hadriel | ninth. voice (when the system's wrong, you gotta tear it down).

[Mello is all business today - it's Door day, which means new arrivals are likely scanning the network looking for answers, and those who have been here may be looking for signs of those they know who have just arrived. No time like now to make his appeal to his fellow captives.]

We need better documentation. I know this isn't the first time I've said this, and it's maybe even more true now than before - the Null's recent contact with us and the information we've been able to glean from them makes a compelling argument for this, I think.

[He pauses, collecting the words for the rest of what he has to say.]

Frankly, we're not very well organized. We can do better than we have been. What I'm proposing is this: I want to assemble a team to collect and maintain information about our circumstances here - the entities responsible for bringing and keeping us here, their enemies, this war in which we've found ourselves caught in the crossfire. It's not an exaggeration to say that our survival could very well depend on these efforts. Now, I don't care if you have special qualifications or prior experience with this sort of thing - all I ask is that you agree to work as a team, and that if you say you'll do the work, you follow through reliably. If you're new here, familiarize yourselves with the introductory guide and the historical record. Ask questions. Bring us your ideas. If you uncover relevant information, you can contact me, Mello. I'm in the directory, under M.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...Huh.]

I did talk to Sorrow briefly about it, although it's impossible to say if he was being truthful or not.

Do you think it's a physical thing you can find?

From what the parasites have said indirectly, it exists in a physical location within the city. [Because frankly she trusts what they've implied or accidentally mentioned in passing more than any outright replies to questions.] What exactly it is... I don't think anyone can speculate on that yet. However, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the concepts involved.

In the city, or in Hadriel in general?

[His implication is probably pretty clear; hiding the Door in the confusing and dangerous caves seems like the most logical idea. Although--]

I presume you've already concentrated some efforts on the arena.

[Since that's the other logical choice, considering it's where people show up.]

In the city. [Her first thought had been the tunnels too, to be fair.] Unfortunately, it's also been implied that they can move it from place to place, so it's unlikely to be a static location, which makes it even more important to have a reliable way to find it.

I've documented the arena when it's not... busy... but nothing obvious has come up so far.

[He nods, although she can't see it, thinking for a few seconds about all of that.]

Is it just you and Alphys working on locating it?

It seems like there's a marked preference by the Door to select individuals with dramatically less than average technical expertise.

[Which she feels is putting it mildly, from the disdain in her voice.]

That could be. There could also be the problem of people who do have technical expertise not knowing about your project.

[Probably both, he's thinking.]

Have you seen the average individual brought here? They'd think a lightbulb is a new form of sorcery.

[Never mind that poor fellow who didn't even known what a can opener was... She's not 100% clear on this magic that Alphys works with either, but at least it's systematic, and her fellow researcher understands modern technology too.]

Even if that's true of the majority, which I'm not sure it actually is, that doesn't mean there aren't still people here with potentially useful knowledge. In fact I know for certain there's at least one individual here who has a graduate degree in engineering.

[And sure, Zack just arrived, but the point still stands.]

[That would actually be useful, despite lingering feelings about some past friendships after the person the parasites chose to pull from Marian's mind... ]

Who?

A friend of mine; I can see if he's interested in helping your project, if you want.

[But he's not going to actually volunteer Zack without permission.]

The point is more that you don't know who's here and what skills they have unless you actually ask.

[Has it really been so long since she had asked that Lance didn't even see it? There's a horrible thought: that she's actually been here long enough to have settled in.]

I have. But I'm not going to re-broadcast it every few weeks and have to sift through unhelpful, unqualified, or simply ignorant responses.

If your friend has sufficient capability and self-motivation, I'm sure I'll see him at the lab eventually once he hears about its existence.

Is stubbornness really worth being inefficient about something this important?

[He has to ask, even though he doesn't do so snappishly or even all that pointedly, more just intending for her to think about the question than being judgemental.]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to complain about lack of information, or qualified people available to work on important projects, and then expect them to just find you and offer to help with something they don't know exists.

[There's a small irritated sigh. Yes, she gets the point, but on the other hand...]

Fine. Go ask your friend. As far as information goes, however, people should be sharing anything new publicly, for the exact reasons you just mentioned.

I agree, and that goes for everyone.

[Not just Mello, not just Marian; he's in agreement that information is way too scattered in general here. Although keeping personal things to oneself is fine, they all need to be working together to really figure out what to do about the greater picture, which he's pretty sure is the entire point of this post of Mello's but he'll avoid saying that.]

ninth. voice (when the system's wrong, you gotta tear it down).

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((playing a time traveller means never worrying too much about thread continuity oddities))

((that's always useful!))

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