[text]

[a_shadow]

who do I need to threaten to find out the truth about this place

'gods'? you expect me to believe that shit?

Comments

[northerndragon]

There are no gods where you come from?

[a_shadow]

I know there are people who would say that's a matter of opinion but no. no there really aren't.

Trees, right? Asking for a friend.

[northerndragon]

How would they know? What do they worship?

voice;

[epsilol]

[ Oh. Oh fuck. Oh fucking fuck fuck fuck. It's Tex. He's fumbling for his phone, the sound snapping on while he's swearing a blue streak. Recognize that voice, Tex? ]

-of a bitch!

Tex?! Where are you?

text;

[hardwearing]

Not 'gods' as in supreme beings from other worlds' religions that created everything, no.
But they are native to this world and more powerful than the rest of us.

Call them whatever you're comfortable with. Gods, aliens, parasites, just realize they're more or less in charge because they're stronger. Sometimes they let us make decisions, it's a lot to explain in one shot. Read the guide that came with your phone--

[ Aaaaaaaand that's when he notices the name attached to the post, as he's navigating up to get the poster a link. ]

Wait.
Agent Texas?
Tex?

[a_shadow]

where I'm from the ones who care the most about what any gods think are convinced they need to kill off humankind. even though the supposed gods they worship are aliens that died thousands of years ago.

what makes you think there are gods?

[a_shadow]

[ She frowns at her communicator for a moment before turning the voice function on to respond in kind. ]

Church?

[ She doesn't answer his question right away. She hadn't thought to check the communicator listings to see if anyone she knew was here. ]

[a_shadow]

[ She's starting to see that there's more than one person she'd be familiar with here. ]

Washington.

makes sense about them being aliens, I think that may be how I think of them.

[hardwearing]

[ She's in for quite a surprise when she does check the directory. All of Blue Team is here, and... oh shit. It's probably too late to keep Ephemera from seeing this post, this could get messy. Hell, his presence could get messy, depending on which Tex he's speaking to. She doesn't sound like she wants to kill him but it's text, so he can't be certain. There's only one way to find out. ]

It's what I go with. Gods colloquially, though.

So um
no reason but
what's the last thing you remember?

[epsilol]

Yeah, it's me.

[ Sort of. Not the one she's probably expecting. ]

Where are you? If you're screwing around the Colosseum killing shit then get out of there already.

[northerndragon]

I didn't say I think there are. I didn't say that I didn't, either. But my countrymen worship many gods — some worship the Old Gods, some the New — the Seven, some the Lord of Light.

[a_shadow]

you expect me to believe that horse shit? of course you have a reason.

probably that you're worried about me wanting to kill you since you just deleted me and Church and the rest of the AIs. that would be my guess.

[a_shadow]

true enough. you just seemed kind of surprised about me not believing there were any where I came from, is all.

[a_shadow]

I left that place. I haven't gone far, though—I'm just outside.

[northerndragon]

When there are any number of gods to believe in, someone who believes in none stands out. The Old Gods were my father's gods, and he was the best man I ever knew. And I've seen things that shouldn't exist, that no one believes in anymore. But one thing being true doesn't make every other thing true.

You mentioned aliens. What do you mean?

[epsilol]

Don't shoot anyone before I find you, okay? Unless it looks like it wants to eat you, in which case feel free to just fucking go off on it.

[ He doesn't bother with armor, doesn't want to be slowed down when he has to find her and- What? Tell her Alpha is still super fucking dead? He's not thinking clearly, never really had when it comes to Tex.

And this time she's the real thing. ]

[a_shadow]

these particular aliens were a coalition of races from non-human colonized planets that banded together and declared war on humans. they are trying to kill all of humankind off. damn near succeeded, in the end.

[hardwearing]

[ ........shit. ]

That may have been a concern.

[ Would it help if he admitted he didn't know she was conscious in the Meta? Probably not. He still knowingly killed Alpha, after all. And then... did worse. This could actually be worse, honestly, Beta is the better Tex option to be dealing with here. Probably? ]

I'm sorry, not that it's worth anything now.

[a_shadow]

excuse me? why would you expect me to believe you're sorry? if you had a reason to think better of it, you wouldn't have done it.

[northerndragon]

Planets. Men from the sky? How did they come to Earth?

[The rest of this sounds familiar enough, but he doesn't yet say so.]

How were they stopped?

[a_shadow]

[ The way his questions have gone are starting to prove how much explanation for things she needs to give. ]

where I'm from people and aliens all have the technology to move through outer space between planets. we just call them spaceships.

they were stopped because one of the races of aliens switched sides. started defying the whole religious thing they'd been sold that told them all humans needed to die.

[northerndragon]

Did they choose to switch sides? Was there a way to reason with them?

I face an army that wants to kill every living thing.

[a_shadow]

I was in the military but I don't have the clearance to know the whole story about how that happened. I never did trust them, myself.

how does this army decide when to stop? they planning to kill themselves, too?

[northerndragon]

Most of them are dead men already. Every person they kill is another soldier for their army.

[hardwearing]

I don't expect you to believe anything I have to say. But I'm a different person now, and if I could go back, I wouldn't do it again.

[ He'd also really rather not go into the details of this on the network for all of Hadriel to see... ]

Look, if you want to kick my ass for it, you'll certainly have your chance here.