xp_logs | Humanity First

xp_trance posting in

A bit of work in the past...

Then

"Okay, talk to me about what we're looking at here," Darcy murmured from her place over Stacy's shoulder. "Obviously some creepy fucks - oh." The connection from X-Ranch viewer account is linked to credit card details, and from there it's an easy search. After all, prominent anti-mutant activists get plenty of news coverage, and this one barely even obfuscates his face when he's eagerly watching on his private streams. "Do we charge extra for being a bigot?" It's a joke, but.. it's not really a joke. Sadly. "There's no way he's the only one either, so there must be something you want me to do with this information, Stacy." Her fingers curl around the older woman's shoulder in a gentle squeeze. "Do you want it to go to Kevin, or for us to start building a database? Maybe combine it with our own intel on these people?"

"No, this is in house for now. Look, I'm not about to penalize our clients for being mass hypocrites. If I did, with the collection of married people, clergy and homophobes, I'd be out of business in a month." Stacy said with a sigh as the data was fed to her by her team. "That said, people who are in positions of power and actively working to harm mutants and still want to jack off to our content... those I don't mind tracking."

"Follow the money." Darcy nodded, thinking it out. "Yeah, I can do that no problem. I already track some of these shitheads for my day job, so accessing or updating the information won't be weird, and in the interests of keeping our people safer I don't mind letting you know what sort of nastiness they're trying to hide in their closets." The look she gives Stacy is steady. "I'm... look, I know the two of you have a deal. And I know I blur the line of that deal a little, being on both sides of the fence. But I am going to do my damnedest to make sure anything I do with this information doesn't come back at you or the Ranch, okay? There are other ways I can get this same information where this place only comes up as a financial transaction, and once I know who those powerful creeps are... that's what I'll do." She tipped her head back in thought as ideas raced through her mind. How to track them. Where to find them. What she might need to delve into. The thoughts swirl, nothing quite coalescing into clarity, and she remains silent as her (other!) boss responds.

"This doesn't endanger my house. Yet. So any steps further that involve my people or my information come to me first. Kevin sometimes likes to forget that rule, so I expect you to remind him." Stacy said, momentarily chewing on her thumbnail as the information was finishing downloading. Her IT people would be stripping out house related information - things that only the Ranch would have access to and could possibly be tracked back to them. It would give them a solid starting point, but any further intel would need to be generated uniquely by them, shielding her involvement.

"Absolutely. Actually... hm. I'll need to get another laptop and probably borrow... Belinda, I think. She did the really cool mermaid effects for Noah on that shoot with Harmony, right? The lightly webbed hands and scales? I'll need her expertise." She's thinking undercover, trawling through the very worst of things that are fairly available publicly to get to the real dirt. "Belinda, a camera, some likely people who are presumed missing or dead as a result of M-Day..." Darcy's thoughts trail off. "Yeah. That's doable. We make me a bigot. Well. Persona only, I'm not into self-hatred as foreplay or kink. Maybe I can ferret out more of the creeps, see where money's getting funneled, flip it over to someone who knows how to fuck people over with the financials legally. It'll take time to really build, but if I'm smart enough... we might be able to do more than just kick the anthill."

... leads the access needed now.

There was a weird sense of relief as Hope slipped into the small sitting room of the mansion. If there was one part of all the bits and pieces that she was coordinating that felt weird, it was the action she was taking against the website. So a good update would be very welcome.

Darcy took a seat in one of the high-backed chairs, hair covered by a tichel and body encased in a conservative but well-tailored suit, looking for all the world as if she were attending a board meeting with hostiles. The chair gave her excellent sight lines to the room, so once she was settled she pulled out a tablet, fingers ghosting over the screen with the pretense of interacting with it while her eyes brightened just slightly, no longer the neon that was a sure tell that her powers were in use.

Artie followed the two women in, sitting across the room from them both. His clothing hadn't been chosen specifically to contrast with the two, but it might as well have been - he wore a pair of gym shorts and an ancient thinkgeek style t shirt with the sleeves cut off and a pair of sneakers, all in deference to the late summer heat and the workout he was planning on later that day. He noted the faint glow in Darcy's eyes, cataloging it and her clothes for later.

He raised a hand and waved, giving a cheerful smile as he took his own chair.

"You look like you have been busy." Hope noted, idly smoothing her own pencil skirt before straightening her silk blouse with a little more intention. "I hope that you called on us means that you have good news?"

She reached down for a slim portfolio, setting her tablet to the side as she pulled it free and extracted two packets. "Congratulations, RJ, your girl next door thinks you'd make a great asset." Darcy's voice was completely dry as she stood, setting one of the files next to Hope and the other next to Artie. "RJ Thompson. Former track runner, apprenticed as an electrician because his uncle talked up how good the pay could be. Introduced to the forums as Spark, a cheeky reference to his job and his love of fire tricks. Lost his girlfriend and several friends to M-Day when her mutie brother blew up at a team dinner."

Artie nodded, flicking the pages, noting height, weight, the thinning hair, the chip on his shoulder so obvious for everyone to see. "I can work with him, turning him, or use him. Or, with this - really nice work on the photos, by the way - I can deepfake him so hard he'll believe it. It's your play." He was using his synthesiser, visibly and audibly talking to anyone that wasn't a technopath. "I'll back whatever play you call."

"I would hope the photos are good." Darcy pulled her tichel loose, letting a red braid - the exact shade match of the woman in the photos - fall over her shoulder. "You are him. Or at least, the version of him that might exist if that story were true." It was real enough for the level of digging this particular site's admins did, and RJ Thompson had existed... but he had been presumed dead since M-Day, along with the girlfriend and her brother. He wasn't the first presumed dead person on this forum, and likely wouldn't be the last. "Stephanie Martin - known on the forums as AM_Radio for her love of sports and music - lived in the same neighborhood as you until college and lost a cousin and aunt to a different mutie the next town over. She went to the local state school for HR and the two of you reconnected last fall at the homecoming game. You've become good enough friends to talk about your hatred for what mutants took from you openly, and when she said she might have some more folks for you to meet, you were wary but interested."

Darcy sat back in her seat, shoulders and back perfectly straight. "You both have the entire folio - all of my posts, the few posts that "Spark" has written, and the DMs with the admin you'll speak with, Randy88. And no, he wasn't born in 1988. Your file, RJ, also has all of the posts from Stephanie that mention her hometown and the related news articles so you know where the differences are in what's known and what the story is. Any questions?"

"It all sounds quite impressive to me, but I am not the one who needs to work with this." Hope quickly demurred. "Artie?"

He nodded, making a note to ask Darcy how she was later. Could Hope read her like that? No, probably not. "You give the best presents," he said finally. "Do you want me to do a face to face, or just keep it online and video chat? It's so nice to have a distributed network where I don't have to turn up in person unless I need to."

"I would keep it as online as possible... makes it easier to get the evidence in the end. Otherwise we would have to wire you up." Hope quickly offered her opinion. "From what I understand it would be quite easy to record or to take screenshots."

"There is an... etiquette, to meeting people from these sorts of sites in person. Namely – Don't. It sounds like the two of you are on board for this, so RJ, I'll have two devices sent up for you. A burner phone and a tablet with both personalized firewalls and some enhancements to the vpn to make it more secure. Your ability to use it for other things will be significantly curtailed, and Steph's contact information is already set up, along with an old text string that can be used for verification. It should not be necessary, but it is better to plan for the worst." Darcy's lips curled into a smile somewhere just north of frigid, tight and easily missed as she reshaped her tichel and folded her hair back into it until not even her hairline was visible anymore. "There will be instructions on how to set up a space for a privacy filter as well. I do not believe anyone is using my suite at present, so you may set up in the living room space if you would like. If Terry has moved back in..." Darcy shrugged her shoulders. "I am certain there are plenty of small, out of the way spaces that can be set up in a way that you can leave in place."

He smiled back. "Thank you." Unstated was <I>and doubly, thank you for trusting me in that space, specifically</I>. "I'm ready to go. He's going to be busy but I'll get you everything you need. And prepare some supporting videos as needed showing that he's the literal worst human out there." Be a terrible person. Fake some videos like only he could. "I'm all good to involve Doug as needed? He's better at the alt-right forums than I am. I'm just the video guy."

"Do remember that if you involve Ramsey, you're also involving the people he chooses not to keep secrets from and the people they choose not to keep secrets from. My preference is that you keep my name out of things entirely, but Ms. Abbott is the one running this show, yes? Decisions on who needs to be involved and how deeply are at her discretion." Darcy checked her back and stood. "If that is everything resolved to your satisfaction, I'll take my leave. There are things to be done in the limited time I have left before I need to catch my next flight."

"I have everything I need. Thank you for all the work you put in, Ms. Lewis." Hope gave her a quick nod and waited till she left the room. "And Artie, Doug might be available, but he is running the back end of various things, so come to me first please and I will liaise..."