hadriel | THREE ❢ VIDEO

What a nice welcome after such a long time away. You creatures never disappoint with how angry you get.

[Rage is back, back again. Go ahead, tell a friend. She's giving a nonchalant smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes -- it's hard to be pleased about being well fed when you've just spent six months scouting in enemy territory.

In fact, her face goes to neutral as she picks up again.]

First things first: We don't know for certain how the Null were able to find us, but we did discover at least part of the problem: there's a mole in the cave.

[Her voice goes cold when she makes the statement, and it pretty much stays that way for the rest of this post. Also, no, she wasn't trying to make a pun or a clever reference to the city being underground.]

This is the only way for the Null to consistently be able to chase us through space. [And not just because Fear sucks.] Hope and Sorrow's investigation should turn up more information about that. Would that you'd all voted for me, but like my brethren, I'll defer to your decision.

Second, it would seem your strangely shaped bodies have inspired our pursuers. We found them experimenting with bipedal robotic bodies that move the way you do. By the way, that doesn't exactly help anyone's case here. Clearly, they're finding you useful to a large extent.

[She's suspicious as hell, in effect.]

Finally, the Null's objectives have changed. They've constructed prisons capable of containing us no matter the form we take, and not only that, but they'll be able to use us to power their operations. I know some of you will see this as justice, but before you jump to such a predictable conclusion, consider this: our interference aside, the power my siblings and I gain from you is used to keep you alive and comfortable. We're able to coexist. What the Null want is our absolute confinement for their selfish purposes. Think for a moment about what that means. You all seem to like Delight. How would you feel if someone locked her up in a small space to do whatever they want with her?

[She's angrier now, more emotion in her voice and face. The silence after that question is short, but it's long enough for her anger to cool again.]

The mission was too dangerous for us to obtain more information than that. Given we're actively being betrayed by someone here, I wasn't inclined to share any of this with you, but I suppose it isn't fair to leave all of you in the dark because of one person or small alliance's actions.

[She leaned much more heavily towards not wanting to tell the residents, but Delight would tell them, and Rage is the last person who wants to disappoint Delight at all.]

Consider this a gesture of goodwill.

[With that flat, clipped sentence, she cuts the feed.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We aren't gods in the way you know the term, so my point still stands.

Then you were lied to. Save your tirade for the person who lied to you.

I know you're not. I was using the term "gods" to be polite. Would you prefer "creatures?"

So, what you're saying is, I can get on my phone, reach out to one of you, and you'll listen? Just like that? Forgive me for finding that hard to believe.

Edited 2017-10-05 00:29 (UTC)

I can never be sure what you all do and don't know about us. You don't exactly like to share amongst yourselves.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. See what I mean about you all not sharing with each other?

Oh, I don't know. Most people I've met have been very forthcoming.

Forgive me if I don't entirely trust you. You've given me little reason to.

Edited 2017-10-05 03:10 (UTC)

I could say the same about all of you.

Really? How odd that you don't trust your prisoners.

Considering we're being betrayed, I'd say being suspicious is a normal reaction.

And you know you're being betrayed for an absolute certainty? Then I must ask, betrayed by whom? And I mean for you to be specific; none of that vague "one of you" nonsense.

Edited 2017-10-06 21:37 (UTC)

If we knew that, we wouldn't be planning an interrogation, would we.

[audible sigh] So you have no idea who the supposed mole is, just that it's one of us.

I'm sure you realize better than I do just how many people there are here and just how likely these announcements are to make whomever the mole is to cover their tracks better than they had been before, making them less likely to be caught, rather than more?

Exactly.

Possibly better, possibly worse.

Then, what was the point of all of this, other than breeding paranoia?

Paranoia? If you or anyone else is feeling paranoid, that's because you have something to hide.

The point is we're keeping you informed. If you don't like it, learn to deal with it.

Really, now. I admit that I don't like you, but I wasn't even here when all of this nonsense with the Null occurred. So how would I have something to hide?

There are such things as succcessors where you come from, right? Same concept.

Yes, because the very month I arrived here, I found myself sucked into a grand anti-creatures conspiracy.

Do try harder to come up with a plausible way for me to be involved.

Edited 2017-10-09 23:00 (UTC)

Then if you're sure it isn't you, why are you wasting my time?

Because as a citizen of this place, all of this mess does impact me. Whether I like it to or not.

Well, at least you understand that much. Would that everyone else did too.

Do so few people understand it?

Given the responses to this announcement, yes, it seems that way sometimes.

[in a slightly grudging tone]

That must be terribly frustrating.

[Rage shrugs, and for Margaery's benefit, adds,] Eh. It is, yes, but I have more important things to worry about at the moment.

Such as discovering the identity of the mole and keeping you and your . . . companions safe?

Yes.

If you can't help with that, then I'll be leaving.

Re: audio

roseofthetyrells - 2017-10-14 20:23 (UTC) - Expand