#getting the raid array set up is worth it though

[forgotn1]

The two 8TB drives I ordered for my NAS arrive today. Got them installed pretty easily, then got started on setting them up in RAID1. It's been roughly 7 hours and the process is at a whopping 24.8% completed. I had not considered how long this would take. lol

[yandearest]

May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor (Hoseok x Reader Hunger Games AU) Chapter 7: Natural Born Killers

Summary - Living in District 4 you never thought you would  have to worry about being selected for the Hunger Games. With a training  centre right near the dock of the houseboat you lived and fished from,  your district was known for volunteers who trained their whole lives for  a shot at glory and riches. But at age 18, your name is called and no  girls volunteer to take your place. Your devastation is answered when  Kim Namjoon volunteers for the males shortly after. Tall, muscular,  highly intelligent and charming, the years of diligent preparation have  bestowed Namjoon with the expectation of being the next District 4  champion after Finnick Odair last won 3 years ago.

Fishing for a  living has granted you skills with a knife but, as your mentor Finnick  is quick to describe, your beautiful face may well be your best asset.

Upon arrival in the Capitol you are quickly faced with the reality that  Namjoon may not even be the biggest danger inside the Arena. Especially  when you capture the obsessive attention of District 2′s own volunteer,  and killing machine, Jung Hoseok. Hope soon fades from ‘survival’ to  ‘the mercy of a painless death’ but Hoseok certainly has other plans.

Pairing - Hoseok x (fem)Reader

Genre - thriller, angst, yandere

Word Count 9.5K

Warning: This chapter is very heavy with multiple deaths described in detail.

PLEASE AVOID READING IF YOU CONSIDER THIS CONTENT UPSETTING

The following is a dark fic featuring a yandere character, violence, obsession, and coercion. By no means does  writing about this in a fictional setting condone any of those  behaviours, much like Stephen King writing horror doesn’t mean he  approves of psychotic killers in reality. Please avoid reading if any of  these warnings makes you uncomfortable.

Previous Chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6

Cross posted on A03 so people can subscribe for updates/notifications

You had remained with the girl’s body after her canon sounded. The momentary adrenaline rush from killing her attacker had faded and you were filled with despair at the sight of her lifeless eyes. It was strange how little guilt you were feeling, you had just killed someone – something you never thought you could actually do. Even though what he was about to do to the girl was disgusting, you were expecting to feel some sense of remorse over taking another life, but yet there was none. You remembered Hoseok’s vicious attack on seven from yesterday and shuddered, did you have more in common with him than you wanted to admit?

‘No.’ You shook your head, arguing with yourself. ‘He’s a monster, he took pleasure in his kill. I killed to protect someone else… But didn’t Hoseok kill to protect you?’

Disturbed by your conflicting emotions you hit your head against trunk of the tree, begging for the thoughts to leave your head. It was too much to try and process right now, especially with the girl’s body lying on the ground next to you. The impact on your skull and the rough bark grazing against your forehead provided a welcome distraction from your inner monologue.

For a moment, you thought that a whirring noise was coming from the ringing in your head, until you felt a blustering wind, along with surrounding leaves and twigs beginning to lift from the ground. Confused, you scrambled away from the girl and over to your bag. Shouldering the straps, you whipped your head around trying to see what the cause could possibly be, as the wind and whirring sound only grew stronger.

With nothing abnormal around you, you turned your gaze upwards to see an airship hovering just above the trees. A door along the bottom opened, and a large metal claw slowly began to lower through the leaves, knocking several branches out of the way. You stumbled backwards, not wanting to get in its way, and watched with sick fascination as the claw reached the boy. It hovered for a few seconds, getting its bearings, before the metallic arms began to retract. The gears whirred as they clasped around the body, some digging into the dirt below him, before they formed a tight grip with a sealed clunk. And then the claw was moving upwards, the thick cord retracting until it disappeared into the ship above.

It was such an odd sight, such an inhumane way to treat a dead child (‘the dead child you had just killed’). You just stood there staring, until the claw reappeared at the door, once again empty. You looked over to the girl’s body, regretfully knowing she would be taken next. But there was nothing you could do for her. You didn’t know if the airship could be giving away your location, or whether the other tributes would think to run in the opposite direction, but you didn’t want to stay and find out. Securing your bag, you turned your back and ran.

 *

 Two hours later it was difficult to see the sun through the leaves above, which made it hard to try and navigate. You were starting to run low on water and you had an idea to try and get to the edge of the pool behind the cornucopia, closer to the waterfall. Your idea was basically that people who wanted supplies would go to the cornucopia itself and those trying to run away would have gone in the opposite direction. If you could sneak along the edge of the forest, maybe you could reach the fall and stay hidden. Your plan had worked well, after finding where the edge of the forest neared the river, you had stayed hidden in the trees and made your way in the direction of the waterfall. When the cornucopia came into sight, you took a longer detour back inland through the trees, not wanting to risk coming into contact with any tributes who might be hiding so close to supplies.

You knew you were getting close when the sound of crashing water began to get louder, and more rocks started appearing in your path. A canon sounding very close by caused you to jump and momentarily forget your plan. Looking around you had to be at the cliff that would take you up towards the top of the fall. Remembering the careers from yesterday, you knew you definitely didn’t want to keep going in that direction. The noise of the canon seemed to have come from further inside the forest, close to where you had been walking through only moments ago. Climbing up the cliff wasn’t an option, and neither was staying in this part of the woods, so the waterfall remained your target. You let the noise of the water guide you and continued to made your way over – the surface becoming increasingly rockier the closer that you got.

The cornucopia came into view, in all of its temptation. It was across the other side of the rocks that you were traversing. It was less filled than yesterday; however, you could still spot an array of supplies scattered around. For the first time you felt your stomach rumble and you longed to run across and raid it for some of the fruit that you could see. But it was far too out in the open to be worth the risk. So, you continued towards the fall.

The closer you came, the more you were left in awe by the design of its structure. The rocks became harder to climb over, but you realized that they went behind the pounding curtain of water, into a cave. You were apprehensive. It was such a brilliant hiding spot, but being so close to the cornucopia you felt like another tribute had to have found it by now. However, someone could only have seen it if they had chosen to come closer to the fall, rather than the cornucopia, which wasn’t necessarily an expected move.

You didn’t want to take any chances, and pulled your knife out from your pocket, just to be extra careful. Doing your best to balance, and stay hidden between the large rocks, you slowly made your way closer to the water’s edge. Once there you crouched down, repeatedly checking behind your back to make sure no one was trying to sneak up on you, and filled up your container. Once full, you put the cap on and then began to try and scrub off the lingering traces of blood that were staining your hands.

It was as you were finishing up that you spotted a moving figure through a crack between the rocks, in the direction of the woods. You sprung to your feet and quickly hid behind the closest rock. Making sure to check behind your shoulder first (in case anyone was trying to sneak up on you whilst you were distracted), you peered out from behind the boulder to see your worst fear – Hoseok and Namjoon working together.

You spun back around, your back hitting the rock, as you pressed yourself against surface. They definitely hadn’t seen you yet as they were moving towards the cornucopia and neither of them had been looking over in your area. You recalled the canon from before and instantly knew it had to be their work. Your heart was racing and a tightness was beginning to seize across your chest making it harder to breathe. You wished you could somehow melt into the rock and hide inside until these games were over, but you knew it wasn’t a realistic option. Staying outside here would be far too risky with them so close by. The forest wasn’t safe as they would very likely see you if you tried to run back now. Your best option was the cave behind the fall, as it was surrounded with large rocks for cover, and neither of them seemed to know of its existence. The possibility of another tribute being inside no longer scared you when the two worst tributes in the arena were so close by.

Using the rocks as a shield, you scrambled the last remaining meters to the fall. Once safe behind the curtain of raging water you stood in awe of the size of the cave within. The boulders from outside seemed to morph into smoother steps that lead upwards and further inside the cliff structure. There was still no sign of any other life inside, but you kept a firm grip on your knife in case of any hidden attacks. The higher you climbed, the drier the rock below your boots became. With the waterfall keeping you hidden from the outside, you deliberately allowed your footsteps to echo throughout the cave in order to alert anyone inside. You weren’t here to fight.

When you reached the top of the rock steps you found a smooth plateau and the first sign of life. There was a makeshift camp of a few supplies – a sleeping bag, a pot, and flint – set up around the ashes of an extinguished fire. The coals still had a faint tinge of orange, so someone still had to be close by.

“Hello… Is anyone here?”

You called out, but were only met with the sound of your voice bouncing back off the walls.

The sleeping bag looked like it had some sort of shape underneath it, so you slowly walked over, wondering if anyone was still inside. You didn’t want to come off as threatening, but you also weren’t stupid enough to approach someone without a weapon, so you hid your knife behind your back.

“I’m [Y/N] from Four, I ran away from the careers. Two and Four are at the cornucopia now.”

The closer you moved towards the bag, the darker the cave became, but you could still faintly make out some sort of shape. You frowned, why wasn’t the person responding to you?

“Please, I’m just want to hide,” you lowered your voice as you reached the bag.

“I promise I don’t want to hurt you.”

You tapped at the bag with your foot but were met with a hard feeling beneath your toe.

Rocks?

 A trap

 Leaping away from the sleeping bag, you narrowly dodged the swing of a machete from a figure hiding in the shadows by less than an inch.

“But I want to hurt you”

The voice of your attacker was feminine, but you had no idea who the person is.

“Are you fucking crazy, I’m trying to offer you an alliance against the careers,” you swore as you shuffled backwards, trying to put some distance between yourself and your opponent.

“No thanks. I had one until your boyfriend killed him…” The girl continued to follow you, and as she steps further into the light, you recognize her from District 7

“…And I’d like to return the favor.”

She swung the machete again, and you narrowly ducked with a shriek, rolling towards the edge of the plateau. You just managed to catch yourself from rolling off the edge, but before you could get to your feet, Seven charged at you with another swing of her blade.

You brought your knife up to block it, which she clearly didn’t expect. She’s too stunned by the fact you stopped her attack to block your leg that kicked up and into her stomach. She hunched over and gasped, barely keeping her grip on her weapon after having the wind knocked out of her. You didn’t give her the opportunity to catch her breath. There was no time for guilt or doubt as you thrust your knife upwards. It sunk in between her ribs with a broken scream, causing her to finally release her grip on the machete. It clattered to the ground beside you as you pulled your knife out.

She was still alive, her hands pressing against the bleeding wound as she stood above you. The previous sight of your would-be-killer is gone, replaced by a scared girl who knows she’s going to die. You can’t exactly blame her for trying to kill you – after all your alliance tortured her district member – but there’s no point in feeling sorry for her now. The best you could do is give her a faster death than her partner. Getting to your feet, you stabbed her again, this time in the stomach. She made a strangled gurgle, coughing up blood as you ripped your knife back out. She moved to try and grab for the machete, but stumbled over her feet and instead slipped off the edge of the plateau.

You looked over the side with morbid curiosity, to see her body had landed amongst the rocky water at the bottom. The pool below is a violent mess of currents created from the waterfall and you watched as her body was quickly pulled under to the sound of a canon.

 *

 “I’m almost disappointed by how easy this has been,” Namjoon commented as he picked up a small sack of rice and tossed it into the water. Since disposing of Krystal, the duo hadn’t so much as seen a trace from another tribute on their way to the cornucopia. They had arrived with ease and quickly finished stocking both their backpacks with food items. It was when they discovered there would still be plenty left for other tributes that Hoseok had come up with the idea of throwing whatever they couldn’t take with them into the river.

“If only [Y/N] was that easy to find,” Hoseok muttered in response. Between tossing away any food he came across, he was also searching for more arrows.

“Nothing good is ever easy, she can’t hide forever.”

*boom* 

The noise of a canon stopped them both in their place, it had sounded very close by. Namjoon looked around in a circle to see if there was any sign of an airship, whilst Hoseok suspiciously eyed the waterfall. The canon had definitely come from that direction. It was too high to see their camp up the top, but in his mind the noise had sounded closer. For a few minutes there was an uneasy silence, until he spotted something in the water.

“Over there”

Hoseok tapped Namjoon on the arm and pointed towards a figure that was emerging from the raging waters. Forgetting about throwing away food, the two moved towards the edge of the cornucopia’s rock to try and see the body. The water near the fall was a violent mess of waves, before it smoothed out into an eerily placid pool by the cornucopia rock’s edge. They watched as the body was tossed around, pulled underneath the currents, until it eventually drifted further way from the fall and resurfaced closer in their direction.

“It’s a girl,” Namjoon commented as they watched the body float closer.

It was difficult to see any details, but they could both tell the body was too big to be one of the younger tributes. There were no male tributes with hair long enough to tie into a ponytail, which gave away the fact it was a girl. With Athena having short hair, Krystal being killed earlier, and four known female tributes having died yesterday, they both mentally ran through which older females were still left in the games.

“You don’t think it could be…”

“No.”

They were both thinking the same thing, but there was no way Hoseok would allow Namjoon to say your name out loud.

It wasn’t you; it couldn’t be you. There was no way that you could have been taken from Hoseok without him feeling it inside. You were tied together and the second you left this world he would be able to feel it like a tether had snapped, right? He had no idea what he would do if you died before he was able to reach you in these games. It was a given that he would kill whoever was responsible in the most excruciating manner possible, but afterwards? Probably a rage induced rampage until he was the only person left, before killing himself. If you weren’t together with him at the end, then no one could win.

Hoseok followed the body along the rock as it drifted, until it was close enough for him to be able to reach. He could hear the sound of an approaching airship, but he had to see who it was with his own eyes first. Leaning over, he grabbed the body by its jacket and pulled it close enough for him to flip over. His sigh of relief upon seeing some insignificant nobody was audible.

“Not her,” he called to Namjoon, who had followed behind him.

“Stab wounds…” Namjoon acknowledged, nodding at the two bleeding cuts in the body. A solid incision between the ribs and a deeper wound in the stomach.

“From someone who knows how to handle a knife…"

Hoseok’s words trailed off at the end as he recalled your training in the arena. Particularly, your skill with throwing knives. The boys looked at each other, both knowing what the other was thinking. You were very close by. Looking at the waterfall where the body had appeared, there was nothing to suggest that you were around. If it weren’t for the fact that you were trying to stay away from him, Hoseok would have been proud that his girl was so good at keeping herself hidden.

“Look over there”

Hoseok’s head snapped over to the direction Namjoon was pointing at, but couldn’t see anything.

“What am I looking for?”

“The rocks. I didn’t notice before, but look how they trail behind the waterfall. I think there’s something back there… more importantly, someone.”

In an instant Hoseok was at his feet, the body below him forgotten about entirely. His bow and quiver of arrows were already on his shoulder.

“Leave the supplies here, we can come back for them when we have YN,” Hoseok instructed as he walked over to pick up some rope from the cornucopia. He doesn’t want to have to restrain you, but given you ran away it’s not like you’ve left him much choice.

Eying the rope in Hoseok’s hands and the knife in his own, a dangerous smile flashed across Namjoon’s face.

“Let’s go get our girl.”

 *

 The guilt you were wondering why you didn’t feel earlier, seemed to crash down upon you all at once. With a horrified gasp you, were hyperventilating over the reality you had now killed two people in one day. You didn’t want to, you didn’t mean to, you knew that you had to otherwise it would have been you that was dead. But it didn’t make the reality any less awful. You wondered what your father would be thinking if he was watching. He had been the one to train you with a knife in case that your name was ever called, but could he handle the reality of actually seeing you kill other kids? What about your mother? She was already dead, what if she was waiting for you to join her in peace, but you were sending other children to her instead?

You felt sick, but there wasn’t any food in your system to throw up. Instead, all you could do was dry reach and cough as you backed away from the ledge of the plateau. Maybe you should throw yourself over into the rocks to drown. You didn’t deserve to live as a killer. But then wouldn’t that make those deaths meaningless? And as selfish as it sounded, you didn’t want to die a painful death. You were scared. Scared to die, scared to suffer, scared to survive and have to live with yourself if you made it.

You crawled backwards until you felt your hand touch something soft. You flinched in surprise, looking down to see the sleeping bag from seven’s camp. It felt wrong to even consider, but you couldn’t help but think it would be a nice spot to hide out for a while. There was shelter and more importantly, warmth. You weren't exactly in the mood to return to the woods again and have to climb another tree. You shrugged your backpack off your shoulders and tried to distract your racing thoughts with the task of pulling the rocks out of the sleeping bag that seven had stuffed inside.

As you worked, you could hear the sound of rocks crunching. At first you thought it was just the sounds of the ones inside the bag as you moved them, but then you paused, and you could still hear the noise. It was hard to hear anything over the sound of the waterfall, but you had a bad feeling. You fumbled for your backpack and began to slide further backwards into the darkness of the cave.

“[Y/N]”

You feel as if your blood has turned to ice at the sound of Hoseok calling your name. How the hell could he possibly know that you were here?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…

You shuffled backwards until you hit a rock. You couldn’t see anything in the darkness around you, and you could only pray that darkness would keep you hidden from him. You curled your knees into your chest and tried to shrink yourself as small as possible, clutching onto your knife, which would be your only hope of escape if he found you up here.

“Son of a bitch!”

You flinched at the sound of Namjoon’s cursing, and felt yourself panicking. Hoseok on his own was bad enough but Namjoon with him was too much. You doubted you could take one of them in a fight, but you knew that both of them would be impossible. You didn’t know what Hoseok’s plans with you were, but you swore you would rather die on your own than find out. You might not be able to fight them both, but you still had your knife, maybe you could take yourself out on your own terms.

“What?” Hoseok barked, his voice getting closer as he began to climb the rock steps.

“Some little shit is stealing our bag.”

That caused him to pause. Whilst the careers did have some basic supplies back at their camp, because they had thrown away a lot of the other food at the cornucopia, they needed those bags.

“Go stop the prick then, I’ll meet you out there with [Y/N].”

Namjoon nodded with a pissed off frown, turning around and heading back out of the fall the same way that he came. He hated when his plans were interrupted and he was going to make whatever moron thought they could steal from him pay.

You had no idea what bags they were talking about, but felt a sliver a of relief over Namjoon leaving. At least you had a fighting chance now if Hoseok found you. You could hear the sound of Hoseok’s footsteps coming closer, as he continued to climb.

“[Y/N]~” Hoseok’s voice echoed throughout the cave as he sung out your name in a sickeningly sweet call.

“Why are you hiding from me, angel? You should know that I would never hurt you.”

His steps continued to get closer and you clasped one hand over your nose and mouth to try and muffle the sound of your breathing. You tried to breathe as slowly and quietly as humanly possible.

“If it’s over how I tortured that boy from seven, I only did that because he tried to hurt you. But if you want, I’ll make all my other kills quick and painless. I’d do anything for you.”

The sound of his footsteps reaching the plateau kept you paralyzed in fear. He was here, there was no escape anymore. You clenched your eyes shut and prayed that the darkness could keep you covered.

Hoseok’s brows furrowed as he reached the top level and saw the abandoned camp. There were visible signs of a struggle from the earlier fight, but he couldn’t see anything else. The sleeping bag was barely visible in the darkness, but he could vaguely tell there were rocks nearby and some still inside of the bag. So that dead girl had tried to set a trap, but you were too clever. Again, he felt a combination of pride and frustration. If only you weren’t so afraid of him, you would be unstoppable together.

If his vision was to go by, you weren’t here. There weren’t any rocks to hide behind and it was possible you could have run in the opposite direction than where Namjoon and himself had approached from. But why did you feel so close? He narrowed his eyes and tried to squint further into the darkness, how deep did that cave go? Could you possibly be hiding in plain sight?

He pursed his lips, preparing to walk closer before the sound of a canon stopped him in his tracks.

 *

 Yoongi was in a bad mood.

After his argument with Krystal, he had been left alone to fish up the stream, but he had a lingering sense of unease. Why didn’t she understand that he was only looking out for her best interest? He didn’t sign up for these games to protect her just to watch her get killed for some stranger. It’s not that he hated you, or wanted you to die. He felt sorry for you and the way that Hoseok had singled you out, but it was better you than Krystal.

His luck with fishing had been mediocre. He had been apprehensive to use their food supplies for bait in case there weren’t actually any fish in the river. On the plus side it turned out there were indeed fish, but on the negative, the ones he had managed to catch were tiny. He lost track of how long he had been fishing for, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his face after such a freezing night, when he was snapped out of his peace by the sound of a canon.

Something was wrong.

He couldn’t put his instincts into words, it didn’t make any logical sense, but he had a very, very bad feeling. It was like a part of him had collapsed inside of his chest.

‘Where’s Krystal?’

Surely, she would be back at camp, just like she was supposed to be?

He tried to shake off the feeling, canons were a normal part of the games, if Krystal was smart then she would still be with Athena. On her own Krystal was a formidable opponent, and Athena was a powerhouse. The only real threat that could take those two were the other careers, but they were all back down the cliff. She should be fine… so why didn’t it feel like she was?

With a huff, Yoongi wheeled in his wire and tossed the coil into the bucket. He would try fishing again later, using the smaller fish as bait. But first he had to go and find Krystal to put his mind at ease. He dipped the bucket into the river to fill it up with a little water, in order to keep the bait fresh in the meantime, then began his walk back to the campsite.

When he rounded the corner of the river that led to the waterfall, he felt his stomach drop upon seeing Athena alone at the campsite.

“Athena! Where’s Krystal” He yelled.

Her head jerked up from picking through a pile of different sticks, organizing them into different firewood. She seemed surprised, but Yoongi just thought that was from how loudly he had yelled at her.

“YOONGI, LOOK OUT!” Athena screamed back at him.

‘Look out for what? We need to look for Krystal?’

But his confused thought was interrupt by a searing pain running through his thigh. Gasping in agony, he was in so much pain he couldn’t even scream. Looking down he saw the long blade of a machete protruding out of his leg. Before Yoongi could even react, he was struck across the back of the head, whilst someone else landed a kick to his speared leg. Disorientated from the pain, the two attackers were easily able to manhandle him face down into the river.

Athena leapt up to help, but was met with a rope being wrapped around her neck from behind. The pressure instantly cut off her air, causing her to choke as she desperately clawed for the rope. But whoever had attacked her had miscalculated their strength. Once she was able to get a grip on the rope around her neck, Athena didn’t waste time trying to pull it away. Instead, she used her hold for leverage and rolled her body forward, causing the girl behind her to come flying over her shoulder.

Laying sprawled out on her back District 8 realized she had made a terrible mistake, but it was too late for her. Athena snatched a nearby spear from the weapons pile and drove it straight down into the girl’s stomach. After ripping the point out, Athena kicked her sharply in the side, sending her rolling into the rushing waters. Whether it was from the stab wound, drowning, or falling onto the rocks below, all Athena cared about was the sound of the canon that followed.

Spear in hand, she raced up the bank to save Yoongi.

One down, two to go.

 *

 Hoseok was quick to dismiss the sound of the canon as Namjoon taking care of the boy trying to steal from them, but his head turning towards the direction he thought the sound came from caused him to see a falling silhouette through the waterfall.

“What the fuck?”

He didn’t care for his allies atop the waterfall, but the odds for his plans in the games were better if they could stay alive until the outlier tributes were taken care of. He cast a quick scan around the cave for any sign that you were there, but seeing nothing he huffed and started climbing back down.

You couldn’t believe your luck.

After everything that had gone wrong so far in the arena, the moment you were seconds away from being found by your worst nightmare, something managed to distract him.

You should have felt guilty that the distraction came in the form of another person dying, but you were to high strung to properly register that. Listening to the sound of Hoseok’s footsteps, you waited until he was at the bottom of the steps before slowly moving forwards. Not wanting to risk being seen or heard, you slowly crawled your way to the edge to see Hoseok disappearing back out the side of the waterfall that he had come in from.

There was no way you were going to remain in the same place and risk being caught if he came back. Making sure your backpack was still secure, you climbed your way back down the same steps. But when you reached the bottom, you hurried along the rocks under the fall in the opposite direction that Hoseok had left.

 *

 Namjoon and the boy from 10 on the cornucopia had been trapped in a stalemate ever since Namjoon had returned from the waterfall. The boy had been distracted with filling up a bag as quickly as possible that he initially didn’t notice Namjoon sneaking up on him, but a movement in his peripheral version alerted him to the career’s presence. His head snapped up, as he saw him coming back to the cornucopia. Namjoon held the boy’s eyes with a dangerous stare that screamed one thing; ‘you’re dead, kid’.

There were barely any supplies left, the rock was sparse and the last remaining good items were now in the bag slung over his shoulder. Clearly Namjoon had to want what was in the bag if he was coming back for it.

“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll drop it!”

The break in his voice severely reduced the impact of his words, but the boy dangled the bag over the side of the water to show that he was serious.

Namjoon rolled his eyes, clearly not taking the threat seriously as he continued to walk, forwards, only to stop when the boy released the bag entirely. The boy caught the bag by the handle, but held it back up over the side of the edge once more.

‘So, he’s quick,’ Namjoon internally assessed as he held up his hands in a mock surrender.

“You have something of mine that I want back,” Namjoon nodded to the bag.

“If it was yours you would have taken it with you,” the kid snapped back.

“Everything in this arena is mine, including your life. Drop the bag on the rock and your death won’t be a painful one,” Namjoon threatened as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to showcase his muscular triceps that were probably three times the width of the scrawny teenage boy’s.

“Come any closer and your bag will be thrown to the bottom of your river”

Namjoon longed to rush the boy and slam his head against the rock to teach him some respect, but the bag of supplies kept him rooted to the spot. Meanwhile the boy was tossing up his options. The boy from 10 knew that he was fast, but the weight of the bag would slow him down, and it was possible Namjoon could catch him. But if he dropped the bag his odds of outrunning him into the forest were much higher. But the boy wanted the bag just as much as the careers did. He hadn’t eaten since the start of the games. He had scarfed down a protein bar whilst cramming supplies into the bag, but he didn’t think he was going to last long in the forest without anything.

And so, the two stood eyeing each other down, neither willing to cut the loss of the bag, not even a body flying over the edge of the waterfall to the sound of a canon could distract them. However, Namjoon could still see Hoseok resurfacing out the side of the fall.

Hoseok could be brash but he wasn’t an idiot. Seeing the boy holding the bag over the water and Namjoon with his hands up, he could tell that there was some sort of bargain happening. With the boy’s arm over the water, it wasn’t like he could just shoot him with an arrow, without the bag falling in. Being within Namjoon’s line of sight, and with the boy having his back to him, Hoseok sent Namjoon a signal to let him know he would approach quietly.

Keeping his hands raised, Namjoon began to walk around the boy. He maintained the same distance, moving clockwise around the rock with lazy steps.

“You’re not getting off this rock with that bag,” he taunted as he walked, deliberately keeping the boy’s attention away from Hoseok, who was moving closer towards their direction.

“As a matter of fact, you won’t be getting off this rock alive at all”

“Then there wouldn’t be much sense in me keeping a hold of this bag then,” ten sneered.

“The second you drop the bag, is the second you die and you know it,” Namjoon replied coolly as he continued to pace.

“Not unless I make a trade”

Namjoon barked out a laugh.

“For you to make a trade you would need to have something I want. The only thing I want is that bag.”

“Oh really?” Ten asked with a knowing grin starting to crawl across his face.

Namjoon rolled his eyes at the audacity of the kid to think he could possibly strike a bargain, but he had to admit it was somewhat amusing.

“And what else could you possibly have?”

“I saw you and two earlier, I know you’re looking for your district partner. I also saw where she went”

There was a hint of glee in ten’s voice, like he was aware of a hilarious inside joke and Namjoon didn’t like it one bit.

“Bullshit,” he called.

At this reaction, ten outright giggled.

“I know you were tracking her, and that you killed that other career. But I also saw where she was going, and you were both so close.”

“And what makes you think that I believe you?”

Whether Namjoon believed him or not, having the boy keep talking was an excellent way to stall for time as Hoseok continued to get closer. With Namjoon now on the other side of the rock, it was only a matter of time before they had the kid trapped between them.

“She’s a pretty thing, isn’t she?”

Namjoon let out an exasperated sigh.

“No shit, we’ve all seen her at training and the interviews. Hardly proves you saw her today.”

Ten fumbled the bag slightly, his arm starting to burn with lactic acid from holding it over the water for so long. Bringing it down to the ground, he placed a foot on top, easily able to kick it into the river if he wanted. It was in the process of doing this that he caught sight of Hoseok approaching from his peripheral vision.

“Tell him to stop right now, or I kick the bag,” he immediately threatened.

“Hoseok!” Namjoon yelled, before making a cutting gesture across his throat, to get him to pause.

Hoseok reluctantly listened, coming to a stop just slightly further away from the boy than where Namjoon was on the other side of the cornucopia.

“So now what? I drop the bag and I die, or I give you the bag and I die” Ten deadpanned as he looked between the careers on either side of him, not exactly liking his options.

“Sounds about right to me,” Hoseok grinned, sliding the bow off his shoulder and preparing to load an arrow from his quiver.

“If you shoot me now then I can’t tell you where your girl is.”

Hoseok paused his hand right as it touched upon an arrow.

“Where is she,” he demanded.

Namjoon mentally slammed his palm against his forehead, of course Hoseok would be too blinded by his obsession with you, and buy into this bargain.

“I’m not just going to tell you so you can kill me. Look I can see there’s no situation here where I leave alive with the bag, so I’ll drop it. Here,” Ten paused to toss the bag a few feet in front of himself.

“Walk towards me and let me walk past you” Ten gestured towards Hoseok “and I’ll tell you where she is.”

Hoseok nodded curtly whilst Namjoon just rolled his eyes. He thought Hoseok was a lovesick fool, but was satisfied with the fact they at least had the bag back again.

The walk across the rocks began, ten deliberately tried to walk in a path that would create a gap in width between his body and Hoseok’s when they met. Hoseok read this and navigated himself in a way to lessen that distance, in case Ten tried to run without giving him the information that he wanted.

Meanwhile Namjoon walked towards the direction of the bag to retrieve it, but spotted something from the corner of his eye. There was some sort of shape in the rocks near the waterfall. He knew he should probably be paying attention in case Ten thought it was a good idea to jump his teammate, but Hoseok was strong enough to take care of himself, and this weird shape was bothering him. It was hard to see over the mist that sprayed up from the crashing impact, and when he squinted his eyes to look, it was like it was never there at all. For a moment he dismissed it as a bird until it moved again. A blur ducking up and then disappearing behind the closest rock. And then suddenly it clicked – why Ten had been laughing when talking about how close they apparently were to you before. The boy had seen you…

“HOSEOK!” He bellowed right before the two boys were about to pass each other “SHE WAS INSIDE THE CAVE. SHE’S MAKING A BREAK OUT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FALL”

 *

 Whatever luck you had acquired for Hoseok to leave inside the cave, seemed to have vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. You couldn’t hear the words that Namjoon had yelled over the rumbling noise of water crashing nearby, but you could see him pointing in your direction.

For a split second you all froze. You were caught like a deer in headlights, Namjoon was pointing at you, Hoseok looked livid and the boy from ten was scared to death. There was barely any distance between Ten and Hoseok. They were less than six feet apart, with Hoseok blocking the way to the forest, and Ten had just lost his only bargaining chip seconds away from managing to escape. With no weapon on his body, and no way to get around the armed career in front of him, he made a split-second decision to turn back around. If he was going to die, then he wasn’t going to let those careers get that bag, He’d kick it into the river if it was the last thing he did.

Immediately, chaos erupted.

You took off into a sprint across the rocks. You no longer had to worry about remaining hidden and put all your focus on speed. There was no point in prioritizing your safety on the dangerous surface either – it was either get away, or die. You’d risk slipping and breaking your neck than winding up caught between Hoseok and Namjoon any day. Using every ounce of instinct built from years living on the coast, climbing your boat, and scaling rocks near the sea, you made a break for the forest.

Being the closest, Namjoon would have pursued you, if wasn’t for ten turning around. Reading his move for the bag Namjoon had to race him for it, which was in the opposite direction that you were running. Hoseok and ten were both the same speed, so it was down to him being closer to save their supplies.

“No! Get her! GET HER!” Hoseok yelled to Namjoon as he watched you slipping through his fingers, whilst you ran closer to the forest’s edge.

But Namjoon ignored the demand, leaping onto the bag just seconds before Ten’s foot could make contact with a kick. Instead, Namjoon took the hit to his side and rolled, causing ten to go flying over the top of him.

Ten landed with a sickening crunch. He had thrown his arms out to break the fall, only to break his wrist on impact with the rock. Despite the agony, he used the momentum to keep rolling and fell off the side, into the water below. Namjoon sat up with a grunt, with his water experience, swimming the boy down wouldn’t be a problem, except Hoseok was about to beat him to it.

With his bow loaded, Hoseok shot an arrow straight into the shoulder of ten. The boy let out a muffled scream as he fell underneath the surface, no longer able to swim. With ten no longer a threat, Hoseok looked up to try and find where you were, to see you were right at the border between the rocks and the forest edge.

You had made it to the trees and stopped to look behind to see if you were being chased, when you witnessed Hoseok shoot the boy from ten. You thought that would be it, that he would be left to drown now that he could no longer swim, or that Hoseok would fire a second arrow to be certain. Instead, you found yourself rooted to the spot as Namjoon reached into the water and pulled ten back up to the surface by the arrow stuck inside of his body. As Namjoon continued to drag a screaming ten out of the water, and back up onto the cornucopia rock, Hoseok stood at his side, pointedly staring at you.

Your eyes were locked onto his, trying to read what he was going to do next. You leaned against the closest tree as you tried to suck in deep breaths. Your lungs burned from sprinting over the rocks, but you had to be ready to run again into the forest at any moment. In return Hoseok was eerily still. He watched the rise and fall of your chest with every breath you took, studied the flush of red across your cheeks and beads of sweat trickling from your forehead, and thought of the ways in which he would love to elicit such a response from your body. He ached to run and take you into his arms so he could feel the warmth of your body pressed against his, but knew that you would disappear into the forest the second he tried to. So, instead he chose to drag those seconds out as long as possible, just watching you breathe from a distance to find comfort in knowing you were still alive.

  *

 The sound of the canon had distracted the two boys that were holding Yoongi under the water. Turning their heads over towards the sound they were hoping to see Athena dead and the other girl from eight returning to help them take care of the last person at camp, but were met with the sight of an enraged Athena running in their direction.

“Shit! What the fuck do we do?” The boy from district 8 hissed, as he maintained his pressure on Yoongi’s neck to keep him face down under the water.

“How the fuck should I know?” the boy from district 9 snapped back, “You’re the genius who said your partner could take care of her”

“I thought she could! How hard is it to sneak up and kill someone from behind?”

“Too hard apparently”

“WATCH OUT!”

The two boys’ bickering was cut short by eight shoving nine to the side and narrowly avoiding the spear that Athena had thrown.

“That was clos-”

Eight’s sigh of relief was cut short by a second spear landing in his throat.

Nine released a horrified scream at the gruesome vision. The canon hadn’t sounded yet as eight was barely clinging to life, choking out gargled breaths as blood spilled profusely down his neck and into the water below. Nine was so preoccupied by the sight that he didn’t even notice that Yoongi had surfaced from the water. With an agonized grunt, Yoongi pulled the blade of the machete out of his leg and swung it straight into the kid’s head.

Two canons sounded one after the other as the boys died simultaneously.

With the surge of adrenaline fading as quickly as it had appeared, Yoongi collapsed on the shore, vomiting up the water he had been forced to swallow whilst being held under. His injured leg was throbbing, he had a splitting headache and his chest felt like someone had been sitting on it. He was barely conscious when Athena caught up to him and dragged him further out of the water, to make sure he didn’t get caught in the stream and sent over the waterfall.

Pulling her button up shirt from her body (leaving just a tank top underneath), Athena set to work on creating a makeshift tourniquet by tying the sleeves tightly above the wound.

“You know, I could easily just kill you now,” Athena mused.

Yoongi’s response was a laugh in the form of a sharp huff. It was true, he was defenseless. The machete had been lodged into nine’s skull and taken away with his body. He now had no weapon and a major injury in his leg, whilst Athena was a skilled hand to hand combat fighter. She could also easily run back to the weapons at their camp before he could even struggle to his feet.

“So why don’t you?” he grunted, closing his eyes and letting his head fall onto the ground below.

Yoongi knew his shot at the games was practically over with such a severe injury. His bad feeling over Krystal was only made worse by the surprise attack from the three tributes. What if they had killed her when she went off to have a bathroom break earlier? She hadn’t been seen in hours and there were far too many canons that had sounded today. If Krystal was dead then there was no purpose for him to be here anymore, though he hoped to at least wait to see the tribute display in the evening and confirm Krystal was gone before entirely giving up.

“Hoseok and Namjoon,” Athena sighed in response.

Though his eyes were closed, Yoongi raised an eyebrow, indicating for her to elaborate.

“What do you think those two would think if they came back and saw you dead in camp and your sister missing too? They’d probably act like I did it and kill me on the spot for betraying the alliance.”

“That sucks,” Yoongi grumbled.

“Yeah, it does,” Athena laughed. Nothing about the situation was actually funny, but it was such a surreal experience it was all she could do.

“But you know what else sucks?” She continued, earning a questioning grunt from Yoongi.

“That this wouldn’t have even happened if Hoseok and Namjoon didn’t go off on their stupid search for YN. The weird obsession with her, it’s literally insane.”

“I don’t get it either,” Yoongi sighed.

“I’m sick of it. They left us here to die, maybe Krystal already has…”

Yoongi flinched.

“Sorry. But for what? A stupid crush they’re going to have to kill in the end anyway. I didn’t get my name pulled out of that bowl just so I could die as a side character in some weird love story.”

“So, what are you going to do about it? Jump them when they come back to camp?”

Athena scoffed at the suggestion.

“Tempting but I think we both know they’re stronger than I am. I might take down one of them with me but I couldn’t get both. And it’s not like you’d be much help there either.”

“I offer you my complete moral support” Yoongi deadpanned.

Athena barked out another laugh.

“I’ve got nothing,” she sighed. “Maybe we have that in common, and maybe we should at least watch each other’s backs.”

Yoongi opened his eyes and looked up to see Athena staring down at him.

The pain of potentially losing Krystal was still too raw for him to properly process, especially without any closure of knowing that it had really happened (though every instinct in his gut told him she was gone). But he had been so focused on his goal of protecting his sister he hadn’t given much thought to any of his other teammates.

Athena looked tough and intimidating, she scored high in trials and interviewed well. By all standards she was just another typical career, but the reality was she was also human. Yet another sacrifice to the capitol, just like his sister and just like himself. With Krystal, he had someone he loved with him, but Athena had no one. Her closest thing to a partner, in her district mate, had abandoned her for a prettier girl like a child distracted by a shinier new toy. If they were both doomed to die here, then the least he could do was make sure she wasn’t entirely alone.

“Yeah, I think we should”.

 *

 The sound of two back-to-back canons cut short whatever moment you were having with Hoseok. It was a slap across the face reminder that this was a game to kill until the last person standing, and the man standing across the rocks from you would ultimately have to try and kill you, no matter what sweet promises he made.

“YN wait, please!” you heard him beg as you broke eye contact, but you didn’t look back again as you turned and vanished into the forest.

“FUCK!” Hoseok screamed in frustration, launching a kick into the ten’s shoulder, the same one he had shot the arrow into. If he couldn’t have you now then he was going to make the little shit who ruined his plans pay.

Namjoon took a step back, and picked up the bag of supplies. He then walked over to a nearby rock and set the bag down in front of him, perfectly secured between his legs. Unzipping the top, he reached inside and dug out an apple, biting in as Hoseok ripped the arrow completely out of ten’s shoulder. Namjoon watched nonchalantly as Hoseok reloaded the arrow and shot it into ten’s other shoulder, the younger boy writhing in agony below.

The torture continued as Namjoon ate his snack. Hoseok would pull the arrow out of ten’s body by twisting it painfully, before reloading and shooting it again into another non-lethal area. His arms and legs were more like a bloody human pin cushion by the time Namjoon had finished a second apple and decided he was bored.

“We should get back to camp,” he declared, shouldering the bag.

Hoseok turned his attention to Namjoon with a raised brow.

“Those two canons earlier, and the one before that, we should check on Athena and Yoongi.”

Hoseok opened his mouth to argue before Namjoon cut him off.

“I don’t care about them either, however it would benefit us to know if they are still alive and who attacked them if they’re not. If there are other tributes working together, we need to take care of them before they go after YN next.”

Hoseok rolled his neck to stare up at the sky with an exhausted sigh. He knew Namjoon was right, and self-indulgent torture sessions weren’t going to get you back.

“Good,” Namjoon confirmed with a smile, before leaning down and snapping ten’s neck with his bare hands.

 Another canon.

 *

 It took slightly longer than an hour for Namjoon and Hoseok to climb the cliff and return to the campsite, where they were met with the sight of Athena wrapping a bandage around Yoongi’s thigh. The duo was informed the first aid kit was a gift from a sponsor and that the Yoongi and Athena were ambushed by three tributes, all now dead. When Yoongi asked if they had seen Krystal, Namjoon denied anything and asked if they heard any canons before they were attacked. Athena confirmed there had been, and Yoongi had broken down crying.

Hoseok left the other boy to grieve, knowing his sister was dead long before the nightly display confirmed it. Laying down in the tent, he longed to run into the forest and find you right at this second. However, he knew he needed to rest, and that tomorrow when he left camp, there was no way he would return without you. For now, he settled on mentally calculating how many people had to be left in the games. Krystal was gone leaving only himself, Namjoon, Athena and an injured Yoongi in the careers, and of course, there was still you. Eight tributes had died on opening day, two had died over the night, there were two earlier canons that morning, and with the short-lived alliance of three, the person you had killed, and the boy from ten, then that only left one other tribute who was still alive…

  *

 You sat high up in a tree, tied to a branch, as you heard the Panem music blast throughout the arena. Shivering under your blanket, you listened as the game maker praised the blood bath of the day, and commented that you were on track for the fastest games in history. When Krystal’s face appeared in the sky as the first tribute, you lost it. You bundled the top of the blanket into a ball and openly sobbed into the fabric, mourning the loss of the only person in the arena who you would have called a friend. You cried far longer than it took for the capitol to display all of the people who had died, and so you honestly had no idea who was left, or exactly how many people there even were now.

You knew Hoseok and Namjoon were still alive as only one more canon had sounded after you ran into the forest, and there was no doubt in your mind it was for the boy that had been shot with the arrow. You felt physically sick from crying; your sinuses were clogged and you had a nasty headache. You were also dizzy from not eating anything in hours and downright drained from how physically and emotionally taxing everything was. You had zero plan for survival in the arena, and no idea what you were going to do the next time Hoseok came close to finding you. In your exhausted state, you decided that would have to be a problem for tomorrow. Letting your head fall back against the trunk, you closed your eyes and quickly succumbed to your body’s need for rest.

Little did you know that someone very close by had been tracking you since earlier that afternoon, and was waiting for this exact moment.

  Note: Ten’s idea was to grab the bag and run, he didn’t stop to search what was inside, and obviously regretted the fact he didn’t check for a weapon when he had the chance

So close to 10K but I didn’t want to fill it with garbage for the sake of trying to boost the word count, so 9.5 it is.

[songsformonkeys]

Digging Up Bones (whiskey x f!reader) - chapter 3

[Banner by the lovely @yespolkadotkitty ]

Summary: You work for the Statesmen as the head of their medical department. It’s your job to patch up anyone who gets back wounded and to work on ways to prevent them from getting badly wounded in the first place.

Agent Whiskey, in particular, seems to be more accident-prone than the rest and he never passes up a reason to come see you, whether for real injuries or imaginary ones. The two of you form a close friendship, which slowly turns into something more.

Then a British man with a headshot wound and a fascination with butterflies shows up in your emergency room and in the events that follow you’re forced to reevaluate just about everything you thought you knew about your partner.

Warnings: canon typical violence

Masterlist

Chapter 3

The following three days passed in a slow fashion. Not just because Whiskey was gone but the rest of the agents seemed to be staying out of harm's way as well. It was a bit boring, but that was something Tonic had taught you not to complain about out loud since it apparently made it sound like you longed for injuries and carnage.

On the bright side, the slow days gave you, Ginger, and Tonic time to begin interviewing the agents on base for their emergency folders for the Alpha-gel.

The three of you had realized that while the gel and the nanites healed the brain perfectly fine they still needed something to counter the retrograde amnesia, which seemed to be a standard side effect. The sample of agents that had needed to use the gel was still small and so you couldn't draw too many sure conclusions from it, but every single one of them so far had suffered memory loss. It had been Tonic's idea that reminders of a past trauma might jump-start the memory again. The results had been good but guessing and digging up past traumas had been painstakingly difficult and had taken up more time than ideal. So you had collectively decided that each agent should have a file or a folder containing their very worst memory and ways it could be triggered.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 On Wednesday evening, you curled up in your armchair and called Whiskey. He picked up after three rings.

“Moonshine, “ he drawled, voice sounding a little tired.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” you asked, suddenly feeling a little bad. It wasn't that late in the evening but maybe Whiskey had needed to tuck in early.

“No no, I was awake,” Whiskey assured you, “Just got home from a looong day at an art auction. I'm not sure if you've ever been but it is possibly the most boring thing I have ever done.”

“Yeah? What was so bad about it?” you asked, smiling to yourself. You would be caught dead before admitting it out loud but you had actually missed him these past few days.

Whiskey began describing his day. A soon as he began talking, his voice relaxed you. You pictured him walking around in a swanky hotel room, with a view of the big city, probably still wearing his hat. You were half convinced he even slept in that thing.

Whiskey told you about the auction and the few stuck-up people who had pretended not to understand his southern accent just to make him feel less than. Then he told you about the way he'd later wiped the smug smiles off their faces by actually bidding home the small painting they had been ogling.

“Champ might kill me for it, 'cause it cost a small fortune, but it was worth it!”

“What will you do with the painting?” you asked.

“Hm,” Whiskey said and you didn't need to see him to know that he was shrugging, “Dunno. Might hang it in my apartment. It's a beautiful painting, reminded me of someone special... Speaking of my apartment, have you finished the cake yet?”

You nodded, before remembering that he couldn't see you.

“Yes, Ginger and Tonic helped me eat the rest of it.”

You had been over to Whiskey's apartment the day after he'd left. When you'd gotten to work, his key had been in a white envelope on your desk and you hadn't been able to keep your curiosity at bay for longer than a workday.

The apartment hadn't been quite what you thought Whiskey's home would look like. It had been much neater and cleaner than you had expected, for starters. You had expected more of a bachelor pad but Whiskey's apartment was quite nice. It looked lived in but not messy. Each thing seemed to have its own designated spot. As you had walked around the living room towards the kitchen you had taken in the big, comfortable-looking couch and multi-colored knitted blanket that looked like it was homemade.

There had been a couple of books on art history resting on the wooden coffee table. You had stopped, slightly in awe, in front of the big bookshelves that covered a whole wall of the room. You'd never pictured Whiskey to be the reading type, but here was clear proof otherwise. You had scanned the titles of the books and the exceptionally wide array of subjects made you suspect that a lot of these had been read for previous missions. But there had been a whole shelf of fiction too and you smiled a little as you noted that a lot of them seemed to be old western classics.

You had found the cake in the fridge in the equally clean kitchen. The cake had been in a plastic container and Whiskey had stuck a post-it note with a smiley on the lid.

“I liked your bookshelf. And I borrowed a book from you,“ you confessed over the phone and Whiskey chuckled in response.

“Is that so? Which one, if I may ask, was it that caught your fancy?”

“Lonesome Dove.”

“Ah, a classic! Didn't have you pegged as a western girl, Moonshine.”

“I'm not sure if I am, I've never read any. But you had a lot of them and I thought...” You cut yourself off, glancing over at the book on your bed, “You had a book on human anatomy as well that looked interesting and one on make-shift medical treatment when you don't have access to a hospital. I didn't take those, though. It felt wrong to take so many books without asking...”

Whiskey chuckled again and the sound did weird things to your insides, or maybe it was the nerves of having just admitted to raiding his bookshelf.

“Darlin', if it makes you happy, you are more than welcome to help yourself to any book in that apartment”

“Really? But what if it's a book that you suddenly need?”

“Then I'll know perfectly well where to find it.”

You couldn't really argue with that logic, didn't really want to either because the prospect of getting to read all those books almost made you giddy.

“So besides ogling my books, what else have you been up to while I've been gone?” Whiskey asked and you proceeded to tell him about the work with the Trauma Folders, which Tonic so affectionately called them.

“You still haven't submitted yours either, by the way,” you told him. Whiskey didn't immediately answer. The line was dead silent for a few seconds and just when you were about to ask if he was still there, he cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I know. I promise to get right on that as soon as I'm back, okay?” He sounded a little odd and your brow furrowed slightly. Whiskey cleared his throat again.

“Look, darlin', I'm pretty dead on my feet right now and as lovely as your voice is to listen to, I think unfortunately we gotta hang up before I start snoring on you.”

“Oh, of course! Sorry, I've talked too much.”

“Hardly,” Whiskey replied and his voice was warm and soft again, which eased the nervous knots that had begun forming in your stomach at his abrupt attempt to end the call. Usually, that was your role to try and say goodnight and his to try and linger. “I cherish every word, which is why I prefer to be awake for them. Call me tomorrow again?”

“Sure. Good night, Whiskey.”

“Good night, darlin'”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 If the previous days had been slow, the following day was anything but, at least when the afternoon rolled around.

Ginger had called you about some very strange low-frequency readings coming from a church nearby in Kentucky. She told you that she and Tequila were gonna go check it out but that you should be on standby, just in case.

You told her to be careful. Ginger was excellent at her job but she was also one of your closest friends and you couldn't help but worry.

After you'd ended the call, you immediately set about preparing the emergency room and double-checking to make sure everything was there. Seeing as neither of you knew what the strange readings had been about, it was difficult to prepare for every possible scenario, and while you knew that the health effects of exposure to extremely low frequencies were being discussed in the medical community, no one knew exactly what the effects were.

It seemed like a lifetime had passed before Ginder called you again. You heard the sound of the helicopter in the background. She told you that they'd be there in thirty and that they were bringing someone in with a headshot.

“I'll get the chamber ready for him!” you told her

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Thirty minutes later, on the dot, you watched as the helicopter landed and Tequila emerged, carrying a man in a suit. The man's face was obscured by the balloon containing the Alpha-gel but his clothes looked expensive.

“Entry point?” you yelled, over the sound of the helicopter as you waved for Tequila and Ginger to hurry inside.

“Straight through the left eye,” Ginger replied and you winced. The left temporal lobe would be damaged, for sure, maybe part of the occipital one too. You were confident that the nanites would be able to rebuild the brain matter but with the temporal lobe damaged you worried that the memory loss might be even more extensive than what you'd seen before and you wondered if it would affect his speech.

“Exit point or is the bullet still in there?” you asked.

“The bullet went all the way through as far as I could tell. Not sure what he was shot with though so we'll have to scan to make sure there's nothing left in there.”

Said and done. When you got down to the medical rooms you first put the man through a thorough scan of his skull. Just like Ginger suspected, the bullet had gone straight through and it luckily hadn't left anything but damaged tissue in its wake. Tequila helped move him over to the nanite chamber. Carefully, you removed the Alpha-gel balloon and quickly closed the chamber around his head.

“What happened?” you asked as you sat down in front of the computer and began tapping away at the keyboard, starting the machine and readying it for the healing and rebuilding process.

“We have no idea,” Ginger said. “We found him like this outside the church, no sign of who had shot him. Inside the church, however...”

“What?” you asked.

“Inside was a total fuckin' bloodbath,” Tequila supplied, “Whole congregation just...slaughtered.”

You looked over at the strange man.

“You think he did it?”

Both Ginger and Tequila shrugged.

“We don't know. But he's got blood on him that isn't his own and there was no gun in his hand so he clearly didn't shoot himself, which means someone got away from that Church alive.” Ginger reasoned, “And there's one more thing..”

She pulled a pair of glasses from the pocket of her jacket. The left glass was shattered.

“He was wearing these. These aren't normal glasses, which means he's not a civilian. And his watch... he's some sort of intelligence. I'll dig around and see if I can find out whom he belongs to.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 You called Whiskey again that evening. He sounded more awake today but you could practically hear the frown on his face when you told him about your strange new guest. He was not happy.

“He's an agent?” he asked.

“We think so. Ginger is running some tests on his glasses and his watch to see what we can figure out but so far we have no idea whom he's working for. So we just have to wait for him to wake up and see how much he remembers.”

“I don't like this,” Whiskey stated. “Not one bit. If he's intelligence, he's dangerous, Moonshine. You shouldn't be alone with him, not under any circumstances!”

“I won't,” you reassured him while rolling your eyes. “Agent Tequila also has an over-protective streak and has, therefore, put himself on guard duty until further notice. I've had him looking over my shoulder all evening.”

You had found it somewhat annoying but Whiskey had instantly calmed down upon hearing that bit of information. He told you to promise to listen to Tequila on this, which you reluctantly did. You didn't tell Whiskey that if the arrangement continued, you would have to come to some sort of agreement with Tequila on how close was close enough for protection. You couldn't have him reading over your shoulder all day long or you'd go stir crazy.

Whiskey continued to ask you a bunch of questions about the strange man and you couldn't answer a single one. He asked you about the signal too and you couldn't give him any answers to that either. It was all Ginger's area of expertise and you told him as much.

“Sorry, darlin', just wanna make sure my favorite girl is safe until I get back.”

Whiskey's words made you smile stupidly, despite the slightly patronizing undertone of them. You would like to think you knew how to take care of yourself, especially around your patients. But you did enjoy it when Whiskey called you his favorite. No one else had called you their favorite before.

After a few more minutes of chit-chat, you both said good night.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The next day, your patient woke up.

It had been decided the day before that Tonic and Tequila would be the first ones to greet him. Tequila because of the whole bodyguard business and Tonic because he was by far the one who had the most experience with calming people in shock and panic. You had only sulked a little when you'd sat down the desk on the other side of the one-way mirror showing you the stranger's cell. You turned on the cameras in the other room to record the interaction before leaning forward over the desk to watch.

As anticipated, the man was more than a little freaked out by waking up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces around him.

“Where am I? Who are you?” he immediately asked and you raised your eyebrows as you noted his British accent. The stranger tried to scramble off the bed where he'd been lying. Tequila took a step forward but Tonic quickly held up a hand to stop him.

“You are in a hospital,” Tonic told the frightened man and gave him a calm smile, “My name is To...Tom.”

“A hospital? What happened?” the stranger asked.

“We were hoping you would be able to tell us. You were in some sort of accident and when we found you, you were unconscious.”

Unconscious... that was definitely an understatement to describing having had one's brains blown out through the back of their head.

“Do you remember anything of what happened?” Tonic continued.

The British man looked around the room with wild eyes but he was already calming down a bit. While you were a bit jealous that Tonic, or Tom apparently, was the first one to get to talk to your new patient you had to admit that it was a privilege to get to watch him work. Tonic continued talking to the man and answering his questions by saying just enough to calm him but not enough to confuse him.

You found out that his name was Harry, but he couldn't remember his last name. He was from England and he thought he was 23 years old, which he most definitely was not. You caught Tonic and Tequila exchange a look as Harry told them his age. If Harry couldn't remember anything beyond his 23rd year then you estimated that he had forgotten more than half of his life. And since he wasn't one of your agents, you had no idea how to bring those memories back again...

Tonic and Harry spoke for a while longer and Tonic told him about his injuries. He also told harry about the memory loss. Harry didn't believe him until Tonic guided him over to the one-way mirror separating you from them and let Harry have a look at himself. You stood on the other side of the mirror and could watch as realization dawned on Harry. His breathing immediately sped up again and he was beginning to panic.

“Harry,” Tonic said calmly, “Harry, I'm gonna need you to breathe slower with me, okay? We've seen this kind of memory loss before and we will do our very best to help you recover the memories you can't remember right now”

“Think of it as one hell of a hangover,” Tequila supplied and Harry gave him an incredulous look.

“Hangover?” he asked in a weak voice “I look old enough to be a grandfather and I don't remember any of it... I don't think anyone has ever been drunk enough for that kind of hangover.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Tonic and Tequila handled the whole ordeal in a way that made you proud to call yourself their colleague and they stayed with Harry for most of the day, talking and explaining. Harry listened patiently and you had to give him credit for taking the situation a whole lot better than some of the Statesmen who had gone through the same thing. He was scared and worried, sure, but he managed to keep his panic in check and asked Tonic a whole bunch of relevant questions.

You wished you could have stayed and watched all afternoon but eventually you had to go back to your own office and begin typing up your report.

You had barely gotten two paragraphs in when your phone started ringing.

“Moonshine?” Whiskey said as soon as you picked up and you could immediately tell that something was wrong. He sounded scared. There were car horns blaring and loud crashes in the background.

“Yes. Whiskey what's...”

Whiskey cut you off before you could finish your question.

“Where are you?” he asked and when it took you a fraction of a second too long to answer, he repeated the question, “Moonshine! Where are you?”

“I'm in the office. Whiskey what's wrong?”

“Good! Whatever you do, stay where you are! There's something in the air! People are killing each other!”

“What?” Before you could say anything further, your door burst open and you screamed from surprise.

“Moonshine!” Whiskey yelled, panicked, as Ginger stormed into the office and pushed you out of her way to get to the computer. She began tapping on the keyboard and you watched as she pulled up live feeds from several cameras around the country. Your mouth fell open as you watched the chaos that filled the screen.

“MOONSHINE!” Whiskey yelled again and you realized you hadn't answered him.

“I'm fine!” you quickly assured him and you heard him exhale loudly. “Ginger just showed up. What the hell is going on?” The last question was aimed at them both. The quality of the feeds wasn't the best but there was no mistaking what was going on. All over the country, people were killing each other.

“The fuck if I know,” Whiskey said at the same time as Ginger supplied the slightly more helpful “It's the same signal! It's the same low frequency as we picked up from the church. But this is all over...well the world”

She turned and looked at the phone in your hand.

“Is that agent Whiskey?”

You nodded but then froze as you heard a banging noise on the other end of the line, which sounded much closer than the previous ones. You heard Whiskey curse.

“Whiskey?”

There was another crash and he cursed again.

“I'm sorry, darlin', I seem to have a visitor. I gotta go.”

“Whiskey,” you begged and you heard your own voice break as you spoke his name.

“Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll deal with this and then I promise I'll come right home to you. You just promise to stay inside and stay safe, okay?”

What about you? you wanted to ask, but Whiskey had already hung up.

“He'll be fine,” said Ginger, who must have seen the expression change on your face. You nodded. She was right. Whiskey was an excellent agent. He would be fine.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 He would be fine. You managed to convince yourself of that up until about an hour later when the office phone called. You were too busy clutching your own phone, waiting for Whiskey to call back, to pay any attention to the other phone so Ginger picked it up and answered. She exchanged a few cryptic comments with the person on the other line before ending the call by saying:

“We'll be ready for him.”

After she'd hung up the phone she turned towards you.

“Whiskey's on his way back. He's been stabbed but according to the pilot, he's stable. They're flying him back now. “

[bedlamgames]

No Haven 0.956

Highlights for this one include a bunch of new assignments, a new encampment role, new training options, an overhaul to removals, and more

Download links can be found on the No Haven page. Update notes can be found under the break.

If you don’t have RAGS and you need a copy to run it there’s one on the help page here or the one pinned on the patreon you can find a link to in the attached read me which is more up to date. If RAGS has never worked on your system despite the help page suggestions then it might be worth trying with one of the alternate players. There’s also improvements on there to the RAGS player that can also help with performance.

0.95 to 0.956 Change logs under the break:

0.956 Change Log

-Miscellaneous additions: ---After a number of interested buyers made inquiries in acquiring a certain Imperial Muse at the local auction block, her estimated value has been increased substantially to account for this. ---Due to Harmony not being able to improve like other slavers, her Aspect has improved to gain a new Critical Success bonus for Assignment types based on her current form. ---Anyte has slithered off to see a certain Stylist, and has updated her eyes to match her artwork. ---To make Unstable Change more attractive as an option, there is now a chance when the time would change to Evening after Biomancy/Corruption to instead stay at Afternoon allowing another attempt or the doing of something else. ---Added some new going on Assignments lines of dialogue for Amazons.

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for Kyssandra's Aspect which wasn't working if you found her from an Assignment rather than by getting her straight away with Recruiter. ---Fix for a broken name variable in both anal training, and when Agile is removed by Corruption. ---Fix for Outcast not applying when chosen from Quick Start - Extra Options. ---Fix for Drow not working correctly with stuff that would set their gender beforehand. ---Fix for the menus showing the old costs for Dominant/Submissive on Full Custom when you can only take Traits that don't take up a slot. ---Fix for an issue where you could make a clone by being able to select a slaver to effectively train themselves. Now that should be an invalid choice.

0.955 Change Log

-New commissions: ---Share the Wealth.

-Miscellaneous additions: ---Slavers that are also slaves can no longer be sent in the slave spot during Negotiating Entry. Presumably as they want to see evidence of your work that's not just someone who's clearly just there due to being that much of a sub already, or has been through extensive training at the hands of another. ---Updated Jogdun Clugg, Ogre Bruiser's quote on Abyss Trolls to no longer be about the no longer existing Wild Trolls. ---Slavers now gain a small amount of Xp when doing Biomancy regardless of the result.

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for an issue when checking to see which ears can be corrupted. ---Fix for the Biomancy tracker on Encampment Status/Stats showing the Corruption tracker instead. ---Fix for the display of Severina's race when acquired from Private Passage. ---Fix for Icebreaker Critical Success claiming it gives the Stars in their Eyes assignment. ---Fix for 'Perks Array' showing up randomly on slavers after succeeding at Icebreaker. ---Fix for Saiphas' lore page being mixed about somehow after being correct before. ---Fix for the scapegoat having a drastically over the top value. ---Fix for Shadow Outcasts with double loner. ---Fix for the Savage Orc Whorelock not having the Whorelock traits. ---Fix for the Three Random Rare Traits for Second-in-Commands going away if you take the extra optional customization.   ---Fix for being forced to make a selection at the Stylist rather than just being allowed to leave. ---Fix for Alice picking something random as her title initially, including for potentially setting fires, before end of day when she gets her correct one. ---Fix for Squad Goals not making you start as a Sissy (TF Edition only) ---Fix for Fulfill Opportunities showing up repeatedly in the Overviews. ---Fix for Alyanara d'Vyr being only able to do Endurance Training, as the first attempt was only partially the problem. ---Fix for Heal Sluts not restoring enough morale when healing Slavers. ---Fix for Slavers healing Slaves increasing the amount of Xp it takes to level. ---Some text fixes.

0.954 Change Log

-New commissions: ---Asanei Futa. Also with other versions used for Asanei Females who are naked, and for all results for Adversarial Affairs apart from Disaster or if you managed to find the Unique.

-Miscellaneous additions: ---Updated the Drow lore page to reflect changes since the last time that was done. ---Replaced one of the new golem encampment composition for a more full shot. ---If a character starts with Fel Tainted due to it being rolled as a Trait, but on their subsequent Corruption gains a non description effecting change like a regular other Trait or by resisting the Corruption entirely they will now start with the High Elf eyes so the Trait doesn't appear to be there for no reason. ---Got a good suggestion for having a new rare trait package for Horned Ones themed around classical satyrs so I added it. WIll be a 50/50 between them getting that or the old more leader themed one. ---Reworded the Stubborn Trait description a bit, and added a version that's specific to the player character. ---Added a new option under Talk To for Slaves to strip them naked. ---Added a new option for Full Custom Strong Right Arms for Three Random Rare Traits (all three not a guarantee!)

-Bug fixes: ---Critical Fix for only Raid Elven Farm being the only available rare Great PLains assignment. ---Entirely removed the 'You do not currently have enough slavers available to complete this assignment while keeping the encampment secure' mechanic which was a legacy of when you needed to have slavers in the encampment to keep watch over the slaves that got removed as no one liked it. As it had the tendency to cause occasional issues it's now gone for good. Now this did touch every assignment in the game so entirely possible I deleted something I shouldn't when I was doing that so please let me know if any assignment suddenly doesn't seem to be working anymore. ---Fix for Shalazzar and Alyanara d'Vyr's missing lore pages. ---Fix for Shalazzar's aspect only working for training after he had picked up another aspect. ---Fix for Alyanara d'Vyr being only able to do Endurance Training. ---Fix for Alyanara d'Vyr being able to say no when you try to remove them from being a Second-in-Command or Spiritual Leader. ---Fix for Alice Charmane, Bles Giggleswell, and Alyanara d'Vyr being cloned if you make them a slave, and then train them. ---Fix for Spiritual Leaders who Dislike the role but are also Leaders being able to say no if they would normally always agree with you such as due to being a Bimbo, Obedient, or Thug. ---Fix for an issue with the following more recent Assignments (Temple Takeover + Stars in Their Eyes) and Quick Restart. If you generated one of them and then did one or more Quick Restart after it would then be impossible to obtain those Assignments. ---Fix for Unstable Change being a tad too unstable in the number of aspects it would claim were available. ---Fix for the gender preference for slavers not working (very sure I've got it this time!). ---Fix for the Stylist being unable to do Pig-Tails (Tall ones were no problem). ---Fix for Spectacle of the Sacred not providing bonus assignments from the Diplomacy rank up. ---Fix for the updated description for slavers made into slaves not correctly applying. Also added a new specific one if it happens to you. ---Fix for changing difficulty via start-extra options not affecting your starting gold and supplies. ---Fix for the racials that change gold and supplies not correctly being applied. ---Fix for slavers with Cum Thirst potentially getting both the regular escape text and the specific escape text on the Pillow Talk Disaster. ---Fix for Males needing to take Sissy first on Full Custom to be able to get Exceptional Feminity (Still limited to the Feminine portraits and the specific races who can always take Feminine - TF Edition only) ---Fix for the stylist before you make your choice listing a random character's description instead of the correct one. ---Fix for a potential issue with characters starting with Fel Tainted having missing description as part of their corruption. ---Fix for clit piercing descriptions when being applied to the player character. ---Fix for some double cock specific blowjob text using the wrong text variable. ---Fix for slavers who punish before getting oral having double text for their experience. ---Fix for the risk on Sky-Shaman not having the appropriate gravitas. ---Some text fixes.

0.953 Change Log

-New assignments: ---A new Rare Great Plains Assignment that will be needed to progress the Biomancy storyline chain of Assignments. Has vignettes for all results for some extra variation. To reflect it being part of the storyline on any other result other than a Critical Success. The Assignment will immediately become available allowing you to try it again without needing to re-find it. Repeatedly if needed though that could get costly in terms of Woundings and Removals as this one isn't kidding about that INSANE risk rating. Also has a very long expiry. Has two versions of a commission for the art. Uses a similar multiple different wounding description system from Meddling Fools. Though this one has more bite as some are Badly Woundings instead of regular Woundings.  Can reward a very valuable semi-unique slave with a new Aspect which helps out with both Biomancy and Corruption. ---A new Rare Great Plains Assignment themed around Elementalism: Fire. Uses another version of the commissions that were used for various Dark Elf examines. Does have an improved chance to find a Dark Elf and not male to reflect the art, but can also be other races and genders. Has vignettes for a bunch of different gender combinations if you do find out what happened here. Has a reasonable reward even on the Fail result, and can extend length on the Disaster result. Has some different specific text for the two positions for Submissive players on the Disaster.

-Stylist: ---Can be found in the Marshlands under your Personal Assignments. ---Has a commission generously provided by a patron. ---For the cost of the day's visit and a few supplies can provide some new customization in hair cuts, hair colours, eye colours, and piercings. Do plan to expand on all of these in future with the idea being to have some basic functionality to start off with. ---Adding earrings specifically from the new piercings will overwrite the third part of any character's look while keeping any bits that are importantly mechanically like pouty lips or fel makeup. So if you want to remove a slaver's lowly history of being a rat catcher for example then now is your chance. ---To reflect the new piercing options the earrings part of the outfits it is possible to get them from sissy training have been moved to now being part of the updated look. ---Expanded the previous piercings' descriptions a bit and made them work for guys too. ---All piercings now add to Estimate Value, and will always be worth more in extra Value than what they cost in gold to buy. This includes ones who either always got them or had a chance to get them on generation. ---Also applies a short Makeover buff after a visit that allows a max of one of Trading, Diplomacy, Exceptional Beauty/Feminity, Beautiful, Feminine, Seductive, or Terrifying to count as Fully Favoured along with an increase to Value Estimation. May not apply if the Inflamed Lusts penalty is active.

-Tavern and Town additions: ---More than doubled the number of tattoos obtainable from the Tavern with some new body locations for them to be applied. ---Entirely redone and expanded the alternate Dominant result for the Tavern Tattooist to better reflect how such a player character wouldn't fall into the same vulnerable position in the first place. ---Instead of sobering up if a conflicting tattoo would be added now there's a new different tattoo that will be applied each time instead. ---New Tavern event that improves based on the number of Encampment Rank and Special Upgrades you've earned which if you do well can add a new scaling buff to Great Plains Assignments. If you don't do as well then there can be consequences along with a special Submissive option. ---New Tavern event to help with the Ever Forest in terms of a generated Assignment and temporary region buff. ---New Tavern event to help with finding better quality Deep Mountains Assignments. ---New Town event that's hard to find without the trait Connected (Con). Can unlock the same bonus or the City of Aversol as the slaver dilemma bribe without needing to spend any gold to get it. ---Reduced the cost of a Tavern visit from 10g to 3g. In setting that still makes you a very generous tipper, but a more reasonable cost for a day's worth of drinking than before. ---Updated the Blessing of the Frozen Queen from the Town Shrine on Assignments to note that it is a Critical Success bonus. ---General punching up and tidying up of all the existing texts in the Town and Tavern along with improving various bits of the formatting. ---Both the Tavern and Town now have an intro the first time you visit with options whether or not to engage with the various random events or not. You can turn off this option each visit, and then they'll work like they did before from then on. --Alternate result for the Tavern event with the Goblin and his 'artefact' for Golems and Lizardman as for lore reasons they wouldn't be taken in, and also there's now a chance to resist based on the number of Aspects you have with the trait Crafter: Enchantment (C: En) helping too. ---Losing the fight in the Tavern you're not more likely not to lose morale for the whole encampment rather than it happening every time.

-New Uniques: ---A new Night Goblin Male playable start, and a recruitable Drow Female. Both with commissioned art generously provided by a patron. One of which is also used for Night Goblin Males Examines until I can get one done for that race that's more generic. Both also have lore pages and new aspects.

-New commissions: ---Wandering Lonely as a Cloud, which is a special Assignment in the City of Aversol. Generously provided by a patron. Also used for the unique obtained from that Assignment. ---Alternate for Golem Encampments. Generously provided by a patron. So big I've done four compositions out of it. Three as alternate Finish Day pictures for Golem Encampments, and one for Broken Human Examines (Elves will still use the old placeholder for now). I've made it so you'll see them when playing a Golem and not just on the Scenario Metal and Flesh.

-Miscellaneous additions: ---The Great Plains Bribe will no longer apply to Encampment Assignments. ---Added 'flawless obsidian' as a possible skin colour for Drow. ---Added some extra description for male muscular chests for goblins and hakh to reflect they can only be so impressive in that regard in comparison to other races. ---Increased the maximum possible potential length of region specific buffs you can get from slaver dilemmas from 8 days to 14. ---Added some more text to try to explain the logic of why the roll would be set to 0 on the help page for Forced Encounters when the Character is using a strength difference to make it happen. Definitely agree that before it was super confusing. ---Were slavers will now be unavailable for one extra day after a full moon to ensure they don't pop off and then come back on the same night. ---The Aspect Iron Will has been improved with the following addition:  Will not be affected by Untruly (Unr) personally regardless of position on assignments including during Ragestorms. ---Reworded the lacking in supplies warning as it was confusing where it would set the required supplies on the assignment to all supplies remaining implying you had the exact right amount to avoid the penalty.

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for Bles missing some of her slave checks, and Alice's slave checks if you don't start with her. ---Fix for Nike's history going missing if you put her through Keldan Alley. ---Fix for Meddling Fools where the fourth and fifth assigned slavers would not gain any experience. ---Fix for the you specific text on Weald Autonomy if you went in the second position. ---Fix for the slaver obtained from Temple Takeover not being dominant enough. ---Fix for the Ground Shatterer centaur start being broken. ---Fix for the extra text results in Gem's True Coast which could also lead to at once having a slave while also not having the slave. ---Fix for wearing a maid outfit overwriting the specific art for two of the drow uniques. ---Fix for Slave Driver and Strict Supervision for you where it wouldn't recognise your existing bed warmers unless you reassigned them. ---Fix for Imperial Muses where you could get the improved Crafter: Devices trait on a normal Success result. ---Fix for Treachery Most Foul where it could incorrectly give a Male or Futanari. ---Fix for characters with a guaranteed Magic or Elementalism trait like the ones from Private Passage always getting the same result if their gender is not set to be random. ---Fix for Tessa Versteckter's aspect not working with Sympathetic like it says it does. ---Fix for Rynhart's aspect to double make sure it doesn't trigger again when she's not present. ---Fix for Kyssandra's short traits. ---Fix for a broken text variable for a name during one of the forced encounters. ---Fix for the Start - Extra Options - TF Edition Gender Options menu. ---Fix for Basic Obedience Training Stubborn removal where it would refer to the slaver's race instead of the slave's. ---Fix for the Life in Coiled Tentacles Slave also getting the history from Nest of Vipers. Her history would have also been lost if she'd go through Keldan Alley but that was a separate issue. ---Fix for the Male Fallen Centaur start using the Female Fallen Centaur portrait. ---Fix for Fulfil Opportunities not checking traits correctly. ---Fix for Wargold, Adazantine, and Mythantium gear to have a 1/10 chance to have a missing description. ---Fix for former Slave turned Slavers being so proud of their blowjob training that they list it twice. Also tidied up the formatting of Former Trainings in general to be more consistent. ---Fix for the QAYL listing entirely the wrong name on a Success that was not their old one or their new one. ---Fix for some gender description issues on Into the Depths. ---Fix for the traits checking on Temple Turncoat. ---Some text fixes.

0.952 Change Log

-New assignments: ---A rare Convent themed Assignment in the Great Plains. Has commissioned artwork. Has vignettes for all results, two goals with different rewards, including two new possible Special Encampment Upgrades. ---A special Convent themed Assignment in the Encampment that follows on from the previous assignment and is the second part in an eventual three part chain. Has commissioned artwork. Each result has four different versions dependent on who is on the assignment, and what you did in the previous assignment. Has the potential to gain a new unique slaver with her own aspect. ---A reduced rarity Uncommon Assignment on the Dreadsea Coast. Uses a crop of a previous commission generously provided by a patron. Has an entirely different version of the Assignment when a certain event is active, and the regular version can potentially make that event occur then next time a new event is generated. Has the potential to get a unique slaver before obtainable only by taking her via Full Custom. Can get a slave with one the more submissive aspects or even possibly have them apply to whoever is going along with making them more submissive in general. Has other multi-stage levels of rewards including two different good rare traits that are obtainable from both Critical Success and Disaster. Also possible for this one to extend in length which is a mechanic I've not used in aaaages.

-New commissions: ---Word in your Ear. Also used for Troll futas, Thornheart Nymph slaves, and Wisp slavers. ---Package Retrieval, with a second version used for Critical/Success results. Also used for Cathayan slavers to replace the Alley one, and for Cathayan slaves who have been gagged. ---Alice Charmane. Part of a much larger commission that will be included in a future update. ---Neko Slavers. Replaces the old crop from the Encampment commission. Is a crop of a larger commission that will be used for an assignment in a later update. ---Endurance Training with two versions. Also used a crop with two other versions more focused on the rider for Black Orc slaves so there's one if they have a blindfold/oral hood on, and one if they don't. Also while I was there I made part one of Slaver Caravan the Black Orc slaver examine. I do think she's still a bit too pale, but might as well use it for now rather than the placeholder.  

-Miscellaneous additions: ---New Recruitable Unique slaver. Has her own new aspect, and due to her I added a new Profession title for her and anyone else who has both Elementalist: Fire and Magic: Corruption. ---Slaves on the Cumdumps Encampment Role are no longer able to make escape attempts. ---Some assignments have specific text for you and for slavers if they or you are not wounded or removed. Previously this only showed up if they made the first save which avoids checking the wounding/removal process entirely. Not it will also show if they make it through the process and still avoid wounding/removal. ---Added trait description text for you if you have both Bimbo and Cunning. ---Succubi with the Lamia heritage will now use the Fel Tainted lamia Commission with the double strap-on if Female, and the one with dicks if they are Futa. ---Any Futanari with the Lamia heritage will now get the Lizaman/Lamia cock description and will get the double cocks. ---Added specific lore pages for the Saiphas Asmodo Unique Playable Start and the Kaara de Sindero Oscuro Unique Slaver.   ---Added some specific still a virgin pussy description for the Bottom Bitch addition,

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for Faith Any listing Blinded Lady when the character actually had Shallya. ---Fix for a potential issue with Uncommon Dreadsea Coast assignment generation where some specific values would have been missed. ---Fix for Gender General Orders not working. Also made them more likely to work than before. ---Fix for Gem for Nothing not happening if Krystal is made a slaver. ---Fix for Advanced Anal Training adding Slutty to Cumsluts. ---Fix for High Elves being considered to be Harpies on assignments. ---Fix for the Good Luck Fuck Princess aspect only working if you'd set Veren to not assignable. ---Fix for Basic Anal Training becoming available again after Bottom Bitch Training has been completed. ---Fix for Krystal ignoring that Gem's True Cost has actually been completed. ---Fix for Lady-in-Waiting not generating the follow up on a Success. ---Fix for some race missattributation during cumdump usage. ---Fix for an issue where training wasn't always fully removed on removal. ---Fix for not being able to get the first rank of Defending Slaver Upgrade if Marauding is taken first. ---Fix for Unstable Change not working correctly for you and turning off Personal Assignments if it is still the Afternoon. ---Fix for Weald Autonomy breaking the number of Slavers tracking. ---Fix for the futa also with a pussy description not accounting for you having it.   ---Fix for an issue with Seduction of the Light expiry.

0.951 Change Log

-New assignments: ---A Special follow up assignment to A Gem for Nothing. Has two commissions provided by a patron. Can get one or two new uniques from this one. Both with new aspects and lore pages. Also potentially has a 'Bad End' for your leader on the Disaster.

-Removal Overhaul ---There's now a base 75% chance for something else to happen if a slaver would before have been removed from the encampment on an assignment. This will only apply if there was a risk of being wounded instead. Automatic removals where there's no way to avoid it will still apply as before --- This can either be gaining Cowardly, Heroic, Sex Addict, Unruly, Peaceful+Sympathetic, or the slaver refusing outright to return to that Region. All of those come with a extra hit of morale loss. If gaining a trait that will lose a trait slot. ---Can get more than one Region blocked, but not the same one twice. It's also not possible to get the Great Plains blocked (also not the Deep Mountains in the Lady of Many Feathers scenario). The unlockable region counts as Deep Mountains for the purpose of these. ---Golems, Wrights, and those already Obedient or Heroic are not likely to be so shaken and so will be removed as before. ---If the slaver has a trait that would not be compatible with the alternative result such as having Follower for Unruly or Reserved for Sex Addict they will be removed as before. ---If the slaver later gains Heroic, Obedient, or are made a slave they can ignore any Region blocking they may have got from these alternatives to being removed. ---Slavers with Unruly now take additional moral loss if the normal base Encampment morale change is in the negatives. ---It is now much easier to Dismiss a slaver with Cowardly, Sympathetic, or has got one of the new Region blocks. ---Added a new save on Standard assignments to greatly increase the chance that the slaver will be wounded instead. To preserve some of ol' Scout the Deep Mountains bite it will Badly Wound now. ---Increased the existing save for removals to woundings on Crits/Successes by a bit.

-New commissions: ---Basic and Advanced Obedience Training. Will both be used for Male Cathayans, and the Basic will be used for untrained Orkhai slaves, and the Advanced will be used for Orkhai having been through training or already inclined to behave. ---Human Fancy Slavers. Current vine tentacle one will be used for slaves. Will be used for an assignment in a later update. ---Sea Elf Bimbos. Will be used for an assignment in a later update. ---Profane Ritual with two variations. Now you'll know in advance based on the art if the naughty adversary will be female or futa in advance. Also to reflect the art there's no more chance of her being a Savage Orc, and the sacrifice will no longer always be a commoner, but now any race with an increased chance of being Draenei. Will also always respect general order to enslave if that's been set to female or futa. Will also be used for Savage Orc females and Futanari which means that every race now has at least one commission to represent the race.

-Miscellaneous additions: ---Redid part of the Submissive text of the Barbarous Bargains results as the first version was missing a bunch of text so it didn't make as much sense as it should. ---Reworded and expanded the Success texts on Raid Elven Farm to fix some readability issues and to improve upon what was previously there. ---Expanded and corrected the text for Disasters for Heal Slut Training / Bimbo Training / Anal Training where the slave had Obedient. ---Added another pause to the Witch-Queen success results to break up the text some more. ---Expanded the intro to Raid High Elven Dwelling. Also fixed the High risk not being suitably red to warn that it is infact High. ---The succubus-ification from Arrogance Subjugated now also wipes any hypnotic mantras. ---Added a note to the Special of Advance Obedience Training about how higher will is needed to be able to get Obedient from the training.

Starting Options Extended fixes: --Critical fix for random recruited unique crashing the game. ---Fix for most of the Difficulty ones not applying including the change of difficulties and not getting the extra supplies and/or gold. ---Fix for the extra traits not showing.

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for Shuffled Deck not starting if Severina is currently not assignable or on an Encampment Role. ---Fix for Keldan Alley repeat and Lead Astray not using the updated expiry managing mechanic. ---Fix for Alice Charmane having a default history rather than a specific one, so no more former rat catcher Alices. ---Fix for cancelling assignments not clearing a specific variable that was causing weirdness with certain aspects and bonuses. ---Fix for a bunch of assignments that had pauses followed by extra text for their results that were using the same green as Successes instead of the different one used for Crits. ---Fix for Quicker than they Like not having a rarity when it should have been a Special assignment. ---Fix for being able to also take Feminine or Beautiful if you've already taken the new Exceptional Beauty/Fem. ---Fix for not being able to select the following lady Human starts: Mutinous Fancy Slave, Whore Errant, and Cityborn Cult Leader. ---Fix for having Friendly as a favoured or unfavoured trait affecting Spiteful. ---For the sake of humanity the double spaces prior to the auction coming up messages have been eliminated. ---Fix for Spectacle of the Sacred not adding the potential new slavers/slaves that it should be making the counts go wrong. ---Fix for Innocent slaves not coming with their virginities intact and so having the wrong pussy description. ---Fix for Shun the Other and the increased chance of being same race as you breaking forced gender choices for Asaenei, Ori'Nek, and other fem/futa races. ---Fix for Cumdumps only having the regular slave usage rather than the possible everyone in the encampment they were supposed to be having. ---Fix for Titfuck Training going off twice on slavers that can be trained. ---Fix for slavers that can be trained as slaves making the slavers on assignment count wonky. ---Some text fixes.

0.95 Change Log -New assignments: ---The Anal path for slaves gets a final Tertiary option in Bottom Bitch Training.   ---A new Uncommon assignment to follow up to A Brief Foray in the Deep Mountains that will unlock once you've explored the first one enough. Uses the Fel Tainted Lamia Commission previously added to the game. Has a bunch of different vignettes as part of the results. There's a special reward for some of those that go, and one that can lead to a special game over if you get it too many times. There's now also a special Crit bonus to A Brief Foray when you've done it enough to unlock the follow up assignment, and that can increase to a double Crit bonus if you do it more than that.

-Centaurs: ---Succubi, Demi-Angels, and Fallen can now have the centaur heritage. Commissions for all examines, including female and male versions where applicable, and also for plain vanilla versions which replace the old placeholder ones. ---New regular female/futa and male start, Demi-Angel female/futa and male start with the centaur heritage, Fallen female/futa and male start with the centaur heritage, and a Succubus female/futa start with the centaur heritage using portraits from these commissions. ---You now get the lower body description slavers and slaves get. ---Male centaurs now get the ass description ladies get.

-Start Changes and Improvements: ---Whole new way to play Quick Start. Now you can select as many options as you want to customize your start to provide a middle ground between that and Full Custom. Includes some options that are only available in this mode with more ways to customize what you can get in terms of difficulty and who is in your encampment. ---As dwarves get the trait as standard as other characters all regular dwarf starts have now gained Resilient (Res). You'll also get this automatically via fully random traits or by Full Custom by default. ---Fully random traits will now grant the race specific guaranteed traits like how they work in Full Custom. ---Allmounter was not listed as having an Aspect. ---Starts you previously could only pick are now possible to randomly roll. Some though are only possible though when using the new Quick Start option due to the added complexity. ---I've redone the gender setting including the race specific ones so gender setting outside of general orders should be absolutely guaranteed to work. ---Chance to get more traits for you than before when starting with random traits. This chance is increased when using the new Quick Start option. ---Added the following traits/options to starting random traits for you (also removed Corrupter). Common: Beautiful (Btf), Brutal (Bru),Cooperative (Coo), Cowardly (Cdy), Cunning (Cun), Dancer (Dan), Emotional (Eml), Logical (Lgl), Friendly (Fnd), Spiteful (Fnd-), Herbalist (Hrb), Heroic (Her),  Honourable (Hon), Unscrupulous (Usc), Resilient (Res), Singer (Sin), Slutty (Slt), Sneaky (Sne), Stubborn (Stb), Tactful (Tac), Tracker (Tra), Trapper (Tpr), Uncommon: Creative (Cre), Debutante (Deb), Educated (Edu), Folklorist (Flk),   Rare: Exceptional Beauty/Feminity (Exc), All Magic Traits, All Elementalist traits, Psionic (Psy)

-New Encampment Role: ---Cumdump. Limited to two, and slaves only. Removes all limits on numbers and will be used more often by cocked slavers, and less by uncocked ones. Will be used only for Blowjobs by cocked slavers and will take increased condition, willpower, and wear for doing so. Has a risk of your slavers growing bored of them if they get too broken and if so they will be removed from the role, may not have the role again, and will take a big value penalty. ---Has eighteen different texts for the various cumdump specific activities that follow if two cocked slavers makes use of them. Each of those texts then has variations to reflect the increased numbers for groups of three, four, five, and then six plus. ---It was only possible for four accounts of sexy time per slave to be reported. Due to this role this has now been increased to fifteen. To make certain training more valuable I've increased Heal Slut from five to six, and Orc Cum Addict to eight.

Other new commissions: ---Asanei Slaver and Asanei Slaves. Will be used for an assignment in an upcoming update. Kept the old slave one if the slave is wearing a maid outfit, and the previous Slaver one will be used for the assignment/unique it was done for. ---Lamia Slaver. Made the previous one used for Lamia slaves who are not Fel Tainted. This one will be used for an encounter in the Marshlands in an upcoming update. ---Back Alley Abduction. Now also has a second version for the Crit/Success, an alternate version if you send a Futa which is also used for Cathayan Futa slavers (there's also a bulge version of the first one which will also be occasionally used for them on examines), and an alternate version if you get a Futa which is also used for Akir Futas. The first main version and the main results version will also be used as alternate versions for Akir Female slavers to go with the Dancing Lights one, and for Cathayan Female slavers. To go with this commission it's now possible to get Futa slaves from this one and it's more likely the slave will be Akir. ---Patron submitted ones for the unique Drow Shadriel with a regular examine, a new one for her as a slave, one of her naked, and one with her in a maid outfit that will also be used for other drow so attired.

-Miscellaneous additions: ---New Exceptional Beauty/Feminity Super Negative (TF Edition only). Comes with appropriately high boost to Seduction respect checks, but at the cost of your rep likely trending towards Obsessed Over. You will also count as Obsessed Over for the purpose of Forced Encounters, and if you are at that reputation the penalty will be doubled. ---Convent can now be found in general as slavers. Will be rarer though than they will be found as slaves. Increased the chance of them being futa as it was too low as is. ---Hardcore difficulty now increases rarity of generated assignment. ---Reduced the 'less than best slave' penalty when slavers are choosing who to use. ---Orc Cum Addicts are more likely to be used by cocked slavers to help mitigate the value estimate penalty. ---Dominant slavers are now a bit more likely to use slaves. ---Blowjobs on larger cocks does now affect condition and willpower a bit based on size. Lago'Mae are still entirely immune, and Elven Flexibility can also help. ---Legacy will be far more likely to make Golems into monsters if they don't already have that trait. ---Standard outfits that also have a quality now don't just have a -5 non crafted outfit penalty. All of the scenario noble starts, and also everyone from their household staff now have added qualities to their starting attire. Gave a big value bonus to wearing the Ensnared Rose maid outfit from the letter. ---There's now a small chance that slavers with tentacles will do a normal punish activity instead. ---Reduced the bonus from Competent and increased the penalty from Inexperienced a bit in general. Reduced the bonus for higher experience on Three slaver assignments, and more so for Four or more Slaver assignments to reflect how Successes and Crits are also reduced when more people are around.  (The Remnant's Experience bonuses during Defending are unchanged) ---Because Mighty Strength+Strong was still being annoying I've now added a check to remove it on generation if it somehow does get added. Did the same thing with Onslaught+Aggressive just in case. ---To reflect the commission I've increased the chance of getting an Akir on Seduction of the Light. ---Added two new starting trait packages for Ogres so they will be now a lot more likely to start with Mighty Strength over Strong. ---Standard Fae starts no longer come with an aspect slot taken up as that got replaced by their racial a good few updates back. ---Changed the old invalid estimate value wording as being really overly confusing. I also removed the first condition as it wasn't really needed, and could potentially cause issues. ---Redid the wording on elf ear corruption.

-Bug fixes: ---Fix for a couple of places where lamia heritage checks were missed that I spotted during adding the centaur ones. ---Fix for if a playable male centaur became a lady then they'd end up looking like a orkhai. ---Fix for having preference for Draenei making it more likely to get Ori'Nek or Asanei instead. ---Fix for Ori'Nek and Nymphs not being set correctly to Female or Futa only. ---Fix for an issue where certain bonus traits for races weren't being rolled for which had caused the Golem Obliterators aspect to not work like it should. ---Fix for enslaving slavers via the dilemma not doing anything. ---Fix for the Lesbian hypnotic mantra having the wrong gender check. ---Fix for an issue where certain attire could be generated without a quality. ---Fix for having the Blight magic counting as also having the Faith: The Light trait such as with the Enlightened profession. ---Fix for Anal Training not being carried over when a slave is made into a slaver. ---Fix for Advanced Anal Training having both Resilient as a Critical and as a Success. ---Fix for the bonus Endurance Training from Anal Training potentially overwriting Ponygirl Training. ---Fix for the five day version of Most Impropa gold version having the same chances of what gold to get as the four day version. ---Fix for some of the Fully Favoured bonuses not being checked correctly if the character had one of the others. ---Fix for the check for Demi-Angels being prevented from getting Fel Tainted. Also blocked Golems from getting it. ---Fix for being able to go on Wyrd Reckoning if you're full up on slaves. ---Fix for the Dominated not being able to be given attire. Changed it so that Dominated and Obedient allows you to skip over some of the checks. Added some new specific text for giving them something to wear if they are Dominated, Obedient, or are a Bimbo. ---Fix for Lengthy Tongue not being listed as a Success for Slavers on Word in your Ear. Also for both that and Throat Enhancement being listed from the reminder prompt. ---Fix for Convent Elves and Convent Neko not having a base value estimate. ---Fix for the trait checks where instead of (Unchangeable Attire) it would incorrectly say (Wer) ---Fix for starts with custom mounts, clothing, and the like carrying over through Quick Starts. ---Fix for the following starts who had discrepancies between what it said they would start with, what they actually would get, and what they should have had in the first place: Male - Human - Former Sellsword, Male - Elf - High Elf Renegade, Male - Goblin - Forest Chieftain, Male - Dwarf - Bitch-Master, Male - Nethemir - Cult Vessel, Female/Futanari - Human - Former Noble, Female/Futanari - Human - Mutinous Fancy Slave, Female - Human - Whore Errant, Female/Futanari - Elf - Drow Harlot, Female/Futanari - Orc - Dark-Acolyte, Female/Futanari - Orc - Tribal Champion, Female/Futanari - Troll - City Rogue, Female/Futanari - Draenei - Former Soldier, Female/Futanari - Fae - Courtly Exile, Female/Futanari - Orkhai - Feral Wildrager, Transformed - High Elf, Transformed - Neko, Transformed - Both Demi-Angels, Transformed - Orkhai, Male (Scenario Exclusives) - City Elf Whore, Female/Futanari (Scenario Exclusives) - Human Noble, Promoted Golem ---Fix for Unscrupulous being removed incorrectly. This also meant that any starts that had this trait as standard to start off with, wouldn't. ---Fix for starts having Strong Right Arm as standard incorrectly also getting Strong. ---Fix for the Aggressive (Agg) + Strong (Str) + Resilient (Res) Strong Right Arm customization missing Resilient. ---Fix for an issue with Fulfil Opportunities where you would possibly not get credit for having stuff that you did have, and so not getting paid extra for it. ---Fix for the Box traits bit saying its Any Slaver rather than Slaver or Slave. ---Fix for the Basic Obedience Training (Success) Defiant removal version referring to the race of the slaver rather than the slave. ---Fix for Impressive quality attire not having the full description when initially selecting them. ---Fix for two missing vignettes being included in the Try the Village option in Price of Freedom resulting in an abrupt sentence end. ---Some text fixes.

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

The Whole Truth - 2

(Full story available on AO3! If you want to be tagged as new chapters are posted, leave a comment “tag me” on this post!)

(Please note: Tumblr continues to make my Italics disappear. It’s very frustrating, so I apologize if the formatting makes anything confusing.)

Monday

1999

--

Aziraphale stared at the book on his desk. “What kind of curse?”

“Don’t know, not my department.” Gabriel smiled, excited, just a little distracted. It tugged at something in Aziraphale, made him want to prove he was worth the Archangel’s attention, too. “Michael’s soldiers seized it in a raid. Very dramatic stuff. Pity you weren’t able to make it.”

“Ah, yes, well…”

“Could have used another sword.” A nudge of the elbow, so hard Aziraphale staggered a little. “Those demons fought back hard.”

“Yes, terribly sorry. As I’d said there was this urgent business to attend to. Demonic possession. Entire family cursed. The house itself had become sentient. And. Carnivorous. I really had to deal with it all immediately.”

“Sounds frightening.”

“Oh, it was. Very frightening. And gory. And certainly not rated for general audiences.”

“What?”

“Nothing!” Aziraphale tugged on his waistcoat. The last thing he needed was for Gabriel to learn about movie night. Well. It was mid-ranked on the very long list of things Gabriel shouldn’t know. He hated lying to the Archangel, but no – things were better this way. “Regardless. You say these – these demons had this book in their possession?”

“Oh, yes. Not sure what they were planning to do with it, but it’s cursed. Very cursed.”

“Fascinating.” Aziraphale picked up a pen and used it to lift the cover, peering at the first page. He could just make out the writing. “It’s printed, not handwritten. Not Roman or Cyrillic alphabet.” He let the cover fall and started searching for a pair of gloves. “In fact, I don’t recognize the script at all. I’ll need a larger sample—”

Gabriel clapped his hands. “Good! Excellent, that’s just what I like to hear. Your obsession with material objects and human record keeping finally has a use. So glad we have an expert to consult on this.” Aziraphale hid a little smile at that. Expert. “See what you can find out by the end of the week.”

“End of the – you can’t be serious.” Aziraphale pulled his glasses off, waving them as politely as he could. “I mean, I’m sure you have your reasons, O holy Archangel, but deciphering an unknown text takes time. Not to mention identifying a curse—”

“We already have a team on that,” Gabriel interrupted, before Aziraphale could confess to knowing very little about demonic curses, apart from the sort Crowley shouted at other drivers.

“Oh. Jolly good.”

“Yes, they’ve told me the curse is so potent, any angel attempting to remove it would be immediately destroyed. Incinerated was the term they used.”

“Ah.” Aziraphale took a step away from the desk. “Well, I suppose that does change things.”

Gabriel shrugged. “As long as you don’t try to remove the curse yourself, you’re fine. Anyway, by Friday night, they’ll have worked out a proper disposal method. I proposed launching the book into the sun but apparently that would cause a, what did they call it, Superb Nova.”

“Oh dear.” Another step away. “You know, Gabriel, as…happy as I am that you wish to entrust this task to me, er, we are currently located in a major population center, and I don’t think—”

“Aziraphale,” Gabriel gave him that warm look, the one he saw so rarely, the one that made him feel included. “This raid was a big deal. I don’t want to start any rumors, but…it’s possible the demons were planning something. I would consider it a huge favor if you could just, I don’t know, poke around a bit? Find out what they wanted?”

“Well…as…as a favor…” There was a shiver of happiness running up his spine at that. Gabriel never asked for favors. “Yes, I think I can…learn a few things that might help you out. As long as it’s safe?”

“It’s fine!” Gabriel picked up the book and waved it around. “Perfectly harmless to angels; obviously, don’t let any humans near it. They might set something off. Probably blow up half the city!” He laughed, tossing the book. It hit the table with a crack, falling open to a random page.

“Oh, dear.” That hardly sounded safe. “What…if a demon tried? Er, someone come looking for his lost property, perhaps?”

“It would be very bad. No one touches this but you. Understand?”

Aziraphale nodded, feeling rather ill. He should say no, there were too many things that could go wrong.

His eyes drifted to the open book, the strange writing, a drawing of some horrifying creature. One word was a little larger than the rest and for a second, it looked familiar. He bent closer, almost instinctively. “This text…I almost think I’ve seen it before. No, it’s gone now, but perhaps…” He looked up in time to catch an eager gleam in Gabriel’s eyes. “Yes, I think…I can take a look. As…as a favor.”

“Excellent! That’s exactly the attitude I like to see. Now if you’ll excuse me, lots to do, places to be. I’ll follow up with you on Friday. Say, four o’clock?”

In a twinkling of light and a pop of air pressure, Aziraphale was alone with the book.

--

“He just – just left you with a cursed book?” Crowley paid the ice cream vendor and handed Aziraphale his cone.

“Yes. Is that so strange? I am an expert on Earth tomes, and languages, and treatises on magic.” He puffed his chest a little. “Why shouldn’t Heaven give me such a fascinating project?”

“Because they don’t care about any of that,” Crowley snapped flatly. “Besides, languages? I’ve heard you speak French.”

“I was having a bit of an off day,” Aziraphale pouted. “I shouldn’t be judged based on a single incident – what was it, two hundred and six years ago now? For all you know, I’ve been brushing up on my French ever since.” He licked the ice cream, smiling at the thick, creamy texture of it.

“Have you though?” Crowley sauntered alongside him, hands in his pockets, red hair slicked and gelled tight against his head.

“Well, no, but only because I’ve already read everything of interest in French.”

“Is that so?” Crowley smirked as if he was so clever. “Does this mean you finally got around to reading Proust?”

“Well. No. But neither have you.” Aziraphale took a quick bite of his ice cream before it could melt down his hand.

“Yeah, but I don’t live in a bookshop,” Crowley took a few steps ahead and started walking backwards, smirk evolving into a rather large grin. “So that makes me wonder who else you haven’t read. Dickens? Twain? Dostoyevsky? Is the Principality Aziraphale, in fact, a giant sham?”

The angel pursed his lips. “Any luck getting your car to play other music?”

Crowley’s face fell. “No,” he muttered, circling back to walk beside Aziraphale again. “At this point I’m really starting to get sick of Queen. Hope it doesn’t go on too much longer.”

--

Aziraphale stood before his desk, book lying innocuously on the blotter. He wore the thickest gloves he could find and – just to be safe – had rolled his sleeves up past the elbow. He still approached it with extreme caution.

One finger carefully tapped the spine, pulling away instantly.

No sparks. No chills. No cloud of demonic energy.

Just a perfectly ordinary book, really.

With feather-light touch, he brushed his fingers down the cover. Leather-bound, deep red-brown. Hopefully normal leather, but you never knew with demonic books, or for that matter certain obscure human texts. Sturdy and thick, the binding worn through in a few places just enough to indicate irregular use. No title, but gold pressed into the leather formed some sort of broad-leafed plant. Nothing he recognized.

Lifting the cover, he inspected the pages inside. Thick, rough paper – the edges a bit uneven and ragged in places. When he leaned close to inspect them, he detected the distinct dusty scent of old book, with just a hint of spice.

It seemed that Gabriel was correct. Nothing suggested the book was dangerous to touch.

Aziraphale set his armchair beside the desk and settled in for some proper investigation.

The first step of his process: Aziraphale turned to a page at random. He liked to think providence was guiding him to the first clues.

It looked much as that page he’d glimpsed during Gabriel’s visit, yet also entirely different. Small, curving letters – a bit like calligraphy, half unical, he thought, perhaps English or Irish – arrayed around complex illustrations of green plants on one side, and something that might have been an insect on the other. The artwork was immensely detailed, with subtle color variations, but resembled nothing he had ever seen.

The text was also strange, the longer he looked at it. He skimmed the page looking for patterns, groups of letters that appeared together more than once. Nothing. There were distinct words, all between four and seven characters, but each was unique. And the characters each looked sharp and clear and perfectly uniform in size, but there was variation, each uniquely formed, as if handwritten.

He turned the pages, sheet after sheet, looking for anything he recognized, leaning closer as he read. Sometimes a word would look almost familiar and then – no, it was gone.--

--

(The horror movie Aziraphale mentions is supposed to be “The Haunting” but I got it a bit confused with other movies from the late 90s. The mysterious writing and diagrams are loosely based on several mysterious texts, most notably the Voynich Manuscript.)

[hq-cuties]

Can you do Oikawa with K + him talking about the area 51 raid? Thanks!

Okay anon I seriously cannot explain how much I love this?? I’m so so excited to write this oh my gosh. Oikawa would 10/10 be in the area 51 raid let’s be honest. Thank you for the request!

Prompt: “Aliens aren’t even real.” “WHAT”

Oikawa:

    Your boyfriend holds the door to the ice cream shop open for you, and you step inside. The smell of many sweet flavors fills your nose, and you immediately get excited.

    This was you and Oikawa’s first date in a while. He’s been way too busy with volleyball to actually take you out, and although that didn’t bother you, it made him feel bad. He insisted on bringing you to the new ice cream place that opened about a week prior, and you agreed happily.

    The two of you step up to the front counter, staring at the array of flavors displayed in front of you. After a few minutes, you decide on the classic cookies and cream bowl. Oikawa looks at the choices for a few more minutes before asking the woman at the counter for peanut butter cup.

    You watch excitedly as the worker scoops your ice cream into the little bowls. She then gets Oikawa’s, and he pays for the food.

    “Wait, (y/n), we still need to get toppings!” Oikawa calls after you as you go to sit down, and you walk back over to him. A little bar-type thing is set up with bowls of sprinkles and candies and there are bottles full of different syrups. You both get your toppings, and finally have a seat at the table in the corner.

    “Okay, so I know that the whole ‘raid area 51′ thing is a big joke right now, but I really want to actually do it.” Oikawa takes a bite of his ice cream and drips it everywhere.

     You laugh lightly, wiping chocolate off of his chin, “Yeah, I want to know what they actually have in there,” you respond, and clean your hand off with the napkin next to you.

    “What do you mean? Obviously there are aliens..” He mumbles. You begin to laugh, but stop when you see his serious expression.

    “Tooru, aliens aren’t even real.”

    “WHAT” He stops halfway through bringing his spoon to his mouth, and the other customers in the building turn to look at him. He quiets down a little bit before continuing, “You seriously don’t believe in aliens? There’s so much proof!”

    You shrug, “I don’t know if they exist, but I don’t think they’re on earth.”

    “Why would it be called area 51 if they didn’t have aliens though?” He asks, and you tilt your head at his question.

    “What does the name even have to do with aliens?”

    He pauses, thinking for a second, “I don’t know, but they exist! I’m gonna prove it when I go in September. That’ll show you.” He smirks, nodding his head at his own idea. 

    “You’re going to get shot on sight.”

    “Worth it.”

[such-a-random-rambler]

Happy Christmas

Since @tagsecretsanta​ works so hard to arrange our secret santa exchange, I thought it was time they got something in return.

So, as with the rest of us they gave me three prompts and the one I choose was ‘Scott and Virgil and kids at Christmas’ so here you go - Merry Christmas and thank you @tagsecretsanta

“Would you want one of these, one day?” Virgil asked.

Scott peered at him in the dim light. Though only sitting against the opposite wall, Virgil’s features were difficult to make out. Scott gave a one shouldered shrug in response, being careful not to disturb anyone.

“Weird.” Said Virgil “I always thought you would make a great dad.”

They had been trapped in this room for nearly eight hours now. A combination of high winds and acid rain had meant it wasn’t safe to take off. The flash flood made it impossible to leave the room. Damage to this mining complex’s communications array made Thunderbird Five indecipherable due to static, at least until the storm passed. It had been a crazy day, not the normal Tuesday.

The only place to seek refuge had been this cramped supply closet. Okay it was large as supply closets went, but still far too small for six people, even small people. Far from the best place to spend the night, let alone this particular night.

“I haven’t really thought about it.” lied Scott.

“Sure.” Scoffed Virgil.

It would have been alright if it was just the two of them - well not alright: it was always tough to be on a callout on the important days – but they could manage. It came with the job and no-one took a missed birthday or anniversary personally. It was the kids that Scott felt sorry for.

They had managed to evacuate all of the miners before the storm swept in, but the children had been holed up in their school room across the camp. Scott and Virgil had barely made it to them before the weather got too bad and there was no way to get them out.  

To their credit they had been very brave: comforted by the soothing tones of confident adults who never let their own fear show. Virgil and Scott had been hard pressed to distract them though.

Tonight they should have been in the main compound with their families, putting the finishing touches to the Christmas tree. They should have put out stockings and a plate of mince pies for Santa (plus carrots for the reindeer). There should have been hot chocolate while wrapped in blankets and watching The Muppets Christmas Carol.  

That was Christmas Eve, not this: stuck in their school store room with two strangers.  

When Scott and Virgil realised they were going to be taking up temporary residence they set to wearing out the four energetic ten-year-olds as quickly as possible. They raided the school supplies without compunction and the room was now full of pictures, Christmas lists, paper chains, garlands, paper snowflakes and origami stars. They used every craft and game in their arsenal to fill the time and stop them all dwelling on what a shit Christmas Eve this had turned out to be.

When the wind had picked up further Scot and Virgil had told the children that it would be most fun –meaning safe – to camp in this small room with no windows. Now they were both trapped with one child sleeping on each side using their legs as a pillow, blankets wrapped tight. Scott couldn’t blame them for taking what comfort they could despite the absence of their parents.  

“What?”

“You’re Scott Tracy, you plan everything. Of course you’ve at least considered it.” Virgil said.

Scott frowned. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being prepared and I seldom hear you complaining when I’ve bought along just he piece of gear we need.”

“Then what do you think?” Virgil nodded at the forms sleeping on them. “Do you want a family of your own?”

“Well, in theory yes, but practically is a whole different ball game.”

“Why?”

“For one thing we are spending Christmas Eve holed up half way around the world from home, and will do to well into Christmas Day. It takes a pretty special person to be prepared to put up with that sort of crap.”

“Special people do exist though.” Virgil countered, ever the optimist.  

“Sure, but first I have to find them, and to find them I have to talk to more than just people I happen to be rescuing at that moment.”

“So take a day off. Go to a club – I’d make a great wingman.”

“That’s not really my scene.” Scott scrunched up his face in distaste.  

“Stop seeing problems! We’re solutions people.”

Scott gave a deep sigh.

“I don’t think I could do that to someone, do that to those hypothetical kids.”

“Do what?”  Virgil asked.

“Make them sit and wait every time. We get a taste of it sure, but for every mission, every rescue, they would be sitting at home wondering if this was the time that we were too daring. If this time the problem was too big. If this time someone wasn’t coming home.”

Scott had often wondered if they would be in this line of work if Mom were still alive. Would she be sitting at home right now, checking and rechecking the equipment, waiting anxiously for them to get back in touch? Maybe she would be pacing – she was always full of energy so Scott didn’t know if she could sit and wait. Or maybe she was doing something – cleaning, cooking, painting – anything to fill her hands while her thoughts were far away.

“Or they could be sitting there thinking how proud they are.” Virgil was saying. “I’m not going to say I’m not worried when one of you guys is out there without me, it makes me feel sick I’m so scared for you. But that’s nothing compared to the look on people’s faces when we get them out of trouble. Think of what these guys parents are going to look like when we get out of here.”

“Yeah, that’s the reason I do it, but that’s not good enough to put someone else through it.” Scott told him.

“Thing is Scott, you don’t necessarily get to make that choice for someone. If I manage to get you off the island long enough to run into this special person you don’t get to decide how much they can cope with.”

Scott thought about that, really thought about what it would be like to raise children on the island.  They’d learn to walk along the beaches. He would need to put in guard rails around the pool until Gordon taught them to swim. Maybe John could home school them for a bit  - because he was by far the best teacher – just until they were old enough to spend some time away. Not that he would want them to go to boarding school as such but they didn’t exactly live in any school’s catchment area and he would want them to have meet other kids.  He would teach them to fly, of course, in one of the light aircraft they kept for when a Thunderbird would be overkill. They’d spend time baking with Grandma and drawing pictures of the rain forest. Kayo would tell them stories about hero’s and villains, Virgil teach them the piano, Alan would game with them and Brains would probably make a robotic pet.  

In all his musing – now or before – it never occurred to Scott that neither he nor his family would be living anywhere but the island.

“I’ll tell you one thing, no child of mine will be joining International Rescue.” Scott said gruffly.

Virgil laughed, being sure to keep it low and quiet. “That will be another thing that you don’t get to decide. But I’m glad we’ve moved on from ‘it’ll never happen’ though.”

Maybe Mom wouldn’t have been waiting at home. Maybe she would have been out with them. She never once asked someone else for a favour she wasn’t prepared to do in return: maybe this would have been no different. Part of Scott knew that his memories were coloured through the lenses of childhood, time and the firm belief that he had the best Mom ever. But the other part believed that his Mom would be as fearless in the face of natural disasters as she was fighting for the last of that year’s must-have toy.

Yeah, his Mom would have made a great Thunderbird pilot. Scott felt a smile spread across his face at the thought. Virgil looked puzzled, not knowing where Scott’s musings had taken him.

“What about you? See a family in your future?” Scott asked his little brother.

“Yep.” Virgil grinned. “A whole football team’s worth.”

“And maybe that’s something you don’t get to decide” Scott chuckled.

“Probably.” Virgil agreed without any less humour.

“Then maybe we should go out together at some point – meet some people who aren’t scared to death for a change.”

Before Virgil could answer a high pitched beep started to emanate from Scott’s wrist. He moved to silence it as quickly as he could, but one of the children still woke slightly, muttered, and then snuggled in closer.  

It was always a challenge to keep up with who was in which time zone. John could tell you who had recently eaten, who had slept or who was three days younger than they should be because they’d crossed the International Date Line too often without even looking up from his coffee. Scott couldn’t do any of those things and had a hard time keeping straight where was day and where was night, so he kept his watch set to island time – a small anchor to home.

The beep could only mean one thing – back on a small friendly island in the middle of a large uncaring ocean it was midnight. It was Christmas day.

Everyone might be fast asleep right now, the turning of the day going unnoticed. As Thunderbird Two was still mid-mission they were probably still awake and exchanging the first greeting and hugs of the day, John giving his virtually for now. Scott wasn’t about to let thousands of miles get in the way of joining in.

“Happy Christmas Virgil. Not how I wanted to start the day.”

“Happy Christmas Scott. Be neither, but ” Virgil looked down fondly at the sleeping forms that were pinning him down. “It could be worse.”

[nahrsuada]

The Heist (Part I)

co-written by @gavonphilips, my ever tolerant RP partner))

Several days passed between the journey from Boralus to docking at the mainland once more, leaving only a day and a half’s ride through Elwynn’s leagues. En route to the cursed former hamlet, Gavon had made a pit stop within the city of Stormwind before they reached the stables. Giving little explanation, he had dashed into one of the more prominent inns and had bid Nahrsuada to wait outside. When he returned, striding out onto the cobbles, he looked more befitting a well-to-do Gilnean bloke - even if the fine, black suit and woolen overcoat appeared a hair too big on his athletic frame.

 The bard would quickly come to find he had raided one of Conwulf’s many closets scattered about the residences he owned across the Eastern Kingdoms, and Gavon had done it in such a way that it was clearly not his first time helping himself to his friend’s finer regalia. The short wait had her only admire the coastline whose horizon seldom bore the brunt of tempest’s ire. As he returned, a single brow had quirked, though woefully unsurprised by the shift in attire. With a shake of that crimson crown, she, too, climbed upon her mare to abate fleeting sojourn.

 Sunlit borders crossed soon into the grim embrace of Duskwood, storm hailing them soon to the fringe of Darkshire where the scopic estate dwelled just abaft the city limits.  A subtle ease took hold of Gavon any time they returned to the mainland. Somewhere he knew as well as the back of his hand. Duskwood was among many areas of the Kingdom that he felt most comfortable, having spent a great deal of time traveling and working through it over the years both before the Gilnean wall went up, and after it came down. His petite counterpart could not have contradicted his respite more; shoulderblades stitched akin to a harpstring tuned and tightened upon ridged spire.

 The stoned manor was perhaps of the finest construct the vagabonds had come across, even dwarfing many of the lavish, countryside plantations in Boralus from which they were housed.  It surely rivaled the bluest of blood within Gilneas, possessing attributes akin to the Greymane estate edged upon the kingdom’s coast. The homage to the pair’s kindred loyalty would surely have awakened the opulent fantasies, were they not hours from perilous reckoning.  Secrets threaded within grandeur would soon bleed from its very seams; expose the host of debauchery ravished with gruesome intent.

 The chateau was surely worth marveling; stoned pathway leading up to its obsidian gates narrowed the pair’s steeds to near brush against one another. High-grown shrubs lined the walkway with landscaping tenders already dressing the promenade to the courtyard with elevated lanterns, draped satins to weave upon the fences blockading obscurity from the grand gate.  A gothic, stone arch heralded guests beneath the overlooking guard’s and keeper’s quarters.  

 Peaked, gabled infrastructure piled upon perfectly laid, stoned tiers ribbed with viewing patios overlooking the forested acreage beyond.  Archers had perched within their designated towers, spotting the familiar redhead and her suited companion upon matching, raven mares. Beneath a long, cotton skirt, Nahrsuada donned a pair of riding britches to comfortably grip the leathern saddle. Elsewise, a traditional, double-breasted coat fell with a drop-waist tailoring, spanning over each hip.  With the woman’s scarlet curls tied into a low, neatened scarlet spiral, a small tophat protected her features from the inevitable misting which ever assaulted travelers as they crossed the sunlit borders from the northern kingdom. With the woman’s fair, porcelain complexion, the deep emerald tailored tightly to a slenderized waistline.  

They had been greeted by droves of servants who ushered them to the guest quarters upon parcel’s purlieu.  Nahrsuada's demand was to remain as close to the servants as she may, under the justification that she did not feel so honored by her blood, even if the affiliation of her surname was of hauteur dress.  Both she and Gavon had stopped and relieved each of the warmblooded mares provided at the Stormwind Stables. Arrayed in a long waistcoat to block out the torrential rain which seemed to shower them immediately upon crossing into Duskwood, she eased off the equine whose withers towered well above her brow, casting a glance toward Gavon as a servant claimed the reins of each steed.  

 Gavon’s disposition shifted drastically the moment Friesian hooves clomped across the property. He sat straighter upon the saddle with his chin tipped higher, and a hand released from leather reins to make certain his suit appeared as impeccable as it was going to get, even if his shoulders didn’t quite fill it out. The Gilnean was clearly going to put on a show for their heist, and he was going to stay true to whatever character that he had conjured up to better cover up their true intentions for arriving. If it was an upper crust piano player they wanted, that was precisely what they were going to get.

Escorted inward by the stewards, their own quarters possessed a private door nearest the stables which was all too convenient for their needs.  Hardwood and gothic coppers all dressed the hearth and bedposts with the finest filigree. A calm, neutral smile held fast to Gavon’s lips as they were herded to temporary quarters.  Had he not been in disguise, he would have whistled at the finery about them, but instead, he appeared steady as a rock and as unimpressed as one would be who had been to many such estates; even if he was secretly scoping out what he could nap before they hightail it out of the place.

 Waiting for them inside was a warm spread which the valet continued to lay out with porcelain and silvers decorating a small, two-person rounded table against the wall.  Upon his swift departure, the youthful bard glanced toward her paramour, shoulders visibly tense from the moment they crossed the gait. She had never disclosed the depths of why she wished for this particular manor to fall beneath their terror, or why such a heist required pointed intimacy.  As strides closed inward, a strained smile contrived her lips. "Thank you for doing this with me, beloved."

Only once the butler had left them to their privacy did he relax, and the cool smile curved back into its usual smarmy grin. Brows wagged with exaggeration as he peered around the room, and finally let loose the low, appreciative whistle he withheld prior.  Without a second to pass, he strode right for the prepared platter and procured a piece of cheese that promptly got tossed into his mouth.  Chewing, he commented idly, “I could get used to this.”

 A hand immediately shot out to snare the girl by the outer seams of her skirt, yanking her the short distance that remained between their bodies.  Coiling a sinuous arm about her, he pulled her tight to curl against his stalwart frame.  “Don’t thank me yet, luv. Still plenty of time for me to fuck things up,” he quipped with a cheeky grin.

 The woman's slender silhouette bent, spine arching with the gesture that pulled her as weight shifted to the balls of her feet.  Much akin to the first volta they shared, her malleable frame swerved to greet his own. The strength of the arm which so generously wreathed around her allowed for a moment's rest from tension boiling beneath the surface.  The feigned smile primed with gusto as her lips came to meet his own. "If we go down, my love, we do so together. All the same, I will thank you." Typically, the bard was not so grim in her prose, but a dour cloud surely had weighed upon narrow shoulders.  

The grip upon her dress, the burning hearth of his flesh beneath the wool never failed to set fire to her veins, nerves lit akin to swift-burning kindle.  But just when ease was granted, a jarring knock upon the door flayed her from rest's coaxing vice. As eyes lidded, so, too, did the tepid veil which swept across porcelain visage.  Gavon should have known there was going to be a knock on the door. Of course there was going to be a knock on the door. She pried from her lover's welcoming hold to wander toward the door. 

(sensitive matter below)

Ethereal in ghostly movements, hemline now dragging upon the marbled floor to crack the door, a free hand rested upon its molding to peer over delicate knuckles.  With the wood blocking most of her initial impression, her paramour could witness the immediate tightening harrowing her relaxed disposition. His ears could perhaps even hear the escalation in her fatigued heart's beats. An unamused scowl pulled at his aged features when his lover was forced to leave his side in effort to see to their predictable interruption. At least he had cheese. Watching idly out of the corner of his eyes, he busied himself with picking at the various goodies upon the platter. A man like Gavon was going to take full advantage. It wasn’t every day he got the full treatment.

 "My Lord..." she trailed, allowing the hinges to fully flex and reveal the object of her disguised terror.  He was tall, dressed in a long, Commander's waistcoat. The former Colonel of the Gilnean navy from many years prior had hardly aged.  He would not recall one of the Royale Guard, but he remembered the scarlet-haired siren quite well. Immediately, the woman's spine furled into a rigid, albeit gracious curtsy.  "I had not expected to see you until tomorrow," she noted, brow lofting as the door closed behind them. Color blanched subtly from her cheeks, leaving the rose cosmetics to contrast her freckles heavily.  Over his shoulder, she peered almost nervously at Gavon.

 It wasn’t until the door was opened that he put on airs again, his spine straightening and shoulders rolling back. Taking up one of the small plates, he continued to help himself to the collection of appetizers, albeit with a more dignified grace than previously.  He even used one of the silly little forks he could never quite hold right.

Try as he might to remain dismissive and cool, he couldn’t help but cut his stormy hues towards the Colonel taking up the doorway. A subtle quint had his gaze focusing studiously, and he quickly recalled the man even if he himself was not recognizable. Thankfully, the man was nothing if not a professional, and he harnessed his willpower to stow away any rising ire that a man such as the Colonel would come calling upon his young lover.

 "And you are the pianist I have heard so much about," intoned he, the liquid rasp and trimmed moustache betraying a cooked, thin-lipped smile upon his features, sporting a Grecian slope to his tawny nose.  Grey streaked the man's hair, side-shorn cut peppered with silver. He faced Gavon entirely. "I hope this is not your lover, Nahrsuada. Hearts would break, including my own," he'd murmur, reaching back to lay a balmy palm upon the woman's shoulder, every callous upon his digits gripping her a trice too tightly.  

"My wife would adore you all the more seeing as you brought such a handsome man to serenade her ears and fixations as well."

 A warm, delighted smile was elicited from the scoundrel, his eyes lightening with feigned interest. Gingerly setting down his plate on the table, he placed the fork quietly atop and then strode over with a sway to his hips towards the door before reaching out in an all too demure manner, almost as a lady might. When he spoke, what came would have been nothing short of hilarious under any other circumstance. A feminine inflection in his words came out with a slight lisp, “Oh, my, yesth, my lord, that would be me. Allow me to introduce mysthelf! I am Henry Von Gutermuth.” A polite bow of his head accompanied his hand being set upon the Colonel, and he could only surmise his little act would deter any notions that the… flaming pianist was a lover of the woman.

 Immediately, the Colonel's brow lofted, slowly panning toward Nahrsuada, where his gaze remained to rake over her features, lingering particularly between breasts and hips.   Knowing now that the man opposing him was no longer competition, he was ready to renew vestige upon the woman, his palm dragging to splay at the small of the bard's back, pads of his digits easing enough to ride the curve of her backside.  For all the slime that crawled beneath her flesh, the woman remained still readily kind.

 "Ah, well I hope these accommodations suit you both. Miss Fauste, I would quite like if, after your performance tomorrow evening, I may enjoy our reunion more intimately.  My wife will be calling upon me soon," he hinted, seeming to have dismissed the odds that such information would be irregular or even valuable to the queer companion belonging to the object of his affection.

A cheeky, dimpled smile came from the ‘pianist’ as the Colonel encroached further upon the bardlet, and he was quick to excuse himself from their reunion.  “Don’t mind me, thilliesth, I’m not here and I’m not hearing a word of this!” He exclaimed with his over the top strut right back to the fancy buffet while making a show of jamming his fingers into his ears. Despite being plugged, keen inhuman senses had him quite aware of every lecherous implication the Colonel was oozing, and with his back turned, Gavon’s teeth grit and he worked his jaw side to side, utterly seething while planning the man’s demise. Even the next cube of cheese was angrily tossed into his mouth and chewed hard.

The Lord turned to square off before her, hands coaxing down to her hips, neck craned in consideration.  "I look forward to your gifts again, Nahrsuada." The woman's smile remained painted, neutral and calm even as his invasive grip relished in her lithe frame.  

"My Lord Colonel, may I ask how Miss Sabrina is?" She inquired.  It was as if good news was going to be delivered with the way that sadistic smile broadened. In fact, his Lordship reflected pure elation at the very query.  

"She has had four beautiful children, but I am afraid she is... unavailable this evening, Miss Fauste."  

Ginger still, she responded, easing into a lingering curtsy, perhaps in a vein effort to slink away and out of a comfortable proximity.  His lips chased her cheek for a savory peck. "I look forward to seeing you both in your prime duality tomorrow, Mister Gutermuth and Miss Fauste.  I particularly look forward to some time to chat with you in your full regalia." Daring not to tarry, he near slithered from the room, offering but a nod to each of them.

 Nahrsuada neither crumbled nor erupted.  She stood, stepping forward to ensure the bolt was quietly eased into position, watching the shadow cast from his boots linger for a few moments before padding off.  She continued facing the door, lashes dimmed to a close as if her tendons had frozen into place. Her brow leaned forth, coming to rest upon the lukewarm mahogany.

 It spoke to great professionalism and willpower for Gavon to have kept up the charade through witnessing the sleezy Colonel paw upon his own lover in such a way. Patient and calculated as could be, he allowed his facade to remain fully intact all the while his mind was consumed with plotting.

Hearing the door close, and the bolt click, the old scoundrel immediately whipped around to stare hard at the fiery haired bard across the room. Wagging the tiny fork pinched between finger and thumb, he declared openly, “I won’t kill that bastard until after.”

 The woman was counting each of her breaths, feeling the instrumental drumming of her heart against her chest.  Upon righting herself, she rocked upon her heels, slipping out of the high-ankled riding boots and letting the wool-covered toes drag upon the tiles as she soundlessly traipsed toward the man.  Doe-like hues sulked some, both arms reaching to coil about her lover's waist, hoping to sear away the balmy touch of another with his own molten grip.

She said absolutely nothing to the man, tongue still toiling on how to even explain the rapport, the exchange.  Proverbial mites continued to crawl beneath her skin, gnawing at her resolve which only caused her arms to inch tighter around his waist.  No one entered or dared knock for some time. Perhaps, even, her anguish was well known and a whisper kept amongst the powerless servants who had grown numb to such instances.

 There was little that could be said. At least not without making matters worse. Gavon might have often been a fool, but sometimes his wisdom got the better of him. So instead of making any snarky comments, or even attempting to soothe her with words, he simply spoke with his body.  Arms slipped firmly around her and pulled her tight and securely to his chest, hoping the warmth against her might help. Occasionally his head would roll downward, and he would bury his lips into her curls, pressing lingering kisses there in effort to make her feel better about the situation.

However, he was still Gavon, and while they lingered there in silence for a time, a hand would sneak back to pluck a piece of cheese from the plate to lob it into his mouth and chew.

 The old scoundrel had just snared another cube of cheese and brought it to his mouth. Not quite making it to his lips, he got caught, his own mouth parted and eager to devour the snack. Guilty mirth glimmered in his stormy hues, and he watched her silently demand the cheese instead.  In another attempt to cheer up his young lover, his gaze flicked repeatedly back and forth between her lips and the cube pinched between his fingers, as if he was suffering from deep contemplation on whether or not to eat it or give it to her. Breaking into a quick grin, he relented and brought it to her outstretched tongue, dropping the cube directly upon the flat of it.

Only then did he dare utter any words.  "It'll be over soon, luv, and don't worry. He won't be able to grab at you ever again when I'm through with him."

 She closed her eyes when he finally placed the cube upon her tongue.  She quickly gobbled it, knowing he was devious enough to taunt her and immediately snipe the morsel from her jaw.  Under normal circumstances, he would have been that much of a dick, but right now his concern was solely focused upon the girl in his arms.  Leaning into her touch, his own hands roamed comfortingly, smoothing up along her spine with fingers crooking to ease into her flesh and muscle through her gown.  Returning the kiss in kind, he hummed before drawing back and listening to her, while his tongue worked around the inside of his bottom lip.

 Finally, she began to chew, savoring the mainland's product from the cattle. "Light I missed cheese not from Boralus," she hummed before considering his later comment.  Her palm raised, thumb brushing across his dimpled cheek. Balancing upon her toes, she was able to steal a kiss upon his pout whilst continuing to chew.

"I know.  I intend to watch his last breaths.  Gavon... While we are here, I have a few tasks.  He is... the last on my list. When he goes down, we need to be gone moments later.  The woman I asked him about... that woman knew my mother. I have... tracked down some details.  She was the one who helped me flee the first time. The Colonel gave her several children. Magically, she hung herself.  However, I doubt that is the case."

The details she shared had wheels churning in his mind, and when it was all said and done, he clicked his tongue and murmured gruffly, "I'm making an executive decision. I'm not killing him. I'm going to do far worse than that."

All too casually, he reached back as she did to snag yet another piece of cheese.  The hidden beast within apparently had a bottomless pit for a stomach. "I'll tell you what I mean," he remarked before lobbing the cube into his mouth. Starting to chew, his grin only spread and curled higher. Swallowing down with a small gulp, his head sunk downward, until lips dusted across the soft curve of her alabaster cheek, and inched toward her ear. A husky whisper came, one full of tantalizing promise, "If there's enough time, I'm going to introduce parts of the Colonel to what happens when a worgen plays with piano wire."

 Within their proximity, her right hand searched his left, letter their digits thread together while the opposing one fell upon his shoulder.  It was as if she posed for a waltz, even if her feet did not sway from present purchase. With her ear pressed parallel to his lips, the words stroked an uneasy flame within her, one which flashed with both comfort and the looming anxiety which had tethered blades of her shoulders together.  

"There is a part of me that is so used to handling these things alone, and I can only look to the wreckage we may cause.  I fear it," she confessed, her quiet appeal reaching for ear's shell. "It is strange having someone, for no profit, no benefit, no obligation, feel as you do."

 Nudging his lips closer, he pressed a warm, lingering kiss upon her slender ear while he took in her concerns. She would feel his lips brush and press harder against her sensitive flesh as he grinned against it, and then spoke further, sharing words as if he were spilling lecherous things, "There's plenty of benefit and profit to be had, luv, but no, that isn't why. I can't go explaining it, but know that you're in good hands. I have caused a lot of bloody wreckage in my day, and this? This is nothing. We'll be fine, but I don't want to drag you down that road if you don't wanna go. I can do it myself. 'Cause there's no goin' back."

Drawing back once more so that he could look upon her, their eyes met to grant a firm, assuring nod. Her throat folded, allowing each kiss shape each nuanced movement where his lips met flesh.  For now, each thistle within the layers of her skin had ebbed. She feared their initial touch, worried it would forever taint his caress.  

Relief allowed her muscles to chase each graze against her, molding flush against her.  The dream that was his shield held her eyes closed for the duration of his whispers, a pregnant pause lingering between them.  "I believe you," the finite confession came. "But there is no going back, for either of us. Nothing in this world will pull me from you, Gavon.  Each of the servants you have seen, they all wear pendants. They cannot remove them on their own, and they cannot be removed by another wearing them.  Mine is still in this estate. So is my mother's."

 Never one to take things seriously for too long, she would feel the creep of his fingers winding down along the arch of her back, and further, until his palms openly claimed hold of her backside. A confident smirk assured her, even as he gave a possessive squeeze to pull her ever tighter against him. It wasn't without purpose, however, as he remarked stupidly, "It's a bloody good thing I'm great with my hands, innit?"

Then his nose went higher into the air with a jerk of his head. "Or thould I sthay, Henry Von Gutermuth isth incredible. Jutht look at histh fingersth! All that piano playing!"

 She had forgotten entirely from the earlier shock of the colonel's presence that the ever lascivious, foul-mouthed mercenary had donned the persona of one far more outlandish in the showboated sexuality.  And with that, both palms swatted at his chest, a nasal snort catching her inhale as she continued to bump her brow against his sternum.

"Gutermuth..." She heaved through another audible snort brimming with still tense giggles.  She may not unwind fully within the presence of this particular estate, but he certainly granted her some respite.  "The lisp and that name... I think I've gone dry for the next month."

All it took was the clap of her palms against his chest to send him into a fit of laughter. The snorts only made matters worse, especially since he was trying to keep it down lest someone overhear them through the walls or door. Giving her ass one last playful squeeze, his hands smoothed up along her sides before coiling his arms tight about her shoulderblades to embrace her fully.  Still quaking with residual chuckles, he murmured gruffly, "Hey, it worked, didn't it?"

 She had to forcibly bury her lips within his pectoral to mute the further erupting giggles which were well beyond her control.  "Yesth, Misther Gutermuth... Take me to your bed," She managed, near biting the breast of his coat to muffle even still. Eyes dimmed, breaths finally coming to settle within her lungs, apace with measured normalcy.  Pressing her cheek now upon the fine fabric, and continued to mash her petite frame against his.

"I could not be luckier than I am right this moment."

"EW!" came a high pitched, feminine reply. "Dithgusthing. Henry Von Gutermuth doesth not lay with women, thank youuu."  Despite his words, she would suddenly be swept into his arms with supernatural ease, a display of his often hidden strength drawing her up and draping her across as if she were but a bride being carried cross a threshold.

Stalking over towards the grand bed, he couldn't seem to stop the endless chuckles rumbling up from the depths of his chest. "Yeah, me either," he quipped honestly and looked down at the elven beauty in arms, giving her an appreciative wink.  Once they reached the tall mattress, he simply turned, leaned over, and draped her down across it.

Hoisted as if she weighed nothing, both arms readily draped around the back of his neck, peppering a small barrage of kisses upon his jaw before they arrived at the mattress.  She valued this closeness, his ability to turn a night which had haunted her longing for years into one that seemed... Palatable, the adoration he never failed to show.

Now stretched across the mattress, her fingers slipped from their webbing at the nape of his neck to secure both cheeks upon cool palms.  If allowed, she'd coax their lips together. "I need you always," confessed the petite little poet who so daintily stretched upon the down comforter.

 Though they both still wore their clothing, it didn't stop Gavon from crawling atop the beauty after lowering her down onto the enormous, plush bed.  Draping himself across her, he hummed pleasantly as their lips met once more, nudging his own in an enduring kiss. "And I'm never leavin' you, luv. Except when I have to go to the bathroom."

 @holtandthornetradingco @thegrimoirewra

[veleth95]

Reinforcing Kris: Monster Hunters

He wasn’t fighting back. Veleth counted every second that he held the man underwater, but he didn’t fight back as he drowned.

Another disappointment, but that was to be expected. So many people were desperate for revenge and willing only to take it with minimal effort. Vetting had to be extreme if he was to forge these disciples into an elite force. The people of Kris had gone through much, and time rarely forgets such acts of brutality.

Veleth took full advantage of the city’s memory. He had his applicants placed into a trance, sending them back to the slaughter in their minds eye, then had his knights submerge the townsfolk under the water. Many, like Veleth’s current charge, would fall to despair. They would retreat, they would run, until finally death found them just as it had countless others when the plantfolk surrounded them. Then he would pull them up for air, and send the unconscious bodies back to be cared for and dismissed.

Many, but not all. Some fought back against their assailants. They would thrash, they would turn and fight their illusory enemy. These were brought up early to be sent along for the next leg of their journey into defenders of Kris. Every cry of rage as they were pulled from the water was worth a thousand of their silent counterparts, and Veleth smiled whenever one was strong willed enough to move along.

He didn’t smile as the man went limp in his arms though. This one was a failure, he thought as he pulled the drowned elf from the pool. “Put him with the others and bring in the next volunteer. We do not have time to spare.”

The trials proceeded for hours, until finally Veleth was left with a few dozen recruits before him. They appeared either confused, angry, or dazed by the test. Understandable. Until the plunge none of them knew what they were getting into. Veleth turned to face them, removing his helmet in order to address the gathered properly.

“All of you here have the will necessary to continue in this training. I apologize for the extremes, but it is necessary when creating a force so elite.

“You all survived the crisis that befell Kris, something that many professional soldiers of the State cannot claim. What is more you are not afraid to confront the monsters that have been made of your kin, something that many of those who gathered with you today cannot claim. That desire is the raw iron that will forge you into a steeled weapon against all those that would threaten you and yours.

“Know going forward that you forsake individual freedoms. You take upon yourself a duty to kin and country, one that if forsaken will result in the loss of countless lives. From this day forward you give up your old lives. You are monster hunters, and your quarry abounds.”

The weeks that followed would seem brutal to those without the willpower to face such evils face on, Veleth thought. All manner of beast and monster were gathered from the Horde lands, from the remnants of the Burning Legion to overzealous Amani raiding parties that wandered past Thalassian borders. All were brought to Kris, to be felled by the monster hunters in training or by Blood Knight steel upon their failure.

The elves who made it past the first test were quick studies, and better yet they proved to be highly adaptable. The trainees seemed to split into three disciplines depending on their dedication and talents. First and foremost were the specialists he himself sought to training. They learned all sorts of weaponry, hook and chain to firearms, and knew how to use them in combination to create an opening to exploit.

Others took the path of the mage, who Veleth directed to his friends in the Nightborne. The willingness of Suramar’s people to undertake experimental techniques lead to the advent of Veleth’s enchanted warhorn so training a few elves to fight monsters would be no problem. His students were taught to conserve mana for their quarry, probing them with cantrips until an opening was found. Then, in one brilliant flash, they managed on every occasion to take down their opponent.

The third and most impressive to Veleth were those that were so impacted by the crisis that they sought to sacrifice their own being to protect others. They took upon themselves the qualities of monsters they were trying to hunt, creating a vast array of characters distinct from the other trainees. While few in number their prowess as pseudo-demon hunters, blood afflicted worgen, or even those who the corruption that destroyed Kris into themselves made their presence felt in every engagement.

Finally the time came when the monster hunters of Kris would be tested before being sent into the fray. Veleth gathered those that remained into a large arena, then wheeled in the largest of any of the cages they had yet seen in their training. When his Blood Knights removed the curtain that covered their quarry it revealed a Dread Lord, chained with the Light so as to be inescapable.

“Take your positions, and may the Sun watch over you,” said Veleth, then in an instant the chains were removed.

Almost immediately the cage shattered as the Dread Lord projected its might outward, and just as quickly the monster hunters set upon it. The magi ensured that a ring of dampening surrounded the beast, anchoring the spell to the demon itself so that its spellcasting would be hindered. Others brought out their heavy chains, whipping at the demon to seek a point they could restrain. Finally the chains wrapped around the beast’s wings, which were then torn off by one of the worgen in a blood frenzy.

From the safety of his wards Veleth watched as the monster hunters strategically tore at the demon, one of the most cunning and dangerous beings of the Burning Legion. His students took wounds, yes, but he felt pride as the demon let out its final breath knowing it had failed to kill any of them. For a moment as they recouped Veleth wondered if he had done the right thing. The training had bordered on inhumane, and many here had been changed beyond recognition.

But he dismissed the thought. Nothing he did was worse than what they had suffered in Kris. And now those who suffered finally had the chance for vengeance.

[droneseco]

Synology DS920+ Review: The Best Power User NAS

Synology DS920+

9.00 / 10

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The DS920+ is an affordable NAS for the power user, capable of breezing through 4K video transcodes, running virtual machines, and Docker containers. The only disappointment is the lack of 2.5Gb Ethernet connectivity.  

Specifications

Brand: Synology

CPU: Intel Celeron J4125 Quad-core 2GHz

Memory: 4GB, upgradeable to 8GB via single SO-DIMM slot

Drive Bays: Four (3.5" or 2.5")

Expansion: Five additional bays via eSATA

Ports: Dual Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, 2 x USB3.0

Caching: Two m.2 SSD NVMe slots

OS: DSM6 (DiskStation Manager)

Pros

Powerful quad-core CPU and RAM upgradeable to 8GB

Great build quality and stylish design, with tool-less disk trays

User-friendly operating system

Great platform for Synology Moments, a Google Photos alternative

Cons

Gigabit LAN only, though at least there are two of them

Buy This Product

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Synology's latest four-bay DS920+ model is a powerhouse NAS designed for the pro user. While entry-level Network Attached Storage systems are great for serving files up and acting as a central backup, the Synology Plus series can do so much more. Especially for those looking to move away from cloud services, the DS920+ offers an affordable, scaleable, local alternative.

It's available without drives for around $550. Join us as we take a closer look at what makes the DS920+ the best NAS for the pro user.

DS920+ Specifications and Design

The Synology DS920+ is superficially identical to all the recent four-bay Synology devices, with a sleek black plastic exterior and distinctive bevel on all edges. Measuring 8.73 x 7.83 x 6.54 inches (223 x 199 x 166mm), it weighs 5lbs (2.25kg) without drives fitted.

Around the rear, you'll find dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB3.0 port, and an eSATA connection. You'll probably want to save the USB port for use with an uninterruptible power supply. There's another USB3.0 port on the front of the device, useful for quickly plugging in an external disk that you need to pull files from.

The DS920+ uses the same toolless disk caddies that make fitting drives a breeze. But scratch beneath the surface and you'll find a few key differences to other models in the line-up.

Firstly, the internals. Fitted with a powerful quad-core 2GHz J4125 Intel Celeron CPU and 4GB of RAM, the 920+ can handle hardware transcoding of 4K video files, has virtualization support, and provides an AES-NI encryption engine for great performance when using secure folders. Synology states photo indexation as 25% faster than the previous generation DS918+ model.

Secondly, there's a lot of upgrade potential here for when you need to scale up.

On the underside of the device you'll find two m.2 SSD slots for NVMe caching drives. These can be used to significantly speed up random file operations.

Remove the drives and there's a single SO-DIMM memory upgrade slot tucked away just inside on the right. This can officially support up to a 4GB SO-DIMM module, which would give a total system memory potential of 8GB, and it's an inexpensive upgrade. I say "officially support" because many users have found higher memory modules are also recognized. The CPU lists 8GB as the maximum though, so anything beyond this may cause errors later down the line and isn't worth the risk; nor will Synology be able to support you if something goes wrong.

An eSATA port allows for connection to a drive expansion unit, such as the five-bay DX517. This adds potentially 80TB more. However, if you know you'll likely need more drives in the short term (and can afford it), purchasing a system with more built-in drive slots is always a better choice. The Synology NAS selector tool can help there. For most people, four bays is a good compromise. It allows for secure fault tolerance of a single disk, while still letting you take advantage of mixed drive sizes in a flexible Synology Hybrid RAID configuration.

Setting Up the DS920+

As with all of Synology's line-up, hardware installation and system setup are user-friendly and easy.

Starting with the hardware, you don't need any tools to install drives. Just pull out the drives, and pull off the plastic clips at the side. Slot the drive in, then push back the clips, and re-insert.

Once you've powered on the system, give it a moment, then navigate to find.synology.com from any desktop browser. This should find your new NAS, and you'll be guided through the initial set up. From there, you'll be greeted by the DiskStation Manager OS. It's a familiar-looking graphical environment that anyone who used Windows or Mac will feel at home with. You even get a start button in the top left.

Your first step should be to create a storage volume, which you can do using a helpful wizard after launching the Storage Manager. If you're new to Synology, or Networked Attached Storage in general, it's worth taking a moment to explain the Synology Hybrid RAID technology.

Synology Hybrid RAID

Hard drives can and do fail, and one of the biggest reasons to use a storage system with two or more drives is to allow for redundancy; that is, a drive can fail, and you won't lose any data. This called a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (or RAID, for short). Different types of RAID exist, but the one we're usually concerned with is RAID5, in which data blocks are spread across the disks, as well as a parity block. The parity block lets you recover data if any of the actual data blocks are lost.

With standard RAID levels, you need to use disks that are all the same size. This makes it expensive to start, and inflexible when it comes to upgrading. While you can swap out a drive for a larger one, the additional space will be of no benefit. The key difference is that Synology Hybrid RAID offers the same one disk fault tolerance (or two, if you're particularly risk-averse), but you can mix and match drive sizes. Regardless of what disks you're working with, the Synology software will intelligently optimize your array to use your available space most efficiently. Use the RAID calculator to estimate how much more space you'd get in an SHR configuration compared to standard RAID level.

Adding or upgrading a drive is also simple: the only rule is that the drive should be at least as big as the largest drive currently installed in the system. This makes upgrading your storage very budget-friendly.

Once you've created your storage volume, you can begin setting up shared folders from the Control Panel, and install software packages from Package Center.

Virtual Machine and Docker Support

There's a huge range of first and third-party software available, including the incredible Synology Moments, a local photo management solution that offers AI image analysis similar to Google Photos. One quick note is that if you're planning to install Plex, it's best to do so by downloading the latest version directly from Plex, and using the manual install process. The version on Synology Package Center lags behind.

In addition, both Synology's own Virtual Machine Manager hypervisor software and Docker are officially supported on the Plus series, opening up even more virtualized server systems to run on your home NAS.

Virtual Machine Manager works with a variety of operating systems—even Windows 10—so if you need a secure test environment for some software you're unsure of, you can simply boot it in a safely contained VM, all from within your browser. Of course, you won't be gaming on this or replacing your regular desktop anytime soon, but it's still useful to have a virtual machine running through a web browser anywhere on your network. Just add the ISO, spin up a new instance, and walk through the usual install process.

Docker is another beast entirely, and far too broad of a topic to delve into in this review if you're unfamiliar. Learn more about Docker in our guide, but the one-sentence summary would be: a Docker image is a virtual application that runs within a completely safe and sandboxed container. All you need to do is set some variables, point it to a data directory, and boot it up. Docker containers don't run an entire operating system, so they use significantly less memory than a full Virtual Machine. While you can typically run a single virtual machine at a time, you can have tens of Docker containers running 24/7 without impacting the performance of your system.

The range of Docker containers available is immense. If you've ever thought "wouldn't it be cool to run a whatever server at home?", chance are someone has made a Docker image already.

For instance, I had a Dockerized instance of Pi-Hole set up in ten minutes. It's a DNS server with built-in ad-blocking, originally designed to run on a Raspberry Pi. It was trivial to install and uses a minimal amount of memory, requiring only the creation of a few data directories and passing in some variables.

If you're looking at upgrading your home Wi-Fi to a Unifi enterprise system, you might be frustrated at the prospect of having to plug in a hardware dongle to act as the network controller. You'll be pleased to know that a Dockerized Unifi controller can be used instead.

Performance

Official performance figures for the DS920+ put total file throughput available at around 225MB/s read and slightly lower writer speeds, but this is when using the dual-Gigabit Ethernet ports in a link-aggregated configuration. In reality, this means any single Gigabit client device will achieve around 100 to 115MB/s, which our real-world tests confirmed.

Using faster drives will not improve this, and if you're on Wi-Fi rather than a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection, you may get even slower speeds. Ultimately, your network (and the Gigabit ports on the DS920+) are the limiting factor here when it comes to the performance of file access over the network—not the CPU, RAM, or speed of the drives you put in it.

NVMe Caching

One of the standout upgrade options on the 920+ is the two NVMe drive slots on the underside of the device. NVMe is a new generation of Solid State Drive (SSD) that looks a bit like a memory stick. But don't confuse their existence as yet another place to add storage drives to. The m.2 NVMe slots are limited to use as a caching system, and cannot be used to expand a storage volume.

A single NVMe drive allows you to create a read-only cache, while a pair of drives can be used for read-write caching. This creates a RAID1 array of SSDs to ensure there are no data errors in data being written back to your storage array from the cache.

We should note however that not everything you do on a NAS will benefit from NVMe caching. Specifically, it won't help with large sequential read/write operations, which are one of the main uses of a NAS. This also means it won't help with serving up video files for a Plex server. What they will help with is random read/write operations, such as those in a virtual machine, database, or other server package running on the NAS.

For this reason, it's difficult to measure actual performance gains from NVMe caching: simply copying files to and from the device would show no difference. Instead, if you have an SSD-cache capable device, I'd recommend opening up the Storage Manager -> SSD Cache -> SSD Cache Advisor to see if you might benefit, and what size cache drive is recommended.

There are a few other things you should know about using an SSD cache.

First, don't remove the hardware without removing the cache from the volume first, even when the device is powered off. There's a warning message if you power off from DSM to remind you of this.

Second, NVMe drives are quite pricey, and considered consumables. The error rate on SSDs increases with age and usage, though DiskStation Manager will warn you when the drives are degraded. Synology's own SNV3400 NVMe drive that we used for testing are rated to 500TBW (TeraBytes Written), which is well above the industry average. While you can fit cheaper NVMe drives from competitors, they will need to be replaced more quickly, or may result in data corruption.

Lastly, caching systems use memory too. This works out to around 50MB for a 128GB SSD.

Should You Buy The DS920+?

The DS920+ is the best, affordable, scaleable NAS for the professional home user that values their data. It's a beast of a machine that will handle everything you throw at it with ease—whether that's running your own server software via Docker containers, handling your home security via Surveillance Station, or keeping decades of family photos safe in Synology Moments. Most importantly, it'll do so within the Synology ecosystem. That means easy-to-use software, reliable hardware, and excellent support if you need it. In fact, Synology guarantees their Plus series devices for three years, compared to two years for other models. In addition, software updates are usually provided for seven years.

Synology isn't the cheapest NAS manufacturer out there. You could certainly get faster hardware at a similar price point elsewhere, but you wouldn't benefit from any of the exclusive technologies such as Synology Hybrid RAID that makes efficient use of mixed disk sizes, nor the fantastic range of first-party software. You could even roll your own budget NAS with open-source software like FreeNAS or unRAID, but I wouldn't recommend putting anything too important on there. I've trusted Synology with my data for many years now, and it's never let me down.

The only real disappointment with the hardware is the lack of Multi-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. While link-aggregated dual-Gigabit connection means you can have full Gigabit performance to multiple clients, it doesn't help to speed up performance to any single client. This matters if you want to use your NAS for video editing, and we may find multi-gig LAN connections more common in the coming years. For typical users though, Gigabit connectivity is plenty fast enough for things like streaming 4K video.

What Exactly Can You Do with a Synology NAS?

More broadly speaking, you might be wondering what you can actually do with a Network Attached Storage system. A Synology NAS has always been a central part of my home network, and it's one of a few devices that I'd class as essential to my work and family life.

Backup

Synology NAS can be a central point of backup for everything in your home, whether that's your family photos spread across multiple smartphones, that Windows folder with all those important documents, or a Mac OS Time Machine archive.

If you don't have a backup, then you haven't experienced data loss (yet)—it's only a matter of time. Of course, a NAS shouldn't be your only backup point, but if you have a friend or family member with their own NAS too, you can act as an off-site backup point for each other! Synology makes this easy to set up with HyperBackup.

It's not just backups either. Synology Drive can keep files in sync across your devices, so you always have the latest copy of a file to work with.

Shared Folders and Media Management

Having a shared folder or two makes your digital home life a lot easier—I can't remember the last time I had to transfer some files using a USB disk! But this is especially true if you have a large archive of media. Plex is the best media management software around, and it runs natively on a Synology NAS. It'll let you keep all your media files in one place, then play them anywhere with a single unified and rich interface.

Those looking to move away from Google Photos after the recent pricing and policy changes will be delighted to hear about Synology Moments. Offering easy import of photos from your smartphone, browser, or existing photo archive, Moments takes advantage of the fast CPU in the DS920+ to perform AI analysis of your photos. It automatically identifies people and subjects so you can easily browse and locate those special memories.

Your Own Server

Fancy running your own web development server? Perhaps a Calibre server to automatically convert all your eBooks? PiHole to block all ads at a network level? Surveillance Station to record from your IP security cameras?! With hundreds of native software packages and even more available through Docker, the DS920+ can run it all.

Energy Efficiency

The other benefit of running a NAS as opposed to using a spare computer is that of power consumption. Peaking at less than 40W of power, the DS920+ manages to do an awful lot with very little energy impact. This means you can leave it running all day, ready for when you need it and working away in the background to keep your data safe.

Synology DS920+ Review: The Best Power User NAS published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

[aion-rsa]

Ready Player Two: The Sequel’s Best Easter Eggs & References

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This piece contains spoilers for Ready Player Two.

When Ernest Cline published Ready Player One in 2011, its exhaustive array of Easter eggs were literally built into the worldbuilding—seemingly one pop culture name-drop per pixel that made up the digital OASIS, per the fierce 1980s nostalgia that creator James Donovan Halliday possessed for the most formative decade of his adolescence. And once the billionaire inventor revealed the Easter egg hunt for his fortune, it made perfect sense that the 2040s generation of gunters would immerse themselves in the same references, placing themselves into Halliday’s mindset to inherit his treasure.

Almost a decade later, those ’80s references are more exhausting in Ready Player Two—like when Wade rattles off his vintage morning routine basically cosplaying as Marty McFly, down to getting woken up by Huey Lewis and the News’ “Back in Time” via a Panasonic RC-6015 flip-clock radio. Whereas the Wade of Ready Player One enthusiastically logged onto the OASIS by quoting The Last Starfighter, the sequel’s gunter-turned-billionaire seems burnt out. He takes no joy in playing at a fictional character’s life instead of trying to improve his own.

Similarly, if Twitter reactions are any indication, readers of Ready Player Two are already finding the dense ’80s shout-outs to be more white noise than fun tidbits to be caught and noticed. It’s the same trick, but it loses its efficacy once you’ve seen behind the curtain.

That said, there are a handful of Easter eggs that break through the static. Because what’s the best way to make two familiar things new again? You mash them up.

Seven Shards for the Siren’s Soul

In some ways, it feels as if the sequel is retreading familiar ground, not quite copying Ready Player One’s Easter egg hunt but certainly building a seven-part quest around solving pop culture riddles. What somewhat redeems the narrative choice is a slightly different take on Easter eggs: not an exhaustive ’80s Wikipedia entry, but the personal Easter eggs of one woman’s life.

That woman is Kira Underwood, wife of OASIS co-founder Ogden Morrow, but also the unrequited love of James Donovan Halliday. As young adults, their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns eventually transformed into the creation of Gregarious Games and, ultimately, Gregarious Simulation Systems and the OASIS. But when Kira died young, both men mourned her… but only one tried to bring her back.

This time around, the prize is not Halliday’s fortune, but Kira’s “soul”—or, at least, a digital copy of her consciousness that Halliday copied without her knowledge or permission. Each Shard references a key point in Kira’s life, plenty of which overlap with Halliday’s ’80s obsession, as Kira met the two boys in 1988—in the middle of playing Sega Ninja, in fact. That’s the trial for the Second Shard, but later Shards relate to properties dear to Kira, which makes gunters like Parzival initially disregard treasured texts like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion or the rich discography of a certain iconic purple-themed musician.

And as the Shard search goes on, the clues become more and more specific to Kira’s life, including the learning-is-fun planet that she and Og created together (Halcydonia) to bring free educational games to underserved children when they were unable to have biological children of their own; and Leucosia, her D&D character-turned-AI-persona. Each Shard also includes a “toll,” or a memory that Z must experience as Kira, to better understand how she was a vital person on her own, beyond these two men’s love for her.

While the Seven Shards won’t be immortalized in the best-of lists of fantasy quests, it’s a clear effort to reinterpret the notion of Easter eggs to be more than just however many pop culture references one person can hold over another. They can also be the personal artifacts that others are encouraged to excavate, and experience the world through another set of eyes.

Planet Shermer

Recast the foul, restore his ending. Andie’s first fate still needs mending.

The Third Shard’s riddle sends Z and Art3mis to Shermer, a planet named after the fictional Illinois town in which John Hughes set the majority of his movies. Inspired by his hometown of Northbrook (which was previously called Shermerville), Shermer was a composite of different aspects of suburbia from both sides of the tracks and everything in-between. A 2010 Vanity Fair article related how in Hughes’ mind, Sixteen Candles’ Samantha (Molly Ringwald) was a “passing acquaintance” of Ferris Bueller’s eponymous hero (Matthew Broderick), and The Breakfast Club’s Bender (Judd Nelson) grew up near Planes, Trains, & Automobiles’ Del Griffith (John Candy).

The OASIS’ Shermer follows Hughes’ thinking, by throwing his iconic teenage characters into a planet-sized Breakfast Club of sorts, with them all attending the same Shermer High School; Z notes that depending on which direction you approach the school, its facade resembles all three aforementioned teen films. That’s amusing enough, but then you remember that actors like Ringwald and Michael Anthony Hall collaborated with Hughes in a number of films—which means all of their alter egos are going to homeroom or the cafeteria together.

This portion of the book is rather delightful in how nonchalantly it plays out every fan’s crossover dreams and how it engages with parallel-universe casting decisions. For instance, Parzival notices Keith Nelson and Amanda Jones (Eric Stoltz and Lea Thompson) from Some Kind of Wonderful, only to realize that that couple is technically the original Marty McFly and his mother. And when it comes to deducing the Shard’s clue, superfan Samantha deduces that they must recast Duckie (the “fowl”) from Pretty in Pink, replacing Jon Cryer with a Weird Science-era Robert Downey, Jr., who had originally been up for the part. (You can already imagine the digital de-aging fun in the inevitable Ready Player Two movie.)

But while their goal is to get RDJ-Duckie and Andie dancing at prom, what’s most important is visiting Hughes himself in his home office to obtain his original Pretty in Pink ending. Perhaps the best Easter egg embedded in this mashup world is that when Art3mis and Z go to the Hughes’ home, they encounter his wife, Nancy Hughes. “I’ve never seen her here before!” Art3mis, who has played through this world’s rhythms countless times before, excitedly tells Parzival. “I didn’t know you even could!” It’s a nice parallel to Wade’s realization that Kira is more than just the wife or love interest, that she and Nancy Hughes are worth squeeing over all on their own.

L0hengrin’s Genderbending Avatar

As Wade relates, Parzival looks almost like him, just a bit thinner, taller, more muscular, and less afflicted by acne. His avatar is an idealized version of himself, as is the case for Samantha with Art3mis—though in Ready Player Two, she has incorporated her IRL facial birthmark into her digital persona, while Wade still sticks with his dream-self. They might also dress as pop culture characters, like Art3mis in her Molly Millions (from William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic) phase, yet it only goes so far as typical cosplay.

But in the sequel, Parzival meets YouTuber and gunter L0hengrin, who he identifies as a fan by name alone; in Arthurian legend, Lohengrin was Parzival’s son. When they meet in the OASIS, however, Parzival is struck by Lo’s avatar: She primarily takes the form of pixie-haired teen Helen Slater in The Legend of Billie Jean, but she’s also known for shifting into floppy-haired James Spader in Tuff Turf. While Lo, a trans woman, is not the first OASIS user to find herself in a nostalgic movie avatar, the fluidity of her gender presentation speaks to a deeper identification with various iconic figures depending on her gender in that moment. It also opens up the possibility of other genderqueer or nonbinary users finding their own unique representation via ’80s figures—after all, there are infinite personas to choose from.

The Afterworld

Another mashup world that Parzival, Aech, and Shoto visit on their quest for the Shards is a planet-sized shrine to Prince. And while its name is technically the unpronounceable Love Symbol, those in the know call it the Afterworld. Under ominous skies of “Purple Rain” they drive a “Little Red Corvette” to raid Paisley Park not for weapons, but for musical artifacts with which to challenge the Purple One(s).

Basically, the three gunters have to reenact Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, doing musical battle with seven iterations of Prince as the Evil Exes: Purple Rain Prince, Cloud Suit Prince, Gett Off Prince, Batdance Prince, Microphone Prince, Third Eye Prince, and Mesh-Mask Prince. Not to mention their henchmen, in the form of several past bands and collaborators. 

All things considered, the battle goes pretty quickly, especially since Aech is a super-fan coaching Parzival through how to wield the Cloud Guitar, and they have their own backup in the form of Prince’s old band Morris Day and the Time (a.k.a. The Original 7ven). There is a reason that Scott fights seven separate battles, each with its own arc and stakes. It ratchets up the tension in each fight and hints at Scott possibly failing, instead of seeming more like a means to an end, as is the case with Ready Player Two’s big jam session.

This one might be a tad more controversial for readers, depending on how sacred one holds Prince, but I would argue that inspiring a reaction—positive or negative—still counts as an Easter egg that works.

Needle Drops

Both Shermer and the Afterworld include dozens of music cues that can be triggered by passing over a certain spot or into a key moment out of pop culture history, though the needle drops are a consistent Easter egg throughout Ready Player Two. These “soundtrack landmines,” as Z calls them, set the scene, striding into Shermer High School to Killing Joke’s “Eighties”; or add gravitas to a moment, like when Parzival stares at Art3mis, realizing he’s still in love with her, and Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” begins playing.

For the most part, these cues belong to everyone: They’re planted in the same spaces for any user to trigger, regardless of whether or not they’ve ever actually sung or danced to these moments in John Hughes movies. Yet little Easter eggs like the Boston needle drop—which can only be triggered by one avatar staring at another for five seconds, while the ONI records an increase in heart rate—feel like personalized love letters to two lovebirds, caught in a special moment unique to just them. That’s exactly what you want an Easter egg to do.

Ready Player Two is available now from Ballantine Books. Let us know the Easter eggs that worked for you in the comments below…

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Ready Player Two: The Sequel’s Best Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[abangtech]

ZFS 101—Understanding ZFS storage and performance

Enlarge / No, you can’t actually buy Ironwolf disks with an OpenZFS logo on them—but since they’re guaranteed SMR-free, they are a solid choice.

Jim Salter

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Storage fundamentals

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As we all enter month three of the COVID-19 pandemic and look for new projects to keep us engaged (read: sane), can we interest you in learning the fundamentals of computer storage? Quietly this spring, we’ve already gone over some necessary basics like how to test the speed of your disks and what the heck RAID is. In the second of those stories, we even promised a follow-up exploring the performance of various multiple-disk topologies in ZFS, the next-gen filesystem you have heard about because of its appearances everywhere from Apple to Ubuntu.

Well, today is the day to explore, ZFS-curious readers. Just know up front that in the understated words of OpenZFS developer Matt Ahrens, “it’s really complicated.”

But before we get to the numbers—and they are coming, I promise!—for all the ways you can shape eight disks’ worth of ZFS, we need to talk about how ZFS stores your data on-disk in the first place.

Zpools, vdevs, and devices

This full pool diagram includes one of each of the three support vdev classes, and four RAIDz2 storage vdevs.

You wouldn’t typically want to make a “mutt” pool of mismatched vdev types and sizes—but nothing’s stopping you, if that’s what you want to do.

To really understand ZFS, you need to pay real attention to its actual structure. ZFS merges the traditional volume management and filesystem layers, and it uses a copy-on-write transactional mechanism—both of these mean the system is very structurally different than conventional filesystems and RAID arrays. The first set of major building blocks to understand are zpools, vdevs, and devices.

zpool

The zpool is the uppermost ZFS structure. A zpool contains one or more vdevs, each of which in turn contains one or more devices. Zpools are self-contained units—one physical computer may have two or more separate zpools on it, but each is entirely independent of any others. Zpools cannot share vdevs with one another.

ZFS redundancy is at the vdev level, not the zpool level. There is absolutely no redundancy at the zpool level—if any storage vdev or SPECIAL vdev is lost, the entire zpool is lost with it.

Modern zpools can survive the loss of a CACHE or LOG vdev—though they may lose a small amount of dirty data, if they lose a LOG vdev during a power outage or system crash.

It is a common misconception that ZFS “stripes” writes across the pool—but this is inaccurate. A zpool is not a funny-looking RAID0—it’s a funny-looking JBOD, with a complex distribution mechanism subject to change.

For the most part, writes are distributed across available vdevs in accordance to their available free space, so that all vdevs will theoretically become full at the same time. In more recent versions of ZFS, vdev utilization may also be taken into account—if one vdev is significantly busier than another (ex: due to read load), it may be skipped temporarily for write despite having the highest ratio of free space available.

The utilization awareness mechanism built into modern ZFS write distribution methods can decrease latency and increase throughput during periods of unusually high load—but it should not be mistaken for carte blanche to mix slow rust disks and fast SSDs willy-nilly in the same pool. Such a mismatched pool will still generally perform as though it were entirely composed of the slowest device present.

vdev

Each zpool consists of one or more vdevs(short for virtual device). Each vdev, in turn, consists of one or more real devices. Most vdevs are used for plain storage, but several special support classes of vdev exist as well—including CACHE, LOG, and SPECIAL. Each of these vdev types can offer one of five topologies—single-device, RAIDz1, RAIDz2, RAIDz3, or mirror.

RAIDz1, RAIDz2, and RAIDz3 are special varieties of what storage greybeards call “diagonal parity RAID.” The 1, 2, and 3 refer to how many parity blocks are allocated to each data stripe. Rather than having entire disks dedicated to parity, RAIDz vdevs distribute that parity semi-evenly across the disks. A RAIDz array can lose as many disks as it has parity blocks; if it loses another, it fails, and takes the zpool down with it.

Mirror vdevs are precisely what they sound like—in a mirror vdev, each block is stored on every device in the vdev. Although two-wide mirrors are the most common, a mirror vdev can contain any arbitrary number of devices—three-way are common in larger setups for the higher read performance and fault resistance. A mirror vdev can survive any failure, so long as at least one device in the vdev remains healthy.

Single-device vdevs are also just what they sound like—and they’re inherently dangerous. A single-device vdev cannot survive any failure—and if it’s being used as a storage or SPECIAL vdev, its failure will take the entire zpool down with it. Be very, very careful here.

CACHE, LOG, and SPECIAL vdevs can be created using any of the above topologies—but remember, loss of a SPECIAL vdev means loss of the pool, so redundant topology is strongly encouraged.

Source

The post ZFS 101—Understanding ZFS storage and performance appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/zfs-101-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

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Best small business servers of 2019

Best small business servers of 2019

If you’re looking for the best small business servers that will power your growing company, then you've come to the right place. In this article, we look at the best servers for small and medium-sized businesses. While it may be tempting to rely on cloud-based servers, especially when your business is relatively new, on-site servers that you operate yourself can still be the best way to go. It gives you much more control - and security - over your businesses' important information. In this guide, we've picked the best small business servers that offer everything small and medium-sized businesses need to get started, without costing too much money. The small business servers are easy to set up and maintain, and the manufacturers should also offer you support in case something goes wrong. The best small business servers will be robust enough to be able to work under intense loads throughout the day, handling high numbers of users, and perhaps most importantly, they will also be expandable, so they can be upgraded as your business grows. So, we went ahead and curated a list of the 10 best SMB servers, ranging from those aimed at small businesses to the sort that bigger corporations need to survive. Without further ado, let’s dive into the best servers for small businesses.

There are so many different servers out there, and that means that you’ll sometimes have to sort through entire price lists in order to find the best small server for you. Just look at the Dell PowerEdge T30 – you can buy it either as a barebones or as a fully configured server. Aimed at the entry-level/SoHo market, the T30 manages to fit in a ton of expansion potential into a tiny, mini-tower-like chassis, and it even comes with a wealth of server features by default, which makes it a perfect alternative to an office workstation.

Servers do not have to be massive or expensive. Take the PowerEdge T20 for example; it has benefited from a wealth of knowledge derived from the 20 years of experience Dell has building servers. While the barebones version doesn't have a hard drive, it's certainly cheap – in the recent past, it has been priced at less than £100 (with cashback offers, that is – it’s always well worth keeping an eye out for these). It has a Haswell-based Pentium processor that can clock up to 3GHz and supports up to 32GB DDR3 ECC RAM (note that this model comes with 4GB). Expansion capabilities include four SATA ports (32TB if you use 8TB hard drives), four I/O slots and 10 USB ports. Astoundingly for a PC of this price, you also get two DisplayPort connectors, a VGA one, two PS2 and one serial port. Other than a Gigabit Ethernet port, the other points of interest are a 290W PSU and an Intel-based RAID controller.  

Lenovo took over IBM's x86 server range back in 2014 and has built on the best of the ThinkServer tradition. The TS150 is now the most affordable of the range and is a 4U enterprise-class server that competes with the Dell T20. It comes with support for RAID 0,1,10 and 5 (via an onboard controller). Like the competition, this one can accommodate up to four 3.5-inch HDDs in total, which means that it can go up to 40TB of storage when loaded with the relevant hard drives. The relatively-recent Intel Xeon E3-1200 v6 processor should be powerful enough for small and medium enterprises. Lenovo also claims that the acoustics of the TS150 are even quieter than a typical library at 26 decibels. As is the case for the competition, you also get an impressive array of ports and connectors: eight USB ports, four PCI/PCI-e slots, three video connectors (including a pair of DisplayPort), Serial, Gigabit Ethernet and three audio connectors.

There is sometimes a very fine line between workstations and servers and there is probably a no better example than the 5039A-IL from Supermicro. It is part of its SuperWorkstation range but works just as well as a server with acres of upgrade space. Given that it is a barebones solution, the 5039A-IL is especially suitable for small businesses with niche needs like creative houses that might want a server that's a bit more than just a print or file server. This single socket, mid-tower behemoth (it weighs in at 18.1kg without any parts) offers some impressive tech on board: You can specify Skylake processors (Xeon or Core i3/5/7), up to 64GB of DDR4 ECC memory, plus there's USB 3.1, HDMI, and twin Gigabit ports on the connectivity front, and 7.1 audio to boot. Its expansion capabilities are also breath-taking: DVI/DisplayPort/VGA, serial, eight SATA ports, six PCI/PCI-e slots and support for up to eight (yes, eight) hard disk drives, all powered by a 500W PSU. Supermicro, while not a household name, is one of the biggest server and workstation manufacturers out there with decades of experience.

When you think about servers, Fujitsu is probably not the first vendor which springs to mind. And yet, the Japanese manufacturer is one of the very few (if not the only one) that can claim to be involved in anything from SMB servers to, well, supercomputers. The TX1310 is its entry-level, SMB-focused server and comes with some pretty solid credentials plus an unmatched, industry-leading reliability guarantee. If your server breaks down within the first year of purchase, not only will Fujitsu fix or replace it, the company will also refund you the amount you paid for the server. Like pretty much everyone at this end of the market, it is designed to run silently 24/7 and offers RAID 0/1/10 but not 5. This model includes an Intel Xeon E3-1226 v3, two 1TB hard drives and 16GB of RAM. We like the fact that it comes with an optical drive and has two Gigabit Ethernet ports for redundancy. With four DIMM slots and four storage bays, this server supports up to 32TB of storage and 32GB of memory.

One of the fastest growing segments of the server market is dominated by a single company. HP Enterprise's Proliant Microserver Gen8 has successfully managed to fend off competition – thanks to an attractive feature mix and plenty of discounts – and ultimately own this market. These tiny servers have found a market well outside their niche with prosumers buying them en masse and touting their obvious advantages over NAS (network attached storage). Despite being very small (less than 13l in volume) and light (less than 7kg), this machine packs some impressive capabilities. We're talking support for Intel's Xeon E3 family, up to 16GB of RAM, on system management processor, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one PCIe slot, support for RAID 0/1/10, a DVD writer, up to four hard disk drives, an internal microSD card slot, an integrated Matrox G200 graphics chip and seven USB ports. It only has a VGA port, though, and has just two memory modules.  

If you want something a bit beefier than the aforementioned servers, then consider the TS460. It is far more expensive but then again you get a server that's in another league. For a start, it is far bigger than the previously mentioned servers with a 50-liter volume and a 25kg weight. This 5U server runs on Intel's Xeon E3 models with Turbo Boost technology plus it offers a three-year onsite warranty. It supports up to 64GB of RAM and its integrated RAID controller offers the four main RAID types. You get a DVD writer, four fans, a 300W PSU and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Up to eight hard disk drives can be installed and there are a whopping eight USB ports as well. There's a lockable door, support for ECC memory, plus a serial and a VGA connector.

Pitching in the same category as the TS440 is the ML350. This is an expensive piece of kit but just look at the feature list and it actually seems like a very decent deal. Other than the fact that it has a dedicated, integrated graphics card (Matrox G200), it offers a three-year onsite next business day warranty, four Gigabit Ethernet ports and support for 12Gbps SAS (note that it takes only 2.5-inch drives). But there's more – this server runs an Intel Xeon E5-2603 v3 processor (not the usual E3 CPU) and supports two CPUs. The E5 has six cores which makes it particularly well-suited for more taxing tasks. We're also impressed by the number of memory slots (24) that it has, allowing it to hit 3TB of memory once 128GB LRDIMM rolls out. Oh and other than a lockable front door and a storage controller, this server earns brownie points for having dual redundant, hot-swappable 500W PSUs.

A powerful server doesn't have to be expensive – that's essentially what Scan wants to convey to prospective customers. Specifically designed for the SMB market, this 3XS offering is engineered to be compact and as quiet as possible. The UK-based vendor provides real-time tracking at every stage of the server build process (the servers are built to order, and production includes a 24-hour burn test and 88 point QC check ). Each comes with a three-year onsite warranty; what's more, you get a free recovery USB stick with diagnostic utilities. If that wasn't enough, the components used in the system are amongst the best in our round-up. Two Broadwell-based Intel Xeon E5-2603 v4 processors provide a total of 12 cores and 30MB of cache. Then there's 64GB of DDR4 ECC RAM from Samsung, a 1TB WD Enterprise-class hard disk drive, two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports, a 1000W Gold PSU and support for eight hard disk drives. Built by Corsair, the case has a door and all the panels are lined with noise damping material.

Like Supermicro, Asus is not well known for its servers. Instead, the Taiwanese company, one of the biggest component vendors in the world, is popular for a wide range of consumer products including its motherboards. Its TS500-E8-PS4 is a mainstream pedestal 5U tower server perfectly built for both workstation and server dual use. It features the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product families, eight DDR4 DIMMs (supporting half a terabyte of RAM), six expansion slots, three 5.25-inch media bays, and a single 500W 80 Plus Bronze power supply. There are four 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA/SAS HDD bays which is also upgradable to eight HDD bays for flexible storage requirements. In addition, with Intel's Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 2.0-compliant ASMB8-iKVM module in the TS500, you'll be able to monitor, control and manage the server remotely. Other key specs include 10 SATA ports, a DVD writer, eight USB ports, a PS2 port, a VGA one, and three Gigabit Ethernet ports. Note that this is a barebones server, but obviously, that gives you plenty of flexibility - something this machine offers in spades. Read the full article

[grassroutes]

Synology DS220j Is the Best Beginner NAS (and Great As a Surveillance NVR Too!)

Our verdict of the Synology DS220j: Simply the best entry-level NAS for beginners. DiskStation Manager is easy to use, and there's a wealth of software packages you can run on it, including the Surveillance Station for IP camera recording.910

There are very few technology devices that I would consider essential to my life, but a Network-Attached Storage device (NAS) is one of those. The Synology Diskstation DS220j is an incredibly good value 2-bay entry point for beginners to the world of NAS systems.

Join us as we take a closer look at the hardware, why you might want one, and why the DS220j is a great choice at around $170. We’ll also be testing Synology’s own Surveillance Station software, and how easy it is to set up a small CCTV system for your home or office.

At the end of this review, we have an incredible prize package to giveaway to one lucky winner, consisting of the Synology DS220j, some Ironwolf drives, and a couple of IP cameras to get started with Surveillance Station!

What is a NAS, and Why Would You Need One?

Since this is an entry-level NAS device, let’s take a moment to explain what Network Attached Storage is, and what you might want one.

The “network-attached” part means that rather than plugging a hard disk into your computer through USB (sometimes called Direct Attached Storage), you plug it into the network instead. The immediate benefit of doing this is that every device on your network will be able to access the files stored within. Not just computers, but tablets, smartphones, games consoles, and smart TVs too.

Another benefit is data security. If you have more than one hard drive bay in your NAS (the Synology DS220j has two), you would typically configure one hard disk for data redundancy. This means one drive acts as a duplicate of the other, such that if one failed, you wouldn’t lose any data. Hard drives can fail at any point, and if you don’t have multiple backups, you lose everything. Using a NAS makes securing your data like this an invisible process. You don’t need to make two copies. The NAS does it all for you, and will audibly alert you if one of the drives needs replacing, without any data loss being suffered.

This makes a NAS a great central backup point and secure file store, such as family photos.

Another reason to use a NAS is that they’re not just a case for some drives to sit in. They’re more like ultra power-efficient mini computers. In fact, the Synology devices run their own incredible operating system, called DiskStation Manager. It’s this software that ultimately determines how easy to set up and use a NAS is. DiskStation Manager is simply the best on the market. But your NAS can do so much more than just storing files. It even has its own app store with hundreds of free packages you can install. You can learn more about some of those packages later in the review.

Synology DS220j Specifications and Design

Superficially, the DS220j looks a lot like the previous generation DS218j, with a white plastic shell and grey accents.

Inside there’s been a significant hardware bump, however: a 1.4Ghz quad-core CPU (compared to 1.3Ghz dual-core), and 512MB of DDR4 RAM (compared to DDR3). It’s worth noting that the Realtek RTD1296 CPU is ARM-based, and some media applications like Plex require Intel-based CPUs for optimal video transcoding. If that’s your intended use, check out the DS418play instead.

Around the rear of the DS220j you’ll find the DC power port, two USB3.0 ports, and the single Gigabit Ethernet connection. There’s no USB port on the front of the device (sometimes used for one-button backups), but the ones at the rear can be used either to backup data to an external drive, or for sharing a printer.

To access the interior, you’ll need to unscrew the two screws at the rear, then half of the white shell slides off.

From here you can access the drive bays to add or replace drives. Like most NAS devices, you’ll probably purchase it bare, meaning you’ll need to factor in the cost of purchasing drives too. Although any 3.5″ hard disk can theoretically be used, if buying new you should look for those specifically designed for NAS, such as Seagate IronWolf or WD Red, which will last longer under heavy load.

Setting Up the DS220j NAS

Since there’s no HDMI port to plug in a monitor, you might be wondering how you perform initial setup, then access the DSM operating system. Simple: over the network, using the web interface.

Assuming everything is plugged in and powered on, simply navigate to find.synology.com. This should automatically locate the new NAS on your local network. Then you can continue to name your NAS, and create a user account. You’ll also be given the opportunity to set up QuickConnect, which allows you to access your NAS from outside of your home network. You can skip that now and set it up later if you want though.

After that, you’ll be booted straight into the familiar-feeling web interface and given a guided tour. Just like Windows, the button in the top left opens up a menu where you can access all the installed applications. You can even drag and drop and icon to the desktop.

Note that by default you’ll be accessing the NAS using the IP address, but this can be tedious to remember and might change. Instead, to access the web interface in future, try using the name of your NAS and .local. In my case, that’s cctv.local. Most modern routers should support this feature (called mDNS or Bonjour).

The first thing to set up is a storage volume. Open up Storage Manager, navigate to Volumes, then click Create. The wizard will walk you through the process. By default, it creates a one-disk fault-tolerant SHR array. Note that you can keep using the device while the storage array is being built (or rebuilt, if one of your drives ever fails), but you may have degraded performance.

From there, use the File Station application to create shared folders and manage your filesystem, or start installing some software from the Package Center and explore the other features.

Synology Hybrid RAID and Upgrade Paths

RAID is the storage technology that keeps data secure by spreading it out across drives. If any drive fails, you can replace it without having lost data. With standard RAID, these drives need to be the same size, or any excess will be wasted. Synology Hybrid RAID optimizes that excess space to make more efficient use of mixed capacity drives, but only if you have three or more drives. Use the RAID calculator to see this in action.

On a two-bay NAS, this doesn’t offer any benefits though–it’s only once you add more drives that it starts to “recover” some of that lost space. So why should you care if the DS220j only has room for two drives? Because at some point down the line, you’ll probably want to upgrade.

Thankfully, Synology also has some very convenient upgrade paths. Depending on exactly which series of devices you’re moving to and from, you may even be able to just pull the hard disks straight from your old device and into the new one, and keep all the data in the process.

Increasing the total capacity of your Synology is also easy, regardless of whether it has two or four (or more) bays. Just pull out the smallest drive, and put a larger one in. You can then jump into the management system and rebuild the array. The NAS is still usable while it does that. Once completed, do the same for the second drive. And hey presto, you’ve upgraded the capacity with only a few minutes of downtime!

For me, Synology Hybrid RAID is a huge selling point as it allows me to mix and match older drives and upgrade in a more affordable way.

Package Center

From the DiskStation Manager desktop environment, the Package Center is where you can install additional functionality to the DS220j.

There are hundreds of packages available to install, but here are a few of the highlights:

Moments allows you to store all your family photos in one beautiful interface, and make use of deep learning AI to recognize faces. With support for Live Photos, and 360 images, you no longer need to rely on cloud services for advanced features.

Note Station is a drop-in replacement for Google Keep or Apple Notes. For those trying to shift away from cloud services and control their own data, this is a must.

Video Station is Synology’s own video server software, with accompanying smartphone apps for streaming your stored media to any device on the home network. Personally, I prefer Plex, which is also available in the package center. Plex includes features like movie posters, trailers, and automatic metadata gathering, but may be a little more complex than your needs. Read our complete guide to Plex.

Download Station is an all-in-one download manager for Usenet, BitTorrent, FTP and more, and includes features like RSS enqueuing.

WordPress. Although I wouldn’t suggest opening your site up to the world, running a local copy of WordPress for development or testing can be quite useful.

That’s but a fraction of what’s available. You can view the current selection from Synology’s site, but we’d like to highlight one in particular, that makes it simple to turn your NAS into an IP camera recorder.

Surveillance Station

Of the many software packages available to run on the DS220j, Surveillance Station is perhaps the most impressive, completely replacing the need for a separate hardware NVR. With official support for a wide variety of IP cameras, any model that offers a generic ONVIF video stream can also be used.

I’ve been testing Surveillance Station with some Reolink cameras, and I’m pleased to report it’s the most user-friendly way of monitoring and recording that I’ve come across yet. From basic features like viewing live feeds, setting up motion-activated recording schedules, or viewing archived footage–Surveillance Station has it all, and then some.

One advanced feature I’m fond of is Time Lapse, which automatically generates summary videos, slowing down for detected events and allowing you to view a full days footage in a few minutes. Live Broadcast lets you choose a camera feed to broadcast to YouTube. IP Speaker can integrate with IP-based audio solutions to broadcast audio patterns on schedule. There are far too many advanced features, but suffice to say, Surveillance Station even has its own app store, separate to the main package center!

Surveillance Station itself is free, but you’ll need a license for each camera you want to use with the system, and third-party integrations may have their own associated costs. Two camera licenses are included with the DS220j, and up to 12 cameras in total are supported by the hardware. Additional licenses cost around $50 per camera, but these are a one-off purchase, not an on-going subscription.

So how does Surveillance Station compare to a budget NVR, or smart cameras with built-in cloud recording options?

With Surveillance Station, your data is stored locally on your own network, and recordings never leave the premises without your explicit permission. Anytime the cloud is involved, there’s an inherent risk, whether that’s from hackers or rogue employees. You can also set up a custom retention period if needed for local data protection laws.

Cloud-connected cameras often have an ongoing cost–upwards of $10 a month per camera, or the free plans are extremely limited. You can add two cameras to your Surveillance Station for free, and although additional cameras will have a higher upfront cost than other solutions, the total cost of ownership will likely be less due to easier upgrades of storage capacity. Not to mention you’ll have saved a lot of stress thanks to the incredibly easy-to-use interface!

Your recordings are safe. It’s rare to find a hardware NVR with two drive bays for data redundancy, so unless you have a strict backup policy in place, data loss of recordings is likely at some point. With one disk fault-tolerance on the DS220j, it’s highly unlikely you’d lose data. If a drive dies, you won’t have more than a few minutes downtime as you physically replace the failed drive.

Your folders can be securely encrypted, so if your NAS is stolen, the thieves can’t pull out the drives and get access to all those recordings.

The only downside to Surveillance Station compared to an NVR is that you can’t plug a monitor directly into an HDMI port for live viewing the camera feeds. On the other hand, you have a great web interface, as well as mobile and desktop apps, so there’s a lot more flexibility overall.

Limitations of The DS220j

Ultimately, the DS220j is an entry-level device, so you shouldn’t expect it to run some of the more advanced NAS server software such as virtual machines.

The ARM processor limits the amount of heavy media transcoding you can do. That’s not to say you won’t be able to stream anything to smartphones though. The latest models are quite capable of decoding a high bitrate MP4 without requiring any transcoding, and with Plex you can generate optimized copies in advance if needed.

In terms of file copy performance, we managed to copy a 1GB file in around 5 seconds over a Gigabit Ethernet wired connection. That’s slower than a hard disk plugged in over USB would be, of course, but it’s a trade-off worth making. We haven’t published any more detailed performance testing, because it wouldn’t represent real-world usage. The performance will vary according to many factors, such as your individual network conditions, the protocol you’re using to connect, the type of cabling you have installed, whether you’ve encrypted the drives, how much software you’re running on the system, or whether it’s a full moon. Ok, we’re kidding on that last one, but the point is that any bottleneck will likely be on your end, rather than on the DS220j.

You should also remember that a NAS alone is not a complete backup solution for your computer. It is but one point in the ultimate triple backup system.

Finally, you should know that for some applications, a network drive simply can’t be used. I know from experience Adobe Lightroom and Final Cut Pro, for instance, don’t like their libraries to be stored remotely. For those you’ll need a local scratch drive, but can use the network storage for backups.

The Best NAS for Beginners?

The Synology DS220j is the best budget NAS by far, but it’s not the cheapest. You can find competitors models for $20-30 cheaper, but it’s a small saving to make for a drastically inferior product. Synology devices are worth the small premium for their sheer ease of use, as well as the added value from Synology’s own software packages such as Moments and Surveillance Station. Calling it “Network Attached Storage” really doesn’t do this device justice given the wealth of other features to be found.

The only reason not to buy the DS220j is if you already have a selection of three or four mixed capacity drives you’d like to use. In that case, you’d need a four-bay Synology NAS to benefit from the Hybrid RAID technology, such as the DS420j. Synology’s NAS selector tool is a great way to find the model that meets your requirements.

In my mind, every family and small business needs a NAS. But let me clarify that further: every family and small business should have a Synology NAS. If I sound biased, it’s because I am: Synology has served me well for well over a decade, and I’ve never lost data. Drives have failed, and I’ve upgraded countless times, but my data has remained secure.

Enter the Competition!

Synology DS220j and Surveillance Station Giveaway

Read the full article: Synology DS220j Is the Best Beginner NAS (and Great As a Surveillance NVR Too!)

Synology DS220j Is the Best Beginner NAS (and Great As a Surveillance NVR Too!) posted first on grassroutespage.blogspot.com

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Developing Hosting Server Organizing A Lot More Money-saving

Developing Hosting Server Organizing A Lot More Money-saving

 Nowadays mostly all organisations, likewise the smallest ones, possess a supplier website. All websites need to become thrown on some form of hosting server that produces it possible for files to become always kept as well as additionally offers a crucial Internet Protocol deal with besides plenty of data transfer in addition to instant to make it possible for various people to see your internet site at any kind of once efficiently. Having mentioned that the cost of web hosting server arranging differs dramatically, originating from incredibly budget friendly that seem to be also really good to become precise throughout to remarkable valued managing web servers at the other final thought of the variety.

 As an organization, you demand to find out the very best valued server holding solution for you, to make sure that you are actually purchasing a good quality, reliable solution nonetheless in a similar way are actually not over buying functions that you carry out certainly not need to have. The good news is there are some exceptional techniques to assist you decrease the cost of holding server arranging, whichever option you pick Managed Server Hosting Offshore VPS Servers

 The requirements, necessary selection is actually discussed web hosting. This signifies that you lease a tiny area on a throwing web server that is separated in between various consumers. Shared web hosting server holding may conveniently lead to several issues because of the absence of monitoring that you have much more than the holding web server, being actually simply one of many people. You are going to be actually influenced due to the jobs of the various other users so you might find out that your website runs steadily or maybe goes offline completely for major explanations far from your command.

 Shared holding is actually incredibly inexpensive as well as also because of this as it can quickly be actually absolute best option for an individual internet site, weblog site or even business web site for an extremely tiny firm that will certainly not be actually substantially influenced through this. , if your world wide web site conducts certainly not acquire incredibly numerous brows with at any kind of one time you may undoubtedly not also see this problem at all.. If you select to choose shared holding perform your research study and locate a company that is actually recognized for their integrity as well as customer support, even when they are really certainly not the most affordable. It is really still attainable to get an outstanding, cost effective rate stemming from a famous firm and likewise it are going to absolutely be actually successfully worth the added few added pounds that it specifies you back every month compared to the quite minimum expensive valued alternative readily available.

 For SMEs and also huge companies however that must take care of much larger internet site attendee wide arrays as well as for whom unscheduled web site down option can have a remarkable financial result, including active ecommerce internet sites, a dedicated hosting server is a significantly better selection. In this particular circumstances the entire throwing server is your very own therefore you perform definitely not need to have to fret about troubles being dued to various other consumers consisting of security threats, poor text messages as well as a bunch of software program lessening the device down Managed Server Hosting.

 With a devoted hosting web server you select which equipment you like thus you manage to decide on the greatest equilibrium between expense as well as additionally functionality, shelling out merely for what you really require. You furthermore opt for which software you desire to put up which indicates that you may obtain software program that is actually each user-friendly as well as likewise appropriately valued, instead of paying for a fee to use course made it through your web hosting firm.

 Whilst you can easily buy a concentrated web server outright, this is actually a pricey one-off fee as well as also you afterwards need to either invest a supplier to store it and even house it by yourself, which may be costly as you need to have to have to consider getting a DSL line of product or perhaps comparable. It may therefore be really a lot less pricey for you to rent a dedicated server from a specialist throwing business and also building it in addition to a colocation distributor. A colocation building are heading to rent you a space in a public device which indicates that your internet server hardware and software will absolutely be entirely your quite personal nevertheless you will undoubtedly benefit from a big common data transfer with minority several other internet servers in your body, as well as additionally a stable source of power. This is really commonly bid farewell to costly than renting a DSL pipe, oftentimes it remains in fact less pricey. Technical aid is actually typically similarly available, either contained in the price and even billed independently, which exempts you the expenditure of using IT instructed workers. There is furthermore no criteria to give up for pricey enriched security and surveillance at the office considered that the colocation area are going to definitely have all of this as regular, featuring security arising from fire.

 Whichever sort of holding server throwing you select, you call for to examine up the cost versus the answers offered to pick the best option for you. Hosting server hosting prices differ nevertheless there are visiting routinely be really a budget friendly answer based upon your business measurement as well as likewise requirements. If opting for a devoted organizing server nonetheless, stashing it with a colocation carrier is actually unquestionably a much more economical option to holding it yourself.

 Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting.

 An online exclusive internet hosting server, also known as online fully commited throwing server, supplies a number of the methods of separating one hosting server personal computer right into various holding servers. Through this, each hosting server possesses the exterior as well as likewise functionalities of running on its incredibly personal devoted equipment or computer device. In each digital individual internet hosting server throwing, an entirely fledged system software might separately work and also reboot each hosting server Managed Server Hosting.

 On the web individual organizing web server organizing is actually undoubtedly not a new technology as it had continued to be in common procedure in data cpu laptops. It possesses its very own regrowth in addition to the remodeling of virtualization program treatment and also technologies for other styles. In each, digital concentrated hosting server coordinating serve as a link in between common webhosting companies as well as focused web server holding options. The most extensive conveniences of usage electronic personal holding server throwing is its personal a lot less costly rate, in evaluation to a specialized server.

 A virtual exclusive web server tossing typically functions its quite own duplicate of functioning unit along with customers possessing super-user-level get access to. Very most importantly, in online exclusive internet server holding, you might effortlessly invest virtually any kind of kind of program app that deals with the Operating System. Sometimes, specific software treatment executes absolutely not work appropriately in a virtualized atmosphere. This features firewalls, anti-virus clients, as well as even the virtualizers.Having pointed out that, Arachno Net offer their on the internet personal web servers, total with raid disk matching, a shielded/ tmp listing, firewall plan and also brute force discovery physical body actually set up.

 Latest option has experienced the big rise of the volume of virtualization customers. These virtualization customers, normally, operate on a single producer. An online special web server multitude generally has restricted cpu time, RAM, in addition to disk area. You are going to undoubtedly be in fact stunned to recognize that at times digital exclusive organizing web servers are additionally utilized as honeypots. These honeypots enable an equipment to purposefully operate software program treatment alongside identified security defects. They, typically, are sure that it is actually avoided risking the rest of the web server. Many honeypots could be immediately produced via electronic individual servers thereby.

 While selecting an internet personal hosting server holding agency, seek information the noticing queries. Total your compilation simply if you are actually convinced:

 1. What are really the specifications of the range internet server, that is actually, the RAM, CPU, and additionally body throughout?

 2. The volume of digital special throwing servers are actually worked with the host internet hosting server that you'll climb on?

 3. Only exactly how is in fact resource point of view handled? Simply put, what takes place if all the a variety of other digital private internet servers on your lot internet hosting server are really performing CPU/RAM-intensive procedures?

 4. Last yet absolutely not the least, conduct you have a committed lowest volume of RAM/CPU/Network consumption? If so, merely how much?

 Professional Dedicated Server Hosting

 Due to reduced funds the majority of the web designers do not acquire the opportunity to have the handling a devoted server. Everyone knows that the focused internet hosting server hosting is actually an expensive holding remedy as well as nonetheless its own prices are in fact diving down as the brand new technology cloud throwing is actually showing up. Though its own prices are decreasing it is in fact still an internet arranging company that is really low-priced merely by means of the large web sites.

 Explaining dedicated Hosting:

 The Dedicated Hosting is in fact a kind of website keeping primarily preferred by the large world wide web website or even web sites having huge amount of traffic and also needs consistency as well as high-performance. Dislikes its own higher expense, people still would love to manage their business websites on a devoted internet hosting server. As it is merely one of the earliest holding style it appreciated and also offers high-performance, developed security and also independence to provide your internet hosting server by your technique.

 Irrespective, a dedicated webhosting client has a comprehensive authorization to decide on the elements arrangement and additionally the possibility of Operating System for his committed throwing web server. This answer is actually entirely several coming from the traditional shared organizing where countless customers discuss the web server details and also don't possess a lot flexibility to choose the choice of performing physical body Managed Server Hosting.

 There are really 2 different types of focused web server organizing:

 Managed Dedicated Server Hosting

Unmanaged Dedicated Server Hosting

Coped with specialized holding exclusively recommends that together with a physical specialized web server the client obtain a complete assistance or maybe customer support to manage their throwing web server. The total assistance features the whole entire administration of the throwing server via your webhosting service provider. The customer needs to make a decision in addition to seek the service provider the treatments and even every thing they intend to place in or set up on their web hosting server.

 In Unmanaged committed holding, your managing company does certainly not take any sort of responsibility of handling the hosting server, it is really the clients role to manage its personal hosting server. In the manged organizing, you may easily put together the server just like you do in handled organizing. If you don't possess time to seem over your internet hosting server, most absolutely concerns are actually visiting develop. Therefore, picking a managed devoted hosting will certainly be a remarkable selection.

 In terms of cost, unmanaged holding is really little bit budget welcoming than handled holding, as you do not have to birth the administration expense to take care of the web hosting server by your supplier. Just about, all the arranging service provider uses both sort of tossing set, therefore when you finds that you can certainly not take care of the throwing server because of chance control concern, you can conveniently alter to taken care of tossing as well as allow your webhosting company to cope with the web hosting server for you.

 Just like communal throwing you need to have to review your equipment resources (ie. Diskspace and transmission capacity) in addition to different other consumers organized under the precise very same VPS. Having said that, if any type of sort of web site on that VSP guides substantial internet traffic it could determine the numerous other internet site tossed on that internet server. On specialized holding, you are the entire main individual of the web hosting server, to ensure that you do not require to think of your web server functionality.

 All You Need to Know About Dedicated Server Hosting

 Devoted Servers Hosting:

 Devoted Servers Hosting is actually when you acquire to make use of a single web hosting server specifically as well as you perform certainly not have to discuss the holding web server with any individual else. It makes you the dealing with person and you can decide on to adjust your organizing web server as per your need along with depending on to the requirements of your domain. Dedicated Servers are really on the pricey edge, you acquire numerous elements as well as substitutes that are really worth paying for. Generally, if your internet site is checked out by means of a ton of individuals within an actually quick amount of time, Dedicate Server is in fact the right option for you Managed Server Hosting.

 The strategy it performs:

 Do you comprehend the basic truth that desktop computers used to become notable in measurements prior to the little functionality of the similar entailed the industry? Committed Servers are really rather major in addition to they have a physical presence. Similar to some other COMPUTER, Dedicated Servers additionally possess RAM, microprocessors, hard drives and more. When a personal computer is actually planted if you want to deal with a large volume of documents, you can easily name it a hosting server. If you are actually utilizing one such private computer that is functioning primarily for your web website.

 Devoted Servers might be actually divided in to two almosts all that are actually described listed below:

 Unmanaged: Unmanaged Dedicated Server proposes that you are actually the one that is in fact taking care of the web server. You are in fact accountable for the routine maintenance of the hosting server.

Managed: On the contrary, you can conveniently decide on yet another company that will absolutely not just preserve the Server yet is going to certainly additionally ensure that it regularly maintains taking care of effortlessly. This strategy is really referred to as Managed Server. The only factor that you are going to surely be actually answerable for is actually to supply the relevant info to the touched the solutions of business. often, took care of Dedicated Server may offer parts like 24x7 aid work desk, 24x7 tracking, performing gadget improving, looking for infections as well as likewise malware, filtering unit spams, improving pieces and also DLL files etc

. The advantages of going with Dedicated Server Hosting:

 Functions: Dedicated Servers can easily deal with a huge quantity of information at any factor. As a result, you can easily rely on Server for its very own functionality and also it will definitely certainly not uncover any kind of sort of flaws likewise while your web site witnesses a heavy traffic.

Reliable: It could be said undoubtedly that the majority of individuals acquire Dedicated Server Hosting because of its dependability. As you are actually the principal of the Server, you may manage the minimal down time, the adjustments along with the upgrades needed. You may likewise predict the price for the repair and also routine maintenance as well as likewise prepare for it ahead of time so that it carries out certainly not shed an opening in your pockets.

Administration: No issue what sort of Server you have really gone with, dealt with or even unmanaged, the control is actually completely in your hands. You may transform the software program application to suit your necessities in addition to additionally enrich the remedy based on your requirements.

Secure: As you are the individual responsible of Dedicated Servers in addition to you may conveniently customize the demands according to your needs, it is in fact the most effective secure as well as protected organizing server.

Cloud Hosting Vs. Dedicated Servers Hosting:

 As a result of the reality that the introduction of cloud holding, bunches of individuals have really switched over to it. Cloud tossing saves a bunch of space as documents is actually held in the 'cloud'. To come to be particular, you have the capability to conserve your pertinent details in the storeroom that comes online. You might access the info stemming from any kind of type of gizmo and also coming from anywhere with joining your account. Countless domain names furthermore keep their files stored in the cloud which is actually gotten in touch with cloud throwing. There are actually some benefits as well as drawbacks of cloud throwing that are actually reviewed listed below:

 Pros:

 Generally, cloud consists of numerous holding servers. If any one of the hosting servers cease working, several other throwing web servers are heading to balance it

As cloud has lots of holding servers, saving extension ends up being actually simple as well as you might improve the capacity based upon the need

Cloud organizing is actually more economical as opposed to Dedicated-Servers Hosting in India

Cons:

 A couple of years back, some exclusive photos of some widely known individuals happened social due to a number of the cloud holding service provider's weakness. Consequently, unquestionably, cloud holding is absolutely not trusted in regards to security till currently

Online Private Server Vs Dedicated-Server-Hosting:

 Online Private Server resembles Dedicated Server Hosting, it manages only focuses on a low scale. Several people compare to a condo where you value merely a little bit of part of the substantial building. In Virtual Private Server, you can simply develop some corrections within your constraints. Allow's think about the benefits and setbacks of VPS:

 Pros:

 VPS is really less expensive than Dedicated-Server-Hosting

Based on the suggestion, you may tailor VPS absolutely to comply with to your needs

There are taken care of, semi-managed as well as also unmanaged package deals of VPS

Being really a special server, VPS deal definitely excellent safety

Disadvantages:

 The most effective typical issue that you might face while utilizing VPS is in fact the improper circulation of information. This means, even with the routine of the choice of utilization the internet server to the fullest, you can simply avoid carrying out that. VPS comes up with issues as quickly as you help make an attempt to use the holding web server to its own comprehensive ability.

Currently, if you have comprised your notions that you are really going to buy Dedicated Server Hosting, you need to keep in mind some suggestions that will certainly assist you all at once:

 Replacement: While signing the contract, make sure to browse through the stipulation that ensures that the server will most definitely be altered in the event of any type of sort of breakdown of the parts Managed Server Hosting.

 High quality of the parts: As internet servers have a physical existence, it is actually just as important to buy costs devices for far better service.

 Uptime: Make sure to experience the file of excellence of the supplier and take the agreement merely if the uptime mosts likely to the stable of 99%.

 Helpdesk: The company requires to regularly provide help whenever you possess a trouble. Your server could be in fact unmanaged yet you are actually trained to acquire assistance. Undergo the support tool of the service provider to realize regarding it thoroughly.

 The price of internet hosting server holding contrasts drastically, stemming from incredibly affordable that appear as well truly good to be in fact real directly through to phenomenal valued arranging internet servers at the opposite of the sphere.

 An internet exclusive hosting server, additionally referred to as online dedicated organizing server, supplies some of the ways of separating one hosting server pc right in to different web hosting servers. In each electronic personal web hosting server throwing, a well-developed system software can independently run as well as reboot each internet server Managed Server Hosting.

 In each, on the web focused web hosting server throwing process as a link between popular internet managing providers and also focused web server holding business. In Unmanaged specialized organizing, your organizing company executes certainly not take any kind of role of taking care of the web server, it is actually the clients accountability to handle its own really personal web hosting server.

 Shared internet hosting server hosting may simply lead in many concerns as a result of the absence of management that you have even more than the hosting web server, being actually simply one of several people. An online special web hosting server, also known as virtual dedicated throwing web server, supplies some of the methods of separating one server pc in to various throwing web servers. In each digital personal web hosting server organizing, a completely fledged operating system may separately work and reboot each hosting server Managed Server Hosting.

 When you get to use a singular web server specifically and also you perform certainly not possess to share the throwing server along with any type of person else, committed Servers Hosting is actually. Digital Private Server is actually identical to Dedicated Server Hosting, it handles with merely operates on a low scale.

[kuwaiti-kid]

How to Become a Twitch Affiliate (Fast!!!)

You picked your favorite games, found the best live streaming equipment, and created your profile. It sounds like you are ready to start streaming on Twitch, and you are off to a great start!

There is nothing better than sharing your hobbies and making money while doing so. Tons of new streamers join the Twitch platform every single day to stream worldwide, share content, and engage with an active audience. But there is one more super important part to Twitch.

How do you start earning income on the famous streaming platform?

Is Twitch Affiliate Worth It?

Here are a few fun facts that give you an idea of how amazing this platform truly is.

Approximately 15 million people are active on the Twitch platform daily.

The platform also has 2.2 to 3.2 million monthly broadcasters.

245,000 Viewers Simultaneously Watched a Single Channel

1 Million People Watched a Single Event

Pretty impressive statistics, right? Now how do you get in on the Twitch action?

Twitch Affiliate Program

Most talk about the infamous Twitch Partner Program, but before you become a partner, you must hit Affiliate first.

How do you start?

What do you need to do?

What are the requirements?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

How to Become a Twitch Affiliate

Thanks to the company’s Affiliate program, those that are early in their Twitch journey can start to make revenue by merely having a modest viewer base and a semi-consistent streaming schedule.

It’s a good stepping stone to the company’s more demanding but lucrative Partner program, and a nice way to earn that extra revenue doing something you enjoy.

That is great news, but what does Twitch actually require to become an Affiliate? Here is a breakdown of the Twitch guidelines:

Twitch Affiliate Requirements

The requirements to become a Twitch affiliate are:

50 followers

500 total minutes broadcast (over the last 30 days)

Stream on seven unique days (over the last 30 days)

An average of 3 or more concurrent viewers (over the last 30 days)

Twitch Affiliate Benefits

Affiliates can enjoy many of the monetization benefits of Partners, including paid monthly subscriptions, Twitch Prime subscriptions, the ability to earn Bits from viewers, and a cut of revenue for any games purchased through your channel.

Now you have the list of the minimum requirements to obtain Affiliate status, but how do you get there?

Let’s break this Affiliate requirements list down so you can work toward those goals:

Promote Yourself and Your Stream

It is essential to promote yourself and what you have to offer on your streaming venture. Keep in mind that not only are you selling the entertainment of what you will be streaming, but you are also selling yourself. You want to be your own unique broadcast!

People want to learn who you are, and they will show up to your streams to see you!

Twitch streamers always utilize social media outlets like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to post and promote your stream. Even better? Twitch connects to Twitter and will automatically put out a Tweet to your feed that you are going live. Twitch will also remind your followers via email notification that your channel is live.

Keep in mind, though that is not enough to get a large viewership.

Relying on the auto Twitch bot to post is excellent as a reminder that you are already on is great! However, you will want to make sure to promote your stream in advance so viewers can prepare to be there. The more advanced notice, the better!

Now that we are talking about self-promotion, there is something you will want to consider.

Creating a Discord

Creating your discord is an excellent way for Twitch streamers to promote their channel and get to know their stream followers! A Discord is very similar to having a custom chat group, but it will also connect directly to your Twitch channel.

In Discord, you can utilize the TwitchBot Discord bot to automatically notify your friends in your Discord server every time you start broadcasting. You can even create a channel within Discord for the bot to automatically post when you go live.

Having a Discord will help all around with forming and connecting with your new audience. This will continue to help you grow long term.

Have Good Starter Equipment, but Don’t Break the Bank

It is essential to have proper streaming equipment to start, but you do not have to go and buy top of the line items right away!

Streaming equipment for a PC can become expensive. If you are on a budget, consider streaming from your favorite gaming console to save money to start.

You can even invest in a camera for your console if you would like for them to be able to see you! I personally purchased a PS4 camera to help me hit affiliate status. Once I hit that milestone, I was able to save up to get a better camera and mic for my PC!

Consistent Scheduling

Having a consistent streaming schedule helps viewers to know when to catch your streams. If you are streaming on different broadcast days/during different times every week, there is a high chance that viewers will miss more of your stream time.

Figure out what works best for and for your viewers! If you find that you have more people in your stream on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 6 pm, then you may want to stick to those broadcast days and times!

When on the road to becoming an affiliate, I would stream during the best times for my viewers. It was often Sunday mornings for maybe two hours, and that really helped engagement and viewership.

Consistent Schedule = More Consistent Viewership

Quality Over Quantity

The concept of working smarter, not harder, can also apply to your streaming ventures!

If you want to stream for over 10 hours at a time, you certainly can! But that may be a bit tiring, and it isn’t always necessary. Long streams can be great to rake in stream time, but a solid two to three hours of consistent content should do the trick!

You will also want to stream a consistent type of content. Try to stick to some a consistent kind or niche of games to help with obtaining more viewers.

Note: Keep in mind, there are some games you may want to avoid in the beginning.

Games that are extremely popular and being played by Twitch partner and thousands of others will hinder the possibility of new viewers finding your channel. Consider a semi-popular, or vintage game to capture the attention of some new potential followers!

Engage Your Chat

This one is pretty important! If you want to have a bunch of people watching your stream, then you have to keep them engaged.

It can be effortless to get engulfed in the game you are playing, and completely forget to check the chat. Viewers want to talk to you and know that you want them to be there!

Every viewer counts!

Here are a few tips with chat:

Always acknowledge when someone joins, Say hello!

Ask the chat fun questions to keep the conversation rolling.

Be sure to thank all new followers.

Pretty simple right? But there is a way to make the chat, and overall experience, even better!

Customize Your Channel, For Free!

The great thing about having your own Twitch stream is that you can customize it! By customizing the overlays in your stream, it will be unique to you.

Even better? Stream clients such as Streamlabs OBS now provide a whole bunch of free overlays!

You can now go into the streamlabs custom overlays and sift through a large bundle full of all different options. By using these overlays, it gives your channel a better sense of who you are and what you enjoy.

Remember when we were talking about making the chat even better?

In addition to overlays, you will want to set up custom alerts! Alerts will pop up with fin GIFs or pictures along with a sound or music when certain things occur in chats. This can be anything from donations, subs, bits, and new followers!

By having these alerts set up, it will help you not to miss anything that happens in chat while you are gaming. It will notify you as things occur so you can properly acknowledge the person and event!

So, What’s Next?

Congratulations! You hit Affiliate status. Now what?

The first thing you will want to do is take advantage of your unique new perks that you can provide to subscribers. This includes custom emotes, which are the vast array of channel-specific emoticons you’ve likely seen viewers spamming in chat rooms.

Affiliates get one emote to start and can earn more by building up subscribers, so make sure to come up with something unique to you! Many streamers like to come up with something fun that makes their viewers think of them. I have seen everything from corgi behinds to chicken nuggets!

Where you go from there all depends on your priorities as a streamer. If you want to be eligible to apply to Twitch’s more lucrative Partner program, you will have a bit more work to do.

Twitch Partner Requirements

There is a ‘Path to Partner,' and these are the following requirements:

Stream for 25 hours

Stream on 12 different days

Average of 75 viewers (concurrent viewership excluding hosts, raids, and embeds)

For qualified streamers to apply to the Partner program, you must meet the requirements for the achievements above within 30 days.

Keep in mind, becoming eligible for Partner does not guarantee Partner status. So, if you hit the requirements, and are not accepted, just try again after doing a bit more work on those goals.

The Bottom Line

If you’re content to continue streaming for fun and start earning some extra cash in the process, then keep doing what you’re doing. Be yourself, play what you love, engage your community, and you never know?

Your channel just might blow up on its own!

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