text;

[aroundthecoroner]

So, uh, anybody seen any gods lately?

[No, this isn't the start of a shitty comedy set, it's the start of a shitty network post. Michael doesn't make these often; this might be his third in more than a year. But this situation seems to warrant it, and if no one else is talking about it yet... well. Someone's got to.]

I don't think it's a coincidence that the power's out, the water doesn't work, and those monsters are coming into the city whenever they feel like it.
That and, um, I haven't been able to contact any of the gods?
They don't show up in the temples, either.
I'm probably the last person to notice this, but I think something's, uh, pretty wrong here?

[Anyone familiar with him will know that this isn't a result of speech-to-text; he really does just type that way.]

Or I could be completely wrong and just missing them.
So, um, discuss I guess.
What's our plan if they really are gone?

Comments

[theladyofhighever]

I'll have to make my acquaintance with them.
I'd imagine that in a place like this, a Clinic is of vital importance.

[aroundthecoroner]

Yeah, it sure is.
People get hurt a lot around here.
And not always because of the monsters.

[Sometimes they're just careless, but he's trying to be polite.]

[theladyofhighever]

People hurt one another often?
[she immediately assumes it's that]

[aroundthecoroner]

Nah, it's usually people being reckless.
Accidents, that kind of thing.
Not that people don't hurt each other.
And sometimes they get sick, but there's not a lot of disease coming in, so that's pretty rare.

[theladyofhighever]

It's good that disease is rare here.
A small community such as this, disease could devastate the population.

[aroundthecoroner]

Yeah, don't remind me.
All we need is one guy to bring in a plague and we're all in trouble.
The gods actually made a plague once, so that sucked.

[theladyofhighever]

They made a plague?
I realize that they need emotions to survive, but surely they could have implimented something a little less harsh.
[she has visions of the horrors of Blight sickness in her mind]

[aroundthecoroner]

Yeah, it made everyone paranoid.
Like the flu, but with a side of horror.

[It also almost made him kill two people, but YOU KNOW...]

[theladyofhighever]

That sounds potentially dangerous.

[excuse her, she's new. it has yet to really sink in that everything here is potentially dangerous]

[aroundthecoroner]

It, uh, it was.
Like, very.
But so are a lot of the events around here.

[theladyofhighever]

Why?
It seems conterproductive.
They need us to live to harvest our emotions.
It's in their interest that we survive.

[aroundthecoroner]

Well, most people survive.
And one of them can bring people back to life.
So it's not much of a loss for them.

[theladyofhighever]

So we are, in effect, disposable.

[aroundthecoroner]

Well, I wouldn't say that.
I've been kind of painting a bad picture here, I guess.
Not all the gods are heartless.
Some of them actually like us.
Like Love, I think they like us, like, genuinely.
And Hope, I don't think he brings us back just for his own personal gain.
Like, new people show up all the time, he doesn't have to.
I don't know, they're hard to read.
But they're just people, when you get down to it.

[theladyofhighever]

["people holding us hostage to their whims," she thinks but doesn't say. you'd think she'd be used to it, seeing as how she was given a choice between being conscripted by the Grey Wardens or abandoned to die with her mother and father]

I will have to converse with Love and with Hope when they return.
May they prove to be reasonable.

[reasonable is the most she's willing to hope for]