maskormenace

[The silence of Matt's office on Tuesday morning was a relief for Kate. It gave her time to think, to sort out her thoughts, and try to figure out where to go next. Given everything (given Miami and Nonah), it's difficult to figure out where to begin. But she has to begin somewhere ... and provide at least one announcement of her own.]

Hi, it's Kate again. I guess you can all see that, and don't get me confused with our other fabulous Kate. I couldn't do red hair if I tried it, and I especially couldn't work it the way she does.

I wouldn't do this as a textual communication, but there are a few things of note to cover! From my perspective, one of these is self-interested, but the rest of it is hopefully of interest to you.

First, I've joined with Matt Murdock at his firm as a secretary. It's grueling work. Very grueling. I sharpen pencils at least three times a day. But if you missed his wonderful message, we're two unregistered individuals making it in this world, and we haven't received any penalty. [The "yet" is typed and then backspaced. It's only typed and backspaced for her own benefit. She likes seeing it.]

The other half of my duties will be as a private detective. I intend to use the ability granted to me by the porter—psychometry—to advance my investigations, but only when needed. I'm offering my services to people here, but I'll be conducting my own investigations when they come up. Some of you can guess why. [She is still a superhero, anyway.]

The rest of the information is relevant to circumstances that have passed. Kanaya made a very good point, but I think we also need to be aware of the government's involvement in everything. I've been skirting around it, but I'll be more straight forward now.

1. Captain Holiday told me that the freedom and rights that we have offered to us are far more than we're supposed to be getting. We're lucky, and he's looking out for us. I'll grant him that, but that means there are people in the government who disagree with this decision, and if he was removed from his position, we'd be seeing a very different tune. I wouldn't be surprised if we are in certain areas.

2. However, Captain Holiday also lied to me when I asked about the porter. To clarify, he said they never had control over the porter, when evidence in this world's history books say something entirely different. While they had control over it before, they no longer do—or so he says. I don't know how much of his information is informed by our public communication, but he claims that Lachesis synced up with the porter prior to the first string of imPorts' arrivals. When that happened, they lost control of the porter.

These combined facts make me think they do lack control of the porter.

3. We're only given information on a need-to-know basis, but that's a given.

4. Attacks aside, I'm still left wondering why they want us to go to Mars. Go ahead with your conspiracy theories, because I've definitely thought of all of them. None of them are all that great.

5. The government does have a way to track us if we leave the country. I think we can all put two and two together on how much of our activity they can keep an eye on at any given moment.

6. There is a Homeland Security here because of the Cold War between ourselves and Russia.

I'm not saying that the government is behind the attacks. I think that wouldn't be very smart of them, and it'd be a risky decision. We imPorts aren't coming out looking rosy after them, because we look like a threat to their people. They could easily cut their ties to us if they wanted, and they haven't yet. I think that's something we have to consider as a future possibility, but no time soon.

That said, in reference to Kanaya's message, the government did have Eden East put on a great party for all of us, and there were several strange things that came out of that. The disease, the room that started to feel like it was fire, and the bird that attacked us all. That was a government sanctioned event, and not everything appeared to be a threat from an external source.

I do think we're in a position where we need to line up the acts to find answers, so this is the information I've found. I'm eager to welcome more information from all ends. I think we've all had very different experiences so far.

Thanks, and as always, feel free to ask questions.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A little. Sounds like the military uses ImPorts as their errand boys, especially the 'registered' ones. No real combat missions, at least not yet. They draft people, but they don't make them fight. Go figure, right?

I'd disagree with your assessment on the assignments. While some of the public services have been things other people could keep up, a lot of it is sharing imPort experiences, doing good work like charity, and things like that. If you consider that errand work, that's fine, but it's not what I'd consider it at all.

I'm sure they're doing a lot of good in the community. But it's not the kind of thing that seems worth all the effort of making us 'heroes.' That's what I mean.

Anyway, what about the space program? They're really planning a mission to Mars?

I'm sure we'll be heroes when we go out and colonize Mars, possibly dying for it in the process. [It seems to be a sticking point for her.]

And that actually works for both your questions, I think. I don't know too much about it yet, other than that it's really fishy.

Colonization? At this world's level of development? Sounds like suicide to me.

[Pause, then PRIVATE]

If you're looking into this stuff, then there's a couple things you ought to know about the Porter. It might help explain why they're so interested in Mars.

What do you know?

And aside from that, where did you get the information from?

Moira Nomos. She works for the military, so take this with a grain of salt. But she says they originally pulled the Porter out of the Atlantic Ocean, during the 1980s.

She also says it might be from space. That it might be alive.

That's all new information.

Did she say the Porter wasn't something they could utilize or control on their own?

Glad to help.

She said they've been able to reverse-engineer some of it. That's how they got the Porters in places like Maurtia Falls. But they've never been able to handle transport between universes.

She also said that they can't even figure out how to destroy the thing. That's what really worries me. If something that powerful turns out to be alien and hostile, Earth could be in a lot of trouble.

Hold up.

You said that "they've never been able to handle transport between universes."

You're certain of that?

Hold on. I was taking notes on this thing during the call...

[Beep boop buttons being pushed.]

Yeah. Here. Her exact words were 'cross-universes is a code we can't seem to crack.'

Wait, that's right. The history says they had to have had control over that at some time. Otherwise, where did the old ImPorts go?

Edited (Rewrite!) 2014-05-22 22:04 (UTC)

Not to add to our conspiracy theories, but I have a thought in line with this. If they keep insisting that they can't crack the cross-universes thing, even if Holiday has said two different things about that himself, then that's where the discrepancy in all this lies.

They either cracked the cross-universe thing and are lying, or they never did, and the imPorts never went home.

[She pauses, considering.]

Did you hear what happened in Nonah? With the writings.

No, keep adding to them. At this point, I don't think we could have too many.

I heard about the graffiti. 'We Did it Better.' And those guys in yellow hoods. I didn't think of it earlier, but now that you mention it... Do you think it's connected to the first generation of 'heroes' here?

That's what I'm beginning to think.

I've looked into them, and heroes were outlawed after the last imPorts left.

But you have to wonder why they'd resent us so much.

Yeah. Another thing that doesn't make sense. I don't know much, but it sounds like the old heroes were the real deal. They did a lot of good. They're the reason everyone seems to like us so much.

I can't see anyone like that targeting a train full of civilians. Can you?

I can't. But someone else pointed out that we don't know how much of things is fabricated. Sure, they can't force the public to respond the way they do, or Nonah's PR people, but that doesn't mean that things aren't what they seem.

But I'm from a world with heroes. People like heroes. Hell, they like me. [There's a pause.] But that doesn't sound like the type of thing that Russians would declare after bombing someone, unless they have a train of their own just like it.

I don't buy the Russians either. What would they be doing with giant birds?

[Another thoughtful pause.]

A girl called Kanaya was talking about a group. They caused a lot of trouble in another universe. Do you know anything about the 'Vulcanus Foundation?'

Good question.

[There's a pause, as she considers his second question.]

I don't know anything about them, but I'm not convinced they're a problem, either.

Why's that? From what she said, it sounds like they might fit the bill. Same methods, similar patterns.

Different dimension.

I'm evil in some dimensions. I'm really not an evil person.

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