#dns solution

[radiantindia]

Implementing Fortinet FortiGuard DNS Security 

Learn about Fortinet FortiGuard DNS Security, its benefits, renewal options, costs, and Radiant Info Solutions as your FortiGuard partner. 

[phonesuitedirect]

Technical aspects is Address Resolution in DNS. In this blog post, get ready to unravel the mysteries behind DNS and demystify address resolution once and for all. Read More...

[myconetted]

working in tech

have you tried turning it off and then back on again?

it was dns

it was user error

it was dns

the manual is outdated

there is no manual

it fixed itself right when you asked someone else for help

load-bearing piece of code maintained by one guy

...and he just decided to do something really funny.

oops! us-east-1 outage. internet machine broke

extremely complicated distributed systems error that only One Person actually understands

... and the solution is to turn it off and then back on

yaml moment (NO)

the exact tool for the job last received updates in 2015

the prod env is called "test-foo2" for Historical Reasons

"that's weird... it's not supposed to do that"

upgrade crashed prod

rollback also crashed prod

no-op change ""fixed"" it

the vendor who should absolutely know what's going on has no idea what's going on

the One Person who knows everything and who you really don't want to hear it from saying "that's weird... it's not supposed to do that"

it was dns

have you tried turning it off and not turning it back on?

[mailjeevasfan]

hi there! I like your writing. I was wondering if you could write how some of the death note characters would react if you were crying. It’s completely ok if you don’t want to :)

hey thank u sm ! ofc this is a rly cute prompt <3

-no gender stated for reader

-light yagami, l lawliet, misa amane, mello, matt, near, matsuda

-death note x reader

༺♡༻

how different dn characters would react if you were crying ❦

light yagami - if we’re thinking pre death note i think light would be a gentleman and honestly pretty romantic. in this context i mean he’d be super nice and would comfort you by holding you and reassuring you, but would also have just enough reason in there. he’d try his best to give u a solution to ur problems whilst also trying to be sensitive and not too unemotional. post death note, he’d maybe be a little more distant. he’d still love you the same but would also be concerned about keeping you on his side. he’d more or less be the same in comforting you but would be a lot more busy so wouldn’t have a lot of time

༺♡༻

l lawliet - ok we all know he’s very pragmatic and unemotional but if you are genuinely someone he is willing to devote his time to, he’d really want to be the best he could for you. he’d probably learn as he went along but would become more able to handle emotional problems as well. L would give you words of comfort and give you an outlet to explain the situation fully, so that he could evaluate it and show his love by coming up with a solution

༺♡༻

misa amane - would be super sweet but maybe a tiny bit airheaded. she’s more likely to not understand what you’re trying to convey, but seeing as she’s been through a lot of trauma in her life, she’d know at least how to handle things delicately. she’d give you so many hugs and kisses and tell you it’ll be alright, and would probably get you a present to make you feel better too

༺♡༻

mello - would be super nervous and fidgety but would hide it well. he is an emotional person but comforting someone else would probably be a little bit tougher for him. however if he really cares about you he would put all that aside and do whatever he can to help. and by that i mean he’d probably be offering to kill anyone that harms u in any way lmao. he’d make sure to stay close to you for a while and ask if there’s anything you need, whatever it is he’d do it

༺♡༻

matt - i think if he’d known u for a while and he was comfortable in your company then he’d be very very good at this kind of thing. i imagine him to be an attentive and observant person even if you wouldn’t expect it, so he’d know exactly what you need in this situation. he’d probably be giving u lots of forehead kisses to make u feel loved. after you’d calmed down a bit, he’d try and distract you with something like video games or a movie.

༺♡༻

near - similarly to L he’s very unemotional and honestly i think he’d freeze up a little. he would immediately try to give a logical answer to your problems but if you didn’t want that, he’d definitely do his best to comfort you with things like hugs and more loving words instead. after a while he’d be used to your needs and would know the right thing to do whenever you’re upset

༺♡༻

matsuda - he would literally rush to cuddle you and squeeze u so tight god bless his soul :’) ok but seriously he’d be great at this considering how sensitive he is himself he’d know just what to do. the last thing he’d want is for you to feel alone in a time like this and he’d tell you often that no matter the situation, you should come and talk to him whenever you’re sad. i feel like he’d try and make you your favourite meal but would fail miserably but your heart would be warmed by the fact that he even tried

༺♡༻

[sigmaleph]

using 'roll d66' for 'roll two six sided dice, assign the first to the tens digit and the second to the ones digit, and compare to this table with 36 entries labelled correspondingly' is just personally offensive. how dare you use your notation inconsistently with the convention that dN is a sample drawn from a uniform distribution of every integer between 1 and N inclusive.

potential solutions:

come up with new notation. i would be partial to something like d6 X d6

call it a d36 and make everyone do d6 * 6 + d6 - 6 in their heads every time, it's fine, don't worry about it.

[chibi-celesti]

Metafalica anw GRANDEE=LILIA_VANROUGE (The Song of Hope of Lilia Vanrouge)

Summary: In honour of one Fae’s Journey to fulfill his princess’ last wish to save her son, the newborn Prince of Briar Valley.

Heavy Spoilers to Book 07 of Twisted Wonderland. You have been WARNED! And to all the Lilia Lovers out there (yes that includes you, @hanafubukki), this is for you! Hope I did him justice!

Hymmnos Lyrics inspired by this lovely cover of METAFALICA.

~xE rre lasye rYEfrEmU sasye ess Asphaela_urgn/.~

~xA rre lasye fwArn Amerfa_sasye, ag hYAppA za r.w. sasye/.~

~xA harr en herr kAvnLYA v.a. 1 varda rre cie aNuOk zz sarsa/.~

~xA rre arhou sAlLYEeh yYAzLYAtAeh dn vege manac rhaplanca en maoh~

They lost…

Briar Country, once heralded as a Land dominated by the Fae, is now a remnant of what it once was…

Their Princess…slain by the humans who demonized them for their existence. All because of the greed of one egotistical man.

All that was left of her was her son. Still only an egg, but also a star of hope for the people of Briar Valley.

And yet he, too, was taken away from his arms. Not by death, but by those who viewed the broken-hearted war general, who could do nothing but weep for the death of his beloved Meleanor, a failure.

As the days began to pass, the people of Briar Valley hoped and prayed for the young prince to hatch. While nurtured from afar with his grandmother giving him her magic, the prince heard Lilia's vow to one day find a solution that will awaken him.

And so, he traveled the changing world of humans. Looking for the key that would save the egg.

During his journey, he would stumble upon people, asking if anyone knew how to hatch a dragon's egg. But all he got in turn was disdain and hatred by most people who only saw him as a monster.

Even with the malice of human perspective and apathy wanting to make him give up, Lilia persevered and continued his journey.

All for Malleus's sake.

While he may not have made any progress, Lilia could only offer stories to the young prince when he met him time and time again. His voice was a balm to the little one, subconsciously becoming a Hymn of Hope to young Malleus. 

The stories Lilia told were that of an ever changing world beyond Briar Valley's borders. How much humanity has changed; some still superstitious and distrusting while others were more open and compassionate. He spoke of how he hopes to show Malleus the world once he's older.

The days passed with no signs of the egg shell showing any cracks to indicate his hatching. The people of Briar Valley feared that their Prince would soon join his parents in the Stars. That they would lose their symbol of hope to death.

However, even as those around him and Queen Maleficia despaired for the worst, Lilia kept moving forward. Kept going despite the gear gnawing at his heart and mind.

“I made a promise to your mother that you will one day hatch and become a Prince she would be proud of.”

And Lilia's vow grew into determination and hope. A hope that for one day Malleus could forge a bond with the outside world. From that hope gave birth to a power that is befitting for someone him; Protector of Cradles. Such a blessing allowed him to save the young prince when he began to reject his Grandmother’s magic and cry out to his true guardian and father.

Giving it his all, from his love, his magic and life force, Lilia had given it all to Briar Valley’s Hope. To young Malleus.

Lilia Vanrouge was proud to give up everything to give his Prince that hope.

[godhasatenderheart]

No pressure to answer ofc but do you have any advice for others struggling to stop watching porn?

Hello 🩷 thank you for asking. I hope my answer and experience can be useful for you

I had to pray about it a lot. Every day. It’s absolutely everywhere on the Internet and in media too, so in the beginning, the temptations were extremely strong.

Eventually as I started to read the Bible and pray more often, ideas would pop into my head. Like locking down my devices. I set up a DNS (nextdns.io) on my phone and computer to block pornographic websites. (It’s free and easier than you might think! If you find this is something you’d like to try, you can message me and I’ll help you set it up) Then I locked down YouTube as much as I could by putting it in restricted mode. I did this with other platforms that allowed restricted mode. I also blocked keywords on X and any other platform that allows it. Tumblr allows you to block keywords too.

This cleaned up my experience a lot but things still get through. Locking down my devices helped a lot with being exposed to this content in the beginning. I also try to be discerning when it comes to watching media. If there’s something I really want to watch but it has lustful content in it, I’ll fast forward past those parts. It’s not easy at first but it gets easier and easier as time goes on

It’s been about a year and a half since I renounced porn. I’ve relapsed three times but only for one session each time. What’s been most useful to me is staying in constant communication with God, asking Him to relieve me from this addiction, and reading the Bible

Try googling “scripture for addiction” and see what you find. You might be comforted by some of the verses you find

It was also relevant for me to ask myself what I’m running from that I’m using porn as a crutch. I have CPTSD which explains why I’m always trying to self pleasure. Being aware of what motivates you to watch can help you find solutions

Finally, the more you resist temptations, the less strong they will become. Eventually, you’ll have a temptation and almost laugh at it. Because the temptation goes from screaming into your head at all times to a mere insect bite with time.

Going to pray for you, anon. With God, anything is possible. He’s watching over you right now and He’s ready and waiting to lift you out of that dark hole that is pornography. God bless your wonderful soul. I hope this was useful in some way to you 🫂🩷

[will80sbyers]

What I understood about the Dimension X + Upside Down + Vecna + Mind Flayer + what Will can do for now from the show:

This is more for myself than anything else because I wanted to do a recap in my mind lol

Dimension X is a planet in our space or a planet in a complete different universe, it had all kinds of different species living in it:

The mind flayer -> alien particles that communicate between them with a shared mind called hivemind and with the capacity to take over the bodies of different hosts if used by Henry to do that, he shapes them as a spider that he drew when he was little

Demogorgons -> They (and the VINES too) existed before the Upside Down Hawkins was created

and are amphibian non-aquatic predators that are similar to sharks only for how they attack following the scent of blood, they probably survived eating those yellow eggs before arriving to the UD and seem to be born from the vines in the UD. To reproduce, the vines place one of those little slugs inside someone that is used as an incubator and then those grow up to become Demodogs and keep evolving until they reach the Demogorgon stage that is basically them being adults when they start to walk on two legs instead of 4 and lose the tail

The Demogorgons can open gates between the upside down Hawkins and the right side aka our world but they don't stay open, it's not clear if they can because of Vecna's powers being connected to the hivemind or only on their own - Vecna said he couldn't find a way to open the portals on his own and keep them open so he had to steal Eleven's abilities.... so he probably was using the Demogorgons before because of that so that he could go back to the upside down without risking of remaining stuck in the Right Side part (? Not clear enough to me)

Demobats -> we don't know much about if they are from Dimension X or a entirely new creation from the UD once it started mutating (we now know!!! They are from Dimension X too and Henry ate them to survive) but they are all controlled by Vecna with the hivemind.

ALL the creatures of the upside down that are connected to the vines and the hivemind have one big mind and can see in all places the others are at once

All of them hate fire and hot temperatures and prefer cold ones.

The vines CAN go in cold water without problems because we know the Watergate in s4 exists and we see one of them in the water but we haven't seen how the Demogorgons or the Demobats react to that

We saw that in Russia they had the Demogorgons floating in some liquid that looks like water with something (SALT?) added into it

And they kept the particles of the Mind Flayer that HATE hot temperatures caged in by putting heat all around them

We saw that the particles starts to swirl around when they are subjected to hot temperatures because they don't like it and the vines gets destroyed by fire but they also regrow fast, so it's not a permanent solution...

The Demodogs made the tunnels in the earth under Hawkins so that the vines could expand and make the "weird Flowers in the cave" aka the Flowers that attack by sprying the toxic particles in the air that look like snow or ash and are probably toxic for humans because Hopper felt like shit after and puked a lot

We see that Will is currently connected with the hivemind and with Vecna's mind, and he has the ability to "shadow walk" in season 2 and travel between different dimensions with a sort of projection (copy?) of his body... He can get inside the hivemind to see what all the creatures are doing in a precise moment in season 2 and that's how he finds Hopper because he could see in the tunnels because the vines were there

We don't know if Will had this ability before he got the vines inside his body but we do know he had it before he got possessed by the mind flayer because of the season 1 finale when he has the first vision in the bathroom

Also we know that when the particles of the mind flayer possess someone or an animal they change their whole DNA and make them be able to drink things that to humans are extremely toxic like the chemicals the people in season 3 were drinking and they can transform their meat tissue into anything they want, Vecna decided to build that Meat monster from the people of Hawkins to attack Eleven in season 3

The connection of the Hivemind with the Mind flayer particles stays active if the Mothergate is open, if the gate closes or if Vecna gets hurt he loses the control over that and the animals still connected in that moment die!

The Mothergate was first opened by El and she kept the psychic connection with it until season 2 and kept it open without realizing it...

In season 3 the Russians re open the Mothergate for a bit but it's unstable and it closes up again and then they find a way to keep it open during that year and start capturing Demogorgons from the Upside Down Hawkins and studying them and their anatomy, they get stopped by Joyce and Hopper but had already taken Demogorgons and brought them from Hawkins to their base in Russia and they also somehow took the particles of the Mind flayer

Vecna (the Communist) let them do it probably because he wanted the gate to stay open so that he could go to take El's powers and start his plan to open the 4 gates in Hawkins and keep that big ass gate open

So Henry/Vecna/One takes El's powers and idk practices a bit for 8 months (because he was still weak from the fight in s3? because he wanted to do it in a precise date? Idk) and then he starts his plan and starts mind stalking his victims that are people with a lot of trauma that he thinks are weak, because of that so he kills them and he creates mini gates in those points in Hawkins so that when he has 4 gates he can connect them together and keep them all open at the same time with the psychic connection!

We also know that the Upside down Hawkins seems frozen in time because either it is in some way... or because it is only a copy of Hawkins made the 6th of November the night El opened the Mothergate and no one was there to change stuff around after

and not long after that gate was opened, Will was kidnapped so we don't know if Will with some secret powers is the one that created that copy... because he just wanted to go back home and was scared, or if it was El opening the gate in Hawkins that created a reflection of it... (I think it's Will that did it)

In the UD Hawkins you can hear the voice of the people in our world and you can see the lights appear even without the physical light source being present in the UD - Dustin and the others have the lite brite light up in the Right side world and Nancy etc in the UD saw only the light...

So it's like the light travels between the worlds too, somehow, they are like gates on their own in a way and that allows people to communicate...

The lights are on screen being focused on when Dustin is saying this:

Will finds a way to also use the radio or the phone to communicate on the other side but we don't know how exactly

About Henry/One/Vecna:

it seems he got his powers either by being born like that (and they manifest during puberty) because of a mutation connected to the chemicals that his father used during the war

Or

From the spiders in the house (meh idk seems weird?)

He can get inside the minds of people and take their abilities and memories and super capacities, he can make them have nightmares and visions of what he wants and he can move things with his mind and he also can freeze time or go back in time because of the shot of the clock spinning (but this is not confirmed yet)

Henry was taken by Brenner and Brenner found a way to block his powers and used him as a lab rat to make something that if given to other people and pregnant people gives them powers, the powers of the people directly injected were weak but the powers of the kids born with them were strong, so they took the kids away kidnapping them to create the little army of anti-Russian people with superpowers and train them

Brenner kept Henry as a prisoner but he also made him participate in creating and watching over these kids so he was probably involved in Eleven's birth because he was working for Brenner in the labs - he got punished if he tried to escape or if he did something he wasn't supposed to do like maybe be in the control room (and secretly turn off the cameras so that the kids could attack Eleven and make her think Brenner wanted her dead so she would help him escape)

Then the Hawkins massacre happens and El sends Henry in the dimension X

where he somehow finds a way to stay alive by mutating and fusing with the environment and finally takes control over the mind flayer particles becoming part of the Hivemind of Demogorgons+Vines+UD creatures himself.

Then Brenner makes El search for him without telling her and she finds a Demogorgon and opens the gate with a psychic bond that goes to bond with all the other creatures through that Demogorgon, so Henry feels that in the hivemind and understands he can finally go back and uses the Demogorgon to go in Hawkins and take Will (not confirmed but probable because we see someone opening Will's door with psychic powers )

Henry also tells us that his objective is to destroy the current world to remake one as he wishes and reign over everything else because he thinks he's superior to all the other people without superpowers that are just weak and fragile and deserve to be prayed upon because "it's the natural order" of things - he wanted to be a predator like his spiders because he feels superior

NOW THE QUESTIONS:

So why did he need Will for this plan of remaking the world?

Being involved in Brenner's recreation of people with powers did he maybe know that Will or Joyce were involved in the experiments somehow and Will had a big probability of having superpowers too...?

but maybe these powers didn't manifest completely yet because Will was too little and wasn't going through puberty and he's a late bloomer in that sense, so he let Joyce and Hop save him and let him grow before he could really use the full force of his powers ?

Did he know about Will's abilities to create new worlds or travel and project in them before Will himself knew because maybe he can see sort of into the future sometimes? Or he can sense the people with his own powers in them?

[vro0m]

I still dont understand lewis choice. Like yeah Vasseur is a nice tp and the ambassador thing is cool, but I DOUBT ferrari will stop being clowns. Vasseur didn't change that. Look at the amount of dnf dns dsq of ferrari drivers last year + strategy massive errors ( I can think AD with carlos and Austin with charles as the most glaring) + super long pitstops.

Even if they have a fast car if the team is shit, you hardly gonna have good results. I also doubt they're gonna fix their reability issues and tire eating. Its being ages and thet haven't found a solution

Who knows maybe Vasseur can restructure ferrari eventually but imo this will take a long long time.

I think he can easily beat Charles, I'm not concerned about that. But the moment he does not in fact bring the glory back to ferrari he will just get disrespect. Like it happened to others. And then now he will also get disrespect from mercedes fans for being "disloyal".

Lewis didn't get what he wanted from Mercedes so he's trying somewhere else. That's honestly all there is to understand.

[web-hosting174]

Learn how to flush the DNS cache in Chrome with our ultimate guide to chrome://net-internals/#dns. Clear DNS cache to fix website loading issues now.

[mrs-monaghan]

the way this fandom have trouble with ANYTHING jimin related is sickening. First, the obvious mistreatment with all of jm's releases. Then, we have "ot7s" accusing focused jimin accs of being solos. When jm's fanbases organizes streaming parties and recomebacks, its hell on twitter. Now, that person who was the guide for the jimin tour on that harry potter place is being accused of being a tae anti. Why the hell people started to search her tweets about tae in the first place, even tho she has the little seven on her dn? Just because she saw jm and said he is the most precious human being? Btw, her tweets about tae werent problematic at all. She just metioned things that TAE DID, like his paris date with jennie. Some "ot7" started to say she was tae anti and boom, people believed it and taes solos started to send death threats to the poor girl. Just because she was saying that we should normalize the members being treated as the grown man they r, men that can make their own decisions. ADULT decisions. If she had been a guide to any other member, i wonder, would she receive this hate?

What the fuck is wrong with this fandom. Why, even the "ot7", have such a big problem with jimin? I really dont get it. I dont think its a exaggeration anymore when we say that the only real ot7s r the ones that have jimin as bias. When we see fake ot7, always is someone who have other members as bias, and that shades jimin. On the other hand, more and more we have jimin biased army becoming solos because of all this hate he receives. And i dont judge them. I mean, i dont like solos, but i can understand the urge to defende jimin of everything and everyone, because, in the reality, we can't even trust the people on our own fandom. This solo bts era is a mess, and i'm so sick of all of this. I'm happy members r happy discovering who they r as individuals, and i'm loving what they r showing to us. But i'm afraid this fandom is worse and worse everyday.

I remember when this lady got attacked. Best believe me and my friends were right there backing her up among other people who were doing the same. She got many DMs all telling her to kill herself simply because she said V is an adult and can smoke if he wants to. Their real issue was that she met Jimin and praised him for being the beautiful, kind human that he is.

This is why this discord is important. More people need supporters in their corner. When 50 tkkrs are attacking you it can be overwhelming and that's why people leave twitter. But if you have other people fighting them off and encouraging you to stay and block them, it can make someone feel better about having people in their corner.

This girl had back up and she's strong so she stayed. The vermin are the scam of the earth. And I for one I'm done watching them ran havoc and get away with it. My friends and I have been fighting them for months and we will continue to do so with or without people's support.

Of course it would be nice if more people joined us but if you let these big tumblrs get in your head just because, then things will continue like they have been and what good has that done? You can yap about Jimin abuse all day. You can shout at the rooftops about JK being used as a shipping tool by tkkrs. You can cry all day about Jkkrs getting attacked and ran out. And u can complain about ot7 accounts being tkkrs that allow Jimin to get dragged. But if you're not doing anything about it then what good does that do?

For everyone who has something to say about what we are doing; If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. You can deal with things your way, that's fine. But if u don't want to join the fight then keep it moving. If you don't want anything to do with this then just, let, us, be.

Anyway anon. Chapter 2 has been a fucking mess. Makes me wonder what will happen when all of the Tannies enlist and the fandom is left without supervision. Then what?

Discord still here. All welcome.

[sinisterexaggerator]

Beauty and the Bounty Hunter

Chapter 4: The Hunt

Part 5 >>

(Cad Bane x Fem! Reader/OC)

Fic summary: You are Aurora Ordel: the pinnacle of femininity gone wrong. Smart, sexy, but with a sassy mouth. Hailing from Corellia, you live on Coruscant at your career’s behest. You are a “Chief Design Engineer” for The Galactic Empire; inventor of the Onager-Class Star Destroyer - this super weapon is your pride and joy.

Your employer is Palpatine; you answer to Darth Vader; and Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is always barking up your skirt.

You are also beauty who has met with beast – a surly, ill-tempered bounty hunter who you like to swap spit with. Your problem? - Everyone’s out to kill you for being such a kriffing witch, and on top of that, you’re addicted to that Duros dick. Your solution? – Make Cad Bane your ( on call ) bitch.

*This is a second person POV (reader) fic / OC fic. It's both. I forgo physical descriptions at much as possible, though yes, you/she has a name, and a personality. If that is not your cup of tea, that is fine, but as the story stands it will remain this way. I still have fun writing it. If it pisses you off, oh well I guess. DN read.

This chapter: Our dear reader has found herself in trouble. Cad Bane is quite fed-up with her! Will he bother to come to her assistance, and if so, under what pretense?

Warnings: 18+ for dirty humor, death, murder, reference to fertile cycles and alien biology aka horny old man Bane headcanon, exploding heads, allusions to physical abuse, mention of sexual assault (no penetration), misogynistic/gross men, emotional trauma / other heavy shit, but don't worry. Cad Bane saves you.

Word count: 6.5k

Notes: No smut this time. Sorry / not sorry about that, but the story is definitely progressing in that direction for chapter 5! I apologize for the long delay. Hopefully this chapter will still be entertaining!

BATBH: Masterpost

You are Aurora Ordel and you have found yourself in trouble. Your hired gun had been callous towards you and for good reason. You had annoyed him to the point money did not matter. He was through with you, and you were being held for ransom.

You had lost track of time though hours felt like days. Your kidnappers hadn’t fed you though they were kind enough to let you drink for without water you would die. It wouldn’t do them any good if you were dead – not yet.

Little did they know the Empire did not take kindly to this sort of thing. Perhaps your life was not worth the credits that they required for your release. You had your doubts having heard their plans, even if you were an infamous, “evil” scientist.

This gang of thugs - of miscreants - had claimed to of seen you on the HoloNewsThey assumed you were someone of esteem and influence, and perhaps you were. Just days ago you had the Emperor himself eating from your palm, but only because of your invention. You were unsure that he would bother to send anyone to gain your freedom.

After two days your assailants were growing bored. You wore a blindfold. You had no idea what they looked like or their species, though some of them had claws as they had fondled and caressed your body.

You had choked back tears against your gag. They claimed to love the soft flesh of a human. Their words came out as a hiss. You thought maybe they were Trandoshan or perhaps more Duros.

That thought led you to more unsavory ones - the very thing you did to displease the hunter – that kriffing bet. Your desire for him had overpowered your sense of reason. You were normally so smart yet this blue man caused you to act stupid.

It’s like your brain turned off around him. No man, no alien had ever had that effect on you before. It was unnerving, yet your libido grew and grew to the point you could lose all control. It was no doubt curious though you chose to act instead of question it.

Just thinking about Cad Bane had you sopping wet even as you were bound in binders and blind to your surroundings. You cursed yourself behind your gag though the scent of your arousal had alerted your greedy captors. Whatever was their ilk, they could tell.

“Sssssshe likesssss it. What a ssssssslut,” one of the Trandoshans said. You nearly screamed as his forked tongue flitted against your ear. You kicked your legs though your ankles were bound. One of his large hands easily held them down.

“We got ourssssselvvvvesssss a braaaaaat,” the reptilian creature hissed. There was raucous laughter followed by the overwhelming feeling of being helpless.

You held back tears for they wouldn’t do you any good. Your mind drifted to that damn Duros. He wished you had never slighted him. The only thing that made you finally cry was that he had never fucked you proper.

---

Cad Bane was on the hunt. Your scent had been overpowered, outnumbered by the odors of your adversaries. They had purposely split up, going two separate ways. Perhaps they knew who they were dealing with when they saw the company you kept.

Bane was aware it was in his best interest to leave it be, yet you had paid him quite a hefty sum. Maybe he felt a sense of duty though he had convinced himself to swear you off. It still felt … wrong, seeing as how you couldn’t even see, and that part had been his fault, no matter that you quite deserved what you had got.

Ultimately, if he hadn’t ejaculated on your glasses you wouldn’t be in this mess.

The hunter sighed, running a hand over his long face as he shook his head. He shouldn’t have let your attitude get the best of him. To lose his cool was unprofessional, no matter if he had been balls deep in your pretty cunt, as that was less than professional as well, but he would have to admit he had enjoyed it when in fact his testes resided inside himself.

He hadn’t… finished; he hadn’t let you finish. To die without the satisfaction of an orgasm was a cruel and unjust punishment, especially as your desire for him was downright palpable.

His ego was somewhat elevated despite the events that had transpired. If he played his cards right you might still be alive. If not, well, he at least could say he tried.

Cad Bane stalked the lower levels, having asked anyone in the nearby vicinity about what it was they’d seen. For the perpetrators to have moved so fast dictated they were not human beings. He had smelled a mix of things. Gotals, which was worrisome, Trandoshan, and a subspecies of their ilk. They were just as ugly, going by the name of Saurin’s who hailed from the planet Durkteel.

They all had claws, sharp teeth, or horns: things that you might be afraid of. Yet, as a scientist, Bane wondered if you were perhaps enjoying it.

Oh, but his thoughts wandered to things that were unpleasant. That prompted him to traverse through the Underworld portal in his ship, deeper down than where the Red Rancor sat.

Level 1313 was so aptly named as it was one-thousand-three-hundred and thirteen levels from the core of Coruscant. This place was vile, often forgotten by those above and disregarded, though Cad Bane had visited this undercity numerous times before.

Information was what he was after on your whereabouts. Tidbits, morsels, or even scraps often proved useful when you followed the right tracks. He left the Justifier in the safekeeping of his droid, then slinked through the crowds as he kept an eye out and one ear open.  

Bane canvassed the filthy streets, using the fear of God he put into people. No one dared to turn him down from the moment he’d made eye contact.

His reputation was a boon though he could not prevent denizens from lying to him. He had learned to gauge a person’s body language, their nuanced movements, and the tone of voice they used to tell if they were playing stupid. Most were too afraid to fib though Bane uncovered nothing of grave importance.

A few individuals in particular he thought suspicious; he collected their names and any identifying features. He used his thorough research skills to rummage down back avenues on the HoloNet, picking and choosing where he was led to next on instinct.

After many dead end leads and unsuccessful stealth laden ventures, Bane decided on a place to rest and kick his feet up but also one full of chumps and gangsters, two-bit crooks, and even bounty hunters. He’d fit right in, to most people’s chagrin - Cad Bane’s presence was at the very least intimidating.

Finally, some punk, some wet nosed kid who knew little-to-nothing about subtlety or keeping secrets just couldn’t stop himself from bragging. A heavy flow of ale meant a heavy flow of intel from his end. Bane would often buy drinks for blatherers; the payout was worth the credits, especially if he was not in the mood to cause a scene.

“They caught themselves an Imp with a real nice rack. Wonder how many war crimes she’s committed.”

“Bitch probably deserves what’s coming to her,” some rando commented.

“Wouldn’t mind being the one to give it,” the stoolie laughed. "Then I'd leave her a present to remember me by - all over those perky tits."

The unwitting snitch had just joined ranks with a no-good band of hoodlums, rivals to the ones called Raptors, and they had the inclination to snatch their current captive to take the reward all for themselves.

Some woman - a smart one, from what he had gathered – she held secrets belonging to the Empire. This kid had seen her dragged inside a warehouse; he had overheard a man with green hair explain the details to someone else - the plans they had for you should no one bother to collect.

Cad Bane thought there was more to it than that. He ground his teeth into his toothpick. Upon threat of death should he waste his time, the squealer shed light on this gang’s hiding spot, advising the bounty hunter on where to start his search afresh.

Then, he broke his neck.

“Dhat’s fer bein’ a disgustin’ bastard,” Bane sneered, though he had mostly committed murder so he did not follow in his footsteps; it would have been a bother should he gain advantage, or get word back to his gang.

However, he could not deny the imbecile was accurate: your rack was nice. He found himself annoyed that he was worried about your safety, red eyes squinting as he glared at nothing in particular until he moved ahead, hoping you weren’t dead yet.

The Duros was forced to enter the Crimson Corridor, the even seedier high-crime district that was positioned some ten kilometers from the former Jedi Temple. It was in the Third Quadrant of the Zi-Kree Sector, and not a place for a lady such as yourself no matter your lack of proper manners.

This region was far from your original location; he wondered if this whole charade was planned ahead or just an opportune arrangement. Considering the many talents you seemed to have he wouldn’t put it past this motley crew to know what you were truly on about.

Cad Bane shook his head again; he could hardly believe a gal like you created superweapons. With such a shapely ass, wide hips, and perfect breasts, it was a wonder you had also been blessed with such a brain to boot, one that housed monolithic blueprints for some of the most dangerous playthings in the galaxy, yet you were worse than all those children he had been paid to wrangle; they knew how to listen. You were a walking contradiction!

You talked back, talked smack, running your mouth from here to the Mid Rim with the obscenest things, and you had the nerve to make that bet!

Oh, you had begged forgiveness. But even if he was irritated with you and had admittedly planned to leave, he could not vindicate forfeiting you to the grimy hands of other men.

This time he had brought Todo with him, the droid trying to point out something Bane would not accept; there had been a rise in his reproductive hormone levels and your presence was simply not helping matters though the droid was positive it could.

Maybe it was a mistake to link his little confidant to his life support; he knew the ins and outs of every facet of Bane’s many somatic systems. Todo was aware If Bane were sick or injured before even he did on occasion, but the price to pay was he had become a hassle. He was always badgering and nagging, telling him when to eat, or sleep, or when to brush his teeth so as to practice good oral hygiene.

He was tempted to end the program but he also loved having the upper hand. Should he need him one day, Todo would be a comm away.

Still, at this very moment, the service droid would not stop talking, elaborating on the intricacies of Durosian biology and fertile cycles, reproductive windows, and the horrors and atrocities of aging. If he did not need him to distract that damn Gotal he had smelled, Todo would have still been sitting pretty in the Justifier and Bane could bask in silence.

“It will only get worse, you know,” the little droid stated matter-of-factly as his master listened, a broad sneer plastered on his blue face from crease-to-crease.

“De only thing gettin’ worse a’round here’s yer jabberin’,” the Duros seethed.

“That is not true. Perhaps you have not noticed as you are not the one experiencing it from an outside perspective, but every three months your mood swings are absolutely terrible,” Todo disagreed.

“Maybe ye’ jus’ piss me off like clockwork,” Bane retorted.

“I highly doubt that.”

“Ah don’ doubt it aht all,” the Duros snickered.

“Think of all the laundry I have to do!”

“Perfect task fer’a butler droid.”

“I am not a butler droid! How many times have we been over this? And it’s not just laundry. It’s worse than that, it’s-

“Ferget dhat,” Bane cut in. He did not want to talk about the aftermath of his lengthy masturbation sessions. “Focus. Keep yer optics open, or dhis is liable t’be'uh skank in a scud pie sit'uation.

“What is it that you think we are doing?” Todo asked deliberately.

“Rescue op,” Bane drawled from around his toothpick.

“Since when do you ever do those?” he asked quite flagrantly.

Bane rumbled a warning at him. “Since when d’ye tolk so dang-blamed much?” He thought it over. “Eval! Got him outta prison. Tch.” He failed to mention Obi-Wan or his hand in the whole affair.

“Did ye’ ferget Zziro?” he asked after the fact. “Rescued ‘im durin’ dhat whole ssenate thing. You weren’t dhere fer dat part, but as ye’ very well know, it happened!” he snapped, exasperated.

“I thought those were more like recovery missions,” the techno-service droid argued back with a tad of sass. “Besides, you said you would never take one of those jobs again! And this one you’re doing for free?”

“Ain’ free! S’paid in ad’vhance, an’ Ah meant werkin’ fer de Hutts!” Cad spat, flicking his chewed up toothpick straight into Todo’s shoulder; it bounced off and landed in a puddle, Todo glancing up at Bane as he hovered above the water on his rocket boosters, shaking his large head with an iota of disapproval.

“In advance of being kidnapped? Why, I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

Cad Bane paused, dredging two fingers against his chin. He rubbed softly as he had a thought: was it possible this had been your plan as well? His brow ridge furrowed. He snorted out a scoff; that would have been ridiculous. Not even you would go that far to get attention.

“Why d’ye think dhere’s bodyguards, laa’serbrain? Ye’ hire ssomebody ‘cause yer either a’fraaid of bein’ kidnapped, or a’fraaid of ssomeone killin’ ye,’” he quipped in agitation.

“So, then you mean to tell me you have failed at your job?” Todo asked with honest curiosity. “Your task was to guard Ms. Ordel, yet she has been kidnapped?” Todo’s body language made him appear aghast. “Oh, this is worse than I thought! Your judgement has been clouded to the point it is affecting-”

Cahn’nit! No more playin’ know-it-all! God only knows how’a know-it-all knows ever’ythin’ exscept how annoyin’ dhey are. Gotta too big mouth fer ye’ too big head. We’re here!” he added. “Now, shut up.”

“If that isn’t the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy,” Todo whispered to himself in reference to the size of his large head. Duros were no better off in that department.

Bane ignited the thrusters on his boots without another word, launching himself heavenward. He bounded from roof to roof until he landed atop a structure in much need of repair, Todo not far behind. There was a viewport that acted as a skylight, Bane peering into the dimly lit storehouse that the boy had pointed out; this place was to be his target, and those who tread within.

For now, the hideout was sparsely populated though there was that infernal Gotal and a rather beefy human male, but what was worse was the Gotal already seemed to be aware of Cad Bane’s proximity; it was time for Todo to perform his single task.

Gotals, as a species, could sense their quarry from up to ten kilometers away; they could track a herd for weeks, determining the amount, game type, and fitness level by relying on their cones alone. When close to targets, they could easily absorb information on its mood and state of mind. As such, they numbered among the most sought-after hunters in the galaxy, which in this instance was not to Cad Bane’s benefit – far from it.

Those… things that Gotal’s had - cranial horns were good receptors -  they could sense electromagnetism and varied energy emissions, including auras from other lifeforms and things as tiny as neutrinos. They were the exact opposite of Duros. Their eyesight and hearing was quite weak and their sense of smell almost completely absent, but that did not reduce their other talents.

Droids, as it were, gave off enough emissions to at least annoy one, but Cad Bane had a sabacc card up his long sleeves: electro-magnets strapped to the inside of Todo’s chassis. They emitted emanations ten times that; it should be more than enough to disorient the sentient.

The Gotal had begun to move around the room as if he were looking for something or someone, the human male keeping close watch even as the horned being warned him that something was off. He used his wrist comm to call for back-up; he wandered toward the locked tight doors. This was Cad Bane’s chance. Perhaps he could avoid a firefight if he could rescue you before any new arrivals.

He took a moment to study your appearance. He could see you clearly from this vantage. You were tied up by the hands around a post, your legs stretched out before you. 

“Bet she’s sittin’ dhere wishin’ she ain’ get under m’scales,” Bane mumbled.

Oh, how right he was.

It had been nearly three whole days. You were wearing the same outfit. Your shoes were gone, and your glasses, too. He cursed himself, noticing you looked like you might have been abused.

There were marks and bruises on your arms; your hair was in a disarray. He was sure you had spent more time crying as there were mascara stains, old ones, running down your face.

Cad Bane gnashed his fangs.

“Todo… cut’a hole in dhis trans’paristeel, dhen get down dhere an’ disstract dhat Gotal once he exits de building,” Bane ordered coldly.

“Right away, Bane!” Todo activated a hidden laser, focusing its beam on the glass before him. He cut a large circular shaped hole before Bane rummaged in his tote, withdrawing two suction cups. He implanted them against the plate; he removed the excess then set it off to the side. It was big enough for the hunter to squeeze through, the little droid giving a salute before he zipped down off the roof.

Cad Bane watched, leery, as his little partner flew off to do his job. He reset his intentions, gazing down into the warehouse.

To his annoyance three more beings had joined the man. Two Trandoshan, and one Bith. He snickered, preparing to make his entrance.

He paused. You had made a noise. Your pathetic whimpering had enticed one of the large reptiles.

“Aww, poor thing. What’ssss the matter?” the largest Trandoshan taunted, “Did you missss me?” he asked nastily.

Cad Bane watched as you kicked your feet and twisted against your bindings. He noted there was a gag inside your mouth to silence your response. He supposed you talked too much, and in that moment he could not blame your captors, even though he was now on edge as the scaled being bent down to caress your inner thigh; his claws teased and tormented you as they disappeared beneath your skirt.

You whined against the cloth stuffed in your mouth. Cad Bane’s green blood set to boiling.

“Todo, where’sss de ugly goat man aht?” he hissed into the comm upon his wrist gauntlet. He was trying hard to keep his cool.

Todo 360 returned the comm, floating with his tiny hands upon his hips. He was quite satisfied with himself, the Gotal on his knees before him. The ache in his head was quite apparent; his actions were ones of pain and anguish as he rolled around upon the ground. He was flustered, flummoxed, and all together worthless, having been thoroughly incapacitated beyond his usefulness.

The service droid’s proud voice rang out, “Currently, he is indisposed. Would you like to leave a message?”

“Keep him pinned, got quesstions. Dhis ain’ all o’dhem.” he said, referring to the Raptor gang.

“Yes, sir!” Todo accepted his orders without question.

You screamed though it was muffled. Cad Bane withdrew one LL-30 BlasTech pistol. He took his time, aimed, and fired. He shot the human dead, then the Trandoshan next. The lizard’s body fell across your lap right before Bane dropped down to the warehouse floor like a graceful Loth-cat.

His duster settled; he rose from bended knee. The other lizard creature lifted his weaponry. Cad revoked it and shot him between the eyes; it had all been simultaneous.

His lariat had extended. It had wrapped around the blaster’s grip. He jerked it from the Trandoshan before he even knew what happened. At the same time that this occurred, Bane lifted his own pistol. It was a fluid movement, the heavy carcass falling upon the floor right by your feet.

That left the Bith; Cad Bane cornered him. He tossed the blaster rifle to violently discard it.

As for you, you had no idea what the hells was happening. You jiggled at your cuffs, chest heaving as you breathed in deeply. You were frantic, wondering if you would be the next one to meet your Maker, or if perhaps your comrades had come for you, but that might not necessarily be good.

For one, you could be branded as a failure. You had not avoided capture. Granted, this had been your employer’s greatest fear, though now your project was in its final stages. Surely you were still of utility, why else had they deigned to hire you?

Your thoughts raced; you suddenly wondered if they would believe anything you had to say. Would Tarkin assume you spilled secrets while in captivity?

Surely he would not! But you could hardly put it past the Moff. You felt if you ever made it out alive Wilhuff might decide to ride you raw.

Thankfully, that was not to be taken literal. For Tarkin to get anywhere near your naughty bits nearly triggered your gag reflex. Besides, you had heard that he was gay. The idea suited you – the mighty Moff with a cock shoved up his ass. You would love to tell him to “sit on it and spin.” Maybe if he got his rocks off he’d lighten up a bit.

Though not to diminish your current state, which was one of fear and panic; you started crying at the awful sounds the Bith was making as Cad bane had withdrawn something from his coat’s deep pockets.

Bane held the Bith around the neck; he dipped down low to sniff him with his olfactory organs. This one smelled like you, too. No one would be getting off the hook.

He felt unusually cruel though you were still blind to the goings on. Cad Bane whispered a few simple words, the other struggling to free himself as you strained to hear what was being said.

“When ye’ get te hell, tell ‘em Cad Bane ssent ye’,” the Duros sizzed.

The voice had not been comprehensible; there was a new sound to distract you. You heard the ticking of a timer, one that was high in pitch. It was meant for the tiny Bith who squirmed and squawked in Cad Bane’s grip, the hunter doing the unthinkable when he shoved it between his odd shaped lips.

Bane ignited his boot’s thrusters. He propelled himself and dove into a darkened corner. Within seconds you heard something terrible and shrill, then felt something warm and wet; for a moment you thought that you’d gone deaf.

Whatever had splashed you was thick and sticky, and on top of everything you still could not see or even speak. You thrashed against your stun-cuffs, not realizing the Bith’s head had just exploded, and now the remnants were all over you.

Their senses were highly acute; Bith could perceive tonal qualities of sound unknowable to others. An interesting side effect was in the use of screamers.

Bane only came out when the coast was clear, but you were livid, kicking and jerking as if he were out to kill you and for all you knew it was the truth.

Cad Bane approached you though you still had no idea he was the culprit. You were sobbing, trying to remove the Trandoshan that had fallen across your legs.

The weight was lifted; someone had dislodged the dead guy, finally. This person lowered and touched your knee as they tried to calm you down, not thinking you might take this as a threat though in hindsight it made sense.

Your leg rose; you would have socked Bane right in the family jewels if he were human. It was a good thing his reproductive organs were internal, or he might have killed you on accident.

He halted any further actions, holding both your legs down with one large hand as he contained a growl, the Duros meaning to comfort you but instead yelling, “Ssimmer down!”

It was fruitless; you couldn’t even hear him. The ringing was still present in your ears though you felt you could register things at a distance. It felt like being in a tunnel while at the same time underwater. Your heartrate increased as the being shifted his position.

You screamed again when he leaned in, right as he removed your gag.

Bane fell backward, nearly losing the hat atop his head. He grimaced, barking out more orders once he had recovered from you yelling in his face. “Calm yer tits, wo’man! Yer safe!”

You seemed inconsolable; all you did was weep. Cad Bane crawled forward on his hands and knees; he reached out timidly to remove your blindfold. He acted like one who might be wary of a hound, not sure if they might bite or attack on sight.

You stifled a gasp though your lips trembled. Your eyes were having a hard time readjusting. The luminescence of the room was dim at best, but you had been in the dark for nearly three whole days. Then, everything was blurry. Your spectacles were missing. You did not expect to get them back, you were well past that.

“Wh-who’s there?” you fearfully called out, your words a broken whisper as you waited for the worst.

A face appeared within your vision; it was much too close to recognize. Your shivering got worse though you managed to screech loudly, “Get the hells away from me!”

Cad Bane complained verbally. “Ye’ wanna know who’s dhere, dhen ye’ want me te let ye’ a’lone. Make up yer mind, brainiac!” he scolded you, half-assed.

All you heard was something about ass though your hearing was finally coming back. That did not stop you from throwing a full on fit. You railed against your bonds, not caring that it hurt you in the process.

“L-let me go!” you beseeched, your voice cracking pathetically. You were ashamed you had broken rank only in that you expected more out of yourself.

Four broad fingers and one thumb nestled in against your cheek. It was cool to the touch but the nerve this person had made you even madder.

“Don’t touch me!” you belted out the moment you perceived a movement of his hand. That had not stopped him so you stated your true feelings. “I’m too young, beautiful, smart, and funny to die,” you claimed brazenly.

A thumb brushed against your lips as the Duros shushed you; you inhaled sharply before you sank your teeth in. You recognized the taste, the smell, then you heard his raspy voice. “Says you. Don’ have’a conniption, it’s just me, girl- Ahh!! Karkin’ harpy!!” he hissed, giving your nose a forceful flick.

Somehow knowing it was Bane only made it worse. You cried full-fledged, feeling so terrible about yourself. To top it off, now you had gone and bit him! You should have kept your mouth shut. You should never have made that bet. Your speech was garbled as you petitioned for forgiveness.

“Inevermeantto-” you expelled in a rush, salty tears streaming down your face. You cried so hard you were beginning to hyperventilate, remembering what Cad Bane had relayed. “Your-your services are no longer required!” you stammered hurriedly.

You continued to pull against the cuffs; you were sure to have bruises on your wrists. Bane cinched his fingers around your forearms; they   were small compared to his wide reach.

“Wait’a tick,” he advised you, having recovered from your nip. “Whaddaye yappin’ a’bout- sstop squirmin’ so damn much,’ yer gonna hurt yerself!” he berated, flustered.

Your breathing was erratic. You felt like you were dying! You could only reiterate what you had said in so many words, “I am no longer your client! I don’t need you! You, you left me- and, I-” you stumbled over your confession. “I deserve it looking the way that I do! It was bound to happen, re-remember?!” you asked as more tears crept down your cheeks.

The hunter felt a pang of guilt. “Hush now, m’lil’ hellcat,” he coaxed you gently, though you were mildly traumatized. The gangsters had not had their total way with you, but they had felt you up and fondled all your attributes.

“What the hell’s all over me?! Please, don’t say cum,” you screeched.

“Brains,” Bane answered casually.

“Brains!?”  It was worse than you imagined.

He did not respond this time. His fingers worked their magic on the cuffs. He quickly set you loose. You took to rocking back and forth, drawing your knees up to your chin. “You-you’ve already been paid!” you shrieked as your voice fractured. “G-go away!” you commanded him.

He called you by your name. “Need’te get ye’ outta dhis snake pit, no reason te make it hard. No lady deserves dhis, naht even you.”

“Yes, I do! I’m terrible, I’m the worst. You said so yourself!” you shot back as he moved to wind his arms around you. You bucked and wriggled, borderline ready to throw a tantrum. You were tired and hungry, cold, wet, and somehow slimy. You felt you must smell awful, but worst of all you were full of pity for yourself and covered in some guy’s grey matter.

For once Bane was being sympathetic, yet you were full of trepidation. You threshed against his hold so much he withdrew a tool he had stashed away inside his lengthy coat: his hypnosis orb.

It mimicked a Jedi mind trick. Bane could calibrate it to be stronger and for the effects to last a little longer. He had the thought to knock you out for a length of time, just until he could get you someplace else. You were partially delirious from lack of food and rest.

He could not blame you for behaving crazy, at least not right this second. He assumed he’d just have to wait a smidge for you to return to normal, whatever normal was. It was all the more reason to lull you into a brief sleep; you would be less annoying.

The hypnogazer actuated. He brought it up to eye-level with you. You blinked at first, confused, until he found your sweet spot; the correct distance from your face that allowed you to make it out.

“Sssshhhh…” Bane shushed you softly. “Jus’ relaaaaxxx, lil’ lady…” he whispered in your ear as your eyes partook of the shiny object that held one hundred percent of your attention. You were enthralled and occupied like an intrigued feline until your mind went numb. It was as if all thought had left you. You were a blank slate to be manipulated. There was nothing you could do.

Cad Bane made a suggestion to you. “Close yer eyesss…” he coerced. You complied, no questions asked.

“Drift off’te sssleeeep. No worriesss…” he crooned as if you were a child who needed soothing. But it worked for you did that, too. You were dead to the whole of Coruscant as the bounty hunter carried you.

He made his way across the warehouse, a mite surprised there was no one left to stage an ambush, assuming now might be the time he least expected it. Any possible assailants would have predicted false, though he was happy to avoid the whole damn mess; he comm called Todo, signaling him to open the blast resistant doors.

“Got’m haands full o’dhis tart, get us out,” he dryly directed his blundering droid.

Cad Bane was lashed in the face by the stench of a rat-infested alley. It smelled putrid, like trash and sewage, the Gotal writhing on the ground before him as he held you firmly in his arms. Todo had obeyed his orders. The horned beast of a man was still duly incapacitated. Bane gingerly maneuvered you so he could turn a dial on his wrist gauntlet. It freed the Gotal from his invisible imprisonment.

“Where’s yer boss?” Cad Bane demanded, brandishing his authority by the positioning of a single finger, threatening to increase the power of the electro-magnets at his disposal at a moment’s notice.

“I don’t know!” the sentient replied, knowing Green Hair would have his hide, but he couldn’t decide what’s worse: that, or the effects of the disabling emissions.

“Wrong an’swer,” the Duros spat, making good on his nonverbal threat. He released a wave of pain, the Gotal twitching at his mercy. His kind was not made for this; he cursed the day he joined this gang. He pleaded with the hunter, not knowing what else to do.

“He’ll kill me!” he whined out.

“An’ ye’ think we’re gonna dance?” Cad Bane inquired of him, “looks like it’s gonna be pickin’ between one an’ fourteen, fer you,” he finished flatly. Todo watched from the periphery, his head roving to and fro between who spoke.

“Can’t be sure,” the Gotal panted, still trying to catch his breath. “He doesn’t tell me anyth-!!” He was interrupted by another rousing dose of horrid broadcasts, Todo just happy to be of use as he stood watch.

“Tusken Oasis!! He – arghhh!! He hangs out there-!!” the being howled.

Cad Bane sneered as he gently set you down. He freed the Gotal once again as he stayed put, gasping on the ground. The Duros bared his teeth as he scooped the Gotal up, having dragged him to his feet by the edges of his shirt’s collar.

He took a whiff; the scent of your natural fragrance lingered on the gangster’s clothing. Bane pretended not to notice, forcing the fur covered man to stand up on his own. Cad tipped his hat; bade him goodbye. The Gotal ran, thinking now would be his only chance.

“Hey, fuzzball, “ Cad Bane called out. The Gotal whisked around. He was met with the barrel end of a blaster pistol pointed directly at him. “Enjoy yer last trip home,” he offered, a single particle beam being ejected from its pack. The Gotal dropped like a ton of duracrete flat upon his back.

Bane glanced to you; thankfully you had not stirred. He bent down, then resituated you within his arms. He addressed his droid, firing up his Mitrinomon thrusters. The Duros took to the air, aiming for his hovercar some few blocks off. “We get ‘er back t’de sship, dhen I take care o’dhis Green Hair,” he crisply hissed.

“Shouldn’t we take her to her penthouse first, Mister Bane?” Todo asked presumptuously, thinking that his master was not considering all aspects.

“Naht leavin’ ‘er a’lone dhis way, yer gonna keep ‘er company an’ yer gonna like it,” the Duros stated, sailing through the gaps and spaces between buildings and other forms of real estate. “’Sides, her fancy-pants castle is on de o’der side’a dhis icky menopausilis. Hate backtrackin.’ Al’ready berthed too far as is.”

“Did you mean ecumenopolis? I am afraid I do not understand,” Todo complained. “What am I to do with her?” he asked, nonplussed.

“It ain’ karkin’ rocket science, an’ if it were, ye’ gotta rocket scientist right here,” Bane claimed dismissively.

“With the way she acts I would have assumed she is a xenobiologist on the verge of discovering a new species!” the techno-service droid boldly shot right back. Cad Bane amassed a growl deep within his chest.

“Use yer blaassted logic pro’cessor! Green hair don’ know anythin.’ Wait too long, de traail goes cold, plus’e finds out ‘is pads been compromiised,” the Duros rationalized.

“Yes, that does make sense,” Todo easily gave in.

“’Course it does! S’also why Ah’m de one in charge. Now, get in de pilot’s seat,” Cad Bane demanded tersely.

Bane’s source of transport was an airspeeder. It was a vehicle that could fit right in the Justifier’s cargo bay. His ship was docked in a far off spaceport some thousand sectors over. Zi-Kree was immense. Foremost, he had to get you out of here. He settled you in first, then hopped in afterward. “Fly,” he instructed brusquely.

Todo grumbled to himself and anyone who’d listen. “I am a techno-service droid, not a chauffeur droid! Why is it you never want to drive yourself?”

Cad Bane crossed his scrawny legs, placing one hand daintily atop his knee. He looked squarely at the back of Todo’s head, glaring before his eyes widened like a giddy child as they began to move. Cad Bane loved sight-seeing, and he also loved majestic sunsets. On top of that, he was feeling quite pleased with himself and felt he had earned his God damn credits.

He could have argued, or made up some excuse. Instead he lied, though giving the little droid an ego boost to boot. “Yer betta’ aht dhis part,” he curtly clarified, although it could be said Bane appreciated taking in the scenery when he had the time.

“Oh, well you could have said so… a long time ago,” Todo commented. Bane had never bothered to compliment his flying skills before.

The conversation paused. Cad Bane found himself staring down at your sleeping form as he rumbled a soft sound.

“Sir, are you - are you purring?” Todo asked as he glanced backwards.

Cad Bane coughed, hacked, and otherwise choked on his own spit. “Ain doin’ no such thing!” he angrily declared, “An’ watch where yer goin’!” he crossly shouted.

“I just wonder what it is that made you do so,” Todo mulled aloud.

“God ferbid Ah take’a moment te m’self,” Bane griped in indignation.

Todo kept quiet after that though his droid brain had a few independent thought processes; they were things best kept to himself.

His master was not one to like unsolicited advice, though Todo’s programming would not allow him to give up on what was in Bane’s best interest. It was somewhat a blessing and a curse for this poor Duros; Todo could be a nuisance.

Bane only wanted to be left alone, but Todo knew better – he had a power conduit to couple – it would only make things easier for them, as a team, should his best organic friend sate his innate needs and he knew just the thing…

[bugbyte]

For my art friends: some anti-scraping protection for your website

I found out about this via the bluesky user linked above, but Cloudflare has implemented a solution to help prevent AI scraping of websites. There is some technical stuff involved (you need to run your own website/domain, you need to know a bit about how to change DNS stuff, general stuff related to that) but their blog post explains most of it in relatively simple English.

This is also available under their free service tier, which immediately got my attention.

It's probably not a perfect solution, but I know I'll take anything I can get nowadays for help. Sometimes I feel like it's a lost cause by now, but I can't continue to think this way.

[definitelynotafox]

so i keep getting this ad, right?

and if you click the link it takes you somewhere and theyre telling you to install an app and alll that.

thats dumb. dont do that.

instead, youre going to wand to open up your settings right,

then youre going to want to navigate to "network and internet"

after that, youll want to click on "private dns"

then toggle over to "private dns provider hostname," put in "dns[dot]adguard-dns[dot]com" and hit save

(formatted like that so it wont become a link)

and tada, thatll block just as many ads as the app will, since its tte same tech doing the blocking.

but thats not all! you can go further!

lets say, for example, you find a website that serves content from the same place it serves ads. not super uncommon as its a way to avoid this style of adblocking.

well, theres a simple solution to that as well.

firstly, youre going to want to download firefox or a fork thereof (i use mull, personally)

then, youll want to open up the meatball menu and click "addons"

(screen blacked out because of privacy settings, dw theres nothing important there)

the addon you want is "ublock origin," you may recognize it as the adblocker you should also get on your computer

now, i already have it so ill demonstrate the install wit adguard, though not that having more than one adblocker can actually maje things worse. you only need ubo

youre going to want to tap on that little plus icon next to the extension you want

then hit "add"

then after it installs check "allow in private browsing" and "ok, got it"

and thats all you need to have a great browsing experience on the web. tune in next time where i explain revanced, aka how you can improve almost every single social media app ever (sadly excluding our very own tumblr, for now) (NOT ANYMORE! revanced works with tumblr now) especially youtube, for which dns adblocking doesnt work and the mobile browser experience can be described as "not the best"

edit:

[nyaza]

(this is a small story of how I came to write my own intrusion detection/prevention framework and why I'm really happy with that decision, don't mind me rambling)

Preface

About two weeks ago I was faced with a pretty annoying problem. Whilst I was going home by train I have noticed that my server at home had been running hot and slowed down a lot. This prompted me to check my nginx logs, the only service that is indirectly available to the public (more on that later), which made me realize that - due to poor access control - someone had been sending me hundreds of thousands of huge DNS requests to my server, most likely testing for vulnerabilities. I added an iptables rule to drop all traffic from the aforementioned source and redirected remaining traffic to a backup NextDNS instance that I set up previously with the same overrides and custom records that my DNS had to not get any downtime for the service but also allow my server to cool down. I stopped the DNS service on my server at home and then used the remaining train ride to think. How would I stop this from happening in the future? I pondered multiple possible solutions for this problem, whether to use fail2ban, whether to just add better access control, or to just stick with the NextDNS instance.

I ended up going with a completely different option: making a solution, that's perfectly fit for my server, myself.

My Server Structure

So, I should probably explain how I host and why only nginx is public despite me hosting a bunch of services under the hood.

I have a public facing VPS that only allows traffic to nginx. That traffic then gets forwarded through a VPN connection to my home server so that I don't have to have any public facing ports on said home server. The VPS only really acts like the public interface for the home server with access control and logging sprinkled in throughout my configs to get more layers of security. Some Services can only be interacted with through the VPN or a local connection, such that not everything is actually forwarded - only what I need/want to be.

I actually do have fail2ban installed on both my VPS and home server, so why make another piece of software?

Tabarnak - Succeeding at Banning

I had a few requirements for what I wanted to do:

Only allow HTTP(S) traffic through Cloudflare

Only allow DNS traffic from given sources; (location filtering, explicit white-/blacklisting);

Webhook support for logging

Should be interactive (e.g. POST /api/ban/{IP})

Detect automated vulnerability scanning

Integration with the AbuseIPDB (for checking and reporting)

As I started working on this, I realized that this would soon become more complex than I had thought at first.

Webhooks for logging This was probably the easiest requirement to check off my list, I just wrote my own log() function that would call a webhook. Sadly, the rest wouldn't be as easy.

Allowing only Cloudflare traffic This was still doable, I only needed to add a filter in my nginx config for my domain to only allow Cloudflare IP ranges and disallow the rest. I ended up doing something slightly different. I added a new default nginx config that would just return a 404 on every route and log access to a different file so that I could detect connection attempts that would be made without Cloudflare and handle them in Tabarnak myself.

Integration with AbuseIPDB Also not yet the hard part, just call AbuseIPDB with the parsed IP and if the abuse confidence score is within a configured threshold, flag the IP, when that happens I receive a notification that asks me whether to whitelist or to ban the IP - I can also do nothing and let everything proceed as it normally would. If the IP gets flagged a configured amount of times, ban the IP unless it has been whitelisted by then.

Location filtering + Whitelist + Blacklist This is where it starts to get interesting. I had to know where the request comes from due to similarities of location of all the real people that would actually connect to the DNS. I didn't want to outright ban everyone else, as there could be valid requests from other sources. So for every new IP that triggers a callback (this would only be triggered after a certain amount of either flags or requests), I now need to get the location. I do this by just calling the ipinfo api and checking the supplied location. To not send too many requests I cache results (even though ipinfo should never be called twice for the same IP - same) and save results to a database. I made my own class that bases from collections.UserDict which when accessed tries to find the entry in memory, if it can't it searches through the DB and returns results. This works for setting, deleting, adding and checking for records. Flags, AbuseIPDB results, whitelist entries and blacklist entries also get stored in the DB to achieve persistent state even when I restart.

Detection of automated vulnerability scanning For this, I went through my old nginx logs, looking to find the least amount of paths I need to block to catch the biggest amount of automated vulnerability scan requests. So I did some data science magic and wrote a route blacklist. It doesn't just end there. Since I know the routes of valid requests that I would be receiving (which are all mentioned in my nginx configs), I could just parse that and match the requested route against that. To achieve this I wrote some really simple regular expressions to extract all location blocks from an nginx config alongside whether that location is absolute (preceded by an =) or relative. After I get the locations I can test the requested route against the valid routes and get back whether the request was made to a valid URL (I can't just look for 404 return codes here, because there are some pages that actually do return a 404 and can return a 404 on purpose). I also parse the request method from the logs and match the received method against the HTTP standard request methods (which are all methods that services on my server use). That way I can easily catch requests like:

XX.YYY.ZZZ.AA - - [25/Sep/2023:14:52:43 +0200] "145.ll|'|'|SGFjS2VkX0Q0OTkwNjI3|'|'|WIN-JNAPIER0859|'|'|JNapier|'|'|19-02-01|'|'||'|'|Win 7 Professional SP1 x64|'|'|No|'|'|0.7d|'|'|..|'|'|AA==|'|'|112.inf|'|'|SGFjS2VkDQoxOTIuMTY4LjkyLjIyMjo1NTUyDQpEZXNrdG9wDQpjbGllbnRhLmV4ZQ0KRmFsc2UNCkZhbHNlDQpUcnVlDQpGYWxzZQ==12.act|'|'|AA==" 400 150 "-" "-"

I probably over complicated this - by a lot - but I can't go back in time to change what I did.

Interactivity As I showed and mentioned earlier, I can manually white-/blacklist an IP. This forced me to add threads to my previously single-threaded program. Since I was too stubborn to use websockets (I have a distaste for websockets), I opted for probably the worst option I could've taken. It works like this: I have a main thread, which does all the log parsing, processing and handling and a side thread which watches a FIFO-file that is created on startup. I can append commands to the FIFO-file which are mapped to the functions they are supposed to call. When the FIFO reader detects a new line, it looks through the map, gets the function and executes it on the supplied IP. Doing all of this manually would be way too tedious, so I made an API endpoint on my home server that would append the commands to the file on the VPS. That also means, that I had to secure that API endpoint so that I couldn't just be spammed with random requests. Now that I could interact with Tabarnak through an API, I needed to make this user friendly - even I don't like to curl and sign my requests manually. So I integrated logging to my self-hosted instance of https://ntfy.sh and added action buttons that would send the request for me. All of this just because I refused to use sockets.

First successes and why I'm happy about this After not too long, the bans were starting to happen. The traffic to my server decreased and I can finally breathe again. I may have over complicated this, but I don't mind. This was a really fun experience to write something new and learn more about log parsing and processing. Tabarnak probably won't last forever and I could replace it with solutions that are way easier to deploy and way more general. But what matters is, that I liked doing it. It was a really fun project - which is why I'm writing this - and I'm glad that I ended up doing this. Of course I could have just used fail2ban but I never would've been able to write all of the extras that I ended up making (I don't want to take the explanation ad absurdum so just imagine that I added cool stuff) and I never would've learned what I actually did.

So whenever you are faced with a dumb problem and could write something yourself, I think you should at least try. This was a really fun experience and it might be for you as well.

Post Scriptum

First of all, apologies for the English - I'm not a native speaker so I'm sorry if some parts were incorrect or anything like that. Secondly, I'm sure that there are simpler ways to accomplish what I did here, however this was more about the experience of creating something myself rather than using some pre-made tool that does everything I want to (maybe even better?). Third, if you actually read until here, thanks for reading - hope it wasn't too boring - have a nice day :)

[monisha1199]

AWS Security 101: Protecting Your Cloud Investments

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, few names resonate as strongly as Amazon.com. This global giant, known for its e-commerce prowess, has a lesser-known but equally influential arm: Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is a powerhouse in the world of cloud computing, offering a vast and sophisticated array of services and products. In this comprehensive guide, we'll embark on a journey to explore the facets and features of AWS that make it a driving force for individuals, companies, and organizations seeking to utilise cloud computing to its fullest capacity.

Amazon Web Services (AWS): A Technological Titan

At its core, AWS is a cloud computing platform that empowers users to create, deploy, and manage applications and infrastructure with unparalleled scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. It's not just a platform; it's a digital transformation enabler. Let's dive deeper into some of the key components and features that define AWS:

1. Compute Services: The Heart of Scalability

AWS boasts services like Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), a scalable virtual server solution, and AWS Lambda for serverless computing. These services provide users with the capability to efficiently run applications and workloads with precision and ease. Whether you need to host a simple website or power a complex data-processing application, AWS's compute services have you covered.

2. Storage Services: Your Data's Secure Haven

In the age of data, storage is paramount. AWS offers a diverse set of storage options. Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) caters to scalable object storage needs, while Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) is ideal for block storage requirements. For archival purposes, Amazon Glacier is the go-to solution. This comprehensive array of storage choices ensures that diverse storage needs are met, and your data is stored securely.

3. Database Services: Managing Complexity with Ease

AWS provides managed database services that simplify the complexity of database management. Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is perfect for relational databases, while Amazon DynamoDB offers a seamless solution for NoSQL databases. Amazon Redshift, on the other hand, caters to data warehousing needs. These services take the headache out of database administration, allowing you to focus on innovation.

4. Networking Services: Building Strong Connections

Network isolation and robust networking capabilities are made easy with Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). AWS Direct Connect facilitates dedicated network connections, and Amazon Route 53 takes care of DNS services, ensuring that your network needs are comprehensively addressed. In an era where connectivity is king, AWS's networking services rule the realm.

5. Security and Identity: Fortifying the Digital Fortress

In a world where data security is non-negotiable, AWS prioritizes security with services like AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) for access control and AWS KMS (Key Management Service) for encryption key management. Your data remains fortified, and access is strictly controlled, giving you peace of mind in the digital age.

6. Analytics and Machine Learning: Unleashing the Power of Data

In the era of big data and machine learning, AWS is at the forefront. Services like Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce) handle big data processing, while Amazon SageMaker provides the tools for developing and training machine learning models. Your data becomes a strategic asset, and innovation knows no bounds.

7. Application Integration: Seamlessness in Action

AWS fosters seamless application integration with services like Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) for message queuing and Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) for event-driven communication. Your applications work together harmoniously, creating a cohesive digital ecosystem.

8. Developer Tools: Powering Innovation

AWS equips developers with a suite of powerful tools, including AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodeCommit, and AWS CodeBuild. These tools simplify software development and deployment processes, allowing your teams to focus on innovation and productivity.

9. Management and Monitoring: Streamlined Resource Control

Effective resource management and monitoring are facilitated by AWS CloudWatch for monitoring and AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure as code (IaC) management. Managing your cloud resources becomes a streamlined and efficient process, reducing operational overhead.

10. Global Reach: Empowering Global Presence

With data centers, known as Availability Zones, scattered across multiple regions worldwide, AWS enables users to deploy applications close to end-users. This results in optimal performance and latency, crucial for global digital operations.

In conclusion, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is not just a cloud computing platform; it's a technological titan that empowers organizations and individuals to harness the full potential of cloud computing. Whether you're an aspiring IT professional looking to build a career in the cloud or a seasoned expert seeking to sharpen your skills, understanding AWS is paramount. 

In today's technology-driven landscape, AWS expertise opens doors to endless opportunities. At ACTE Institute, we recognize the transformative power of AWS, and we offer comprehensive training programs to help individuals and organizations master the AWS platform. We are your trusted partner on the journey of continuous learning and professional growth. Embrace AWS, embark on a path of limitless possibilities in the world of technology, and let ACTE Institute be your guiding light. Your potential awaits, and together, we can reach new heights in the ever-evolving world of cloud computing. Welcome to the AWS Advantage, and let's explore the boundless horizons of technology together!