In these bewildering times you might want to put up flyers or posters around a neighborhood, or mail a strongly-worded letter to someone. You might be scared of reprisals and wish to do that sort of thing anonymously, but it turns out that governments would prefer that they be able to track you down anyway.

In the early 2010s, a few different innovations were making their way into high-end scanners and printers. One was the EURION constellation, a set of dots that you'll recognize in the constellations on Euro notes or in the distribution of the little numeral 20 speckled around the back of a twenty-dollar bill. Scanners are programmed to look for dots in exactly that pattern and refuse to scan the paper that those dots are on. Can't make a copy of it! Can't scan it in. We'll get back to that.

The other innovation are **tracking dots**. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) estimates that in 2025, basically every color laser printer on the market embeds a barely-visible forensic code on each of its printouts, which encodes information about the printer and its serial number. (Maybe more data too - I don't have all the details.) Maybe you remember Reality Winner, who leaked classified intelligence to journalists? They received high quality copies (maybe originals) of the documents that were leaked. When officials were able to examine them, they were able to combine regular IT forensics ("how many users printed documents on these dates, to printers of this make & model") and work backwards from the other end, to get a narrow list of suspects.

To defeat those signatures, you either need to use a printer that doesn't embed those features (Challenging! The EFF says basically all printers do this now) or you need to be careful to employ countermeasures like this Python tool. The tool can spray lots of nonsense codes into a PDF that make forensic extraction harder (or impossible).

What does this have to do with the EURion constellation? Well, before anyone can even start to extract little invisible yellow dots from your poster... they have to scan it into their system. And their very law-abiding scanner -- unless it's owned by an agency that fights counterfeiting like the Secret Service does -- probably doesn't have its EURion brainwashing disabled. So when they go to scan your poster or strongly-worded letter, the EURion constellation on it probably stops them from doing it.

Scatter Characters as Troubled Birds.

Eurion.

Textual Evidence.

“Oh,” Eurion said. “I hadn’t realized that would be a problem.” Eurion waved his hand and a column of smoke rose up around him, swallowing him completely before dissipating almost as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind an absolutely gorgeous young redheaded woman in a white tuxedo with no shirt underneath. “Is this better?”

#𝐇𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐓 𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐙𝐈.  a rendition of maniacal perfectionism, exuberant self-harshness, chain mail armor holding folks at an arm's length, the sartorial trendsetter. ● ● ● late 30s, bicurious, bespoke tailor with too many skeletons in the closed to count.

  typecasted as eldest sib syndrome, lounge cat, workaholic bff.

#𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐙𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈. a rendition of silver-clawed, steel-toothed addiction, an unrestrained lust for gambling, a propensity to pile up wealth for expenditure purposes, preppy quiet child turned crooked politician ● ● ● 30s, polyamorous, treasurer / money launderer.

  typecasted as daredevil, jack of all trades, the wild streak.

#𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐓.  a rendition of morbid 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 infatuation, the fire-raising aftermath of frustration, murphy’s law, unforgettable high-school sweethearts “𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒐 𝒖𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕” ● ● ● 20s, heterosexual.

  typecasted as aloof highbrow, cynical realist, the stalker.

#𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄. a rendition of navigating laws loopholes, corrupting craving for justice, rags to riches, “we do it for the fam” ● ● ● mid 30s to mid 40s, dom, bisexual.

   typecasted as iron fist in a velvet glove, the free spirit.

Cape Town definitely lived up to expectations on cool factor. Dutch and Rhonda are absolutely delightful and something about hearing that Dutch had previously been on a MERT before becoming a bouncer just kinda put me in mind of the Love and Luck podcast and the dry bar within it. So that was a fun moment of association for me.

I was very excited when Maggie noticed a welsh dragon emblem. Ofc Eurion has their own booth at the non-human bar and good thing too it seems.

It was immediately and immensely satisfying to watch Praetorian almost shit himself when she walked up. He is every bit the kind of dickhead you would expect of a guy who would rather stand by corrupt "heroes" than the person who called them out on their shit, which implies to me a certain level of entitlement based on his status as hero. I'm wiling to bet that if he stopped reaping a certain level of rewards and recognition for being a hero he'd go directly to supervillainy. Dude gives vibes somewhere between Gotham Cop and Homelander Fanboy. Also the way he walked up and leered over the table gave me big Garrett energy. Not enough to go full red string conspiracy theorist but some thoughts were definitely thunk.

Also it feels shady as fuck that he is so concerned with the High Guard's roster. Most generously he's just gonna go whine to the DMA about want a fair share of new resources, but I don't have that kind of trust in my heart to spare for this asshole. Dude has some shady side hustle going on that unexpected changes in the High Guard's roster might fuck up.

Eurion either went REALLY easy on Maggie this evening or she's finally getting used to talking to humans again. Even when the topic of wives was brought up she didn't propose once to either Varsha or Maggie. Maybe she has someone in mind now? Maybe she just feels like she's on thin ice with Ashley's other friends based on how Hannah acts and didn't want to risk having another high guard member being jealous of her?

Varsha, Eurion, and me are all on the same page about Ashley is definitely determined to make herself miserable. I wonder if she's been keeping up with her anti-depressants? She definitely seems like she needs to talk with someone, ideally a professional, about her hesitance to go for a relationship that she and the other person both want.

I was right! Varsha would have preferred never having unlocked her powers. She's just found a way to make it work for her.

Maggie asked that classic "Do you think I'm selfish for not wanting to be a hero?" question that kind makes it look like SHE thinks she might be selfish for not helping. Varsha is as I've come to expect very compassionate and kind in explaining that no she wouldn't be being selfish if she decided not to be a hero. I think its an interesting conversation to be having in a setting where one of the owners of the place retired from being a hero to run a club instead. There is no judgement or even consideration of that fact on Maggie's part which is part of what makes me think its HER feeling that not being a hero with her gifts would be a negative thing.

Who the FUCK is Tux?!

Is that "everyone is a bit in love with Tux" comment gonna prove to be true? Will I love Tux?

Also I have questions for the cape chaser Varsha points out to Maggie. I don't doubt that Maggie is hot, I've seen the cover, but if she is indeed some sort of cape chaser as Varsha asserts, then why is she eying off Maggie and not Delta V? Was Maggie just doing it for her, or was she hoping to be able to say she fucked a new high guard member before it was cool?

MAGGIE WAS SO FUCKING SMOOTH ASKING VARSHA TO DANCE!

I love it.

I do not love the blaring sirens right as things were winding up to dance floor make outs.