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Got a wet nru str8up [black], been wearing this for 14 hours [7pm yesterday, 9am today] and its still mad comfy & aint even close to full Finally got the tight/snug fit now after all these years, no leaks at all + i put way more baby powder as of recent and it worked way more

6. Big Brother is Watching Carter was a good friend, and a hard worker. I figured out by the end of that first week that if I gave her a task to complete, she would ask a lot of questions to make sure she understood it fully, and would then proceed to do it with as much skill as I could possibly expect. I didn’t need to check her work, unless I thought my own explanations or requests might not have been clear enough. At the same time, I found myself finding more excuses to join her for lunch, or to invite her to where I was going. We both liked sushi, and there was a place ten minutes away from the office, but that was a little pricey. More often we’d go to one of the pizza or fried chicken places which were scattered like a rash over the whole campus. We still planned to share a MealKit at some point, but I’d been too embarrassed to go into that plan in any more detail. I was starting to feel like I had a friend now, but always worried that someone in the office would complain that I was getting too close to her; or maybe I was overstepping some boundary. I didn’t want to find myself accused of inappropriate conduct. Even with the unique corporate structure here, with authority based on dynamic roles within a project rather than a rigid hierarchy of job titles, I was still in a position of responsibility relative to the intern, and I was sure that it would be possible for someone to make up a complaint out of nowhere. I was always just a little nervous, not wanting to say or do anything that could be misunderstood by the people around us. A couple of days later I’d managed to fully collate all the data that Gently had wanted, in between keeping on top of my own work and putting proposals together for a couple of projects. I was aware that I wasn’t working quite as fast as usual; was that because I was thinking more about my new friend and less about work? I didn’t know, but I decided that it didn’t matter so long as I was actually finishing everything on time. I didn’t need to be coming up with new things to do so I could stave off boredom anymore; I wasn’t alone. Jogging into the office was good for me as well, I decided. I did it twice more that week, and the second time I ran into Carter on the way to the showers. “Hey Gordon,” she said, with the usual smirk. It had become like an inside joke that she called me by my surname now, and somehow that made it feel more natural for me to do the same. “Morning sports?” “Just jogging,” I said. “Well, running really. A circuit of the campus before I come in, something to wake me up in the morning. You?” “Basketball,” she said with a shrug. “There’s a court here, I can go out to practice. Sometimes there’s enough people for a pickup game, but a lot of it seems like people go out for a game with their colleagues, so it’s a toss up whether I can join in. Still, does me good to keep in shape.” “Maybe I should learn to play,” I said, giving a little shrug. And then we turned in opposite directions towards the showers, and I didn’t know whether I should wait for her before heading up to the third floor. She would probably want more than a quick blast under the shower, I thought, and I didn’t want to pressure her. So I headed up to the office, and started making coffee. One for me, one for her, and a pot left for whoever started work in the next half hour. There were actually people in the office ahead of me today, and a couple of them waved or said hi as I walked past; but I didn’t know how to go about starting a casual conversation with people who had been colleagues only for so long. As soon as I was back at my desk, I saw the flashing blue light of the intercom. I sat down and looked at it, wondering why someone would be buzzing me. I didn’t have any meetings scheduled this morning, I was sure. It was probably Carter, maybe letting me know that she had something to do elsewhere in the building. I’d be happy to see her getting tasks assigned, even if she wasn’t close enough to chat with as we approached our work. “Hello?” I said, tapping the button. It must only have been a few seconds since they called me. “What’s up?” I heard Gently’s voice on the line a few seconds later. But he sounded as bemused as I was, so he hadn’t been the one to call me. I waited to see who had called us both, and the next voice I heard was that of Janine Brockton, who was doing reception duty today. “Thought you might both want to know,” she said. “Executives incoming. Mr Tallcat and Miss Bracewell are heading up to the third floor, not sure who they’re here for.” “They must have been impressed by my working time study,” Gently answered right away. “A feather in my cap.” But I could tell that he sounded nervous. Maybe one of the Big Three executives who organised the whole campus would come to offer him a promotion, but two of them seemed unlikely. To me, that sounded more like somebody had done something wrong, and I knew that Gently was going through every major event in his recent memory, trying to think of anything that could have drawn the attention of someone so senior. I knew he was; because I was doing the same. But there was only one thing I could think of. Had somebody really reported that I could be making indecent suggestions to an intern working in my department? The closest we’d actually been was sitting in my office doing work; but of couse someone not in the room wouldn’t have known what we were doing. “Or maybe you’re in trouble, Cain,” his voice came from the intercom again. “Creeping on the intern isn’t going to look good on your résumé.” “That seems a rather unprofessional comment,” another voice cut in, and I could imagine just how tense Gently must suddenly be. The new voice wasn’t particularly familiar; we’d only heard her speaking a few times at introductory meetings when we were first moving to the new campus. But there was no mistaking the authoritative tone of Bracewell’s voice, and we knew that she had just heard the entire short conversation. “I think you would do better thinking about your own work, rather than casting aspersions based on situations you know nothing about.” I was almost shaking in my seat when there came a knock at the office door three minutes later. Even if nobody had reported me before, they must have heard Gently’s accusation. Would they listen to my side of the story? “Come in,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. I knew that this would be an important meeting, even if I had only the vaguest worries of what we would be talking about. “Mr Gordon,” the big guy in front of me greeted me with a half smile, and offered his hand to shake. “Mike Tallcat. Don’t think we’ve worked together before.” “Pleased to meet you,” I said, keeping my handshake as firm and steady as I could in the circumstances. He was the head of SYL’s legal affairs division, as well as being the man who had originally proposed the creation of new offices on this site, so he held all the authority here. And even if I’d never shaken his hand before, of course I knew who he was. He was dressed in a suit and looked completely formal aside from the wrap-around shades, but he had the kind of bearing that would have made him look formal even in beachwear. The woman standing at his shoulder was in a designer outfit too, but I didn’t get anything like the same serious vibes from her. It was like she was judging me, trying to work out whether I was friend or rival. Vicky Bracewell was one of the other founders, and in charge of all personnel issues here. I didn’t know which of them I had more reason to be afraid of, in light of Gently’s sudden accusation. All I could do now was play it by ear, and hope that somehow they could believe me without asking any of the other people on this floor what they had seen. “We were coming to speak to one of your colleagues,” Tallcat said. “Tommo Gently. About a report he’s compiled for us. It makes for some interesting reading.” “Oh?” I asked. I was pretty sure I knew which one he was talking about, but I was surprised to hear that it had gotten the attention of anyone so senior. “Yes. He told us that you were helping him to collate and analyse data about the location within the building where people were spending their workday. Similar to what they used to call a time-and-motion study.” “Oh yes,” I said. I could at least answer the straightforward question. “He told me that he needed a spreadsheet of the time each team member entered and left both the building, and the office. I’m afraid he didn’t provide any further details about his assignment, so I did the best I could without knowing the scope of the project.” “A careful answer,” Bracewell responded. “You’re a political animal, Mr Gordon. And I don’t know if that’s a compliment.” “The quality of your work doesn’t raise any issues,” Tallcat said, setting my mind at rest about one thing, at least. We are, in fact, more surprised about your ability to organise such a quantity of data so quickly. Who was working on this?” “Just me,” I answered, resisting the urge to add ‘Sir’. “I wrote a macro to pull data from the building occupancy system and stick it into a spreadsheet. To be honest I expected it to be easier, but it ended up needing to match the enter and exit events for each room, and then go back and compare with the master login table to clean up where records are missing. It seems that sometimes, the presence data simply isn’t there, so what I’vew got is only an estimate of the times, but I think it’s better than nothing.” “Indeed,” Tallcat nodded, his expression an enigma dressed up behind an inscrutable smile. “I’ll have to ask you not to do that again,” Bracewell said, while I was still waiting for him to get to the point. “We don’t have timecards here, or timesheets. If work is done before the deadline, we don’t care who is in the office or working from home. And I should probably inform you that certain rows are filtered out of the basic results set specifically to prevent employees using the system to track their partner or ex in the event of office romance. The dataset is incomplete by design, because its availability could be considered a breach of employees’ privacy. We can access that in exceptional circumstances, but in general the systems are designed to give the impression that the data is incomplete and unreliable.” “It is easier that way,” Tallcat chipped in. “A malicious actor who believes he doesn’t have authority to access the data he wants could consider stealing a superior’s credentials, or trying to bluff a need for access. Someone who believes the data lost is much more likely to give up.” “I’m sorry,” I said. “I never imagined that. I simply–” “Followed Tommo Gently’s instructions,” Bracewell interrupted. “I thought so. He seemed proud of the idea of collating this information, but is apparently unaware how difficult it was to collect. So we looked at the message he sent you. He came to the right person to get this job done, it is clear. And because we use ignorance of the system to deter abuse, you couldn’t be expected to know why that information was restricted. However, we are now aware that you are capable of this. Have you ever considered a position with our information security team? Because unless you were extremely lucky in stumbling onto the right method to circumvent our precautions, it seems you might excel at precisely the kind of lateral thinking a good hacker needs.” “I… thank you,” I stammered. “Will this be held against me?” “In the circumstances…” Tallcat started, before Bracewell cut him off. “I think a fitting punishment would be working with some of the technicians to ensure that nobody can execute the same trick for more nefarious reasons. What you did, how it could have been prevented, and what other methods you might have turned to if your first attempt did not succeed.” “I’d be glad to help,” I said, feeling nothing but relief now. In any other company, a security breach like that could have been a career-ending mistake. But they really meant it when they said that they were looking for new ways to make the company more productive. We talked briefly about formalities; about other people who would have to be consulted before assigning me to IT and security teams, and how I would be expected to split my time between the new tasks and my existing projects. But their main business here today would be talking to Gently about his inovative attempts to spy on our fellow employees. They left me in no doubt that this would be a black mark on his record. And then the two executives stood up, and shook my hand again. I was sure that I had gotten off lightly. And then as Tallcat left the office, Bracewell turned around on the threshold and pushed the door closed again behind her. “While we’re here,” she said, “I feel like there’s something else I should ask you. About your relationship with Belle Carter.”

113. Daddy Knows Best Tess rushed up to her room, laughing all the way. Once inside she did a twirl, and only then noticed that Spike wasn’t holding her hand any longer. In fact, he wasn’t even in the room. She stepped out onto the landing again and saw him standing to one side of the door. “You coming?” she said. Maybe she sounded a little hurt; it was hard to tell even for herself. But at the same time she felt like she couldn’t stop laughing. She was really starting to feel like a little kid now, just because she felt so safe with Spike around. It would only be for a few minutes; she didn’t want to be stuck as a toddler the whole afternoon, and they would have to go back to a more sensible age to play soon enough. But not right away; she didn’t want to revert to her real age and risk making Spike feel that he’d done something wrong. She planned to enjoy the suggestion he’d given her for a while, even if it wasn’t something she would normally consider doing. This day was so important to her, and she was determined that she wouldn’t do anything that might make Spike any less confident, no matter what. “I… uhh… I thought your room was a big secret,” he said with a smile. “A girl’s room is special, no boys allowed. And there were things you weren’t ready to show me yet, I think.” “It’s okay!” she said. “You’re Daddy.” She knew that the logic there wasn’t quite right, but it didn’t seem to matter. She had spent all morning trying to make sure there was nothing too embarrassing on show, just in case he wanted to see her room. And if there was anything they had missed, Tess was sure that she could explain it once she was back to being a grownup. There was no real downside to Spike coming in, and right now she was sure that she would be happier if he stayed by her side. Perfectly logical. She went back into the bedroom, turned around to check that Spike was actually following this time, and then turned the movement into a happy twirl, like some kind of ballerina. She realised how childish that was, she could see it as soon as she started to move. But when she recognised that those impulses in the back of her mind had taken away some of her choices, that made her even more excited. It was the power of hypnosis, she was sure, and that was something she was always eager to explore in more depth. She wanted to know just how far it could take her, and whether it would be any different with Spike her to guide her imagination instead of Ffrances. She was sure it was going to be amazing, and she would have no regrets. She was going to play along, and he knew that she’d only made herself this young as a joke, so if she did anything embarrassing they could laugh at it together. Tess took a bow, really getting into the game like she was a little ballerina on the stage, or maybe a magician’s assistant. Yeah, that made more sense. So she added a little extra flourish as she grabbed the cloth that was draped over the changing table and twitched it away. Spike had wanted to see that she had diapers, so she started opening the drawers and lifting things out onto the table. There were diapers and wipes, lotion and baby powder, wipes and tissues, and other bottles that Tess wasn’t really sure about the purpose of. There was even a little electric shaver that looked almost like a toy. She’d been confused by that when she first saw it, sure that a baby would never need it. But now she knew this was an adult baby’s room, it seemed to make a little more sense. She lifted it out along with everything else. She wasn’t sure what she needed, so she was just going with the theory that it was better to get everything out than to miss something. And maybe Daddy would be impressed with how much stuff she had. “Wow,” he said with a smile. “That’s a lot of stuff. You really like to be prepared, huh?” “Yeah!” Tess said, and beamed. Every little bit of praise made her feel on top of the world, and she wanted to keep on playing this game for as long as he would let her now. “Did I do good? I want to help!” “You did great,” he said, and patted her on the head. There could have been no greater reward for this little girl. And then he looked at the piles of diapers. Instead of pulling one out from the end of the drawer, where they were neatly stacked, Tess had grabbed handfuls of whatever she could reach, not knowing which one Daddy would say she should wear today. She knew that she should probably have just chosen one; a sensible way, because she would only be wearing it for a few minutes while they kept up the joke. But somehow it seemed more exciting to get them all out and let Spike choose, and she hoped that he would be even more proud of her if she could find more things, rather than just one. “Now… do you know how to put your diapers on? Can you do it by yourself?” “I’m a good girl!” Tess cringed on the inside as she heard those words come out of her mouth, but she was still somehow enjoying the sensation. It was like being on a roller coaster, rushing down a terrible drop with no control, excited to see where it would go next. She didn’t need to worry about anything now, so she could keep on playing. “I know how to do stuff. I know lots of stuff, and I can help. Can I help?” “Help?” he said. “I was going to ask if you can do it by yourself. It’s a long time since I changed a diaper, and I’m not sure if that’s appropriate. But I can try if you really want me to. So, what would you prefer? Should I wait outside while you get changed all by yourself, and you can show me what a good girl you are? Or do you need Daddy to help put you in a diaper?” Tess blushed, and looked down at her hands. She was still feeling all giggly, and it was hard to think straight, but that was just the effects of the hypnosis. She knew that somewhere, deep down, she didn’t want to be so young. But if this was what Spike really wanted, and she was still enjoying herself, she didn’t want to spoil his fun. It was a hard decision to make, the kind of thing she could have agonised over for hours. But she didn’t need to, because she could just let herself stop worrying and go with what felt right at the time. Maybe it was a bad idea, but she had already discovered at Christmas that she would just snap out of it if he told her to do something she was genuinely uncomfortable with. And just like that, the decision was made. It was time for her to play along with Spike’s fantasy; to let him do whatever she wanted, and see how much she could enjoy it. “I’m only little,” she mumbled, and then looked up at him again. “But I can help! I found all the things!” “Yes, and I’m so proud of you. But there’s one more thing I need to get, just a little surprise for you. So can you sit here and try not to get the carpet any more wet, while I go sort that out? I promise I’ll be right back.” Tess nodded excitedly, and Spike helped her up to sit on the changing table. There was a step right where she needed it, and the top was covered by a cushioned layer of plastic; and it wasn’t particularly uncomfortable. Tess hadn’t actually sat up there before, and she hadn’t even considered ever letting someone else change her diaper, but it was more pleasant than she might have imagined. She was still nervous, but if this was what Spike wanted to do, and he had seemed enthusiastic about it, she was happy to play along. And she knew her own mind well enough; she could feel the changes that he’d made, telling her that she would get excited about being able to help a grown up. And that had probably made her more willing to let him diaper her, rather than taking responsibility. But if it helped him to recover the confidence that had first drawn her to him, she was willing to do whatever he asked. It might have been a surprise to realise that, and the trigger for a lot of introspection, but she was sure deep down that this wasn’t too much. Even being put in a diaper; it was a very disturbing thought, but there was one person she would willingly do that for. She lay back on the changing table, and wondered how she was supposed to lie. Tess had never done babysitting, at least not for actual babies, and she didn’t really know how they might act. Should she just lie here until Spike returned? Should she thrash around and make the job harder for him, just so it would seem more realistic? She was sure that if she did, she would quickly get carried away with the game and enjoy it too. Or should she get into a more convenient position ready for Daddy’s return? She didn’t know if she should move her knees apart, or lift her feet in the air, or try to take off her soggy jeans. She thought about it for a second, but then realised that she didn’t quite know what she was doing. If she dropped her jeans on the floor now, the pee might soak into the carpet and that wouldn’t be so easy to clean. Better to wait for a grown-up to sort everything out. And then she started to wonder what he was going to get. She was excited about getting a surprise, just because it was a surprise. But she didn’t have any idea what it might be, because Spike had only brought a little bag with him, and he hadn’t taken the time to put it down yet. Was he just going to lift something out? No, she told herself. He was going to talk to Ffrances. He didn’t want to get in trouble, that was the secret. To put her in a diaper, he’d have to take her clothes off, and Gabby had already said that was naughty. And Spike was exactly the kind of boy who didn’t want to risk doing anything wrong. So he was going to ask Ffrances if it was okay; or ask if she should do it; or even text Tess’s parents to ask their blessing. Tess couldn’t even imagine how that conversation might have gone, but she was sure that Spike would be back soon, and she couldn’t wait to see him again. Whatever they ended up doing today, she knew that she would have more fun than she could ever have imagined. A few minutes passed, and then there was a nervous knock at the door. Tess waved her arms in the air and cheered as Spike came towards her, and she was so glad to see that he was smiling. Even after she’d made a little mistake, she could tell that everything was going well from his point of view.

We've got oil-fired central heating here, which I'd really like to swap out for a heat pump at some point. We'd probably need a lottery win to afford it though. And yes, I know it'd do some air conditioning as well. For us it's a race between rising sea levels and baking heat - which is going to get us first?  I'm hoping old age will trump the both of them...