#how to enable windows defender

[mydear-corinthian]

Defense || John Shelby

Synopsis: Defending John during the ambush of Changretta's men in your home.  Pairing: John Shelby x reader (+ Michael - platonic) Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD ! (season 3 & 4), gun violence, mentions of blood, swearing, injury Notes: There will be some grammatical errors. Click here to find the main masterlist. Click here to find the PEAKY BLINDERS masterlist.

"Mom, mom, it's Christmas day!", Katie shrugging my shoulders to wake me up. A smile painted on my face just at the sight of my kids. The past few months with John have been challenging. He was held captive for six months and was on the brink death just hours before he was hanged. The good news is that Tommy was able to arrange for his release, though under quite tense circumstances. But Tommy still has my anger because he enabled my spouse to rot in prison. That's why the kids, John, and I are here right now. We've moved out of Small Health and into the country in our new house.

"Alright, Katie. I'm awake .. I'm awake. Happy Christmas," I greeted. I looked around the room and saw that John was nowhere to be found—just the kids and I. When I asked Katie where John was, she replied that he was just making breakfast downstairs. "Thank you, love. Let's go join your Dad now, eh?" I kissed her forehead and joined her to come downstairs.

I met John in the kitchen downstairs, breakfast was already placed on the table. He was in the kitchen, I assume he was still making some hot tea. "Happy Christmas, John," He walked toward me and planted a kiss on my cheek as he said, "Good morning and Happy Christmas, love. I made breakfast. Decided not to make you busy on Christmas day." I laughed at his answer. He gave me a cup of warm tea. He grabbed his metallic pouch full of cigarettes and took one. Lighting it before inhaling the toxic air.

"Bit too early for a puff, darling?", I asked, taking a sip of the tea that John made. "Just want to. Besides, it's Christmas day, y'know," he replied, releasing the air from his cigarette. I shrugged off. It was fine with me since I am a smoker as well plus he's right. It's Christmas.

A car caught my eye as it approached our house. I don't know why, but it felt like a familiar car. The Changretta's are still out there, tracking us one by one. Well- I blame my husband for it.

"John? There's a car coming by our house. We're not expecting visitors.." I looked at the window, moving the curtain a bit with my fingers. John smothered the fire and removed his cigarette right away. He reached for his weapon, which was kept under our kitchen counter table's cabinet. He immediately grabbed my arms. I startled at his touch, I asked nervously, "John, what is it?"

"Get the kids and hide. I'll check who it is," he ordered. My hands found his cheeks as I cupped them. My eyes were slowly filling up with water. "How about you John? I already lost you once and I'm not doing it again."

When his head was already in the noose, I thought I had lost him. awaiting the death angel's arrival to welcome him. I want my children to have a father in their lives. I wish to avoid loneliness. Also, I don't want him to be alone.

"You won't and I'll be back. Just go and hide for me. You understand, (y/n)?" he kissed my lips before going outside. I grabbed the kids immediately, telling them to go to the attic first. My son asked, "What happened, mom?"I got on my knee, now the same height level as my son. I brushed his hair with my finger. "It's nothing to worry about, love. Just go and keep your siblings safe in the attic? I'll be there in a while, okay?" My eldest son nodded in agreement, taking his other siblings up to the attic, and keeping them safe.

I followed John outside. Holding my sheriff gun tightly on my dominant arm.I saw him talking to someone. He put his rifle down, making a conversation with the person. I can't help but be curious and follow him. I sighed in relief, turns out it was only Michael. But that doesn't mean that there's going to be bad news.

"Michael, what are you doing here on Christmas day?" I can't help but ask, I was just beside my husband.

"We need to go now." Michael said.

"To whom?" my husband asked.

"To Tommy. He told me to tell you," he responded.

Fuck. Tommy again. What does he fucking want this time. I can't help but simmer in frustration, my mind fucking with annoyance and exhaustion. After what happened last time, I'm not going to risk my loved ones safety again.

"'Tommy told me' What are you, his fucking parrot?" I argued, my brows knitting together in frustration and in anger. "It's the fucking 'Black Hand'! The mafia! The New York fucking mafia!" Michael debated.

John and I's eyes widened.

The New York fucking mafia? Fucking mafia? Well, fuck us.

John noticed a wagon full of hays stopped exactly in front of our house. 3 men appeared wearing suits and a black hat. Guns out, pointing at the three of us.

"John, no!" Michael shouted but John didn't listen.

John cocked his rifle, shooting the three men. Michael and I did the same. One of their men got hit by our bullets and immediately fell. I was so preoccupied with aiming that I failed to notice that Michael and John had already been wounded and were lying on the ground with blood dripping off of them. I gave them a look. My eyes grew wide with terror and shock. I cried out while squeezing them together. With bullets squeezing his leg, John moaned in pain.

My heart stopped instantly. It seemed as though I was the one going to die. Time and gravity seemed to have stopped. My world came to an end. In front of me, time appeared to be motionless and lacking any sensation of reason or meaning.

Bringing back to my senses, I immediately tore my dress and tied it around my husband's leg, applying pressure to his wound. I did the same thing to Michael too, but John's wounds were much worse than his.

2 men stopped shooting and were heading towards my direction. I grabbed my gun, pointing it at them. "Stay where you are or for God knows what, I'll fucking shoot the both of you." I irritably said.

The two of the men can't help but laugh at what I said. Did I make a fucking joke?

"Very funny. You're a Shelby but you are also a woman. A woman can't shoot! I bet that gun isn't even loaded. How funn-" The man suddenly stopped speaking. His body fell to the ground, blood pooling out of his head. His eyes still opened.

I shot him, directly on the head with no mercy, guilt, and remorse after.

"Well, I'm afraid you lost your bet."

The remaining man was about to shoot me but my actions were more faster than his. I shot him multiple times, emptying the bullet chamber of my gun. "For your information, I shoot better than anyone in the Shelby family. I am a former assassin," you said to the dead bodies in front of you.

Before I left, I said,

"And you don't fuck, with the Peaky Fucking Blinders."

I went back to John and Michael, reassuring both of them that they were dead and that I'd call Tommy and an ambulance right away. John looked at me, and he slowly smiled, "Well that was offensive." I chuckled at his response but hey, it was true. I do shoot better than them. "Stay with me, John. And you too Michael. God doesn't want you guys above there yet."

I ran like there was a race, I reached out for the telephone, calling the hospital to get an ambulance. After that, I called Tommy, rage feeling in every part of my body.

"Black hand, the Mafia, the Changretta's. They were here Tommy. They were fucking here. John and Michael have been shot!"

I hung up the phone and gave it an aggressive touch. I groaned and clutched my hair in a fist. I almost lost my husband again. I quickly made my way to the attic and told my kids they could leave since it was now safe. I told them about their father and uncle while simultaneously assuring them that everything would be alright.

Later on, the ambulances came. They took Michael and John and I went too. The kids stayed with the kids. "Thank you, for backing us up, (y/n). I don't know what to do without you." John thanked me, and his hand grabbed my palm, stroking it with his thumb. I kissed his forehead, muttering an 'I love you'.

"I'm always here, John.

Always."

The End

[authorhjk1]

First of all, Happy New Year!

Second, holy fuck, Midnight..the idea of ending and starting a year with fucking arguably the 3 best milkers is just wild, and while a small part of me wishes you could've explore more into the foursome action and some gxg between them as well, overall it was still smoking hot, considering the timing as well releasing this right at the end of the year with the theme of fucking them 3 to end the year is quite a nice touch honestly..and that Karina sequence especially was so fucking amazing,really,thank you for such an amazing fic to close 2023 and welcome 2024..

Last but not least, looking forward for your next works too, but do take your time and no need to rush things,good luck too for all the things you do in life and i'll patiently wait for you to drop the next one whenever you have the time too,best of luck and take care!

Happy new year to you as well!

Hope you like this small scene:

You watch as Jihyo takes the condom out of your hand. Getting distracted for a moment by Karina's lips, which wrap around the tip of your cock, you almost miss out on the sight in front of you.

Standing in the door to the bathroom, you can see Jihyo walking into the shower. Eunbi is inside, sitting in a pool of warm water and her own juices. And probably Karina's as well. Her eyes are only half open, her wet hair sticking to her face, shoulders and the tiles of the wall behind her.

Too tired to react, Eunbi feels how Jihyo pulls at her jaw, forcing her mouth to open. Tilting the condom in her hand, she let's your cum fall onto the breathless Eunbi. A small puddle of cum lands on her lips and mouth, before Jihyo cheekily, changes the angle. The rest of your sperm lands on the older girl's tits.

"Oops. My bad."

Jihyo coos as she chuckles, Eunbi too drained to defend herself.

A groan escapes your lift as Karina keeps sucking you off. Her hand holds onto your base, slowly stroking it, while her lips run along your length.

By the way her eyes are closed, you can tell how much she enjoys the taste of Eunbi's slick on your cock.

"Are you getting him hard enough for me? That's so sweet of you."

Jihyo is standing behind the youngest, who's eyes are now open in surprise and anger.

"(Y/n) just wrecked your pussy again. It's my turn, greedy slut."

Karina pouts as you glance at the window. It used to be completely fogged, due to the steam of the hot water coming from the shower. But Karina's face, which is completely wet by now, cleaned the window nicely. You pressed her against it as you took her from behind. The puddle of her cum is still staining the floor and parts of the windowsill.

Jihyo pulls at Karina's hair, making the younger hiss in pain as she gets forced off your cock.

"You better fuck me good, baby boy."

Jihyo takes you hand and walks out of the bathroom, just like Karina did a few hours ago.

Jihyo's tits feel like heaven. They are tightly wrapped around your cock as she kneels in front of you, while you lie on the bed. Her soft mounds move up and down, sandwiching your cock in between.

Karina is lying next to you, Eunbi's head buried between her thighs. The youngest moans as the oldest fucks her pussy with her tongue. Eunbi was shy about it at first, but is now getting into it. Karina's hands try to hold onto something, until they find your body. Her nails dig painfully into the skin on your arm and chest.

"Are you gonna shoot your load all over mommy's tits, baby?"

You are barely able to nod. Jihyo has a good eye, you are already close.

She spits into her cleavage, enabling her to move up and down your length even faster.

"Good boys always cum on their mommy's boobs."

Jihyo's eyes are fixated on yours as she tries to predict the exact moment in which you're gonna cum.

Next to you, Karina's moans have reached another high and so does her body. Her thighs trap Eunbi's head in place as she cums on the older girl's face.

"Unnie!"

Her sweet voice makes the word sound lewd and erotic.

It slowly pushes you over the edge as well.

"Cum for us. Jizz all over my tits."

You finally follow Jihyo's order.

You start exploding, your load coating her chest with your cum. She moans in satisfaction, feeling the warm liquid on her skin.

"That's a good boy."

She sighs, letting your cock fall out of the space between her tits.

Eunbi was able to force her head out of Karina's pussy by now. She is now straddling you, impaling herself on your cock. The sudden penetration makes you groan.

"Please breed me, baby."

She moans loudly.

"Can you get me pregnant?"

That whispered question makes you hard immediately. You are suddenly aware that Eunbi is riding you. Raw.

_____

Thank you for always reading my stuff, I will make sure to keep writing as soon as possible.

Stay healthy!

[pacifymebby]

Trouble / Chapter Thirty Six

Alfie

"The fuck are you thinking Solomons you can't take her to that fucking hospital!"

The peaky boys temper really was quite amusing, a little touching even. I couldn't help but laugh at him when he tried to get all up in my face.

Sylvia had slipped away when I'd told her to find a coat, but he'd just stood there, glaring at me. His teeth gritted, nostrils flared. Very angry. When I'd told him that - that he looked very upset - he'd almost lost it. Almost gave me the excuse I'd been looking for to smack a little bit of sense into him.

Because if there was one thing I couldn't get my head around, it was how he could have been so stupid as to help her sneak out in the first place. How he could possibly have thought bringing her to me, came under the notion of "keeping her safe."

She didn't look very safe to me. Wandering around my town house in what was a very, very dangerous part of London now for anyone who bore the name Shelby.

"My fuckin house peaky boy," I said with a smirk and a shrug, hands in my pockets, "I can do whatever I like."

I felt childish saying it to him but the glee it sparked in me to see him scowl. To hear him try and reason with me again, it was too much to resist.

"That hospitals an open target and you know it, she could get herself killed!" He hissed at me, teeth bared in my face. But his hypocrisy kept me smiling, his infuriation only growing.

"Perhaps you shoulda thought about that eh lad, before you enabled this reckless, no no no, fucking suicidal crusade she's on yeah... Don't talk to me about her safety right treacle, because so far right, so far sweetheart, I ain't got no evidence at all, not a fuckin shred, that you've done anything to keep your fuckin word..." I said jabbing him in the chest then, gritting my own teeth as I leered over him, shoved him with one hand on his shoulder against the door frame. "You want to talk about her precious safety yeah, riddle me this khamer, riddle me fuckin this... If you care so much about her fuckin safety then what in the name of all that is good and fuckin right on this here gods earth yeah, did you fuckin bring her here for eh? To me... To this fuckin deathtrap city yeah? Why the hell did you go an do something like that?"

He glared up at me, ever insolent, sullen as Sunday evening, scowling as I debated saying anything else. I could have held my tongue, could have kept the rest of my scattered thoughts to myself, the concerns I had for the girl he'd walked into my office the day before. And for a moment I had decided to. To let him go.

But when he tried to defend himself I couldn't help myself. Couldn't help the loathing I felt for him when he tried to give me an excuse.

"You didn't fuckin see her in her bedroom window with a gun to her fuckin head Alfie, you don't know what she's like!"

It was impossible not to sneer then. Impossible to hold myself back. It was the least I could do when I grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him up against the wall, ground my teeth and spat every word at him.

"And you do do you treacle? Think you know the little girl well yeah? Cause the thing is right, that little girls been living in my territory since she was 8 years old, that's fuckin 10 years yeah... And you know who it is thats been keeping her and her sister safe these past ten years? Any guesses peaky boy? Who's been keeping the fucking monsters from under her bed, who's been keeping the hooded fuckin claw at bay? Any guesses sweetheart? Ten years of peace and fuckin quiet?" I asked, fist shoving him up against the wall a second time just to drive the point home. "Any ideas?"

Isaiah maintained the same sullen glare, refusing to back down. The challenge in his eyes making me want to smack his stubborn sulk clean from his face. But I wouldn't. And I wouldn't because of Sylvia. Because I needed her to trust me too.

"Think I might know her a bit better than you think khamer."

I shoved him one last time and then left him standing there with his stupid sullen face on. The hunch of his shoulders only driving home my initial observation. That he was wildly out of his depth. That Tommy had made a mistake placing his wildest little sister in the care of this sullen adolescent who was clearly too soft on her to behave objectively.

"Sylvia!" I called listening for the sound of her little feet on the stairs, "Sylvia poppet.." I didn't turn round to see the glower on Isaiah's face but I could feel it, his glare burning into the back of my skull, left a little smirk dancing on my lips. A smirk which faded the second I saw her at the top of the stairs. Her frail silhouette, the way she seemed to teeter on the edge of the steps. I wasn't a nervous man but seeing her descend those stairs had me on edge. Her movements so delicate that she seemed unstable and I felt the urge to climb the stairs too just so that I could help her down them.

"Right darlin, you got a coat? Cause I think you'll probably need a coat yeah cause the skys not exactly lookin too promising an I've got a bad feeling about the rain today yeah... We'll need to get you somethin to keep you cosy warm I reckon?" I said when she'd reached the bottom of the stairs and was stood just in front of me. I put my hands on her shoulders and looked down at her, a concerned little frown on my brow.

She looked up at me with eyes which reminded me of her brother's. That same distance in them. Like she wasn't really standing in front of me at all.

I didn't like it. It wasn't that it made me nervous, didn't disturb me the way it was intended to. The way it did most people. It was that it left a certain sadness chewing away at my heartstrings. Made me feel all kinds of melancholic when I looked at her and saw all the feeling drained from her. Because I understood that look on her brother, understood it in the eyes of Polly Gray, but I didn't understand it on someone as young as her. Someone who had for the most part, been kept safe from the horrors of the world I lived in.

She looked cold. Her skin had a greyness about it, a translucence which made me wary to touch her. But one look at her told me that that was what she needed. Hands on her shoulders to hold her. Because more than anything she looked lonely and a little scared. Despite all her efforts I could see the apprehension in her eyes.

"Yeah," I said as I looked her up and down, "We'll find you a nice warm coat and uh, something with a hood I reckon, yeah, cause it's gonna rain I reckon and we wouldn't want you catchin a chill would we poppet." I said as I called out for one of my boys to come and find the girl a coat, "one of my hoodies an all," I shouted after the lad as he disappeared up the stairs, "a pair of sunglasses too mate..." I added because I could predict the look she'd get on her when she had to leave her cousin in his hospital bed.

Fuckin heartbroke. And she wouldn't want to admit it, she'd hate anyone who looked in her direction whilst she was trying her best to fight back her tears.

When the lad I'd shouted to had returned with a black Barbour jacket and a dark pullover, Sylvia didn't even seem to notice him. He stood by waiting for her to take them from him and she just stood there looking straight through him vacantly until I coughed and caught her attention.

"Thank you Ben," I said, "good lad, now I ain't takin Cyril with us cause well he don't really like hospitals and they don't really like him, so you make sure he gets his lunch yeah, right, come here poppet," I turned my attention back to Sylvia when I saw she'd taken the coat but had made no move to put it on. "Let me help you with that yeah sweetheart," I said pulling the hoodie down over her head, kick-starting her reactions so that when I stepped away she slipped her arms into the sleeves and shrugged the jacket on too, coming back to us from wherever it was she'd slipped away to. "There we go see, now don't you just look the part darlin," I said fixing the collar of her jacket before I shrugged mine on and tucked her under my arm leading her out into the driveway.

It didn't go unnoticed by me that she didn't look back over her shoulder for Isaiah, didn't go unnoticed how she'd shoved her hands in her pockets and stepped out that front door with all the impatience and confidence of someone who took it for granted that they were safe. That nothing untoward would ever infringe upon their little life. And I knew she wasn't really naive enough to believe all that. Could see it somewhere in the swirl of those empty sorry eyes that she was a frightened little rabbit who wasn't really sure who the big bad wolf was anymore.

Made me wonder what had changed. The day before when she had walked into my study and danced on my rug, she'd kept glancing at the lad who watched her so possessively, as if to reassure herself that he was still there. Today she seemed to be living as if he was long gone and it was brutal. The way she'd looked straight through him when he'd tried to reason with her. Brutal the way she appeared to have turned on him so quickly. He was lucky really, that I was so hospitable. That I valued the agreements between me and the Peakys. That I didn't really intend on hurting him or the girl who'd so willingly abandoned him in favour of me. In favour of getting her own way. If I had they'd both have been completely fucked now.

Then again, Sylvia was a canny girl and I didn't doubt she'd have worked all that our for herself.

"Now then poppet, since as I promised we're going to have a little Alfie/Sylvie bonding day yeah, I thought you might like to choose which car we go in?"

From beneath my arm she looked around the drive at the cars which were parked up, looking no doubt for the one she had arrived in, a small frown etched into the bridge of her nose when she didn't see it.

"What happened to my car?" She asked making me chuckle, my smile lingering fondly as I shook my head.

"Well you see little Shelby, you see that wasn't actually yours now was it... And having stolen cars yeah, especially posh fuckin stolen cars, parked up in your driveway right, it just ain't a good look is it... So that old things long gone yeah, long gone..."

"Makes sense." She said shrugging herself free from my hold around her, walking up to the side of a black number with tinted windows and ostentatious unnecessar-in-the-big-city four wheel drive, "This one please Mr Solomon's."

Her manners amused me then. When she turned back over her shoulder to look at me, waiting for me to unlock the door. How she'd gone from vacant and sullen to suddenly sweet again. It didn't surprise me though, everything I'd seen of her over the last few years had taught me to expect this from her. The rumours and whispers which went round about her. The fact that no one ever quite believed she was dealing to the other girls at her school, the way even I'd struggled to believe she might have any bad habits to fund with illicit business endeavours.

Because she was the sweetest girl in London and everyone knew it. It was easy to believe she was a Gray because you wouldn't for one second believe she was related to her brothers.

And yet, there she was, leaning up against the side of my car with a gun tucked somewhere in the back of her ballet skirt. One she thought I didn't know about. But of course I did.

Sylvia

I leant against the side of the car looking up at Alfie, wide brown eyes blinking up at him. I was doing my best to remind him of the girl he thought he knew. The sweet, innocent Shelby. If I could appeal to his little known soft side I knew I would be safe. Knew not only that, but that if I could appeal to that softer side he'd treat me as I knew he had always treated Sonya. With a doting kind of softness.

Because I wasn't naive to all the ways Alfie and his men had been keeping watch over me and my sister since Tommy had packed us off to London. I wasn't naive to the reasons I'd gotten away with dealing on his territory, the reasons it had been so much harder for me to get into trouble.

And after Isaiah's hateful display in the middle of the night I knew I didn't really have anyone. Not just to dote on me but at all.

I'd been tired last night, tired but determined. Fuelled by a desperation to see my cousin, to see him alive so that someone could be there to hold his hand, to tell him he was going to be alright. That was a heavy emotion to carry. And the heavy emotions, those are the emotions I struggle to carry for very long. The feeling too overwhelming. Overpowering enough to leave me shaking, nerves frazzled. Heart pounding in desperate need of something to numb. And when Isaiah had pinned me down, his elbows and fists digging into my arms, his body weight baring down on me, marking me with grey and blue bruises. When he'd spat those unforgiving things at me in the dead of the night he had flipped that switch in my brain again and just like that the numbing had begun.

I'd lay there on my back all night, gazing up at the ceiling until I'd fallen asleep. Numb even in my dreams when I'd seen Sonya in a lake floating face down, hair and white dress floating around her. Numb even when I'd awoken from the dream with all the certainty that it had been a little more than just a dream.

I had turned my head to see Isaiah asleep, listened to his restful breathing and resented him for the peace he had found after instilling such a doomed feeling in me. Not fear but something worse. A nothing that eats you from the inside out.

If I'd been at school there'd have been ways of coping. If I'd have had my sister nearby there'd have been someone to ground me. But I wasn't at school and I didn't have Sonya. I was alone in the passenger side of Alfie Solomons car and he was looking at me with a contemplative calm on his scarred face.

We'd been sitting in the quiet for several minutes now. The both of us sitting still, looking out over the dashboard at the driveway and the thick iron gates which remained closed. He hadn't said a word, hadn't reached for the keys or tried to start the car.

We were simply sitting there side by side. And because I was tired, and because that hollow feeling had been left to grow and grow, I didn't mind. Wasn't concerned about the stillness or the silence. Wasn't worried that the erratic older man might snap whilst we were alone.

"Now," he said, his hands resting on the wheel, "you may have noticed, little Shelby, that we have been sitting in this vehicle now for five minutes, and I ain't yet made any efforts to start driving..." He patted his hands against the wheel and then let go, hands in his lap, then back to the wheel.

"Well I know you like to take your time with things Alfie..." I said with a little smirk, turning to meet his gaze with an impish light in my eyes. Pleased when he smirked too.

"Yeah," he said nodding his head, frowning as if thinking the notion over quite seriously, "yeah, I suppose you could say that little Shelby, I suppose you could say that yeah, cause I do... Slowness yeah, as Milan Kundera used to say, how did he say it, right yeah, there is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting..."

I knew the book he was quoting well and smirked as I leant back into the headrest, let the seat hold me. Remembering for a moment quite how tired of holding myself up I was. Quite how tiring everything really was sometimes.

"The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory, the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting," I said with a bored drawl, cutting him off with a small smile, it was a notion I'd always appreciated, even if I didn't particularly agree.

"Oh so you know it then," he smirked, "you're familiar with his philosophy on relaxing, taking your time..." I wasn't expecting him to turn then, the way he stared the conversation round a corner so carefully, so gently that when he asked his next question he really did catch me out and leave me speechless, "clearly don't believe in it yourself though do you little Shelby," he said, "something about slowing down taking one's time, don't really appeal to you or somethin poppet? That why you've spent the last few months pestering my boys for a bit of Charlie?"

I bit my lip.

"And on school nights no less..." He said with a quiet little whistle, faux amazement, almost as if he were teasing me. The frown on his features saying otherwise.

"Yeah," he said when I remained quiet, "silence," he said, "yeah sweetheart I was expecting that." He said, fingers still drumming one by one along the wheel. Slow and steady. Almost hypnotic. I couldn't help but watch them rather than him as he spoke. "Yeah, little miss Frankie Valli in my passenger seat," he said with a sigh, "now I must say poppet, if you were any other girl right, any average 18 going on 19 year old girl, I wouldn't be so... How dya put it eh? Concerned? Yeah we'll say concerned. If you were any other girl I wouldn't be all that concerned about a bitta blow on a Friday night yeah, but you little Sylvie with your opera house dreams and your sparrows appetite, you my girl, well... I'm puzzled right... Now dealing yeah, thats one thing, and of course dealing on my streets well that's just f... That's just plain cheeky ain't it... But sniffin the stuff, nurturing a habit of your own... Now poppet, really?"

When he said that word, really, he looked at me with his head cocked slightly, a look of genuine confusion on his scarred face.

I didn't say anything. Smiled a little because he sounded like some old werrit. Like an aunt who gets all her news from the daily mail and still gets it confused.

But I didn't say anything because I didn't really know what to say. It was true, I had asked on a handful of occasions for a bit of coke or some mdma from some of his lads... And sometimes it had been with the intention of selling it on to girls I went to school with who were richer than me and whose places in class were not so fragile as mine. And it was true that sometimes I'd been known to trial the goods or share a bag between friends in the bathroom of a bar in town. But those occasions were rare, blue moon rare and it wasn't so much I hadn't thought Alfie would find out, it was that I hadn't really imagined he would care.

"What's the matter poppet?" He asked, "didn't think it'd get back to me? You were asking my boys after all, an my boys are good lads ain't they, you know that... Always done a good job lookin out for you and your sisters yeah? You know they're good, honest lads, course they told me what you'd been up to poppet and don't get me wrong yeah, don't get me wrong, I'd rather you were getting it off my lads than say, Italians... But here's the thing yeah, I'd rather you weren't doing it at all..."

"Didn't realise you were so invested in my wellbeing Alfie..." I started with a small smile. Glad to know that my theory had been correct. That the old grudge of Camden Town had a soft spot for at least some of life's beauties, that his care for me and my sister wasn't simply bankrolled by Tommy. That our art had made us an interest to him too.

"Actually poppet I know you ain't that naive so I don't wanna hear none of that yeah, if you didn't know all of that already you wouldn't have skipped into my office yesterday, wouldn't have slept the night in one of my spare bedrooms... Certainly wouldn't have left your boyfriend behind with my boys... Would you?"

I smirked at that. The bitter tone with which he said the word boyfriend. I wondered whether he had realised the resentment which came out with the word, wondered if he thought I would pick up on it. Was only grateful that the spite, the hatred Isaiah had showed me in the middle of the night had drained me enough of feeling that the suggestion didn't leave me struggling to hide a blush as it might have done even a handful of days before.

"No." I said, thinking about correcting him, deciding I definitely didn't need to.

"No," he confirmed nodding his head slowly, starting the ignition and beginning to creep slowly towards the towering iron gate at the end of the drive. "No, you wouldn't..." He said drumming his fingers again. "See the thing is my darlin," he said starting again just when I had begun to think he might let us rest in silence for the journey, "the thing is yeah, now you're going to be staying with me for a little while yeah, little old me - a very 'ospitable man right - now youre gonna be staying with me for a little while yeah, your health and safety and general wellbeing right, well that's all my responsibility aint it... And your peaky boy lapdog might be a bit of a soft touch yeah, might value keeping you sweet over keeping you safe yeah, but I, am first and foremost, primarily concerned with all of the above yeah? That is your health, your safety and your general sense of spiritual wellbeing, right?"

I nodded my head, held my hands in my lap and played with the rings on my fingers.

"So I'm gonna ask you very nicely yeah, and we're going to come to a couple of little agreements yeah?" He waited this time for me to answer him and when I nodded my head he nodded his too almost satisfied.

"Good," he said, "good girl."

I looked out of the window at the street as we pulled out of Alfie's driveway. I hadn't realised the evening we'd been brought to his house but he lived on a private road, one of those with a monitored gate at both ends. Huge evergreens which lined the avenue. Like something from an old movie. So quiet, so peaceful. It seemed strange to be driving down it with such a gruff, brutal man by my side.

"So, agreement one, I reckon it's pretty self explanatory right, plain old common sense yeah... You keep your precious distance from those illicit substances yeah?" He asked, of course it wasn't a question and it also wasn't really a question which needed to be asked. How was I supposed to deal his drugs when I was essentially under his house arrest.

"I haven't got a drugs habit," I said chewing my cheek, glancing to my right to look at him. He was watching the road now but every now and then he would turn his attention back to me.

"Agreement number two," he raised his voice a little to hush me, cracking am almost cheeky grin when I smirked, "me an you yeah, we're gonna uphold a policy of truth... You know what that means little Shelby?" He asked without giving me a chance to answer him, "you ain't gonna tell me no more lies alright? You're gonna be a good, honest little lady from now on yeah?"

I nodded my head and waited for him to move on but when he remained silent, held his tongue and turned back to me, his brow raised, I realised he was waiting for me to speak up.

"Truth," I said, "are you gonna tell me the truth?"

I'd half expected him to laugh at me, to think me naive for asking the question. Surely his answer couldn't possibly satisfy me.

And yet it did.

When he appeared to soften upon looking at me, his eyes flickering over me, my bored sullen features, my body tucked beneath his hoodie and coat. I thought I saw a flicker of sympathy. Wanted to hate him for it.

"Yeah poppet, I'm gonna tell you the truth an all." He nodded his head solemnly. Tapped his hands on the steering wheel as we slowed in the traffic.

"Now number three, I ain't really sure how to word this yeah, not when you seem to be as wild and as reckless as the rest of your bloody family... And we've come full circle really right because it ties in rather nicely with rule number one I reckon... Rule number three yeah, you little miss Shelby, are gonna stop putting yourself in harm's way yeah... You're gonna start eating your f... Eating your breakfasts and getting your early nights, and you're gonna hop off this little suicidal roller coaster you seem to think you're on now yeah... I'm taking you to see your cousin now right, because although I might have the reputation of a cold blooded serial killer yeah, a soulless bloody monster... I'm still not fond of seeing little girls such as yourself, looking as fuckin... Sorry poppet, I'm really tryin here you know poppet, yeah... I don't like seeing little girls lookin as sad as you looked last night... So I'm doing you this kindness, against my better judgement... And the way I see it right, the way I see it is that if me, yeah, an 'orrible, evil old man, can compromise and take you to see your rather messed up cousin in the hospital, then you my sweet, you poppet, can be good for a couple of weeks yeah, you can at least do me a favour and make takin care of you a little bit bloody easier..."

"You want me to eat breakfast?" I asked feigning confusion. Trying to pretend I didn't really understand what he'd been banging on about for the last five minutes.

We were nearing the hospital now and I was hoping that if I stalled a little longer his absent mind would wander. But I knew better than to believe his mind was really absent at all.

"Amongst many other things my darlin..." He said a little softer, his voice strangely gentle as he spoke to me then. He met my gaze across the car and held it. Gave me this look I didn't want to understand. It was one of concern, one I wasn't quite sure I wanted to trust.

"And if I don't promise you?"

"Well," he said pushing his bottom lip out in s pout, hid thick brows knitting together too, "well that wouldn't be very nice would it sweetheart, that wouldn't make me a very happy man..."

I let us linger in silence, him still pulling that ridiculous face at me. My mind flitting through my limited options. If he had simply been asking me to promise to "look after myself" I could have done so easily, could have made my throwaway vow and not worried, not felt guilty for breaking it. It was everything else I was hesitant to agree to.

"You know poppet I'd really rather you did..."

"After we've been to see Michael..." I started, let him cut me off because I wasn't entirely sure what I was asking him to clarify.

"Yeah, after we've been to see Michael today right, I want you to drop all this runnin around with guns and gangsters, stealin cars and killing your neighbours... Ain't healthy is it... Ain't no way for a young lady with opera house aspirations to be behaving... Might be your brother's game poppet but it ain't yours, shouldn't be yours..."

"Right..." I said letting my word linger in the quiet between us as he parked up outside the hospital doors.

"Right..." He said gesturing with one hand to coax me along, to get me to give him a little bit more. "You gonna say those magic words for me now yeah poppet? You gonna promise me from the bottom of your pretty pink heart?"

"Well you see that's just the thing Alfie," I said being careful to sound as sweet as I could, "I can't promise you anything until I've seen him can I?"

"Ain't hard little Shelby, it's just a handful of teeny tiny little words..." He said.

"I've just promised you I'll always tell you the truth though you see..." I bit my lip, tried to keep my voice steady as we neared the hospital and it's shadow loomed over the city. This old gothic looking building they'd never bothered to update.

I'd been in once for a suspected concussion. I'd fallen from a lift and knocked my head off another girl. Both of us had had to sit side by side waiting to be checked over. Both of us hoping they'd simply send us straight back to school. We'd been young enough then that a couple days off wouldn't really have mattered, but sitting there in the gloom of that waiting room had struck fear into us both. I'd learnt after that to lie, to do my best to hide each and every injury so as never to end up back there. Especially as the injuries got worse and the chance at an over night stay grew higher.

"Yeah," he said, "yeah you have... So perhaps yeah, I need to ask you another question then, bare with me poppet, I reckon this will be my last for now right?"

I waited quietly for him to carry on, sat patiently whilst he pulled us onto the hospital car park and mulled his thoughts over. His thumb stroked the steering wheel maintaining that hypnotic rhythm and I found myself once again unable to take my eyes off his hands. The rings on his fingers which caught the sunlight each time he flexed or drummed that slow rhythm against the leather wheel.

"Alright," he said, "answer me this little Sylvia," he said, "can you even shoot that gun you've got tucked away in your skirts?"

"You think I've spent the last ten years at a boarding school full of Hampshire's most promising without ever visiting a shooting range..."

"Bit different sweetheart, a little bit different that I reckon..."

"All the same," I said, "I know how to fire a gun."

"Alright," he said, "alright darlin I believe you yeah, reckon you probably do know how to fire a gun actually yeah you're very right, very correct... But don't you think yeah, it might be best to leave the killing to your brother's... Now don't get me wrong I'm no misogynist..." I bit back a laugh when he said that.

"Of course not..."

"Exactly, of course not," he reiterated, "but don't you think yeah, that on this occasion, when you ain't shootin at little targets, and the targets in question are pretty experienced when it comes to shootin back, don't you think it might be better to leave this one up to your big brothers...."

"If I could trust them I would." I said solemnly, with such certainty that all Alfie could really do was nod his head. There was no defending my brothers treachery. This wouldn't be the first instance of him lying and manipulating the family, of him selling blood down the river in the name of preservation and the greater good. Alfie knew that better than most. He'd been on the receiving end of that imorral streak more than once.

So instead he simply nodded, sat there by my side staying quiet for long enough that the subject changed without either of us trying.

I looked out at the carpark, he'd parked us close to the doors, in a disabled bay no less, and I wasn't naive enough not to know why.

He wasn't expecting this to be a simple visit. Wasn't expecting to get me from the hospital back to his all in one piece.

I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth, watched the automatic doors slide open and closed.

"Now I reckon I already know how this is gonna go yeah little Sylvia," he said lowering his voice, "ain't gonna patronise you though yeah, just gonna do my due diligence right and let you know, ain't gonna be pretty, an I'm sure you've a stronger stomach than most little girls yeah, but if at any point you want to leave yeah, either cause it's all a bit much or cause you've got a bad feeling about somet, you just give me a look yeah, any look you like right cause I'm a clever old man me and I will know exactly what you mean yeah, you just give me the look and I'll have you outa there in seconds... No questions asked right?"

"I'll be fine." I said starring straight ahead. I already knew what I was going to see, already knew it would be devastating, would probably sicken me. Already knew I wasn't going to feel safe once we left that car. Already knew that if in fact something awful happened and the enemy were waiting for us, Alfie might not be able to get me out at all. That once we left the sanctuary of his car, we had to accept we might never return to it.

"But thank you all the same." I said a little quieter, my hand reaching for the door handle. Hovering for a moment when he stopped me, his hand on my thigh. A softness in his low gravelly voice when he implored me to look back at him once more.

"I'm sure you will be little one," he said, his eyes warm, almost emotional, "I don't doubt you for a moment my dear."

Michael looked terrible. Everything everyone had warned me, the brutal descriptions and implications paled in comparison to the truth which lay, unconscious in a hospital bed, wires slithering like snakes from his nose, oxygen mask covering his face, latched onto him like a parasite. A cannula in his hand, yellow and purple bruising watercolour staining his knuckles. He looked dead, a corpse wired up to a machine. Some kind of dystopian Frankensteins monster esque figure.

He had two black eyes and a broken nose, his skin sore. Patched up in so many places, two many bloody bandages and packed wounds to count.

He'd had major surgery, medical induced coma, under constant observation. He was on a ventilator for now and when the nurse had looked at me she hadn't told me not to worry.

But it wasn't the state of him that worried me. Because I kept telling myself that if there wasn't a chance they could save him, they'd have given his bed to someone they could save.

It wasn't the blood and the deathly shadow which stained him.

It was the fact that when we'd arrived the men Tommy had organised to watch his room, to wait outside and guard him with their lives, were both napping. One had fallen asleep playing fucking candy crush on his phone, the other had dosed off with his flat cap tilted down across his eyes.

Alfie had seen them in the same moment I had, his arm around my shoulder tightening his grip, tucking me into his side a little closer so that I couldn't escape or do anything drastic.

Before we'd left the car he'd told me to put my hood up, tucked my hair behind my ears and under the hoodie. He'd opened my door for me and his arm had fallen around my shoulder, tucked me into his jacket as if I belonged to him. I knew it was so people would think I did. So that anyone watching us would think twice about whatever moves they'd been ordered to make. I knew it was also because he was hoping he could get me inside without anyone realising who I was.

Now however he was holding me tight to his side to stop me waking the dinlows sleeping on duty with my gun. With the metal of my handgun cold and sharp against their skulls.

Instead they were woken by Alfie's subtle cough.

He wore a smirk on his lips that was smug, the kind intended to put them in their place immediately. And they were. When they woke it was with a start, scrambling to attention, their eyes wide when they saw not only me but the fearsome bastard king of Camden Town looming above them.

"Nap time is it boys?" He asked them with a chirpiness to his voice which wound me up beyond belief and left them stuttering to spit out an excuse. Though of course there was no excuse they could give me that would see me forgive them for their carelessness. "Leave them to me poppet, you're here to see your cousin right so you just go an see your cousin..." He said, his hand on my lower back pushing me through the door to Michael's room gently.

I hesitated, gripped by a cold, unforgiving anger when I turned my head to lock eyes with the lads that had been sleeping on duty. It was only when Alfie spoke again that I stepped inside Michaels room.

And when I saw him that familiar hollow feeling returned and sunk its teeth in deep. The numbing bite I knew wasn't going to let go. Because he was everything Isaiah had warned me and worse and the grey light from the rain outside only served to create an even more bleak mood in that sorry little hospital room.

I trod carefully towards his bed. Heard the door close quietly behind me. Heard the slam of someone's body up against the glass seconds later when Alfie began "dealing" with the lazy bastards who had valued a little nap over my cousins life. When I reached Michaels bedside I felt this receding feeling, like all the blood draining away from body leaving me untethered and half alive.

He looked half alive. Half man, half the wires and machines the doctors had fixed him up to in order to keep him alive.

There was a scar near his temple, an old wound and not from any real fight either. Him and John, when Michael was only small, they'd been fighting at the top of the stairs and John had tripped him. He'd tumbled down head over feet and knocked himself unconscious on the radiator. Well now there would be a second scar not so far from the first. The wound had been dressed and though the dressing was relatively fresh there was still a little blood poppy which had seeped through.

"Hi," I said softly, voice so quiet he wouldn't have heard it even if he'd been awake. And of course the moment the word left my lips I felt ridiculous. Over emotional, a child playing make believe, talking to a sleeping half-dead man pretending he could hear me because it made me feel better. Made me feel more in control. And what was I supposed to say to him anyway. I wasn't about declare that I'd avenge him or that everything was going to he okay. I wasn't and it wasn't and there was no point kidding either of us. Especially not myself.

So instead I did the only thing I knew how to do when people were lost or almost lost.

I drew the sign of the cross, head to heart, shoulder to shoulder. Mumbled the prayer I still carried from childhood but couldn't be sure I still believed in, father, son, holy spirit.

"Amen," I whispered before dropping to my knees at Michael's bedside, the cold hospital floor reminding me of my knees when it chilled me through my tights.

I didn't keep a rosary anymore - my mother would have cried - but I still wore my virgin mary round my neck and as I pressed my palms together I felt the warmth of her copper medal over my chest. Tried to think of her as I whispered a prayer to Saint Anthony. The only prayer I could really still remember because in her last year our mother had had us recite prayers to the patron saint of miracles every morning and night without ever telling us what miracle it was for which we were begging.

The older I had grown the more I had understood that the miracle had been for her. To save her from the curse which ran in our blood. The hollow feeling which gripped me now.

"Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints," I whispered, "Saint Anthony pray for us." I said, eyes closed, palm to palm on the hospital floor. My forehead resting against the cool metal bedframe which held my unconscious cousin. "Saint Anthony, pray for us." I said it again, realising I could not remember the prayer as well as I had thought. Feeling untethered when I tried to conjor the memory of my mother kneeling by the fireplace in watery lane, praying to our statue of the virgin mary. When I realised how far from her, from home, I had grown.

"Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints, Saint Anthony, whose heart was ever full of human sympathy, pray for us..." I said, my lips moving quickly and quietly as I struggled to remember the flow and rhythm of the prayer. Outside I could hear Alfie, his words were muffled through the walls but I could hear the scuffling and panic they instilled.

"Whisper my petition into the ears of the sweet Infant Jesus, who...."

I could hear the groaned pain from one of Tommy's men, could hear the blunt thud as someone slowed against the wall.

"Who loved to be folded in your arms.... The gratitude of my heart will ever be yours..." I knew I hadn't uttered it correctly, knew there were verses I had long since forgotten. But it was the best that I could do as I knelt there on that cold floor, feeling oh so far away from my family and from my home.

I thought of Aunt Polly. What she would have given to trade places with me, to kneel at her son's bedside. And I worried that I was doing everything wrong, doing her a terrible disservice, michael too.

I was glad then that he couldn't hear me. That no one was witnessing my moment of childish weakness. Me fumbling through a prayer I used to know off by heart, hoping god and the saints would forgive me. Know that I was only trying to pray on behalf of Polly, who would have known every word and still believed in every prayer she uttered.

"Amen." I whispered as the door clicked open behind me. I heard Alfie's feet on the floor, the corridor was quiet but for wheezing and I already knew what he was going to say to me when I turned to look at him from where i knelt on the floor.

"Come on poppet time to go yeah, think I might have caused a little bit of upset..."

"No." I said remaining in my place on the floor, my fingers skimming over the miraculous medal around my neck. I hadn't expected myself to voice the doubt outloud until the defiance had left my lips but once it had I wasn't really shocked. The reckless way I was feeling today of course it had.

"Eh.. now hang on a minute girl..." said Alfie, he kept his voice quiet and sweet but I could tell he was growing impatient, "I thought we had an agreement yeah, you've seen your cousin so now..."

"That was before I knew Tommys men are fuckin incompetent!" I snapped.

"Woah, woah now little girl mind your language yeah..." he said holding his hands either side of his head.

"I'm not leaving him here alone."

"Yeah... well he ain't alone is he, your brothers lads are with him, keeping him safe..."

"They were asleep when we got here, you don't really expect me to trust them now?"

"Yeah well they was, asleep when we got here right... but darlin they ain't sleepin anymore right and you see me and you yeah, we need to leave right, cause I need to get you out of here yeah, away from you know..."

"Danger?" I asked still sitting quite stubbornly on the floor. "So I should be worried then? You're admitting it isn't safe to leave Michael unattended..."

"I mean..." he started, one hand on the back of his neck, the other joining it as he stepped inside and shut the door to with his foot. "No... it ain't safe for you Sylvia, but Michael... your cousin here, he'll..."

"Be fine will he? He's unconscious Alfie, completely fuckin defenceless... That how stupid you think I am? I'm not leaving him to lie here alone in this place like a fuckin sitting duck!" I snapped still kneeling at Michaels bedside determined not to be moved.

"Alright poppet enough of that yeah, I've had enough."

"I mean it Alfie."

"Yeah alright so you mean it," he said approaching me with a sudden temper on him, one which sent my heart racing in my chest, more so when he pulled me up from the floor with one simple movement. He grabbed my arm just above my elbow and yanked me to my feet so fast that I stumbled straight into his side. He held my head to his chest and ushered me into a far more gentle hold, softening again so quickly I ought to have had whiplash.

"Well I mean this yeah, it's time to go sweetheart, can't linger here yeah, especially because your brothers useless lot were sleepin on the job, its dangerous yeah, for you... and its you I care about protecting right..."

"I'm not leaving him with them" I said a little quieter as I pushed away from his chest just enough that I could meet his eyes with my own glare. He realised I was going to cry before I did, saw the glisten of tears in my eyes before I felt them. And I didn't feel them because I still felt so very hollowed out, the only feeling I had to latch onto my hatred for the useless lads outside.

"Eh..." he said even quieter then, his hand on my cheek calloused and rough despite his gentle hold, "I know, I know... you don't wanna leave him alone I know Sylvia, I know..."

"I'm not fuckin l..." I started but his thumb stroking my chin left my words hanging stale and forgotten in the air.

"We ain't gonna yeah," he said stroking my cheek gently with his knuckles before taking my head in his palm and guiding my face back to his chest, holding me against him. Doing me a kindness in hiding my tears from the two of us. Allowing me to pretend they weren't there at all. "Now don't get upset yeah poppet, don't wanna get you upset yeah, been warned about that by your little lapdog right... tell you what I'm gonna do right, I'm gonna phone my boys yeah, get some real goodens down here, and they're gonna watch over your Michael, see he's alright... promise you, I'll pick a good few better than your brother did yeah, how about that?"

I listened to his voice mumbling his apparent promises to me, tried to calm myself with a few calculated breaths. Wanted to be able to look back up at him without tears glistening in my eyes. Wanted him to look at me as a Shelby he respected rather than a little girl he felt sorry for.

"Fine." I said knowing I had no choice. Knowing from the way he'd ulled me to my feet without a second thought that he could shift me like a rag doll whenever the notion took him and I would have no choice but to do as he wished.

I pushed back out of his embrace, his arm falling away from me easily, the smirk of approval on his lips when he saw that I had regained my cool glaze driving me to stand my ground.

"But we aren't going until I've seen them."

"Yeah," he nodded, his hand stroking my shoulder as he let me go, slid his phone out his pocket and made a call. Winking at me as he turned away from me and took several slow steps towards the window.

I stood where he had left me, suddenly cold as I pulled the coat he'd lent me a little tighter around my body. I pulled the hood of his pullover up over my hair and then I stood there, watching his back, listening to him as he spoke quiet and calm on the phone.

He lent with his elbows on the sill. Slipped his phone back into his pocket and then nodded me over to his side.

"Oh," he said with a smirk, a mischief in his chuckle with drew me closer to him out of curiosity, "would you look at that," he said beckoning me over to his side in the window.

I joined him, let him tuck me under his arm again as he held me close to his side and I followed his gaze down to the carpark where we could see our car quite clearly.

"Someones left you flowers look..." he said with a chuckle, nodding towards his car, a bouquet of lillies and lilac flowers wedged between the door handle on the passenger side, "now ain't that a bit sweet eh? Ain't that just adorable..."

I felt a shiver run through me, that blood draining away feeling flooding through me again. So he'd been right, we were being watched, the hospital, his house, perhaps both. Perhaps we'd been followed. Perhaps those lads outside had already been bought.

Perhaps when we walked out of here thered be Italian open fire ready to rip through us both.

I tried to swallow down the thought. Tried to ignore the creeping fear and accept what I'd brazenly gotten myself into.

Alfie let out a laugh as he turned us both away from the window and walked us far enough back into the room that we couldn't be seen from outside or from another window.

"Good job our Ollie's bringing us a new car darlin thats all I'll say yeah..." he smirked shaking his head, "fuckin Italians, awful cliches... awful." He tutted as he let his fingers drum that hypnotic little rhythm along my shoulder as he squeezed me into his side. "Like I said though yeah poppet, nothin to worry about... though I can tell yeah, already know you yeah... you ain't exactly one for worrying, aint exactly faint hearted..."

And then I knew he was just being kind.

@zablife @mollybegger-blog @liliac-dreamer @call-sign-shark @inalovesrabbits-blog @cocoaflowers

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[cyberphuck]

It peeves me a little that most fanart of Laurent Captive Prince makes him into this soft, uguu pantybottom boy-- (spoilers for the entire Captive Prince trilogy under the cut and discussion of sexual assault, torture, grooming, suicide and incest)

--when in the books he's a ruthless vessel of hatred and vengeance who is super okay with torture, rape, and torture involving rape for the first two books and only didn't get around to ordering the rape-torture of anyone in Kings Rising because he was too busy having a shitload of people publicly flogged to death. I love Laurent, I love his character, I love his story arc, I love his development through the books, but I feel like so many people forget that he becomes a more open person by the end of Kings Rising, not a softer one. The guy who knew Aimeric was being groomed by the Regent but threatened him with his go-to type of torture (the rape kind), publicly humiliated him, then goaded him into and enabled his suicide is the same guy that defends Damen in the third book and the same guy who immediately commits regicide afterwards. He's still ruthless, he's still dangerous, and although he'd feel conflicted about it, I think that he'd still order the rapetorture of anyone who stood between him and his goals. Do you think that he'd hesitate for one second to order a bunch of dudes to fuck Kastor to death (or at least pointedly look the other way if dicks started pouring in through the windows) if he'd thought there was time for that? Laurent isn't like Damen, and never becomes like Damen: not only does Laurent kick people when they're down, he keeps kicking them until they are dead of Kick and makes sure everyone knows who killed them and why. Pacat is asking you to consider all of Laurent in the last book, not just the parts that are nicer now that he's had non-incestuous sex and discovered clothing that doesn't take two hours to put on. Nik comes in to remind you what Laurent had done to Damen in the very recent past when he sees the Scars From The Time Laurent Tried To Have Him Whipped To Death While Also Keeping Him As a Slave and goes ballistic. Oh yeah, you say, Laurent did do that. Damen made a choice to forgive him for it, but the scars are very much still there to say right, right, Laurent is dangerous. We forgive him for it, he is making changes, holy shit he just killed someone with a chair. That Damen acknowledges that Laurent has done terrible things and still loves him shows what kind of man Damen is and how his opinion of Laurent has changed as they've grown closer and also had sex. He's not surprised when Nik points out the scars, and he doesn't try to hide them from anyone. He didn't forget about them. He just chose to forgive. Pretending that none of that happened, or that none of that is a part of him anymore, and turning him into Damen's Arm Candy is doing everyone a disservice. Laurent, Damen, Aimeric, Nicaise's severed head, everyone. Laurent killed so many people to get here and he deserves recognition for it.

[mariacallous]

About three years ago, some of Google’s security engineers came to company attorneys with a gigantic mess.

The security team had discovered that Google unwittingly was enabling the spread of malicious software known as Glupteba. The malware had corrupted more than 1 million Windows computers, turning them into vehicles to mine cryptocurrency and spy on users. By hijacking Google accounts, purchasing Google ads to lure in users, and misusing Google cloud tools, the hackers behind the operation were on their way to infecting even more computers.

Tech giants such as Google long have had a playbook for destroying botnets like Glupteba. They call up fellow companies and US authorities and together coordinate a massive takedown operation. Sometimes, the cops file criminal charges. But this time around, Google’s legal team recommended an approach that the company hadn’t pursued in years: Sue the hackers for money.

The eventual lawsuit against two Russian men and a dozen unnamed individuals allegedly behind Glupteba would be the first of a run of at least eight cases that Google has filed against various hackers and scammers, adding to a sporadic few filings in the past. The tactic, which Google calls affirmative litigation, is meant to scare off would-be fraudsters and generate public awareness about scams. Now, for the first time, Google is opening up about this strategy.

Leaders of Google’s security and legal teams tell WIRED they believe going after people in court has paid off. Google hasn’t yet lost a case; it has collected almost all of the more than $2 million that it has won through the legal process, and forced hundreds of companies or websites to shut down. The awards are trivial to Google and its parent Alphabet, a $2 trillion company, but can be devastating for the defendants.

“We’re disrupting bad actors and deterring future activity, because it’s clear that the consequences and the costs are high,” says Chester Day, lead of the three-person “litigation advance” team at Google that’s focused on taking people to court. Google, he adds, is “making it clear that we’re willing to invest our resources into taking action to protect our users.”

Google blog posts and similar content about the lawsuits and the underlying scams have drawn more than 1 billion views, according to the company. Google representatives say that the awareness increases vigilance among consumers and shrinks the pool of vulnerable targets. “Educating people about how these crimes work may be the best thing we can do to stop the crime,” says Harold Chun, director of Google’s security legal team.

Several Big Tech companies have pursued affirmative litigation, though not necessarily under that name and with varying strategies. Microsoft has filed more than two dozen lawsuits since 2008 with a focus on securing court permission to dismantle botnets and other hacking tools. Amazon has been a prolific complainant since 2018, filing at least 42 cases over counterfeit products, 38 for reviews fraud, three for copyright abuse, and, recently, two for bogus product returns. Amazon has been filing so many counterfeit cases, in fact, that the federal court in western Washington assigned three magistrate judges to focus on them.

Since 2019, Meta has filed at least seven counterfeiting or data theft cases, with settlements or default judgments in four so far, including one in which it won nearly $300,000 in damages. Like Meta, Apple has sued Israeli spyware developer NSO Group for alleged hacking. (NSO is fighting the lawsuits. Trials are scheduled for next year.)

Some attorneys who’ve studied how the private sector uses litigation to enforce the law are skeptical about the payoff for the plaintiffs. David Noll, a Rutgers University law professor and author of a forthcoming book on state-supported private enforcement, Vigilante Nation, says it’s difficult to imagine that companies could bring the volume of cases needed to significantly stop abuse. “The fact that there is a small chance you might be named in a suit isn’t really going to deter you,” he says.

Noll believes the big risk is that Google and other tech companies could be burdening the court system with cases that ultimately secure some favorable headlines but do less to make the internet safer than the companies could achieve through investing in better antifraud measures.

Still, of the six outside legal experts who spoke to WIRED, all of them say that overall Google deserves credit for complementing the work of underfunded government agencies that are struggling to rein in online abuse. At an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars per case, it’s a low-risk endeavor for the tech giant, former prosecutors say.

“Reliable and regular enforcement when folks step outside the law brings us closer to a society where less of us are harmed,” says Kathleen Morris, resident scholar of law at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. “This is healthy and robust collaboration on law enforcement by the public and private sectors.”

Google’s general counsel, Halimah DeLaine Prado, tells WIRED she wants to send a message to other companies that the corporate legal department can do more than be the team that says “no” to wild ideas. “Legal can be a proactive protector,” she says.

Marketing Scams

DeLaine Prado says that from its earliest days, Google has considered pursuing litigation against people abusing its platforms and intellectual property. But the first case she and other leaders within Google recall filing was in 2015. Google accused Local Lighthouse, a California marketing company, of placing robocalls to dupe small businesses into paying to improve their ranking in search results. Google alleged trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising. As part of a settlement, Lighthouse stopped the problematic calls.

Since then, Google has filed complaints against five similar allegedly scammy marketers, with three of them ending in settlements so far. A Florida business and its owners agreed to pay Google $850,000, and a Los Angeles man who allegedly posted 14,000 fake reviews on Google Maps agreed to stop. Terms of the third deal, with an Illinois company, were not disclosed in court files, but Google spokesperson José Castañeda says it involved a seven-figure payment to Google.

Castañeda says Google has donated all the money it has collected to recipients such as the Better Business Bureau Institute, the National Consumers League, Partnership to End Addiction, Cybercrime Support Network, and various US chambers of commerce.

Another genre of cases has targeted individuals submitting false copyright complaints to Google to get content removed from the company’s services. A man in Omaha, Nebraska, whom Google accused of falsely claiming ownership of YouTube videos to extort money from their real owners, agreed to pay $25,000 to Google. Two individuals in Vietnam sued by Google never responded—a common issue.

In 2022, Google won default judgment against an individual in Cameroon who never responded to charges that he was using Gmail to scam people into paying for fake puppies, including a $700 basset hound. After the lawsuit, complaints about the scammer dried up, according to Google.

But legal experts say the most fascinating cases of Google’s affirmative litigation are four that it filed against alleged computer hackers. The suits emerged after months of investigation into Glupteba.

Security engineers at Google realized that eradicating Glupteba through the typical approach of taking down associated servers would be difficult. The hackers behind it had designed a backup system involving a blockchain that enabled Glupteba to resurrect itself and keep pilfering away.

That’s in part why Google’s attorneys suggested suing. Chun, the security legal director, had pursued cases against botnets as a federal prosecutor. “I thought this would be something good to do from a civil angle for a company as well,” he says. “Law enforcement agencies have limits on what they can do. And Google has a large voice and the litigation capacity.”

Chun and other attorneys cautioned their bosses that the hackers might use the lawsuit to reverse engineer Google’s investigation methods and make Glupteba more evasive and resilient. But ultimately, DeLaine Prado, who has final say over lawsuits, signed off. Chun says his former colleagues from the government applauded the complaint.

Google sued Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov, alleging that they were the Russia-based masterminds behind Glupteba after linking websites associated with the virus to Google accounts in their name. The search giant accused the duo (and unknown co-conspirators) of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The lawsuit also alleged a trademark law violation for hiding Glupteba in a tool that claimed to download videos from YouTube.

Google argued that it had suffered substantial harm, having never received payment for ads it had sold to the hackers, who allegedly were using fraudulent credit cards. Users also had their experiences with Google services degraded, putting them at risk and impairing the value of the company’s brand, according to the lawsuit.

In court papers, Starovikov and Filippov stated they learned of the lawsuit only through friends and then decided to hire a New York attorney, Igor Litvak, to fight on their behalf. The defendants initially offered innocent explanations for their software related to Glupteba and said that their projects had not targeted the US market. At one point, they countersued Google for $10 million, and at another, they allegedly demanded $1 million each to hand over the keys to shut down the botnet. They eventually denied the allegations against them.

Following an ordeal over whether the defendants could obtain Russian passports, sit for depositions in Europe, and turn over work files, Google’s attorneys and Litvak traded accusations of lying. In 2022, US district judge Denise Cote sided with Google. She found in a 48-page ruling that the defendants “intentionally withheld information” and “misrepresented their willingness and ability” to disclose it to “avoid liability and further profit” from Glupteba. “The record here is sufficient to find a willful attempt to defraud the Court,” Cote wrote.

Cote sanctioned Litvak, and he agreed to pay Google $250,000 in total through 2027 to settle. The jurist also ordered Starovikov and Filippov to pay nearly $526,000 combined to cover Google’s attorneys fees. Castañeda says Google has received payment from all three.

Litvak tells WIRED that he still disagrees with the judge's findings and that Russia’s strained relationship with the US may have weighed on whom the judge trusted. “It’s telling that after I filed a motion to reconsider, pointing out serious issues with the court’s decision, the court went back on its original decision and referred [the] case to mediation, which ended with … me not having to admit to doing anything wrong,” he says in an email.

Google’s Castañeda says the case achieved the intended effect: The Russian hackers stopped misusing Google services and shut down their marketplace for stolen logins, while the number of Glupteba-infected computers fell 78 percent.

Not every case delivers measurable results. Defendants in Google’s other three hacking cases haven’t responded to the accusations. That led to Google last year winning default judgment against three individuals in Pakistan accused of infecting more than 672,000 computers by masquerading malware as downloads of Google’s Chrome browser. Unopposed victories are also expected in the remaining cases, including one in which overseas app developers allegedly stole money through bogus investment apps and are being sued for violating YouTube Community Guidelines.

Royal Hansen, Google’s vice president for privacy, safety, and security engineering, says lawsuits that don’t result in defendants paying up or agreeing to stop the alleged misuse still can make alleged perpetrators’ lives more difficult. Google uses the rulings as evidence to persuade businesses such as banks and cloud providers to cut off the defendants. Other hackers might not want to work with them knowing they have been outed. Defendants also could be more cautious about crossing international borders and becoming newly subject to scrutiny from local authorities. “That’s a win as well,” Hansen says.

More to Come

These days, Google’s small litigation advance team meets about twice a week with other units across the company to discuss potential lawsuits. They weigh whether a case could set a helpful precedent to give extra teeth to Google’s policies or draw awareness to an emerging threat.

Team leader Day says that as Google has honed its process, filing cases has become more affordable. That should lead to more lawsuits each year, including some for the first time potentially filed outside the US or representing specific users who have been harmed, he says.

The tech giants' ever-sprawling empires leave no shortage of novel cases to pursue. Google’s sibling company Waymo recently adopted the affirmative litigation approach and sued two people who allegedly smashed and slashed its self-driving taxis. Microsoft, meanwhile, is weighing cases against people using generative AI technology for malicious or fraudulent purposes, says Steven Masada, assistant general counsel of the company’s Digital Crimes Unit.

The questions remain whether the increasing cadence of litigation has left cybercriminals any bit deterred and whether a broader range of internet companies will go on the legal offense.

Erin Bernstein, who runs the California office of Bradley Bernstein Sands, a law firm that helps governments pursue civil lawsuits, says she recently pitched a handful of companies across industries on doing their own affirmative litigation. Though none have accepted her offer, she’s optimistic. “It will be a growing area,” Bernstein says.

But Google’s DeLaine Prado hopes affirmative litigation eventually slows. “In a perfect world, this work would disappear over time if it’s successful,” she says. “I actually want to make sure that our success kind of makes us almost obsolete, at least as it relates to this type of work.”

[zynart]

empathy machines & other-selves simulators

this is an excerpt from the much longer essay: “book lovers” don’t love anything about books and it’s weird (or, defending classic novels)

the concept of the empathy machine was coined, to my knowledge, by roger ebert referring to movies. art forms in general have the power to be empathy machines, compassion machines, tenderness machines, sympathy machines. empathy as feeling what it's actually like to be someone else, compassion as understanding that someone else also feels things you feel, tenderness as feeling seen and empathised with, sympathy as sorrow and commiseration because you see someone else, maybe the exact way you'd define them might be different but let's phrase them clumsily like this. the machine doesn't operate by itself, it needs you to plug directly into it, and the machine works differently based on your own nature and what you put into it and how you engage with it. most art has the capability to be empathy machines for someone empathetic willing to engage enough, but the barrier of entry is different

the magic of books is that they are a special kind of empathy machine that puts you directly inside the mind of another human being, almost like an other-selves simulator. other-interiority simulator, other-inner-self simulator, whatever you'd like to call it. which makes them uniquely powerful as an empathy machine, even compared to other types of art. how it feels to be someone else is the most unbreakable, most fundamental barrier in existence. it's the AT fields from evangelion and the argument for the human instrumentality project, the impenetrability of that barrier is the reason for wallfacers in the three-body problem, its how sufis and ascetics fall in love with god when nobody else but the omniscient can ever ever truly know what it's like to be you and feel what you feel

this can't be conveyed in the same way in mediums like movies or plays where the medium itself is from an external point of view and is viewed through this barrier of the mind, and is harder to convey in structured forms like poetry which may not be able to capture the endless variety of form and expression within our thoughts and feelings and experiences (or, going back to kundera, the freedom of form within the novel as enabling polyphony). i think the closest art forms in that sense may be music, which also has a relative freedom of form and the ability to express depths of feeling both individually and through the interaction of music with words and even the sequencing of tracks across an album, and video games, which may not directly put you in the mind of someone else the way books do and which may at first glance seem like they belong alongside movies in being seen through the AT field but where the difference is that in a video game your character makes *choices* and you feel how it feels to make those choices as an agent — even if you're not inhabiting someone else's thoughts, you're feeling how it feels to be someone who experienced and did certain things and made certain choices. but i think there's still plenty about books that is unique. the empathy machine has to be collaborative, your imagination is a necessary creative or generative aspect for it to be a novel and not just a report of events

booktok/booktwt "book lovers" often act like books have some kind of sacred and mystical power but don't seem to be able to justify this idea in how they engage with literature, beyond this sense of books as an identity signifier or aesthetic or accessory. but books do have a certain sacred and mystical power — that they are invitations, almost portals, you could call them pensieves even, where someone gives you a window into another mind. (not just the writer's own mind — the mirror of books as an empathy machine is how even writing itself is an empathy machine of an activity that asks the writer to empathize up a creation — which is also partly why i think that to be a good writer you should also be a good reader).

in much of online, the idea that any book or piece of media that isn’t personally relatable would naturally be boring and impossible to connect with is so widely accepted that it’s never even really a point of dispute. i want to say it should be, and that we should start disputing it. because i think the magic of books and fiction in general is that it’s a way for you to exercise your empathy muscles. the characters or settings don’t have to be “relatable” for you to be able to relate to it: it’s just about stretching your capacity for empathy a little bit, inhabiting someone different from you with a life different from yours, seeing the world through their eyes, and ultimately learning something about yourself, the world, and humanity as a result. i think it’s important to make this argument forcefully and not let this narcotic view of art — that it’s natural and expected for us to only be able to enjoy art that is relatable, that relatability is a merit and unrelatability is a flaw in itself — not become even more hegemonic.

if you liked this, you might like some of my other pieces:

there are things we owe to each other (and calling selfishness “self-care” is a bullshit excuse) | humanity is worth loving, humans are worth saving | ok, fine, my social justice politics feel a bit like religion sometimes and that’s ok | i trained a neural net on 10,000 irony-poisoned tweets and it just gave me cringe? | stop complaining about SJWs and try a little empathy

what makes someone good, bad, cancelled, or redeemed? i don’t know either! | there’s no grand unified theory of morality that can tell me why i should forgive my mother. but i do | please tell me if you have a definitive answer on what makes someone a bad person

what makes it all worth it for you? (or: florence welch was right) | i just want to become someone who can find something that gives me peace | after the deluge (short story) (dispatch from an island state post climate apocalypse) | poetry piece 1

[anarchywoofwoof]

It's funny about the homeschooling thing: I had friends who were homeschooled and I cannot express how badly many of us wish our parents had the means to do so.

I was sick so often (bad immune system, endometriosis before they had a term for it) we had to go to court to defend ourselves for "truancy." I had straight A's. When I was there, I swept the tests. But they want you there in person, or else.

To not have had to wait in the cold or blazing heat without gear because poor and our parents had to be at work at 6am......

I know there are plenty of parents not cut out for it or who weren't trained and would give a subpar education, but wouldn't it be great if as humans we had so much time on our hands that we COULD?

Like every adult had so much time they could educate themselves on at least one or two subjects until a little human comes around and then Get Excited to tell them!! About the thing they learned!! Some adults really like space, some love crochet or woodworking - to see all your teachers (adults in your community) passionate about subjects and to have the freedom to express your own like or dislike or take breaks when you need to without judgement? To work at your own pace?? God I want for that future. Also tech can cut down on infections/flu and illness spreading because idiot schools INSIST on keeping 100's of students locked into tiny rooms with poor ventilation. Our school wouldn't let us open the windows during the heat of summer. Because reasons?? Note, we didn't have air conditioning.

thanks for sharing this.

so here's the thing: although i was homeschooled (really, more "no schooled" than anything), i was able to teach myself on the internet. when i was growing up, the internet was just really taking off (jesus christ i feel old saying that) and it enabled me to really just kind of teach myself whatever i wanted. so as i grew older, i grew more resourceful, more digitally literate and crafted my own education.

now the downside to this is that if you want to go into a highly-skilled field or something like science, mathematics, etc. that kind of thing is hard to pull off in a home setting.

for instance, i had absolutely no science "classes" during my school life because the amount of equipment and knowledge needed is far surpassed what my truck driver father and leasing agent mother could provide

keep in mind, i didn't have tutors. i didn't have in-house teachers. it was my fucking dad teaching me between his time working from 3 PM to 1 AM and my mom checking my homework when she remembered and after she got home from work at 5 PM. most days, i didn't have "school." i slept in and did whatever i wanted throughout the rest of the day. luckily, i was addicted to knowledge regardless, so it all worked out for me.

i'm not opposed to the idea of homeschooling, i should stress this. i won't necessarily go to the extremes of calling it child abuse or something like that. but i do think it's wise to remember that a school has entire staff dedicated to teaching your child and that perhaps it takes some hubris to assume you can fulfill your kids learning needs the same way that a staff of (hopefully) trained professionals can.

i think homeschooling is more possible than ever in the current digital world that we occupy. but my parents definitely didn't have the time, money, patience or any other of the valuable resources that you need to teach a kid from 1st grade to their senior year of high school. especially in the late 90's, early 00's, which is when i grew up.

and the problem is often that most parents don't actually have these resources, but still think that they're more than capable of meeting all of those needs that i mentioned before. unfortunately, this ends up hurting their kid the most when they go out into the world with absolutely no clue how to function in it socially.

[prajna-alva]

Exploring the Depths: Active Directory Penetration Testing and the Enigma of Kerberos

Introduction

In the world of cybersecurity, staying one step ahead of potential threats is paramount. To safeguard an organization's sensitive information and network resources, it's crucial to regularly assess vulnerabilities and weaknesses. One potent approach is Active Directory (AD) penetration testing, which is an essential part of assessing and fortifying network security. This article delves into the intricacies of Active Directory penetration testing and the often elusive realm of Kerberos authentication.

Active Directory Penetration Testing: Unearthing Vulnerabilities

Active Directory, the cornerstone of identity management in Windows environments, serves as a centralized repository for user and system information, including authentication data. For cybercriminals, compromising AD can open the doors to a treasure trove of sensitive information. To counter this threat, organizations employ penetration testing to simulate real-world attacks and identify vulnerabilities.

Goals of Active Directory Penetration Testing

Identify Weak Passwords: One of the most common vulnerabilities is weak or easily guessable passwords. Penetration testers aim to uncover users with weak passwords and prompt them to strengthen their credentials.

Discover Misconfigured Permissions: Unauthorized access to resources can result from misconfigured permissions. Penetration testing assesses whether users have permissions that they shouldn't, potentially exposing sensitive data.

Locate Unpatched Systems: Outdated systems are susceptible to known vulnerabilities. Identifying and patching these systems is a critical goal of penetration testing.

Assess Kerberos Authentication: Active Directory relies heavily on Kerberos for secure authentication. Understanding Kerberos is essential for a thorough AD penetration test.

Kerberos: The Protector of Authentication

Kerberos, a network authentication protocol, plays a pivotal role in securing Active Directory environments. Named after the mythological three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades, Kerberos acts as a guardian for network communication. Understanding how it works is vital for both defenders and attackers.

The Key Concepts of Kerberos

Authentication Tickets: In Kerberos, authentication occurs through tickets. A Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) is obtained during initial authentication, and this TGT is used to request access to various resources without re-entering credentials.

Principle of Need to Know: Kerberos enforces the principle of "need to know." A user can access only the resources for which they have tickets, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

Realms and Trust: In a multi-domain environment, Kerberos realms establish trust relationships between domains. Trust enables users from one domain to access resources in another.

Encryption: Kerberos relies on encryption to protect sensitive information, such as passwords and tickets. Encryption keys are generated dynamically during authentication.

Penetration Testing Kerberos: A Delicate Balancing Act

Penetration testing for Kerberos authentication involves a delicate balancing act between assessing security measures and not disrupting normal operations. Here are some critical aspects of Kerberos-focused penetration testing:

1. AS-REP Roasting

AS-REP Roasting is a common attack that exploits weak or vulnerable user accounts. Penetration testers attempt to retrieve Authentication Service (AS) tickets without the need for valid login credentials. This technique targets accounts with pre-authentication disabled, making them vulnerable to brute-force attacks.

2. Pass-the-Ticket Attacks

Pass-the-Ticket attacks involve stealing Ticket Granting Tickets (TGTs) from compromised systems. Attackers can then use these stolen TGTs to gain unauthorized access to other network resources. Penetration testing assesses the organization's ability to detect and defend against such attacks.

3. Golden Ticket Attacks

Golden Ticket attacks involve forging TGTs, effectively granting attackers unlimited access to the domain. Penetration testers may attempt to create Golden Tickets to evaluate the AD's resilience against this advanced attack.

4. Silver Ticket Attacks

Silver Tickets are used for unauthorized access to specific services or resources. A penetration test may focus on creating Silver Tickets to assess the AD's ability to detect and prevent such attacks.

[goshdangronpa]

I’m no mystery writer. I can’t promise airtight murder cases. Still, I have quite a lot of ideas for the first chapter of "I DISAGREE: An Ibuki Mioda SDR2 Protag Swap AU." Let me piece together something - or some of something, anyway - for our new protagonist to piece together in her first pitched battle against sheer despair. Strap in, cuz it’s a long one.

We've All Been Looking for the One: The First Trial

The Monokuma File only confirms the obvious. The victim: Chiaki Nanami, Ultimate Gamer. Time of death: when else but in the dead of night? Cause of death: impalement, as evidenced by the gushing tunnel connecting gut and back.

Ibuki screamed even louder than Hiyoko, drawing everyone - including the bear. Hajime vomited. Byakuya fell on his knees. Fuyuhiko bemoaned the bastard who did this. Mikan broke down. Monokuma cheered. Everyone else cried out. But with a limited window before the imminent trial, there was no time to grieve - only to investigate.

Let’s follow the investigation and trial through the main suspects:

Nagito finds the Ultimate Kendoka’s sword at the bottom of the swimming pool, definitely not where Byakuya had stowed it after confiscating it. Only this could be the murder weapon, and surely only its wielder could use it so effectively. Her do-nothing demeanor could be a put-on for all anyone knows, and her being barricaded like every other patient means nothing when Chiaki also somehow escaped.

<Peko Pekoyama!>

Fuyuhiko vigorously defends her, leading everyone to question why he paid so much more attention to her than anyone else. Ibuki notes that before even knowing the girl was sick, he noticed that she wasn’t at the restaurant and rushed to find her. Peko says they should stop hiding their connection. That’s how everyone learns that the two have known each other practically since birth. The Ultimate Kendoka is the Ultimate Yakuza’s lifelong bodyguard and companion.

Ibuki thinks it’s adorable that he did so much to protect her. The others feel differently …

<Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu!>

A few things become clear: the killer needed access to the sword, and they couldn’t have been stuck in a room. So, either a patient with help from staff (Fuyuhiko released Peko, who killed Chiaki) or a member of the staff on their own (Fuyuhiko did it himself to cure Peko). Fuyuhiko had already shown a willingness to kill before this sudden pivot to nursing. Maybe he volunteered specifically to become the blackened after all!

“No, that’s wrong!” Hajime’s been practically nonfunctional after seeing Chiaki’s corpse. Though he’ll never know it in this AU, her presence in the trials would’ve grounded him in a way no one else could, enabling him to suss out contradictions and find the truth. This is what allows another person to become the protagonist. With Fuyuhiko in the crosshairs, though, he’ll finally spring into action. “Peko would’ve died too,” he continues, “and he’d never let that happen.”

A few other clues will vindicate the pair. I like the idea that Hajime is Fuyuhiko’s alibi because they spent the whole night in bed together. Kuzuhina fans, rejoice! (Fuyuhiko, too straightedge to let the implications stand, insists they just watched samurai movies until they passed out.)

This is when Ibuki and Mikan realize something crucial. “She wasn’t acting like herself,” Fuyuhiko says about Peko’s recent behavior shift. He’s the only one who’d know what any patient was like before the island. It’s no coincidence that they started acting weird when they fell ill. The illness itself radically altered their personalities! “It’s like Opposite Day Disease,” Ibuki shouts, “or Being-Really-Different Disease!” (And this is why I chose Peko as one of the infected!)

Monokuma confirms their theory, but claims dibs on naming the malady he invented. He dubs it Despair Disease.

<Byakuya Togami!>

Up to this point, Ibuki’s mostly been little more than a contributor to the trial’s progress. Byakuya Togami dominates the conversation with his self-proclaimed leadership role. His keen observation skills and high intellect back him up. What he can’t quite manage is to piece together a clear narrative of the night’s events, though he still expects everyone to catch up with him.

Several things become clear:

The staff were around the contagious patients long enough that someone could’ve caught Despair Disease from them.

The symptoms of the infected cleared up after Chiaki’s murder, though the exact timeframe is unknown.

Hajime and Fuyuhiko are each other’s alibis.

Ibuki and Mikan, having also shared a bed (Hiyoko: “Hey, is that hotel a love hotel?”), are each other’s alibis.

(I've learned that two people can’t just be each other’s alibis. Just assume there was an awkward moment, very late at night, where Mikan and Fuyuhiko tried sneaking out of what they both know to be, respectively, Ibuki and Hajime’s rooms. They both ducked back in and apparently stayed.)

No one saw Byakuya after the group split and left Ibuki’s room.

Byakuya was the one who insisted on storing Peko’s sword.

He also insisted on keeping its location secret from everyone else.

The alleged leader and protector of the group doesn’t take the subsequent accusations well. (Being the only one on staff who slept alone that night doesn’t help.) Ibuki’s confident that he’d never murder someone in a million years, but vibes alone aren’t enough for others to drop their suspicions. This is her moment to shine as the protagonist! Her vivid imagination allows her to conceive possibilities that wouldn’t cross anyone else’s minds and devise creative solutions that most would immediately dismiss.

One funky idea I had for how his name gets cleared involves Chiaki’s nails. While examining her corpse, Ibuki notices dark marks beneath them - flesh, torn off when the victim fought back. Kitty had claws, but who bears the claw marks? Only one way to find out: “Quick! Take off your top!” With no choice but to remove his dinner jacket and undershirt, Byakuya shows no signs of that damage on his chest, arms, or back.

Pants are out of the question. At least, not until others expose their upper halves first. Despite Teruteru’s insistence, they start with the boys:

The slim Fuyuhiko is free of marks.

So is the surprisingly wide-chested Hajime … “but,” Ibuki teases, “you already knew that, didn’t you, Hiki-chan?”

Nagito has scars, but they’re old. Mikan correctly guesses they’re from past surgeries.

Kazuichi, who’s been near-catatonic since being discovered in his room, is reluctant to move, let alone strip. Ibuki recalls that his crazy pecs were exposed throughout his entire hospital stay. They thought that finding him with his jumpsuit zipped up was a sign of normalcy …

The others urge him to comply. With great reluctance, he unzips. This action reveals a bloodstained wifebeater.

<Kazuichi Soda!>

More on the murder and execution, next week.

PREV: The Killing Game's First Victim

NEXT: The First Blackened

[mitchipedia]

How Cory Doctorow uses browser tabs for productivity superpowers

Cory defends lifehacking, which “is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reason: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of productivity porn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.” But at its core, lifehacking is just a collection of little tricks that help people be more productive.

He links to his notes from a 2004 talk by Danny O’Brien: “Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks”.

O’Brien’s inspiration was his social circle, in which people he knew to be no smarter or better or motivated than anyone else in that group were somehow able to do much more than their peers, in some specific domain. O’Brien delved deeply into these peoples' lives and discovered that each of them had merely (“merely!") gotten very good at using one or two tools to automate things that would otherwise take up a lot of their time.

These “hacks” freed up their practitioners to focus on things that mattered more to them.

… everyone who created a little hack was faintly embarrassed by it, and assumed that others who learned about their tricks would find them trivial or foolish. O’Brien changed the world by showing that other people were, in fact, delighted and excited to learn about their peers' cool little tricks.

(Unfortunately, this eventually opened the floodgates of overheated posts about some miraculous hack that turned out to indeed be silly and trivial or even actively bad, but that wasn’t O’Brien’s fault!)

Cory notes that he is a pretty productive fellow himself, having written nine books during lockdown. And he shares a couple of his little tricks.

One of them is having “a group of daily tabs that I open in a new browser every morning. The meat of this tab group is websites I want to check in with every day, either because they don’t have RSS feeds, or because I want to make sure I never miss an update.”

These include news and opinion websites, Wikipedia pages whose edits he is watching, and also personal finance and ecommerce sites.

I do something similar: I have three folders of tabs: One I open multiple times daily, another that I also open multiple times daily, but less often than the first group, and a third that I open 1x/day. I call them, imaginatively enough, “First,” “Second” and “Daily.” The first group is social media replies, the second group is social media streams, and the third group has more social streams, Discord channels and one or two blogs that have lousy or nonexistent RSS feeds.

Tabs, like lifehacks, are also in bad odor. Everyone stresses about how many tabs they have open…. But this is a very different way to think about tabs. Rather than opening a window full of tabs that need your detailed, once-off attention later, this method is about using groups of tabs so that you can pay cursory, frequent attention to them.

I find RSS, newsletters and daily tab groups do the same job, enable me to check on a couple of hundred websites daily in very little time. I currently use the NewsBlur RSS reader, which is also a great place to read newsletters. (If you don’t like NewsBlur, my friend Barbara Krasnoff writes up five good RSS readers.)

Also:

My little tab habit is so incredibly useful, such a powerful way to seize back time and power from powerful actors who impose burdens on me, that I sometimes forget how, for other people, tabs are a symptom of a life that’s spiraling out of control. For me, a couple hundred tabs are a symbol of a couple hundred tasks that I’m totally on top of, a symbol of control wrestled back from others who are hostile to my interests.

Cory talks about how tabs are an example of “generative” technology—innovations that users implement in ways that were unanticipated by people who developed technology.

It occurs to me that a reason I love the Obsidian documents app is that it’s an example of “generative” technology. I use Obsidian in weird ways that don’t seem to be the designers’ intent, but it works well for me—and I think that actually is part of the designers’ intent.

[1-800-cuupid]

Hello, how are you doing? I wanted to say thank you so much to share the info about the s4 cas tool and randomizer. I'm doing a video about it to inform my subscribers. My channel is Simstina. I wanted to ask you please, could you send me the file that you have download on the nexus mods? The tool itself. I would like to check that also and see what did the hacker to analyze for the video. Thank youso muchi advance!

Hi! I highly encourage that you don't download the file or have it on your computer. It's likely that if you have windows defender enabled that windows will catch it but having what could possibly be a backdoor, key-logger, etc. on your pc isn't a good idea.

If you still insist, I would download it via a virtual machine (VMware) and make sure shared system folders is off before you start messing around with anything. The nexus and mega links are all down but I have an icedrive link that is still up. I'll DM it to you.

[fresh-002]

Here are 7 reasons why being both a ghost and a necromancer is totally awesome:

#1 - You get to control undead minions! You already possess supernatural powers as a ghost, but adding necromancy increases your influence tenfold. Summon skeletons, zombies, ghouls or even demons to serve your evil will and scare people witless. Your legion of loyal servants creates fearsome opponents, giving you a tactical advantage against anyone foolish enough to cross you. The possibility of unlimited power through raising dead minions keeps you grinning with delight whenever you cast spells successfully.

#2 - Invisibility lets you explore anywhere without getting caught. Nobody suspects anything fishy when objects move around silently nor when doors creak open seemingly by themselves, making life easy for someone trying to avoid detection. Slip away without notice and scout places before committing to action. With nobody able to detect invisible shadows trailing behind walls, you gather vital information crucial for executing successful plans. No obstacle stays in the way anymore!

#3 - Haunting gives you endless entertainment opportunities. Ghosts love playing tricks on poor humans. Whether it’s moving furniture around, slamming windows, turning lights off and on, creating cold drafts, or manifesting as a full-body apparition, spooking living beings remains your greatest joy. See them jump out of terror, and relish knowing exactly how fearful you can make mortals. It guarantees lots of amusement hours.

#4 - Ghostly presence enhances control over death magic, making you a formidable force capable of manipulating the forces of decay, corruption, and death itself. In addition to using the energy provided by nearby spirits, you have a natural connection to the veil between our world and the land of the dead. This link enables you to call forth spectral allies, imbue yourself with eerie magics, and bend death to suit your will. As a result, you're not just any necromancer; you're an expert in traversing the realms beyond, empowered by the essence of lost souls.

#5: Channeling malevolent energies makes others uneasy, causing many to avoid engaging in combat directly. However, your ability to intimidate and terrorize ensures they keep their distance. Even mighty adventurers who don't flee may still think twice about provoking you. Fear can work to your benefit, helping distract foes during critical moments while increasing the effectiveness of surprise assaults. By leveraging dread, you gain a psychological edge, and some adversaries may never realize how vulnerable they truly were until it's too late. Intimidation serves as a valuable companion for all sorts of situations involving potential threats to your existence.

#6 - Invisibility allows sneaking up on enemies for surprise attacks. Stealth is an underestimated skill, which when combined with invisibility becomes a powerful asset. Creep up right behind guards, generals, wizards, heroes or other characters, preparing lethal blows nobody would anticipate. A sudden assassination strike catches defenders unaware, leaving them helpless while you take out key targets effortlessly. Opportunity arises to plan ambushes, orchestrated murders, strategic sabotages, and cunning operations demanding stealth and finesse.

#7 - Necromancers understand spiritual dimensions better than most practitioners. Combine this understanding with ghostly knowledge, allowing you to weave intricate webs connecting various planes, including the spirit world. Use these connections to communicate with discarnate entities, bind or banish them according to your desires, manipulate astral energies to create illusory constructs resembling phantasmal warriors or monstrous guardians, plus perform many feats involving dimensional barriers. Enhanced awareness leads to more deceptively simple options.

In summary, becoming a necromantic ghost provides exciting possibilities for those willing to embrace their inner darkness and develop skills necessary to channel negative energies effectively. While the above list represents great advantages, remember that with newfound abilities come increased responsibilities. Choose wisely how to use such prowess, for the road ahead has countless twists leading toward either fulfilling destinies or tragic consequences. Good luck exploring the limits of your powers, dear reader!

[mbti-notes]

Hi mbti, i am an ENFP. I seem to have no problems with close friends and my wife but i have problems with more "surface" relationships and i cannot seem to "fake it" as well as the rest. What is wrong with me? I think this issue stems from teenage trauma where i was backstabbed by a very fake narcissist. He was very two faced and spreaded lies about me to the masses and tried to steal my girlfriend. I placed a lot of trust in the wrong person and got betrayed. The problem is that it became a

[con't: mental block. This is so stupid, i want to be able to be myself and be a better conversationalist to people, not just close friends or wife! Ps - another thing that makes me annoyed that i cannot fake it is this: i was talking to many friends and they mentioned wealthy high income earners who are working jobs they hate but still succeeded. I dunno if this is mbti related but this is sooo annoying! I am a high income earner myself but it is due to passion in my field and dedication. It is an inseparable part of my identity. IF i was ever in a profession i hated, it would show immediately and i would get kicked out. Which didnt happen.]

There are two issues to address:

1) Ego Development Problems: When people are at low levels of ego development, they do not see the world objectively. They are only able to see the world through the distorted lens of their unresolved ego dramas/traumas of the past. This woeful lack of objectivity should be of particular concern for NFPs because of the primacy they give to their past experiences when formulating their worldview. Having a distorted worldview enables faulty beliefs and poor decision-making.

For instance, your negative relationship experience of the past has led you to see new people as a potential threat to be defended against. You aren't able to show who you really are or see people for who they really are, so on what basis can you develop a healthy and satisfying relationship with them? Your past pain has hijacked your mind because, when you believe your "feelings" are an accurate representation of reality, you have no reason to question them, let alone act against them. You dutifully obey their every command to hide, evade, or run.

Worse yet, instead of doing the work of resolving and letting go of your past, the strategy you believe you should resort to is "faking it", which leads you even further away from your purported goal of having good relationships with people (a symptom of Te loop). When you wear a mask, nobody can see who you really are, which shields you from the pain of being hurt, but it also blocks you from forming meaningful connections - it is an unhealthy defense mechanism. You have made the choice, again and again, to forsake connection because you give first priority to your past pain during the decision-making process (a symptom of Si grip).

You have put the mental block in place and it is up to you to remove it by facing up to your pain and putting it in the right perspective. You call the block "stupid", as though you're smart/aware enough to know what's up, but it is just an empty performance as long as you keep choosing to let past pain run your present life. I have already written a lot about getting closure on the past, see the tags page.

2) Function Development Problems: Immature/unhealthy FPs generally suffer from self-esteem issues due to Fi development problems. Instead of facing up to those issues, it's easier for them to deflect and shift the focus onto others. It's quite common for FPs to blame/envy/resent others for the things they can't get a good grip on in themselves - their judgmentalness is a clear window into their soul. This is how FPs contribute to their stereotype of being moralizing and self-righteous.

Because you struggle with this issue of "faking it" and project it out into the world, all you see around you is how others fake it, without acknowledging how presumptuous and insulting it is to judge people like that. Are you claiming to understand people's inner thought processes when they make big decisions, or are your judgments entirely tainted by your own struggles with "authenticity"?

For instance, have you considered the fact that many people do not have the socioeconomic means to make their job "an inseparable part of their identity"? Have you considered the fact that different people approach life differently and some do not need/want to make their job a part of their identity because it would be unhealthy for them to do so? Failure to consider multiple possibilities reflects poorly on your Ne development.

You seem to equivocate about whether "faking it" is good or bad, but it's apparent you consider it bad. You chose the word "fake" which has obviously negative connotations, and you try to place yourself on moral high ground by claiming you are incapable of "fakeness". By concocting this moral hierarchy between yourself and others, you actively destroy the empathy you need for encouraging deeper mutual understanding, thus sabotaging your purported goal of having good relationships with people.

///

In short, ego development and function development issues have come together to form the bigger problem of you not having the courage to be yourself, which leads you to have an unhealthy fixation on anyone who can't be themselves as you define it. This is a great example of having a distorted worldview.

One of the main purposes of learning about different personality types is to understand, accept, and honor individual differences. Instead of treating new people as individuals, with the trust, openness, and understanding they deserve at the start of a relationship, you allow your negative feelings and distorted judgments to take over and corrupt the socializing process.

Healthy Fi:

You fully accept yourself.

You admit your limitations and weaknesses.

You are sincere and authentic.

You trust your feelings to guide you well.

You have good moral judgment.

You always make an effort to better understand and appreciate what makes people unique and different.

You actively make space for everyone to express themselves authentically.

You take people's behavior in stride because you set and enforce appropriate emotional boundaries.

You need not depend on others for validation because you understand that self-worth comes from within.

Unhealthy Fi:

You frequently struggle with shame or self-reproach.

You fear having your limitations and weaknesses exposed.

You try to avoid/deny/circumvent the truth about yourself.

You are driven by unresolved negative feelings and emotions.

You have questionable/problematic moral judgment.

You can't understand those who are different from you and cast them in a negative light as necessary to soothe your ego.

You are afraid to be yourself (and feel jealous when others are braver than you).

You take people's behavior too personally whenever it triggers your low self-esteem.

You are deeply afraid of being invalidated and feeling like a nothing or nobody.

For ENFPs, socializing successfully requires developing mature Ne and healthy Fi, as per the Type Dev Guide. It seems like you have lots of work to do.

[jyb125]

TressFX Hair plugin, Character Package, and Hairstyles assets released

We’d like to share with you our latest project, Defender, from the creators of the award-winning and Oscar-qualified short film Windup. We’ve integrated the TressFX hair system in Unity for both the HD Render and Universal Render pipelines. Our plugin enables game developers to access spline-based, realistic hair compatible with PCs, consoles, and even mobile phones with Unity. This AAA-quality, auto-simulated hair runs smoothly without needing extra optimization steps beforehand. Additionally, we are releasing a character package that has multiple hairstyles for everyone to try out. It will help you learn how to create high-quality hairstyles for your projects quickly.

You can download the tool and the Character Package for free at GitHub:

HDRP & URP version

How to use the TressFX Hair plugin

You can use any hair grooming tools to create hairstyles you like to generate curves, and then use our plugin to transfer them to a TFX file.

Then we can export the hair’s splines as Maya’s MEL files.

Once we re-import the MEL files back into the Maya scene, we can see the hair we created as curves:

We can now export hair groups using the TressFX Export Plugin by opening up TressFX->Export Hair/fur window:

Select the hair group you want to export, and then select the Number of vertices per strand. For long braided hair like this, I usually choose 16, and you can use a lower number for shorter hair:

Click Export! You can now save the hair group as tfx file and use it in Unity:

Hairstyle Examples 

The easiest way to learn how to set up a hairstyle in Unity is by looking at our examples.

We have five examples in our Character test scene. They are under Soldier->Hair Styles.

How to import tfx file as a hairstyle in Unity

For one hairstyle, we usually set it up as one Unity Hair Profile file, which includes the setting of the hair model and the hair simulation:

Unity Hair Profile can connect to multiple Unity Hair Assets, which are the .TFX files we exported from Maya. The reason we exported our hair as different TFX files is to give us the freedom to have different modeling and simulation settings for the different sections of the hair:

You can add more Unity Hair Assets by clicking the + button:

You can also assign different hair materials for different hair sections. Make sure to keep the hair materials number the same as hair assets number.

Adjust hair model and hair simulation

For the overall hair model we usually only adjust four settings: Hair Count, Hair Offset, Tessellation Per Strand, and Hair Thickness.

We adjust the Hair Count and Hair Offset to achieve the density of the hair we want.

Tessellation Per Strand is for the smoothness of the hair strands. A lower number will make your game run faster, and a higher number will make your hair look smoother. You can find a middle ground to optimize your hair.

Adjust Hair Thickness can help you to get the hairstyles you want. For example, you can have much thicker hair for Anime hairstyles.

For hair simulation, we usually keep most settings as default settings.

The ones we adjust a lot are Location Stiffness, Shape Stiffness, and Damping. 

For loose hair, we can set Location Stiffness and Shape Stiffness as similar values,  we use higher numbers for short hair and lower numbers for long hair.

But for hairstyles like braids, we should keep the Location Stiffness the same way as loose hair, but for Shape Stiffness we should keep it 1, so that we can keep the braid shape.

Damping is for how fast we want the hair to follow up with the head movement. For regular dry hair, we usually choose the Damping value to be 0.04~0.06. If you want the hair to move more like underwater or like cloth, you can raise the Damping to 0.1~0.15.

Wind settings

The wind setting is very straightforward. We usually set Wind Magnitude and Pulse Magnitude to the same number and the Wind Turbulence value as half of the Wind Magnitude. 

Of course, you can adjust any of those numbers as you like for your hairstyle. 

Hair Shader

In HDRP, We use built-in hair shader directly from HDRP. If you create your own shader and make sure you have the correct setting as follows:

Graph Settings

Material : Hair

Material Type: Physical

Advanced Options/ Geometry Type: Strands

Master Stacks

Custom Function node: 

Name: GetExpandedVertex

Source: VertexStrsndGroom (hlsl file)

Hair Strand Direction: 1,0,0

In URP we created a new Hair Material, If you create your own shader and make sure you have the correct setting as follows:

Graph Settings

Material : Physical Hair

Geometry Type: Strands

Master Stacks

Custom Function node: 

Name: GetExpandedVertex

Source: VertexStrsndGroom (hlsl file)

Hair Strand Direction: 1,0,0

Feel free to try it out and give us feedback!

[ad26140310]

Microsoft Windows Server 2019: A Modern Platform for Business Success

In today’s fast-paced digital world, businesses rely heavily on stable, secure, and scalable IT infrastructures. Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is a comprehensive solution designed to meet the needs of enterprises and small-to-medium-sized businesses alike, providing a robust platform for running applications, managing data, and enabling modern IT environments. Released in October 2018, Windows Server 2019 brings together cutting-edge technologies that support hybrid cloud environments, improve security, and enhance operational efficiency.

This blog will explore the key features of Windows Server 2019, its benefits, and how it enables businesses to thrive in an increasingly cloud-centric world.

What is Microsoft Windows Server 2019?

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is an enterprise-grade server operating system that provides businesses with the tools they need to manage networks, data centers, applications, and virtualized environments. Built on the solid foundation of Windows Server 2016, the 2019 version introduces a range of new features aimed at improving performance, security, and hybrid cloud integration.

Windows Server 2019 comes in several editions tailored to meet various business needs:

Essentials: For small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices.

Standard: For businesses that need full server functionality, including virtualization and cloud compatibility.

Datacenter: For large enterprises requiring advanced features like unlimited virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure capabilities.

These editions ensure that businesses of any size can find a version of Windows Server 2019 that fits their operational requirements.

Key Features of Microsoft Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 introduces a suite of new features and enhancements that help businesses manage modern workloads, improve security, and support cloud integration. Here are some of the key features:

1. Hybrid Cloud with Azure Integration

As more businesses move towards hybrid cloud environments, Windows Server 2019 offers deep integration with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. The Azure Hybrid Benefit allows organizations to use existing Windows Server licenses in Azure without additional costs, creating a cost-effective bridge between on-premises servers and the cloud.

Additionally, features like Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery enable seamless data protection and disaster recovery, ensuring that critical business operations continue even in the event of hardware failures or data breaches.

2. Enhanced Security

Security remains a top priority for businesses, and Windows Server 2019 introduces several features to protect data and infrastructure from modern threats:

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP): Built into Windows Server 2019, Windows Defender ATP provides robust security monitoring and detection to guard against advanced cyberattacks. It offers real-time protection, allowing businesses to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats faster than ever.

Shielded Virtual Machines (VMs): Windows Server 2019 enhances Shielded VMs, a feature that protects virtualized environments from unauthorized access or tampering. This is particularly useful in multi-tenant environments where different users share the same infrastructure.

Encrypted Networks: The ability to encrypt traffic between servers improves the security of data-in-transit, ensuring sensitive information is protected from interception.

3. Improved Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) allows businesses to consolidate storage, networking, and computing resources into a single system, simplifying the management and scalability of data center resources. Windows Server 2019 improves HCI capabilities with better performance, scalability, and integration with Windows Admin Center, a powerful management tool.

This allows businesses to build high-performance, fault-tolerant systems without investing in expensive, proprietary hardware, making HCI a cost-effective solution for enterprises and smaller organizations alike.

4. Windows Admin Center

Windows Admin Center is a centralized management tool that simplifies the administration of Windows Server 2019 environments. It provides a browser-based interface to manage on-premises servers and cloud resources without needing complex remote desktop or PowerShell connections.

Windows Admin Center streamlines the process of deploying, monitoring, and maintaining server infrastructure, making it easier for IT administrators to handle daily operations like backups, performance monitoring, and system updates from one interface.

5. Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)

Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) is a feature that enables businesses to build scalable, highly available storage solutions using cost-effective hardware. In Windows Server 2019, S2D has been improved with better performance, faster recovery from hardware failures, and increased scalability.

Storage Spaces Direct allows organizations to use local storage devices to create a virtualized storage pool that can be easily managed and expanded. This enables businesses to manage growing data needs efficiently while reducing infrastructure costs.

6. Improved Linux Integration

With Windows Server 2019, Microsoft has made significant strides in embracing Linux workloads. The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) allows administrators to run Linux distributions natively on Windows Server, offering seamless integration between Windows and Linux environments.

Additionally, Linux containers can now run alongside Windows containers, giving developers more flexibility in building and deploying applications that rely on multiple operating systems.

Benefits of Microsoft Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 provides businesses with several key advantages, helping them stay competitive in today’s digital world:

1. Seamless Cloud Integration

With its hybrid cloud capabilities and tight integration with Azure, Windows Server 2019 makes it easy for businesses to connect their on-premises infrastructure with cloud services. This allows for more flexible data storage, better disaster recovery, and the ability to leverage cloud services without abandoning existing investments in physical servers.

2. Enhanced Security

Security features such as Windows Defender ATP, Shielded VMs, and encrypted networks offer powerful tools to protect business data and infrastructure. As cybersecurity threats become more sophisticated, these built-in security features give businesses peace of mind, knowing their IT environments are well-protected.

3. Operational Efficiency

Windows Admin Center and the improvements to Hyper-Converged Infrastructure and Storage Spaces Direct reduce the complexity of managing large IT environments. These tools simplify the process of deploying, monitoring, and scaling infrastructure, allowing IT teams to focus on higher-level tasks rather than day-to-day maintenance.

4. Cost-Effective Scalability

For growing businesses, Windows Server 2019 provides scalable solutions without the need for expensive proprietary hardware. With HCI and S2D, organizations can expand their infrastructure as needed without massive upfront investments.

Conclusion

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 is a versatile and powerful operating system designed to meet the demands of modern businesses. Its emphasis on hybrid cloud integration, enhanced security, and simplified management makes it a valuable asset for organizations looking to modernize their IT infrastructure.

Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Windows Server 2019 offers the tools, flexibility, and security needed to thrive in today’s technology-driven world. By leveraging its capabilities, businesses can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and better protect their data and systems.

[itpartnerllp]

Streamlining IT Management with Intune Implementation

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT management, businesses are increasingly turning to solutions that offer both efficiency and flexibility. One such powerful tool is Microsoft Intune, a cloud-based service that provides comprehensive management of mobile devices and applications. For organizations seeking to optimize their IT infrastructure, Intune implementation offers a streamlined approach to managing and securing devices, applications, and data. At IT Partner, we specialize in guiding businesses through the Intune implementation process, ensuring a smooth transition and maximized benefits. Here’s a look at how Intune can transform your IT management and how IT Partner can assist you.

What is Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a component of Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite. It provides a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution that allows IT departments to manage and secure devices, applications, and data across various platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Intune enables organizations to enforce security policies, deploy applications, and monitor device compliance from a single, cloud-based console.

Key Benefits of Intune Implementation

1. Centralized Management

Intune provides a centralized platform for managing all endpoints within your organization. This means you can handle device configurations, application deployments, and security policies from one console, streamlining IT operations and reducing administrative overhead.

2. Enhanced Security

Security is a top priority for any organization, and Intune helps meet this need by offering robust security features. You can enforce security policies such as encryption, password requirements, and conditional access. Intune also integrates with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to provide advanced threat protection.

3. Flexible Device Management

Whether your organization supports a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy or manages corporate-owned devices, Intune offers flexibility. It supports various device types and operating systems, allowing for seamless management across a diverse IT environment.

4. Simplified Application Deployment

Deploying and managing applications can be complex, but Intune simplifies this process. You can distribute applications to devices with ease, manage updates, and track installation statuses. This ensures that all users have access to the latest versions of necessary applications.

5. Improved User Experience

Intune enhances the user experience by providing self-service capabilities. Employees can access company resources, enroll their devices, and troubleshoot issues without needing direct IT intervention. This reduces downtime and increases productivity.

Steps to Implement Microsoft Intune

Implementing Intune involves several key steps to ensure a successful deployment:

1. Assess Your Needs

Begin by assessing your organization’s specific needs and objectives. Identify which devices and applications need to be managed, and determine your security and compliance requirements. This assessment will guide the configuration of Intune to meet your needs.

2. Plan Your Deployment

Develop a detailed implementation plan that outlines the deployment process, including timelines, resource allocation, and training requirements. A well-structured plan helps ensure a smooth transition and minimizes disruptions to your organization.

3. Configure Intune

Set up and configure Intune according to your organization’s requirements. This includes creating device compliance policies, configuring application management settings, and integrating Intune with other Microsoft services like Azure Active Directory.

4. Deploy and Monitor

Roll out Intune to your organization’s devices, ensuring that all configurations and policies are applied correctly. Monitor the deployment process and address any issues that arise. Regularly review Intune reports and dashboards to track device compliance and performance.

5. Provide Training and Support

Ensure that your IT team and end-users receive adequate training on using Intune. Providing ongoing support helps address any challenges and ensures that users can fully utilize the features and benefits of Intune.

How IT Partner Can Help

At IT Partner, we offer comprehensive support for Intune implementation. Our services include:

Consultation and Planning: We work with you to assess your needs, develop a deployment strategy, and create a customized implementation plan.

Configuration and Deployment: Our experts handle the setup and configuration of Intune, ensuring that it aligns with your organization’s requirements.

Training and Support: We provide training for your IT team and end-users, along with ongoing support to address any issues and optimize your Intune experience.

Ongoing Management: After deployment, we offer continued management and support to ensure that your Intune environment remains secure and efficient.

Conclusion

Intune implementation can significantly enhance your organization’s IT management capabilities by providing centralized control, improved security, and a better user experience. At IT Partner, we are dedicated to helping businesses leverage Intune to streamline their IT operations and achieve their goals. Contact us today to learn how we can assist with your Intune implementation and optimize your IT infrastructure.