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[The ID reads Clark Kent, as always. Not the right time to try fooling the network yet.]

Sadly, Captain Holiday was put under intensive care not long before I ended up here so I never got to talk to him. But I was hoping some of you might have gotten a chance to contact him before that. If you have, I'd appreciate if you could tell me about your conversations with him.

You don't have to tell me what the conversation was about, I understand a lot of them were confidential. [That word, he hates it. Lois might see it as a sign that she's pulling the right strings but Clark only sees it as a wall he cannot punch or fly over.]

It's really him I'm interested on. If you noticed anything weird in how he behaved, perhaps, or if he was acting completely normal.

[He pauses for a second. And then:]

I'd also be interested in talking with people who've been able to take a look at the Porter, or been in contact with it. I understand it's a privilege to be allowed near it?

Thank you.

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And you must be Ms Maryam. Or do you prefer Kanaya? [Clark smiles, standing up and reaching to shake her hand before motioning for her to take a seat.]

Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I promise I will not take much of your time, I'm mostly just fact-checking at this point.

[ ms, not miss. she smiles as she takes her seat, that one gets him points. ]

Either will do nicely. But it is quite alright, Mr. Kent. You've at least approached the request with some modicum of manners, which is better than can be said of most who would seek it.

[ the waitress comes to take her order, and she asks for jasmine tea. after blinking twice, the waitress apologizes, they only have sweetened and unsweetened. a little disappointed, kanaya gets coffee instead. ]

So, what sort of facts can I help you check?

Kanaya then. [Since she's given him permission, and he isn't a fan of using middle names. He smiles to himself as he takes a sip of his own (very) sweetened tea. She seems to be as picky about her tea as he is about his coffee, and the thought amuses him.]

First, I'd like to hear anything you have to say about Captain Holiday. Your impression of him, what he said over the network... anything you can recall, even if you think it's a silly unimportant thing.

[ her smile fades, her face turning thoughtful in its place as she recalls the specifics. ]

He only appeared on the Network once, clarifying some bad information that was being passed around. [ kate's, of course. right around the time they first had their falling out, when kate and bad information were practically synonymous, especially when it came to holiday. ] It was also the first occasion the Hornets were mentioned, and instigated many of our investigations into that subject.

He had some warnings to share about Peter Narga, too. The two of them had a history, it seems. Possibly romantic, but that's only intuition talking.

We didn't see him for some months afterward, even at the swearing-in ceremonies. Given the sensitive information he was sharing before, I feared something might have happened, until I saw him in September.

Narga? [That's the first time someone's mentioned him in relation to Holiday, he makes a mental note to check if he can find any interactions or mentions between them.]

What makes you think they had a history?

[ she takes out her communicator, running through a few quick searches. ]

The man's own words. He certainly implied that they worked together, until they didn't, and it could easily have been nothing more than a friendship that ended on very bad terms. But the way he turned defensive when I asked for elaboration, I think there may have been more than that.

[ and she places her communicator on the table, this conversation playing over the speakerphone.

she waits until it's finished before continuing. ]

In September, he mentioned a problem of spies, by way of explaining his absence. I believe he made reference to suspicions of Soviet infiltration at the same time as this broadcast. [ she points to her communicator again, to clarify which broadcast she means. ]

[Clark listens the conversation intently while pursing his lips. He keeps his trusty recorder on his pocket so he'll have a chance to listen to it over and over if he has to, but so far what he's getting from it is that Kanaya is probably right. Maybe they weren't in a relationship, but there's a lot of bitterness in his words.]

You might be onto something, but speculating over their relationship before they had a falling out it's not going to help us much. Dr Holt confirmed he had had a crisis in September, he couldn't say much about it... but the timeline fits.

Has anyone looked into this? If Narga is really what Holiday believed him to be it'd have to show sooner or later. [He'd know, the man sounds exactly like a certain bald alienphobic megalomaniac.]

I wouldn't jump too quickly to the assumption that Holiday was actually accusing the man of being involved with the Hornets. [ she was afraid of that one coming up. kate jumped to the same conclusion, but kate is notorious for wildly jumping to conclusions. the caliber of the past examples has largely discredited her as a source to kanaya, unless she can produce solid information. ] He says he wouldn't put it past him, certainly, but bear in mind that at this point so little was known about the Hornets that they were considered more a rumor than a threat at the time.

Holiday didn't mince words, if he truly suspected it, he would have said it in more certain terms.

[ she picks up the communicator again, scrolling along as she looks for something specific. once she finds it, she leaves it playing until holiday mentions his lack of evidence. that, on its own, seemed enough evidence to kanaya of a very strong contrast to his accusation of narga. ]

Narga was actually there, at the first swear-in. He'd snuck in and tried to convince some of us to go against registration, with some promise that he'd assist us with support. I didn't speak with him personally, but he struck me as a rather smarmy character.

As far as I know, no one took up his offer, despite a number of us unsettling.

[He shakes his head.] No, that's not what I meant. The man could have helped the Hornets, maybe, but we don't have any proof of it so it'd purely be speculation. It fits with what we know but we've got nothing solid.

I meant that he's a- how did he put it? A 'Shifty snakes in the grass'. I actually talked to some people about Narga, a friend [Karen] suggested his offer was worth looking up so I've been trying to contact him. Sadly he's been on vacation...

[The second conversation also gets recorded. He really has to contact Narga as soon as possible, if only so he can draw his own conclusions.]

Why did you think he was 'swarmy'? Something specific you could point out?

[ she's noted the tape recorder, of course. it's a smart move, this is something that should be on record. but it also means she needs to be very clearly where the distinction lies between what she knows and what she thinks.

narga is an especially important case of the latter. ]

As I said, I hadn't spoken with him myself, I'd only seen the way he spoke with others. But the fact that he avoided me and others who registered at that time seemed telling.

Similarly telling are the absence of any attempts on his end to contact imPorts further. The impression I came away with, stronger in retrospect now than it was at the time, is that his concern didn't lie so much in helping imPorts as undermining the government's initial reception.

At best, he probably saw us as nothing better than ammunition to fuel his own grudge. Possibly against the government as a whole, but perhaps against Holiday in particular. I don't know the man's history of motivations well enough to distinguish between the two.

[ but, even on record, this doesn't have to be strictly professional. it's always interesting to see how import social circles fit together, especially if someone clark knows has been here since the beginning. and so, she changes course with a question. ] Who was the friend, if you don't mind my asking?

Edited 2015-01-05 22:34 (UTC)

[He nods, tapping the table with his fingers. He itches to be writing all of this, he's so used to using the written words to commit things to memory he misses it when he can't use it. But he's already recording this, writing things down would be a bit too much.]

Karen, Karen Star. We're from the same world so we've crossed paths before, and we talked about him in that Charity Ceremony there was a while ago.

But that's alright, most people's motivation aren't clear even if you do know the person. But it does sound like I should probably have more information on the man before I have a talk with him, do you have any suggestion on where to start asking questions about him?

I know Karen, she's a friend. [ she's actually going to help her hunt for an apartment tomorrow, a day out she had to delay for this meeting. ] I suppose it's possible that she might have come away with a different impression of him, as I believe he actually bothered speaking to her.

In honesty, I registered at the time largely out of convenience. We came from a bad situation, and it seemed the only responsible option to take care of ourselves and those in our care. This is why, if he was offering a legitimate alternative, I think it was rather negligent of him to ignore all but the undecided. [ in other words, she just took him ignoring her way too personally. ]

If you want to know more, then it might be best to look to the others he actually spoke to. Unsettled imPorts who have been here since January should be a safe bet, but there will be some who have since registered that may be included as well.

Really? It is a small world after all. [The affirmation makes her win some points in Clark's book, because Karen is usually a pretty good judge of character. Way better than he is most of the time, since he has a tendency to disregard first (and second, and third) impressions. He also wonders if she's told Kanaya The Secret... but not enough to go ask her. Powergirl did always do her own thing, and he has to keep reminding himself to stop treating her like he treats Kara.]

Maybe the man believed those who'd registered wouldn't change their mind. Or if we go with Holiday's theory of what he actually wants, maybe it hurt the government more if people never registered, so people who already had didn't interest him. I'll try to find out if I ever get to talk to him.

[He gives her a nod and a smile.] This has been really helpful.

It's no real surprise. I've been around long enough, I at least know of most remaining City refugees, if I don't know them personally. [ and some of them she caught flying around out of costume during the end of the world. but the secret had a lot to do with kanaya's trust for her. it means more to have another alien here, orphaned from her dead birth universe. ]

But I'm glad I've done you some good. I might be able to remember some others he spoke to, but only with stipulations. Any name I give you, you don't give to anyone else unless you've cleared it with them first. They don't deserve to be hounded for the things they've had to live through.

[ it's an important condition. when freddie came to her for information on the porter, she kept peter's name out deliberately, even if he might've known more than anyone else.

she wouldn't throw a friend to freddie lounds, especially after what she did to his brother last month. she wouldn't even do that to an enemy. ]

[He nods. That's fair enough. For a second he wonders if Freddie cleared it up with everyone in his list before sharing it with Clark... but Kanaya wasn't even expecting him to ask, so obviously she didn't. Hm. He'll have to be careful when he approaches people if he wants to get answers without scaring them, he almost lost Kanaya when he told her who'd given him her name.]

Sure, I will not. But a lot of people are asking me to share what I find, and I do think information has to get out. I can pinpoint them as anonymous sources, though.

I wouldn't ever recommend withholding the information, only respecting its source.

[ she says it with a nod, because he's not being unreasonable. but it will make a very big difference to her, whether he's reliable and trustworthy or not. disrespect is enough to make her question anything lounds says, and she's beginning to like clark better than her first impression might have led her to expect. it'd be terrible to find he isn't worth it.

she leans back in her chair, staring down at her coffee as her lips twist in thought. she's trying to remember, not only who, but who's left. jenny, terry, they're both gone, nothing to be gotten from them. but there might be something she does remember. ]

Spider-Man spoke to him, I think. He might be worth asking, but don't even mention Freddie Lounds' name to him. That'll be a certain way to get on his bad side.

[ especially after she outed kaine's identity. he's a surly guy out of the mask already, but that certainly didn't do any good.

though where was peter that day, come to think of it? is there something to it that she can't remember? probably not, it must be nothing. just a missed detail. ]

[He already has the recorder out, but he still reaches for he notebook Jaime gave him and notes the name down. Spider-man was also on the list of people Freddie gave him, but between her reaction when he said Freddie had sent him her way and her casual dig right now he's definitely not going to mention that.]

I heard something about it. Not much, since I was out a the time but she made his identity public, didn't she? Or at least tried to, I'm still pretty sure most similarities between her notes and reality were pure coincidence. [He likes Freddie! ...He doesn't like Ms Lounds, the Tattletime writer.]

I promise I will not give his name to anyone without his permission.

I doubt they were coincidental. Someone was leaking that information, it's just a wonder why it wasn't all accurate. [ like throwing out the idea that her fauxbro is a disastrous contagion waiting to happen. at least lounds didn't get that. ]

But I'll accept your promise. Is there anything else I can help you with, Mr. Kent?

Well... [He pauses for a moment, as if checking a mental list. He guesses there isn't anything else he can ask about Holiday to her, she's already shared a lot and he has other sources to check now. So he moves on:]

What do you know about the Porter? Have you ever been in direct contact with it?

Aside from what any of us do?

[ she takes a silver flask from her purse and pours something red into her coffee, then adding a lot of sugar before stirring it idly. ]

She wasn't as heavily supervised in the City, we weren't whisked away the moment we arrived. So, it was certainly easier to linger, but I never had quite the expertise to discern her machinery.

Still, she wasn't always so quiet as she's been here, either.

[He glances at the flask and he's tempted or a moment to use his vision to check what she's pouring into the coffee. But what she drinks is her business, so he stops his curiosity and goes back to looking right at Kanaya.]

So she talked to you a lot more back then. What kind of things did she tell you? ...And why do you think she's keeping to herself more now?

[ it's okay clark, you're not watching a minor consume alcohol, at least. but a vampire casually feeding is probably a little weirder.

but there's no nostalgic fondness in her expression as she discusses lachesis, with her furrowed brows, the curve of her lips that's closer to a wince than a smile. it's more the memory of a nuisance, or a former slaver. ]

She spoke to us more only in the sense that she would ever speak to us at all. Her addresses were irregular at best, and usually little more than taunts. Some lesson she was teaching that we failed to get, maybe a joke she saw fit to play on us. They were deranged ravings, for the most part, or at least wanted to be portrayed that way.

I would imagine two main reasons for her silence now. One is upheaval, she lost to her sister and was made to inhabit a much weaker body. Prior to her abidance in the current vessel, it was controlled by the government. She can exert her influence over it, make it perform better than they knew how before, but it's still weaker than she was before. She'll need a better hold of that power before she's in any position to operate openly.

The other is that she... [ kanaya shrugs. ] ...just doesn't have much to say. She didn't talk to us terribly often to begin with, and there's no point taunting now. I think if she has anything to say, it will be done more subtly.

[Well, that means he doesn’t even need to use his vison on the drink, the smell of that would unmistakable enough. And he does what Kanaya would hate him for doing: he jump to conclusions, makes guesses. Considering some of the things he’s seen back home, and some of the things he’s seen in this place? A vampire isn’t even on the top ten. She’s being amiable and it’s easy to see how smart she is, so unless she gives him any reasons to think otherwise he’ll assume she’s pacific.

(Plus the only vampire that has ever tasted his blood said it tasted horrible and alien so he isn’t particularly worried.)]

I still think that her… boasting, her little games were means to draw the imPort’s attention to certain places, make them think whatever she wanted them- you- to think. Or the opposite, to have them look the other way and ignore things she didn’t really want you to know. Which means that her being quiet could simply mean she doesn’t have anything to hide from us or show us anymore.

Or… maybe she’s simply a little bit depressed. I guess the possibilities are endless. I’m just curious because I think she might be our only way out, if only we could figure out how to talk to her.

[ well, she can't fault him for a guess that's actually true, especially when he's going to be reasonable and not give her flak about it. she's had worse reaction from other vampires, clark's is pretty much the ideal. ]

It could be she has nothing to hide or show. It could be she's broadened her influence to let others do the work for her. Where her hand has begun in this world is something I'm not entirely confident in. I would be shocked if there was nothing prior to this January, personally.

But she's almost certainly our only way out. Even if we were able to escape by other means, nothing would keep her from bringing us back again, or sabotage any attempt to undermine her. She's very possessive like that.

But I really doubt talking to her will get us anywhere.

[Clark ‘hms’, idly tapping his fingers on the table once more. Her wording makes it sound like Lachesis wants them there, like she sees them as some sort of property in a way. The idea bugs him, but since he can’t quite figure out why he goes with it for now.]

If not by talking to her, then how are we going to find our way out through her? It’s not like we can force her.

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