@lance.sweets

[lifetothefullest]

I hope everyone's doing as well as can be expected, at the very least, after everything that happened. Please remember that although rebuilding is important and many of you may be involved in those efforts, it's just as important to give yourselves enough time to recover physically and mentally, so make sure you're getting some rest.

Now that things have calmed down a little, and with the election coming up, I've been trying to get a sense of who the main groups and important individuals are here. A lot of information seems kind of obscure or contradictory, so I'm interested in hearing more first-hand opinions and experiences from anyone who's willing to share. Specifically, I'd like to know more about the past actions of those like Morningstar, the corporations, politicians or other important individuals, that sort of thing, as well as any noteworthy interactions we may have had with any of the as a group; basically anything that will help me get a sense of who the major actors are and what their motivations might be both in general and in regard to us.

[And, because whenever he posed questions like this in Hadriel someone would ask, he decides to add a little context.]

If anyone is wondering what I plan to do with the information, at home I'm a criminal profiler with the FBI, for those of you that means anything to. For those it doesn't, basically my job is to investigate major crimes--murder, usually--and use whatever evidence exists to determine a criminal's behavior, and therefore predict what they might do in the future or potentially outright identify them. The same principles can be applied on a larger scale, so I'm hoping to get a better idea of the situation and where people and organizations stand.

[As a last side note, because this also came up a lot--]

Also, to be clear, just because I'm FBI doesn't mean I care about minor crimes at all. You don't have to be careful about letting it slip that you're engaged in some sort of nefarious activity as long as it isn't murder or something, and another dimension is a little far outside of my jurisdiction anyway.

Comments

@tifa.lockhart

[powersouls]

I think I'm too new here to help, but... How well can you predict what someone is going to do in the future?

[lifetothefullest]

It really depends on the information I have, if there are established patterns, how closely their behavior fits a common model that might make it easier to extrapolate from, and so on. But I was very successful at my job.

[So basically, without bragging too much, the answer to her question is 'pretty well'.]

@nathan.drake / private

[nonscriptum]

you've been confused about shit too, huh?

[lifetothefullest]

I haven't been this confused since my college statistics class.

The Guard in Hadriel was a mess but at least it was relatively straight-forward. Besides the corruption, anyway.

[But it was just one organization to worry about, whereas here he's not even sure of the number.]

OOC NOTE

[lifetothefullest]

[ooc: Note here that this thread and everything in response to it is considered public, not private, for anyone stalking!]

@robert.plant

[righteously]

I'll be damned, Will Graham himself
you turn over any stones you let me know, would ya
I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to join up after the whole zero prep full reward strategy they teed up with this apocalypse, it's a little too district 13 for me

[lifetothefullest]

I'm not sure if I like that comparison.

I will; I plan on letting everyone know what I find out, if it's worthwhile.

District 13 the movie or District 13 from The Hunger Games? Both seem accurate in their own ways.

@goro.akechi

[impede]

Why do you think your profiling knowledge would translate to a world you know nothing about?

[lifetothefullest]

That's a good question, and the answer is that it won't exactly translate, just like it won't exactly translate to other cultures back in my world. But some basic framework is pretty universal, and specifics can be adapted the more I learn. I also already have experience using it in a totally different world, since this isn't the first place like this that I've been.

@torvan.garak

[plainsimple]

I would like to report a great many people for crimes against fashion. This whole entire city, almost.

[lifetothefullest]

I know I said I don't care about minor crimes, but this is an exemption and you're right, the lawlessness in regard to fashion is troubling.

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

And what do you plan to do with such information, Mr. FBI?

[lifetothefullest]

We talked briefly before about people here being reactive, and I'd like for us to have a different option. The more we know and understand, the better choices we can make, and hopefully in ways that have influence on our situation proactively instead of us just having to deal with whatever happens after it happens.

@kyna.medina

[evocation]

ok so hear me out
imagine using your profiling powers to like
predict people's futures and tell them you're a psychic

[lifetothefullest]

Who says I don't do that anyway on the side?

@glimmer.moon

[sparklequeen]

Unfortunately I don't think I can be much help. I've only been here a little while and so much crazy stuff has been going on during that time that I haven't really been able to get a handle on any of this.

[lifetothefullest]

That's pretty much where I am, too, although a lack of readily available, clear information might be just as meaningful.

@wade.wilson

[ishotyouuu]

idk man ive been told that the things ive done 2 several dennys bathrooms in the tri county area could be filed under crimes against humanity

[Aw yeah, classing it up with toilet humor.]

[lifetothefullest]

Still out of my jurisdiction, sounds like a story to tell the local police.

@tsera.vel

[bivariant]

You like to study behavior.

[ you can't see her but she's grinning like a beast ]

Well, that's really good to know.

[lifetothefullest]

Good to know in the genuinely interested way, or in the ominous one?

@marian.hawke

[championofsnark]

Interesting job title, sounds complicated.

Learning a lot about Morningstar lately.[Because she's apparently joining and encouraged others to join so.]

The original sentiment was something along the line of 'screw the nobility, save the people.' Although I suppose that is 'screw the rich' here, I don't know if there's royalty here. It used to be a more drastic us vs. them concept when the UNA was at a higher level of power, with Morningstar more the boots on the ground with UNA caring about corporate interests. That's all gone a bit sideways.

I suppose they're going through a bit of a transition since more people want to join and support them and there's a lot of networking and relief aid now happening as a part of it. They used to be more secret, but much like us, that secrecy's becoming a bit moot.

[lifetothefullest]

It can be, but it's also an interesting job.

[And okay, finally some information he can actually use.]

The UNA was more about protecting corporate interests? They were a governmental army, right?

Do you know what Morningstar's eventual goal is? Are they just trying to protect people from a government/ruling class that doesn't care about anyone but themselves, or do they have an actual plan for advancement or changing the situation?

[These sorts of groups can go either way and anywhere in between, so he's curious.]

[batricide]

Most of the upper echelons of society are involved in the crime here. Either bankrolling it or profitting from it.
Happens when most everything is owned by one of three megacorporations.
But I might have work for you, if you're interested.

[lifetothefullest]

At least that much hasn't changed in a few hundred years.

What sort of work?

@ava.silva

[sor]

I don't think your badge means anything here, my dude. Unless you got a job in low enforcement in this place? Otherwise you might be dealing with people telling you all about their jurisdiction.

[lifetothefullest]

I don't even have the badge with me, so it's extra worthless.

I didn't intend to be doing any of this in any official capacity here, though. This is more about working together to try to figure out how to best navigate our situation.

@gabriel.reyes

[gravemistake]

oh shit, it's the feds! This place has everything.

[lifetothefullest]

I'm retired.

[Not officially, but effectively.]

@gaby

[vns]

Am I considered too biased to speak for my own world? Or do profilers typically rely on external opinions?

[lifetothefullest]

If you're willing to share your experiences and opinions I'd be interested in hearing them, especially since you're native to this world and have insights that Displaced wouldn't.

@terrence.ephemera

[requiemshark]

I haven't been playing politics much, but I can make you some introductions if you care about the fight clubs or the people who hang out there. They don't usually kill people.

[lifetothefullest]

I might take you up on that if I end up with any good leads in that area, thank you. I'm hesitant to be too quick to jump in there though, since I think it'd extremely obvious I don't belong.

[Acting can only take him so far.]

@stephen.strange

[rehandle]

Re: Morningstar,

Healthy scepticism is understandable but it's also important to acknowledge that Morningstar is an organization consisting primarily of people with civilian day jobs risking their livelihoods and increasingly often their lives to make a difference in their world. In this city alone, individuals have been abducted and their partners murdered by their government's army for their involvement in the organization. Morningstar's presence here was all but wiped out by a city-wide raid by the UNA last year. They abducted agents and contacts from their apartments, killed any adults remaining in the premises, and left their children sedated to wake up alone. People had to abandon their lives to escape with their lives.

This world was theirs before it was ours. It's barely ours now, and many of us intend to leave it at earliest opportunity. More often than not what Morningstar agents have earned in exchange for enabling us to integrate has been grief, distrust and a lot less sleep than they might be getting otherwise. They have suffered because of, alongside and apart from us. We're too closely and personally intertwined with them to treat the organization as separate from its people.

We have a place in this world thanks to their willingness to risk themselves for a wildly unpredictable group of strangers whose existence here has hindered as much as it's helped, and who at any time might have compromised their safety and damaged their already tenuous reputation. Red Wings exists in no small part thanks to their generosity and cooperation. Their operatives have provided us with support in our most vulnerable days in spite of frequent abuse and resentment.

I've been an agent with them for a while. If there's anything else you'd like to know to build a bigger picture I'll do my best to answer, though it would have served you and those of us who've had variants of this conversation more times than we'd like to count to have done some more research before you involved them in your open question to the floor, or at least to encourage the discussion somewhere more private. As you're beginning to see, our sentiments vary wildly, and our words reach more eyes than our own.

[ This is not just for Lance, he's looking at all of you, past present and future. He's too tired for this and every time Gaby has to wade into a Displaced discussion in defence of herself and Morningstar an angel dies. ]

[lifetothefullest]

[It takes a few times of reading through and a few minutes of organizing his thoughts to decide how to respond, because how he initially wants to respond won't help. But although he doesn't want to push back too hard, he isn't interested in just agreeing either.

So after a short delay in which he's able to more carefully construct what he wants to say and how, his response is a little shorter than it usually is out of a combination of restraint and caution.]

Open discussion shouldn't lead to immediate hostility. I understand frustration with being suspected, and with having to rehash the same conversation over and over, but getting angry over some 'healthy skepticism' doesn't instill confidence that there's nothing to be suspicious of. I'd love to be proven wrong on this, but this is also a pattern I'm familiar with, and one that warrants being cautious.

Different opinions were exactly what I was looking for, and having private one-on-one discussions wouldn't have generated such interesting conversation.

@eugene.hicks

[preseance]

( this is. a lot. and he's not touchin' the lot of it with a damn ten foot pole right now, because he ain't in the mood. instead: )

And just how much rest are you getting exactly, pal?

[lifetothefullest]

[He's dying inside this didn't go as planned at all. But he's glad to hear from Gene, at least.]

Enough that there's no need to worry.

[Of course that's going to change immediately with this whole mess going on, but it's been mostly true up until now.]

How have you been doing?