hadriel | video;

Hey everyone. One of the new kids in town here—I'm Elena Fisher. It's nice to meet you. Well, smartphone-meet you.

[The video shows a blonde woman in a borrowed Henley shirt who apparently scaled some structure before deciding to introduce herself. It's not as high up as her husband's first network post, but apparently "arrive, go higher" is just something members of their household do.]

I get that there's a lot going on here—Nate's been catching me up, and I've been trying to get myself up to date. So I'll try not to ask any dumb questions.

[She read the guide, she saw Chris's post. So far her basic response is: yikes.]

Hopefully this doesn't immediately contradict myself, but has anyone been able to figure out if there's some kind of pattern as to who comes through the Door, and when they come from? It's a pretty small sample set, but so far half the people I've talked to know someone else here from their home—which strikes me as pretty unlikely, considering how few people are here and how many different places the Door could be drawing from. What's more, those people aren't even from the same point in time, so whatever power brought them here didn't scoop everyone up at once. Pretty inefficient.

I don't know. Even if there is an identifiable pattern, I can't say what it would mean, what the goal would be. But suddenly I've got a lot of time on my hands, so...it's something I wouldn't mind figuring out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, these emotion-gods...how much do you buy that? Because I'm not going to proclaim whether a higher power definitively exists or not, but where I'm from, they don't do much one-on-one interaction.

They don't where I'm from, either - not in recent history, at least.

[Hoo boy, what a question.]

Are the so-called gods here divine the way we conceptualize an Almighty God? Doubtful. But they are powerful, in ways even those with powers you might classify as supernatural are not. This isn't my first experience with such beings - perhaps it's just simpler to call them gods because we don't have another word for them. As for their abilities, that's fact, which you will soon see and experience for yourself. They can influence our emotions, sometimes even our minds, and at least one of them can restore us to life when we've been killed.

[Elena is listening along, nodding to herself, right up to that last part.]

How...? I'm willing to keep an open mind regarding the supernatural, but that's a stretch.

[We just don't know, Elena. It is a mystery.]

You'd have to ask Hope. I know it sounds like pure fantasy - I'm not inclined toward belief in the supernatural on general principle, personally, but I've seen concrete proof of Hope's abilities.

[Read: he's been killed and brought back.]

[It's not that she wants people to die, but anything with that kind of power leaves her unnerved.]

Does that kind of thing happen a lot?

[There are monsters, it wouldn't really surprise her if they get the better of the residents.]

[She won't be able to see the bitter smile on his face, but she'll probably be able to hear it in his tone.]

Welcome to Hadriel.

[So in a word - yes.]

[Welp.]

Thanks. I can tell I've still got a lot to learn about it.

There's always something new to learn. I've been here for more than a year - not as long as some of the people here, but I can try to answer your questions.

[Talking with new arrivals might give him a good idea of the where the gaps in the guide are.]

Have you talked to these gods? Do you have a sense of how trustworthy they are?

I've spoken with all of them, except for Rage, Love, and Confusion. The ones I've spoken with the most are Sorrow and Hope. As for how trustworthy they are ...

[He laughs dryly. Mello is disinclined toward trusting anyone, generally speaking, and when he does, it is almost always a matter of degrees. There is one person he trusts fully, with his life and his heart, and that's Sharon. Everyone else is evaluated on a case by case basis, and that includes the gods.]

They're remarkably direct about some things and maddeningly vague about others. They withheld a lot of information about the Null from us until we were under attack, which I've pointed out numerous times was not a strategy that worked in their favor.

[Sounds less like gods and more like powerful people who don't want to come off as anything but powerful. She's met that type before.]

Did they show any sign of recognizing that?

To some degree, after I'd pointed it out, but it didn't seem to be of any real importance. They're not well-versed in understanding us, and they don't seem especially keen to try, either.

Well, that's definitely a functional and healthy situation.

I don't excuse them for much, but this does seem to be their first time dealing with humans, specifically. I think it's reasonable to say that they didn't know what they were getting into by bringing us here.

That's something we have in common, then. I just hope it doesn't make things harder for all of us.

I would certainly hope that by now, they would have learned something about us.

[He's not holding his breath, though.]

video;

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.

voice.