users by consulting eLearning professionals. Only if the changes are made will the feedback be useful.

Now you have learnt how to develop a mobile learning strategy and also how to enhance the effectiveness of your mobile learning course. Applying these guidelines and integrating your mobile learning platform with the methods mentioned in this article will help make your mobile learning course a truly memorable one for your target audience.

#mobile learning

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