#name resolution policy table

[richardmhicks]

Always On VPN and Split DNS

Always On VPN and Split DNS

Split DNS, sometimes called ‘split brain’ DNS, is when an organization uses the same DNS namespace internally and externally. For example, the internal Active Directory domain name is example.com, so internal resources are accessed using a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) like dc1.example.com. Additionally, external properties such as mail and web services use the same namespace so that a…

[phoenixyfriend]

Suggested topics to call your reps about today, 2/5/24!

I’ve been doing two subjects per call recently; one is almost always about the events in the middle east, and then one is domestic policy. I’m including a bit of verbiage you can use as basis for what you say (if you agree with me), for a few of these.

BOTH SENATE AND HOUSE:

Foreign Policy: Reinstate funding for UNRWA. While the claims made by Israel that employees of the relief agency were involved in Oct. 7th are troubling, this arm of the UN is currently providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to the 2.3 million displaced peoples of Gaza. It is especially disturbing and concerning that the many children of Gaza, who are already suffering due to this conflict, are now having this support revoked.

Warn Congress to reaaaaally think about whether a strong response to the incident in Jordan, currently attributed to an Iraqi group backed by Iran, if we're truly looking to avoid a wider regional war as claimed. There is already growing unrest in Yemen and the threat of another civil war, fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now the situation with the Islamic Resistance. Caution them against an overreaction of the kind that the US has a tendency towards.

FOR THE SENATE: Urge your senator to put their support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed. Cite it as Senate Resolution 504 if your Senator is right-wing enough to react negatively to the mention of Sanders by name. NOTE: This resolution was TABLED by the Senate on 1/16, but it is being brought back in as conditions continue to escalate.

FOR THE HOUSE: Urge your representative to put their support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it. ALTERNATELY: recommend that they support House Resolution 786, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush, Calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

.

DOMESTIC POLICY, BOTH BRANCHES OF CONGRESS:

Border policy is currently being hotly debated and negotiated. A very strong policy in favor of the Republican party is the status at the moment. Even some democrats are in favor of it due to small border communities being ill-equipped to handle large numbers of migrants, and states usually removed from the situation getting migrants bussed in from Texas despite telling Texas to knock it off. Despite some Republicans saying that they have gotten everything they could want out of the current deal, the party at large is refusing to pass it as the politics of the debate are more useful to the coming election than actually passing policy. This is also causing delays in passing the federal budget.

I... don't actually want to tell anyone WHAT to think of the border policy since I do not have any real knowledge on the budget impacts and resources dictating the actual problems (nor the racism or xenophobia, that part is obviously bullshit). I can recognize that too some degree, there is a genuine issue of manpower and budget restriction impacting the ability to house and process immigrants.

However, DREAMers are not being considered in the current deal, the delays in the deal are impacting the federal government and threatening a partial shutdown, and people are STILL getting hurt and even dying at the border.

I would focus on protection for DREAMers, chastising the Republicans for deliberately delaying the budget in order to use the border as a reelection premise instead of actually working on the policy they claim to want (emphasize that they are going to lose votes for focusing on reelection at the expense of their people), and protection for children, parents with those children, and nonviolent migrants in general.

[mariacallous]

Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday that urged a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza.

The text, which was supported by 10 other members of the 15-member Security Council, called on all parties in the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law and rejected any efforts to reduce the territory of Gaza through the creation of a security buffer zone, an idea that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put forward in his plan for Gaza’s postwar future.

The resolution is the latest sign of a subtle shift in the Biden administration’s stance on the war as it seeks to curb the spiraling humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Palestinian territory. However, experts say it does not represent a meaningful departure from Washington’s long-standing support for Israel at the United Nations. 

“The U.S. was not attempting to make a fundamental shift in its policy at the U.N. over the war,” said Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s U.N. director. 

Washington has historically used its position as a permanent member of the Security Council to defend Israel, including by exercising the U.S. veto. Friday was the fourth time the council held a vote on a cease-fire resolution since the start of the war. The previous three efforts were vetoed by the United States for failing to include language referring to Israel’s right to self-defense and for calling for an unconditional cease-fire that was not linked to the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. 

U.S. sponsorship of this latest resolution was likely intended to send a message to the Netanyahu government. “The mere fact that the U.S. was willing to do anything in the Security Council at all was a small signal to the Israelis to be cautious,” Gowan said. 

The Biden administration has stood by Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and 240 people taken hostage, and has continued to provide the country with military aid in the face of mounting domestic and international criticism. 

At the same time, U.S. President Joe Biden has become increasingly frustrated by what he has described as the “indiscriminate” nature of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and the throttling of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Even if the resolution had passed, it would likely have had little “operational impact,” said Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch’s U.N. director, who noted that the text refrained from using some of the more forceful language seen in other similar Security Council resolutions. “If you wanted to have strong obligatory language, it would say ‘demands’ an ‘immediate and sustained cease-fire.’ It doesn’t say that,” Charbonneau said. 

Language used in Security Council resolutions is carefully calibrated, as even slight shifts in tone and word choice can carry significant diplomatic meaning. The 2,000-word U.S. resolution tabled on Friday, which refers to Israel by name only once, said the Security Council “determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.”

Russia and China cited that watered-down wording as a reason for their veto. Ahead of the vote, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow supported a cease-fire, but he described the U.S. resolution as an “empty rhetorical exercise.” China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, made similar comments. “If the U.S. was serious about a cease-fire, it wouldn’t have vetoed time and again multiple council resolutions,” he said. “It wouldn’t have taken such a detour and played a game of words while being ambiguous and evasive on critical issues.”

Russia has faced increased scrutiny at the U.N. over the past two years for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “The Russians, in particular, from the get-go used the war [in Gaza] as an opportunity to distract from their own behavior in Ukraine and put the U.S. on the back foot,” Gowan said.

Permanent council members have long wielded their vetoes to protect their interests and those of their allies, but they were often able to work effectively on other fronts. Now, tensions between Russia and the West are increasingly seeping into all areas of the council’s work, diplomats say.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, including some 13,000 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas but whose casualty figures are regarded as broadly accurate. Israel has severely limited humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has left much of the population on the brink of a catastrophic famine, the World Bank warned this week. 

Friday’s vote at the Security Council came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East on his sixth trip to the region since the war began. After a meeting in Cairo to discuss ongoing efforts to broker a cease-fire, Blinken said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to launch a planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the conflict. 

A defiant Netanyahu said the operation would go ahead, with or without U.S. support. “I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we have to, we will do it alone,” he said.

[ausetkmt]

A Florida Judge Finds a New Job: Defending an Inmate - The New York Times

At first, Judge Scott Cupp was a resolute, hard-core, you-gotta-be-joking skeptic. During his years as a defense lawyer, he had heard from dozens of inmates who swore they had been wrongly convicted, and he never believed a single one. So in 2002, when he learned about a guy named Leo Schofield, who by then had already served 13 years of a life sentence for murdering his wife, he didn’t need to hear the details.

“I thought if this guy’s innocent, I’m the Queen of Sheba,” he said in a recent interview.

For the record, Judge Cupp looks nothing like any depictions of the Queen of Sheba. At 66, he has gray hair and a fluffy gray beard that gives him the appearance of a trimmed-down Santa Claus, and when agitated he lets fly curse words not found in the Bible. (“I can get a little saucy, so you can edit some of this, right?”)

But today it is not enough to say Judge Cupp merely believes Leo Schofield is innocent; he considers Mr. Schofield’s imprisonment a grotesque mistake. Anyone wondering how Judge Cupp made the journey from total doubter to ardent crusader should seek out “Bone Valley,” a nine-part podcast released last year, which recounts Mr. Schofield’s story in harrowing, infuriating detail. The show is part of the true-crime podcast bonanza, fueled by the very human urge for stories in which sanity and justice ultimately prevail.

Here comes a spoiler: “Bone Valley” is not that kind of story. Mr. Schofield is still in prison. Which so irritates Judge Cupp that freeing him will soon become his full-time and unpaid job. In a move that is certain to confound more than a few colleagues, Judge Cupp will resign his seat on the 20th Judicial Circuit Court in Charlotte County, Fla. — he has been a judge since 2014 — and dedicate all of his working days to springing Mr. Schofield from behind bars.

“I’m leaving money on the table,” he said in a 90-minute video interview, noting that he could have remained in his current role for nine more years. But he doesn’t have any debt, his children are grown and he lives comfortably on 26 acres with plenty of woods and a pond.

“In a way, what I’m about to do is selfish,” he went on, “because it’s for my own psyche. I need to do this. I have to do this.”

Did you know you can share 10 gift articles a month, even with nonsubscribers?

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“Bone Valley” has been a triumph for Lava for Good, a production company that focuses on social justice issues. It has been downloaded 4.5 million times, reaching No. 7 on Apple’s podcast chart and turning up on best-of-the-year lists.

Lava for Good has not released financial figures, so it’s hard to know if “Bone Valley” went beyond winning hearts and minds and turned a profit, a feat that has only gotten harder as the podcast market has grown more crowded. The company’s co-founders, Jason Flom and Jeff Kempler, who initially created Lava Records, signing artists like Lorde and Kid Rock, say they are primarily interested in different kinds of results.

“For us the most important measure of success is in outcomes,” Mr. Kempler wrote in an email, “in specific cases we cover, in laws and policies, in the election of fair and progressive prosecutors.”

“Bone Valley” is reported and narrated by Gilbert King, the author of the book “Devil in the Grove,” the nonfiction account of four Black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in central Florida in 1949, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Mr. King, who lives in Brooklyn, thought he was done with the Sunshine State until he visited Naples in 2018 to give a speech to the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges.

Judge Cupp attended by mistake, thinking Gilbert Gottfried, the now-deceased stand-up comic, was doing a set to add levity to the program. He quickly abandoned his plan to exit early and had a very different thought: This is the guy.

For more than a decade, he had been searching for a writer to dig into the case that preoccupied him. When Mr. King was done speaking, Judge Cupp approached and handed over his business card. On the back he had jotted down Mr. Schofield’s name and Florida Department of Corrections number.

“Not just wrongfully convicted,” he had added in a scrawl. “He’s an innocent man.”

A few days later, Mr. King called. Judge Cupp explained that during his defense lawyer days, he had overcome his initial doubts about Mr. Schofield and represented him in 2005, based on new evidence. He still failed to persuade prosecutors that they had imprisoned the wrong man. Soon after, he became a prosecutor himself and later joined the bench. But he never forgot this case.

“God help us if we can’t get this right,” he told Mr. King on the phone. Just read the trial transcripts, the judge suggested.

“I saw problems with the state’s case right away,” Mr. King recalled. Under the government’s theory, the murder occurred in the Schofield home, a single-wide trailer. “But multiple crime units did not find a single drop of blood in the place. How is that possible?”

The case dated to 1987, when the body of 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was discovered in a drainage canal in Lakeland, Fla., with 26 stab wounds. Suspicion quickly fell on her husband of just six months, a house painter who also played lead guitar in a bar band.

At the trial, prosecutors tarred Mr. Schofield as a violent hothead — he had struck Ms. Schofield on several occasions, the acts of an overly possessive husband, he said — and a neighbor said she had seen him on the night of the murder, moving a large object from his home that could have been a body. Mr. Schofield was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

“Honestly, I think I was numb,” Mr. Schofield says in a face-to-face interview for the podcast conducted in the prison, describing his reaction to the verdict. “I was so numb and beat down and disgusted I don’t think sadness was the reaction for me. For me, I was incredulous that this could even be taking place.”

Notably missing from the government’s case was any physical evidence linking Mr. Schofield to the crime. But fingerprints had been found in his wife’s car. Figuring out whom they belonged to became a fixation for Crissie Carter, a social worker who had met Mr. Schofield in prison when he assisted her in life skill classes she taught to inmates. In 1995, the two married, a turn of events that Ms. Carter, who now goes by Carter-Schofield, could scarcely believe herself.

“I didn’t know how to talk about it for years,” she said in a phone interview. “And the very few people I did share this with didn’t want to talk to me, because they thought there was something wrong with me.”

One of those former friends was a police officer, Synda Maynard, who was then married to Scott Cupp. In 2004, Ms. Carter-Schofield spent months begging, pleading and whining to persuade a very skeptical Officer Maynard to seek a match for the fingerprints recovered in Ms. Schofield’s car.

A few weeks later, Officer Maynard called with startling news. The prints belonged to Jeremy Scott, a deeply troubled, mentally diminished and violent man who, it turned out, had regularly taken a former girlfriend to the very secluded place where Ms. Schofield’s body was found. He was serving a life sentence for robbing and beating a man to death with a grape juice bottle.

When Mr. Cupp learned about the prints, he agreed to become Mr. Schofield’s lawyer, expecting that the prosecution would soon produce a face-saving plea deal and bring the life sentence to a swift end.

“I thought the case had unraveled for the state and Leo’s going to get out,” he said. “Wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Mr. Schofield stayed put, even after Mr. Scott took the stand at an evidentiary hearing in 2017 and confessed under oath.

Mr. Schofield has since earned a bachelor’s degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and leads a prison ministry attended by 150 inmates every Sunday. He has never had a private moment with his wife of nearly 30 years, let alone a conjugal visit. The daughter the couple adopted in 2000 now has two children of her own. His disciplinary record is as close to spotless as it gets for someone who has spent decades in penitentiaries.

But on three occasions, lawyers for the state attorney’s office have shown up at parole board hearings to argue that Mr. Schofield is a remorseless killer who should die in prison. And someone from that office will apparently attend hearing No. 4, scheduled for sometime in March or April.

“If we thought that Leo Schofield, or any other inmate, was innocent, we would take immediate action to right that injustice,” said Jacob S. Orr, chief assistant state attorney for Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit. “However, the state cannot ignore the overwhelming amount of evidence that has proven Leo Schofield guilty.”

Mr. Orr attached a two-page document of detailed talking points. “It seems this is an attempt to promote a podcast,” reads one sentence.

That’s a line that Judge Cupp has heard before.

“I hope to God somebody says that in my presence,” he said during the interview, talking about the upcoming parole hearing. “Yeah, we’re just rolling in dough here.”

He and Mr. Schofield have become friends, bonded by the latter’s struggle and their shared Christian faith. In a bonus episode released last week, Judge Cupp visits Mr. Schofield at Hardee Correctional Institution to ask permission to represent him again. In a subsequent interview with Mr. King, Mr. Schofield says he’s happy to have his superhero back.

It might take superheroics to free Mr. Schofield. Or maybe the state will be daunted by the media spectacle the next parole hearing is sure to be and skip the proceeding. Prosecutors are under no obligation to attend.

Either way, Judge Cupp is ready. Asked why he had left behind a comfortable career and a steady paycheck, and why he would succeed where previous lawyers had failed, he paused for a moment, as though contemplating a barbell he was eager to bench press.

“I am done sitting idly by and letting the state assault this man,” he said. “And that’s what they’ve done. They’ve lied about him. They’ve assaulted his character. And I’m not taking it any more, on his behalf.”

[blackcarrotdinestylish]

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[laptopexprime]

Unlocking Value: Discover the Refurbished Dell Latitude E5470 i5 in Asansol

In today's fast-paced world, having a reliable laptop is essential. However, not everyone is willing or able to invest in a brand-new device. This is where refurbished laptops come into play, offering a blend of affordability, performance, and sustainability. Among these, the Dell Latitude E5470 i5 stands out as a top choice. Let's explore why opting for a refurbished Dell Latitude E5470 i5, especially for those in Asansol, can be a game-changer.

Why Choose Refurbished Laptops?

Refurbished laptops present a cost-effective alternative to new devices. They undergo rigorous testing and restoration processes to ensure they perform like new, but at a fraction of the cost. Moreover, choosing refurbished laptops contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing electronic waste. With quality assurance and extended warranties, these devices offer reliability that matches, if not exceeds, that of new laptops.

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The Refurbished Dell Latitude E5470 i5 is a powerhouse designed for both professional and personal use. It boasts a robust Intel Core i5 processor, ensuring smooth multitasking and efficient performance. The laptop features a durable build, making it ideal for various environments, from office settings to on-the-go usage. Its ergonomic design, coupled with a high-resolution display, makes it perfect for extended use without strain. Additionally, it offers ample storage and memory options, catering to diverse user needs.

Finding Second Hand Laptops in Asansol

For those residing in Asansol, finding a second-hand laptop is now more accessible than ever. With a growing market for refurbished devices, numerous trusted sources and marketplaces are available. It is crucial to buy from reputable sellers to ensure the quality and authenticity of the product. Websites like Laptopex provide a wide range of refurbished laptops, including the Dell Latitude E5470 i5, backed by warranties and return policies, ensuring a hassle-free purchase experience.

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[kattxxart]

Terms and Conditions:

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[emiliohgta746]

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If you reside in an area with harsh UV rays or dramatic seasonal climate shifts, you would like outdoor furniture that resists damage and aging from constant exposure. It should additionally be able to face up to fluctuations in temperature, as these can cause materials to expand and crack.

If you wish a beautiful out of doors area with minimal maintenance needs, furniture made of recycled resin might be your answer. This durable material has the planning and feel of painted wood without needing annual refinishing or staining; weather and fungi resistance; fade resistance from daylight exposure are just some more edges of resin patio furniture that makes cleaning simple using delicate dish soap and water resolution excellent for anyone seeking to scale back their environmental footprint! Several manufacturers manufacture ecofriendly furniture from recycled plastic, diverting plenty of waste off from landfills and oceans while providing the planning and durability of traditional wood furniture. Brands like Polywood even provide a 20year warranty on their recycled plastic items! Pottery Barn sells trendy however practical recycled plastic chairs like this Polywood Chippendale dining arm chair which options fade resistance, straightforward assembly directions and options an eyecatching lattice pattern on its backrests; plus insect, mold and mildew resistance so no refinishing ever required!

An interior bird bath liner can help reduce water loss from evaporation and make cleaning easier, and ought to additionally be placed near trees or shrubbery so birds have perches to rest upon while bathing, providing protection from predators in the world.

Shoppers today are seeking ecofriendly choices when it involves outside furnishings, as well as wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, recycled materials, and ecoconscious fabrics. These items are designed to last and facilitate minimize landfill waste. Choose a selection of outside furniture designs and materials, like picket chairs mixed with metal tables or woven sofas with concrete benches. This can offer your patio or garden a lot of personality whereas giving it an eclectic and special look that meets all of your lifestyle and style preferences.

Grosfillex Omega Brands and Manufacturers

Choose a highquality cushion cloth designed to stand up to the weather. Several of the superior cushion fabrics feature builtin protection against fading, mildew and mildew growth; water resistance; UV protectants to extend cushion lifetime; artificial fiber construction like polyester or acrylic is often used here; some even feature plastic coating for additional strength whereas some answer dyed acrylic provides exceptional fade resistance.

Outdoor Furnishings for Beachside Lounging

Textilene

Omega Chaise for Mountain Retreats

Some ornamental pillows boast ornamental components like tassels or trim that add a unique aptitude. These adornments can build an excellent accent piece for any chair or sofa in any house, adding a sense of luxury and personalization. Different cushions might come equipped with cushion ties for added stability when it comes to seating arrangements.

Outdoor Furnishings Storage Solutions

At any movie night or appetizers party, snug bean bag chairs offer intimate conversations or sipping wine in front of the fireside. Indulge yourself with this relaxing expertise for Valentine's Day dates or unwind once long workday. Conjointly ideal for garden parties and barbecues where relaxed conversation takes place; easily rearrange and wipe clean for quick patio makeover.

Grosfillex Omega Materials and Durability

Manmade synthetics have become an increasingly in style choice for outdoor furniture due to their versatile styles and reasonable costs. Most are treated against weathering and ultraviolet radiation exposure to help retain their color while not fading over time, and some return woven in wicker patterns for style and texture.

Outdoor Furnishings for Scandinavian Style

The worldwide out of doors furniture market is extremely fragmented and highly competitive, that includes varied business players at both regional and international levels. Multiple firms have launched new merchandise in response to rising client demand for luxury out of doors furnishings; key market participants include Ashley Furniture Industries Inc, Agio International Company Restricted, Brown Jordan and Inter IKEA Cluster among many others.

Outdoor Furniture Shopping Tips

If you are shopping for outside furniture, holiday weekends will be great opportunities to get deals. Memorial Day, fourth of July and Labor Day offer fantastic opportunities to score cheap patio sets though act quick as these things tend to sell out fast! Wayfair is a useful supply for online out of doors furniture due to its vast selection and competitive costs. Notice everything from sofas and chairs to dining tables even complete patio sets for under $1,000! Plus, they provide twoday shipping free with Prime membership! Boss & Main is another goto retailer for out of doors furniture. Offering both high and low designs, you're sure to find items within your budget at this retailer. Their patio collection consists of contemporary pieces in weatherproof materials like natural woods and mixed metals; and you can order free fabric swatches to work out how the items would look in your space before creating your final call. Serena & Lily's coastal vibe makes them an excellent selection for summertime decorating. Their furniture is fashionable, sustainable, and incorporates that beloved beach aesthetic while not showing overtheme. Build certain to stay an eye out for his or her sales as they typically offer steep sitewide discounts!

Modern Grosfillex Omega Designs

Chaise lounges are an essential addition to public pools, resort swimming pools, water parks and apartment advanced pool areas. We have a tendency to provide an assortment of chaise lounges to enhance any design theme. Plastic out of doors furniture is an ideal solution for commercial pool areas due to its longevity and flexibility. Accessible in a very range of colors, textures, and styles you are certain to find something suitable for your house it comes in chairs, chaise lounges, dining tables and patio furniture from leading brands and accessories like umbrellas that can guarantee guests remain relaxed.

BFM Seating Furniture Materials and Durability

Cabana Couture understands every resort features a distinct complete and their team works directly with shoppers to ensure styles align with this. Furthermore, they offer varied finishes and materials. Their Aluminum collection is each weatherproof and rustproof while boasting clean line style components harking back to teak wood grain finish options.

Omega Chaise for Large Patios

Cedar is an excellent wood for out of doors furniture as a result of it resists moisture, decay, insect harm and extreme weather conditions, making it an glorious choice in wetter regions. Cedar could need to be treated with sealants or finishes so as to remain weatherproof, while different species like cypress or teak conjointly create excellent choices that need staining or sealing to protect from the weather. Different well-liked woods used for outside furniture include eucalyptus, redwood and ipe. Eucalyptus may be a highly sturdy rotresistant wood that's easy to figure with and even left alone it can age beautifully with time, adding rustic charm. Redwood offers another sturdy material choice that works in numerous styles while boasting its unique hue that'll enhance any backyard.

Gar Omega for Reading Nooks

RentToOwn Out of doors Furniture in Mississippi. Create your backyard the final summer destination with highquality out of doors furniture from renttoown patio dining sets or 2 oversized lounge chairs from renttoown patio dining sets, excellent for hosting massive barbecues with all your family, or rent 2 to form the best spot on your condo porch for relaxation together with your partner.

The proper pool lounge chairs will remodel your backyard into an idyllic haven, ideal for tanning, reading and napping. Plus they create great storage containers for sunscreen bottles and towels! When looking for lounge chairs that meet these criteria, look for ones made of weatherproof materials with durable construction that can hold up against regular outside use and cushions that quickly dry so they do not become saturated with water.

Industrial Rated Outside Furniture. Commercialgrade outdoor furniture is built to stand up to frequent use and the elements. Though more costly, this manner of outdoor furniture will usually outlive its residential counterpart.

Jensen furniture is wellknown for their premium out of doors furniture, designed with care to produce maximum comfort and longevity. Their chairs and sofas boast gentle curves for optimal seating comfort while their 197seven outdoor sofa has been reworked for outside use with its modular design that allows you to arrange each module as desired. Lined in Component cloth which resists staining and water harm thanks to solutiondyed acrylic threads, its vibrant colours stay intact even beneath direct daylight or temperature changes.

Top Trends in Grosfillex Furniture

A number of the simplest pool furniture ideas for outside spaces embrace chaise lounges and alternative chairs crafted from longwearing materials like teak or resin wicker. Though a lot of expensive than other patio furniture items, these chairs will get on my feet higher over time and produce a better aesthetic in your pool space. Furthermore, adjustable backrests may add comfort.

Grosfillex Furniture for Urban Balconies

Contract Furnishings International provides a selection of commercial grade patio, outside, and pool furniture designed to withstand components like snow, sun, rain, mould, and sand good for restaurants, hotels and country clubs alike. Their product also come equipped with wicker or rattan seating designed specifically for use outdoors in business outside seating areas. If you plan to buy furniture on-line, be sure to fastidiously analysis every retailer's come back policies. As furniture will usually require costly freight costs and come back fees could apply if returned; additionally, search for shops offering cloth/material swatches before you create a call therefore you recognize you are getting what's desired.

If you're looking for out of doors furniture, holiday weekends can be nice opportunities to score deals. Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day supply fantastic opportunities to get cheap patio sets though act fast as these items tend to sell out fast! Wayfair is a useful source for online outside furniture due to its vast choice and competitive costs. Realize everything from sofas and chairs to dining tables even complete patio sets for underneath $1,000! And, they supply twoday shipping free with Prime membership! Boss & Main is another goto retailer for outside furniture. Offering both high and low designs, you are positive to search out items at intervals your budget at this retailer. Their patio assortment consists of recent pieces in weatherproof materials like natural woods and mixed metals; and you can order free cloth swatches to work out how the items would look in your space before making your final call. Serena & Lily's coastal vibe makes them an glorious alternative for summertime decorating. Their furniture is stylish, sustainable, and incorporates that beloved beach aesthetic without appearing overtheme. Make certain to keep an eye out for his or her sales as they usually provide steep sitewide discounts!

Resin wicker furniture can create an excellent modern outdoor possibility as a result of of its low maintenance necessities and aluminum frames. Resin wicker stands up well to high winds and heat shifts whereas being less possible to tear or become brittle than natural rattan furniture however it might not withstand as abundant wear & tear over time as alternatives like acacia or teak and could not be applicable in high traffic areas.

Dining sets and patio umbrellas add a luxurious feel to any out of doors pool house, while side tables or different smaller pieces function decorative accents to the present area. Umbrellas play an invaluable role in providing patrons with shade as required throughout their day.

Versatility

RentToOwn Out of doors Furniture in Mississippi. Build your backyard the final summer destination with highquality outside furniture from renttoown patio dining sets or 2 oversized lounge chairs from renttoown patio dining sets, perfect for hosting big barbecues with all of your family, or rent two to create the perfect spot on your condo porch for relaxation with your partner.

Plan an alfresco family dinner or host a crawfish boil; selecting out of doors furniture that creates your guests feel at ease will add a special touch. From charming balcony chairs to fivepiece patio furniture sets, Baton Rouge offers everything required for the best setup! What Are My Choices If I Have a Tiny Balcony or Backyard?

[xtruss]

How Major University Discriminated Against White And Asian Candidates

— January 04, 2024 | Newsweek | Sean O'Driscoll

The University of Washington Campus on March 6, 2020, in Seattle, Washington. The university has taken action against anti-white and anti-Asian discrimination in the psychology department (Karen Ducey/Getty Images)

The University of Washington has revealed that "An Internal Whistleblower" exposed discrimination against white and Asian job candidates in its Psychology Faculty.

An internal report found that a third-placed job applicant, who was Black, was given a tenure-track assistant professor job last April, above white and Asian candidates who were ranked higher in the selection process.

Other violations included excluding white staff from meetings with job candidates, deleting a passage from a hiring report to hide discrimination, and discussing ways to "think our way around" a Supreme Court ruling that barred affirmative action in colleges.

A UW spokeswoman told Newsweek on Thursday that the case was exposed when "the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, responding to an internal whistleblower, requested an internal review of this process by what was then called UCIRO (University Complaints, Investigation and Resolution Office) and is now the Civil Rights Investigation Office."

The psychology faculty has been barred from hiring tenured staff for two years as a result.

The UW report found that when five finalists for a tenure-track assistant professor position were selected in January 2023, they were due to be interviewed by the Women Faculty and Faculty of Color groups.

The report also said a member of the Faculty of Color did not want any white women at the meeting and complained that the interviews were "awkward" when there was a white candidate. The names of everyone involved are redacted from the UW report.

"As a person who has been on both sides of the table for these meetings, I have really appreciated them," the person wrote in an email. "Buuut, when the candidate is White, it is just awkward. The last meeting was uncomfortable, and I would go as far as burdensome for me. Can we change the policy to not do these going forward with White faculty?"

In 1998, Washington state passed a referendum banning race-based hiring in universities, which appears to have been ignored by the psychology department.

The report suggests that faculty members tried to hide the extent to which race was considered, including in the hiring report.

"I advise deleting the statement below as it shows that URM [underrepresented minority] applications were singled out and evaluated differently than non-URM applications (which is not allowed as [name redacted] noted)," one email read, according to the report.

An unnamed person wrote in another email, in March, that they were inclined to hold Faculty of Color meetings just for candidates of color.

This person also wanted some way around the then-pending 2023 case of Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race as a basis for college admission. The case was taken by a group of Asian-American students who had unsuccessfully applied to Harvard.

"My inclination is to hold these meetings only for POC [People of Color] candidates. I'm also mindful that our Provost is now getting anxious about anything that's directed to only some identity groups (i.e., they are getting worried about fallout from the pending Supreme Court affirmative action rulings)," this person wrote in an email.

"My read is that they'll get fearful of litigation and overcorrect into colorblindness. Maybe our committee can preemptively think our way around this type of future directive," the faculty member wrote.

The university's public record office had planned to release staff emails on December 14 to John Sailer, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning National Association of Scholars, an organization which campaigns against race-based admissions and hiring policies in universities.

In an email seen by Newsweek, the public records office informed Sailer that the requested records won't be released in full until April 26, 2024.

The UW spokeswoman told Newsweek on Thursday that "Mr. Sailer's first public records request on this was submitted on April 5, 2023.

"These requests are processed on a first-in, first-out basis and some are more complicated than others; his request was quite comprehensive, requiring significant review and redaction considerations, and as a result, it is still in progress. Mr. Sailer also has seven active records requests and these, again, are being processed on a first-in, first-out basis."

The university announced on its website that the psychology department is now "barred from conducting searches for tenured and tenure-track faculty positions" for at least two years, "subject to review by the Provost's Office."

It also said the department will "undergo a comprehensive review and revision of its hiring processes," and all department members "will receive training on how to conduct searches consistent with law and policy."

"The University is taking personnel action to address individual actions," the statement added. "These proceedings are confidential."

A substantial number of redacted emails are included in the university's report, which was released on October 31 and is published on its website.

Sailer told Newsweek the UW report "shows universities — professors and administrators alike — discriminate with a total sense of impunity. It's an egregious example, notable for how much is in writing, but it really is just one more example."

"This kind of discrimination in the name of "equity" is commonplace, even when blatantly illegal. And that's instructive in light of Students For Fair Admissions," he said.

"UW insists that its investigation had nothing to do with my public records request. I'm not so sure about that. After all, until its investigation, administrators from the university promoted the psychology department's hiring framework, which the university has now deemed to be in violation of its non-discrimination policy. That's a big reversal," he said.

On its website, UW's psychology department lists its first mission as promoting social equity "by investigating biased attitudes, inequities, and disparities... by redesigning organizational practice" and "by solving social justice issues."

— Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland 🇮🇪. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. He has covered human rights and extremism extensively. Sean joined Newsweek in 2023 and previously worked for The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC, Vice and others from the Middle East. He specialized in human rights issues in the Arabian Gulf and conducted a three-month investigation into labor rights abuses for The New York Times. He was previously based in New York for 10 years. He is a graduate of Dublin City University and is a qualified New York attorney and Irish solicitor.

[ebizfilingindia-blog]

Type of Directors in a Company in India

Introduction

This blog provides information on the various types of Directors in a private limited company, and the different types of Directors in the Companies Act, 2013. Directors are in charge of overseeing, controlling, and directing a company’s operations. He or she has many duties within the company. As a result, a Director acts as an employee, agent, trustee, and officer of a company.

What are Directors?

“Directors” refers to the members of the Board of Directors who are in charge of supervising, managing, and directing a company’s operations. Directors operate as trustees for the assets and money of the firm and as its representatives in business dealings.

Different Types of Directors in a Company

The following are the different types of Directors in a Company in India:

1. Executive Directors

He or she works as the company’s director full-time. The company has higher expectations of them. In all interactions between the company and its employees, they must be effective and careful.

2. Non-Executive Directors

He or she is a non-working director who does not take part in the company’s daily operations. They may get an invitation to take part in the development of plans or policies. They push the executive directors to come up with choices and solutions that are in the best interests of the business.

3. Shadow Directors

A person who is not appointed to the Board but whose orders the board is used to acting on is liable as a director of the company unless he or she is giving advice in his or her professional function.

4. Certified Directors

Professional directors are non-executive directors recruited by the company who are experts in different fields. In their areas of expertise, they give advice to the board.

5. Managing directors

The company’s managing director has the power to make decisions. A managing director is required for any public company or subsidiary of a public company with a share capital of more than five crore rupees.

6. Residents Directors

According to the law, every company must appoint a director who has spent at least 182 days in India during the course of the previous calendar year.

7. Additional Directors

An additional director is appointed at a board meeting by the adoption of a board resolution or a resolution by circulation. The appointment of additional directors is limited to the period following the company’s subsequent Annual General Meeting (AGM). The director is deemed to have resigned on the final day of the general meeting’s scheduled date if the AGM is not called. An additional director cannot be someone who hasn’t previously served on the board of directors.

8. Initial Director

The first directors’ names appear in the Articles of Association (AOA). In accordance with Regulation 60 of Table F of the Companies Act, 2013, the subscriber to the memorandum or a majority of them shall choose the name of the first directors in writing.

9. Nominee director

A director may be appointed to the board of directors by any financial institution, the state or federal government, financial institutions, some shareholders, third parties through contracts, or any other person who has a claim to his interest. The appointment of a nominee director is necessary for any loan agreement or government investment in a government company. The Board has the authority to designate a Nominee director, subject to the conditions of the Articles of Association.

10. Alternate Director

An alternate director is one of the different sorts of director of a private limited company. If a director is away or out of the country for longer than three months, the company may appoint another director in his place. This kind of director is known as an alternate director. He can be appointed if the provisions of the AOA allow it or if a resolution is presented at a general meeting.

11. Rotational Directors

Private Companies are not obliged by law to appoint rotational directors unless specifically stated in the articles of association. Directors are nominated by the shareholders at a general meeting if the AOA (Article of Association) is silent about it.

Online registration of a Private Limited Company in India is now swift and efficient. This digital process, featuring a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) and Director Identification Number (DIN), allows entrepreneurs to reserve a name, submit documents, pay fees, and receive a Certificate of Incorporation online. It’s a key step in establishing a business in India, promoting ease of doing business and encouraging entrepreneurship.

Summary

A corporation can only operate through its directors, who have been referred to as the brains of the company. All of these directors serve as ambassadors for their companies, and their contributions are essential for the success of the company. The Board of Directors now has certain rights under the Act, 2013 enabling them to commit to the company fully.

The Act provides numerous restrictions in addition to the right to avoid abuse of these authorities. Directors hold a variety of roles and authority within companies. A transparent system is easier to maintain when powers are separated. The division of control also promotes efficiency and prevents the abuse of power.

[clareguilty]

Gabriel Reyes/reader, a/b/o and The Works™

this is the third kinktober prompt for this year!!!

Gabriel Reyes/fem!reader | a/b/o, marking, biting, praise, all that jazz Rating: Explicit Word Count: ~3000

Jack Morrison was getting another medal.

It was everyone’s favorite joke at high command. It seemed like no one wanted to implement any serious policy or sign an actual resolution in favor of giving the golden boy of the Omnic Crisis another fancy award.

So Jack had been stressing himself out all week trying to write an acceptance speech that wasn’t passive aggressive, and you spent too long picking out a formal gown, and Gabe had sat on Reinhardt’s desk laughing and stuffing his face with carbs and fruit because his rut was due next week.

Jack took the teasing in stride and managed to come up with a speech that wouldn’t outright offend the Prime Minster of Russia. Everyone piled into the jet to Moscow with a garment bag and a carryon and a strong cup of coffee at four am the day before the banquet.

This was normal for you. In a world after the omnic crisis, head of Overwatch’s reparations department and mated to the commander of Blackwatch. You found yourself flown across the world dozens of times a year for negotiations and assemblies and ceremonies.

You and Gabe strapped in next to each other on the jet. “I haven’t seen the dress you picked out,” he nodded his head to the garment bag.

“I guess it will just be a surprise,” you purred.

He grinned and leaned in to kiss you.

“It’s too early for this,” Ana groaned from across the aisle. Gabe shot her a toothy smile and made sure to nip at the shell of your ear. You smacked his leg and shoved him back into his own seat.

The hotel was a beautiful historic waterfront building just across the bridge from the Kremlin in the heart of the city. The five of you piled out of the black SUV that had escorted you from the airstrip and made your way inside.

The hotel manager greeted you as well as an official from the Kremlin. Jack was the main recipient of ass kissing and pleasantries, so you simply smiled and nodded and shook hands wherever necessary.

The suite was entirely too big and fancy for a two night’s stay. You and Gabe poked around for a bit, but there were no fun secrets. You took the sitting room, and Gabe set up at the desk in the bedroom as you both buckled down on your work for the day. Gabe had operatives in Bolivia he needed to check in with, and you had a meeting with representatives in London.

He found you a few hours later slumped in the armchair with your head in your hands.

“They still being stubborn?” he asked.

“They won’t budge on anything,” you groaned.

“Change into something casual. Let’s go out for a little bit.” He was already in a hoodie and dark jeans, beanie sticking out of the back pocket.

You nodded and went to find a sweater.

Gabe’s impromptu date night in Moscow turned out to be a lot of fun. Ana and Reinhardt came to meet you at a bar for a little bit, and the two of you wandered around the city until sundown.

The next day was more meetings and frustration until you had to get ready for the banquet. You and Gabe slipped past each other in and out of the bathroom as you showered and shaved and styled your hair and perfumed and moisturized.

You shimmied into the dress half an hour before the car was due to pick you up. It was slim and black, sleeveless with one band that crossed over your collarbone and shoulder. You frowned when you realized it covered your matebite, but it wasn’t a big deal.

Gabe grinned salaciously as he zipped you up, unable to resist leaning down and nuzzling into your neck. “Cool it.” You shoved him off with a giggle. “I have to make it through a whole ceremony and dinner.”

He pulled on his jacket and the two of you made your way downstairs to wait for the car.

For some reason, the event coordinators split you into three cars. Jack rode by himself, you and Gabe in one car, and Ana and Reinhardt in the last. They looked intimidating in their dress uniforms, and you felt kind of ditzy in your sexy cocktail dress next to three enormous well decorated Overwatch officers.

The ceremony was only slightly dull, and you clapped at all the right spots and pinched Gabe when he looked like he was zoning out too much.

Dinner was much more enjoyable. You had been seated with people you knew from other events and assemblies, so conversation flowed well. A string ensemble played and a few people got up to dance or mingle once they cleared their plates. You caught sight of a British Parliament member speaking with a small group of tuxedoed men, and Gabe saw the determination in your eyes. 

“Go get him, sweetheart,” he kissed your cheek and pushed you towards the Lord. You excused yourself quickly and approached the older gentleman ready to push for your negotiations to take center stage in the Palace of Westminster.

The poor Lord was not expecting to be accosted by you at a banquet, but graciously listened as you explained your struggles in negotiating reparations in London.

“You’ve got some real fire in you,” one of the tuxedoes remarked as you shook the Lord’s hand and he scampered away sufficiently cowed. He had an American accent and shiny hair. He reeked of confidence and you knew it was a combination of his nationality and his status as an Alpha.

You cocked your head nonchalantly. “Takes a lot of persistence to get anything done in Parliament.” You knew he was probably referencing the fact that you, a tiny omega, had just approached a government official and demanded that he push for your cause, but you brushed it off. Most of the time people were respectful, but you still ran into pushback every now and then because of your status.

The American laughed, tossing his head back. “And wit to match!” A waiter came by with champagne and he snatched a glass to press into your hands. “What’s your name?” he asked, placing a hand on your back and guiding you back into the crowd of tuxes.

You tensed under his touch. This wasn’t your Alpha. It was extraordinarily rude to touch anyone without permission, especially an omega. But still, you had to be polite, so you introduced yourself.

“If you ever need any help getting through to politicians, you should give me a call. I’m on the UN Peace Council, you know? I was appointed during the crisis.” That information was probably supposed to impress you. It probably would have if you were anyone else.

You nodded politely, taking a tiny sip of champagne and glancing over your shoulder to look for Gabe. You had your own gripes with the UN peace council. Jack and Gabe butted heads with them nearly every other week.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” you smiled, attempting to turn and address the other men.

“Here,” the American pulled out his phone. “Let me get your number. Maybe we could meet up for drinks before we both leave Moscow?”

“Oh,” you found your escape. “I left my phone back at my table.” You turned to make your way back to Gabe and Ana, but the UN asshole grabbed your arm. You knew exactly what this was. This guy probably didn’t run into many omegas in professional settings, and he thought you would just go along with everything he said because he was some big shot Alpha.

Laughable. You were a high ranking member of Overwatch. A diplomat. The mate of Gabriel Fucking Reyes.

“Just put your number in and I’ll text you,” he insisted. You struggled out of his grasp and shot him the sternest look you could manage.

He laughed again. “I love how feisty you are!”

Clearly, everyone in the vicinity was also uncomfortable with the exchange. This was not the time nor the place to be asserting dominance over an omega.

Your blood boiled. You didn’t want to make a scene at Jack’s reception -- though he probably would have loved it -- but you were seriously about to deck this guy.

“Cariña,” a familiar voice washed over you and the effect was immediate. You leaned back into Gabe’s chest, taking a deep breath to slow your heart rate. “Jack was looking for you. He wanted to introduce you to someone.”

The American Alpha puffed his chest out, clearly ready to challenge until he took one look at Gabe.

“Commander Reyes,” he greeted. All of the bravado and pushiness was gone in an instant.

“Hello.” Gabe was stiff, clearly trying to hold his tongue. His arms snaked around your waist and he leaned in to whisper in your ear. 

“Would you hate me if we left right now?”

“Absolutely not,” you spun in his embrace so you could look up at him. His expression was stoic as always, but you could see the tension and the anger in his eyes.

You didn’t even look back as Gabe walked you to the table to collect your things. It was a little rude to leave without saying goodbye to anyone, and you weren’t sure if Jack had actually wanted to introduce you to someone, but Gabe looked ready to tear someone’s head off.

He stopped caring about decency the moment the car door closed.

There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver considering how enormous your mate was in the tiny sedan backseat, but he pinned you to the leather seats and kissed you like his life depended on it. You wound your fingers into his curls, gasping as his hands slid under your skirt and up your thighs. The driver coughed, and you giggled at the slow whir of the partition motor giving the two of you some privacy.

“I can’t believe he touched you,” Gabe snarled.

You shivered both at the possessive edge in his voice and the disgusting memory of the other Alpha’s hand on your arm.

“Make me forget about him,” you whispered, hooking your leg around his hips.

He rose to the challenge. Super soldier strength shredded your lace underwear, dress hiked up around your hips. He pressed a kiss to the inside of your knee, trailing up your thigh at a torturously slow pace. He had barely sucked a mark into the skin when the car stopped. A glance out the tinted window showed that you were back at the hotel.

“Thank you!” you called to the driver in your terrible russian accent as you yanked your dress back down and teetered on your heels on the pavement. Gabe half carried you with an arm around your waist as you breezed through the lobby to the elevator.

The elevator was another brief attempt to continue. You managed to get Gabe’s jacket and shirt open before the door slid open and you were staggering down the hall.

He dragged you into the bedroom, pinning you to the bed on your stomach so he could yank down the zipper on your dress. He couldn’t keep his lips away from your neck. The moment your matebite was uncovered he dragged his teeth over the mark. A shiver ran all the way down your spine.

“You’re never covering this up again,” he growled, rutting against your hips clumsily. “I want everyone to see that you belong to me.”

The words made your stomach flip. You wriggled your way around onto your back, pushing your dress over your hips and to the floor. “You’re going to hit your rut early.”

He didn’t seem fazed. “I’ll just fuck you until we have to leave for the flight.”

You figured Ana, Jack, and Reinhardt wouldn’t appreciate Gabe in the throes of his rut on the flight back to base tomorrow, but they had probably experienced it before. You could only imagine how bad he was back during the crisis. The thought only made you wetter.

He must have sense the spike in arousal, because he settled more of his weight on top of you. “What are you thinking about?” he demanded.

“You. During the crisis. Alpha Commander Gabriel Reyes.” You trailed a finger down his chest. “Were your ruts worse than they are now?”

He smirked. “They’ve gotten worse again since meeting you.”

You pulled him in for a kiss, mustering the last of your coordination to get Gabe undressed. He made sure you were laid out comfortably on the bed -- grabbing a few pillows to place under your hips and head -- before sinking all the way inside you to the swell of his knot.

Gabe always fit inside you so well. The perfect stretch. And he filled you so deep when he knotted you. You knew that his ruts could get intense, and you would probably be exhausted and sore by the end of it. Still, you had been mated for a few years now, so you had figured out how to manage.

“You feel so good.” You closed your eyes and lost yourself in the situation.

“Don’t worry, baby. I’m going to knot you so good.” He rocked forward, teasing you with the stretch.

“Please,” you begged, nails scratching at the shaved hair at the back of his head.

He shuddered and set an impossible pace as he began to fuck you. Sometimes you forgot that you weren’t just mated to an Alpha, but to a super soldier. No one else could fuck you like he did.

“You want my knot? Want me to breed you full? Want me to remind you who you belong to?” His words were low against you skin as he kissed along your neck. One of his hands was rubbing your clit, the other holding your thighs open so he could reach deep inside you with every thrust.

“Yours,” you gasped. “I’m yours.”

His teeth found the unmarked skin of your neck, just above your collarbone -- opposite the side of where your matebite was. The skin was practically electrified, especially when Gabe was fucking you like this. He didn’t bite down, but the sensation alone was enough to have you coming on his cock.

“Fuck,” he growled. “That was so good for me, baby. You’re so perfect.”

“Do it,” you begged. “Bite me. Please.” It was a little unorthodox. Normally couples only exchanged one bite. A bite on both sides was usually the sign of a triad or a pack. But you had just been touched by another alpha and Gabe was fucking you so good and you wanted him in every way possible.

He blinked, trying to think through the haze of his rut. “You want that?” He didn’t even wait for you to respond. The thought alone had him spilling inside of you, and he pulled you onto his knot. His teeth found that same patch of sensitive, unmarked skin, and he bit down just as he locked inside of you.

Nothing felt better than coming to the sensation of being claimed. It was the strongest orgasm you had ever experienced.

“Fuck you’re perfect. My perfect little omega. You wear my marks so well. Everyone is going to know exactly who you belong too.”

You couldn’t respond. Too busy marking Gabe’s chest with hickeys and lovebites. He was too massive for you to reach his neck, but you would make do. You were still coming down off the intense rush of endorphins, and everything was a little fuzzy and felt just a little too good too much too fast. You had come twice in less than the span of a minute, and Gabe was only just getting started.

He soothed the aching bite, holding you close as you were locked together. His knot probably wouldn’t go down for a while, but he was less riled up than before now that he had satisfied himself somewhat.

“I love you,” he kissed the top of your head, rolling so you could lay on his chest.

“I-” You cut yourself off, blushed, and buried your face in his pecs. You would happily die there.

“Yes?” He was curious now. You weren’t usually shy with him.

“I’ve been working on something. It’s super embarrassing.” You didn’t look up.

He lifted your head, forcing you to meet his eyes. “What’s embarrassing? I just dragged you out of a dinner party at the Kremlin so I could fuck you. I think I’m the more embarrassing of the two fo us.”

You laughed and kissed his chest right above his heart. Mustering all of your courage, you found your voice:

“Te amo. Me encanta pertenecer a ti. Tú eres mi mayor alegría.”

Your accent was decent, but you had no clue if your grammar was correct. The words were unfamiliar and clumsy, even though you had practiced them a hundred times. Spanish was not a language you were familiar with, but you knew that Gabe had grown up hearing it. You wanted to try and learn for him.

He understood immediately what you were tying to say, and you could feel the rumble of his laughter beneath you.

“Don’t laugh at me!” you whined, smacking him lightly on the side.

“I’m sorry,” he grabbed your hand, running his thumb over your knuckles. “It was very sweet. I love you too.”

“I need a lot more practice,” you pouted.

He petted your hair, staring at you with a dopey, lovestruck expression. “I can’t believe you let me bite you again.”

You shrugged, feeling the pull and ache of the new mark in the motion. “We can let one of them fade.”

He smirked. “What if I like you like this?”

You bared your own teeth. “Can I return the favor?”

You weren’t expecting to rile him up, but the words were enough to make his cock twitch inside of you. “Fuck,” he groaned. “You good to go again?”

You nodded, pushing up to a seat so you could ride him. He grabbed your hips, holding tightly as you slowly rocked against him. You knew the pace was probably no where near what he needed, but you wanted to take your time.

He didn’t give you the opportunity, rolling to pin you beneath him again and dragging your hips up to his. “You wanna bite me? You better earn it.”

[richardmhicks]

Always On VPN Proxy Server Configuration

Always On VPN Proxy Server Configuration

Web proxy servers are not as common today as they once were, but a few organizations still leverage them to provide secure Internet access for their employees. Commonly they are used to inspect and control Internet traffic and to enforce acceptable use policies. Some organizations may wish to extend this protection to Always On VPN clients in the field by enabling force tunneling. Administrators…

[phoenixyfriend]

Suggested topics to call your reps about today, 2/5/24!

I’ve been doing two subjects per call recently; one is almost always about the events in the middle east, and then one is domestic policy. I’m including a bit of verbiage you can use as basis for what you say (if you agree with me), for a few of these.

BOTH SENATE AND HOUSE:

Foreign Policy: Reinstate funding for UNRWA. While the claims made by Israel that employees of the relief agency were involved in Oct. 7th are troubling, this arm of the UN is currently providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to the 2.3 million displaced peoples of Gaza. It is especially disturbing and concerning that the many children of Gaza, who are already suffering due to this conflict, are now having this support revoked.

Non-calling ways to help: Donate to another relief agency so the support network doesn't have that single point of failure. I went with the PCRF.

FOR THE SENATE: Urge your senator to put their support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed. Cite it as Senate Resolution 504 if your Senator is right-wing enough to react negatively to the mention of Sanders by name. NOTE: This resolution was TABLED by the Senate on 1/16, but it is being brought back in as conditions continue to escalate.

FOR THE HOUSE: Urge your representative to put their support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it. ALTERNATELY: recommend that they support House Resolution 786, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush, Calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

.

DOMESTIC POLICY, BOTH BRANCHES OF CONGRESS: Border policy is currently being hotly debated and negotiated. A very strong policy in favor of the Republican party is the status at the moment. Even some democrats are in favor of it due to small border communities being ill-equipped to handle large numbers of migrants, and states usually removed from the situation getting migrants bussed in from Texas despite telling Texas to knock it off. Despite some Republicans saying that they have gotten everything they could want out of the current deal, the party at large is refusing to pass it as the politics of the debate are more useful to the coming election than actually passing policy. This is also causing delays in passing the federal budget.

I... don't actually want to tell anyone WHAT to think of the border policy since I do not have any real knowledge on the budget impacts and resources dictating the actual problems (nor the racism or xenophobia, that part is obviously bullshit). I can recognize that too some degree, there is a genuine issue of manpower and budget restriction impacting the ability to house and process immigrants.

However, DREAMers are not being considered in the current deal, the delays in the deal are impacting the federal government and threatening a partial shutdown, and people are STILL getting hurt and even dying at the border.

I would focus on protection for DREAMers, chastising the Republicans for deliberately delaying the budget in order to use the border as a reelection premise instead of actually working on the policy they claim to want (emphasize that they are going to lose votes for focusing on reelection at the expense of their people), and protection for children, parents with those children, and nonviolent migrants in general.

[someonestolemyshoes]

Off the Record

Hello!! I am super excited to finally post my entry for @levihan-drabbles competition :D The prompt was super interesting and I had a tonne of fun writing this one! 

The prompt I received was: Hange posts a picture of Levi somewhere and it becomes a meme.

(For those curious, this is the meme I used for inspiration) 

Hange pushed her plate across the table and grinned at him. "Levi! Fancy seeing you here! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Levi's lip curled.

"You know what," he said. Hange braced her elbows on the table and rested her chin atop her knotted fingers.

"Enlighten me."

Colour rose in Levi's cheeks. For a moment, Hange felt a little guilty. For all Levi's grumbling and grunting, Hange had never seen him angry before.

"That bullshit article."

"Ah. Was there a problem?"

Hange met Moblit in a small cafe a little way down the road from the newsroom. She was in good spirits—her morning had been productive; she'd made steady headway with research for her next interview, finished the final edits for a few smaller tabloid pieces she'd been meaning to brush up, attended three short, perfunctory meetings on tedious company policy, and laid the groundwork for another exciting interview opportunity.  

She felt good. And now she had the pleasurable prospect of a hearty lunch, a passable cup of coffee, and perhaps best of all, Moblit's company. His company, and his camera.

Hange threw herself into the seat opposite Moblit the moment she spotted him, hunched over his laptop in a corner of the cafe. He lifted his coffee cup just in time for Hange to clatter against the table, the thin metal frame rattling precariously. She offered him a sheepish grin.

"Sorry," she said, and then, "got anything exciting?"

"I don't know about exciting. Interesting, maybe, but no breaking news."

Hange flagged down a passing waitress with one hand, and waved Moblit off with the other. "Doesn't matter, doesn't matter," she said, then paused to order a drink and her favourite sandwich. "Tell me anyway."

"I got a tip-off from a waiter at Sina's."

Hange's eyes sparkled behind her glasses. She sat forward in her chair, folding her arms on the table top as she leaned closer. "Who?"

"Take a guess."

Hange grinned at him. Moblit was not one to play coy; he did his job and did it well, and reported his findings efficiently. To leave her to question it meant one of two things; he had photographed someone very high profile indeed, or it was somebody Hange was, for better or for worse, well acquainted with.

Or perhaps, if she were lucky, it was both.

"Let me see him, then."

**

Hange had taken far too much time in the cafe with Moblit. He had given her a rundown of all the details he'd gathered during his field work that morning, and shown her through his extensive photo gallery. It was impressive, the kind of archive Moblit could cultivate with only a 45 minute breakfast window.

Hange had been delighted. Moblit was right; it wasn't breaking news, nothing particularly thrilling, but there was a corner of the Internet, Hange knew, that would delight in a trashy little article just like this. Something quick and simple to bulk up the social media feed for the afternoon.

Plus, there was a series of pictures Moblit had snapped, a cluster he'd thought to be of no real merit, that Hange simply could not pass up.

She could lay down no facts with a story like this one. There was no hard-hitting investigative journalism to be had, but she could at least offer some speculation based on her knowledge of the subjects involved, and spin a tale juicy enough to get people talking.

It took little time at all to put the article together. Hange scribbled up an outline for the contents—the location; Sina's in downtown Hizuru, a luxurious restaurant serving five star meals at every hour of the day. High in quality, sickeningly steep in price. The time of day; 9am. To the best of Hange's knowledge, this was rather out of character for the subject. He was an early riser, but according to their interview last March pending the premiere of his newest movie, he wasn't the type to eat much at all before lunch time.

And then, the company. Eren Yeager was a relatively well-known actor, barely an adult at nineteen. He starred in his first role a decade earlier, and had seen commercial success in multiple movies and TV shows ever since. He had been something of a prodigy in his younger years, bold and precocious, possessing a natural talent many actors years his senior couldn't even hope for. As Hange understood it, he had recently hit a rather troublesome phase. An interesting line of inquiry, but despite his talent and his fame, Eren's presence was simply a cameo, compared to the subject of the article Hange was drawing up.

Levi Ackerman.

Levi is a fan favourite and a media delight. He's attractive no doubt, and his performance in any and every role is almost always met with critical acclaim. Outside of his career, however, he's an elusive thing, silent in any matters pertaining to his private life. He avoids any public event like the plague, and rarely shows his face at premieres or award ceremonies if he can possibly avoid it. He gives interviews only when required by some contractual obligation or other, or else when the journalist in question is so painfully persistent that it is simply easier to give in than to keep fighting.

Little of his personal life is known, but it is impossible for someone in Levi's position to avoid interacting with anybody at all, and even the great Levi Ackerman is not above scrutiny.

There are rumours. Several of them, accounts from fellow cast members, from staff, from directors, and even Erwin, his manager, has alluded more than once to Levi's sour disposition. He is prone, Hange has heard, to fits of anger, and is easily disgruntled by minor inconveniences. His dislike of anything unclean or untidy is the stuff of legends—Hange has seen this first hand, at their very first interview. He had entered the room, scowled at the chair before sitting in it, and given Hange a thorough once over before announcing, with no hint of humour, "your glasses are filthy."

Hange had found him both fascinating and quite delightful, in his own strange way. When he acts, Levi sounds eloquent; he is a master of emotive performance, wringing the last drops of anger, despair, or grief out of each and every word, or else injecting the perfect giddy jitter, or a tremor of humour when the scene called for it. As soon as the cameras stop rolling, though, Levi's tone becomes flat, and without a script, his words are clumsy and crass. He communicates poorly, quick to throw insults and crude remarks. Hange has interviewed him a number of times—she counts herself very lucky that Levi will consent to her requests without too much fuss, these days—and each time she finds herself spending half of their time together translating his answers into something a) family friendly, and b) understandable to the everyday reader.

There is nothing for Hange to translate this time. Moblit managed to speak to the waiter after Levi and Eren had vacated in hopes of gleaning any small tidbit of knowledge regarding their conversation, but the venture had been hopeless. The pair had grown silent upon the approach of any staff member, and spoke in tones too hushed for anyone nearby to hear. They learned nothing they couldn't extrapolate for themselves from Moblit's pictures; Eren looked sheepish, avoiding Levi's gaze in favour of staring into his drink, while Levi—

Levi looked furious.

Every picture featured his signature frown, which, in and of itself wasn't enough to assume Levi to be in any mood besides neutral, but some of the photos show a hint of bared teeth or pursed lips, with his brows pulled lower than normal, the space between them deeply creased. Hange found herself curious as both a journalist and as an acquaintance. They may not be friends, but Hange liked to think she knew Levi a little better than most people, at least. She could find nothing in their past interactions to suggest any relationship with Eren beyond the strictly professional. They had over a decade between them, and though they had worked together on more than one set, neither party had ever said anything to insinuate so much as a friendly attitude between them.

There was no resolution to her queries to be easily found. And luckily for Hange, this particular piece didn't require any. It was a gossip article, something spicy, jam-packed with buzzwords, what-if's and more questions than answers, designed to make people wonder. Levi's name in the title would be enough to draw people in; Eren's name was an added bonus. But the star of the show was Moblit's photography. Hange arranged the images she had chosen in a grid. In context, the pictures were intriguing, depicting a particularly ferocious part of Levi and Eren's exchange. Out of context, they looked a little ridiculous. Both would bring readers onto their home page.

Satisfied with her work, Hange queued the finished article for review, and turned her attention back to her schedule.

**

The article launched mid-afternoon. Hange watched, somewhat satisfied, as it was received much as she had expected it to be. The activity on their Twitter account skyrocketed, the tweet in question garnering more likes, retweets and replies in the hour after it's post than any other they’d dropped in the last month.

Hange had allowed it to slip from her mind after the first hour or so. She received praise from her bosses, and a text from Moblit, jokingly demanding she pay him even more handsomely for his work than she already had, and her cousin had called her in the evening on a quest for insider gossip she could share with her friends, but that had been the end of it. Hange thought of it no more until early the following morning, when she had stopped by the quiet little cafe beneath her flat for breakfast and her favourite coffee.

She had been polishing off her pancakes when the bell above the door chimed. She had paid little attention to the newcomer, until a shadow passed over her table, and a familiar voice said, "Oi, shitty glasses."

Hange looked up to see Levi Ackerman himself standing over her, his face twisted in a scowl.

There are perks of being reasonably acquainted with Levi. Hange always gets to conduct his interviews, and Levi only ever turns her down if her request is unreasonable. Like that time she demanded he meet her at this very coffee shop for "just a quick piece, about the cameo you did for the new season of Titans", only to show him she'd bought a new pair of glasses—"look, all clean!"—and, when pressed, admitted there was no interview at all. He had been far more hesitant to indulge her in smaller affairs after that, but Hange was still lucky enough to be his only regular interviewer after big releases.

More interviews means more commission for Hange, and more high profile work with other celebrities. Yes, being acquainted with Levi has its bonuses.

But it also has its downsides. Namely, that Levi will not hesitate to turn up at her regular coffee shop to berate her after she has posted some complete and utter wank at his expense.

Hange pushed her plate across the table and grinned at him. "Levi! Fancy seeing you here! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Levi's lip curled.

"You know what," he said. Hange braced her elbows on the table and rested her chin atop her knotted fingers.

"Enlighten me."

Colour rose in Levi's cheeks. For a moment, Hange felt a little guilty. For all Levi's grumbling and grunting, Hange had never seen him angry before.

"That bullshit article."

"Ah. Was there a problem?"

"You're a piece of shit, you know that?"

Hange sat back in her chair and sipped at her coffee. Levi's face was full colour now, a pale pink flush from his neck right up to his hairline. Hange gave him a measured look, then kicked out the chair opposite her.

"Sit," she said. "If you have issues, I'd be happy to discuss."

Levi looked for a moment like he'd like nothing more than to strangle her. Then he pulled out the chair the rest of the way, and dropped himself into it.

"I don't give a fuck about the article," he said. "It's shitty gossip anyway."

Hange raised a brow at him. She opened her mouth to continue when, without prompt, a young waitress approached their table, practically bouncing on the spot as she stopped and gave Levi a dazzling smile. Her cheeks were flushed prettily, and Hange would have thought she were simply starstruck, if it weren't for the light of mirth in her eyes.

"Good morning, sir. Can I get you anything?" She gave Levi no chance to respond, before plowing on. "Water? Or tea, perhaps? Forgive me, but you seem a little upset. Might a nice tea calm you down?"

Levi grit his teeth. "No, thank you."

Hange almost apologised to the poor waitress on his behalf, but she didn't look bothered at all by his rudeness. In fact, she had barely turned from the table before she snorted in laughter, and caught her giggles in her hands as she scurried back behind the counter. A second passed, before all three waitresses snickered.

"That," Levi hissed, "is your fault."

Now Hange truly was confused. She furrowed her brow at him. "How does that have anything to do with me?"

"You and your stupid article," he said. Hange looked back to the waitress, who looked to their table again before falling into a fresh fit of giggles. Hange turned back to Levi, a little sympathetic.

"I think she just fancies you."

"You're trying to tell me you really don't know the mess you've caused?"

Hange shook her head slowly. Levi watched her closely, searching for proof of the lie, but Hange's earnestness must have shown through, for Levi's anger abated a little, and he slumped back on his chair.  

In lieu of a verbal explanation, Levi pulled out his phone. He tapped the screen a few times, typed something out, and scrolled a little way, before placing the phone on the table and sliding it towards her. Hange pulled it closer with a frown.

The screen displayed Twitter, and showed the feed beneath the search for Levi's name. Hange scrolled a few posts, eyes widening little by little as she went.

Levi was right. The contents of the article were of little significance at all. The photo grid, however, had gone viral overnight.

It showed four pictures of Levi and Eren, taken in succession. Each one showed only a portion of the back of Eren's head, but Levi's expression in every frame was more animated than Hange had ever seen him outside of his movie scenes, and each was more distraught than the last. Face tight, jaw clenched, teeth bared, with his finger pointed condescendingly in Eren's face. The second last picture shows his brows arched and his lips pressed into a thin line, and the final one—

Hange had laughed at it in isolation when Moblit had shown her. She had fully expected it to garner a few laughs, but she hadn't expected a photograph of Levi furiously slurping his tea to become a meme in less than 24 hours.  

"I see," Hange said, as she calmly slid the phone back to him. "In my defense, you don't help yourself. It wouldn't be half as funny if you didn't hold your tea cup so weird."

"In my defense," Levi snapped, "If you didn't post it online nobody would have anything to laugh at."

Hange crossed her arms on the table and leaned towards him, smiling pleasantly. "In your defense, you wouldn't have been so angry in public if it weren't for whatever Eren had to say. What was that about, by the way? I'm terribly curious."

Hange expected a very Levi response to her prying; a scowl, perhaps a quick kick under the table, an 'It's none of your damn business, four-eyes', if she were lucky.

What she got instead was a haughty sniff, and a gruff, "He's fucking my cousin."

For a moment, they were silent. Either Levi's anger at his new meme status had temporarily disabled the part of his brain that blocked any mention of his private life from slipping past his lips in the wrong company, or something about Eren's indiscretion had rattled him so much, he couldn't keep silent about it. Either way, he looked increasingly surprised—and horrified—at himself for saying it out loud. Hange's eyes were wide, and Levi's were growing wider by the second. Of all the people to slip up to, he had slipped up to her. An entertainment journalist, the one person in his life who thrived on this kind of insider knowledge.

Hange swallowed. Levi was still staring at her like a deer in headlights, no doubt painfully aware that there was no taking back what he had said now.

Hange doesn't take a great deal of pride in what she does. She feels satisfied when her stories receive the reception she'd predicted, validated in her ability to analyse their consumer base and make accurate assumptions about what will hit and what won't, but the work itself feels dirty, at times. An opportunistic scavenger feeding on whatever carrion they can find, no matter how rotten it may be.

This is a perfect opportunity. Salacious details of Levi's interpersonal relationships, right from the horse's mouth. If it were anyone else, Hange would be scribbling every word verbatim in her notebook.

But this is Levi. Levi, who seems jarred by her last article (though Hange will maintain this, at least, is no real fault of her journalism, and also, absolutely hilarious) and was clearly, for whatever reason, incensed by Eren's actions.

Hange brushed her palms over her thighs, and picked a speck of lint from her trousers.

"This is nice, isn't it?" She said, "having breakfast together. We should do it more often. It feels good to just talk, sometimes. Off the record."  

Levi blinked rapidly at her. He opened his mouth, but, still too shocked by his own loose tongue to speak, he said nothing. Hange pulled her phone from her bag and fiddled around with it some, tapping here and there, until she found what she was looking for. She turned it to Levi, and said, "I think this is my favourite edit so far."

Levi finally pulled his gaze from her, and looked down at the screen. It was truly something, the way the picture snapped him out of his stunned silence. Hange had never seen someone's face pinch up so rapidly.

"Come on, it's kinda funny. And look! That's Tony Stark, right? People are so creative. And maybe, if we're really lucky, Buzzfeed will do a compilation article of all the best ways people have used your new meme."  

Levi rolled his eyes at her. It looked strange, with his face so tightly twisted. Hange chuckled at him.

She nudged his ankle beneath the table with the toe of her shoe. "Lighten up, you look constipated."

"Oi, out of the two of us I'm not the one who's full of—"

"—Full of shit, I know, I know. That honour is all mine."

They lapsed into another silence, this one marginally more comfortable than the last. Hange finished the last of her coffee and checked her emails, while Levi tortured himself some more by scrolling through his Twitter feed. After a short while, he spoke again.

"That...doesn't sound bad," he said.

"Hm?"

"What you said about talking more. Off the record. It doesn't sound bad."

It was Hange's turn to flush. Heat rose in her cheeks, and she occupied herself by rifling through her bag in search of nothing.

"Yeah?" Her voice, an octave higher than usual, cracked around the vowels. She cleared her throat, "will you have more gossip for me? It's almost painful that I can't share it, you know."

"Good. I'll share as many secrets as I've got, if it'll bother you that much."

"Sounds terrible," Hange said. She tore a clean corner off her napkin and scribbled her personal number onto it. She slid it over the table to him. "Text me."

Levi pulled a face at the piece of napkin. "Is that used? Gross, shitty four-eyes." He pocketed it anyway.

Hange didn't know what else to say. Levi didn't seem to either, and so he stood, and tucked his chair back in. Hange turned her eyes down to her empty plate. Her stomach and chest felt strange, almost sickly, but in an oddly pleasant way.

Levi rapped his knuckles on the table. Hange jumped, startled, and looked up at the sound.

"This part is on the record," he said. The corner of Levi's mouth quirked into a small, barely there grin. "I heard from a reliable source that Eren was so scared on the set of Last War that he pissed his pants. Twice."

[hana-bean]

Close to you (2/7)

Yay chapter 2! Please enjoy y’all!

Also a huge thank you to @hoshi-and-hikari for spearheading SeiUsa week ❤️ You’re so great!!!

~~~

I must have walked on To meet you

---

“Where is she? Is she in there?”

“Yes.”

Seiya bowed once he heard the sound of footsteps nearing. He could make out the hem of her white robe in his top peripheral vision before she stopped.

“Hello! You are the guardian from the bar?”

The voice was sweet and inviting which lowered his inner guard by a level. After straightening back up, he tried not to give much more thought that she looked just as gorgeous as she did on television and in pictures.

“Yes, I am, your highness.”

She gasped with a hand over her mouth, causing him to feel the body slam of self-consciousness.

“You’re… a man.” She moved the hand to her chest.

Seiya blinked, unsure of how to reply. But he knew he had to give her something, so he shrugged with a half-smile. “Guilty.”

Serenity relaxed. “I’m sorry. I just thought all guardians were female.”

“That’s true.” He cleared his throat. “We just use this appearance as a protective measure.”

“Huh!” Most intrigued, she then turned toward the two guardians at the door.

“Uranus, please remove his handcuffs.”

“Serenity, I wouldn’t recommend that.” The blonde started walking toward them.

“Why?”

“Because he could hurt you!”

“And I’ve never been able to take care of myself when, exactly?” Already over it, she pointed at Seiya. “Take them off.”

Uranus acquiesced with a huff, producing a small key from inside her boot and removing the shackles. Seiya didn’t waste the opportunity to give her a smug, victorious smirk whenever she was looking.

Serenity beamed. “Thank you, Uranus. That’ll be all for tonight.”

Uranus was about to protest once more, but the look from her highness already told her that her mind was made up. Scoffing and grumbling, the guardian stomped off and out the door.

Neptune, entertained by the whole scene, walked up to place the plastic grocery bag on the table.

“These are his things. Good night, my queen.” She then took her leave.

Once alone, Serenity released a breath as if she had been holding it for a while. “I love those two but they can be so intense.” She then extended a hand toward Seiya’s chair with a smile. “Please sit!”

He obeyed as she took her own seat beside him. Having carried a large crystal pad with her, she laid it aside on the table to give attention to the contents inside the plastic bag. The first item she grabbed was his cell phone, which itself was a smaller translucent rectangle of crystal. She placed it to the side before going for the next item: his transformation headset.

“Ooh, this is interesting!” Her face lit up as she turned it in all directions for inspection. Figuring out that it went on her ear, she did just that, and then put her hands on her hips and moved her shoulders.

“I feel like a pop star!”

Seiya laughed, his heart melting at her unqueenly yet endearing behavior.

She moved the mouthpiece up and down. “So you use this to transform?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“And it’s ‘Fighter Star Power?’”

His blue eyes widened, scared she was psychic. “Yes, how did you know?”

“There are videos of you transforming on the news.” She giggled as she removed the headset from her ear and placed it on the table. “That was quite a mess you were in.”

A blush appeared on his cheeks as he scratched his head. Despite knowing he wasn’t at fault, he still felt embarrassed.

“But,” she continued, “that’s also how I found out you were here. So something good came out of it at least.” She bit her lip as her eyes twinkled at him. “Are you okay, though?”

“Yes. Just a little banged up, but I’ll be fine.”

“The doctors said you should be healed in a few weeks. So you will stay here until you do.”

“Here? In the palace?” His eyes widened while he shook his head. “I couldn’t, your highness—”

“I insist. I can have doctors check on you daily to aid in your recovery.”

He gulped and kept quiet, afraid to refuse the queen again in case it carried a death sentence.

Interpreting his silence as acceptance, she grabbed her crystal pad and tapped on it to reveal a digital screen. “So tell me… Fighter… do you have a civilian name?”

“It’s Seiya Kou.”

“And where are you from, Seiya Kou?”

“All over.” He chuckled. “But our home is Kinmoku.”

“Our?”

“Oh yeah, there’s three of us!” Seiya had forgotten about Taiki and Yaten for the moment. Whoops.

She gasped in excitement. “Wow! Three of you? Where are they?”

“They’re, uh…” he scratched his head again, “in a detention center.”

“Ohh right, right…” The realization dawned on her. “I’ll make sure to have them brought here. I’d like to meet them, too.” She tapped around on the pad in different places, interspersed with some scrolling. “What was the name of your home again?”

“Kinmoku.”

“Kin… mo… ku…” After more tapping, she squinted her eyes in an effort to process the information that populated on her screen. Several moments passed before they widened in tandem with the smacking of her tongue.

“Wow… you’ve come a very, very long way, Seiya.”

“Not by choice…”

She nodded in agreement. “It says here that Kinmoku was one of the initial planets attacked by Galaxia.”

He had no words as his response, only rage, evident by his tight jaw and loud gulp.

Picking up on the heaviness of his energy, Serenity continued. “I don’t know if you know, but Crystal Tokyo has an open policy for refugees, even from an attack as long ago as Galaxia. I can have you registered as an asylum seeker—”

“With all due respect, your highness, we’re not here to seek asylum.” The sternness in his voice was palpable.

In attempts to maintain sympathy for his shift in emotion, and keep hers relatively stable, she placed her pad down and leaned back in her chair. “Then what do you seek?”

His gaze fell. “I can say what we don’t seek… is trouble. So we’ll leave this planet immediately. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

“No, please!” Serenity leaned over, placing a gentle, desperate hand on top of his as if it were to stop him should he stand up. Eagerness met ambivalence as each pair of blue eyes stared deeply into the other.

“I’m the one that called you here.” She continued. “I want to know your story.”

The power of touch was a phenomenon that made his heart pump wildly to the point of confession. But it was taking his mind a while to trust her, so Serenity resumed her verbal coaxing.

“Seiya… I want to help you and I can’t if you don’t talk to me.” She squeezed his hand and bit into her lips. “As one guardian to another, let me help you.”

He sighed, having to reach deep within to find his words and courage.

“It’s our princess. We're looking for our princess.”

Serenity nodded, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, ready to listen.

Seiya continued. “She fled when Galaxia attacked. We decided she would go first and we would follow. We had a plan to meet at a neighboring planet but… when we got there, Galaxia had already ravaged through it, just like ours. And our princess was nowhere to be found.” He rubbed his sweaty palms on his thighs, breathing through the trauma of the memories.

“And so we went on to the next planet, and then the next one… Each destination was based on hunches and hearsay mostly, looking for any hint that she was there or had been there.”

Serenity cocked her head. “How did you go about trying to find her once you were on a planet?”

“Singing. She really loves music.” He flashed a smile. “We sing familiar songs to try to draw her to us. And if they’re catchy enough, we hope that the locals might pass them along too, and maybe she’ll hear it and know we’re out there and haven’t given up.”

She nodded before looking down, almost afraid to ask. “Have you… considered the fact… that maybe she’s...”

“Yes, we have. We check for death records regularly wherever we end up.” He answered over her, sparing her awkwardness. “But we just so happened to catch a merchant on ætSe-18 who had sold a royal incense burner to someone here from Earth. He couldn’t confirm it was Kinmokian, but the way he described it—its design and scent—there’s no mistake it’s from Kinmoku.”

“How would the burner lead you to her?”

“She also harnesses the power of stars and can take on other forms. Her incense burner was her favorite hiding spot. She must have taken it with her when she fled, or at least that’s what we hope. It’s our only hope at this point.”

Moved by the story, a distant smile spread upon her lips, and she relaxed into her chair. “She must be quite a princess for you to spend ten years looking for her.”

He shook his head with a smile. “I know no other purpose.”

Serenity paused to give her mind a few moments to think before sitting upright with resolution written all over her face.

“We should get some sleep then. Tomorrow is a big day.”

Seiya’s face blinked into confusion. “Is it?”

The beam on her face lit up the whole room as she nodded and winked. “It’s the Queen’s Birthday Festival tomorrow. We’ll need our strength to celebrate.”

A smirk twitched on the side of his mouth. “Oh right. I remember that being advertised.”

“It’ll be a fun time. And I’m sure a much-needed and deserved day off for you.”

He breathed out a laugh, a twinkle forming in his eye.

“And then after that,” she continued. “We look for your princess.”

The twinkle then faded into distress. “Oh… no… no, no… It’s okay, your highness! I know you have more important things to do—”

“I’ve got people for that!” She waved a dismissive hand at him. “Plus, I said I wanted to help, so I’m going to help. You can't be going out there getting into more bar fights in your condition, and I’m sure the other guardians aren’t in that much better shape.”

He opened his mouth to speak but Serenity gave him that same look she gave Uranus earlier in the night, submitting him to speechlessness. While she seemed to make his mind spin, she also made him feel calm. Redness formed on his cheeks as he realized the subliminal control she had over him; whether it was intentional or not was a mystery, but he didn’t care.

A victorious grin spread across her face. “It’s settled then.”

---

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Please note if you would like to follow this story, I will be updating the rest of the chapters under the tag: hanabean close to you and other iterations of the spacing. I love you all!

[kissandmxkeup]

Royal Guard!Johnny

here for the obligatory annual “yes i’m still around and yes i know where my computer keyboard is” post, may do more but probably not tbh. if you’re still here and reading, i love you and also highly question why you’re so dedicated. not that i mind, i truly appreciate it, but still.

also, this is female!reader because i had so much trouble writing this in a gender-neutral manner. if you want a gender-neutral/male!reader version, let me know and i’ll do my best!

Always cordial and polite, not just with you but anyone he comes across

So many of the guards tend to have this air of superiority, talking down to those that aren’t within their ranks or of a higher status, but Johnny has the same level of manners for the elderly shopkeeper in town as he does for you, the crown princess of the country

Not only that, he’s also extremely attentive to your needs, even the ones that he isn’t necessarily responsible for

He always has a bag with first-aid supplies, snacks, water, and even portable chargers and a Game-Boy somewhere within reach

And he’s always willing to have a conversation with you, listen to your concerns and worries and sorrows

You actually came to know Johnny when he was guarding your brother, a seven year old who was incredibly funny and also insanely gross 

After your brother turned ten he was sent off to a private school with their own security teams, so Johnny was moved over to you

You loved being around him; his positivity and kindness could melt even the toughest of moods, something your mother had noticed when she was looking for his new assignment 

You remember when she called Johnny to the throne room; he’d still been just barely an adult then, looking young and boyish in armor slightly too big for him He had bowed deeply to her, so much that the weight of the heavy metal chainmail nearly tipped him over, and she smiled back as she informed him that he was being removed from his position with your brother, that he would now be tasked with being in your guard. He had given her a nod and an “as you wish” that was almost too wavering with forced professionalism before turning to you with a nervous little grin, asking what you needed of him in a way that had melted your heart.

Over time, the two of you had grown into a rhythm; you would walk the gardens in the morning, him following like a shadow as you chatted with the gardeners and groundskeepers. After that you would tend to your schoolwork, and then the minor royal duties you were given after you’d finished your education, occasionally letting him distract you with stories of the younger guards’ antics as you tried to pass time until dinner, and then at the end of the day you would always sit and talk together about the country.

Even when you were young, you were always looking to improve the life of the commoners of the land, and given his background, Johnny was much more connected to them than you could ever be. He had influenced policies you’d drafted on education, social welfare programs, and even some of your first quality-of-life recommendations like repairing historical sites and landmarks in the smaller villages of the country, such as the town he had visited often as a child. You were beloved in your country, and had become lauded as the “princess of the people,” always pushing for your constituents to be represented and thought of at every turn, but you always made sure that Johnny knew that you couldn’t do any of it without him by your side. 

However, those outside of your borders tended to see you as much less kind and gentle, but rather stubborn and almost bitchy. You wouldn’t let your country’s people be used or walked over, refusing to give in to the demands of others that saw you as small and weak and risk your citizens’ wellbeing in the process. You sat in meeting with lawmakers, voice steady as you refused to even consider letting your constituents have their taxes raised in the name of increasing their own salaries, clashed with conglomerates that wanted you to turn a blind eye to pollution and mistreatment of their workers, even going as far as pressuring officials into dissolving royal contracts with major companies that relied on unfair practices, and you had even notably walked out of a meeting with a royal from another family after they had insinuated that perhaps you had let your public persona blind you to what was truly good for your country (in this case, letting their country use your resources without regard to the needs of the the common folk of yours).

Some other players in larger, wealthier countries had even decided that you were too much of an inconvenience, made too much noise, and wanted to eliminate you from your country’s line of succession by any means necessary. Because of this you had come to be assigned more guards over time, generally keeping a rotating team that you had jokingly nicknamed the 127 Squad because they seemed to have an endless supply of members. Some members like Ten, or Lucas rotated in during special occasions like state visits, and you occasionally had a knight-in-training such as the quiet Renjun or the child-like Jeno in addition to the usual two or three full-time guards. 

There were eight other consistent members that you had come to be familiar with, though; Haechan was loud and boisterous in a manner quite similar to your brother, while his best friend Mark was quiet, shy, and a little nervous with a sword despite all of his experience. Taeyong, Taeil, and Doyoung treated you like their child in different ways, and Jungwoo was dreamy and often in his own head (although you weren’t sure if maybe that was just a facade, since he was one of the first to act if you felt in danger). Your favorite story was how poor Jaehyun and Yuta had been banned from attending public events after they went unintentionally viral for their handsome looks during a press conference about a new retirement plan you had orchestrated.

Johnny was always the constant, though; he was at every event, every meeting, always directly to your right in a manner that had started more than one rumor about your professional relationship and how it was more than just professional after all. And as much as you would never admit it, you hated the rumors because of their semi-truth; sure, you weren’t in a relationship, but it’s not like you would be opposed to that at all. 

He was just as kind and funny as ever, but more mature and elegant now; he would help you out of your car even if there was a chauffer that was supposed to fill that role, lift children on his shoulders during your usual visits to local schools and smile with pride as they giggled and screamed. He would even sit next to you and run his hand between your shoulder blades when you had panic attacks about whether you were really fit to lead the country, reassuring you that your people loved you for a reason; not to mention that he had become very attractive over time; the boyish smiles were now replaced with kind grins, his armor now fit him like a glove, and every time he sowed the protective nature that he had developed toward you, you would swoon a little on the inside.

But there were strict rules about romance between royals and staff, if anyone found out that you even had a crush on him he would be moved out of your team and possibly out of your family entirely, which you couldn’t stand the idea of. So you kept your mouth shut, never letting your inhibitions take over you when he called your name with a kindness that made your knees weak, or when he would step in front of you in a protective manner at a rare threat made directly to your face. You had done well with it too, up until you had gone on your first state visit to another country without your parents or any other major officials.

You had been sent out to visit a country run by a set of princes almost double your age, with nobody but five members of your guard (Taeyong, Doyoung, Mark, Jaehyun, Ten, and of course Johnny) alongside you. The men were all openly uncomfortable with your presence at times; sometimes this was shown by you being excluded from conversations about “grown-up matters that didn’t concern you,” as you had once overheard the crown prince Leeteuk commenting, to even pressuring you with questions and comments that were bizarre at best and outright offensive at worst. You had tried to brush it off, since the visit was less than a week and very important, but it was hard to do so when you felt like you were having the life sucked out of you.

It wasn’t until the last day when you had finally had enough; Leeteuk had sat across from you, flanked by all of his fellow princes, and pushed a document that looked way too official to be presented in such a way to your side of the table with an expectant glare.

“What is this?”

“It’s the resolution that we’ve all been working on this week, I expect you to sign it for us now.”

“I’m sorry, I won’t sign something unless I know its contents. If you give me some time to look over it, I’d be happy to come back with my concerns and a signature if I feel it’s mutually beneficial.”

“I’m sorry?”

One of the other princes, Shindong, looked down at you with a glance of something resembling anger, and you could almost hear Johnny and Taeyong tensing at your sides, preparing to step in should the princes show signs of being a threat to your well-being.

“I mean, you say that it’s the resolution we’ve been working on, but I’ve been constantly shuttered out of any meaningful conversation about this legislature since I arrived. I don’t know what’s been done in front of me, let alone without me present, and by signing it I could be agreeing to any number of measures I don’t agree with or understand. I will not sign this unless I am given an adequate chance to look over it and bring my own concerns forward as a representative of my country.”

“See, I don’t think you understand how this works. You are in our country, under our roof, and we fully expect you to comply with our expectations while here. So you will sign this document.”

“Or what?”

You straightened yourself out, glaring daggers at the youngest prince (Kyuhyun, you believe) that had been so demanding to you. You could feel Johnny resting a hand on your shoulder, reassuring but warning, as Taeyong stepped out to certainly inform the other guards of the situation and have them start collecting your things to go home.

“If you force me to sign it, I and my guards will both bring the manner forward publicly that it was signed under duress. Any measure that you believe you could take to force me, such as physical punishment or holding me hostage, is an act of war by your government against a foreign diplomat on your soil and will be treated as such. I will not be threatened, forced, or coerced into giving my consent in a matter I do not understand, and the idea that I would do such a thing is actively preposterous at best and offensive at worst. So if you don’t mind, I will be leaving your country at the earliest opportunity, since it’s clear that you have no intent of cooperating with me and I will not stay in a place where I feel unwelcome and endangered. If this is an issue, please feel free to take it up with my guards or any citizen of my country, who will happily inform you of my stance on public policy that would affect them.”

You stood to leave, and Siwon matched your movement, grabbing your wrist with such force that you audibly hissed.

“Little girl, this is no business for you to be fighting against. Sign the papers and then you can go whenever you please.”

“My princess has stated that she intends to leave,” you were surprised by Johnny, stepping forward, forcing Siwon’s hand off of you before carefully pushing you behind him with one arm to shelter you from the men in front of you, “and as far as I am concerned, she gets what she wants when it’s her well-being at risk. Please stand down and allow her to leave, since we mean no harm. I’m sure that if this legislature is as important as you state it to be that she would need to blindly sign onto it, the king and queen would happily do instead, so I implore you to speak to them about the matter.”

Johnny walked you out, a hand around your waist with a stern expression as he kept looking back to the room of bewildered and infuriated princes. It wasn’t until he had accompanied you back to your room, firmly shutting and locking the door behind him, that he let the cold demeanor slip away. He asked how you were, a nervous expression on his face at the situation you had found yourselves in.

“I just...I want to go home. I want to go home and rest, and be with my family and friends again. I don’t feel safe here.”

He nodded solemnly, fingers dancing across your wrist as he lifted it to the level of your chest, scowling at the already-deepening purples and yellows where you’d been held.

“I’m sorry, I should have stepped in sooner.”

“You did everything right. You tried to let me handle it, and protected me when I couldn’t do it anymore.”

You leaned into his touch, and he seemed almost surprised as you let yourself fall completely into his arms, barely catching you. He held you upright for a moment, only pulling back when he noticed that you had started to cry.

“Princess...”

“Please, call me by my name. We’re friends, you deserve that much.”

He did so, gently taking you back into his grasp and reassuring you with a gentle swaying as you awaited the word of Taeyong that you could leave.

“I’m sorry, I can’t keep doing this anymore.”

He pulled back, concern and worry apparent in his expression at your bizarre change in tone.

“Can’t do what?”

“I..look, I love you. Not as my guard, not as my friend, but in a way that’s so much more than that. And I’ve been so scared to tell you because I knew it could get you taken from me, but you deserve to know. You’ve been nothing but kind and wonderful and hell, you’re perfect, but I can’t keep standing here, falling in love a little more every time you so much as look at me without telling you about it.”

He looked confused for a moment, but surprised you with a large, almost goofy smile that reminded you of your younger days with him.

“Don’t act like that, like it’s the end of it. I know it’s not allowed, just as much as you do, but I love you too and I’ve wanted to tell you forever.”

You laughed, almost bitter with the threat of separation between you two.

“How is it not the end of it?”

“I...I’ve been talking with your mother about...us. About how I feel. She’s going to remove me from the guard altogether, and I was going to move into an advising role for you where I’d be able to ask you out. I was planning on telling you after we returned form the visit, since it was only finalized after we arrived, but then...”

It took a moment to register what he had said, but as soon as it had clicked you threw your arms around him with an almost childlike excitement.

“I’ll be here for you until you don’t want me anymore, okay? I promise. Me and you, just like it’s been since you were sixteen.”

The words were gentle, kind, and you couldn’t help but relax at the truthfulness he carried in his tone. You wanted to stay like this forever, but it was all too soon that there was a knock on the door as Taeyong informed you that your car was waiting out front and the princes had finally agreed to stand down and let you leave in peace. You took a moment to collect yourself before heading to the door, and Johnny gave your hand a reassuring squeeze before opening it.

“Would you like me to ride with you today, your highness?”

“Actually, if it’s okay, I’d rather have Johnny with me. I’ve been under a lot of stress during this trip, and I find him rather comforting to have around.”

He stifled a laugh behind his hand, and you couldn’t help but grin at the almost knowing glance Taeyong spared you. You walked past the princes in uncomfortable silence, only sparing a small bow before you stepped into your car, Johnny following and moving to sit next to you as the door closed.

“So, we’ve got six hours until we’re back in our kingdom, do you want to play Super Mario Land or something?”

You burst out laughing, head falling back against his shoulder as you gave him a small nod through the rhythm of your breathing. He smiled as he gave you the old lime Game Boy, shifting to move an arm around you so he could watch you play, and you couldn’t help but notice how this felt just like home.