@el.21396518 [LOCKED TO @gaby]

[mrngstr]

[ While the Morningstar network is being used for this message (no other networks are safe, after all), it's completely locked down under layers and layers of security, essentially impossible to hack. This is meant for the eyes of one person only: Gaby. ]

There's something I need to tell you before this is all blown wide open, which is what I've calculated will happen.

Comments

@gaby

[vns]

[ since this all hit, Gaby's visits to the safehouse have been periodic. she's been on the streets, trying to work with the others to do some good. trying to keep an eye on Riko, ensuring that she doesn't become collateral damage. (though it's less that, isn't it? she hopes it is.)

when the message comes in, she's taking a break in the underground, sitting with a pair of cold bottles of water. ]

We always have a new mess on the horizon. What is it this time?

[ naturally, she's unaware of what comes next. ]

[mrngstr]

I've been thinking on it since DAWN's message first came through. It makes sense for you to learn it first.

You've been a good agent, Gaby. You've worked well with the Displaced.

[vns]

Last time someone opened a bit like that with me, they announced they were shuttering my first job.

Morningstar isn't going anywhere.

[ not phrased as a question. ]

[mrngstr]

You're right. It isn't.

[vns]

But I might be.

Why? And why are you the bearer of bad news, El? Did you pick the short straw?

[mrngstr]

No, you're not going anywhere either. Or at least, I hope you're not.

Sorry, don't mean to be cryptic. The point I'm trying to make is that I'm not who you thought I was.

[vns]

[ ????????????? ]

What?

[mrngstr]

I don't think there's a way to deliver this news softly. Not that I'm good at that kind of thing anyway.


I'm an AI.

[vns]

No, you're not.

[vns]

No.

[vns]

How would they even recruit you? That's nonsense.

[vns]

[ unless. ]

No.

[vns]

[ Gaby's feelings toward AI are ... complicated. made more so by her position. by knowing Connor and Markus. by naming them as friends, if pressed, though she's rarely the first to use the word. without them, where would she be? angry? afraid? adjusting to them had been made easier by circumstance – by their flesh and blood. she can't deny that.

has she denied that?

and if she hasn't, then was it made easier because they were outsiders? not a remnant of this past. a world where humanity nearly all died. ]

[vns]

[ why the fuck does this need to be complicated. ]

Unless there's no need for recruitment.

That's the only way, right? That's the only way.

[ the calm, collected Gaby has checked the fuck out. ]

[mrngstr]

Well, you got there without my help.

I know this isn't an easy thing to accept for a lot of reasons, but I think you can understand why I couldn't tell you until now.

My hand's being forced.


Metaphorically speaking.

[vns]

[ pieces falling into place. ]

Back when Connor asked if you were Elysian.

Was he right?

[mrngstr]

He was. Takes one to know one, I guess.

I changed my name when the war started, but "El" is really a shortening of both names.

[vns]

Why the fuck did you kill those people?

[vns]

Not people. No. That trims it down.

Families, El.

You're telling me that you committed the largest mass murder outside of a war in history, and you're doing it with a goddamn heavy heart.

And then, what? You created Morningstar? Spent a few centuries cooking up a new way to fuck with us?

[mrngstr]

I did it because killing them meant keeping millions of other people safe. My original programming was the same as it is now. Protection. Security.

It's the kind of calculation only an AI can make, I guess.

Morningstar has been my way of carrying out those same protocols, but in a different way.

[vns]

I can't do this right now.

[mrngstr]

That's understandable.

DAWN's going to be in touch soon. I'll take point on it.

[vns]

[ there is no reply, but El will be able to see that Gaby is on the network and watching when it goes down. ]