— text; maybe i'm the only one who survived

[dedikated]

( Life gets in the way a lot at Hadriel, between events and polls and everything else, but eventually, Kate and Lup manage to follow up on their talks and discuss the story of the invasion. And all the people who don’t know, or don’t know enough.

For so much information, text is probably better, she thinks. )

Know a lot of you probably haven’t heard everything about the invasion and how it happened. You should, especially now.

( Which means it’s time for a Hadriel history lesson. Strap in, kids. )

We were brought here when Hadriel was still underground. Hope revived the other gods. We didn’t know what the Null were, or that they existed. Didn’t even know that Fear was teleporting the city each time. Or that the city was being pursued. Hope revived Love and something went wrong during the teleport. City got split in half, one half stuck dealing with the Null trying to get in.

Think that’s when Delight made a deal with the Null. Said it was to let us go in exchange for Hope’s life and the energy of the other gods. She gave them access to the network and information on the underground sites and movements.

( And here’s where Kate’s story has to involve some amount of hearsay, because she was immediately branded a danger to the Null’s plot. She’s still proud of that, but it might be easier to let Lup explain, since she actually got to interact with the Null there, however briefly. )

yo what up its ur girl lup here for hadriel storytime
long story short
the null contacted us outta the blue w their own lil personal hitlist
a group of hadriel folks they wanted to see put into the ground
promised to give us a god killing weapon or some shit
natch folks werent too happy w that
especially when there were kids on the hitlist
actual children that a bunch of dumb robutts thought were some kind of threat
so folks fucking rebelled the null got even more agro
and i guess thats when they decided to take shit into their own hands and come after us themselves

People were defending Hope’s temple. That’s when we found out Delight was the traitor. She killed most of the people there. Tried to kill Hope.

The Null invaded. Destroyed the original clinic and guard buildings. The library. The power generator. Hope was nearly killed. Sorrow was killed. Took using the monsters in the tunnels outside the city and from the fog zone to help us fight off the number of Null that were coming at us.

it was shit
absolute shit from all sides

( Kate pauses before adding to this, because she can’t ignore the personal side to all of this. She’d been on that list from the start. The Null were very specifically looking for her, and Delight had tried to have her hide in her temple, tried to keep her safe. )

Her decision killed a lot of people. Would have been permanent if Hope wasn’t protected by people here. Gods captured Delight during the attack. They asked us to vote on what to do with her. Locking her up won.

the whole point of this is the null cant be fucking trusted
the end
they dont get more chances after trying to murder us all before
trying to meet their demands or playing nice is gonna end in bloodshed all over again
u can fucking quote me on that one
they want the turbo liches dead and theyll cut thru all of us to get to them
delight fucked us all over sure but doing anything but attacking rn is a stupid move

( And, while that is the jist of it, Kate knows there’s other things to be said. That other people will remember other details, or have explanations about what happened to them personally during all of this, so she tacks on: )

If you’ve got something to add, do so.

Comments

text;

[redwinekindofgirl]

Oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!! I needed to be mad about this again like I need another hole in my head.

text;

[dedikated]

( That implies you ever stopped being mad about it though. )

Had to be explained.

( There's a lot of people who don't know why Julie is, rightfully, mad. Or why Kate is, either. )

[redwinekindofgirl]

No, yeah, it did. Too easy to forget.

Just. Fuck. Fucking fucks. Fuck them and fuck Delight too.

text;

[deadlining]

What are our chances in a fight? You have fought the Null before, do you have any suggestion on how to gain an advantage on them while minimizing our own losses?

As much as I agree that this exchange smells of a trap, charging in without a plan is just playing into their hands as well.

text;

[dedikated]

They can change their form at will. Use it during battle to counter their opponent. Use large numbers to overpower enemies. Visible weak points that can be physically attacked. Have short range and long range weapons they'll use. Tricky and difficult to fight alone but die easier than the gods.

Been over a year since we fought them. Would expect changes.

[restinglichface]

they have the number advantage over us but theyre dumber and we are def stronger
as long as folks dont let themselves get surrounded we can take em easy

well
at least we could before
home court advantage and all too
we cant really be 100% they havent been preparing for exactly this which is why folks shouldnt let down their guard
magic works the best

text

[madamdirector]

Thank you.

That can't have been easy to write up, but it's important to have a record.

text

[dedikated]

Lot of things have happened. Others probably remember things we didn't.

Can't be easy to be new now.

( It may have been physically harder to be new when she first arrived, but Kate wouldn't want to try and understand all the things which have happened in Hadriel up until this point as a new person. )

[restinglichface]

thinking of writing up a big ol hadriel history babe?

(Text)

[stonebird]

Well put, ladies. I haven't much to add except that we cannot keep running; fleeing buys us time, but time for what? More worry, more possibilities that some other ill can befall us.

I am ready to attack while we have strength.

(Text)

[dedikated]

( While Kate agrees, this isn't simply taking down a few enemies. The waves of Null that attacked last year weren't even a fraction of their armies, and by now they've probably replaced the forces they lost several times over.

They're maybe 100 people and seven glowclouds. Without any strategy. )

You have any idea how we can do that?

[restinglichface]

agreed
running is for cowards anyway
at least if we attack now its on our own terms

voice;

[themogget]

I'm curious... what would happen to us, if all these so-called 'gods' were out of the picture?

perma-text;

[dedikated]

We'd lose most of the resources here. Power, phones, supplies in the shops. Be unable to fix The Door. Death would be permanent.

Doubt the Null would leave us alone, either.

[restinglichface]

kates got it
tho our science nerds at the lab are working round the clock to figure out the door
might be a time we dont need the assholes around if we can get out of here ourselves

text;

[claritatis]

Good work, both of you.

If you don't mind, I'll make a record of this for the Guard. It may come in useful if someone doesn't wish to look through every report we have of the invasion.

text;

[dedikated]

Go ahead.

Can you think of anything else?

[restinglichface]

well well well
funny running into u here

;)

text;

[hasitsthorns]

Do you have a plan of attack beyond just 'attack' or-?

[ If anyone knows how poorly rushing headfirst into things tends to go, it'd be Rose. ]

[restinglichface]

not officially
but doesnt mean we cant brainstorm shit together
we all had different experiences w the null
saw different ways they attack and kill and work together and alone

would benefit us all to chat it out

text;

[marmoron]

What were the reasons the Null found the people on that list a threat? Did you guys figure that out?

text;

[dedikated]

Started as "sympathising with the gods". Sounds like it ended as anyone who disagreed with them.

[restinglichface]

like kate said
anyone who ever spoke out in defense of the liches got thrown on the list automatically
and anyone who spoke out about who was on the list got thrown on too

seems like most of the city was on it by the end of things
we lost lots of folks when the null came crashing in
but only a few assholes here actually took them up on their offer

text;

[closerift]

Was Hadriel once UNDERGROUND? That must have been VERY unpleasant!!!

text;

[dedikated]

( sNORT )

Ages ago. Don't think anyone remembers.