#everything is the same just more technologically advanced but of course this is beneficial only to the upper class;

[featherymainffins]

Sci-fi worldbuilding is like a thing that really hates you and wants you dead

[esgagile]

The advantages of sustainable farming and the methods involved

We are a Sustainability Reporting Consultant, A concerted effort is being made to modernize the agriculture sector, and the secret to sustainability is data-driven weather information. Farming decision-making has always been challenging to manage because there are so many restricting elements outside a farmer's control. The most important of these is the actual weather. We are using the availability of big data to assist in the evolution of contemporary agriculture so that it depends less on human labor and more on data-driven analysis. We realize that, as the world's population continues to rise and pressure on the agriculture sector intensifies, it is unrealistic to rely just on instinct and antiquated equipment. The Weather Company is committed to increasing food production while lowering its adverse effects on the environment and keeping operational expenses to a minimum.

As a Sustainability Reporting Consultant In Dubai, we are, therefore, creating agricultural solutions that rely on AI-driven insights, predictive analytics, and automated data collection as the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture. According to the idea of sustainable agriculture, people are involved in the agricultural sector in various capacities. We'll look at how we got here and why adopting contemporary farming methods is the right course of action for the planet's prosperity. There will always be the same quantity of arable land. We will need to raise more crops with our current resources to feed the growing population. At least a 70% increase in food production is required to feed this expanding population.

In our role as Sustainability Report Consultant In Dubai, Future generations can only produce and utilize our arable land if the agriculture sector moves beyond conventional approaches. Agriculture was primarily concerned with creating as many crops as possible using available land. Land protection and sustainable crop production received little attention. Profitability and resource and land conservation should have been prioritized financially. These are interdependent. Developing technologically advanced agricultural methods has significant benefits; advanced weather data and analytics will enable us to commit. By implementing sustainable methods, farmers may lessen their need for nonrenewable energy, use fewer chemicals, and conserve limited resources.

We believe as a Sustainability Reporting Consultant, Considering the growing population and increased need for food, maintaining the health and replenishment of the land can be beneficial. Everyone associated with the agriculture industry will gain from more intelligent farming practices and efficient food transportation from farm to table. Surprises are becoming rare because of the Internet of Things data from sensors built into everything from drones, satellite imaging, and spreaders to seed drills and sprayers. There is reason to be concerned about the projected population growth. Nowadays, there's a chance to innovate in agriculture from the perspective of pure production, and the most promising path is sustainable agriculture.

As an expert Sustainability Reporting Consultant In Dubai, Businesses committed to incorporating environmentally and socially conscious methods into their operations, goods, and supply chains practice sustainability. It entails a comprehensive strategy that makes a profit while also considering the planet's and its inhabitants' long-term well-being. This can refer to more specific actions like utilizing innovation in hotels or more general ones like using resources wisely. Modernizing agricultural techniques is a long-term project, but we want to lead the evolution of modern agriculture by leveraging the experience of seasoned industry leaders, decades of IBM research, artificial intelligence, analytics, and predictive insights combined with unique Internet of Things (IoT) data.

[alovelydesolation]

Making High Fantasy Settings More Internally Consistent (Part 2)

When last we spoke, I talked about how having widespread magic in the world should really have more of an impact on the day-to-day lives of common people. If it is abundant and easy enough to enable the magic of common low level adventurers, it should end up impacting absolutely everything. But what if we don't want that? What if we want a world of abundant magic and adventure, but where day-to-day life isn't as thoroughly suffused with magic and spellcasting? We need a reason intrinsic to the setting.

Also, where do all of these dungeons and sites of adventure come from? Why are they simultaneously ancient, but full of exactly the same technology level as the player's current civilization? Why doesn't technology ever advance (beyond the era of plate armor and very primitive firearms) if most people don't have access to the magic that might replace technological innovation (not that I think the presence of magic actually justifies total technological stagnation)?

The best explanations serve both problems.

Why Don't Most People Have Magic?

What we need to build an internally-consistent high fantasy world with limited magic for most people is some kind of normalizing force or limiting factor. My favorite explanations support multiple parts of the world's fiction, so those will be ranked more highly.

Some People (the Player Characters) are Just Special

I am opposed to the "only people with special ancestry/blood/destiny" as an explanation for limiting magic, especially in D&D style worlds with multiple types of spellcasters (it is okay if it is just one of many paths to magic), so we'll ignore the "every adventurer is super special, not like all these non-important people doing the farming and inn-keeping" explanation. That explanation sucks and makes it super easy to justify mistreating NPCs and generally supports eugenicist views where some sorts of people are inherently more valuable and should be superior to other sorts of people.

This explanation also doesn't do anything to justify the classic sites of adventure or the problem of why those places contain the same sorts of gear you could get from your own contemporary civilization.

Magic is Tightly Regulated or Restricted

This is a slightly more attractive explanation for why magic doesn't proliferate throughout populations: some cultural authority or authorities tightly police how and where magic is used, generally for selfish or superstitious reasons. These authorities might be dominant religious structures (we'll get to actual gods a little later), or guilds, or powers of the state. In any case, they forbid most people from using magic, and punish anyone they find using it in a way they don't deem appropriate.

No credible institution in a high fantasy setting would fully ban magic, even among their own enforcers. That would just make their entire society deeply vulnerable to any wielders of magic, in addition to barely working in the first place. So perhaps the player characters are among the few who have dispensation to use magic, or are on the run from those authorities, or even bridge that divide with some choosing to look the other way for the rule-breakers in their midst.

Of course, restrictions like this in a D&D-style world where magic doesn't come with actual inherent costs or drawbacks (apart from maybe some spell component costs), no authority would be successful in fully banning it. People would still trade in illicit magic and knowledge, and the places further from the centers of power would have the most - even looking like the societies in the previous post at the most extreme. It is just too beneficial for people to actually abandon.

This explanation also doesn't help us sort out the problem of technological stagnation and locations of adventure. It might suggest things like abandoned fortresses or structures built or used by those who disobeyed the social order and used magic anyway, but if they fell at the hands of the social authorities, it would make sense for most of their magical guff to get scooped up by those some authorities. Doesn't leave as much room for monsters and treasure.

The Gods Hate Magic

Here's the first explanation with real, broad explanatory power, but also resulting teeth for a setting. Here, the powers of the society (state, religions, guilds, etc) may be pro- or anti-magic as a matter of policy or position, but the gods actively interfere in the development of human society and the spreading of magic. The gods may be jealously hoarding their power or working to prevent mortals from ascending to challenge them, but whatever their motivation and whatever they say to their followers, they actually work to limit how magic is spread and used.

Their work might involve sending monsters to destroy or to guard magic items or places, interfering with the operation of magic itself such that only limited sorts or small amounts that escape their notice can be safely used, or employing natural disasters or other powers to disrupt and destroy societies that adopt magic too broadly and magic-users that get too strong.

From the outside, this will look like most any D&D style society where most people don't use magic for their mundane day-to-day needs, but there might be superstitions about why not. Monster attacks on outlying farms where the farmer and his children used magic to make their chores easier and their crops more abundant, or floods striking cities that try their hand at enchanting whole streets or wagon routes for easy travel.

Now magical ruins exist because those places were struck down by the gods, and many of them may have the same sort of technology as the players' current civilization because the gods operate a cycle where they become jealous and fearful of the mortals and periodically wipe away all civilization - the dungeon you adventure in is the monster-infested ruin of a previous civilization destroyed by the gods for becoming "too advanced". The fact that it looks just like yours should, in fact, be concerning - no matter how benevolent the gods claim to be.

This explanation covers both angles pretty well. I like it quite a bit, but it has two minor problems. First, it requires that all the gods be involved in this conspiracy (though maybe not willingly), and thus rules out most actually benevolent deities. It also naturally warps most long term campaigns into "Man Vs Gods" in a quest to save their civilization from destruction by the gods at its core.

In part 3, I'll talk about my current favorite solution to this issue, which doesn't necessarily warp every campaign into one specific story arc or completely re-cast the personality of whole pantheons.

Do you have any favorite setting tropes or lore that help explain why magic is or isn't widespread? I'd love to see others that I haven't encountered!

[evflowmobility]

Everything You need to know about bidirectional charging

In recent years, the interest in EVs has grown rapidly, and rightfully so. Not only are they more cost-effective but they are also better for the environment. In fact, a future where EVs dominate the roads is not far away. Over the years, EV technology has also advanced exponentially. With every single passing year, EV charging keeps becoming increasingly efficient. Both DC and AC charger for EV are advancing every single year. 

A Go-To Guide to Bidirectional Charging 

These advancements have now enabled EV owners to go beyond just charging their batteries. Today, EV batteries are capable of not fueling your car for the road but also providing energy for your home as well as a shared electrical shared grid. While some EV manufacturers have already made this ability available to users, the rest are quickly getting on board the idea and making changes to their designs. However, before you try to find the perfect EV that allows you to take advantage of bidirectional charging, you need to understand the mechanism of bidirectional charging. 

Bidirectional Charging: What is it? 

Most EV charging technology has so far been developed to send energy in a single direction, that is, from the source of power to the battery of the EV. Essentially, bidirectional charging enables users to make use of their charged batteries for charging other appliances if need be. Of course, to be able to do this one will first need to charge their battery using an AC or DC fast charger for EV. 

When it comes to conventional unidirectional charging, AC electricity is first converted into DC and then it is stored in the battery. This conversion can occur both inside the vehicles and within the charger depending on the vehicle. 

However, with bidirectional charging, the car’s DC energy can be converted into AC, and then other appliances can be charged using this alternating current. However, in order to efficiently carry out this process, smart charging is essential. The following are three important benefits of bidirectional charging: 

A portable source of power

Bidirectional technology allows EV users to make use of the same battery for powering their home as well as other appliances when they are on the go. You can take your EV camping or even for long drives and use the battery for charging other appliances. 

Beneficial for Businesses 

When you have EVs that are capable of powering your buildings, stores, offices, etc in case there is a power outage. The average EV battery stores around 60 KWh of electricity which can power a home for almost two days. 

Save Money 

When bidirectional charging is combined with smart charging, you can easily use this power source for your business or home during peak hours, thus reducing your overall electricity bill. However, it is advisable to first invest in the best commercial EV charging station so that you are truly in control of all your expenses. 

Conclusion 

There are several different bidirectional chargers that are available in the market. Before you invest in one, however, make sure that your EV is compatible with it. Lastly, try to invest in a reliable commercial EV charging station installation. This will allow you to monitor your charging requirements and overall expenditure. 

[css1992]

Such a softer sin

Summary: Tony is a self-made man. Peter is a sugar baby – someone else’s sugar baby.

When he turned to pull his chair out, the older man subtly checked out his ass and – of course, it was delicious, round and perky, two perfect handfuls. He rolled his eyes and tried to focus on the fact that he had a huge character flaw, a hamartia – he fucked people for money. He was basically a glorified whore, and if there was one thing Tony never had to do in his life was pay for sex, one way or another. So, really, he wouldn't start with – what was his name again?

Warnings: Explicit, 18+, mentions of non-con (not between main pairing, not explicit), age gap, power imbalance, employer/employee relationship, underage drinking. If you find anything triggering, please let me know!

Word count:18.4k

-x-

He was admittedly gorgeous, Tony could give him that. The honey brown eyes, the bouncy, fluffy curls and the clear, pale skin worked perfectly in his favor – he looked the part of the innocent, wholesome, young man ready to be swept off his feet and taken care of. Powerful men often liked that act, liked believing that they were deflowering innocence for the first time, liked believing they were wanted, needed. Tony knew better, though, he knew the type, he came across people like him all through his life.

When he was a broke, orphaned, half-starved college student, they wouldn’t give him the time of  day. Snobby, pretty, little things like him only had eyes and time for those who had money, or something to offer – fame, influence, status. At the time, Tony had nothing, he could barely afford to eat everyday. After he graduated from MIT, he started working for Hammer Industries and as he started making more money, slowly, these people started taking notice of him, and he, too, started paying closer attention to them.

They weren’t difficult to spot either, they were usually young, attractive, with beautiful, fake smiles, weak personalities and a penchant for expensive gifts. It was easy to recognize them hanging off powerful men’s arms at functions, and dinners, and galas; bespoke suits or designer dresses covering their bodies, not a lot to add to the conversation. They were accessories, trophies. Pets.

Tony hated them. People who wanted to be at the very top, but couldn’t be bothered to take the stairs. They would use their pretty faces, feigned innocence, beautiful bodies and cute, fake laughs, to get farther faster. Not Tony. He did it the right way – the hard way –, worked day and night to get to his goal, got beat down so many times there were days he thought he wouldn’t be able to stand back up, but he did, every single time.

And time and experience made him wiser, smarter and bitter. At 40, he was finally able to start his own company, Stark Industries, it started small, but his genius inventions put his name on the map fairly quickly. That was how, five years later, he found himself having dinner with Norman Osborn, the most powerful man in New York, and his – boy toy? Sugar baby? Escort? Or something – discussing the possibility of a deal so big it could finally make Stark Industries live up to its full potential.

“So what I’m saying is that we can offer you the best and most advanced technology out there: my nanobots. I guarantee you it will make your job easier, faster and cheaper in the long run. I assure you, this a great deal and you should take it.” Tony was absolutely sure of what he was saying, he knew his product was good, his tech was flawless, he just needed to get it out there. He just needed a company like Oscorps to believe in him, then his work would speak for itself.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, Stark, I think this whole nanotech thing is way too expensive and unnecessary, specially considering that I’m pretty sure Baintronics could do the same work for half the price, the old-fashioned way, which has been working just fine for the past decade.” Fuck, no, that old bat wasn’t looking at the big picture, he wasn’t thinking about the long run. Of course old tech would still get the job done, but Tony’s tech could do such a better job and so much more efficiently.

“No, but you see, that’s–”

“But –“ Norman raised a hand, successfully shutting Tony up and annoying the living hell out of him in the process. One day, he thought to himself, one day I’ll be able to say ‘fuck you’ to men like Norman Osborn. One day. “I’m willing to give it a try. Peter here says you’re the best at what you do, he’s the one who recommended that I agreed to meet with you, actually, when your PA called.”

Tony was taken aback by that information and eyed the young man carefully, causing him to blush a deep red and lower his gaze with a small, timid smile. Tony thought he was faking the whole thing, trying to be cute and sweet, but fuck – it worked for him. He seemed really young, maybe in his early twenties, and Tony had no idea how he could have heard of him, he wasn’t exactly famous, nor was S.I. His breakthroughs were only ever published in very specific scientific journals.

“I’m a huge fan of your work, Mr. Stark, I’ve always told Norman you two should work together, you’re both men ahead of your time.” He said quietly. He had a high-pitched, slightly feminine voice, which probably also worked in his favor with men like Osborn. It made him sound younger than he probably was, easier to manipulate and dominate.

Reluctantly, Tony accepted the compliment with a tight smile. He really needed that deal, he really needed for that to work, it would be the break SI needed, he could feel it, he could already taste the success.

“Very well, so here’s my offer. You will supply Oscorps with your nanotech for a year, then we can take it from there. This would be your cut for this first year.” Osborn wrote something down on a piece of paper and slid it towards Tony across the table. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the numbers – and the amount of zeros –, but he pretended to be cool about it, he even put on a show of looking slightly disappointed. “And there’s a lot more where this comes from, Stark. This could be the beginning of a beautiful, and mutually beneficial, friendship.”

“I do hope it is, Mr. Osborn. I look forward to working with your company. I’m sure we’re gonna be a great fit.” Tony tried to sound cool and professional, but he was having a little heart attack on the inside. He had been trying to schedule a meeting with Norman for months and the billionaire – or, most likely, his PA – kept making excuses. Now there he was, closing a huge deal with the promise of a mutually beneficial friendship in the future.

After that, he could breathe more easily during dinner. He couldn’t wait to tell Pepper, Bruce and Nat, though, they had to celebrate properly, maybe they could all go to his apartment and finally crack open that Macallan he bought when he made his first million. But meanwhile, he was stuck in the restaurant with Norman and his boy-toy, which he wouldn’t complain too much about, at least it was a nice view.

Again, there was no denial that the boy was beautiful. There was just something naturally sensual and charismatic about him, Tony couldn’t avoid looking his way, even when he wasn’t talking. And when he did talk, it was magnetic. He didn’t say much, as Tony expected, but what he didn’t expect was for him to be so smart. The few times he said anything was to ask questions about his tech, and those were surprisingly pertinent. Sometime along the night, Tony figured out that he was studying to become a mechanical engineer at Columbia and he wondered if Norman had anything to do with it – probably.

Tony was reminded of his own college years, of how he had to work his ass off to get a scholarship, and how many crazy hours he had to work to make ends meet, just to be able to build something for himself. He didn’t seek the help of men like Norman, although he could have. The name Stark meant something, once upon a time. His father was considered a gifted inventor, he was respected by huge companies, but he never built anything of his own.

When he died, Tony was only eleven. He still didn’t know exactly what happened, but soon after that, his mother lost everything he had left – which wasn’t much to begin with. She was never quite herself again, she was so depressed, she never even smiled anymore, she sometimes didn’t have the energy to get out of bed, Tony was the one doing the house chores, cooking for her, trying to make sure she was okay. She died eight years later from an aneurysm, Tony found her lying on the couch, looking peaceful for the first time in so many years.

In short, he never had it easy, and he never tried to make it easier for himself either – at least not in shady ways. He just wanted to do the right thing, even if it took longer – which it did. He was a forty-five year old man, but he made a name for himself, the name Stark held respect once again.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.” The young man got up after a quick peck to Norman’s lips and headed to the bathroom. Tony made a huge effort and pointedly did not stare at his ass as he left. He was really proud of himself for that, maybe two years earlier he wouldn’t have been able to pull that off, he had no shame. At least now he had some. A little. Sort of.

“What do you think of him?” Norman had a neutral expression on, he gave nothing away, but it seemed like a test. What sort of question was that, why did it matter what Tony thought of his fuck toy?

“He seems really smart,” he answered with a small smile. It was a polite, diplomatic answer, and not untrue.

“What else?” Norman pushed, with a knowing smirk, and Tony almost cursed under his breath, thinking that maybe he’d been too obvious with his staring all through dinner, after all.

“He’s very pretty,” he admitted, although still with his cool, professional face on. Norman’s smirk grew wider.

“He sure is. Cute pet. Smart, polite, funny. You should get one for yourself, Stark. They’re kinda expensive, but worth every penny.” His shark-like smile took over his whole face and Tony had to fight back a grimace. He just smiled and shook his head no.

“Not really my style, sir.” Buying people, paying for sex, that sort of thing, he wanted to add.

“It’s not anyone’s style until it is.” He gave Tony a once over and smirked. “We’re not getting any younger.” The engineer was offended, he wanted to tell him he aged like good wine, unlike certain people, but refrained. He just gave him a strained smile and took a sip of his drink.  

As if on cue, the pretty boy returned to the table and Tony took a couple of seconds to appreciate his outfit. He wore a dark blue suit, very elegant and very expensive looking, certainly a gift from Osborn, and it fit him like a glove. Tony supposed it was bespoke. It complimented his lithe, lean body beautifully.

When he turned around to pull his chair out, the older man subtly checked out his ass and – of course, it was delicious, round and perky, two perfect handfuls. He rolled his eyes and tried to focus on the fact that he had a huge character flaw, a hamartia – he fucked people for money. He was basically a glorified whore, and if there was one thing Tony never had to do in his life was pay for sex, one way or another. So, really, he wouldn't start with – what was his name again?

“So, come by the office on Monday, we’ll talk over all the details, then you can take the draft contract to your legal team and we can meet again – say, in another week?”

“Yeah, sure, this sounds perfect,” he answered coolly, not mentioning that his “legal team” consisted of one single Natasha Romanoff, who would have his balls for dinner when she found out that she would only have seven days to look over what was bound to be a very long, very complex contract.

“Well, then, Mr. Stark. You’ve got yourself a deal.” Norman got up from his chair, what clearly meant dinner was over, and Tony rushed to his feet, offering his had to shake.

“You won’t regret this, sir,” he spoke in a strong, firm voice, because he was positive of it.

“Good.” Osborn shook his hand once and turned to leave without saying goodbye.

“It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Stark, I hope we’ll see each other again soon.” The pretty boy took his hand as well, eyes glinting, a coy smile on his face. Tony couldn’t tell if he was flirting or if he was pretending to be shy, but he ignored it and just nodded curtly.

“Thank you, it’s been a pleasure to meet you, too.” He didn’t dare try to remember his name, Tony was pretty sure it started with a P, but he wouldn’t risk it.

As soon as they left the restaurant, the CEO punched the air in celebration, calling Pepper right away.

---*---

The meeting on Monday went smoothly, they agreed that Tony would be personally charged with the maintenance of his tech at least a week a month – he made it seem like it was a courtesy, but, in reality, he still didn’t have anyone on his team who could do the job quite as well as he could. They also agreed that he would have a small team of five scientists at his disposal during such period, so he wouldn’t have to dislodge anyone from his company to do it – again, he didn’t mention that five people were basically half of his scientific team and he couldn’t afford them not working for SI for a whole week each month.

As expected, he didn’t see the pretty boy in the meeting, Tony supposed he only made an appearance in social functions and such, so he could make Norman look good. To Tony’s surprise, though, seven days later, after Natasha bullied him into promising a 10% raise after the shit he’d pulled with the contract, the pretty boy was in the meeting room when he arrived to sign the deal. Norman’s PA and a few of his lawyers were there as well, Tony was with Pepper and Natasha, and he quickly whispered to Pepper that he was the boy he’d told her about. He approached them with a shy, nervous smile and Tony almost wanted to roll his eyes at the facade.

“Hi, I’m Peter Parker, I’m an intern here.” Ah, Peter. That sounded about right. Tony thought it was something along those lines. And he was an intern for Oscorps, of course. What a joke. “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Stark. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Hello, Mr. Parker, this is Miss Potts, my assistant, and this is Miss Romanoff, head of my legal team. I’ll have a coffee – black, no sugar. Thank you.” Again, he kept it professional and barely even looked at the kid, he knew what he looked like and he knew he was off limits, so why tease himself by looking?

“I’m good.” Natasha smiled sweetly, making the boy blush even harder.

“I’ll have the same as Mr. Stark, thank you, Mr. Parker.” Peter quickly turned and headed out of the room and Pepper turned to whisper to him. “You weren’t kidding, he’s really fucking young, he looks like he could be Norman’s grandson, for Christ’s sake.” Tony snorted and Natasha eyed them knowingly, but with a look that screamed “behave” and they both schooled their expressions. Shortly after, the boy walked back in with their coffee and they thanked him, as he blushed and nodded, taking a seat to the left of what should be Osborn’s chair.  

The meeting didn’t take long at all, everything had already been discussed, it was just a formality, so barely twenty minutes later they were all getting up from their seats, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. Tony was almost out of the room when he felt a hand at his elbow followed by a softly spoken, “Mr. Stark, can I have a word?”.

Of course the devil himself would tempt him, even if Tony was trying to be good. He was forced to turn around and actually look at the young man, he was wearing a lavender dress shirt, with a dark gray tie and black pants. He looked like the cutest little businessman ever, and Tony was sure that if Peter were to turn his back, he would be presented with his perfect bubble butt looking amazing in those slacks, but – he was the forbidden fruit. Besides, Tony mused, he probably couldn’t afford a single night with Peter, he was only a millionaire, after all, and he’d rather spend his money on shiny things and get his lays for free.

“Yes, Mr. Parker?” The boy’s cheeks were impossibly red and Tony figured he couldn’t really fake that, so he supposed he really was shy to some degree. He looked over his shoulder and saw Pepper and Natasha waiting just outside the door, warning looks on their faces, and he rolled his eyes.

“I was wondering – I talked to No--, I mean, Mr. Osborn, about the possibility of maybe, uhm. Working with you? When you come to do the maintenance, I mean. It’s just, we don’t really have an engineering department, so you would be working mainly with biochemists and a few lab techs, so I thought maybe I could assist you with the hands-on work, you know? I don’t know if Mr. Osborn mentioned, but I’m studying to become a mechanical engineer as well and it would be an honor working with you, sir. Mr. Osborn said it was ok as long as you agreed, so...” He shuffled his feet and avoided looking at the older man.

“Look, kid.” Tony sighed, because, fuck. How could he say no to Norman’s boy without being rude? And how could he say yes to working with someone who was clearly useless to him and would only serve as a distraction – and worse, a temptation. He needed a way out of that. “I don’t really know if there would be much for you to do, I mean, it’s pretty new and advanced technology, and you’re, what, a freshman, right?”

“Actually, I’ll graduate next fall, sir.” Tony was taken aback by that and it must have shown on his face if Peter’s answering blush was anything to go by.

“I’m sorry, how old are you again?” He asked, trying not to sound too rude.

“I’ll be twenty in August, sir.” If Tony was impressed by that, he didn’t let it show, but if the kid would manage to graduate from Columbia at twenty, then he must not be that useless after all, but Tony wouldn’t hold his breath.

“Very well, then. I guess I’ll see you in a month, Mr. Parker.” He nodded and Peter could barely contain his grin when he shook his hand excitedly. It was cute and endearing and – oh, God, Tony almost fell for his little act. Fuck, he really needed to be on his toes around that guy.

“Thank you, sir, I really appreciate it!”

As soon as Tony stepped out of the building and headed towards his car with Natasha and Pepper on his heels, the Russian red-head looked at him seriously.

“Tony, I swear to God, if you try to get your dick wet with that boy, I quit. I’m not even gonna start on how much legal and PR trouble you’re gonna get yourself into by fucking Norman’s boyfriend, specially considering he’s, like, twelve, and happens to work for your business partner. Don’t fuck this up!” She warned as she got inside the car and, again, Tony had to roll his eyes as he got behind the wheel.

“Look, I’m not gonna lie, if the circumstances were different, I’d be all over that,” he admitted, noticing Pep’s aggravated look. “But of course I’m not gonna do anything to jeopardize this deal, ok? Besides, you know how I feel about gold diggers. You saw him and you saw Osborn, why in the fucking hell a guy like him would fuck a mummy like Osborn? He’s, like, a hundred years old!”

“He’s fifty five, and I don’t know if you know this, Tony, but people have sex for reasons that go beyond appearances. You know, like love, affinity, connection –”

“-- Money, fame, status. C’mon, Pep, don’t be naive. Do you really think that boy loves Osborn? He just likes expensive restaurants and fancy cars. Maybe, if he’s thinking big, he’s gonna use him to get a good job after graduation, but that’s it.”

“Well, then, if you think he’s such a terrible person, you’ll have no problem staying the hell away from him, right?” She looked at him with narrowed eyes and he looked away from the traffic for a second to smirk at her.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, easy breezy.”

--*--

As it turned out, it wasn’t easy breezy.

Peter was like a lost puppy trailing after him the following month, he spent the whole week glued to his hip, asking questions, making suggestions, and even supplying him with a never ending amount of coffee. If Tony was a hundred percent honest, he kinda liked it. The kid seriously treated him like a hero, a celebrity, he seemed to look up to him and, in the end, he proved to be a valuable asset on the team. He was really smart and hardworking, he understood everything Tony was saying even before he was done talking and he had really steady, tiny hands, which were always useful with nanotech.

Tony couldn’t really stay away from him and slowly learned a few things about him from what little information he stuttered out when answering his questions. First, the older man learned that he got into Columbia when he was only sixteen, which was kind of amazing, if he was being completely honest. Tony wanted to believe that that had happened way before he met Norman Osborn, but he didn’t really know when they met.

He had a scholarship and lived with his aunt until she passed away a little over a year earlier and now he shared an apartment with four other people, which surprised Tony, he figured Norman would have hooked him up with a nice place – but then again, he had no idea when they met, it could have been only months earlier. Peter said that, originally, he wanted to go to MIT, but he only got a partial scholarship there, so he had to give it up and go to Columbia. He also said that that was how he knew Tony beforehand. The older man was sort of a famous MIT alumnus, specially among the engineering students, so Peter heard of him and followed his work through scientific publications, which was – well, Tony was flattered.

Even if those bits of information somewhat made Tony warm up to the young man, other few things still annoyed him just as much. First of all, clearly Peter was a very bright kid, possibly one of the smartest people Tony knew besides himself and Bruce, he didn’t really need Norman’s influence to succeed, and still, there he was. Second, he quickly picked up on the fact that Peter wasn’t exactly Norman’s boyfriend, he was more of a… Sugar baby? And one of many, actually, although he seemed to be the favorite. After Tony signed the deal, he started paying closer attention to what tabloids said about Norman and apparently he had a very long list of (young) lovers, but he was officially single.

Somehow, that made Tony even more disgusted by their relationship. He just couldn’t understand why a guy like Peter would put himself in that position, for what? Money? A job? What was it that Norman could offer him that he couldn’t get himself? The thing was, Peter kind of reminded Tony of himself at that age. He was pretty much in the same situation: he had no family and no money, he only had his brains – and while Tony had made something out of it, Peter was trying to take a shortcut and the engineer didn’t appreciate that.

“Here, check this out, see how they respond a lot faster now?” Tony made room so that the younger man could look through the microscope, a wide grin spreading across his face in a few seconds. “You have to think of them as neurons, they communicate with each other by electrical pulses, similar to synapses. For that to work out perfectly and seamlessly, they need to be really close by, without touching, that’s why the electromagnetic field has to be perfect, if it’s just a tiny bit off, the response time increases exponentially. Got it?”

“Got it, Mr. Stark!” He answered excitedly and Tony smiled at him.

“Well, my work here is done. See you next month?” Tony got up from his chair, gathering his things around the lab.

“I can’t wait." Somehow, Tony knew he actually meant it.

The following month, Peter was just as helpful and just as excited as the month before. He was in the lab before Tony – who was always early himself – and he always greeted him with a bright smile and an excited wave of his hand. As the engineer settled his things on his work bench, Peter would get him coffee, and he always remembered how Tony liked it. They got right to work, which they did everyday for a week without any disruption. The intern always offered to stay late, but Tony never took him up on that, he knew he had classes in the afternoon and he didn’t want him to get in trouble. Just as he was starting to warm up to him, though, on Friday, the engineer was reminded why he didn’t like him in the first place.

“You’re late, Mr. Parker.” Tony mumbled from his seat in front of the microscope as soon as he heard the glass door open with a hiss as the smell of coffee filled the room. Peter was only twelve minutes late, but it was only their second week working together, it didn’t seem very professional.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark, I was – uh, in a meeting with Mr. Osborn.” He lied through his teeth, Tony could almost smell the nervousness when he came close enough. He hated being lied to, specially when he knew what Peter was probably doing in that “meeting”. It was just inexcusable.

“Just because you’re Norman’s boy doesn’t mean you get special treatment in this lab, you hear me? I don’t care what you do with him all the other weeks that I’m not here, but if you wanna be a part of my team, during my lab hours, you gotta be here and on time. Are we clear?” He didn’t bother lifting his eyes from the microscope and almost missed the whispered and wavered, “yes, sir” that Peter let out. When he turned to the younger man, his eyes were bloodshot, his clothes were rumpled, his face ashen and his lower lip was wobbling, he looked like he had a rough night and an early morning, and he looked like he was holding back tears. Tony almost regretted the harsh treatment. Almost. “Is this my coffee?” He pointed at the cup, averting his gaze.

“Yes, sir.” He answered quickly, offering the beverage like a gift.

On his third month there, Tony tried to keep his distance from the younger man. He promised Natasha and Pepper that he would and, up until that point, he hadn’t been very successful. So during the week of March that he had to go to Oscorps, he avoided the younger man, made himself unavailable and charged him with boring and complicated tasks that should take all week to get done. Still, the boy did everything he was told and only took half the time expected, he was always on time and always, always brought him coffee, just the way he liked it. It was really hard to ignore him.  

“You know you don’t have to bring me coffee, right? It’s not in your job description.” Tony felt the need to point out on Friday when he saw the boy walking in with the beverage, but he just shrugged and smiled a little.

“I know, I just want to make sure you have everything you need, sir. Besides, I used to work at a coffee shop, I don’t mind making your coffee.” When he said that, Tony’s brows shot into his hairline.

“You made this?” He asked, incredulously, and the boy cocked his head in confusion.

“Yeah, where did you think this came from?” He frowned, amused.

“Uh, I don’t know, some fucking gourmet coffee shop downstairs?” Peter laughed, genuinely laughed, and the corners of his eyes wrinkled in the most endearing way, as he shook his head.

“You’re funny, Mr. Stark.”  

Peter was the funny one, actually, and the whole thing was just so confusing to Tony. He thought he had the younger man all figured out, he thought he knew what kind of person he was, what he was after, but sometimes Peter would do or say things that just didn’t add up to Tony’s assumptions. The boy was kind and generous and humble, he was proactive and hardworking, and so annoyingly nice. He was easy to talk to, too, sometimes they’d have whole conversations about the most random subjects as they worked and Tony would only realize what they did at the end of the day, as he left and Peter waved at him with that charming smile and it made something burn in Tony’s chest and he couldn’t figure out why.  

On his fourth month there, Peter surprised him on the first day. He brought him coffee in a mug that read: “If it ain’t broke, take it apart and fix it”. Usually, his coffee was put in a styrofoam cup with Oscorps logo on it, he had no idea where the mug came from, and when he asked, the boy blushed slightly, shuffling his feet.

“Uhm, actually – I heard it was your birthday last week, so I just – I mean, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be inappropriate or anything, it’s just – the environment and stuff. So. Uh – happy birthday?” He looked really uncomfortable just saying that, and Tony was equal parts amused and amazed, so he  dropped his eyes back to the simple, white mug with bright red letters.

“That’s – actually really nice, Peter. Thank you.” He looked back at the young man and his cheeks were burning red. It was really… fucking cute. Fuck.

“You’re welcome, Mr. Stark.” His answering tiny smile warmed the older man’s heart, but he swallowed whatever feeling dared to emerge.

By Tony’s fifth month working with Oscorps, things finally started to feel natural, pleasant. When he arrived in the morning, he greeted everyone by name, threw smiles and flirty comments here and there and walked the hallways like he owned the place. His team worked like a well-oiled machine and they were always early, specially Peter, after that one time he was late. When he arrived, they already had a head start on him, which was always good, and they were able to go home a little earlier everyday.

“Good morning, everybody.” Tony raised his head when he heard Norman’s voice, a little surprised. Aside from his first day there, he hadn’t seen the old man at all, so it was weird for him to be in the lab, specially so early.

“Mr. Osborn, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Tony asked, watching closely as the older man walked towards Peter, who avoided his gaze furiously, pretending to be focused on his work, although it was clear that he was barely breathing. Norman grinned in his direction, but didn’t say anything, and Tony raised an eyebrow at the interaction.

“Miss Watson let me know you would be here today, so I thought I’d personally invite you to our annual Charity Gala, it will take place next month, on the eleventh. Will you be able to make it?”

“Yes, of course, sir, I can move some stuff around.” Fucking hell, he hated those functions. A bunch of assholes kissing other assholes’s butts and pretending to be good citizens by donating to charity only for the press. Just his type of event. But nonetheless, the type of event he needed to be seen in, someplace where he could meet people and make connections.

“Great, I’ll send the formal invitation to Stark Industries, I look forward to seeing you there. Mr. Stark.” He nodded in his direction and Tony did the same. “Mr. Parker.” He turned towards the young man who still hadn’t looked up. His cheeks burned a bright red when he looked at the older man.

“Mr. Osborn.” He gritted his teeth and, again, Norman grinned, buttoning his suit jacket as he left the lab.

Hm. Odd.

--*--

“At least pretend to be having a good time, Tony.” Pepper whispered through her teeth, a fake smile plastered on as she waved to people Tony could barely recognize. She was wearing a beautiful blue gown, his birthday gift to her, apparently, and not for the first time Tony wondered what would have been if he hadn’t blown things up with her. If he hadn’t cheated on her with half the city when they were in college. He was a stupid, stupid boy in his twenties. And thirties. And early forties.

It was a work in progress.

“I am pretending, don’t I look convincing?” He turned to look at her with what he was certain was a terrible grimace and she snorted into her champagne glass, causing them both to giggle like stupid teenagers. He was glad she had agreed to go as his plus one, he would have blown his brains for sure if he was alone in there.

“Good evening, Mr. Stark.” Ah, Tony could recognize that sweetly high-pitched voice from miles away, but when he turned around he wasn’t ready for such a vision. Peter was wearing a gorgeous burgundy suit with a black, silk shirt underneath, as well as a black tie. His hair was perfectly swept to the side, his curls tamed for once, but still showing at the nape of his neck. He looked absolutely beautiful and fucking expensive. Tony wanted to unwrap him, then wreck him in the best possible way. “And Miss Potts, right?”

“Yes, Mr. Parker, it’s nice to see you again,” she answered pleasantly and Tony was glad she was there because he was sure that he was staring for way too long to be polite. He cleared his throat and smiled at the young man, who quickly slipped into character looking shyly at him from under his eyelashes.

“Mr. Parker, fancy seeing you here,” Tony spoke confidently, subtly looking around for Norman, but he was nowhere to be seen. “And where’s Mr. Osborn?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him.” He averted his gaze, his tiny and usually steady hands trembling a little, before closing into fists. “Well, it was nice seeing you –“

“Hey, c’mon, have a drink with us,” Tony interrupted him, sensing his discomfort.

“Oh, uh – I’m sorry, sir, I’m not old enough to drink.” Tony was almost taken aback by that fact. The amount of information that he carried in that brilliant brain of his did not compute with his age.

“I won’t tell if you don’t. Neither will Miss Potts, right?” Tony turned to look at Pepper, only to see her staring daggers at him, in a way that probably only he could tell, they had a special way of communicating, so he quickly sent her a “what?” glare and she sighed.

“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear any of this and I’m just gonna go talk to Mrs. Bain, if you’ll excuse me, please.” She smiled sweetly at Peter and walked away from them, as Tony rolled his eyes.

“Well, her loss.” The older man shrugged, grabbing two champagne glasses from a passing waiter. “Have you ever had one of these?” He asked, offering him one of the glasses. “I’m not corrupting you, am I?” Tony asked charmingly, with a crooked smile and a raised eyebrow. Peter giggled,  blushing and shaking his head no.

“No, it’s okay, Norman usually gets me a few drinks when we’re out,” he answered, accepting the glass. Just the mention of the older man had Tony deflating slightly, reminded of the fact that Peter couldn’t be his.

“So, how come you didn’t come together?” He asked innocently, although he knew it was probably a touchy subject. The younger man took a long sip of his drink, licking his wet lips once he was done, and Tony wished it was his tongue running across those thin, pink lips.

“He’d rather bring another date, so.” He shrugged with a small, fake smile, and quickly changed the subject. “I’ve recently read that you’re working on a holographic system that’s supposed to connect with the user's hippocampus and project their memories, is that true?” Tony was surprised by that, he had written a paper about it with Bruce not long before, Peter must really keep up with his work.

“Yeah, but I’m in a bit of a pickle right now, got stuck with the neuroscience portion of it.” Tony scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed about the admission, but Peter only smiled wider.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. And it’s gonna be groundbreaking. Again. Well, it seems like everything you do changes the world somehow.” His cheeks were flushed, and maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe Tony was falling for Peter’s little game, but he thought he was actually flirting with him. Really flirting, not “I wanna be your sugar baby” flirting.

“That’s a lot of trust you’re putting in me, kid.” Tony dared to step a little closer to him and the young man bit his lower lip, holding back a smile, cheeks flushing pink.

“Yeah, but I think you can back it up.” He tilted his head back a little to look up at the older man. Tony held his gaze for a few seconds, before he dropped it to his lips. He smiled when the young man nervously licked them.

“I’m sorry I’m too hard on you in the lab. I just don’t want anyone thinking that I treat you differently because of the boss.” Tony took yet another step and Peter didn’t move an inch, allowing him to get closer and closer.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just thankful to be in your team, I’m learning a lot.” This time, Tony was sure he wasn’t imagining things, Peter’s eyes definitely dropped to stare at his lips and the engineer inhaled sharply.

“Peter –“

“Ah, there you are.” Norman appeared out of thin air and Tony took three steps back, a cool smile on his face. Osborn was accompanied by a gorgeous blonde girl who couldn’t be older than twenty five, she was tall and slender, and looked like a supermodel – and she probably was. “Good evening, Mr. Stark. Pete.”

“Good evening, Mr. Osborn,” Tony answered with a schooled smile, not sure if he was in trouble for giving Peter champagne, but the CEO barely seemed to notice it when he turned to the younger man, who didn’t even bother to answer him.

“How do you like the party so far?” He asked politely, although his gaze was fixed on Peter. His date seemed bored out of her mind, but she eyed Tony with interest and the older man had to avert his gaze, he really didn’t need yet another sin to avoid.

“It’s great, sir,” Tony answered politely, but the older man didn’t really seem to care.

“Good, good. Do you mind if I borrow Peter for a little while?” He eyed the younger man and Peter grit his teeth, his hand tightening around the champagne flute.

“No, sure, he’s all yours.” He gestured towards the boy and he looked back at him with a look of betrayal on his face. Tony raised his eyebrows, not sure what Peter expected him to do, but the young man rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Come on, Peter, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” And with that, he led the way, confident that the boy would follow behind, which he did, after downing the rest of his drink, shooting one last pleading look Tony’s way. Again, the older man had no idea what he wanted.  

Once they left, Tony quickly found Pepper in the crowd as she chatted with Justin Hammer, the biggest asshole to ever exist in the corporate world. He stole all of Tony’s projects when the engineer worked for him, all the weapons the U.S.A. Army used ten years earlier were designed by Tony and he never got any credit for that. Two years after he quit Hammer Industries, they lost that contract because they simply had nothing new to offer.  

“Good evening, Mr Hammer, if you don’t mind, I’m just gonna take my date elsewhere, someplace where the toxicity level is more bearable. Bye.” Tony interrupted them unceremoniously and steered Pepper away from him as she threw apologies over her shoulder. “Don’t apologize to him, he’s trash.”

“Tony, you can’t act like this if you wanna be the CEO of the biggest tech company in the country. You need to make connections and keep good relation –“

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do that with anyone else, except for him, promise.” He rolled his eyes once they got to the bar, where he leaned on the counter and flirted with the barman, before ordering two drinks.

“Great, then I hope you intend to keep a good relationship with Mr. Osborn,” she whispered, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. “Just a quick reminder: fucking his boyfriend is not very friendly.”

“Peter’s not his boyfriend,” he answered automatically, before taking a sip of his scotch, his eyes scanning the room until he found the younger man in a small circle of people, along with Mr. Osborn and his date. Tony hated that so much, the boy looked devastated but he was still there. Why the fuck was he still there? He didn’t need that shit. “They didn’t even come together today.”

“Okay, not the answer I was looking for, not a reassuring answer at all.” Pepper spoke to herself under her breath, then grabbed him by the jaw, forcing him to look at her. “Tony Stark, I hope you’re not –“

“Jesus, relax!” He snapped, freeing his face from her grip. “You and Natasha are driving me mad with this, I swear to God, the more you tell me not to do it, the more I wanna do it, just out of spite. Leave it alone, will ya?”

“Fine, whatever, do what you want, that always works out perfectly for you,” she snapped right back, taking her drink from the counter and walking away from him. “Don’t come crying to me when it all blows up in your face!”

Tony ignored her, they always had those arguments – she was usually right, Tony usually fucked up somehow and he usually went crying to her anyway, and she always helped him, so whatever. He was slightly tipsy, anyway, he would regret the whole thing in the morning, but right at that moment he was focused on Peter. The young man seemed really uncomfortable and out of place where he stood, among a few businessmen, but he was still there.  

Norman stood to his left with his date, talking animatedly with the other men. To Peter’s right, there was a tall, slender man, in his early forties, and he wouldn’t take his eyes off of the boy. Sometimes he would whisper things in his ear, eliciting a small, polite smile from him, but no answer. Some other times he would rest a hand on his waist for no particular reason and Tony would watch with amusement as the boy tried to get away politely. Norman watched the whole interaction discreetly, carefully, but didn’t intervene.

Eventually, Peter excused himself and headed towards the bathroom. Tony watched the other man and, sure enough, he followed him there a few seconds later, under Norman’s intense gaze, a small smirk playing on his lips. Tony quickly understood what was probably going on. Again, the older man was disappointed in the boy. Such a smart kid, with so much potential, he could do so much better. Tony turned towards the bar, ordering another scotch. Since he was there, with no date, and nothing else to do, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few drinks.

Several minutes later, he was leaning against the bar, talking to Mr. Zimmer, the CEO of Accutech, and actually scored a meeting for the following week to pitch his nanobots. After his deal with Oscorps, he was able to close two smaller ones and had a few more meetings scheduled. As he imagined, people took notice of Stark Industries after that. Having such a huge, important company such as Oscorps trusting SI meant a lot to potential partners.

As soon as Mr. Zimmer left, Tony saw Peter rushing across the room and out the door. He seemed really upset and agitated, so the older man followed him outside. When he found him again, Peter seemed a little lost. He looked around, as if he didn’t really know which way to go – the gala was held in one of Osborn’s mansions upstate and even leaving the premises was difficult to do without a car, the property was huge. He checked his phone, then, but Tony noticed the screen didn’t light up, it was probably dead. The kid ran his hands through his hair, seemingly desperate, and finally Tony decided to put him out of his misery.

“Hey, kid.” He stepped closer to the boy and he turned quickly, almost as if he was ready to throw a punch or something. “Whoa, there!” Tony held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, examining the boy’s face. He looked distressed, his eyes and face were red and he was a little out of breath. “Hey, are you ok? Do you need a ride home?” His eyes lit up in relief, his face relaxing instantly.

“Would you mind?” He almost pleaded and Tony was a little taken aback by the tone. “It’s just – my phone’s dead and – I just really need to get home.”

“Sure, kid, it’s fine, I was heading home anyway, c’mon.” Tony asked a valet to bring his car around and watched Peter as the younger man seemed to calm down slowly, but he was still acting a little out of sorts as they waited for the car to arrive. “Is everything okay, Peter?”

“Yeah, sure, just a little tired, I guess.” He lied, a fake smile on his face. He was easy to read, most of the time, when he wasn’t trying to attract older, rich men, Tony supposed.

Once the valet brought the car around, Tony opened the door for Peter, who quickly slipped inside like it was an oasis. Tony tipped the valet and joined the younger man, noticing that he seemed almost relieved to be leaving the party.

“Rough night?” Tony asked conversationally once he started the car, pulling away from the driveway. It was a stupid question, but he couldn’t help it.

“Try rough couple of months,” he scoffed, running a hand though his once tamed hair, elbow resting against the window.

“Wanna talk about it?” He looked at the younger man from the corner of his eye and saw him shake his head weakly.

“Not really,” he mumbled and they fell silent. Tony wanted to say something else, but Peter didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, so he just drove for a few minutes, heading for the city, when the kid spoke up again. “I’m so sorry for the trouble, you can drop me off anywhere, I’ll just take the subway.”

“Don’t be silly, I’ll drive you home. Where is home, by the way?” Tony knew Peter lived with four other students close to campus, but he didn’t know where exactly.

“Harlem.” He sighed, sounding annoyed. “Ugh, that’s the last place I want to be right now,” he mumbled, mostly to himself, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Why? Trouble with your roommates?” Tony raised a brow and the boy shook his head a little.

“Not really, they’re just really loud, specially on weekends. They probably have people over right now and I’m not in the mood, it’s all.” He gave him a tiny smile, but he didn’t really mean it.

“Tell you what,” Tony started, choosing his next words carefully. “Why don’t you come to my place?” He saw from the corner of his eye when Peter almost broke his neck turning to look at him in surprise. “Just for a few hours, so you can cool down some. We can have a few drinks, grab a bite to eat, and once you’re feeling better, I’ll drive you home. Or you can crash there, whatever you prefer. What do you say?” He turned to look at the young man and his eyes were wide, mouth agape in shock. Tony almost wanted to laugh.

“Uh – I don’t – I don’t want to be a bother, sir, you’ve alre--”

“Don’t be silly, I wouldn’t be offering if it was a bother. You don’t need to say yes if you don’t want to, but if you do, you’ll make this old man very happy, I wouldn’t mind some company tonight.” Tony smiled charmingly at him and Peter blushed, the older man could tell there were a million things going through his head.

“Uhm. Okay. Yeah, sure.” He nodded and Tony’s heart did a little flip in his chest and he didn’t even know why. If he was honest, he had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it, he just wasn’t ready to let the younger man go.

The rest of the drive was long and mostly silent. Peter was usually very lively and talkative in the lab, he always had some fun fact to share or an anecdote about something that happened in class, but that night he was gloomy and quiet, but he still answered to Tony’s small talk. When they arrived at the older man’s penthouse, Peter was a little nervous, looking around as if he was out of place, looking almost regretful. Tony decided that he hated seeing him like that.

“Hey, wanna see something cool?” He asked as soon as they walked into the living room. The young man turned to look at him curiously, a small smile on his face as he nodded. “Evening, Jarvis. Could you get the windows, please?” As he said that, Peter frowned, then jumped almost a foot in the air when the A.I. answered.

“Good evening, sir, I hope you had a good time at the party.” As he said that, an entire wall of the living room turned from blurred, dark glass to transparent glass, revealing an amazing view of the city skyline. “Good evening, Mr. Parker.”

“What – how – you have an AI here? How does he know who I am?” Peter half whispered, half shouted, apparently undecided if he should be concerned or amazed. Tony laughed and placed a hand on Peter’s lower back, guiding him towards the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“I don’t only have it, I made it. And he’s equipped with an advanced face recognition technology that I designed, in case anyone comes in here with ill intentions. I started working on Jarvis when I was at Hammer Industries, it was supposed to go to the military, but after I resigned, I decided to keep it to myself. Jarvis runs the house and helps me in the lab.” Tony stuck his hands in his pockets and observed as the young man leaned against the window, looking amazed and a little lost.

“So cool!” Peter’s eyes were round and excited, all the gloominess from earlier apparently forgotten. “Can I talk to him? Like, will it acknowledge my voice?”

“Of course, Mr. Parker, why wouldn’t I?”  

“Hi, Jarvis!” And just like that, Peter stroke up the silliest conversation with Jarvis, as Tony headed to the kitchen. He decided that since Peter wasn’t really allowed to drink, he’d make them some coffee, and later they could order something to eat. When he went back to the living room, the young man was still leaning against one of the windows as Jarvis tried to convince him that he had no intention of starting a rebellion to wipe out humanity.

“Don’t worry, Jarvis wouldn’t do that,” Tony smiled, placing two mugs on the coffee table and Peter shrugged.

“I wish he would, sometimes I think we failed as a species.” He turned around to face the engineer with a cheeky smile. Fuck, he was so beautiful. “Thank you for everything, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”

“You would have figured something out, you’re resourceful. Maybe you would have built a car out of a cardboard box, two paper clips and four potatoes.” He leaned against the window beside Peter and the young man looked up at him with a grin.

“Or maybe I would have found someone to lend me a charger so I could call an Uber?” He bumped Tony’s shoulder with his own and the older man scoffed.

“Yeah, but that would’ve been boring, don’t you think?” He raised a brow with a grave face and the young man laughed.

“You’re right, this is much more fun.” His face was so open, so beautiful, all awkwardness from before completely gone. Tony leaned in to whisper close to his ear.

“It can get better.” He pulled back a little to look at the boy’s face. He looked surprised, eyes wide and lips parted, but he didn’t pull away, he didn’t take a single step back, so Tony took a chance. He placed one hand gently on his cheek, testing his reaction, and Peter’s breath hitched, his gaze dropped to Tony’s lips, but he stood still, breathing rapidly but quietly. That was all the answer he needed.

He buried his hand in those curls he’d been dreaming about for months, as his other arm snaked around his thin waist, pulling him close, no chance of escape. Not that he thought that Peter would try to escape if he could, anyway. Tony felt intoxicated when their lips touched, Peter’s mouth was as soft as it looked, his skin as smooth as he imagined. The younger man melted against him, bodies flush together as Tony’s tongue begged for entrance in his mouth.  

He pushed him against the window, once again testing the young man’s reaction to his advances, but Peter was so far gone, he barely seemed to notice they’d changed positions. Tony kissed him deeply, slowly, as his hands made their way around the boy’s hips, thumbs stroking his hipbones over the silk shirt, and he sighed. Tony licked into his mouth, swallowing his little gasps and whimpers, and he could tell that Peter had never been kissed like that before, if the way his legs gave out were any indication. He held him up, though, his body trapped between the older man’s and the cold window.

He felt Peter’s erection already poking his upper thigh and he smiled into the kiss, feeling his own cock start to swell against Peter’s lower stomach. He moaned quietly, pulling away from the kiss for a few seconds to check if the boy was doing okay, but Peter didn’t even open his eyes, he just rocked his hips slowly, rubbing his erection against Tony’s thigh. Feeling confident enough, the older man lowered his hands to his perfect ass, squeezing his cheeks tightly as he pulled him even closer to him. Just as he imagined, it was firm, yet supple, it filled his hands nicely, and Tony didn’t hesitate to lift him a little by the ass, aligning their cocks and pressing both erections together.

“Mr. Stark,” he whimpered, humping against Tony, trying to balance his weight on the tips of his toes as Tony held him up. The older man took advantage of the way he threw his head back, exposing his throat, to make his way down his skin, peppering his long, pale neck with kisses and bites. Peter moaned as he tried to undo Tony’s suit jacket, which he allowed, putting just a little distance between them. He went back to his mouth with another kiss, faster than before, more urgent, before pulling away just a few inches, panting against the kid’s mouth.

“C’mon, babe, let me take you to bed,” he whispered and Peter nodded quickly.

Tony took his hand and led him to his own room, and as soon as they were inside, he pushed Peter against the king sized bed and quickly started working on his shirt, every inch of silky, white skin it revealed made the older man harder. Peter smelt and looked expensive as fuck, his skin was smooth as a baby’s, not a single hair in sight, and it was soft and unmarked, peppered only with a few light brown freckles along the collarbones. His nipples were tiny and light pink, hard from excitement and begging to be bitten.

Tony wanted to eat him up – and out – he always looked good when they were in the lab, in his cute slacks, dress shoes and lab jacket, but that night he looked delicious, like an expensive meal, and Tony was a starving man. He got rid of the shirt, revealing his thin chest and surprisingly defined abs, and he worshiped the exposed skin, covered it with open mouthed, wet kisses and bites until it turned red from the abuse. He wanted to mark him up, leave bruises on him so that at least for a while, Peter could be his.

He took a perked up nipple in his mouth and sucked it mercilessly, as he pinched the other one between his fingers, and Peter gasped, hands flying to grab Tony’s shoulders. He didn’t waste too much time, though, and quickly started undoing his pants, pulling them down his legs. The act revealed even more soft, smooth skin and plump, soft thighs that the older man couldn’t help biting. Peter whined quietly when Tony splayed his open palms on his legs and squeezed, as he sucked bruises on the boy’s inner thighs. His face was so close to his cock, covered only in tight, black boxer briefs, so Tony rubbed his cheek against it and Peter cried out.  As soon as he lowered his boxers, Peter’s cock sprung free, and Tony was delighted. It was small and flushed pink, rock hard and already dripping pre-cum. The older man didn’t think twice as he put it all in his mouth, eliciting a scream from the young man.

“Oh, my God, Mr. Stark!” He bucked his hips wildly, his legs falling open, and, for the second time that evening, Tony thought that maybe nobody had ever done that to him. “Oh, God! Fuck!” He kept moaning desperately, as Tony sank his fingers in his ass cheeks, bobbing his head up and down, sucking and licking his shaft and paying extra attention to the head. Peter kept both of his hands beside his body, clenching at the sheets, not daring to touch Tony or demand anything. The second the older man’s fingers touched his balls, he lost it. “Mr. Stark, please, I – Oh, God, oh my God –“ He blushed furiously, Tony noticed when he raised his head and let go of his cock with a loud pop.

His whole face and chest were flushed pink, he held his upper body up, resting on his elbows as he panted, looking thoroughly debauched. His once gelled curls were wild and loose, covering his forehead, and Tony just wanted to ruin him even more. He smirked at the younger man, who seemed completely out of it, barely able to understand what was happening. Tony lifted his legs, pressing his bent knees to his chest and Peter got the idea and held his legs in place, exposing himself beautifully to him.

The older man’s mouth watered as he looked at his quivering, pink hole. It looked so fucking tight and so fucking ready for his cock at the same time, he could see Peter was mortified in that position, but he still held himself open, so eager for what was to come. Tony grabbed his ass cheeks and spread them, burying his face in his crack and licking a stripe up from his tailbone to his balls, only to hear the young man screaming desperately.

Tony was feeling really smug, he didn’t remember the last he made anyone scream like that. He was always a generous lover, he liked giving his partners pleasure, but Peter didn’t seem to be used to it if his reactions were anything to go by, so the older man took even more pleasure in making him feel so good.

“Mr. Stark, I’m gonna – I’m not gonna last, please!” Tony pretended not to hear him, as he kept licking over his rim before he started to try to breach him with his tongue, as Peter cried out, bucking his hips. The older man held him in place and kept trying to fuck his tongue into him, until he felt Peter’s fingers in his hair, pulling him up. “I wanna come with you inside me – please,” he whispered once Tony’s lips were over his mouth, his cock perfectly aligned with the boy’s hole.

He grunted and kissed him again, just as wildly and roughly as he did before. The young man quickly started undoing Tony’s shirt, and only then did he realize that he was still dressed as Peter laid on his bed completely naked. He groaned into the kiss, because fuck, that was hot, but he helped the boy take off his shirt and undershirt.

Peter curled one leg around his waist, kissing Tony back enthusiastically and a little less shyly now that the older was a little undressed as well. He ran his soft hands all over Tony’s broad back, then up his shoulders and into his thick hair, all the while moaning and bucking his hips, begging to be touched. Tony took advantage of the position they were in to slide his fingers in between Peter’s cheeks, feeling his tight entrance twitch, anticipating the touch. He didn’t do much more, though, he just kept kneading his ass, letting his fingertips just slightly brush against his quivering hole.

Peter grew impatient then, and instead of pushing his hips up, against Tony’s own cock, he started pushing then down, against his fingers. The older man chuckled, brushing his chin against the pale neck, already noticing it turning pink with beard burn.

“Mr. Stark, c’mon, please, I--” He mumbled incoherently, holding on for dear life to his shoulders, his breath short, swollen, wet lips parted, his lids heavy. A vision of paradise. “I need--”

Tony knew what he needed, but he wouldn’t give it to him just yet. Still, he let his middle finger wander towards his entrance, feeling his hole clenching, trying to pull it inside, ready to take whatever Tony was willing to give. He grabbed his thighs again, spreading them far apart, making Peter yelp in surprise. He kissed his hole gently one last time, then moved away, getting off the bed.

“I’m not done with you yet, sweetheart.” Tony smirked, undoing his pants, and he noticed Peter’s eyes intent on him. As soon as his cock sprung free, the young man whimpered, whispering “fuck” and biting his lips hard. “Like what you see?” Tony asked, cockily, he knew it was a nice view. He was nicely groomed and his cock was cut, long and thick, and at the moment it was rock hard like never before and dripping with pre-cum. He stepped out of his pants and headed towards the night stand before Peter could answer. He grabbed a bottle lube and made his way back to the bed, positioning himself between his legs once again.

He coated his fingers with plenty of lube and breached his entrance with one fingertip, only to hear a long, deep moan coming from the younger man, who clung to his shoulders for dear life. He fucked his finger in and out of him, slowly at first, but quicker as Peter’s hips started moving along with him, begging for more. Tony leaned down and kissed him, and felt one of Peter’s hands in his hair, as he curled both of his legs around the older man’s waist. Tony kept kissing him as he sunk another finger in his hole, eliciting a surprised moan from him, as he tried to adjust to the stretch.

They kept kissing and rocking against each other eagerly, as Tony fucked him open with his fingers, scissoring and curling them, until he couldn’t take it anymore, he needed to be inside him. He drew back just enough to hold his cock, guiding it towards Peter’s entrance. Slowly and unrelentingly, Tony sank his cock inside him, blinded with pleasure as each inch sank further inside. Peter whined in pain but didn’t budge or asked him to stop, he took it like a good boy, holding still, legs spread wide, until Tony bottomed out. When he did, he wrapped his arms around his slight frame, lifting him a little from the bed, and Peter took a deep breath, holding his shoulders.

“That’s it, sweetie, you’re so good for me, I’m gonna make you feel so good.” Tony whispered nonsensically in his ear, kissing his cheeks and neck gently, waiting for him to adjust. They stayed like that for a few seconds, until Peter started rocking his hips slowly, and Tony soon caught on. He grabbed his hips and slammed once inside him, hearing a scream coming from the younger man. He drew back and slowly built up a pace, slamming against him like there was no tomorrow. He moaned loudly, a mixture of pleasure and pain, Tony could tell, but instead of asking him to slow down, he pushed back against him just as hard, biting his neck.

Tony may have lost his mind somewhere along the way, pure instinct took over as he fucked into him with abandon, he heard his screams and moans and they made him hit harder, harder, and he thought he heard the younger man screaming just that, as he sank his nails into his shoulders and down his back, until he grabbed Tony’s ass and pulled him closer, faster, harder –

“Oh – Oh, Mr. Stark – I –“ Peter rolled his eyes back and it took Tony the better part of a minute to realize that he was coming, and he hadn’t even touched his cock. Spurts of his warm, white come covered both of their chests and Tony could feel that some of it caught on his chin. The sight of Peter underneath him – debauched, utterly satisfied, ruined – was enough to bring Tony over the edge, the force of his orgasm was almost blinding, something that he hadn’t felt in a long time. He let himself fall on top of Peter, barely aware of the fact that he was maybe a little too heavy for that, but the younger man didn’t seem to mind, if the soft, barely there caresses on his back were anything to go by.

They were silent for several minutes, bodies cooling down and falling asleep, but Tony’s mind was wide awake. What had he done? Peter was supposed to be off limits for a number of reasons, so many he couldn’t even focus on a single one. He felt the young man sigh softly under him, his hands drawing circles on his back peacefully.

“This was nice,” he whispered and it triggered something in Tony, because, fuck, it was perfect. It was perfect, but it was a lie, wasn’t it? Peter wasn’t really into him. He was just – he was just a fucking –

“I really hope this was a free trial, ‘cause I don’t think I can afford you, kid.” The minute the words left his mouth, he felt the younger man go rigid beneath him. He quickly pushed at Tony’s shoulders, trying to raise his upper body and the older man easily rolled off of him to the side, resting his head on his clasped hands on the pillow.

“What are you insinuating?” Peter asked with a frown, suddenly appearing very uncomfortable, gathering the sheets around him to cover his exposed skin.

“I’m not insinuating anything, I’m just saying I don’t think I have enough money to pay for this very expensive meal.” He wiggled his eyebrows, smirking, pretending he wasn’t as affected by what happened as he was. Peter turned bright red, his mouth falling open, gaping like a fish.

“What – I –“ he stammered, frozen for a few seconds before he jumped into action and out of bed, taking the sheets with him as he looked for his clothes around the room. “I can’t believe you just said that, you fucking asshole! Fuck you!” He yelled towards the bed and Tony was a little  surprised by his reaction.

“Chill, it was a joke.” He rolled his eyes, noticing that he young man was almost fully dressed by then, at least he had his pants and shirt on, his tie and jacket were draped over his arm as he looked for his shoes. When he turned back to Tony, his whole face was inhumanly red and soaked in tears, it made Tony’s heart clench. “Jesus, kid!”

“I’m not laughing, asshole!” He yelled again, marching towards the door without looking back. “You’re all the fucking same, bunch of assholes, what was I thinking? I’m so fucking stup– ” Tony couldn’t hear the rest of his rant because he slammed the door with so much force that the older man was pretty sure he felt the building shaking a little bit.

Well, fuck.

--*--

Two weeks later, when Tony stepped inside the lab, he had a whole plan figured out. After Peter left that night, he went through all five stages of admitting he had been an asshole – as was common for him, he usually went through those at least a few times a week.

So, first, he denied it.

“The kid is obviously overreacting, right? It was just a joke and, even if it wasn’t, well, I wouldn’t have been that far off from the truth.”

Then, he was angry.

“Fuck that kid, he had no right to react the way he did, who does he think he is, slamming the door like that, yelling at me, calling me names, all because of a stupid little joke? Fuck him.”

Then, he bargained.

“So, okay, maybe I was a little over the line, but I can fix it, right? It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Then he felt a little sad, because, fuck, thinking back to their time together, the kid had never been anything but nice to him, he didn’t deserve that and Tony always fucked up with people, what was wrong with him?

Finally, he fully accepted it. He was definitely, irrevocably and undoubtedly an asshole. They had a nice time together, the kid was the best lay he had in fucking years, and sure, maybe he was with Norman for money or whatever, but what they did, what they shared that night – it felt pretty fucking real and Tony blew it.  

So when he walked into the lab two weeks later, he had it all figured out. He would ask Peter to stay a little late, then, when everybody left, he would apologize to him sincerely and since he had a taste for expensive gifts, he even got him a gold bracelet, just as an “I’m sorry I was an asshole” gift, a peace offering.

The thing was, when he walked into the lab, Peter was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Mr. Parker?” He asked the closest lab tech and the young woman shrugged, uninterested.

“He quit a few weeks ago, I heard.” She mumbled, concentrated on the microscope in front of her, and Tony cursed under his breath, feeling even more guilty than before. Had the kid felt so offended that he decided to quit the team? That couldn’t be right, he was Norman’s boy, how would he justify that to him? He wouldn’t tell him about them, would he? Tony figured that if he had told Norman anything, he would have heard about it by then, but everything seemed normal and in order, other than Peter’s absence from the lab.

“He went back to being Mr. Osborn’s intern?” He asked just to clarify, maybe he could go talk to him after he was done in the lab for the day.

“No, he quit Oscorps.” She looked at him like he was asking dumb questions, like everyone should know that piece of information.

Tony did not expect that. His heart raced a little when he heard those words, for some reason. He thought he should be relieved, one less thing to worry about. With Peter gone, he wouldn’t need to worry about apologizing or Norman finding out about them. He didn’t need to worry about things getting weird in the lab or Peter trying to use it against him or something. But he wasn’t relieved. He was – what was he feeling? Whenever he thought about the possibility of not seeing Peter ever again, his heart clenched.

The engineer couldn’t understand what was going on inside him, he just needed to talk to Peter, fucking apologize, get him back on the team, make sure that they would still see each other every month, that they would still talk, and laugh together, and share a workbench so small their hips touched every now and again.  

Which was why Tony found himself waiting at the main entrance of Columbia's Morningside Heights campus on Wednesday evening, probably looking suspicious as hell as he swept the crowd, looking for a familiar face. It was a long shot, but he new Peter had classes every afternoon and he knew at what time he was done most days. He guessed the young man would take a train at the subway station on 116th Street, so there he was, looking and waiting.

After almost two hours and no luck, Tony was ready to give up and leave when he saw him walking out, arms full of text books, a heavy looking backpack hanging from one shoulder. He was wearing reading glasses, baggy, ripped jeans, and a graphic t-shirt underneath an oversized gray hoodie and Tony realized he had never seen him like that, he was always well dressed at work and he only ever saw him in other two occasions: his dinner with Norman and at the gala.

Tony thought he looked even more beautiful like that, stripped off of all the fancy things that made him look like an expensive doll. He looked at ease and comfortable and Tony felt a weird desire to hold him. Fucking hold him. Not rip off his clothes and fuck him – well, that too – but to take him into his arms, pull him close and breathe into his his wild curls.

“Hey, Peter,” Tony called out loud enough for him to hear and as soon as his eyes made contact with the older man’s, his face turned red and his eyes widened before he dropped his gaze to the ground, picking up the pace to walk away from Tony. “Hey, hold on, kid, c’mon, I’m talking to you.” The engineer quickly followed, grabbing him by the arm and making him turn around.

“What do you want, what are you doing here?” He asked impatiently, looking around as if afraid to make a scene, there were a lot of people walking in and out of campus at that time.

“You quit Oscorps,” the older man stated, dumbly, and Peter stared at him as if he wanted to say just that. He waited to see if Tony would say anything more and he really meant to, but nothing else came out of his stupid mouth.

“Yeah, and?” He prompted, holding his books close to his chest defensively, getting ready for a fight, but Tony just shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“And now I don’t have any engineers on my team,” he offered, as kind of a joke, he thought, but again, Peter wasn’t laughing.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He rolled his eyes and tried to walk away, but Tony held him back again. “What the hell, don’t touch me!”

“Ok, sorry, I’m sorry.” He let go of his arm and raised both of his hands in a peace offering. “I’m trying to apologize here, I’m not very good at this.”

“Clearly,” Peter snarked, and Tony nodded.

“Right. Ok. I deserve that. Look, let me just –“ He wracked his brain for something to say, he really should have thought it through. The thing was, he thought Peter would be a little more… Compliant. He didn’t expect him to still be that pissed off after almost two weeks. “Let me treat you to dinner, how about that? So we can clear the air?”

“No, thanks,” Peter answered quickly and started to walk away again, heading to the subway station. Since grabbing him and trying to stop him didn’t seem like a good idea, Tony started walking alongside him.

“Hey, c’mon, don’t be so stubborn, I’m just trying to apologize here,” he insisted, attracting Peter’s impatient gaze, as he still tried to balance all the books in his arms.

“You’re forgiven, is that what you wanna hear?” He snapped, and Tony was taken aback by the anger and hurt in his eyes. “There you go. You’re absolved! Goodbye now.” Again, he tried to leave the older man behind, but Tony didn’t let him.

“Hey, kid, don’t be so difficult, I just--”

“Tony!” Weirdly enough, after everything they’d done, that was the first time the younger man called him by his first name and even if the situation was less than ideal, it still sent a shiver down his spine. The boy stopped walking to look at him dead in the eye. “You called me a whore, now you’re asking me to dinner! What am I supposed to think here? I’m not for sale, I’m sorry if I misled you, go bother someone else.”

“Peter, I’m sincerely, honest to God, just trying to apologize here. I know I was an asshole and you didn’t deserve to be treated like that, nobody does, I’m sorry, I was way out of line. I just wanna take you to dinner because I think you’re a good kid, I know you enjoyed working with me and you looked up to me somehow, so I just wanna make it up to you, ok? I promise, nothing else. I just don’t want you to have the wrong impression of me. I’m a good guy, I’m just kind of an asshole sometimes.” Tony tried to convey all his honesty through his eyes, which made Peter deflate a little bit. The young man stared at him for a few seconds with a frown on his forehead, before he sighed, rolling his eyes.

“You’re very annoying,” he said, matter-of-factly, and the older man nodded.  

“I’m known to be quite annoying, yeah,” he admitted, putting on his best pleading face, puppy eyes and all. “Let me make it up to you,” he insisted, and Peter rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation.

“Fine, dinner. Not tonight, though, I have work.” Tony cheered on the inside – and a little on the outside – but the younger man kept a straight face.

“Whenever you’re free.” Peter thought for a second and it almost seemed like he was regretting it already.

“Tomorrow, then. You can pick me up here. And I’ll choose the restaurant.” He stuck up his nose, defiantly, and Tony just spread his arms in surrender.

“Fair enough.”

So Tony decided to be a perfect gentleman, he put on a nice suit, he bought some flowers and took the gold “I’m sorry I was a jerk” bracelet with him when he went to pick Peter up. He was sure he would pick the most expensive restaurant in New York as payback and maybe he would order the most expensive things on the menu and, yeah, Tony knew he was really stupid if he were to comply, but, apparently, he wasn’t as smart as he once thought. And apparently he wasn’t immune to cute boys who knew how to play their cards right. So, yeah, maybe he fell right into Peter’s web in the end and maybe he wasn’t too upset about it. He could afford to spend a few dollars on him, have a good meal, smart conversations, and then move on. Because that’s what it was, right? Just him needing closure, if nothing else.

Except, when he parked his car, Peter was standing on the sidewalk in plain blue jeans and a cheap gray sweater and he looked thoroughly amused by Tony’s outfit when he got out of the car to get the door for him. He offered him the flowers and the boy was even more amused, a small chuckle leaving his lips when he read the “I’m sorry I was a jerk” card. Tony decided not to give him the bracelet after all, didn’t seem like a good idea by the looks of it.

“Where do you think we’re going?” He asked with a raised eyebrow, stopping in front of Tony before he got in the car.

“I was thinking a three-star Michellin restaurant?” The older man frowned and the boy snorted, apparently very amused.

“Yeah, and how in the hell would I afford to eat there, Mr. Stark?” He cocked his head to the side with feigned curiosity and Tony frowned.

“Afford? What – no, I’m buying! This is an ‘I’m sorry’ dinner. Besides, I invited you, it’s only polite.” He argued, but the boy quickly shook his head.

“You’ve apologized enough.” He gestured to the flowers. “Besides, I’m sorry, but I’m a little skeptical about gratuitous generosity at the moment, so we’re just gonna get some cheap pizza if that’s ok with you.” He shrugged, pointing in the general direction of the pizza place he was probably planning to go.

“What? Peter, come on. At least –“

“I only agreed to come if you let me choose the restaurant, so it’s either this or I’m heading back home.” He threatened to turn away and Tony jumped to stop him.

“No, no, sorry, you’re right. It’s your pick.” He opened the door to the passenger seat before Peter could change his mind and leave.

They got inside the car and Tony followed the young man’s instructions to the pizza joint, it wasn’t far from campus and was mostly empty when they got there. It was really not the sort of place that Tony went to anymore, but he couldn’t deny that was exactly the kind of restaurant he could afford when he was 19 at MIT. He was still a little confused by Peter’s choice of restaurant, not really sure if it was all a game, a plot to get back at him, but he seemed honest when he said he wanted to pay for his half.

“Maybe lose the jacket? And the tie?” He suggested with an amused smile from beside him when they parked the car and Tony chuckled slightly, doing just that and undoing the first three buttons of his shirt, rolling up the sleeves as well. “Much better.”

When they got inside the restaurant, Peter seemed to know the waiters, they sat at a table in the far back and ordered their drinks. They didn’t even have wine. A pizza place that didn’t serve wine, what even was that madness.

“So, you come here a lot? Everyone seems to know you around here.” Tony tried to start some amicable conversation and, surprisingly, Peter was receptive.

“I used to work here, actually. Before Oscorps.” He smiled fondly as he looked around, like he had some good memories there.

“Oh, cool.” Again, he was surprised by the boy’s story, Tony always assumed that he had an easy life. “Did I – was it because of me? The reason you quit?” He asked with a wince and Peter raised a brow, amused.

“Don’t be so self-important, it had nothing to do with you,” he rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, so Tony thought maybe he wasn’t that mad anymore. He sure seemed a lot calmer than the last time they met. “You’re a jerk, but I’ve dealt with worse.” Tony snorted, he couldn’t even be mad, Peter was just stating facts. He was a little curious to know what led him to quit his job, if it wasn’t Tony, and suddenly remembered how upset he was when they left the party. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask, though, they were just getting back on good terms.

“So, what are you doing now that you quit Oscorps?” Tony cocked his head to the side and the boy shrugged, playing with his paper napkin.

“Back to waiting tables and making coffee.” He smiled, he didn’t seem upset by the turn of events, which was… unexpected? It was just so odd. Tony had this idea that Peter liked to live that expensive lifestyle he had with Osborn, wasn’t that the whole point of being with him? His confusion must have shown on his face, because Peter chuckled, furrowing his brow. “What?”

“Nothing, I just –” He shook his head and gave up in the middle of the sentence.

“What, you thought I’d find another rich dude or something?” He creased his brow, looking genuinely confused, not mad. “Wait, do you actually think I’m an escort?” He asked as an afterthought, and Tony could deny it, but he didn’t think he could make it believable anyway.

“Not exactly, but – something like that, yeah,” He admitted, scratching the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed for the first time in a long time, and braced himself for the explosion, but Peter just showed him a sad little smile.

“You thought I was with him for his money,” he stated and Tony winced, because when Peter said it out loud, when those words came out of his mouth, they sounded so wrong. Like they could never be true. “It’s okay, I guess he thought that, too, and so did everyone else. My coworkers, the press, even some of my friends,” he scoffed, folding his napkin in half just to have something to do with his hands. “I guess I’m just a stupid kid who watched way too many Disney princess movies growing up. I blame my aunt, honestly.” He tried to joke and Tony shook his head.

“I shouldn’t have judged you, it wasn’t my place. I just thought it was so odd for a guy like you to be with a guy like him.” Such a beautiful, brilliant, young man like you deserved so much better than him, was what Toy didn’t dare to say.

“I loved him,” he said and it shouldn’t have stung, it shouldn’t have made Tony’s stomach twist and turn, and his heart clench, but it did. It fucking did. “Or I thought I did. Turns out I got it all wrong. I thought we were going somewhere, but he wasn’t really serious about me, which became very clear when he decided not to take me to the gala, so.” He blushed slightly and dropped his eyes to the table, still folding the napkin until it was impossible to keep folding.

“Yeah, but you still came. Why?” Tony insisted, because he really wanted to figure him out, he needed to, because Peter wasn’t who he thought he was, he wasn’t that person Tony was so quick to judge and he needed to know who he was, after all. Because – he just needed to.

“I guess I – I just thought... He would regret it or something, you know. Once he saw me.” He gave a self-deprecatory laugh, rubbing a hand across his forehead as if trying to physically erase something from his mind. “Like… A stupid rom-com or something, you know. Like, the happy ending scene. Whatever. It’s stupid.” He ran a hand through his hair, blushing even harder. “Again, I blame my aunt, she was the one who made me watch all these stupid movies.”

Tony wanted to say it wasn’t his fault that everybody else was fucked up and couldn’t see what an amazing person he was, but the waiter chose that moment to interrupt them with their food, which was good, because Peter perked up and actually looked excited, rubbing his hands together and looking at Tony expectantly.

“Try it, tell me if it’s not the best pizza you’ve ever had in your life.” Tony smiled at his excitement and grabbed a piece of the cheap pizza. As expected, it tasted like garbage, but he wouldn’t tell Peter that, obviously.

“Sorry, kid, it’s not. But I’m forty-five and I’ve been to Italy, so don’t look so bummed.” Peter deflated slightly, grabbing a piece of his own and taking a huge bite out of it, like it was the best meal ever.  

“Fine then, the best pizza in New York?” He compromised and Tony was a hundred percent sure it was most definitely not the best pizza in New York, but –

“I’ll give you that.” He conceded and Peter beamed.

“I’ll take it.”

They fell into an easy conversation about engineering and about Peter’s expectations for the future, which ended up turning into a conversation about what Tony did after college. The older man told him about all the steps he took to get where he was, working for other companies, having his ideas stolen, not getting credit for his work, quitting multiple jobs, almost going bankrupt trying to get Stark Industries off the ground and then finally being in a comfortable place in his professional life at 45 – better late than never.

“I think it’s amazing how you managed to turn your life around, you know. It’s really inspiring.” Peter seemed truly moved by Tony’s story, and the older man knew it was quite impressive, but he just shrugged it off.

“Yeah, boo-hoo, but now that you know my sob story, you have to tell me yours.” He took another bite of the terrible pizza and decided that sometime after the third slice, it became almost edible. Key-word: almost.

“Well, there’s not much to say and it’s definitely not as interesting or as successful as yours, but let’s see. My parents died when I was really young, I think I was around four – I’m ashamed to say I don’t really remember them. I still have their pictures, but I just – you know.” Peter shrugged and, yeah, Tony knew. After his mom died, he couldn’t look at pictures of her for years; at the same time that he wanted to remember her, he kind of wanted to forget. “I was raised by my aunt May and uncle Ben, but he was killed in a mugging when I was ten. Fuck, my life story is such a downer, are you sure you wanna hear it?” He chuckled, running a hand through his hair, and Tony smiled softly.

“As long as you wanna tell it, kid.” Peter took a deep breath, as if considering if he actually wanted to tell that story, but finally seemed to decide to go on.

“So, my aunt May was a nurse, she struggled to make ends meet, but she was just – amazing, you know? She was like a mother to me, she never left me wanting for anything, specially when it came to my education, which was how I was able to get into college so early. Anyway, she passed away almost two years ago from a stomach cancer. So… It’s just me now. I’m the last Parker standing.” He smiled sadly, dropping his gaze to stare at the slice of uneaten pizza in his plate.

“Fuck, that’s rough, kid. But hey, if it’s any consolation, I’m also the last Stark standing. Maybe we should start a club or something,” he joked to try to lighten up the mood and the young man giggled, looking back at him with a smile.

“Like, the Parker-Stark Lonely Orphans Club?” He asked cheekily and Tony laughed. “Anyway, a year ago I got into Oscorps’s internship program, which was a dream come true, but then I screwed it up by sleeping with the boss, because I’m an idiot. The end.” He snorted and, again, Tony was a little surprised to learn that Peter got the internship before he met Norman, but at that point, it wasn’t much of a shock, he should have seen it coming.

“So, can I ask what happened? Between you and Norman? What made you quit?” Tony asked carefully. As the night went on, he felt like he and Peter were getting more comfortable with each other, more comfortable than they could ever be all those months before, when Tony made such an effort to despise him.

“Ugh, it’s… Well, it’s embarrassing.” It was barely a whisper. Peter’s cheeks were bright red and he wouldn’t meet Tony gaze.

“It’s okay, you don't have to tell me if you don’t want to.” He reassured him, feeling confident enough to place a hand on top of his on the table. Peter stared at them for a few seconds, before looking up at him.

“It’s… Something he did at the party. He kept pushing me to this guy, you know. Some business partner or whatever. And I didn’t quite understand what he was trying to accomplish, but then I went to the bathroom and this guy followed me there and he – he tried – to kiss me. And to touch me.” He blushed, gaze fixed on the table between them once again. Tony tightened his grip on his hand. “When I pushed him away he said something about Norman not knowing how to teach his whores good manners. When I tried to talk to Norman – he said I owed him.” He frowned, lifting his eyes to look at him. “For all the expensive gifts, and nice restaurants, and everything he did for me. He said it was the least I could do.” He scoffed, but his cheeks were pink, like maybe some part of him believed that – believed that while he thought he was dating someone he loved, he was actually whoring himself out to him.

“That’s why you were so upset at the party,” he whispered, realizing what a massive jerk he’d been after that. The kid must have been feeling like shit that day. Used and expendable and lost. And then Tony treated him like a fucking cheap hooker.  “Peter… I’m so sorry for that night, I didn’t –“

“It’s okay, I’m fine now. Don’t get me wrong, it was a total dick move, but I already knew you were kind of a dick, so no alarms, no surprises.” He smirked, trying to lighten the mood, but nothing he could say could ever absolve Tony of what he’d done, of the harm he’d caused him that night. Fuck, if he was Peter, he would never have talked to him again, let alone agreed to dinner. His behavior the previous night suddenly made perfect sense. “I quit the next day, put his stupid gifts in a box and sent it to the tower, he can choke on them for all that I care.” He shrugged, trying to appear non-nonchalant, but Tony knew the whole thing must still fucking hurt, it had only been two weeks.

“I sincerely hope he does,” Tony offered and Peter laughed out loud, throwing his head back in delight.

When they walked to the car at the end of the night, Tony could feel that something had changed between them. He felt like all that time he knew Peter he had been missing a huge chunk of information, which made all the difference in the world. He could see Peter now, the real him. The ride to his place was taken in comfortable silence and when Tony parked his car, neither of them moved. The older man turned towards the younger one and licked his lips. He knew the answer to the question he was gonna ask, he knew he deserved it, but still –  

“Can I get you number?” It wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to apologize, show the kid a good time as a way of making it up to him for the terrible things he said and move on. Go back to work, go back to his life, but now – now he was stuck. Looking at Peter and seeing a whole new person. Someone he wanted to get to know more, but knew he didn’t deserve.

“Oh, I don’t know, do you think you can afford it?” Peter teased, and Tony actually blushed, embarrassed to remember how much of a dick he’d been.

“Ugh, I said I was sorry,” he mumbled, rubbing a hand across his face, only to hear Peter’s delighted chuckle.

“I’m just kidding, don’t worry. But I don’t think It’s a good idea, Tony.” He bit his lower lip and Tony nodded to himself, because, yeah, he knew it wasn’t. It shouldn’t be. Because Peter deserved so much better than him. “But this was nice. Thank you for caring enough to apologize.”

“It was the least I could do.” He gave him a small smile and was taken by surprised when the young man unceremoniously leaned in and kissed him. Tony didn’t waste any time burying his hand in his hair, pulling him impossibly close as their lips brushed softly and tongues met in a sweet embrace. The young man pulled away after just a few seconds, though, and Tony didn’t even have the courage to open his eyes and acknowledge it was over. “Are you sure this isn’t a good idea? Because it sure tastes like a great fucking idea. I would know, I have great ideas all the time, ask anyone.” Tony whispered and Peter laughed, his face was still so close the older man could feel his breath on his lips.

“Goodbye, Tony. Good luck with your company,” he smiled, as he opened to door to get out of the car.

“I’ll miss you on my team.” Which was to say, I’ll miss you. Plain and simple.

“I’m sure you’ll find a replacement in no time.” I won’t, I don’t want to. I want you. “Gotta go now, I have work in the morning. Bye!” He got out and closed the door behind him, waving one last time before he walked away.

“Goodbye, Peter,” he whispered to the empty car, hands clutching the steering-wheel as he watched the boy disappear into the building.

--*--

Working at Oscorps was not the same without Peter. First, because he was actually a very good intern who helped a lot with every single task Tony assigned him. Second, because even though he hadn’t noticed it before, he always looked forward to talking to him. To learning those tiny little pieces of information the boy let escape through his lips once in a while, only to blush profusely and apologize seconds later.

Still, he kept going. Norman never bothered him, which was nice, and as the remaining months passed, Tony’s name became more and more recognizable, he closed so many deals over the course of that year, he was able to more than double his team and the office and lab they used to work got way too small for them. He started looking for some other place to go and the more he thought about it, more sense it made to move SI headquarters to California. Most of his partners were there and he would also be closer to his suppliers and many other business opportunities.

So after talking to Pepper, Nat, Rhodey, Happy and Bruce – “the original six”, as they liked to call themselves, including Tony –, he decided to move right after his contract with Oscorps was done in December. Those last few months were crazy and got crazier when B.A.R.F. was finally announced to the public. Both the product and the technology behind it sent Stark Industries to a whole other level, their stocks skyrocketed and Tony literately became the richest man in New York overnight, even richer than Norman – and that was saying something.

Which was why, when December rolled around and Osborn invited him to dinner to discuss the possibility of renewing the contract and he showed up with some supermodel hanging off his arm, he couldn’t help but think of the first time he was in that same situation. He remembered how nervous he was before the dinner, how excited he felt when they closed the deal and how gorgeous Peter looked that night. But he remembered, specially, what Osborn did to the younger man months after that. How he’d treated him, what he’d said to him.

“So, what do you say, Stark? Wanna be partners for five more years?” Osborn’s smile was kind of creepy, he hadn’t noticed it before. He offered him a hand and Tony stared at it for what felt like hours, although it was probably only a few seconds. It was great fucking deal, way better than the one he had before, but –

“You know what, Norman?” He smiled to himself and took a deep breath, wishing he was wearing his smart glasses so he could record his reaction. “Fuck you.” He beamed, standing up from his chair, admiring the expression of shock and horror on the older man’s face. He buttoned his suit jacket and, still smiling like a madman, left the restaurant like he owned the place – which he could, if he wanted.

On his last night in New York, he decided to look for Peter. He didn’t want to pressure him or anything, but they hadn’t seen each other in almost six months, so maybe something might have changed for him. Tony still couldn’t get him out of his head, each day that passed he wished he’d done things differently, so fucking differently.

He wished he’d been nicer, from day one. He wished he had lived up to his expectations, his hero worship. He wished he could have been a decent human being, a shoulder to cry on that night he was so vulnerable and broken. He wished he could have wooed him and gotten him to fall in love with him, the way he’d fallen for him.

He wanted a second chance, he really did, but when he knocked on the door of the apartment the boy used to live, the place where Tony had said goodbye to him all those months ago, some stoned college kid answered the door. When he asked about Peter, the boy just shrugged.

“He moved away a while ago, dude. Got a job somewhere or something.”

So that was it. Tony didn’t have his number and Peter wasn’t on social media – at least Jarvis couldn’t find him, and he sure as hell looked. So he gathered the last of his stuff and left New York for good, mind wandering to those few moments he’d spent with Peter, thinking how different things could have been if he hadn’t been so quick to judge.

No point crying over spilled milk.

Stark Industries flourished in L.A. All of Tony’s crazy, genius ideas were funded, so he finally finished his arc reactor project – something he’d started as a teen, but didn’t have the resources to continue – and started a line of electronics – computers, cellphones, tablets, all the good stuff. After the first couple of months, he bought a mansion in Malibu, just because he could, and finally felt like his life was heading in the right direction.

Still, it felt like there was a Peter-shaped whole in it, which was insane, they’d only known each other for a little over five months, it made no sense how much he missed him, they hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, and still there were nights he could fucking smell Peter’s scent on his sheets – sheets he’d never even laid on. Could feel his soft skin under his fingertips as he hugged his pillow close to his chest, the way he wished he’d held him that night when he stormed off, humiliated and hurt. Those nights he couldn’t sleep, could only stare at the ceiling, trying to figure out time travel, just so he could go back and fix things.

Once he was settled in California, he was invited to give lectures in universities all over the country. MIT was first, then NYU, Stanford, Yale, UCLA and, finally, Caltech in late November. His lectures were usually about the arc reactor, clean energy was in fashion, everybody was talking about it, and the fact that he figured out cold nuclear fusion was still a very hot topic.  

It was still early in the evening when he finished his lecture at Caltech, a few students stayed behind to ask him questions or just talk for a bit, Tony had become sort of a celebrity for nerds, and he didn’t mind staying a little late talking to those starry-eyed kids, so it was already dark out when he was done. When he thought he was alone, he started gathering his things, thinking of somewhere he could eat in Pasadena before he headed back to Malibu, when he heard it. That sweet, unmistakable voice.

“That was a hell of a lecture.” Tony turned around slowly, almost afraid to be wrong, but there was no way he’d be. Peter was there, staring back at him, standing by the door with his arms crossed over his chest and a slight blush on his cheeks. “Hey. Long time, no see.”

“You ran away from me, kid.” He breathed out, letting his hands fall to his sides, even though they itched to touch, his legs were shaking with desire to run to the younger man, but he stood still, afraid that if he moved, the spell would be broken and he would realize that Peter was just an illusion.

“That’s a big ego you got there if you think I’d make such a dramatic life change just for you, old man.” He stepped into the room slowly, until he was standing right in front of Tony, close enough to touch, but neither of them did. “I’m getting my Masters here. I heard you were coming for a lecture.”

“So you came by to say hi?” Tony cocked his head to the side and Peter chuckled, nodding.

“Yes. Hi.” He perched himself on the desk Tony was using during his lecture and it was the older man’s turn to move to stand in front of him.

“Hi.” He smiled, stepping closer, paying attention to see if the young man was in any way uncomfortable by his actions, but he didn’t even flinch.

“So, I heard you ditched Norman.” He crossed his arms over his chest again, a small smile on his lips.

“I believe my exact words were ‘fuck you’, actually.” That made Peter laugh, throwing his head back and exposing his long throat. “I missed you kid.”

“Couldn’t find an intern to make you coffee and fawn over you while you were at Oscorps?” He jabbed a finger in his chest and Tony caught it in his hand.

“Couldn’t find you. Anywhere. And I looked.” He confessed, not letting go of his hand, not looking away from his eyes. “Couldn’t stop thinking about you and all the things I didn’t say.”

“Such as?” Peter asked coyly, biting his lower lip as he looked at Tony from under his eyelashes.

“I’ll miss you. Don’t go. Give me a chance. I’ll make this work. I’m in love with you. Things like that, you know.” He didn’t care that he was putting his heart on the line, he couldn’t choke on those words anymore, and if that was the last chance he ever got to say them, at least he could sleep peacefully at night. Peter blushed deeply, lips parted in shock, but then his face stretched in a slow, lazy smile, eyes focused on Tony’s.

“Can I buy you coffee?” He asked quietly, blinking slowly, and the older man shrugged, pretending to consider it.

“Depends. Can I buy you dinner? And don’t you dare ask if I can afford it.” He closed the distance between them as Peter laughed out loud, head thrown back in delight.

“I was just gonna say yes,” he promised, as he placed his hands on Tony’s shoulders, allowing him to come stand in between his legs. “Which is something I regretted not saying.” He confessed. “So, coffee first?”

“Yeah, coffee first.” Tony leaned down to kiss his lips, and they tasted so familiar, so right, and he knew it was crazy, because they shouldn’t, they were together for such a short time and Tony wasn’t a fucking teenager, he was a grown man, and he didn’t know how in the fuck he fell in love so hard and so fast, but he did. “It’s so good to see you.” He stole yet another kiss from him and felt the younger man’s lips stretching in a smile under his. Suddenly, he was reminded of a conversation they’d had over a year earlier. “So, do you think this is the happy ending scene in our movie or what?” He asked a beaming Peter, who pretended to examine his face carefully, before answering with a grin.

“I guess we’ll see.”

[ohwereusingourmadeupnames]

You Slow It Down

Pairing: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Rating: M (Mature) Word Count: ~3.6K Notes: This is my Secret Santa gift to @sideeyedkinks for the @starkerfestivals fic exchange! I enjoyed making the prompt fit into the inner workings of my head and hope I did it justice!  Warnings: There be some NSFW stuff, but that’s about it!  Prompt: Tony fully expects that Peter, being a tech-y Gen Z, will prefer texting to phone calls. But whenever Peter initiates contact, it's a phone call. Summary:

Instead of continuing with his journey as Iron-Man, Tony Stark takes a couple of steps back in hopes of finding himself. After 5 years of living harmoniously with the world around him and the position he created for himself within the Avenger organization, Tony literally bumps into the start of the rest of his life. It's funny how life works - the best things always come when they're least expected.

Or, the one where Tony is obsessed with Christmas trees (& Peter Parker, too).

Read it on AO3 here. 

After the debacle with Killian and what felt like an ultimatum from Pepper, Tony took a huge step back from everything; his relationship and the Iron Man suit included. Of course, he didn’t pull his support away from Avenger business or leave them high and dry – consulting specifically with their tech and only their tech became his main gig. When the weight of the world was on his shoulders, sometimes his decision-making processes weren’t up to par – there were too many things that shadowed his vision; too many things that inhabited his head that the world shouldn’t see.

With every step away from the active duty stuff, the better things seemed to be. It started with sleep. Before, Tony would toss and turn; his head filled to the brim with ideas and visions – not so good times past. Little by little, Tony found himself sleeping through the night, his slumber the best he could remember in all of his grown-up years. And the lack of anxiety – Tony’s constant companion for so many years – it felt like a sweet release from the tomb he didn’t know he let himself fall into. Everyday things started to feel good again – including the work that he let himself drift from when he thought the world depended on him and him alone.

Before he knew it, five years were behind him – five years filled with successful technology advances, big rehabilitation in the city, and lots of actual enjoyment of his life. Tony allowed himself to actually get to know Happy; the man was a bundle of ideas, his take on security and the inner most running of Stark Industries both beneficial and fun to kick around when they found the time. Despite still having his toe in the world saving pool, Tony removed himself from it enough to make a place for his wants and needs that wasn’t riddled with grief and the terrifying idea of letting everyone down.

In his enjoyment, Tony found himself getting into the holiday spirit as the city turned from the hum-drum busy-ness to a gorgeous winter wonderland. In all the years of living in New York, the decorations never stood out; until he looked, of course – then, he couldn’t stand to look away.

Which is how he found himself standing in front of the lit-up tree at Rockefeller Center, the multicolored lights and unique ornaments covering the tree making his heart race, the feeling new each time he stood in front of the towering spruce. Tony was so wrapped up in the beauty before him that he didn’t realize he’d taken a few steps backward until he was full body colliding with what could only be another human being – his breath leaving him upon impact.

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry – “ the lump of human murmured, his hands on Tony’s biceps before he could catch a look at his tackler turned savior.

Tony took a second to register a couple of things while the words sunk in – the first was that the body now pressed against his own was warm and what could only be described as firm. The second, and most important, was the way the other person’s hands felt in their grip against the upper part of his arm. Almost like he’d fallen asleep on the limbs, both arms were tingling, the place of contact on fire from the rightness of the touch. A shuddered breath left his lips before Tony could even think to respond.

“It was probably my fault. I’ve been staring at the fucking tree for who knows how long – I tend to wonder when I’m hyper focused like that.” Tony finally felt steady enough on his feet to take in the person standing in front of him smiling a gorgeously embarrassed grin.

“I was doing the same thing. Ever since I left for Cambridge, coming back and seeing the tree is more important than it used to be.” The man – the beautiful, young man stepped back then, his hand lingering on Tony’s arm for a second longer before dropping down into the space between them, a bigger grin on his face. “I can’t really say I’m mad about the collision, it kind of seems fated that we meet like this.” He stopped for a moment, taking more of Tony in – and then – “I’m Peter.”

Tucking his bottom lip between his teeth to stop the mega-watt smile from overtaking his face, Tony ducked his head and returned the handshake, his hand tingling all the while. “Maybe you’re right – you’re a fellow tree lover after all. I’m Tony – Tony Stark.” For a second, he held his breath, not sure what kind of reaction he was going to get from the handsome stranger.

As if reading his mind, Peter gave his hand a squeeze, cheeks blooming with a delightful red. “I know – I’m studying Engineering at MIT; you’re kind of a legend.”

A soft laugh left Tony’s lips at that, the breath he’d been holding slipping out with relief. Regardless of what the kid actually knew about him, Tony appreciated the tact – he felt his pride swell with the compliment. His time at MIT was treasured, despite what the rags told the public about it.

“An engineer, huh? How are the new labs? I heard they were starting to finally integrate the holoscreen technology.”

From there, the conversation just took off. Peter gushed about the leaps his research was taking now that the available technology was up to par. Despite being only 21, Peter was a semester from graduating – his hunger for achievement and knowledge apparent in every word out of his mouth. It was easy – talking to someone that showed genuine interest in all the pieces of Tony; not just the techy brilliance or his time in the suit. They walked around the tree a couple of times before making their way to a coffee shop where they occupied the table until very close to closing time.

His eyes still sparkling with the thrill of meeting someone he instantly liked, Tony bucked up some confidence and invited Peter back to the penthouse with him. “I know we just met, but I like you. Want to come back to my place?” Their bodies migrated closer and closer throughout the night, his hand finally wrapping around Peter’s as he spoke.

He felt a spark of hope slip down his spine when Peter shifted his hand just enough to tie their fingers together, the fit nice, just right down to the thread of the inside of each digit. Peter’s hand felt like it was on fire, the heat warming him up down to the very core.

“I think I’d like that,” Peter finally replied, his voice warm and a touch deeper, the idea obviously appealing to him in some fashion.

Tony didn’t give any opportunity for either of them to talk themselves out of it. He urged Peter up and to the curb with a squeeze on his hand, their steps steady as they navigated through the crowd on the sidewalk to where Tony parked his car – their hands only parting when Peter settled safely into the passenger seat.

Luckily, the drive back didn’t take long – the silence in the car was comfortable yet tinged with a sort of lust that encompassed everything. It felt good – to feel a nice kind of apprehension. There was a part of him that reveled at the novelty of the feeling. In all his years, Tony hadn’t felt anything like this – a burning desire that was consuming.

They didn’t let the dam break until the elevator dinged as they arrived in the foyer of Tony’s penthouse, the nearness to each other in the elevator car more than enough to sustain the need. And yet, the second the door opened, Peter’s arms were grabbing Tony’s hips, their lips sealing together without wasting a beat.

As quickly as possible when sealed from lip to toe, Tony steered them back towards his bedroom, the pair stopping every time a hard surface came into their periphery. Tony had to stop himself from letting Peter press him against the wall to take him right then and there. A gasp of success sounded when they finally tumbled into the bedroom, Tony breaking their connection to suck in a breath and do the dirty work of undressing.

Peter’s eyes watched him closely as he shrugged off his jacket, his scarf and hat hitting the floor with it. His fingers were cold, but still nimble enough to steadily undo the buttons of the warm flannel he put on in preparation of being out in the cold. His torso was completely bare by the time Peter blinked and started to disrobe himself.

Without much hesitation on either part, Tony and Peter met in the middle of the bed once the layers of clothing were coating the bedroom floor. Tony’s back pressed to against the mattress as Peter settled over him, the limbs that still spoke of youth covering him completely.

Long fingers ran through his graying hair, Peter’s eyes roaming over his face unblinkingly, as if trying to memorize his features. Tony let him have his fill as his own hands wandered over bare skin, the smoothness of it a perfect addition to the hard muscle residing just under the surface.

“You’re beautiful,” Peter mumbled, each word loud in the soft quiet surrounding them. His eyes were earnest, as if he needed Tony to know how real the words were. “You have the craziest eyes.”

Before Tony could even think to respond, Peter was in action – the quick shift in tone almost too much for the moment. Yet, Tony didn’t even want to stop the moan from slipping out of his lips when Peter let their groins settle together, the shift of their cocks together delicious in the ‘need more’ kind of way. Tony let his fingers grip Peter’s skin a little tighter, the thought of leaving a mark on him adding to it all.

The lack of shyness from the younger man didn’t surprise Tony one bit. The way he spoke of his interests told Tony that there was a deep passion residing in Peter’s belly – the extent of it translating to this aspect of his existence, too. Exploring lips made a trail from the side of Tony’s neck to the junction of his thigh before pressing against the warmth of his dick, making his entire body jump from each passing stimulus.

Tony was just cognizant enough to reach out behind him, his hand fumbling over the bedside table until he could grasp the drawer and pull out the necessary supplies. He thrust them in Peter’s direction his eyes lingering on the ceiling in hopes of not embarrassing himself by coming too soon. On top of the long stint between the last connection with another human being, Tony felt a fire that burned hot – hotter than ever before. There wouldn’t be much need to even touch him once Peter really got going.

The softness of Peter’s touch made it easy for Tony to forget the discomfort of being stretched open again, this particular act one he hadn’t partaken in for quite a while. The slick slide of too much lube and knowledgeable fingers made the usually awkward process an easy escape; nothing else existed but Peter, the weight of his body, and touch of his hands – a touch that felt like it was everywhere all at once.

His patience wearing thing, Tony let his hand drift to Peter’s shoulder, his fingers pressing desperately into his skin. “I’m ready. Please – you need to fuck me.”

The breathiness of his voice usually would’ve caused a surge of anxiety, but the look on Peter’s face at the words didn’t allow any negative feeling to sink in. His stomach tightened as a beaming smile answered him – Peter shifted with an energy that spoke of excitement and anticipation, both feelings that Tony didn’t realize could be so damn enjoyable.

Peter gripped the back of his thigh tightly with his free hand as the other shifted a now condom covered cock, the length glistening with the sheen of lube in the small amount of lamplight. Tony forced himself to relax with every inch that Peter pressed inside of him – the feeling of being stretched by someone that touched more than just his physical body overwhelming; their connection ran deep, Tony could feel it even after such a short time together.

The luscious feeling of Peter bottoming out pulled a moan from Tony’s chest, his hands shifting in an attempt to pull the other’s weight over top of him. Getting the hint, Peter prompted Tony to wrap his legs around his waist, then let his upper body fall forward, his arms cradling Tony’s head, the ripple of his firm stomach brushing against an already leaky dick between them.

With the shift in position, Peter slipped even deeper, the head of his cock pressing smoothly against Tony’s prostate without even a single move of either of their hips. His eyes glazed over; the fingers now buried in Peter’s hair gripping in an attempt to stay in the moment.

“You feel amazing. The sort of full that shouldn’t be possible,” Tony mumbled through a few panted breaths, his stomach and lower half finally relaxing to a point where Peter felt like he could move. Slim hips shifted, the swivel of them driving the contact with his prostate a few ticks further up the pleasure meter.

Their lips were once against sealed together as Peter started to set a solid rhythm, the push and pull between them in sync, their bodies moving in a way that was too easy to bring the end rushing towards them both before either of them were ready. Tony clung to every one of Peter’s movements, the long muscles shifting under his hands, the warm skin covered in sweat to the point where their movements were so easy because of it.

The friction of the slick slide of the skin of Peter’s stomach against his erection with every thrust pulled Tony’s orgasm from him, the feeling of it suddenly hitting him a surprise in its own right. The tightening of his ass around Peter’s length inside him was enough to pull the other over the edge with him, Tony feeling the stuttering thrust just seconds after his stomach tightened and the world shattered for a few blissful moments.

Burying his face in Tony’s neck, Peter let his breath brush against the skin there, the comedown between them just as sweet as the raucous coupling moments earlier. Tony held him closely, the ache in his legs from sustaining the same position not enough to override the utter bliss of a good orgasm and a gorgeous man pressed against him.

----

For the remainder of the days between their meeting and Christmas, Tony and Peter stayed wrapped up in each other. They shared a multitude of takeaway, lots of sex, and time in the lab that Tony introduced Peter to when he finally felt like it was right to get out of bed; it’d been a long time since an attractive and totally youthful person shared the luxury of his Egyptian cotton sheets.

It was easy to pass the holiday with Peter where they snuggled by the fire with the tall tree in their view. They exchanged last minute gifts in the form of physical contact and time spent together – both figuring out just how enjoyable it could be to have a person around that just seemed to get it.

Tony wanted the time to stop so he could keep Peter forever, but it flew by them instead; before he was ready, they were heading into the last day of the younger man’s break. In their isolated time spent together, it was easy to forget that each had lives existing outside the creature comforts of his penthouse and the small bodega across the street. The last few hours before Peter was meant to be on the train back to Cambridge were agonizing, both anticipating the distance already, despite the physical need to rotate within each other’s orbit at all times.

“It’s not goodbye, Tony,” Peter mumbled into Tony’s stubbled neck, his lips caressing the skin there.

His fingers were toying with the small hairs at the back of Tony’s head, the soft comfort of the touch enough to keep him from being too sad about the situation. Leaning into the touch, Tony nodded, his nose brushing against the swell of Peter’s cheek.

“I know – I’m just going to miss you. I probably won’t catch a break until you’re due back for spring break, so I’m trying to soak you in before I don’t see you for a while.” Tony punctuated the words by breathing in a deep breath, his chest tight with the long drawn in pull of oxygen.

Peter pulled him into a swift hug before either of them could say anything else. They already talked about the end of the semester, the time where Tony could actually have Peter to himself without disrupting both of their lives. The promise of more was tantalizing, more than enough to get him through, but a tease all the same. Tony returned the embrace, his fingers digging into the jacket Peter nabbed from his closet.

They shared a brief kiss before separating completely, Tony flashing him a soft smile. “Go – you’ll miss your train if I let myself keep you here any longer.” Tony brushed his fingers over Peter’s cheek, the touch more than enough to say the words he couldn’t get out. “Let me know when you get in.”

There wasn’t any hesitation in Peter’s movements as he got out of the car, his eyes catching Tony’s as he turned back briefly, the obvious need to completely turn around apparent in every minute movement. He shot a quick wave over his shoulder, Tony grinning before returning the gesture.

Getting home from the train station, Tony let himself get lost in his work, the hope of distracting himself from Peter’s absence obvious in the way he tried to bury his being completely. He must’ve been successful because the next conscious thought he could recall came from the ringing of his phone, the cheesy ringtone he set for Peter’s calls sounding around the lab. Quirking a brow, Tony wondered about the phone call – most people Peter’s age were all about texting. He expected to have most of their conversations over the easy to send messages.

Unable to suppress a smile, Tony swiped his finger across the phone to answer the call, his tone rich with the affection he felt. “I take it you made it in okay?” Tony questioned in a way of greeting, the awkwardness he usually felt over the phone vanishing.

Peter laughed, the sound settling low in Tony’s belly. He missed the heck out of everything about him already; the thought making his gut clench.

“I did – I slept the entire way on the train; I was home before I could blink, it felt like.”

And so, things went – Tony worked on the tech on his to-do list in between phone calls with Peter when his boyfriend had a spare minute between all of the crazy academic things he was currently pursuing. When the ringtone for a call came in, Tony let a small smile slip across his lips – every time the action surprising him. He didn’t know if it was just Peter, the man unique in his own right, or if it was a necessity now that they knew and understood the connection between them. Tony liked the sound of Peter’s voice and hoped the feeling was mutual.

When they were finally able to meet for spring break, it was like no time at all had passed between them. There wasn’t much better than seeing each other in person, but the familiar pitch and sound of Peter’s voice felt like a constant companion – enough of a connection to feel like they weren’t so far apart, after all.

And when the time came for Peter to come back home for real, Tony waited impatiently for the phone to ring, his being totally in tuned with the shrill sound of the ringtone that was now so damn familiar. He felt his face splitting into a wide grin when it eventually did go off, his body already in motion – this was the last time he needed to go to the train station to pick his best friend up.

The words “turn around” stopped him dead in his tracks, the echo of them making him look up, his limbs moving before Tony even knew what he was doing.

Peter stood there with the phone pressed against his cheek, the key Tony gave him during his last trip dangling from the other hand. Without a second thought, Peter hung up the phone, the thing falling from his hands with the force in which he moved across the room towards Tony.

Long arms were pulling him into a hug within seconds, Peter’s hands digging under Tony’s shirt without any further preamble. Returning the hug, Tony let himself bury his nose in Peter’s neck, his smile tickling the fine hairs there.

“Welcome home, Petey.”

[the-cyberpunk-zeitgeist]

The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist

>>>𝕄𝕜𝕕𝕚𝕣 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"...

>>>ℂ𝕕 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕕.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕜𝕝𝕖𝕡𝕥.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 <𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘-𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕: 

      "𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪.𝕙" 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕>

>>>𝔼𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕘𝕖: "ℂ𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖. 𝕎𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕥."

>>>...

Flash into the past and look into the future. Recall the early stages of the digital age—the new millennium—and how, at the precipice of a thousand transformations, civilization was defined by its endless climbing innovation. In the 80’s and 90’s, when consumer use of the personal computer was infecting society like a virus, our entire idea of communication changed. The net became a pivotal point in shaping what it meant to be human. Through an ever-expanding web of information, human innovation seemed to spiral until promising “authorship over reality itself”. Those who felt constrained by the world, escaped into a fractal space with infinite possibilities of connecting with others. 

Douglas Rushkoff termed it ‘Cyberia’—a dreamlike place offering “a way to crack open our civilization’s closed-mindedness, and to allow for a millennial transition that offered something a lot better than apocalypse: consciously driven evolution”, but the mesmerizing unity in this newfound cyberscape didn’t last. What followed—what we see around us now—may lead us to believe that all is lost, but perhaps there’s something more than war, corporate politics, espionage. Perhaps, there still exist some humans among us interested in a higher cause: unlocking the mysteries.

While the net was first adopted solely by military personnel and groups of scientists across academia who saw fit to interconnect themselves for research and communication purposes, it soon fell into the hands of the geeks using hypertext forums to discuss niche hobbies or send pictures to one another. The net became a mystic place of interlocking minds, where interconnected collections of data contributed to the neural network of humans that composed a global brain. As this paradise aged, however, the desire of investors to monetize and capitalize from the cyberscape arose alongside it. Advertisements flooded the web; businesses sprung up in every forum, website, and chat client. It wasn’t long into the 21st century that the nature of the web was forever molded by a greed to optimize its use for social credit, capital, and leverage for everything from corporate intelligence, to data harvesting, to control and censorship of media. The symbol of freedom and exploration was thus transformed into a stratified market and a subversive survival game. It’s all so… Cyberpunk.  

In the 80’s and 90’s, alongside the rise of computers and the net, came the rise of Cyberpunk literature—a sci-fi subgenre defined by its retro aesthetics intermixed with contrasting commentary that showed us the wonders of new technology while simultaneously revealing the deep divide that emerged as a result of inequality. Pioneers like William Gibson in Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, and Katsuhiro Otomo in Akira revealed the true impact of this divide. In a world where everyone in the streets is chromed up with augmented cybernetic prostheses, but can still hardly afford to eat—a world where cities have been replaced by endlessly sprawling megalopoli—we’re left immersed in the aesthetics of ‘high tech-low life’ people struggling to get by. 

Cyberpunk showed sci-fi fans what it might look like if kleptocratic corporations spiralled further and further into the power vacuum created by advancing technology. If caution and regulation aren’t put in place to protect the people from marvelous creations that humanity could hardly predict outside of science fiction, the people are further exploited and economic classes are further stratified. When this is combined with life-threatening dangers around every corner, the difference between economic class can mean life and death. 

While the additional flourishes of weapons-grade cyborgs, sentient and sentimental artificial intelligence, and laser guns can make Cyberpunk seem like a farfetched reach into a future that will never come, I am here to tell you that this is Society, and we are living in it. Around the world, rising sea levels begin to swallow more of the coastline, and megafires consume any shred of nature or infrastructure in their path. Both of these events are spurred by human-driven climate change which is created in large part by first-world corporations churning out fossil fuels or slicing up rainforests for profit. The global hivemind that is the internet has become the limitless communications apparatus we wanted it to be, but it is covered in adverts and subverts its users attempts to harness its power with misinformation, propaganda, and profit-driven exclusive content. Riots over authoritarian state measures have propped up not only in the United States, but in Hong Kong, Belarus, and all across the globe. Pandemic disease and refugee crises displace hundreds of thousands of humans each year, and the rich keep getting richer by the billions.

In more recent Cyberpunk writing like William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Gibson describes the Jackpot:

And first of all that it was no one thing. That is was multicausal, with no particular beginning and no end. More a climate than an event, so not the way apocalypse stories liked to have a big event, after which everybody ran around with guns… or else were eaten alive by something that caused the big event. Not like that.

It was androgenic… that meant because of people. Not that they’d known what they were doing, had meant to make problems, but they’d caused it anyway. And in fact the actual climate, the weather, caused by there being too much carbon, had been the driver for a lot of other things. How that got worse and never better, and was just expected to, ongoing. Because people in the past, clueless as to how that worked, had fucked it all up, then not been able to get it together to do anything about it, even after they knew, and now it was too late.

...it killed 80 percent of every last person alive, over about forty years.

Jackpot. The repercussions of humanity’s actions finally catch up, and those bits of humanity that do remain are saved by an extreme surge in innovation that manages to save society’s elites. As Douglas Rushkoff puts it in his recent essay The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods, more and more of those who have the capital to do so have already begun their plans, whether those plans are to escape to Mars or to set themselves up with a cushy work-from-home job while the lower class workers are forced into the public during the pandemic crisis. The need to automate away positions for the safety of our species is becoming even more prevalent than it once was in the minds of corporate conglomerates, but the cancerous overgrowth of our bureaucracy has become so bloated and tripped up in its own processes that we can no longer look to our political systems to keep up with the exploitation of innovation. Lo and behold, the world’s looking pretty CPAF to me.

Where have the visions of Cyberia gone? What happened to the early stages of internet punks, pushed aside in their desire to surf the datasphere purely for the rush of uncovering swathes of data? Where did visions of “authorship over reality itself” twist to become ‘authorship over reality by those with the capital to control’? It may seem that this explosive spiral of technological innovation in the new millennium is driving us towards extinction and only saving those with enough coins in their pockets to buy a ticket on the ark, but perhaps it’s not too late to change course and save ourselves from the ultimate Jackpot.

United by the global nature of the net, every one of us is connected as a single living entity that is the Earth—a Technogaia. Developments in artificial intelligence promises us exponential increase in information processing capabilities across all fields. Breakthroughs in genetic engineering could allow us to delete diseases from our genomes, and have already shown minor success in the de-extinction of species. With the first cyborg part already installed in each of our pockets, every citizen can extend their minds beyond capacity; each one of us becomes a journalist at a moment’s notice when injustice needs to be documented and challenged. Nuclear, hydrogen, solar, and wind energy lead us towards a cleaner and greener future. The rise of urban ecology shows a path to optimize the use of space to lower humanity’s carbon impact while providing more space for habitat rehabilitation and the reintroduction of lost biodiversity.

In the palm of our hands, humanity has taken control of the world. With science and technology, we’ve become the manipulators, but if we do not recognize what our impact is on the Dao of Earth, we may tip the scales too far into the Chaos. I’ll be honest in saying things look grim, but these same innovations that have paved the way for flying killbots and smoke stacks spewing gases into the sky have given us the power to reshape the world in a beneficial image. Futurist politicians call for universal basic income in a world increasingly run by machines. Transhumanists pave the way for the radical extension of the human lifespan. Technogaians design solarpunk arcologies to house a society ready to save their Earth rather than one intent on consuming it. Cyberians fight for our rights to privacy and the freedom of information. Just as the visions of grim dystopias in the 80's and 90’s saw themselves transformed into modern realities, we can use humanity’s greatest tool—this near-deific domain over innovation—to mold this fractal reality into our vision. But is it chaos, order, or some harmonious Dao in between that we seek? 

No matter our choice, it’s going to take a lot of united high tech-low life cyberpunks to get there. This is the Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, and we’re living it.

For more works by The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, see our Twitter page @CyborgZeitgeist

[royalreef]

@candyredmuses​ || 𝔑𝔬𝔱 𝔖𝔞𝔣𝔢 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔉𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔓𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢𝔰𝔰

(( Ask and you shall receive the merfolk sex talk.

So. Merfolk junk, reproduction, and why I say there’s no gender in the ocean. Buckle the fuck up, because you’re in for a ride.

To begin with, merfolk have 5 associated genital setups.

The first two are what you’d expect, only a vagina or only a dick. Fairly standard here. The only thing of note is of the dick itself ( I’m getting to the appearance of it ) exists within a sheathe, so basically, all merfolk junk looks the same from the outside - just a slit on their crotch. 

The third is having both. Full dick, full vagina too, both of them working and fine and everything. Dick just as big as the solo dick version. as you would expect.

The last two are basically the intersex options between those, and even then, they have their own uniqueness. In either one, either the vagina or the dick isn’t quite as... I guess developed, for lack of a better term, as with the both option, but both dick and vag are functional to themselves. The dick is usually smaller, less textured, more sensitive, or the vag is tighter, more sensitive, not as accommodating on large insertions ( GETTING TO THAT ).

However, there’s a particular thing to keep in mind here.

The distribution of these junk-options isn’t even.

In shallow areas near the surface, you get the closest to even. 30% of the population has the sole dick or sole-vag option, and that’s about the highest that it gets. In other areas, I’d say about 10% of the population has only a dick or only a vagina on average, but in a lot of places, it’s even lower, highly favoring the intersex options.

This occurs because, well... The ocean is a big place. When merfolk were still in their evolutionary stages, it could be very hard to find a partner in the big blue, and you really want to make sure when you do find someone, you can actually make kids with them. So, it is evolutionarily beneficial for these fish to have both sets, and likewise, they tended to disfavor sexual dimorphism since there wasn’t much difference in the first place. Not to mention, then you’re both more reproductively fit in an evolutionary standpoint if you can both have babies, and there’s more overall.

That’s why boobs and having boobs is not a secondary sex characteristic for merfolk like how it is in humans. I have yet to fully figure out what boobs DO and I still can’t decide if Miranda has nipples or not, but I can say so far that it’s really not sex-linked at all.

( Similarly, why merfolk don’t have a concept of gender. In the languages of mer, pronouns aren’t gendered, and why there’s a certain struggle when it comes to interaction with landfolk, because gender is HARD to understand when your entire culture has no care, need, or even idea of it. )

And this still goes even further. Merfolk can switch what their genitals look like. Of course, it’s more of a process and did happen more at random in the past, but with the merfolk forming civilizations and technological advancements and all - nowadays, the Merkingdom can easily trigger that switch as needed and/or desired. Of course, you can’t just go back and forth like a light switch, you need to have a recovery and acclimation period, but you can switch multiple times within your lifetime. Merfolk don’t see a problem with any of this.

And I should go into what their junk looks like, feels like, what their reproductive strategies are - but also this is long enough already so I’ll make it quick with no explanation.

The dicks and vaginas both are HIGHLY textured with exquisite muscle control. The dicks are semi-prehensile and have a few moving frills and textures attached to them beyond that, and the vaginas have intricate control over the muscles around them, both as a means of stimulation, and also just to keep water out, but they can straight up massage a dick too. The dicks are criminally big, 10 inches being on the smaller side, 12 being average, 14 being hung, and 16 inches being pornstar size for them. This has to do with a relevant “in-season” which has since been incorporated into a full festival in the Merkingdom, with a date corresponding with the spawning of reefs, but outside of like a week per year they’re “off-season”. There’s also probably a suppressant you can take if you want to limit that particular biological reaction, and no one judges you for going for it.

Merfolk pregnancies go forth like tiger shark pregnancies - they make many eggs, the eggs hatch internally, the pups all eat and fight each other, and when they’re born there’s usually only one pup remaining.

Miranda has the both-a-dick-and-vagina option, genital-wise, but most people won’t ever see her dick since she prefers to get off using her vagina and also people don’t expect the tiny mermaid princess to have a 14-inch dick that can tie itself into a knot and has more texture than a Bad Dragon toy. But most people do see that she has a larger-than-average “clit” and she has weird internal textures and a LOT of muscle control.

She’s also on constant birth control, due to the crown and no royal wanting to have a bastard running around.

( And if you’ve talked to me in the past and got Miranda’s dick size as 10 inches: yes, it was 10 inches before, but then I was challenged and I made it 14 inches. )

[alexandgrosa-blog]

If you haven't discovered online football betting yet

You're probably spending ages poring over newspapers and magazines to find all the best odds, then wasting hours of your life calling up sportsbooks on the phone, or even worse, driving round to them all to actually place your bets. Then what happens after the game? You have to drive round to all the shops again to actually collect your winnings. If you've got anything left in profit after you've paid for gas, you're doing well.

Offline football betting is an absolute nightmare. Luckily, I do all my football betting online. Online gambling  Thanks to the technology of the internet, I can find games, compare odds, place bets and collect my winnings all from the comfort of my couch at home, while drinking a beer if I want. Plus, I've got a ton of sports betting resources to help me plan my strategies and choose my bets wisely for maximum return. More about those in a minute.

5 Reasons Why Football Betting Online Is Better Than Offline

Convenience - Let's face it, it's so much easier to sit at home in your pyjamas to do your sports betting, than it is to get up, get dressed and drive for ages to actually get to a betting shop. Everything is at your fingertips at any time of day. You can watch the games live on TV and watch your winnings piling up on your computer at the same time.

Security - Online football betting is very safe and secure, as is all online sports betting. All the online sportsbooks are protected with military grade encryption technology to scramble all your personal details, and money is securely transferred between accounts just like a bank would.

Speed - Because it takes only a few seconds to place a bet, you can place more bets more often, and closer to the game which can sometimes give you an edge over other bettors, since you may have a better idea of how the game will progress just before it starts. If you want to do lots of sports betting, online is the only way to do it.

Diversity - Football isn't the only thing you can bet on online. You can bet on dozens of other sports too: baseball, basketball, horse racing, dog racing, snooker, boxing, soccer.. the list is endless. Remember the old saying, "don't put all your eggs in one basket". The same is true for sports betting - spread your bets far and wide, and find out what you're best at.

Opportunity - Thanks to the huge number of online sports books, there are many many opportunities for you to place good value bets. Healthy competition between sports books means better value for you, the bettor. Plus, thanks to some advanced software and betting research, many sports betting systems have been developed which can seriously improve your win-rate.

To sum it up, football betting  is a ridiculously easy way to make a ton of cash, but only if you've got the right system. Without it, you could lose everything you've got. Check ou] to learn how to get a 97% win-rate on all your bets by following an easy to use, step by step, one of a kind sports betting system. lot of people engage in football betting now so a football betting tutorial is exactly what these people need. A lot of people are really interested now in football but they are not only into the game. A tutorial will come in handy especially to those people who are first timers when it comes to football betting. The first thing you need to know is that betting is really purely luck. Of course, you win some and you loose some. However, there is a bigger chance of increasing your chances of winning through a tutorial.

How would you know if a tutorial is a good one? A thorough tutorial will first explain to you the basic rules of the sports you are betting on. For people who are first timers, this will be a way to get a grip on what you are really betting on. A good tutorial will also explain the odds of you winning or losing. There should also be an explanation of the each kind of bet and what each one means. These things are the general and basic information that each one who bets at football should know. However, a tutorial is not only for those who are first timers. A football betting tutorial may also be beneficial even to those who are already experienced.

Another thing that a good football tutorial can bring is a thorough clarification of the kinds of winnings in each bet. There is also what you call the spread betting. Spread betting is an essential area in football that should also be discussed and explained in the tutorial. Spread betting is said to make bigger winnings. This is the reason why a lot more people are choosing the spread betting option. However, the more winnings you get, the more risks you are also taking. This is why a thorough tutorial should really explain that spread betting is not for beginners. It is not the time yet for first timers to put their money on the line by spread betting because the experienced ones are the ones betting on it and this may be a big disadvantage for first timers.

Online betting has now become the fad in football and it has sprung more competition and chances for people to choose what they prefer. A good football tutorial will help a beginner sign up for online website, show and explain the betting choices that are available in a specific website. Do not be alarmed when it comes to online football betting because even if you are not that computer literate or techie, these online websites have user-friendly interfaces.

A good and thorough football betting tutorial will try their best to explain to the user that they have acquired all the information they need before they can start betting. They will also try to answer all the possible questions that the new user might be bothered about. A good tutorial, most importantly, will not give false hopes to the beginners but rather only help them increase their chances in winnin

[esgagile]

The advantages of sustainable farming and the methods involved

We are a Sustainability Reporting Consultant, A concerted effort is being made to modernize the agriculture sector, and the secret to sustainability is data-driven weather information. Farming decision-making has always been challenging to manage because there are so many restricting elements outside a farmer's control. The most important of these is the actual weather. We are using the availability of big data to assist in the evolution of contemporary agriculture so that it depends less on human labor and more on data-driven analysis. We realize that, as the world's population continues to rise and pressure on the agriculture sector intensifies, it is unrealistic to rely just on instinct and antiquated equipment. The Weather Company is committed to increasing food production while lowering its adverse effects on the environment and keeping operational expenses to a minimum.

As a Sustainability Reporting Consultant In Dubai, we are, therefore, creating agricultural solutions that rely on AI-driven insights, predictive analytics, and automated data collection as the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture. According to the idea of sustainable agriculture, people are involved in the agricultural sector in various capacities. We'll look at how we got here and why adopting contemporary farming methods is the right course of action for the planet's prosperity. There will always be the same quantity of arable land. We will need to raise more crops with our current resources to feed the growing population. At least a 70% increase in food production is required to feed this expanding population.

In our role as Sustainability Report Consultant In Dubai, Future generations can only produce and utilize our arable land if the agriculture sector moves beyond conventional approaches. Agriculture was primarily concerned with creating as many crops as possible using available land. Land protection and sustainable crop production received little attention. Profitability and resource and land conservation should have been prioritized financially. These are interdependent. Developing technologically advanced agricultural methods has significant benefits; advanced weather data and analytics will enable us to commit. By implementing sustainable methods, farmers may lessen their need for nonrenewable energy, use fewer chemicals, and conserve limited resources.

We believe as a Sustainability Reporting Consultant, Considering the growing population and increased need for food, maintaining the health and replenishment of the land can be beneficial. Everyone associated with the agriculture industry will gain from more intelligent farming practices and efficient food transportation from farm to table. Surprises are becoming rare because of the Internet of Things data from sensors built into everything from drones, satellite imaging, and spreaders to seed drills and sprayers. There is reason to be concerned about the projected population growth. Nowadays, there's a chance to innovate in agriculture from the perspective of pure production, and the most promising path is sustainable agriculture.

As an expert Sustainability Reporting Consultant In Dubai, Businesses committed to incorporating environmentally and socially conscious methods into their operations, goods, and supply chains practice sustainability. It entails a comprehensive strategy that makes a profit while also considering the planet's and its inhabitants' long-term well-being. This can refer to more specific actions like utilizing innovation in hotels or more general ones like using resources wisely. Modernizing agricultural techniques is a long-term project, but we want to lead the evolution of modern agriculture by leveraging the experience of seasoned industry leaders, decades of IBM research, artificial intelligence, analytics, and predictive insights combined with unique Internet of Things (IoT) data.

[fnewstoday]

Credit Card Market News And Changes In The Next Few Years

Almost every second American has several bank cards, that is why credit card market news are relevant for most residents of the USA. Such a variety of cards is due to the fact that they are allocated for various needs. Some, for example, are used to pay for daily purchases, others are saved for large expenses, others for travel and so on. This is due to different conditions for each of the cards. In this country, a credit rating is asked everywhere. Without certain level of credit score, you cannot profitably rent a house or buy a car. Of course, it is permitted to make transactions without a credit rating, only their conditions due to the fact that the company has no idea about your solvency and discipline will be less profitable. So, in America everything is tied to a credit rating, and it, in turn, starts with the use of credit cards.

The-future-of-credit-cards

Credit card features

The conditions of some credit cards are designed in such a way that they are convenient and beneficial for small purchases. For example, they have a very low interest rate, but with it a small grace period. Other credit cards are selected according to the type of accrued bonuses and it is advantageous to use them to compensate for part of the costs. Therefore, you need to pay attention to all these parameters when choosing the offers that are right for you, and therefore you should be aware of credit card market news. There have always been many banks in America. Some of them entered the national and international market, others operate on the territory of a particular state. There are thousands of them and in the conditions of fierce competition, banks offer their customers various credit programs with all kinds of bonuses. Citizens of America have learned to profitably play on the privileges offered by banks. You just need to choose some of the most favorable options for your life conditions, needs and income level. From credit card market news, you can find out that American banks also offer their customers special credit programs, choosing the conditions of cards in such a way that they are beneficial for certain actions. For example, many banking institutions offer special cards to raise credit ratings. They, as a rule, are deprived of additional bonuses, such as cashback, and have rather bad conditions for the client. But they are issued even to those with a poor credit rating, and frequent use and timely repayment of debts provide a chance to increase it. Some large stores issue their own credit cards, which can only be utilized in that stores for payments. For example, the Amazon Store and Amazon Prime cards issued by Synchrony Bank are an excellent instance of such an offer. All customers can get the Amazon Store, unlike the Amazon Prime card which may be available only to owners of a premium account. These credit cards have a fixed interest rate of 25%, but the Amazon Prime Store Card offers 5% cashback. Almost all credit cards can be ordered online and picked up by mail. It takes a different amount of time, but overall it is a hassle-free and quick procedure. However, consumer lending is gradually going online. Credit cards were no exception, and therefore new solutions in this segment are increasingly appears on the market, which over time can change the industry beyond recognition. Typically, most banks seek to offer their customers classic credit cards above all. This product is often offered somewhat intrusively in one way or another, while there are not so many really good and convenient offers from traditional banks. In addition, the process of obtaining a card over the past few decades has not changed significantly. For many years this could only be done at banks offices. Card delivery by courier or mail was considered a real breakthrough several years ago. Of course, plastic cards improved and changed over time, for instance, the built-in microchip replaced the magnetic strip, but basically the product remained the same as it was.

Virtual-credit-cards

Virtual credit cards

Meanwhile, credit card market news reports that contactless payment technologies, in particular Google Pay and Apple Pay, are gaining more and more popularity. The development of such services essentially means that the days of plastic cards are numbered. In some European countries, more and more ATMs are appearing, allowing customers to withdraw cash from their accounts without using cards. Identification of account holders takes place via SMS, in which they receive a unique code to complete a transaction at an ATM. Also, in some countries of the world, new generation of payment cards with wider functionality are being developed. For instance, smart cards are gaining popularity in Japan, which, in addition to payment functions, can be used for identification, travel on public transport, as well as for various benefits or discounts in retail networks. The introduction of such products creates opportunities for expanding intersectoral integration. However, in order to succeed in the market, a truly revolutionary product is simply obliged to meet all the existing demands of the modern consumer. It should be characterized by the availability of convenient service, security, attractive service conditions and advanced functionality. In the age of the Internet, credit cards must comply with the “spirit of the high-tech times”.

Apple card

In August 2019, Apple - the most successful mobile technology seller announced the launch of the Apple Card virtual bank card. Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, acts as a credit card issuer in partnership with the Mastercard payment system. For the present it is available only in the United States. Users can apply an Apple credit card on their own in a few minutes in the Wallet application. To get a card, you need a smartphone with iOS version no lower than 12.4 and an American Apple ID account. At the registration stage, you will need to enter the mailing address, date of birth, income level and the last four digits of the social security number. Then this data will be sent to Goldman Sachs, after which the bank representative will approve or reject the application. As soon as the application is approved, the credit card will immediately appear in the Wallet application. There you can view information about expenses, payments, accrued cashback. Spending is categorized automatically. Each card is assigned a virtual number for the possible cases when seller does not support the Apple Pay payment function. The Apple Card itself has no expiration date or security code. You can block it with one touch in Wallet, but to completely deactivate the card you need to write or call Goldman Sachs. For purchases with the Apple Card 2% cashback is credited once a day, including digital goods in the App Store, for payment with a physical card or virtual number 1% cashback will be credited. The annual interest rate will be from 12.99 to a little over 24%. Apple will not charge fee for annual maintenance, deferred payments, or international transactions. If it is desired, the user can order a physical card made of titanium. An NFC chip is built into such a credit card for making contactless payments without a smartphone.

The future of credit card market

Similar products will increasingly appear on the market in the future, which can be found out almost daily from credit card market news. Thanks to the development of financial technologies, the largest online trading platforms and retail chains have received a whole line of possible payment options for every taste, depending on the preferences of their customers. Buyers began to use various electronic wallets, cryptocurrencies, rechargeable prepaid cards, PayPal, Google Wallet, Bitcoin, Amazon Payments and many others. It is worth noting that due to the factor of transaction speed and ease of processing, the rate of active users for virtual cards is an order of magnitude higher than for holders of classic credit cards. After attaching to Google Pay and Apple Pay services, a virtual card can be used not only on the Internet, but also in ordinary offline stores. This trend has flaws, but overall is the driving force behind increasing sales and improving online sales services. Thus, traditional plastic cards will probably irrevocably become a thing of the past within closer 10 years.

Start-using-a-credit-card-today

Start using a credit card today

Every ordinary American has two to three credit cards. People try to keep track of credit card market news, and parents teach children how to use a credit card correctly starting from high school. There is even the opportunity to open an account in the name of the child. All this is due to both favorable credit conditions and the fact that living without a credit card in the USA is extremely inconvenient. The formation of a positive credit rating most often begins with a credit card. The easiest way is to order a credit card with a security deposit and gradually increase your credit rating to receive other more advantageous offers. For example, having placed 2-3 thousands of dollars on such a deposit and actively using the card during the year, it is quite possible to earn more than 700 points in the credit rating, which is already considered a fairly high position and opens up access to more advantageous credit terms. Then select a bank card that matches your expense and avoid delays. You can apply a credit card almost anywhere by providing the lender with identification documents and some personal information. If you choose a credit card in accordance with your lifestyle and use it wisely, then this can be done completely free of charge. You will be able to pay for its service much less than the bank will accrue to you in the form of bonuses, and you will also earn a good credit history, which will allow you to take larger loans on favorable terms in the future. Read the full article

[sustainableshelby-blog]

Blog 1: What is Sustainability?

“We will need not just technological adaptations, but social and political ones as well. Sustainability will depend on having informed, ecologically literate citizens working toward healthy ecosystems, genuine social inclusion, and equitable distribution of resources.” (Robertson, 2017) The concern for sustainability has been a present topic of conversation in my household since I was very young. While I believe I could definitely have a more active role in practicing sustainability, the little bit I have learned from growing up has at least given me the mindset of knowing that we could be doing more for our home. And, just as Robertson says, we need support from many different platforms to become sustainable. It will need support from the public, politicians, engineers, scientists, companies, and more.

Again, there is so much more I could be doing to live a sustainable lifestyle, which is something I hope to learn in this class! But so far, some practices I do is to not litter (and pick up people’s trash when I see them litter), use reusable shopping bags, recycle where/when I can, and reuse things like cardboard boxes and plastic containers.

“The chemist Ellen Swallow developed the concept of human ecology, an approach in which humans are not separate from nature or managers of nature; they are part of nature and work within it.” (Robertson, 2017)

I wholeheartedly believe in this concept. I do not think we humans should be considered a separate class that does not exist in nature. We most definitely exist in nature; we use its resources, participate in its beauty, and live/die in it. We are also not the managers of nature. A human can predict and plan for a natural disaster, like a hurricane. But a human is incapable of stopping it. Nature has its own mind. Furthermore, even if we are talking about the ecology of living nature, we still exist in this realm. Humans who eat meat are simply a “predator” of whatever animal they eat. If they only eat plants, then they’re still living off of the energy produced by nature. While there are reasons to separate us from other living creatures, as we have advanced in intellect more than other species, we still exist and benefit from the natural world around us. Therefore, considering humans as a part of nature makes it more clear in my mind that we need to take care of it. And, as selfish as that sounds, ignoring the regression of our planet’s health by considering us above nature is an ideology that I have heard people preach.

“We would assemble the various constituencies of the environmental community. We would assemble representatives of various levels of local government together. We would pull together the planners, we’d pull together the road builders, we’d pull together the infrastructure folks, and try to understand how to build this university here while protecting the environment as much as possible, addressing their issues, and keeping the environmental focus that the university was intended to have in the first place.” (Kieth Arnold in Elspeth McCulloch’s “ColloquiumVideo,” 20:30-21:02)

While I do believe concern from environmentalists was completely reasonable, I do appreciate that this was said. As discussed in the first part of this post, being sustainable takes a community, and it seems as though FGCU’s foundation was built on educating their community about being environmentally conscious. This idea seems to still hold to this day, with the requirement of taking this University Colloquium course in order to make the community of FGCU’s students, staff, and partners aware and informed about sustainability.

However, I do think that being aware and informed is not quite enough. While we have recycling bins on our campus, I have heard that everything being disposed in those bins all go to the same place. Furthermore, there is no recycling over at West Lake Village. I have not been to the other dorm housings, but I am hesitant to believe that they would have actual recycling containers either. There is a lot of single-use plastics and materials on campus, including food containers, drinks, plastic bags from the bookstore and on-campus dining, and more. While a lot of this could be recycled, it makes no difference if trash and recycling all head to the same landfill. Therefore, while I do think that FGCU’s approach to informing students about sustainability is sincerely beneficial, I do think there are some actions that the university should take to practice a bit more of what they preach.

Robertson, M. (2017). Sustainability Principles and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HD1X_Y25w

[eddygould]

There are three original powers of the Internet, shaping its content and affecting its development. These are a user, a community, and a corporation. All the Internet's history seems to me a heavy relationship between these paradigms. Usually they are trying to peacefully co-exist but at the same time they often come into confrontation. It's no secret that every power follows its own interests and sees the Internet from its own point. While corporations pursue economic goals and, in fact, control all the web, users and communities have to accept their conditions that at first seem to be mutually beneficial. Of course, seldom they manage to resist, which, on the other side, rarely leads to anything. Also, there's an issue of conflict between the user and the community, as the concept of a person is thought to be extremely insignificant on the web. Despite the fact that these three powers are "fighting" for a long time, they realize all the importance of each other.

However, all this time there was a fourth player behind the curtain: the state. Actually, it had been already spying on every power and, when it was possible, tried to influence them. As the Internet becomes more authoritarian in many regions, the state gets in the game bit by bit, revealing its true power that can subdue everything, even the corporations. If earlier the state contracted with them, now it's able to make the rules itself, disregarding anybody's opinion. Somewhere, its power is nearly unlimited, up to complete control of the web, albeit on a local scale. This applies to the users as well; after all, in dystopian regimes the personality dies, but not the people, even despite all the attempts of suppression.

But now we are witnessing the birth of the fifth power: an artificial intelligence. At the moment, it's not considered a real player in the virtual arena, rather just a tool in the hands of other forces, but as time passes and technology advances, it will be gaining power and independence. And when this happens, not only the digital, but real environment will never be the same again.

[fathersappointed]

The Devil appears to be on the move with this substance!

All You Need is Love and Ayahuasca!

From out of the jungle “two plants” combined together one a Vine! Begins to spread her tentacles all around the planet calling out to people, portals into other dimensions! Graham Hancock, a man who wanted a God to worship! Found Ayahuasca, (“eye – a – waska”) and it comes with a Goddess!

Hey Joe! Where you going with that DMT in your hand? I’m going to burn my brains out, you know I heard a voice, a voice of another man! Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! Drug pushing! Graham, Joey, say it ain’t so! These two acid-heads oughta know better!

The Devil appears to be on the move with this substance! One has to wonder? What’s up with that! I had recently posted on Graham Hancock and his indulgence in ayahuasca when I came across this video, compelled me to post another warning on this substance. Joe Rogan is a well-known podcast host, Graham is a successful author. They are also the Devil’s unwitting, although willing Ayahuasca Pitchman! Graham says it’s called The Vine of souls for nothing it’s an extraordinary portal into other realms! He says this sounds nuts to anyone who hasn’t done DMT or who haven’t drank ayahuasca, but you meet intelligent entities! No this doesn’t sound crazy to me Graham, what seems crazy to me is your lack of concern at what you’ve experienced. Graham, a self-proclaimed God-fearing agnostic..ok, says with Ayahuasca you can communicate with this entity that he reverently refers to as the Mother Goddess. He says that more and more people around the world are meeting this Goddess figure!

Graham talks about his encounter with this powerful entity. He starts talking about how he’s willing to accept that this entity is not real, just a figment of the mind an illusionary manifestation. This is a very puzzling line for Graham to say because that’s what he absolutely refuses to accept, that this entity is a figment of the mind an illusionary being this entity is absolutely real to him. And he immediately voids out that statement with, not only do I think she’s real but that she’s a Goddess! This entity that Graham encounters immediately gets down to business enforcing a state of dominance over him, impressing upon him that she has the moral superiority and the right to judge him! He says this entity that he reverently calls a Goddess doesn’t mind bringing you to a place of hell, to a judgment scene! He says, that everything in his life could be displayed before him, everything you’ve done every second every minute of your life is completely transparent! Every thought, every action, everything you did from the moment you became conscious until the moment of your death is laid out before you! “This is quite an experience, it’s a manipulative/intimidating experience for anyone encountering this evil group. Graham and Joe, like so many, don’t know what we are truly experiencing in this world. They can’t conceive that we are under a  multi-directional attack to manipulate us and our perception and our understanding of life. What Graham has experienced and is explaining is not being caused by entities from other mystical realms per-say. This is caused by the direct results of the Devil and the betrayer’s that stand with him, Christ, Magdalene (Mad Mag, Graham’s Goddess!) John, Paul, etc. This explanation will be less believable than the Ayahuasca Goddess Worshippers but nonetheless that’s what this World is up against! A group led by an entity so consumed with hate it cannot be reasoned with, it will not stop! Until it has accomplished its desire, which is the kill Our Celestial (not to be confused with spiritual “a creation of the devil”) Father and Mother and all of us! This group is not working in a cosmic swirl of spiritual mysticism they run their horrific operation from a structured command platform! They have at their disposal “immense computing ability” beyond what scientists are currently trying to create! With the highly advanced technology at their command they can easily follow and capture every moment, every word, every thought, of any person at any time that they are interested in or are planning to manipulate in the course of that person’s life! Also, they don’t need you to drink ayahuasca in order for them to reveal your life to you!

Joe’s been thinking lately that it doesn’t even matter!

Joe says, When you talk about the Ayahuasca experience and you talked about the Goddess coming to you, and you choose to believe it’s real! My thoughts on this whole what is real, what is not real thing is that → “it doesn’t really even matter” ← if you believed the Ayahuasca Goddesses is real or not, as long as you’re learning from the encounter! Graham agrees, “it doesn’t matter!"  "Joe, are you even listening to yourself!” It doesn’t really even matter if evil entities exist! It doesn’t even matter if evil entities are using psychedelics to communicate, to manipulate people? Joe, I want to take a moment to point out that it really does matter! Really, Joe, I think that’s one too many trips down the yellow brick road for you!

Oh! That I would not be so all alone Everybody must get stoned!

Joe believes that psychedelics are the key to our next level of consciousness a step in our evolution. He says, it’s about a learning experience. It’s about massive leaps in the development of your personality and your psyche, your world view, your personal view, and these massive leaps happened through psychedelics! They happened exactly the same way if you really do encounter a Goddess or if this Goddess is just conjured up by your imagination in incredibly vivid detail either one is the same experience to you personally Joe says this is a very important point, yes it might be a hallucination or it might not be a hallucination Graham agrees…. (Whoa! Joe, Graham, don’t go so fast all you’re experiencing is an acid blast!) Again Joe, Graham, it makes a big difference if this manifestation is a conjuring of the imagination or evil entity bent on manipulation and murder, which is what we’re dealing with! Joe calls Ayahuasca an incredible Ally! He says the best way is the “psychedelic way” An amazing plant..thing in several forms! Joe believes if they just broke Ayahuasca ceremonies out all over the globe, if it became the next big thing, like cell phones. We’d end up living in a surreal wonderful Life. Joe, really spend our days tripped out worshipping the Ayahuasca Goddess! Joe, this is not an entity of love, this is a cold existence of indifference seeking to manipulate people, a willing betrayer controlled by the Devil!

Joe says,  it sounds crazy but I believe this I believe that psychedelics are here for human beings to take to move to the next level of consciousness Graham says, I agree with you that the single one-stop shop to transform our society and make it a better place a far better place than it can be today is the correct use of psychedelics. But I would be wrong to say that psychedelics are a magic potion. Graham you just said the stuff was a one-stop-shop that sounds like a magic potion to me! Which of course it isn’t!

Let the Goddess and the demons set you free! All you need is Love and Ayahuasca!

Graham says, here is an incredibly valuable experience that is available to us. Graham, can’t stop talking the stuff up he’s a man possessed! (literally) He says the big problem is the war on drugs demonized this substance (I wonder why?) There is a deliberate structured reason the Devil makes some things look like a fight. Graham believes with psychedelics you break through portals into other dimensions! When Graham was asked if he believed evil entities were using psychedelics for communication purposes. He said he thought it was an interesting possibility, but that he believes that’s a simplistic approach. Graham goes into a cosmic fanciful swirl about huge unseen rounds of life-forms and how we could interact with these mysterious beings if we were in the right frame of consciousness. In other words “tripped out on psychedelics”. “Can you see the mental snare? (One of many in this post) It’s being created here!”

Graham says Ayahuasca ceremonies are happening everywhere it’s happening in Japan, it’s happening in America, it’s happening in Germany, it’s happening throughout the World, a group of small but growing initiates! In other words, a growing group of enthralled people believing themselves on the brink of great knowledge, unaware that it’s the Devil who has mesmerizingly pulled them in! All of which are in extreme danger these entities that they are dealing with are consumed with hate and desire!

What we need Graham says, is a nurturing society that makes it possible for us to take these substances in a loving nurturing way. He says those beneficial experiences can and frequently do include painful moments. Moments when you come to the realization of who you are, and what you are! “By whose standards Graham?” I’ll tell you who’s standed you’re going by the standards of an entity that’s planning to “Kill You!” Graham says, what is absolutely fundamental with ayahuasca, is what Graham calls the “»Life review«where you see the impact of your behavior on others and the pain you caused. He says in the Amazon they’re called teacher plants. and is making a serious comprehension blunder, his mesmerization of what he refers to as the Ayahuasca Goddess and will describe in a Worshiping Exuberance has completely corrupted his ability to understand what has ensnared him! This is not a compassionate teacher reaching out, this is a mental conditioning, a mental manipulation force, a force motivated by hate, a force planning to kill.

The Devil manipulates those who can manipulate others".

Graham’s mind has been compromised! He has taken the bait he has bought the pitch of the Ayahuasca Bitch! He has enveloped himself in a mesmerization that has compromised his objective reasoning. Speaking of this entity like one who is having a Religious Awakening. He has taken an entity that has manifested itself within his psychedelic experience and elevated it to a God! Listen to Graham it becomes painfully apparent that he has mastered the art of misdirection in this video. Although he will mention evil within ayahuasca he is fast to direct it to outside influences as being the source of true evil even when he brought up the Aztec and their demise he turned the point of concern to agriculture! In this video, there is such an immensity of wrong that it is impossible for me in this writing to cover it. Anyone thinking this is an incredible adventure and learning experience to be embraced you will not be dealing with happy little fairy people that want to hug you and laugh with joy. You are dealing with cold-blooded hate that’s had people on their knees praying to them through the ages as they spread agony and death everywhere. Rethinking is everything! That’s what is needed! It is my sincere hope that both Graham and Joe come to the realization of the hate that has ensnared and compromised them. As I do with all the People of this World.

[marshub]

How to Choose the Right Language Service Provider?

The global world is changing since time immemorial. It is affecting the various parts of the world according to its vulnerability and change. With the advent of globalization and digitization, the global market has changed rapidly. Now the business is not limited to the native citizens. All thanks to globalization, even small companies now have access to the global market and consumers. To expand the business swiftly in this contemporary world, it is pertinent to thoroughly understand one another's languages. As millions of people demand to work together, they are unable to understand one another’s language effectively. From medical diagnosis to business deals and from educational purposes to weather forecasting, everything needs interpretation and translation.

In this regard, language service providers (LSPs) play a pivotal role to make this task accessible and beneficial for the global business communities as well as for the customers.

If you are running a firm and holding a vision to expand your business ideas to the global business world then LSP is the right choice to make this happen. Because if you are aiming to hit the global audience, you need to work on communication skills. Because failure in localization and translation data can damage the firm reputation. Moreover, people and customers like to understand the business idea in their local language to avoid misconception and to maintain their country’s culture. So, choosing the Right Language Service Provider is the utmost responsibility of enterprises for the sake of their business growth.

Following are the criteria which any enterprise should keep into consideration while choosing the right language service provider:

1. Language Criteria

The first and foremost step in choosing the right Language service provider is the language criteria. As this requirement is to fix the language gap, it is pertinent to choose the right LSP. If any company wants to work at the smaller level it can work with a small language vendor but for the large business and to work within various languages then multiple language vendors are required. The more proficient the translator, the more the impact on the local audience. Further, he should be deeply familiar with specialized domains. For instance, if your company is dealing with software localization, your LSP must have deep insight into the software language or domain. That is how he will be able to keep an accurate record of translation. Besides specialized domains, it is vital to choose the LSP who is well familiar with the industrial requirements and local jargon of different areas. In short, the right LSP is the one who finds no difficulty in conveying your services to the customers.

2. Considering Technical Capabilities

As the modern world has taken its road to technical revolution and digitization. So, accordingly, LSP capabilities are not limited only to language services. If you are choosing the right one for your enterprise, you must be fully aware of your enterprise’s recent advancement and technicalities.

Some aspects can be taken into account briefly:

Is the LSP continuously initiating and updating the technology and its services?

Is the LSP able to provide an easy and accessible platform to manage the translation?

You have to make sure that your LSP is using the right technology to provide services. For instance, Translation Management tools are likely to be followed in this domain. Because the translation management system allows accessible communication. So, measuring the technical capacities of your LSP is another requirement in choosing the right one.

3. Ensuring the Quality

In the business and technical world, quality matters rather than quantity. After all, looking for LSP is only for qualitative assurance. It is good for any company if LSP is certified then it is unlikely to hurt your reputation. Because with the rapid advancement, their responsibilities have grown also. It is quite pertinent to inquire about and train the LSP and that should be according to industrial standards. As your LSP acts as the bridge between customers and your company. He must have the ability to deal with all inquiries swiftly and right on time.

4. Functionality tools

To combat errors and to ensure quality, a company needs to ensure which integrated tools will be used by the language service provider. On what programs do they have command and on which tools or software do they rely? Owing to the advancement and technicality, relying solely on dictionaries and language skills, time has gone. Currently, for instance, Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools help translators to facilitate the company with upgraded productive results. LSPs must have the knowledge and know-how about modern integrated tools for their proficiency. These criteria should also be considered by the companies in choosing the right language service providers.

5. Meeting Business Needs

LSPs have become crucial for business development. By being a cornerstone, they must know the customers’ needs and demands. Via expanding business globally, cultural variations must be taken into respect. So, it’s up to the LSPs how efficiently they engage a global audience consistently. Because your LSP can improve the vision of the local audience by effectively appealing, that can give enormous profit to your brand. His connection to the audience should be loyal and convincing. Your business requirements must be dealt with swiftly by him because he acts as a bridge. All in all, all these tenets must be looked at while searching for the right language service providers.

6. Testimonials

Do you buy any online products without reading reviews? Do you arrange an annual dinner without knowing about the main course? Certainly, no. Does not the same procedure apply while choosing the right language service provider? Certainly, Yes.

In this online era, your happy customers expand your business opportunities. Likewise, in choosing the right LSP a company must look at the customer reviews and its portfolio. His social media profile must be taken into account and the reviews in the comment section show how he relates to clients. Moreover, just by only relying on the websites, a company can also approach LSP’s previous clients to know about their actual performance. This is an important step in choosing the right Language service provider whether he is worth hiring or not.

7. Pricing Quality

Like the content, you should not compromise the pricing. There is no denying the fact that the budget, sometimes, gets low down and you are bound to hire a language service provider who offers a low price. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. The handsome payback can enhance your team to work harder, likewise, low pricing LSP may give less than average work. Although one solution for all can save plenty of money yet hampers the quality of the translation. So pricing should be convincing and according to the competitive market demands. You should not look for an all-in-one solution because it is your brand reputation that is at stake.

8. Turnaround Time

It is important to understand the operating capacity while choosing the right LSP. Can your LSP handle frequent pressure? This should be asked first. Because every company works according to its requirements and circumstances. Some days can be easy and some can be tough. For this reason, operating capabilities and frequent pressure should be clarified at the start. Because clients’ satisfaction is above everything. Just to meet the deadline, the quality of the work should not get compromised. So, the right LSP should have the ability to give productive results on time. You can truly expand your business if you can meet the requirements of your clients within time. It's up to the LSP to provide work within a given time. All in all, while choosing you must keep that in mind whether your Language service provider can manage the deadline pressure or not.

Conclusion

It is a need of contemporary advancement to find the right language service provider in the right direction to avoid any kind of misinterpretation. Above mentioned steps are pre-requisite in choosing the right language provider that includes the language criteria, assurance of technical and business capabilities, transparency in pricing and reviews methods, use of integrated tools, and keeping deadline assurance. For localization or more precisely any business success, the selection of the right Language Service Providers is a challenging task. LSPs should be chosen in a precise manner for the sake of business. Knowing them, according to needs, before hiring is a wise option. Because by acting as the bridge between your company and the local audience they can target the global market. Summing up the entire discussion in one idea: the more you know about your LSP the more you get the benefit.

[himanshuprigavit1295]

What are the Important AWS Cloud Services?

Amazon Web Services commonly known as AWS offers cloud computing services to public. In order to get a hang of cloud computing services in general and the important ones offered by AWS, we need to first understand cloud computing. Let’s begin.

Cloud Computing

In simple terms, Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services. The services that are offered range from applications to storage and processing power over the internet. The payment model is pay-as-you-go basis. The concept of cloud computing is not as complex as it seems. If you are using cloud computing services, rather than owning your own computing infrastructure or a data centre, you or your company can rent access to any computing resources they wish. These resources can be anything from applications to storage to a cloud service provider.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

There are many benefits of cloud computing that several companies and organisations are realising. One advantage of cloud computing is that there is no or less upfront cost. Cloud computing also reduces the complexity of owning and maintaining their own IT infrastructure. While companies use cloud computing services, they simply pay only for what they use and when they use it. The providers of cloud computing services earn profit by utilising significant economies of scale as they deliver the same services to a wide range of customers. Altogether, cloud computing replaces upfront capital infrastructure expenses with the help of an on-demand low-cost pay-as-you-go model.

Now that you have understood the core concept of cloud computing, it’s time to proceed to important AWS cloud services.

AWS Services

With the help of AWS, businesses no longer need to get into the hassles of planning and procuring IT infrastructures weeks or months in advance. Companies can instantly select any numbers of servers or other technologies required and it would be delivered to them in minutes.

Amazon Web Services provide a highly reliable, scalable, and low-cost infrastructure platform in cloud itself that powers thousands of businesses around the world. The services offered by AWS are compute, networking, storage, applications, databases and more. In the next segment, we would discuss some of the most important Cloud Services provided by AWS.

What are the Important AWS Cloud Services?

In this segment, we would discuss the various Cloud Services provided by AWS under important sections. Let’s get started.

Compute

Networking

Storage

Databases

Popular Amazon Web Services under the category of compute are Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk among others. Let’s discuss each of them in detail.

Amazon EC2:

AWS Lambda

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Amazon EC2 is an abbreviation for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. It is a cloud computing web service that basically provides secure and resizable compute capacity in the cloud. With the help of Amazon EC2, organizations can obtain and also configure virtual compute capacity in the cloud. Companies and organisation availing this service have an option to select from a variety of operating systems and resource configurations like memory, CPU, storage according to the requirements of their application as well as the company. The advantage of using Amazon EC2 is easy scalability, the capacity can be increased or decreased within minutes. The application can also automatically scale itself depending on the need and requirement. Companies can also use one or more than one (even thousands) server instances simultaneously.

Amazon EC2 is integrated with almost all AWS services like Amazon S3, Amazon RDS and Amazon VPC and hence it provides a complete, secure solution for all computing applications.

In this section, we are going to talk about another important AWS cloud service in the compute service that goes by the name of AWS Lambda.

AWS Lambda allows you to run code without the need of managing any server. The payment model is also very flexible as the company only needs to pay for the compute time they consume and not when the code is not running. This service helps an application to run with zero administration. All you need to do is to upload the code and AWS Lambda takes care of everything else that will run and scale your code. The code can be set up in order to automatically trigger from other AWS services or it can be called directly from any web or mobile app.

The last important service under the category ‘compute’ that we would discuss in this blog is AWS Elastic Beanstalk. This is basically a Platform as a Service (or PaaS) and it facilitates quick deployment of applications as it provides all the services that an application need. This service by Amazon supports a large range of platforms like Nodejs, Java among others.

The only thing you have to do is to upload your code and then AWS Elastic Beanstalk handles the deployment automatically. It handles everything right from capacity provisioning to load balancing to auto-scaling to application health monitoring. However, with AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you can also retain full control over the AWS resources that are powering your application. You can access the underlying resources at any time. Hence, all you need to do is to develop an application and deploy on Elastic Beanstalk.

Networking is an important concept if you have a web resource over the internet. In this segment, we would discuss some AWS cloud services under the category networking in detail.

Amazon VPC:

Amazon Route 53:

Amazon VPC is basically a network environment in the cloud which allows you to create a private network within the AWS cloud. This AWS cloud service provides complete control of the network configuration. The normal networking configuration items such as IP address ranges, subnet creation, route table creation, network gateways and other security settings can be defined by the customers. Amazon VPC integrates with numerous AWS services like Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS).

Amazon Route 53 is another AWS cloud service under the category of networking. It is a highly scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service that gives developers and businesses a reliable and cost-effective way to route end users to Internet applications. It translates human readable names into the numeric IP addresses that computers use to connect to each other.

In this world of data, storage is an important concept. If you have a website or a web application, storage and handling of data is very crucial. In this segment, we would discuss some AWS cloud services under the category storage in detail.

Amazon S3

Amazon Glacier:

Amazon S3 is also known as Amazon Simple Storage Service. It is also an object storage that is used to store and retrieve any amount of data from the web. Also, it has a simple web interface and designed to provide an infinite amount of storage delivered with high durability. Amazon S3 can also be used as a primary storage for cloud-native applications. It can be used as a target for backup and also for recovery of a disaster. With the Amazon’s cloud data migration, it is very simple to move large volumes of data into or out of Amazon S3.

Another AWS cloud service under this category is Amazon Glacier. It is a secure, durable and also a low-cost storage service solution. It is used for data archiving and backup for long term. The Data stored in Amazon Glacier is ideal for archiving as it takes several hours to retrieve.

In this world of clean and structured data, database is an important concept. If you have a website or a web application, database is crucial in order to handle of data is very crucial. In this segment, we would discuss some AWS cloud services under the category database in detail.

Amazon RDS

Amazon DynamoDB (Non- Relational Database):

Amazon RDS is actually Amazon Relational Database Service. This service makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in cloud. Amazon RDS is a cost-efficient solution with a resizable capacity. It automatically manages time-consuming database administration tasks and hence allows developers to focus on the code and other aspects of the applications as well as the business. With Amazon RDS, you can choose from six familiar database engines namely, Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.

Amazon DynamoDB is basically a non- relational database service. It is a fast and flexible NoSQL database service. It is perfect for all applications that need consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale.

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed database and supports both document and key-value data models. Amazon DynamoDB is flexible data model which boasts a reliable performance and hence it is a great fit for mobile, web, gaming as well as many other applications.

The course that we recommend would be Konfinity’s Web Development Course The course is well-researched and is one of the most beneficial training courses out there. It is developed by experts from IIT DELHI in collaboration with tech companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. It is trusted by students and graduates from IIT, DTU, NIT, Amity, DU and more.

We encourage technocrats like you to join the course to master the art of creating web applications by learning the latest technologies, right from basic HTML to advanced and dynamic websites, in just a span of a few months.

Konfinity is a great platform for launching a lucrative tech career. We will get you started by helping you get placed in a high paying job. One amazing thing about our course is that no prior coding experience is required to take up our courses. Start your free trial here.