@clarke.griffin

[strove]

Hi. Me again.

I'm actually going to begin with the more important question for myself at the moment. Or request?

I need a roommate. I'm locked into a lease and my best friend disappeared. I held out hope, but it's been long enough that it doesn't seem likely that he's coming back. Our place isn't big. We're not used to having a lot, so we didn't need a lot. I'm clean enough but not much of a cook. I'll hold down a job for as long as I'm here.

If you're interested, let me know.

Otherwise: has anyone put together a list of everything we know? Everything we've looked into? After talking with a lot of you on Loki's post, I can't help but feel like we're missing some critical detail.

And finally: we need some extra hands with stocking things at the safehouses. I don't know how long Morningstar's resources will be spread this thin, but I'm not sure that's my place to ask.

Comments

@aranea.biggs

[merced]

two bedroom?

[ Aranea will get to the rest of the posting later, likely, but her current apartment is a den of sadness where the bed is ten feet away from the kitchen, so this roommate wanted ad definitely has her ears perked.

She'll add, though - ]

sorry about your friend

[strove]

Not quite. Like I said, we could do without. One of us slept on the couch.

It's not so bad inside.

[Growing up on a space station that wasn't designed to house over a thousand people in a makeshift bit of working with what they had—and then going down to the ground and having very little from there—left Clarke a little more open to possibilities.]

I wouldn't mind the couch if I got help with the rent. It was easier when I was splitting things.

[merced]

[ Aranea really wants a bedroom, but, ]

i work nights
is that a problem?

[ Sleeping on the couch sounds pretty miserable when the other person is coming and going at all hours, and not even Aranea will put something through that unwilling. ]

[strove]

I work at a hospital, so a lot of times I do, too.

[Otherwise, a door opening and closing doesn't compare to hoping that someone doesn't find her hiding in the woods, covered in sticks and leaves while she's avoiding her people. Clarke's been through a lot. She can handle this.

Plus, a couch is still way more comfortable.]

To make that clear, it shouldn't be an issue.

[merced]

[ Aranea, by contrast, has worn a few hats in her life - but until very recently, her day always ended at quitting time, and she always had her luxurious apartment in the downtown core of Gralea to go home to. Maybe it's easier to go up in comfort than it is to go down; she'd never whine, but she feels it.

Is it worth taking advantage of a younger person's flexibility?

...

Yes. Probably. Aranea is willing to find out, if nothing else. ]

okay good
can i see it?

actually nvm
i'll take it

if you have any questions for me, ask them now

[ ... Clarke hasn't said yes to you, Aranea. ]

[strove]

Actually, yes.

Do you know anyone else here? A lot of us haven't shown up alone.

Not that I don't trust you. It's just that this is technically the first time that we've spoken.

[merced]

[ It's fine. It makes sense, in fact. Aranea doesn't hesitate to offer three of four names. ]

prompto, noctis, ignis
they're from home

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

It's all a bit scattered, isn't it? One lead here, another lead there, some woefully forgotten.
There may be more than one branch of investigation.

Where would you like to start?

[ it's actually a very sincere question. ]

[strove]

From the beginning. Without crossing any lines between things.

For instance, how the monster got in. Objective fact without hypothesizing how things came to be.

[selfimage]

Ah, not far from a sort of- timeline that may branch off into many different streams of information.
@leo.fitz have you kept track of all your side projects?

[retravel]

Sorry to disappoint, but if by “project” you mean my investigative efforts, I’ve reported back everything of substance to the network. And if I haven’t, Kat or Daisy have covered it.

[ anything beyond the murder of the nurse is stillborn. minor questions based on one theory or another (often with the answer available publicly), and that’s leaving out all the bloody dead ends. if one counts his efforts to ensure others are well-positioned to seek out future leads, there’s that as well.

the moment a solid idea forms, he’ll be on the network again (and from the start this time, now that he’s an open agent). until then — ]

The rest is, as Clarke says, conjecture.

[strove]

It's not what you've done, but whether we've gone over the information with the right eyes. Up until what happened with Morningstar, I believed we were connected to everything.

I think we have to start anew. That means organizing things in categories.

[retravel]

Then I think you're well-suited to the organisational aspects of this proposal.

[ the implicit converse being that he isn't suited to anything as comprehensive or logical. he knows he jumps around — and that he's stuck in his head most days anymore, sorting through the muck there, unable to start anew. ]

[selfimage]

I'm not doubting your honesty, Leopold. The exact opposite, actually. Tracing the leads on those reports may be beneficial to tally up what we've already done and what we may have missed in the hot mess of conjecture and false leads.
You said something about moving back to see clearly.

[ he hasn't forgotten your mortal saying!!! ]

In this instance, you may be right.
You have a mind for this sort of thing.

[retravel]

Ah, that's where we disagree.
Science is about positing and testing hypothesis, not preventing them from forming. No lead is a false lead because it takes us deeper into this world, even if it doesn't confirm what we hoped.

When I say look back, I mean at the past. In my inevitably biased opinion, based on all those theories and conjecture, this universe doesn't revolve around us. We're the symptoms, not the cause, of what's gone wrong with the fabric of reality (which, I know, is predicated on a belief that something has gone wrong and subsequently caused our appearance here).

Look at what came before us, if we hope to know how we fit into this timeline at present and in future. That's what I'm working off of now. Suppose I'll course-correct as needed from there.

[ jemma's the one who makes flashcards, highlights and color-codes, and pinpoints linear, logical progressions. fitz is different. it doesn't suit him methods to draw a hard line between perceived facts and conjecture. his singular contribution to the network traced out the origins of each strand of the investigation, and every person's role within it. he doesn't feel he can speak to anything else, at least regarding this proposed topic. ]

@eugenides.attolis

[kleptocratic]

Bellamy?

I can lend you exactly one hand at the safehouse.

[strove]

Yeah, Bellamy.

[Not named, not initially. Even typing it makes her miss him. It might be easier if she knew when she'd see him again.]

Even one hand would be great.

Is the one hand enough? Or were you ready to risk a doctor's care?

[kleptocratic]

I'm sorry.

[ He doesn't know what he would do, if someone he knew were to come here, if he were to lose them. His thoughts drift, unsteered, to his friend Sophos— lost in the chaos of his country. Eugenides doesn't know if he's alive or not. ]

A doctor would have no idea what I've accomplished with only one hand.

[strove]

Oh, I'm sure. I don't think any doctor that's any good would deny that you can handle yourself.

[Now that Bellamy's gone, she wants to make sure that Eugenides also gets his help. Clarke likes him. And ... well.

Bellamy asked her to do this.]

[kleptocratic]

[ Can he? Eugenides thinks of the rows of cots that he visited during the war, visits to recent amputees. "See here, this is the Thief who lost his hand, and it hasn't bothered him a whit!" He tried his hardest to be pleasant and inspiring, two things he had never been, and only threw up once he got outside. ]

People are surprisingly adaptable. Perhaps one day we'll even discover a doctor who is any good.

[strove]

You're lucky I don't take that to heart.

[Perhaps because she can conveniently distance herself from it when she needs. But it's hard to take Eugenides' words in a callous way.]

private.

[retravel]

[ he missed this post in the rush of the aftermath and getting back to work (with everyone in the shield flat injured, both regulars and guests), so the reply comes belatedly, after loki pings him.

and privately, because he wouldn't offer this to just anyone. ]

I'm sorry about your friend.
Let us know if you need help covering the lease until you find another flatmate.

[ a crowded flat makes for some wiggle room on net income. ]

private.

[strove]

[Nothing like seeing everything go to hell to accept that your best friend is missing. She's not surprised that people were coping. Trying to solve a problem is one way that Clarke copes.]

I have someone stepping in pretty soon, but I'll let you know if the next payment is short because of the timing. Thanks for offering.

Are you holding up fine after everything? I saw your planned mission. Obviously. Did everything go fine with it?

[retravel]

Of course.

[ they're not all a team yet, but they're a group, joined by something greater. ]

Yeah, we rescued the contacts. No casualties on our side, either.

[ it's his pre-existing problems that have him struggling. ]

Was hoping we could all update each other on specifics at the next covert party, when people have properly recovered.
How are you feeling after it all?

[ the loss of a friend notwithstanding. ]

[strove]

[What does she say? Clarke feels helpless. She wants to only focus on them, but this situation and all the circumstances involved make it hard. This is a world that she can only begin to admit she understands, and she ... doesn't. That kind of admission would be false.]

Frustrated.

This had nothing to do with us.

Is it bad that I almost wish it did?