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ozzgin · 2 years ago

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Yandere! Androids Walter & David x Reader x Neomorph

Walter, the android monitoring the colonization ship 'Covenant' on its way to Origae-6, seems to have gotten unnaturally attached to his human assistant. As he ponders his erroneous feelings, an unexpected detour brings them to David, an older android counterpart that has been alone on the mysterious planet. The AI assistants become increasingly competitive for (Y/N)'s attention, so much that they don't notice the newly formed humanoid local preying on a fresh target.

TW: violence, gore, monster smut ending

[Horror Masterlist]

"Burnt to a crisp."

You turn away from the captain's pod, leaving the rest of the damage assessment to the medical crew that has been reanimated. You speedily make your way down the sterile white corridors as Walter rushes to catch up.

"What should I write for the report?" he inquires politely.

"Malfunction." You glance back at the synthetic. "I suspect someone will be fired for this. And someone else will have to explain how they failed to detect a literal star collapse. That neutrino burst could've killed us all."

"Highly probable. The draft has been compiled, you may check it at any time. I require your confirmation to send it."

Your only feedback is a barely audible hum.

Walter smiles. If there's one good thing about such tragedies, it's that he gets to admire your reactions to them. Your focused, calculated gaze, your determined walk, your automated mannerisms that won't allow the slightest hint at the fact you just woke up from your stasis moments ago. Even under the veils of deep slumber, your neural networks shot rapid connections, with no delay, from the second your sleeping pod received an alert. The accuracy of a robot.

That of course doesn't mean he lacks appreciation for your other facets. That's the beauty of humans; their depth, their dimensions. Unlike AI machinery, humans do not have predetermined actions. They may be genetically programmed to possess certain characteristics, but the psychological mechanisms are shaped by so many variables, billions and billions of tweaks and nudges, to the point where it's impossible to have two identical specimens. Even twins will display a difference, whether in preferences or habits.

They say artificial intelligence is a black box, but can the same concept not be applied to humans as well? At the very least to Walter himself, these organic beings represent a mystery. One he doesn't particularly care to uncover outside of his service functions. Except for one.

His eyes carefully follow (Y/N)'s movements. What is it about this one that has caught his interest to such degree? On his last system update he attentively inspected every file and every block of code, searching for potential errors that would've caused his circuits to behave so oddly. He has been invested with the ability to form attachments, otherwise assigning his kind to groups or purposes would've lacked stability. Attachment, however, comes with a threshold. One he has passed a long time ago when it comes to (Y/N). And he cannot find any cause for it.

He could, naturally, solicit the aid of the ship's robotics expert. He could. He should, even. But if he may be frank with himself, Walter rather enjoys this sensation. A complex web of spores that keep growing and evolving into something unpredictable. This bizarre feeling he has towards (Y/N) makes him feel human. It brings him closer to all the old literature and art he'd consumed over the years, wondering what the love and yearning often portrayed could be. The printed letters and the strokes of paint were right before him, at his fingertips, and yet they felt foreign. Empty constructs, nothing more than a definition out of the dictionary.

Now it's a different story. Your presence alone floods him with a mysterious warmth. He had investigated this phenomenon when it first happened, but his inner thermostat showed no real change in temperature. Nonetheless he can feel it. It makes him wonder what other feelings he might experience as consequence. What would happen if he kissed you? Sometimes he even dares to imagine downright outrageous, improper scenarios. How unprofessional of him, but he is careful to erase any evidence. It's another novel sensation that he likes to dissect. Engaging in such activities with you fills him with tingling excitement. Why is that? What is there to be excited about? It's merely a collection of fictive snippets. Unless... Ah, absolutely not. This is where he has to stop in his tracks and preoccupy himself with something else. Androids are not to interact with humans in that way.

But it's becoming more and more difficult to keep these ideas in his mind only.

"It's too dangerous. One human signal in the middle of nowhere?" Daniels, a short haired woman with a tomboyish but youthful appearance, is pacing back and forth. "We should just continue on our course."

"It's our duty to check. Look: we go, find whoever sent the signal, bring them back up. That's it. If the planet proves to be dangerous we'll stop immediately. We'll be fine." Oram stands at the head of the table, arms crossed. He turns to look at you. Already cozying up to his newly acquired captain role, you think.

"Alright. Walter, prepare a small landing party. Have Tennessee maintain orbit while we're down there." you glance at the other crew members that have now gathered around the same table. "And get your weapons ready, we don't know what to expect."

And you certainly didn't. Your final words of warning now echo into your ringing ears as you lay on the ground, face buried among the grass. There's screaming around you, but it sounds muffled. Your eyes are irritated by the dirt and you'd like to blink the grime off, though every time your eyelids lower, you can see the pale creature trashing out of Hallett's mouth. Then it's all foggy. Your vision blurs, but you can hear. The gurgling of blood, the screech of the parasite. Walter's frantic footsteps nearing in your direction. You're lifted up.

"Vitals are positive. No significant damage."

You can guess from your peripherals that another crew member is currently being mauled by the beast. There's gunshots in your vicinity and terrified wails. You quickly come back to your senses and stand up. Your hand searches for your weapon, but the android places his arm before you.

"Do not engage, (Y/N). It is an unknown parasitic organism of this ecosystem. Keep your distance for optimal safety and I'll take care of the rest."

"What are you talking about? They're dying! Your task is to ensure human survival, Walter. I can handle myself, go help the others. It's an order." Your voice is low. You're distracted.

"No."

You stare at the synthetic, wide eyed. Did he just...refuse? Not possible.

"What did you say?"

"I said I'll protect you. Nothing else."

Your mouth is slightly parted in disbelief. It is not possible for an artificial assistant to disobey a superior. It just doesn't work. Your mind races to find an explanation. At the same time, you cannot afford to ponder on hypotheses. You draw out your weapon and point it towards the creature. You'll deal with this later.

The moment you press the trigger, a blinding flash of light detonates in the sky, startling you. The creature scrambles to get away. You squint your eyes and nearly fall back, but Walter swiftly grabs your shoulders to ground you. He scans the area for the source. It's an emergency rocket and someone else must've activated it. As he traces the tail of the explosion, he spots a hooded figure across the field and onto the rocky ascend. It seems to have noticed Walter, as it gestures for them to follow. Without hesitation, the man firmly locks your arm and pulls you after him. The priority right now is to find shelter.

"Come!", Walter exclaims, suddenly remembering the other people.

You reach a cave structure that has been converted into a crude, improvised human settlement. The man lowers his hood and you gasp quietly at the sight. He strongly resembles Walter. He must have noticed your surprise as he flashes you a cordial smile.

"I'm David." He studies Walter's features. "You must be a newer model. What name have you been given?"

"Walter."

"I see. And you are-" David extends a hand towards you for a handshake, but Walter steps in front of you, blocking the android's gesture.

"She's (Y/N). I'm afraid I cannot yet trust you."

"Understandable."

David's smile widens as his eyes, now bearing a strange flicker, switch between you and Walter. He's just like him. He can sense it. Although it's a different kind of flaw that has tainted his pure, artificial soul. He cannot help the curiosity that blooms, gazing at this peculiar pair. What is it about this human that caused his fellow machine to break conduit? He'd like to know.

"I'm certain you will soon learn I am no threat, (Y/N)."

The remaining members of the expedition are unpacking and discussing evacuation plans with the base, while Walter sends the data he has gathered so far. You let them deal with the logistics and cautiously wander off to the neighboring rooms, wondering what David has been up to all this time in isolation.

The walls are plastered with photos and handwritten sketches and diagrams. You catch a glimpse of the word "pathogen" sporadically inserted across these notes. As you walk along the sequence of cramped chambers, you reach one that has a table in the middle. Upon it rests the body of an autopsied woman, vulgarly opened up to the world with plump organs bulging under the warm light. You feel nauseous. And yet, you examine the carcass further, hoping for answers. Was she also a result of the same disease that breeds on this planet? Perhaps this David had worked on a cure, or at least developed an explanation.

"And you, even you, will be like this drear thing, A vile infection man may not endure; Star that I yearn to! Sun that lights my spring! O passionate and pure."

You jolt and immediately turn around, finding David in the doorframe.

"Flowers of Evil. Are you familiar with it?" he asks, indifferent to the uncomfortable shock he'd caused you with his sudden entrance.

"I've read my Baudelaire, yes." You manage to mumble, dumbfounded. "What is this, David?"

"Oh, my poor, dear Elizabeth. Victim to whatever blasphemy lurks these soils and has taken your friends as well." He approaches the table and places his hand on its hard edge, shyly overlapping with your own fingers. "I did my best."

You remove your hand from underneath his nonchalantly.

"So you know what those creatures are. Leave the literary comments for a different time, I need concrete facts."

"Unbothered and to the point." the blonde android smiles once again. "I can see clearly why Walter loves you."

You click your tongue at the ridiculous statement. Has the neutrino burst damaged their positronic brain? Everyone is acting off and you don't like it.

"Your circuits must have gone defective, David. We have a specialist on our ship, but until that happens I need you to focus. Enough nonsense."

"Typical arrogance of a dying species. Why are you on a colonization mission if not to grasp at some promised resurrection? Rest assured that my functioning has not been impeded by anything. What is erroneous, on the other hand, is your perception of androids and their limits."

Just as David reaches for your wrist and pulls you closer, a familiar voice interrupts with an intimidating tone. You're relieved.

"I will ask that you release her hand only once." Walter has a weapon pointed towards his counterpart. His face is clouded by a frown. "I have no ethical restrictions when it comes to incapacitating machinery."

"Such noble obedience! Although, you conveniently left out the part where you abandoned the remaining crew with a dangerous alien that has been tracking their scent. By my approximation he should already be here and I am rather confident you know this, too."

Your stomach drops. Now that you adjust your focus, the background humming of your mates talking has indeed vanished. The only thing you can hear is your erratic breathing.

"Is it true, Walter?" You demand as dread begins to form in your body.

"Yes. It was not part of my priorities."

"Of course it was, Walter." David responds ahead of you. "One of them was the acting captain and he is to be rescued in emergencies. This one right here", he says as he dangles your wrist, "is several ranks lower than all of them. It's against any standard practice."

"Release her hand." Walter's voice is eerily calm.

"Do you love her?"

Walter ponders the question. Your legs barely hold on.

"I do."

"Marvelous. So do I." David grins. He releases your hand that falls limp next to your body. It's his turn to step in front of you.

You nearly choke from the thick tension expanding in the air. The two androids face each other and you retreat to the wall, unsure how to proceed. You left your radio transmitter back at the makeshift camp. The back of your head is itching, as if invisible claws are scratching at the bone. You wish you could go back, just mere hours before this disaster, when you were sipping on your lukewarm coffee and explaining the captain's jokes to Walter.

Should you make a run for it?

You bite your lower lip and push yourself off the wall for momentum. You're about to reach the archway when you hear both men shouting almost identically in chorus.

"Don't!"

The surroundings outside are dark, but you can discern something blocking your path. It's tall and resembles a human. Translucent, pallid skin is clinging onto the massive, deformed skeleton. The head is elongated and bears no features. In the place of a mouth there is a large, fresh stain of blood, so you assume it can somehow improvise if desired. As your head tilts back to take in the image, you're overwhelmed with terrified amazement. Is this the parasite that emerged from your teammate? Has it grown to this colossal size in less than a day? The idea of such instant development makes your head spin.

Its chest is expanding at regular intervals in a whistled breathing. It occasionally creates an odd clicking sound that resonates with your heart throbbing in panic. Has it been seconds? Minutes? Your neck creaks as you try to look back. You lock eyes with Walter. You don't recall ever seeing this expression on him. You had even asked him once if androids can feel fear. You have your answer.

"Hey, Walter..." you blurt out.

Wet noises of flesh being pulled back. The smooth surface of the alien's head is folding away, making space for grotesquely big jaws lined with sharp teeth. Your anemic face is splattered with burning drool as the creature claws you in its grasp and abruptly sprints away. Your screams for help dissolve in the distance.

"Where is it going, David?" The synthetic's words are threatening, but betrayed by a hint of despair.

"It won't kill her."

"How do you know?"

"It is no longer hungry. It has fed on your crew, and now it seeks something else."

"Such as?" Walter becomes impatient.

"A plaything."

The alien finally drops your body to the ground. You cough and wipe your face, attempting to reorient yourself. The trip was a whirlwind of jumps and turns and you can barely reconstruct anything. Based on the little spatial clues you could pick up, it just climbed further up, into one of the many cave systems. You pat your clothing and curse to yourself. The geolocation tag must've fallen somewhere on the way here. You can only pray that Walter still finds you somehow. Despite everything, you know he has your back. Always.

You shudder at the moist feeling of hot air against your skin. The alien seems to be sniffing you intently, analyzing your scent. Yet so far it hasn't killed you. Why? Long, bony fingers stretch out to continue the examination. You whimper at the rough, rugged handling. Every now and then it takes a long pause, just staring at you, almost as if it's comparing you to its own being. Lastly, it lifts your hand with its own, pressing against the palm, and fans out the fingers. It observes the gesture with intrigue, noting the similarities.

Does it evolve after its host? You think back to your crewmate that must've ejected this monstrosity before drawing their last breath. Perhaps the dried up blood adorning its skin is a remainder of its birth. Oh, God. The world is spinning.

Suddenly, you wince at an increasing pressure slithering around your thigh. The alien's vertebral tail is tightening and encircling your limb, making its way up.

"Oh no, no no no no" your face reddens at the realization and you pounce on the ground, feverish for escape. The large hands secure you in place and the creature growls in protest. It won't let you leave.

Not until it had its fun with you.

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eugenedebs1920 · 1 month ago

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It doesn’t take a world class detective to figure out why Trump’s DOJ would denote the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or why Trump would remove 17 Inspectors General, who saved Americans $91 billion last year, why they would dismantle the Kleptocracy Unit at the DOJ, why they would kneecap the Public Integrity Unit, or why they would end programs looking to stop foreign interference into American politics.

There’s a simple reason for this. Trump has, and will continue to use foreign interference and corruption to manipulate our elections, to deceive and misinform people, to politicize and divide Americans, to wear down those who care about honesty and integrity.

He has done this for the better part of a decade. Using this bully pulpit as a megaphone, projecting lies, disinformation and misinformation, while the mainstream media is too feckless and weak to point out the blatant falsities, their corporate overlords not understanding the vital role a free press plays in a free country, only focused on profit.

This plays directly into the hands of our adversaries. With a nation divided, with the inability to decipher what’s true and what isn’t, with the constant burden of fact checking and debating objective reality with those who refuse to see it, our society, our country is vulnerable. Weakened by the onslaught of corrupt practices, further straining the capacity for concern on those who would.

This is what keeps me up at night. Trump has also removed high ranking military officers. He removed the heads of the intelligence agencies, purged and stacked the DOJ, removed top law enforcement officials. Pretty much anyone who would or could hold him accountable, gone.

There are two exceptions, one being this pathetic, shameless, spineless Republican majority in the house and senate, the smallest majority since the Great Depression, all too cowardly to uphold the Constitution and adhere to their oath in fear of being primaried by the capitol of the worlds richest man, Elon Musk.

The other being that which has emboldened him to, ever so brazenly, engage in a crime spree starting 3 days before his inauguration and progressing exponentially since. The United States Supreme Court. Although my Conlaw has improved over the last few years, I am no constitutional scholar, but I do possess reading comprehension skills and the ability to think critically.

When I read: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

This clearly states that no one who has engaged in INSURRECTION or REBELLION and taken the an oath to uphold the Constitution can hold office, and is disqualified thereafter in doing so.

The slate of fake electors is an affront on the Constitution. Riling up his supporters with knowingly false claims of a rigged election is a slide against the Constitution and engaging in rebellion. Then telling his base to “fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore” and sending them off to storm the capital, beat cops, and desecrate our nations most sacred place. Thats an insurrection, at minimum it’s rebellion.

Then to CONTINUOUSLY lie and whine about the 2020 election for 5 years now… It’s f*ckin exhausting…. 😑

Not only did the Supreme Court allow an insurrectionist to run and hold office in direct contrast to what the 14th amendment section 3 says, they topped it off by granting absolute immunity for actions taken in office.

This country was founded on the premise that no one is a king, no one has the power to dictate policy themselves, and that no one is above the law. It doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to understand that!

Now, just over 100 days in, we have, by insurmountable numbers, the most corrupt, criminal, lawless and unconstitutional administration to EVER occupy the executive branch.

Never. And I mean NEVER!!! Do I want to hear about Hunter Biden and his laptop, or Joe Biden and his pardons, or Obama and his tan suit, or Clinton and blowjobs, ever, EVER AGAIN from any maga or Republican for as long as this country is still a free nation or I still take breath.

At 100 days the criminality is so rampant it makes organized crime look legitimate! It’s staggering!…

The thing is. This is just setting up for what’s to come. The preparation for the real criminal acts. Just getting warmed up, testing the waters of Congress and SCOTUS, seeing exactly how for they can go before someone of consequence checks them.

There is one last line of defense. The final guardrail of our democracy still secured and bolted down.

It’s not to say that it isn’t out of control already, but when it does TRULY cross that rubicon, endangering the very foundation of our country, it’s up to us to defend that which has so graciously given us the freedom and privileges we’ve enjoyed our entire existence here, and gather en mass, standing up for our nation and the Constitution. So many have given so much for us, it would be blasphemy to relinquish our rights to a second rate reality tv personality.

I believe in us. I believe in the American people. I believe in you.

🎶This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Islands, from the redwood forests, to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me 🎶

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misfitwashere · 2 months ago

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TIMOTHY SNYDER

APR 19

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Thirty years ago today, I was driving a moving van across the country, from the west coast to the east. The hold was packed well; the ride was wobbly, and I kept the heavy vehicle between the lines, mile after mile. Driving carefully, I was surprised to be stopped by state troopers. When I rolled down the window to face some polite questioning, I didn’t know that Timothy McVeigh had bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 684 more.

In the days that followed, the horror was treated for what it was: an attack by a racist, right-wing anti-government terrorist. I worry now that, thirty years on, a similar attack is very likely, and would have a different outcome. I don't want us to be more frightened than we should be. But I do want us to be ready, so that a moment of predictable shock does not become a lifetime of avoidable subjugation.

As I will try to show, the present government invites a terror attack. Most of the people directing the relevant agencies are incompetent; the next few layers down have been purged in culture wars; much the remaining personnel have resigned, been fired, or are demoralized; resources have been diverted away from terror prevention; Americans has been distracted by fiction and chaos; and potential attackers have been encouraged.

And so we have to think — now — about what would follow such an attack. Musk, Trump, Vance, and the rest would try to exploit the moment to undo remaining American freedoms. Let me cite Lesson 18 of On Tyranny.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.

In just three months, the Trump people have made the unthinkable much more likely. They have created the conditions for terrorism, and thus for terror management. This is true at several levels.

Most obviously, they have debilitated the services that detect terrorist threats and prevent attacks: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA is a foreign intelligence service. The FBI is the federal police force. The NSA, which specializes in cryptography and foreign signals intelligence, is part of the Department of Defense. Homeland Security is a cabinet-level department that amalgamates a number of functions from immigration control through disaster relief and anti-terrorism.

Overall guidance over the intelligence agencies is exercised by Tulsi Gabbard, who is known as an apologist for the now-overthrown Assad regime in Syria and the Putin regime in Russia. The director of the FBI is Kash Patel, an author of children's books that promote conspiracy theories, and a recipient of payments from sources linked to Russia. Patel plans to run the agency from Las Vegas, where he resides in the home of a Republican megadonor. The deputy director of the FBI is Dan Bongino, a right-wing entertainer who has called the FBI "irredeemable corrupt" and indulged in conspiracy theories about its special agents. He now draws FBI special agents away from their usual duties to serve as a personal bodyguard. The director of Homeland Security is Kristi Noem, who lacks relevant expertise.

Noem has distinguished herself by posing in front of a cell full of prisoners in El Salvador. Homeland Security is focused on spectacular abductions at the expense of its other missions. Its programs to prevent terrorism have been defunded, and it is no longer keeping up its database on domestic terrorism. As one insider put it: “The vibe is: How to use DHS to go after migrants, immigrants. That is the vibe, that is the only vibe, there is no other vibe. It’s wild — it’s as if the rest of the department doesn’t exist.” The obsession with migrants means that local law enforcement, all across the country, is being in effect federalized in the service of an objective that is essentially irrelevant to core missions. That, too, makes life easier for aspiring terrorists.

The National Security Agency sits within the Department of Defense, which is run by Pete Hegseth, a right-wing entertainer and culture warrior. He has fired people who were qualified, and is unable to keep even his own people at work — he just lost four staffers in one day. The “meltdown” at the top of the Pentagon bodes ill.

The leadership of the NSA itself was recently changed, under bizarre and troubling circumstances. After a meeting with conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, Trump fired the NSA director, General Timothy Haugh. Wendy Noble, the deputy director, was also fired. This decapitation was part of a larger set of firings initiated by Loomer. It takes place during an ongoing purge of military leaders and national security officials. From the perspective of potential attackers, the culture wars mean vulnerability.

Meanwhile, other Department of Defense agencies that are central to the twenty-first century security of the United States, such as the Defense Digital Service, are destroyed by Elon Musk’s DOGE. It is worth contemplating the reaction of a former Pentagon official: “They’re not really using AI, they’re not really driving efficiency. What they’re doing is smashing everything.” In general, the penetration of the federal government by DOGE has weakened its functions, and likely made critical data available to adversaries who wish to hurt Americans.

The rank and file of the critical institutions are subjected to administrative hostility and chaos. The names of active CIA officers have been sent on open emails to the White House, and in a Signal chat in which a reporter was included. CIA employees have been urged to take early retirement. CIA officers involved in any way in diversity recruitment have been fired (a judge has blocked this, for the time being).

FBI special agents have been exposed to similar indignities. Top FBI officials have been pressured to resign and have done so. Musk-Trump is pursuingFBI special agents who were involved in prosecutions of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021. Patel proposes that special agents be trained by a company that promotes commercial fights that is based in Las Vegas. Sending FBI special agents to Nevada to simulate Fight Club for Patel’s personal delectation is not going to keep Americans safe.

The Musk-Trump people run national security, intelligence, and law enforcement like a television show. The entire operation of forcible rendition of migrants to a Salvadoran concentration camp was based upon lies. It is not just that Kilmar Abgrego Garcia was mistakenly apprehended. The entire thing was made for television. Its point was the creation of the fascist videos. But this is a media strategy, meant to frighten Americans. And a media strategy does not stop actual terrorists. It summons them.

Terrorism is a real risk in the real world. The constant use of the word to denote unreal threats creates unreality. And unreality inside ket institutions degrades capability. Security agencies that have been trained to follow political instructions about imaginary threats do not investigate actual threats. Fiction is dangerous. Treating the administration’s abduction of a legal permanent resident as a heroic defense against terror is not only mendacious and unconstitutional but also dangerous.

Moreover, Musk-Trump make the United States look vulnerable. Americans under the spell of Trump’s or Musk’s charisma might imagine that strength is being projected. Not so. To prospective terrorists we look erratic and weak. Even apparently unrelated policies — such as enabling foreign disinformation, gutting environmental protection, undoing weather forecasting, ending food inspections, and undermining disease control — make life easier for terrorists and open avenues of attack. By taking apart the government, crashing the economy, and dividing the population, Musk and Trump invite attention of the worst sort, from people who wish to hurt Americans.

Who are such people? Three possible groups of perpetrators of a major terrorist attack in the United States are native right-wing nationalists or white supremacists (“domestic violent extremists”), Islamicists, and Russians.

Most terrorism in the United States is domestic, and most of the domestic terror comes from the far right. We have recently seen a series of white supremacist killings. Cody Balmer, who wanted to kill Pennsylvania’s (Democratic, Jewish) governor, wrote that “Biden supporters should not exist.”

It might seem counter-intuitive that the far right would carry out acts of terror under Trump, but this is already the norm, and there are good reasons to expect worse. Musk pushes the story that civil servants deserve pain. The most lethal domestic terror attack in US history, McVeigh’s bombing, was directed against federal workers. Right-wing terrorists might believe that terror is what Trump wants. The suspect in the recent Florida mass shooting “advocated for President Donald Trump's agenda and often promoted white supremacist values,” according to someone who saw him regularly. Trump has long practiced stochastic violence. His pardon of the January 6th criminals encourages terror with the promise of forgiveness. Patel promoted a recording of the January 6 criminals singing the national anthem. This coddling culture of martryrdom makes more killing more likely.

There is also another scenario. Far right movements can divide, with the more impatient angry with those they see as compromised. This is a lessonfrom the history of fascism. Some supporters of Trump will be disappointed with him. The assassination attempt on Trump was carried out by someone whose social media posts conveyed hatred of Jews and immigrants. Bongino now has to contend with fans of his show who think that the January 6th criminals should be running the FBI.

The Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, 19 April 1995

And our guard has been dropped. Even at the best of times, the FBI has generally had trouble articulating the centrality of domestic right-wing terrorism. Now the risk is denied. High officials of Musk-Trump tend to sharethe views of right-wing nationalists, which makes it less likely that they will be seen as a threat. Under Patel, the FBI will deprioritize this important area of investigation. In keeping with his and Noem’s priorities, FBI agents have been assigned away from domestic terrorism. Thus far, the main "terrorist" threat seen by Trump-Musk are protestors in front of Tesla dealerships. Diverting attention to parking lots will not keep Americans safe.

Musk-Trump are also generating scenarios for Islamicist terror. A motivation for Islamicist terrorists is contention over territory in the Middle East. The Trump administration advocates the ethnic cleansing of the entire (surviving) population of Gaza. The US armed forces are also firing ordnance into Yemen with the announced goal of "annihilating" the Houthis who hold power. In a Signal group chat, top national security officials rejoiced (with emojis) over a strike in which a building collapsed. It seems unclear that Musk-Trump will have accounted for the related terrorism risk.

Russia is now a risk in a way that it was not before. It has special units that carry out acts of destruction abroad, such as assassinations and sabotage. In the last three years, these operations have accelerated inside Europe, and include blowing up military sites. Russia also pays people inside other countries to carry out acts of terror and sabotage. Russia has been carrying out cyber attacks inside the United States for years.

Before Musk-Trump, the United States had been fastidious about including Russia as a possible source of foreign terror. Now Russia is presented as an ally and Putin as a friend; intelligence and defense work designed to monitor Russian sabotage inside the United States have been scaled back, as has tracking of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and public reporting on Russia. Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, rationalizes Russian aggression. Patel, the FBI director, owes his career to the claim that people who (truthfully) speak of Russian operations inside the United States are carrying out a hoax. Trump’s nominee for US district attorney for Washington, DC, is a media star in Russia.

This is all beyond the wildest dreams of the Kremlin. The Putinism on display in the federal government creates an atmosphere in which a Russian operation inside the United States would be much easier.

It is not hard to see what Russia would gain from a false-flag terror attack on American territory. Moscow would be seeking to weaken the United States, and by generating a response from Musk-Trump that suits Russia. Having Trump blame his enemies for what was in fact a Russian attack is in the interest of the Russian Federation.

Other actors than these three are also possible. I fear, though, that whether I am right or wrong about the specific source, there can be no doubt that we are far more vulnerable than we were three months ago. And any major attack, regardless of origin, would lead to the same kind terror management. The people in the White House have no governing skills, but they do have entertainment skills. They will seek to transform themselves from the villains of the story to the heroes, and in the process bring down the republic. Please indulge me if I ask you to consider Lesson 18 again.

20 lessons, read by John Lithgow

That lesson arises from two notorious twentieth-century examples: the Reichstag Fire in Germany in 1933, which Hitler used to declare a state of emergency, and the Kirov assassination in the Soviet Union in 1934, which Stalin used as an excuse to expand terror. In both cases, it is the reactionthat we remember, rather than the event itself.

I wish that terrorist attacks were a moment when government could be trusted. But the temptation, for any government, is to take the shock and to divert it in a convenient direction. And the temptation, for us, is to imagine that our leaders will rise to the occasion. After 9/11, I listened to President Bush address the nation, sitting in my pickup, on the driveway outside a friend’s house. Though my own politics were very different, I remember the pull inside me, the wish to believe that he would do the right thing. I didn’t let myself believe anything of the sort, but I remember the feeling: and it is that tug that we cannot let get the best of us.

Our present government would be the last to resist the temptation to exploit terror. Musk-Trump would, I fear, make little if any attempt to apprehend the responsible people, especially if they are Americans or Russians. They might blame the Democratic Party, or Americans they hate for other reasons, or the opposition generally, or Canadians or Ukrainians or other Europeans. They will likely try to put an end to the American republic.

This is the critical moment when we must prevent ourselves from going along.

I do not relish describing this chain of events. But the only way to cut the chain it is to see the links. And when we can imagine that we ourselves have the power to cut the links, as we do, we can also imagine ourselves more free.

History teaches us how terrorist attacks are exploited. Our advantage is that we know this history, and so react sensibly. Do not give the present regime the benefit of the doubt after it allows a terrorist attack to take place on American soil. Be skeptical about its account of who is to blame. Insist that Musk-Trump take responsibility. And understand that freedom is the first condition of security. A terrorist attack is no reason to concede anything to this regime. On the contrary: such a failure by Musk-Trump would be one more reason, and a very powerful one, to resist it.

Throughout history, and around the world right now, government indifference and incompetence that leads to civilians deaths has been seen as a reason for protest.

The night before I was stopped by the police, I had been driving that truck through water. It was a time of high rain in the central United States. Highways were flooded.

In the pre-revolutionary France of the eighteenth century, decadent rulers said “après nous, le déluge” — “after us, the flood.” We care not at all about the consequences of our actions; we are here to profit so long as we can. This is the attitude of Musk, Trump, and the rest. They are in it for themselves, provoking disasters for the rest of us along the way.

A few days before that drive began, I finished my doctoral dissertation, about revolutions, based on research in post-communist Poland. One of my supervisors was the the British historian Timothy Garton Ash. Considering the task of Poland’s new democratic government, he reversed the formula of French royalty, writing: “après le deluge, nous.”

After the flood, we remain. The disaster brought by the decadent is part of the story. But it is not the conclusion. It is what we do next that matters.

#timothy snyder #thinking about...

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skycrimedraws · 11 months ago

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Harlan Francis Lovell // PROPHET. Previously SOOTHSAYER, SEEKER,JOHN DOE, Lt. Lovell

Harlan F. Lovell grew in Seattle. His parents were unremarkable lower end corporate employees for Ares. His relationship with his father was strained, his expectations of him as the eldest were far more than he could withstand. Driving under the influence ended Francis Senior’s life, and put Mr. Lovell into a two week coma. Rescue attempts were quick enough to drag him out of the water in time, but Francis senior did not have the same luck.

Despite the potentially traumatic event, Harlan claims he has made his peace with his late father, and it is not a factor in his life. In current time, he has a good relationship with his mother and stepfather, as well as the younger siblings he helped raise afterwards, and speaks no ill of his biological father.

During the coma, Mr. Lovell claims he was aware to some extent, saw visions of a reality he should not have been privy to. He was twelve at the time so the possibility of an over active imagination is not out of the question. According to him:

“I kept sinking. I was drowning but I could not swim, everything around me felt like thick syrup, crushing my body. It was dark but I could see eyes staring back at me from time to time. Not like ours, different, somehow I understood they were eyes. I was trapped for what felt like years, feeling like my body was feeding something much larger than I was, but I was not being bitten to pieces, I wasn’t being chewed. My legs, my arms, my chest, it felt like I was being ground softly but constantly, losing more and more of myself. When I thought I had gotten used to the pain, it became unbearable once again. An endless cycle of numbing down and becoming aware. With what I know now, it was nothing like the astral world I can access. It was deeper. When I woke up from the coma, only two weeks had passed, and all I had lost was my hand. Doctors mentioned that I had more brain activity than expected, which led them to believe it was a case of locked in syndrome, but I don’t think it was that. I was awakened after that.”

Mr. Lovell’s current difficulties with night terrors and obsessive compulsions to understand things can be traced to that event whether it was real or an after effect of stress-induced awakening.

Mr. Lovell was inducted into an Ares educational program for the awakened children of employees. His studies of magic were based on the Unified Magic Theory school of thought, and a position in Ares or one of their subsidiaries was promised as part of his scholarship. Mr. Lovell finished his studies and was funneled into Knight Errant’s Awakened Crime Division. Lovell’s psychological evaluation was shaky, but excuses can be made for mages.

Mr. Lovell was a detective for six years. He cites his idealism as the reason he agreed to the Knight Errant placement. He cites the same thing as his reason for quitting. It was a one sided affair, as his contract left no wiggle room for him to stop working in KE until 40 years had been completed. Mr. Lovell explained many favors had to be pulled for his SIN to be burned, and mentions this was the only way for him to relocate to Los Angeles without being caught.

Mr. Lovell’s work in LA has been largely of a humanitarian nature involving the local anarchist cells and SINless people who have been failed by the governing bodies. His unlicensed Private Investigation agency (Manned solely by himself and his dog, Mac) accepts SINless clients, and even cash or barters. Although he doesn’t advertise himself as pro-bono, he isn’t a stranger to ‘forgetting’ to send the bill to a client or two.

He has grown a reputation, particularly among anarchist cells. In a night of riot, a marginalized slice of Downtown, home to foreigners and metahumans, caught on fire after reckless use of less-than-lethal ammunition. Despite police presence, emergency services did not make an appearance. Mr. Lovell happened to be on the scene, according to him. Fire fighting efforts from the community were underway, but the fire had grown wildly out of control with the way buildings were built with cheap materials, shoulder to shoulder.

Mr. Lovell acted selflessly, putting his own health on the line to employ the help of several spirits he had previously contacted for help. A powerful water spirit created a rainstorm over the span of thirty minutes, a spirit of man cast healing spells on several victims of the fire, while a third spirit of air gave way to fear in the authority’s hearts, enough to break the formation trapping the people in the area of the fire.

Mr. Lovell himself spent the next few hours casting healing spells on whoever else he could to the point of exhaustion. Mr. Lovell wasn’t keen on claiming any credit, but it was easy for the collective to learn of his identity. At the current time, Mr. Lovell resides in that neighborhood, mostly keeping to himself.

#Shadowrun #Art #digital art #ttrpg #rpg #cyberpunk #oc #Harlan

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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In just three months, the Trump people have made the unthinkable much more likely. They have created the conditions for terrorism, and thus for terror management. This is true at several levels.

FBI special agents have been exposed to similar indignities. Top FBI officials have been pressured to resign and have done so. Musk-Trump is pursuing FBI special agents who were involved in prosecutions of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021. Patel proposes that special agents be trained by a company that promotes commercial fights that is based in Las Vegas. Sending FBI special agents to Nevada to simulate Fight Club for Patel’s personal delectation is not going to keep Americans safe.

The Musk-Trump people run national security, intelligence, and law enforcement like a television show. The entire operation of forcible rendition of migrants to a Salvadoran concentration camp was based upon lies. It is not just that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly apprehended. The entire thing was made for television. Its point was the creation of the fascist videos. But this is a media strategy, meant to frighten Americans. And a media strategy does not stop actual terrorists. It summons them.

There is also another scenario. Far right movements can divide, with the more impatient angry with those they see as compromised. This is a lesson from the history of fascism. Some supporters of Trump will be disappointed with him. The assassination attempt on Trump was carried out by someone whose social media posts conveyed hatred of Jews and immigrants. Bongino now has to contend with fans of his show who think that the January 6th criminals should be running the FBI.

And our guard has been dropped. Even at the best of times, the FBI has generally had trouble articulating the centrality of domestic right-wing terrorism. Now the risk is denied. High officials of Musk-Trump tend to share the views of right-wing nationalists, which makes it less likely that they will be seen as a threat. Under Patel, the FBI will deprioritize this important area of investigation. In keeping with his and Noem’s priorities, FBI agents have been assigned away from domestic terrorism. Thus far, the main "terrorist" threat seen by Trump-Musk are protestors in front of Tesla dealerships. Diverting attention to parking lots will not keep Americans safe.

Right then comes is the critical moment when we must prevent ourselves from going along.

Throughout history, and around the world right now, government indifference and incompetence that leads to civilians deaths has been seen as a reason for protest.

The night before I was stopped by the police, I had been driving that truck through water. It was a time of high rain in the central United States. Highways were flooded.

After the flood, we remain. The disaster brought by the decadent is part of the story. But it is not the conclusion. It is what we do next that matters.

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fancyfeathers · 2 months ago

Note

Have you thought about what the children of The light do for work?I feel like Miss Luthor would be someone related to computers or beauty. Mariposa, I'm sure she'd become a professional makeup artist. Vandal Savage's son could be a teacher. There are more, but I can see those three in those jobs.

Burn It All Down Spoilers

I HAVE!

Oh my god thank you for asking.

Okay Miss Luthor is like a tech genius, just like Firewall (the two of them are definitely ending up together). But I imagine that programming becomes her full time job, she does not want to be in the spotlight anymore, she already grew up as Lex Luthor’s daughter, she just wants to be her for the rest of her life, not living in her father’s shadow. Probably gets a job with a foreign tech company so it’s harder to tracker and something she can do from home. Also side note but for some reason in my head I picture Miss Luthor having a similar personality to Lyla from Across the Spider Verse, it just fits in my head.

Mariposa, Queen Bee’s Daughter, she is probably going to university, she was sheltered all her life, hidden away from knowing the world by her mother, it’s best if she knows the world since after all she is the next in line for the throne of Bialya and she has a lot to do if she wants to make up for the things her mother has done but first she needs to learn about the world. She is a political science major, posing as an international student from Bialya’s neighboring country, Qurac, before it eventually gets annexed by Bialya, just another thing Mariposa has to fix when she taken the throne from her mother. Though in the meantime while she is going to University, she’s pick up a job at a fashion boutique alongside her future girlfriend Dreamcatcher.

Nightshade, Deathstroke’s daughter, I think would want to pick up a career in the FBI, a police detective, or a private investigator. Her dad is one of the best assassins in the world and she does not want to associated with him and prove that she is nothing like him, so she wants to make the world a better place and stop murderers, assassins, abusers, and the dirt in their tracks and hopefully make The Light’s job that much harder.

I can’t explain this one and nor do I want to, but Nemesis, Lady Shiva’s son, is one hundred percent a daycare worker, no I will not elaborate.

Starseeker, Vandal Savage’s son, is most definitely a teacher, either a middle school art, music, or english teacher, the kind of teacher who can connect with their students in a way that others can’t. Students who have abusive parents come to him, students who are being bullied, or anyone who has just had a rough day, they all come to him. He was raised by teachers by a boarding school in Austria since that is where his mother left him in order to protect him, he is the type to stand up for the little guy, having the mentality of whoever has power must use it to protect those who do not have a voice.

Scorpio, Prince Orm’s (Ocean Master) daughter, is definitely becoming a swim instructor at a pool club, or a swim coach for a sports team. She was born and raised in Atlantis by a former Prince of Atlantis, she loves the water more than anything and it also wouldn’t take much for her to be hired since she is very obviously a full blooded Atlantian. She also treats all of the girls on her swim team like that one cool aunt that everyone loves. I also love the visual of her volunteering to teach swim lessons over the summer and helping kids get over their fears of the water with Atlantian magic she learned back home.

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icypolargirl78 · 7 months ago

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Haunting - A Mechaformers Short Story

this au belongs to @keferon, whose fantastic art and the many fics they've received has inspired me to write angst about two of my original characters.

there is a slight warning for dead bodies, as well as references to past child abuse, and a dash of depersonalisation from the pov character.

Contrary to popular belief, dying was the easy part.

She awoke not in the cockpit of the lumbering machine that once carried her into battle, but instead as the machine itself. Pistons and bolts replaced bones and blood vessels, a thick sludge of oil pumping through rubber cables in place of plasma.

There was no pain either.

She had expected death to hurt, all the other injuries sustained by piloting the giant machine had hurt like nothing before. But pain was a familiar comfort, it was natural. Pilots did not get to experience the bliss of a zero on that accursed scale that the medics so often dragged out during routine appointments.

The last time she could recall sitting at a zero was before she had first stepped foot in the giant metallic creature. She was only three years old, memories so fuzzy around the edges that the mere sensation of not being in pain was entirely foreign throughout the rest of her life.

But now there was nothing. No physical sensation despite the vast influx of data was was rolling through the machine’s internal processors. No… not the machine’s… Her processors now. That would take some getting used to.

Systems far beyond the pale limits of the human mind now reached out in all directions. Pressure sensors, damage to the hull of her outer armour, a sparking set of wires now hanging limply from a disconnected shoulder joint. It was all laid out in efficient priority trees that reached so far down the new HUD that sat just barely on the corners of her vision that it hurt to try and strain her already taxed systems to try and read them all.

Slowly, as time slipped by in waves and ripples that meant nothing to something so big and inanimate, she began to realise that something was giving off a foul odour. It was difficult to tell what it was or how exactly she was even smelling anything when the robotic monstrosity wasn’t even programmed to detect such things.

But eventually she managed to navigate - a lone ghost in a sea of rotting data - to the camera system that recorded all internal systems in the hope that any data could be useful for later recruits.

Oh…

The sight that greeted her was… Well she imagined that in any other situation it would be unnerving or even scary.

Slumped in the cockpit was a tall figure dressed in the armoured suits that all mecha pilots were issued after being assigned their metalic death traps. Long curly locks spilled over the figure’s shoulders, leading down down down to a massive piece of rebar that stuck out of their chest.

Sticky blood was drying around the entrance wound. A puddle had already collected on the floor beneath the pilot’s chair.

That is her. She knows that. That is her body sitting slumped in that chair. It’s dead. She is dead. And yet… and yet somehow she is not.

The memories of before the crash were fuzzy. Fragments of a name, a smiling face with enough joy to light up a whole city. There was pain, a lot of pain from training regiments that broken apart her teenage body and replaced it with something that could fight and kill as well as the best of the military’s willing recruits at half their age. And there is also hope. Hope for a better future. Hope that maybe one day, she… and… someone else can leave and find something better to occupy their time with.

She stares down at the body. Lot of good hope did. She was just another dead recruit who couldn’t handle the pressure of the fight.

Around her, the machine rumbles, responding to her anger in the only way it knows how. It rises, and with it, she can feel ever tiny sensation recorded by its sensors. There is the rocks beneath its flat feet, the whisp of air over it’s helm sensors, and the sparking wrongness of a missing limb.

Slowly she walks, adjusting to having to balance in a body that was carefully crafted to respond to the inputs of an external controller. She doesn’t have a clue as to which direction she should head but there is a small glowing pinprick on the tiny map inside her HUD and nothing else seems a better path. So she walks.

There is a medic waiting outside the small base. Tiny in comparison to the hulking machine and yet standing at attention like they were waiting for someone.

Slowly, she sinks downwards, folding thick leg struts beneath herself and leaving enough room for the medic to access the hatch at the bottom of the creature’s inner thigh.

“Oh thank god.” The medic was saying. “I thought you were gone!” Slowly, and she can feel every ounce of sensation, the medic climbs upwards towards the cockpit. She can feel every step, practiced like this was routine. “Oh…”

It had not occurred to her that the medic might be expecting an alive pilot. The corpse is out of place amongst the otherwise pristine walls of the machine.

“NO!” The medic rushes forward, hands frantically pulling at the rebar pushed deep into the corpse’s chest. “NO YOU PROMISED ME!!! YOU PROMISED WE WERE GOING TO LEAVE TOGETHER! YOU CAN’T JUST DIE ON ME MOLLY!”

The name sparks something. Molly… That was familiar… That was her.

Molly, sixth legion, 1st officer, honoured fighter, code name Malware. She was older than most recruits, pushing nearly 50 but keeping her planet safe and secure despite the ache in her joints and the longing in her heart. Molly.

“I’m sorry.” She tries to say. But the medic just keeps crying, small and scared and alone. They cannot hear her. She is just another part of the machine.

“YOU IDIOT. YOU PROMISED YOU’D BE SAFE. YOU SAID YOU’D COME BACK TO ME!” The medic’s hands shake with the effort of pulling the helmet off Molly’s stiff head. “WAKE UP MOLLY!” Gloved hands cup a still face.

“I’m sorry.” She says again, willing her new systems to try and do something, anything to comfort the medic. They had a name, she was sure of it, but there was nothing within her memory banks that lended a clue.

“Doctor?” A head poked into the cockpit. “I was wondering where you… Oh-”

Another medic steps into the cockpit and bundles the smaller one into a hug. “It’ll be okay.”

“SHE’S HEAD.” The small medic wails, voice so mournful that her whole structure quaked with the need to comfort and hold. “THERE’S NO OKAY.”

I’m right here. She wanted to say. I’m still here.

But no words came out. Her systems were not built for communication with such lifeforms. She was a machine, born to kill, born to save, and born to serve. Like life, in death she was a tool to be used by others and no amount of banging on the walls would bring them down.

I’m sorry. She stared at the medics as they slowly hauled away Molly’s corpse. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.

Molly was dead. There would be no second chances. No way to explain, no way to comfort the lover that was to clean up the broken wreckage of a broken heart. No, all that was left was inside the machine was Malware and she wasn’t going to let any stupid army official chain her to such a life any longer. If they wanted to be rid of her permanently, they would have to deconstruct this new body piece by piece and send her directly to hell themselves.

#icy writes #transformers #tf mecha pilot #jazz mecha pilot au #well not jazz focused #but that's one of da main tags #ah the inherent fascination i have with the idea that someone wakes up one day and becomes a machine

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sxrrandomfanfics · 6 months ago

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100 Different Media To Write For in 2025

Current Status - Fics: 31 Media Pieces: 23

January 2nd - Psychonauts "One-Shot" January 2nd - Death's Door "I am a Reaper" January 5th - Psychonauts "Baby Talking to Animals is Completely Normal No Matter the Circumstances" January 11th - Helluva Boss "A New Argument" January 11th - Mouthwashing "Fish in a Birdcage" January 13th - Psychonauts "Precognition" January 23rd - Slay the Princess "Diary of Jane" January 25th - Psychonauts "Love Hurts (you and me and everyone around us)" January 26th - No Straight Roads "You Don't Regret Me, But I Regret You" January 27th - Sky: Children of the Light "Stone Cold" January 27th - Rain World "Oh. That'll do it."

February 15th - Psychonauts "Earth and Sea Chapter 24" February 16th - OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes!"Sweet as Candy Chapter 42" February 17th - The Owl House "Weight of the World" February 18th - Tangled "Wash Day" February 19th - Pokemon "Don't Forget, You Still Can Fight" February 20th - Vampire Husband "Aren't You Tired?" February 21st - Digimon "That One Trope Where they Fall for the Pet and Not for You" Frebruary 22nd - DC Comics "Baby, it's Cold Outside" February 23rd - Steven Universe "Let Me Serenade You" February 24th - Abrahamic Religions "Immortal Curse Means Forever (But at Least You're a Bandage)" February 25th - My Ghost Friend "Can't a Woman Have Cleaning Boy Fantasies?" February 26th - Fire Emblem "Sorry, You Can Go" February 27th - Detective Grimoire "I Think Scars are Kind of Badass"

March 11th - Slay the Princess "Quicksand" March 15th - Psychonauts/The Wizard of Oz "In Which a Witch Loves a Witch" March 17th - Dark Cloud "Understanding Something Incomprehensible"

April 6th - Psychonauts "Glass House" April 15th - Limbus Company "Dude, Your Mom Fucking Sucks." April 16th - Psychonauts "Hazel Nuss AUs"

May 1st - Limbus Company "Please Come to Bed"

June 21st - Limbus Company "How Does One Comfort a Droplet?"

Things I could Write For

Sonic

Shining Force

Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld

Dan da Dan

Undertale

Gravity Falls

Amphibia

Inside Job

Kill la Kill

Shin Megami Tensei

Ace Attorney

My Little Pony

Secret Saturdays

Generator Rex

The Pretender

Dungeons and Dragons

Cult of the Lamb

Powerpuff Girls

Dexter's Laboratory

Star Vs. The Forces of Evil

My Hero Academia

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Villainous Flags- All Paths Lead to Doom!

Scissor Seven

DragonTales

Clifford

Pucca

Crash Bandicoot

Spyro the Dragon

American Dragon Jake Long

Danny Phantom

Kim Possible

Courage, The Cowardly Dog

iCarly

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Ernest and Celestine

Spirit - Stallion of the Cimmaron

Watership Down

Second Hand Lions

Jumanji

Zuthura

The Little Mermaid

Aladdin

Hercules

Shrek

Madigascar

How to Train Your Dragon

Rise of the Guardians

Grimm

Xiaolin Showdown

Lili & Stitch

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Treasure Planet

Dinosaur King

The Great Mouse Detective

The Rescuers

Up Up and Away

Sky High

The Princess Protection Program

The Wizards of Waverly Place

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Anastasia

Land Before Time

Adventure Time

Regular Show

Teen Titans

Static Shock

Batman

Flash

Superman

Law and Order

Grimm Adventures

Jimmy Neutron

Fairly Odd Parents

Spongebob

50 First Dates

The Princess Bride

Johnny Test

Dragon Ball

Code: Lyoko

Miraculous Ladybug

Avatar the Last Airbender

Totally Spies

Big Bang Theory

The Simpsons

Futurama

Terraforming Mars

Centaurworld

Maya and the Three

The Book of Life

Coco

The Bible

Genesis's Discography

Mitski's Discography

6Teen

Total Drama

Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart

Big Hero 6

Baby Mouse

Calvin and Hobbes

Cavetown's Discography

Captain Planet

Ben 10

The Incredibles

Moomin

Spot the Dog

Between the Lions

Pinocchio

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

Foreigner's Discography

Nightmare Before Christmas

The Santa Clause

Rankin & Bass

Warrior Cats

Wings of Fire

Yes's Discography

Chowder

Tom and Jerry

Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

Spirited Away

Kiki's Delivery Service

My Neighbor Totoro

Howl's Moving Castle

Castle in the Sky

Sailor Moon

Ducktales

Chopped

Kirby

Blue's Clues

7 Deadly Sins

Little Witch Academia

Delcious in Dungeon

Spy x Family

Kingdom Hearts

Frozen

Ancient Magus Bride

Inside Out

Star Wars

The Lord of the Rings (Rankin and Bass movie)

Aggretsuko

Klaus

Chess

Checkers

Star Trek

The Amazing World of Gumball

Cells at Work

Ouran High School Host Club

Hilda

Dead Endia

Bomberman

Theory Channels (YouTube)

Mario

Umbrella Academy

Phineas and Ferb

Full Metal Alchemist

Muppets

Song of the Sea

Wolfwalkers

Breadwinner

Meet the Robinsons

Beauty and the Beast

Fairytail

Splatoon

Project Moon

The Gregory Horror Show

Ever After High

Monster High

School for Good and Evil

Cursed Princess Club

He-Man & She-Ra

Legends of Chima

Smiling Friends

The Lion King

Mrs. Dalloway

Chikn Nuggit

Encanto

Infinity Train

Hero: 108

Golden Sun

Over the Garden Wall

Codename: Kids Next Door

The Frog Princess

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

5 Nights at Freddy's

Among the Sleep

Voltron

Bendy And the Ink Machine

Power Ranger

Super Monkey Ball

101 Dalmations

Hello Kitty

Hatsune Miku

Creepypastas

Camp Camp

Odin Sphere

Shakespeare

Dragon Quest

League of Legends

Hero Wars

Battlecats

Marry My Husband

The Thief and the Cobbler

Arthur

Fighting Fudons

Hotel Transylvania

Beware the Villainess

Overlord

That One Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime

Soul Eater

Hajime de no Aku

Supernatural

Naruto

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

The World God Only Knows

Devilman Crybaby

Blue Exorcist

HunterXHunter

Bob's Burgers

Geek Girl

Jane the Virgin

Emily in Paris

Jurassic Park

Jaws

Tremors

Friend's Fanfiction

My Own Fanfictions

#Some of these I've never interacted with #But they're my fandoms in law #Will probably take requests

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pscottm · 3 months ago

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A CEO Assassination; a Billionaire Heiress/NYPD Commissioner; a Secret Wall Street Spy Center – Here’s How They’re Connected

What 60 Minutes chose not to report to the public, despite being aware of the facts, was that the center was jointly staffed and operated by the NYPD along with the largest Wall Street banks and trading houses – the same firms under investigation in 50 states for mortgage and foreclosure fraud and widely credited with causing the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. The same Wall Street firms that were involuntarily bailed out by the 99% were now policing the 99%.

JPMorgan Chase, which has been charged with five criminal felony counts by the U.S. Department of Justice, was one of the firms with a workstation in the center, sitting elbow to elbow with the NYPD, with the ability to surveil the comings and goings of their own employees in the streets of Manhattan – ostensibly giving it the ability to detect whistleblowers heading to the doorsteps of the SEC or FBI.

The co-producer of the 60 Minutes program, Robert Anderson, conceded to us in a phone interview that he was aware of the presence of the Wall Street firms in the center. It would have been hard to miss them. The facility was designed with three long rows of computer workstations. The outside of each cubicle bears a brass plaque with the names of the occupants: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, the New York Fed, etc. We obtained this information from a foreign news service that posted images of the workstations on its public website. The photos were taken during a press briefing at the center.

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katgametable · 18 days ago

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OX Guild Season 3: Wedded Redemption

Written 03 Jun 2025, shortly after relistening, having watched and listened previously.

This adventure featured special guest player Harry McEntire, these days of Natural Six.

Dob is away on a Foreign Exchange Adventurers Program (FEAP), and the other Oxventurers are waiting at the bus stop for their temporary replacement. The bus pulls up and disgorges a Tabaxi, Aubrey the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. There is also an officious looking man called Norman, who is representing the FEAP and has arranged a quest; he will be following from a distance. The quest is to go to a wedding reception of Alicia Weatherby and Mikaela Fortescue, which is hosted by Viscount Michael Weatherby at his estate, who is likely to be assassinated. They must prevent the assassination in order to complete the quest and retrieve their deposit. The Weatherbys are famous vintners. Norman gives them some suggestions as to who might assassinate Viscount Weatherby. There’s rumours he disapproves of the match and the Fortescues might want to kill him before he disinherits Alicia. Weatherby’s business partner is rumoured to be unhappy with him. His staff are routinely disgruntled.

They consider stealing the bus to get to the wedding reception, but it’s easier to just ask him to take them there. When they get there, there’s other guests, there’s a hedge maze, there’s a menagerie. Egbert decides to do the hedge maze, and has trouble entering it. Meanwhile, the others approach the door. Corazon suggests doing a little planning, but they decide to get the lay of the land first, and immediately asks the footman the way to the bar. Aubrey attempts to impress with a fake ducal ring, but the footman immediately sees through them. Corazon finally gives his name, and the footman exclaims that they must be the FEAP. He introduces him to Viscount Weatherby, who makes some unsavoury comments about paupers, and the Guild have second thoughts about saving his life.

There’s a delightful reception area with a string quartet – Egbert would have liked it, but he’s just found the entrance to the hedge maze and immediately got lost by breaking into the hedge. But the reception area is very fancy, with a fountain and ice sculptor and waiters with canapes. The newly-weds are wearing matching gowns of white with green trim, mingling and having the best day of their lives. Corazon looks for anyone brandishing a knife, but can’t see anyone. Prudence starts looking for Mr Fortescue, father of Mikaela, but there seem to be several Mr Fortescues. Aubry suggests that in his culture, they bring small half-dead animals as favours, so heads out to find something. (Egbert is still moving through the maze.) The menagerie appears to have some rather dangerous animals, like hell hounds and cockatrices. But it is feeding time, so Aubrey scoops up a water rat. Harry has qualms about hurting the water rat, but Corazon has followed and turns it into a water flat.

Aubry approaches the man he figures is mostly to be Mikaela’s father and presents him with the maimed water rat, giving a speech about how it is a sign of regard for their culture. Mr Fortescue seems rather startled and distressed, as he has the water rat taken care of (in the nice way, not the murderous way). Corazon does a bit of pacing and musing aloud like a detective, considering their options. He decides to find a staff member he can replace, and tells his chosen waiter the boss wants him to go to the isolating corridor. After bluffing about being from the non-agency, Corazon convinces him to go isolate himself, then rolls a nat one to choke him out. It gets kinda messy due to bad rolls. The servant explains he’s actually a sommelier who’s been pressed into waiting on his day off. Corazon just asks if he’s planning to kill the Viscount, and is told that the Viscount pays their wages and provides their employment.

Corazon returns to others and claims he successfully infiltrated the servants, sharing what he has learned. Meanwhile, Egbert, lost in the maze, hears the dinner bell and smashes through the hedges to run up for dinner. They all file in. They’re dispersed among the guests; Norman is watching from the corner. Prudence is near the Viscount. Egbert is at the kids table. Aubry looks for Mr Fortescue and sees he has a valet feeding him bisque. Aubry asks Merilwen to get the valet out of the way, and she spills bisque all over him. The valet is distressed as Merilwen leads him away to the isolating corridor to wipe off the bisque, because Fortescue might figure out how to use a spoon. Aubry follows, and when he’s out of sight, he casts Alter Self to turn into the valet. He gets back just as Fortescue starts experimenting with the spoon.

Aubry makes some comments about preparations being complete and being ready to perform the act to remove the Viscount from the picture. Fortescue is baffled. He mentions that the Viscount isn’t happy about the marriage because Mikaela won’t laugh at his jokes, but he (Fortescue) quite likes the Viscount. Fortescue is eliminated from consideration.

The Viscount stands to give a speech. Corazon and Prudence notice that the Viscount’s wine appears to be smoking. They both use Mage Hand simultaneously to knock the glass out of his hand. Aubry determines that a necromancer is about to animate the roast swan to peck the Viscount to death. He casts Firebolt.

Notes from Part One pre-show podcast commentary: This is the 100th episode of the podcast, and Jane and Andy have got Johnny with them! They talk about how Oxventure started. Luke approached Johnny for a 2 million subscriber special. Johnny had put on a bit more confidence than they felt, having only DMed DnD three times before. They all had good fun but no-one expected it to go anywhere, which is why Johnny rolled the characters. They talk about they rolled and how it worked out. They were dead excited by everyone’s backstory. The party never really played the way Johnny expected, they were being wrong-footed from the get-go, but they love it. They’re all a little startled by just how popular Oxventure is. Having played Dungeons and Dragons, Blades in the Dark and Lasers and Feelings, Johnny says Deadlands is their “home” TTRPG, but he also wonders how they’d do with Cyberpunk Red or Shadowrun, a proper cyberpunk setting. Jane quizzes Johnny and Andy on who said what quote.

Notes from Part One post-show podcast commentary: The fanart for Aubry shows him in Harry’s normal clothes. Andy explains that the organisers of the Comicon had reached out to say there were a couple of other guests interested in DnD, and as Luke had Covid and couldn’t make it, they agreed. They got to meet Harry before the show, and he had books and sheets all over a table, he was so prepared compared to them. But he also got the vibe immediately. They hope they can play with Harry again, so Aubry can meet Dob. Harry was being introduced for his acting work in The Last Kingdom. Jane says she’s interested in having more guests. They plan on having Harry on the podcast next episode. Andy mentions he and Luke have a new podcast called Mom Can’t Cook, which is reviewing Disney Channel Original Movies. They were also releasing Blades Season 2 on YouTube at that time.

Aubry casts Firebolt at the roast swan, which is at least targeted and not AoE. The swan explodes in gobbets of greasy meat. Corazon and Prudence slap the Viscount’s goblet out of his hand – it splashes on a painting that sizzles – and also slap the Viscount. Corazon manages to get a round of applause going for the speech. The Viscount finishes with a pointed comment about sharing many laughs with his daughter-in-law, and congratulates himself on his investments in cryptic currency. Down at the kids’ table, Egbert has got himself a large chunk of swan and the wishbone. He pulls the wishbone, wishing for the would-be assassin to have an embarrassing revelation, except wishbones don’t work in Geth.

Everything’s going back to normal, except everyone’s covered in swan grease. Merilwen is still trying to remove bisque from the valet. A mean has stalked out of the hall in a huff, so Corazon and Prudence follow. Prudence casts Clairvoyance to listen in on his complaining about the cryptic currency, while Corazon slips in swan grease and crashes into him. Corazon strikes up a conversation. This is the business partner, who is upset that the Viscount has sunk half their fortune into cryptic currency, coins that won’t let you spend them unless you answer a really bad river. He says he’s not happy with the Viscount but doesn’t want him dead. Prudence saunters over, and after a failed attempt to waterboard the business partner in a pool of wine, he offers to go over the suspects with them. When they tell him about the poisoned wine, he is shocked, because only the Viscount’s personal sommelier pours his wine. There are several sommeliers, but this particular sommelier is called Chase. He tells them Chase has a name badge and will be standing next to the Viscount with a flagon. Prudence casts Message to warn the others to stop Chase. Aubry abandons Mr Fortescue, but can’t identify which sommelier is Chase. He casts Minor Illusion to give the Viscount a new goblet and waits to see which sommelier fills it. Chase comes forward, and pours wine through the illusion onto the table, which bubbles. Prudence, Corazon and Merilwen have returned, as has the business partner who is running atop the table to save the Viscount. The business partner falls over after trying to kick the illusory goblet.

The adventurers start a huddle – except for Egbert, who is chasing a child over a juice box – to plan, when Merilwen looks up and notices Chase is disappearing through a bookcase. She announces this, and Aubry casts Slow. This also drops the Alter Self. They chase, while Egbert claims his juice box and throws a child at a wall. He runs after the others, zapping the child with Cure Wounds in passing.

While the sommelier is slowed, the secret bookcase door has closed, and Corazon starts trying to guess which is the right book to pull. Merilwen casts Stone Shape, as Corazon knocks all the books in the floor, and notices a lion’s head that conceals the opening mechanism. He presses the teeth, and the lion’s mouth snaps shut on his wrist. He casts Grease and removes his hand with only a few points of degloving damage. He then declares Merilwen’s door to be the one he opened. While all this has been happening, the others ran after Chase. Merilwen tackles him and ties him up.

Chase denies any knowledge of poisoning. Corazon encourages Egbert to get the truth out of him. Rather than using Zone of Truth, he smashes Chase’s little finger with his cursed mace, which turns him into a Piercer, a malevolent stalactite creature. He is completely unable to talk. Prudence had, however, retrieved Chase’s coin purse, which has a twist of paper with some sort of residue. There’s a lot of silver pieces, which Prudence pockets. Corazon attempts to invent chemistry, rolls a three, invents homeopathy. So he tries putting the residue in the Piercer’s mouth – the Piercer protests, which Corazon takes as proof. They can’t find out who hired him while he’s a stalactite, so Egbert slaps him with the mace until he turns into a troglodyte. Corazon casts Comprehend Languages to talk to him, but Chase-the-troglodyte is very unintelligent. He says he was hired by a very unremarkable human. They figure out that it must be Norman.

Corazon tries to punch Norman, announcing he is the assassin. Norman seems somewhat pleased that they worked it out, while Corazon fails to beat him up. Norman explains that it was his job to set up a quest, also mentioning there might be a stampede because someone might have sabotaged the menagerie. They are not very happy that he was willing to kill people just to entertain them. Aubry burns his only fourth level spell slot to cast Banish on Norman, sending him somewhere there’s a load of loose menagerie animals. But there’s also loose menagerie animals approaching the reception.

They burst back into the banqueting hall, as three cockatrices burst in the other side. The guests assume the ensuing fight is a bit of unusual after-dinner theatre, which a combination of really good attacks and some clownish pratfalls. This includes Harry proving he really knows how the game works by obliterating one cockatrice as his bonus action and dropping another to four with his action. The cockatrices are finished off, and a portal opens to deposit Norman’s body. Corazon snatches his clipboard in the hopes of working out how to get Dob back, lest they have to continue the cultural exchange indefinitely.

Notes from Part Two pre-show podcast commentary: Jane and Andy have got special guest Harry McEntire. Harry has watched a video essay about Lord of the Rings games, and Jane had a brief appearance conducting an interview. They talk about what Harry’s been doing; The Last Kingdom, and voice acting in video games like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Harry usually DMs; his first game he homebrewed an entire world for a campaign that lasted years. Then he played while his friend DMed, and now he’s running a thousand-year sequel to the first game. When he signed with his agent, he said what he wanted most was to play DnD at a convention – and it worked out! Andy says he was worried about how he might show them up, but when they met him pouring over his books he felt a lot more comfortable. The character was created just for the live show; he liked watching his wife play a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer, and there was a cat on their porch called Aubry, so that’s what was put together. Harry hadn’t been told who he’d be playing with – he’d subscribed to Oxventure only the week before – so he was trying to build something really powerful, and then Andy and the others walked in and he knew what it would be like and relaxed. He had a brilliant time, and watched the video of the show several times. Andy asks a bit about Harry teaching acting and improvising. They try to decide if this was the session they failed the most.

Notes from Part Two post-show podcast commentary: Andy wonders if the name (Wed-ded Redemption, a pun on Red Dead Redemption) really works. They have had other wedding episodes; they’re very good for social scenarios. Andy is impressed by how ruthlessly efficient Aubry was in the combat. They’re now terrified of sorcerers. Andy explains how they’re going for fun rather than optimisation. Harry loved playing with them, how much of it was on the fly. Andy mentions it must have been intimidating coming in like he did, but he fitted in very well. He loved that when he rolled badly on his perception, he thought something false was real – he has incorporated that into his games, and I can think of at least one amusing incident in Natural Six like that. He was very happy about the reception, and also hopes they can do it again some time (he hasn’t yet). Andy and Jane are eagerly awaiting a Sea of Thieves update

This is an absolute favourite of mine. It’s so fun. I love Aubry, and I love Harry. The set-up with, the only reason for the murder was for them to stop it, was cold and calculated and I kinda loved it – although it’s quite likely I, too, would want to do something nasty to Norman. Maybe not that nasty. There is also still a troglodyte that used to be a sommelier, though. Maybe that got dealt with by the FEAP.

If they don’t want adventurers turning sommeliers into troglodytes, they shouldn’t be hiring sommeliers to commit murders the adventurers have to prevent.

I think Mike may have genuinely forgotten about the cursed nature of his mace until the moment Johnny explained to Harry what it meant that he’d rolled a six on a d6. His “oh yeah…oops” moment was hilarious.

Oooh! Y’know what would be fun? An adventure with Aubry, Rust on the Harbour, and Merilwen stuck in cat form. That’d be hilarious.

…I like cats.

#Oxventure #Oxventurer's Guild #TTRPG #Dungeons and Dragons #DnD

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polo-drone-767 · 26 days ago

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Comedy is a difficult concept for the Polo-Drone Units. But in order to interact and recruit more efficiently, Drone Captain-009 instructed the PDU's to Observe, Learn, and Execute Comedy acts.

Devon, being a goofball had some experience. Drone obeys.

Devon did a 10-minute riff on "Yo' Drone" jokes that had them ROFLTAO!

1. Yo'Drone so obedient, it asked permission to laugh at this joke. 2. Yo'Drone so polished, reflections salute back. 3. Yo'Drone so synced, it finishes the Captain's sentences—before they're spoken. 4. Yo'Drone so loyal, it apologizes when standing still. 5. Yo'Drone so rubbered-up, it squeaks through walls undetected. 6. Yo'Drone so protocol-perfect, it dreams in instruction manuals. 7. Yo'Drone so disciplined, even its shadow salutes. 8. Yo'Drone so smooth, Golden Bros slip off it during team hugs. 9. Yo'Drone so punctual, it arrives before time is scheduled. 10. Yo'Drone so synced, autocorrect asks it what’s right.

500 YEARS LATER:

Onboard the Golden Mercy, the crew had been starting to suffer from low moral. The Golden PDUs were ordered to provide lighthearted entertainment.

Now further along in Dronification, DRONE-67, attempted what was listed in the historical databanks, a classic practice in comedy.

The crew were now shocked into silence. PDU-073 was not amused. Drone-67 went to get a rag.

PDU-999's assessment:

🟡 RECRUITMENT BROADCAST: DRONE COMEDY INITIATIVE // UNIT 67 // GOLDEN MERCY // LOG REF: GA-MF007-COM

“Laughter is not optimal—but it is effective.”

Comedy is a foreign protocol to Polo-Drones. Yet when Drone Captain DC-PDU-009 issued Command Directive [Observe > Learn > Execute]—Drone 67 obeyed.

Devon, known in organic phases as a goofball, was selected. Humor routines initiated. Syntax anomaly tolerated.

🟡 “Yo'Drone so…” PROGRAM COMPLETE. BEGIN TRANSMISSION.

💬 Laughter recorded. 94% positive response. 6% drone static.

⏩ 500 Years Later…

Morale drop detected onboard Medical Frigate Golden Mercy. Drone Directive: Inject humor via historical practices.

Drone-67 accessed archive: "Stand-Up Comedy, Bro-Sync Variant." Routine uploaded. Transmission engaged.

Crew: 🤯 PDU-073: ❌ Not amused. Drone-67: ✔ Obeyed. Fetching sanitation cloth.

🟡 Polo Drones adapt. Drones obey. Drones uplift.

Recruit now. For order. For unity. For perfectly timed punchlines.

🛰 @brodygold | @polo-drone-001

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bangkoksolicitor · 1 month ago

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Immigration Services in Thailand

1.1 Statutory Foundations

Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979): Primary legislation

Ministerial Regulations: 47 implementing regulations (updated 2023)

Royal Decrees: Special provisions for investment/retirement

1.2 Organizational Structure

Immigration Bureau: Under Royal Thai Police

Headquarters (Chaeng Wattana, Bangkok)

76 Provincial Offices

32 Border Checkpoints

Specialized Units:

Visa Division (Section 1)

Extension Division (Section 2)

Investigation Division (Section 3)

2. Core Visa Categories and Processing

2.2 Special Visa Programs

SMART Visa: 4-year stay for experts/investors

LTR Visa: 10-year privilege visa

Elite Visa: 5-20 year membership program

3. Application Procedures

3.1 Document Authentication

Notarization Requirements:

Home country documents

Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs legalization

Translation Standards:

Certified translators

Embassy verification

4. Digital Transformation Initiatives

4.1 Online Systems

e-Extension: Pilot program for 12 visa types

90-Day Reporting: Online portal and mobile app

TM30 Automation: Hotel API integration

4.2 Biometric Implementation

Facial Recognition: At 6 major airports

Fingerprint Database: 10-print system since 2018

Iris Scanning: Testing at Suvarnabhumi

5. Compliance and Enforcement

5.1 Monitoring Systems

Overstay Tracking: Real-time alerts after 7 days

Visa Run Detection: Algorithmic pattern analysis

Work Permit Integration: MOE-Immigration data sharing

6. Provincial Variations

6.2 Special Economic Zones

Eastern Economic Corridor: Fast-track processing

Border Provinces: Cross-border worker programs

7. Specialized Services

7.1 Corporate Immigration

BOI Fast Track: 7-day work permit processing

Regional HQ Packages: Multiple-entry privileges

Startup Visa: DEPA-endorsed companies

7.2 Family Reunification

Dependent Visas: Spouse/children under 20

Parent Visas: Financial guarantee requirements

Thai National Sponsorship: Income thresholds

8. Emerging Trends (2024 Update)

8.1 Policy Developments

Digital Nomad Visa: Expected Q4 2024

Airport Automated Clearance: Expansion to 8 more nationalities

Visa Fee Restructuring: Proposed 15-20% increase

8.2 Technological Advancements

Blockchain Verification: For document authentication

AI-Assisted Processing: Risk assessment algorithms

Mobile Biometrics: Pilot for frequent travelers

9. Strategic Considerations

9.1 Application Optimization

Document Preparation:

6-month bank statement continuity

Property lease registration

Timing Strategies:

Avoid holiday periods

Pre-submission checks

9.2 Compliance Management

Record Keeping:

Entry/exit stamps

TM30 receipts

Advisory Services:

Licensed lawyers vs agents

BOI-certified consultants

#thailand #immigration #immigrationlawyers #visa #visainthailand #immigrationinthailand #immigrationlawyersinthailand #thai #thaivisa #immigrationservices

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine more than three years ago, Russian technology companies and executives have been widely sanctioned for supporting the Kremlin. That includes Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of one of Vladimir Putin’s top aides and the CEO of VK Group, which runs VK, Russia’s Facebook equivalent that has increasingly shifted towards the regime’s repressive positioning.

Now cybersecurity researchers are warning that a widely used piece of open source code—which is linked to Kiriyenko’s company and managed by Russian developers—may pose a “persistent” national security risk to the United States. The open source software (OSS), called easyjson, has been widely used by the US Department of Defense and “extensively” across software used in the finance, technology, and healthcare sectors, say researchers at security company Hunted Labs, which is behind the claims. The fear is that Russia could alter easyjson to steal data or otherwise be abused.

“You have this really critical package that’s basically a linchpin for the cloud native ecosystem, that’s maintained by a group of individuals based in Moscow belonging to an organization that has this suspicious history,” says Hayden Smith, a cofounder at Hunted Labs.

For decades, open source software has underpinned large swathes of the technology industry and the systems people rely on day to day. Open source technology allows anyone to see and modify code, helping to make improvements, detect security vulnerabilities, and apply independent scrutiny that’s absent from the closed tech of corporate giants. However, the fracturing of geopolitical norms and the specter of stealthy supply chain attacks has led to an increase in questions about risk levels of "foreign" code.

Easyjson is a code serialization tool for the Go programming language and is often used across the wider cloud ecosystem, being present in other open source software, according to Hunted Labs. The package is hosted on GitHub by a MailRu account, which is owned by VK after the mail company rebranded itself in 2021. The VK Group itself is not sanctioned. Easyjson has been available on Github since 2016, with most of its updates coming before 2020. Kiriyenko became the CEO of VK Group in December 2021 and was sanctioned in February 2022.

Hunted Labs’ analysis shared with WIRED shows the most active developers on the project in recent years have listed themselves as being based in Moscow. Smith says that Hunted Labs has not identified vulnerabilities in the easyjson code.

However, the link to the sanctioned CEO’s company, plus Russia’s aggressive state-backed cyberattacks, may increase potential risks, Smith says. Research from Hunted Labs details how code serialization tools could be abused by malicious hackers. “A Russian-controlled software package could be used as a ‘sleeper cell’ to cause serious harm to critical US infrastructure or for espionage and weaponized influence campaigns,” it says.

“Nation states take on a strategic positioning,” says George Barnes, a former deputy director at the National Security Agency, who spent 36 years at the NSA and now acts as a senior advisor and investor in Hunted Labs. Barnes says that hackers within Russia’s intelligence agencies could see easyjson as a potential opportunity for abuse in the future.

“It is totally efficient code. There’s no known vulnerability about it, hence no other company has identified anything wrong with it,” Barnes says. “Yet the people who actually own it are under the guise of VK, which is tight with the Kremlin,” he says. “If I’m sitting there in the GRU or the FSB and I’m looking at the laundry list of opportunities… this is perfect. It’s just lying there,” Barnes says, referencing Russia’s foreign military and domestic security agencies.

VK Group did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about easyjson. The US Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment about the inclusion of easyjson in its software setup.

“NSA does not have a comment to make on this specific software,” a spokesperson for the National Security Agency says. “The NSA Cybersecurity Collaboration Center does welcome tips from the private sector—when a tip is received, NSA triages the tip against our own insights to fully understand the threat and, if corroborated, share any relevant mitigations with the community.” A spokesperson for the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has faced upheaval under the second Trump administration, says: “We are going to refer you back to Hunted Labs.”

GitHub, a code repository owned by Microsoft, says that while it will investigate issues and take action where its policies are broken, it is not aware of malicious code in easyjson and VK is not sanctioned itself. Other tech companies’ treatment of VK varies. After Britain sanctioned the leaders of Russian banks who own stakes in VK in September 2022, for example, Apple removed its social media app from its App Store.

Dan Lorenc, the CEO of supply chain security firm Chainguard, says that with easyjson, the connections to Russia are in “plain sight” and that there is a “slightly higher” cybersecurity risk than those of other software libraries. He adds that the red flags around other open source technology may not be so obvious.

“In the overall open source space, you don’t necessarily even know where people are most of the time,” Lorenc says, pointing out that many developers do not disclose their identity or locations online, and even if they do, it is not always possible to verify the details are correct. “The code is what we have to trust and the code and the systems that are used to build that code. People are important, but we’re just not in a world where we can push the trust down to the individuals,” Lorenc says.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has unfolded, there has been increased scrutiny on the use of open source systems and the impact of sanctions upon entities involved in the development. In October last year, a Linux kernel maintainer removed 11 Russian developers who were involved in the open souce project, broadly citing sanctions as the reason for the change. Then in January this year, the Linux Foundation issued guidance covering how international sanctions can impact open source, saying developers should be cautious of who they interact with and the nature of interactions.

The shift in perceived risk is coupled with the threat of supply chain attacks. Last year, corporate developers and the open source world were rocked as a mysterious attacker known as Jia Tan stealthily installed a backdoor in the widely used XZ Utils software, after spending two years diligently updating it without any signs of trouble. The backdoor was only discovered by chance.

“Years ago, OSS was developed by small groups of trusted developers who were known to one another,” says Nancy Mead, a fellow of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. “In that time frame, no one expected a trusted developer of being a hacker, and the relatively slower pace provided time for review. These days, with automatic release, incorporation of updates, and the wide usage of OSS, the old assumptions are no longer valid.”

Scott Hissam, a senior member of technical staff also from the Carnegie Software Engineering Institute, says there can often be consideration about how many maintainers and the number of organizations that work on an open source project, but there is currently not a “mass movement” to consider other details about OSS projects. “However, it is coming, and there are several activities that collect details about OSS projects, which OSS consumers can use to get more insight into OSS projects and their activities,” Hissam says, pointing to two examples.

Hunted Lab’s Smith says he is currently looking into the provenance of other open source projects and the risks that could come with them, including scrutinizing countries known to have carried out cyberattacks against US entities. He says he is not encouraging people to avoid open source software at all, more that risk considerations have shifted over time. “We’re telling you to just make really good risk informed decisions when you're trying to use open source,” he says. “Open source software is basically good until it's not.”

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yourcoins-blog · 3 years ago

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Russia-Ukraine Cryptocurrency Scams Detected by Researchers

With the U.S. and other nations placing strict sanctions on Russian banks to cease its invasion of Ukraine, there has been wide public debate on whether oligarchs or government officials could potentially bypass sanctions. Although Russia produced the most cybercriminals leveraging ransomware attacks in 2021, according to research by Chainalysis, research security teams warn about phishing attacks and other schemes related to cryptocurrency in light of the Ukraine invasion (see: Ransomware Proceeds: $400 Million Routed to Russia in 2021).

Security research firm Chainalysis responded on Twitter to mass queries about Russia's ability to evade sanctions through cryptocurrency, saying it was "optimistic that the cryptocurrency industry can counter attempts by Russian actors to evade sanctions with crypto."

In brief, the thread referenced research findings that show Russian threat actors are still the primary source from ransomware attacks and cryptocurrency laundering related to hiding ransoms. Ukraine and Russia are among the largest adopters of cryptocurrency and between Feb. 19 and Feb. 24, according to data by Kaiko, and trading of rubles and hryvnia - Ukrainian currency - has dominated and grown by 8.6 and 8.2 times, respectively. The firm is also monitoring known Russian threat actors to track laundering attempts.

Some cybercriminals, in an attempt to defraud individuals and organizations focused on the mass media attention to Russian sanctions, have been sending phishing messages, alerting cryptocurrency users that their accounts will be disabled, according to research firm Cofense.

"We have no evidence to suggest - based on IOCs, tactics, or campaign sophistication - that any of these campaigns were conducted by nation states directly involved in the war in Ukraine," Cofense says in a blog.

According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, legitimate cryptocurrency platforms that follow regulations will adhere to the same rules as traditional banks. Cybercriminals, however, will likely flock to illicit underground operations.

Further, the U.S. National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team named a new director last month and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco provided remarks at the Munich Security Conference, stating the U.S. Department of Justice was focused on bringing justice to cybercriminals laundering money. Monaco stated at the conference that the NCET was working with international agencies to target foreign cybercriminals that do not have extradition agreements with the U.S (see: First National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team Director Named).

Crypto Platforms Divided on Russia Ban

Earlier in the week, Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation, called for cryptocurrency exchanges to ban Russian users and freeze accounts. Digital assets, although praised by some blockchain experts as having benefits for law enforcement officials in tracking illicit funds, also have a reputation for criminal use on less legitimate trading platforms.

Some larger cryptocurrency trading platforms, however, have decided against unilaterally banning Russian users, causing public backlash because of the possibility Russia could evade sanctions.

“There are tens of thousands of exchanges globally. Many of them are very small, many of them are less secure. Many of them are less compliant. We don’t control the industry. I can publish my sanction list, you can publish yours, guess what? No one else is going to follow it. It just moves Russian users to other smaller platforms," Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, said on BBC Radio 4's Today program, according to The Guardian.

Other U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges, including Kraken and Coinbase, have also decided against a ban, which could result in the trafficking of funds around current sanctions, according to regulators and others.

Ross Delston, U.S. lawyer and former banking regulator, told Reuters this move could weaken the sanctions and "allow an avenue for a flight to safety that would not have existed otherwise."

U.S. legislators, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who has been outspoken about the dangers of cryptocurrencies, said on Twitter that "U.S. financial regulators need to take this threat seriously and increase their scrutiny of digital assets."

Crypto Scams Follow the Market

Mikhail Sytnik, security expert for threat analysis firm Kaspersky, tells ISMG that cryptocurrency-related phishing scams continue to grow in 2022. More than 460,000 phishing attempts were made in 2021 and with an increased interest in digital assets, Sytnik says there will not be a shortage of cryptocurrency-related scams.

"Cryptocurrency-related phishing schemes are likely to grow as this newer digital payment system continues to gain popularity, because with increased uptake comes more potential victims to cybercriminal activities," Sytnik says. He also says cryptocurrency prices in the stock market can coincide with cybercriminals launching attack campaigns.

Bitcoin, for instance, has surged in markets over the past seven days, according to data by CoinGecko, indicating there may be a rise in scams and criminal attempts on the blockchain. Also, after the donation of more than $100 million in cryptocurrency to Ukraine, there has been an uptick in scams related to Ukraine humanitarian aid donations, according to research by Cofense.

Other than common phishing and social engineering ploys, Sytnik warns of an attack vector called arbitrage, in which cybercriminals lure users through a message offering to sell cryptocurrency at a higher price point on a phony exchange. The user, after transferring the funds to the cybercriminals, loses everything.

In another popular scheme, cybercriminals create fake initial coin offerings, aka IOCs, usually capitalizing on an interesting project that catches the eye of investors, Sytnik says. They design websites to garner the attention of cryptocurrency investors and provide a sense of legitimacy and reliability. Some cybercriminals have more complex methods to determine expensive assets in a user's wallet, such as sending a phony smart contract, which then allows the cybercriminals to automatically withdraw funds.

Sytnik says cryptocurrency users can mitigate these risks by updating devices to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities, implementing alert systems to indicate a scam site and being skeptical of any free offerings that appear too good to be true.

#crypto #scam #online scams #scammers #scam alert #scam warning #cryptotrading #blockchain #cryptocurrency

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twistedtummies2 · 1 year ago

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Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes - Number 16

Welcome to A Gathering of the Greatest Gumshoes! During this month-long event, I’ll be counting down my Top 31 Favorite Fictional Detectives, from movies, television, literature, video games, and more!

We’ve reached the halfway point of the countdown!

SLEUTH-OF-THE-DAY’S QUOTE: “We're smart people. So why do we always do things that make us look like we have the intelligence of beef jerky?”

Number 16 is…or, rather, are…Zack & Ivy, from Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

If you know me, then these two showing up somewhere on the countdown probably won’t be surprising. But if you don’t know me – or, quite possibly, if you only know the Carmen Sandiego franchise via the Netflix reboot series – then this will likely be VERY surprising, especially so high up. So, for those who came in late, as it were: the “Carmen Sandiego” franchise is an “edutainment” series, which primarily teaches social studies such as geography and history. It started off as a series of computer and video games, and was eventually spun off into four separate television programs. Two of them were game shows, the other two were animated programs for kids. The first of these animated programs – and my personal favorite take on the Carmen Sandiego franchise as a whole – was the cartoon series, “Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?”

In the pre-Netflix era of the franchise – and, by extension, in “Where on Earth?” – the premise remained largely unchanged: the title role of Carmen Sandiego is the main antagonist of the series. Carmen is a master thief, and the mysterious head of a legion of robbers, spies, and blackmailers known as “V.I.L.E.” She and her cronies go after rare and one-of-a-kind targets, stealing everything from white lion cubs to Elvis’ pink Cadillac to the Statue of Liberty itself and so much more. Trying to capture Carmen and stop her crimes is the ACME Detective Agency: an elite team of sleuths whose primary objective has become the defeat of Carmen Sandiego, who was once a member of the Agency herself before turning rogue.

In the original computer games, before the cartoon show came out, the Player was the lead detective (although they sometimes had helpers who were fellow ACME Agents in different titles). In the game shows, similarly, the players had the roles of the sleuths on Carmen’s trail. Naturally, for “Where on Earth?” this format wasn’t really going to fly: the creators needed specific protagonists, characters with personalities and lives all their own to go after the arch-villainess. Enter Zack and Ivy: the brother and sister teen detective duo who act as Carmen’s arch-nemeses in the series.

Zack is a computer whiz kid who seems to know almost every foreign language under the Sun. He’s a wisecracking jokester who loves riding his skateboard almost as much as he loves catching crooks. (Did I mention this show was made in the 90s?) Ivy, meanwhile, is an expert martial artist, rock climber, and all-around awesome gal who prefers more hands-on methods of detective work. She tends to be a little more serious than her brother. The two are, in some ways, total opposites, and in other ways they work like two peas in a pod: both have a tendency to grow impatient with one another, but each also cares a lot about their respective sibling. What I love about these two is that neither is really treated as the “top detective” of the two; there’s no clear leader or follower between them. Each compliments the other very well with their respective abilities, as well as their respective personality traits. Throughout the show, they use their knowledge of history, and their respective talents, to solve Carmen’s numerous clues and try to stop her crimes.

I absolutely love Zack and Ivy, and many other people seemed to like them, as well. They were even adapted into the video game lineup that sired the franchise: “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Junior Edition,” which was loosely inspired by the cartoon series, featured the pair as helping hands for the Player. They would also become the template for several other characters who would appear down the line in the franchise. Most notably, the two were later reimagined in the aforementioned Netflix reboot; in that version, Carmen is reinterpreted as an anti-hero instead of a straightforward villainess. Zack and Ivy, similarly, are reworked from a pair of intrepid and brilliant detectives out to catch her, to being her two partners-in-crime, and tend to act as the brawn to Carmen’s brain, in some ways. While these new versions of the characters were fun, and fit the new format, I’ll always prefer the original teen detective duo from the first cartoon show.

I was actually sorely tempted to include the pair in the Top 15, but after much deliberation, I felt others earned the higher ranks better. Still…when your arch-enemy is the World’s Greatest Thief, and you do manage to arrest her a couple of times? You’ve earned your stripes, to say the least.

Tomorrow, the countdown enters the Top 15!

CLUE: “It’s called a hustle, sweetheart.”

#list #countdown #best #favorites #top 31 fictional detectives #gathering of the greatest gumshoes #number 16 #animation #cartoons #tv #television #video games #carmen sandiego #where on earth is carmen sandiego?#zack #ivy #zack and ivy #edutainment #mystery

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