Question about Gail’s life after her accident! Why do you suppose she was homeless and picking up odd jobs as opposed to settling into a new life somewhere? Even with memory loss, why didn’t she form some sort of community around her? I’m so sad about this chapter in her life & admire the hell out of your abilities that you made me (and so many orgers) care so profoundly about a character with 5 seconds of canon to her name 😍😭

elastigale:

Thanks!  Because she has almost no canon history it’s been fun to really flesh her out into a dimensional character. 😀

The reason I imagine she was homeless for a while is because the government agency overseeing her “retirement” was dissolved.  Until then they had been providing her housing and disability payments, until suddenly it dried up without warning and she was evicted. Prior to this, the agency had been regularly checking on her, performing more mind-wipes if she started to remember things she shouldn’t, and occasionally having to catch her and bring her back home when she would wander away because she was so addled from the constant mind-wipes.  She had dreams and “visions” (aka fragmented memories) of her old life in the city and was unconsciously trying to return.  After the agency stopped checking on her, these “visions” came more and more frequently, and she felt it was a sign.

After being evicted, she sold what few possessions she could and started to travel to Metroville, mostly via hitchhiking or by bus when she could accumulate the funds for it.  Because she had been “retired” several states away, this travel took quite a while.  She also would sometimes choose to stay in a certain place she liked for a little longer, just to take it all in.  Once she arrived in Metroville, she settled in the city’s main park and found a community among the other beggars and homeless folk who lived there too.  They would exchange tips on places to get free food, where the best spots to sleep, etc.  (She would remember this community when she recovered and was in a better financial situation, and make helping the homeless her new focus for hero work. )

As a young Super, Gail was of the opinion that the law was sacred and always respected and trusted those who enforced it, but being homeless gave her a very different perspective on just how cruel law enforcement could be, and how hypocritical and unfair the justice system was.  (Interestingly, Helen had the opposite shift in perspective, coming to rely on and trust the justice system a lot more once she became a big enforcer of it and relied on a lot of government assistance for her family’s relocations.)