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jeongyunhoed · 4 years ago

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A year after the events of Past-Present-Future, Lee Mirae, Choi San, and Jeong Yunho receive a mysterious envelope containing photos and notes about the deaths of several individuals. The deeper they go into the case, they find that the entertainment industry hides a very dark secret.

Group: ATEEZ Pairing: Yunho/OC Genres: It’s a little bit of: adventure, romance, mystery, crime, fantasy, action. Things to note: It also features mentions of other idols/artists: Junhong (Zelo), Dean, Chanyeol, etc. Superpowers AU if it wasn’t obvious as well. Featuring Enhypen.

T/W: Themes of death, violence, demons, cults, blood, use of weapons and/or firearms, use of drugs (both recreational and medical), implied/referenced assault, implied/referenced suicide

A/N: The main conflict is a reimagining of an actual long-running theory. This is also a remaking of a previous fic I wrote before on Ao3 that will now be under the new super powers au. (if you know, you know). This work is pure fiction and does not bear a direct reflection of the idols in the story. Please let me know if you would like to be included in the tag list.

A/A/N: Introducing Enhypen. hehet! Also, this hasn’t been edited as much. Shoutout to people I’ve been talking to about this, or at least bits of this. haha. Enjoy.

Masterlist

Two

San and Hongjoong stood across the street from the large boutique, the word Montague on display above in gold set against a black background with a gold border. It looked similar to the displays on toy stores overseas, mannequins holding handbags that San knew probably cost millions. He made sure to dress appropriately in the hopes of passing off as a model, as Mirae figured they would likely only entertain those who worked in fashion. Hongjoong was conveniently dressed like a designer, but an armed one. “So, this is where we’re supposed to go, huh?” Hongjoong asked.

“Mhmm. We have to pretend like we work in fashion, people that work in that kind of place can be very snooty. We need to move like we can afford everything in there,” San explained, in the hopes of assuring himself.

“Well, let’s get to it, we need to be back by dinner, at least Mirae says so,” Hongjoong nodded.

They crossed the street, San gripping the handle of the door and pulling it open. The interior of the boutique was, as expected, just as fancy-looking as the outside. A black crystal chandelier hung over their heads with the mirrored tile ceilings. The racks of clothing and shelves to display shoes were in a matte black. The mannequins in the middle of the room looked like they were made out of silver and gold. “Wow,” San looked almost in awe of the place.

“Those suits probably cost an arm and a leg,” Hongjoong muttered as they looked around.

“Hello, how may I help you gentlemen?”

They turned around. Behind them was a man dressed all in black, his hair slicked back. “We’re looking for your manager, I’m Kim Hongjoong of Hong Atelier and I’d like to discuss a possible collaboration with your founder, or designer,” He blurted out.

“Oh, you’re looking for Madame Seo,” The man replied. San sensed that there was something off about the way he said her name. “Will you follow me, she’s in her office,” He walked off further down the boutique and up a staircase illuminated with small spotlights above their heads against matte black walls.

“Rather dark in here, isn’t it?” San quipped as they were led down a hall with leopard-print floors.

“Madame Seo prefers it that way. The daylight doesn’t do much for the fabrics, at least that’s what she says,” The man replied, having heard him. He stopped in front of a red door and opened it. “You can wait here while I inform Madame Seo. Make yourselves comfortable, she’ll be with you in a moment.”

Hongjoong and San stepped inside the leopard print themed room, looking even more puzzled at the change of motif in this part of the store. “Quick of you to say something to that guy,” San sat down on the couch, eyes still scanning the room in the hopes of finding anything out of the ordinary.

“It comes with what I used to do,” Hongjoong shrugged, moving around the room to look around. “I see Mirae’s been doing very well,” He muttered.

“She is, she has been for a while now,” San reached for the remote on the side table to turn the television on. “You miss her?”

“I don’t know, but it feels weird to be meeting again outside the padded walls of the sanitarium I came from,” Hongjoong felt the walls, the leopard-printed wallpaper under his fingertips.

The program on the television went black and the sound of the program going static filled the room. San stood up, dropping the remote control. The screen began to show surveillance images of the two of them, before it changed to what looked like an information screen. “They know who we are,” His expression dropped. Hongjoong froze in his place.

The screen went to black again, before more static came on. “I’m good with faces, you have been warned. Don’t snoop around where you’re not supposed to,” said the words that were appearing on the screen.

“Time to go,” San and Hongjoong raced for the door, the former already reaching into his coat for his harpoon gun. As they opened it, they saw the employee, pointing a gun at them.

“We ran your faces, we know who you are,” The man said, gesturing for them to move back into the room. “There’s no Hong Atelier, but there is that sanitarium, right?” He turned to Hongjoong. “As for you? Offshore accounts here and there, taking jobs for lowlife gangs and jealous wives, and you were involved in the Kang mob, both of you are,” He glanced at San. “So, tell us why you’re here.”

“You must be that full of yourself to also refer to yourself in third person,” San said through gritted teeth.

“Oh I’m not alone, I’m never alone,” There was a coldness in the employee’s voice. “At least both of you have each other when you die, Madame Seo isn’t fond of people lying.”

“Lying? That’s rich coming from someone who only has this as a front,” Hongjoong spoke this time.

The employee chuckled. “Oh, believing in that drivel those conspiracy theorists cooked up, are we?”

“She hasn’t denied those and we’re here to find that out.”

San could feel the frustration coming over him. Hongjoong, however, remained calm. “If you’re going to keep that gun pointed at us, you may as well pull the trigger, we know too much now,” He said.

“Good idea,” and just before the employee pulled the trigger, he fell to the floor, blood seeping out from his mouth and from his stomach. The blade that came out from Hongjoong’s sleeve was now dripping with blood.

“There’s going to be more of them, probably,” San peeked outside, the two of them stepping over the body. The other doors along the hall remained closed.

They looked back at the room they were coming from one more time, seeing if there was anything else they missed, until they saw something glinting on the floor. A puddle appeared to be forming from the employee Hongjoong stabbed. It was a puddle of black liquid. “What the- Is this grease?” Hongjoong bent down to look at the puddle closely. “Where’s the test tubes? Did you bring some?”

“Oh yeah, I have one here,” San took out one test tube from his coat pocket and bent down to scoop some of the liquid. “I have a feeling we won’t be let out,” He looked up at the empty hall.

They rushed down the hall and sprinted down the stairs, suddenly hearing screeches and cocked guns coming from behind them. San and Hongjoong skidded to a halt when a few more employees appeared at the landing of the staircase and into the main boutique. All of them were holding weapons. San quickly brandished his harpoon, eyes suddenly glowing as he kicked and punched several out of the way while Hongjoong sliced through the employees behind them with the blades in his sleeves. “This would be easier with my rapier,” He muttered, snapping the necks of some but his eyes widened when he saw how red their eyes were. It was as if they were glowing.

Splatters of black liquid hit their faces and staining their clothes as they fought their way through the boutique. Hongjoong pushed the mannequins over in an attempt to block the rest from attacking them while San did the same with the clothes racks in the middle of the store. From under the racks and the mannequins was a compartment that they saw had small packets of what looked like light gold powder. San snatched a few while Hongjoong hopped over to the front desk, grabbing whatever files he could get his hands on. “So much for taking the direct approach,” He fired his harpoon through a few, the blades as his eyes glowed, stunning each one of them.

The two of them returned to the fray, fighting their way through the store and disarming the employees who were still standing, using their weapons against them. Hongjoong nearly dodged one and as one was about to open fire at them, the next thing he realized was that they were both outside the store, the two of them on the sidewalk, with the doors slamming shut. “...What just happened?” San spoke, stunned at how they ended up on the sidewalk, getting back up on their feet. He looked down, feeling a kind of nausea sink in.

“I-I don’t know,” Hongjoong was just as stunned as he got up, sliding the blades back in place in his sleeves. He looked down at his hands, noticing some unusual glow, that soon spread up to his arms and all over his body. San stared at him, seeing the unusual static glow. “...What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know either, but maybe this was what Junhong hyung meant when he said you may or may not have powers, let’s go!” The two of them ran across the street and into the car.

Yunho approached the front desk of Kang Tower. It had been a year since he last set foot in the building, noticing how much had changed in a span of 12 months. From the minimalist Japanese-themed interiors last year, the changes he figured Yeosang made now made everything about the place in the art deco style, the walls and marble floors having geometric shapes for patterns, crystal chandeliers above their heads. The interior seemed to be a stark contrast to how it looked outside.

He stopped in front of the information board, figuring out what floor Yeosang was probably on. He could always teleport if he couldn’t find him where he first stopped. As soon as Yunho figured out the likely place, he rushed into a shadowy hall where he disappeared, reappearing in a dark hallway that he quickly realized was Yeosang’s penthouse. Just like the design of the interior of the whole building, Yeosang’s penthouse was decorated in the same art deco manner.

“Kang Yeosang?” Yunho called out as he walked further down the hall, the chandelier above illuminating the entire area. He looked around, creeping into the very bare yet equally opulent-looking kitchen. He was not there.

Yunho went into a shadowy part of the hall again, reappearing in what looked like an empty conference room. From the looks of how everything seemed to be set up, he figured that a meeting was going to be taking place. The doors opened and in came the mutant himself, his hair now dyed black and was slightly shorter than his previous blonde hairstyle. Yeosang stopped in his tracks upon seeing Yunho and turned to the group of businessmen behind him. “Gentlemen, if you don’t mind waiting a while, I will have a word with this man over there,” He gestured to the taller.

The group of businessmen nodded, dispersing into the hall, likely going to the waiting area. Yeosang closed the door behind him and Yunho sat down on one of the chairs. “It’s been a while, Yeosang, we need to talk,” He said.

“By all means, I assume you didn’t just come here because you wanted to hang out anyways,” Yeosang sat down on the nearest chair. “Having trouble, Yunho?”

“Well, not really, I’m personally not in trouble, but there are other people that would be once you tell me what I’m going to ask,” Yunho said.

“Then ask.”

“Madame Seo. Do you know her?” Yunho noticed Yeosang’s expression stiffen at the question. He said nothing. “Kang Yeosang, I need you to tell me what you know about her, how you know her, all of that.”

Yeosang broke into a small smile. “Jeong Yunho, are you really going to tell me all about that conspiracy theory going all over the internet? That’s old news.”

“Nothing’s confirmed, nothing’s denied either, I might as well find the truth out for myself,” Yunho was quick to match up to him. “I mean, Mirae-”

“Ah, Mirae,” Yeosang cut him off. “She knows, huh?”

“Would you rather she be the one asking you this?” Yunho raised a brow, making Yeosang’s smug expression fall. “I can see the way you look at her, the way you speak to her, you know. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

“Oh, that tactic, huh?” Yeosang chuckled. “Yunho, you’re a new immortal, you haven’t lived as long as I have...yet, to know that this kind of interrogation has already been done to me before. It gets old, if you pardon the pun.”

“Then tell me what you know about Madame Seo,” Yunho pressed on. “Or how you know her if you do know her.”

“She’s a hostess,” Yeosang replied. “That’s all she is.”

“Oh yeah? So she doesn’t own a clothing brand called Montague?”

“It’s possible the Seo that owns Montague is a different one, you know,” Yeosang pointed out. “But seeing as I can tell you plan on using your Mirae on me again in asking, Madame Seo is a hostess, that just so happens to own a clothing brand.”

“A high-end clothing brand,” Yunho corrected him. “You must pay her a lot for her to put up that expensive a brand, that coincidentally hardly anyone knows about.”

“Oh I’m not her only client, and that was years ago, I haven’t been paying for the services of her girls in a while,” Yeosang scoffed.

“Are any of those girls actresses? Aspiring actresses? Singers?” Yunho asked.

“You think I was personally asking for their services on me?” Yeosang couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “To answer your question, no I wasn’t, I could tell the difference between a regular worker there and someone who was forced to do all those things.”

Yunho nodded. “Just when we thought you were coming around, we find out about this. What else do you know about her?”

Yeosang stared at him. “She was a hostess to me, that’s that. However, she does have a hold on many powerful people in this country.”

“What is she holding over their heads?”

Yeosang smiled. “Time’s up, I’m afraid, I have a meeting with those businessmen and they would not appreciate being kept waiting.”

Yunho got up, feeling frustrated. “Alright, fine. But I wonder what hold she has on you,” He eyed the shorter male before leaving. As soon as he stepped out, the crowd of businessmen flocked inside the room. He didn’t want to leave just yet, he knew there were still some things he could find out even without Yeosang telling him. It wouldn’t make sense if Madame Seo knew he was a mutant and was using it against him. Yunho figured that Yeosang didn’t really care if anyone else outside their circle knew as no one would believe them anyway.

He approached the dark part of the hall and in a second, reappeared in another room in the building. Yeosang’s office. Yunho felt a tinge of relief upon noticing the nameplate on the desk. For an elaborately decorated building, Yeosang’s office was a little less opulent-looking but remained in the art deco style. Yunho figured if there was anything he could find, Yeosang’s

office would be the most likely place. There were plaques on the walls, showing the successes of the Kang Organization, some of them the deals that were made.

Yunho froze when he heard footsteps heading in the direction of the office. From the silhouette that was shown from the frosted window, it was an office clerk, Yeosang’s executive secretary. He hid on the side of the desk by the window when the secretary opened the door. The footsteps got louder, the clinking of her heels echoing throughout the office.

“Yes, Mr. Kang, I will be there with your proposal,” She said to someone, opening the drawers on the side nearest to Yunho, making him shift even more to keep himself hidden. “Yes? Oh, the Montague file? It’s just here, Mr. Kang.” He perked up when he heard the name of the brand. Yunho listened carefully. “Montague, Montague, and the Kang Entertainment deal, yes it’s all here, Mr. Kang,” The secretary spoke again, and a shuffling of paper later and the door closed again.

Yunho got up to his feet, his lips pursed in frustration. He quietly looked into the drawers of Yeosang’s desk until he came across a photo of Mirae, taken at Sky Sushi by possibly one of the event’s photographers. It reminded him of his previous assertion, and at this point he didn’t even care to get jealous. Yunho looked through the rest of his drawers, finding neatly stacked and filed papers. “Where are the Montague and Kang Entertainment files,” He muttered as he looked through the stacks for any indication of at least one of the two before searching the bigger drawers at the bottom and the wooden file cabinet in another part of the room.

In a sea of black leather folders, Yunho stopped at one of them that had a label “MTG” in gold. He quietly took it out from under the stack and opened it. It was a document detailing his financial stake in Montague. He looked at the date it was all signed. It was in the same year that the actress whose husband left her for Madame Seo was killed. Yunho closed the folder and looked through the files again for any mention of Kang Entertainment.

Yunho searched another one of the bigger drawers, looking through the labels of the files when he stopped upon seeing a black leather folder labeled “Kang Entertainment.” Before he could open the file, he heard footsteps from the same secretary again. Yunho closed the drawers, one of them closing with a slight thud, that made the secretary walk faster. Taking the files, he went into the dark corner and vanished.

Mirae pulled over across the street from Kang Entertainment. She made sure to look a little more presentable, knowing that she was going to do. She wasn’t even sure what she would find in that place, possibly full of celebrities and the people that practically work for them. This was just like Hyuk’s workplace, only she didn’t know anyone, and she wasn’t sure if there were mutants among them either. She ran across the street, past a group of fans that were staring at the doors, possibly to wait for any idols to come out.

“I’m here and I’m going in,” She said to the communicator to Junhong.

“Good luck. I put you in their appointment system, they should have your alias written down,” Junhong said before they hung up.

Figuring out the other entrance, she stepped inside and approached the front desk. “Hello, I’d like to speak to the CEO? I’m Cha Jihyun of Entrepreneur Magazine and I was supposed to interview him today,” She said the rehearsed coverup she had.

The concierge nodded, looking through a monitor. “Ah yes, Cha Jihyun. The executive offices are through the hall on the left, you can make your way there,” They gestured to the corner.

“Thank you,” Mirae exhaled in relief as she walked off, eyeing every detail of the place she was in. There were framed photos of their artists and posters of movies and dramas of the actors they had.

The farther she went into the company, she passed by a training room where three boys seemed to be dancing, music blasting from their speakers, possibly for their comeback. One boy was wearing a bright red, the other one was wearing orange, and the boy in glasses was wearing a vivid purple. In the corner of the practice room, Mirae saw more movie posters that included the names and faces of the victims. “Hello,” Someone said behind her, making her turn around.

“Oh hello,” Mirae bowed. Four boys dressed in green, pink, a faded blue, and yellow were standing in front of her, all of them holding bubble tea and ice cream.

“Are you looking for someone?” The boy in yellow and wearing round glasses said. “Are we getting interviewed today?”

“Oh no, no, I was just passing by. You must be a new group,” Mirae sensed something unusual about them.

“Yes we are, we just debuted last year,” The boy in the faded blue hoodie with matching jogging pants replied.

“Ah, I see,” Mirae nodded, unable to shake off the unusual feeling she was getting from all of them, especially the boy wearing pink and the blonde boy wearing green. “Well, good luck in your career, I should be going now,” She stepped back, bowing to greet them one more time before turning around to walk down the hall that led to the CEO’s office.

“Please interview us next time!” She heard them say from a distance. Mirae could sense the lingering stares from the four boys the more she walked towards the door.

As she finally stopped in front of the door that had the CEO’s name on it with a woman who was his secretary, seated behind her desk nearby. “Cha Jihyun of Entrepreneur Magazine?” She said.

“That’s me,” Mirae raised her hand.

“Please go inside the office, he is currently in a meeting and he’ll be with you shortly,” The woman gestured to the door. Mirae bowed in thanks before entering.

Once she was inside, she took in her surroundings. The CEO’s office was very spacious, very modern-looking, with three tall shelves of figurines and plaques of the agency’s achievements and sales. Mirae sat down at the very end of the couch, closest to the desk. Everything she would want to know would likely be in that computer, she figured, eyeing the laptop and the monitor on the desk.

The door opened again, and to her surprise, in came the four boys. “Our CEO said to keep you company,” The boy in yellow spoke as he sat down next to her, while the boy in pink leaned against the desk in front of her. “We’re very close to him, we’re like his sons,” He mused.

“Oh, I would’ve thought you were all back to practicing or something,” Mirae eyed them. “With what you’re all wearing.”

“Oh this?” The boy in pink giggled, while the boys in blue and green exchanged knowing looks, a smirk creeping up on the face of the boy wearing green. “We were recording a video for our fans!”

“Oh, we’ve been very silly, we should introduce ourselves, right?” The boy in yellow glanced at his colleagues, who nodded. “I’m Jungwon.”

“Sunoo,” said the boy in pink.

“Jay,” said the boy in green.

“And I’m Sunghoon,” said the boy in blue.

“For a rookie group, you all certainly don’t act like it,” Mirae glanced at each of them, acknowledging their introductions. The boys only chuckled in response.

“You have a very pretty neck,” Jay suddenly said.

“...Thanks,” Mirae stared at him for a moment. “I guess.”

“I mean it,” Jay sat down on her other side. “A very pretty neck.”

“Shouldn’t you be flirting with girls your own age? Or younger?” Mirae sensed that Jungwon, Sunghoon, and Sunoo were also looking at her the same way Jay was at that moment. They were looking at her rather … hungrily.

“Age is but a number, and a state of mind,” Jungwon muttered, also staring at her neck.

“We can’t date anyway, at least for a few years,” Sunghoon chimed in.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re all acting like vampires,” Mirae watched them closely.

“It’s also our concept,” Sunoo giggled, Sunghoon smirking from where he stood.

“Ah,” Mirae remained calm, figuring them out. “It’s funny you should mention my neck because, people from this agency were murdered, with marks on their wrists and necks…” She studied their faces for any change in reaction. If she wasn’t hearing things, she would’ve sworn she heard Jungwon hiss.

“Their blood must’ve tasted good,” Sunghoon shuddered.

“In that case, you wouldn’t want mine,” Mirae stood up, understanding completely what she was into.

That made Jay and Jungwon stand up, the four boys walking up to her. “We won’t know if we don’t try,” Sunghoon reached for her hand and turned it over to look at her wrist. “All that running through your veins, I haven’t had my meal yet.”

“You probably should,” Mirae snatched her hand back, her eyes widening when their faces had twisted and changed completely.

Their eyes turned red and fangs grew out from their teeth. “We will,” Sunoo giggled again.

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katehuntington · 4 years ago

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Title: In Bad Waters - part five Word count: ±4250 words Episode summary: Still in possession of the Winchesters’ belongings, Zoë meets up with the hunters on her next case. When it turns out to be a little more complicated than anticipated, she accepts their help in order to make an important deadline. Part five summary: Sam tries to find out more about Zoë’s past, but when he meets up with his brother again, he never thought he would have to reveal his own. Episode warnings: Dark! NSFW, 18+ only! Descriptions of domestic violence/child abuse. Drug use/addiction. Angst, gore, violence, character death. Description of blood, injury and medical procedures/resuscitation. Swearing, alcoholism. Supernatural creatures/entities, mentions of demon possession. Descriptions of torture and murder, drowning. Illegal/criminal practices. Mentions of nightmares and flashbacks. Author’s note: Beta’d by @winchest09 and @deanwanddamons. Thanks, girls!

Supernatural: The Sullivan Series Masterlist

S1E02 “In Bad Waters” Masterlist

Paragould, Arkansas June 16th, 2005 - Five months ago

A shrill whistle reverberates over the training fields. Children stop in their tracks and run back to the teacher, bursting with energy. “Alright! Good job, everyone! Red team wins!” A woman, probably around her thirties, smiles as she is surrounded by her class. Like they always do after practice, they sit down on the grass in a circle, looking up at their teacher, waiting for her to give the cue to head off to the dressing rooms. The sun shines brightly and stands high in the blue sky, shining down on them. Birds chirp, hopping from branch to branch in the trees surrounding the fields, while the American flag flutters from the frontage of a school building.

“Looking forward to summer break?” the teacher asks, laughing when her question is answered with loud enthusiastic cheer. “Aren’t you even going to miss me?” she pouts. “We’ll miss you, Mrs. Dawlson,” one of the little boys speaks up. More kids agree with him, causing their supervisor to smile, humbled. “I’m sure you will do fine at Oak Grove, Roy. You’re all going to middle school! Fifth graders already, my boys and girls are all grown up.” She observes her class, pride in her kind eyes. “I tell you what. Next Friday we are going to play lots of fun games, alright?” The faces of the children light up and they happily beam at each other, already excited for next practice. Their teacher lets them off the hook. “Be safe, off you go!”

All get up and bolt for the dressing rooms, challenging each other to get there first. Some squeal and laugh as they play tag along the way. All but one. The joy disappears from Mrs. Dawlson’s face as she watches one of the girls, who slowly strolls back to school. Despite the warm weather, she’s wearing a long sleeved shirt and blue sweatpants. Mrs. Dawlson sighs, clearly caring too much about her children to let this slip. “Laura?” The little girl looks over her shoulder, her expression blank. She carries her long, chestnut hair in two braids, her bangs cover her eyes. “Could you come here for a second?” Mrs. Dawlson asks, gently.

Laura drags her feet with her head hanging down, like a dog who has done something wrong and is now called back to get punished. The teacher sits down on her heels to level with the little girl, making sure not to talk down to her. But Laura doesn’t look her in the eye and keeps staring at her feet. “How are you doing, Laura?” she wonders, her voice friendly and calm. “I’m fine, Mrs. Dawlson,” she replies, politely. The coach hesitates for a moment, figuring out the best way to approach her pupil. “Well, alright. But if there is anything you want to talk about, let me know, okay?”

The young girl looks up and Mrs. Dawlson startles at what she sees. She can detect a dark bruise through her bangs, right above her left eyebrow. With her fingers, she carefully sweeps away Laura’s hair and reveals the injury underneath. Scared, the student backs out and turns her head away. Quickly, but without hurting her, Mrs. Dawlson grabs Laura’s wrist and pulls up her sleeve. What she sees then, would make everyone’s stomach turn; her entire arm is bruised. “How did you get these?” Laura’s teacher questions, a bit firmer than before. “I fell,” she lies. “Tell the truth, Laura. Who did this to you? It’s alright,” Mrs. Dawlson tries to convince her. “No one! Please don’t tell anyone!” The little ten year old begs as she pulls herself loose. “It’s safe with me. I promise,” her teacher assures. “No, I - I can’t,” Laura stammers.

By now she’s crying. Big tears stream down her porcelain cheeks. It seems like she is going to cave in, but suddenly she turns around and makes a run for it. Mrs. Dawlson lets her go and straightens her back. With a sigh, the teacher places her hands on her waist and watches the girl leave the field. Disapproving, she shakes her head and closes her eyes, swallowing thickly. “Poor girl…” she whispers to herself.

Paragould, Arkansas November 26th, 2005 - Present day

It’s still early morning when Sam pulls over at 2310 West Kings highway and enters the parking lot of the Ramada Inn. He left Zoë still asleep; apparently she really needed her rest. Last night, he wondered what was going on in her head and what she’s been through, as he went over the database she developed during her years of hunting. He could tell from the file properties that she didn’t just accidentally stumble on a ghost and got curious. He doesn't know the entire story behind her possession, but something happened. Something bad.

The first file was added over four years ago, containing information on a Diligo Vesco. ‘Diligo’ can be translated to ‘love’ in Latin, ‘Vesco’ meaning ‘eater’ in that same ancient language. A demon who served directly under the devil himself in the early years, one of Lucifer’s creations, if you believe the lore. Not your ‘casual’ black eyed rat from hell, like the ones Dad dealt with every so often. No, this one was much worse.

The name fits, because that’s exactly what it does; it literally feeds on love, by possessing someone and slaughtering the host’s loved ones. The demon doesn’t just kill them, though. A Diligo Vesco is one of the most vicious and sadistic of its kind. It’s been reported to take its sweet time torturing the victims, before actually killing them. Sam found case reports in Zoë’s database that described the gory details. Limbs severed, organs ripped from bodies, missing parts of the brain. Arson, waterboarding, skinning, mutilation. Ways of torture he had never seen before. One of them was called Blood Eagle, where the demon would cut open its victim’s back, break all the ribs and twist them upwards, giving the poor soul ‘wings’.

Since the beginning of time, these creatures are responsible for unexplainable and brutal murders within families and close circles. The Ade family murders in 1874, where the children were cut up and set on fire. The Green Family massacre in 1994, in which the mother of three slaughtered her children with an axe. These smart monsters play the game well, framing the vessel for the blood that the demon sheds.

The Diligo Vesco is only able to show its true face when the host is physically close to someone he or she loves. Until that time it holds on like a leech. An exorcism would be the only way to spare the life of the possessed, but this is where it gets tricky; the demon can only be exorcised when it manifests. By the time a hunter picks up its scent, it is usually too late. Most of the time the damage is done and the thing is long gone. When it does come to driving out the demon, the host nor the exorcist rarely survive. Killing these demons is close to impossible without harming the person it's controlling. Yet this is what his father and Dean must have accomplished, since Zoë is still walking amongst them.

Curiously, Sam had compared Zoë’s online database with his father’s journal, but the case happened to take place in a period of time from which a couple of pages of the book are missing. Zoë does not elaborate on the details of her own case either, but whatever happened, it triggered her to become one of the best hunters in the country. The list of creatures that she slayed after her possession is impressive. Zoë ended more supernatural spawn from Hell in the past four years than some hunters manage to kill in a lifetime.

Still pondering over this newfound information, Sam gets out of his brother’s car. On his way over to Paragould, he and Dean talked about this new Sullivan girl. The youngest Winchester couldn't help but to be curious about her motives, her past. Dean doesn’t get why Sam even gives a damn. He said it’s none of their business and if Zoë doesn’t wanna share, why dig further and risk getting your eyes scratched out?

While rummaging in his pocket, he enters the motel lobby and makes a left turn to the main corridor. The red carpet underneath his feet is stained and the wallpaper has come off at the corners, a sheer contrast to the Hampton Inn, where Zoë is staying. Here, the coffee machine in the hall spits out the most horrendous brew, they need a flashlight in the bathroom because the light is broken and the air conditioning sounds like a generator, but doesn’t actually do jack shit. But then again, he has a feeling that not even a freezer could have cooled down the rabbits inside of room 106.

Just as he takes out his room key, he sees that he won’t need them; Dean is already at the door with the blonde he picked up the night before.

“Call me,” she tells him, as she saves her number in his phone. “I sure will,” Dean smirks. They kiss once more. Both can barely keep their eyes off each other as the young lady parades away in last night’s clothes with a flustered grin on her face.

Sam passes her in the hallway and looks over his shoulder. He can see where Dean’s coming from; she’s beautiful. Dean has spotted the look upon his brother’s face, though. “Forget it, tiger. She’s mine.” “Had a good night?” Sam chuckles, hoping he will skip the details. Dean yawns and saunters back into the room. “Did I have a good night? I barely got a chance to sleep.” “Okay, already more than I wanted to know,” Sam cuts off, before Dean spills the goods.

He follows his older sibling into the room, finding one bed untouched and the other a complete mess. An empty bottle of Sauvignon lays on the ground, while a dirty glass still stands on the cabinet next to a half a bottle of Jack Daniels. The window is wide open, the heavy curtains wave in the wind slightly, but despite the fresh air, the room still smells like sex. Seems like they had one hell of a party.

“Let’s get going,” Sam announces. Dean looks aside at his little brother, frowning. Since when is Sam the one who gives the orders? “Already?” he replies, bummed, clearly hoping for a rendezvous. “Yeah, I found our stuff,” Sam informs. “Ah, so you found Sullivan,” Dean chuckless, raising his eyebrows.

Sam huffs and rolls his eyes, but his older brother doesn’t pay attention to it, tipping over an empty bag which once contained potato crisps. Apparently he’s hungry. “Yeah. It didn’t take me long to find her. Her bike was parked outside a hotel. She’s working a case,” Sam explains, acting casual, but Dean can’t help himself. “If it didn’t take you long to find our shit, then where were you all night?” Reluctantly, Sam sighs before he answers. No way in hell his brother is going to respond maturely to what he is about to say. “I spent the night at her place.” Dean laughs out loud, throwing his head back. “I knew it! You cheeky bastard!” “Nothing happened, Dean,” Sam states with a tone. “Oh, come on. Not even a little smooch?” he teases, but Sam denies. “A look then? You know, one of those cheesy Notebook moments.” But again, Dean’s brother shakes his head, although he can’t resist to comment on that. “You saw The Notebook?” “Well... no. So I’ve heard,” the oldest corrects uncomfortably, quick to turn the conversation back around. “But let me get this straight; absolutely nothing happened?” “That’s what I said,” Sam confirms.

After opening a pizza box that - to Dean’s disappointment - is empty, he stops searching for food. Then he turns to Sam, who is clearly annoyed with the interrogation. “Are your eyes fucked up?” Dean wonders in disbelief. “Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. I thought I taught you better than that. How can you spend the night with a woman like that without making a move?” “That’s it. I’ve had it.” Sam squares his shoulders and stares at Dean, furiously. His brother pissed him off, but Dean can hide his victorious grin. For weeks he has tried to push Sam over the edge, to trigger him to let it out. To yell, cry, take a swing at him if that was what his little brother needed to do to feel better. Anything to get him out of the dark hole in which he’s currently hiding up.

“Did it ever occur to you that I might feel terribly guilty if I would just head off with some girl for a one night stand like you always do?!” the youngest of the siblings exclaims. “I have no idea, Sam. You never talk to me about it, so how the fuck am I supposed to know how you feel?” Dean bounces back.

“And you think it’s strange that I don't talk about what happened?! My girlfriend was murdered, Dean! I was going to ask her to marry me, for fuck’s sake!” He pauses, growing even more furious. “I had everything planned out! Law school, Jess, everything!” By now Sam paces from one side of the room to the other, restless and upset.

“You were gonna marry her, really? Sam, with your background the chances of the American dream coming true was close to zero. You should’ve known that,” his brother reminds him. “I was just trying to move on, I was trying to be happy! And you know what? I actually was!” Sam halts in front of Dean and raises his voice even more. “I loved her, Dean! I still do and I can’t get her out of my fucking mind! She died because of me!” Dean looks at his younger sibling, sympathetically. “Don’t do that to yourself, man. It’s not your fault she’s dead.” “It is. I didn’t warn her about the danger out there!I lied to her--”

Sam intends to ramble on, but Dean intervenes. “- What makes you think that telling her the truth would have made a difference? Whatever killed Jessica, wasn’t just some ghost, Sam. Hey, listen to me.” The older brother grabs Sam’s shoulder and forces him to look down into his eyes. “That same thing killed Mom, and probably a whole bunch of other people. It’s powerful, and if Dad has trouble stopping it, no offence, but you wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“I’m not talking about stopping him at that moment, Dean!” Sam pulls himself loose and turns away. An unpleasant silence fills the room as Dean waits for a follow up, but his brother doesn’t continue. “What then, Sam? Talk to me,” he pleads.

Again that silence. The younger Winchester doesn’t move and stares at the wall with his hands placed on his waist. He swallows apprehensively, his jaw tensed. Then Sam sighs and turns around for Dean to see his eyes glister. “I could have prevented it,” Sam claims, his voice soft and broken now. Dean observes him, thinking through his next question first before he shoots. He has a feeling there’s more to this than just guilt. “How?” Sam bites his lip and averts his gaze. Then, after a month of silence, Sam finally opens up to his brother. “I dreamed of Jessica’s death, days before it happened.”

Complete silence. While the air grows even thicker with tension, Dean stares at his brother, his eyes confused and stunned. Taken aback, he opens his mouth in order to respond, but can’t find the words he’s looking for. “Y-you mean, as in… a vision or something?” he returns disbelieving, chuckling nervously. Sam scoffs as he moves away, ready to leave this conversation already; he knew Dean would respond like this. “Never mind.” But Dean doesn’t let it go. “You’re telling me that you actually saw Jess die, like she did, in a dream?” His younger brother halts, turns back slightly and eventually nods his head. “I didn't think anything of it at first. I figured it was just a bad dream. Until…”

He doesn't need to finish his sentence. Dean says nothing, instead he just stares at Sam. Several thoughts rage through his head. What the hell is going on with him? What the hell could this mean? Why the fuck didn’t he tell me this before? The sheer thought that something might be terribly wrong with his little brother, has his stomach in knots. This isn’t ordinary. In fact, this is as far from ordinary as a human can get. He is stunned and overwhelmed by the idea, but his own brother might actually be something a hunter would keep a close eye on.

Sam swallows thickly, feeling exposed and embarrassed. “You’re looking at me as if you’re about to empty a bottle of holy water over my head.” For a moment Dean glares at the flask on the table. “Dude, you’re seriously considering?!” Sam shouts, frustrated. “You wanna tell me that this is normal, Sam?!” Dean counters, raising his voice. Sam shakes his head and turns around, already regretting that he brought it up. “Why didn’t you tell me before?” the older brother questions. “I don’t know,” Sam mutters, staring at the ground. “You don’t know? You’re psychic, right?” Dean scoffs.

The youngest of the Winchester boys grinds his teeth, but doesn’t say a word. The tension between the two of them is heavy and familiar; it feels the same as when they had the argument before Sam took off for college.

“Anything else I should know, Sam?” Dean pressures, clearly worked up over this. “I don’t know, maybe you can stop bullets or run super fast.” Dean steps to the other side of the room with his arms folded in front of his chest, making fun of the situation because he has no idea how else to deal with it. Sam eyes him, following his movements. “Funny,” he snaps. “Mature, too.” “It would explain a lot of things. The ‘S’ stands for ‘Sam’ and there’s your love for tights,” Dean provokes. “Stop it,” Sam hisses, but Dean isn’t done. “Can you fly? ‘Cause that would be fucking awesome.” “Dean!” Sam warns mad. “What?! Either I joke about it or I lose my fucking cool! Take your pick,” Dean returns. “One way or the other, it doesn’t help!” the youngest exclaims. “You see? This is exactly why I didn’t tell you, Dean! I knew you would give me this kind of shit!” “What did you expect? You kept this from me for over a month!” Dean brings to mind, hurt seeping past the words. “I don’t have to tell you everything I go through. I don’t owe you that,” Sam makes clear, venom in his tone. “And that’s where you’re wrong,” Dean turns to him, pointing his finger as he approaches his brother. “I am your fucking brother, Sam! So yes, you do owe me that!”

Dean stares straight into Sam’s eyes, his head tilted slightly backwards to look at his younger yet taller brother. Sam can see his words struck a nerve. “We used to tell each other everything. What happened to that?” Dean wonders. “It left, along with me.”

Sam breaks eye contact and walks past him. As Sam bumps his shoulder against his, Dean shuts his eyes and clenches his jaw. “I know you’re pretty damn good at it, but don’t you walk away from me,” he threatens, not brave enough to turn around to watch Sam leave. “Why wouldn’t I?” Sam tests, not impressed by Dean’s stern words. “Because this is not something you can walk away from! When will that finally come to you? When you’re in, you’re in. There’s no way back when you know about the things in the shadows, especially not when you have fucking visions about it!” Now Dean does turn to face Sam, who scoffs at the message. “So what then, huh?! You’re planning to hunt until you’re in a wheelchair?” “No, I’m planning to hunt until I finish the job Dad left for us to do and along the way, I will kill as many sons of bitches as I possibly can. Saving people, hunting things, the family business.” He pauses, staring at his brother with fiery eyes. “I intend to prevent people from going through the same shit we’ve had to endure, and if I don’t succeed, I’ll die trying.”

This time, Sam doesn’t have a counter ready. No stubborn remark, no smart answer, just silence. He’s not sure what to say to that. He has to admit, he respects Dean for his morals, his honor. It gets him thinking, too. About his own future, his own life. Because deep down he knows Dean is right. He can run from the supernatural all he wants, but it will continue to follow him, always and everywhere.

“Why should we be the one to sacrifice everything?” Sam questions, less hostile than before. “I don’t know,” Dean sighs. “It’s just the way it is. So we either feel sorry for ourselves, or we suck it up.”

Sam nods, admitting, but not at all okay with the inevitable. He can never have the life he wishes for. There will always be more to hunt, more to kill; this is a never ending story. And even if he does turn his back on the business for good, will he be able to forget about Jessica’s death? Can he move on without scanning every street, expecting something out of the ordinary around every corner? Right now, actually getting his law degree seems impossible, but then again, maybe he was being naïve when he went to Stanford in the first place.

“Shall we go?” Sam suggests. Dean looks up at the defeated man. The peace has returned, but brought a sense of devastation along as well. Accepting his fate is hard on Sam, he understands that. So Dean decides they had enough arguments for one morning and lets it go. He got Sam to talk to him; one step at a time. “Can’t we stay one more night?” Dean tries, carefully. Sam frowns, but then understands his reason for hesitation. “Denise”, he chuckles. “Or Demi? I’m not sure. Her name started with a ‘D’.” Dean’s typical grin appears on his face again, his eyes still soft, though.

“Listen, man. I’m not pushing you to hook up with some chick just to mess you up, okay? At some point it’s gonna be time to move on, and I just figured a girl might help with that,” Dean lets him know, somewhat apologetic. Sam eyes at his brother for a little while with an expression saying something in the line of ‘yeah right’. After a moment of who-gives-up-glaring-first, Dean caves. “Alright, I wanted to piss you off so that you would get it out of your system,” he admits.

The corner of Sam’s mouth twitches upward; he knew it. He’s not mad at Dean for playing that card, though. His older brother means well and he actually feels a little better now that he told him what is going on. “Seriously, man. Talk to me when something’s up,” Dean underlines. Sam responds with a nod of the head, then he gathers his stuff, apparently intending to leave. “Ah, come on. One night,” Dean begs. “There’s something ripping out hearts down in Texas, described by locals as ‘possibly coyotes’,” Sam offers. Dean rubs his unshaven chin and thinks it over. “Awesome werewolf hunt or awesome sex? Tough one,” he ponders. Sam can’t help but smile and waits for the final call. “Alright, let’s hunt some wolf,” Dean gives in. “Do you need to change in a phone booth before we go?” Sam gives him a death-stare once again, but his brother keeps a straight face. “No?” he checks, teasing.

Dean can’t wipe the comical smirk off his face and so Sam shoves his brother towards the door, triggering him to let out a laugh. Before he follows, the younger Winchester feels his pockets for his phone and freezes. Unpleasantly surprised he looks around. “Lost something?” Dean wonders. “I think I left my Blackberry at Zo’s,” Sam realizes. “Naturally,” Dean chuckles, failing to believe he didn’t leave it there on purpose. “Would you quit it already?!” Sam returns, feisty. “Okay, I’ll stop,” Dean promises. “We need to score some food anyway, I’m hungry.” “There’s a In-N-Out a block from Zoë’s hotel,” Sam mentions. Dean’s eyes light up, imagining the food in front of him already. “A Double-Double it is.”

Sam grins as Dean picks up a small duffel containing only the few things they carry around at the moment. He follows Sam outside, who locks the door behind them. A quick bite before they leave another town and move on to the next. They never stay long, but the last two stops have been extremely short. Dean likes Denise, or whatever her name is, yet he has never been the guy who sticks around long enough to get serious with a girl. To be honest, a wolf hunt already sounds more fun than doing the girl he already did last night. After that shapeshifter drama, and now this newfound information about Sammy, he’s up for something equally exciting and distracting. Dean is sure of it; Texas, here they come.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of you, but if you do want to give me some extra love, you are free to like or reblog my work, shoot me a message or buy me coffee (Link to Kofi in bio at the top of the page).

Read chapter six here

#Supernatural: the Sullivan Series #Supernatural series #Dean Winchester fanfiction #Sam Winchester fanfiction #Dean angst #Sam angst #Supernatural OFC series #Dean Winchester x OFC #Sam Winchester x OFC #stss #Kate Huntington

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origami10 · 4 years ago

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I’ve been thinking more about my adogan story again recently... I just regained access to files that were on my old computer, and apart from absolutely REEKING of the year 2008, I still think this story is pretty good! I think some of the names are in flux, and this would definitely get edited if I ever incorporated it into a larger story, but this is still a pretty good introduction to one of the characters, Flem.

More under the cut!

All around me I see nothing but walls. Barely anything I do is because of my own choice. Closing in around me, these walls show no hope of escape. Deep down in my heart, though, I know that someday I will find my own path.

“What’s the news for today?” I hear my mother say as I walk in the door. A bit weary from another long day at school, I call to her from the entry hall. “Well, I got an A on my astronomy test, and I did my classical literature presentation today, so I should have a grade on that by the end of the week. And I have Ultimate practice tonight for our competition this weekend. Oh, and there’s a geography bee at school next week that I’m going to participate in.” As I walk into the dining room, I see my mother rolling out pastry dough on the side table. She likes to work there because of the big window on the far side of the room. “Good work!” she says approvingly. “Keep up those good grades. You know your father and I expect you to attend the university in Ellayne once you’re done with school.” I begin to escape towards my room when she says, “Flem, dear, I need you to clean up your room right away, at least enough that I can close the door. The Prizerns are coming over for dinner in an hour. I want to show them around the house, so I need the upstairs to look nice for them!” I grumble inwardly. Couldn’t she just leave my room alone? I know it’s messy, but it’s the only thing left that I feel like I have control over. So my room is a mess, what’s new. My walls, too – what color are they, exactly? Plaid? It’s hard to tell under all the stuff I’ve stuck to them. And the doors, too, are covered with stuff. It’s hard to tell exactly where, or even if, there are doors to this room, once I move the stuff out of the way so I can close them. Hey! - It’s just like a loony bin. Wonderful. I should probably take some of that stuff down. It’s not that I like to save things, really, I’m just too lazy to sort through all the stuff covering the walls. How many years now has it been up? Especially that magazine article about frogs. That’s from research I did for my diorama, what, ten years ago now! Wow, ten years ago… maybe I should clean my room. Hmm. At least you can still see the windows. Why aren’t they covered like the rest of my room? Oh right, because I’m a vampire and I jump out the window every night to search for my PREY! … Just kidding! Though, hmm… that gives me an idea. Is there rope in my room? But how would I… Ah! That’s it! Now, is this bookshelf heavy enough?

A few hours after the Prizrens have gone, my doorway clean and my mother having shown off her only son of whom she is so proud, my plan is about to be put into action. I sit on my bed waiting quietly, but not patiently. How long can it take one person to finish in the bathroom before bed? I continue to sit, agitated. Finally I hear the latch on the bathroom door open, and the sound of my mother’s footsteps crossing the floor and descending the stairs. Now I have about fifteen minutes to make sure they’re asleep. I want to make sure they’re not paying attention to this side of the house. Finally, after fourteen long minutes, I peer out my window (the one that faces the back of the house) and see no sign of attentive life. Good! Now for my escape plan: I have already tied all my spare sheets together and tied one end around my bookshelf, so now I throw the other end out the window (okay, so it’s a cliché). I only have four extra sheets, so it’s a good thing my house is only two stories tall. I manage to lower myself out the window without event, though – oww – my arms will be sore in the morning. I leave the sheets hanging, and they ripple in the nighttime breeze. The white sheet on the end shows up a lot compared to the other dark blue ones, but I have to leave them, since I’m going to need them to get back in. Feeling proud of myself for getting this far but knowing I should still be wary, I sneak quietly into the thick bushes running along the inside perimeter of the garden fence. Then I crawl awkwardly through the conspicuously creaky loose board in the garden fence. I continue to tiptoe along the outside of the garden fence, just in case one of my parents should happen to be watching my every move… nah, I’m just being paranoid. But still… I take the last few cautious steps into the woods behind my house, then break into a run. “I’m free!” I say to myself. In my head, of course. No sense in waking my parents now. I begin to lope through the forest vegetation with an easy grace. Nothing can catch me now! Any potential pursuers would surely be caught up by the thick underbrush, but never would I, Lord of the Woods, King of the Forest, be tripped up by– whoa!! Thud. Uhhhh, my head….

In the blackness I come to consciousness without opening my eyes. Wait. Where am I? This doesn’t feel like my bed! I start to push myself up to get a better look at my surroundings when I feel a strong hand pushing me down. Oh no! With sleep-fuzzed eyes I can’t make out who it is. What if it’s one of those nomadic creeps who lurk in dark forests, waiting for innocent travelers?? What was I thinking?! “Lemme up! Lemme up!” I wail. “Okay, but you’re going to regret it.” I hear muttered. The hand goes away, and I sit up quickly. Too quickly. “Urghh…” My head feels like it’s being crushed inside a pipe wrench, and I close my eyes again. Now I remember why I’m lying down in the first place. “Be careful! Your life is in danger!” The same voice says. I was right! This was one of those forest creeps! Oh no, oh no! But the voice sounds oddly like a girl. “What are you going to do to me?” I say, my anxiety obvious in my squeaky voice. “Nothing! I’m not going to do anything! What are you, crazy?” (Definitely a girl talking). “Though your life is in danger, sort of. Aside from your life-jeopardizing stupidity (running through the woods in the middle of the night, what if one of those hermit creeps caught you?), you seem to have a bit of a concussion.” She lays a cool wet cloth on my forehead. Water drips down my temples, feeling especially pleasant on this muggy night. “Just close your eyes and keep them closed. Don’t move your head, but don’t go to sleep, either. I have to keep an eye on you for a couple hours and make sure there’s no brain damage. How ‘bout you tell me where you were going while we wait?” I’m not sure what to make of the prospect of staying here for a while, but my head does hurt tremendously, and it seems safe enough. She said she isn’t going to do anything to me, so I might as well answer her question. “I wasn’t really going anywhere. I was just leaving, I guess. I get so sick of my parents’ attitude, how they use me and my achievements to move up the social ladder. This is my first try at an escape.” “Sounds plausible. Want to know where you were really going?” She says, amused. How would you know if I don’t even know? “Okay,” I say uncertainly. “Right here! This is where you were coming all along. I wouldn’t have imagined it in this manner, though. Good thing I keep this place well stocked…. Anyway, my augury stones told me a couple months ago that you and I were meant for each other, so at the beginning of spring, I set up this little tree house to watch you from.” I let that thought sink in for a minute. “Oh no! Did you see the–“ “Don’t worry, I didn’t see the underwear dance. But with my sleep schedule, I don’t have much to do during the night, so I sent up shop, or camp, rather, and built this tree house. Figured you’d come by at some point. It’s not like my augury stones to disappoint me.” “So you’ve been watching me every night from early spring until now? “Mm-hmm. Just me and my trusty telescope.” Even with my eyes still closed, it’s difficult for me to imagine that she’s been watching me all this time. “Exactly how much do you know about me?” “Well, apart from my personal observations, I have your school yearbook, which I borrowed from a friend, and there’s always town gossip, and my rune stones of course. So by now I know an awful lot about you, more than you know about yourself, maybe. You’ve won every academic award your school offers along with many honors for activities outside of school, and your achievements have been recognized city- and nationwide. In a few years you’re planning to attend the university in Ellayne. You’re an outstanding Ultimate player, which I’ve heard is a difficult sport to play. Your room is literally wallpapered in good grades. You’re pretty cute, if I do say so myself; I’m partial to orange hair. You have time to do everything, more, and still get enough sleep. Some say you’re perfect.” I pause. I can’t tell where to begin downplaying what she just said! But as I search for objections, my mind draws a blank. It dawns on me that what she had said was not just gossip, but absolute fact. Horrified, I say, “But…but…nobody’s perfect!” “Flem, you are the living proof against that statement. After observing you for several months I’m quite sure of it. The only discrepancy is tonight when you introduced yourself to that rock down there. Think about it. Have you ever seriously injured yourself?” “No.” “Any broken bones or scars?” “No.” “Any grades below an A- ?” I wince inwardly at the thought of the A- I received last year in Introduction to Metaphysics, but that was the worst grade I have ever gotten. “No.” “I didn’t think so. Hmmm, we’ll have to look further into your inability to fail later. But you know, even with all my sources I couldn’t find out everything I wanted to know about you. Now that we’ve met, do you mind if I ask you some questions?” So far she seems like a trustworthy person, so I barely hesitate before answering her. “Sure, what do you want to know?” “Okay. I was confused about this Mayid relation of yours. Is she your cousin or your great-aunt?” “Actually both. My cousin Mayid is named after my great-aunt, and she also looks a lot like my great-aunt when she was younger. But my great-aunt Mayid lives in Meayno, and my cousin lives….”

After a bunch of questions Fennet stops me. “Hey, Flem, I really enjoyed listening to your stories, but I have to break it to you, it’s almost dawn. We need to get you home.” I feel temporarily astounded by the time warp. Then I realize I’ve done it again. I can talk for hours and hours about something that I know about, which includes myself. And I just have. Sitting up, I open my eyes for the first time since I blacked out. Then, for the eleventy-ninth time that night, I am amazed by the girl who sits before me with dark eyes set in an ivory face, adorned with dark orange and white-blond striped hair. After a long silence, she says, “By the way, my name is Fennet. Nice to meet you.”

As I pull the sheet rope up into my room, she says, “When your head gets better, come visit my tree house again. But leave those sheets tied together; I’ll be coming every night until you recover. I know you, but you don’t know anything about me.” She pauses. “And Flem, you know…” “What?” “We’re meant to be.” As I watch over the fence how she disappears into the darkness of the woods, I marvel at how easily I have found my counterbalance, my companion star, my equal and opposite other half.

#Flem #adogan #definitely the most self-insert of the characters #long post

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zinew234 · 3 years ago

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You can easily install Windows using a different key and then change the key later to activate the product. Similarly, you can change your Windows key anytime you want.

It’s important to note that Microsoft doesn’t keep a record of issued keys. For that reason, you should always keep your key safe when you buy an original product.

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Finding your Windows 7 product key

If you bought Windows 7, there are several ways to find your Windows 7 Professional product key:

Look inside your DVD/CD box

Ask your retailer (if you bought a PC with Windows pre-installed)

Check your email

Microsoft wants you to keep your key safe. But if you’ve lost it, don’t worry. We’re here to help. Find our list of free keys below.

Windows 7 Professional Product Key – 32-bit

8X2Y6-2R9QV-ME2FY-8MJ3B-4CQB8 DF6YR-DFEXQ-WR8LA-STH43-QYR5N FDJK4J-8GTSF-R94QY-SR8OS-3KGTF 4RFLJ-FH84S-3TYPD-KLPEW-UYOR5 VYL8D-JFXE8-RNGH9-UT89E-XRTD9

Windows 7 Professional Product Key – 64-bit

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These Windows 7 keys should work. However, some may have stopped working due to being used by other people.

As promised, we’ve updated this Windows 7 Professional product key list. Now you can find Windows 7 Professional product keys for 2018 below.

(UPDATED) Windows 7 Professional Key 2019

Here’s the updated list of keys. These are 100% new and genuine. Go ahead and give them a try.

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Windows 7 is an incredible operating system. I hope these product keys will help you activate it and use all its features. But you can also activate your copy of Windows without having to use a key at all. The method is explained below.

How to activate Windows 7 without a serial key

Getting a Windows 7 Pro product key is easy. We’ve provided many in this post. However, it’s not the only way of activating your operating system.

It’s also possible to activate your copy of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit/32-bit without a key. To do that, just tap into your inner geek.

The good news is that we’ve made a complex process really simple for you. Just follow the clear steps below.

1. Locate and delete a system file

The first step is to locate the SLUI file and delete it. Here are the steps:

Open the folder where you installed Windows (C:/Windows)

Locate and open the System 32 folder inside the Windows folder

Now use the search function located at the top right of your file browser

Search for ‘SLUI’

The search function will highlight the file for you

Select the file and delete it

This is an important file when you want to activate Windows without using a Windows 7 Pro product key. Deleting this file deletes any previous activation key record.

Unfortunately, some users might not be able to delete this file. They may have to become the ‘owner’ of the file.

Sound complex? Again, we’ve made it simple for you with the easy steps below.

How do you delete the SLUI file?

When you can’t delete the SLUI file, follow the easy steps below.

Right-click on the SLUI file in your file manager

Select Properties and wait for a new window to appear

Now select the Security tab from the top and click on the Advanced button to open up more options

In the new window that appears, click on the Owner tab

Now select the option to choose the current user as the file owner

Click Apply and close all windows

Open the file manager and go to C:/Windows > System32 folder

Right-click on the SLUI file and select Properties

Follow the same steps you did earlier in step 2 and 3 and go to the Security tab

Now select Users and choose the Edit option

Now you have the option to edit the user permissions

Go ahead and grant ‘full control’ to the current user

Now close these windows and go back to the SLUI file

Go ahead and delete the file. Now you are on your way to activating Windows without a Windows 7 Pro product key. To continue, follow the next step.

2. Activate your copy of Windows (without a Windows 7 Professional product key)

Now it’s time to activate your operating system. Remember, you won’t need a Windows 7 Professional product key for this method.

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In this step, you’re going to open CMD and enter some commands. Not feeling confident? Don’t worry. It’s easy with the following simple steps.

Click on the Start button in Windows

Open the Run app

A dialogue box will appear where you can enter text

Enter ‘CMD’ and hit Enter

A new window will appear where you can enter commands (CMD)

Enter ‘slmgr –rearm’ in CMD (command prompt) and hit Enter

Wait a minute and then restart your PC

Now follow the steps from 1-5 to open CMD and type ‘slmgr –ato’

Now press the Enter key and read the message on your screen

Windows 7 Product Key Download

It should say ‘You have successfully activated Windows 7.’ You did it without using a Windows 7 Pro product key.

Free Windows 7 Activation Key

Petr is a serial tech entrepreneur and the CEO of Apro Software, a machine learning company. Whenever he’s not blogging about technology for itechgyan.com or softwarebattle.com, Petr enjoys playing sports and going to the movies. He’s also deeply interested about mediation, Buddhism and biohacking.

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the-master-cylinder · 4 years ago

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SUMMARY Six girls have been found murdered in the apartment of famed Russian occultist Karl Raymarseivich Raymar and the police cannot explain it. When Raymar’s body was lifted onto a stretcher, bolts of electricity shot out from his fingers. His estranged daughter Olivia McKenna (Melissa Newman) and her husband Allan (Adam West) are unaware of this until they meet Samuel Dockstader (Donald Hotton), a feature writer for The World of the Occult; as a friend of Raymar, Dockstader explains that Raymar was a psychic vampire who gained great powers of telekinesis by kidnapping young girls, terrorizing them, and feeding off the bioenergy they produced. Allan does not believe him, but Dockstader shows Olivia a set of photographs to demonstrate how bioenergy works and gives her an audiotape that outlines his findings, which convinces Olivia to believe him.

Meanwhile, High school student Julie Wells (Meg Tilly) wants to be part of a club entitled The Sisters, which consist of three snobby high school girls named Carol (Robin Evans), Leslie (E. G. Daily), and Kitty (Leslie Speights). Unfortunately, Carol is the ex-girlfriend of Julie’s new boyfriend Steve (David Mason Daniels), and is jealous. She intends to get back at Steve and Julie by making Julie spend a night alone in a mausoleum, unaware that Raymar’s body was just entombed there. That evening, Julie is dropped off by only Carol and Kitty, as Leslie had refused to accompany them on the plan. Julie explores the mausoleum and sets up her sleeping bag, unaware of the cracks that appear around Raymar’s vault.

Carol and Kitty, hoping to scare Julie, dress up in costumes and sneak back into the mausoleum. While they succeed in frightening Julie who locks herself in the chapel, they are unaware that Raymar is slowly reawakening by using his powers to make the walls shake, windows explode, and door slam shut. Before Carol and Kitty decide to leave, Raymar’s powers open up the vaults containing coffins inside and many rotting cadavers telekinetically float and surround the girls before they pile on top of them to suffocate them.

Meanwhile, Steve has gone over to Julie’s house to find her missing. He catches up with Leslie, who reluctantly tells Steve about Julie’s initiation, and Steve angrily heads over to the mausoleum. At the same time, Olivia dashes over after learning about her father’s powers and the possibility that she might also possess them. Back at the mausoleum, Raymar finally breaks out of his coffin and controls the rotting corpses and the doors with his psychic powers. Just when Steve breaks in and finds a hysterical Julie, they become surrounded by the cadavers that advance toward them. Steve tries to fight the corpses, but they knock him out. Raymar pulls a dazed Julie closer to him before Oliva arrives to save her. Ultimately, Olivia takes her compact and reflects the bolts from Raymar’s eyes back at him, causing Raymar and the cadavers to disintegrate, saving Julie and Steve.

The three, including a now traumatized Julie, begin slowly walking out of the mausoleum. The film ends with Kitty’s toothbrush seen near the mound of corpses inside the empty mausoleum before a corpse falls in front and emits a scream.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION Not having much success with selling several comedy screenplays, McLoughlin and his friend Michael Hawes decided to make a gothic horror film similar to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. For inspiration McLoughlin drew upon his experience of exploring the catacombs in Paris, France when he was 19 years old, as McLoughlin recalled years later, “It was the first time that I ever felt psychological or supernatural fear. There was nothing there; there was nobody coming after me; but there was just something about knowing where I was and what I was surrounded by, that gave me a chill that was unforgettable”. McLoughlin and Hawes also came up with the idea of a group of people being trapped inside a mausoleum with a “psychic vampire” that fed on the life energy of the other members of the group.

After a period of four years failing to sell the script to various studios McLoughlin and Hawes found a group of investors. Tom Burman, told them about the Com World Group, the project finally took flight. Com World is a production company that had originally expressed interest in Burman’s own project, Footsteps, a motorcycle story, but the time and the weather were not optimum to begin the picture, so Tom suggested they do McLoughlin and Hawes’ story. “We came close to getting it off the ground awhile before Com World came along,” says McLoughlin, “but Friday the 13th hit and everybody kept asking for more blood and gore, and that’s not what the story’s about. It’s a fantasy story, not a murder story of ‘who gets it next?’ In fact,” smiles McLoughlin somewhat roguishly, “there’s no blood, no nudity, and no profanity in this film …just pus.”

“We finally did get the money, it actually came from a Mormon businessman who needed a tax shelter instantly,” recalls McLoughlin. “It was like, ‘Can you get this thing going in three weeks from right now? And then we have to show it in the Bahamas to qualify for the tax shelter before Christmas.’” Fortunately, McLoughlin had already storyboarded the entire film and knew exactly what he wanted the movie to be, should he ever get the chance to direct it.

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On the set of One Dark Night, the electricity metaphor becomes a reality as the effects crew sets up for the intense finale of the picture. A Tessla coil, a device that can turn 120 volts of household current into 300,000 volts of leaping lightning, is carefully placed and tested. Moments later the scene is shot, the second assistant director yells “Wrap!” and the unknown film crew strikes the set. The mood of the picture is very strange and other worldly. Extreme lighting effects are used to cast large shadows upon the walls of the mausoleum, giving a feeling of foreboding. “What we were trying to do here,” says director McLoughlin, “was to create an Edgar Allen Poe-ish feeling that progresses, getting eerier and eerier. When Julie first gets to the mausoleum there is still daylight, so everything is still fairly normal-looking; but as night comes, jagged pools of light begin to form and things begin to seem more and more bizarre.”

Designed and built by art director Craig Stearns and his amazing assistants, the interior mausoleum set, made of masonite, plywood and plastic, is a perfect replica of the Hollywood Mausoleum, where the story takes place. It took three weeks to construct, and one week to “marble-ize”. “Ordinarily,” says Stearns, “we would have just wallpapered it with a standard marble design, but we had to match the existing mausoleum,” which wasn’t all that easy, considering that they had to find a paint that would adhere to the masonite and also give the proper effect.

Michael Hawes on the set of One Dark Night

Apparently, Stearns and his group did a more than adequate job. Relates producer Mike Schroeder, “I was looking at the dailies with an acquaintance who said ‘This is great, but when are you going to show me the stuff done on the set?’ I explained to her that she had been watching it for nearly an hour.”

Part of the reason why One Dark Night worked out so inexpensively and so quickly is that the people who worked on it — cast and crew members all here are all professionals. Art director Stearns learned his lessons in dealing with small budgets from a true master of the low-budget thriller, John Carpenter. Stearns helped create sets for Halloween, The Fog, and Precinct 13. Hal Trussel’s experience in lighting design and as a student and protege of cinematographer Nestor Almendros lent a great deal to his debut as director of photography on RIP. Then there is producer/unit production manager Michael Schroeder, whose background is mainly in educational television and films in Utah. RIP is his first feature also, but his incredible efficiency gives absolutely no indication of that.

New faces and not-so-new faces make up the principal cast of RIP. Eighteen-year-old Meg Tilly, who has the role of the victimized Julie in the picture, has only been acting professionally for a little over a year, but her list of credits is already impressive. It includes Tex with Matt Dillon, and several television guest spots, as on the Jessica Novak series and After School Specials. Intelligent and very talented, Meg likes the idea of One Dark Night. “When I first read it,” she says, “I felt that there was more to it than just your usual gory horror movie. It’s more like an old-fashioned horror film.”

David Mason Daniels, who plays Julie’s boyfriend, has been a jack-of-all trades to keep his family afloat while he searched out acting jobs. “The worst times,” David recounts, “were when my wife was seven months pregnant and we were delivering phone books door to door at seven cents apiece.” The hard times seem to have paid off pretty well; David’s credits include Harry’s War, and a myriad of television commercials. “I was also saved by Wonder Woman once,” laughs the handsome young Daniels. As far as One Dark Night goes, he is quite pleased to be a part of “Demolition Bodies,” as he jokingly refers to it.

Tom McLoughlin on the set of One Dark Night

Raymar’s daughter, Olivia, is played by Melissa Newman, who greatly appreciates that there is little violence in the film, but will not dismiss the revolting corpses as being ineffective. “I’ve got a weak stomach,” she chuckles, “and there were times that I wasn’t sure if I could actually do some of the scenes because the effects were so gross!” she says, unwittingly testifying to the effectiveness of Tom Burman’s work. Melissa’s background in acting goes back about fifteen years or so to when she was first under contract at 20th Century Fox at the age of 16. She married quite early and was therefore retired for about 10 years, after which she decided to go back to acting. Her later credits include Robert Fuest’s Revenge of the Stepford Wives (TV Movie 1980), and other TV fare, She really enjoyed herself doing One Dark Night. “I had forgotten how fun acting can be,” she smiles.

But the film’s most familiar face belongs to Adam West. “If there’s any place to be in this business, it’s with a hot young director and a good property-and Tom McLoughlin is a hot director,” says West. Adam plays Olivia’s husband, a lawyer named Allan, and though it is a relatively small part, West’s professionalism and enthusiasm carry over to the other players and crew. “I’ve never done a horror picture before,” says Adam, who has recently finished two science-fiction features and two television pilots. “I wanted to do something different, and this is certainly it.” West goes on, “This is a different kind of a scare picture; very gothic and full of the things that really get to you. I’m very excited about it.”

None of the cast members wanted to be part of another “hack-em-to-pieces” feature. They all had felt that RIP was a worthwhile story and, just possibly, the beginning of a back-to-basics movement in the horror genre. “The thing! find intriguing about this picture,” says David Daniels, “is that they’ve done such a tremendous job with suspense and thrills without resorting to violent atrocities.”

Tom McLoughlin has nothing but praise for his actors. “They really make the film,” he says. “This movie is not so much what the gross things are that are chasing after them, it’s the characters’ reactions to them.” Tom cites the performances of Robin Evans and Leslie Speights, both newcomers to feature films who play the instigators of the hazing that helps start all the trouble, as being very, very good. “Especially,” Tom goes on, because they had been around the effects crew and had time to get used to the corpses. They know it’s rubber and that the pus isn’t real, but when they cross over that line and get into the reality of it, it’s so scary to them that it comes through the acting-and that’s terrifying to watch.” Tom admits that after having directed the girls and then seeing the shots on the screen-without seeing the cutaways to the disgusting corpses – he gets very tense just watching the terror of the girls’ response.

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One Dark Night is a visual film. Approximately 80 percent of it is without dialogue. The main reason for this is McLoughlin’s extensive mime background. His uncanny knack for non-verbal communication is what propels the film. Co-writer Mike Hawes is also quite learned in the area of mime. Together they have written a visual treat that brims with detail. “As director,” says Tom, “I tried to infuse slightly magnified bits of reality into non-real situations, such as the neighbors coming to their windows to see what’s going on. Yet, by the same token, I wanted to convey a very strange and macabre feeling all through it.” An example of this is the opening sequence of the film – the teaser-showing the exterior of Raymar’s skid row abode after seven bodies had been discovered there. For this scene Tom requested seven coroner’s vans. He was informed that there are only three in the whole of Los Angeles County, so he had his art department make them up. Says Tom, “One coroner’s van, which could probably handle the seven bodies if they piled them, is not very cinematic. On the other hand, seven coroner’s vans, while they may be a bit much if you think about it, are cinematic. But in the movie you don’t get time to think about it.”

In their research for the screenplay, McLoughlin and Hawes talked with psychics and read all the books and papers they could find on psychic phenomena-especially those written on discoveries made behind the iron curtain. “Everything we’ve touched upon in the story that has to do with psychic phenomena has been documented and is real. It actually occurs. We just took it to its fantasy extreme,” Tom says. “I think the maniac-with the-knife theme has pretty much exhausted whatever it has to offer, which is basically new and imaginative ways of doing someone in.” By combining psychic horror with gothic horror, Tom McLoughlin and Mike Hawes have attempted to start a new trend in horror filmmaking: finding new and imaginative ways to scare people.

POST PRODUCTION During the film’s post production the film was taken out of McLoughlin’s hands and re-cut with the original ending removed. As McLoughlin recalled, “There was a version of the movie that wasn’t shown in theaters, where there was this passing of Ramar’s energies to the Meg Tilly character… check out the end when Meg is walking out and walks down the hall. The close-up of her eyes are the contacts of Nastassja Kinski’s from the Cat People remake, courtesy of make-up man Tom Burman. “[Tom] put those into Meg’s eyes so there’s this thing where she doesn’t look overly possessed, but it definitely looks like something’s wrong She got whatever Ramar had in her now”.

SPECIAL EFFECTS A throwback to the gothic horror movies of yesteryear, the frights in R.I.P. are less a product of maniacal human misbehavior than of our own basic fears of the unknown and claustrophobia; and though the special effects are among the best that Burman has yet to come up with, they are not relied upon to mask a poorly written screenplay. To the contrary, the effects enhance and augment a fine piece of storytelling.

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The Burman Studio and Cosmekinetics put together some wonderful representations of Raymar’s bioenergy-gone-awry-in-the-mausoleum. Though Raymar is dead, his spirit lives, by feeding on fear. Raymar’s spirit wants more power, and to gain it, he must frighten the three girls that have come to the mausoleum. To do this, he levitates coffins out of their tombs and sends their occupants floating after the misfortunate trio; and, as the girls become more frightened, Raymar becomes more powerful.

Burman and his gang built, out of latex rubber, 14 corpses; some that have been long dead, and some of more recent vintage. Ellis Burman devised the manner by which they move through the air. “The corpses don’t come to life,” says Tom Burman. “They are manipulated by Raymar, like puppets.” There are no opticals to create the effect of dead things dragging through the air. It is done completely manually with dolly like contraptions that Ellis and his partner came up with.

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RELEASE/DISTRIBUTION McLoughlin’s project started out with a budget of a million dollars, but both Burman and McLoughlin know they could do it for quite a bit less than that, and cut it down substantially. With a 28-day shooting schedule, the picture was brought in for something like $22,000 under the second budget.

The film was conceived and filmed under the title Rest in Peace before Poltergeist, but due to post-production problems, the film was delayed and was released in theaters in 1983 by Comworld Pictures. “The film did so well everyone thought I had the midas touch,” he notes. “I was immediately bombarded with every splatter script in town. A couple weren’t too bad, and I considered doing them, but I had my own project that I was taking around at the time that I was really hot to do.”

One Dark Night (Premier Releasing, 1983). British Quad

One Dark Night (1983) Bob Summers

youtube

CAST/CREW Directed Tom McLoughlin

Produced Michael Schroeder

Written Michael Hawes Tom McLoughlin

Meg Tilly as Julie Wells Melissa Newman as Olivia McKenna Robin Evans as Carol Mason Leslie Speights as Kitty Donald Hotton as Dockstader E.G. Daily as Leslie Winslow

David Mason Daniels as Steve Adam West as Allan McKenna Rhio H. Blair as Coroner

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY dreadcentral.com Fangoria#18 Fangoria#57 A STRANGE IDEA OF ENTERTAINMENT: CONVERSATIONS WITH TOM MCLOUGHLIN

One Dark Night (1983) Retrospective SUMMARY Six girls have been found murdered in the apartment of famed Russian occultist Karl Raymarseivich Raymar and the police cannot explain it.

#80sFilms #80sHORROR

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wallpaperpainter · 4 years ago

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The Ubuntu Remote Desktop Server is a free software application that allows users to connect to a computer using the Internet. Users may access information on their desktop by logging into their desktop and making use of the applications available on it.

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The Remote Desktop Server is similar to a web browser. This allows users to browse websites by using the terminal application on their computer. The server connects to the user's desktop and allows them to login using their username and password.

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The Ubuntu Remote Server comes with an easy to install package. All users have to do is to install it on their computer and connect to it. It runs on its own and makes use of a special connection for internet connection.

The Ubuntu Remote Server supports Windows Vista, XP, Mac OSX, Linux and other platforms. It also allows users to connect to computers from the internet using their personal computers. There are many free or paid versions of the application available on the internet.

Most servers allow the user to set up multiple user accounts. There is also a control panel available in most of the servers, which allows the user to monitor all the user accounts and make updates to them. There are also user accounts which allow users to see who has logged in and made changes in the servers. You can even customize the settings to customize your login.

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deepfriedtwinkie · 7 years ago

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Kingsman: A Trainee’s Mission (Pt. VI)

PREQUEL FIC, this section ~2kw

note: this is the only part without any Merlin in it BUT IT’S IMPORTANT FOR LATER OKAY (don’t cry, Harry will think you don’t like him)

pt. I | pt. II | pt. III | pt. IV | pt. V

By now, the compound has been home for so long that Harry is almost enamored to see London again. It’s easy to forget how much he loves these streets, the shops, the throngs of people going about their days. Easy to forget, but easier to remember.

He walks primly at the elbow of his proposing agent, a man named Martin Turner. The same who’d first met him as a ten-year-old, enthralling him with images of the world of gentleman spies. A world he’d never known to be real, until then, even with what his mother did for a living. Gentlemen were a much rarer breed in her work, after all. Some of her stories could turn a woman to the nunnery.

As Agent Lamorak, Martin has been kept away for nearly the whole of Harry’s training so far, busy with some mission or other, always jet-setting this way or that. They’ve spoken only a couple of times, but it’s no bother. Obviously, it’s more than understandable. All the more reason to take him up on his sudden invitation, delivered in person this morning in the training room, clear out of the blue.

They enter the tailor shop, Martin holding the door. Harry smiles, hands in his pockets, taking in the atmosphere for the first time through a proper candidate’s eyes. His last visit here felt like a new world. This time, it feels like coming home. He’s quite ready to get used to that feeling.

“’Morning, Simons,” Martin greets the headtailor.

“Good morning to you, sir.” The old man’s only movement seems to be the quiver of his mustache. “May I be of assistance to you gentlemen?”

“Yes, in fact, you may, Simons.” Martin’s head tips toward him. “I’d like for you to meet Harry Hart, my proposal for one of the open positions.”

As he was raised to do, Harry gives his hand, and the headtailor accepts. They shake. “How do you do, sir,” Harry says with a smile.

“Very well, thank you.”

“Simons here is nothing less than the best this business has got, Harry,” Martin boasts. “You’ll be taken good care of with him.”

“Oh, I have no doubt, sir.”

Then he blinks so rapidly he may have to blame the mothballs.

“Wait, sir… ‘Taken care of?’”

Simons politely withdraws his hand, which is fine, because it leaves Harry’s free to drop to his side like the dead weight it is. The way Martin is looking at him makes him wonder if perhaps there’s a television camera hidden somewhere, and his own expression will be plastered on newsstands and billboards by morning.

“You didn’t think I’d let you finish out the program without your own Kingsman souvenir, did you?” Martin grins. “The hell with that. It’s time you were fitted for your first proper bespoke. Unless you object, of course.”

“No sir!” Well, that could have been less of a yelp. He swallows, tempers himself, and tries again, managing formality despite his whole face splitting ear-to-ear. “I mean…no, sir. Thank you, sir. I’d be quite honored.”

“Mmhm. That’s what I thought.” The agent points to a heavy door of oak, off to Harry’s left. Simons comes out from behind the counter, a cloth tape measure hung over his shoulder, and Martin claps him on the back. “Give him the works now. This young man is our honored guest.”

“Of course, sir.” Simons does his best impersonation of a five-star doorman, motioning Harry into the room. “This way, please, Mr. Hart. Fitting room one.”

It’s the last thing on earth he’d have to be asked twice. He hustles forward, grateful it doesn’t turn into a cartwheel.

“I’ll be out here when you’re through,” Martin calls.

The fitting room is one of the plainest cubicles of space ever knocked together by man, little more than patterned wallpaper, brass hooks, and varnished wainscoting, but it takes Harry all of four seconds to decide that he loves it every bit as much as the rest of the place. He’s patient with Simons’s meticulous taking of his measurements, lifting arms on command, turning this way and that, holding various swatches of fabric to his chest for God knows how long. That’s the difference between the Kingsman Tailors and anywhere else. When he works here, he’s going to have to do something kind for Simons. A thank-you note, perhaps, with something for his trouble inside. Cinema tickets or something. It’s terribly kind of him to go out of his way for this.

In good time, the tailor excuses himself, returning moments later with a garment bag draping both tabled arms. “Try this, sir,” he bids, hanging the bag on one of the hooks. “It should give you a fair idea. If you find it’s to your liking, then we will proceed with alterations.”

He’s never stared so reverently at a bag before. “Thank you… Thank you kindly.”

“My pleasure, sir.”

This is it. This is the moment he’s imagined since he was a ten-year-old boy, pinning horrible drawings of suits between the butterflies on his walls. The concrete start of his new life.

The garment bag is shed to the floor before Simons is even fully gone. His brain suggests some analogy to a chrysalis, but he can’t be bothered to spare a thought to connect it. He strips to briefs and socks, dressing quickly, his back turned staunchly to the mirror. Stealing a glance too soon will ruin something about this. He isn’t sure what, but it matters.

In a moment, it’s done. He feels the places that need taking in—cuffs at his knuckles, rumpled elbows, puddles at his feet—but he doesn’t care. It’s the most comfortable thing in the world.

He turns around.

The suit is blue, he notices properly. A very, very dark navy blue. Fine pinstripes crawl the length of it. Simons has picked him a tie to match. Navy, with a slim white stripe, centered with a slimmer note of red. He takes in the two rows of handmade buttons. The press of the lapel.

Harry blinks the blur from his eyes. It is the most exquisite thing he’s ever worn.

We’ve done it, Mother. I wish you could see your boy now.

He’s making a mental note to phone her as soon as possible when another tap comes on the door. “Pardon me, sir. Agent Lamorak requests to have a look, if you’ll oblige coming out for a moment.”

He’s absolutely bursting to show someone, anyway. Lamorak will do wonderfully for now. Harry turns the heavy knob, consciously matching his stride to the elegance a suit like this commands. His expression, on the other hand, is under no such control.

Martin stands from the couch, letting out a long whistle. “You’ve outdone yourself, Simons. A few tucks and it’s a work of art.”

“Very kind of you to say, sir.”

“And this comes in the lot, yes?”

“Already ordered to your specifications, sir.”

“You’re a fucking gem.” Martin smiles Harry’s way, holding out a finger with each next word. “Bulletproof, water-resistant, flame-resistant, and conceals up to thirteen highly-classified armaments. There’ll be nothing you can’t do in this, believe you me.”

He believed it already. In front of the showroom mirror, Harry gives a crisp tug to the jacket, straightening his posture even further than it was to begin with. “I really don’t know what to say, sir. I can’t possibly thank you enough; I know this isn’t typical for only a candidate…”

“Nonsense. You’ve earned it.” His mentor takes a pull from a rock glass he’s been holding. Gin, it looks like. “Your weapons and written test scores were absolutely phenomenal.”

Yes, they were, weren’t they? He can’t help it. He’s had a feeling.

“And I’m not permitted to tell you specifics, but I can say that you’ve earned Arthur’s attention on almost every one of your practical tasks.”

That reminds him to ask. He makes eye contact through the mirror, rather than twist round in the suit. “If I may, sir, what was in those parcels we retrieved on the mountain, anyway?”

“In the envelopes? Those were floppy disks.” Swallowing another sip, Martin makes quotations with his hands. “‘Encrypted files of critical importance to international security.’ That’s this year’s bullshit for ‘Arthur’s Doctor Who fan club mailing list.’ Gives him an excuse for missing the last fifteen meetings.”

“You’re kidding.” Of course he isn’t.

“Of course I’m not.”

Why did I ask?

He’s basking in the jovial moment until Martin’s demeanor goes stony, his gaze laser-focused through the window. His tone changes in the drop of a hat.

“Harry, do as I say. Whatever you do, don’t counteract or seem suspicious,” he mutters levelly. “Time to prove your place in the family business.”

The miniature bell above the door jingles. In comes a portly man in an expensive windbreaker, lighting directly on Lamorak. Harry watches, indifferent neutrality on his face, as the newcomer ignores Simons entirely, no acknowledgment—sorry, Simons, he’d do well to remember you’re a person, too—and instead, steps up to grasp Lamorak’s hand.

They shake cordially. “Mr. Kuznetsov,” Lamorak’s far brighter with his greeting than he might’ve been. “On schedule as always.”

“Mr. Evansbee.” An alias; his name is Turner. And this man’s accent is Russian. “How could I miss one of our treasured conversations?” Lamorak set this meeting. Not the first, or the tenth, either. What kind of conversations?

“Please, allow me to introduce a star pupil of mine from the university. I’m helping him to look his finest when he represents us at St. Hugh’s next month. Oliver Greene, this is Mr. Kuznetsov, one of my trustworthiest colleagues.”

Harry doesn’t need a cue. Seamlessly he adopts his new self, shaking the hand he’s offered. “How do you do, sir.”

“I get by.”

He sends Lamorak the most innocuous look he’s got. “Shall I leave you to it, Professor? You’ve been more than enough help already.”

It’s the right decision. Nothing he gets in return suggests a forthcoming reprimand. “Yes, good lad, Oliver. You can go and get your things. I’ll see you in lecture on Monday.”

“Very good, sir. Lovely to meet you, Mr. Kuznetsov.”

“The pleasure is all mine, of course.”

Whatever you do, don’t counteract. His only move is to beeline for the fitting room, then, the outing finished just as quick as it began. The last he sees of Martin, he’s hooked an arm around the Russian’s shoulders, leading the way to the sofas, carrying on a lively discussion in whispers.

So this trip was no coincidence. Harry is implicitly careful as he removes each piece of his suit, hanging one at a time for Simons to collect. He isn’t disappointed. It should have occurred to him from this morning. Whatever Lamorak’s working on must be drawing to a close.

Besides. He could have met the contact here alone. No part of that required having a custom suit made.

Be grateful you were invited in the first place, and don’t ask why it’s over.

Well. He can’t make promises about the second part.

“Good-bye, Simons,” he says aloud near the exit, after saying a silent one to the suit in the fitting room. “I’ve left everything sorted for you.”

“Wonderful, sir. Good-bye.” It’s almost their last exchange, until the tailor catches himself. “Oh, and one more thing, sir?” He’s scribbling in a leather folder.

Harry stops, halfway through the door jamb, hoping it doesn’t count as counteraction. “Yes?”

Simons looks up, beaming friendliness. “I’ve located your file with us to store your measurements. Isn’t today your birthday, sir?”

Yes, it is. He’s all but forgotten that for the past ten minutes.

Harry smiles back. “Twenty-first,” he confirms.

“Happy birthday, sir.”

It’s certainly shaping up to be.

pt. VII | pt. VIII | pt. IX

#Kingsman #Harry Hart #Agent Merlin #Kingsman: The Secret Service #Kingsman: The Golden Circle #fanfic #oh look Aud did a thing #p.s. nobody asked but in case anyone's wondering: his mother's Peggy Carter of SHIELD and his other one is Angie Martinelli #it's @faeriviera's fault and now it's law so there #I leave it vague in this on purpose so y'all can speculate however you want but there it is so have fun

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pogueman · 7 years ago

Text

iOS 11 review: 99 hits, 1 miss

Every year, Apple (AAPL) introduces a new iPhone model. That’s cool for anyone in the market for a new iPhone.

But every year, Apple also introduces a new iPhone operating system—the software you look at and tap on all day long. Today’s the day, and the new software is called iOS 11.

In general, it’s terrific. Apple’s coding elves have cleaned up a million annoyances, swept out a million cobwebs, and tightened up a million processes. The typography has become more unified across apps, too—you see a lot of this:

Apple’s various apps display more consistent typography.

As usual in the development of a mature operating system, there aren’t many big-ticket new features. But here’s what’s new in iOS 11.

The new Control Center

For such a tiny device, there are an awful lot of settings you can change—hundreds of them. That’s why Apple invented the Control Center: a panel that offers quick access to the controls you need the most.

In iOS 11, the Control Center has blossomed into the magnificence of adulthood. Now you decide which controls should appear on it, as you can on Android phones. Your list of available buttons is much longer than it ever was before. And you no longer have to hunt among multiple pages to find the one you want; the Control Center is once again a single screen. If you’re a true Control freak, it even scrolls.

The new Control Center is as tall as you want it to be (left, in an unrealistically full condition). You customize it in Settings (right).

In many more cases than before, you can hard-press or long-press one of these buttons to open a sub-panel that offers even more controls.

Here are the buttons that have always been there: Airplane Mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Brightness, Volume, Rotation Lock, Do Not Disturb, Music playback, Airplay (send audio and video to an Apple TV), Flashlight, Camera, Calculator, Timer, and Airdrop (send files, pictures, and other data bits to another Mac or iPhone).

Now, though, there’s a much longer raft of options. You can choose which buttons you want to appear on the Control Center, and in which order. The first three in particular are incredibly useful:

Notes. This is a big, big deal. The idea is to give you immediate access to Notes, so you can jump in, no matter what you were doing, to write down something quickly: a phone number someone’s giving you, dosage instructions your doctor’s rattling off, or a brainstorm you’ve just had for a million-dollar product. In Settings, Apple has provided a bewildering array of controls over what access you (or a passing evildoer) has to your Notes when you open the Control Center from the Lock screen.

Screen Recording. So weird: It’s a Control Center button for a feature you can’t trigger in any other way. There’s no app, no Settings page that even mentions Screen Recording otherwise. The idea, of course, is to let you record videos of what’s happening on the iPhone screen—with narration, if you like. It’s fantastic as a teaching tool, if you want to capture some anomaly to send to tech support, or to demo your new app. You see a 3-2-1 countdown, which is intended for you to get out of the Control Center and get into whatever app you’re trying to record. The finished video winds up in your Photos app with all your other videos—with pristine quality and smooth motion, ready to send to your admirers. It’s awesome.

Do Not Disturb While Driving. This important new iOS feature prevents notifications, calls, or texts from lighting up your phone or making it ring whenever you’re behind the wheel and in motion. Usually, you’ll want it to turn on automatically when you’re driving; this button is primarily useful for turning DNDWD off—when you’re in the passenger seat.

Cellular Data on/off. Great if you’re worried about your monthly cap.

Stopwatch, Alarm. One-tap shortcuts to these modules of the Clock app.

Accessibility Shortcuts. Magnifier, Zoom, VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch, and so on.

Apple TV Remote. In case you’ve lost the physical one.

Guided Access. Opens the on/off switch for Guided Access, otherwise known as “kiosk mode.” It locks the phone into one particular app, so that (for example) your toddler can play around without wreaking any real havoc on your phone.

Low Power Mode. Here’s a one-touch way to manually switch on the battery-saving feature known as Low Power Mode.

Turns the entire phone into a powerful illuminated magnifying glass.

Text Size. There are all kinds of ways to make text bigger and more readable on the iPhone’s screen. But this new Control Center option gives you a more immediate way of making adjustment—say, when you suddenly find yourself on some web page done up in 3-point type. Tap to see a vertical slider, whose segments indicate increasingly larger type sizes.

Voice Memos. The Voice Memos app is handy for recording speeches, interviews, song ideas, and so on. What’s not handy is the long slog to get into the app and start recording. No more! Tap this button to open the Voice Memos app, where another tap begins the recording. Better yet, a hard-press on this Control Center button produces a menu that lists your three most recent recordings (for instant playback)—and a New Recording button.

Wallet. Here’s another way to jump into your Apple Wallet—usually because you want to pay for something with Apple Pay.

Storage Help

Another category of new features is designed to assist with the chronic problem of running out of room on the iPhone:

Camera app. iOS 11 invites you to adopt new file formats for photos (HEVC) and videos (H265), which look the same as they did before but consume only the half the space. (When you export to someone else, they convert to standard formats.)

Storage optimization. The idea: As your phone begins to run out of space, your oldest files are quietly and automatically stored online, leaving Download icons in their places on your phone, so that you can retrieve them if you need them.

Siri updates

Apple’s done some work on its voice assistant, too:

A new voice for Siri. Apple says that the new male and female voices sound more like actual people; to me, they just sound younger. Here’s a snippet of each.

youtube

Siri translates languages. Siri is trying to catch up to Google Assistant. For example, it can now translate phrases from English into Chinese, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. You can say, “How do you say ‘Where’s the bathroom?’ in French?” It works surprisingly well—she nails the accents.

Siri is now a polyglot! She can translate for you.

Siri understands followup questions. Siri now does better at understanding followup questions. (“Who won the World Series in 1980?” “The Tigers.” “Who was their coach?” “Roy Williams.”)

A lot of misc

The rest of iOS 11 falls into the category best called, “Everything else.” Little nips and tucks like these:

A file manager! A new app called Files lets you work with (and search) files and folders, just as you do on the Mac or PC. You can tag them, search them, sort them, view them as a list or as icons. The Files app shows the contents of your iCloud Drive, as well as your Box and Dropbox files (!!). You can select files (but, alas, not folders) to share with other people.

For the first time, iOS has a “Finder” or a “Windows Explorer.” Manage, file, sort, search, copy, and delete files here.

Redesigned apps drawer in Messages. All the stuff they added to Messages last year (stickers, apps, live drawing) cluttered up the design and wound up getting ignored by lots of people. The new design is cleaner, with only two icons eating up your text-typing space instead of three.

App Store. The App store gets a big redesign. One chief fix is breaking out Games into its own tab, so that game and non-game bestseller lists are kept separate.

One-handed typing. With a tap on the little globe key, you can opt for a narrower keyboard huddled against one side, for easier one-handed typing when you’re carrying coffee. (You can now zoom in Maps one-handed, too.)

Hiding among the keyboard choices (left) are new left- and right-hugging mini-keyboards (right).

Quicker transfer. When you get a new iPhone, you can import all your settings from the old one just by focusing the camera on the new phone on the old one’s screen.

Improvements to Photos. The Photos app offers smarter auto-slideshows (called Memories). Among other improvements, they now work even when you’re holding the phone upright.

Improvements to Live Photos. Live Photos are weird, three-second video clips, which Apple introduced in iOS 9. In iOS 11, you can now shorten one, or mute its audio, or extract a single frame from that clip to use as a still photo. The phone can also suggest a “boomerang” segment (bounces back and forth) or a loop (repeats over and over). And it has a new Slow Shutter filter, which (for example) blurs a babbling brook or stars moving across the sky, as though taken with a long exposure. (I still don’t really get Live Photos.)

Swipe the Lock screen back down. Confusingly enough, you used to see your notifications on two slightly different screens. There was your Lock screen, and there was the Notifications screen (swipe down from the top of the screen). Now, it’s all the same screen. Swiping down from the top brings back the identical list of missed notifications—and even the wallpaper and time—that you’d see on your Lock screen. Makes a ton of sense.

Smarter typing suggestions. When you’re typing, the auto-suggestions above the keyboard now offer movie names, song names, or place names that you’ve recently viewed in other apps. Auto-suggestions in Siri, too, include terms you’ve recently read. And if you book a flight or buy a ticket online, iOS offers to add it to your calendar.

AirPlay 2. If you buy speakers from Bose, Marantz, and a few other manufactures (unfortunately, not Sonos), you can use your phone to control multi-room audio. You can start the same song playing everywhere, or different songs in different rooms.

Shared “Up Next” playlist. If you’re an Apple Music subscriber, your party guests or buddies can throw their own “what song to play next” ideas into the ring.

Lane guidance. When you’re driving, Maps now lets you know which lane to be in for your next turn, just as Google Maps does.

Indoor Maps. The Maps app can now show you floor plans for a few malls and 30 airports.

iCloud file sharing. Finally, you can share files you’ve stored on your iCloud Drive with other people, just as you’ve been able to do with Dropbox for years.

iPad Exclusives

Many of the biggest changes in iOS 11 are available only on the iPad.

Mac features. In general, the big news here is the iPad behaves much more like a Mac. For example, you can drag-and-drop pictures and text between apps. The Dock is now extensible, available from within any app, and perfect for switching apps, just as on the Mac. There’s a new Mission Control-type feature, too, for seeing what’s in your open apps—even when you’ve split the screen between pairs of apps.

Punctuation and letters on the same keyboard. Now, punctuation symbols appear above the letter keys. You flick down on the key to “type” the punctuation—no more having to switch keyboard layouts.

Pencil features. If you’ve bought Apple’s stylus, you can tap the Lock screen and start taking notes right away. You can mark up PDFs just by starting to write on them. A new feature lets you snap a document with the iPad’s camera, which straightens and crops the page so that you can sign it or annotate it. Handwriting in the Notes app is now searchable, and you can make drawings within any Note or email message.

Coming this fall

Two major features didn’t make the cut in the initial release of iOS 11. They’re coming, Apple says, in an update later this fall:

Person-to-Person payment within the Messages app. Now, you can send payments directly to your friends—your share of the pizza bill, for example—right from within the Messages app, much as people do now with Venmo, PayPal, and their ilk. (Of course, this works only if your friends have iPhones, too.) When money comes to you, it accrues to a new, virtual Apple Pay Cash Card; from there, you can send it to your bank, buy things with it, or send it on to other people.

Messages in iCloud. Your entire text-message history gets auto-synced to all your new Apple devices. (In the old days, when you bought a new iPhone and opened Messages, it was empty.) This feature will also mean that that huge, multi-gigabyte hunk of Messages won’t have to sit on your phone, eating up space.

There are also dozens of improvements to the features for overseas iPhones (China, Russia, India, for example). And many, many enhancements to features for the disabled (spoken captions for videos and pictures, for example).

Hits 99; misses, 1

Almost all of these touchups are improvements, but one is decidedly not: If iOS sees you using dictation, it puts away the keyboard. It assumes that you’re going to want to keep dictating.

Well, guess what, dingbat? You always have to correct things that dictation misinterpreted. Always. And you can’t do that without the keyboard.

What this means is that after every round of dictation, you have to tap a tiny keyboard icon to bring back the keyboard. 1,000 times a day. They broke something that didn’t need fixing.

youtube

So what’s the overarching theme of the iOS 11 upgrade?

There isn’t one. It’s just a couple hundred little fine-tunings. All of them welcome—and all of them aimed to keep you trapped within Apple’s growing ecosystem.

More from David Pogue:

iPhone 8 reviewed: Nice, but nothing to buzz about

How Apple envisions life without a Home button

The $999, eyebrow-raising iPhone X: David Pogue’s hands-on review

iOS11 is about to arrive — here’s what’s in it

MacOS High Sierra comes this fall—and brings these 23 features

T-Mobile COO: Why we make investments like free Netflix that ‘seem crazy’

How Apple’s iPhone has improved since its 2007 debut

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, is the author of “iPhone: The Missing Manual.” He welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email.

#tech #Pogue #David Pogue #_lmsid:a077000000BAh3wAAD #_uuid:4f37bf2a-9cdf-3aab-a04f-cc08417271e6 #_revsp:yahoofinance.com #$AAPL #_author:David Pogue

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blackguard · 7 years ago

Text

Homecoming

“Are you sure you want to head in there like this? You don’t have to face this head on.” Makoto’s the first to voice her concerns, as per usual, biting her lower lip as I turn to face her. It’s the same proactive caution of hers that’s saved us so many times before.

“Ooh, a heist! Now you’re talking, Queen.” Mona chimes in, appearing behind my shoulder. “I can recon the place before you head in and map out an optimal route. I’m sure Skull can make some kind of obnoxious distraction for us,” he says, turning to aim a feline grin at my blond teammate.

Ryuji’s furrows his brow in a glare at the cat before turning his attention to me. “Normally I’d tell the furball to can it, but he’s on to something there. Makoto and I can keep ‘em busy while you do your thing. We can fake some kinda argument, make it loud enough to get their attention. Practically be doing the hard work for you.”

Makoto flips her hair with a devious smile as she steps forward to me. “My thoughts exactly. So, what do you say, Leader? One more for the road?”

Without so much as a suggestion from me, my Thieves leap into action for my sake, already concocting an elaborate plan. It’s a wonderful reminder of just how much we’ve come to trust and care for each other.

I shake my head at them with a wry smile. “Take it easy, team. This is a one man job and I’m the one man for it.”

Right now though, this isn’t a job for the Phantom Thieves. This is something I’ve got to do myself, so I can close this chapter of my life for good.

“Please, just head back to the hotel with the others for now. If I need a hand, I’ll text you right away. Okay?”

Makoto closes her eyes and sighs. She knows just how stubborn I can be, especially about stuff like this.

“Fine,” she says grabbing my hand and squeezing it in hers. “But you better have the message ready to send before you go inside. Got it?”

I pull out my phone and show her it’s screen, displaying our group text, the word, “Jenga,” typed into the entry box.

She rolls her eyes at me, muttering, “Clever,” before giving me a peck on the lips. “I’ll see you back at the hotel. Be safe.” Letting go of my hand, she begins walking back.

“Well, I’m not kissing ya, but good luck in there, man. You say when and we’ll come running.” Ryuji claps me on the back before following after Makoto.

Morgana leaps off my shoulder before doing the same. “Watch your back, Joker. There’s no telling what they might try to pull. …Oh and we’ll pick up dinner on the way back!”

With a chuckle, I wave my friends off as they fade in to the summer evening. As soon as they turn the corner down the street, my reassuring smile vanishes as a grim frown takes its place. Withdrawing my glasses, I flick the arms open before sliding them on. After straightening my spectacles with a push to the bridge, I breathe deeply and head up the road to the house I’m looking for.

My knuckles rap against the door five times. Several seconds pass before the lock clicks into place and the door swings open. Standing in the doorway, still clutching the door, is woman in her early forties with a head of flowing, but frazzled black hair. She stares at me with her jaw agape and her eyes bulging. Her hands move over her chest before she finally speaks up.

“Akira!? What are you doing here?! ...And why are you wearing glasses?”

I keep my hands in my pockets as I shift my stance slightly to the right, hoping my lowered brow and frown properly illustrate my incredulity. “…Good to see you too, Ma. Can I come in or…?”

She looks around in a panic before she backs away and opens the door further. “O-Of course…!”

Adjusting the straps of the bag hanging on my shoulder, I exhale deeply from my nose as I head inside. Past the front door, I kick off my shoes and look around the living space. To no surprise, everything looks the same as it did a year ago. I walk further in as my mother flusters at a distance from me, attempting to start up a conversation on something other than my sudden arrival. Ignoring her, I walk upstairs and into my old room.

Inside, it’s looks like it’s been frozen in time. If I took a picture of the place the day I left, not a thing would look different than it does now. The same blue wallpaper, the same hanging open closet door, the same smashed action figure on my desk… I don’t even need to see the dust to know this place hasn’t been touched. Easier to pretend I was never here that way, I guess.

Letting my bag fall off my shoulder, I open my mental map and begin checking off items. Books, toys with sentimental value, old Karate belts, what consoles and games I can fit in my bag and the folded up box inside it; all stuff I couldn’t take with me when I had to leave. The box is pretty weighty by the time I’m done, but it’s nothing I can’t manage. After one last look over the room I grew up in, I leave it for the last time.

Heading back downstairs, I see beside my mother a similarly middle-aged man with a head of close trimmed black hair and a dusting of stubble across his jaw. Whatever conversation they were having is cut off as they both stare up at me. The old man’s gaze is a bit sharper than ma’s worried grimace, but I’ve been accustomed to this paradigm for far too long to be fazed by it.

“Akira, why didn’t you tell us you were coming back today?” My father’s quick to address the tension, attempting to establish control of the situation while he has the chance.

I continue descending the stairs as I respond to him. “Hello there, father. I just came by to pick up my stuff. Didn’t think there was any need to make an event of it.”

My mother stammers, struck dumb by my blunt approach to this catastrophe. My father is taken aback, but recovers more quickly. “What are you talking about? Son, you owe us an explanation for what’s going on here!”

“Actually, I don’t.” Reaching into my bag, I pull out a folded up legal document and present it to the both of them. “As you can read here, I’m just an independent minor reclaiming his property. Nothing worth talking about.”

With a flick of my wrist, I fold the paper back up and return it to my bag. Dad lets his jaw hang open for a solid few seconds before forcing himself back into a cold glare. Ma is wracked without outright horror, staring at me as though I’ve driven a knife into her heart. Her eyes well up with tears before she runs to my side. Her filed nails claw at my skin as she grasps at my forearm, sobbing through her words. “Akira, we’re so sorry! We didn’t want to send you away! When you were arrested we-“

“Stop.” As gently as I can manage, I pry her hands off me while interrupting her. “We don’t need to have this conversation.”

Dad steps in, breaking his terse silence. “I beg to differ, young man. We sent you to Tokyo for your own good. Holding that against us just isn’t-“

“Not one call.” I cut him off. “Not one letter. Not one visit. I was in Tokyo for a year without so much as a word from you two. I went to prison and I never even heard from either of you once!” Feeling myself losing my cool, I stop before I can get any more worked up. Ice in my veins, I continue. “I’m done here. For any further inquiries, you’ll have to talk to my lawyer.” Slipping Sae’s business card into my mother’s hands, I walk back into my shoes and out the front door.

Making it a few blocks away from the house, I collapse, my back against the barrier wall of the suburb. Sinking down until I reach the concrete, the emotion pours out of me. Setting down the box, tears run down my face as I grit my teeth and slam my fist against the concrete beneath me.

My first day at school. Birthday parties. Family vacations. I spent so much time with the both of them. I thought they loved me. I thought I was their son. All those years together and all it took was one crooked politician for them to abandon me entirely. It’s nothing short of heartwrenching.

I lose track of time as I vent the awful feelings stored up inside me. Stopping only occurs to me when I feel something wet on my right hand, the one not pressed against my eyes. It’s not a proud moment when I realize the wetness is my own blood.

Sweeping away the gravel from the scrapes, I reach around myself to retrieve my phone without bloodying my pants. Tapping through to my recent calls, I raise the device to my ear as the dial tone rings. To no surprise, it’s quickly cut off by Makoto’s voice.

“Hey, are you okay?” Worry is evident in her tone. In the background can hear Futaba arguing with Yusuke, something about who got what pieces of the sushi selection.

I chuckle quietly into the receiver as I answer her. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Job’s done. How’re things over there?”

“Inari, I swear I will reach down your throat and scoop that roll out if you don’t-“ Futaba’s threats echo through the room over what sounds like Ryuji attempting to restrain her. It’s faint, but I think I can hear Haru giggling too.

Makoto spares them a snicker herself before answering. “It’s a normal night for us. Or, it would be if you were here.” She pauses for a moment and I can hear the smile in her voice. I can’t help but smile myself. “Come back soon, okay?”

“Is that Akira? Makoto, tell him to hurry up! It’s a free for all back here!” Ann yells directly to Makoto through the chaos of the room.

With a half-joking time limit set, I push myself off the wall and back onto my feet. “Well, you heard her. I better get moving. See you in a few.”

“And be quick about it. See you soon,” Makoto says before she hangs up.

Finding my motivation renewed, I slide my phone back into my pocket and pick my things back up. The way I handled things, some people might say I lost my family tonight. I don’t see it that way myself. After readjusting my bag, I head off into the night, back to the family I’ve made for myself.

#Drabble #Been meaning to write this one for quite a while #Enjoy the uncomfortably relatable family drama

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sharing-her-mouth-blog · 7 years ago

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Kik Messenger Obtain Free Latest Version For Android

Obtain and Install kik messenger apk free for Android: Kik messenger is a free prompt messaging app for mobiles. As in Kik Messenger you get recognized with a user identify and not with the cellphone number, this app is more handy to speak with the people who we meet in the social networks or in video games, as it is not necessary to vulnerate the privacy of your number.

youtube

In in the present day's world the place mobile phones are the expertise of choice used by thousands and thousands to speak, chat functions like Kik Messenger are sometimes used within the commission of crimes like on-line harassment, or to plan or facilitate crimes like drug trafficking, robbery or homicide.

As a messaging app, Kik apk would not evaluate properly with the likes of WhatsApp , Viber , Telegram , LINE , KakaoTalk and so on. It lacks the options of these other apps and it does not have any area of interest choices that makes it stand out (resembling privacy and security within the case of Telegram).

If you don't have backups for lost Kik messages or photos, or for those who want a quick and effective way to get lost Kik messages/photographs restored on Android telephone, your best shot is to apply skilled Kik Messenger restoration software program.

Did not open WiFi for like 4 days only and when i bought again to open my WiFi and open my kik, i found that kik didn't show me any message from the chats i had already and solely sending me messages of at present (the day i opened the wifi at only).

There is a cause why Blackberry Messenger permits its customers to simply accept/reject another user earlier than they're able to message them, and that it doesn't just sift via the person's address guide on the lookout for other potential BBM users.

In brief, while this can be a welcome addition to the FlexiSPY bundle, you need to keep in mind that if you want this KiK Messenger spy feature to work, the cellphone will must be an Android telephone operating full mode on a (up to) Android model 5.0.2 rooted cellphone.

BlueStacks is an easy to install and use Android emulator designed to bring the Android app ecosystem to a COMPUTER. It's easy to put in and configure and allows you to run just about any app accessible on the Google Play Store right in your COMPUTER. Whereas not every app will work and some apps simply don't translate as properly on a LAPTOP desktop, utilizing BlueStacks is by far the simplest solution to run a majority of the Android apps and games right in your LAPTOP desktop.

It's best to be able to set up Kik Messenger app simply but when set up fails, first test and ensure that you've allowed set up of apps outside Google Play Store by checking the 'Unknown Sources' option in your Android phone / pill's security settings.

With the popularity of Kik Messenger, many users have questioned if it might be attainable to run Kik messenger on PC. Up to now this was very tough, if not not possible, for many customers to do. However, now it's possible simply by utilizing an Android emulator generally known as BlueStacks.

Sadly, there is no such thing as a app available for the PC but by merely utilizing BlueStacks you possibly can easily acquire entry to the popular and helpful Android app proper on your COMPUTER. In addition, you may install and run virtually any app you want using BlueStacks so you'll be able to gain entry to Kik and other apps in your LAPTOP.

However, as with many of these chat apps, your choice about whether or not or to not use Kik could depend on how many of your folks are signed up. And, while Kik's intention seems to be to incorporate options that make it a one-stop-store for customers needs, slightly than just being a messaging app, the truth that it lacks so many primary options is prone to cease it turning into a market chief.

In case you are in search of an app of chats and messages at no cost that is easy and really easy to use and, wherein, you do not have to provide your cellphone quantity to add contacts, download free Kik Messenger to your Android and chat with whoever you need without dropping your privateness.

Whereas it makes it much tougher to seek out mates, as you'll be able to't routinely populate your friends listing by way of cellphone number, it does provide that extra layer of privateness since you don't have to give out any private particulars.

Clicking the Obtain hyperlink will take you to a page on the Google Play store, from where you can download and set up the app. The power to recuperate Kik Messenger artifacts has proven helpful for IEF customers. To get the full experience of FlexiSPY you must know the limits it has on the huge array of Android operating techniques available on the market.

Google's latest messaging app i.e. Allo has emerged as an ideal various to WhatsApp and Kik. So, must do that utility for having fun with the online chat along with your buddies with out having any points. Open app Store on iPhone, in Updates part you'll be able to examine whether or not there is an update for Kik.

However, do not dismiss Kik just but as they've added new options like picture sharing and group chat capabilities. Entry the help section if in case you have any questions, however it would take you out of the app and open your browser, which doesn't actually make sense, since Kik apk has the capacity of opening webpages.

Aside from that, it is vitally straightforward to make use of and in addition comes with plenty of options prefer it allows all of the customers to register without offering any phone number totally free of price. Kik permits users to send messages and files to contacts utilizing iOS, Android, and Windows Phone units.

To be able to log in to multiple kik account one the identical phone at the identical time is one thing I have been wanting for ages! Kik gives the pliability of utilizing the appliance even by way of PCs and desktops, via net entry or android emulators.

In addition to that, sure web sites— fulfilled by the Kik community— enable straightforward discovery of codes— upon request. All Kik Messenger chat conversations are uploaded to your on-line TheTruthSpy control panel which you can access from wherever with an web connection.

The net web page accommodates 100% good obtain hyperlink which means you may download it simply. This effort within the privateness is the most highlighted benefit of Kik Messenger and, due to that, it has turned out to be a very good complement for some social networks, like Instagram.

The Kik contacts tables also can include profile picture links and timestamps, in addition to group and block lists (depending on which utility is used). Kik permits you to create groups of up to 50 members, which can either be invite only or public.

Kik will then ask if you wish to upload your contacts to see who's already utilizing Kik messenger. Use Kik wherever and stay in control at even just a few ft away out of your COMPUTER utilizing your touchscreen gadget! Nevertheless, with just some useful tools, you'll be able to easily install and run Kik on COMPUTER with out spending hours organising complicated virtual machines or emulators.

Then you'll be able to restore backed up Kik Messenger information out of your Android backup. All you should go to your cellphone settings> Safety> Unknown Sources and allow it. On this article I am going to clarify you how you can download Kik messenger in your Android Cellphone.

You will get all of this data by simply installing TheTruthSpy into their phone. Kik's video chat lets you've got as much as six individuals in your group so you'll be able to see your whole associates' stay reactions to no matter it is you're discussing. That approach admins know when somebody wants to affix and may kick any inactive chat members if they need to let the person be a part of.

This means that if the system you wish to monitor is running Android Marshmallow, you will have to attend. This messenger offers a lot of new options which you can't find in other messaging applications. PersonalL: Your Kik username not your telephone quantity is your Kik identity, so you can keep complete management of your privateness.

You can too hearken to the recorded voice calls and track GPS location of the targeted phone remotely. The display title, then again, is the title proven within the user's chat window, which might be modified by the person at any time. If you're aware of a more moderen model of Kik Messenger or an older one, which is not listed here, please feel free so as to add it !

When you can change the colour of your chat bubbles, there isn't any choice to alter the background to your chats. Kik has a flexibility that gives users the power to chat with people, or quickly start a bunch dialog. This message will likely be despatched to the e-mail tackle you used while you created your Kik account.

An increasing number of digital forensics examiners are seeing the need to examine Kik Messenger as a vital supply of evidence, and the ability to recuperate knowledge from this app is turning into critical to their investigations. Video is the function that younger people need to use more when chatting with their peers and expressing themselves.

It is a really good and free various to different related apps like WhatsApp and Line, with which it shares plenty of features, but in addition some differences. Higher but, simply get a plain immediate messenger which you can share with every one within the household if you happen to're not involved with the rest of its features.

You'll be able to read their full release right here (that is where I discovered about the new feature), however in short, they speak concerning the enhance in KiK customers as one of many foremost reasons for adding this feature. Be part of US on Facebook , Google + , Twitter and Pinterest for contemporary updates about APK apps, Games, Themes, Live Wallpapers and plenty of extra.

This makes Kik a highly desirable app as we can play quizzes, work on certain games and even get day by day vogue tips with out having to install some other utility. Kik makes messaging extra of an actual-time chat expertise instead of just sending a traditional textual content and ready for a response.

Next, when you see the above picture, you've gotten deleted Kik from your Android gadget. Step 4: Start Google play store app and use its search device to look Kik download. As soon as installed, you'll then be capable of click on on the Kik Messenger App icon to open the messenger.

Kik Messenger has been designed on a simple interface and very nice with which it is possible for you to to navigate easily amongst your conversations and contacts, with some choices to customise your profile. WeChat is among the most safe apps as a result of is the only messenger to have been licensed by TRUSTe.

If you updated your iPhone to latest iOS 10, please additionally update the Kik to be compatible with the latest iOS. First, you could download the BlueStacks Android emulator generally kik apk download for pc known as the BlueStacks App Participant. In.a similar manner, if you wish to obtain KiK Messenger APK for COMPUTER, we suggest you to download BlueStacks, an android emulator software that allows you to run Android apps in your pc.

Typically Kik crashed on Android because your Android phone has been up to date to 7.1/7.0 or Android 6.0, while Kik has not been updated accordingly to help the new OS. Please keep an eye on Kik and replace it when obtainable. Stimulated Chats permit customers to comply with and chat with completely different manufacturers in music, entertainment and extra.

If in case you have been using Kik on your Android mobile system, iPhone or Home windows Telephone, merely enter your username and password to achieve access to the service. Kik always making updates to make sure the brand new model app is running as smoothly as attainable for their lively customers.

Uncover and share music, video games, celebrity gossip and plenty of more without exiting Kik. However, one factor it's essential to understand that KIK app provides you Consumer ID to log in the application. The app has a separate part with really helpful websites and apps, in addition to new video games and applications that users may obtain and play with.

#kik #kik apk #kik download #kik apk download

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 8 years ago

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15 office prank ideas to show your coworkers who's really the boss

Be on the lookout because April 1 is fast approaching.

In this world of prank or be pranked, you want to make sure you come out on top. So here are 15 genius ideas for your very own April Fools' Day office prank.

We cannot guarantee that you won't need to "have a conversation" with your superior after pulling one of these, but they're really funny. You can decide whether or not you want to unleash your inner Jim Halpert for a day.

1. Fill your boss's office with balloons.

Don't worry. @gittrich made it to his desk pic.twitter.com/EasgmTq8ZM

— MJ Franklin (@heyitsfranklin2) March 15, 2017

This one is a classic and never gets old, except to the person who's office you are filling.

We actually did this prank at our offices, as the above photo suggests. From experience, we would highly recommend.

2. Turn your coworker's desk around.

This one only works if you work at a place with movable desks. However, it is simple, quick, and relatively harmless.

Literally all you have to do is turn the desk around so that all drawers are facing away from where the chair normally would be. In order make the desk still look like it's facing the right way, make sure to shift any desktop items to their proper places on the desk and ensure the chair is where it usually is. With any luck, your coworker won't realize their desk is backwards at all until they have to get something from one of their drawers and then they'll discover the drawer isn't there anymore.

3. Plaster their desk area with pictures of either their favorite or least favorite thing.

A certain level of dedication is needed to pull this one off, but the results definitely speak for themselves. There are also two directions you can go with this prank depending on your feelings about the coworker you decide to make your target.

If you are fond of the coworker, why not decorate their desk space with things they love, like puppies and doughnuts? And if you don't, you could always go with the thing that causes them mortal fear. Nothing like terror to start off a work day.

4. Bring your coworkers some "doughnuts."

I almost wish I worked in an office still to pull this prank! #notthatmuchthough

A post shared by нealтн 🍎 ғιтneѕѕ 💪🏻 нυмor 😝 (@sarcasticfitnessmama) on Aug 11, 2015 at 4:27pm PDT

You're taking a larger risk with this one, as this prank effects the entire office rather than just one particular person. But if you're afraid of potential future backlash, you could always just stay anonymous. The anonymous colleague who wants everyone to eat a little healthier on April Fools'.

5. Wrap everything at your coworker's desk, including their desk.

When Oliver is away, we #officeprank #wrappingpaper #birthday #npcc #fsj #fortstjohn #yxj

A post shared by North Peace Cultural Centre (@north_peace_cultural_centre) on Jul 20, 2015 at 6:38pm PDT

This one is directly out of the book of Jim Halpert, although he took the extra cruel step of completely replacing Dwight's desk and chair with cardboard so that it collapsed when Dwight attempted to actually use them. You can just stick to covering everything with wrapping paper that's already there.

6. Flood your coworker's computer with an annoying video.

https://kennethcallahan.tumblr.com/post/100713294803/had-a-little-fun-with-my-coworkers-computer-when

Simple, easy, and you get to choose the weapon of torture, whether it's a rick roll or the peanut butter jelly time song.

7. Download a Chrome extension to replace every picture online with Nicolas Cage.

Image: screenshot from mashable

Horrific, isn't it?

Chrome extensions are easy to both install and uninstall, which means this prank won't do any lasting damage to your coworker's computer. And if Nicolas Cage won't do, there are tons more fun Chrome extensions to choose from that will mess with how your coworker experiences the internet.

8. "Freeze" your coworker's desktop.

Take a screenshot of your coworker's desktop computer screen, then set that screenshot as the desktop wallpaper. Carefully either move the shortcuts, folders, or files your coworker had on the desktop to a hidden folder or select the option to hide the icons. The result will be an exact replica of the desktop your coworker is used to, but he or she will be unable to click on any of the files on the desktop.

To add an extra level of embarrassment, people have added humorous or uncomfortably titled folders to the desktop before taking the screenshot, thus forcing their coworkers to have a folder of "Dirty Porn" or "My Children Puking" permanently on the screen. As they struggle to explain it, you can sit back and relax.

9. Control your coworker's computer with a wireless mouse.

This works best if your coworker uses a traditional mouse but you have a wireless one handy. Simply connect the wireless mouse to your coworker's computer by inserting the almost unnoticeable nano-receiver into a USB port, and then pick the perfect moment.

Those who have done the prank before suggest waiting until your coworker starts to use the mouse before jiggling your own. Your colleague may think that mouse's behavior is just the computer acting up. From there, you can move to full Big Brother mode by completely taking control of the mouse's movements and opening a bunch of applications while your coworker watches in horror.

10. Link to a nonsense video within an extremely "professional" email.

This is another very easy and passive prank you can pull on an entire group of your coworkers. Make up a pretext for sending a very official sounding email that everyone "must read." Make sure to mention within your email that you want them to be familiar with a particular document or presentation, in fact it is crucial for them to do so, and link to something completely absurd instead.

11. Tell your coworkers that the printer has upgraded to voice activation, and provide them helpful instructions for how to use.

This one's cruelty factor is high, but return on humor is equally high.

The above Imgur photo album helpfully contains printable "official" instructions for every brand of printer, so that you can truly convince your coworkers you have a smart printer. While your colleagues struggle to figure out why their verbal instructions aren't working, you'll be soothed by the dulcet tone of people repeatedly yelling, "PRINT FIVE COPIES."

12. Zip tie office supplies, especially the scissors.

Honestly, zip ties are up there on the list of most evil inventions by humans. There's a reason why even the police use them sometimes as a form of restraint.

So why not use them to have a bit of fun around the office. Place a zip tie in the middle of some bananas to make them impossible to open. Zip tie up the handle that controls the height of a desk chair so that it goes down automatically every time someone sits on it. Zip tie a stapler shut.

The possibilities are truly endless. Just make sure you also zip tie the scissors so that there's no escape.

13. Trick everyone into thinking a bug is loose in the office.

If you're the type of person who avoids bugs as much as humanly possible, who's extent of "dealing with it" is to trap the bug and leave it there for someone else to squash, you are not the only one. Why not play into that fear by making it seem like you trapped a creepy-crawly last night but oh no, it looks like the thing has gotten out.

After this, nobody will be putting their feet down on the ground unless they absolutely have to.

14. Put googly eyes on everything in the office fridge.

This great dad did it to his family, and you can do it to your office. All it requires is purchasing adhesive googly eyes and then some alone time with the office fridge. Watch as your coworkers get their lunches under the extreme discomfort of a whole fridge-full of eyes.

15. Pretend every bathroom is out of order.

This prank works best if there are multiple different bathrooms in your office. All you need to do is print out and attach an "Out of Order: Use Other Bathroom" sign on both bathrooms. Your poor coworkers will not know what to do.

Bonus high level prank: Make an entire office disappear.

You probably came here looking for some easy, manageable prank ideas you can put together in time for April 1. The above prank does not fall under that category. But we wanted to share just how masterful an office prank can be if you're invested enough and if you have the right resources at your disposable.

Mad respect to all you pranksters out there. Now please, use the information you've just learned as responsibly as possible.

WATCH: TV store pulls terrifying prank on customers to promote the new 'Rings' film

#_author:Christine Wang #_uuid:c1c2f414-bcb1-347d-bb00-d225ee21202b #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

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savetopnow · 7 years ago

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2018-03-12 21 APPLE now

APPLE

9 to 5 Mac

Here’s what Facebook knows about you, and how to download all your data

13 years after Intel’s iPhone mistake, it might take the biggest ever tech deal to resolve it

Newly remodeled Apple store in UK’s Bluewater Mall to reopen March 24th

New lower-cost 13-inch Retina MacBook reported to debut in June, iPad refresh coming

How to stream the NCAA Selection Sunday show on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV

Apple Insider

Reminder: Apple says it's only streaming 4K iTunes movies, not offering downloads

Apple to launch entry level 13.3-inch MacBook with Retina display in Q2, report says

Studies hint Apple Watch & AliveCor EKG tech useful in detecting potassium & atrial fibrillation

Hands on: Use A Better Finder Rename 10 on your Mac to wrangle file names

Samsung Galaxy S9+ repair difficulty, camera aperture details exposed in teardown

Cult of Mac

Today in Apple history: Apple market cap breezes by Walmart

WhatsApp now gives you more time to delete accidental messages

Westworld game lets you try and manage your own robot theme park

New improved MacBook Air and 9.7-inch iPad could debut at WWDC

Expand your MacBook’s connections, learn coding, and more [Weekend Roundup]

Daring Fireball

Doxie

The Talk Show: ‘Podcast Amnesia’

Dan Seifert: Galaxy S9 Is ‘Predictably Great, Predictably Flawed’

David Pierce: ‘Samsung Galaxy S9 Is Impressive and Infuriating’

ESPN Feature on Ichiro Suzuki

Life in LoFi

iOS 11 Update Day: iOS 11 will break some apps

Scan and straighten photos with Dropbox

Latest Snapseed Update Adds New Curves Tool

The iPhone Turns 10 Today

How to move your photos from Google Photos to Apple Photos

Mac Rumors

WhatsApp Extends Time Limit for Deleting Sent Messages to Over an Hour

How to Customize Your Apple Watch Workout Metrics

New Entry-Level Mac Notebook Expected to Adopt Retina Display, Likely Launch at WWDC in June

Study Suggests AliveCor KardiaBand for Apple Watch Can Be Used With AI Algorithm to Detect High Potassium

Video Comparison: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X

MacPrices

Select 12″ 1.3GHz Retina MacBooks on sale for $1399, $200 off MSRP [u]

10″ 64GB WiFi iPad Pros on sale for $599, save $50

8-Core iMac Pro on sale for $4799, $200 off MSRP

Weekend Sale! 12″ 1.2GHz Retina MacBooks for $200 off MSRP, starting at only $1099

Sale! Apple resellers offer 13″ MacBook Pros for up to $300 off MSRP this weekend

OSX Daily

How to Make a Copy of Files or Folders on Mac with Duplicate

How to Use Stopwatch on iPhone

How to Search Emoji on Mac

How to Set Your Personal Info with Siri on iPhone and iPad

How to Install Homebrew on Mac

Power Page

Rumor: Apple may release lower-priced HomePod in second half of 2018

Patent hints at Apple’s effort to create a Lightning connector with waterproof seal

California joins 17 states in lobbying for “right to repair” legislation

Assorted Alexa-based devices have begun laughing at their users

Apple Pay adds 20 new U.S. banks and credit unions, will expand to Brazil in April

Reddit Apple

Siri is a great help, especially while driving – but I wish she could close/quit apps.

I have a $267 gift card to apple. Best in-ear headphones?

I think we should be able to control what is happening in a 3D Touched window with another finger.

New Entry-Level Mac Notebook Expected to Adopt Retina Display, Likely Launch at WWDC in June

Why does it seam like the US government focus more on apple than their competitors?

Reddit Mac

Using iCloud photo to replace Mac photo, possible?

Powerbank for Macbook Pro 2015

Are Mac Pro towers (not the trashcans) useable in 2018?

After updating Yosemite, MacPro3,1 no longer outputs video.

[HELP] I have my Acer monitor hooked up to my 2017 13” MacBook Pro with a USB C to HDMI adapter and my screen is only partially in color?

Reddit iPhone

A passenger picked up a broken iPhone X on the way to work.

Wow! Borderline effect notch embracing wallpapers look amazing!

iPhone 6 vs 6S

Just spotted this in a TV show. Gruesome.

iOS 11.2.6 7+ Wi-fi connectivity issues

Six Colors

The Talk Show #216: "Podcast Amnesia" ↦

Jobs and Woz's first product: Blue Boxes ↦

Coal in Kosovo slows clocks in Paris ↦

Springtime for Apple: New products we’re expecting (Macworld)

70% of Netflix viewing happens on TV sets ↦

Unlock Boot

Top 10 iPhone Apps Gone Free Today – March 11 2018

How to Reset and Get a New Apple Recovery Key

10 Best Torrent Sites to Use in 2018

5 Best Kodi TV Boxes You Can Purchase In 2018

Fix Respring Loop After Electra Jailbreak iOS 11

iPhone Hacks

Electra 1.0.4 iOS 11 Jailbreak Released With Some Minor Improvements

Apple’s New Entry-Level MacBook to Come with Retina Display

Samsung Galaxy S9+ vs iPhone X Speed Test

New Patent Reveals Apple is Working on Crumb-Resistant MacBook Keyboard

Get In Charge of Your Devices with Qi Wireless Technology [Deals Hub]

iPhone Life

How to Restart & Force Restart Your Apple Watch

Review: PopSockets Are a Simple & Stylish Way to Secure Your Phone

The Best Journaling App on iPhone Is One You’ve Probably Heard Of

Review: Pionears Are Fun & Functional True Wireless Earbuds

Review: VogDuo 30W Travel Wall Charger

iPhone Photography Blog

9 iPhone Camera Effects: How To Use Them For More Creative Photos

SANDMARC Lenses For iPhone X: Wide, Fisheye, Macro & 3x Telephoto

iPhone Art Academy: Create Stunning Works Of Art With Just Your iPhone

Olloclip Lenses For iPhone 8 & 8 Plus: Pick The Best Lenses For You

Camera+ App Tutorial: How To Create Stunning iPhone Photos

#apple

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arabellaflynn · 8 years ago

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I don't miss Windows at all. This computer used to get bitchy around two dozen Chrome tabs, plus the office software/large document combo of your choice. We're currently at four Chromium windows, one of which has pinned tabs that never unload from RAM, one of which has about forty-seven iStock preview windows in it, and one of which is running Google Play Music that uses Flash and has a memory leak with the throughput of a firehose; GIMP with several large print-quality files open; Audacity with multiple instances of an MP3 I'm chopping up; and an assortment of miscellaneous LeafPad documents and file manager folders and terminal windows. Some of the improvement is obviously because of the SSD. All operating systems use what's called a "cache file" to expand upon the physical RAM installed. It's just a big chunk of disk that they use the same way I use all the untitled LeafPad documents, as a buffer to hold things it thinks it'll need soon but not immediately. It's especially obvious when you put a laptop to "sleep". What that does is prompt the OS to write the current state of everything plus the contents of active memory to disk, so it can halt all of the spinning drives and stop powering the RAM and so forth, which makes the battery last as long as possible while you're transporting it. It takes a minute to "wake up" when you open the lid because it has to gather up all its notes and figure out what it was doing when it nodded off. Most of the delay is having to spin up the hard drive and locate the temporary file; with a solid-state drive, this computer now wakes up so fast I occasionally get the video signal before the backlight comes on, which just gives me flashbacks to the Game Boy Advance. I have a suspicion, though, that a lot of the improvement is just that Windows is shit at handling its Z-buffer. Windows versions since Vista have used a set of design guidelines called "Aero". (AERO stands for something, I think, but I can't remember what, probably because it was silly.) It's that frosted glass look on all the title bars and taskbars and such. You can turn it off to save CPU cycles, and in fact the OS will ask you if you want to toggle it off if the computer is struggling, but Windows -- Vista and above, but especially 7 and 8 -- is quite clearly designed to have it on all the time. The non-Aero themes it ships with make it look less like a legit copy of Windows and more like a cut-rate version of "Wimdovvs" you bought for a tenth of the price on eBay from a seller in a country where they use American copyright enforcement notices as disposable napkins. It does evoke a certain nostalgia for the days of Windows 3.11, but it's not really suitable for a modern display. [The fact that Windows has "design guidelines" at all is probably because they're in competition with Apple. Because Apple produced entire computers, rather than just the OS, they've had a coherent design language for decades. Originally it was "Snow White"; I don't know the project name of the candy-colored translucent design they used on iMacs/iBooks and G3/G4 towers and the original iPods, or the current black/white/brushed metal scheme that they use on new Macbooks and iPhones, but there is a reason all Macs look distinctively alike. Windows has been trying to make their OS define the system for a couple of decades now, with limited success. Mostly they have just put their foot down about certain aspects of the system and removed the user-controllable settings. They were very proud they'd given Brian Eno a wheelbarrow full of money to compose the startup sound for Windows 95/98/XP, which is why they eventually stopped letting you change it.] Because the Aero overlays are both translucent and blurred, it's incredibly processor-intensive. In order to draw the background correctly, the renderer has to not only know what window you have on top, it has to know what window or wallpaper is behind it, and then it has to sum and average a bunch of pixels to get the blur effect. Old versions of Windows used what was called a "stacking window manager", where each window was responsible for itself. Basically, the active window on top was repsonsible for redrawing its own contents when required, and for telling the OS when it had moved or resized, and which other windows had to be redrawn beneath it. If something jammed up, sometimes the top window would retain control of everything and forget to alert the window manager that it had to update the lower parts of the stack. When you moved your active window around and got an explosion of psychedelic tracers in its wake, you knew the entire system was hosed and it was time to punch the reset button. Newer versions of Windows use a proper 3D window manager, called a "compositing window manager", which uses the same technique as most video games for figuring out what to draw on the screen. Windows does not look particularly 3D, but inasmuch as the Aero scheme requires the draw routine to understand what things are "under" and "over" other things, and to render the visible ones with various degrees of alpha transparency, it needs a similar organizational system for keeping windows stacked up in order. This is usually referred to as a "Z-buffer" -- the screen is the (X, Y) plane, so keeping track of which things are deeper "behind" that plane is logically considered the Z axis. Making use of "3D" algorithms to draw the windows in order is why Windows versions past Vista are faster when you have a 3D accelerator card, even though such cards are never used to augment the actual computational power of the CPU in normal tasks. The CPU offloads the process of keeping track of all the damn windows like a lawyer throwing its inbox at its callow paralegal. Looking at the system requirements for Windows 7, I suspect that it mainly uses brute force to figure out draw order. It's easy enough to get the 3D accelerator to do simple rescaling/transform operations like the pretty animation that happens when you hover the pointer on a taskbar button or Alt-Tab through your running applications, but the degree to which this computer at least slowed down when flipping through multiple windows -- and the degree to which it worsened with every additional thing open -- suggests to me that Windows was redrawing absolutely bloody everything in the back of its head every time I did something. before refreshing the screen. It objected especially to Chrome, which has cleverly made itself near-unkillable by running each tab as its own separate child instance inside a parent window. Linux is behaving much better. One, it doesn't look like ass with all the transparency turned off. I'm running Lubuntu on both laptops, because I don't actually need much from the OS and if I do I can just apt-get it anyway. Linux can mimic Aero just fine; the full install of Ubuntu 16.04 has a lot of fancy transparencies in its native themes. Lubuntu is specifically meant to be lightweight, and by default it doesn't. I have admittedly tinkered with a lot of the colors and some of the icons, but only because I'm fussy about things matching my pretty fractal wallpapers. And two, Linux divides your running apps not just into "windows" but into "desktops" or "workspaces". Lubuntu 16.10 gives you four to start with, arranged in a linear loop where hitting 'next' on desktop 4 takes you back to 1. (You can change it, and arrange them how you like on both the X and Y axes, but I haven't bothered.) My kajillion Chromium tabs and large media editing programs are split across four workspaces, which means that whichever one I'm using, Lubuntu doesn't have to draw the other three at all. The stuff on them is still running -- if I set something to download in the browser or render in an audio or video editor it'll keep chugging away, or if I have Google Play Music running it will keep playing onward, oblivious to the fact that I'm not bothering to look at it while it talks to me. You can also set a window to be accessible/active from all workspaces, which is handy for chats. It just stashes the unused draw buffers somewhere, and doesn't think about them unless I tell it to. I also discovered while I had this thing in pieces that there is an additional RAM slot open near the front. It's not exactly a priority, but if anyone has the burning urge to send me a $20 DIMM, it takes these. The motherboard has 2GB native and sadly can only address 4GB total, so the larger one wouldn't do me any good. from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kQCfJH via IFTTT -------------------- Enjoy my writing? Consider becoming a Patron, subscribing via Kindle, or just toss a little something in my tip jar. Thanks!

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