ic The Grey Areas

[Electra]

"But it's all right!" Stesha hastened to assure Lucy. "I'm sure they'll make the transition to Freedom City without any problem. They've met all the heroes who live here, and the bees as well, and everything's gone just fine. Freedom City has a lot of metahumans, and I'm sure it has other things that will be very unfamiliar, but a modern urban setting in most timelines is probably going to be a lot less unfamiliar than what we're dealing with here on Sanctuary. Becca, for instance," she gave the woman an encouraging smile, "is a top-notch administrative assistant who types eighty words per minute and is good with computers. She'd be a real asset to an office in Freedom City, but those skills just aren't as applicable here." 

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy didn't overreact but instead replaced her sunglasses and waited for things to settle down, it wasn't the first time people had reacted negatively to her appearance -the eyes tended to unnerved even the most superhero friendly fan.

"I actually understand exactly where you coming from, I went from a world of just a few Mystery Men and Women to a world full of brightly coloured heroes and villains." Anticipating the next question she added "For complicated reasons I missed 90 odd years of history."

She paused to allow that information to sink in and whether it would effect there working relationship with them.

[Avenger Assembled]

"All right," said Daniels tentatively. "So you're an outsider too." He looked at the others of his group before going on, "I have biographies of everybody - names, skills, college degrees, everything. The history we left behind may be different, but outside of superheroes the culture and technology were all just the same." 

"We can't just live like this, like, like it's ninety years ago, or even worse!" interjected one whose name Lucy hadn't quite caught, a freckled redheaded woman with a growing tan. "Even those of us trained as survivalists, there's not enough space here to do the kind of hunting and plowing we know how to do, and even if there was..." She smiled thinly. "We learned how to do this when we thought it would keep us alive, but that doesn't mean we wanted to live like it all the time."

[Electra]

Stesha made an odd face, like she was trying not to let her feelings be hurt that someone was so appalled by the idea of staying at what was basically her home. "I have an apartment in Freedom City that I only use as a base for working out of most of the time, and sometimes on weekends," she offered to Lucy. "I was thinking maybe some of them could take turns staying there, just like a sort of vacation away from the pastoral life till we can get things set up for them? But I don't know what kind of trouble they might get into, or whether it's even legal. I wouldn't really have time to supervise personally," she admitted with some reluctance. "They'd be all on their own." 

[Tiffany Korta]

“If we make you this world guardian we could declare you home an embassy, Micronations do something similar all the time. The government might complain though I doubt it with all the good work you’ve done on your behalf.” she thought for a few second then added.

“Though there is an alternative world that already has an embassy established in Freedom City, and the law doesn’t distinguish between different world. The diplomat owes me a favour, I helped him defeat a doppelganger causing him trouble. We could house everyone in his house, officially as staff, whilst we work things out. Though I can’t guarantee anything at the moment.”

[Avenger Assembled]

Daniels frowned at that. "What alternate world? I don't know about this. People here have talked about some of the other places you people have seen and it just sounds so insane - a world where everyone's gender is reversed? A world where everyone is evil?" These were common enough concepts, albeit ones not entirely solved even by multiversal scholars, but Daniels spoke of them like he was trying to forcibly eject the concepts from his mind, all disbelief and shock even as he acknowledged the truth of the matter. He looked at the others and said, "I know we are in your hands here, and there's nothing we can do in this place without your help. But please, help us find a way back home. Maybe our Freedom City is gone, maybe our lives are gone, but we can at least rebuild if we can make it back somewhere we belong." 

[Electra]

"No, no," Fleur hastily explained, "not another alternate world. This is an alternate world, Sanctuary is, when it comes to Earth Prime, and there are other worlds that also have relationships with Prime. We could use those worlds as precedent for setting up some kind of building or household in Freedom City on Prime that's like an embassy, where you could live even before you have legal identities because you are recognized citizens of Sanctuary." She looked to Lucy for confirmation that she was explaining this right. "The problem is, my home in Freedom City is a two bedroom apartment in a big apartment complex, which is sort of hard to set up as being sovereign territory. But Lucy knows a place in Freedom City that is already an embassy with those same rules, just from a different world. She knows the person who runs it, and if he recognizes you, you could stay there, in Freedom City on Prime, while we're trying to get everything sorted. It seems like it could work," she added, her tone cautiously hopeful. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Since waking up in the 21st century nothing in her strange little (un)life had manage to phase Lucy in the slightest, and it was as all to easy to forget that most things she encountered wasn't the norm. It was part of the reason she kept Erica around to keep reminding her how weird thing were. Plus she hadn't quite figured out how this whole Internet thing worked yet.

"Sorry I forget how this might seem to all of you. You'd be living in Freedom City, our Freedom City, but not actual citizens. You won't be able to do everything but you can at least live there and start to earn a living."

[Avenger Assembled]

"When can this happen?" asked Daniels, looking around at the others to make sure they were comfortable with the question. "Summer's about to start - and our kids need to start school again."

"But we don't have to stay in Freedom City when it's done, right?" asked the redhead again. "We can move out somewhere a little more...like the homes we left." 

"Yes, well, not everyone in our original group was from Freedom City," agreed Daniels, extemporizing slightly. It wasn't hard to guess what his colleague had been about to say. "So we want to make sure we can all make it back where we started...or as close as can be arranged. I...dammit!" He swatted a mosquito on the back of his hand, a look of vicious disgust on his face for a long, perceptible moment. "Apologies," he added to the others. "The chance to live in a world with pesticides looks especially attractive right now. 

"I'm pregnant," said Christine Pryor suddenly, earning a gasp from several of her tablemates, even as she put her hand on her husband Devin's arm. "Our baby's going to be an American citizen, right?" 

[Electra]

Fleur looked stunned for a moment, then put on a happy face for the benefit of tenants and guests alike. "Wow, what a wonderful surprise!" she exclaimed. "I'm sure we'll get something figured out by the time your baby comes, to make sure he or she has citizenship on the appropriate world and in the appropriate country. Lucy will help, she knows all about that sort of thing, and what she doesn't know, she can find out." The look she gave the attorney was slightly pleading; Fleur was obviously out of her depth when it came to navigating these tricky bureaucratic waters on behalf of people who weren't exactly easy to satisfy. But people who weren't comfortable with superheroes most certainly couldn't stay on Sanctuary for the long term.

[Tiffany Korta]

"Congratulations" Lucy was genuinely pleased for the woman, even if it might make things a little more complicated "If you'll excuse us a minute I need a quick word with Fleur."

Once they were both out if earshot Lucy began again.

"With everything we've just discovered I think we should get them all looked at. I believe the League has suitable facilities, and they a grey area when it comes to interdimensional visitors. Though I've never been beyound the tourist area."

"It's true she's literally bought the t-shirt." Erica added with a beaming smile

"You do know I meant everyone when I wanted a quiet word?"

Erica defensively held up her cell phone

"Taking notes like you asked me to boss."

[Electra]

"Yeah," Stesha agreed, still looking a little dazed. "Yeah, I guess we should do that. The League will know what to do, I'm sure. I hadn't really wanted to get them involved if I didn't have to, not everybody is down with my extracurricular activities out here. You know, meddling with the fates of other dimensions, interfering and paternalism and all that, but this was my mistake, and I have to fix it. They deserve something at least close to the lives they would've had, assuming they hadn't been entirely overwritten in the time stream change and I can't even think about that because how many people did we erase by accident when we undid the knots in that timeline, and are we somehow culpable for that or is it balanced out by how many people were born and didn't die because there wasn't a huge insect invasion that erased half the major cities?"

She seemed to realize she was babbling quietly and clamped her mouth shut, taking a deep breath through her nose. "I'll talk to the League," she decided, "and see if I can at least find them places to live. I would really appreciate if you'd keep looking into their legal status and what we can do to get them some identification and other stuff they'll need. I can't give you a lot for a retainer right now, but if you can give me a little time and keep track of your billing and expenses, I'll make sure you get paid." 

[Tiffany Korta]

“When the early Mystery Men came along I admired them because they did what needed to be done, rather than the easy way. That’s why I took the case that led me here.” she didn’t dwell on those events “If you think the best way to help them is without the League's help, well between us we must know people who could help with such things.”

“But whatever you choose I’ll help you all the way, though I’m afraid eventually we’ll need to get paid. As some of us need to eat...” the last comment seemed to cut off Erica who was obviously about to same the same thing, obviously it was an old running joke.