@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]

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?

[rehandle]

Bear with me. I need to verify my information.

[ it's a delicate position - withhold information and damage the opportunity for trust, present information and damage existing trust. before he can make a choice he needs to properly understand the value of what he may or may not choose to share, or if there's anything he can offer that pertains to them all but not without breaching privacy.

he's not spilling secrets if they'll do nobody any good. ]

[revlon]

[ The fact that he's given her as much as he has only to become tight-lipped about it now tells her this is likely personal and she's brushed up against it (unintentional; she didn't even know about the Maeda issue until he brought it up). She understands they all have their loyalties. But that doesn't lessen her concern about the potential threat this poses to their group as a whole if there's a sliver of truth to it. ]

Very well. But if someone high up in corporate has truly taken a special interest in the displaced, that isn't something to be taken lightly or kept between us.

[ Especially considering the circles she moves in back in New Amsterdam. She can't afford to go in blind; none of them can. ]

And there's the UN's new anonymous tip box to consider. They may be targeting Morningstar but I wouldn't put it past them to try and weed us out, too, especially if we don't know who could be in the know with Maeda. Assuming that is what we're dealing with.

[ They still don't know how much weight the dreams bear in the waking world. But if there's truly a ripple, then they need to know what they're walking into when they return from New Tokyo. There's nothing to be said until they have that confirmation so she won't; but she knows Stephen cares about everyone's well-being as much as she does, so: ]

Either way, do let me know.

[rehandle]

[ it's twenty minutes or so later that he comes back to her with a reply, more aware of the way things went in the dream and how his own discoveries interwove with what he heard and what's already happened. it gives him a better foundation upon which to answer, a more concrete understanding of the risk they've uncovered. ]

I understand the stakes. You don't need to reiterate them.

[ she may be the politician here, the spy, this is certainly her wheelhouse, but she's not the only one who's been in the business of saving people and cities and the world. he understands why this is important and the danger they might be in as a result. it's why he's taken time to investigate and consider his words and their consequences carefully. it's why he's trusting her with it. and it's why he hopes she'll trust him enough to know he's given her everything she needs, if not everything he has.

it's a risk. the possibility of this turning into a butting of heads with Maeda is exactly what he wants to avoid - but he knows enough about Peggy to pass it along anyway. between them, and carefully, it's something they can first fortify against in the short term and investigate in the long. ]

On review of the neural data: She's aware of us. She knows and associates the word displaced with a group but doesn't understand what that word means or the context behind it. The names she knows weren't learned in association with the displaced and she didn't know my name despite seeing my face. There weren't any other names floating around either.

I don't think we're compromised. But given her interest in and awareness of us even just as a concept, there is potential.

A woman with her position and resources can have eyes anywhere she wants them. The drop off of the two arrested displaced to the safehouse shows there's somebody out there who knows where we're based. All she needs is the right connection or money in the right person's account and she can know where we are. If she can know where we are and can get someone through the door, she can know whatever she wants to know.

The sooner we move to the new safehouse, the better. I trust Gaby and El and the Morningstar structure as a whole but with the level of foot traffic I don't implicitly trust everyone who walks through the current safehouse doors not to walk out with an overheard conversation they may not be planning to keep to themselves. We don't vet the people we bring in during an emergency. We can't know how every agent who visits spends the rest of their time.

You're right, if Maeda's interested we don't know who else in those same circles might be. Times are hard and money talks. And that's a lot of potential money on the table.