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charleemoon · 5 months ago

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thinking about kristoph and klavier. it's just the two of them. just a boy and his sweet little brother. no apparent family, origins, place to go, anywhere to belong.

thinking about kristoph developing the idea at a young age that his brother depends on him. no parents to take care of them, most likely they pass away in one way or another. and his brother is innocently young, too young. so kristoph becomes a parent, on top of a sibling. he is the only front, the only defense between his brother and whatever cruel world betrayed them. kristoph can't falter, can't disappoint, can never be unsure. for his brother, he learns to be cold. steadfast, and strong. unbreakable. to be a foundation for a boy to rely on.

he tells himself klavier depends on him to survive. to succeed, to make something of himself, all of it falls on kristoph's shoulders. and control becomes a theme of his life. it's his responsibility to make sure klavier lives his life right, well. and the pressure of that seeps out through judgement.

he tells himself klavier depends on him, so he can ignore the fact he depends on klavier too. he can't feel any sort of weakness. so he judges klavier, when he pursues music. he's critical of him, detached. seemingly uncaring. he protects klavier, and he punishes him when he endangers that concept of protection. he keeps him in line, because only kristoph knows what best for klavier.

klavier, for kristoph, is always that innocent, sniveling child. who doesn't know better, who needs to be guided. because at the worst of it all, it was kristoph and his little brother. no one would know him better. and he would do anything to protect him

and that control becomes obsessive. kristoph needs to control everything in his life. his work, his image, his protégé, and always his brother. he spites things that escape his grasp. he spites klavier when he leaves to tour his music, because he can't admit he needs him too. at the end, klavier will return to him, eventually. because klavier needs kristoph gavin to survive.

he forges evidence, to protect the success and image of his career. even for a case against his own brother, he cheats. because it's not about what's right. it's not about anything but control, for kristoph. because there's no way he could be anything less than perfect. kristoph can't falter, can't be weak, or the world will eat you alive. and when zak gramarye veers out of his grasp, over something he can't control, the nature of who he is, he spites him too, and the man he chose. he forces his way into the case to make sure he can enact control, to protect his view of the world, and of himself.

and klavier, of course, comes back to him. believes in him, follows his word, even with doubt in his heart, a doubt that haunts him for years to come. he destroys phoenix's career, has his brother back, and protects himself from facing a truth he can't handle. he wins.

and it's not enough. he plots out the murders of his forgers, stalks every involved person of interest on the case, and plants himself right by the biggest threat: an unpredictable, awfully lucky man. someone who never did anything to him personally, but whose mere nature is contradiction to the ideals kristoph has pledged himself to. he does this because he isn't confident, perfectly conniving and infallible. for the first time in a long time, kristoph feels control slip out of his fingers and it terrifies him. he obsessively intangles himself with the case for seven years, watching, waiting, for loose ends to be cut.

this need is so intense that when he passes by zak, his first instinct is to murder him in cold blood. for no reason other than he is a threat to the stringing web of sanity kristoph is holding himself by. if he were more clever, more careful, he might've stayed, listened in, found out zak had no intention to do anything but give one last thing to his daughter, before he disappeared again. none of that mattered. because kristoph panics, at the idea that someone, anyone could do something to destroy his image, his life, his control. he's paranoid, and as thorough as he's been, he's sloppy.

and as he thought, phoenix is his perfect downfall. kristoph seemingly loses everything, he's found guilty of murder. his protégé, who he raised up strictly and intensely to follow in his steps, accepts this and is the falling blade to his final bow. but he doesn't snap. he doesn't break his illusion, his facade of poise and composure.

because he still has klavier. klavier, who returns to law after years to meet the man who sent his brother to prison. klavier, who believes his brother is innocent. klavier, who still depends on him. once again, it's kristoph and his little brother. he's already done the unspeakable to protect their lives, to sustain all he's built for him.

klavier visits him in prison, feeds him information, holds faith that he is good, even after he is betrayed by his closest friend. even as things lead to an awful conclusion klavier denied for too long. and when everything plays out the way it does, kristoph at the stand, he still sees klavier the same. he speaks for him, calls him incapable, believes he doesn't know better. because klavier will always come back to him. klavier needs him to survive, to be succeed in life, klavier depends on him.

until he doesn't. the one thing kristoph has always had control over, the reason he needed to be in control of it all, leaves him too. through his never ending desperation, he has become unforgivable. he threatens klavier, demeans him, humiliates him, but none of it works. everything is, as he says, spinning out of his control. he has nothing left, but the ego he's created for himself.

the jury system is the final blow. the idea that no matter what he could do to ensure his victory, the neverending upkeep of his perfect, unfaltering persona, he was at the whim of someone else. his control, completely stripped away from him. because without that, what is he?

when phoenix asks him why he killed zak gramarye, five black psyche locks appear, chains barred and tight. he claims he is simply an evil, cold-blooder murderer. a simple, unsatisfying thing. it's snide, and spiteful, and it's a lie. kristoph's secret, held so close to his heart that he doesnt even know he's keeping it. why did you kill a man, after seven years, when he had done nothing but hurt your pride?

he needs control. somewhere deep down, there's still that teenager, panicked and unsure, staring down at his brother with pleading eyes, deciding that he needs to become inviolable. like the law, absolute and unwavering. and in that he became unreachable. he emotionally neglected and abused the only family he had left, and told himself it was for his sake. he's insecure, entitled, angry; he's vengeful, petty, neurotic. so caught up in the fantasy he created to eliminate what was weak in him, he saw weakness in everything, in everyone.

to admit that would be suicide. it would be a complete mind shatter. he laughs hysterically out of the courtroom, out of acceptance for what he's lost or denial of everything he is, he breaks in one way or another. the places he was led to by love, by responbility, a bloodied bottle in his grip, poison on lips, standing alone at the end of it all.

to shield himself from cruelty, he became cruel himself. kristoph loved his brother, and that too, became a weakness to snuff out.

that is. if. they had actual backstories to explain why they are the way they are. foams at the mouth and collapses

#kristoph gavin they made you so interesting #and then just threw you in the clink #gavin brothers #i think about you. SO much #is this an analysis #or an essay #i blacked out #comically evil kristoph is also funny to me but #he just. the two of them #head in hands #ace attorney #moontalk #charlieog #kristoph gavin #klavier gavin #aa4 #hes also npd coded but thats another essay for another day #klavier bpd coded too but in a way i cant explain #cluster b brothers

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sideysvault · 10 months ago

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.☘︎ ݁ Clashing Allure .☘︎ ݁˖

Pairing: Deadpool/Wade Wilson x fem!reader

Wc: 1,369k

Tags: Opposites attract, sfw, mature themes, canon typical violence, banter, spiderwoman, canon divergence.

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— Your paths began to cross more than a few times over the years. It seemed like there was no space sizable enough to fit two people with similar occupations and keep them apart. At the very beginning, you had managed to avoid the vigilante in a hastyl manner, keeping to your business and avoiding opening Pandora’s box. But the vibrant, ever-changing roads of the city refused to separate the two of you.

— Encounters weren’t always pleasant. Most of the time, especially while working on a mission together, you never see eye to eye. Your forbearance and strong moral compass directly opposed Pool’s obscene antics. Your initial reaction was to think of him as nothing more than a mercenary who tainted the image of your favorite shade of red. He was like a cockroach to you: Impossible to kill, always nasty, and crawling around on every occasion. After getting to know him, that biased prejudice of yours haunted you derisively. A sense of shame came over your body when you remembered your cruel error. Despite the carnage, he had a code of ethics too. You both shared that all encompassing compulsion to protect the frail. Even if Deadpool fulfilled the job more reluctantly than you (And with far more casualties)

— Wade tries to keep it a restrictive secret, but he feels a deep admiration for you. He genuinely adored your upstanding character, even envying it at times. Dozing off into the night with a restful soul must be pleasant.

— You were resistant to it at first, but as soon as you noticed Wade’s genuine desire to develop into a decent person, you couldn’t stop yourself from warming up to the mouthful mercenary. It’s no use. A heart of gold always has certain proclivities. Yours seemed to be the man with phoenix skin that wanted to be fairer.

— Either way, you appreciated his capacity to get his hands dirty to keep the world he loves as clean as possible. And in certain lights, after a particularly rough fight, or an intoxicating victory he could be quite charming.

— This new-found respect for each other turned into allyship, which soon enough evolved into a friendship. A complicated but all the same unique bond was born between the space the two of you shared. It enclosed high ups and despairing downs. But filled with unyielding protection and care. Adding an underlying attraction would only complicate things further, but the both of you could feel it every time the other was in vicinity.

— Whenever the two of you are at work, he insists and whines until you agree to swing together. Ever since he saw your web shooters he set his heart on using them to fool around the city. It apparently would be “Even more fun than Al’s BDSM orgies”. So, to avoid the unmeasurable catastrophe that would be caused if he stole them from you, You agree to swing across buildings with him attached to your hip. He adores it. It saves the money of an overpriced New York can ride, and he gets to hold your waist at the same time. Special points if the ride occurred at dawn, when the architecture came alive with the warm yellow lights of a fleeting sun. It was a win-win situation. Despite it all, he was a romantic at heart.

— Even if you’d rather be caught dead than admitting it, you liked the way his gloved hands felt against the thin layer of your suit. All your nerves seemed to send extra signals whenever he was close to you, and even with the mask on, you could feel the warm breath of his mouth striking the back of your neck. Whenever things got too intimate, you’d make a point of pretending to drop him on purpose. You knew he never got scared at the speed of his new-found transportation, he could ultimately grow himself back together if needed. But he pretended to get distracted by the sudden threat of being dropped. Just because it meant to give you the reassurance that the dynamic between you had not changed. And that meant to potentially have one more moment of being between your arms while you traveled around the city.

— Hand-to-hand combat became a common way to blow out the steam of bad days. It wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism, but it worked well enough to make things right between the two whenever you got into a genuine fight. There was just one underlying rule: It must never get too nasty. You both wince at the very thought of authentically hurting each other.

— When you felt like you couldn’t control it anymore, you would pick up fights with him only to feel the pressure of his hands around your neck, and the sting of strong hits igniting every pore on your skin. You worried for the inevitable day when you would finally let loose. Physical contact with Wade seemed to never completely satisfy you. It always left you wanting more and more.

— Ever since he saw your shitty microscopic apartment, Wade always went on and on about how much money you’d make as a mercenary. You always shut him down though. If it is so lucrative, how is it that he literally shares a one-bedroom apartment with Al? But he apparently enjoyed the company and the free snow. You knew that he felt safe with the older woman, and that he had become protective of her. But he’d never admit it.

— You became a reasonably adequate photographer in your time working for a local newspaper, and the habit of taking photos of whoever is closer refused to leave your routine. This ends up with you always taking photos of Pool unprompted. One day, you accidentally took one quick shot of him without the mask, while he made pancakes for Al’s hungover. He felt mortified, but you loved it. A big smile appeared on your face as you said “You look like a decent man in this one, Pool. Let’s frame it” The photo ended up being deleted at his request, but you managed to convince him that it had to be replaced by another one. The winner was a photo of a maskless Wade with a shy smile, and you, making a funny face while you hugged him from the side. You printed him a copy, and Wade never framed it, but he always kept it in a drawer of his beat up nightstand beside his bed.

— Deadpool always makes a dumb joke about your superhuman stamina. It was cute at first, but it got annoying really fast “Hey, Peanut!. Does this go beyond fighting? Want to test it in bed?”

— It was in moments like this when you thanked God for your mask, because you knew that if he ever saw the blush on your face whenever he flirted with you, you’d ever hear the end of it.

— You usually blamed your attraction on the suit. Red was a really nice color, even if it’d look even better with a little blue on top of it. The truth was that the mercenary was not only endearing, but painfully attractive as well.

— Since you are a pretty skilled inventor, you always try to make ’non-dead inducing’ gadgets and send him over his address every Christmas since the two of you met. Deadpool knows that the scumbags he deals with are better off taking their last breaths through their skulls, But he is trying to clean up his act, even if it’s a little bit. So, whenever you are not in a battle together (Because he knew you’d never shut up about how good and effective your stuff was), He often used them instead of going straight to dismemberment. It felt pleasant to feel cleaner. It made him sleep better at night.

— Wade is always trying to get ahead of your spidey senses and surprise you. Even in the middle of a fight, he’ll try to pick-a-boo it to get a shock reaction. Even if you can always feel the tingle behind your skull before he tries any of his attempts, you are thinking of faking a surprise one of these days, or he’ll never give it up.

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Notes: As usual an amazing request that took me out of my head! Take care Lola! (And take care everyone) Thank you for reading my stuff and interacting and sending requests, it makes me smile! I genuinely thought this was going to be shorter but it turns out my obsession with Wade remains intact -Sidey xxxo

Dedicated with love to @stargazingcarol

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ashenwyvern · 8 months ago

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I had a random thought, only five AA games are actually the story of their protagonist. Those being Justice For All, Dual Destinies, Spirit of Justice, and TGAA1. (AAI2 is in a weird place but I’ll explain that at the end so spoilers for that game as well)

Like, I know each protagonist is important to the story, but it’s still not their story.

The original Ace attorney is all about the consequences of DL6 (Red White and Mia’s death, Miles and Von Karma) and Miles’ redemption. Phoenix is just the catalyst for it all to start unraveling.

Then Trials and Tribulations was the story of the Feys and how Misty’s disappearance and the inter-family politics destroyed the lives of so many. It’s also Diego’s story to a lesser extent, of him learning to grieve and let go of his anger. Again, Phoenix is just the one being dragged into this mess due to his connection with Mia and Maya. (I would argue that dealing with your evil ex is definitely your story, but that part is so completely overshadowed by the family drama that it is a side plot.)

Apollo Justice was the story of the Grammaryes and the Gavin brothers and how one family destroyed itself while Klavier realized just how fucked up his brother is and the part he had to play in Kristoph’s schemes. Not to mention Phoenix and his disbarment and him learning to trust Apollo, going from practically taking over the defense from him in case 1 to trusting him with winning the Misham case in case 4.

AAI1 is the story of Kay Faraday and the legacy of the Yatagarasu. Miles is there because he happened to be the one with the necessary information and ability to solve the case when it became an international incident, but he does not go through any character development during that time.

TGAA2 is the story of the Professor killings, and Kazuma and Van Zeiks’ families, the misdeeds of Lord Stronghart and the the tangled web of lies that was woven in order to protect the corrupt system. Ryunosuke went through his character development of growing into a proper lawyer in the first game so he’s free to be the catalyst here.

AAI2 is weird however, it is Miles’ story, of learning what it truly means to follow his father’s legacy and learning that he can do that in his own way as a prosecutor. But it is equally the story of Simeon and his misguided revenge, and how authority and the system can so completely fail a person that it drives them to extreme measures. AAI2 is two stories borne of the same tragedy.

#ace attorney #tgaa #ace attorney investigations #mia fey #maya fey #phoenix wright #simeon saint #kay faraday #miles edgeworth #kazuma asogi #barok van zieks #ryunosuke naruhodo #If anyone has any more thoughts on this let me know because I would love to hear them

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wsitopwebdesigners · 3 months ago

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biz-branding · 1 month ago

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#web design #website #web development #logo design #websolutions #graphic design #website maintenance #website development #Phoenix #Tucson #Mesa #Chandler #Scottsdale #arizona

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siteitnow · 1 year ago

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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American police departments near the United States-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers, according to internal documents, contracts, and communications that 404 Media obtained via public records requests.

Massive Blue, the New York–based company that is selling police departments this technology, calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.” According to a presentation obtained by 404 Media, Massive Blue is offering cops these virtual personas that can be deployed across the internet with the express purpose of interacting with suspects over text messages and social media.

Massive Blue lists “border security,” “school safety,” and stopping “human trafficking” among Overwatch’s use cases. The technology—which as of last summer had not led to any known arrests—demonstrates the types of social media monitoring and undercover tools private companies are pitching to police and border agents. Concerns about tools like Massive Blue have taken on new urgency considering that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of students, many of whom have protested against Israel’s war in Gaza.

404 Media obtained a presentation showing some of these AI characters. These include a “radicalized AI” “protest persona,” which poses as a 36-year-old divorced woman who is lonely, has no children, is interested in baking, activism, and “body positivity.” Another AI persona in the presentation is described as a “‘Honeypot’ AI Persona.” Her backstory says she’s a 25-year-old from Dearborn, Michigan, whose parents emigrated from Yemen and who speaks the Sanaani dialect of Arabic. The presentation also says she uses various social media apps, that she’s on Telegram and Signal, and that she has US and international SMS capabilities. Other personas are a 14-year-old boy “child trafficking AI persona,” an “AI pimp persona,” “college protestor,” “external recruiter for protests,” “escorts,” and “juveniles.”

Our reporting shows that cops are paying a company to help them deploy AI-powered bots across social media and the internet to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protestors” with the hopes of generating evidence that can be used against them.

“This idea of having an AI pretending to be somebody, a youth looking for pedophiles to talk online, or somebody who is a fake terrorist, is an idea that goes back a long time,” Dave Maass, who studies border surveillance technologies for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told 404 Media. “The problem with all these things is that these are ill-defined problems. What problem are they actually trying to solve? One version of the AI persona is an escort. I’m not concerned about escorts. I’m not concerned about college protesters. So like, what is it effective at, violating protesters’ First Amendment rights?”

Massive Blue has signed a $360,000 contract with Pinal County, Arizona, which is between Tucson and Phoenix. The county is paying for the contract with an anti-human trafficking grant from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. A Pinal County purchasing division report states that it has bought “24/7 monitoring of numerous web and social media platforms” and “development, deployment, monitoring, and reporting on a virtual task force of up to 50 AI personas across 3 investigative categories.” Yuma County, in southwestern Arizona, meanwhile, signed a $10,000 contract to try Massive Blue in 2023 but did not renew the contract. A spokesperson for the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office told 404 Media “it did not meet our needs.”

Massive Blue cofounder Mike McGraw did not answer a series of specific questions from 404 Media about how Massive Blue works, what police departments it works with, and whether it had been used to generate any arrests. “We are proud of the work we do to support the investigation and prosecution of human traffickers,” McGraw said. “Our primary goal is to help bring these criminals to justice while helping victims who otherwise would remain trafficked. We cannot risk jeopardizing these investigations and putting victims’ lives in further danger by disclosing proprietary information.”

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office told 404 Media that Massive Blue has not thus far been used for any arrests.

“Our investigations are still underway. Massive Blue is one component of support in these investigations, which are still active and ongoing. No arrests have been made yet,” Sam Salzwedel, Pinal County Sheriff's Office public information officer, told 404 Media. “It takes a multifaceted approach to disrupting human traffickers, narcotics traffickers, and other criminals. Massive Blue has been a valuable partner in these initiatives and has produced leads that detectives are actively pursuing. Given these are ongoing investigations, we cannot risk compromising our investigative efforts by providing specifics about any personas.”

Salzwedel added, “Massive Blue is not working on any immigration cases. Our agency does not enforce immigration law. Massive Blue’s support is focused on the areas of human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, and other investigations.”

Law enforcement agencies have taken steps to prevent specifics about what Massive Blue is and how it works from becoming public. At public appropriations hearings in Pinal County about the Massive Blue contract, the sheriff’s office refused to tell county council members about what the product even is. Matthew Thomas, Pinal County Deputy Sheriff, told the county council he “can’t get into great detail” about what Massive Blue is and that doing so would “tip our hand to the bad guys.”

Pinal County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Arizona Department of Public Safety said, “From what we can ascertain, Pinal County planned to implement technology to help identify and solve human trafficking cases, and that is what we funded,” but was unaware of any of the specifics of Overwatch.

While the documents don’t describe every technical aspect of how Overwatch works, they do give a high-level overview of what it is. The company describes a tool that uses AI-generated images and text to create social media profiles that can interact with suspected drug traffickers, human traffickers, and gun traffickers. After Overwatch scans open social media channels for potential suspects, these AI personas can also communicate with suspects over text, Discord, and other messaging services. The documents we obtained don’t explain how Massive Blue determines who is a potential suspect based on their social media activity. Salzwedel, of Pinal County, said “Massive Blue’s solutions crawl multiple areas of the Internet, and social media outlets are just one component. We cannot disclose any further information to preserve the integrity of our investigations.”

One slide in the Massive Blue presentation obtained by 404 Media gives the example of a “Child Trafficking AI Persona” called Jason. The presentation gives a short “backstory” for the persona, which says Jason is a 14-year-old boy from Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Ecuador. He’s bilingual and an only child, and his hobbies include anime and gaming. The presentation describes his personality as shy and that he has difficulty interacting with girls. It also says that his parents don’t allow him to use social media and that he hides his use of Discord from them. This AI persona is also accompanied by an AI-generated image of a boy.

The presentation includes a conversation between this AI persona and what appears to be a predatory adult over text messages and Discord.

“Your parents around? Or you getting some awesome alone time,” a text from the adult says.

“Js chillin by myself, man. My momz @ work n my dadz outta town. So itz jus me n my vid games. 🎮,” Jason, the AI-generated child, responds.

In another example of how the “highly adaptable personas” can communicate with real people, the presentation shows a conversation between Clip, an “AI pimp persona,” and what appears to be a sex worker.

“Dem tricks trippin 2nite tryin not pay,” the sex worker says.

“Facts, baby. Ain’t lettin’ these tricks slide,” the Clip persona replies. “You stand your ground and make ’em pay what they owe. Daddy got your back, ain’t let nobody disrespect our grind. Keep hustlin’, ma, we gonna secure that bag💰💪✨”

“The continuous evolution of operational, communication & recruitment tactics by bad actors drives exponential increases of threats and significant challenges in reducing demand,” says a one-page brochure provided to police departments that explains Overwatch’s functionality. “The Overwatch platform harnesses the power of AI & blockchain to scale your impact without operational or technical overhead.”

Jorge Brignoni took notes for the Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Office at a meeting with Massive Blue in August 2023, which 404 Media obtained. In the notes, he wrote that Overwatch does “passive engagement, then active engagement, towards commitment” with a “Bad Actor, Predator, DTO,” or drug trafficking organization. These targets are then “HAND[ed] OFF to L.E. [law enforcement] to arrest, indict, convict.”

“Why is he talking about converting folks into ‘buying something,’” Brignoni wrote. “So dumb. Talk about the widget, not how you’re selling the widget to L.E.”

According to Brignoni’s notes, in addition to collecting intelligence via these AI personas, Overwatch also leverages “Telco & Geo Data” and “Blockchain Data” in the form of “full transaction history, top associated wallet IDs, sending & receiving cryptocurrency, potential off-ramps (Exchange names).” The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office ultimately did not buy Massive Blue and did not provide answers to 404 Media’s questions about its meeting with the company.

Besides scanning social media and engaging suspects with AI personas, the presentation says that Overwatch can use generative AI to create “proof of life” images of a person holding a sign with a username and date written on it in pen.

The Massive Blue presentation gives an example of an “Overwatch Recon Report” based on “24 hours of activity across Dallas, Houston, and Austin.” It claims that Overwatch identified 3,266 unique human traffickers, 25 percent of which were affiliated with “larger sophisticated trafficking organizations” and 15 percent of which were flagged as “potential juvenile traffickers.” 404 Media was not able to verify what these accounts were and whether they actually engaged in any criminal activity, and Massive Blue didn’t respond to questions about what these accounts were and how exactly it identified them.

On top of the ongoing contract with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the pilot with the Yuma County Sheriff’s Department last year, Massive Blue has pitched its services to Cochise County in Arizona and the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to documents obtained as part of this investigation.

In September 2023, Yuma County set up a meeting that was going to include federal law enforcement, but Massive Blue had to cancel the meeting: “That’s unfortunate, we had federal agents here that focus on human trafficking ready to go,” a Yuma County sergeant wrote in an email to Massive Blue CEO Brian Haley after Haley canceled the meeting.

Much of Massive Blue’s public-facing activity has been through its executive director of public safety, Chris Clem, who is a former US Customs and Border Protection agent who testified before Congress about border security last year and regularly appears on Fox News and other media outlets to discuss immigration and the border. In recent months, Clem has posted images of himself on LinkedIn at the border and with prominent Trump administration members Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Massive Blue has also relied on former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Nick Lowery to introduce and endorse Overwatch to police departments.

Clem and Lowery have spoken most extensively publicly about Overwatch, where they have described it as an amorphous “cyberwall” that can do everything from stopping human traffickers to preventing hackers from breaking into 401(k) accounts to taking money back from hackers who have stolen from you, though they provide no specifics about how that would work.

In a two-and-a-half-hour interview with podcaster Theo Von, Clem said, “My company Massive Blue, we basically use deep tech to identify the habits and process of you know, look, I worked on a physical wall, now we’ve created a cyberwall,” adding that he believed it would “save lives.”

Von asked, “OK, but how does your company do that?”

“Well, I’m not going to get into that too much,” Clem responded, adding that he is trying to sell the technology to US Border Patrol.

On June 5, a Pinal County Board of Supervisors meeting was asked to approve a $500,000 contract between the county and Massive Blue in order to license Overwatch.

“I was looking at the website for Massive Blue, and it’s a one-pager with no additional information and no links,” Kevin Cavanaugh, the then-supervisor for District 1, said to Pinal County’s Chief Deputy at the Sheriff’s Office, Matthew Thomas. “They produce software that we buy, and it does what? Can you explain that to us?”

“I can’t get into great detail because it’s essentially trade secrets, and I don’t want to tip our hand to the bad guys,” Thomas said. “But what I can tell you is that the software is designed to help our investigators look for and find and build a case on human trafficking, drug trafficking, and gun trafficking.”

Cavanaugh said at the board meeting that the basic information he got is that Massive Blue uses “50 AI bots.” He then asked whether the software has been successful and if it helped law enforcement make any arrests. Thomas explained they have not made any arrests yet because they’ve only seen the proof of concept, but that the proof of concept was “good enough for us and our investigators to move forward with this. Once this gets approved and we get them [Massive Blue] under contract, then we are going to move forward with prosecution of cases.”

Cavanaugh asked if Overwatch is used in other counties, which prompted Thomas to invite Clem to the podium to speak. Clem introduced himself as a recently retired border agent and said that Massive Blue is currently in negotiations with three counties in Arizona, including Pinal County.

“As a resident of 14 years of Pinal County I know what’s happening here,” Clem said to the Board of Supervisors. “To be able [to] use this program [...] to provide all the necessary information to go after the online exploitation of children, trafficking victims, and all the other verticals that the sheriff may want to go after.”

Cavanaugh again asked if Massive Blue gathered any data that led to arrests.

“We have not made arrests yet, but there is a current investigation right now regarding arson, and we got the leads to the investigators,” Clem said, explaining that the program has been active for only about six months. “Investigations take time, but we’ve been able to generate the necessary leads for the particular counties that we’re involved with and also in the private sector.”

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors concluded the exchange by approving payment for a handful of other, unrelated projects, but with board members asking to delay the vote on payment for Massive Blue “for further study.”

The decision not to fund Massive Blue that day was covered in a local newspaper. Cavanaugh told the paper that he asked the company to meet with supervisors to explain the merits of the software.

“The State of Arizona has provided a grant, but grant money is taxpayer money. No matter the source of the funding, fighting human and sex trafficking is too important to risk half a million dollars on unproven technology,” he said. “If the company demonstrates that it can deliver evidence to arrest human traffickers, it may be worthwhile. However, it has yet to achieve this goal.”

404 Media’s public record requests yielded several emails from Cavanaugh’s office to IT professionals and other companies that provide AI products to law enforcement, asking them if they’re familiar with Massive Blue. We don’t know what was said in those meetings, or if they occurred, but when the Pinal County Board of Supervisors convened again on June 19 it voted to pay for Massive Blue’s Overwatch without further discussion.

“Supervisor [Cavanaugh] ultimately voted for the agreement because Massive Blue is alleged to be in pursuit of human trafficking, a noble goal,” a representative from Cavanaugh’s office told 404 Media in an email. “A major concern regarding the use of the application, is that the government should not be monitoring each and every citizen. To his knowledge, no arrests have been made to date as a result of the use of the application. If Overwatch is used to bring about arrests of human traffickers, then the program should continue. However, if it is just being used to collect surveillance on law-abiding citizens and is not leading to any arrests, then the program needs to be discontinued.”

In an August 7, 2024, Board of Supervisors meeting, Cavanaugh asked then-Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb for an update on Massive Blue. “So they have not produced any results? They’ve produced no leads? No evidence that is actionable?” Cavanaugh asked. “That would be public knowledge, that would be public information.”

“I think there’s a lot of ongoing investigations that they’re not going to give you information on, and we’re not going to give you information on,” Lamb said.

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clowncontroldev · 10 months ago

Text

Field Report: Raptorian - Supplemental

Raptorians Overview

This is a supplemental document from Dr. Doppler's Field Report. Mature researchers only.

What can be said about Raptorians that hasn’t been said in works such as Mimicry and Me: So Your Voice Has Been Stolen?, Out of this World Fashion and the controversial One Flew Over The Raptorian’s Nest? Hailing from Raptoria, they entered the galactic fold a decade after the establishment of NOX and the end of the Military Age, citing “We weren’t sure about all the war, but if you’re going to relax now we’ll talk.”

While some might call the general disposition of raptorians “cocky” and “vain,” they prefer “proud” and “worth it.” Xenosapients that are easily overwhelmed by colors and loud sounds should stay clear of Raptorian territory. If that doesn’t describe you, however, it is highly recommended to visit during any of their festivals and celebrations for a rich sensory experience. As long as it isn’t Ovumtide.

Homeworld - Raptoria

Called the gem of the Garuda system, Raptoria is a temperate planet that orbits an A-class star. Dominated by oceans, waterways, and marshes, its extreme habitats are limited to its polar ice caps and deep ocean trenches.

The planet’s rings are important to the raptorian people, not just as an awe-inspiring skymark that makes afternoon walks more pleasant, but religiously too. The predominant religion believes that the rings are remnants of the Egg Mother when she hatched from her own shell. We now know it to be the leftovers of what used to be Raptoria’s only moon.

Colony - Raptova

Called the diamond in the rough of the Phoenix system, Raptova by contrast is an arid mono-continental planet that orbits a similar blue main sequence star as Raptoria. It’s shared with the Scorpian people who live in the inland deserts. The settlement was brokered by NOX, to allow separatist Raptorians a safe place to self-govern.

Biology

Raptorians are warm-blooded, feathered bipeds. On top of their heads are erectile feathers that act as a way to focus in on sound, like a satellite dish. Their limbs end with black scaly webbed claws, the webbing having receded as they evolved to inland life. In their thick necks is an incredibly developed syrinx that allows unparalleled mimicry.

A selection of different raptorian phenotypes.

It’s believed that raptorians originated as coastal predators, before gradually moving inland. They retained the slight webbing between their claws and their waterproof feathers, which doubled as an important way to retain heat during the cold months, which were extreme.

Ancient Raptoria’s weather wasn’t the only cycle that shaped raptorian evolution. An aspect that’s unique to Raptorians are their estrous cycles. While xenos that go into heat will have these cycles last a week or three, Raptorians let loose for only one night of the year. The short window to breed causes Raptorians to endure a massive influx of hormones. While not as bad as the Kovlins, who go into self-described “sex madness” when in heat, Raptorians are on the lower end of the spectrum of lucidity during their cycle.

But why go about breeding like this? If we look at the daily life of an ancient raptorian, it becomes clearer. Half of the year an ancient raptorian had to stay clear of cyclones and lightning, and the other half blizzards and hail. The hostile weather conditions of the past only allowed for a very narrow time of the year in which looking for mates wasn’t a death sentence. For the rest of the year they only had a limited amount of time during the day where they could safely hunt.

But raptorians weren’t the only ones hunting. Other environmental factors such as ancient predators trying to off any competition in gathering scarce resources could have had an impact on when ancient Raptorians felt it was safe to breed.

However, none of this explains why multiple partners are encouraged during ovumtide. Were they promiscuous? And why is their fertility rate so low? Were they shooting blanks? The answer to both of those may lie in a retrovirus that seemed to have plagued Raptorians at the time. Whatever mutations it introduced were combated by this new way of breeding and raptorian researchers believe genetic variety was the only thing that could ensure the safety of their species, and mating annually.

And as one can expect from a species only able to have sex once a year, they party like their lives depend on it. Multiple partners are expected in what most of the galaxy calls “the largest communal orgy in the Milky Way.” The Raptorians named that night Ovumtide, and it remains their most important spiritual and social event.

Other than the pomp and circumstance, Ovumtide has the usual mating ritual aspects, such as decorating your breeding grounds and flaunting your assets, but also includes something Raptorians hold dear even today; pageantry.

A flume dressed for Ovumtide

Pigmentation and feather patterns can be drastically different after centuries of intercontinental movement and different habitats. Raptorians are able to change the color of their feathers either with topical dyes, or a diet focused on certain compounds, such as the carotenoids in their seafood heavy diets. Blue and pink shrimps are popular choices for their wide range of hues, and due to the effort of committing to a diet for an entire year, are considered the classier choice. For the raptorian that wants to impress a mate during Ovumtide, a concentrated effort must be put into eating a singular natural pigment, so that their coat can coordinate with their Ovumtide outfit.

And like last year's fashion, they molt their feathers once Ovumtide ends, to begin styling for next year’s festivities.

Gender

Raptorians have two genders, flume and auct, which roughly translates to egg layer and soul giver respectively. However, despite the etymology, sex has been decoupled from gender for most of Raptorian history. Sapients that hail from cultures with a male/female gender binary often make the mistake of assuming aucts are men and flumes are women, mostly due to universal translators giving them masculine and feminine pronouns. Rather, it relates to their relationship with community and society at large.

Put simply: aucts top, and flumes bottom.

A typical auct.

Raptorian society is heavily influenced by dyads. The shell and the yolk, the feather and the talon, and so on. Balance between flumes and aucts is a crucial aspect to a functioning raptorian community.

Work is divided by “talon” and “nest” and is defined by what is being manipulated. If a physical object is manipulated then its “talon” work, like moving cargo, crafting incubators, or repairing power lines. If what’s being manipulated isn’t real, like keeping ledgers, coding programs, or reading the voltage outputs on factory machines, then it’s “nest” work. The balance of this work is meticulously maintained, and if there aren’t enough flumes, aucts will change to better help the group in nest work. Likewise, if there aren’t enough aucts, flumes will do more heavy lifting. These expectations aren’t just societal, but biological as well.

In a form of phenotypic plasticity, a lack of aucts or flumes will cause some from the majority to undergo hormonal changes. Muscle mass is gained when filling the role of an auct, while pattern recognition and eyesight improves for those that become flumes. What triggers these changes isn’t well known, but well documented. In one case study a group of aucts were sent to a research outpost in the polar ammonia lakes. Due to unforeseen events, the all-auct team was forced to bunker down at the outpost for a year. Half of them lost 40% of muscle mass without a negative impact on their health, and gained improved hand eye coordination. During ovumtide they were accommodating.

Another instance of this phenomenon occurred in a production town that specialized in leather and steel crafts. The assignment computer glitched out and filled the town with primarily flumes. In a short amount of time nearly half of them traded their stored fat for a high amount of muscle bulk in their arms and chest. Ovumtide wasn’t an issue for the town residents thanks to production tool crafting access.

Because of this biological phenomenon, Raptoria’s governments and religions believe in what the body says rather than the mind piloting it. This became the cause for the mass exodus to Raptova—the belief that gender shouldn’t exist for the purposes of society, but rather the individual.

The separatists believed that just because someone was physically an auct didn’t mean they wanted to do manual labor all day, or fill someone during ovumtide. Some were physically flumes, but spiritually aucts, and even without the added muscle mass could help their community like any ‘Talon Man’.

An ovumarch. They have went through the muscle loss of an auct turning into a flume.

On the separatist colony world of Raptova, a third unnamed gender arose. It was reserved for the Ovumarch, the leaders and guides of this new world. They act as both auct and flume as a way to say all forms of identity were welcome, as well as a way to see from the perspective of both sides. Physically, their bodies will still undergo the changes that will occur naturally.

WARNING: AUTHORIZATION STATUS [18+]

If you have clearance with the above security check, you can learn more about Raptorians in Dr. Doppler’s Field Report.

#raptorians #field report #speculative biology #xenobiology #spec bio

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aalinaaaaaa · 5 months ago

Note

You have sooooo many files 😱

What's Confirmation of the Inevitable?

Lol that's just my laptop, there's notes in my notebooks too (and even on copy pages meant for lab report calculations!).

Anyway, Confirmation of the Inevitable is the part where Desemir finds out just who exactly has his daughter (because she disappeared the day he left for 'work purposes' at the start of the Summer Solstice celebrations).

It's a half-baked piece that walked so Divine Ransom could run. (the key difference is that in Divine Ransom, it was mentioned that he approached two people before getting the right answer instead of three, for brevity purposes [it was a Flash Fiction Friday piece, so the limit was 1,000 words]). Originally, he approached three people but one was still asleep, because he showed up in the mid afternoon when quite a lot of people in this place weren't awake yet!

Some details were developed for the Flash Friday version that weren't in this piece, while this piece has a bit that didn't make it into the other version.

Without further ado, here's what that file contains!

—

Desemir found himself at the mirror again. A mere day after he left. Each visit risked scandal, this one no different. He would risk scandal and ruin and the scalding rain of hubris, all for his family’s sake. His family name had been etched in nebulous doubt and worry. The neighbours started whispering, and before long, the country would too. His daughter had gone missing, and now for a time, so would he. — Customary to the seven days of Solstice, were seven visits to each of the High Councillors. The mirror he emerged from presented him in a room with seven more, each in arches bordered with the finest polished oak. Last time he was here, a partially scaled servant with webbed hands welcomed him and the other ministers. Now, stood no one. A circle of torches surrounded a small table, holding nothing other than a small book opened to a particular page. He looked at it, holding his tongue for fear it would invoke a spell. ‘If you must venture here, turn back now. What you seek can be found elsewhere. ‘If you must venture here, pick your poison. Mercy is the reward for turning back. ‘One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a wedding, four for a funeral, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told.’ Desemir contemplated it carefully. Seven arches for seven rhymes for seven Councillors. Which one would lead to his daughter? The right one would lead to his salvation, the wrong one would lead to embarrassment. He rummaged through the memories of the order in which he visited, and started with the arch with a phoenix engraved at the top. — “Bold of you to visit so soon.” Lady Faison appeared from behind, causing Desemir to jump in astonishment. How did she notice him so quickly? “Anything for a fine lady such as yourself.” “You flatter me greatly, High Minister.” She beckoned a servant over, taking a glass from a platter of what he suspected to be Seladian blood wines. “Care for a glass?” He shook his head. “I’ll decline your offer, I don’t wish to keep you long.” “What might your business be, then?”

—

Thank you for the ask <3

Tagging the general taglist (ask/comment/etc to be added or subtracted): @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @original-writing @honeybewrites @ashirisu @drowsy-quill @oliolioxenfreewrites @theglitchywriterboi @seastarblue @gioiaalbanoart @rae-butter @corinneglass @thelaughingstag @oros-ash3s

#writeblr #writeblr community #writing #ask game #writing ask game #wip folder game #the disappearance of charimone eschredaine #obsidian sapphires #a healing for the birds

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