#grc system

[sentrient]

What are the benefits of GRC Software and Its Importance for Australian Businesses?

As an Australian business owner or manager, you’re probably all too familiar with the challenges of keeping up with ever-changing regulations, managing risks, and ensuring your company stays on the right side of compliance. But what if there was a tool that could help you manage all these tasks with less effort and more confidence?

Enter Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software. This powerful technology is changing the game for businesses across Australia, helping them navigate the complex world of governance, risk, and compliance with greater ease and efficiency.

In this post, we’ll explore everything about GRC software, starting with what it is, how it works, and why it’s becoming an essential tool for Australian businesses of all sizes.

What is GRC Software?

GRC stands for Governance, Risk, and Compliance. It’s a unified approach to managing these three critical areas of your business, which are often closely interrelated.

In simple terms, it helps organisations streamline and integrate their approach to governance, risk management, and compliance.

Today, you’ll find various GRC systems on the market. Some are designed for specific industries, while others are more general-purpose. Some focus on particular aspects of GRC, like risk management or compliance, while others offer a full suite of features covering all aspects of GRC.

Top Benefits of GRC SoftwareKey Features to Consider in GRC Software

Conclusion

In summary, GRC software is essential for Australian businesses. It helps manage governance, risk, and compliance, offering valuable solutions for businesses of all sizes. The key is to choose a flexible solution that meets your needs.

This blog post was originally published here: GRC Software and Its Importance for Australian Businesses

[thinkhappythxughts]

finally getting round to sorting my deed poll (legal name change) and oh my god this is going to be an annoying process. To have it changed on my driving license i need the deed poll and a whole new license application form, which needs to cross-reference my passport. The passport name change system is so complicated that I don't even fully understand what documents I need. For the license I also need a payslip, which means I need to change my name with my bank. The bank needs to see the deed poll in person, and the process can be helped by seeing proof of name use, such as a payslip. Which can't be in my chosen name until the bank updates it. My brain hurts and this feels like a hate crime

[bctdigital]

BCT Digital: One Stop Solution for Credit Risk, EWS, Expected Credit Loss,Audit Management,ERM, GRC,Audit Management, Compliance Management, Model Risk Management,Asset Liability Management,Raroc Calculator.

BCTDigital is a leading technology firm that provides cutting-edge solutions for financial institutions and businesses in the area of credit risk, enterprise risk management, audit management, compliance management, model risk management, and asset liability management. The company's goal is to help its clients effectively manage risk and comply with regulatory requirements, ultimately leading to improved financial stability and growth.

Credit Risk Management: BCTDigital's credit risk management solution enables financial institutions to monitor and manage their credit risk exposure in real-time. It provides an in-depth view of credit portfolios, early warning systems (EWS) and stress testing capabilities to assess the impact of various economic scenarios on the credit portfolio. This helps institutions make informed decisions regarding loan origination and portfolio management, reducing the risk of credit losses.

Enterprise Risk Management: BCTDigital's enterprise risk management solution provides a comprehensive view of all risks facing an organization, including operational, financial, and strategic risks. It enables organizations to identify, assess, and prioritize risks, and to design and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies. This helps organizations make informed decisions and manage risks more effectively, leading to improved financial stability and performance.

Audit Management: BCTDigital's audit management solution streamlines the audit process, making it more efficient and effective. It provides a centralized platform for managing audit plans, schedules, and results, as well as for tracking and reporting on audit findings. This helps organizations ensure that audits are conducted in a consistent and efficient manner, and that any issues are identified and addressed in a timely manner.

Compliance Management: BCTDigital's compliance management solution helps organizations ensure compliance with relevant regulations and laws. It provides a centralized platform for managing compliance policies, procedures, and processes, as well as for tracking and reporting on compliance activities. This helps organizations reduce the risk of non-compliance, ensuring that they are able to meet their obligations and maintain their reputation.

Model Risk Management: BCTDigital's model risk management solution helps organizations manage the risks associated with the use of mathematical models in their operations. It provides a centralized platform for managing and testing models, as well as for tracking and reporting on model performance. This helps organizations ensure that their models are accurate and reliable, reducing the risk of incorrect decisions based on inaccurate model outputs.

Asset Liability Management: BCTDigital's asset liability management solution helps organizations manage the risks associated with their balance sheet. It provides a comprehensive view of an organization's assets and liabilities, as well as the potential impact of changes in interest rates, market conditions, and other factors on their balance sheet. This helps organizations make informed decisions regarding their balance sheet, reducing the risk of financial losses.

In conclusion, BCTDigital's solutions provide financial institutions and businesses with the tools they need to effectively manage risk and comply with regulatory requirements. By providing a centralized platform for managing risk and compliance, organizations can make informed decisions, improve financial stability and performance, and ultimately achieve their goals. Whether you are a financial institution looking to manage credit risk or a business looking to ensure compliance with regulations, BCTDigital has the expertise and technology to help you succeed

[cassolotl]

UK petition: Recognise nonbinary people's genders in law and in identity documents

It's that time again. There was no active UK parliament petition about nonbinary identities being recognised in law, so I made one.

The UK government has repeatedly acknowledged the existence of nonbinary people, but it has repeatedly refused to grant recognition in law and systems. Nonbinary genders should be recognised on: - Passports - GRCs - Marriage documents - Death certificates

[ Sign here ]

Deadline: 11 October 2024

Signatures: 54 of 100,000

See a graph: here

Who can sign:

Anyone living in the UK, regardless of citizenship

Anyone with UK citizenship, living anywhere in the world

No one else! Don't fake your postcode or whatever, it'll invalidate the petition

[golden444manifest]

It girl Manifesting/Scripting List ✨🤍✨

I am ready to commit to the It Girl lifestyle. I’m determined to become the woman I want to be and learn to embrace and celebrate my accomplishments. I’ve tried in the past, but it never quite took off the ground. This time, I'm going in with a plan! Below are some overarching ways I want to bring more abundance into my life.

Consistently practicing gratitude, I have been immensely blessed for everything I accomplished and the support system I have gained over the years. Very grateful for every opportunity as it's what made me the woman I am today. The first step to abundance is gratitude.

Financial Stability: I want to have the confidence that I can handle unexpected expenses while also giving myself a better quality of life. Release my scarcity mindset. Save up to 6 months of expenses. Complete the 52-week saving challenge.

Confidence in my work, remember that I am new, take everything as a learning lesson, and follow the rules.

Positive self image, believe that I am enough. See my inner/outer beauty. Put more effort into my appearance.

Building healthy routines, hair appointments, eyebrow appointments. Have a planning routine and new hygiene routines.

Taking care of my health, return to the dentist. It is very overwhelming, and I need so much done.

Moving out of the state, options are Houston and NYC. I want to go to NYC and move in with my dad's side of the family. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, and I need a time-out. I also enjoy a better quality of life. NYC has amazing food and architecture, and I will never be bored. The job market is pretty competitive, so I'm working on my resume and have confidence that I am a valuable candidate.

Consistent blogging/content, start an IG documenting my It girl/wellness/career journey. It gives me a way to romanticize my life. It would also provide me with practice in creating a posting schedule and organizing my ideas.

Letting love back into my life, after my break up I shut my heart down and kept the world at arm's length. Now, I want to return to the dating world, and I like to transition smoothly.

Accepting a job in NYC, it's also vital for it to be very similar to my role now. I want to stay in the GRC space.

This is not everything I want to do, but this is an excellent place to start. I'm so ready for this glow-up. My mind is there; all I have to do is plan and execute.

Cheers to new beginnings. May my blessings and yours overflow! 🥂✨🤍

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aletha Adu

Published: Dec 7, 2023

Gender-affirming care for children could be considered “a new form of conversion therapy”, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The women and equalities minister made the claim as she confirmed plans to bring forward a bill to ban conversion practices, which seek to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Research indicates about 7% of LGBT+ people have been offered or undergone such practices, and activists have been concerned about the scope of the ban since Theresa May first promised it in 2018.

Badenoch said the legislation had to address issues with gender-affirming care, which some critics argue is not the right approach for young people who are questioning their gender identity.

Badenoch addressed the case of Keira Bell, who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 and then medically transitioned and had surgery to remove her breasts as an adult. She later regretted this and sued the Tavistock gender identity clinic where she had received treatment, arguing she had been too young to consent to treatment as a teenager. The court agreed but this ruling was overturned on appeal in 2021.

Badenoch told MPs: “Girls like Keira Bell who were rushed on to puberty blockers by the NHS, and had a double mastectomy, now regret the irreversible damage done to them. I believe this is a new form of conversion therapy”.

Clinicians working at the Tavistock clinic have previously told the Guardian that affirmative care does not have an inevitable outcome of transition. They have argued that instead it involves exploring and questioning a young person’s view of their identity.

Badenoch said doctors were “fearful of giving honest clinical advice to a child because if they do not automatically affirm and medicalise a child’s new gender they will be labelled transphobic, so whatever bill we do needs to address many of those issues and that is why we are going to publish a draft bill.”

She announced a “long overdue” update to a list of approved countries from which the UK will accept gender recognition certificates (GRCs).

Badenoch did not outline which countries would be removed, but her Labour counterpart, Anneliese Dodds, said while Germany remained and China had been added, “our closest Five Eyes allies” had been taken off. The Five Eyes alliance includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US.

Badenoch told the Commons: “We are doing this because there are some countries and territories on the list who have made changes to their systems and would not now be considered to have similarly rigorous systems [for awarding GRCs] as the UK. Inadvertently allowing self-ID for obtaining GRCs is not government policy. It should not be possible for a person who does not satisfy the criteria for UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas routes to do so.”

Dodds questioned whether the changes to the list would have any diplomatic impact, and criticised the government’s delay on issuing guidance for schools on whether transgender children in England will be supported to socially transition at school. This could mean a school recognising the child using a different name and pronoun, or authorising the use of different toilets and facilities.

Applications for a gender recognition certificate can be made by someone if they are aged 18 or over, have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the UK, have lived in their affirmed gender for at least two years and plan to live in this gender for the rest of their life.

Dodds criticised Badenoch’s statement, saying there had been “no conversion practices ban, no commitment to make every strand of hate crime an aggravated offence despite a staggering rise in offences against LGBT+ people and no provision to schools of the guidance that has been promises repeatedly but not delivered”.

==

They have argued that instead it involves exploring and questioning a young person’s view of their identity.

We know this is unambiguously false, because radical genderists got upset that the Cass report advised adopting exploratory therapy, which the genderists deliberately mislabel as "conversion therapy" to warn people away from interfering in their mind-body duality mysticism ideology.

Here's a paper that makes exactly this claim:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36068009/

Abstract

Opposition to gender-affirmative approaches to care for transgender youths by some clinicians has recently begun to consolidate around "gender exploratory therapy" as a proposed alternative. Whereas gender-affirmative approaches follow the client's lead when it comes to gender, gender-exploratory therapy discourages gender affirmation in favor of exploring through talk therapy the potential pathological roots of youths' trans identities or gender dysphoria. Few detailed descriptions of the approach's parameters have been offered. In this article, I invite clinicians to reflect on gender-exploratory therapy through a series of questions. The questions are followed by an exploration of the strong conceptual and narrative similarities between gender-exploratory therapy and conversion practices. Finally, the ethical dimensions of gender-exploratory therapy are discussed from the lenses of therapeutic neutrality, patient-centered care, loving attention, and therapeutic alliance, suggesting that the approach may be unethical.

[mariacallous]

Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot are rapidly evolving, fueling concerns that the technology could open the door to multiple privacy and security issues, particularly in the workplace.

In May, privacy campaigners dubbed Microsoft’s new Recall tool a potential “privacy nightmare” due to its ability to take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds. The feature has caught the attention of UK regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is asking Microsoft to reveal more about the safety of the product launching soon in its Copilot+ PCs.

Concerns are also mounting over OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has demonstrated screenshotting abilities in its soon-to-launch macOS app that privacy experts say could result in the capture of sensitive data.

The US House of Representatives has banned the use of Microsoft’s Copilot among staff members after it was deemed by the Office of Cybersecurity to be a risk to users due to “the threat of leaking House data to non-House approved cloud services.”

Meanwhile, market analyst Gartner has cautioned that “using Copilot for Microsoft 365 exposes the risks of sensitive data and content exposure internally and externally.” And last month, Google was forced to make adjustments to its new search feature, AI Overviews, after screenshots of bizarre and misleading answers to queries went viral.

Overexposed

For those using generative AI at work, one of the biggest challenges is the risk of inadvertently exposing sensitive data. Most generative AI systems are “essentially big sponges,” says Camden Woollven, group head of AI at risk management firm GRC International Group. “They soak up huge amounts of information from the internet to train their language models.”

AI companies are “hungry for data to train their models,” and are “seemingly making it behaviorally attractive” to do so, says Steve Elcock, CEO and founder at software firm Elementsuite. This vast amount of data collection means there’s the potential for sensitive information to be put “into somebody else’s ecosystem,” says Jeff Watkins, chief product and technology officer at digital consultancy xDesign. “It could also later be extracted through clever prompting.”

At the same time, there’s the threat of AI systems themselves being targeted by hackers. “Theoretically, if an attacker managed to gain access to the large language model (LLM) that powers a company's AI tools, they could siphon off sensitive data, plant false or misleading outputs, or use the AI to spread malware,” says Woollven.

Consumer-grade AI tools can create obvious risks. However, an increasing number of potential issues are arising with “proprietary” AI offerings broadly deemed safe for work such as Microsoft Copilot, says Phil Robinson, principal consultant at security consultancy Prism Infosec.

“This could theoretically be used to look at sensitive data if access privileges have not been locked down. We could see employees asking to see pay scales, M&A activity, or documents containing credentials, which could then be leaked or sold.”

Another concern centers around AI tools that could be used to monitor staff, potentially infringing their privacy. Microsoft’s Recall feature states that “your snapshots are yours; they stay locally on your PC” and “you are always in control with privacy you can trust.”

Yet “it doesn’t seem very long before this technology could be used for monitoring employees,” says Elcock.

Self-Censorship

Generative AI does pose several potential risks, but there are steps businesses and individual employees can take to improve privacy and security. First, do not put confidential information into a prompt for a publicly available tool such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, says Lisa Avvocato, vice president of marketing and community at data firm Sama.

When crafting a prompt, be generic to avoid sharing too much. “Ask, ‘Write a proposal template for budget expenditure,’ not ‘Here is my budget, write a proposal for expenditure on a sensitive project,’” she says. “Use AI as your first draft, then layer in the sensitive information you need to include.”

If you use it for research, avoid issues such as those seen with Google’s AI Overviews by validating what it provides, says Avvocato. “Ask it to provide references and links to its sources. If you ask AI to write code, you still need to review it, rather than assuming it’s good to go.”

Microsoft has itself stated that Copilot needs to be configured correctly and the “least privilege”—the concept that users should only have access to the information they need—should be applied. This is “a crucial point,” says Prism Infosec’s Robinson. “Organizations must lay the groundwork for these systems and not just trust the technology and assume everything will be OK.”

It’s also worth noting that ChatGPT uses the data you share to train its models, unless you turn it off in the settings or use the enterprise version.

List of Assurances

The firms integrating generative AI into their products say they’re doing everything they can to protect security and privacy. Microsoft is keen to outline security and privacy considerations in its Recall product and the ability to control the feature in Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots.

Google says generative AI in Workspace “does not change our foundational privacy protections for giving users choice and control over their data,” and stipulates that information is not used for advertising.

OpenAI reiterates how it maintains security and privacy in its products, while enterprise versions are available with extra controls. “We want our AI models to learn about the world, not private individuals—and we take steps to protect people’s data and privacy,” an OpenAI spokesperson tells WIRED.

OpenAI says it offers ways to control how data is used, including self-service tools to access, export, and delete personal information, as well as the ability to opt out of use of content to improve its models. ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise, and its API are not trained on data or conversations, and its models don’t learn from usage by default, according to the company.

Either way, it looks like your AI coworker is here to stay. As these systems become more sophisticated and omnipresent in the workplace, the risks are only going to intensify, says Woollven. “We're already seeing the emergence of multimodal AI such as GPT-4o that can analyze and generate images, audio, and video. So now it's not just text-based data that companies need to worry about safeguarding.”

With this in mind, people—and businesses—need to get in the mindset of treating AI like any other third-party service, says Woollven. “Don't share anything you wouldn't want publicly broadcasted.”

[weyrwolfen]

Caveat Emptor: Chapter 4 - Mala Fide

Rating: T

Characters: Gen, Commanders Fox, Thorn, Thire, and Stone, Quinlan Vos, Coruscant Guard

Warnings: canon-typical violence; references to self-harm and suicidal thoughts, injuries, loss of autonomy

Previous chapters can be found here on Tumblr or here on Ao3

[X] Request for Repairs Costing Over 10,000 GSC

Affected Facility:

[X] Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center

Specific Location Within Facility: Jenth Block, Cells 02:118 – 02:132

Nature of Requested Repairs: Replacement of facility’s security cameras and reprogramming of security network.

“I need access to the side of your neck,” Scav said brusquely, pulling Fox’s attention away from the datapad in his hands. His CMO was holding a jar of pale green gel in his hands.

Fox refrained from sighing in irritation and instead just tipped his head to the side. Scav smeared a generous glob of the gel on Fox’s neck, just below and behind his ear. It was cold and left behind a faint tingling sensation.

“Don’t move,” Scav said, reaching for the medical monitor he’d obtained… somewhere. The thing had a bulky design and a truly excessive number of lights, strongly suggesting it was civilian in origin.

Then again, they were safely hidden away in the base’s covert investigation room, so perhaps there were some questions Fox could stand to ask.

“What is the point of this?” he asked as Scav pressed the device’s baseplate into the side of Fox’s neck. The thing beeped once and then earned a slight wince as it tightened down against his skin with, from the feel of it, a combination of suction and a ring of multiple fine needles.

“Something about your lapses is triggering uncontrolled spikes in your blood pressure,” Scav replied with a distracted scowl, plugging a cord from his datapad into the monitor. “I intend to track down what before you have a stroke.”

Great. Something else for Fox to worry about.

He had an itemized list, most of which he was actively avoiding thinking about at the moment, and speaking of which…

Have Repairs Been Attempted by On-Site Maintenance Teams? Yes [ ], No [X]

***Attempt Repairs Before Completing This Form***

Fox swore under his breath, backed up, and wiped his previous answer.

Have Repairs Been Attempted by On-Site Maintenance Teams? Yes [X], No [ ]

Describe Attempted Repairs: During previous outages related to this system, CG personnel were instructed that all security cameras and networked systems in the central detention facility contain proprietary technologies owned by Livion Insights (LI) GRC. Repair attempts made by anyone other than approved service providers represent violations of LI GRC intellectual property rights under the terms of the original contract with this vendor. CG personnel assessed the affected cameras, determined them to be LI GRC property, and ceased any further attempts at repair, as per those standing orders.

Select The Type of Area or Item to be Repaired from the Following List (If Unknown, Select Unknown): [Electronic/Non-Droid -> Computer/Computational System -> Networked, >10 Nodes]

Is The Vendor for the Computer/Computational System known? Yes [X], No [ ].

Select The Vendor from the Following List (If Unknown, Select Unknown): [Livion Insights GRC]

***Vendor Has Negotiated Exclusive Service Contracts, Cease All Repair Attempts***

***File Request Has Been Forwarded to Contract Enforcement***

Do You Want to Archive a Copy of This Request? Yes [X], No [ ].

If prior experience was any guide, it would take at least two weeks for anyone to actually see that form, and Fox called it roughly even odds whether it would end up forwarded to the correct department after that or not.

In any case, filling out the kriffing thing wasn’t about actually getting the repairs done. It was about making a trail of flimsiwork, demonstrating due diligence in responding to the situation in the event of an investigation into the inmates’ deaths. It wasn’t much, but it might be enough to keep his troopers from becoming convenient scapegoats, if this developed into a public scandal.

This next form, however, was more of a calculated experiment.

[X] Request for Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee Investigation

Nature of Complaint: Repeated outages of the security systems in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center, occurring co-incident with targeted inmate deaths suggest a high probability of sabotage within the facility.

Supporting Documents:

Fox selected the copy of the service request he had just filed, the three inmate autopsy reports he’d signed earlier, and the initial incident report Thire had filed last night. Then he linked the new complaint back to the chain of his previous requests and more than a few files he’d had his slicers exhume of similar incidents that had occurred prior to the clone army’s deployment, just for good measure. Something fiercely anticipatory simmered in his chest when he entered the command to forward the whole thing to the Chancellor’s office for processing.

Of course, the entire reporting process was supposed to be anonymous, and according to Guard and G.A.R. regulations, Fox should have sent the complaint directly to the relevant Senate committee. But some Naval analyst had flagged one of Fox’s early reports as containing potential evidence of Separatist sabotage rather than internal corruption, so the Chancellor had ordered that all future reports related to security irregularities or corruption accusations be routed through his office.

That had smelled faintly of strill osik, but orders were orders, and Fox knew very well the price of overt defiance. So the Chancellor got to screen any Guard requests for external investigations, and Fox got to watch most of his requests disappear into the Republic Office of Naval Intelligence, sealed away under a high security clearance designation on the whims of various natborn admirals.

It was galling, but the few times Fox had raised his concerns about this lack of action with the Chancellor had yielded distracted indifference at best and delicately phrased rebukes at worst, both delivered with a kindly façade over dangerously cold eyes. And maybe the natborns who’d just died on Fox’s watch weren’t particularly upstanding citizens of the Republic, but their continued physical wellbeing was as much a part of the Guard’s duty as preventing their escape. Any failure risked reprimands or worse for his men, and the suspicion that these failures stemmed from someone intentionally sabotaging the Guard for some kind of personal gain made him coldly murderous.

Of course, now Chancellor Palpatine was missing, and it would be valuable to know if Amedda would hold to all of Palpatine’s policies in the man’s absence.

…He would try, but Amedda hadn’t been half as far in his Master’s confidences as he liked to think…

The monitor on Fox’s neck beeped.

“The kriff was that?” Scav asked sharply, looking up from his datapad.

“The kriff was what?” Fox asked dryly, rubbing at his eyes. The combination of low-lighting in the room with the bright datapad screen was starting to get to him.

“Your cortisol levels just spiked.”

Fox squinted up at him. “No idea,” he finally said.

Not that Scav believed him, given the ferocious scowl that answer earned. “Hold still,” he said, rummaging around in his crate of decidedly non-regulation medical equipment that had appeared some time during the last rotation.

“Am I going to have to cover up another burglary report from the Grand Republic Medical Facility?” Fox asked dryly as Scav fished several sensors out of the crate.

Scav stuck the first sensor on Fox’s temple and said, “No” without any further elaboration.

Fox just sighed and pulled up the next form on his to-do list. There was something to be said about maintaining plausible deniability.

Scav had just finished taping down the leads between the sensors and the Sith-damned monitor on his neck when the door to the room hissed and then swept open.

It was Stone, bucket tucked under one arm. His expression was so blank, it had to be intentional.

“What happened?” Fox asked, a sinking sensation setting up shop in his guts.

“Nothing, yet,” Stone said, sliding his helmet onto one of the cluttered tables and then easing down onto the rickety stool across from Fox’s makeshift cot. “But Thorn’s got a developing situation up in the Dome.”

The sick roiling that was hollowing out Fox’s guts only strengthened. “Any reason why he didn’t comm directly?” he asked.

There was a momentary silence, and then Stone finally said, “He’s in a briefing with the Acting Chancellor and the Senate Security Council.”

… What?

“Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?” Fox snapped, even though he was pretty certain he already knew the answer.

Stone didn’t answer, but his eyes slid sideways, over to Scav.

Karking hells.

“You’re grounded, unless it’s an emergency,” Scav said with a glower.

Fox knew that. Of course he knew that. With his current… lapses, it had made the most sense for him to take over administrative tasks from his subordinate commanders today. It freed up his officers to continue their investigation without having to manage Fox’s kriffing issues. It was galling, but he’d agreed with the logic. The last thing any of them needed was Fox having an episode in front of witnesses.

He hadn’t agreed to being wholly blocked out of his own karking command structure. And his comms had been suspiciously quiet all morning.

“Don’t make me make this an order,” Fox snapped, glaring at Scav.

Scav just glared back, but he did enter something into his datapad that must have cleared the medical override, if the way Fox’s vambrace immediately lit up was any indication.

Un-karking-believable.

Fox started to reach for the monitor on his neck, but Scav, who was already on thin ice, still had the temerity to snap, “The monitor stays on.” Scav didn’t back down one centimeter in the face of Fox’s dark glower, but he did add, “You should be able to get your helmet on over everything if you’re careful. I need more readings.”

Fine. Kriffing great. Because that wasn’t going to chafe like a shabuir.

But Fox did manage to get his helmet on, easing it gently over the nest of wires and medical tape until the magnetics finally engaged and his HUD lit up. A whole cascade of previously blocked messages scrolling through Fox’s HUD, including…

“A summons from the Acting Chancellor didn’t constitute an emergency?” he finally asked in a dangerously flat tone all of his officers had learned to recognize. The message had gone out across the Guard’s entire command comm network. He should have been informed, even with the override in place.

“Thorn handled it,” Stone replied.

Scav just went back to whatever he was reading on his datapad, looking utterly unrepentant.

Fox was going to kill his CMO. And then his subordinate commanders. And then probably himself, if only to avoid the ensuing flimsiwork.

“You and I both know that the Chancellor specifically requested me.”

“That is debatable.”

“Stone,” Fox said his subordinate commander’s name with an essay’s worth of scathing rebuke.

“Acting Chancellor Amedda requested the highest-ranking clone on site,” Stone replied, falling into the more elaborately formal language and tone the Guard’s entire command structure defaulted to when dealing with uncooperative natborns. Fox did not appreciate the implications. “Thorn was the highest-ranking officer on Senate rotation.”

“We both know what he meant,” Fox said, not bothering to rein in the iciness in his tone. He was perfectly capable of performing his duties.

He was.

“It is not the Guard’s place to project layers of meaning onto our orders,” Stone continued in the same, blandly polite tone of voice. Shabuir. “We are to carry out the Senate’s commands as stated.”

And Mas Amedda was exactly the kind of politician who rarely used a trooper’s numbers, much less learn their names. Not when he could refer to them by function, like pieces of equipment. The Acting Chancellor had vaguely demanded ‘the ranking clone trooper on site,’ and so he was going to receive ‘the ranking clone trooper on site,’ as broadly interpreted as the Guard found convenient at the time.

Fox knew this script. Fox had karking-well written this script. Malicious compliance could be an exceedingly useful weapon in their political arsenal, but he’d never kriffing intended for his officers to turn it on him. And using it on the Chancellor of the entire kriffing Republic, Acting or not, was just dangerous.

Fox shut his eyes in the privacy of his own helmet to simply breathe and gather his thoughts.

“We will be discussing this later,” Fox finally said, addressing Stone and Scav both.

“Sir, yes sir,” Stone said, reverting back to his usual, clipped delivery. To anyone else, he would have sounded calmly professional.

To Fox, he sounded infuriatingly smug.

And Scav, who had wandered over to the terminal on the workbench, just waved dismissively over his shoulder.

Satisfying as it might have been to explode at the both of them, it looked like Fox had bigger osik to handle.

Thorn had sent a link to a preliminary report, which Fox forwarded to his datapad for easier reading. It was little more than a log of personal notes, and as Fox read, a new line appeared at the bottom, which meant Thorn was still in the thick of the meeting. It was all diplomatically-worded enough to pass an external review of the files, but Fox was well-versed in reading what his officers weren’t reporting.

It didn’t take long to find the first bombshell in the text.

“Any idea why the Jedi were assigned the lead on the investigation?” Fox asked, glancing up at Stone.

“I looked up SB 1468-28 subsection 12.2,” Stone said evenly, referencing one of Thorn’s more opaque notes, but Fox recognized the pause and the long breath Stone took as a concerning show of anxiety from the usually unemotive commander. “Apparently the Jedi have beskar-clad jurisdiction when it comes to cases involving Sith artifacts.”

Karking hells, that wasn’t good. For all that the Jedi Temple was in the Guard’s jurisdiction, Fox didn’t have very much direct experience dealing with Force osik, but he read his brothers’ incident reports.

Fox distinctly remembered the odd, metallic cylinder the Generals had pulled from the Chancellor’s desk, but they had ended up leaving with multiple crates of materials. He hadn’t seen the interiors, and it was possible that each crate held only a single item in isolated containment, but Fox rather doubted it. It had taken the Jedi several hours to pack up whatever had gone into those crates.

How the kark had none of them noticed a treasure trove of Sith artifacts before? Jedi representatives were constantly in and out of the Chancellor’s office. Maybe something new had only just arrived, a gift from some systems representative or another, or perhaps a questionably sourced art piece from one of the high end antiquities dealers on Coruscant.

Was one of those artifacts responsible for whatever had happened to Chancellor Palpatine? Maybe Fox’s concerning lapses weren’t related to the man’s disappearances after all?

That level of cosmic coincidence strained credulity, but a clone could hope.

Fox skimmed further down Thorn’s notes, teasing out the most pertinent points from the tactful, vague text. The Chancellor had protested what he perceived as the Jedi’s overreach, but had no legal grounds to deny their jurisdictional claim. That was interesting. While the Jedi had been steadily falling in public opinion as the war had dragged on, blocking their efforts could be interpreted as impeding the investigation. That was politically dangerous if word got out. and given how unpopular the Acting Chancellor was proving to be with some members of the Senate, it would. Fox didn’t think Amedda would risk that kind of public backlash without a good reason.

…He has a good reason. The Jedi tend to be more perceptive and less susceptible to bribes or threats than the average CSF investigator…

Force. The karking monitor was beeping again. “Can you turn that off?” he asked Scav, annoyed.

“What?” Scav said, thoroughly distracted with whatever he’d been reading on his datapad. “Oh, yes. Here.” The beeping thankfully cut off. “Did you really not notice anything just then?”

“No,” Fox said. He really wanted to rub his eyes again, but that would require taking off his helmet, and he doubted that the nest of wire leads would survive the process unscathed. “Should I have?”

Scav just made a thoughtful, vaguely concerned sound in the back of his throat. “I’m going to need more data to get a better baseline,” he finally said.

Fox waved a hand in vague permission and dismissal. As long as the kriffing thing stopped beeping at him every few minutes, he really didn’t care.

That wasn’t entirely true. He cared a great deal about figuring out what – or who – was hijacking his mind. And he cared about finding out why, at least some of the times when he was being controlled in that way, he had done things he was actively avoiding considering in much detail. And that this somehow involved him disposing of bodies, using the Chancellor’s private hanger and one of his speeders. And that he was almost entirely convinced that he’d had something to do with the Chancellor’s disappearance, and that his men were all actively covering for him, and that the entire Guard might end up decommissioned en masse for treason if half of Fox’s suspicions turned out to be true.

Oh yeah, and he was also curious to know why each time he started to remember anything that might actually help explain the karked-up situation, he was apparently at risk of popping a blood vessel in his already kriffed up brain and dropping dead. Yeah. That too.

But given that he couldn’t avoid thinking about the entire unfolding disaster just then, he might as well get back to Thorn’s preliminary notes.

The CSF representative has protested the Coruscant Guard being placed in direct support of the Jedi, effectively icing them out of the investigation. Which yes, Fox just bet they did. Not that he was complaining, it was convenient, but why had they…?

Oh. Oh hells…

Apparently the Senate Security Council was extremely displeased that the CSF had mishandled key evidence. The CSF representative had blamed the Jedi, who had evicted them from the Chancellor’s office mid-processing, but the fact remained that there were several unlabeled pieces of evidence in holding, a few of which no one on the team could even remember collecting.

And one of those had contained a sample of blood consistent with the Chancellor’s genetic profile.

Osik.

Osik, osik, osik.

It had to be the swab from Fox’s own armor, the one he’d slipped in amongst the CSF’s other samples during the confusion of the Jedi’s decidedly non-regulation appropriation of the crime scene and eviction of all non-Jedi personnel.

Fox looked up at Stone, who’d been waiting in tense, grim anticipation.

Stone didn’t actually say anything, he just nodded slowly.

Fox didn’t say anything either. Not to Stone in the immediate aftermath of the realization. Not when he finally received Thorn’s call for backup securing an emergency session of the Senate. Not until he was forced to, upon arriving at the Dome and having to pull on the mantle of Marshall Commander of the Coruscant Guard.

What was there to say? Fox wasn’t sure there even was a word for how karked he and his brothers were.

“Fox, anything from your vantage?” Thorn asked over the open comm line.

Fox was standing at attention at the rear of the pod, a careful distance behind the natborns he had been tasked with guarding. He held himself rigidly still, but his eyes were roving over the Senate chamber, looking for… something. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Well, something else. Something here. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly, he just knew.

“No,” he said, eyes landing on the vacant, powered down pod which was reserved for members of the Senate press corps. This was a closed session, Fox had overseen clearing and sealing of the vast chamber himself, but something about that empty pod was making him feel unaccountably uneasy.

One of the natborns in the front of the pod, some kind of legal scholar from the Republic Judicial Archives named Dr. Pen Prima, turned slightly to give Fox a questioning, slightly accusatory look.

Fox pretended not to notice. The medical monitor on his neck was throwing off his helmet’s magnetics. Normally, his current settings would have allowed him to speak freely in the confines of his bucket without being overheard, but apparently the misalignment was enough to kriff up his seals. Given the flashing red light in the upper right of his HUD, his environmental systems weren’t able to fully engage either. That was currently of lesser concern, but if anyone decided to gas the Senate chamber, and with Fox’s luck he wouldn’t bet against that happening today, he was going to rip the monitor off of his neck and deal with Scav’s displeasure after the fact.

He did, however, type a short, private message to Thorn, explaining the problem.

“The investigation into Chancellor Palpatine’s disappearance has been mismanaged from the start!” Senator Agrael was shouting from his pod, directly across the chamber from Fox’s current position. “The Senate has received hardly any updates on the process, and now we hear that the Jedi have been given control of the investigation over the rightful, civilian authorities!”

“Only after those authorities mishandled key evidence!” another Senator yelled out from somewhere several tiers of pods higher in the chamber. From the gurgling sound of the voice, Fox guessed that it was probably Senator Saal.

So basically, the Security Council’s report to the entire Senate body was going about as well as Thorn had predicted. At least this was a closed session. Once this news broke to the general public, the Guard would most likely be facing protests and worse.

And the news would get out, sooner rather than later. Acting Chancellor Amedda could plead for discretion all he liked. This scandal was too politically unstable to stay under wraps for long, and the Senate leaked sensitive intelligence like a sieve on its best days.

At least the Guard was being spared the worst of the current political fallout.

At least Fox and his commanders were the only ones who knew or even suspected the real cause of the apparent mismanagement of the investigation by the CSF.

He should probably feel a little guiltier about his role in the whole cascading fiasco, but frankly, the CSF had been making his troopers’ lives as difficult as possible from the very moment the clones had been assigned to this osik posting. The current dragging the CSF was unfairly receiving for this case didn’t even begin to rebalance the scales for all of the other investigations they’d actually bungled and then passed the public blame onto the Coruscant Guard.

Honestly, this couldn’t be happening to a nicer group of shabuire. Seeing Captain Axion fuming from the guest pod that had been assigned to the CSF for this hearing was a memory Fox was going to cherish for a good long while.

However, he really shouldn’t be lingering about any of that right now, especially given the pod full of Jedi Generals to Fox’s immediate left.

“Please, Senators. The transition of certain aspects of the investigation to the Jedi has nothing to do with the performance of the brave civil servants within the CSF,” said Senator Amidala in a placating tone of voice clearly meant to deescalate the situation. “Is it my understanding that their role is confined to investigating a number of potentially dangerous Force artifacts recovered from the Chancellor’s office.”

“Cultural artifacts!” Senator Deechi protested, joining the argument for the first time. “Artistic relics! What evidence have the Jedi provided that these pieces are in any way related to the Force?”

It hadn’t escaped anyone’s notice, Fox’s included, that Palpatine’s Umbaran Administrative Aide, Sly Moore, was positioned in the pod alongside Senator Deechi, standing in symbolic solidarity with her home world and conspicuously leaving Acting Chancellor Amedda to face this unfolding scandal in his central pod, alone.

It was almost definitely a play for power of some kind, but whether her primary target was Mas Amedda, the Jedi, both together, or someone else entirely was anyone’s guess.

“Most moderately powerful Force artifacts emit a kind of low-level radiation that is visible with a standard spectral analysis,” Chief Jedi Archivist, General Jocasta Nu answered from the Jedi Order’s pod, sharp tone sounding terribly dry. General Windu, standing at her side, looked like he very badly wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, if the dignity of his position would allow it, while General Vos, who was sprawled casually in one of the pod’s rear seats, just seemed to find the proceedings to be deeply entertaining. “Of course, unshielded exposure to Sith artifacts has also been known to result in possession, evisceration, temporal displacement, and any number of other, unpleasant side effects. However, I am sure that we can draft up the proper legal waivers for any Senators who feel dutybound to verify our identification of artifacts in person.”

That earned scattered laughter from a few Senators and an almost comedic widening of Senator Deechi’s pale eyes at the rather bluntly delivered, mildly threatening rebuke from a rather frail-looking, exceedingly elderly Jedi General.

“’Chief Archivist means she’s stationed on Coruscant all the time, right?” Cooper said over the open comm channel. “So why wasn’t she assigned as our General?”

Fox didn’t disagree with his trooper’s thought in principle, but…

“Keep the comms clear,” Thorn said, sounding more exasperated than anything.

Yes. That.

But then, because Thorn was just as bad as the rest of their brothers despite his rarefied rank, he proceeded to ignore his own order by shifting over to a private channel with Fox and saying, “Kind of makes you understand why they recalled the 212th the second all of this started.”

Fox refrained from snorting. Much. Cody’s general was always being called in, whenever there was a political disaster for the Order to navigate on Coruscant. Fox couldn’t find it in himself to complain much, not when it meant he got to see Cody far more frequently than his other batchmates ever seemed to manage.

Not that the 212th and General Kenobi were going to arrive in time to avert this particular fiasco. They were still at least a day out, having just engaged a small Separatist fleet which had been harassing Republic supply lines all along the Pfaresian hyperspace lane.

Senator Agrael and Senator Laothru had started shouting over one another, making it nearly impossible to tell what either one of them were saying.

Acting Chancellor Amedda, bereft of a vice chair to do him the honors, banged the Speaker’s Staff against the floor of his own pod in a bid for order.

He was resoundingly ignored.

In the clamor, Fox found his gaze subconsciously drifting back towards the empty press box. His fingers twitched almost subconsciously towards his twin, holstered blasters, but there was no one there. It was almost as if he was expecting someone, some threat, to appear in the empty pod.

Trying to focus on what was bothering him left Fox with a faintly disorienting sense of nausea and a sneaking suspicion that somewhere back at Guard headquarters, Scav’s datapad was lighting up with all sorts of concerning data. He refrained from reaching for the monitor under the high collar of his blacks, as if poking the Sith-damned thing might give him any kind of answers.

Any potentially clarifying memories remained frustratingly out of reach, beyond the bone deep knowledge that CC-1010 was involved somehow. Was something about to happen to one of the members of the press corps? Was CC-1010 about to ‘happen’ to one of them? Or had he already? Probably not. The dedicated pool of reporters assigned full time to the Senate did not change much, and Fox would have received a report if any of them had mysteriously disappeared.

But he wasn’t entirely sure, and that uncertainty was eating at him.

Deeming any action better than simply standing here like an ornamental plant, watching over two scholars quietly debate the galactic ramifications of the ongoing unhinged Senatorial shouting match, Fox pulled up the text function on his vambrace and typed out another message for Thorn.

‘Tell Hound to take Grizzer on a perimeter walk. Check the press pod, make it look routine.’

The reply was a simple, terse, ‘Understood.’

“I say the root of the problem lies with the sentient who has been giving the orders since Chancellor Palpatine’s disappearance,” said Senator Agrael, when the shouting seemed to be dying down to just a dull roar. “A sentient who we never elected to office, and one who is most likely sabotaging this investigation to prop up his unearned position of power!”

That set off a new wave of shouting, as several more Senators pulled their pods away from their docks and demanded to be recognized amidst the chaos. Acting Chancellor Amedda looked murderous as he continued banging his staff against the floor of his platform to no net effect.

Fox sighed quietly to himself. This was developing along a wholly predictable path, even if he hadn’t expected the speed of Mas Amedda’s political fall from grace.

Chancellor Palpatine’s staunch supporters saw the lack of progress in investigating the man’s disappearance as a political and moral betrayal.

The anti-war voting block was already unhappy with Palpatine’s policies and saw this as a convenient opportunity to oust his politically weaker proxy.

The more xenophobic of human Senators despised the Chagrian Acting Chancellor on principle.

The Senators who were more focused on their own personal power and comfort were watching their investments shrink in value during the ongoing instability.

Given all of that, the next words out of Agrael’s mouth weren’t all that surprising.

“I call for a vote of no confidence,” he said, gravelly voice amplified across the vast Senate chamber.

That resulted in a new eruption of shouts. Fox scanned his immediate surroundings again, an instinctive threat assessment even if he did not truly expect any of the Senators to physically assault one another. His eyes soon landed on the Jedi Order’s pod.

General Vos was watching him, expression thoroughly unreadable.

Fairly caught and quietly desperate to not seem concerned by that fact, Fox just nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

One of General Vos’s eyebrows rose at that, but he did nod in return.

Fox pointedly looked away, out over the assembled Senate body. He could feel the General’s gaze still on him, and it made his skin crawl.

“He is only the Acting Chancellor,” said Senator Miri-Dolith was saying scornfully. “Is a vote of no confidence even applicable?”

Thousands of sets of eyes turned to Fox’s pod and the two natborns he had been specifically tasked with guarding.

“Oh,” the one on the left, Dr. Shinzel, said in a very small voice, apparently realizing exactly why he and his colleague had been summoned to the Senate Dome. “Oh my.”

Sith-hells, they were going to be here all night at this rate.

The two legal scholars tried, with many interruptions, pauses to pull up specific passages of law from their respective institutions’ databases, and verbal detours into completely tangential details of Republic policy, to explain the general problem. That Acting Chancellor Amedda could not be removed by a vote of no confidence, since legally, he was simply a temporary stand-in for Chancellor Palpatine. That Chancellor Palpatine could be removed with a vote of no confidence, which would trigger a new election, thereby removing the Acting Chancellor from power. Or that alternatively, they could declare Chancellor Palpatine dead, which would also trigger a new election, yielding the same net result. Granted, if it turned out that Chancellor Palpatine wasn’t dead, well, that would generate a whole new suite of legal problems.

The word ‘unprecedented’ was thrown around a lot.

So was the phrase ‘constitutional crisis.’

It was almost a relief, when Fox finally spotted Hound and Grizzer casually walking into the empty press pod. At least it gave Fox a worthwhile distraction from the flustered, frustrated exclamations of the two academics who, while probably on the largest stage of either of their respective careers, found themselves trying to explain an esoteric facet of Republic legal doctrine to thousands of sentients who 1) clearly thought they were already perfectly well-informed on the topic, and 2) only wanted to hear the details that supported their specific stances.

Except then the spikes down Grizzer’s back bristled up and he opened his jaws and barked in a trained signal Fox recognized, even if he was too far away to actually hear the massiff over the din.

Osik.

Hound knelt down, looking at something under the lip of one of the pod’s padded seats. Thankfully, his body language did not appear to be particularly alarmed when he rose, gloved hand held carefully flat, like he was supporting something small and fragile in the palm of his hand.

Finally, when Fox was about to lose his patience and comm the ARF trooper directly, Hound closed his fist around whatever it was and rolled his arm over to enter something into his vambrace.

‘Datachip. Possible dead drop. Advise?’ popped up in Fox’s HUD, tagged with Hound’s designation number.

‘Log it on Guard internal record. Bring it to Thorn,’ Fox sent to Hound, and then he shifted to the channel he’d opened with Thorn and sent, ‘Hound incoming with datachip. Copy and wipe contents. Return to previous location before session ends.’

…Zara Salaveda of the HoloNet News network would be disappointed to find the files corrupted, but it would not be the first time promises from an anonymous source didn’t pan out. And while CC-1010’s Master had clearly wanted the security leak handled, he had not been terribly specific with his final orders.

And as satisfying as that had turned out to be, it was somewhat unclear if he was still obligated to tie up these final loose ends…

The stray thought crystallized in Fox’s mind, clear and complete and thoroughly damning. He breathed through the pain that bloomed behind his eyes, trying to conjure up specific memories that would make those thoughts make sense. Nothing came to him, except a pulse of dizziness.

‘And then set a watch?’ Thorn asked, completely unaware of Fox’s ongoing, internal crisis.

‘And then set a watch.’ Fox sent, trying to keep up appearances, even though his hands were shaking faintly with the effort.

He didn’t look over to see if General Vos or any of the other generals had sensed this lapse. Fox was fairly certain he already knew the answer, and he was afraid that taking any course of action to confirm it one way or the other also risked giving too much away.

Charger, who was a credit to Kamino’s cloning program and was clearly due for some kind of commendation, formed up his squad around the Generals as an honor guard and escort to guide the Jedi out of the Senate Dome. It was all very respectful, very proper.

It was also just enough of a distraction that it allowed Fox to escape without being too obvious about it. General Vos had continued to watch him, off and on for the several additional hours it took for the Senate to get bored with their stalemate and call for a recess.

Fox’s skin had been crawling, under the thoroughly unwelcome scrutiny.

While most of the Guardsmen cycling off shift from the Dome had piled into several larger transports, Thorn had pointedly herded Fox to one of the two-person speeders. He’d also shucked off his helmet and then dropped in the floorboards before climbing into the pilot’s seat and flashing a quick hand signal for Fox to do the same.

Getting out of his helmet was a bit trickier than getting into it had been, and Fox ended up pulling two of Scav’s sensors free in the process. He couldn’t seem to summon up the motivation to try to fix them and instead started pulling them more completely free, to hang unceremoniously from the high collar of his blacks.

Thorn waited until Fox had pulled the last line free and let his hands drop into his lap before asking, “Scav’s handiwork?”

Fox nodded slowly, leaning back against the speeder’s hard headrest and shutting his eyes.

With their helmets off, there weren’t any comm lines to be compromised, and the Guard swept their vehicles for listening and tracking devices daily. They could speak freely here, and yet it still took Thorn a few minutes to work up to asking the question Fox had been expecting.

“How did you know about that datachip?” he finally asked.

“I remembered some things,” Fox admitted, without further elaboration. It wasn’t like he had much more of an explanation to offer. “What was on it?”

With his eyes still shut, Fox heard the rub of plastoid against the hard, synthetic lining of Thorn’s seat. A shrug, most likely.

“The files are encrypted, but there are a lot of them,” Thorn said.

“They were meant for the HNN reporter. Salaveda.”

Thorn didn’t ask more details, for which Fox was inordinately grateful. He didn’t have them to share, or he would have already offered them.

They were maybe halfway back to headquarters before Fox convinced himself to just ask his own burning question, the one he’d been trying to suppress all rotation.

He thought he’d been starting to see the outline of the pattern here. The fragments of memories, the pieces of disjointed evidence, the covert interactions between Fox’s brothers he’d tried so hard not to notice. They fit together. Mostly. He’d tried to not think about any of it, and speaking his suspicions into existence seemed to risk somehow making them more real. But Fox had always preferred dealing in facts, and the facts had been painting a picture he did not like.

CC-1010 had been the last sentient on record as having seen Chancellor Palpatine.

CC-1010 had the access codes to the Chancellor’s private hanger bay and turbolift, which meant that Fox could not point to their later use as an alibi.

CC-1010 had killed sentients. A lot of sentients. And he had used the Chancellor’s hanger and speeder to dispose of at least some of the bodies.

The chances that he had been doing all of that without the Chancellor’s knowledge or consent seemed slim. And that suggested that if he wasn’t the one pulling CC-1010’s strings, then he almost certainly knew who was.

And Fox’s men knew it too, or at least they suspected a great deal of it. They’d figured out a way to track his movements, and they were using that information to actively cover up CC-1010’s actions.

It explained some of their silence, their seeming lack of concern that helping Fox was risking fatal repercussions. If CC-1010 had been acting against the Republic’s best interests, then that would be treason, and the Guard had made itself complicit in it. But following the Chancellor’s orders, even if they were ones Fox couldn’t remember? That was just what they had been made to do. There was some safety for them all, in Fox just being a product, performing to its design specifications.

But CC-1010 had also come back to base with Chancellor Palpatine’s blood on his armor.

And that last part didn’t fit with the rest of the pattern. Fox was sorely afraid of making it fit.

But he needed to know. He needed to understand the extent of the risk he was posing to the rest of the Guard, and if his suspicions were correct, then keeping him in the dark about CC-1010’s actions wasn’t necessary anymore.

“Thorn,” Fox finally said, so quietly it was almost a whisper. But he could say this here; it was safe. They wouldn’t be overheard. “Did I kill the Chancellor?”

Thorn’s silence was already damning enough, but when he did speak, his words were almost worse. “If you did,” he said slowly, clearly picking out each word carefully. He cleared his throat and tried again, “If you did, then he deserved it.”

AN: If anyone else wants me to tag them as this gets updated, please just let me know. @tazmbc1

[tobiasdrake]

Villain Breakdown - The Flag-Smasher

Karli. Karli, Karli, Karli.

Karli Morgenthau is easily the most sympathetic villain in the entire MCU, to the point of being too sympathetic for her role within the story. The final episode seems to imply that we're meant to take her as the greater evil than the GRC. But. Like. She's trying to feed starving children in refugee camps.

She's evil because she's willing to use violence to prevent ethnic cleansing, while the people talking about committing ethnic cleansing get off with much lighter condemnation. She's blowing up buildings, while they're starving millions of people and abandoning them to die of illnesses. Her violence is committed bluntly and directly against the perpetrators of harm, while their violence is committed through the widespread neglect and systemic oppression of millions of people. Therefore, she's the evil one that must be killed.

I hate it. I genuinely do not understand how this character who seems to have been crafted through episode after episode to tug at the heartstrings and garner sympathy can be so. I don't even know. Was that all accidental? Was this really supposed to be the audience's takeaway this whole time? That she's evil and monstrous and should have just let her people starve?

How do you screw up this badly?

They somehow wrote an antihero when they meant to write a one-dimensional ubervillain, and that is the poison pill that ruins The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on its landing.

So what's my verdict on Karli Morgenthau? Well. She's great.

But apparently not for the reasons that were intended.

[mythologeekwriter]

Current state of things for trans people not looking fantastic, I must say.

Ministers ‘drop plans’ to ban pupils changing gender but teachers won’t have to use pupils’ preferred pronouns (msn.com)

The Government has been consistently clear about the importance of biological sex, and the guidance will reflect that.

Gender-affirming care for children ‘form of conversion therapy’, says Badenoch (msn.com)

Badenoch said doctors were “fearful of giving honest clinical advice to a child because if they do not automatically affirm and medicalise a child’s new gender they will be labelled transphobic, so whatever bill we do needs to address many of those issues and that is why we are going to publish a draft bill.” She announced a “long overdue” update to a list of approved countries from which the UK will accept gender recognition certificates (GRCs). Badenoch did not outline which countries would be removed, but her Labour counterpart, Anneliese Dodds, said while Germany remained and China had been added, “our closest Five Eyes allies” had been taken off. The Five Eyes alliance includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. Badenoch told the Commons: “We are doing this because there are some countries and territories on the list who have made changes to their systems and would not now be considered to have similarly rigorous systems [for awarding GRCs] as the UK. Inadvertently allowing self-ID for obtaining GRCs is not government policy. It should not be possible for a person who does not satisfy the criteria for UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas routes to do so.”

[sentrient]

Understanding 5×5 Risk Assessment Matrix: A Complete Guide

Imagine you’re about to embark on a new project or venture.

You’re excited, but there’s that nagging feeling in the back of your mind — what could go wrong?

Understanding how to assess and manage risks is crucial.

That’s where the 5×5 risk assessment matrix comes in.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the 5×5 risk assessment matrix. You’ll learn what it is, why it’s so useful, and how to use it effectively.

What is a 5×5 Risk Assessment Matrix?

A 5×5 risk assessment matrix is a simple visual tool to evaluate and prioritize risks based on two factors: probability and impact.

The “5×5” refers to its structure: five levels of probability (from rare to almost certain) and five levels of impact (from insignificant to severe). When these intersect, different risk levels are shown in colors like green, yellow, and red, similar to a traffic light system.

This matrix is used across industries — from construction to finance — and can be tailored to specific needs, such as versions adapted to Australian regulations.

Why Should You Use a 5×5 Risk Assessment Matrix?

Prioritise Risks

Proactive Risk Management

Reduce Insurance Costs

Promotes a Culture of Safety

Improves Project Outcomes

Example of 5×5 Risk Matrix:

To dive deep in to 5×5 Risk Assessment Matrix Click here.

[complinitytechnologies]

Overview on Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC)

Governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) refers to an integrated approach for managing important frameworks across an organization. By aligning activities in these critical areas, businesses can take a holistic view to overseeing operations, avoiding pitfalls, and meeting objectives.

Corporate governance involves the rules, practices, and processes used to direct operations and decision-making. This includes defining responsibilities, ensuring accountability, and setting strategic goals. With effective governance, businesses operate ethically and responsibly towards all stakeholders.

Risk management is the process of recognizing, evaluating, and responding to potential risks that may negatively impact the business. By identifying risks proactively and implementing controls, companies can prevent or mitigate adverse events in areas like operations, finance, legal matters, technology, and more.

Compliance refers to conforming with the various laws, regulations, and policies that apply to an organization. Businesses must adhere to a complex array of compliance requirements at the local, national, and global level. GRC helps embed compliance into normal business activities.

Using integrated GRC tools and strategies allows businesses to take a coordinated view of governance, risk, and compliance. This provides comprehensive visibility, enables information sharing, reduces redundancies, and helps build an ethical and resilient organization. A strong GRC approach is key for navigating today's risky and highly regulated business landscape.

[wild-at-mind]

I contacted my GP surgery via their online system (which is new and I love it, just as long as they keep the phones too for people who can't get online) and asked them to change my preferred name on record, and my title to Mr. They rang me up and said they would change my preferred name, but that they couldn't change my gender on record until I had 'the operation'. (.....) Well I was at work and also honestly pretty happy about getting my new name on something official finally so I just said thank you. I knew without a GRC my NHS records will remain officially female but that's not an issue at this stage, I will be able to change it one day. What I didn't realise is that what she meant by this is that my title would not be changed?! Picked up a prescription the other day for 'miss male name' :(

Going to get back on the online system and be like 'look I'm not asking you to change my sex on the record but is there any possible way you can fucking use Mr?' If the system won't allow that (it would be pointless if it didn't but who knows), I'd be perfectly happy with Mx. Or...no title at all if they will allow it.

[ordingdrublene]

List of Leaders of Ording Drublene

1. Bargul Bingin II: 9th November 2022- 20th October 2023 First leader of Ording Drublene. Elected by the Grand Revolutionary Council after the end of the Drublenic Revolution. Was a baker and known smuggler before the war. Retired on the 20 of October 2023

2. Mardisn Olmanx: 20th October 2023- 28th Jan 2024 Second Leader of Ording Drublene. Elected by the GRC after the retirement of Bargul Bingin II. Former artillery officer. Lost an arm in the revolution. Assassinated by a monarchist counter-revolutionary.

3. Alikxandr Odnopolicov: 28th Jan 2024- 31st May 2024 Third leader of Ording Drublene. Elected by GRC after the assassination of Mardisn Olmanx. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hobbying carpenter. Accordion player. "heterosexual". Publicly Executed by hanging alongside political allies by armed mob for abolishing democracy.

4. Bargul Bingin II: 31st May 2024- 4th July 2024 First Leader of Ording Drublene. Forced out of retirement after hanging of Odnopolicov, Placed in office by mob, Immediately reinstated the pre-Odnopolicov democratic system and announced he would retire when the government restablizes.

5. Yuri Yaoikov: 4th July 2024- 6th Dec 2024 Elected to replace Bargul after his retirement. Ran his campaign on the promise of having gay sex in the Offices of the Drublenic Government. Changed his name to Yuri Yaoikov before campaigning. Did have gay sex in the Offices of Govmnt.

6. Yeriv Lancol: 6th Dec 2024- current Elected to replace Yaoikov. Former Minister of Transportation under M. Olmanx. Walks with a limp.

[plethoraworldatlas]

My writing has forever been affected by just the sheer disappointment I had about how the MCU handled something so universally transformative as the Snap (down to giving it the Canon name Blip. Haha, billions died). I was already like this, but that made it so much more prevalent in my writing.

What do you MEAN it included all "overpopulated animals and plants" too? Entire governments and even nations stopped existing?? Mass global migrations??

Spiderman really treated it like a joke, but honestly it handled it the best of all out of the least MCU things I saw.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the worst about it. (And the worst in general but not gonna talk about it). The Global Repatriation Council is apparently a superpowerful international organization that can call upon militaries and intelligence agencies worldwide, yet its led exclusively by sitting US Senators, who are casually debating in favor of sudden mass deportations via the US Army numbering in the hundreds of millions at least to who knows where, if their countries even still exist.

Falcon's inspiring Captain America speech is basically telling a fascist that "you need to do better", as opposed to even mentioning the infinite logistical and humanitarian concerns (falcon's speech isn't even good as a thinly veiled allegory because its argument all hinges on the Snap).

The Snap canonically happened in 2018; The Wolrd population at the time was 7.66 billion. Half would be 3.83 billion instantly gone, countless governments probably collapsed in under a month, meaning even more people end up migrating or Refugees or nopat. The most generous I'll be is estimating that ONLY a billion people end up migrating; In all actuality, I'd bet it would be closer to about half of all non-Snapped people, so almost 2 Billion.

Even under the best circumstances, under the most forgiving immigration systems, 5 years is enough time to build or rebuild an entirely new life in a new country, or like many are implied to have done in Fatws, forgo being a citizen of any one nation altogether and enjoy the new borderless world, but not enough time to officially legally become a citizen in your new country. This isn't even mentioning all the already existing Refugees and Migrants who most likely would also be on the billion person deportation lists, or all the people who just don't "look legal" and are unfortunate enough to not have all their legal documents ready for constant investigation. This is all being supposedly done for the benefit of those who came back from the Snap, but Far From Home literally starts off showing us that no government cares about the returned and they have to survive off of philanthropy.

Fatws shows us that those Migrants and nopat alike are being forced into slums and camps pending deportation, and they are cut off from any source of income AND are being denied necessities which are being held up by the GRC warehouses in an attempt to push them to agree to deportation. This is happening worldwide, while we see it happening apparently in EU countries, who have free travel between each other, lightly implying that the GRC position is HARD NATIONALIST BORDERS WORLDWIDE, and the end of the right to travel and immigrate, even within organizations like the EU, if they would even still exist under such laws. This is never elaborated on in Fatws.

Hydra the fascist secret organization still has major influential power in at least the US, probably throughout the rest of the west. They are still regularly using assassination, intimidation, and various forms of corruption to influence things to their favor. High odds on at least one major GRC official, maybe even one of the Senator's inexplicably in charge of the thing, could be a Hydra plant. Fatws never elaborates on this.

The Snap would have permanent world changing repercussions, yet it's treated the same as the events of Thor the Dark World (which would also be world changing, despite being easily memeified by fans. Hell, Dark World and two other big movies take place within a single week, each one having world shattering complications and implied thousands of causalities at least) are treated by the MCU. And the Snap is a universal event, possibly even a multi-versal one.