@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]

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.