@gaby

[vns]

Things are changing soon. Have changed. The new safehouse is nearly open for business, and while it's Morningstar property, Morningstar security and Morningstar interests, it's still yours. We've transferred the deed over, but we've set up a system where that can be handed back to us if anything goes wrong or if anyone disappears for good. It's set so we can pass it on. Plus: we don't disappear.

[ "we" = Morningstar. "we" = the people of this world. Gaby is no rhetorical genius but she knows what it means to draw that line. ]

Which is one of my two points.

1. We move to the new safehouse on the 1st of November. We have transportation to get over there, and it's a garage, so we can walk in like normal looking people hoping to start a business there. This place will be closed down. Detonated and cleansed. If you have anything here that's yours, get it out before then.

2. I've intended to stay on. El must stay on given zeir setup of your lives when you get here. But I realize some of you think you're going to be more independent than that. So, I'll leave it open. If you demand my absence – fine. But bear in mind that I am the only local resource and the only one who won't disappear. More than that? I'm invested. But if you say go, I go. It's up to you.

Discuss.

[ there is one big thing she's leaving out: the end result of the conflict with V. better to leave that for now, until she knows her status, and to pass it off then. only then. ]

Comments

@rey.nolo

[forcevisions]

Stay.
We're trying to help you. What's the point if we don't have you here to help us consider the perspective of the people who actually live in this world?

[vns]

I want it to be clear: if I leave, it won't be my choice.

@xuanyu.mo

[laozu]

Am I reading your message correctly?

I didn't imagine any of us would be so foolish as to try to reject your helping hands, when we're but a transient collective. I would hope that they do not push you away, for the same reason [Bad username or site: rey @ nolo] has stated among others.

[vns]

Wouldn't it be more foolish to assume you'd take the help from this point forward unasked for?

@matches.malone

[reneger]

you still owe me that friend date

[vns]

Did I actually agree to that?

@markus.manfred

[saviorexe]

A vie for more independence doesn’t mean that we should sever all prior connections. You’ve been nothing but a help to us, and I don’t see why a working relationship can’t continue. I don’t want to see you leave.

So thank you. For making all of this possible.

[The new business and the new safehouse would’ve never gotten off the ground, otherwise.]

[vns]

It's only right to give you all the choice.

@jon.snow

[998]

[be cool, jon]

Anybody that wants you gone will have to answer to me.

[vns]

No, they'll say what they think is right. You'll accept that.

@leo.fitz

[retravel]

[ they started this at the end of june, dropped on gaby's doorstep by another agent entirely, fresh from a mission she didn't approve of, and they're still here now in october. couldn't have done it alone. ]

I agree with Rey and Markus.
I arrived with the first of us, four months ago, and you've looked out for us since then, even when we weren't receptive to your aid. Only once did you ask anything of us, and even then, we had a choice.

[ said because there are new arrivals who might lack the context. ]

I'm glad you want to stay on.

[ not surprised, but, y'know. ]

[vns]

I'll have to ask you for another mission if I don't, but we needed to start here.

[ Gaby does think that half the push for independence was a matter of trying to push for organization. but it still brought it up. made this discussion necessary. best to not assume after all that. she didn't take part, and she doesn't mean this as a path to ridicule their discussions.

only show that she knows. she's aware. ]

@daisy.johnson

[evite]

i don't have a problem with it.

[ which might be a surprise, but it's sincerely meant. ]

you're playing consultant for morningstar. if you've really handed over the reins, i don't see the problem. nobody's being forced to live in the safehouse.

[vns]

I'm playing consultant because you all listen, and because you're all so damn powerful that I'm afraid of what happens if I'm not here. It's not the you that worries me, but the future you – I know I've helped with that.

[ candid and for a reason. she knows why Daisy was frustrated, has even spoken to Peggy about it recently. going big because it feels necessary – Gaby wishes it were that simple.

but it's no longer about how hard it is to be a Morningstar agent, but Morningstar at all. left without any comrades save her regular check-ins with El. ]

@x'rhun.tia

[verflair]

Quite frankly, I would rather you stay. As others have stated, ‘twould be foolish to sever so important and constant a connection to this world and its people.

We may not have spoken directly before, but I see enough of what you do for us that I do not think your involvement would hinder our efforts for some measure of independence in the least. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[vns]

I don't know. I did once steal a stolen dog back from one of the occupants. That may be hindering some form of independence.

@margaret.carter

[revlon]

[ She knew this was coming because she and Gaby had discussed it the night the new arrivals swept into town. Peggy had agreed, then, that it may do her fellow displaced some good to hear it — particularly those who see the going of separate ways as an inevitability.

Peggy also knows, given that charity work is what the other woman cares about most, they must hit that same soft spot. Gaby isn't just Morningstar, a representative of some nebulous whole. ]

I meant what I said the other evening and I still stand by it. You've been our first point of contact, our connection to this city and the world beyond it. [ It's up to me to say something, Gaby had told her. Remind you my world matters. ] That matters.

[vns]

I think it does, too. But even when I help people in this city, they have to want it. That matters, too.

[ thankfully – they do want it. ]

@vee.blake

[verselet]

[New safehouses. Old safehouses. V thinks he’s missing something in-between.

Hi again.]

Is there something wrong with the current safehouse? Or is the incentive to move something that a new face doesn’t have the context to understand?

[vns]

It's been compromised.

[ she doesn't bother to point out that he's already seen the new one. ]

@stephen.strange

[rehandle]

I hope you weren't secretly hoping for expulsion.

[ there's a certain verdict growing here, and it isn't going to see her cast out.

he's glad that she's done this. not only so that those who might doubt the value of her presence in their lives can see how the others feel - but so that she can, too. there's always been discourse about Morningstar, various opinions on the benefits and risks of their shared space, and no doubt those conversations will continue beyond any decision made here.

but it's important that she knows that they don't always conflate the two. that she's supported. that they see her worth and are grateful for the voice she gives to the people of this world and the aid she offers to them, the people from without it, even now the she's no longer obliged. ]

[vns]

If I wanted that, I wouldn't give you all a choice.

[ said with some humor, some amusement. Gaby would keep suffering in truth, but she wouldn't like it. she knows them, though, and it's not like they can call in someone else. knowing them matters, even with all the disappearances. ]

@north.cross

[strongarmed]

Why is it moving at all? And does this mean we've been granted more independence than we once had here?

[North is aggressively trying to catch up on all the history here. It doesn't matter to her whether this woman stays or goes, but the autonomy - from everything, even Morningstar itself if necessary - appeals most.]

[vns]

You've always been independent. It's only misconceptions that lead people to believe they're trapped.

[ bluntly put. ]

And it was compromised. It's a long story.

@takeshi.kovacs

[resleeves]

maybe this safehouse will have a bed that somebody doesn't try and kill me with.

[ maybe not the point? but...whatever. it's his way of letting go. ]

@cain.fighter

[blyat]

did someone try to smother you in your sleep?

[How else does someone get killed with... a bed, of all murder implements.]

@richard.grayson

[preceded]

for what it's worth, my vote would be for you to stay.

[Even though he's said he doesn't trust Morningstar- and that's still true. He doesn't like an organization that large that all the moving parts can't be seen, when there's no face to hold accountable for all the terrible things they can do. But he still trusts that she, as a person, has their best interests at heart. And with having worked with her recently, and agreed to in the future- he thinks she's a valuable point of contact for anyone- new arrivals and the old alike.]

[vns]

Thank you.

Now can you get your brother to stop asking me on a date?

@connor.resnik

[cyberlife]

You're my friend; I'd like you to stay.

(and it's as simple as that.)

[vns]

[ oh Connor. ever the teacher's pet. ]

Thank you.

@deimos.fighter

[tishina]

sounds like you want to stay
not that i'm complaining since it looks like the majority also has no complaints
are you gonna side with the majority vote or be out with just a single 'go'?

[vns]

Majority.

One disagreement won't kill me.

[ she'd have ditched this troop of occasional assholes if it did. ]

[batricide]

[ He's sick as a dog but hell if he's not going to say words. ]

I'd rather have you with us than against us.

[vns]

I wouldn't be against you.

[ the sentiment is understood regardless. ]

@kylo.ren

[warfares]

Has someone asked you to leave?

[vns]

Not exactly.

@sansa.stark

[isherarmor]

I think it would be foolish to ask that you leave unless that was what you wanted to do.

In which case, I think it we would be the worse for it.

I would ask that you stay.

[vns]

Duly noted. Thank you.

@cassian.andor

[evasives]

[ so while cassian has never actually spoken to gaby, he knows of her plenty through various people, through seeing her in passing in the safehouse. now seems like a good a time as any to start a conversation. ]

I might understand why some might be apprehensive, but it still makes little sense to cut ties completely, least of all given what Morningstar does to get us settled.

The choice would be yours in the end, wouldn't it?

[vns]

People like to feel as if they're in control. I've been accused of taking that away. There is no evidence of this, but people struggle when they've been ripped away from their homes and used.

[ she gets it. she doesn't resent it. that's why she's giving the choice – just as there are some who think she's providing the choice for no reason. ]

If I wanted to leave, I'd go. Simple enough.

@simon.jarrett

[theseuschip]

[ oh, it’s...

this lady... he’s peripherally aware of this lady ]

Nice to meet you, Gaby.
You’re a local who’s helping us out, but you don’t have anything to do with the people who brought us here? Trying to get this Morningstar stuff straight.

[ the arrival process and the associated safehouse has a lot of moving parts, and it isn’t exactly the most lucid experience. ]

[vns]

No.

How'd you get that impression?

@riku.masterson

[inherited]

I don't know about anyone else, but I know how important it is to have allies who know the world you're in.

We need someone like you around.

[vns]

Those are my thoughts. Thank you.

@daenerys.targaryen

[dragonwarder]

[Daenerys is too new to have much of an opinion of her own -- truthfully, she's all for independence, but true independence would have left her more adrift than she already had been upon her arrival. She had not taken great pains to know Gaby as of yet.

So she takes stock of what everyone else has to say, and finds one question left unanswered:]

We are not well acquainted, but I trust you will indulge my curiosity anyway.

If someone has called for your removal, there is a need that is not being met.
You guess after control. Perhaps that is true.
Do you believe there would be another reason someone would ask for your removal?
Something you have done, or something you are responsible for?

[vns]

I'll start with this: no one asked, merely implied. I believe now that it may have been in order to bolster an argument.

[ Daenerys can take that whatever way she wishes. ]

But if it's a matter of self-reflection ...

I monitor rather than lead. Use a firm hand only when necessary. I'm nothing more than one of the many hundreds of limbs of Morningstar, and I can see how that can be frustrating. I can't give answers. I'm a product of the world that may have used you all, even if I want to change the very foundations of this world. It's convenient that we can find you, bring you back, set you up.

More than that, it may be that someone thinks I'm not needed. That you all think of this world and consider it, so you don't require my insight. I'd call that foolish.

[ but she's seen it all the same. assumptions, beliefs. a failure to fully recognize the inner gears of this world's functions. it's one thing to want to help, and another thing to truly know. perhaps it's unfair, but the Displaced often talk like in their world, they do know it all. they do matter.

she believes they do. and often, she feels bad for it being stripped away. that doesn't change what they do not know here. they aren't equivalent situations. not at all. ]