hadriel | seven ☠ voice/text

Well... seems like there's a few of you who are ready to sell us out.

[His voice is soft- not really angry, but there's a sinister lilt to it.]

And here I thought we were all growing to be one big, happy family. I can't say I'm fond of the necessity of weeding out spies in our city, but... listen, we're all in a flurry about this. We need to do something, and everyone wants a say in how we're supposed to move forward from here.

[Which has been a headache and a half for all of the gods. Sure, they get along in the grand scheme of things, but there's definitely a little clash of ideals going on, and frankly, Fear is tired of the arguing.]

So what I thought we'd do is to have you vote on who's in charge here. Who takes action and comes up with a game plan on how we're going to suss out what the Null are planning. Obviously, Sorrow wants to be our fearless leader, but his methods are a little... direct. Delight and Rage would probably have a little murder mystery party when they get back, Tranquility and Confusion- I'm not sure if they'd actually do anything at all, come to think of it.

[Christ, this is a mess.]

As far as Love and myself go... I can think of a few people I'd like to personally interrogate.

Anyway, cast your votes or ask your standard slew of questions. Yes, I realize that some of the dissenters will be voting, yeah I know that you all want to be in charge instead- there's probably a few of us who might bend our ears to you, but as we can't put a hundred people in charge, it's gonna be one of us.

[A pause.]

Sorry.

[Happy voting?]

Poll #18652

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40

View Respondents

Who should lead the investigation?

View Answers

Sorrow and Hope
23 (57.5%)

Rage and Delight
2 (5.0%)

Fear and Love
7 (17.5%)

Confusion and Tranquility
8 (20.0%)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...I mean, I guess I should have expected that answer from someone named Fear.

As much as I appreciate the shiver of trepidation, I'm also being sincere.

I'd prefer to avoid death. One would hope that you would as well.

I know you don't know me, I'm pretty good at avoiding it.

[Irrationally good. With the number of times he's fallen off of and out of things from great heights accompanied by equally great explosions, Nate should be pushing up the daisies.]

And to be honest, given the fact I found your last treasured citizens swimming with the fishes, I'm not really reassured by your ability to do jack for us.

[There's a long pause there.]

...I don't know what you expect me to respond with. It's true, we couldn't save them- though we tried. It's true, we're weakened, vulnerable, and only alive because we ran. And it's true, we're not the all-powerful beings that we try to look like.

[But.]

The alternative is death. Extinction of our species. Be reassured or don't, but know that we will do everything in our power to prevent it.

What happened to them?

[It's an answer he knows he hasn't earned, but needs nonetheless.]

Your previous citizens, the ones at the bottom of the lake. They looked like they'd been tied up. Why? What were your enemies doing to them?

[He sighs quietly- it's not exactly a pleasant subject.]

The Null developed a weapon- a signal or poison or something. When released in a population center, it killed our previous hosts indiscriminately, by the tens of thousands. The ones in the bottom of the lake were likely attempting to run to the water for some kind of cover from it. I don't know why they'd be tied- I don't think they ever had any direct contact with the Null.

We held onto our population for as long as we could, running even after the other cities went dark. They still got to us.

Jesus.

[This gets weirder and weirder every time he gets a new fragment of information. It's not enough, but it's still more than he's seen thus far.

Still doesn't explain those indentations in the lake bed.]

Were all the original hosts...crab...people? I mean- were they here and then you guys showed up, or were they brought here because of your presence?

[There's a difference.]

Crab people?

[He sounds curious.]

What would a crab person look like? But- no, the original hosts have been with my people for generations. Thousands of years, city to city, expanding along our home worlds and into the rest of our solar system.

[Nate starts considering how he might explain a crab to a god who has clearly never seen one, and then thinks better of it.]

Huh. So the rest of us are pretty new, then. Comparatively?

Extremely. Though we have only been alive for several hundred years, so I like to think we're less resistant to change.

[Once again:]

Huh. Did you guys just appear, or did you have…god…parents?

We reproduce by partitioning off a portion of our power. We tend to do this when our host population is too large- we split ourselves and then our population accordingly.

[There's a long pause on the other end of the line as Nate struggles to remember a word he learned in middle school before promptly dropping out of middle school.]

...so you procreate by mitosis?

I'm sorry?

[Guess who never took a high school science class, losers.]

[S Q U I N T]

...uh. Never mind. Thanks for the talk.

...yeah.

[Sure. Good talk. Fear, the actual god of awkward conversations, leaves a long pause.]

That's all?

Yep. [He won't drag this out longer than it needs to be.] Good luck with your...god stuff.

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