Before you guys came along, I was helping out actual refugees. No one wants to be a refugee, but they at least had a choice to take my hand and get a chance at a new life. None of you get that. So the hand that comes along is harder to accept, especially since you're all a pretty fucking independent bunch.
[ aka the "if we need help someone expects something in return" bunch. that's what she's learned. ]
But I get it. You just all decided to turn on the distrust when I wasn't having it. I don't know if you noticed, but we have a lot but most of it's going to shit.
I don't blame that on any of you. Even the stuff that may be connected.
[ she sees it, and it freaks her out, but she knows that they can't control what they don't know. they always talk things through so incessantly, too, that she's never actually left in the dark.
thanks, Displaced, for having zero sense of discretion. ]
i don't want you to think that my distrust was malicious. a lot of people have come from worlds where charity comes with a price tag. where i was, it was ruled by these entities that called themselves gods. they would give us supplies to survive, but they also fed off of us, monitored us.
the situation you have here is hard and i don't envy you that. most displaced have somewhere to go back to, if they manage to find a way to leave. i don't.
[ It's becoming easier to say as much, even if it still isn't a comfortable statement to admit to. ]
In some cities? I'm sure it does. Even here, we don't give out our big resources unless you've joined up. We allow for some flexibility, but we're not helping unless you're committing. It's how we keep some sense of order. But it's not like we were discussing that, were we? I think if I seemed more mercenary about it (an ironic turn of phrase, in hindsight), it might have been different.
I'm not holding it against any of you. Jason was right. I've been a bit thin skinned lately. The simulation took its toll on me and mine.
[ that's all she'll say about it. she couldn't even reach out to her allies because she was afraid she'd lose the love of her life. shitty situation, and Gaby hasn't always been aces at dealing with pressure. see: the time she accidentally launched a thousand comment-long argument about whether or not to kill some guys who got jailed.
#babysittingtheDisplaced ]
Anyway.
Is this where I get you to sign up or do I point you toward someone to help? Because Marcos Diaz is on the ground, from the Displaced, doing good work. Not just speeches. I believe Cassian Andor is helping release information on the UNA. Things that really cause changes, one way or another.
Or you can tell me what problems you wanna help with, and I give you some insight. Then I send you over to El for the rest.
[ Yeah, see, those thousand-comment conversations are the reason Nate tends to avoid the network discourse. Outside of disliking texting as a form of frequent communication, it's just a lot and he doesn't envy her that. ]
i recently acquired an in with riverside, mostly to hunt down their biggest corporate beefs and follow those mercenary threads we got at everest. i can continue with that, and/or i can do any kind of infiltration you need. last world i was in that was pretty much my forte outside of exploratory expeditions and guerrilla warfare.
like i said, i've got a lot of experience with paramilitary organizations. not theory, but practice. i know how to handle myself when things get dicey so i don't mind the less cerebral work if that's what you need, but i'm pretty good at problem-solving too.
Understood. I don't deal in the more violent activity that Morningstar might get up to, but it's been made blatantly clear to me that I should stop acting like it doesn't happen. If you have a plan, bring it to El. Ze'll get you signed up, too.
As for Riverside, it's a good contact. We're still rebuilding after what happened before.
Did you get filled in on what happened there? How we nearly shut down NA as a chapter for Morningstar?
can i message el directly or is there a preferred method of contact?
riverside seems pretty happy with me thus far, and i imagine they'd like to get a leg up on corporations again if possible. enemy of my enemy, and all that.
[ easiest way to get someone talking to El. ze isn't as much of a face of the group as ze could be, in part because of the whole ... is an AI thing. ]
We had contacts working with them in the past.
In the first drop off, a bunch of our agents were working to steal weapons away from the UNA. Don't read into that. That was a bad tip and we were the ones who took the bait. (Not we. I wasn't there.) After 99.9% of them got downed, the UNA picked them up, revived them, and tortured them for information. They gave away everything. It's not like we train our agents to withhold. We don't have the means.
The UNA launched an attack against us. It could've been way worse if it weren't for the Displaced. It may have been if everyone was as self interested as some of them. They were more worried about what the agents knew about them than the people in trouble.
I was left out of it. On purpose. Someone called in a favor and saved my ass and no one else's.
Yes, that's suspicious but it's not what I'd want. Not in a million years.
But it was just the first of many hints that people are watching you.
Funnily enough, my ass aside, that attack didn't involve you all. Doubt that'll be the case in the future. You were too new to be a threat, but they've been scraping together anything they can to paint a target on your backs. And someone out there knows who and how many backs there are.
[ It answers some questions - clarifies, mostly - but raises too many others. When he'd gathered a small group of military types to infiltrate the main body of the Null ships in Hadriel, they were fully aware of what they were getting into and knew that being brought backed and tortured was a serious possibility.
But these were men trained in that kind of thing: John Sheppard, Poe Dameron. People who, like him, would let their insides get pulled out before volunteering information. They knew the risks, and it was nothing like what Gaby describes. ]
so i'm gathering.
thanks for the intel, gives me more of a reason to keep an eye on these assholes.
The mob can't do shit in this world and they know it. For every step forward, they have to back off soon enough.
But there's a power vacuum all the same, and the loyalty they inspire in people might be an angle if the UN gets desperate. I don't know.
A lot of you guys come in thinking crime needs to be cracked down, but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather anyone spend their time working with the criminals to get eyes everywhere. Eyes that can't be tampered with, or second guessed because anyone with the right credentials can screw with surveillance.
i say this as someone who is a former criminal, but crime is going to happen no matter what. it's a constant, so cracking down on it just isn't logistically possible. that's not pessimism, it's realism.
having worked there for a little while now i think you're right: we need more eyes. they don't have a lot of sway right now, but they're looking to change that. the next opportunity they get is one they're going to take.
The worst part is that I can't tell if you mean the mobs or the UN. I'm less afraid of the former than the latter. The UN wants to grab power back, especially if they believe they've lost it.
Having more contacts and allies is something we need, especially here. I don't think it's wrong to be afraid for New Amsterdam in light of everything.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Before you guys came along, I was helping out actual refugees. No one wants to be a refugee, but they at least had a choice to take my hand and get a chance at a new life. None of you get that. So the hand that comes along is harder to accept, especially since you're all a pretty fucking independent bunch.
[ aka the "if we need help someone expects something in return" bunch. that's what she's learned. ]
But I get it. You just all decided to turn on the distrust when I wasn't having it. I don't know if you noticed, but we have a lot but most of it's going to shit.
I don't blame that on any of you. Even the stuff that may be connected.
[ she sees it, and it freaks her out, but she knows that they can't control what they don't know. they always talk things through so incessantly, too, that she's never actually left in the dark.
thanks, Displaced, for having zero sense of discretion. ]
no subject
the situation you have here is hard and i don't envy you that. most displaced have somewhere to go back to, if they manage to find a way to leave. i don't.
[ It's becoming easier to say as much, even if it still isn't a comfortable statement to admit to. ]
your problems are my problems.
i want to help.
no subject
I'm not holding it against any of you. Jason was right. I've been a bit thin skinned lately. The simulation took its toll on me and mine.
[ that's all she'll say about it. she couldn't even reach out to her allies because she was afraid she'd lose the love of her life. shitty situation, and Gaby hasn't always been aces at dealing with pressure. see: the time she accidentally launched a thousand comment-long argument about whether or not to kill some guys who got jailed.
#babysittingtheDisplaced ]
Anyway.
Is this where I get you to sign up or do I point you toward someone to help? Because Marcos Diaz is on the ground, from the Displaced, doing good work. Not just speeches. I believe Cassian Andor is helping release information on the UNA. Things that really cause changes, one way or another.
Or you can tell me what problems you wanna help with, and I give you some insight. Then I send you over to El for the rest.
no subject
i recently acquired an in with riverside, mostly to hunt down their biggest corporate beefs and follow those mercenary threads we got at everest. i can continue with that, and/or i can do any kind of infiltration you need. last world i was in that was pretty much my forte outside of exploratory expeditions and guerrilla warfare.
like i said, i've got a lot of experience with paramilitary organizations. not theory, but practice. i know how to handle myself when things get dicey so i don't mind the less cerebral work if that's what you need, but i'm pretty good at problem-solving too.
no subject
As for Riverside, it's a good contact. We're still rebuilding after what happened before.
Did you get filled in on what happened there? How we nearly shut down NA as a chapter for Morningstar?
no subject
riverside seems pretty happy with me thus far, and i imagine they'd like to get a leg up on corporations again if possible. enemy of my enemy, and all that.
and no, didn't get the memo. what happened?
no subject
[ easiest way to get someone talking to El. ze isn't as much of a face of the group as ze could be, in part because of the whole ... is an AI thing. ]
We had contacts working with them in the past.
In the first drop off, a bunch of our agents were working to steal weapons away from the UNA. Don't read into that. That was a bad tip and we were the ones who took the bait. (Not we. I wasn't there.) After 99.9% of them got downed, the UNA picked them up, revived them, and tortured them for information. They gave away everything. It's not like we train our agents to withhold. We don't have the means.
The UNA launched an attack against us. It could've been way worse if it weren't for the Displaced. It may have been if everyone was as self interested as some of them. They were more worried about what the agents knew about them than the people in trouble.
I was left out of it. On purpose. Someone called in a favor and saved my ass and no one else's.
Yes, that's suspicious but it's not what I'd want. Not in a million years.
But it was just the first of many hints that people are watching you.
Funnily enough, my ass aside, that attack didn't involve you all. Doubt that'll be the case in the future. You were too new to be a threat, but they've been scraping together anything they can to paint a target on your backs. And someone out there knows who and how many backs there are.
no subject
But these were men trained in that kind of thing: John Sheppard, Poe Dameron. People who, like him, would let their insides get pulled out before volunteering information. They knew the risks, and it was nothing like what Gaby describes. ]
so i'm gathering.
thanks for the intel, gives me more of a reason to keep an eye on these assholes.
no subject
But there's a power vacuum all the same, and the loyalty they inspire in people might be an angle if the UN gets desperate. I don't know.
A lot of you guys come in thinking crime needs to be cracked down, but as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather anyone spend their time working with the criminals to get eyes everywhere. Eyes that can't be tampered with, or second guessed because anyone with the right credentials can screw with surveillance.
no subject
having worked there for a little while now i think you're right: we need more eyes. they don't have a lot of sway right now, but they're looking to change that. the next opportunity they get is one they're going to take.
no subject
Having more contacts and allies is something we need, especially here. I don't think it's wrong to be afraid for New Amsterdam in light of everything.