[voice]

[hot_mes]

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.

Comments

text

[hot_mes]

on the one hand I want to keep an eye on people who have been here the longest, since they bear the most trauma from the gods. on the other hand I wouldn't put it past a sociopath with nothing to lose to turn on the populace for their own thrill or benefit.

[which is what he dreamed about, coincidentally, but at least the enemy in that dream isn't here. It would have to be someone he doesn't know and can't predict would act out]

text

[sightlessly]

Could be either.

And we have to be careful about supposition and accusations, too. This could become a witch hunt very quickly. And that turns us against ourselves as much as anything else.

There are likely people playing along to the extent they can to learn more, too.

[This is the lawyer side of him showing through, innocent until proven guilty.]

text

[hot_mes]

[it's a wise reasoning, he can't argue]

all the more reason to focus on present actions and words, rather than anything that might have happened in the past. What matters is what happens from here forward.

text

[sightlessly]

Agreed. We need to be careful. But we can't cross that line to paranoid, or we'll undo ourselves.

[The fact that they all coexist here so relatively well already, is, well, lucky, in many ways.]

text

[hot_mes]

True.

It looks like some of us doctors are leading the charge, so to speak.

[not-so-subtle hint that the clinic is where he'll be, if anyone wants to chat in person]

text

[sightlessly]

Seems appropriate, somehow.

[Matt is actually heading to the clinic to pay a visit to a couple people. If he runs into this guy there, he'll definitely make a point to speak to him off the network, away from prying ears and eyes.]

text

[hot_mes]

better than nothing, I guess

[he will indeed be there. He's got medications to research.]