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Doug and Sue engaged in a bout of hacking to find out the truth behind "Humanity First". 


The raster of photo's filled the screen, names in stark color below them and with one click they would be led to a page outlining all the politician had done wrong. It all came down to one thing though: they were sympathetic to mutants and the issues they faced.

A pen waved from it's position clenched between Sue's teeth, sketching out a pattern in the air as she stared at the screen, the blue tinted glow illuminating her face as the youn woman's eyes tracked quickly from side to side, examining the website before she leaned back in her chair. "You know...you'd think that they'd have a site that was somehow less...generic."

"Hide in plain sight, grasshopper." Doug leaned back in his own chair and tossed almonds into the air one by one, catching them in his mouth in a steady rhythm. "As the line from the first Mission Impossible goes, 'anonymity is like a warm blanket'. The shadier the activity, the more they'll want to fly under the radar. I mean, in the broader sense, that's why bigots rely on things like dogwhistles, never saying the quiet part loud."

"You think that by playing so generic they're hoping that no-one notices them," Sue's head tilted to the side as she nodded slowly, "that...makes sense. I always relied on misdirection, but that...that could work nicely."

Doug nodded. "Remember the scene in The Matrix, the woman with the red dress?" He shrugged. "I mean, the point was that anyone could be an Agent, but by the same token, did anyone else in that sequence stand out at all? Even the people running into Neo were just...there. Nonentities."

"Hidden by very virtue of their inconspicuousness." The woman tapped a finger to her lips before smiling, "You know when you can make a point and refer to one of my favourite movies you've got a really good point."

"I remember reading somewhere that they hired multiple sets of twins for the scene as well, to make it feel even more like sort of a 'copy and paste' program." Doug grinned back at Sue. "So. We keep digging, nothing like this is ever as perfect as it seems on the surface, or even under the surface like these sites. There'll be dirt, it's just a question of how far we have to dig for it."

"You know...I always thought they just did it in post, edited the same actors in again and again, who knew that they'd cheat like that. Such disappointment." A grin touched the young woman's lips as she shook her head in mock dismay, "No-one or nothing is ever clean, we'll find something, someone always slips up or gets lazy."

"Dude. Never diss practical effects," Doug pronounced with a very pointed finger. "Just because I love computers doesn't mean I can't also recognize that the rise in CGI for entertainment has a lot to do with the fact that practical effects folks are unionized and CGI folks weren't. Plus some of those effects are fuckin' wizardry. Have you ever seen the pod race viewing stand as it was being built?" He was still working on the task at hand while pontificating. "What's that pointer there?" he asked as they parsed through the site's source code.

"Preaching to the choir, I've seen the magicians using practical effects to do insane things, but there is also a limit to what they can do. Sometimes you need that CGI studio too, something like the opening scene of Star Wars just wouldn't be the same if done with practical effects," Sue countered with a smile as she tilted her head to the side, fingers tapping at the keyboard."Looks like it's a link to another site, give me one second...ohhh, now that's interesting."

Doug groaned. "Sue. My delightful hacker bestie. Star Wars came out in -1977-. And this was before Lucas and Spielberg were household names. It was -all- done in practical effects. Just because they remastered it later doesn't..." His rant trailed off as he looked at what she had brought up. And just like that, he switched to a fair approximation of James Earl Jones' stentorian tones. "You don't know the -power- of the Dark Web," he declared before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

"Looks like we finally found the right rock to turn over..."

"Finally found the chink in their armour," she agreed, leaning back in her chair. "Ok, you know that was pretty well hidden, and I never thought about htat with the date, I'd always heard of the studio they made to create that. Ok, I'll give, practical effects were impressive."

"The 'm' in ILM standing for 'magic' is pretty damn accurate," Doug allowed. "Okay, so we know where to start digging, time to bust out the backhoes and start shining light where Humanity First doesn't want it shone..." Even just looking at the thread titles in the hidden forums made Doug glad he hadn't had a large meal.

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