@clarke.griffin

[strove]

Thank you to Yalena for getting us sorted. [Sort of sorted. Sort of.] Now that we've arrived in New Tokyo and we're stuck inside for a little while, I think we should talk about some new changes that we're facing. I can't be the only one.

But first: a good number of us are here unwillingly, but we have to wait until we're fully prepped before we can go anywhere. Heading outside in these temperatures while unprepared could cost you your life. We all hate being trapped somewhere. I think that's pretty well-established. We also hate having to do anything or be anywhere when we didn't ask for that to happen. At least it doesn't seem like we were drugged, though it wouldn't hurt for Katelin and I to take some blood samples to confirm that. We'll have to store them until we get back.

As for the changes in your lives: have you noticed any? For instance, apparently I'm a lab tech at Giles Bell. I tried to set myself up for a new internship there that I could get easily, but I got ... elevated. Or hired beyond that? I'm not sure what the right terminology is here. Has anyone else noticed this? Or had it happen to them? I got permissions to take leaves from both of my jobs. And no, I'm really not prepared to work as a lab tech. I don't even know the first thing about setting up gels.

As a bit of a personal request ... does anyone think we can make pancakes in the small kitchen here? I have a craving for them. I've not really had cakes of the "pancake" variety before, but I want them now. And if you think we can, can you make them?

[This last bit is Loki's fault.]

Comments

[revlon]

El's assistance was invaluable. Our records were iron-clad to begin with, thanks to them. So now it's on us to ensure they stay that way whilst abroad.

[warfares]

Do you think the shrines have made it as far as New Tokyo?

[revlon]

I suppose we'll find out when we're allowed to explore the city. I did wonder if they're local to New Amsterdam due to our presence there, but Gaby mentioned that this chapter of Morningstar specifically asked for our help. The displaced. Which means rumour of our exploits must be getting around somehow and with them, possibly, the shrines.

[warfares]

They were quite the media phenomemon when they started.

[ which might explain the new tokyo branch's novelty. there's also the chance that the artist isn't so much a singular figure ㅡ which is reasonable to assume at this point, given the number of shrines that popped up seemingly overnight ㅡ as it is an organization, not unlike morningstar. perhaps one that has even spread its branches into other cities. ]

[revlon]

And we might be next, if we aren't careful.

[ The spotlight is just barely missing the displaced as it is, with some of them featured in the shrines or blurry video footage of the monster attack in June. (She doesn't know she's now the subject of both those things because it's a bloody impossibility in her mind. And the videos keep being deleted. But it won't be long, now.) ]

They fetch a pretty price at auction, too. Not all of us are Morningstar but I imagine it's in everyone's best interests to act as if we were, if only for the sake of safety and discretion.

[warfares]

There are some here for whom principle will always trump self-preservation.

[ an observation. one that isn't meant to cast shade on the more heroic members of their group, but it can't be entirely helped either. ]

Unsurprising. They are rather remarkable pieces.

[ the ones he'd seen, anyway. ]

Agreed.

[revlon]

Yes, and I sympathise.

[ She's not all rules and regulations, no matter the uniform people saw her wear in the dreamscape. And she's just as likely to rush headlong into trouble to get the job done. But there's a time and place, too. ]

But one's actions affect us all. You recall what happened when those two gentlemen were arrested for murder.

[warfares]

[ oh, they're more than in agreement there. rules and regulations had their placeㅡeven if their value was often only seen in retrospect. ]

I do.

Quite the operation, as I understand.

[revlon]

I never did get the full story. Did you?

private

[rehandle]

How much of the story do you have? I can pad out the end a touch.

Forgive the interruption and the privacy. I'd rather not start a fire while we're away from what we know.

[ as she's already referenced, the whole thing's always been a bit of a touchy subject and the nature of its "resolution" doesn't feel any less so. ]

private forever

[revlon]

[ Stephen leaping into the conversation is a surprise; more so that he's immediately locked it between them. Curiouser and curiouser. ]

Only the bare bones of it. They were arrested before El could establish their identification in this world and then they were let go and berating the network without ever telling us how they got out to begin with. Judging by the security on this conversation, you know something that can bridge that gap.

[rehandle]

[ the information he has is - volatile, potentially, but important. he hadn't had the time to consider and discuss it with anybody before they were all taking the worst nap of their lives, but there are many worse people to approach with it than Peggy Carter. good that she's the one who jogged the memory. ]

They weren't just let go. They were collected and delivered directly to the safehouse. Dropped off in a sedan.

[revlon]

By who? And why?

[rehandle]

If we knew that we'd have everything we need.

They turned off all surveillance on the route from the station to the safehouse. Vanished any record of the release. These are powerful people.

[revlon]

And you would tell me if they were Morningstar.

[ They knew the location of the safehouse and didn't compromise it or them. They went to lengths to conceal their identity but to get the displaced away from local law enforcement and government. ]

Who has more influence, more resources, and more to lose if the authorities ever caught wind of our presence?

[ It's a hypothetical question. The public knows about them, if only as urban legend. They can work with that. But anything more official? A threat. So this is their mysterious third party, isn't it? Who else would it be? ]

[rehandle]

They didn't turn off the cameras at the safehouse itself, those are the only ones they couldn't touch. I don't think it was Morningstar.

[ at least, he doesn't think anyone they know in Morningstar thinks it was Morningstar. he's come to trust Gaby.

and there's something else, too. here's where the fire really would have started - can't risk that just yet. not when this network is accessible to so many people with so many temperaments. ]

If the dreams are to be believed, corporate knows about us. In detail. Aoi Maeda knew the precise details of the disappearance of one of our number and made it clear that this was widespread information that extended beyond that one individual and was accessible to more than just herself.

To what extent we can rely on that intelligence as it came, given the inherent surrealism of the setting, is questionable. But with the echoes we're discovering now, I don't believe it's founded in nothing.

[revlon]

[ Maeda again. That name keeps cropping up in her work, in different circles — she hasn't been able to tie it to anything concrete or incriminating beyond the usual dirty politics of the city, but this? This is something. Stephen is right: they can't trust the dreams as hard facts. But with how much they've been woven into their reality now, they would be fools to dismiss it outright. They can't afford that, not with something like this. ]

On the one hand, you could argue the dreams were influenced by our own personal concerns, fears, biases, or memories and Maeda was a construct of that. That is often how normal dreams work. But you're right, this was anything but normal.

[ Even if she's not wholly convinced the displaced are singlehandedly responsible for the shifts in their reality. Not yet. It's myopic and arrogant to think they're the centre of this universe but she does believe they can move in places the locals can't. And it's simple science — something cannot come from nothing. There's a grain of truth in this. ]

What you're telling me has serious implications, Dr Strange. How did you come by this information? Did you speak with Maeda yourself, did she tell you how she knew any of this about us or what else she had in her dossier?

[rehandle]

I read her mind, Miss Carter.

Most of the knowledge she had was very specific to the life of the person she was speaking to, which supports the idea of a construct, or partial construct. But the details of the disappearance were specific, at least the when/where. It was precise and factual.

[ as opposed to a possible by-product of the emotional relay caused by the thing in their chests which he may get around to hypothesizing about in proper detail when he's not otherwise engaged. ]

If I were able to meet her again, in this version of reality, I might be able to gain some more concrete information. For now, I don't know the how or how far it goes. Just that according to the Maeda in that place, our lives aren't a secret to them. At least, not all of them.

And now we have two men who had no names who were never involved in the killing of strangers, never released and escorted from a police station to a safehouse belonging to an organisation who was just that night attacked by the UNA, who were observed and recorded by no-one, and who have since disappeared again from the city.

[revlon]

Since you mentioned reading her mind, do you know if she was aware of this information before you and this unnamed individual met with her? Or did this dream version of Maeda adjust to the situation, as dreams are wont to do?

[ Her dreamscape transformed around her, built off of what she gave it. The war is often an empty forest for her but the moment Fitz was introduced to it, it did its best to drive them apart. Doors locked or unlocked depending on who turned the handle, shifted accordingly. Dream logic.

She asks because she wants to have a better understanding of how their reality and the dreams are linked, especially if they mean to draw up comparisons such as getting Stephen close enough to read her mind. But for now, looping back to the murder fiasco is another puzzle. ]

And yes, our two merry murderers. Every trace of them wiped from the city as though they were never here, save for their post on the network. It's possible two different parties bailed them out and made them disappear afterwards and perhaps that theory is bolstered by your corporate one. But I won't chase it too far down the rabbit hole when it's strictly conjecture for now. Was it Gaby who informed you of all this?

[rehandle]

It's difficult to answer that question. Besides being a little difficult to pin down, her thoughts weren't any different to translate than anyone else's might be. They could've been memories or creations of the moment but they were real for her.

[ reading Maeda's thoughts had been odd only in that they shifted, never quite settled, consistent with the context of a dream. besides that, a mind like any other. ]

I suspect that even if Maeda's information is true, they're likely just capable of tracking our IDs and making note of when/where we disappear rather than actively sending us away. Still concerning.

[ a quick check to make sure none of the details he's given allude to the secret Gaby shared with him through a coercion that somehow paved the way for trust... no, clear. ]

It was.

It's possible she or El still have access to the security tape of that night. I imagine you'd be cleared to see it if you asked.

[ it seems like something one of them should look at for themselves and she and Fitz have been building a solid relationship with Morningstar. if it's become confidential, they're the most likely candidates to be granted access. ]

[revlon]

No doubt anyone can track anyone's IDs in this world. That's what makes being a Morningstar operative and a member of the displaced so precarious — to say nothing of this new witch hunt initiative put forward by the UN. We shouldn't even be on Maeda's radar unless we've been pointed out to her specifically as suspects are for the UN. Have we been compromised in the waking world, doctor?

[ She has it on good authority that the Maeda family possesses a shrine piece (depicting their people, likely) won at auction. So she's at least marginally aware of them. How much she knows remains to be seen, but they're working on that angle. ]

As for the tape, I'll look into it once we're home. Have you seen it yourself?

[rehandle]

She's interested in us and she knows names. [ specifically the names they've assigned to IDs - not always the same thing. but that in itself would be enough to indicate yes. some, if not all. ] But I don't think she understands entirely what we are.

I haven't seen it, no.

[revlon]

Whose names and interested how?

[warfares]

No, it was quite the mystery. What would interest me, though, is how of those returned to us only one seems to remain.

[revlon]

[ It's her understanding that neither arrested individual has reappeared amongst their number, but perhaps he means the people who disappear and return. ]

How do you mean?