hadriel | video;

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[Julie looks tired, and grouchy, and she sounds grouchy too.]

So, is this normal? I mean, it's not normal, obviously, but should I be expecting more of this crap while I'm stuck here?

[She rubs under one of her eyes, where lack of sleep is already making shadows.]

Give me a zombie apocalypse any day.

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Dealt with zombies here already. Have to say, am not a fan.

[Much as the dreams do suck.]

Been dealing with them for years back home. I'd take that over my head being messed with.

[LE SHRUG]

Fair enough. Sorry to say that pretty much every option is going to suck, unfortunately.

[Sigh.]

Yeah... that's what I figured. One sucky situation to another one.

All things considered, this beats the alternative for some here.

I guess I could buy people having it worse than they get while they're here.

Yes, because for some it's either being stuck here or being dead back wherever they came from.

... And this is better?

[She doesn't sound incredulous, as such (maybe a little), but being neither dead where she came from or particularly attached to Hadriel on the whole, she can't see how this is a more appealing situation.]

[Darkly:]

Maybe consider the fact that some of us have been around long enough to have fucking lives here before you go suggest that they're better off dead.

[Sorry, Julie. Rey has a lot to lose.]

[Touchy, much.]

Oooookay, I wasn't gonna suggest that. [That's all your hangup, Rey. But she thought it, just a bit. While nowhere near as close to the edge of despair that Perry had been, she's been inching her way in that direction for years.]

Being dead sucks, obviously. Being dead where I'm from sometimes means you're walking around eating people. I guess that also pretty much sucks.

[Yeahhh, just a little bit on the touchy side.]

That doesn't sound like a much better option, either.

[Being a mindless dead person eating people seems just as bad as anything else they deal with in Hadriel, as Rey sees it.]

Not saying that it's all sunshine and rainbows. Just that some of us have learned to make a go with what we've got.

Yeah... I guess I can understand that.

[The one thing that feels worse than death is ending up like one of them. She's seen what that is. What it does to the people who are left behind.]

So... you'd stay here?

Not sure if here would be the ideal option, though it seems like we're short on those around here anyway. Options, that is.

[Huff.]

But, if there was a way to coexist here, for the gods to bring back their original hosts so that they can feed off them instead of fucking with us, and not have to worry about being chased by killer robots, then sure. Would try to make a go of it. Maybe.

Edited 2017-11-17 02:45 (UTC)

[Short on options... That's one way to put it.]

Huh... might be asking a lot.

[Surely, if they were going to bring back the original inhabitants... they would have done that already instead of bringing people like her and Rey into it.]

What are the Null? I mean, really? Have they said where these things came from?

Probably.

[Judging by her conversations with the gods, it doesn't seem possible for them to pick and choose who gets to stay and go home. Makes the whole situation seriously shitty.]

They've told us a bit about them since they nearly got into the city a few months back. According to Tranquility, they were once organics that made themselves into machines. Them and the people here used to be allies.

[It really does. Julie isn't going to claim to be an expert, but from what she's seen and heard, these 'gods' have little more idea of how to get them home than any of the captives do.]

Wow, something really went wrong.

[Gee, Julie -- you think so?]

It sounds like they wanted to be unfeeling machines for a reason. Guess they didn't like having those emotions the gods inspire forced on them.

[A sentiment that Rey can understand, though genocide seems to be overdoing it by a lot.]

[Julie doesn't answer immediately - she's thinking.]

I guess... they don't really answer any questions about that kind of thing?

[The Null don't sound like the 'get to know you' types.]

Don't know. Maybe? They've answered... some things. But doubt they're interested in camaraderie with anything that isn't their own.

Great. No answers from that corner, then.

[But it's a puzzle. Julie likes puzzles. Usually she goes for the ones that aren't trying to kill her, but something about beggars and choosers comes to mind.]

But, the people here... do you mean Hope and them, or other people?

Hope and his kind. Call themselves gods, but the Null consider them parasites.

[A description Rey is by no means one to argue.]

There were people. The ones who inhabited the city before us.

[Julie... hasn't yet made up her mind. Her impulsiveness leads her to want to go with option B, but there has to be more to it, right? There has to be.]

Okay, so... why not bring them back? Like they can bring us back?

[You sound like you know stuff, Rey. Don't mind her questions.]

Have wondered that, too. They seemed to care about their former hosts very much.

Don't know why they haven't been resurrected, though. Maybe they can't be, for some reason. Or maybe they don't want to give the Null more lambs for the slaughter.

[Audible shrug. Rey knows stuff, but she still only knows so much.]

[Julie's quiet for a few moments, then sighs.]

I guess all I'm going to get from this place is more questions. Thanks for answering some, anyway.

[snort.]

That's pretty par for the course here, but -- sure. No problem.

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