hadriel | [voice]

Entry tags:

[voice]

I've been through this before. I've been targeted on a hit list like this, precisely five days before I arrived in this world.

I guessed from the wording of the Null broadcast that some people might not have seen that they were named as targets. Consider this fair warning to everyone in this city: the Null would rather kill you than work with you.

[a pause, and then his tone turns positively savage]

As I did before, I'll do again. My only target is the one putting out the hit list. I will destroy the Null and anyone who tries to kill us. Anyone who'd foolishly sacrifice our chances of getting home for this death game should be dealt with, and I have no problem doing so.

[addendum message, five minutes later:]

I've been blocked from the message. Anyone who was quick enough to copy it, we'd appreciate a public airing of the names on the list.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't worry about me. I'm capable of protecting myself.

Had I known this was how they'd react I would have been more cautious and stayed on longer to get more information, but that's my bad. If you can keep an eye on who might actually try to kill the others, so much the better.

[half of him is inclined not to trust anyone going forward, but he's got to trust someone. A private investigator is a good choice.]

Can do.

[Hey, if there's anyone a person can trust, it's the guy that pretty much no one in the city has any real beef with. Even people who openly loathe the Guard tend to think Nick is all right. Either that, or they really dig the Humphrey Bogart vibe he gives off.]

You'd be surprised how many people hate the gods enough that they'd murder innocents just to get to them. It's a good thing a lot of them don't have enough shame to keep it to themselves.

I suppose two years of constant emotional torment would do that to some, but. Logically speaking, anyone with half a brain would know that this isn't the way to go about getting us all home.

I've been here nearly two years myself now, and I have yet to feel the urge to murder anyone just because a bunch of synths we've never met said they could get us home.

[Says the mechanical man.]

Besides that, not all of us have a home to go back to.

Mm. I've heard that from others, too. So rather than go home, they'd rather stay alive with this second chance. It seems to me that both outcomes become less possible without the gods.

I'd say so. Especially since there's no guarantee the Null won't just kill everyone afterward, or use the Door however they like.

[To go wherever they like.]

[it reminds him painfully of the dream he had, where his own personal demon was the one who set it up but the outcome was the same]

Exactly. Being willing to obliterate anyone who even says a single swear word in their direction doesn't speak well of any altruism toward getting us home. They won't give anyone what they want.

Yeah. I'm not saying the gods are any better with how they use us. Hell, they've had us at each other's throats more than once. Problem is that if the gods go, so does our way of life here -- what life we've got. If we're going to make this place home for those of us with nowhere else to go, we've got to work together.

We're undoubtedly on the same page.

I don't know how quickly they're going to undertake their plan, whatever it is, but in the meantime it's better to move swiftly to secure all our resources. Leave nothing unprotected. I don't know about you but I personally don't like surprise attacks on an unguarded flank.

Me either.

[Hell, leaving something -- someone, rather -- unprotected is the sole reason he exists as a copy of the original Nick to begin with.]

I'll see if we can't get some extra Guard patrols running, get people watching out for one another if they know someone who is on that list. I only know a few people who might act on their own when it comes to the Null, but there are bound to be others who'd kill just to protect someone else. 'The road to Hell' and what have you.

I won't lie, I would be one of them. I have no qualms about sacrificing one person to ensure the rest of us stay safe. But I also know more than enough to know how many options lie between where we are and that sacrifice.

[that is, if Law of all people has to kill, it's a last resort. Not because he's got a moral problem, but because it means he's exhausted all of the rest of his intelligence and cunning and has nothing left.]

I think even the best of people would break in certain circumstances. Even me.

[There's a reason he doesn't talk about what happened when someone from Rey's world showed up in town.]

But like you said, we have to see if there's anything else we can do before we go pulling guns on one another, especially if all we've got is the word of these Null to go by. They haven't exactly proven themselves trustworthy, even if deceit doesn't seem like something they're used to. They might not be keen liars, but omission is just as dirty in times like this.

That's the only real trouble with a purely robotic species. [present company clearly excluded. Law's been thinking about this, comparing it to what little he knows of Vegapunk's work on cyborgs] Whatever they think of themselves, lacking emotional context means they lack the ability to understand nuance. We creatures of emotion can change our minds on the turn of a single memory or reaction, and either fuck up a plan or carry out something grand and reckless.

Obviously, they had no idea what putting out a bounty list would do to the populace, even if it's all completely factual from their point of view.

[It's okay, Law. Nick doesn't like most purely robotic people, either.]

They're a lot like some of the gods in that regard. For beings that feed off emotion, they're surprisingly ignorant to how they really work when it comes to us.

Edited 2017-10-30 00:56 (UTC)

[a soft, sly chuckle. They do indeed understand one another]

It's almost as if one extreme or the other is not the way to live a balanced life.

[He'll be grateful for that when some of this has smoothed over.]

Good luck getting either side to understand that now. I tried to talk some sense into Sorrow and get him to compromise when it comes to feeding off us, but he wouldn't have it. And when it comes to machines like the Null, they tend to see in binary only.

At this point it's less about talking sense into either side and more about negotiating our place between them. They have their means of surviving, such as it is. We've been unwittingly dragged in between them. We can either remain their pawns or we can take matters into our own hands.

[granted, he's still going to investigate an alternate means of food source for the emotionally-dependent side, but that's going to have to take a back seat while people are gambling on murder games]

[If only everyone in the cave had their priorities straight.]

Yeah, because with the way that message sounded, there's no turning back. It's only a matter of time before this war ends up on our doorsteps, and if we want to make it through this thing, we're going to have to be prepared.

[And in some cases, that means making difficult choices they don't want to make for the good of them all.]

I'll let you know if anything new comes of that transmission from the Null. We'll see how long it takes until we've all got targets on our backs.

Good, yeah. Keep an eye on them for as long as you can. We need as much information as we can get right now.

[he'll be kicking himself for weeks over letting his temper get the best of him when he could have been investigating himself.]

Will do. Keep in touch.

[And with that, he lets Law go for now. He's got some surveillance to do.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[voice]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]

[voice; private]