#every safety measure has been put in too late to trust at any level that walmart is not chock full of carriers too.

[40spoppin]

Fun fact: don’t trust Walmart when they say they’re doing their best to protect people

[fabulouspotatosister]

three chances

a/n: i’ve been on a weird angst train lately! i have no idea why! this is inspired by a prompt given to me by Whittakerjodie (@whittakerjodie​) the awesome awesome author of one of my favorite fics right now, Transcendence. please go read it and give her lots of love! enjoy the fic!

(gif credit: @findingyouagain​)

Pain is not quantifiable.

They can give someone scales and numbers to measure it with, but there is no number that can truly define pain. Pain is always compared to other kinds of pain.

The Doctor knows pain. She knows it like an old friend - the scars on her hearts are evidence enough of their friendship. But in this moment, the Doctor can’t find words to describe her pain right now.

Of course, words would be difficult to find if the love of your life was tied up in front of you, in the clutches of your worst enemy.

“You have something that I want, Doctor,” the Master sneers, his footsteps echoing and layering over one another in the small space. His face is stretched into an impossibly wide smile, growing even wider when the Doctor takes a small step towards you. “Ah. No, no, we can’t have that. We can’t have that. There has to be an exchange.”

You’re sitting on the floor with your hands and feet bound. Your chest rises and falls with every shuddering breath you take - for a second, the Doctor breathes with you, feeling your fear wash over the room like a tidal wave. You were just as afraid as she was.

But your fear isn’t present in your eyes. Your chin is still raised, even though your lip trembles, and your eyes burn with bravery - reckless bravery, powered by faith, faith that she had given you.

“I’ll give you three chances. I’m nice like that.” The Master raises his hand to trail it down the side of your face and the Doctor’s blood boils. He doesn’t get to touch you like that - “I’m not nice. But you knew that. Three chances.”

“What happens if I use up those three chances?” the Doctor asks, settling into her rage. It was easy to do that around him. “Will you kill me?”

“No. No, that would be too easy for you,” the Master says lowly. He leans down next to your bound form, brushing his fingers against your temple - when they make contact you close your eyes and start to shake. “Why do you think you’re not the one tied up?”

Dread settles into the Doctor’s soul, getting ready to eat her alive, piece by piece. Your eyes open again, and they are hazy, blurred over with unshed tears. “No, don’t -”

The Master kneels down. He gathers the strands of your hair, tucking them behind your ears. An action so intimate - the Doctor remembers doing that to you, her hands brushing the skin of your neck - but today that makes her skin crawl. The Doctor watches fear bleed into your dazed eyes. You’re shaking harder now, your breaths quickening. “I told you, you have three chances.”

“What are you doing?” Be brave, the Doctor reminds herself, be brave. “Whatever you’re doing, don’t -”

The Master chuckles. “I’m not doing anything, Doctor. Just some cleaning up. I told you death would be too kind for you. But this way…” The smile disappears off his face, his eyes turning dark. “I can really break you.”

“You’ve already tried doing that. Didn’t work,” the Doctor says, anger still flowing through her veins. She wills it to overpower over her fear.

“Time Lords,” the Master muses, letting you lean against his body, “so many abilities. So many gifts. For one… the manipulation of the mind.”

The Doctor meets your gaze. You’re shivering without any cold, and your eyes are dull and unseeing - but through that, you shake your head.

“I’m not going to take your life away. I’m going to do something much, much worse.”

The Doctor hears you cough, and when you speak your voice is rough and wheezing. She blinks at you, her own words caught in her throat. “You don’t get it, do you? She’s still not going to give it to you.”

The Master raises his eyebrows. “Mouthy. I like that. Did you get that from her?”

“No, that’s all me,” you snark. “But I had a good teacher.”

Pride swells in the Doctor’s chest. For a second, the Master disappears, and it’s just you and her in the room.

But reality is cruel.

The Master laughs before catching your chin with his hand, making you yelp - the Doctor reaches out, but the Master whips his head around to face her, mouth curled into a snarl.

“Then that’s the only thing you’ll have left from her,” he spits. “Strike one.”

The Master raises his hands to your temple again, and this time he presses his fingers into your skin hard. A strangled noise of pain escapes your lips, and your body leans even further into the Master’s.

No, not you - the Doctor rushes forward, and she is just in reach of your form before she stumbles, almost crashing into the floor. She catches herself with her hands, the jagged edges of the floor digging into the skin of her palms. That pain is absolutely nothing compared to what she feels seeing you in his arms, slipping away from her.

The Doctor looks up at the Master. They’re on the same level now. He’s kneeling beside you and she’s on the floor. “Stop it. Stop it!”

Her voice climbs to a yell, but the Master just shrugs. “Two chances left, Doctor. Just give me what I want and it will all be over.”

You peel your eyes open, squinting, and wriggle in your bonds. “Doctor, what’s - what’s going on? Where are we?” You sound lost, confusion coating your words - when you turn your head to see the Master, who just smiles, you gasp. “Who - who are you?”

The Master grins, holding your shoulders in place. You struggle against him, and he just grins wider. “Look at that! She doesn’t even know who I am anymore. How far back can we go?”

“Doctor, I don’t know what’s going on,” you say, “but whatever he wants, don’t give it to him.”

“Do you hear that, Doctor?” the Master croons, still holding your chin. “You do listen to your pets, right? Won’t you do as they say?”

The Doctor stops. If she gives the Master what he wants, he sets you free - but she puts lives at risk. If she doesn’t, she loses you. Her mouth sets into a hard line. He can’t make her do that, he can’t make her choose between you or everyone else - but if she chose you, what difference would it make? She could always find another way to stop him -

“No, no!” Your voice breaks the Doctor out of her thoughts. “Doctor, don’t do it, do not do it -”

The Master groans, and claps a hand over your mouth. Your voice still comes out, muffled behind his palm. “Enough of this. Well? What do you say?”

The Doctor inhales, pushing herself up to her feet. She sways slightly. She grinds the word out - “No.”

“No? How could you? Look at what you’re doing!” The Master gasps in mock surprise. “I’m kidding, of course. Strike two.”

You scream when the Master presses his fingers to your temple this time - the sound echoes all throughout the room and through the Doctor’s mind.  The Master’s lips are pulled back, he’s baring his teeth like a predator to prey as he forces his way into your mind. He pulls his hand away from your mouth when you scream, and she knows it’s because he wants her to listen.

And she is listening. Your screams find a place in her mind, one that will open its doors much later in her life and haunt her forever.

It feels like an eternity before your screams die out, tapering into trembling whimpers.

“Look at what you’re doing,” the Master echoes, “look at what you’ve done.”

The Doctor can feel it from where she’s standing. She can feel the Master’s anger, his sardonic joy; she can feel your fear fading away, replaced by utter confusion.

“D-Doctor,” you mumble, and the Doctor feels her knees weaken. She buckles, falling to her knees in front of you, wanting to reach out, to take you back. She might already be too late for that.

“Oh? You’ve caught a stubborn one, haven’t you?” The Master flicks your forehead. You barely respond. “I tried to go as far back as I could, but you’re still in there! This is harder than I thought it would be.”

He brushes stray strands of hair away from your face, drenched with sweat and pale. The Doctor never liked taking memories away, but it was always painless. He, however, was making it hurt.

He was hurting you. That hurt more than she could ever imagine, and if he took one more step and took all of her away from you, she would lose you. Forever.

“Wait,” the Doctor manages, “ Wait! I’ll do it. Whatever you ask.”

It hurts her pride to say it, but what does she have to lose now? Her pride could be non-existent. Her pride didn’t matter right now - all that mattered was getting you out of there and getting you to safety. She would deal with the damage later.

“Why do I find that hard to believe?” the Master murmurs, peering down at your form. “What makes you think I can trust you?”

“I’m kneeling. In front of you. Please -” Please don’t do this, please don’t take them away from me, please don’t just please don’t - “ Master.”

The Master pauses, looking at the Doctor, his face screwed up in an expression the Doctor didn’t have the energy to read. Something flickers behind his eyes. It could have been pity, or mercy - but the Doctor knew he didn’t have that.

The Doctor was not one for prayer. But she was praying, pleading for a miracle she couldn’t grant.

Through all that, she finds your eyes. Eyes that still knew her. You blink, slowly, and somehow understanding dawns on your face. Holding her gaze steady, you shake your head.

No. Not for me.

The Doctor almost cries.

“I caught that,” the Master whispers, his mouth twisting into another cruel smile. “Really, Doctor, you don’t have to make it so difficult.”

This time, the Master laid both of his palms against your temples. “You just used up your last chance. Strike three.”

The Doctor looks at you for one final moment. She knows the understanding in your eyes will haunt her forever. The corners of your lips pull into a small smile, so reminiscent of the smile you wore when she had followed Yaz into her apartment for tea, all that time ago.

When you close your eyes and the Master pushes into your mind, you don’t scream. Tears slip out of your eyes, and small whimpers slip out of your mouth, but you don’t scream. It’s a small mercy. She doesn’t deserve that from you.

The Doctor just watches. She’s failed you, and for a moment she wishes she was the one getting her memories erased, so she wouldn’t have to feel this pain.

“Times up,” the Master says quietly. He practically drops you as he moves to stand up, brushing his hands against his pants. “I’ll come back. I’ll keep coming back. I don’t think they will, though.”

The Master gives one more laugh, and then he disappears.

And then the Doctor’s alone.

She scrambles to get to your prostrate body, lying on the floor, the jagged edges of the floor even sharper than before. She rushes to untie your bonds and cradles you in her arms, holding you close to her like she might never be able to do it again.

The Doctor calls your name, once, twice - nothing. Your silence maims, it prods at her hearts, leaving bruises in its wake.

You look so hollow. The Doctor gazes into your eyes and she finds nothing, no recognition. Your head lolls to one side and the Doctor moves to steady it, letting it rest on her chest.

You’re gone.

…

The Doctor takes you home.

“There has to be another way,” Yaz croaks out, her eyes red. She’s the one holding you know, keeping you steady as you stare blankly into space. “There has to be something we can do, Doctor -”

The Doctor clenches her fist, her hearts twisting as she feels new scars being branded upon them. She brings her fist down onto the TARDIS console - the whole room trembles, and the lights flicker and darken.

“ There’s nothing I can do !” she yells, her fist starting to ache. She pushes it down like she pushes away the rest of her pain. “I’m sorry, alright? But there’s nothing I can do.”

“Doc -” Graham starts, and the Doctor nearly growls. He goes quiet.

The TARDIS lands softly inside your flat’s living room. The Doctor quietly takes you from Yaz’s arms, ignoring the way Yaz’s fingers twitch like she wants to keep holding on, and leaves the TARDIS. The fam doesn’t follow her out.

She walks to your bedroom and you shift, seemingly nuzzling into her for warmth - the Doctor feels her hearts burn. A flicker of hope sets itself alight, and she can’t breathe for a minute as she sets you onto your bed.

Then she sees your eyes, and that flicker is extinguished. You don’t know her anymore, and you never will.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor whispers, stroking your hair. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t - I didn’t do anything.”

Words won’t fix anything. She knows you can barely hear her. But words are all she has right now.

“I know you’ll forget this soon, but -” The Doctor pauses, feeling her eyes brim with tears. “I love you. I won’t forget that. I love you so much.”

The Doctor leans down, and presses a kiss to your forehead. Sleep, she wills, sleep and have incredible dreams. And when you wake up, be happy. Someone loves you.

She pulls away. You’ve closed your eyes, your breathing steady, and she takes one last look. One last look at the person she loved so much, and loved her in return.

Goodbye.

Completely alone, the Doctor lets herself weep.

…

(The Doctor is eerily quiet when she comes back to the TARDIS. She punches in coordinates to send the rest of the fam home - they don’t need to see what she’s about to do next.

Pain isn’t quantifiable.

The Doctor will make sure the Master knows pain as well as she does.)

[satinwulf]

✦ ▓ AND WHO GOES THERE? oh, it’s just [ SANSA STARK ]. some say [ HER ] resemblance to [ AHN HEEYEON ] is almost uncanny, but the [ TWENTY-SIX ] year old has been in the capital for [ TWENTY-SIX YEARS ]. many suspect that they are the notorious [ ASSOCIATE ] of the [ STARK ] family: perhaps that has made them [ RESERVED ] && [ CIRCUMSPECT ] of late, when they used to be so [  WHIMSICAL ] && [ SANGUINE ]. during the daylight hours, [ SANSA ] can be found working as a [ FASHION DESIGNER & BOUTIQUE OWNER ], but when night falls over king’s landing, they are best remembered listening to [ THE ARCHER BY TAYLOR SWIFT ]. may the gods be with them in these dark streets. ( mowgli. twenty-four. cst. she/hers. )

STATISTICS.

full name:  sansa  elethea  stark.

moniker / nickname: princess,   sans.

gender && pronouns: cisfemale,      she / hers.

dob && age: december 23,   1994.     26.

zodiac sign: capricorn.

ethnicity: korean.

sexual orientation: bisexual.

romantic orientation: biromantic.

mafia affiliation: associate  to  the  stark  family  via  familial  ties   -   sansa  does  NOT  partake  in  anything  further  than  simply  being  known  as  a  stark.

occupational history: former  socialite  turned  fashion  designer.      current  owner  of  the  satin  wolf,      an  upscale  boutique  featuring  her  designs.

financial status: sansa  comes  from  wealth,      but  has  also  amassed  her  own  funds  through  her  business   -   albeit,      it  is  easy  to  do  so  when  you  don’t  have  to  pay  rent.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

face claim: ahn  heeyeon,   ‘hani’.

height: five feet,   eight  inches.

physical build: tall  and  slim;   sansa  is  not  very  toned  nor  muscled,       her  body  is  very  much  so  smooth  lines  and  long  limbs.

eye colour and shape:  brown,      almond.

hair colour and style: currently  strawberry  blonde,   formerly  many  different  colors,    as  sansa  expressed  herself  through  having  it  dyed  previously.       it  is  often  worn  straight  and  down  when  she  isn’t  working,      and  pulled  into  a  messy  bun  when  she  is!

usual expression: stoic.

accent and speech style: sansa  has  a  very  soft  voice,       very  saccharine  and  sweet  by  its  very  nature.        she  has  no  blatant  accent,     and  speaks  often  in  run  on  sentences.

distinguishing marks / characteristics: any scars, tattoos, piercings.

clothing style: very  street  chic  but  also  dependent  on  the  occasion   -   she  dresses  for  the  life  she  wants  to  have  and  live.

jewellery and accessories: earrings,   necklaces,   hats,   scarves   -   any  and  everything  is  on  the  table  when  it  comes  to  accessorizing  the  perfect  outfit.        sansa  never  considers  herself  fully  dressed  without  her  apple  watch,      earrings,      and  a  silver  wolf’s  head  locket  necklace.  

FAMILY:

father: eddard stark.

mother: catelyn stark,      nee  tully.

siblings, if any: robb,      arya,      bran,      rickon.

extended relations: hoster  &  minisa  tully,     edmure  tully,      brandon  stark,      lyanna  stark,      benjen  stark.

significant other(s): none,   currently.    formerly  a  fiance.

children: none.

household pet(s): a  female  merle  great  dane  named  boleyn,   “bo”  for  short.

FAVOURITES.

colour: blue.

weather: a sunny,   but  cool  fall  day.

food item:  red  velvet  cupcakes.

beverage: peach lemonade.

time of day: mid - evening.

television genre: drama.

PERSONALITY.

hobbies: painting,     baking,      reading   -   and  occasionally  writing.

pet peeves: sansa  loathes  loud  chewers,      people  who  refuse  to  put  effort  into  their  outward  appearance,      and  people  who  think  ketchup  and  ranch  go  on  everything   -   or  anything  at  all.

phobias: spiders,      rats,      snakes.

allergies: penicillin.

mbti type: enfj,    the  protagonist.

enneagram type: 4w3,      the  enthusiast.

positive traits: whimsical,      sanguine,      clever.

negative traits: reserved,      circumspect,      fretful.

morning routine: up  by  seven,      morning  walk  with  her  dog,      shower,      breakfast,    begin  work  by  nine,      sharp.

beauty routine: multi - stepped,   always  beginning  with  primers  and  concealers.        sansa  is  a  bit  of  a  makeup  enthusiast;      even  if  she’s  just  at  home  working,      she  prefers  to  have  some  level  of  it  on,      as  she  feels  it’s  yet  another  creative  and  artistic  outlet   . . .    even  if  it  is  just  for  herself.

sleeping habits: sansa  has  always  been  a  heavy,      deep  sleeper,      even  as  a  child.        she  can  fall  asleep  in  the  blink  of  an  eye,      and  be  out  for  hours  without  even  a  hint  of  discomfort.        she  used  to  be  the  person  who  was  up  all  night,      and  tended  to  sleep  all  day   -   now  she’s  asleep  by  8:30pm  most  nights  and  up  by  7:00am.

living space && home: a  high  rise  loft  apartment,      kept  impeccably  clean  and  decorated  in  a  modern  contemporary  style,      with  many  hues  of  gray  and  light  pastels.

all  the  king’s  horses  and  all  the  king’s  men  couldn’t  put  me  together  again,      ‘cause  all  of  my  enemies  started  out  friends.

sansa  attended  king’s  way  college  and  graduated  with  a  bachelor’s  degree  of  fine  arts,    having  majored  in  fashion  design.        her  graduation  present  was  the  satin  wolf,      a  boutique  of  her  own  to  showcase  her  designs.        it  is  located  in  neutral  territory,      and  operated  by  staff  hand  selected  by  sansa  herself.  

the  death  of  hoster  tully  was  a  sad  affair  for  her,      and  yet,      sansa’s  grief  was  also  met  with  a  sense  of  relief.        that  with  her  grandfather  no  longer  pulling  strings,      the  pressure  of  being  brought  into  a  life  she  did  not  want  might  wain.

it  is  her  intent  to  never  become  involved  further  than  she  is  currently  with  any  of  the  syndicates,    even  her  own  family’s.

dancing  under  lights  since  she  was  seventeen.     her  brain’s  flooded  with  ketamine,     high  from  every  party,      low  from  self - esteem;     it’s  selfish  but  she  never  sleep.       honestly,      she  needs  a  little  sympathy.

the  socialite  daughter,      beautiful  and  charming,      always  interested  in  the  next  party   -   the  next  event.        sansa  had  a  penchant  for  attention,      late  nights  spent  out  drinking  and  dancing  even  when  she  less  than  legal;      it  made  her  feel  happy,      feel  free.        it  was  a  way  to  forget  that  things  could  be  dark  and  grim   -   to  forget  that  her  parents,      her  siblings,     nearly  everyone  she  knew  was  involved  in  a  lifestyle  that  made  her  stomach  curl.       so  she  danced  and  partied,      smiled  wide  for  pictures,     found  a  boyfriend  that  enjoyed  the  same  things  she  did   -   one  who  wasn’t  interested  in  what  her  family’s  name  could  do  for  him   . . .   or  so  she  thought.        when  he  asked  her  to  marry  him,      she  cried  tears  of  joy,      and  things  were  perfect.        just  like  they  always  were  for  sansa.

until  one  night  a  few  months  ago,      when  she  and  her  fiance  were  leaving  a  club   -   drunk  and  stumbling,      clinging  to  his  arm  with  practiced  ease    . . .   when  two  rough  hands  that  weren’t  his  pulled  her  away.        into  a  darkened  alley,      where  accomplices  met  and  held  her  at  knife-point.        they  wanted  to  know  about  her  father.        her  uncles.        her  mother,     aunts,      grandfather.        stark  plans,      stark  anything   -   gravely  voices  that  wondered  how  many  pretty  pennies  they  could  get  if  they  just  took  her  off  the  streets  now.       held  her  until  they  paid,      and  maybe  they’d  just  kill  her  anyways.       the  rough  brick  of  the  building  at  her  back  digs  into  unmarred  skin,      leaving  it  scratched  and  red   -   prick  of  a  blade  just  centimetres  away  from  the  flesh  of  her  neck,      threatening  to  cut  it  open  and  leave  her  bloody.

she  can’t  figure  out  where  he  is,      the  man  who’s  supposed  to  love  her   -   seemingly  vanished  into  thin  air  the  minute  things  had  turned  sour.        sansa  is  convinced  of  the  worst,      mascara  tears  trailing  down  her  cheeks,      because  this  must  be  it.        the  end  of  it  all.

reprieve  is  the  sight  of  one  man,     then  two,      crumpling  to  the  ground.        a  familiar  face  appearing  in  the  dimly  lit  alley  as  the  knife  at  her  throat  clatters  to  the  ground  and  her  freedom  is  given.        alive  but  shaken,      sansa  hasn’t  been  the  same  since.

i  used  to  be  a  darling  starlet  like  a  centerpiece.       had  the  whole  world  wrapped  around  my  ring.      i  flew  too  closely  to  the  sun  that’s  setting  in  the  east,       and  now  i’m  melting  from  my  wings.

returning  to  a  normal  life  post  incident   -   post  trauma   -   has  been  easier  said  than  done.        now  reclusive  in  nature,      stowing  herself  away  for  days  in  her  high  rise  loft  apartment,      sightings  of  the  eldest  stark  daughter  are  said  to  be  few  and  far  between.        she  no  longer  frequents  her  own  boutique,      working  instead  from  home  and  through  various  intermediates  to  ensure  everything  is  well  controlled;      sansa  only  appears  when  it’s  absolutely  necessary,      when  business  requires  a  gentle,     steady  hand  and  cannot  be  managed  from  afar.        

custom  designs  are  still  available,     but  often  very   hard  to  come  by.        sansa  is  incredibly  selective  with  who  she’ll  meet  in  person  with,      and  thus,      only  those  who  can  guarantee  her  trust  have  been  able  to  get  them.

sansa  does,      however,      outfit  most  of  the  stark  syndicate  in  gear  that  is  both  fashionable  and  functional.        including  safety  measures   &   fabric  a  little  more  durable  than  most.        this  is  generally  the  extent  of  what  she’s  willing  to  do  for  the  syndicate,      the  idea  of  being  involved  in  violence  is  absolutely  terrifying  to  her,      especially  after  everything  she  went  through  without  even  being  more  than  a  child  of  known  members.

she  still  is  unaware  of  her  ex-fiance’s  involvement  in  the  attempted  abduction   -   if  he  was  working  along  with  the  men,      or  if  he  was  just  cowardly  enough,     uncaring  enough  to  have  let  her  be  pulled  from  his  arms.        she  hasn’t  spoken  to  him  much,      outside  of  ending  their  relationship  as  a  whole,      the  truth  isn’t  worth  the  extra  pain  it  may  cause,      or  so  she’s  convinced  herself  for  now.

wanted  connections  !!     i  may  send  some  of  these  into  the  main  after  a  bit  if  they  aren’t  filled  just  because  i’m  #needy.

judas    . . .      this  would  be  sansa’s  ex - fiance!      i  did  write  it  off  a  tweaked  and  modernized  version  of  her  relationship  with  joffrey  but  it  definitely  doesn’t  have  to  be  him.         their  relationship  was  seemingly  picture  perfect   -   and  likely  too  good  to  be  true.         they  were  frequent  party  and  club  attendees  together,      and  truly,      was  based  off  of  the  fact  that  being  together  was  akin  to  the  high  that  came  with  endless  drinks  and  fun.        ideally,      he  would  have  just  been  using  sansa  to  hopefully  siphon  information  or  even  to  gain  an  in  to  the  stark  family   -   the  possibilities  are  endless  and  i’m  ??   here  for  them?       sansa  romanticized  the  fuck  out  of  him  and  their  relationship,      ignoring  any  and  all  warning  signs  until  things  went  bad  the  night  of  the  after  club  incident.        essentially  she’s  ghosted  him,      aside  from  mailing  back  his  ring  and  a  letter  telling  him  it  was,      in  very  few  words,      over.      the  finer  details  are  very  much  so  up  for  discussion  and  interpretation  so  y’know,      run  wild.

white  horse   . . .      whomever  saved  sansa  from  the  alley   -   no  gender  requirements  because  we  love  equal  opportunity  ass  kickers  in  this  house.       they  had  at  the  very  least  an  acquaintanceship  with  sansa  in  the  past  and  after  their  act  of  heroism,     sansa’s  sort  of  attached  herself  to  them  in  a  very  idealized  way?      not  necessarily  romantically  but  very  clingy,     she  doesn’t  want  to  be  a  burden  but  also  it’s  very  hard  for  her  to  not  instinctively  shift  into  thinking  of  them  as  her  protector  and  she  just  needs  and  wants  to  feel  safe   . . .   all  of  the  time.        taken  by  dacey  mormont.

pink  pony  club   . . .     sansa’s  #squad.      their  relationship(s)  may  be  slightly  strained  from  sansa  shifting  into  recluse  mode,    but  ultimately  they  would  be  the  people  she  spent  the  most  time  with  previously.      dancing,    studying,    coffee  dates,    all  of  the  close  friend  things.      bonus  points  for  friendships  from  childhood  to  now,    because  we  all  need  the  montage  of  childhood  sleepovers  to  sansa  showing  up  at  their  house  at  6:00  in  the  morning  because  she  can’t  sleep  and  she  brought  coffee,    also  do  they  have  time  to  talk  about  how  she  can’t  stop  shaking  and  she  just  needs  a  hug.

also  if  you’ve  made  it  this  far,      ‘sup  i’m  mowgli  and  i  told  myself  i  wasn’t  allowed  to  join  the  discord  until  i  finished  my  intro  because  i  have  the  attention  span  of  a  goldfish  and  it  still  took  me  all  day   ??     anyways,     i’m  gonna  be  sneaking  myself  on  in  there  soon  but  y’all  can  feel  free  to  also  just  add  me  @  mohglee#0602  ty ty <3

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 19, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Speaking virtually today to the Munich Security Conference, the world’s largest gathering to discuss international security policy, President Biden promised that “America is back.” He assured the world that the U.S. will work with our European partners. We are, he said, committed to NATO, which the previous president tried to undermine, and we will honor Article 5 of that compact, which says that an attack on any one NATO ally will be considered an attack on all of them. He noted that the only time this article has ever been invoked was after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Biden noted that “the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship, but the United States is determined… to reengage with Europe, to consult with you, to earn back our position of trusted leadership.” He said we must work together to address the coronavirus pandemic, the global economic crisis, and the climate crisis.

Then he cut to the core of what is at stake.

Democracy is under assault around the world, he said. “We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future and direction of our world. We’re at an inflection point between those who argue that, given all the challenges we face — from the fourth industrial revolution to a global pandemic — that autocracy is the best way forward, they argue, and those who understand that democracy is essential — essential to meeting those challenges.”

“… [D]emocracy will and must prevail. We must demonstrate that democracies can still deliver for our people in this changed world. That, in my view, is our galvanizing mission.”

It shows. Democrats are setting out to demonstrate that democracy works. While Republicans have become the party of obstruction, starving the government while turning the nation over to business leaders in the belief that the market will most effectively order society, Biden is advancing government policies that are hugely popular among Democrats and Republicans both. Timothy Egan of the New York Times today compared Biden to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who oversaw the creation of a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure.

More than 72% percent of Americans like Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Sixty-one percent want a $15 federal minimum wage, which is currently in the American Rescue Plan. Sixty-three percent want the U.S. to be in the Paris climate agreement (which we officially rejoined today), and 83% want undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, the so-called Dreamers, to have a path to citizenship. Biden promised 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days; we should actually hit that goal by late March— a month early-- even if the pace stays where it is.

Biden is making a clear contrast between his approach and that of his predecessor. Speaking at a Pfizer vaccine plant in Michigan today, he said: “"My predecessor -- as my mother would say, God love him -- failed to order enough vaccines, failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centers. That changed the moment we took office."

Sixty-one percent of Americans say they are optimistic about the next four years.

Not just Biden, but other Democrats are also working to show that our government can reflect the community values of our people. Yesterday, when Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) was being roasted for taking his family on a vacation to Cancun when his constituents were suffering without heat, power, and supplies, former Representative Beto O’Rourke (D), who ran against Cruz in 2018 and lost, was running a phone bank to connect hundreds of thousands of older Texans with services.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who is often demonized by Republicans, also worked to demonstrate unity and government working for the people: she launched a fundraiser on social media and raised $2 million for the red state of Texas.

In contrast to Democrats and Independents, who are optimistic about the future, 65% of Republicans say they are pessimistic about it, and they seem determined to stop Biden in his tracks. They seem to be planning on regaining power by stopping people from voting, thus abandoning democracy altogether.

Republican state legislatures across the country are using the former president’s big lie to insist that they must change voting laws to stop voter fraud. The idea behind the attack on the Capitol on January 6 was that Democrats had stolen the election from the Republican incumbent. This was a lie, disproven in courts, recounts, and state legislatures, but it is now the excuse for suppressing the popular vote. This week, the Republican State Leadership Committee announced it was creating a commission to examine election laws “to restore the American people's confidence in the integrity of their free and fair elections" by "making it easier to vote and harder to cheat."

Republican state lawmakers are attacking the expanded access to voting put in place in 2020, especially mail-in voting. Although there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, and repeated studies have shown voter fraud is vanishingly rare, 33 states are considering more than 165 bills to restrict voting, more than four times the number from last year. These bills are intended to stop mail-in voting, increase voter ID requirements, make it harder to register to vote, and expand purges of voter rolls.

But, even as Republicans are trying to curtail voting, Democrats are trying to expand it. Lawmakers in 37 states have introduced 541 bills to expand mail-in voting, expand early voting, promote voter registration, and restore the right to vote for those who have lost it. At the national level, the first measure Democrats introduced into Congress this year was the “For the People Act,” which embraces the policies in the state bills and also reforms campaign financing, requires candidates to disclose the previous ten years of their tax returns, and ends gerrymandering.

The current struggle over our government and our democracy is in the news in another way today, too. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that a grand jury had indicted six more people for “conspiring to obstruct the United States Congress’s certification of the result of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, among other charges.” They join three others already charged for trying to “corruptly obstruct, influence, or impede an official proceeding."

In his speech, Biden emphasized not just the importance of democracy, but also how much work it is to keep it. “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “We have to defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it. We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of our history; it’s the single best way to revitalize the promise of our future.”

He did indeed sound like FDR when he concluded: “if we work together with our democratic partners, with strength and confidence, I know that we’ll meet every challenge and outpace every challenger.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[danvssomethingorother]

Success in Progress

chapter 1

A03

Summary: Brock gets invited to Venture compound by Jonas himself to protect his son.

(yes this thing has a name now and I am in too deep. I hope you all love my weird ideas for the origin of this man we saw for five seconds. I just love successful Rusty, ok?) 

---

 The tour was just for show, the safe version you showed dying kids whose last wish was just to see the Venture Compound because they loved Rusty Venture so much. All the secrets and interesting stuff safely locked up, out of sight and if you wanted to see more, Jonas’s dazzling show man smile and the flare he gave to the mundane things everyone knew about was all it took to get you to shut up.

Brock sat in the very back of the people mover keeping his eyes on Venture’s heir, quietly sitting there every once in awhile turning towards the albino and opening his mouth as if to say something but remaining quiet when his father glanced his way.  

The only one eating up Jonas’s show and bullshit facts was Billy who was even asking questions and excitedly trying to tell Jonas and Rusty fun facts he had heard about their own compound.   

Brock took this time to take in the security measures silently taking notes for him to check it out more later.

After what felt like hours of being on a tour from hell, Brock noticed the albino sleeping soundly against Rusty’s shoulder. Rusty was annoyedly trying to knock him off but stopped moving each time his dad’s eyes hit him.

He only found some strength in himself to complete the task after they came to a stop by a building that definitely wasn’t intended for the public to ever enter. Pete scowled at the rude awakening but seeing Jonas’s eyes on the pair, didn’t attempt anything on his son.

“This, gentlemen, shall be our working quarters,” Jonas said easily stopping the people mover and stepping out, “I apologize it is so far out, I would usually just use the down stairs lab for something like this but with the Spinx threats and the recent fire, I felt we needed a more secure place for a project so important.”

“Fire?” Billy questioned just as alarmed as Brock himself was at this news.

“Yeah my last body guard went crazy and tried to burn us alive,” Rusty said with a shrug, crawling over his friend who wasn’t getting out of the vehicle fast enough for his liking.

Pete, who had seemed like he was on the up and up of Venture history looked surprised by this, sitting there a moment longer before Rusty and Billy whined for him to hurry up.

Brock trailed behind them listening to the history lesson for once on this building. It was fire proof, he had been using it as a fall out bunker of sorts for his most prized inventions Jonas didn’t wish to be destroyed by any of the sieges on the castle.

The first floor was for show, filled with junk from the Rusty Venture show Jonas had collected over the years instantly brightening up Billy’s mood once more. Jonas chuckled and told him he could take what he liked later, but now there was science to be done.

Jonas popped open a trap door at the end of the room and disappeared down it, Rusty didn’t hesitate to do the same. His friends however stood nervously looking at each other before glancing back down into the dark tunnel leading only god knew where.

“After you Billy,” White said with a smile extending his hand towards the entrance.

“No way, this is reminding me way too much of the time Jonas’s brain was taken over by pod people who were trying to steal everyone’s brains. This is a trap.”

“Its not a trap, you are being a big wuss, its just a scary hole in the ground in a junk garage.”  

“Dude, this is all first edition merch from the Rusty Venture show, its far from junk! And if you aren’t scared, you go down there!”

“I am going to toss you down there if you don’t hurry up,” Brock snarled at Billy and Pete who instantly stopped bickering, Pete disappearing first while Billy took a nervous glance at Brock before he too disappeared. Brock was the last down, quickly scaling his way down the secure rung ladder.

“What took you so long,” Rusty sneered at them as they finally caught up to the Ventures in what appeared to be a normal looking lab, but normal labs were never this hidden from the public. Something about all of this just wasn’t sitting right with Brock as he stepped towards the nerds gathering around Jonas who was by a white board fiddling with some equations while he waited for them all to catch up.

Written at the top of the Board was the title ‘Problem Light’ and under it was a crude rough sketch of a box with a red eye in the center.

“Excuse us for being a little nervous of the weird secret lab,” Pete scoffed playfully punching his friend in the arm before leaning close to Rusty and whispering as if Brock couldn’t hear him, “What is with the secrecy anyway? This illegal? Should we be letting that fella in here?”

“It may be frowned upon later but its hardly illegal,” Jonas chuckled.

“You, um haven’t been to the Amazon lately have you?” Billy asked nervously wringing his hands.

“No brain slugs up here,” Jonas chuckled lightly tapping his own head, “No this is a safety precaution because of Spinx and of course the Guild or anymore unexpected fires. This is so nothing destroys our progress and makes us have to restart our work.”

“And even if it was illegal, I would permit Brock down here, he is here to help keep you three safe and safety is the most important thing.”

Rusty snorted at that but said nothing.  

“So, um…what are we going to be working on?” Pete asked leaning up against the counter nearly knocking some glass vials on the floor making Brock snort, it didn’t seem like safety was that important since Jonas just chuckled at that and didn’t scold him.

“We are going to work together to put a stop to something that has been plaguing man kind since the beginning.”

“A cure for Cancer?” Billy ventured a guess.

“Bad hair days,” Pete joked nudging at Rusty who swatted back at him.

“While those are equally as bad,” Jonas said with a bit of an eye roll and shake of his head, “I was talking about death itself. A way to put a stopper on it before it can take the best and brightest minds away from us before they can really make progress on the world.”  

“And how we gonna do that? That seems pretty impossible,” Billy said finally showing some good skepticism in the man.

“Everything seems impossible at first, but great men like us have always been able to find a way to beat the odds.”

He turned towards them with a smile that would make any weak-willed person sway to it, his words promising anything was possible. Well, he was Jonas Venture, he had done some impressive feats in the past, so why wouldn’t these idiots just take everything he said at face value?

Rusty didn’t seem to share their new-found enthusiasm as Jonas began rambling about his little ideas and being generous enough to allow participation from the rest of the class.

Jonas had introduced this as Rusty’s project, yet he seemed to have very little say or control over it, constantly being talked over by his dad and just standing back and letting him talk finally.

Brock would have been more concerned with that if Rusty’s ideas didn’t seem utterly stupid, even to someone like Brock who barely knew anything about science.

----

After a long day of Brock just standing in the back of the room and watching a bunch of nerds spit ball ideas, Jonas finally lead them all to the living quarters and it seemed even here secrets were hidden. On opening the door, Brock picked up the faint sound of babies crying and Rusty pushed past both Brock and his father, both glaring at their charge, as he instantly ran up the stairs.

“Rust is a daddy,” Pete said with a giggle at Brock’s confused state, “Little baby twins. Little boy adventurers in the making.”

“I did not want my grandchildren on his files,” Jonas said after not so gently ushering Billy through the door, “The higher ups of course know but it is listed as classified until I choose to reveal them to the world. I fear I revealed Rusty himself too early in my excitement and that caused nothing but problems down the line.”  

Brock thought that was an understatement, Rusty’s first kidnappings was at three and according to his files, was nearly sacrificed on a satanic alter by one of Jonas’s ex-girlfriends. Whether or not that ex was Rusty’s own mother, Brock didn’t know, his mother’s identity was also classified.

“I trust Rusty set you two up in your quarters last night?” Jonas asked turning a serious look towards the scientists looking ready to tear his son a new one if he hadn’t.

“Oh yeah, Rust showed us our room, but it doesn’t seem like there will be enough room for this fella since Kano and that other guy live here too.”

“Rodney is moving out,” Jonas said with a chuckle, “I am sure Billy was happy to see Action Man before he retired from Team Venture.”  

“Billy got him to sign his autograph book,” Pete chuckled walking over to the couch and making himself at home, “Ya better watch out Jonas, he will be trying to get you next.”

“I will gladly sign your book,” Jonas said bending to Billy’s level like he was an actual child and gripping his shoulder reassuringly, Brock thought Billy would pass out from excitement just the way stars flew from his eyes.

Jonas turned his attention to the staircase as Rusty finally reappeared, a baby in each arm and a large Asian man walking behind him.

“How are the Junior members of Team Venture doing?” Jonas asked a seriousness laced in his gentle words.

“They were fine while we were gone today, Kano is actually competent with children unlike Helper,” with just the bitterness alone in his tone Brock could tell there was a history there.

“Helper was designed to take care of children,” Jonas chuckled holding his arms out expecting Rusty to hand him one of his grandchildren but Rusty did not, he kept going to the couch before sitting with Pete who took the blonde one instead.

“Little Hank is a dead ringer for Samson, you not telling us something, Rust?” the albino chuckled holding the baby up and Brock just stared back at the drooling creature he was not informed about. He was also not informed most of Team Venture had left. Or that Jonas was trying to make some kind of immortality machine.  

“No, my son is not related to the hired help,” Rusty grumbled back swatting at his friend who kept bouncing his son in his arms.  

Brock tuned their bickering out easily staring at the man’s father’s easy smile that was always seemed to be hiding something.

He knew he was going to get no answers from Jonas, all his information was under the heavy lock and key of his charismatic smiles and easy lies and misdirection but Rusty, he might be able to answer him.

“Will dinner be ready soon?” Jonas asked with his usual smile as he turned to a mini bar preparing himself a drink and Kano merely nodded not saying a word as he disappeared into the kitchen where Brock caught the site of a blue robot running around with a chef hat on.

This was the weirdest job he had ever agreed to be apart of and he had once fought David Bowie in Berlin over some sacred artifact that was rumored to grant immortality. Boy would Jonas have loved to have that thing, too bad it melted in Lava…

Pete had already turned on the TV, some sitcom was on that he and Rusty seemed to be arguing over. Rusty was of the opinion it was lame, Pete thought it was high art.

“She’s a teenage witch and her cat talks! What else do you need?”

“Something that isn’t garbage?” Rusty growled back failing to swat the remote from his friend without jostling his child, “Besides the stupid cat gives Hank nightmares, you know that.”

“It gives you nightmares,” Pete hissed back sitting on the remote, so his friend couldn’t steal it, “Hank here loves the damn cat. Don’t ya Hank?”

“Cat!” Hank gurgled reaching towards the black cat on the TV.

Jonas like the king he was, sat high in his arm chair, legs folded and one arm over the back and whiskey in hand like he was posing for a fashion magazine. Keeping a close eye on everything going on in the room, not paying any attention to Billy leaning over the arm of the couch, rambling to him about the man’s own many adventures.

“Brock, please have a seat,” Jonas commanded, and Brock did as he was told not wanting any trouble to come from the first night on the job. He sat in the middle of the circular couch, just between the nerds arguing and the babies getting fussy on his left and the nerd groveling to the personification of God himself.  

There was nothing for Brock do here, so he got up to leave, maybe go collect his duffle bag from the car and do a perimeter check before dinner and finding a way to sneak into Rusty’s room later tonight to get some real answers from him. Something just didn’t feel about this entire situation. Nothing. Keeping Rusty’s children a secret, having only two assistants who were rather new to the field of science for such a large project, all the blacked-out information on Venture’s files, the last body guard losing her mind after being here six months.

He felt Jonas’s eyes watching him as he got up to leave and was just at the door when Jonas called for him. He turned his head back noticing the only ones still making any noises were the fussy infants, he momentarily locked eyes with Rusty who mouthed something to him while Jonas’s head was turned from him and it only made the oddness of this assignment sink in more.

‘You can’t just leave.’

“Where are you headed?”

“I was going to get my things from my car---”

Jonas merely chuckled cutting him off with a wave of his hand, gulping down the rest of his whiskey before he said firmly.

“Its all already been taken care of, I had Helper bring your things into your new room while we were busy today. Just relax, have a drink, go take a dip in my pool, unwind my dear boy. You must learn to relax.”

“Your robot touched my car?” Brock almost sneered and Rusty seemed to sense the danger like a second sense, collected his other child from Pete and was already hurrying back up the stairs, Pete dragging Billy with them.  

“Relax, relax, Helper didn’t harm your car,” he chuckled, “You left the keys in the hanger! He just merely unlocked the trunk and transferred your one duffel bag to your new room. If you would like I can show you there?”

“What’s your game?” Brock couldn’t help but question out loud.

“There is none,” Jonas said like a father trying to comfort his child, “You have been on the front line so long, I think you are just looking for one. Spinx isn’t here right now, you can let your guard down sometimes. You must learn to do so or you will lose yourself, trust me on this.”

“I have watched you look for a threat all day, Spinx like the Guild before them is not subtle, you will know when you need to prepare for battle. I appreciate you take your job more seriously then the last hack they sent here but you are young, Brock, you don’t need to be so tense. Don’t go looking for threats that aren’t there. I hired you in case of emergencies to keep my son safe, that doesn’t mean you must lose your sanity looking for a threat every waking moment. It is the first day, just breath and get used to the surroundings gradually, that is all you have to do.”  

He patted Brock on the shoulder gently, “Your room is down that hallway on the left-hand side, Kano’s is right next door if you ever require anything. Upstairs,” he pointed his glass the way Rusty and his friends had disappeared to, “Is our sleeping quarters. Mine at the very end of the hall if you ever need me, Billy and Pete’s to the left-hand side and Rusty and his sons are to the right. That is the lay out I know you must have been dying to scope out for yourself, but you don’t need to. You only need to ask Brock. We aren’t the enemy, we may do things you don’t understand but we do them for a reason.”  

“I asked for privacy as a top operative of the OSI myself, I helped fund the organization back in ’62, I feel I have earned my privacy in their files. You know what the Guild has done to my Rusty and what they have continued to do to him to this day and now Spinx is in the mix, I don’t want Rusty fearing for those boys lives like I had to, so I leave them out of our documents.”

Brock did know, that was some of the stuff that wasn’t classified. A few months ago they had been sending dead snakes to the Venture compound making demands for Venture’s son or the entire compound would be destroyed, they had yet to make due on that threat.

“Are the boys the former body guard’s…” Brock began before Jonas cut him off with a frown.

“Dean and Hank are not her sons, she came to that conclusion herself when her and Rusty began an intimate relationship and she became a tab bit too attached,” Jonas said with a sigh and shake of his head, “The compound catching fire? That wasn’t Spinx or the Guild.”

“And you still want OSI protection after that?”

“I am getting old, Kano is getting old, Team Venture is barely holding together because they are all married and wish for more time with their families instead of keeping things like they always have been,” Jonas chuckled a tinge of sadness in his eyes, “One psycho doesn’t automatically change the fact the OSI is a competent organization with people like yourself willing to help me. Not only with Spinx but to protect Rusty when I am gone. I love my son, my greatest project, my legacy, more then words can tell but he is weak, and he needs someone to look after him always.”

“I can’t guarantee I will be here forever,” Brock grumbled shaking his head.

“I can’t force it on you, but I hope you can one day call yourself a member of Team Venture, Mr. Samson, I can already tell you are a reliable young man.”

Jonas patted Brock fondly on the arm before leading him to the bar to share a drink with him and Brock didn’t feel he could refuse him. Rusty’s warning stuck on his mind though and left him lying in bed staring at the ceiling long after he had retired.

‘You can’t just leave.’

A part of him almost wanted to trust Jonas, he didn’t seem like that bad of a guy and well his son did seem like a bit of a pompous, ungrateful little asshole but he still couldn’t shake that warning. Would he be able to leave when this was all said and done?

[atimefordragons]

100 Intelligence, 0 Wisdom || EHS

☾♔; June 17, 2020 ☾♔; 12:26am ☾♔; sotd: Tuhje Dekha To (DDLJ)   ☾♔; cotd: Dick Grayson   ☾♔; Elite Highschool ☾♔; Side/NPC Profiles

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: lol, a summary of all 5 Sheremetev kids

----------->UPDATE: description abandoned. The group was shutdown and I've been kicked from the discord, so there's no point in finishing this set. I'll just make a new one when I inevitably recycle the characters.

Most of their profiles were done anyway, but whatever, I’m not putting any more effort into something I’m not involved in anymore.

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【𝕀ℕ𝕊ℙ𝕆 ℂℝ𝔼𝔻】@ maybones

As always, lolz. Soz for always using you as inspo, but you are the unrivaled Queen of Talent and Set making.

Was specifically inspired by this set: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/2523719 And as always, failed in mimicking it.

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I have made a new version of Tuhje Dekha To: Tuhje Dekha Toh ye jana sanam Main tuhje nufrat karti, kuti kamini

Loose Translation: When I saw you beloved, I knew That I despise you, you fucking bitch

(kuti kamini doesn’t literally mean fucking bitch, but that’s the emotional weight, or inflection or whatever behind it tbh - it doesn’t mean bitch though, like, from a literal translation, it kinda means bitch, bitch, since kuti and kamini both mean bitch)

Lol, ya, it doesn’t really flow with the music, but whatever. I’m fucking pissed and TDT was stuck in my head, so the lyrics went from love to rage.

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𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘

The Sheremetev’s are a unique bunch of siblings, in that not a single one is biologically related to another. All, but the youngest were adopted by Ivan Borisovich Sheremetev, his youngest, and only biological, child eventually passing into his custody. They’re a family of 7, Ivan, their father, Feodor Brezhnev, their butler/emotional grandfather, Rodya, the big brother, Adya, Emil, and Shion, the NOT triplets, and Erasyl, the brat- I mean baby. Because they’re not his biological children, they’re often labelled as charity cases, though they can pretty much brush it off at this point. Since Ivan does not make a blood distinction between his kids, Erasyl is often thought to have been adopted too. Are they just the batfam repackaged as Russian bourgeoisie? lol, yeah.

The House of Sheremetev are former Russian nobility, and in the age of the Empire, were amongst the wealthiest and most influential families in Imperial Russia. They held many high commanding ranks in the Russian military, governorships and were given title of "Count" (Граф graf), which in Russian society was the third highest, the first obviously being the rank of Tsar, followed by Prince (Князь knyaz) - a Russian prince was not necessarily royalty, but more equivalent to a western Duke. Notable Sheremetev's include Yelena Sheremeteva, who was the third and final wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich (1554–1581), the son of Ivan IV (better known to history as Ivan the Terrible), and Fedor Sheremetev, cousin of Tsar Mikhail I and head of government in 1613–18 and 1642–46.

During the revolution, the line that led to the current Sheremetev's stayed in Russia. A handful were executed, but one became a party man and ardent supporter of the regime. By the time of the union’s collapse, numerous members of the Sheremetev family had served in the government, military, and KGB throughout the existence of the Union. Boris Sheremetev, father of Ivan, was a member of the Council of Ministers when it was dissolved in 1991, and Anastasia Sheremeteva, Ivan’s mother, was a high ranking member of the KGB. During the upheavel of the economic shift from communist to capitalist, and mass privatization of the Russian and post-Soviet state economies, both Sheremetev parents were killed in highly suspicious circumstances. Their murders remain unsolved, though were blamed on Bratva’s. The Sheremetev’s had already taken part in Gorbachev’s attempt to create a mixed socialist economy, and during the post-Soviet transition period, they bought numerous government contracts and assets, primarily in the arms, oil, and energy industries, quickly establishing themselves as Oligarchs in the new world order. In the modern day, all Sheremetev assets are controlled under the banner of Sheremetev Enterprises (Шереме́тевы Компании Sheremetev  Kompanii), often shortened to SKomp. Due to the industries, and their closely maintained friendship with the Russian government, the Sheremetev family is amongst one of the wealthiest in Russia and the world at large.

Ivan Sheremetev, current head of the family and their business, is the only child of Boris and Anastasia. Their respective jobs already came with a level of paranoia and strict safety measures in the family, but their deaths made Ivan far more cautious and obsessive. Ivan was a teenager when his parents died (somewhere between 15-18) and he’s basically become a doomsday prepper, but instead of a Zombie invasion or whatever, he’s more concerned that some goon will invade his house. Bitch has the most insane and overkill security system in the world, plus he does all that martial arts and marvel superhero training. And then he went and had kids, and somehow managed to become even more hypervigilant, makes them all take at least one “bad bitch, kick your ass” type class (judo, krav maga, etc). He rarely drinks in public, fucking nerd even drank gingerale and pretended it was alcohol so he could keep his wits about him. He used to masquerade as a party boy to keep people disarmed around him, but after adopting children, especially once he had the non-triplets, he just acts as the truth; tired father. 100% uses them as an excuse to avoid parties and the media (lol, he’s just a brooding loner type who has maybe 12 friends, and 5 of those are his kids). Ivan is bad at expressing emotions, but genuinely loves his kids, and is simultaneously the most laid back and most helicopter parent ever. The kids are out late? It’s okay, I trust them, and they’ll call if something bad happens. One of them fell off the monkeybars on the school playground? I AM SUING THEM FOR CHILD ENDANGERMENT!

𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐕 ➤AGE: 18 ➤BIRTHPLACE: Yakutsk, Russia ➤RESIDENCE: St. Petersburg, Russia ➤BIRTHDAY: March 21 ➤FACE CLAIM: Simon Nessman

➤PERSONALITY OVERVIEW: Overall, he’s a pretty decent guy. Big, big brother energy, also has a lot of dad energy, and is a mother hen. The type of guy that says “you kids these days”, even though he’s barely a year older. Rather sarcastic, but it’s mostly playful, loves a pun. Is pretty and petty, kind of a hoe, we got a male Anto here. Somersaults and does splits and other flippy shit completely randomly while walking, just ‘cause he can. He’s extra like that. Loves to tease his younger siblings, and will purposefully embarrass them, he will yell across campus to do so, “HEY ERASYL, REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT SCARED BY THE CAT LAST WEEK AND SNUCK INTO MY ROOM!” Has also yelled relationship advice and dating tips. Also more explicit tips. Despite his embarrassing tendencies, hoe nature, and general playfulness, apart from Feodor (the butler), Rodya is the certified adult™️ of the family, when any of the other Sheremetev kids have a problem, they all go directly to him, skipping over Ivan, who also goes to Rodya when he’s got a problem (but has great difficulty owning up to the problem too). Because of their emotionally stunted father, Rodya has become the emotional support of the family, though he certainly wasn’t always good at it. By the time Ivan brought Emil into the family, Rodya (around 13 at the time) quickly grew up to help the traumatized Emil adjust to the new family (lol, they’re all traumatized), and changed his previously dismissive and rude behaviour towards Adya. Because he took over what should’ve fallen to the parent, Rodya has a lot of buried issues himself, particularly a temper, which flares up whenever any of his family or friends are being attacked in some way. Insulting one of my brat’s? Lol, let me teach you what gravel tastes like. Rodya seems like the best behaved of them all, he’s outwardly the most polite and charming Sheremetev, but he’s the most dangerous and vicious of them all.

➤LIKES: Cereal (is possibly addicted to it??? Can eat it for any meal and as a snack, it is genuinely a concern), Tequila (this wasn’t intentional, but I’ve been going through dick grayson memes for inspiration, and I vote Rodya as Anto’s best friend, the Princess can suck it), he a Gucci boy, winter, ice skating, eurovision, Frozen and disney movies in general, will belt those songs out at any time of the day or night, but Frozen has a special place in his heart ➤DISLIKES: Brooding people (got enough of that in his family), clowns, lazy fashion (black suit, white shirt again? Fucking try my dude), teen language constantly evolving (what happened to thristing? wtf is simping?), overpowering scents (like axe, that shit gross yo, have some class) ➤HOBBIES: Gymnastics and acrobatics (has no interest in joining a circus, but it helps him feel close to his parents), boxing (needs to beat up anyone that might threaten his family), karate (black belt), coding/hacking, frolicking (lol, is that a hobby? Hanging out with the friends and the “kids” - his sibs)  

➤RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHERS: Rodion gets along best with everyone else in the family, and is pretty much the lightning rod guiding them all back together. He’s grandpa’s (Feodor) sassy lil baby boy forever, and the only other person to sometimes have a brain cell, he’s dad’s (Ivan) pride and joy, not to mention emotional rock. Rodya feels so that Ivan doesn’t have to. He keeps Adya in check, is Emil’s idol, Shion’s best bro, and Erasyl’s actual dad (not really, but he parents Erasyl more than Ivan, so). When asked who’s their favourite member of the family, every Sheremetev without hesitation will answer Rodion (for himself, he’ll refuse to answer, he’s nice like that).  

➤SHORT BIO: The first, and the favourite; Rodion was born as Rodion Petyrovich Kirilov, his parents, Petyr and Masha, were members of a contemporary circus (a la cirque du soleil, but smallers, and in Russia), as a rarity in the contemporary circus, the Kirilov’s were a circus family, but that’s more of an arguable point, since Petyr and Masha were individually trained, and they were only beginning to pass on their skills, etc to Rodion when the thing™️ happened. When he was 5, Rodion’s parents were killed in what seemed to be an act gone wrong (though in truth a jealous member of the circus messed with the rigging, causing them to plummet to their deaths). Ivan Sheremetev just happened to have been attending that very show, and also just happened to witness the murderer in the act, and relayed his information to the police. As an orphan himself, though he was much older than Rodya when his parents died, Ivan empathized with the young child, and adopted him on pretty much impulse. Because he is so much dumber than he seems (he eats burgers with a knife and fork), he was able to win over young Rodya due to being “funny”, and they established their own little family, Rodya quickly picking up Feodor’s sassy remarks, and becoming a little darling by Ivan’s side at fancy Russian events.

When Adrian was brought into the family, Rodya was far from the best big brother he is now. Adya came into the family with Rodya was 11 (Adya himself was 10), so for 6 years, he was the only child in Ivan and Feodor’s care, and was certainly spoiled by the two. Adya’s arrival sparked First Child Syndrome in Rodya, who absolutely detested having to share the limelight now with another kid. He was incredibly rude to Adya, and repeatedly referred to him as a replacement, which resulted in Adya lashing out and running away a few times as well. He’s really not proud of this, not to mention, he’s definitely where Adya learned that replacement insult from, and subsequently used on Emil. He eventually got over it mostly on his own, though got a nice little pep talk from Feodor about how all three (Rodya, Adya, and Ivan) are just lost children who need to find a family, and Rodya begrudgingly began extending an olive branch to Adya and trying to get along with him, even being the one to bring him back to the manor a couple of times. He was much better prepared when Emil arrived 2 years later and smoothly transitioned into the “Best Big Brother” mantle he has now, and continued being the best bro when Shion and Erasyl arrived, though the younger ones started having issues with not being the new baby anymore (lmao, welcome to the club you dorks).  The day Rodion left for EHS was hilariously emotional, they were all crying ‘cause they didn’t want him to go, which in turn made him cry too. The other kids didn’t talk to Ivan for a week ‘cause he sent big brother away (overdramatic much, they’d be joining him in a year, two for Erasyl, anyway).

𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐕 ➤AGE: 17   ➤BIRTHPLACE: Moscow, Russia ➤RESIDENCE: St. Petersburg, Russia ➤BIRTHDAY: August 16 ➤FACE CLAIM: Sean O’Pry

➤PERSONALITY OVERVIEW: (1) angry boi. He’s so petty and broken, and like, just needs love? He had a less than stellar relationship with his birth parents, and does not easily trust people. Adrian struggles the most with being called a “charity case”, it’s not really the insult that bothers him, but the implication that he isn’t loved by his dad, because he can’t fully trust that Ivan genuinely loves him as his son (plus Ivan isn’t exactly a share-my-feelings type, so that’s no help). Adya is quick to throw a punch, and has no patience, at all. If something is bothering him, he reacts immediately, usually with anger. On the flip side, he’s also really sweet and a nerd. Like that trope of “Bad boy who picks up cats in the rain”, that’s him, to a T! He loves literature and can recite Shakespeare from memory alone (lol, and has the nerve to call Emil a nerd), and is generally rather prickly, but if you can shave down those spikes, you’ve got a friend for life in him. ➤LIKES: Poetry, plays, literature, shakespeare, history, mythology, tolstoy, dostoyevsky, the beach, whiskey ➤DISLIKES: clowns, drugs (just say no), cops (acab), fire (he’s a tad pyrophobic), enclosed spaces (also claustrophobic), being told what to do (not a fan of being controlled) ➤HOBBIES: Reading, studying (he’s such a nerd), weight-lifting (does that count as a hobby?), mixed martial arts, napping, homework (lol, lil mr. bad boy here is top of the class), drama club (backstage stuff and directing, also script)     ➤RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHERS: It's complicated. When he first arrived to the Manor, he had a very teasing, bratty relationship with Rodya (he teased his new big brother, 'cause lol, dad loves me more now, you weren't enough), which Rodya did not like, but underwent the same crisis when Ivan brought Emil home and was much worse about. He has trust issues and has run away from home numerous times, but most of the time he went back on his own, or was quickly found by Ivan (and later Rodya). He deeply loves his family, but struggles with admitting it, and is fearful that they do not love him. He gets along the least with Emil, who was adopted 2 years after him, and frequently, to this day, calls him a replacement (something he picked up from Rodya). As both are aggressive types, he technically gets along the best with Erasyl, often teaming up to pull off shenanigans and teenage rebellion, but they constantly argue, and each views the other as the “stupid” one in their duo (lol, you’re both dumb). They’re also both super scared of Shion (she beat him up for talking shit). His relationship with Ivan is the most complicated, because he wants Ivan’s love and approval, but also refuses to admit that, though he does have it (even though Ivan struggles with admitting it too - they’re all so dumb).

➤SHORT BIO: The second one and resident “bad boy” (LOL, he’s so not), Adrian was born to Andrei and Olga Petrov, a regular working class family. Olga left them when Adya was 2, and Andrei subsequently remarried to a woman named Alina. Alina was a drug addict, as well as a drug dealer (she specialized in Heroin), which is how she and Andrei met. Both were addicts and frequently abused Adrian while high, when in withdrawal, and when completely sober. He was routinely locked out of their apartment and left to sleep outside in the freezing cold. Because of his upbringing, Adrian has had to learn to fend for himself, often resorting to petty crime just to survive. It’s how he met Ivan, as he was trying to steal the wheels off of Ivan’s fancy ass car to sell, but was discovered, and instead of trying to run, idiot decided I’m just gonna attack this guy. Ivan instead, decided to take Adrian in, easily getting custody of him from his birth parents and eventually formalizing the adoption. For this, Adrian is eternally grateful, and hasn’t seen his parents since the night Ivan caught him trying to jack his wheels (or however you say it).

The young Adrian was prone to tantrums, and often ran away from home, but was calmed down and brought back each time, usually by Ivan, a few times by Rodya, and sometimes he would come back on his own. The introduction of Emil in the family was a shocker for him, and made him feel as if he wasn’t enough, ‘cause who needs 3 kids? Not to mention, Emil, unlike himself and Rodya, came from upper society, so he felt a lot of inadequacy, which he dealt with by lashing out. He still dislikes Emil the most, even with Erasyl’s shouts about being the “blood son”. On the plus side, at least he mostly gets along with Rodya now. Technically speaking, Adrian is the youngest of the not-triplets (himself, Emil, and Shion), but having been adopted second acts as the oldest, and gets away with it due to his aggressive and independent nature.

𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐋 𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐕 ➤AGE: 17   ➤BIRTHPLACE: Greiz, Germany ➤RESIDENCE: St. Petersburg, Russia ➤BIRTHDAY: July 19 ➤FACE CLAIM: Louis Hofmann  

➤PERSONALITY OVERVIEW: A very good boy, he is just the fucking sweetest, he could give you diabetes. But he is a Sheremetev sibling, and thus also is PETTY AF! He fucking logs every wrong another sibling has ever committed against him in a digital diary, and has the receipts when he complains to one of the “adults” (aka Rodion mostly, sometimes Feodor or Ivan). Emil is the “smart” one (lol, he’s got an IQ of 187, but will also blindly accept anything Rodya says as fact), and so he uses his brains to psychological torture Adya and Erasyl when they get on his nerves. He’s utterly savage when it comes to a comeback or witty comment, and can be impatient when it comes to letting someone else be in charge of technology (dies inside every time someone types www into the address bar). He makes a conscious effort to model himself after Rodya (apart from Rodya’s hoe-ing), to emulate that nice, caring, dependable thing that Rodya has, and was a super adorable mini-me when they were younger. Has insomnia, from a mix of nightmares from repressed trauma, and staying up online at all hours of the day and night like a typical zillenial. Runs on caffeine and candy.  

➤LIKES: Technology, he a computer geek, rococo, baroque, champagne, pastels, sunlight, summer, acrobatics, the circus, von gogh, monet   ➤DISLIKES: slow wifi connections, laggy computers (like excuse you windows, but I need those 4 browsers with 50+ tabs each, you know me, figure it out), blood, erasyl   ➤HOBBIES: computer engineering (is that a hobby, or just like a life goal? The latter probs), coding, tattling on adrian and erasyl, planning elaborate ways to get back at adrian and erasyl

➤RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHERS: In general, he gets along with his siblings, with two glaring exceptions; Adrian and Erasyl, both of whom view him as an unwelcome replacement, well, for Erasyl, he’s a placeholder (which, I mean, calm down, we all know who dad’s favourite is - Rodya). Emil gets along the best with Rodya, whose parents he saw perform live once before their deaths, upon his arrival to the Sheremetev manor, witnessed Rodya pulling off a similar stunt on the banister (which gave poor Ivan a heart attack) and immediately became obsessed. Because they both had a strong brotherly bond with Rodya from pretty much the get go, Emil and Erasyl argue over Rodya the most. Aside from Rodya, Emil and Shion are rather close, though she doesn’t open up much, the two often team up against Adya and Erasyl.

➤SHORT BIO: Born to Heinrich XXVIII, Prince Reuss of Greiz and Elsa von Hohenberg, the last scions of the Elder Line of the House of Reuss, and born as Heinrich XXIX, Emil is the heir to the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, which was technically inherited by his cousin, Prince Heinrich of the Junior Reuss line (they’ll all named Heinrich in the honour of the Emperor who enobled them - lame). His parents were killed when he was 12; his death was subsequently faked alongside theirs and he was taken in by Ivan, a friend of his parents, for his protection. Emil witnessed his parents' murders and was covered in their blood when he was found by the guards, the incident clearly left him traumatized, and for the most part has shut out the memory, though he still has nightmares about it, which contributes to his insomnia.

When he was first brought to the Sheremetev manor, Emil was very withdrawn and solitary, often staying by himself in his room (with the doors and windows locked) or sticking by Ivan’s side. He was slowly brought out of his shell by Rodya, though this immediately sparked jealousy and insecurity in Adya, beginning their “rivalry”.  

𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐍𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐀 ➤AGE: 17   ➤BIRTHPLACE: Susaki, Japan ➤RESIDENCE: St. Petersburg, Russia ➤BIRTHDAY: January 26 ➤FACE CLAIM: Dilraba Dilmurat

➤PERSONALITY OVERVIEW: Seems like a brooding, silent, lowkey scary type, but really she’s just introverted. Doesn’t interact if she doesn’t know someone and/or it’s unnecessary. When she talks, she’s savage and witty (lol, despite them not being blood related, that’s a trait all the Sheremetev’s have). She’s honestly super dorky, loves shit like Naruto and One Piece and Batman cartoons (has declared she IS batman). Shion loves messing with people and will always make up shit to throw people off, she loves the whole concept of being the mysterious loner type, and there’s equal chance she’s saying a true fact about herself, or it’s another joke to fuck with you.   ➤LIKES: Messing with her brothers, dark colours, ➤DISLIKES:   ➤HOBBIES:   ➤RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHERS: Quiet. Because she’s generally rather reserved, it’s not quite evident upfront how close or distant she is to her family, since she’s physically generally off doing her own thing, however, like her other brothers, she is close to Rodya, and tends to hang out with him when she has nothing else to do (she be the designated driver for the hoes - she could drive since she was like 12, yes, she had to heels and creative methods to reach the pedals, but she could drive).

➤SHORT BIO: Born as Orihara Shion, Shion is the daughter of Orihara Chinatsu, the former third generation leader of Sesshō-Kai (殺生会), a Yakuza based in Kōchi, her father is unknown, but is or was presumably a member of her family’s Yakuza. From the moment she was born, Shion was separated from her mother and raised in secrecy for her protection, as well as education, as per Chinatsu’s instructions, she was being raised to one day take over the Yakuza.

Technically speaking, she is the oldest of the “triplets”, but is treated as the youngest of the three, having been adopted last, and she’s pretty okay with it. Got to be doted on as the baby before the brat (Erasyl) arrived.

adopted when she was 13 (dick 14, and the other two 13 as well)

𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐘𝐋 𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐕 ➤AGE: 15   ➤BIRTHPLACE:  Almaty, Kazakhstan ➤RESIDENCE: St. Petersburg, Russia   ➤BIRTHDAY: August 9 ➤FACE CLAIM: Bright Vachirawit

➤PERSONALITY OVERVIEW: ➤LIKES: ➤DISLIKES:   ➤HOBBIES:   ➤RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHERS: Terrible. He’s very insecure about his father’s affections and always gets into fights with the others, particularly Emil and Adya. He’s scared of Shion, because the one time he managed to anger her, she threw him off a balcony (he’s fine, just traumatized - technically, Rodya once beat him too, but that was to teach him a lesson, Shion was straight up trying to kill him). Erasyl gets along the best with Rodya and is very possessive of him, especially since Rodya tends to pamper him and treat him like a child. Very quickly gets jealous when Rodya spends time with the others, especially Emil (You can have father, but Rodya is mine <- has actually said that, out loud).

➤SHORT BIO: The baby, Erasyl is the only biological child of Ivan

the only biological child (15), a brat, was a real bitch to them all, but started respecting dick when he beat him, and is now super attached to him

𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀

➤MOODBOARD: https://urstyle.fashion/styles/2594157 ➤SCHOOL WARDROBE/AESTHETICS: https://urstyle.fashion/collections/115802 ➤PLAYLIST:

[columbusfinancialcoach01-blog]

Today's Financial Plan or Non-Plan: Where Do You Stand?

With all the monetary concerns and vulnerability around the globe today, it is basic everybody give exceptionally close consideration to their own financial house. Cautious and frequently extraordinary thoughtfulness regarding one's future financial arrangement is required and more significant today than, I trust it has ever been. Shockingly, many have just failed where financial planning is concerned.

An ongoing Northwestern Shared study found that 45% of Americans don't have a formal composed financial arrangement, a considerable lot of them since they approach funds casually or in light of the fact that they have not define financial objectives by any means.

While there is no particular layout for a financial arrangement, most authorized experts will incorporate learning and contemplations of the customer's future life objectives, future riches move plans and future cost levels. Extrapolated resource esteems will decide if the customer has adequate assets to address future issues and wants.

A far reaching financial arrangement can caution you to changes that must be made to guarantee a smooth progress through life's financial stages, for example, diminishing spending or changing resource portion. Financial plans ought to be surveyed routinely, at any rate once every year and ought to likewise be liquid, with infrequent updates when financial changes happen.

The initial move toward planning your financial future is to comprehend where you are today, where you need to be tomorrow and when it is, that tomorrow will be.

Next in the process will be to plainly characterize reachable objectives, as this is a vital piece of anybody's financial arrangement. A financial objective is the measure of cash required for a particular buy or administration at an unmistakable date. Making objectives exact enables you to decide the amount you should put aside every month and enable you to keep tabs on your development.

There are three kinds of objectives: present moment, mid-term, and long haul. Transient objectives are accomplished in less than a year, mid-term in one to five years, and long haul in five years or more. Crisis investment funds, family get-aways, and home hardware are run of the mill momentary objectives. An initial installment for a house or for the buy of a get-away time offer is a typical mid-term objective. Long haul objectives may incorporate putting something aside for retirement and your kid's advanced education.

There are a couple of well-known adage that strike a chord here;

"No one Intends to Fall flat... They Basically Neglect to Plan"

"In the event that you don't have the foggiest idea where you are going, you will most likely end up elsewhere."

I can't state firmly enough how basic objective setting is to the financial planning process. Objectives based financial planning includes characterizing your objectives, however organizing them too. As this will distinguish and take into consideration the correct changes in the arrangement if and when required.

As an authorized proficient, my activity and energy, is to enable people to make the most of their lives more by helping them plan better and contribute more brilliant. Also, carrying out that responsibility today is both testing and fulfilling, more than it has ever been.look at this web-site Credit Repair

Why? Since it appears there are more individuals now who are stressed over retirement than at any other time. Many are befuddled, terrified and have lost certainty that they can have the future they longed for. All things considered, I trust I can help, as I have as of late presented another administration I accept will enable my customers to rest easy thinking about their retirement; including deciding how their ongoing venture misfortunes have affected it.

It is called Retirement Way of life Planning.

I accept; A Retirement Way of life Plan will help my customers obviously recognize and organize all their financial and retirement objectives and decide how they may amplify their odds of achieving them, even subsequent to enduring speculation misfortunes. Making your very own Retirement Way of life Plan is simple and will just take a couple of hours of your time. I am certain it will enable you to have a sense of safety today and improve your odds for an agreeable retirement.

[deathtouch]

💛 femfeb day 6 | my femfeb masterpost 🧡 xposted → ao3 | dw | pf.io 💖 Orisa/Sombra | 2k | Explicit 🧡 PWP, Human/Robot, Cybernetic Sex, Masturbation, Robot kink, Dubcon if u squint 💛 Orisa has some secret functions buried in her processor that Sombra makes good use of.

Sombra sat back in her chair, basking in the glow of the multiple screens in front of her. She had finally come to a stopping point in what she had been researching. She took in a deep breath and stretched her arms up over her head. Digging up dirt on people wasn’t easy. It wasn’t all neatly stored in one place. It was like panning for gold. So much silt with so little value. She could spend hours digging through encrypted correspondences between her target and their employers, only to then get sidetracked by a deep dive into financial or court records, and still come up empty. It was easy to get lost in her work and lose track of time. She winced when she checked the clock. It was much later than she thought it was. She hadn’t meant to get this distracted. Surely everyone else was asleep by now. Even if they weren’t, most of the night owls around here kept to themselves, safe in their own rooms. Sombra shifted and stretched a little more. She flexed the muscles in her neck and shoulders that got stiff when she sat in front of screens like this for too long. She carefully locked her computer and powered down all the monitors. She was only wearing a pair of panties and a tank top, but she didn’t think anyone would be awake to see her, so she slipped out of her room without bothering to put any more clothes on. The tile floors in the hallway were cold under her bare feet. The lights had been dimmed. The entire watchpoint was quiet and dark. There was something lonely about it, in a way. This was a place that should be bustling with people. Instead it was just her in the dull light, footsteps quietly echoing off the walls as she walked. Sneaking around the base in the middle of the night probably wasn’t a good idea. Her teammates at Overwatch barely trusted her as it was, and most of them thought she was some kind of double agent. (She didn’t exactly blame them for thinking that.) Getting caught out of her room this late would be suspicious as all hell, but that didn’t stop her. Sombra went for the room that everyone was colloquially referring to as the ‘repair room’. It must have been a research and development lab back before the fall, but after the recall it served as a staging area for anyone who wanted to work on something metal or mechanical. Brigitte hammered away at her armor here, Torbjorn tinkered with turrets, Hana made repairs to her mech, Bastion made repairs to himself. It was all-purpose. It was also where two of the three omnics in the team ‘slept at night’. Or, more accurately, where they spent their time recharging or giving their processing systems a break by powering down most of their functions for a while. There were a few massive berths that almost doubled as beds. It wasn’t uncommon to come in here late at night and find Orisa or Bastion tucked away on one in stand-by mode just waiting for interaction or input to rouse them. Sombra opened the repair room door and glanced inside. Sometimes her teammates and fellow Overwatch agents could be found toiling away at late in the night. None of them were here now. A few staging lights here and there kept the room from being pitch black. The heavy scents or metal, ink, and oil were rich in here. Sombra quietly stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She walked over to the OR15, Orisa, who had forgone the berth to curl up neatly on the floor in a corner instead. Her dual sets of legs were curled underneath her like a loafing cat. She was connected with a handful of hardline cables to a port on the wall, charging. She was an omnic, not a cellphone, she didn’t need to be connected to a wall socket in order to power up. Still, the extra energy would help sustain her during the next mission. Knowing full well that data could be sent through that cable to who knows where, Sombra’s very first move was to unplug it before doing anything that might get logged. This instantly brought Orisa to life. Her unique pupils widened into glowing golden plus signs. The near silent whirring of previously dormant mechanics coming back online filled the quiet room. “Orisa online,” she announced, modulated voice impossibly loud compared to the relative quiet of the repair room. “Hey, okay. Lower the volume girlfriend.” Sombra told her straight away. “Complying.” Orisa’s voice lowered in volume immediately, falling to a more acceptable level. “Good morning, Sombra. How can I be of assistance?” Jeez, it technically was morning wasn’t it? Sombra decided to be quick, lest some early bird come in to start work before the sun was up. She still had the unplugged cable in hand, and she brought it around, guiding the connector to the port at the back of her neck. Even after years of having cybernetic implants it still felt weird to jack into something. Her neck and the base of her skull got oddly warm and then went numb. She tasted metal in her mouth. It passed a few seconds later. The light nodes connected to the implants trilled, pulsing purple in the low light, and then dimmed to a barely-there glow. “Orisa, access OR14 non-violence programming and scan for PleasureTech coding.” Sombra told her. The first time Sombra had tried something like this, she was met with polite refusal. Something about ‘Only Efi has access to that information’. She felt a little bad about hacking into a sentient being and stripping that safety mechanism out, but not bad enough to stop from doing it. Now Orisa didn’t say anything, she just accessed the programming as asked. “Commencing scan,” Orisa told her quietly, eyes shuttering to slits as if to block out visual stimulus in order to concentrate efforts on scanning. Not that there was much to see in the vacant repair room. Sombra could feel her processing the information. It felt like rain was coming, a storm on the horizon. She could feel it in the air, sense that it was happening, but there was nothing she could do about it. Something bigger was at work. Something she couldn’t entirely control. It would rain, and Orisa would find the information she was looking for. All Sombra had to do was wait. She admired the fine figure of the omnic before her. The gentle sloping curve of the tusk-like appendages attached to her helm. The smooth expanse of her massive chassis. The silky, soft-touch finish of the silicone exterior that covered many of her parts. She was a beautiful machine. Sombra had to admit that. She normally didn’t go for omnics, and if she did OR15s weren’t her type, but Orisa was a fine specimen. It was objectively and obviously clear. Orisa’s eyes opened, a pale-yellow light to mix in with the purple glow of Sombra’s cybernetics. “Located compressed PleasureTech files.” Two decades after the omnic crisis, when people started to trust bots again, the Numbani government had revived their OR14 program. The OR14s were used for service and security before the crisis, and they were meant to be used for the same thing once they were back up and running. The OR14s were refurbished, recoded, and reworked into shiny new OR15s. In an effort to minimize risk, multiple non-violence programs were installed. Except, whoever was in charge of installing these programs hadn’t bothered to write the code themselves. Instead, they lifted it from a leading sex bot company; PleasureTech. Absolutely no one wanted a sexually motivated bot becoming violent against humans, and thus sex robots were generally the most secure when it came to non-violent measures. It was a good idea, honestly. Sombra didn’t fault whoever thought it up. The only problem was that it was hard to cleanly extract the code from its frame work of sex. It was like trying to pull a plant out by its roots and expecting not to pull up any dirt. It didn’t work like that. So, the files were neatly compressed, tucked away, dormant… Until Sombra came poking around. After the crisis, things like sex bots become more or less obsolete. No one was interested in fucking omnics anymore. The few that were still willing weren’t buying enough sex bots to keep the entire industry afloat. Just about every company making them went under, PleasureTech included. Their technology was lost to the general public but Sombra had her ways of finding it. The last place she ever expected it to show up was buried in the core processor of an OR15, but she wasn’t complaining. She appreciated the easy access. “Uncompress PleasureTech files and find executable actions,” Sombra ordered. “Complying,” Sombra intoned happily. This was a quicker process; a few seconds and it was done. “Several sequences are compatible with current hardware and user interface.” “Select a sequence and initiate it. A short one.” Almost immediately Sombra felt it happen. The weird warm numbing sensation surged from the back of her neck and an oddly delightful feeling replaced it. Like she was tasting something sweet, but the sweetness was flooding through her muscles instead. Down her neck, relaxing her shoulder, pulsing down the length of her arm to tingle the tips of her fingers. She reached out, grasping for Orisa with one hand. Orisa moved to gently cradle her, rigid arms caging Sombra, offering support for her to lean into. She said nothing. The language associated with these processes were likely lost during the reinstallation. That was fine. Neither of them needed to speak. All that mattered was how it felt, and god it felt good. Goosebumps rose over her skin. Her cybernetics went vibrant and bright. Pleasure crawled down her spine, making her back arch and her toes curl. Sombra was soaking it in, bathing in the thrilling sensation. It pulsed throughout her entire body. The pleasure wasn’t specific. It didn’t feel like any one thing in particular. It was just a flood of yes, good, oh god, yes. It took her a few seconds to recover her wits enough to slide a hand underneath the waistband of her panties. Though her cybernetics were localized down her spine and over the curve of her skull, she did have a few implants running through her hands to the tips of her fingers. She might as well be thrusting a vibrator between her legs for how it felt. It was a good thing Orisa was holding her up because she damn near went weak. The pleasure was only heightening, becoming stronger and more intense as each second passed. It began to roll over her like waves lapping at a sea shore. Slow pulses of intensity followed by a few relaxed seconds to allow a short recovery. It made her breathing go all shaky. She fingered herself, stroking between the delicate folds of flesh and over her sensitive clit. This wasn’t like the carnal fire of fucking hard and fast, or the exciting spark of sensual sex. This was quietly blissful, a rising euphoria that radiated from all her cybernetics. Something that humans couldn’t recreate no matter how hard they tried. Sombra kept her moans to herself, locking them in her throat as best she could. A few quiet ones escaped, of course. She could only do so much. The rapturous ecstasy rose and rose, each pulse more deliciously intense than the last. She felt her orgasm building, mixing in with the rise of electric pleasure. She didn’t really need to rub herself, but she did anyway, coaxing herself to climax. When she came it was like the whole world came crashing down around her. She went stiff and still and let the technology carry her through the fervor. When it was done, when the best of it had finished and faded into quiet pulsating aftershocks, she let out a gasping breath. “Would you like me to stop the sequence?” Orisa asked. “Yeah,” Sombra managed between her panting. She was all over sensitive now. If she had more time she might have carried on, chasing the pleasure into a second or maybe even a third orgasm. Maybe tomorrow night she would… All the things she had been feeling abruptly stopped, fading away to nothing instead as Orisa terminated the sequence. She took a few seconds to gather herself. She tested her legs and found them steady enough to stand upright. As soon as she had her balance, Orisa let go of her, arms returning to their stationary positions at her sides. Before disconnecting the hardline cable from the port in her neck, Sombra transmitted a program to sweep any trace of her interaction with Orisa from the omnic’s logging system. Though she had a few handy lies about why she might be messing around in the OR15’s processor, it was better to just wipe her tracks entirely. She had ten seconds to disconnect and plug the charger back into its wall socket before the action logs began recording again. She made quick work of it. Orisa powered back down to her standard recharging position. Her eyes shuttered, dimmed, and she looked as though she was sleeping. Sombra still couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have found an omnic with PleasureTech programming loaded into it. It was a lot of extra effort to get off, but well worth it in the end. She felt sated and happy and was fully ready to crash on her bed back in her room.

i'm taking femslash february suggestions year round send requests or prompts ➝ here follow me on twitter ➝ here thanks for reading ✩°｡⋆

[allyinthekeyofx]

Affirmation 4/5

Missing scene and post ep En Ami

Part one Orison here

Part two Per Manum here

Part three Sein Und Zeit here

This chapter contains possible TRIGGERS.  If you are at all unsure please PM me for clarification.  Scant fluff in this one - just raw, angry, hurting from Mulder’s POV

Four

I can’t remember a time when I’ve felt angrier at her,

In fact, anger doesn’t actually even go halfway to describing how I feel. Try hurt, disappointed, unimportant, insignificant even; incensed to a point where I was afraid to even fucking look at her for fear of what I might say as I braced myself rigidly against the door frame in my apartment, listening to the shock and disbelief in her voice as she tried to persuade herself that the risks she had just taken had been worth it. To her, to me and to the whole of the fucking human race, promises and assurances made to her by a man who has wrought more pain, more destruction and more suffering on both of us than should ever be reasonably possible; a man who has shattered our lives – her life – in ways that are unimaginable.

And yet she trusted him.

She fucking trusted him.

More than she trusted me it would seem.

I had received the call from her, finally received it when she was around an hour away from DC. Not when she got in the car to start the long drive back, not when she had put a reasonable distance between herself and that black lunged double-talking fucker who had duped her so effortlessly, not even when she had stopped to fill the car up with gas when she got halfway home. Instead, for reasons best known to herself, Scully had instead given me another five hours of frantic worry as my panic grew when Frohike reiterated for the hundredth time that they didn’t know how to find her, that she had covered her tracks so adeptly that for all intents and purposes, she had simply just disappeared. Ditching me far more effectively than I think I had ever managed during our long and chequered partnership.

In fact I don’t think I have ever felt a time when raw fear began to overtake me so completely that I literally began to fall apart from within. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t function on any cohesive level as a million different scenarios flew through my mind, refusing to be quietened, refusing to be stilled, as I paced like a caged animal, backwards and forwards, trying to deny the unspoken truth that hammered at me relentlessly; that she was dead, that this time she wasn’t coming back. That the incomprehensible risk, the blind faith and blatant stupidity had sent her right to him, the fact that she had gone willingly the hardest for me to reconcile.

Stupid. So fucking stupid.

And when she finally arrived at my door I couldn’t even bring myself to open it because for the first time since I have known her, I truly didn’t want to see her, afraid of how I would react, disappearing as I was in the destructive force of my own anger. Instead I ignored the sound of her knuckles against the wood, fucked if I would give her the satisfaction of seeing the relief that would surely emanate from every cell of my body just to look at her face, to see that she was indeed whole. She didn’t deserve that level of emotional exposure from me. So instead, after throwing me a bemused glance, Byers did the honours, greeting her in that soft, respectful way of his, that was this time, tinged with just a hint of regret that he was the one to welcome her back, that he knew it wasn’t what she expected.

But what did she expect? I mean really? 

Did she even have an inkling of what she’d done to me? She had started toward me, her eyes searching for mine even as I steadfastly refused to allow her that contact, ignoring her whispered imploration that wrapped itself around me as she spoke my name.

“Mulder”?

Instead I had briefly shook my head, turning away from her and heading into the kitchen; putting a distance between us, trying to calm myself enough so as not to wound her more than she would shortly be wounded.

Because I knew.

Oh yeah, I knew that she had been played. And that right then she didn’t.

And if I’m completely honest with myself, as I watched Langley reveal the truth that I already knew, that the disc she had risked her life for, risked our partnership and risked everything we had begun to discover about each other, was empty, finally speaking as I watched her plead with him to try just one more time, begging him with words unspoken to give her at least some tangible justification for allowing herself to be so truly and completely taken in. That she had behaved like a fucking rookie with no thought to her own personal safety, disregarded everything she knew, had been taught, had experienced at the hands of this power hungry lunatic, to blindly follow him; on a promise from a man who trades in lies.

“Enough”

And it was.

That one word, laced with more venom directed at her by me than I thought was even possible, was enough to stop her in her tracks, to make what little colour she had retained in the face of so much continued antagonism from me, drain from her countenance, as she abruptly closed her mouth and turned her eyes on me once again. Eyes that now glistened with unshed tears and which almost sent me across the room to crush her against me, to allow myself to forgive her for what she had done; for what she had risked.

Almost.

But I didn’t. I simply folded my arms against my chest and leaned against the doorframe, fighting myself to remain where I was, to not allow myself the luxury of telling her that it was okay, that everything was fine.

Because it wasn’t fine.

And it wasn’t okay.

In fact it was possibly the most heinous fucking thing she had ever done, even more so given the events over the preceding months that had finally been given voice and acknowledgment from both of us. The night in that dingy motel room where she had literally come apart in my arms, the aftermath of Pfaster threatening to tip her right over the edge, finally allowing ourselves to admit our own version of the truth to each other; a truth that had writhed and burned within us both for years and which had finally broken through the walls that we had so carefully constructed and kept patched up for so long.

The gunmen had certainly sensed the undercurrents; even Langley began busying himself with the equipment they had brought over at my request on learning just exactly what it was that Scully had in her possession – or rather what she thought she had – packing it away, unplugging leads, knowing that it was more than time for the three of them to leave before the storm that crackled ominously in the air finally broke. Because they knew that it was coming, oh yeah they knew.

Langley was the first to leave, almost running out the door in his haste to get away from us and under normal circumstances I might have found if amusing, but at the time nothing seemed very funny. Frohike was pretty quick to follow, but surprisingly, Byers paused, stepping right up to where Scully still remained standing, looking at that damn disc as though sheer will power alone would suddenly bring it to life in front of her, and he briefly laid his hand against her cheek, an awkward gesture of comfort given by this most reticent of men in response to my indifference of the circumstances and one which angered me and twisted something inside me in about equal measure. But I remained silent, non-reactive as he dropped his hand away and spoke the first gentle words she had heard since she walked through my door.

“I’m sorry Dana”

She nodded, before quickly turning away from him, a defensive action I had come to know all too well; a response precipitated by a desperate need to not show weakness when in the company of others. To close down any form of communication, be it verbal or physical that might elicit an emotional response from her.

And I ignored the pointed way he frowned at me as he paused in front of me, eloquently telling me to get a fucking grip before it was too late; to stop being so wrapped up in my own pain that I refused to even try to acknowledge hers. Because I didn’t need him or anyone else telling me how I should be feeling about the fact she had chosen to ignore the last three fucking months as though they meant nothing.

I remained in my position even as she stepped towards me, but now that we were alone I allowed myself to finally look at her, really look at her, watching her recoil as every emotion I had fought to keep control of must have shown themselves to her all at the same time, because I felt them, actually felt them break free from somewhere deep inside me, burgeoning, uncontrollable, destructive, forcing words from my mouth that snapped in the air like gunshots between us. In fact I think pulling my gun out and shooting her might have been easier on her.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

“Mulder…”

I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to hear her excuses because there was a part of me that was afraid I would hear the same words coming out of her mouth that she had heard so often from mine, excuses given for all the times I had chosen to ditch her over the years. I’ve lost count of the amount of times she’s come after me to haul my sorry ass out of whatever proverbial creek I’d managed to get myself stranded in, what injuries I had sustained, how I had risked myself. But the difference, the fucking difference, was I had never once done any of it for purely altruistic reasons; unlike her, I had always taken one for the cause; not for myself or for my own selfish reasons.

Or at least that’s what I told myself.

So instead of allowing her to answer, to give her the opportunity for justification, I simply turned away and grabbed at my coat from where it hung over the sofa back where I had thrown it earlier; when she was still missing; when I thought she was dead.

“You met him in offices in DC?”

Scully swallowed and nodded slowly, miserably casting her eyes to the floor, knowing now that it wouldn’t matter what she said, even if she counter-attacked with anger, that what she had done was wrong; and she at least had the sense at that moment to not challenge me on either my anger or my conviction.

“Let’s go.”

XXXX

I guess it was unfortunate that as my anger towards Scully started to fade, unable as I was to keep throwing verbal punches at her as the realisation finally began to hit her that she had been duped so thoroughly, hers began to build. Anger at me, anger at him, anger at herself, but mostly I think anger at this whole ridiculous situation; finding herself as she had, on the receiving end of my own desperate insecurities. Because it hadn’t been lost on me in the weeks since my Mother died that Scully was all I had left; my only safety net between myself and absolute freefall, that if I lost her I lost everything.

It had been a rough couple of months for us both I think – beginning with the whole Pfaster mess and my associated guilt which precipitated a strange period where once again, I was desperately afraid for her as she dipped and spiralled downwards as she fought against the way the whole experience had tainted her, finding then that even though she hadn’t fully healed, suddenly I was the one who needed saving as I fell apart piece by harrowing piece following my Mom’s suicide and the revelations brought to me that finally gave me closure on my sister’s fate. I had told her I had found peace and truly, initially I thought I had; until the guilt started right back up again, my dreams plagued by accusatory visions of those I perceived as having failed, Scully amongst them and I lost count of the amount of nights I woke up sweating and shaking; calling out to her in the darkness, bereft when I realised she wasn’t there with me.

But for the most part, despite ourselves, we had retreated from each other once again, neither one prepared to call the other into question as to what the hell had happened that we couldn’t seem to get past the final barrier that we had built up between us; denying ourselves anything more than the most minimal affirmation of everything we now knew we meant to each other; I have no idea as to our flawed reasoning and I know Scully has been as confused, as defeated as I have. And if I’m honest I know exactly why she chose to go with that chain-smoking bastard; because maybe by doing so she would finally deem herself worthy enough to be loved; finding affirmation that all the pain, all the hurt and all the sacrifice over the years might actually have been worth it.

That she was prepared to die for it; to give the whole fucking struggle some kind of meaning.

The knowledge makes me turn to stone inside; because this is Ed Jerse all over again. Only this time she really meant it; had been so intent on proving herself to be valuable, deserving of finally being able to make a decision that to her at least, actually meant something, that all commonsense just flew out of the window. And the fact I had been so wrapped up in my own misery, I hadn’t seen it coming; had lost sight of her somewhere along the way and the relief at her return had been so huge, so encompassing that I just couldn’t handle it and had instead turned it inwards, spun it on its head to give me justification for denying to myself everything she had come to mean to me, to rage at her when I should have been the one on my knees begging her forgiveness.

And I am terrified that my duplicity has now destroyed everything we fought so hard to build and which I sent tumbling down around us tonight when instead of actually listening to her, I waited until we were back in my apartment and then pushed her against the wall, blinded by a need to finally claim her, to take ownership, to wipe the thought of that cancer ridden bastard touching her out of my mind; grabbing her wrists in one hand while I roughly covered her lips with my own, running my free hand up and down her body, tugging at her clothes as she fought against me with a growing futility that finally stilled her as she began to cry, huge gasping sobs that finally, before I totally lost control, brought me to my senses as I dropped her wrists, stumbling away from her, appalled at such a monumental loss of control that I had only barely managed to keep in check.

And I almost collapsed when I saw the pain on her face as she dumbly turned her wrists over, seeing the fresh welts beginning to bloom against her pale skin caused by my rough, animalistic need of her; this woman who I would die for, who had only ever known or expected careful, reverent handling from me, stared at the fucking bruises that I had given her, inflicted upon her to add to the multitudes she had already received during her allegiance to me.

I didn’t even attempt to prevent her from leaving. Because what the hell could I ever say to make this right?

XXXXX

I can’t really remember getting to the bedroom; have no concept of when I decided to stop pouring the contents of the whiskey bottle down my throat. I keep it for medicinal purposes because really, I can’t stand the fucking taste of it unless it’s joined by copious amounts of lemon and honey, but tonight, since my mouth was tainted by the bitterness that can only be brought from the certain realisation that I had blown it; that finally I had succeeded in pushing away the one person on this earth who actually cared whether I lived or died, that I didn’t even taste it. I just wanted to sink in to oblivion for a few short hours.

I had almost called her, had almost called a cab to take me to her so that I might plead with her, to apologise; to seek an absolution I knew I didn’t deserve. But I didn’t. Because when it came right down to it I was just too ashamed to face her; afraid that she would just confirm my certainty that I had finally lost her for good.

The amount of alcohol I had consumed did numb me to a certain extent although I was painfully conscious that it was merely a temporary state; that tomorrow nothing would have changed. But it enabled me at least to sleep fitfully; to lose myself for a few short hours. But at some point I must have fallen in to a deeper sleep, because I didn’t hear her enter the apartment, didn’t feel the slight dip in the mattress as she slid in beside me, but I awoke to the feel of her arms around me, her body spooned against my back, one leg entwined with mine as I felt the soft hitching of her breath as she shed scalding tears that made me burn with shame; shame that she had found a strength to save us when I hadn’t been able to. Dana Scully, my light in the darkness and a thousand times stronger than I could ever hope to be.

And as I brought my hands to entwine with hers, silently thanking her for trusting me enough to be able to even do this, I knew that right now we weren’t okay. We were a million miles from being okay. But we were together. And maybe, just maybe, we would find a way to stay that way.

Concluded chapter five

[heartslogos]

pull the morning out of the night [85]

Ellana wakes, a disturbance in her soul.

No, not a disturbance. An opening. It’s reflex to try and force the gates of her mind closed, but this is an opening that’s been scarred into her and cannot be undone.

She sits up and slides out of bed, the floor is cold on her feet, but the dread is colder in her chest.

The halls are silent, but not empty. The night, in the domain of the Wolf, is always awake. This, Ellana thinks, is one of the few ways it is like the Raven’s nests. And it is one of the few unwelcome ones.

In most other things the Wolf has reversed everything she has known - and she has embraced it as well as she can with her crippled and malformed self. Ellana understands that now. It has taken years and years and years, but she understands that is what she is. That is what the Ravens design their slaves to be: dependent, fearful, anxious, high strung, and fragile of heart and mind.

All the easier to take them over, all the easier to cut them down, all the easier to play with.

There was never a moment of peace. Always there were eyes, everywhere.

That has not changed in the Wolf’s court. If anything it is worse here because of her higher station.

At least she knows that they eyes are neutral, if not friendly.

Ellana makes her way through the maze of hallways and verandas and eluvians, following the pull in her lungs and throat. He calls her - he calls them.

And he is upset.

How could he not be? They are forced to a war they did not plan or forsee, a war that they cannot bargain their way out of. A war that they cannot prevent.

Ellana’s feet stop at the edge of the change in shadows. The Wolf’s shadow.

“He waits for you,” Ellana turns and sees Lyna, head bowed, hood drawn over her hair.

“How bad?” Ellana asks.

“Sylaise readies her plagues and Jun’s stations glow at all hours,” Lyna replies, “The dreaming is unsettled with the movement of the Gods. Andruil’s forces are about ready to touch ground and Ghilan’nain’s monsters have been woken. Ghilan’nain’s creatures look ready to descend on the shores first in an attempt to draw Mythal’s forces.”

Ellana closes her eyes, “And the Ravens?”

“Retreated into their fortresses,” Lyna answers, “Our spies have not yet been able to report back any significant movements. I believe they are rattled by your progress through Ascension.”

The Wolf inside of her stirs, rumbles, preens, and coos. They should be rattled. Ellana will rattle their brains straight out of their skulls. They are the ones who drove her to this. They are the ones who began this.

Ellana might not have chosen the method of finishing it, but here they are. Ellana will take this jump. She will snatch at this gamble.

It’s all she has.

(Ellana has failed in every promise she has ever made. She has failed as a slave, a servant, a pair, a first. She will not fail in this one thing.

Ellana’s goals are as follows: get her household to safety and leave them there, do whatever she can to keep them alive through their natural days, earn them.

The last one is optional and purely a selfish whim on her part. She doubts she will ever earn their trust, their faith, or their acceptance. She has done too much against them and hurt them too deeply.

Realistically, all three of those goals are as fragile as skin under teeth in the face of this war that moves the heavens. But she can try.

The Wolf dreamed of making a woman and a goddess out of her. Neither of them are quite certain about what she’s becoming, and Ellana will never be a woman she will always be a Raven or a Wolf or some beast in between. But he can dream.

Ellana is not yet that cruel.)

“Thank you, Lyna,” Ellana says and steps forward. The shadows rise around her ankles - living and warm even though she knows it is ice and winter. But to her it has always been warm. Since the very beginning, this shadow has never been anything but that thing which she doesn’t know how to look at without bleeding.

(Is that not why they are forced to war? Is that not why he breaks her? Is that not why she carries this corruption in her like a seed that takes her blood and slowly replaces bone and flesh? Is that not why she finds the dreams safe again?)

Ellana enters, the shadows dragging at her ankles.

“Close the door, Lyna was dismissed?”

“Yes,” Ellana lets the heavy doors fall behind her.

Solas stands, by a mirror, working on the fastenings of his armor and robes. Ellana moves to help him. Even with both of their fingers, there are many intricate knots and ties that hold him together.

“You have done well while I was gone,” Solas says and Ellana braces herself for the inevitable that must come when his voice takes on that level of command. “Everything appears to be in order and ready for marching orders. You did well in that regard.”

“Thank you.”

“And yet the Iron Bull calls to me in dreams,” Solas continues, voice deceivingly blasé, “Questioning your legitimacy. Questioning you. You have made yourself vulnerable, weak. He goes around you to me instead. You are failing in the most basic of tasks, the most fundamental parts of leadership - nobility or godhood.”

“I know,” Ellana keeps her eyes focused on the ties underneath her fingers.

Solas’ hand is like a snake, quick to catch her chin and force her eyes to meet his.

“No, you do not,” Solas says, “They question your legitimacy at every turn. You cannot allow this sort of weakness. You are lucky it was Mythal who caught you - if it were anyone else. And in the heart of June’s citadel. You cannot let them know how it affects you. You cannot be seen as weak - your household is a bunch of thin blooded mortals who will die within the next half century or so left to their own devices. If you fail to bring them into line, if you fail to earn their loyalty or their trust or even their respect how do you expect to lead this entire realm?”

“They’re different,” Ellana can’t help but protest, “Mortals are different than us. Their rules, their customs - and they’ve been raised their entire lives to hate us. They know nothing and - “

“You knew nothing,” Solas snaps, squeezing her jaw, “I took you still, I taught you better. Do not ever use the excuse of ignorance. It forgives nothing.”

Ellana winces. The Wolf does not let go.

“The Mythal has not yet spoken to June and Sylaise of what she saw. But she is concerned. Are you strong enough to stand? You have a fraction of the Wolf within you and already you show signs of crumbling. I understand that it was rushed but to lose that much control? You cast doubt within this alliance before the first soldiers have even touched ground.”

Ellana does not apologize.

Solas releases her jaw and begins to take off his under armor, rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms.

Ellana goes to set the armor and padding down to be put away later.

“I need to know that the corruption has not taken you,” Solas says, voice calmer, softer. “I need to know that - for the sake of these people, our people, and that of the many others who are unaware of the Pantheon’s purpose - you are capable of holding onto yourself. Tell me you can.”

“I can,” Ellana says.

“Bring your household together,” Solas says, “Do what you must. But I cannot have your sword going behind your back to check with me for every single thing.”

Ellana turns back to him, offering a wet cloth from the washing stand.

He takes it and rubs it over his tired neck and shoulders, face every year and moment and wound since he first took power.

“You swore yourself in service,” He says.

“I did.”

“Da’fen,” His voice lowers, deepens, “Did you do it in truth?”

“There would be no point if I didn’t,” Ellana raises her chin. “They may not know it, but I do. And anyone who looks close enough.”

He closes his eyes. “You put our entire kingdom at risk for this. There are other ways to gain respect.”

“This is the only way I have ever known,” Ellana replies. “And there is nothing I can give that isn’t yours.They are my duty. And I will suffer for them gladly. As you said, hahren, they will die within the next century. Mythal’s people waited for her for longer than that. The Wolf’s territory will hold with or without me until then.”

“You are a fool,” Solas says, disapproval in the corners of his mouth and the dredges of his voice. He draws on a lighter tunic, quickly fastening his black mantle over it. “But it is too late for me to fix this. Come, we must discuss our next measures.”

[wewithus]

The Five Minutes for Freedom series is a collection of small, step-by-step walkthroughs designed to help you take concrete political action in support of the principles of We With Us. The articles in the series are designed to be read and their steps followed in order, as later posts frequently build on earlier ones. A chronological index of all posts in the series can be found here. While this information is targeted primarily at US readers, we welcome readers from all countries and encourage you to adapt these strategies as necessary for your jurisdiction.

5M4F 12: Update Your Rolodex (Round 2) and Protest by Phone (Round 3) [Trump, Carson, Puzder, Perry, and the abortion ban] Dependencies: 5M4F10.

Much like last week, most of your 5M4F tasks this week will be to script, and then make, calls to your representatives to ask them to rigorously vet and ultimately reject the confirmation of Trump’s most dangerous cabinet and White House appointments, to protest those appointments after the fact, and/or to object to top-level legislative priorities of the incoming administration. But first, add this line to the other contact information for your representatives in your 5M4F document:

President: Donald Trump [R] | (202) 456-1111 | https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact | 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500 | (Contact name) | (Contact dates)

Donald Trump is now your president. That means that he is now answerable to you. You can very quickly start making him answerable to you by signing this WeThePeople petition to divest of his business interests or put them in a blind trust; and this WeThePeople petition to release his tax returns and any other information necessary to confirm that he is not in violation of the emoluments of the Constitution.

Once that’s done...

All three of the appointments you’ll be protesting this week are cabinet appointments and require Senate approval: Ben Carson, Andy Puzder, and Rick Perry (nominated for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Labor, and Secretary of Energy, respectively). Your voice is also urgently needed to halt the enactment of a draconian abortion ban that threatens the rights and lives of womb-possessing people throughout the country.

Like last week: write yourself a script that you can use to walk you through your calls to your representatives (there is an in-depth breakdown of this process in 5M4F5, which is also excerpted behind the cut), then give your local field offices a series of calls to protest these appointments. To be most effective, you want to only call your representatives about one issue at a time, so you will need to make multiple calls throughout the week to best keep your calls focused and to the point.

I also strongly urge you to share this information with your friends and family offline and encourage them to join you in making calls with you. Our goal should be to keep the phones ringing at every field office in the country, all week long, demanding that our elected representatives do their jobs, i.e., represent us.

If you want to do this all in one go: unfortunately, these can’t be completely finished all in one go, because of the issue of keeping individual calls focused on a single issue. But what you can do is script all your calls together (that you can do today, and it’s basically a copy-paste job, so it shouldn’t be too onerous), then make your three calls about Carson in one block on Monday, your three calls about Puzder in one block on Tuesday, et cetera.

If you want to do this five minutes at a time: easier! Your three scripts for a single appointee will probably only take you about five minutes to assemble, and one call will probably take about five minutes to make. You can sprinkle your scripting throughout the day today, and sprinkle your calls throughout your field offices’ business hours during the week; or script your calls about Carson today, then call about Carson and script for Puzder Tuesday; whatever.

There is some starter info on each of the four nominees/appointees/issues, with reasons to call about them, behind the cut; as well as a template for your scripts, and some info about what to do if you can’t make calls. Shortcut links:

Ben Carson.

Andy Puzder.

Rick Perry.

Abortion rights.

A note on how to protest amid breaking news.

How to write your scripts.

What to do if you can’t make calls.

Once you've made your calls, check in on this week's poll to let your fellow humans know you've got their backs!

Ben Carson (nominated for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development): The most fundamental reason to oppose Ben Carson as Secretary of HUD is that he opposes efforts to end housing segregation. Housing segregation remains rampant in the US in large part due to racist governmental actions that themselves have ended, but the lasting effects of formal governmental racism in the past today mean that people of color are more likely than whites to live in areas without easy access to fresh, healthy food, are often more vulnerable to housing market instability and were on the whole hit harder by the crash, are more likely than whites to be zoned into de facto (previously de jure) segregated and underperforming schools, are set up for more frequent and more-likely-to-be-violent encounters with the police, and are harmed and held back on countless more metrics:

"[On] every measure of well-being and opportunity, the foundation is where you live," Nikole Hannah-Jones, the ProPublica reporter on whose reporting much of the episode was based, told TAL's Nancy Updike. "Cancer rates, asthma rates, infant mortality, unemployment, education, access to fresh food, access to parks, whether or not the city repairs the roads in your neighborhood."

[source]

Housing discrimination and the end of urban segregation needs to be at the top of HUD’s priority list. Ben Carson thinks that’s a bad idea.

Andy Puzder (nominated for Secretary of Labor): Puzder is an anti-regulation fast food executive whose employees face wage theft and a bananas 2 in 3 rate of sexual harassment, if they’re women; who opposes the new overtime rule and thinks robust worker protections constitute a “nanny state.” He is, just in case you’re curious, anti-abortion and anti-bathroom protections for trans people, but he does find it in his heart to support scantily clad women sexily eating burgers on TV. He is being nominated to run the department in charge of penalizing companies for breaking minimum wage laws and defending worker rights and safety. He thinks all of that is a bad idea.

Rick Perry (nominated for Secretary of Energy): There’s a misconception out there that the Department of Energy is responsible for handling things like the power grid; for the most part, it isn’t (it does do some stuff related to the grid, including securing it against cyberattacks, but a lot of the power-related stuff falls under the purview of the Department of the Interior). However, the Department of Energy is responsible for managing the US’s nuclear weapons and the security thereof, which I, personally, think is pretty fucking important. Rick Perry doesn’t know what the Department of Energy is called, but he is on record pledging to abolish it.

Oops.

Abortion Rights: A bill has been introduced in the house to make abortion illegal as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as 6 weeks, when many women do not yet know they are pregnant. I want to be really clear about this: what I am about to say here in this post is an argument for abortion rights that specifically approaches this issue from a human rights perspective; it’s very, very far from the only reason why abortion should remain legal. However, this is the reason why if you want to defend the rights of your fellow humans, you must protest anti-choice legislation, no matter how you feel about abortion on a personal level: if abortion is made illegal, rich people facing an unwanted pregnancy will go to Canada or the UK or Japan or any other country where they can still get safe, legal abortions, and they will live. Poor people facing an unwanted pregnancy will have dangerous, illegal, unsupervised abortions, and they will die. Want proof? OKAY:

In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women—nearly one-fifth (18%) of maternal deaths recorded in that year . . . . By 1965, the number of deaths due to illegal abortion had fallen to just under 200, but illegal abortion still accounted for 17% of all deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year. And these are just the number that were officially reported; the actual number was likely much higher . . . . Poor women and their families were disproportionately impacted . . . . Of the low-income women in that study who said they had had an abortion, eight in 10 (77%) said that they had attempted a self-induced procedure, with only 2% saying that a physician had been involved in any way . . . . A clear racial disparity is evident in the data of mortality because of illegal abortion: In New York City in the early 1960s, one in four childbirth-related deaths among white women was due to abortion; in comparison, abortion accounted for one in two childbirth-related deaths among nonwhite and Puerto Rican women . . . . In the late 1960s, an alternative to obtaining committee approval emerged for women seeking a legal abortion, but once again, only for those with considerable financial resources. In 1967, England liberalized its abortion law to permit any woman to have an abortion with the written consent of two physicians. More than 600 American women made the trip to the United Kingdom during the last three months of 1969 alone; by 1970, package deals (including round-trip airfare, passports, vaccination, transportation to and from the airport and lodging and meals for four days, in addition to the procedure itself) were advertised in the popular media.

[source]

You cannot force someone to carry a fetus to term inside their bodies. I’m not saying you shouldn’t; I’m saying you can’t:

Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. One analysis, extrapolating from data from North Carolina, concluded that an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-induced abortions occurred in 1967.

[source, same as above]

I’m telling you, it was really an awful situation. It touched me because I’d see young, [otherwise] healthy women in their 20s die from the consequences of an infected nonsterile abortion. Women would do anything to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. They’d risk their lives. It was a different world, I’ll tell you.

[source]

Women came to me mostly from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, but also from all parts of the country. It very quickly became apparent that there were too many women — I could not possibly see all of them. My primary care practice disappeared, and I ended up providing abortions full-time. And there was no way there were enough hours in the day.

[source]

The decades before Roe v. Wade were the bad ol’ days. It was horrible carnage — and every one of those deaths was preventable. These women weren’t dying of exotic diseases. They were dying of simple things like hemorrhage and infection, and any third-year medical student with adequate equipment could’ve easily handled it. But the reason those women were dying is because the country had not yet made the decision that these women’s lives are worth saving.

[source, same as above]

Abortion access is a human rights issue. Make sure your legislators know that.

A note on protesting amid breaking news: Because I’m drafting most of this several days before it’ll go live, and because I can’t know when, precisely, you’ll actually make your individual calls, the exact nature of how you protest these appointments and laws may need to change a little bit based on how far the confirmation/legislative process has got by the time you’re calling.

So. If the nominee you’re calling about is still undergoing confirmation hearings, then encourage your senators to rigorously question the nominee on issues critical to protecting the rights of your fellow humans. If the confirmation hearings for that nominee are finished, focus instead on encouraging your senators to vote against the nominee’s confirmation. If the confirmation has already gone through, either thank or criticize your senator’s vote, depending on which way they voted; and in any case make it clear to them that you continue to watch their voting behavior to see whether or not they will have your vote in 2018 (or 2020, or 2022--again, it’s worth also taking a second to check when your particular senators will next come up for re-election. Senators up for re-election in 2018 are listed here. Senators up for re-election in 2020 are listed here. Senators up for re-election in 2022 are listed here.).

Similarly, when you’re calling about legislative priorities, depending on what has happened around that legislative issue since this post went live, you will either be urging your representatives to vote a particular way; or be thanking or criticizing their vote, depending on which way they voted, and making it clear to them that you continue to watch their voting behavior to see whether or not they will have your vote in 2018 (or 2020, or 2022).

Also, when you call your congressperson in the House about Cabinet appointments, since the House doesn’t vote on Cabinet appointments, just encourage your House representative to go on-record as opposing the nomination. The goal here is to make a lot of noise, and also to try and muster the political left to come together and resist the incoming administration with full-throated determination and conviction.

Anyway, to handle how fast this is moving, I recommend that you plan on searching a reputable news source, like The Guardian, shortly before you make your calls, for any breaking-news updates on the confirmation process that may require you to tweak your scripts.

How to Write Your Scripts (excerpted from 5M4F-5):

The basic phone script for calling your representatives goes something like so:

Hi, {can I ask who I’m speaking to? <, if they don’t say when they pick up>} [Jot their name down.] Hi, <their name>. My name is <your name> and I’m one of <your representative’s name>’s constituents in <where you live>. I wanted to let <your representative’s name> know that I strongly <support | oppose> <the thing you’re calling about>, because <succinct explanation of reason why you’re calling>. Is <your representative’s name> planning to <do the thing you want>?

Then you have to plan for a few different responses:

They’re with you: Thank you. Could you please let <appropriate pronoun> know that <expression of gratitude> and <indication that you will continue to watch your representative’s behavior and hold them accountable>?

They’re neutral: This subject is very important to me because <longer, more in-depth and emotive reason why you’re calling>. I would very much appreciate it if you could let <your representative’s name> know that I feel very strongly about this and would really encourage <appropriate pronoun> to <do the thing you want>. Is there any way I could follow up with you or <appropriate pronoun> later?

They oppose you: This subject is very important to me because <longer, more in-depth and emotive reason why you’re calling>. Can I ask why <your representative’s name> is <not doing the thing you want>? [Let them give you a reason, and write it down.] Okay, thank you. I understand <appropriate pronoun> concerns, but as one of <your representative’s name>’s voting constituents, I would really appreciate it if <appropriate pronoun> revisited <appropriate pronoun> decision because <alternate succinct explanation of reason why you’re calling>. Is there any way I could follow up with you or <appropriate pronoun> later?

<expression of gratitude>! <polite send-off>!

I want to point out that you probably don’t actually really need to plan for all of these responses. You can probably make a pretty good guess where your representative stands based on their party affiliation. However, especially if your representatives are moderates and often vote across the aisle, it’s not a bad idea to spend a little time planning for all three cases, because then your behind is covered, and you can recycle this language over and over on later calls, to different representatives. And yes: we will be calling other representatives.

This is the sample script that I wrote back in November, on a different issue and to Barbara Boxer, who has been replaced by Kamala Harris, but it gives you an idea how the Mad-Libs-filling process works:

Hi, {can I ask who I’m speaking to? <, if they don’t say when they pick up>} [Jot their name down.] Hi, <their name>. My name is <Ginny Washington>, and I’m one of <Senator Boxer>’s constituents in <West Hollywood>. I wanted to let <Senator Boxer> know that I strongly <support> <her resolution to amend the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College>, because <I think every American’s vote should count equally>. {I just wanted to thank her for all her hard work on behalf of the principles of equal representation and equal protection under the law.}

<Thank you so much for your time>! <Have a nice day>!

If you can’t make calls: I recommended before that if you can’t make calls, you copy down snail mail addresses so you can send snail mail letters, and that you grab an email address or online contact link no matter what. Calls are the most effective, if you can make them, but please, do send snail mail letters if you can’t, or an email if you also can’t swing a stamp or get to a post office. You can use the script above as a template for your letter, but you’re probably going to want to default to assuming that your representative opposes you, and you’ll have to of course make it sound like a letter and not a phone convo.

If you care about correct forms of address: weirdly, because these things are super arcane, technically the correct way to address your senator or representative is still “The Honorable <whoever>”, as in, “The Honorable Barbara Boxer.” That goes on the envelope. You can then write “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. <whoever>” as your salutation.

[wulfprints]

PHOT201 Evaluation

The Brief

I found Weird & Wonderful to be an interesting and stimulating brief. I loved its open-endedness which allowed me to write my own story, rather than have one chosen for me. I also enjoyed particularly its links with cinematography, which is one of my biggest interests alongside photography. I find that cinema has a unique ability to convey emotion, one that even photography does not often have.

My Response

During the first month or so of this brief, I had it set in my mind that I would create a project titled Polaris. While Polaris still sits in my mind, it did not become my response to this brief for one main reason, it would have been shot mainly in the studio on a digital camera. This began to bore me, and became a limiting factor to my creativity. The inherently neutral and ‘perfect’ nature of digital media can become a creative prison personally.

The solution came unexpectedly in the form of a visit to Lacock Abbey where, of my own accord and not intending to start a new project, I shot a single roll of medium format black-and-white film. This pulled me out of a period of creative block and inspired me to start creating again. After this shoot, I decided to start a new project, a heavy undertaking considering how much time I had already spent on Polaris. This new project would become Hallucinations, and would be shot purely on film and developed by me.

What I Enjoyed

What I enjoyed most about this new direction was how personal it felt. Rather than a computer chip measuring a sensor’s output and then writing that data on to an SD card, I was exposing light to a photo-sensitive film, and then developing it with my own two hands. I had taken the place of the sensor, and this made the process so much more interesting. I felt like I had an attachment to the film.

Not only this, but there was also a sense of danger in that I could very easily fail. One small mistake and an entire roll of images could be destroyed. An entire roll that could not be retrieved. This danger allowed me to think more about each image, and also slow myself down and take more care. Digital media; with all its perfection, its ease of use, and its safety; can encourage a particular nonchalance, which I feel there should be no place for in art.

Experimentation & New Experiences

I knew how to process and scan film to an amateur degree before embarking on this project, but I feel I have really come to grips with it and learnt lots of lessons during it.

For instance, my development of film used to be quite rushed and casual, I made mistakes here and there and it didn’t matter much to me. During this project I have slowed down and taken more time with my development, I have researched the best methods of development, the worst mistakes to make, and I have taken much more physical care with the film. I never go near my film without something covering my hands (e.g. cotton gloves), and I have found that most steps of processing will be of higher quality if you set aside twice the amount of time you think you’ll need.

In addition, before this project I would scan my film on an Epson V750/V850, and I was never very happy with it. It always looked quite dull to me, and was never sharp enough. I knew that I would have to remedy this to undertake Hallucinations, and so I learned how to use the Hasselblad Flextight X1 which we have a few of at PCA. This scanner costs more than a family car and has the quality to back its price up. Now when I scan film, it looks great. The tones are deep and the sharpness is unrivalled. I don’t even scan on the highest resolution and I am still astounded by the sharpness of this scanner.

Finally, I’ve experimented with film much more than I ever have before. For instance, I’ve pushed and pulled HP5+ (almost) to its limits, I’ve used films I’ve never used before (Delta, TMax 3200P), and I’ve used kit I’ve never used before (Mamiya 7II 135 converter). This experimentation is the best bit of photography to me.

In the future I would especially like to develop my use of high-sensitivity films. For instance, I have used Kodak TMax 3200P, and I was very impressed with it, but I would like to compare it to Ilford’s Delta 3200. I would also like to test Ilford’s HP5+ at 3200, which is purportedly possible.

Also, I would like to try out some new cameras. I would like to try using a large format camera, and I would also like to have another go at using the Tomiyama panoramic medium format camera (6x17” negatives are too good to pass up).

Limitations / Problems

My first limitation came in the form of a scanner. I had started this project using an Epson V750/V850 flatbed scanner, which just wasn’t up to the task. As discussed previously, I had to learn to use the larger and more expensive scanners in our digital darkroom to complete this project. The scanners themselves are excellent, and worth every penny. Unfortunately, the software that comes with the scanners, of which there is no alternative, is absolutely atrocious. The software has clearly not been updated in at least a decade, and there is effectively no support for it anymore. The ‘3F’ file format, which is supposed to be akin to a raw file from a camera, is unopenable in any other program, and therefore was useless to me. I spent about a dozen days solid in the digital darkroom, from 9AM until as late as 9PM, just getting the levels on the scans as good as I could get them. For some images this seemed an impossible task, and could take up to half a day just to get a single successful final image. In two separate instances I spent over a day scanning images, only to find that every bit of work was useless. This was, without a doubt, the worst aspect of this project, and totally mentally drained me.

I feel that this aspect of the project was completely inefficient, and wasted a huge amount of my time. If I could streamline this process, I would have a much higher quality end product, including more detailed write-ups of the process. Unfortunately so much time was spent sat in a dark room scanning film, that I feel other aspects of my project are not as good as they could/should be.

A second limitation was the occasional attitudes that I received from members of staff of the National Trust. On one or two occasions I was asked (politely, to be fair) to stop taking photographs. I was told that it is fine to take pictures with phones but, when using more ‘professional kit’, it is not allowed. This is a very strange ethos in my opinion, and I feel that, if anything, the National Trust should have been thanking me for basing a project purely on them. After all, on the rare off-chance that my photobook became widely produced, it would be excellent publicity for them.

In addition, the National Trust have a habit of putting massive green stickers and signs all over their properties which detract from their immersion. I understand that they probably have legislations that they have to adhere to, but it makes it incredibly difficult to undertake a project based on timelessness and immersion when every corner of the buildings have stickers on them, which clearly place the image in the modern day.

Thirdly, the amount of people in these properties made it difficult to take timeless pictures. After all, a nuclear family walking around in jeans and t-shirts with DSLRs and iPhones doesn’t exactly scream 19th century. This is hardly anyone’s fault, of course more people than just myself want to view the properties, and that is totally fair. In a perfect world, I could visit a property during a time when it is closed to the public.

The good old English rain. This puts a massive damper on working with slow exposure times and tripods, especially when working with expensive kit that doesn’t belong to me. I’ve been known in the past to walk in to the sea with my DSLRs, but this is because I know that if I drop it I only have myself to blame. If I used a Mamiya 7II (potentially £2500) which belonged to the college in the rain, and it broke, I’d be up shit creek without a paddle. As a result, I had to push film quite far in some instances to avoid using a tripod. This subconscious pressure also caused me to rush at times, which deteriorated the quality of my final images. In the future I must always remember to slow down and take it easy. In addition, it may be prudent to consider a setup to allow me to confidently use cameras in the wet without having to worry about damaging them.

Lastly, I do think that there is some fluff/hair/dust on my final images. This was unavoidable with the kit that I had access to. I had to choose between using cotton gloves which shed fluff, or not using any gloves and getting fingerprints/oil on my negatives. I chose the former, believing that an air blower would remove most, if not all, of the fluff. Unfortunately this was misguided. In the future, I need to find a better solution. Perhaps gloves made from some other material would shed less.

Conclusions

In conclusion I did enjoy 201.I have felt tied down in previous years both at school, sixth form, and occasionally during my first year of university, but I feel that this brief gave me the total freedom that I have always craved, and this allowed me to thrive creatively, knowing that anything I created was almost purely a result of my own decisions.

I think that a photobook is a great way to deliver images, and I will keep hold of mine for a long time.

I think that I was working against the odds more often than not during this brief due to changing paths midway through and wrestling with decades old software, but I’m actually quite proud of what I’ve created. I’m proud that I’ve undertaken a project using almost entirely analog processes, given that just ~18 months ago I had never shot film, let alone processed or scanned it. I feel that my understanding of analog photography has snowballed over the last two months, and I am now a lot more confident using these processes.

This project has taught me to love analog processes, and I shall be using them even more in the future. For instance, I have plans to start creating traditional prints in the darkroom, using enlargers and photo-paper. I would also like to start using our specialist darkroom to experiment with specialist processes such as cyanotypes, liquid lights, and anything else the college (and health and safety guidelines) will allow me to.

[replicadesignerbags-blog]

Replica Bags - Enjoy Shopping Online By Using These Tips

Replica handbags revelations -- a Sexy one my readers Happen to Be Perishing to Understand: Yes, I have bought replica designer handbags after reading about it at http://www.mau-fashion.com/replica-handbags/ .

To tackle any gossip I discovered about my site on that Reddit forum : I am guilty of getting fake designer bags for sale previously. I am convinced more than just a couple will relate when I state that through one stage in my life so as to feel accepted by my coworkers, that I had been forced to purchase them.

High Quality Replica Handbags

But because of a keen eye for quality and possessing fake handbags and luxury merchandise, I was unable to match those knock off designer handbags and feel legitimate. I felt like a fraud. That is why high quality replica handbags looked like a workable choice my conscience (and self ) could reside with.

Why are designer knockoff handbags prevalent now?

There are various explanations for replica handbags online and a significant role play . Lately, nations like China, Russia, as well as India started producing because of the progress of industrialization in addition to education. Individuals started purchasing lavish items which makes them common.

In Addition, with actors Million-dollar lifestyles on programs such as Instagram, our societal networking feeds are overrun with rap celebrities sporting Louis Vuitton tracksuits, reality TV celebrities carrying selfies within their closets filled with 50+ replica handbags china made, along with influencers sharing their own journeys with a new designer purse at each photograph. But the 99 percent might not have the freedom of having it now the lifestyle is normalized.

So as to have a piece of this pie, they buy high quality designer replica handbags. Additionally, it does not help that wealthy individuals such as Paris Hilton along with several different actors have been seen sporting replica purses, which further confirms using bogus things to keep appearances.

So how to know that you’re getting the best replica handbags online?

Guide to Best Replica Bags Online

Thanks to bogus peddlers that have fake designer bags for sale  in areas like Canal Street and Santee Alley( https://www.newyorkcitytrippers.com/posts/canal-street-gucci-prada ) -- criminals return, and sadly, the consequences are minuscule in comparison to selling fake bags. Back in "Deluxe - How Luxury Lost Its Luster," PI Andrew Oberfeldt states "When I earned $18,000 value of purses in by China, you would put me in prison maybe. And I’ll be outside in the daytime and call my attorney. Ninety-nine percentage of those people captured in New York selling replica bags don't go to prison. The judges don't have the legislation. The highest-level offense has been charged in New York State is trademark counterfeiting, and it is a C statute, such as stealing a wonderful vehicle."

Obviously, running a replica handbags company yields a lot and obviously it is rewarding. Where's peddlers used to sponsor "replica purses" and market fake handbags bought from Santee Alley or even Canal Street to suburban housewives, it is possible to find today Facebook groups and Whatsapp talks where you can purchase fake designer handbags for sale from modern-day bag party girls. The moderators of those teams share fake handbags in such groups of 1,000 -- members and get commissions from producers for each and each single item sold through URL links that are technical. With groups it could be presumed that peddlers can generate up to 5 to gains.

Together With the simplicity of transactions, buying replica handbags online is now Quicker if not nonexistent to the conscience of a buyer thanks to those sales' privacy and anonymity.

Shopping for Replica Designer Handbags

If you have done any online shopping before for aaa replica designer handbags, then you are likely aware of some of the basics of this process. But, you should still take the following information into consideration. You are about to open up a whole new world of imitation handbags shopping possibilities.

If it is your first time purchasing replica handbags online, make sure to look at the customer reviews first and look up best replica handbags reviews online.  This generally gives you a better idea of services and goods you should expect. Low ratings of aaa replica bags are a bad sign.

If you plan on buying replica designer bags online, use a computer that you are positive is secure. It's best to stay away from shopping sites when you're on a public Wi-Fi connection since hackers are on the lookout there.

If you're trying to think too much about whether or not expedited shipping is worth it, be a little more patient and pick something else. The speediness at which you receive your packages when using standard shipping might shock you. The money saved on choosing standard shipping instead of expedited shipping may well be worth the wait.

Before you enter any credit card information into a website, have a look at the URL at the top of the screen. It is only okay to continue if the address starts with "https" since this means it is being encrypted. If it doesn't have this, then your information isn't secure.

Before confirming your purchases, ensure you thoroughly review them, regardless of the store you are purchasing from. Depending on what the site is like, you may have trouble figuring out what size or color of a product you want. Be sure that the items in your cart or the items you want.

If you have never looked for the gold lock that appears in the browser's address bar when you're shopping, keep a lookout for it the next time you shop. This indicates that the merchant has taken measures to keep your information secure. This will help you to take every safety measure possible when shopping.

How to Find The Best Fake Designer Bags for Sale Online

Prior to making any purchase, hunt for a coupon code. There are many websites that keep coupon code catalogs for different popular websites. If you aren't able to identify a code for something you want, search for the site name with the keywords "coupon code" added. You may have considerable success yourself.

Coupon codes are available from many online stores that allow you to register for email alerts or their social media accounts. It just takes a second or two to opt into a newsletter or press a "like" button, and it can save you lots of money.

Get an app on your phone to help you find better deals on fake designer handbags for sale . There are a few reasons why this is helpful. For starters, let's say you are out and in a waiting room, you are able to shop. You can also use smart phones and apps to take a picture of an item you want or scan the barcode. Then, find the best price and most stores will match that price to get your sale right then and there.

Buy from American online shopping sites whenever possible. Shopping at these retailers allows you to invoke state and federal consumer protection laws if something goes wrong. You won't get the level of protection you'll get this way compared to if you were to shop from places outside of the US.

Your credit card details are at risk when you shop online so make sure you look after them. Only shop on secure websites. If you want to be sure you're shopping securely, seek out the padlock icon on your browser. Many times this icon can be found in your browser's top right corner.

If you plan to give out personal information, only do so if the URL starts with HTTPS. The S stands for Security. The padlock icon can help you know which shopping sites are secure.

Online shopping forums can really help you save a great deal of money. These forums can alert you when deals are found for the products you are looking for. You will be able to locate more things this way, so join several forums to increase your chances.

After a long, harrowing day at work, packing back up and driving through traffic to go shopping isn't the most appealing. When shopping online, you are able to do so peacefully from your favorite chair or the living room couch. Peace of mind is yours.

If you use a search engine to locate best replica bags online, stick with retailers that appear on the first three pages of the results. The stores that tend to rank further down are most likely less reliable than those on the first page. An online retailer that's recognizable is better, especially if you've already used them.

When you shop online, understand your tax liability. An online merchant can usually give you a good deal on top replica handbags by waiving sales taxes unless you and the company have the misfortune to be located in the same state. If the store is based within your state, they will have to charge sales tax on your purchase. You may not see it on your order at first. It may be added after you make your purchase for imitation designer handbags.

Where to buy fake designer bags online

Whenever you shop online for high quality replica handbags, you always should make sure that the website is trusted. This is essential because you will be providing your personal data to them. If the site cannot be trusted, the information could be used in identity theft. This can prove very expensive in money and time.

No matter how good prices are for copy designer handbags with a certain online retailer, their customer service is just as important. Having an issue with your order is very frustrating. You may find that it's better to pay more and get good customer service.

Make sure not to buy anything from an online store offering free imitation bags or similar freebies. You may have seen these free scam ads all over various social networks. If you do get emails with this kind of promotion, be sure that it is coming from a reputable store.

There are countless advantages to making purchases of replica handbags online. This method of shopping gets better by the day. Take note of all the advice that has been offered here so you can benefit from replica bags.

[fullertonbailbonds969-blog]

A Bail Bond Can Be Revoked

Expense Ryan Bail Bonds

Its too late for Lorena Gonzalez. She made too many promises to @SEIU that union members could replace 3,000+ Licensed Bail Agents at CA Taxpayers expense $3.9 Billion/yr. Another Bait and Switch in the name of public safety.

SB10

— Bail Bond Woman (@SDBAILBONDWOMAN) August 3, 2018

Your next-door neighbor with the very best lawn might be similarly oriented. People-oriented - Bail bail bondsman job with individuals who have an immediate requirement. They handle such individuals at all times of day, everyday of the year. They should be able to associate with their sensations and also personal circumstances. They understand what they are experiencing. A bail bondsman should be ready to place themselves in the footwear or see through the eyes of their clients It's a capacity not every person has. It's called empathy, something excellent next-door neighbors have for others. Local business owner - Their organisation is various compared to the majority of others. Bail bail bondsmans, essentially, are sole proprietors or LLC's. They pay tax obligations, hire employees and perform a beneficial solution for the public. The solution they execute saves loan for the taxpayer. 137/day to keep an inmate put behind bars. Those costs are removed when a defendant is allowed out of jail on bail while awaiting trial. The Bail company makes sure the offender will certainly show up in court. If they fall short to appear, the company sends out Bail Enforcement Agents to bring them back. This is done at their very own expense, not the taxpayers.

The company must have a number of bail representatives

Close Relationships With Area Law Enforcement

Evidence that they has gone to the seminar called for by O.C.G.A Section 43-47-8(d)

Free Bond Delivery in Las Vegas

Court Bonds - Judicial, Fiduciary and Probate

262 grams of cocaine

If this were 20, 10, and even 3 years ago the undeniable response to this would have been that the function of this was just to obtain someone from jail. This would be the obvious and also right answer to this inquiry. I should make a declaration though. When you are a bail bondsmen you see many awful circumstances. Oftentimes you see the very same people over as well as over once again as well as they are generally in as well as out of jail as a result of alcohol and drug related offenses. I feel it would be secure to claim that these people have a particular problem with medication abuse. The only issue is that they are never supplied any kind of kind of assistance apart from the occasional abuse from loved ones and also justice systems. Also still, this scolding provides no remedy for the addicted and also they are undoubtedly not obtaining any type of much better when they wind up in jail. Exactly how Does It Compare to Other Earnings Models? For anybody considering a career as a bail bondsman, income is, naturally, vital. Depending upon place and other factors, the ordinary bail bondsmen income will differ. What Factors Affect the Potential Bail Bonds Salary? Before approving a placement, it's essential for bail bond representative work applicants to understand the distinction between a bail bondsman salary-based job and also a setting that pays a per hour wage. Bail agents that deal with salary may be asked by their employers to function as numerous hrs as the company calls for the workers' solutions as well as will normally not be eligible for overtime. Nonetheless, some companies pay bonuses for premium efficiency, instead of overtime. On the other hand, staff members who are paid per hour will be spent for the exact variety of hours they function as well as are normally eligible for overtime. What Determines Independent Agents' and also Employees' Earnings? Just How Are Independent Agents' as well as Employees' Earnings Similar? Salary degree, per hour wage, or revenue level for independent agents are as dependent on the variety of clients an agent or company can attract as they are on the representatives' skill at writing great bonds.

Jim promptly provides his, yet John asserts to have left his ID in your home. John is in a hurry to obtain the offer done, so the notary public just instructs both Jim as well as John to sign the title, after which the notary signs or notarizes their signatures. However the individual claiming to be "John" is really John's roommate Steve. The real John is away vacationing and also had no intent of selling the cars and truck. Do you assume this John is a satisfied camper? Had the notary refused to witness the deal due to the fact that Steve didn't existing recognition, John would still have the title to his car. As a public authorities, the notary public in this instance violated the public trust by stopping working in their duty to verify identification. John draws on sue against the State where the deal occurred for his loss, due to the fact that the State was negligent with its designated representative. A notary bond is a guarantee of payment to the obligee (the State) ought to a loss occur for a penalty amount of the bond. Notary bonds are usually provided by a guaranty company (normally an insurance coverage provider).

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a world leader in the research, recognition, and conservation of birds. Consists of conservation news and also education and learning details on birds with connect to birding guides, nest box dimensions, watch listings, bird matters, bird accounts as well as a lot more! Bush Bird Watching web site has great deals of details on structure birdhouses consisting of a chart below providing the measurements and entryway hole dimensions for several of the much more common types of tooth cavity nesting birds. Information and info on birds including conservation, constructing birdhouses and producing bird-friendly yards. The North American Bluebird Society is a charitable education and learning, preservation and also study organization that promotes the recuperation of bluebirds and various other native cavity-nesting bird types in North America. Bluebirds feed upon insects as opposed to seeds, as well as they are particularly warm of mealworms. This specifically designed bluebird feeder is simple making, and also the bluebirds learn promptly to get in the feeder to delight in live or freeze dried out mealworms. Hanging bird feeders full of fresh seeds and also matched to the kinds of birds in your location increases the opportunities of attracting birds to your yard, but keeping wild bird seed fresh and secure from rats can be difficult. Bird spectators and also garden enthusiasts attempt to draw in bluebirds right into their backyards, both for their charm and also for the helpful function they play by eating numerous various types of bugs. Photo by the Author.

An entrepreneur have to be trustworthy and credible and also have an action of stability when working. If you wish to interact these qualities to your consumer, what far better method to do that compared to taking out a guaranty bond policy as well as provide the protection as well as assurance they should have? Some organisations also utilize the guaranty bond as a marketing point to communicate a particular picture to the general public. Marketing the truth that you are bound will certainly give the customer a feeling of depend on in you and also your company. It allows them recognize that you are not doing this on your own but for them, as a surety bond just covers as well as shields the consumer and also not you or your business. Some business are required to be bound relying on the sector or profession they might be associated with such as the building industry. When you look for a guaranty bond, ensure that your financial house is in order first. A guaranty bond calls for an exceptional credit history score and accurate financial reports. It enters into underwriting as well as is just like applying for a lending for your business.

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http://lekkoo.com/v/5aab244bf248400f2a00002e/Sunset_Bail_Bonds

Learn About Bail Bonds

Sunset Bail Bonds Address: 2118 Wilshire Blvd #841, Santa Monica, CA 90403 Hours: Open 24 hours Phone: (310) 903-8422

Sunset Bail Bonds Newport Beach Address: 3848 Campus Dr #203, Newport Beach, CA 92660

Sunset Bail Bonds Fullerton Address: 232 W Commonwealth Ave, Fullerton, CA 92832

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[oranzhe-blog]

Security in WordPress

Lately, WordPress continues to be highly targeted by hackers. Since WordPress utilizes MySQL and PHP, it is not tough to find a vulnerability in WordPress.

Here I am sharing some newbie ideas to secure your WordPress site. These are basic hints, but sometimes overlooking these basic ideas may lead to losing your WordPress site into a newbie.

WordPress powers around 25 percent of those websites in the world & is now the hottest CMS apart from dedicated blogging program.

I can confidently say that being a person of the amazing CMS for the previous 6 decades, I just love the fact I can select from tens of thousands of plugins in the WordPress plugin database. The plugin database hasn't failed me.

Furthermore, there are unlimited options when it comes to topics, also, directly from the Genesis motif to Thrive subjects to numerous others.

That's the wonderful part, but wherever there's great, there is also evil also. My website has been hacked nearly 6 times previously by some Arabian and Turkish hackers (at least that's what they claim). They infiltrated my site and left it with a nasty black backdrop featuring GIF pictures of skulls and ravens.

Most hack attacks are accomplished by something known as an SQL injection.

These days, it's now a requirement to perform each of the preliminary safeguarding measures to maintain these hackers.

1. Configure Backups

Even though I have given a fantastic deal of proven hints below to safeguard your WordPress site, you need to make sure that if something occurs, you won't remove anything.

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

So the very first issue is to make certain you're carrying a daily backup of your site.

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

You might argue that your hosting company offers copies, but this is simply a good option if they store the backup on a different server.

2.

Your WordPress installment is only software installed onto a server. The base of a safe site is a server which has enough protections which ensure your website is safeguarded against hackers. An entirely free company is a big no-no & some thing you should avoid.

Be confident that your hosting company includes appropriate rules put in place & has firewalls to prevent an attack on your site.

I understand that it's Difficult to understand that hosting company is reliable against hackers & That's the Reason I've created this quick list of hosting companies Offering excellent security in their server:

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

InMotion Hosting: Launched in 2001 & are famous for great hardware quality and safety infrastructure. They also migrate your current website at no cost.

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

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

3.

Keeping your WordPress software current is the most elementary security tip for any WordPress programmer. This is something which you never need to miss.

Whenever WordPress is sending an update, it means they've fixed a few bugs, added some features, and above all, added some security features and fixes.

When you see the message: "WordPress x.x.x is available!"

These days, with only one click updates, it is very simple to boost your own blog.

Ensure that your plugins and theme are all compatible with this latest version of WordPress. If an upgrade was rolled out and it is not a security upgrade, I advise that you wait around for 5-6 days until other users stop reporting bugs from the most recent version.Save your money utilizing this bluehost voucher of 2018.

4.

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

Many times, a vulnerable script or plugin may result in an entry point on your WordPress website. 1 such issue which we have seen before is the Timthumbvulnerability. This was because of a script, and many plugins which were utilizing this particular script became vulnerable too.

It's important to maintain your plugins updated. Consistently use plugins that are continually updated and have good support. Being dependent on plugins which are not updated is a lousy idea.

5.

Let's assume that you do not have those two moments to update your WordPress core files. If you're running an older version of WP and everyone knows it, then trust me, you're doomed.

Most motif designers Nowadays eliminate it for you, but just to make sure, visit your functions.php and add this line:

Utilize A Complex Login Password

Brilliant.

Please make your passwords complicated, include a few special characters (%&#), and keep changing it every 5 or 6 months.

I would also like to advocate a plugin called Login Lockdown. This plugin will record all IPs and time stamps of failed login attempts. After a particular number of failed attempts from a particular IP, the IP will be blacklisted. This really will help a fantastic deal to protect against some brute-force attack. It is also possible to utilize popular WPS hide login plugin to conceal your login URL and also make it difficult for hackers to try brute forcing on your own login page.

Also read:

Proceed to the File Manager in your cPanel, or log into your FTP program, and inspect the file characteristics of your WordPress folder.

It is great if it is 744 (read only). If you discover it to be 777, consider yourself extremely lucky you haven't gotten crushed nonetheless.

When many bloggers alter hosting, they don't realize how their document permissions also get changed. Make sure that you verify all file permissions after migrating hosting.

This is one of the most crucial methods for people who wish to create a secure WordPress blog. The default "admin" username is more likely to brute-force strikes because most people never alter it.

Once you set up WordPress, be certain you use a customized username and don't use "admin".

You can earn a brand new user using "Administrator" rights, and provide this brand new secretary a nickname which will be publicly exhibited in case he writes a article.

Make sure to feature all usernames and hyperlinks to the new user which you have created.

This is another way to change the default username:

9.

The plugins folder /wp-content/plugins/ should not be revealing the list of files and folders inside of them.

Try seeing your plugins folder (substitute domain.com with your domain):

Should you find a list of files and folders, you have to conceal them.

To hide these folders, you then want to produce an original .htaccess record and drop it into your plugins directory.

# BEGIN WordPress RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %REQUEST_FILENAME ! -f RewriteCond %REQUEST_FILENAME !

In the event that you already have a nicely composed . Htaccess file in your root directory, including another .htaccess to an individual folder isn't likely to cause any injury.

10.

In older versions of WordPress, if there were mistakes in the MySQL database, it might demonstrate the precise error on the browser supplying the hacker valuable information regarding your database.

To prevent this, you need to upgrade your WordPress to the latest version, so that it will only reveal a general error message like "Database connection error" instead of showing precisely what is wrong

Log to a WP dash and update your WordPress core files.

This isn't all; there are a number of other tips that you should be following to generate a secure WordPress blog. 1 tip I highly advise is that you simply stop utilizing an encrypted footer WordPress theme.

If you are seriously considering your blogging, then download an theme in the official repo, or even better, use a Premium WordPress theme.

Again, it's a wise idea to choose automatic copies of your WordPress site at frequent intervals to be sure that you can always roll back your blog to a healthy condition.

Comment and Let us know what you think.

[ohiosonmymind24-blog]

Safety in WordPress

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

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

WordPress powers about 25 percent of the websites in the world & is currently the hottest CMS besides dedicated blogging software.

I can confidently say that being a person of this amazing CMS for the past 6 decades, I simply adore the fact I can choose from tens of thousands of plugins in the WordPress plugin database. The plugin database hasn't failed me.

Furthermore, there are unlimited choices in regards to topics, also, right from the Genesis theme to Thrive topics to many others.

That's the wonderful part, but where there's good, there is also evil too. My website has been hacked almost 6 times in the past by a few Arabian and Turkish hackers (at least that's what they claim). They infiltrated my site and abandon it with an ugly black background featuring GIF pictures of skulls and ravens.

Most hack attacks are accomplished by something known as an SQL injection.

These days, it is now a requirement to execute all the preliminary safeguarding measures to maintain these hackers.

1. Configure Backups

Even though I've given a great deal of proven hints below to safeguard your WordPress site, you need to make sure that if something occurs, you won't eliminate anything.

Not having a proper WordPress backup solution set up is the biggest error you may possibly make. Every time a huge site like Sony or Dropbox could be hacked, then your WordPress blog will be somewhat easy to be cracked by a hacker.

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

If you are earning cash from the site, I propose using VaultPress for getting copies that only costs $5/month.

You might argue that your hosting company gives copies, but this is simply a good alternative if they save the backup on another server.

2.

Your WordPress setup is only software installed onto a server. The base of a safe website is a host that has enough protections that guarantee your website is safeguarded against hackers. An entirely free company is a huge no-no & some thing you ought to avoid.

Be confident that your hosting company includes appropriate rules put in area & has firewalls to avoid an assault on your site.

I understand that it's Difficult to know that hosting company is reputable against hackers & That's the Reason I've created this quick list of hosting companies that offer excellent security on their host:

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

InMotion Hosting: Founded in 2001 & are known for good hardware quality and security infrastructure. They also migrate your existing website at no cost.

WPEngine: A managed WordPress hosting company that's suggested for business WordPress sites with moderate or low traffic. They provide copies and security on multiple levels. ShoutMeLoud.com can also be hosted on Kinsta hosting.

Update WordPress

Maintaining your WordPress software current is the most basic safety suggestion for any WordPress programmer. This is something that you never should miss.

Whenever WordPress is sending an update, it means they have fixed a few bugs, added some features, and most importantly, added some security features and fixes.

When you find the message: "WordPress x.x.x is available!"

These days, with just one click upgrades, it's quite easy to improve your own blog.

Make sure your plugins and theme are compatible with this latest version of WordPress. If an upgrade was rolled out and it is not a security update, I recommend you wait for 5-6 days before other users stop reporting bugs from the latest version.Save your cash using this bluehost voucher of 2018.

4. Update WordPress Plugins

As I mentioned above, WordPress offers an update to repair bugs and security holes, and also the exact same goes with plugins.

Oftentimes, a vulnerable script or plugin may cause an entry point on your WordPress site. 1 such issue which we have seen before is that the Timthumbvulnerability. This was because of a script, and lots of plugins which were utilizing this specific script became vulnerable too.

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

5.

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

Most motif designers Nowadays eliminate it for you, but just to make sure, visit your functions.php and include this line:

Utilize A Complicated Login Password

password

ilovejesus

123123

Brilliant.

Please make your passwords complex, include a few special characters (# & %), and also keep changing it every 5 or 6 months.

I would also like to advocate that a plugin named Login Lockdown. This plugin will capture all IPs and time stamps of unsuccessful login attempts. After a specific number of unsuccessful attempts from a specific IP, the IP will be blacklisted. This really helps a great deal to prevent any brute-force attack. It's also possible to use popular WPS conceal login plugin to hide your login URL and also make it hard for hackers to try brute forcing in your login page.

read:

How Hackers Crack Your Password

Create A Strong And Smart Password

It is great if it's 744 (read only). If you find it to be 777, consider yourself extremely lucky you have not gotten crushed yet.

When many bloggers alter hosting, they do not realize how their document permissions also get changed. Make sure that you confirm all file permissions after migrating own hosting.

8.

This is one of the most crucial tips for those who want to produce a protected WordPress blog.

Once you install WordPress, be sure you use a custom username and do not use "admin".

You can make a new user using "Administrator" rights, and provide this new administrator a nickname that will be publicly displayed in case he writes a report.

Make certain to feature all usernames and links to the new user that you have created.

This is another way to change the default username:

9.

The plugins folder /wp-content/plugins/ shouldn't be revealing the list of folders and files inside of them.

Try visiting your plugins folder (substitute domain.com with your domain name):

Should you find a list of files and folders, you have to conceal them.

To hide these folders, then you wish to produce an original .htaccess record and drop it in your plugins directory.

RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %REQUEST_FILENAME !

If you already have a well written . Htaccess file in your root directory, such as another .htaccess to an individual folder isn't very likely to cause any harm.

In older versions of WordPress, if you can find mistakes in the MySQL database, then it might show the exact error on the browser supplying the hacker invaluable information regarding your database.

To prevent this, you Want to upgrade your WordPress to the latest version, so It Will only reveal a general error message such as "Database connection error" instead of showing precisely what's wrong

Log to a WP dash and update your WordPress core files.

This is not all; there are many different suggestions which you ought to be following to generate a secure WordPress site. One tip that I highly suggest is that you just stop utilizing an encrypted footer WordPress theme.

If you are seriously interested in your blogging, then download an theme in the official repo, or better yet, use a Premium WordPress theme.

Again, it's a wise idea to select automatic backups of your WordPress site at regular intervals to be certain you could always roll back your blog to a wholesome condition.