#oh wait don’t forget the money you’d have to pay for an online subscription as well to actually use the online features!!!

[coconutcows]

No but like it actually is a big Issue that they Shiny Locked all the returning legendaries in the Indigo Disc DLC

Nintendo/Gamefreak/The Pokémon Company know there’s an entire dedicated subset of fans who’s goal is to collect Shiny Pokémon. Shiny Hunting is already a process that truthfully is so tedious and lengthy that not everyone can do it. You have to have a lot of patience and be able to have a lot of time available (it can be done alongside other things but you do have to pay some attention to the game still) and they still go out of their way to make this nearly impossible.

Shiny Locking didn’t even exist until gen5 and for a while they only locked the current new Pokémon while previous ones were still huntable. It’s even more ridiculous when most of these Pokémon are available as Shiny in Go (and if it’s some weird way to try to people to play Go, well not everyone can do that for multiple reasons, but especially when Niantic ignores making the game more balanced for all player types)

Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Mew have all been around for 27 nearly 28 years. There is no reason to Lock them anymore (especially considering Mew can only be legitimately hunted by buying a Japanese Copy of Emerald or paying for the All in One #151 research in Go)

Did you know Manaphy, a Pokémon released in Diamond and Pearl has been around since 2006?? Do you know how many times it’s been available as shiny??? Never. Seventeen Years and the only way you can legitimately obtain a Shiny Manaphy is by getting a copy of Pokémon Ranger and moving the Egg around until the codes will be right.

There’s no reason to keep locking Legendaries, especially the regular legendaries. If this is about them wanting to keep them for giveaways that’s stupid. Wait and hope the one you want is available as a gift and if it’s not sit there and wait some more.

At the very least they can leave the regular legendaries unlocked and save the Event/Mythical Pokémon for giveaways, but even if they do that they have to actually give away the Pokémon. God knows when Hoopa, Volcanion, Marshadow, Zeraora, Zarude etc etc are going to be given away again

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Looking for a Place to Happen

Warnings: non-consent sex and rape (series), age gap, general stupidity.

This is dark!biker!Sam Wilson x reader and explicit. 18+ only.  Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Series Synopsis: There’s lots happening in Birch and you find it all too amusing.

Sister series to Smalltown Bringdown, When the Weight Comes Down, Little Bones, and Fully Completely

Note: We’re starting Sam’s installment but this weekend I’ll probably only be catching up on my headcanons and drabbles because I’ve been a lazy bitch and I’m sorry to those who have been waiting.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

Chapter 1: I've got a job, I explore

💀💀💀

The sleepy town of Birch was awake. 

In those last weeks, the arrival of outsiders had roused the attention of many once passive residents of the timeless territory. Those brick buildings unchanged by the tick of the clock inlaid into the old tower above the library that chimed every hour on the hour. They still stood with only chips in the mortar but the air tasted different. The frost was more bitter and the sky more grim. An omen of something no one could predict.

It was the perfect setting for a screenplay. The isolated town with its unsavoury secrets and the visitors who threatened to bring them to the surface. It was inspiring to you, to imagine what was hidden behind the stern wrinkled faces of the town elders and under the jackets of those men who wore the cut of the local club. The bikers ruled the town covertly but everyone knew that Bucky Barnes’ palm was lined with the map of Birch.

As a bystander, an unnoticed observer, just another ant in the hill, you watched from the side and amused yourself with the drama of others. It was like a soap opera or another HBO hype machine. Those things you aspired to when you could be free of this ho-hum town.

The snows added to the natural gloom of the place. The deep heaps smothered the noise and harkened back to those days of colonial settlement. Forgotten, desolate, fearful. 

You ventured down in your heavy boots that stretched to your knees and pushed your chin down into your scarf. As a child, you ran and jumped in those piles, now you were out of breath just trying to walk past them.

You stopped in the bakery that doubled as the only café, a place where the owner, Babs, tried to to intimidate the last caffeinated trends. She was always a few seasons behind but you didn’t mind so much. 

You ordered the salted caramel mocha and waited patiently as the quiet woman fought with the steaming machines. She was older than you but you’d work with her for one summer during high school, only five years ago. She had the eyes of a child still, but there was something worn in her. As if she’d been exposed to far too much in her three or so decades in that place. She was a harbinger of what you didn’t want to become.

You thanked her for your drink and set out once more into the billowing winds. Birch winters were never kind but this one was crueler than most. Your teeth chattered as you blew the steam away from the lid and hugged it with your mittened hands.

You stopped short as you heard the familiar ding of the diner door across the street. You recognised the mechanic who kept to herself and once growled at you in the grocery store. She stormed across the street, followed closely and quickly by a black-haired man you’d only seen once before. He was one of those outsiders who came to deal with the club men.

You sped up as you sensed chaos brewing and pulled out your phone as you balanced your paper cup in your other hand. You flicked your camera on just as you got to the front of the shop and the man grabbed the mechanic. You let out an ‘oop’ as she turned on him and you aimed the lens at the couple as they fell into the snow, the man’s shoes giving little traction to his steps. 

You moved closer, stunned by the scene, and kept your cell phone rolling as you found a better angle around the snowy walks. As she choked him on the ground he elbowed her and she coughed as she rolled away. She snarled as he clamoured to his feet, slipping and sliding as he marched away.

You killed the recording and watched the man cross the street again, nearly wiping out as he did and when you looked back to the mechanic, she was gone behind the clattering door. You chuckled to yourself and tucked away your cell. It was prime footage for TikTok; with a bit of editing, it would be comedy gold.

💀

You stomped up the steps of your grandmother’s house, this time through the front door as you heard her chair rocking in the front room. You usually took the stairs in the back as you paid her to live on the upper floor of the duplex. You checked in with her daily, she didn’t get out much more than the occasional trip to the grocery store when you couldn’t or you dragged her out to join you for a tea at Babs’.

“You’re late,” she grumbled as you set your cup down and unzipped your coat.

“For what?” you scoffed.

“It’s after noon and you don’t even come down to say hello? A ‘good morning, nan’,” she harrumphed.

You chuckled and hung your coat before shoving your boots over on the mat. You grabbed your mocha and leaned on the doorway as you watched her crocheting in her chair, reruns of some court show playing from the boxy television.

“I was working,” you said, “sent in some stuff for review. Hopefully not much work to be done.”

“I don’t know how you make money on that interweb,” she bemoaned, “I don’t trust it.”

“Maybe you’d trust it more if you used the Netflix subscription I got you,” you crossed your arms, “then you wouldn’t have to watch trash daytime TV.”

She shrugged and muttered under her breath. She could be crotchety but you liked her sense of humour. Your aunts and uncles never came around because they just took it as spite. You were the only one who knew how to handle the jaded old lady.

“Maybe you coulda looked out the window,” you snickered, “quite a show going on in town.”

“Hmm, what’s that?” she stilled her needles and reached for her tea stained cup.

“Just a fight. You wouldn’t believe it, that lady mechanic beat the shit--”

“Language,” she huffed.

“Anyway, she had this guy in a chokehold. It was awesome.”

“What guy?” she squinted at you over her glasses.

“I dunno. Some out of towner. Remember I told you about that burly dude hanging around the library?”

“There’s more?” she sucked on her teeth, “those bikers have never been good news and now they’re bringing in more.”

“Yeah, well, what’re you gonna do?” you sniffed as you took out your phone and rewatched the scuffle with the volume down. You shook your head and opened up your TikTok. 

“I don’t understand why you’re always on your dang phone,” your grandmother pestered.

“I’m not always on my phone,” you smiled at her smugly, “there are those time when I’m listening to you prattle on or you know, making you tea, oh, and cooking you dinner. What was it I did last week? Oh that’s right, I got Pippin out of the crawlspace.”

“I’m too old to be chasin’ that cat all around,” she huffed, “where is he anyway?”

“He’s your cat, I don’t know? Last time I saw him, I sent him back out the window for shredding my charger.”

“He knows you need to give it a rest,” she laughed to herself, “got your nose to that screen too much.”

“And what do you do, old lady? Crocheting doilies to put where exactly?”

She gave you that dry smile, the one that said watch it but carried a hint of humour still. You hit post and put your phone away as you waved off her irritation.

“Well, you know what, I sit all day at my computer, doing who knows what and you know what it got me?” you taunted, “a large mocha!” you sipped as you sat on the sofa and grabbed the remote, “and it’s paying my rent and putting bullet points on my resume.”

“Mhmm,” she scowled, “just remember, real life ain’t online. Those videos you’re always laughing at like hyena, that’s not reality. You forget it and it’ll come back and bit you. ‘Specially with those bikers.”

“Oh, nan, you know too well, don’t you? Didn’t you have a fling with one back in your hippie phase?”

“Two, actually,” she raised her brows, “I was young and stupid. Not like you, but still.”

“I love you too,” you chirped and sipped from your cup, flicking the station to Jerry Springer, “that’s more like it.”

💀

Your usual TikToks were sarcastic and dull complaints about your small town life. The response was less than pleasing but it gave you an outlet to vent. You liked to goof around and document the very specific type of weirdos that resided in Birch. But the video of the fight in the snow blew up your phone and made it difficult to ignore the buzzing as you went back up to your room to eke out the last of your captions for the ad agency.

When at last you could call your day hard-earned, you logged off and sent in your hours to the agency. Social media promotion was easy enough but the working gigs for a thousand different companies was tedious. You hoped you could build your portfolio enough to manage a single corporate page as you continued to chip away at your creative outlets.

You picked up your phone as you waited for Netflix to load on your tiny smart tv and flopped onto your bed, not two feet from your desk. You hit the icon in the upper panel of your phone and scrolled through the notifications, pausing to turn on another episode of the cable sitcom from ten years before. You snorted as you read each comment but the number under the video made your eyes round. The thing was bound to go viral.

As usual, you went down to help with supper. Pippin, the orange tabby, returned to cry at his dish and you fed him too. Your nan peered through her glasses at a crossword as she tasted the tangy pasta sauce. 

“More basil,” she snipped.

“Well, I asked if you wanted to help,” you muttered, “I think it’s good.”

“Hmmp, I need milk,” she jutted her chin out, “for my after-dinner tea.”

“You couldn’t say something like three hours ago?” you blinked.

“I could have but I didn’t,” she snickered. You rolled your eyes and she took another forkful of penne and filled in another line on her puzzle, “ah, no hurry, girlie, you know I’m patient.”

“Patient? You?” you chuckled as you took your plate and shoved it in the microwave to keep it warm. The ancient thing had a dial and the door stuck, “I’ll just go get it over with.”

“Don’t forget your mitts,” she called after you as you tramped into the front room, “it’s cold.”

You pulled on your knitted cap and matching mitts. You zipped up your parka and shoved your feet into the deep boots. You grabbed your wallet and buried it in the spacious pocket. You bounced out the front door and down the steps as the sky sent down another coat of powder for the night.

You went up White Forge Street and through the short path behind the diner that led to the main road. You glanced over at The Asp, the beacon of the dull town, and turned towards the grocer. Like anywhere in Birch, the store was outdated and stuffy. It felt like stepping into another time with the paper bags and chunky tills.

You went down the center aisle and stopped at the fridge to search through the frosted glass. Your nan only drank whole milk and the last time you carelessly grabbed skim, she whined that even Pippin wouldn’t drink it. She was particular but that was just her nature. You couldn’t say you were any less fussy in some instances.

You grabbed a jug and the door slapped closed against the worn rubber seal. You headed up the candy aisle and brushed your woolly thumb over your chin as you considered gummy bears or Reeses’ Pieces.

“Hard choice?” The deep voice jolted you.

You snatched the box of chocolate and looked over at the man in leather, his chin tucked down behind the collar as snow dusted his shoulders.

“Sure,” you said as you brushed past him.

The cut of the leather told you he was better not entertained. While you thought the men amusing, you weren’t stupid enough to engage with them. You rarely listened to your grandmother but she was wise in her own way. 

You knew a girl in highschool, she was fucking around with one of the club men in her junior year, she ended up with a baby and no support. You didn’t think he was into you that way but he could hardly have innocent intentions.

“How’s the old lady?” Clayton asked as he rung in your order at the end of the belt, you moved along with the groceries and pulled out your wallet.

“The usual, you know? She’s tryna quit again. Don’t know how long it’ll last.”

“Oh yeah? I’ll keep a carton aside for her,” he kidded as you felt your phone vibing in your back pocket.

“Don’t encourage her,” you swiped your card and punched in your pin, “although I don’t know what’s worse; the smoke or her sucking on those mints all the time.”

“Oh, it’s not the bitchin’?” he laughed.

“That, too,” you scooped up the paper bag and put your wallet away, “have a good one.”

As you came to the end of the first counter, you were nearly cut off by the club member as he swept around from till two. His own purchase of a car magazine and jerky was tucked under his arm.

“Ah, sorry,” he smiled, a sparkling smile, almost charming.

“No worries,” you continued on and he followed close behind.

“Those mitts look real warm. ‘Specially in this weather,” he said as you pushed open the door.

“Uh huh,” you kept on as your boots crunched out into the snow.

“You know where I can get a pair. Leather isn’t exactly thermal, you know?”

“These? My nan made ‘em. I’m sure Clayton got some hung up back there,” you looked across the street as you stepped up onto the ledge of snow between the sidewalk and the road.

“Am I bothering you?” he asked.

You looked at him dumbly and almost laughed in his face. You glanced back across the street then down towards The Asp.

“Sorta,” you answered.

“Make you a deal. Leave ya alone for your name.”

You eyed him. He was older than you like many of the Commandos. At least a decade, likely more than that. You chewed on your hesitation and cradled the bag more firmly against your side. His eyes strayed as he tried to see through the thick layer of your coat.

“Nah, I’m not s’posed to talk to strangers,” you said and hopped off onto the road.

You heard him behind you as he struggled to follow and as you came up to the other side, he came parallel with you and kept stride with you easily.

“I know you’re young but you’re not a kid,” he intoned, “what’s the harm in a name?”

“It’s a small town,” you stopped short of the end of White Forge, “I think I know enough about you to avoid you.”

“Oh ho, is that it? Well, I’m Sam, I’m not a stranger now, am I?”

“Not interested, Sam. Sure there’s women your own age over at the bar,” you nodded behind him.

“You wanna come see? Maybe have a drink?” he gave a crooked grin.

“You don’t give up, do you?” you shook your head, put off by his forwardness.

“Well?”

“Not tonight, Sam,” you turned around and headed down White Forge.

“Then what night?” he asked but you didn’t answer and he didn’t follow.

You turned down onto your street and refused to look back in case. It would be best not to mention the run-in to your nan, she was paranoid enough as it was. Besides, you’d forget about it by the end of next week.

[arpitram]

4 Best reasons to start using VPN :

A VPN or virtual private network is service that allows you to create a secure and private connection from a device to the network. Just think of it as an online service you use to hide your digital footprints by masking your real IP address and encrypting your Internet traffic. Thanks to the regulation of internet by governments around the world and cyber-attacks by nefarious online elements, VPN has become the need of the hour. Just as you protect your personal information like your phone number and address, you now need to protect your online information. If you are still not convinced about the importance of VPN services, this article is just for you. Here we will talk about 4 important reasons as to why you should start using a VPN right now.

Reasons Why You Should be Using a VPN

While there are myriad of benefits of using a VPN, there are four important points that everyone should consider before giving up on VPN services.

A VPN Protects Your Traffic, Data, and Privacy

A VPN Lets You Unblock Any Content You Want

With a VPN, You Can Bypass Bandwidth Throttling

VPNs Offer a Better Gaming Experience

We will be talking about all these points in detail in the upcoming section. Feel free to jump to the section that you want to read.

1. A VPN Protects Your Traffic, Data, and Privacy

Have you ever experienced an online ad following you across websites? It might be for a product that you search for or already bought. Doesn't it feel creepy to be served ads for things you have searched in the past? Well, it happens because tracking pixels on websites track your searches and then tailor the ads for you.

The above situation that I described is just a fraction of problems that you as an internet user have to deal with while going online. I have not even mentioned the privacy problems that come with using internet. Just to give you a taste of what I am talking about, consider the fact that your internet service provider or ISP is probably selling your internet usage data to make money off you while you are already paying them for the service. In short, if you are going online without a VPN, you’re exposing yourself to the following risks:

- Giving hackers a free pass to eavesdrop on your online communications when you use public WiFi.

- Making it easy for cyber-criminals, government surveillance agencies, and ISPs to see what you type on unencrypted websites, what web page you search for, and what files you download (just to name a few examples).

- Letting your ISP sell your browsing data to advertisers.

- Ending up in legal trouble for torrenting files, and leaking your IP address to every member of the Swarm (total number of people downloading and uploading a torrent).

Using a VPN prevents all these horrible scenarios. VPN encrypts your connection using encryption technologies, such as IP security (IPSec), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Transport Layer Security (TLS) and more. When you use a VPN anyone snooping in on your connection, whether it's your ISP, online tracking pixels, or hackers, see gibberish data.

2. A VPN Lets You Unblock Any Content You Want

Few things are as annoying in life as hearing about a cool new TV series only to later find out you can’t watch it because it’s only available on streaming platforms that don’t work in your country. Sky Go, Hulu, HBO GO, BBC iPlayer – you name it. There are tons of websites that won’t let you enjoy their content simply because you’re from “the wrong” part of the world.

Yes, they have their reasons for doing that (copyright regulations and licensing fees), but that hardly makes it fair. Worst of all, you’re gonna deal with geo-restrictions even if you live in a country where you have access to all the content you want. After all, it’s no longer going to be available the moment you go abroad on vacation, or temporarily move outside the country for work.

geoblocking

And don’t forget about Internet censorship! If geo-blocks aren’t a concern, the government telling you what you can and can’t watch online should be. Many oppressive regimes force national ISPs to block various websites nation-wide. Take China for example. Due to its strict internet policies, its residents and visitors cannot access popular websites like Facebook (although, I am not crying for that), YouTube, Twitter, Netflix, and more. Oh, and then there are firewalls. You know - the kinds of restrictions you’ll deal with at work or school if the network admin has to block websites like Facebook or Instagram to comply with the workplace or school policies.

How does a VPN help you with all that, you ask? Simple – it masks your real IP address, which contains data that leaks your geo-location (info that geo-blocks need to be efficient), and which firewalls also use to enforce restrictions. You can even select which country you want your connection to seem to originate from. For example, you can select USA as your VPN connection country and then your connection will seem to originate from the US allowing you to access all the geo-restricted content.

3. With a VPN, You Can Bypass Bandwidth Throttling

Did you ever notice a sudden decrease in online speeds whenever you were downloading something, watching an online video, or Skyping with your friends? That’s basically bandwidth throttling in action. It’s when your ISP reduces some of your Internet speed because you’re using up “too much data.” ISPs are pretty clever and they hide the bandwidth throttling in fine prints so most users are not even aware of it. You might have a fast 50 Mbps internet connection. However, it won't be the same everywhere as ISPs generally throttle speed if you are torrenting or streaming 4K content.

Bandwidth Throttling

ISPs might claim they’re doing that to prevent network congestion, which is understandable. However, usually, ISPs use bandwidth throttling to pressure users into buying pricier subscriptions and data plans. They also get to save money that way by making sure they don’t need to buy more expensive equipment to process user data faster.

Using a VPN can alleviate this problem. A VPN encrypts your Internet traffic, making sure your ISP can’t see your Internet activity. Without that info, your ISP can no longer throttle your bandwidth since they won’t see what you’re doing online.

4. VPNs Offer a Better Gaming Experience

Playing online with your friends is extremely fun – at least until you have to deal with an annoying IP ban or geo-blocks preventing you from playing in the same region as your friends. That’s where a VPN comes into play.

It hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic, making sure you can evade IP bans from sore loser admins, prevent bandwidth throttling from ruining your fun, and join matches in any region you want no matter where you are in the world. If you play online multiplayer games, a VPN can help reduce ping time and lag if it has a solid server in that country. This is a huge gain if you compete in online gaming competitions as every millisecond matters at pro-level gaming tournaments.

Gaming

Besides that, you also get other additional perks:

You no longer have to worry about DoS/DDoS attacks from jealous players targeting you and ruining your killstreaks.

You get instant access to banned or uncensored video games (extremely useful if you live in or travel through Australia).

No longer having to wait a week or two until a new game gets released in your region since you can just “pretend” you’re from another region where the game is already available.

How to Choose the Right VPN Service

With nearly 1,000 (or more) VPN providers on the market, picking the right one can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Also, since we are using multiple devices, it's not fun to choose a VPN service and find that it's not available on multiple platforms. After all, you don't want to use different VPN services for Windows, Android, iOS and other platforms. That's why, before you choose a VPN service, make sure that you focus on some key features to have a slightly easier time finding the ideal VPN for you:

- A no-log policy

- Powerful encryption

- Cross-platform compatible apps

- Kill Switch features

- P2P support

- Lots of speedy servers

Of course, that doesn’t narrow things down too much as many VPN services claim to offer all these features. Looking up dozens of VPN providers, and closely analyzing all their features is a huge time-sink – not to mention how it takes a lot of effort. That's why we took it on ourselves to test out all the major VPN service providers. If you want a shortcut, we recommend that you check out Private Internet Access (PIA). Their VPN service offers military-grade security, is user-friendly, and you can run it on up to 10 simultaneous devices. Overall, Private Internet Access is a great VPN. If you’d like to read an in-depth review of the service, just follow the link.

Source :

For more understanding and learning, you can connect me on www.arpitram.com or www.arpitram.in. See you all with more interesting thoughts on the world of IT world.