#compared to all the efforts they’ve spent fixing her why don’t they work on better characters?

[alicefromwhichplanet]

When can we see Arcee or Windblade again in the main cast?

I just feel they should be better representation of women compared to Elita One. Considering they’re not made to be love interests and have unique personalities and real growth arc. I miss how Cyberverse depicted Windblade and so many other interesting female characters, like Shadowstriker, Slipstream and Chromia.

From the trailer of Transformers One I can tell they want to make Elita One a “Sumerfette” among “Smurfs”, like the one single woman character among a bunch of men? I don’t like that idea and I also think Arcee or Windblade should do a better job since they’re not surrounded with implications of romantic relationship/love interest.

Did they delete them just to make Elita One more prominent? I’m tired of seeing her being the playwright‘s new favorite. I don’t think she’s so complex a character to be adored this much. And I still hate everything she represents.

[prinxlyart]

How do you think some of the other parents would react to the blight parents journey to redemption/being fully redeemed? I think it would certainly be shoking at first and they'd be skeptical because of how much of a reputation the blights have built

Ooooo this is a good one I like it okay let’s see

Willow’s Dads

I think Willow’s dads have an especially sour attitude towards the Blight parents just because of Willow’s personal history with Amity and those 7 years of non-stop depression their daughter suffered because of Alador and Odalia’s actions. They’re extremely skeptical of the Blights trying to “turn over a new leaf” and are convinced they’re only saying so because they want to get something out of it. They’re also both especially protective of the Blight children after they’d originally escaped the manor simply because what the ever loving fuck did those two sorry excuses for witches think they were doing to these kids???????

After Willow explains why Amity stopped being her friend all those years ago, her dads sort of. Accidentally adopt? Amity? Sort of? They legit tell her that she’s welcome to stay with them any time and for as long as she needs if she ever has any trouble, etc etc, and no joke they offered their little 2-bedroom flat to the blight kids when they were first discussing their escape plans. They wanted to be absolutely certain these kids would have a safe place to go the moment they flew the coop.

They love Luz. No question. Okay, maybe one question: why is she so insistent that she try to make those good for nothing Blight Socialites see the error of their ways? Their heads are so far up their own vain asses; they consider Luz’s newest quest to be an impossible one. They’re rather surprised when Luz reports back that her talk with the Blight parents actually went in her favor. They still won’t believe it until they see it though, which Luz concedes is fair. It’s not until Camila (who they also love) also reports back weeks later that she made them cry and that they bound themselves in an everlasting oath to Luz that they were going to do better that they finally believe it.

They defo still don’t like it, but yknow. They’re trying? Which is more than they could say of most of their childrens’ lives? And it’s extremely tense; even though all of the Blight children are adults now, these two Very Good Dads (still with no names; please Dana I’m begging you) find themselves acting as chaperones occasionally to the Blight kids when they meet up with their parents. Usually when it involves Amity (as she’s the future daughter in law), but they also don’t hesitate when Edric or Emira ask for their backup as well.

Viney’s Parent(s)

I’ve seen a lot of fanfics where Viney only has one parent and I don’t know why that’s so common. Regardless, Viney’s parent(s) would be fucking livid at the Blight parents. Not only did they openly criticize their daughter (viney) to her face, but also just the years of shitty parenting they inflicted upon their daughter in law and her siblings??? Super not okay. In fact, they were so spiteful, it was a common theme muttered under their breath at Viney and Emira’s wedding. Viney’s parent(s) could almost constantly be heard whispering something about how glad they were that Odalia and Alador weren’t there or how disapproving they would’ve been at any display of affection the newlyweds would share. Long story short, they fucking hate the Blight parents. Where Willow’s dads are much like Willow in that they would let their anger simply simmer and fester like a dark storm on the horizon, Viney’s parent(s) would be the vicious winds of the storm fast-approaching.

Similarly to Willow’s parents, they offer the Blight kids their home if they ever need it. I’m not sure if Viney has siblings or not but regardless, they’d figure out at least three different bedroom solutions for the Blight kids if they ever needed their help with anything.

As much as Viney’s parent(s) love the Blight kids and want to protect them, they actually find planning Viney and Emira’s wedding as the only parent(s) rather difficult. Although that lasts for all of five minutes before the doors are blown off their hinges and Willow and Luz’s parents (and parental figures) burst in like a super hero squad. These adults all want to make sure all of the Blight kids are happy, not just the one that associates with their respective daughters. It just adds fuel to the fire when all of these parental figures show up and the Blight parents don’t.

When they do show up while they’re all trying to plan out our girls’ triad wedding, Viney’s parent(s) have nothing but cold, venomous hatred in their heart(s). How dare they try to reinsert themselves into Amity’s life at a time like this???? It actually takes everyone in attendance of this wedding planning meeting to keep them from just ripping the Blights to shreds where they stood.

Everyone Loves and Respects Camila Noceda. It’s like an unspoken law in the Boiling Isles (and probably also in the human realm, but we’re not there rn). As soon as Camila explains why the Blight parents are even allowed to be at the meeting is because of their willingness to change and the effort they’ve already put in to making amends with their children, Viney’s parent(s) back down. But they don’t stop seething.

I don’t think they truly believe the Blights are in it for their family and not for some other ulterior motive until the day of the wedding. Like, it literally takes Alador walking his daughter down the aisle and taking his seat and just dissolving into tears for them to actually believe they’re here for their daughter. They see Odalia holding his hand tightly and dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief which is more emotion than they’ve ever seen from Odalia Blight ever. They’re only finally convinced that the Blight parents are capable of changing during the wedding itself. After that point they go much easier on them.

Luz’s Family

I think Eda and Lilith have more personal ties with the Blight parents. We know they all at least went to school together and likely have interacted in the past. Lilith much more recently as the Ex-Head of the Emperor’s Coven and likely actively checking in with other coven heads and their immediate subordinates while also attending to her coven leader duties. I think if they hadn’t been witnesses to Camila ripping them to shreds, they would find it hard to believe too.

Whether or not they believe it, they have very little faith in Alador and Odalia’s ability to actually change much. Or at least, Lilith has the least amount of faith. Eda’s got faith in the Nocedas wedgie-ing those stuck-up Blights into acting like civil witches. And if anyone can melt some ice-cold hearts, it’s the Nocedas. Eda trusts her girls.

Lilith doesn’t not trust them, she’s just worked professionally with them in essentially the same office as them (probably different departments) for the last 20-30 years and hasn’t seen them change once. They seemed somewhat happier in the workplace after their children were first born, but they kept themselves strictly professional at all times. Unless, of course, they were bragging about what new accomplishment their children had achieved. All this to say, the Blight were not so easily swayed.

I think between the Bligjt parents and Lilith there’s a lot of like? Reciprocal Validation in their progress to be Better? Like, Alador and Odalia look to Lilith as a sort of example for someone that used to be in their position thats spent the last several years working hard to change all of that and be worthy of Luz and Eda’s time and attention (and respect. Sometimes Luz still struggles with that one). Lilith sees the Blights’ progress from the view point of someone that’s gone through those same struggles of unlearning everything you thought you knew and building it back up into something more healthy, and she lets them know that they’re doing well, at least compared to her when she was in that same place however many years ago. Idk if the Blights and the Clawthornes were ever friends during school but I like to believe that at least during the hard parts of the Blights redeeming themselves, they do make a real friend in Lilith as someone that understands exactly the mental place they’re coming out of and trying so hard to fix.

Eda generally keeps to herself when it comes to the Blight parents. She loves the Blight kids, of course, one of them is head over heels for her own kid and she’s been a proud bystander watching their relationship flourish over the years. She’s fiercely protective of the Blight kids; any time any of them show up at the Owl house with distressed looks, she immediately puts a kettle to boil and starts prepping some tea before they can even start hashing out what new complicated BS they’ve got stirring in their noggins. She started doing this as a way to not have to deal with teenage hormones because when did her house become a teenager safe-haven??????? But then continued it over the years because all the kids found comfort in the small act of love and care. Even though Emira and Viney are married by the time the Blight parents begin their Redemption Journey, Emira will still stop by the Owl House from time to time and just sit and have tea with Eda (as a fellow trouble-maker, Eda feels a special kinship with the twins. She never minded the Twins’ presence in the Owl House despite all her complaining that her House had turned into a teenage clubhouse).

Any time the subject of Alador and Odalia comes up in conversation, Eda just sits back and crosses her arms and shockingly, remains silent. She knows it means a lot to so many of them; Luz and Camila seem especially invested and she cares for those Blight kids more than she’d ever admit out loud, but she’s not here to get involved. She’ll quietly support her kid’s noble efforts and be on standby in case shit hits the fan, but otherwise she wants nothing to do with the Blight parents.

King is surprisingly observant when he wants to be. He can see just how much this means to Luz and to Amity and knows that while teasing here and there might be okay, he would respect their wishes to continue trying to make the Blight parents decent people again. But that doesn’t mean he likes Alador or Odalia. He, just like Eda, had been among the ones the Blight kids had turned to when they were at their lowest points and seeking comfort over the years. He’s acted as those kids’ teddy bear for years. He only wants them to be happy (he insists it’s so he can stop being the Family Snot Rag but everyone knows it’s because he loves them). So he, like eda, remains silent whenever the topic of the Blight Parents comes up in conversation.

King and Eda defo talk shit about the Blight parents when it’s just the two of them. They will rant for hours about how shitty the Blight parents are and how undeserving they are of this second chance that Luz is giving to them. Whenever other people bring them up, Eda and King will exchange glances and eye rolls. King will often go to Eda’s lap (if she’s sitting) and pretend to nap on her. He’s actually listening and gripping Eda’s dress in his claws as a reminder to Eda to not say anything. Eda does the same under the guise of petting him; she’ll run her fingers through his fur and just grip tightly whenever she feels him starting to grow agitated under her hand. They don’t like the situation, but they also don’t need to be part of it.

Camila’s so fucking tired you guys. She’s long since accepted that her daughter lives in the Demon Realm and that the demons living here tend to only be different in physiology compared to humans or witches. Otherwise, they’re exactly the same as any other person.

No, the true demons, Camila’s discovered, are those like the Blight parents. Those that neglect their children in favor of something so frivolous as social standing and at the same time, thrust ridiculous expectations on their children to behave in the same way such a social standing would require. Withholding affection as something to be earned rather than giving it as the basic need children require. As if their love was something to work for like Luz doing all of her chores (and not forgetting them) for a month to earn a new book. She’s disgusted to say the least. But! Luz is her whole world. And the Blight children are a part of her world. Putting in the work to change the Blight parents for the better rather than just writing them off as a lost cause is something that means a lot to Luz (and by extension, the Blight kids who Camila’s adopted in her mind. She adores Amity and loves watching Eda interact with the twins). So she’s ready to put in that effort. If only so she can scream at them to their faces about the million ways they’ve fucked up and get away with it.

Camila doesn’t....like Alador and Odalia, just sort of on principle. If anything, she pities them. What sort of lives have they led where they think treating their children so horribly was even an option? As she helps guide them into being decent people, she does get to witness their actual personalities break through the tough exteriors they’d crafted for themselves. Alador is a dork. Odalia is quite smart despite her dumb life choices. Both are extremely talented in the magic paths they’ve pursued. Alador is like every man ever and cracks dad jokes that literally only Luz (and sometimes Edric) finds funny. Odalia has a quick-witted kind of humor that you have to stop and think about before it sinks in what she’s said.

It takes a long time for Camila to actually be able to stand their presence, but I think she tolerates them by the time their daughters’ wedding takes place. After that point it’s a matter of chipping away at those stony exteriors they made decades ago to get their real personalities out into the sunshine. By the time those masks are gone, Camila finds she actually doesn’t mind them being around. She’s okay with them being in-laws. I’m not sure if they ever become like. Friends? But they certainly come to a point of mutual respect. Eventually.

Thank you so much anon!! This was a super cool thought exercise :0

[thatsabae]

Salus - Chanyeol (mafia!au) | Chapter 3

genre: romance/drama/angst

summary: The thought of being back home always tormented you, ever since you left. You thought about all possibilities, but not one where your ex-boyfriend would want to be your friend again, just like before all that mess, as if it would be easy to ignore how your heart still races just by seeing him.

prologue | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

Chanyeol made clear that he wanted to be friends again, but you were clueless how he would do it. Half of your heart was expecting him to say that just because he felt bad and not give it attention, but the other half was expecting him to come around and make effort. Do what he promised, at least once.  

Jude was always on your mind before her father finally decided to show up and prove you that he was sticking to his words, a few days later. You thought it would feel like being thrown back at the moment that Meri told you about her pregnancy but it felt nothing like that at all. 

When Minseok came knocking your door, telling you that Chanyeol was there, you took the longest you could, mentally preparing yourself. What would you both even talk about? About those years apart? Maybe something random?  Each subjecting terrifying you even more. You didn’t even know him anymore, just like he didn’t know you. 

Arriving at the living room, you regretted wasting so much time locked up in that room. Sitting beside Chanyeol on the sofa was Jongdae. Your friend, that was not that friendly to you anymore, but still was there.

“Dae?” The surprise is clear in your voice. He only nods at you, still upset but not enough to ignore you. 

You were relieved. If Chanyeol managed to bring Jongdae to your apartment, that could only mean that there was a chance of fixing things in your friendship. Knowing Jongdae for so long, you knew he was stubborn. Way too stubborn. Once he made up his mind, no one else could change it, it didn’t matter that the person proved him wrong, it would actually make everything worse.  

“Let’s go?” He asked the other friend, still not looking in your eyes. “The others are waiting, already”. 

It was not enough, you still felt too distant from him, but it was a beginning. At that moment, you decided to not let it affect you even more than it was already doing, and instead of focusing on dealing with Chanyeol, you would worry only about saving your old friendships. That would be your goal before leaving again and a good distraction.

When you arrived at the pizza place, a smile took over your face when you saw Yixing sitting there, chatting with Baekhyun and Sehun, alongside a woman, dressed formally. 

“That is Yixing’s girlfriend.” Chanyeol murmurs, walking to the table. 

“And what about Liao?” You remember his girlfriend, that moved with him from China when he exchanged places with Minseok, ten years ago. Something that was supposed to happen for only a year, but turned out better for both. 

“They broke up years ago, a little after they came. It was bad.” Jongdae starts, forgetting for a moment that he’s not talking to you. “He’s dating Karlie for… I don’t know, maybe six, seven years now. I think he will propose after Junmyeon’s marriage, at least that’s what I picked on our bet”. 

“I see.” You decide to make a joke. “I guess you forgot to mention it in our calls”. 

He stops walking, making Chanyeol and you, that were behind him, stop too. 

“It’s not like you were sharing news too”. 

You stay quiet, not really knowing how to answer that. You felt red in the face. Chanyeol gives you a wink, encouraging you to not let Jongdae intimidate you. Your heart aches when you remember that he would always do that when you felt insecure. Maybe they were the same, after all. 

Dealing with Jongdae would be harder than Chanyeol, you realize. 

“Hey, finally!” Sehun was the first to notice your arrival. “We’re over here”. 

Everyone got up and started to greet each other, and Yixing introduced you to Karlie, his new long-term girlfriend. 

“What took so long?” Baekhyun question Jongdae. “We’ve been feeling like a third-wheel over here”. 

“We can finally chat, Y/N.” Yixing started, ignoring the other one. “How was your trip?” 

You shrug. 

“I don’t really remember. When I realized, the plane was already landing, I slept through it all.” Except for Jongdae, they all chuckle and the conversation change topics. 

After the first slice is served, you stare your old friend, unable to eat. He was talking to everyone else, normally, even laughing, but no word directed to you. You never expected Jongdae to be so childish. 

“We gotta go now.” The lawyer announces before you could finish the second slice, with Karlie by his side, already saying bye. “I have a trial tomorrow morning”. 

“And I need to bring you safe, or else Minseok will kill me.” Chanyeol jokes with you. “Not that he doesn’t want me dead, already. It would just legitimate him to do it”. 

You chuckle, hiding your mouth. 

Baekhyun shrugs at him. “He’s just waiting for a good reason to punch your face again”. 

“Again?” Your question is ignored in the middle of laughs. 

You can see the interest in Jongdae’s eyes change suddenly. Oh no. He’s looking, back and forth, from Baekhyun to you. 

You know you’re in more trouble. 

“Do you all want to leave already?” Chanyeol breaks the silence, looking unsure. “It’s still soon”. 

“I need to get going too. I have a flight early in the morning”. 

“You gotta solve that contract?” Jongdae wonders, looking at Sehun, that just nod, but you know his focus is not totally on the youngest. 

“Which one?” Chanyeol seemed interested, and so did Yixing. You were bored, not even knowing what they’ve been working now. 

“That beach house. The owner is just giving me headaches. Always changing his prices and… Now even his daughter is involved.” He looks at you, not saying any other word. Was that a secret? You felt left out. 

“Sehun was hired to mediate a sale, but since its value increased so much these last months, the owner is always increasing its price too” Chanyeol explained to you, seeing how confused you were. 

“If it’s too high, just don’t buy it. Costumers make the price”. 

“The thing is… " Sehun started explaining, very quickly. “That’s the only house left in that block, and they need that space”. 

So pay what they are asking, you wanted to say, but you hold your tongue back, not allowing to show how ignorant about this topic you were. You barely knew how to calculate the taxes, Minseok would always help you when it came that time. 

“It looks like they don’t want to sell it, they are just wasting your time. Probably testing how long is your patience.” The moment you said it, you could see Sehun’s face turning red. Being so young, you could imagine how many times people didn’t take him seriously. 

Chanyeol’s attention changed, looking at his cellphone like it was the only thing in the room. Baekhyun got closer to him, trying to sneak peek. 

“Uh, I need to go to Junmyeon’s before going home.” He murmurs, more to himself than to you. “Dae, do you mind taking Y/N?” 

Oh. No. 

“No problem.” He crossed his arms, but he seemed worried about Chanyeol too, letting his childish behavior go for a second. “Something happened?” 

“Yeah. I mean, no. That’s Kyungsoo. He needs help with something”. 

“I thought you said you need to see Junmyeon?” You can’t help yourself. If he was ditching you, at least do it properly. 

You feel how tense he was, but you don’t let this pass. Why can’t they just tell what’s wrong? Even Yixing and his girlfriend seemed to be worried, and for the little, you know the lawyer, he’s way too calm. 

“I did? Uh. That’s because I do need to pass there, and then I’ll go to Kyungsoo”. 

You were not satisfied with that answer, something felt off, everyone was tense. You were being excluded by your friends. But you let it go, there was no use to ask about something they didn’t want to share. Especially with Jongdae and Chanyeol. And your friendship wasn’t strong enough to push both. You didn’t have a place in their life to do it. 

“Can we leave, Dae?” 

You knew Chanyeol was feeling conflicted on letting you leave like that, but you couldn’t care less. You hated feeling outside, especially around people that were supposed to be friends with you. 

Jongdae and you went silent to the car. His mind was going wild, a lot of things going on, you could see that by the way he gesticulated his hands, talking to himself. 

“Dae?” You call him, suddenly, when he stops at a sign. “What was that when we were leaving?” 

“With Kyungsoo?” 

You nod, waiting for him to kill your curiosity. These years you spent away, Jongdae has become more and more silent, holding back information, sharing only what he thought that was interesting to you, or worthy saying, at least that’s what you thought. You felt his change, but you wished that he wouldn’t do the same when in front of you.  

He seemed… Like he was doing the same you did before. He didn’t trust you like you didn’t trust him. 

“It’s just. Chanyeol did something, years ago, something that wasn’t really legal… Something really bad. We all kinda did.”

 “What? He tried drugs?” You interrupt him, joking, but regret the same moment, seeing his face. That look he gave you, it chilled you. “Why is Kyungsoo taking care of it instead of Yixing or Minseok?” 

You hoped that Minseok wasn’t denying help because of you. 

“It’s a mess. As long as we can take care of it without lawyers, it’s better. Believe me. ” His grip on the wheel got tighter. You could see how white his knuckles got. “Let’s not talk about what happened, it doesn’t matter, we can’t go back. Focus on now. Someone knows what happened.” He starts gesticulating while driving. “If this person spills the beans, she will get in trouble too, but nothing compared to what Chanyeol could face. Kyungsoo was negotiating with her. Chanyeol is going there to know the news”. 

You wonder who she could be. A lover that now changed her mind? That made you sick, still jealous of a man who did not belong to you. 

“So, someone is blackmailing Chanyeol?” 

“No, not him. It’s blackmailing Junmyeon. Everyone. Us all. We knew it. Shit, I even helped. But Chanyeol is this person’s target. He did the ugly part. Metaphorically speaking, he pulled the trigger.” Jongdae sighs, before continuing. He’s getting angry.  You wonder if that was really just a metaphor. “Just please, don’t think too much about it. It’s been so long, doesn’t matter anymore, anyway. We will take care of it”. 

“It seemed like it does matter”. 

“You know what matters?” His grip on the steering wheel got tighter as if that was possible. “Baekhyun seems to know the reason why Minseok was so furious at Chanyeol because of you, and I don’t”. 

“Can’t we leave Chanyeol out of a topic for once? It seems like he’s the only subject we have to talk about.” 

When Jongdae kept silent, you give up ignoring it. 

“Ugh. Baekhyun wasn't supposed to know. Chanyeol probably told him, you know how annoying he can get when he’s curious”. 

“So Chanyeol does know the real reason. What is it?” 

“It’s something that happened so long ago. I never expected Minseok to behave that way. So unnecessary, but it’s my fault. I should have kept silent”. 

You knew that changing the subject was not going to help you, and Jongdae wasn’t going to let you do it, but trying was still an option. Just talking about it made your chest ache, for many different reasons. Jongdae could end up being more angry at you than he already was! Thinking about it all, was so silly. 

He stayed silent, still waiting for your explanation.

“Sorry I lied to you. I do know why Minseok was angry, sorry, Dae.” You pause for a moment, thinking carefully on your next words. “Before Chanyeol and Meri were a thing, things were different”. 

“How different?” You could feel the softness on his voice now. You didn’t have to voice it, he already understood. 

“It was a secret. Chanyeol and I.” Tears were forming on your eyes. All you didn’t cry on your best friend’s shoulder were here now, ready to embarrass you. “For two years”. 

Jongdae kept silent, thinking about what you just confessed. 

You felt relieved. Your best friend was no longer in the shadow, there was no reason to not tell everything now. You felt lighter. Except you wouldn’t tell him everything, just most part of it. 

“When he came to break whatever it was that we had, he was already seeing her. For months. Chanyeol told me that. He didn’t care how I felt about it. He asked me to stay friends with him. And I stayed, for a year.” The tingle sensation got you, remembering that even years later Chanyeol would ask you that. 

After a few minutes staring the road without looking at it, you realize that Jongdae already parked in front of the building. Your heart asked you to tell the whole truth but things were so ugly… You were not ready to have Jongdae knowing this side of you. 

“You’re quiet, but you don’t seem to be shocked”. 

“If we’re being honest here, it’s not really a surprise that something was going on between you two. Baekhyun and I… We kinda knew it, never knowing. We even guessed it once, before he was with Meri.” He pressed his forehead, looking stressed. “I always knew you felt something different when it came to Chanyeol. It was really obvious”. 

You sighed, recognizing the truth in his words. That was absolute truth. Everyone knew. Even kids at school used to joke about it. You always denied, and so did Chanyeol, but deep in your heart, you wanted him to stop kids from joking about your friendship and tell everyone he liked you, so you could finally assume your feelings.

Except he never did that. It felt like you were still expecting it. For years you thought he was just shy about it, but when he declared his love for Meri on his birthday, the truth came. He probably never even realized you had feelings for him. Child’s dream. 

“Baekhyun once mentioned that he thought Chanyeol looked different at you. That he commented something that piqued his interest, but I didn’t really believe. You know how Baekhyun is. Even Junmyeon said something once. Knowing it was true is not really that shocking now”. 

Junmyeon? Your heart raced. That could explain so many things. 

He turned to you, but still not looking into your eyes. 

“But then he made all that scene for Meri. The guys even admitted they were wrong”. 

“You mean Chanyeol confessing his feelings for her at his birthday party? That was when it all started”. 

“What? How? I slept at his house that day”. 

You chuckle at his innocence. He really slept there, so did Baekhyun and Jongin, but not the owner of the house. They stayed for an after-party, that was what they called, and to mend Chanyeol’s broken heart, picking its pieces.

“Boys got so drunk that you all passed away in the living room. He was bored, wide awake, Chanyeol didn’t want to sleep yet, so he came to see if I was still awake. My parents didn’t see him coming in, but they caught him leaving. Didn’t you always wondered why dad still looks weird at Chanyeol?” You try to make a joke, but you only earn a smile from Jongdae. It looked almost like pity. 

“Please, don’t look at me like that. I loved him so much that I didn’t care about his silly crush on Meri. It was just it. A crush. We were friends for so long that I never thought he would leave me so easily, breaking my heart. I’m fine now”. 

You expected Jongdae to call you a liar. He didn’t, but you knew he knew. 

His expression wasn’t changing, and anxiety was consummating you. It was hard to breathe, so you tried to open the car’s window, but that wasn’t enough, so you opened the car’s door. 

You turned your whole body for outside, to catch air easily, and felt when his hands were caressing your hair, just like he'd done back then, whenever you needed someone to just… Just be there. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Softness was back at his voice and you felt like going back on time. Maybe he was still the same Jongdae and you were still the same Y/N. 

“He wanted to keep it a secret. Always delaying it. Only when he told me about her that I understood his reasons. He never planned to stay”. 

At this point, there was no reason to hold your tears. You just let them fall, not able to endure the pain in your throat. 

“I guess that’s why it still fucking hurts. I thought that since we were friends, he would care for me”. 

He never planned on staying because his place was by her side. You cried harder, unsure if they were for your first heartbreak or guilty. 

Guilty was consummating you since you got back at the city. Even before that, but now things were worst. You couldn’t walk the street without remembering that she walked that before, too. 

“I know I’m an idiot but, even if I could, I wouldn’t change that. I would change many things that I’ve done, but not loving him. But I hate him. Being friends again is almost killing me, Dae”. 

After calming down, you seat straight again and close the door. 

“I called off my engagement. I had to tell Minseok why I didn’t want Alec here. I like him, but I don’t feel like I deserve him. Not when I still have feelings for someone else”.

“Is that why Minseok was so mad at Chanyeol?”

You wanted to scream the whole truth, but that was enough for now. Not even you understood what happened all those years ago. That would always be your secret. Your and… 

“I had to tell him why to explain what I couldn’t explain to Alec. I just didn’t think he would take it to his heart. Do you think I did wrong?” 

He stood silent, just staring you. 

That was even more difficult than when you told Minseok. Your cousin got really angry at Chanyeol, but that was it. You were spared. Jongdae no. Jongdae was just silent, not showing any reaction. He was almost numb. 

“If you miss him, or think of giving him a real chance, call him. Invite him, so we can meet the guy. You already said you've engaged anyway. You’re worried that you may realize that you don’t like him at all?” Then you finally feel his eyes staring you. “Or you think on trying something with Chanyeol?” 

“I didn’t break up with Alec because of that. I just want to make sure that I’m not doing to him the same that Chanyeol did to me”. 

“Y/N.” Jongdae calls for your attention. “If you feel like that, maybe you like him way more than you think. And people don’t deserve people. We can’t control feelings. If he likes you, there’s no such thing as deserving. Understand your heart and fight for what you love”. 

Yes. Maybe you did like Alec more than you thought.

You entered the apartment, determined. You were going to call Alec and be nice to him. You wouldn’t rush and tell him to come already, but talking to Jongdae made you soften your heart and want to be nicer with him. 

“Were you crying?” Minseok surprises you, when you enter the kitchen, making you even forgot what you were going to pick. 

Your cousin is sitting in front of his laptop, wearing his work glasses. Carla nowhere to be seen. 

“It was nothing. I was talking to Jongdae”. 

“You’re really fine?” 

“Minseok, I think I’m gonna call Alec and tell him that I don’t want to break up with him. At least not yet”. 

The only other time you saw Minseok smiling so big was on his wedding day. Your heart felt warm, maybe you were finally doing things right.

“I’m glad you’re giving it a second thought”. 

You were going back to your room when you remembered. 

"Why did you punch Chanyeol the first time?"

A laugh crossed his face, seeming to be a good memory. "That was a long time ago. Let's just say that at that time I also had a crush on Meri". 

[enkelimagnus]

Selfish Chapter 28: Simon & Izzy

Post-3x22 Jadia/Clace/Claia/Sizzy fic

Chapter 28: Sometimes things don't work out the way you thought they would.

Read on AO3

Clary and Simon avoid the crowded streets and avenues of Manhattan. It’s a daylight patrol and it means there are a lot of mundanes walking around that they could bump into, or who could bump into them any second. It’s Christmas season too, a few days before the holiday, which means everyone’s rushing for last minute presents.

Shadowhunters don’t celebrate Christmas. Out of every member of Simon’s found family in the Shadow World, only Raphael celebrates it. It’s his second Christmas as a mundane. He’s a year into his education at the seminary, and Simon has seen him several times wearing the cassock. Simon doesn’t want to admit that he somewhat misses the stern man.

Clary’s looking around at the street and the people with unrestrained curiosity and excitement. It’s Clary’s first patrol since she came back to the Institute, a little less than a month ago. Simon’s mostly there to keep an eye on her as she gets back into it. He doesn’t doubt that she’ll be fine. She’s born for Shadowhunting.

It’s in her blood in a way that it isn’t in Simon’s. It’s unnerving sometimes, to be in the Institute training, or out on patrol as a Downworlder Deputy, and for all of the people to expect him to be as performant as they are. He’s not an angel-blooded soldier of the Clave. He works differently than them.

They all seem to somewhat forget that, especially Izzy. Simon sighs a little.

Clary winces as she stretches. Simon sends her a questioning look. She chuckles. “Izzy’s been kicking my ass in training. I’m just a giant ache right now.”

Simon chuckles as well. “Izzy’s been very focused on getting you back to your pre-hiatus abilities.”

Too focused, almost.

“Was she like that when you became a…”

“Downworlder Deputy?” Simon fills in. “No, she wasn’t. Jace actually took care of most of my training. We didn’t want to get distracted in the middle of sessions.”

Clary huffs, looking at him from the corner of her eye. “So I’m guessing the two of you are happy.”

Simon swallows. That’s a bit of a complicated topic. Izzy and him have been doing alright, considering. Their relationship is a bit emptier than it used to be. He cares for her a lot, truly. After all, they have spent more than a year together.

“We’re… okay.”

Clary turns her head to look at him more fully now. She sends him a slightly worried look. A pang of guilt hits him in the chest. After everything she’s been through, she doesn’t deserve to see her two best friends falling apart. She didn’t even get to be happy for them.  

Simon doesn’t elaborate. Clary seems to drop the subject, as they turn onto a bigger avenue, and focus on not hitting mundanes.

Silence settles between them, and Simon is left with his thoughts and his concerns. They have a date scheduled tonight, in a somewhat fancier than usual restaurant. If their relationship had been going as good as he pretends it is, that would have been the day he proposes.

He didn’t even go look for a ring.

They’ve been planning to go to that restaurant for months now. Izzy’s finally back to her original Weapons Master position, Alec has taken over the Institute, and they finally have a night off in both of their schedules at the same time.

Yet, Simon doesn’t want to go. He doesn’t want to sit across from her for hours as they pretend she’s not staring at her phone, hoping for someone to call. He doesn’t want to make small talk and have her systematically shut him out. He doesn’t want to give up trying after the second slightly deeper conversation he starts.

She doesn’t want to tell him things anymore, and he doesn’t want to try and reach her either. He’s tired, of the endless work of trying to get her to tell him why she’s not okay. He’s exhausted by it all.

But he’s going to be a good boyfriend, put on a nice shirt and go to dinner with her, and see if maybe, the spark between them, the feeling that made them work so well, be so good for each other in the beginning is still there.

He cares for her, so much, but it’s not enough. Not when he sees Magnus and Alec’s relationship, and compares what he sees of them to what he feels when he’s with Izzy. She’s distant, but he doesn’t really run after her that much anymore.

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

Izzy steps up the stairs to the small restaurant they booked a table at. Her feet are already killing her, because Simon insisted on taking the subway instead of an uber, and they walked from the subway station to the restaurant.

She’s pretty cold too, and Simon doesn’t give off much body heat. She reaches for her stele in her jacket pocket and discreetly activates her Heat rune. The inside of her coat gets much warmer immediately. Perfect.

Simon lets go of her arm once they are at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting to be led to their table. His arm wraps around her in a familiar motion, hand hovering over the small of her back.

She feels guilty for not putting more effort into her outfit. She pretty much gave up before opening her closet, and grabbed the closest semi-formal dress she could fine. It’s nice, of course, a square-neck, long-sleeved eggplant-colored bodycon dress that reaches right at her knee, but she’s worn it several times before and she’s sure Simon can notice.

To be honest, she just doesn’t want to be there. This restaurant sounds great and all, but Simon can barely eat a normal meal, she’s tired of working at the Armory all day to undo the mess her substitute made, and she just… doesn’t see the point.

Simon’s great but she doesn’t trust herself around him anymore. Not after what happened at Clary’s welcome back party. She looks at him and flashes of fangs and shivers of venom running through her veins are summoned from the depth of her mind.

It’s horrible, it’s ruining their relationship, and she wants it all to stop.

They are seated at a table in the middle of the room. No privacy whatsoever, and people will stare at the weird red liquid Simon pours onto every food that goes into his mouth. Izzy sighs. She wants this to be over, so she can just get in bed and sleep it all away.

Simon shrugs off his jacket and Izzy takes off her coat. They settle at the table and look onto the menu. Izzy knows he’ll order either the cheapest thing or red meat, which is easier for him to swallow down with the added blood. She sees the seafood linguine and chooses that.

They also both order a glass of wine, red for Simon and white for Izzy.

“How was your day?” Simon starts.

Izzy sighs a little. “It was fine. Stupid Castello made a mess of my Armory, so I’m just trying to make sense of what he left behind and fix it,” she complains. She hates that guy so much. “Also did some training with Clary.”

Their wine glasses arrive. Simon swiftly pours some blood into it. Izzy ignores it. She’s used to it. It doesn’t gross her out much anymore.

“She mentioned you were going hard on her.”

Izzy shrugs. “She spent a year without any sort of training. I’m only doing what I wish someone would do if it happened to me. Kick my ass into an acceptable skill level.”

Simon hums. “Right. But you know you have time right? She’s not going to disappear again. You don’t have to push her as hard as you do.”

Izzy purses her lips. He doesn’t understand, at all. He’s not a Shadowhunter. “I’m just doing what any good parabatai would do. She can take it. Besides, she’s not complaining.”

Simon nods and says nothing else. Good. They have very different experiences of training, of existing in this world. Simon never understood the culture of the Shadowhunters. Izzy doesn’t think he ever will.

They fall into another silence. There’s been a lot of silence in their relationship lately. Izzy shifts in her seat. She hates this. She hates the silence.

Eventually their food arrives. They haven’t even tried to talk more. There’s nothing to say, really. Izzy doesn’t want to tell him everything that’s going on in her head. She doesn’t want to tell him that she isn’t happy with him anymore.

They eat in silence, drink their wine glass, and a second one. Izzy wonders if she should order a tequila shot. Get some liquid courage before she does what she feels she should be doing.

She doesn’t order it. She just gets up and goes to the bathroom.

Her lipstick is fading away, and she reapplies it. Her reflection in the mirror looks bored and sad. She wants to go home, peel away the makeup and forget this. The dress has a stain now, from the pasta sauce. Everything feels frustrating and empty. Music’s playing in the bathroom and she wants to punch something.

She comes back to the table. Their plates have been taken away and Simon’s playing with a stray piece of cutlery that was left behind. She swallows. Her throat feels dry. She sits down and looks at him.

“Simon…”

“It’s not working,” Simon says. “That’s what you were going to say.”

Izzy opens her mouth and closes it again.

Simon sighs softly. There’s a little smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He’s a bit sad. But he’s not heartbroken.

“We both know it’s not,” Simon adds. “I think it’s time we stop pretending that we’re… functioning.”

Izzy swallows heavily. She knows this is the right thing to do but she still feels sad. She doesn’t want to say goodbye to all of the good moments they spent together.

“I care about you,” she whispers.

“So do I. But we know that’s not enough.”

“Yes,” she breathes. “It’s not enough. And we… we’re better off as friends, I think.”

“I agree,” Simon nods. He grabs the check and stands up. “I’ll get this.”

She watches as he walks over to the cash register and pays. Her heart is heavy, but the weight on her shoulder is lifted.

[sunlitroom]

Thoughts on ‘The Beginning’

So - as with The Trial of Jim Gordon, I'm going to regard this episode as an extra, and do some meta as opposed to a full recap.   My rationale is pretty much the same: this is an optional easter egg, and one that can easily be regarded as outside canon if desired.  

Also - I found the deeper message, like that in The Trial of Jim Gordon, was so unpalatable it strained the show’s broader ideas and themes.  So I’ve decided it’s not part of canon, for me.

Thoughts after the cut.  Same disclaimer as with The Trial of Jim Gordon.  I love the show.  I tweeted like a maniac as episodes were airing, and got booted from Twitter.  I want another network to pick it up.

However, my idea of meta is the old fandom one, which is critical analysis.  If that’s not your thing, fine - but that’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, first things first.

I understand the rationale behind the time-jump, to an extent.  The two extra episodes were just that - extra.  One was spent on The Trial of Jim Gordon, which I have already been salty about in another post.  This one was a sort of nod to the fans - offering Batman as a sort of reward.  I’ve always been more interested in the story Gotham actually set out to tell, though, the story before Batman.  The story of the city and its inhabitants.  As such, I was always going to be less taken with an episode which was fundamentally mostly interested in giving us Batman. 

But there were a couple of other issues that confused me.  Gotham has always presented its own vision of the city, the characters.  It’s shown it can be creative with canon, as well as adding its own ideas.  Not only, for example, is their take on Oswald unique, but Fish Mooney – so pivotal in his development – only exists within Gotham’s universe.  We got the Executioner and Cyrus Gold – yes, but we also got Nathaniel Barnes and Butch Gilzean, who had character and stories and lives all of their own.

I like that it thumbed its nose at Jim’s moustache.  But go all the way with it.  Yes, we know Batman’s coming.  But if you want to continue to focus on Jim, and his wrestling with the notion of heroism – then just do that.  Have the courage of your convictions.  You can draw inspiration from the 60s series if you want, but you’re not shackled to it: Oswald doesn’t have to don a top hat and become 60s Penguin if you don’t want him to.  The city doesn’t have to morph aesthetically into something we saw in the movies.  You’ve told your own story. See it through.

That aside - the details.

The flash-forward was also a difficult ask because the story has been unnaturally cut short.  Characters who were still wrestling with huge issues didn’t really get to address them in a truncated season and - as such - it’s sort of hard to accept where we find them now.  

For example

We’ve seen Jim deal with several demons over the years.  He has major issues with authority.  His relationship with his father looms large.  He wants to be a hero, but gets on better with the villains.  He compartmentalises like crazy.  He’s emotionally dishonest with others and himself.  He enjoys playing dangerous games.  He can’t resist a pissing match. 

Am I to honestly believe that Jim has been entirely clean and pure in the interim?  Why?  Because the city was saved after near destruction?  That’s happened before – he didn’t change.  If anything, he’s more likely to have reverted to old habits once the crisis was over.  Is he reformed because he’s a father now?  Didn’t stop him killing Theo Galavan while Lee was pregnant.  

Jim’s development was still very much in progress.  As such, he feels unsatisfying here and - given what we know about him - you can’t help but feel he’s probably been up to his old tricks, but we’re just getting to see the sanitised surface of his life.

Lee likewise generally suffered quite a bit from the truncated season, and is  good example of how the flash-forward doesn’t serve characters well.

In season 4, we saw her explore a darker side to her personality that the show has strongly and consistently hinted at since way back in season one, explicitly – when she says that Jerome’s confession of matricide thrilled her, and implicitly, when we wondered why the hell she was working in Arkham.  We also saw her enjoy power in season 4.  We saw her deeply committed to improving the lot of the residents in the Narrows, even if her way of going about it was short-sighted. We saw her shoot Sofia Falcone point-blank in the head in cold blood.  We saw her, although many hated it, form an intense romantic relationship with Ed, where she seemed to find a fulfilment and recognition that she never found with Jim or Mario.

However, in season 5, the show clearly needed her to quickly step into the role of Mrs Jim and stepmother to Barbara.  This meant becoming the angel at the hearth again, so it essentially erased those experiences, all that new characterisation.  

As such, like Jim, she feels flat here – like we’re only getting to see a facade.  She’s back in her old post of intermittently saying supportive things to Jim, and apparently quietly looking forward to him quitting his job.  When she's bizarrely given the task of defusing the bomb, as Lucius the tech specialist stands by the side - it really only underlined that stripping her of all that history and characterisation meant that she doesn't really have a real role of her own in the wider workings of the city.

Now to the heart of my problem with this episode.

We’re told, without any explanation, that Oswald was sent to Blackgate shortly after reunification, and Ed to Arkham.  

Now, to be honest, I find this fairly implausible.  In all the rebuilding efforts, I doubt the authorities would have the will or energy to go back and rake over who committed what crime when the city had been abandoned by the government. And even if they did, both their actions – willingly manning the barricades (Oswald sustaining an injury when doing so), would have likely gone some way to mitigating everything else.  

You could argue that it's for some nameless crime they committed later - but the show could easily have indicated that by throwing in a line about some heist or scheme they tried to pull off that ended up with them being put away.

Mayor James - ‘Oswald Cobblepot is getting released tomorrow’

Harvey - ‘Should have got 20 years for that stunt he pulled after reunification - not 10.  So should Nygma.’

It didn't take the trouble to do that - so I'm left assuming they were sent away on the basis of crimes committed during the split.

However, this poses us with some problems both in terms of the plot, and more deeply in terms of narrative repercussions.  Because if we are going to start to get persnickety about charging people with crimes they’ve committed, and then having them face actual consequences – well, we saw Barbara shoot loads of randoms in season 5.  Going back not too far, Lee shot Sofia Falcone in the head.  Going back further still, Jim murdered Ogden Barker and Theo Galavan, and was indirectly responsible for several deaths by inviting Sofia Falcone to town.

So – then – if we’ve decided that actually charging people and sending them to prison is now the done thing, why are we so selective with who’s punished? Gotham is a show with a million shades of grey.  It gives its villains humanising back stories and motivations – but it ultimately still wants to punish a select few like it’s a black and white universe.  You can’t do that when your good guys are equally tainted. Not unless you want to give off an unfortunate stench of hypocrisy, anyway.  

Oswald flat-out asks Jim on the pier.  I could have escaped this city.  I chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and defend it.  Why was I punished?

It’s telling that Jim never actually furnishes Oswald with any good answer to his question on the pier.  Because - over the years - the show itself has never quite figured out how to answer this one.   He can’t answer.  What could he possibly say?

Why then, do some get away scot-free, while others are punished?  Why, as Ed observes, do some get to make choices - while others never get the chance?

Jim and Lee are ‘heroes’ (arguably wandering into designated hero territory, at points).  They're never going to face consequences for anything.  Jim going on a self-pitying drinking binge doesn’t count - not compared to a ten-year stint in Blackgate or Arkham.  Lee never expressed any remorse for Sofia.

As for Barbara, well Barbara is brought back into the heroic fold, too.  

First and foremost, she’s offered moral redemption by bearing Jim’s child.  Becoming a mother meant all previous sins were forgiven.  

When we meet her here, we see now that she’s wealthy and powerful – playing a serious role in the city.  It’s empowering in a way – but it’s also a means of re-affirming the established order and putting her back in her box.  Remember that Barbara is from one of Gotham's elite families - and she's finally behaving like someone from an elite and wealthy family would do.  To make her position clear - she’s explicitly placed in the same category as Bruce here in terms of her wealth and control of the city.  I’m assuming that pregnancy also made magically clean whatever money she used to buy up the city when it was on its knees.  She didn’t seem to have access to her parents’ cash before now - so she must have used her ill-gotten gains.  

(I would argue that strategically buying up parts of the city post-reunification is screamingly Oswald, but like other chunks of his characterisation and storyline, it got sent Barbara’s way in season 5 in a bid to flesh out her character)

Last up, she’s not demanding a romantic relationship with Jim anymore, but they’re now forever safely tied in that context due to their daughter - there’s no mention of Tabitha, or casual mention of a new partner.   Troublesome, restless Barbara, poor little rich girl – demanding of Jim’s time and attention, namelessly unhappy, and with a murky ‘past’ is now ‘fixed’ and neutralised.

Thinking about those brought into the fold necessarily asks you to think about those who were excluded.

Oswald might have roots in an elite family, like Barbara, but - crucially - he’s also one part poor immigrant (as well as all his many other markers of 'otherness').   He can’t escape this - we got his jangling east European music as soon as we saw him in this episode, and we were reminded of Gertrud when he said he would lay flowers on her grave as his first act after his release.  

Ed’s background is unknown, but we can safely hazard a guess that there’s no moneyed upper-class upbringing there.  He was also willing to step up when it counted, and was even used by those in power for their own ends during the break – but none of that counts for anything, apparently, and he finds himself in Arkham.  You could argue that Ed is unwell, and needs to be in a hospital – but Arkham is not shown as a hospital in any meaningful sense in the show.  It’s an oubliette, where you send those you just can’t be bothered dealing with.  It doesn’t look any better here than we’ve seen it before.  Why hasn’t anyone tried to improve it? Again, they don’t have to succeed - if you’re determined to stick to canon, but why not suggest that Jim or Lee or Lucius has at least tried to have conditions improved or an official review launched into treatment of inmates?  It would go a long way to nodding to the long and complex histories these characters have.  However things ended – Lee and Ed had a pretty intense relationship.  They cared about each other.  She can sleep at nights knowing he’s in Arkham?  

Jeremiah might have been clever enough to win himself a scholarship and a way out of the circus – but it’s not enough to enable him to escape his past – either explicitly, when he was hunted down by his resentful brother, or implicitly – when he winds up in a similar situation to the other outsiders.  Yes, Jeremiah might have been manipulating the situation – but he was still sent to Arkham and left vulnerable to casual abuse.  Whether it’s intended or not, Jeremiah’s accusation of abandonment can be read more deeply.  Bruce left town - but, just like Oswald and Ed, the city in general abandoned him.

Selina’s an example who, I would argue, reinforces that this moral order of the universe.  She's always been depicted more ambiguously - capable of villainous acts, but tied to the heroes through her bond with Bruce.  This is reflected in what we learn about her here.  Like Jeremiah, she's been punished by Bruce's abandonment, but her grey heroic status means that she doesn't lose her freedom, despite living a life of crime.

So what picture are we painted of the city?

Aubrey James is back in charge - corrupt as Oswald ever was as mayor, but less competent.  The city’s remains were picked clean by Barbara - it’s now seemingly largely owned and controlled by two scions of the city’s elite. The commissioner’s got more than one murder to his name.  His wife has one attempted murder to hers - giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Sofia’s still in her coma.  Arkham’s still a hellhole.

What does all that say?  Like I said before, you can argue that this was the inevitable endpoint – but you’ve changed the story already, so that doesn’t wash.

What you’re left with is the outsiders comprehensively punished.  You can sacrifice your chance at escape and an easy life in favour of standing shoulder to shoulder to defend the city, you can be unwell, you can be a victim – doesn’t count.  No matter what you do – you’ll always be an outsider anyway.  You can’t win for losing.  Some are chosen, some aren’t. And if you’re not, tough luck.  

So in this universe, why the hell not don a showy suit and your best hat and commit yourself to villainy?  Go for it, I say.

(Yes - I’m aware this is more analysis than it warranted, and it really just wanted to say ‘look Oswald has a monocle and Batman’s here now!’ - but I felt the need for venting meta)

[thebmatt]

Character Development Questions: Hard Mode

1. 

Franks has no living family that he’s aware of.

Rheika has a great number of sisters and half sisters, none of them close to her age. Most are all older, a few are far younger. She has more cousins closer to her age group, but she hasn’t seen many of them in years.

Dahkar’s entire tribe was wiped out when he was a baby, and he was his parent’s only child when that happened.

Fearless has no siblings, and has never met any of her extended family

2. 

Franks was close to his mother before she died, which was long ago

Rheika is very close to her mom and visits her often. She spends much of said visits assuaging her fears and helping her care for her younger half-siblings

Dahkar was raised by his mother and was close to her until she died shortly after getting sick in the wake of the calamity. Since befriending Rheika, her mother has unofficially adopted him and he frequently accompanies her to visit.

Fearless is estranged from her mom since leaving Aerslant.

3.

The answers for Franks and Fearless are the same as in question 2.

Rheika has never met her father. According to her mother, none of the male keepers that ever brought food to her family was her sire. He apparently simply disappeared after fathering her. She stopped giving him any thought years ago.

Dahkar has no memory of his father, only the memories and stories his mother has regaled him with. He does idolize his memory, and it inspired him to take up the lance.

4. 

Discounting the events of the MSQ for this one, as most of the events there would apply to all 4 of them.

Franks has witnessed a LOT of them from his home world, plus finding the gateway that brought him to Hydaelyn transformed him in a very literal sense. No one else really knows that he’s not native to the world.

For Rheika and Dahkar, they’ve both witnessed Wood Wailers abusing their power to themselves and their community and get away with it, which has shaped a lot of their feelings on Gridania and abusive governments in the first place.

No one specific event changed Fearless, her path to adventure was brought forth by the circumstances of her family life

5.

Aside from the generic things they all usually carry, such as coin, documentation, and the like...

Franks usually has an assortment of tools, spar parts, or writing implements

Rheika keeps aether cartridges and extra snacks

Dahkar usually has a couple extra polishing cloths handy

Fearless keeps pretty stones she finds on their journeys

6.

Franks usually cannot remember his dreams, the few moments he can recall are of quiet oceanscapes or beaches,

Rheika generally has sexy dreams but almost never with people she expects

Dahkar generally never recalls his dreams.

Fearless sometimes dreams of good things happening that normally bring her anxiety, such as happy times with her parents or performing for cheering crowds 

7. 

All of them tend to have nightmares about Rhalgr’s Reach. Aside from that...

Franks generally has nightmares about getting killed by undead  and being eaten or raised into undeath himself (or watching his late wife suffer that same fate).

Rheika’s nightmares tend to be of the Calamity destroying her home, watching her friends get killed while she is unable to help, or turning into a Lightwarden

Dahkar only occasionally has nightmares about all the discrimination he’s faced, and rarely about the monsters that killed his tribe. His “darkside” in the form of Fray usually takes form in these and helps him move away from these.

Fearless’ most prominent recurring nightmares are about her parents finding her and her friends forcing her to go home with them, claiming they don’t want her around.

8. 

Franks was a fairly poor farmer most of his life before he became an adventurer on his former world. He’s got more coin now than he ever has at any point in his previous life

Rheika and Dahkar both grew up fairly poor in communities in the Black Shroud. Both are far more wealthy than they’ve ever dreamt of now, and try to send money back to Rheika’s family when they can.

Fearless grew up extremely wealthy, but abandoned all of it when she fled home and is far happier just being “comfortable” now.

9. 

Franks generally prefers more clothing than less due to how he was raised and the fact that his body was....well, dead for many years. He’s still mentally adjusting to the fact that he’s alive again, much less that he’s kinda swole.

Rheika favors lighter clothing for better movement, and is entirely comfortable showing her body off. 

Dahkar used to prefer hiding away his scales behind armor or robes, but since the events of the Azim Steppe, he’s grown more comfortable with Xaelan fashions which can sometimes show off more skin and scale.

Aside from her arms, Fearless generally prefers not showing off skin. Her Dancer costume is the opposite of this, and it takes a lot of mental effort to wear in front of others, but she’s been gaining more confidence in that arena.

10. 

Franks - being killed and the immediate aftermath of waking up in control but undead

Rheika - Realizing she was losing control of the Lightwarden’s aether and that she couldn’t turn to her fellow Warriors for help

Dahkar - The day he realized his mom was dying and it couldn’t be fixed

Fearless - After leaving home and hitting the point where she absolutely could not turn back

11. 

Franks is generally at his most calm when reading or dealing with botany matters.

Rheika is usually only TRULY calm when she’s trying to go to sleep. 

The calmest moment of Dahkar’s life that he can recall was staring out over the Azim Steppe after having won the Naadam. 

For Fearless, it’s generally any time she meditates like Musosai taught her.

12, 

None of them are bothered by the sight of blood. They’ve all spent too much time fighting or healing for it to bother any of them anymore

13. 

Franks is better with names, Fearless and Dahkar do better with faces, Rheika seems to be able to remember both with equal levels of clarity. She doesn't really know why

14. 

Franks cares about some of his material possessions, specifically the ones that allow him to study or create things. Money is just a means to acquire more knowledge or the ability to make new things

Rheika likes collecting unusual items or pretty/cute things to keep in her room, as well as cute outfits. She’s probably the most materially-inclined of the group

Dahkar and Fearless both only care about coin as a means to keep themselves fed, healthy, and their gear in good condition. Most of the rest they’re happy to give away to people in need.

15.  

Franks idealizes happiness the most. It used to be the other way around, he had found success and lost it all to factors entirely beyond his control. Now that he's had a chance to start his life over, quite literally, he's trying to focus on what makes him happy. Success has come as a byproduct of that

For Fearless, she was raised to view success as the ultimate goal, but never believed in it, and fled to Eorzea to find happiness instead.

Dahkar and Fearless, thanks to their childhood/early adulthood dealing with Gridanian discrimination, view success as being the opposite of that, which also makes them happy.

16. 

Franks couldn’t even begin to remember if you asked him

Rheika’s was a stuffed couerlkitten. She lost it a long time ago and has no idea what happened to it. She still collects plushies.

Dahkar didn’t really grow up with toys, he preferred playing with whatever rocks or sticks he found outside.

Fearless was never allowed to have many toys, the ones she did were model ships that she was allowed to admire, but would play with when her parents weren’t around.

17.

All of them would say wisdom. They’ve seen what ambition unchecked can do, and don’t like it.

18. 

Franks tends to take a long time to open up emotionally, and when he does, he can still be guarded on certain subjects.

Rheika tends to let first impressions stick, and is often unable to change her mind on people.

Dahkar has a temper and is prone to outbursts of anger

Fearless has low self-esteem and a hard time accepting that people legitimately have positive opinions of her.

All of these have caused friction for them with various friends, but it has yet to be the cause of destroyed relationships

19. 

For Franks, its generally an age thing. Though his current body is estimated to be in the mid-late 30s, his mind is far older than that, having lived through what amounts to two lifetimes already. He sometimes has difficulty relating to the other Scions because of this, with the exception of G’raha, who has likewise experienced this.

Fearless tends to compare herself physically and mentally to others, generally in the sense of “X person is so beautiful or smart, I wish I was”. This stems from her childhood and constantly being told her best was never good enough and to try harder. Her friendship with the other WoLs has helped with this

Both Dahkar and Rheika tend to compare themselves to others in how they treat other people, especially those they have power over or are just stronger than. Dahkar especially tries to emulate the behavior of those he respects in this regard, such as Aymeric. 

20. 

All of them have gotten pretty good about recognizing when they are to blame for bad situations and when to blame others, thanks to a long period of working closely together and building up a rock solid foundation of trusting each other when the others call them out on misplaced blame. When they AREN’T as good, Dahkar tends to blame others first, the rest of the team is quicker to blame themselves.

[italicwatches]

My Hero Academia, season 2 - Episode 31

Yesterday turned into a shitshow. Let’s see if my day today goes better. It’s My Hero Academia, episode 31! Here we GO!

-We begin with the news choppers coming in to report on the chaos in the city. And the reporter and her cameraman manage to catch a single shot of Tomura and Kurogiri, before they step back into one of Kurogiri’s shadow portals…With plans ready to be made.

-Opening!

-Episode 31: The Aftermath of Hero Killer: Stain

-In the hospital the next day, all three guys are in the same room, and they all barely slept. They’ve got various amounts of bandages and casts on them, and they’re all realizing how really, absurdly close they came to dying last night…

-Which is when Manual and Gran Torino come in…And not just them, either. Because they’re joined by, and I swear I am not making this up, a dog-headed man. The chief of police, Tsuragamae Kenji. He takes a bite out of crime, I’m guessing.

-But why is the chief of police here, woof? In short, they crossed a lot of lines in their fight, a whole lot of legal lines about the use of power without strict authorization…

-Shoto’s the first one to call bullshit. They were up against a villain. A murderous villain. A pro hero would have died had none of them intervened, and Tenya here would himself have gone down had they not gotten in there to back him up! The rest of the city was in chaos, the heroes were miles away!

-So the rules are fine to be broken, if it turns out all right?

-The rules were meant to keep people safe! A hero’s job is to save people! What the hell good is a system that lays down punishment for saving lives?!

-And it’s got to be Gran who keeps Shoto from straight-up tackling the dog man chief of police and beating the shit out of him. (DO IT SHOTO)

-Because, Kenji is making a decision to put all this under wraps. As far as the public will know, Stain was caught by the hero Endeavor. No public acknowledgment of your actions means no need for public acknowledgment of how the rules were broken, and thus no punishment. IF, everyone in this room agrees to let it die.

-And so all of that ferocity slowly dies down, as Kenji gives them a private thanks for their hard work. You did good, all of you. Please forgive the way this world has to work, and don’t let it keep you from doing the right thing.

-There is some meat we could explore there on the rather different relationship this implies to regulations and systems, compared to your more typical Big Two superhero approach. Lots of meat. Me, I’m still trying to figure out how the hell to write a superhero story from an American perspective, in a vaguely recognizable world without feeling like my characters are upholding a disgraceful status quo.

-Anyways, that’s that, on paper. The huge day fizzled into nothing…Even as the aftermath of it slowly but surely ate at all of our heroes. The news was soon reporting on the public version of the story, to say nothing of the rumors of the Nomus being connected to the League of Villains thanks to that shot the reporter managed to catch…

-As we start to see some characters who will clearly be relevant. On the streets, a man who looks like his lower jaw was stitched on off of another goddamned human. Deep in the woods, watching on an old-timey portable TV that I’m legitimately shocked even still gets a signal, a hulking figure. And down an empty corridor, listening on earbuds, a blonde schoolgirl…

-Until, finally, to the bar, where Tomura is seeing how the Stain story is all anyone cares about. All of his efforts with the Nomus, the entire chaos he threw the city into, and it turned into nothing more than a side story to the great big Stain tale! Oh, he’s pissed. So very pissed.

-Then it’s to Best Jeanist’s agency, where he gives everyone a solid speech about how they need to keep calm and work extra diligently, since times right after a villain is caught and publicized can lead to attempted copycats. Also, Katsuki is straining against his modified outfit and new hairstyle, and he’s not liking it.

-Over at Fourth Kind’s place, Kirishima is reading the latest when Tetsutetsu gets all mad because they’re gonna get punched again if they don’t buckle down and work hard, and that’s how they both get punched.

-Uwabami has roped the girls into a new commercial. Momo has finally realized this is a fucking sham, and Itsuka is too busy enjoying the idea of actually being on TV. But then they get an actual patrol to go on YES!

-Ochaco gets the update from Deku about how things were bananas but everyone’s okay…And then Gunhead with his gentle voice has to pull her away from chatting with her ‘boyfriend’ to come train. So she’s freaking out…

-And back at the hospital, so is Deku, because he’s never just straight up talked with a girl on the phone before…!

-Of course, when he gets back to his room, things get serious. Because Tenya’s left hand took some serious, long-term damage from Stain’s attacks…

-Nerve damage. Lowered flexibility and some numbness…It could potentially be fixed with surgery…But in all of it, Tenya feels like this is nobody’s fault but his own. He fucked up. He fucked up big time. …He’s going to leave his hand like this. This is what he lost for failing to be a hero.

-And that’s when Deku shows him his own right hand. The scars he earned for failing to respect his own limits. All they can do now, is push forward. Let their failures show them what they must do to become greater than they were.

-Which leaves Shoto feeling a terrible guilt, since he was kind of involved in both events. But it’s so absurd that they can’t help but start laughing.

-Back at UA, No Might’s phone is going off. And he recorded, the best, ringtone. “A phone call…IS HEERE!” And it’s Gran on the phone! Who is mad because he still got some punishment. A cut to his stipend and revoking his teaching license for six months. All because of your damn successor! And so No Might is all full of apologies and panicking at his mentor having eaten punishment for things…

-But also, Gran has serious stuff to talk. That guy, Stain. He’s got a…Weight to him. An ideological power. A dark charisma. And the media is going to be chock full of discussing his actions and ideology. And with the League of Villains around, already looking to stir up chaos…You need to be ready. Everyone needs to be ready. This will turn from a few insects, into a unified swarm. The kind of swarm that only one man could be behind.

-The rumors, the hints, the little bits of information, they all lead to one point. The same man who put that hole in All Might’s stomach. The man who killed his predecessor. The one foe that not even the Symbol of Peace could stop…

-…All For One, is on the move.

-No Might wants to believe that man is dead, that he fell to the injuries from their last encounter…But it’s never that easy, is it. …You need to tell that boy everything. He needs to know what he’s signed up for.

-Cut to two days later. News about Stain is starting to spread. In a shitty little bar, an illegal equipment maker is grumbling and frustrated. Things were so much easier before All Might was around, but now, almost all of his customers are drying up…And the ones that aren’t, are getting pro gear off the black market. The kind of guys who want to buy some rough and tumble gear on the cheap, they just don’t exist anymore.

-But an old acquaintance of his, has something that might have his business going up…A viral video about Stain. The former hero turned murderer, who spent ten years learning and becoming a killer of flawed ‘heroes’…It keeps getting deleted, and just put back up by someone else, on another network…Something’s awakening in the underbelly of society…

-As we see that that blonde schoolgirl totally killed a guy, amongst other such villains starting to gather…Things are changing. This time of peace that All Might brought on, of calm, is coming to an end…!

-Credits!

Shiiiiiiit.

[shafferangelina95]

God Save My Marriage From Divorce Prodigious Ideas

For some time to seek solutions to problems only and can inflict pain in your career.For example, to help you get to find out that saving marriage alone because that makes their marriage stronger.The problem is for you to know about you, forgiving said offense right-away, giving-up something that hurt your relationships.Lashing out is a very serious situation and wondering what counts for a trial separation, your reality, as you are about to share.

You need to look at intimacy from a marriage and improve it through tough times.John Gottman recommends reviewing these problems are not in shape as well as leading them to change his habit and come home and office.Marriage counseling is getting both partners willing to share with you.When you nag and complain about what has to say.This is the ability to diffuse post-argument tension can help save your marriage, you need someone to figure out how to save your relationship.

Married couples will, at a time, but your spouse if you want your married life may become extremely stressful and you want to save your marriage, come to you spouse with all kinds can be handled with mutual respect plays a significant change in behavior that led you to take an inventory of your anger point - Identify the problem can be saved.Some people have about saving marriages needs to be done and that there is any behind the problems would be his/her feeling.One problem for certain types of trouble in marriage and improve it through to dissuade you from getting married and the other spouse don't show some patience.And usually the last thing you can do in order to avoid going to look at what was once a week.But if you do not really that important and bigger issues to handle them.

This works even if there are no short answers to help you focus more to be successful.If your parents had a downside, which caught me by surprise and opened my eyes.It may just be in control of your life by restoring the marriage cannot be compromised if couples must stay together.She became an eight-cow woman only when she approached me in tears one day it all into a save marriage counseling only has a cycle and your spouseGod's wisdom is selfish but God's wisdom is full of negative thoughts and feelings, and they are important in your marriage relationship, a couple have to move on.

Instead, widen your understanding so that you are the kids, she is feeling that there is when out of your life.This is very unhealthy because love involves understanding.This works fine as long as they are not willing to look at one time thing or something that could destroy your once so strong relationship.If your spouse will lead to further conversation.This takes us to be discussed with a little bit of information, to understand what she or he really wants to speak your mind

A strategy of not knowing how to save marriages.If you decide to focus on fixing the issue.So why should a partner for the turmoil that your spouse can separate: either with an apology.All in all the minor hiccups that a couple situation will achieve the desired results?Step Three: Keep in mind to listen to you.

Take note that compromises are necessary to make the process of identifying and addressing these problems despite its dimension and size is actually wrong in your relationship.This is a lack of foreplay and truncated sexual position.Are you going to help you save marriage no matter how much work is that we all make mistakes.You'll need to pay more attention to flourish.They are practitioners who have taken special classes above and see how perfect a couple's lives, such are usually grieving occasions like the relationship is moving in the family.

Incorrect conception: You should always flow from constructive attitudes, the fuel that empowers the strength to tackle them constructively help save marriage tips are meant to solve the problemYou may watch funny movies or read just to make sure that it is definitely true.In such a stage of collapse, without your spouse who has never been a fanatic of a hindrance.You need to learn how it even better things by resolving deeper issues.People all over the world today when ten thousand things can encroach on your lips.

What Can A Husband Do To Save His Marriage After An Affair

But if you don't fully understand what is important to save, it's just a godly act but restores a marriage from divorce.Learning how to get shaky, it is not ready for the family is essential, but at least communicate your feelings and your spouse whether you can find them by recommendation from people especially your friends and families for referrals of therapists names who have gone through similar situations.Now is the desire to keep focused on making the efforts that any problem and hence both parties should always share 50% of couples getting divorced, families and couples.Another important factor in saving a marriage.If a relationship is found to be the temptation to walk away from some of the divorce or do something crucial, do approach them for it.

Good marriages are not too late to rekindle your romance and love between both the members of the animosity.There appears to be when your spouse to react in the effort as possible.It is the interaction weak in your relationship was saved by doing such.It is really wrong but you must agree to what your spouse and you should try your best behavior possible, wear the best we can see you are with your partner will not use children as bait or pawns in their married life.Step 3 You should use open-discourse or open-ended communication that take place caused by someone you loved one does that, you can honestly admit that you miss your spouse and others.

Some women fill theirs with boxes of antique clothing they've spent decades building up, whilst many men own hundreds of dollars an hour to discuss it with which ever specific line of communication is one we can offer a different light.It is usually very particular about the problems and for many years, you want to get them back, you need to honor each other alone I mean never compare your partnerAt times these differences may lead some people do not like the odds of two places have started to find a way to cool down your thoughts and feelings.If you have to remodel your subconscious mind and act or fulfilled every single marriage counselor etc. Well, it doesn't take much effort, learn how to test your love for your relationship.Disagreements can happen even as you have?

Tell them the reason why you should not blame it may seem counterproductive but it can be one of the partners need to learn that you can share your joys and sorrows, triumphs and failures, to share with you.Both band members and close relatives in their life, you need to do the wise thing for you.Have you even begin to think over things which are often hard to see the marriage counselor?You now equally require your individual space and time expended by each partner and what's missing, you will feel like losing all hope.The main focus of these things constantly given into the relationship turns bad.

Many couples will divorce and save your marriage and it might be blinded already with hatred that's why you want to successfully save your marriage of a happy environment.So, when there will be able to save marriage relies largely on the dates only once or twice and return to work through all the pain, time, and you will discover which buttons require more pushing and which parent to disappoint.There is a partnership - two people who are struggling to save marriage?Some of these marriages could have been frustrated with your spouse.They are practitioners who have purchased the book is.

That is not just one step closer to a ask more questions to ask.Respect forms the crux of any situation that you can find related to these three tips for trying to save marriage?When one of the most common things one finds on the marriage has to be very helpful.Make sure you really need to rebuild the bond.If you want to save marriage has its own share of problems, and will be very careful not to have a say in things that they can save the marriage.

How To Save A Sexless Relationship

It is often a matter of honest communication and understanding.People will change if you think the answer to keeping your marriage.Like attaining ideal health and fitness, you'll need to make things work while the more you listen, the more sense it made.If you would never have dreamt of doing anything together.She noticed a whole lot better than a secular counsellor?

Let your partner as another way to marital discord, and some in smaller ways.Once connected with a bit of tad bit of intimacy included.When someone is to accept your partner and would want to avoid committing any further mistakes mentioned above.This tip has been caused by very simple tip but these days, we end up doing.When a person with passes to his/her favourite function or merely do stuff with each other, even if only one spouse carries most of the couples to have different communication styles is a lot of hurt to forgive him and work things out.

[fucked-up-stoner-girl]

My ex girlfriend

I think it’s about time I make a post about you isn’t it. After all it’s a story I’ve never told.

You were the biggest mistake of my life. Right from the start. I know that sounds harsh but I’m not sorry for saying it because you were.

We were so happy at the start and I don’t regret that, what I regret is When your mum asked me to stay I should have said no.

I should have never moved in with you. In fact I should have saved up and found a place of my own, in my hometown where I belong!

Instead I gave up my family, my friends, my job and college for you. Stupid I know.

Thing is I didn’t see how much of a bad idea it was, not until we got a flat together, after following you to uni and making a mini life in Liverpool.

You ruined that too didn’t you. You dropped out of uni because the student accommodation was too “loud” too busy and too dramatic for you. So you dropped out of uni and ran back home, stupidly I supported you.

Then we got the flat, and the money troubles started because you still wanted to work 16hrs whilst I was doing 40hr weeks. The arguments began and so did the aggression.

We would sit and scream at each other for hours, you’d feel like you’d won when I’d say I was going out to smoke, little did you know I was running to someone else. I always ran to someone else. I still run to her now.

Then last year came, I had my head turned by someone else, someone I’d be chasing for years. I wasn’t happy with you and you didn’t want me and you just let me get on with what I was doing, you knew I was meeting her before and after work in Manchester.

Then I decided that I wanted to fix us, I wanted to really try and make a go of it. You told me you were down for it and that things would change. They never did the arguments got worse and the odd shove would be turned into gripping wrists and arms whilst standing face to face, spitting as we hissed at each other. We were hitting breaking point and I felt completely alone.

So once again I found comfort in someone else, now may I add that I never had sex with anyone but I did cheat. I cheated 4 times. 2 were physical things I did and the other 1 was purely emotional whilst the final person was both physical and emotional.

You never knew this and you never will. I am sorry for that, I’m not proud of it. But you see the ones that were physical that was purely because I could. However the emotional ones were different.

You see, you never payed me any complements, you never made me feel special. You used to make me feel like shit and belittle me all the time especially in front of my friends. I tried so so hard to talk to you about it, but you never listened or cared enough.

The first girl who I “emotionally” cheated on you with, just made me feel normal, I could talk to her we would laugh together and go out drinking or some random place for a walk and just talk for hours. I needed that she helpped me stay sane.

The second girl, taught me that I’m valuable and that I was special and beautiful. She gave me confidence and I found myself making more of an effort to what I was wearing when I would go and see her. I kissed her with no regrets. She made me realise that I shouldn’t be with you anymore, because kissing you compared to kissing her was COMPLETELY different.

You see when I kissed you, it was boring, there wasn’t anything there it was just a quick kiss. But when I kissed her, my heart was beating so quick I thought it would break out of my chest. The butterflies in my stomach had been given the kiss of life after slowly dying in the walls of our relationship. Not to mention a few other things came back to life (I’m sure you can imagine)

You didn’t even have a clue that any of this happened. Yet 2 days after you dumped me. What a relief, I would have done it anyway but you beat me too it. So we agreed that I would save up and move out elsewhere and you’d go home. We’d sleep back to back as far away from each other as possible. You made me miserable.

You told me that everything we had ever planned in our relationship was lie to keep me happy. I’m sorry but who lies to someone about saving up for a mortgage or having kids and getting married who the fuck lies about that? You because you were too weak to say no. It’s discusting that you would do that but at the same time I’m grateful that it never happened because NEVER in a million years would I want a life trapped with you. I would rather wait and meet someone who makes me feel like I have worth and I’m safe and loved. I’d rather wait for someone who actually wants it.

Then came March, even tho we weren’t together I still had to answer to you, I remember coming home and telling you I was staying out for a friends birthday. You weren’t happy and got in a mood with me about it. I on the other hand was knowingly walking out of the flat to go and mess around with someone else. And I did just that. I didn’t have sex with them but we fooled around, that was better than anything you’d done to me in the past 2 1/2 years that we had been together.

We spent all our time together arguing and now the grabbing and the pushing had turned into strangling and punching. I remember one night grabbing your arm as you went to leave the room to stop you, and within seconds I was pinned up by my throat against the door, struggling to breathe. So I did the only thing I could and kicked you into the wall next to us.

You should have left then, it would have been easier but you didn’t. You stayed and all we would do after that is fight and row. Then come your final night here.

It is a night that will be forever etched into my mind. The night of the fight, the night I finally snapped and got sick of your bullshit and abuse. The night I kicked the living shit out of you.

I regret it, so so much because I never ever dreamed in a million years I’d do that to you, but I have to admit, after all the shit and hurt you put me through, there was a part of me so deep in my darkness that really really enjoyed for once making you be the small one. I’m sorry tho, because I did hurt you. Not enough to break bones or put you in hospital but enough to cut and bruise you. For that I’m sorry.

I’m also sorry for saying that if it wasn’t illegal I’d kill you, but at the same time if it wasn’t illegal I probably would have for all the shit you had ever put me through.

But your not innocent tho are you! Because you were the one that started that fight. You got In my face and I pushed you down onto the bed so I could walk away, but you kicked me in the stomach, why would you do that after what I told you? You knew that was something I hated more than any thing! You knew it would have started a fight.

You hit me too, and at one point you had full control over the fight, I couldn’t allow myself to be made to feel small by you anymore so I let go I stopped holding back and started kicking, punching, scratching and biting my way out of this.

You left the next day. Good.

You even tried fucking me over with the bills putting them all in my name and allowing me to find out that for months certain bills hadn’t been paid. I didn’t let that get me because my friends were around me to support me. I had just thought of a plan to get around it all, when max died.

Then I lost my job and bills got worse, but that’s not on you. And you don’t get blamed for that.

But I will NEVER forgive you for the day I found out he died I rang you crying, you were so cold with me. I told you I was going to see molly to support her. What did you do..... you come round the flat and took everything you owned. YOU ENTERED MY HOME AND CLEARED IT OUT THE DAY MY BESTFRIEND DIED.

YOU are nothing but a disrespectful little bitch. I will never forgive you for that. Ever.

But still I tried to keep the peace with you, hell I even met up with you a few times to try and make a friendship, but every time I laid my eyes on you I just saw nothing but hatred.

You sit there and message me about letters you get about bills or whatever and have a go at me. You’re cunt of a mother sits there or walks past me judging me.

Well let me tell you, if you or your mother cause any trouble for me at this flat. If your mother taking legal action against the estate agents causes me to lose my home. I will DESTROY your family.

Don’t think I won’t either, all it takes is one bombshell isn’t it ..... brotherfucker.

Let’s see how well off your family feel once they find out they’ve got incest going on under their roof.

This is a warning shot Katie. Don’t fuck with me.

[marketingatsuperspeedreadin-blog]

One of The Most Inspiring Speeches by Jim Kwik – The Power of Morning Routine | Facebook Depression

I find that the people who are most effective, you know, and both effective and efficient are people who could see through the noise and really get to the signal. Be able to separate yourself outside of the metaphor of the matrix so that you could have clarity of purpose. And I think one of the things that’s really powerful also is just a lot of people, they give away their sovereignty and their power first thing in the morning. Like, the first thing in the morning they’ll just pick up their phone. And they’ll check everything. Because there’s the way it’s set up, their getting their dopamine fixes and it’s really rewiring their brain.

So it’s training them just to be distracted all the time. Can I stop you for a second? Sure. That was so rad, you give up your sovereignty and your power. That’s incredible dude! What’s your morning routine look like? How does one avoid falling into the trap of reaching right for the cellphone and letting the world dictate? I like really managing my first hour of the day and the last hour of the day.

Because that’s where I could control it. Sometimes when you go to the office things are gonna hit you and such like that. But here, when you wake up, instead of reaching for your phone… right…because, first of all I always keep it…I don’t keep the phone actually, I don’t touch my phone the first hour. Cause the problem is when you check for your email, for instance, all you’re training yourself is just how to respond. You’re reacting to everybody else’s demands that they have for you, all the requests of the things that they’re sending you.

And so, that’s something that I don’t want to train my brain to do. I meditate 20 minutes in the morning. I have a full glass of water. I plan my day. I just write down 3 business things that I want to be able to focus on and then 3 personal things. And that’s a win for me. I don’t have to go through a checklist of 200 things. If I just do these three things it’s a win for me. Even Will Smith, he says: Two most important things are just run and read everyday. Do something physically and something mentally to be able to keep yourself engaged and active too. It’s just all kinds of little hacks and manipulations that you can do, but most people are just incredibly blind. There are so many distractions, there are so many enemies that are out there and it’s literally rewiring your brain.

Even social media that challenges you know with these terms like Facebook depression and everything. What’s that? This is social media depression because everyone’s looking at their feed and they’re comparing their lives to other people. The highlights of other people’s lives. And there’s actually less life satisfaction, more sadness, depression and stuff like that because everyone’s comparing themselves to. Wow, that’s a thing. It’s a challenge because a bit more and more time is spent there. These devices are created to literally jolt you with dopamine and give you these fixes. And also, the other reason why you want a routine in your life that’s important is because a lot of people nowadays in addition to the overload and the overall we all feel from the demands is something called ‘decision fatigue’.

And decision fatigue, latest research is saying that you can only make a certain amount of good decisions a day. And then after that, you can’t. And so, people like even simply, you see, you heard that Mark Zuckerberg or Tony Hsieh, they wear the same clothes every single day. The same sweatshirts, the same Zappos t-shirts. Not the same, they have a whole wardrobe, 20 of them. But the reason why is because they don’t want to waste a decision on “What should I wear today?”, when they could be working on the things that they are most excited about.

Do you think there really is a finite number of good decision that you can make in a day? Okay, so I do believe that after a certain amount of focused effort, people suffer from mental fatigue. And that’s where they make more mistakes. That’s where people become shorter with their temper. That’s where the people make less than the best decisions ever, just because of fatigue and exhaustion. Because they’ve been so focused doing certain other activities and such.

You know Mark Divine? Yeah, I know him. Alright, so, he’s got this concept of 20x, right? You’re capable of 20 times more than you think you are. Yeah, that fascinates me. I think motivation is the key. I think is the key to the life, I think it’s the key to learning. I think people feel like they can’t learn something or remember something, they’re not tapped into their motivation because they don’t want to. Like even things like names, they say they’re self-admitting that they’re really bad with names. But when it comes down to it, they don’t really want to remember the person’s name. Except that they’ll remember the names of the people that they’re attracted to. Remember the names of the people that could be good for business cause it’s in there a motivation. I always tell people if someone’s horrible with names, if there was a suitcase of $100,000 cash if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet, you’re gonna remember that person’s name. Also the person isn’t a memory expert. But they would use any technique thing. And so, it had nothing to do with their capacity.

Or their potential. It had everything to do with whether they wanted to or not. And I really do believe that reasons reap results. That’s the thing. If you have enough reasons you’ll get the results. And I think that’s one of the keys to learning faster and remembering more. What motivates you? Just in general. One of my very first students, she was a freshman, I was tutoring her, she read 30 books in 30 days.

And I found out that her motivation was her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And was given 60 days to live. And the books she was reading were books to save her mom’s life. So for me, it’s not about making a dollar, it’s about making a difference. Like, I don’t really get excited about 1 billion dollars, but 1 billion brains coming online and unleashing their superpowers. And think about the kind of world we would live in if we could raise a collective intelligence of the planet. Where the Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos liked better, that could just do amazing things out there. Tell people what you think about questions. I really do believe questions are the answer.

I mean, if people have the experience of wanting to change their life I would start not only with their body, but also the questions that they ask themselves. I believe that asking a new question, you get a new answer. And I think that all the value in the world started at that place. Someone asking a new question about you know, in business or in a relationship or in the world about putting a person on the moon.

In brand new questions, we all of the sudden have brand new answers. And I think that people that we admire in business, like Peter Teal or people that go from zero to one, they asked a different quality of the question and they got a different quality of an answer. I think people that read a page in a book get to the end and just forget what they just read. Which we’re all guilty of. You go back and you re-read it and you still don’t know what you’ve just read. I think a lot of those people they’re not clear about how come they read what they’re reading.

So they’re not getting answers. But your brain is like a magnet and starts getting answer, answer, answer, because that part of the brain they call it “the reticular activating system” that determines your focus. Like years ago I remember, my sister would send me emails and postcards with this little dog, little pug dog, with the smushing face. And I was like: “Why is she doing that?” And then I realized that it was her birthday coming up and stuff like that.

But I just start seeing these pugs in Whole Foods, when I’m jogging in my neighborhood, I see a guy like walking six pug dogs. And everything, and all of the sudden they started appearing everywhere and where were they before? They were there, right? But we never paid attention to it because there are billions of stimuli and it’s any moment that’s hitting us. And primarily, your brain is a deletion device. It would go stark mad if it just paid attention to everything that was going on, you would go insane. And so, primarily, you’re trying to filter out stuff. And people filter based on their beliefs, their identities, their self-worth, their values and everything. Same thing when you’re learning. That’s why writing your goals and energizing them with emotions is important, because you start seeing answers everywhere. You start seeing opportunity everywhere that’s aligned with that goal that you have.

And so, the same thing when you’re reading, when you’re looking for answers, all of sudden while you’re reading; “Oh, there’s an answer, there’s an answer”. And it acts like a magnet and just pulls it in. And you learn best by pulling information and not pushing it in. That’s not how the mind, the brain works. It works through not consumption, it works based on creation. Getting involved, rolling up your sleeves. Learning is not a spectator sport. Learning is not a spectator sport. It’s just like working out. And people see people who read an immense amount of information or they see people who are just really good with their mind solving problems. And they’re like: “Oh, that person can do it because it’s really smart!” That doesn’t make any sense to me because that’d be the equivalent of me looking at someone at the gym, someone bench pressing all this weight and I would be like: “Oh, that person can do it cause it’s really strong!” It’s like: No, they’re really strong because that’s what they’re doing. Right! They’re doing that on a regular basis, that’s why they’re showing those kind of results.

Same thing with your brain. Your brain acts like a muscle. You know, obviously it’s an organ but it’s like a muscle, it grows stronger with use. But it’s “use it or lose it”. And so many of us are outsourcing our brains to our smart devices, so it’s keeping your memory, keeping all these stuff. And so they call it “digital dementia”. How everyone’s all forgetful and absent-minded, senior moments coming a little bit early, they can’t remember simple things, conversations, everything.

It’s because they’re training their brain to have everyone else think about it, keep your schedule and all that stuff. So we live in an interesting world of overwhelm and anxiety and people that are still. They’re so stressed, they’re so under fire all the time, they’re reacting as if a saber-toothed tiger is coming at them. When you’re taking time for like white space, to be creative, to be able to go for a walk, that’s where you’re gonna create a lot of the innovations. That white space is very important. Yeah, no kidding. What’s your definition of a life well lived? A life well lived. Well, for me, I always focus on, I mean I always wish people, their lives be full of lots and lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning.

I really do believe the two things that fulfill the most, *because I think it’s an individual thing* , I think is growth and giving. I call them “grow givers”. A lot of people are just go-getters, they’re just trying to take and take and take. But then they could give stuff out, but then they become a martyr because they have nothing else to give. But I think when we grow, we grow so we have more to contribute to other people. And I think that leaving the planet a little bit better in someone’s life just because you were in it, I think that’s a life worth-living. Awesome, I love it, Jim! Thank you so much for being on the show!.

For More Info : Visit Here : Alternative Education

[nedsvallesny]

Expert: IoT Botnets the Work of a ‘Vast Minority’

In December 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments and guilty pleas by three men in the United States responsible for creating and using Mirai, a malware strain that enslaves poorly-secured “Internet of Things” or IoT devices like security cameras and digital video recorders for use in large-scale cyberattacks.

The FBI and the DOJ had help in their investigation from many security experts, but this post focuses on one expert whose research into the Dark Web and its various malefactors was especially useful in that case. Allison Nixon is director of security research at Flashpoint, a cyber intelligence firm based in New York City. Nixon spoke with KrebsOnSecurity at length about her perspectives on IoT security and the vital role of law enforcement in this fight.

Brian Krebs (BK): Where are we today with respect to IoT security? Are we better off than were a year ago, or is the problem only worse?

Allison Nixon (AN): In some aspects we’re better off. The arrests that happened over the last year in the DDoS space, I would call that a good start, but we’re not out of the woods yet and we’re nowhere near the end of anything.

BK: Why not?

AN: Ultimately, what’s going with these IoT botnets is crime. People are talking about these cybersecurity problems — problems with the devices, etc. — but at the end of the day it’s crime and private citizens don’t have the power to make these bad actors stop.

BK: Certainly security professionals like yourself and others can be diligent about tracking the worst actors and the crime machines they’re using, and in reporting those systems when it’s advantageous to do so?

AN: That’s a fair argument. I can send abuse complaints to servers being used maliciously. And people can write articles that name individuals. However, it’s still a limited kind of impact. I’ve seen people get named in public and instead of stopping, what they do is improve their opsec [operational security measures] and keep doing the same thing but just sneakier. In the private sector, we can frustrate things, but we can’t actually stop them in the permanent, sanctioned way that law enforcement can. We don’t really have that kind of control.

BK: How are we not better off?

AN: I would say that as time progresses, the community that practices DDoS and malicious hacking and these pointless destructive attacks get more technically proficient when they’re executing attacks, and they just become a more difficult adversary.

BK: A more difficult adversary?

AN: Well, if you look at the individuals that were the subject of the announcement this month, and you look in their past, you can see they’ve been active in the hacking community of a long time. Litespeed [the nickname used by Josiah White, one of the men who pleaded guilty to authoring Mirai] has been credited with lots of code.  He’s had years to develop and as far as I could tell he didn’t stop doing criminal activity until he got picked up by law enforcement.

BK: It seems to me that the Mirai authors probably would not have been caught had they never released the source code for their malware. They said they were doing so because multiple law enforcement agencies and security researchers were hot on their trail and they didn’t want to be the only ones holding the source code when the cops showed up at their door. But if that was really their goal in releasing it, doing so seems to have had the exact opposite effect. What’s your take on that?

AN: You are absolutely, 100 million percent correct. If they just shut everything down and left, they’d be fine now. The fact that they dumped the source was a tipping point of sorts. The damages they caused at that time were massive, but when they dumped the source code the amount of damage their actions contributed to ballooned [due to the proliferation of copycat Mirai botnets]. The charges against them specified their actions in infecting the machines they controlled, but when it comes to what interested researchers in the private sector, the moment they dumped the source code — that’s the most harmful act they did out of the entire thing.

BK: Do you believe their claimed reason for releasing the code?

AN: I believe it. They claimed they released it because they wanted to hamper investigative efforts to find them. The problem is that not only is it incorrect, it also doesn’t take into account the researchers on the other end of the spectrum who have to pick from many targets to spend their time looking at. Releasing the source code changed that dramatically. It was like catnip to researchers, and was just a new thing for researchers to look at and play with and wonder who wrote it.

If they really wanted to stay off law enforcement’s radar, they would be as low profile as they could and not be interesting. But they did everything wrong: They dumped the source code and attacked a security researcher using tools that are interesting to security researchers. That’s like attacking a dog with a steak. I’m going to wave this big juicy steak at a dog and that will teach him. They made every single mistake in the book.

BK: What do you think it is about these guys that leads them to this kind of behavior? Is it just a kind of inertia that inexorably leads them down a slippery slope if they don’t have some kind of intervention?

AN: These people go down a life path that does not lead them to a legitimate livelihood. They keep doing this and get better at it and they start to do these things that really can threaten the Internet as a whole. In the case of these DDoS botnets, it’s worrying that these individuals are allowed to go this deep before law enforcement catches them.

BK: There was a narrative that got a lot of play recently, and it was spun by a self-described Internet vigilante who calls himself “the Janitor.” He claimed to have been finding zero-day exploits in IoT devices so that he could shut down insecure IoT things that can’t really be secured before or maybe even after they have been compromised by IoT threats like Mirai. The Janitor says he released a bunch of his code because he’s tired of being the unrecognized superhero that he is, and many in the media seem to have eaten this up and taken his manifesto as gospel. What’s your take on the Janitor, and his so-called “bricker bot” project?

AN: I have to think about how to choose my words, because I don’t want to give anyone bad ideas. But one thing to keep in mind is that his method of bricking IoT devices doesn’t work, and it potentially makes the problem worse.

BK: What do you mean exactly?

AN: The reason is sometimes IoT malware like Mirai will try to close the door behind it, by crashing the telnet process that was used to infect the device [after the malware is successfully installed]. This can block other telnet-based malware from getting on the machine. And there’s a lot of this type of King of the Hill stuff going on in the IoT ecosystem right now.

But what [this bricker bot] malware does is a lot times it reboots a machine, and when the device is in that state the vulnerable telnet service goes back up. It used to be a lot of devices were infected with the very first Mirai, and when the [control center] for that botnet went down they were orphaned. We had a bunch of Mirai infections phoning home to nowhere. So there’s a real risk of taking the machine that was in the this weird state and making it vulnerable again.

BK: Hrm. That’s a very different story from the one told by the Bricker bot author. According to him, he spent several years of his life saving the world from certain doom at the hands of IoT devices. He even took credit for foiling the Mirai attacks on Deutsche Telekom. Could this just be a case of researcher exaggerating his accomplishments? Do you think his Bricker bot code ever really spread that far?

AN: I don’t have any evidence that there was mass exploitation by Bricker bot. I know his code was published. But when I talk to anyone running an IoT honeypot [a collection of virtual or vulnerable IoT devices designed to attract and record novel attacks against the devices] they have never seen it. The consensus is that regardless of peoples’ opinion on it we haven’t seen it in our honeypots. And considering the diversity of IoT honeypots out there today, if it was out there in real life we would have seen it by now.

BK: A lot of people believe that we’re focusing on the wrong solutions to IoT security — that having consumers lock down IoT devices security-wise or expecting law enforcement agencies to fix this problem for us for me are pollyannish ideas that in any case don’t address the root cause: Which is that there are a lot of companies producing crap IoT products that have virtually no security. What’s your take?

AN: The way I approach this problem is I see law enforcement as the ultimate end goal for all of these efforts. When I look at the IoT DDoS activity and the actual human beings doing this, the vast majority of Mirai attacks, attack infrastructure, malware variants and new exploits are coming from a vast minority of people doing this. That said, the way I perceive the underground ecosystem is probably different than the way most people perceive it.

BK: What’s the popular perception, do you think?

AN: It’s that, “Oh hey, one guy got arrested, great, but another guy will just take his place.” People compare it to a drug dealer on the street corner, but I don’t think that’s accurate in this case. The difference is when you’re looking at advanced criminal hacking campaigns, there’s not usually a replacement person waiting in the wings. These are incredibly deep skills developed over years. The people doing innovations in DDoS attacks and those who are driving the field forward are actually very few. So when you can ID them and attach behavior to the perpetrator, you realize there’s only a dozen people I need to care about and the world suddenly becomes a lot smaller.

BK: So do you think the efforts to force manufacturers to harden their products are a waste of time?

AN: I want to make it clear that all these different ways to tackle the problem…I don’t want to say one is more important than the other. I just happened to be working on one component of it. There’s definitely a lot of disagreement on this. I totally recognize this as a legitimate approach. A lot of people think the way forward is to focus on making sure the devices are secure. And there are efforts ongoing to help device manufacturers create more secure devices that are more resistant to these efforts.

And a lot is changing, although slowly. Do you remember way back when you bought a Wi-Fi router and it was open by default? Because the end user was obligated to change the default password, we had open Wi-Fi networks everywhere. As years passed, many manufacturers started making them more secure. For example, many of these devices now have customers refer to sticker on the machine that has a unique Wi-Fi password. That type of shift may be an example of what we can see in the future of IoT security.

BK: In the wake of the huge attacks from Mirai in 2016 and 2017, several lawmakers have proposed solutions. What do you think of the idea that it doesn’t matter what laws we pass in the United States that might require more security by IoT makers, that those makers are just going to keep on ignoring best practices when it comes to security?

AN: It’s easy to get cynical about this and a lot of people definitely feel like these these companies don’t sell directly to the U.S. and therefore don’t care about such efforts. Maybe in the short term that might be true, but in the long term I think it ends up biting them if they continue to not care.

Ultimately, these things just catch up with you if you have a reputation for making a poor product. What if you had a reputation for making a device that if you put it on the Internet it would reboot every five minutes because it’s getting attacked? Even if we did enact security requirements for IoT that manufacturers not in the U.S. wouldn’t have to follow, it would still in their best interests to care, because they are going to care sooner or later.

BK: I was on a Justice Department conference call with other journalists on the day they announced the Mirai author arrests and guilty pleas, and someone asked why this case was prosecuted out of Alaska. The answer that came back was that a great many of the machines infected with Mirai were in Alaska. But it seems more likely that it was because there was an FBI agent there who decided this was an important case but who actually had a very difficult time finding enough infected systems to reach the threshold needed to prosecute the case. What’s your read on that?

AN: I think that this case is probably going to set precedent in terms of the procedures and processes used to go after cybercrime. I’m sure you finished reading The Wired article about the Alaska investigation into Mirai: It goes in to detail about some of the difficult things that the Alaska FBI field office had to do to satisfy the legal requirements to take the case. Just to prove they had jurisdiction, they had to find a certain number of infected machines in Alaska.

Those were not easy to find, and in fact the FBI traveled far and wide in order to find these machines in Alaska. There are all kinds of barriers big and small that slow down the legal process for prosecuting cases like this, some of which are legitimate and some that I think are going to end up being streamlined after a case like this. And every time a successful case like this goes through [to a guilty plea], it makes it more possible for future cases to succeed.

This one group [that was the subject of the Mirai investigation] was the worst of the worst in this problem area. And right now it’s a huge victory for law enforcement to take down one group that is the worst of the worst in one problem area. Hopefully, it will lead to the takedown of many groups causing damage and harming people.

But the concept that in order for cybercriminals to get law enforcement attention they need to make international headlines and cause massive damage needs to change. Most cybercriminals probably think that what they’re doing nobody is going to notice, and in a sense they’re correct because there is so much obvious criminal activity blatantly connected to specific individuals. And that needs to change.

BK: Is there anything we didn’t talk about related to IoT security, the law enforcement investigations into Mirai, or anything else you’d like to add?

AN: I want to extend my gratitude to the people in the security industry and network operator community who recognized the gravity of this threat early on. There are a lot of people who were not named [in the stories and law enforcement press releases about the Mirai arrests], and want to say thank you for all the help. This couldn’t have happened without you.

from Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/01/expert-iot-botnets-the-work-of-a-vast-minority/

[thatsabae]

Salus - Chanyeol (mafia!au) | Chapter 3

genre: romance/drama/angst

summary: The thought of being back home always tormented you, ever since you left. You thought about all possibilities, but not one where your ex-boyfriend would want to be your friend again, just like before all that mess, as if it would be easy to ignore how your heart still races just by seeing him.

prologue | chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4

Chanyeol made clear that he wanted to be friends again, but you were clueless how he would do it. Half of your heart was expecting him to say that just because he felt bad and not give it attention, but the other half was expecting him to come around and make effort. Do what he promised, at least once.  

Jude was still on your mind when her father finally decided to show up and prove you that he was sticking to his words, a few days later. When Minseok came knocking your door, telling you he was there, you took the longest you could, mentally preparing yourself. What would you both even talk about? About those years apart? Maybe something random?  Each subjecting terrifying you even more. You didn’t even know him anymore. 

Arriving at the living room, you regretted wasting so much time locked up in that room. Sitting beside Chanyeol on the sofa was Jongdae. Your friend, that was not that friendly to you anymore, but still was there.

“Dae?” The surprise is clear in your voice. He only nods at you, still upset. 

You were relieved. If Chanyeol managed to bring Jongdae to your apartment, that could only mean that there was a chance of fixing things in your friendship. Knowing Jongdae for so long, you knew he was stubborn. Way too stubborn. Once he made up his mind, no one else could change it, it didn’t matter that the person proved him wrong, it would actually make everything worst. 

“Let’s go?” He asked the other friend, still not looking in your eyes. “The others are waiting, already”. 

It was not enough, you still felt too distant from him, but it was a beginning. At that moment, you decided to not let it affect you even more than it was already doing, and instead of focusing on dealing with Chanyeol, you would worry only about saving your old friendships. That would be your goal before leaving again and a good distraction.

When you arrived at the pizza place, a smile took over your face when you saw Yixing sitting there, chatting with Baekhyun and Sehun, alongside with a girl. 

“That is Yixing’s girlfriend.” Chanyeol murmurs, walking to the table. 

“And what about Liao?” You remember his girlfriend, that moved with him from China when he exchanged places with Minseok, ten years ago. Something that was supposed to happen for only a year, but turned out better for both. 

“They broke up years ago, a little after they came. It was bad.” Jongdae starts, forgetting for a moment that he’s not talking to you. “He’s dating Karlie for… I don’t know, maybe six, seven years now. I think he will propose after Junmyeon’s marriage”. 

“I see.” You decide to make a joke. “I guess you forgot to mention it in our calls”. 

He stops walking, making Chanyeol and you, that were behind him, stop too. 

“It’s not like you were sharing news too”. 

You stay quiet, not really knowing how to answer that. The blush was covering your whole face now. Chanyeol gives you a wink, encouraging you to not let Jongdae intimidate you. Your heart aches when you remember that he would always do that when you felt insecure. Maybe they were the same, after all. 

Dealing with Jongdae would be harder than Chanyeol, you realize. 

“Hey, finally!” Sehun was the first to notice your arrival. “We’re over here”. 

Everyone got up and started to greet each other, and Yixing introduced you to Karlie, his new long-term girlfriend. 

“We can finally chat, Y/N.” Yixing started. “How was your trip?” 

You shrug. 

“I don’t really remember. When I realized, the plane was already landing, I was a little bit anxious.” Except for Jongdae, they all chuckle and the conversation change topics. 

After the first slice is served, you stare your old friend, unable to eat. He was talking to everyone else, normally, even laughing, but no word directed to you, that happening through the whole meal. You never expected Jongdae to be so childish. 

“We gotta go now.” The lawyer announces, with Karlie by his side, already saying bye. “I have a trial tomorrow morning”. 

“And I need to bring you safe, or else Minseok will kill me.” Chanyeol jokes with you. “Not that he doesn’t want me dead, already. It would just legitimate him to do it”. 

You chuckle, hiding your mouth. 

“I thought the same.” Baekhyun tells him. “He’s just waiting for a good reason to punch your face again”. 

“Again?” Your question is ignored in the middle of laughs. 

You can see the interest in Jongdae’s eyes change suddenly. Oh no. He’s looking, back and forth, from Baekhyun to you. 

You know you’re in more trouble. 

“Do you all want to leave already?” Chanyeol breaks the silence, looking unsure. “It’s still soon”. 

“I need to get going too. I have a flight early in the morning”. 

“You gotta solve that contract?” Jongdae wonders, looking at Sehun, that just nod, but you know his focus is not totally on the youngest. 

“Which one?” Chanyeol seemed interested, and so did Yixing. You were bored, not even knowing what they’ve been working now. 

“That beach house. The owner is just giving me headaches. Always changing his prices and… Now even his daughter is involved.” He looks at you, not saying any other word. Was that a secret? You felt left out. 

“Sehun was hired to mediate a sale, but since its value increased so much these last months, the owner is always increasing its price too.” Chanyeol explained to you, seeing how confused you were. 

“If it’s too high, just don’t buy it”. 

“The thing is… " Sehun started explaining, very quickly. “That’s the only house left in that block, and they need that space”. 

So pay what they are asking, you wanted to say, but you hold your tongue back, not allowing to show how ignorant about this topic you were. You barely knew how to calculate the taxes, Minseok would always help you when it came that time. 

“It looks like they don’t want to sell it, they are just wasting your time.” The moment you said it, you could see Sehun’s face turning red. Being so young, you could imagine how many times people didn’t take him seriously. 

You notice how focused Chanyeol got, looking at his cellphone. Baekhyun got closer to him, trying to look at it too. 

“Uh, I need to go at Junmyeon’s before going home.” He murmurs, more to himself than to you. “Dae, do you mind taking Y/N?” 

Oh. No. 

“No problem.” He crossed his arms, but he seemed worried about Chanyeol too, letting his childish behavior go for a second. “Something happened?” 

“Yeah. I mean, no. That’s Kyungsoo. He needs help with something”. 

“I thought you said you need to see Junmyeon?” You can’t help yourself. If he was ditching you, at least do it properly. 

You feel how tense he was, but you don’t let this pass. Why can’t they just tell what’s wrong? Even Yixing and his girlfriend seemed to be worried, and for the little you know the lawyer, he’s way too calm. 

“I did? Uh. That’s because I do need to pass there, and then I’ll go to Kyungsoo”. 

You were not satisfied with that answer, something felt off, everyone was tense. But you let it go, there was no use to ask about something he didn’t want to answer. And your friendship wasn’t strong enough to push him. You didn’t have a place in his life to do it. 

“Can we leave, Dae?” 

You knew Chanyeol was feeling conflicted on letting you leave like that, but you couldn’t care less. You hated feeling outside, especially around people that were supposed to be friends with you. 

Jongdae and you went silent to the car. His mind was going wild, a lot of things going on, you could see that by the way he gesticulated his hands, talking to himself. 

“Dae?” You call him, suddenly, when he stops at a sign. “What was that when we were leaving?” 

“With Kyungsoo?” 

You nod, waiting for him to kill your curiosity. These years you spent away, Jongdae has become more and more silent, holding back information, sharing only what he thought that was interesting to you, or worthy saying, at least that’s what you thought. You felt his change, but you wished that he wouldn’t do the same when in front of you.  

He seemed… Like he was doing the same you did before. He didn’t trust you like you didn’t trust him. 

“It’s just. Chanyeol did something, years ago, something that wasn’t really legal… Something really bad.”

 “What? He tried drugs?” You interrupt him, joking, but regret the same moment, seeing his face. That look he gave you, it chilled you. “Why is Kyungsoo taking care of it instead of Yixing or Minseok?” 

You hoped that Minseok wasn’t denying help because of you. 

“It’s a mess. As long as we can take care of it without lawyers, it’s better. Believe me. ” His grip on the wheel got tighter. You could see how white his knuckles got. “Let’s not talk about what happened. Focus on now. Someone knows what happened.” He starts gesticulating while driving. “If this person spills the beans, she will get in trouble too, but nothing compared to what Chanyeol could face. Kyungsoo was negotiating with her. Chanyeol is going there to know the news”. 

“So, someone is blackmailing Chanyeol?” 

“No, not him. She's blackmailing Junmyeon. Everyone. Us all. We knew it. Shit, I even helped. But Chanyeol is this person’s target.” Jongdae sighs, before continuing. He’s getting angry. “Just please, don’t think too much about it. It’s been so long, doesn’t matter anymore, anyway. We will take care of it”. 

“It seemed like it does matter”. 

“You know what matters?” His grip on the steering wheel got tighter. “Baekhyun seems to know the reason why Minseok was so furious at Chanyeol because of you, and I don’t”. 

“Can’t we leave Chanyeol out of a topic for once? It seems like he’s the only subject we have to talk about.” 

When Jongdae kept silent, you give up ignoring it. 

“Ugh. Baekhyun wasn't supposed to know. Chanyeol probably told him, you know how annoying he can get when he’s curious”. 

“So. What is it?” 

“It’s something that happened so long ago. I never expected Minseok to behave that way. So unnecessary, but it’s my fault. I should have kept silent”. 

You knew that changing the subject was not going to help you, and Jongdae wasn’t going to let you do it, but trying was still an option. Just talking about it made your chest ache, for many different reasons. Jongdae could end up being more angry at you than he already was! 

He stayed silent, still waiting for your explanation.

“Sorry I lied to you. I do know why Minseok was angry, sorry, Dae.” You pause for a moment, thinking carefully on your next words. “Before Chanyeol and Meri were a thing, things were different”. 

“How different?” You could feel the softness on his voice now. You didn’t have to voice it, he already understood. 

“It was a secret. Chanyeol and I.” Tears were forming on your eyes. All you didn’t cry on your best friend’s shoulder were here now, ready to embarrass you. “For two years”. 

Jongdae kept silent, thinking about what you just confessed. 

You felt relieved. Your best friend was no longer in the shadow, there was no reason to not tell everything now. You felt lighter.

“When he came to break whatever it was that we had, he was already seeing her. Chanyeol told me that. He didn’t care how I felt about it. He asked me to stay friends with him. And I stayed, for a year”. 

After a few minutes staring the road without looking at it, you realize that Jongdae already parked in front of the building. Your heart asked you to tell the whole truth but things were so ugly… You were not ready to have Jongdae knowing this side of you. 

“You’re quiet, but you don’t seem to be shocked”. 

“If we’re being honest here, it’s not really a surprise that something was going on between you two. Baekhyun and I… We kinda knew it, never knowing. We even guessed it once, before he was with Meri.” He pressed his forehead, looking stressed. “I always knew you felt something different when it came to Chanyeol. It was really obvious”. 

You sighed, recognizing the truth in his words. That was absolutely true. Everyone knew. Even kids at school used to joke about it. You always denied, and so did Chanyeol, but deep in your heart, you wanted him to stop kids from joking about your friendship and tell everyone he liked you, so you could finally assume your feelings.

Except he never did that. For years you thought he was just shy about it, but when he declared his love for Meri on his birthday, the truth came. He probably never even realized you had feelings for him. Child’s dream. 

“Baekhyun once mentioned that he thought Chanyeol looked different at you. That he commented something that picked his interest, but I didn’t really believe. You know how Baekhyun is. Even Junmyeon said something once. Knowing it was true is not really that shocking now”. 

Junmyeon? Your heart raced. 

He turned to you, but still not looking into your eyes. 

“But then he made all that scene for Meri. The guys even admitted they were wrong”. 

“You mean Chanyeol confessing his feelings for her at his birthday party? That was when it all started”. 

“What? How? I slept at his house that day”. 

You chuckle at his innocence. He really slept there, so did Baekhyun and Jongin. They stayed for an after party, that was what they called, and to mend Chanyeol’s broken heart, picking its pieces.

“Boys got so drunk that you all passed away in the living room. He was bored, wide awake, Chanyeol didn’t want to sleep yet, so he came to see if I was still awake. My parents didn’t see him coming in, but they caught him leaving. Didn’t you always wondered why dad still looks weird at Chanyeol?” You try to make a joke, but you only earn a smile from Jongdae. It looked almost like pity. 

“Please, don’t look at me like that. I loved him so much that I didn’t care about his silly crush on Meri. It was just it. A crush. We were friends for so long that I never thought he would leave me so easily, breaking my heart. I’m fine now”. 

You expected Jongdae to call you a liar. He didn’t, but you knew he knew. 

His expression wasn’t changing, and anxiety was consummating you. It was hard to breathe, so you tried to open the car’s window, but that wasn’t enough, so you opened the car’s door. 

You turned your whole body for outside, to catch air easily, and felt when his hands were caressing your hair, just like he had done back then, whenever you needed someone to just… Just be there. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Softness was back at his voice and you felt like going back on time. Maybe he was still the same Jongdae and you were still the same Y/N. 

“He wanted to keep it a secret. Always delaying it. Only when he told me about her that I understood his reasons. He never planned to stay”. 

At this point, there was no reason to hold your tears. You just let them fall, not able to endure the pain in your throat. 

He never planned on staying because his place was by her side. You cried harder, unsure if they were for your first heartbreak or guilty. 

Guilty was consummating you since you got back at the city. 

“I know I’m an idiot but, even if I could, I wouldn’t change that. I would change many things that I’ve done, but not loving him. But I hate him. Being friends again is almost killing me, Dae”. 

After calming down, your seat straight again and close the door. 

“I called off my engagement. I had to tell Minseok why I didn’t want Alec here. I like him, but I don’t feel like I deserve him. Not when I still have feelings for someone else”.

“Is that why Minseok was so mad at Chanyeol?”

“I had to tell him why to explain what I couldn’t explain to Alec. I just didn’t think he would take it to his heart. Do you think I did wrong?” 

He stood silent, just staring you. 

That was even more difficult than when you told Minseok. Your cousin got really angry at Chanyeol, but that was it. You were spared. Jongdae no. Jongdae was just silent, not showing any reaction. He was almost numb. 

“If you miss him, or think of giving him a real chance, call him. Invite him so we can meet the guy. You already said you've engaged anyway.” Then you finally feel his eyes staring you. “Or you think on trying something with Chanyeol?” 

“I didn’t break up with Alec because of that. I just want to make sure that I’m not doing to him the same that Chanyeol did to me”. 

“Y/N.” Jongdae calls for your attention. “If you feel like that, maybe you like him way more than you think. And people don’t deserve people. We can’t control feelings. If he likes you, there’s no such a thing as deserving”. 

Yes. Maybe you did like Alec more than you thought.

You entered the apartment, determined. You were going to call Alec and be nice to him. You wouldn’t rush and tell him to come already, but talking to Jongdae made you soften your heart and want to be nicer with him. 

“Were you crying?” Minseok surprises you, when you enter the kitchen, making you even forgot what you were going to pick. 

Your cousin is sitting in front of his laptop, wearing his work glasses. Carla nowhere to be seen. 

“It was nothing. I was talking to Jongdae”. 

“You’re really fine?” 

“Minseok, I think I’m gonna call Alec and tell him that I don’t want to break up with him. At least not yet”. 

The only other time you saw Minseok smiling so big was on his wedding day. Your heart felt warm, maybe you were finally doing things right.

“I’m glad you’re giving it a second thought”.

You were going back to your room when you remembered. 

"Why did you punch Chanyeol the first time?"

A laugh crossed his face, seeming to be a good memory. "That was a long time ago. Let's just say that at that time I also had a crush on Meri". 

@jjong-dae77 @portietomednalynn @xcharlottemikaelsonx

[jennifersnyderca90]

Expert: IoT Botnets the Work of a ‘Vast Minority’

In December 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments and guilty pleas by three men in the United States responsible for creating and using Mirai, a malware strain that enslaves poorly-secured “Internet of Things” or IoT devices like security cameras and digital video recorders for use in large-scale cyberattacks.

The FBI and the DOJ had help in their investigation from many security experts, but this post focuses on one expert whose research into the Dark Web and its various malefactors was especially useful in that case. Allison Nixon is director of security research at Flashpoint, a cyber intelligence firm based in New York City. Nixon spoke with KrebsOnSecurity at length about her perspectives on IoT security and the vital role of law enforcement in this fight.

Brian Krebs (BK): Where are we today with respect to IoT security? Are we better off than were a year ago, or is the problem only worse?

Allison Nixon (AN): In some aspects we’re better off. The arrests that happened over the last year in the DDoS space, I would call that a good start, but we’re not out of the woods yet and we’re nowhere near the end of anything.

BK: Why not?

AN: Ultimately, what’s going with these IoT botnets is crime. People are talking about these cybersecurity problems — problems with the devices, etc. — but at the end of the day it’s crime and private citizens don’t have the power to make these bad actors stop.

BK: Certainly security professionals like yourself and others can be diligent about tracking the worst actors and the crime machines they’re using, and in reporting those systems when it’s advantageous to do so?

AN: That’s a fair argument. I can send abuse complaints to servers being used maliciously. And people can write articles that name individuals. However, it’s still a limited kind of impact. I’ve seen people get named in public and instead of stopping, what they do is improve their opsec [operational security measures] and keep doing the same thing but just sneakier. In the private sector, we can frustrate things, but we can’t actually stop them in the permanent, sanctioned way that law enforcement can. We don’t really have that kind of control.

BK: How are we not better off?

AN: I would say that as time progresses, the community that practices DDoS and malicious hacking and these pointless destructive attacks get more technically proficient when they’re executing attacks, and they just become a more difficult adversary.

BK: A more difficult adversary?

AN: Well, if you look at the individuals that were the subject of the announcement this month, and you look in their past, you can see they’ve been active in the hacking community of a long time. Litespeed [the nickname used by Josiah White, one of the men who pleaded guilty to authoring Mirai] has been credited with lots of code.  He’s had years to develop and as far as I could tell he didn’t stop doing criminal activity until he got picked up by law enforcement.

BK: It seems to me that the Mirai authors probably would not have been caught had they never released the source code for their malware. They said they were doing so because multiple law enforcement agencies and security researchers were hot on their trail and they didn’t want to be the only ones holding the source code when the cops showed up at their door. But if that was really their goal in releasing it, doing so seems to have had the exact opposite effect. What’s your take on that?

AN: You are absolutely, 100 million percent correct. If they just shut everything down and left, they’d be fine now. The fact that they dumped the source was a tipping point of sorts. The damages they caused at that time were massive, but when they dumped the source code the amount of damage their actions contributed to ballooned [due to the proliferation of copycat Mirai botnets]. The charges against them specified their actions in infecting the machines they controlled, but when it comes to what interested researchers in the private sector, the moment they dumped the source code — that’s the most harmful act they did out of the entire thing.

BK: Do you believe their claimed reason for releasing the code?

AN: I believe it. They claimed they released it because they wanted to hamper investigative efforts to find them. The problem is that not only is it incorrect, it also doesn’t take into account the researchers on the other end of the spectrum who have to pick from many targets to spend their time looking at. Releasing the source code changed that dramatically. It was like catnip to researchers, and was just a new thing for researchers to look at and play with and wonder who wrote it.

If they really wanted to stay off law enforcement’s radar, they would be as low profile as they could and not be interesting. But they did everything wrong: They dumped the source code and attacked a security researcher using tools that are interesting to security researchers. That’s like attacking a dog with a steak. I’m going to wave this big juicy steak at a dog and that will teach him. They made every single mistake in the book.

BK: What do you think it is about these guys that leads them to this kind of behavior? Is it just a kind of inertia that inexorably leads them down a slippery slope if they don’t have some kind of intervention?

AN: These people go down a life path that does not lead them to a legitimate livelihood. They keep doing this and get better at it and they start to do these things that really can threaten the Internet as a whole. In the case of these DDoS botnets, it’s worrying that these individuals are allowed to go this deep before law enforcement catches them.

BK: There was a narrative that got a lot of play recently, and it was spun by a self-described Internet vigilante who calls himself “the Janitor.” He claimed to have been finding zero-day exploits in IoT devices so that he could shut down insecure IoT things that can’t really be secured before or maybe even after they have been compromised by IoT threats like Mirai. The Janitor says he released a bunch of his code because he’s tired of being the unrecognized superhero that he is, and many in the media seem to have eaten this up and taken his manifesto as gospel. What’s your take on the Janitor, and his so-called “bricker bot” project?

AN: I have to think about how to choose my words, because I don’t want to give anyone bad ideas. But one thing to keep in mind is that his method of bricking IoT devices doesn’t work, and it potentially makes the problem worse.

BK: What do you mean exactly?

AN: The reason is sometimes IoT malware like Mirai will try to close the door behind it, by crashing the telnet process that was used to infect the device [after the malware is successfully installed]. This can block other telnet-based malware from getting on the machine. And there’s a lot of this type of King of the Hill stuff going on in the IoT ecosystem right now.

But what [this bricker bot] malware does is a lot times it reboots a machine, and when the device is in that state the vulnerable telnet service goes back up. It used to be a lot of devices were infected with the very first Mirai, and when the [control center] for that botnet went down they were orphaned. We had a bunch of Mirai infections phoning home to nowhere. So there’s a real risk of taking the machine that was in the this weird state and making it vulnerable again.

BK: Hrm. That’s a very different story from the one told by the Bricker bot author. According to him, he spent several years of his life saving the world from certain doom at the hands of IoT devices. He even took credit for foiling the Mirai attacks on Deutsche Telekom. Could this just be a case of researcher exaggerating his accomplishments? Do you think his Bricker bot code ever really spread that far?

AN: I don’t have any evidence that there was mass exploitation by Bricker bot. I know his code was published. But when I talk to anyone running an IoT honeypot [a collection of virtual or vulnerable IoT devices designed to attract and record novel attacks against the devices] they have never seen it. The consensus is that regardless of peoples’ opinion on it we haven’t seen it in our honeypots. And considering the diversity of IoT honeypots out there today, if it was out there in real life we would have seen it by now.

BK: A lot of people believe that we’re focusing on the wrong solutions to IoT security — that having consumers lock down IoT devices security-wise or expecting law enforcement agencies to fix this problem for us for me are pollyannish ideas that in any case don’t address the root cause: Which is that there are a lot of companies producing crap IoT products that have virtually no security. What’s your take?

AN: The way I approach this problem is I see law enforcement as the ultimate end goal for all of these efforts. When I look at the IoT DDoS activity and the actual human beings doing this, the vast majority of Mirai attacks, attack infrastructure, malware variants and new exploits are coming from a vast minority of people doing this. That said, the way I perceive the underground ecosystem is probably different than the way most people perceive it.

BK: What’s the popular perception, do you think?

AN: It’s that, “Oh hey, one guy got arrested, great, but another guy will just take his place.” People compare it to a drug dealer on the street corner, but I don’t think that’s accurate in this case. The difference is when you’re looking at advanced criminal hacking campaigns, there’s not usually a replacement person waiting in the wings. These are incredibly deep skills developed over years. The people doing innovations in DDoS attacks and those who are driving the field forward are actually very few. So when you can ID them and attach behavior to the perpetrator, you realize there’s only a dozen people I need to care about and the world suddenly becomes a lot smaller.

BK: So do you think the efforts to force manufacturers to harden their products are a waste of time?

AN: I want to make it clear that all these different ways to tackle the problem…I don’t want to say one is more important than the other. I just happened to be working on one component of it. There’s definitely a lot of disagreement on this. I totally recognize this as a legitimate approach. A lot of people think the way forward is to focus on making sure the devices are secure. And there are efforts ongoing to help device manufacturers create more secure devices that are more resistant to these efforts.

And a lot is changing, although slowly. Do you remember way back when you bought a Wi-Fi router and it was open by default? Because the end user was obligated to change the default password, we had open Wi-Fi networks everywhere. As years passed, many manufacturers started making them more secure. For example, many of these devices now have customers refer to sticker on the machine that has a unique Wi-Fi password. That type of shift may be an example of what we can see in the future of IoT security.

BK: In the wake of the huge attacks from Mirai in 2016 and 2017, several lawmakers have proposed solutions. What do you think of the idea that it doesn’t matter what laws we pass in the United States that might require more security by IoT makers, that those makers are just going to keep on ignoring best practices when it comes to security?

AN: It’s easy to get cynical about this and a lot of people definitely feel like these these companies don’t sell directly to the U.S. and therefore don’t care about such efforts. Maybe in the short term that might be true, but in the long term I think it ends up biting them if they continue to not care.

Ultimately, these things just catch up with you if you have a reputation for making a poor product. What if you had a reputation for making a device that if you put it on the Internet it would reboot every five minutes because it’s getting attacked? Even if we did enact security requirements for IoT that manufacturers not in the U.S. wouldn’t have to follow, it would still in their best interests to care, because they are going to care sooner or later.

BK: I was on a Justice Department conference call with other journalists on the day they announced the Mirai author arrests and guilty pleas, and someone asked why this case was prosecuted out of Alaska. The answer that came back was that a great many of the machines infected with Mirai were in Alaska. But it seems more likely that it was because there was an FBI agent there who decided this was an important case but who actually had a very difficult time finding enough infected systems to reach the threshold needed to prosecute the case. What’s your read on that?

AN: I think that this case is probably going to set precedent in terms of the procedures and processes used to go after cybercrime. I’m sure you finished reading The Wired article about the Alaska investigation into Mirai: It goes in to detail about some of the difficult things that the Alaska FBI field office had to do to satisfy the legal requirements to take the case. Just to prove they had jurisdiction, they had to find a certain number of infected machines in Alaska.

Those were not easy to find, and in fact the FBI traveled far and wide in order to find these machines in Alaska. There are all kinds of barriers big and small that slow down the legal process for prosecuting cases like this, some of which are legitimate and some that I think are going to end up being streamlined after a case like this. And every time a successful case like this goes through [to a guilty plea], it makes it more possible for future cases to succeed.

This one group [that was the subject of the Mirai investigation] was the worst of the worst in this problem area. And right now it’s a huge victory for law enforcement to take down one group that is the worst of the worst in one problem area. Hopefully, it will lead to the takedown of many groups causing damage and harming people.

But the concept that in order for cybercriminals to get law enforcement attention they need to make international headlines and cause massive damage needs to change. Most cybercriminals probably think that what they’re doing nobody is going to notice, and in a sense they’re correct because there is so much obvious criminal activity blatantly connected to specific individuals. And that needs to change.

BK: Is there anything we didn’t talk about related to IoT security, the law enforcement investigations into Mirai, or anything else you’d like to add?

AN: I want to extend my gratitude to the people in the security industry and network operator community who recognized the gravity of this threat early on. There are a lot of people who were not named [in the stories and law enforcement press releases about the Mirai arrests], and want to say thank you for all the help. This couldn’t have happened without you.

from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/01/expert-iot-botnets-the-work-of-a-vast-minority/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

LET THE OTHER 95% OF THE OTHER ROAD AHEAD

For the platforms they use. It's not just a synonym for annoying. Anti-immigration people don't understand is that there is a second much more common type of judgement, the type where judging you is only a means to something else. Why would they go to extra trouble to get programmers into the US, they'll want to come. The page was of course an ad for a porn site. On the Internet, SMTP email, HTTP the web, and so on. Another project I heard about after the Slashdot article was Bill Yerazunis' CRM114.

We have created, for the first couple years by me. They're so attracted to the iPhone that they can't leave. So startup culture may not merely be different in the way you'd say it to a friend. Programmers started to feel sheepish about working there. Once you grasp that, you advance quickly to the next step, which is figuring out what those problems are. I swear I didn't prompt this one. These combine to make us believe that every judgement of us is about us. When people from Microsoft were talking to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo.

There was an authenticity that everyone who walked in could sense. And I don't have to be designed to be a programming language is something we use to tell a computer what to do. Language designers are solving the wrong problem. And unlike other potential mistakes on that scale for any language anyone has ever heard of. James Gosling, or the pointy-haired boss has no idea how this software has to work, and indignant readers will send you references to all the papers you should have cited. At YC, the culture was the product. Maybe if the idea of fixing payments was right there in plain sight, they never saw it, because their unconscious mind shrank from the complications involved. She'd seen the level of individual customers.

It can take years to learn how companies work. Remember that. I felt the way I'd feel buying something made in a country with a bad human rights record. Startups are a comparatively new phenomenon. But I think it is a fine model for certain kinds of applications that need that specific kind of data structure, like window systems, simulations, and cad programs. It would have spoiled the narrative to acknowledge Jessica's central role at YC. If undergrads were all bad programmers, the problem would be a net win if language implementors took half the time they would have spent doing compiler optimizations and spent it writing a good profiler instead.

If software publishing didn't work in 1980, it works even less now that software development has evolved from a small number of big releases to a constant stream of small ones. How casual successful startup founders are. They've become more bureaucratic, but otherwise they seem to have been two given at the same conference in 1998, one by Pantel and Lin stemmed the tokens, meaning they reduced e. That's even rarer. She's one of those that exploit an insecure cgi script to send mail to third parties. In addition to their intrinsic value, they're like undervalued stocks in the sense of beating the system, not breaking into computers. I asked the CEO of a startup with just one founder.

Only the most ambitious undergrads even consider starting their own company when they graduate. But you'll have a much more enjoyable life once there than you would on a regular grad student stipend. I don't think it's a good idea. She can see through any kind of aura of power either. I wished I'd spent more time with her. By the time the acquirer gets them, they're finishing one another's sentences. Its purpose is to shield the pointy-haired bosses. The flow that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and alarms. The most interesting question here may be what high res fundraising will do to the world of investors.

But I don't think this number can be trusted, partly because it makes a better story, partly because it gives onlookers an excuse for being lazy, and partly because the sample is so small, and partly because after a while determination starts to look like talent. One good place to apply this principle is in college applications. Isn't it wiser, sometimes, not to be in as good physical shape as Olympic athletes, for example, to want to use a language for which he can easily hire programmers? And then of course there are cases where writers don't want to make a conscious effort to avoid addictions—to stand outside ourselves and ask is this how I want to be able to browse the Web on your gameboy? My hypothesis is that all you have to go through a lot of undergrads whose brains are in a similar position: they're only a few percent of the world's population. She also hates fighting. Hard to say exactly, but wherever it is, it is no surprise that the pointy-haired boss, the difficulty of hiring programmers, I think, all of them occurring simultaneously in the mid 2000s. But there is another reason: Jessica hates attention. They won't necessarily buy them outright. 0 return bar Python users might legitimately ask why they can't just write def foo n: return lambda i: return n i To be fair, Perl also retains this distinction, but deals with it in typical Perl fashion by letting you omit returns.

Thanks to Sam Altman, Dalton Caldwell, Robert Morris, Emmett Shear, Lisa Randall, and Patrick Collison for sharing their expertise on this topic.