004 [Voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[Rest is important. Although Ikaruga has been doing more than her fair share in the battle against the Null and in protecting Hope, she's remembering to pace herself. The only times she's left Hope's temple have been to eat, get water, and to find a defended spot to catch some rest.

At the moment, though, she has a few words to share. Words that she hopes will give people the strength they need to endure long enough to wipe out all of the Null here.]

Amidst all of the fighting, I had a moment of clarity. Not only are our present circumstances the fault of the Null, but it is their fault that we were brought here in the first place.

[There's a quiet pause, and the sound of a cup being set down a moment later.]

They once lived in harmony with the gods and the previous hosts. Then they wiped out all of the previous hosts and nearly all of the gods because they were absolutely terrified of feeling emotion. Starving and desperate, the remaining gods used the Door and brought us here. Ultimately, every hardship we have faced here can be traced back to them in the end.

[The gods aren't blameless, but it's important right now to highlight the Null's involvement in all of this, when people are becoming exhausted. She wants them to draw strength from their anger.]

Take every shred of anger you have ever felt toward the gods and channel it against the Null. Let them learn what it means to face the full force of our collective wrath. Give them hell.

[There's a sound of a sword being unsheathed before she cuts the feed.]

Comments

video

[bythewaves]

The most intelligent observation I have noticed so far, milady! Very well put.

Voice

[elegant_and_proud]

Thank you. I hope it may be of use in the remaining battle.

video

[bythewaves]

May it prove so! If enough can see the wisdom in your words, then I do not doubt that we will prevail handily.

voice

[elegant_and_proud]

If nothing else, I hope it helps people to find their remaining strength.

video

[bythewaves]

May it prove so! Thank you, milady. May your own battles bring you victory.

[Video]

[prophesiedone]

[Have slow applause. Or something that resembles it? It's hard to clap with a prosthetic hand.]

I feel like I'm rubbing off on you. [He is smiling dangerously, roguishly.] I'm ready if you are.

[Voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[She uses voice because she's just vain enough that she doesn't want everyone to get a visual of her on the network in her current disheveled state. But it's evident that she's happy to hear from him.]

You might be, just a little.

[Voice]

[prophesiedone]

[Like she has to worry about that with Anakin! When does he ever look anything but absolutely nuts?]

I thought so. If we had parents, they would be disappointed.

[Voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[She laughs. Her relationship with her parents back home was...complicated and a bit difficult, though they still loved one another.]

Under the present circumstances, they might understand. Besides. I did not start this fight. Ladies do not start fights, but we can finish them.

[Voice]

[prophesiedone]

[Complicated would be the right word for his relationship with Shmi except... It only became complicated after her death.]

That sounds like something Padmé would say.

[voice]

[hot_mes]

[all these encouragements...he doesn't need them. But.]

Wait. Is that true? They used to coexist in peace?

[voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

Yes. The gods, the gods' former hosts who could feel emotion intensely at will, and the Null. The Null started to be able to feel emotion from exposure to the gods, and they classified it as infection. The gods' former hosts were wiped out for no other reason than them voluntarily feeding the gods with their emotions.

[voice]

[hot_mes]

[clearly he needs to read his histories more closely]

Well. I suppose that explains why they took personal exception to anyone who wouldn't help them. [not really but...]

Idiots, all of them.

[voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[Not all of this is documented in the histories. Some of it is simply the result of conversations she's had with the gods and the Null.]

I suspect the Null never completely lost the capacity to feel emotion, only the Null never learned how to manage emotions the way adults can. So while they have logic and intelligence, they are also as reactionary as children.

[voice]

[hot_mes]

They did sound like spoiled toddlers to me. Maybe that's not so far off the mark.

Destroying what's left will be easier now that their reinforcements are cut off. See you on the field.

[so_dark_a_road]

No argument from me.

May our collective wrath strike the Null like lightening and burn them to metallic cinders!

[ The sound of a couple of rounds being jacked into the chambers of a double-barred shotgun. ]

[Voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[Ikaruga has to take a second to applaud.]

Poetry to my ears, Curufin.

[dragonsgrasp]

So it was the fault of the Null all along... This certainly casts the gods in a new light.

[Well, this ought to make it all the more satisfying to stab these foul things. Kain can't wait to unleash his rage on the next one he sees.]

I'll be glad to take your advice. They'll regret everything they've done.

[elegant_and_proud]

The gods had hosts who could voluntarily give them all the emotion that they needed. Had the Null simply fled the gods upon discovering that the gods could make them feel emotion and left them alone forever after, there would never have been a need to bring us here.

[dragonsgrasp]

All the more reason for the Null to pay for what they've done. A shame we can't bring these hosts back, somehow. Give them new life so that we might escape... Especially if they seemed to enjoy their role, or at least accept it.

I wonder why the gods can't revive those hosts...

[elegant_and_proud]

I believe reviving them all would take too much of a toll on Hope, and they are not a warrior species. Only Hope can revive them, not the others.

[Although that does get her thinking.]

It was said that they communicate through emotion. Perhaps they were connected as a species somehow and they would have to be revived en masse or not at all. Something we can ask the gods about under less dire circumstances, I suppose.

( text )

[ghoulaid]

u guys sure are good at making it sound real black & white

[voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

[Matter of factly:]

The Null are genocidal machines who are currently trying to kill us, the god who supplies us with food and clean water, and they tried to blow up the Clinic with the doctors and patients in it. It is a fairly black and white situation.

[ghoulaid]

u sure? sucks that theyre being dicks and all but it sounds more like the gods kinda got themselves and the rest of us in to this shit

dont see why i gotta feel obligated to fight somebody elses war. especially when theyre the ones who are goin around and trying to make things live against their nature

[voice]

[elegant_and_proud]

The gods did not consciously exert effort to make the Null feel emotion. It happened as a result of being in proximity to the gods. Unlike us, the Null were never trapped here, and yet they chose genocide rather than to leave and avoid the gods.

If you have no wish to fight, then do not. Just don't get in the way of those who are fighting.