suddenly hit with a wave of "i miss my old co-workers :("

Hello hello,

I wanted to ask for an Mc that is really confident and sarcastic but when they get close to someone they get very flustered and shy. I’d like it for Arthur Comt, Leonardo and Shakespear (if it’s not to much) thank you and I really love your writing!

Aaaaaa it makes me so happy to see that people like what I read 🥺. Like istg you guys are all so wholesome and I appreciate your support sm, between this and simping for hot people that's my only motivation to keep writing LMFAOKSNSJG.

But anyways nonny, I hope you like this!!

~Admin Hurricane

Warnings: some yandere behavior in Shakespeare's so if you're not comfortable with that click away.

Word Count: 400+

Genre: fluff

Pairing(s): Arthur Conan Doyle x GN!Reader, Comte de Saint Germain x GN!Reader, Leonardo da Vinci x GN!Reader, William Shakespeare x GN!Reader

Arthur Conan Doyle

If you haven’t played arthur’s route, spoiler alert this is basically it, except MC is more of a pussy. No I have no shame in saying that cause goddamn a small mini-rant here but why is every girl mc in every otome game ever a goddamn pussy, like they cant even stand up for themselves????(there are some exceptions but most games are like this smh) ANYWAYS

Arthur finds pleasure in bantering with you on a constant basis to see what buttons he can push to irritate you further. The closer he gets to you, the more he wants to see from you.

He’s pleasantly surprised to find that you get flustered really easily the more you guys interact with each other, he passes it off as the effect he has on people

He teases you for it just to see what your reactions might be and lo and behold, you don’t disappoint

Comte de Saint Germain

He’s unphased by your sarcasm, even finding it amusing through your quick and witty responses.

He hosts some of the most prominent historical figures in his mansion, so it’s only natural that he’d want to get to know his guests. He’s surprised to find you flustered by his actions, even if it’s not much.

Ever the gentleman, he won’t take advantage of your reactions but instead smiling gently as he continues in his advances, laughing softly while he spends time with you

He does find you interesting tho, making it his personal goal to ensure your comfortable stay at the mansion, even if it means that he has to be the one to send you back off through the door in a month’s time.

Leonardo da Vinci

Rotton man, he exploits you in your flustered states, teasing you further to cause you to become even more flustered as a result.

He uses a lot of offhand remarks to throw you off, smirking as he sees you fumble or struggle with what you were previously doing knowing he did that.

He finds himself drifting to the places that you frequent, taking a nap on the floor or someplace else, hoping to inconvenience find you there as well

You may play yourself off as sarcastic and blunt, but he knows that only he’s seen the other side of you.

William Shakespeare

Charming and eloquent but also a bitch(sorry not sorry), Shakespeare is fluent in his words and uses flowery language to get closer to you.

He’s a yandere so anyone who tries to get close to you that isn’t him…well uh let’s just say you won’t be seeing much more of them anymore

He isolates you from the others intrigued by how your behavior shifts around him, going from a bold and confident person to someone who stutters and struggles to form words when he smiles at you

You’ve certainly caught his interest now.

Reminder that my requests are open! Be sure to send something my way if you’re interested! Requesting Rules are here!

Want more of my writing? Be sure to check out my masterlist :)

If you wanna request something, don’t be afraid to send something my way! Thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Wanna know what else I’ll write for? Here you go! Just be sure to read the requesting rules before you send anything in.

These are the Canons from our first subplot Founding Families.

Faces can be mixed and matched and are not necessarily bound by what’s suggested here. If you have specific ideas for the character, feel free to reach out to an admin to talk through, we’re happy to be flexible and help brainstorm.

We do not permit whitewashing of any of the canons listed here. Please keep this in mind when choosing a FC that is not suggested below.

THE WOLFF FAMILY

Eleonora Wolff  Deceased ᐧ NPC 

ELEAONORA WOLFF was one of the last remaining true believers, who sustained a practice of feeding THE ABYSS through rituals, even when its demands became greater. Tourists were chosen and stolen away to become its annual offerings. Eleonora called them ‘sacrifices’ whereas others saw them for what they were: murders. As THE ABYSS grew hungrier than she could ever feed alone, she made one last offering by walking herself into the cold sea. Eleonora left one child behind, a daughter born out of an affair with a PENEWAIT man – LIANA PENEWAIT. The child was raised by the Penewaits after Eleonora’s own family disowned her.

FC: Helen Mirren

Emanuel Wolff  54 ᐧ Taken by Lina 

A disappointment, the odd one out. Emanuel was soft, yielding, and therefore weaker in their aloof eyes. He took a shine to the seas and steep lands around them, learning all that he could of Alderhelm. Their world seemed so great and so small all at once, and he wanted to document what he could. In doing so, he learned the unpleasant truth of their legacy, and of the town’s strange occurrences. As a young man he fell in love, as one is bound to do, and had a daughter. Emanuel was left to raise her on his own, much to the shame of his parents but even more so to his own delight. 

FC: Mads Mikkelsen

—- Wolff  early 30s ᐧ Open

Her dad kept her safely out of the corrupting influences of their family tree, keeping their gnarled branches from coming too close. It never did leave her fearful, only aware. The town was built on blood-soaked sand and she was determined to see it get its comeuppance. On most days, she can be found organizing protesters and leading pickets outside of town hall. It is vital to her to use her own privilege, and so what if it gets a little out of hand sometimes? A night or two in lock-up is a small price to pay.

Suggested FCs: Rebecca Ferguson, Keira Knightley, Haley Bennett

—- Wolff  50s ᐧ Open

It’s true what they say about apples and not falling very far from the rotten tree. It would seem he has some of the fallen patriarch of the family under his skin. He’s not as cruel or brutal as his predecessor but just as callous and greedy. He can never have enough, always wanting his reach to be wider and deeper. He runs the OLDE ALDER HOTEL with a strong grip and steers the family to even greater riches. Sometimes his hand slips, taking money where it shouldn’t (read: embezzlement). It’s alright, though, he stands sure as the husband of the Mayor and when the dusk settles he dons the cloak of a Son of the Sea alum.

Suggested FCs: Oliver Masucci, Rufus Sewell

—- Wolff  Early 50s ᐧ Open

The Mayor of Alderhelm, at least for the past two years. She is a local; born and bred in the salty air of The Dregs. Came from a heap of penniless nothing and clawed her way to the top where she now stands as a Wolff, scoping out a view she is unlikely to let slip from her grasp. For someone who has only left the town limits a handful of times, she carries herself as a well-travelled, learned woman. Some claim it’s all surface-level, but her cunning mind and articulate tongue say different. 

An key facet of the Mayor is that she has a vision for the town, though the nature of this vision is open and flexible. Perhaps she very opposed to THE KING FAMILY’s new reign, feeling they’re threatening all she’s worked for to get where she is or maybe she admires them. Perhaps she decides to work with them and, if she does, perhaps she’s secretive about it with her husband/his family. Or maybe she’s playing both sides, waiting to see who comes out on top. Whether she upholds and attempts to maintain/strengthen the Wolff name or is secretively plotting against it is up to the player of her and her husband. She also has ties to THE PENEWAIT FAMILY given that she grew up in the Dregs.

Suggested FCs: Rachel Weisz, Christy Turlington, Uma Thurman

—- Wolff  Late 20s ᐧ Open

What are they if not the dried up husk of their father’s daydreams? Unlike the rest of their family, they were born into a feeling of uncertainty. Father taught them the importance of maintaining a unified front and not letting the public see you slip. They took that, bottled it up, and drank it until they couldn’t see where they began and their father’s idealized first born ended. They followed him closely, learning about the secrets of the business and the funds father pocketed for himself. Eventually, they were asked to leave town to get more investors for Father’s embezzlement scheme only to fail miserably. Now they have returned home, cloaked in their father’s disappointment and attempting to carve out a new identity for themselves.

Suggested FCs: Bill Skarsgård, Imogen Poots, Andreea Diaconu

Cordelia Wolff  23 ᐧ Reserved for Darc

CORDELIA WOLFF is every bit a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As the youngest, she grew up like a cankerous lullaby with all of Alderhelm as her playground. For most of her life, she has been dangerously underestimated. Though the girl looks like a daydream, she’s more nightmarish, sinister, and ruthless than she seems. Cordelia is presently attending Alderhelm College and majoring in finance. She is also a legacy member of the shadowy secret student society THE SONS OF THE SEA and may or may not have a thing for drowning.

FC: Andrea Madlova

*

THE PENEWAIT FAMILY

—- Penewait 40s ᐧ Open

Often regarded as more brawn than brains, he is his brother’s right hand man and can almost always be relied upon to get his hands dirty. Once he had been widely admired for his adventurous and at times reckless sailing abilities, his boat among the first to be seen in the morning and the last to dock at night. 

However, sometime in the last 10 years, he was involved in a shipping accident that not only marred his relationship with the sea, but left him a little unstable: prone to violence and quick to anger. If money is owed, he’s the wolf sent to retrieve it; him and/or any of his droogs at the docks.

Suggested FCs: Zahn McClarnon, Alex Meraz

—- Penewait 35-40 ᐧ Open 

Unlike his siblings, he is a very calm and observant man, showcasing his wit and ruthlessness to anyone who threatens him or his family. He has been instrumental in the success of the family business. He is widely respected among the community and seen as a dangerous foe by his enemies. Dissatisfied with the size of the Penewait empire and concerned about the legacy they will leave behind, he has begun playing his hand at relatively small, organised crime. In particular, he has drawn the family into pushing drugs, particularly weed, cocaine, pills, and meth. He has been known to use or leverage those closest to him in order to achieve his goals, believing that the ends justify the means. 

Suggested FCs: Gerald Tokala Clifford, Martin Sensmeier

—- Penewait Mid-late 30s ᐧ Reserved for Therese 

She idolizes the Family moniker and their image and reputation amongst town. Not only is she a formidable business woman, having worked for several years covering the family’s finances, but she has also been widely noted in the local community for her beauty and charm. It has been said that she could ensnare a person with just one glance. And while she is more good humored than her brothers, she maintains the infamous family temper. She handles the books and balances the family ledger to ensure their criminal dealings are untraceable.

Suggested FCs: Julia Jones, Q'orianka Kilcher

—- Penewait Early 20s ᐧ Reserved for Cyl 

As the youngest of the Penewait siblings, it seems he has spent his life looking up at closed doors or catching the tail ends of hushed conversations. His family has always made it a priority to shield him from the worst of their actions. And as a result, he’s developed a bit of a ‘devil may care’ attitude toward the business, enjoying the limited Alderhelm “luxuries” it affords him. 

Suggested FCs: Haatepah Clearbear, Forrest Goodluck, Boo Boo Stewart

—- Penewait  Early 30s ᐧ Reserved for Asteria

The love child of Eleonora Wolff and a Penewait man. She spent her formative years raised by her eccentric mother after her mother was disowned by The Wolffs. However, as her mother’s fixation with The Abyss grew, so did the Penewaits concern for her, and she eventually moved in with the rest of the family and raised alongside her cousins. She has a complex relationship with her mother and, until recently, maintained a cynical attitude toward The Abyss. 

Following her mother’s death and the disbanding of her cult, she has begun looking into ways to reassemble them, as a means to finally understand her mother and honor her memory.

—- Penewait Early 20s ᐧ Reserved for Shayne 

Somewhat estranged cousin, they grew up away from the family and the spoils of the Penewait “empire”. They are an excellent mathematician, even earning themselves a place at Alderhelm College.

And though they are relatively new to the town, their ambition is clear. They have already begun working their way up the ranks of the family business, and can often be found shadowing their cousins and trying to prove their worth.

Suggested FCs: Amber Midthunder, Audreyana Michelle

*

THE KING FAMILY

—- King 50s-60s ᐧ Open

As head of the family, he is determined to do right by the people around him. After losing his wife and teenaged son to a car accident shortly after arriving in Alderhelm, he has since thrown himself into his work as a distraction. Family is important to him, and he holds some varied feelings for some of his siblings, as they are not as serious about the family endeavor as he is. 

Very much becoming overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the revitalization project, the weird occurrences in town have only helped to exacerbate his frustrations. His guilt around surviving the accident has especially begun to turn into blame against the town that he’s committed himself to saving.

Suggested FCs: Mahershala Ali, Orlando Jones, Laurence Fishburne

—- King 50s to 60s ᐧ Open

She has long since committed to the success of her family, especially when it comes to her best friend and older brother. Two halves of the same whole, she is very outspoken where her brother is deliberate, more confrontational where her brother exercises patience. But a sour life of being overshadowed by her brother in her early years and her sister later in life has hardened her heart. As an adult, she manages to maintain her temper and composure but can often come off as cold and unyielding, especially when her vast intelligence is challenged. 

With the reappearance of her younger sister, she is once again being overshadowed and has taken to working at the local hospital to keep the distance between her and her sister and, as a result, keep the peace.

Suggested FCs: Gina Torres, Naomi Campbell

Theodora King Early-mid 30s ᐧ Reserved for Grim

Determined to take the reins, she was deemed a queen from birth. She was a headstrong child with little interest in her much older siblings and has a dwindling patience for those who have come after her. A Harvard graduate, she worked for years in politics as a campaign manager in Washington DC, but after a bad affair with alcohol and bribery, lost her credibility, job, Congressman fiance, and was pushed out of the circles she’d strived so hard to form. 

She has since returned to her family in an effort to find a place for herself again. Presently, she combats the eldest sibling in regards to control and tends to bait her older sister into confrontations by playing off her jealousies and insecurities. But despite all of her flaws, she is an effective political ally. Overseeing her family’s image and relationship with the mayor and the town, she has decided to be her brother’s lackey just long enough to force him out of his position and take over the family business, even if that means dabbling in illegal and illicit businesses to make it happen.

FC: Laura Harrier

—- King Late 20s ᐧ Reserved for Tea

The rebel without a cause, he fights his family at every turn and is the most outspoken against the revitalization project. While there is good in the cause, most of what he sees is the negative effects that could befall the community. Prone to brooding and bouts of sadness, he will come out of his shell for causes that he deems truly good for all involved. But his rejection of his family’s ideals are a hindrance to the cause, as he thinks of himself as a hero with an unwavering moral compass, saving the people from yet another powerful family that will do them wrong. 

Suggested FCs: Lakeith Stanfield, Trevante Rhodes, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, The Weeknd

—- King 20s ᐧ Reserved for Olivia

The youngest sibling, but hardly ever forgotten about. Their older siblings coddle them at every turn, forcing them away from their lavish life in the big city in exchange for the middle of nowhere. A bit of a tech sleuth, they have worked hard toward the interests of his family by digging up dirt on the Wolff and Penewait families that can be used as leverage to push out their older, more conservative regimes. 

But at the heart of it, they are bored and missing their lavish life in the city. So they’ve taken to organizing a start-up on the side with a few friends to break away from the family name and to create a legacy of their own, far away from Alderhelm.

Suggested FCs: Sharon Alexie, Rachide Embalo, Amandine Guihard, Ashton Sanders, Duckie Thot

Redbellion: A Scream Heard

Part 15 of Redbellion Story

The sound could be heard for systems, an echoing cry that those who did not hear, would of been told of sooner after. It was the cry that started an era of chaos, an era of utter fear and confusion. One only recorded in history archives, in data slates, played back as nightmare fuel in media. The cry of The Scourge awakening, ready to spread its many voices across the galaxy.

But as soon as it came to be, it vanished. The second cry, many hearts placed at ease, the cry of the same horror now gone. The horror that swept over the galaxy once, would never come again. But this was not such a blessing as it appeared to be.

The Anfari were gone, snuffed out by the void, a being sent to destroy them, and without defense they could only do what a cornered animal could. To gather, to amass all that it had into one location, the full combined might of the Anfari’s biomass in one place, meeting their end with a titanic clash.

Yet in their battle, the voice, the one that controlled them all had fallen silent, their foe awakening lost voices from eras past, awakening The Scourge, and nearly meeting their own end due to this. A clash on a Galactic scale that drew to an end, only centimeters deciding who would live and who would die.

Their ambassador, Anfa, bursting into an organic mess of mass, driven mad by The freed Scourge, and now like the home she was was, they once were. The ambassador was nothing but ash on the wall, purged by one of the Izalith Chosen.

The void left by the Anfari, a corridor now to connect the Collective and the Bammun Stellar Federation. But where this might of been a saving grace, a boon to both empires, the schemes of a mastermind had ruined all of that. The people of a dead Queen, ravenous for revenge on the Collective, a Collective who’s assassin had simply carried out her mission.

A mission that was, unfortunately known to no one. Never issued by the Collective itself, a fact unfounded, and thus anger and opportunity presented itself. Where an alliance might of been had, the people would urge for battle. No longer is the Collective divided from them, they are no longer safe from the punishment that so many people wished them and the Exterminators to share.

A void left in the Galactic West, but a similar one made in the Galactic East.

Where one scream filled people with terror before odd relief, the next would only bring misfortune and sadness. The Senji, dragged into this conflict, the ancient builders who’s masterful techniques were among legends, who shamed even the Velutarians, were now targeted by the Directive.

Help was sent, using the narrow hyperlane path left to the Senji space, the Directive pushing as far as the Caraveneer Coalition System, before simply stopping. Their focus shifting up to the Senji, hordes of fleets pouring towards the Southern Border and the Northern one through occupied Collective Space.

The volunteers sent to help the Senji, the most adaptable and brightest minds, helping the weaker AI empire wage its war for survival, helping it fight back on Exterminator infection. Its fortress worlds holding firm, unbreakable.

For a time, it seemed like nothing could break the Senji worlds. Soon the Stellar Federation’s Fleets would arrive to free the Southern Fortress. And in the Galactic Northern Senji Space, Fiijon the bastion of the Senji, so well armed, it didn’t even let Senji fleets near it. To take this castle, one would need their own, the Exterminators unable to move their fleet near the starbase let alone the planet.

Hopes were soaring, until a ripple in hyperspace echo’d through the system. A planet emerging from the hyper lane, its weapons trained.

A castle to meet a castle, its weaponry and massive laser plunging into the Fiijon Starbase, its weapons pummeling the fortress world. Yet the Senji held on, their hyperlane inhibitor still holding firm at the planet’s core. Yet not even a planet could protect it, like Bammun Fiijon Prime would be cracked.

And with its cracking, and with the Southern Fortress Planet Brallix Prime cracked by the massive Exterminator Fleet and its supporting Colossus. The voice of building, of builders would go silent. Overrun, its systems defenseless, the Admin units last act of defiance, a message to the Assembly, to one member of the Assembly before self terminating whatever it could to prevent the Directive from gaining control, robbing them of knowledge. 

Though it would not kill enough, the Directive taking full control of Senji space, its industry, and its ship building prowess. Though some time would be needed to get things running.

The knowledge it lost, now all stored in the mind of one individual. The Senji Ambassador, stowed away in her room. Staring blankly at the door, eyes hollow, no signal from home, to routine or commands to follow. A library of knowledge and information.

But what does a robot, that unlike its android enemies, does not have a sense of self, it does not know what to do, what does a robot like so do in a case like this? Its only task, its only thought, a running defense protocol, to keep anyone who would wish for her ancient knowledge, to be kept away. By force if needed.

This was no result of one person’s action, but rather the fate of votes. The actions taken, and those that were not taken, but not pursued. The Anfari without defenses, not trusted, left alone, no one willing to help them grow. The Senji, a neutral party, forcefully made to pick a side, and in that choice, the Exterminators sought to remove what they now had no reason to like.

The Collective, a foe, despite the possibility that, not all was as it seemed. The Assembly, eager to vote, the winning choices put into action, but the lost choices forgotten by so many who had the power to pursue.

Consequences. The Senji and Anfari fall into silence on this night, the Tatari see the Directive in occupied Collective Space at their borders. The Bammun Stellar Federation is now in all out war, too many lives have been lost but even they are slow moving.

The Kansaku are without a Queen, the Acadians, with a President hampered by politics, and the Asseimono, a rowdy party yet there are only so many. The Velutarians stand still and watch, the Caravaneers are in one jump range of the Directive’s invasion reach.

Yet, in this darkness a rallying cry. A Crusade, a rapid monstrosity that echo’s through the Izalith. The fifth Cycle has been found, a clan head of a thrall world. The Izalith stand, five creatures of immense psyonic power, a void spawn raised, bursting from its egg of a planet and directed to its new home. The Izalith Crusading Force.

“Go forth! Our holy crusade begins tonight! The biomass monstrosity is no more, the foolish Senji are rust. It is now time, the Unilari will lead all species that deserve saving, to salvation. There are no longer, any undesirables left!”

Commanding a fervor unmatched, the High Prophetess Yndana, the leader of the Izalith Syndicate announces their step forth. All those so radicalized by their faith, or by the hate of all machine life sortie outwards with their leviathan.

The Izalith strike North, fleet after fleet meeting its end. A counter attack of some scale, hope in some fashion. But is it the hope the galaxy needs, a fever filled crusade of horrible ideals and monsters, cycles of power and demons of the shroud?

Or perhaps, in a long lost system. under a veiling image of a faux dead planet, accompanied by an heir who while without outstanding features, is more than meets the eyes. Is there hope to be found, to unite a crippled and battered people slowed down by fear and disunity.

Or will the answer lie in a system that soon the Collective will fight tooth and nail over to simply not lose. Its contents, for those who brave the dead Anfari space to see the Collective Border Systems, a shielded border who’s barrier ripples every day. As if there’s a caged beast inside, whatever is there, masked by what feels to be, a well weaved illusion.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading! This is the end of Act 4. There are basically 2 more full acts planned. Parts 16-19, and 20-23 will be the last two Acts. With Part 24 and 25 being the finale. Suffice to say each part will be larger and larger leaps of progress. Like with the last time, the next part will take place after a small skip to show how far all the Empires have gotten and changed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed things so far. The next part will have an updated map, as well as some drabble prompts for people to grab up and pursue if they wish. Just like I did in between one of the last parts.

The votes have their effects, and even the lost votes that people pursued have other effects. Remember just because the community votes one way, doesn’t mean if your muse truly believes in a path, it can’t also follow it.

This will feel dark for this part, but the next part will bring some much needed hope and hype. 

Cheers!

CONGRATULATIONS, FOX!

You have been accepted for the role of RHEA TERESHKIN . Admin Rosey: This was an incredibly unfair thing to do -- choosing Rhea. Both applications were so close, so cruelly close, that I spent a good 30 minutes just looking from one to the other helplessly. The tie breaker came from the most unusual places. It actually came from the plot points, after I read them over for the umpteenth time. Yours, Fox, just kept on pulling me back. I think it was this line here: Born to be extraordinary, but ultimately she bloomed something lackluster. There. That was my Rhea in a single sentence. When it comes down to it, she is unextraordinary. But upon that foundation, ruination can build its home. Although this decision was incredibly difficult, I am pleased to welcome you to Ruile & Ruin! You have 24 HOURS to send in your account. Also, remember to look at the CHECKLIST. Welcome to Ravka!

OUT OF CHARACTER ALIAS: Fox PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She / Her AGE: 21 TIMEZONE & ACTIVITY LEVEL: EST / With university at a pause, I’ve definitely got a lot of time on my hands to be dedicating to activity so, muse-willing, I should be able to crank out replies everyday or so. The only inhibitors would, of course, be work and travel, but even those shouldn’t keep from the dash for long. However, when school does resume for me, my schedule might be subject to change, but I should able to keep myself active and posting regardless. TRIGGERS: OMITTED.

CURRENT/PAST ACCOUNTS:

ecravcn 

haleroth

hlevett

IN CHARACTER DESIRED CHARACTER: Rhea Tereshkin WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?

Honestly, I adore a scorned character; I’m always drawn to the feral ones, to derided hearts, I think I always will be. Though, of course, I tried to make myself go for a ‘good’ one this time around, thought it might a nice change of pace. Until, that is, Rhea happened. Volchitsa — she-wolf draped in sheep skin, disguising the lethal edges of her mouth with saltwater tears and a close-lipped smile. Gadyuka, l'vitsa, medveditsa. All things savage and brutal come to mind, and she’s definitely the one in the bestiary with the deadliest bite, a saccharine kiss to preface. I’m in love with the façade, most especially the complexity and depth behind it. Rhea isn’t the villain, not the hero either; there’s a lot of moral ambiguity that I’m drawn to, and that I’d love to pull apart. I want to know the dimension of her character, to understand her capacity for humility and hubris, her ethics and their constitution. Then, I guess with a minor in criminology, it’s only natural that I want to peel back the infinity of her: to discover what raw brutality lay buried there, and the surprising humanity. I don’t think Rhea is without conscience, as she’s not without ambition, but I do believe it has the capacity and tendency to be self-serving. She had marred herself with sacrifice and shame for so long — excessively long, and there were too many fragments of her being which had been lost in practice of subservience, by the hands of others. This, the face she betrays to the court: fragile avian with the broken wing, made cavernous by the absences left in her heart and in soul, missing pieces of herself as children missing teeth – gap-toothed and yet, cheery still. Little do they understand that she has fashioned herself into granite, into gunpowder and gasoline in those places left hollow once, that she had filled them with a ferocity unchallenged. Little do they understand that she is in violent possession of all her teeth and more ( that she might have a pyro’s too, if he broke well enough ). A child cultivated into a quiet, hateful vendetta; a girl, and later, a woman with something to prove, I sympathize with the archetype of her character. Morality, isn’t it meant to be subjective? Does murder in defense of dignity and pride echo inhumanity? Rhea’s the sort that brings about a lot of questions, and ultimately, at the end of my rambling, that’s what drew me to her. Her ambiguity, her mystery. I’d love a chance to get my hands on her!

WHAT FUTURE PLOT IDEAS DID YOU HAVE IN MIND? NATURE V. NURTURE

Born to be extraordinary, but ultimately she bloomed something lackluster. Indistinguishable in a manner which encouraged disdain and fostered shame, she was not, by any means, presented to her parents — to the world, in the way in which she had been desired. Then, later — bred to be demure, to epitomize the saying: ‘be seen, yet not heard’, but she defied this expectation as well. Just beneath her clenched fists, the crescent moon indentations of her palms, lay a phoenix. Her heart had nurtured a firebird, wings tucked close and searing her at their heated proximity, until she unfurled their greatness and hurled flame down on her enemies: loud, unabashedly ( though she had been raised to be the very opposite ). Routinely, she defied expectation — laughing when she was meant to cry, screaming out when she was told to quiet herself. Had her existence been shaped around her stubbornness? Would something else be born out of her now that her vendetta has been satisfied, met with the price of blood which it demanded? Certainly, Rhea has the capacity to surprise, lingering just beneath that veil of mourning with a cheshire grin hooked on her lips and ambition hardening at her heart, with curiosity mingling somewhere there as well and a hope to be better than she is. All she needs is a push. 

UNTIL YOU HAVE NO SHELTER BUT ME

She knows the game, playing two steps behind but being five — ten moves ahead, they all know it: the quiet predators, whom the halls keep like a secret until they’ve struck, crooning their names as the hunt is picked from their teeth. Rhea understands its guidelines, and its players next. Aleksander Morozova. From one wicked thing to the next, she knows he has the capacity to raze and ruin, perhaps to rule. Is the desire there, however? That much, she finds shrouded by uncertainty and the misdirection of purposefully reconstructed intent. What she does see, though, is the violent undertone of the Ravkan court on the opposite end of the spectrum, the threat in every smiling word. It’s in their nature there to savage each other for the opportunity to rise, even the ones with their wings tucked in, feigning injury. But she’ll be damned if she be left to the wolves, as had once been the intent of her marriage. He knows she keeps close, herding him toward the edge with the snap of her jaws at his feet, his heart. To see her teeth and to defy her still, however, she has half a mind to latch onto his neck. Luka may doubt her in it, but she has been more than gentle in coaxing him into submission. Protect me, service me. If he continues to attempt escape, she will have no other option but to be cruel — and he would not like her then. Rhea has been practiced in ripping people from what they love; she will not hesitate to do it again. 

I BURN, AND I RISE

Millennia of scorn, of disdain and ridicule have rested at her shoulders, broken and healed her back in grotesque ways, but she rages still. No longer, though, does she rage silently. She will burn until all has tasted her flame and reeled back at its ash, the bitterness which breaks on their lips as a result of her fury. Ah, how they said she would not amount to much, passing her off to the first thing with teeth that they found in the hopes it might devour her, but she would defy them all. No longer can she be the daughter, plain and useless as the dirt stepped upon, not when she has been reborn. Rhea Tereshkin, no man’s daughter and though the law argues her this, no man’s wife either. The world had made a monster of her, and she’d show it what she could do with her teeth — devouring the world from its summit, and tearing down the court one scaffold at a time. She would rise, as all phoenixes do: gloriously, terribly. But would that be in benefit to the court, or would it serve an impediment? She supposes, she’ll decide that as the game progresses — one move at a time.

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTER DIE?:

In some capacities, yes — in others, no. Rhea’s definitely a very complex character, capable of much deception and wisdom and elusion, and I think to outright say that I can see her dying isn’t something I’m able to do. Could I see her falling victim to her ambition, her short sightedness in underestimating others? Certainly. Though, I don’t think Rhea will be an easy foe to fell by any means — if that makes sense.

IN DEPTH IN CHARACTER PARA SAMPLE(S):

Strange, the unsettling twist of fate — slow, prolonged, and beginning with minutiae. Rhea Tereshkin, changed within her first, gasping breaths and the stretch of her small, insignificant hands towards bodies which cringed away from her. Maybe she would have been soft, if she had been held a moment longer to her mother’s breast, if the effort of her had not felt wasted by the woman who eagerly passed her off into another’s arms. Perhaps there would have been a flowering of innocence — the blossoming of it, if she had not been so violently exposed to the fact that she had been unextraordinary, or was seen to be so. There was no childhood, a disheartening lack of ignorance which she had been due and robbed of. Knowledge made her heart ache, and so she had cringed away from it, and they called her all the more stupid and useless for it. The ‘what ifs’ of her existence haunted her, an invisible thing she felt watching her in the dark, razing its hands over her body and whispering menacingly in her ear. They held her mother just as captive, and her father as well — spearing Rhea with the disdain of their collective gaze; the pair of them were a single glare, narrow-eyed and saturated with disappointment, focused on their daughter. Vermillion tablecloth knotted in her unsteady hands, a barrier from the unrelenting rage her fingers could imprint upon her palms, she kept her head down to avoid the scavenging looks. Though, her ears could not escape the onslaught — worthless, useless; the word blended together in common suffix: less. Less than, they told her, but she silently demanded that they find a fury that matched hers, a fire that scorched as horribly. But never aloud, no words were ever spoken in opposition. Hers was a silent hatred, kindled by the curses and jinxes held, the hands busied with slamming doors and clenching tight rather than hitting, scratching. Although, they were never silent, were they? When did her parents not assault her with disgustingly determined insult? Only in talk of business, of course, the both of them dragons with hold of golden hoards — the money they coveted, it was their singular pride. And their worthless daughter had sought to double it once, until she realized their lacking recognition once more. She had poured words into her head until savaged by migraines and headaches, danced until her feet grew bloody and sore, but it was all for want. Want of approval she would never receive. But only for one more night would she endure, she assured herself, fingers curling around the silver chill of her knife, slowly — learning it as a lover’s body, the text of a book. She’d known the weight of a gun once, but never this, the featherlight feel of a weapon in her hands when fueled by anger. The gun had been so quick, bucking into her shoulder with a bite in repayment for its service, stabbing a bird from flight in the time it had taken her to blink. Part of her believed this dagger she used in retribution would not be so swift, and part of her revelled in that. She’d practiced the tears, the aura of mourning, and she’d even deigned to make her companion — one who had once aided her against her mother and father, the villain of this narrative. Servants were subject to the whim of the nobles they served, wasn’t that right? “Goodnight,” she murmured — so meek, so submissive as she pushed off from the table, chair scraping as she rose ( as she would continue to: rise ). And as she went, she knew better than to kiss the crown of her father’s head as she passed, to squeeze her mother’s delicate hands with an adoring smile. They mourned her absence not, and that was something they would have in common. Red-streaked and vengeful, she emerged from their room that night gasping for breath as in birth, three bodies in her wake and serenity passed over her eyes. Her spine straightened, gaze unapologetic and set ahead as she screamed, and screamed. They thought she cried out in terror, her skirts splattered and hands run with blood, but it had been a battle cry she’d echoed that night. It caught in the halls of her home, which she had absorbed in her family’s death, along with their beloved wealth, exalting the freedom she found in that murder, the cauterization of a festering wound. The hearth had gone cold, but she was made anew from the flickering embers. Rebirth. No longer was she a wounded thing, a dove flapping its wings hopelessly. She was a phoenix, a firebird swathed in terrible flame; her very presence threatened ruination. Fire, to her, was cleansing. “Your family, to lose them must have been horrific. All the support of mine goes to you, Rhea.” Each sentiment mimicked something of the other, as her tears and quivering lip. She made it look a struggle, those months she forced herself to mourn, as was expected of her, but there was no mistake in that a burden had been lifted from her in that death. She flourished at court for it, a sun soaked rose with thorns lethal in pointed end. Never so lovely, nor graceful as some had been before her but she knew people and their fickle natures. She knew them as she knew practice of manipulation, with her with soft edged smile and gentle eyes, camouflaging the sinister look that lay just beyond. “Thank you, for your sympathies. What would I do without your support?” A rhetorical question, for she already knew: she would burn, and she would rise.

CHARACTER HEADCANONS: EDUCATION: It was, in no capacity, of ease to her. Not only scarred by knowledge, of her supposed inadequacy and stupidity, she also found herself struggling to decipher the words laid before her. As though they sought to spite her, to offer support towards the sentiments of her family in underestimating her, the words seemed to deliberately puzzle her. Disguising themselves with others of similar appearance, moving about the page from one spot to the next, it was irrefutably true that education did not offer itself up to her. Rhea took the knowledge with fair effort, the sweat and blood of hard labor — all the better for it. INTELLECT: For all the texts she assaulted with feral desire for knowledge, she gleaned a piece of history, its legend and lore — she learnt the culture of a thousand people, and the languages of a thousand more. By no means did this subsequent intellect surpass any other, however — it merely serviced Rhea in sharpening her talons, her diamond mind against all else, and especially within the court. A palace of so many varying peoples, a conglomerate of nations, it was no disadvantage to her to understand the customs of another culture, the honorifics and tendencies. Consistently, they were utilized in furthering her influence and establishing alliances, in staying one step ahead as had become habit to her and sabotaging those who rose against her. TALENTS: She may not have been the beautiful messiah of their palace, nor the sharp intellectual, but there were many things which Rhea Tereshkin was not. Would she fret over them, obsessing over her shortcomings as her mother and father had? No, never. She had her own talents, the secret aptitudes she withheld — the sort which could bring a world to its knees, if she only wished it. The capacity to deceive, as she so often did with her butterfly touches and demure smiles. More than this, she had become an unparalleled strategist — one had to be, to murder. As much as she read tomes, her gaze ripped into maps and battle plans. She knew of all the great generals, the inglorious criminals and she carried them in every move she made. The most devastating of them, however? The ease with which she could be met with affection, the sheer charisma which she possessed, and had to own in order to have alluded suspicion and disdain for so long. No matter her mephistophelian heart, she would be adored — loved, deified, worshipped. But was it not too late for that now? She wondered. EXTRAS: I have a mockblog for Rhea here, and any creations made by me will be in the tag here. ANYTHING ELSE? OMITTED.

John Feffer | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – –

The evidence is in: The “adults in the room” at the White House have enabled Trump’s worst impulses, not checked them. <

In the middle of September, Harvard University announced that it was inviting two controversial new fellows to the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School: former Trump administration spokesman Sean Spicer and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. At the august institution, they would be joining Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump’s campaign managers, along with several Democratic Party operatives.

But it was not to be. Within a day of the announcement, Harvard rescinded Chelsea Manning’s invitation because of “controversy” attending the offer. Dean of the Kennedy School Douglas Elmendorf had this to say: “I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations.”

Strangely, the invitation to the thoroughly dishonorable Lewandowski did not seem affected by this rationale.

Harvard snubbed Manning in part because people like Mike Pompeo, current head of the CIA, cancelled an appearance at a Harvard forum, saying that “I believe it is shameful for Harvard to place its stamp of approval upon her treasonous actions.”

I’m not a big fan of WikiLeaks — even before its conduct in the 2016 elections — but I’d still be interested in hearing Chelsea Manning interact with other folks at the Kennedy School on questions of public service and morality. So, I’m upset at Harvard’s retraction of the invitation.

But what really bugs me is Harvard’s pandering to the Trump crowd as if they were legitimate political actors. They’re not. They’re collaborationists. They may or may not have collaborated with a foreign power against the United States (let the various investigating committees determine that). But I’m expanding the term here to mean that they are collaborating with a political figure — Donald Trump — whose behavior is inimical to American democracy.

Even if they aren’t ultimately thrown into jail for a variety of improprieties, the Trump collaborationists should be frozen out of the mainstream. Obviously I’m thinking about the future, since places like Harvard are always kowtowing to those in power in the present. But I’m looking forward to a day after, say, 2020, when America goes through its own de-Baathification process, and the leading lights of the Trump administration are purged from public life.

Okay, maybe you don’t want to go that far. De-Baathfication, after all, had lousy consequences for Iraq. Then let’s just use Harvard’s language but apply it more appropriately. “Many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations,” Elmendorf said. Those who collaborated with the Trump administration — those who served in high positions and profited materially and professionally from those positions — should simply not be honored. Even if a departing Trump pardons all his cronies, they should feel the sting of public exclusion.

Call it an anti-Trump blacklist, a political boycott comparable to the economic boycott of Trump products. Perhaps, you’re wondering, why I’m focusing on Trump. Many of his policies resemble those of previous administrations like those of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. Why not expand the boycott to include all the neoconservatives responsible for the Iraq War, among other catastrophes? It’s equally galling to see a war criminal like Elliott Abrams still accepted in polite company (and the Council on Foreign Relations).

I certainly disagreed with those figures and their policies. But this administration is different. Donald Trump has crossed the line on so many fronts. To ensure that his “innovations” in the realms of racism, misogyny, militarism, deception, secrecy, and the “deconstruction of the administrative state” do not become institutionalized in U.S. society requires not only broad-based condemnation but, eventually, public exclusion as well.

Adults in the Room

Shortly after the 2016 election, I was on an NPR program making my case for non-engagement with the Trump administration. The host was aghast: Didn’t I acknowledge the important of “adult supervision” in the White House? Wouldn’t it be better to have some sensible people near Trump to prevent him from flying off the nuclear handle?

And who would these adults be exactly, I retorted? Steve Bannon? Michael Flynn? I doubted that anyone who made it through the vetting process would necessarily qualify as an adult — at least in the sense that the NPR host meant — and even if such a grey eminence managed to get into the administration, he or she would likely be brought down to Trump’s level, not the other way around.

In a recent article in The New York Review of Books, James Mann traces the origins of the phrase “adults in the room” and its associated phrase of “adult supervision.” “Before Trump, this Washington lingo was usually a cover for policy differences,” Mann writes.

The “adults” were usually those who didn’t stray too far from the political center, however that was defined at the moment. Bernie Sanders has never qualified as an “adult” in the Washington usage of the word, although he is old enough to collect Social Security; nor did Ralph Nader; nor did Rand Paul, though he is old enough to perform eye surgery. What made them deficient was not their character or their immaturity, but their views.

Now, however, the phrase refers less to ideology and more to behavior. “For the first time, America has a president who does not act like an adult,” Mann continues. “He is emotionally immature: he lies, taunts, insults, bullies, rages, seeks vengeance, exalts violence, boasts, refuses to accept criticism, all in ways that most parents would seek to prevent in their own children.”

And thus, America is supposed to breathe easier because a trio of military men (John Kelly, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster) and an oil company executive (Rex Tillerson) are in place to rein in Trump’s more infantile impulses.

Moreover, a rogue’s gallery of non-adults have already departed the administration as a result of scandal or sheer incompetence: the aforementioned Sean Spicer, his almost replacement Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Tom Price, Reince Priebus, Mike Flynn. Some, like Trump’s pick to head the Drug Enforcement Agency, withdrew from consideration even before he had to face withering questions about his support for the pharmaceutical industry. Surely the process works if it ejects such ridiculous figures as if they were tainted food in the political digestive tract.

Poking fun at this list of not-so-dearly-departed administration officials is too easy. More important is to demonstrate that the so-called adults are doing as much if not more damage to this country than the people who didn’t spend enough time in their jobs to screw things up royally.

So, before assigning blame on specific issues, let’s take a look at exactly how “adult” U.S. foreign policy has been over the last ten months. The United States has come close to tearing up the most important arms control deal of the last 25 years and edging closer to war with Iran. It has escalated the conflict with North Korea, which has raised the risk of a nuclear exchange. It has extended the longest American war by sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan. It has continued a misguided “war on terrorism” by supporting the Saudi devastation of Yemen, expanding the CIA’s capacity for conducting drone strikes, and helping to create the next generation of anti-Western jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

Beyond war and peace issues, it has pulled out of the Paris climate accord, withdrew from UNESCO, and reinstituted the “global gag rule” on abortion that will affect nearly $9 billion in U.S. funding of health initiatives around the world. It has continued to push for the building of the infamous wall on the border with Mexico, implemented several travel bans that disproportionately target Muslims, and gone after the Dreamers. It has proposed slashing foreign aid and State Department funding more generally. It has driven a stake through the heart of multilateralism.

What exactly is “adult” about this rash and destructive foreign policy? Yes, the world hasn’t been destroyed (yet) by nuclear war. But that’s a pretty low bar for the administration’s accomplishments.

Nor is it possible to argue that Trump himself is solely responsible for this foreign policy. Trump has only a vague grasp of foreign policy to begin with. His impulse is to oppose whatever the Obama administration put together — the Iran deal, participation in the Paris accords, various trade deals — even where there might be bipartisan support. To get any of these concrete policies implemented, Trump needs foreign policy professionals who can, at the very least, spell words correctly and use the proper names of foreign leaders. Trump relies on these “adults” not to restrain him but to implement his craziest ideas.

So, the only conclusion is that Tillerson, Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly have at least some, if not sole, responsibility for Trump’s foreign policy. Tillerson has presided over the destruction of the State Department — its personnel cuts, its circumscribed influence. Mattis has facilitated the significant budget increases for the Pentagon. McMaster has called the president’s tweets on North Korea “completely appropriate” and shares the president’s distaste for the Iran nuclear deal. John Kelly, in his former role as head of Homeland Security, was a big booster of the travel ban.

The evidence is in. Engagement at the very highest levels with the Trump administration has not tempered its worst qualities. If anything, these “adults” have been the chief enablers of this most reckless of presidents. They’ve given him the thinnest frosting of legitimacy. Moreover, even these so-called adults don’t rescue the Trump administration from being outside the norms of democratic discourse in this country.

The Politics of Lustration

In Eastern Europe, after the changes of 1989, the successor governments considered laws that would prevent those who collaborated with the Communist apparatus from serving in public office. These were controversial laws. It was often difficult to determine who had collaborated (as opposed to simply been accused of collaborating), and the process was quickly politicized by various political parties. Also, what constituted collaboration: membership in the Communist Party, working in the secret police, or just communicating with the secret police?

Still, lustration served as a way of distinguishing one era from another, of drawing what the Poles called a “thick line” between unacceptable collaboration and legitimate politics.

Lustration, like de-Baathification, was a deeply flawed process. But I’m attracted to the idea of eventually drawing a thick line between acceptable democratic practice and what the Trump administration has attempted to do in this country. I’m not talking about going after civil servants or low-level appointees. I’m certainly not talking about Trump voters. No, only the topmost officials in the administration, including his Cabinet of Horrors, should be subjected, post-2020, to an informal ban on further public service or the receipt of anything that might be construed an honor at a major institution.

Let me be clear. I’m not talking about Republicans. Many Republicans have already taken strong stands against Trump’s excesses, and many more will do so over the next three years. No, this campaign against collaborationists must be bipartisan. And the targets should certainly include registered Democrats like chief economic advisor Gary Cohn.

It won’t be a witch hunt. These people are extraordinarily rich and powerful. Their wealth and power will survive public shaming. But such a process will be absolutely important to discredit Trumpism not just as a belief system but as an ideology of power in which all methods of achieving wealth and position are legitimate.

We can’t put Trump and his claque into the stockade like in Puritan America. We can’t ostracize them — send them into foreign exile for 10 years, as the ancient Athenians did. But we can declare the collaborationists, including the “adults in the room,” an affront to human dignity and threaten to resign from, boycott, or malign any institution that dares to hire them, honor them, or work with them.

It’s something to look forward to during the long political winter ahead.

Via Foreign Policy in Focus

John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus and the author of the dystopian novel Splinterlands.

The Young Turks: “John Kelly Lies To Cover For Trump”

via Informed Comment

Two-factor authentication is a mess

For years, two-factor authentication has been the most important advice in personal cybersecurity — one that consumer tech companies were surprisingly slow to recognize. The movement seemed to coalesce in 2012, after journalist Mat Honan saw hackers compromise his Twitter, Amazon, and iCloud accounts, an incident he later detailed in Wired. At the time, few companies offered easy forms of two-factor, leaving limited options for users worried about a Honan-style hack. The result was a massive public campaign that demanded companies to adopt the feature, presenting two-factor as a simple, effective way to block account takeovers.

Five years later, the advice is starting to wear thin. Nearly all major web services now provide some form of two-factor authentication, but they vary greatly in how well they protect accounts. Dedicated hackers have little problem bypassing through the weaker implementations, either by intercepting codes or exploiting account-recovery systems. We talk about two-factor like aspirin — a uniform, all-purpose fix that’s straightforward to apply — but the reality is far more complex. The general framework still offers meaningful protection, but it’s time to be honest about its limits. In 2017, just having two-factor is no longer enough.

For much of the last five years, the center of the campaign for two-factor has been twofactorauth.org, a site run by Carl Rosengren that’s dedicated to naming and shaming any product that doesn’t offer two-factor. At a glance, it can tell you which sites offer more than just a password login, and offers you an easy way to tweet at companies that don’t. Today, the site sends out hundreds of thousands of shaming tweets a day.

The campaign seems to have worked; nearly every company now offers some form of two-factor. Netflix is the biggest holdout — “I feel like I should buy a cake or something when that happens,” Rosengren says. Late adopters like Amazon and BitBucket have caved to demands, and every single VPN or cryptocurrency product listed by the site offers two-factor. The only email services without it are obscure players like Migadu and Mail.com. There are still a few problem sectors like airlines and banks, but most services have gotten the message: consumers want two-factor. If you don’t offer it, they’ll find a service that does.

But victory has been messier than anyone expected. There are dozens of different varieties of two-factor now, expanding far beyond the site’s ability to catalog them. Some send verification codes over SMS text, while others use email or more hardened verification apps like Duo and Google Auth. For $18, you can get a special USB drive to serve as your second factor, supported by most major services. It’s one of the most secure options available, as long as you don’t lose it. Beyond hardware, services can deposit long strings of code that provide an effectively invisible second factor — provided no one intercepts it in transit. Some of these methods are easier to hack than others, but even sophisticated users often can’t tell you which is better. For a while, TwoFactorAuth tried to keep up with which services were better or worse. Eventually, there were just too many.

“If it’s hard for us to evaluate the hundreds of two-factor services,” Rosengren says, “I can’t begin to imagine how hard it would be for a consumer.”

The promise of two-factor began to unravel early on. By 2014, criminals targeting Bitcoin services were finding ways around the extra security, either by intercepting software tokens or more elaborate account-recovery schemes. In some cases, attackers went after phone carrier accounts directly, setting up last-minute call-forwarding arrangements to intercept codes in transit. Drawn by the possibility of thousand-dollar payouts, criminals were willing to go further than the average hacker. The attacks continue to be a real issue for Bitcoin users: just last month, entrepreneur Cody Brown lost $8,000 through a Verizon customer support hack.

Outside of Bitcoin, it’s become clear that most two-factor systems don’t stand up against sophisticated users. Documents published this month by The Intercept show Russian groups targeting US election officials had a ready-made plan for accounts with two-factor, harvesting confirmation codes using the same methods they used to grab passwords. In another case reported by Symbolic Software founder Nadim Kobeissi, a maliciously registered device let attackers break through a target’s two-factor protection even after the system had been reset.

In most cases, the problem isn’t two-factor itself, but everything around it. If you can break through anything next to that two-factor login — whether it’s the account-recovery process, trusted devices, or the underlying carrier account — then you’re home free.

Two-factor’s trickiest weak point? Wireless carriers. If you can compromise the AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile account that supports a person’s phone number, you can usually hijack any call or text that’s sent to them. For mobile apps like Signal, which are tied entirely to a given phone number, it can be enough to hijack the entire account. At the same time, carriers have been among the slowest to adopt two-factor, with most preferring easily bypassed PINs or even flimsier security questions. With two networks controlling the bulk of the market, there’s been little incentive to compete on security.

At the same time, it’s proven difficult to kill off particular types of two-factor even after they’re shown to be insecure. The National Institute of Standards and Technology quietly withdrew support for SMS-based two-factor in August, pointing to the risk of interception or spoofing, but tech companies have been slow to respond. If anything, services are relying more on SMS as Twitter and PayPal look to tie accounts more closely to phone numbers. It’s less secure, but easier to use. As long as it’s two-factor, few account holders know the difference.

“We’ve seen a check-box approach,” says Marc Boroditsky, who builds two-factor systems for third-party companies at Twilio, “saying ‘now we have two-factor authentication so we’re okay. Move on.’”

The rush to check that box has led to usability problems as well as security problems. Boroditsky points to Apple’s iCloud system, which came under fire after easily guessed account-recovery questions enabled the mass theft of nude photos in 2014. Meanwhile, under a recent Apple policy, losing your Recovery Key and forgetting your password was enough to permanently lock a user out of their AppleID account, something that caused real problems for some users.

In some ways, the two problems feed into each other, with publicized hacks inspiring tighter and harder-to-use policies that drive more users back to standard logins, thus inspiring more hacks. “Look at how complicated and messy it is for, say, Apple,” Boroditsky says. “If they don’t take a much more comprehensive approach, they end up becoming responsible for downstream consequences.” (Apple did not respond to a request for comment.)

Google is one of the few services that lets you actively disallow weaker tokens like SMS, although it’s only available for G Suite enterprise customers. Under that system, an admin can set the two-factor policy for their whole organization, banning insecure tokens or forcing all the users on a given domain to use a specific login method. But that only works when there’s an administrator to set policies and talk users through any resulting problems. It’s not clear how you make a policy like that work for the billion people using standard Gmail — and so far, Google hasn’t been eager to try it out.

“One of the truths we’ve found is that people won’t accept more security than they think they need,” says Mark Risher, who manages Google’s identity systems, including two-factor products. “As a large-scale consumer internet provider, we want to find that right balance.”

None of this means two-factor is pointless, but it isn’t the silver bullet that it seemed to be in 2012. Adding an authentication code hardens the login page, but smart attackers will just find another angle of approach, whether it’s a carrier account, a preregistered device, or just a customer service department that’s a little too eager to reset the password. Those weak points are the real measure of how secure an account is, but they’re impossible to spot from the outside. The result is that, if you’re looking for the chat app that’s hardest to hijack, it’s hard for even sophisticated users to know what to look for.

As the industry moves beyond two-factor, security is only getting harder to size up. The new focus is on threat detection, drawing on dozens of ambient signals like device fingerprinting and on-page behavior to determine whether a given login warrants extra scrutiny. A suspicious enough string of logins might trigger an account freeze or require a phone call to customer service before the subject can proceed. “The problem is that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work,” says Boroditsky. “So going to a detection-vs.-prevention model is more likely to succeed in the long run.” It’s a good way to catch criminals, particularly for companies like Facebook and Google with world-class machine learning divisions and oceans of data for training algorithms, but it’s nearly impossible to judge from the outside.

The result pushes users back to an old status quo, before the iPhone or even the internet: enterprise admins are outgunning consumer offerings again, and security is something to be entrusted to experts in a lab somewhere. It’s not bad news, necessarily: threat detection makes accounts safer, just like two-factor. But unlike two-factor, there’s no way for users to tell if the system is working or if there’s a stronger system to push for.

That shift leaves users in a difficult place. “Get two-factor” is still good advice, but it’s not enough. Worse, it’s not clear how to fill the gap. What do you tell someone who’s worried about seeing the contents of their inbox published on WikiLeaks? There’s no simple fix for such a threat, no one step that will keep you protected. The surprising thing is that, for a few years, it seemed like there was.

Ref:https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15946642/two-factor-authentication-online-security-mess