fifteen ✤ voice

[lingeringhope]

I am sure you have seen the ships, as have we. It is time for a decision. Thanks to your efforts and knowledge, we have options - they are few, but I think any of them could succeed. But each has unknowns and possible dangers. Please take all of these into consideration before you make your decision.

First, we could use the Door to send the Null away to another facet of this wide multiverse. This would keep us safe, and allow us to stay here, in our home, in order to rebuild and restore our people. However, while we have more control of the Door, we only have so much. We can't choose where to send the Null, so they could end up anywhere, including in a universe that one of you is from. Also, while we would try our very best, it would be difficult to ensure that each and every Null scattered across the worlds is caught in this. It is possible we may miss some.

Second, we could use the Door to transport ourselves to another universe. Like the first option, we cannot be sure where we would end up. We would be safe from the Null, but possibly find other dangers. In addition, only those of us gods currently in the city would survive - there would be no option to resurrect our fallen comrades or hosts. With the hosts you have restored to me and our own essences, we could rebuild, but it would take a very long time.

One additional note for the first two options: after carrying out either one, we would need to shut the Door down permanently. To leave it working would be to invite the Null to find a way through it to us. We would send you all home first, of course, but you would never be able to return here or leave the worlds that you return to.

Finally, we could use your skills to infect the Null with a sort of virus. I will admit that my unfamiliarity with technology makes the details of this difficult to understand, but the essence of it is that a group of you would return to the communications relay found on the previous world and use it to broadcast a program that would alter the Null themselves. There are two options here, as well: use it to shut the Null down and therefore kill them, or use it to alter them and imbue them with emotions so they would no longer need or wish to destroy us.

These last two options are the most dangerous for you, and I would ask for volunteers to carry this out if it is chosen. It would allow us to stay here and rebuild our species, and it would potentially allow the Null to survive, though of course that may also be a danger someday. It would also allow us to maintain the Door, which would give you the option to come and go as you pleased. However, the ethics of destroying or permanently altering another species must be considered. Do we have the right to do this against their will? Do we have the right to commit genocide?

Please take your time to consider these options. I believe we can hold out long enough for an educated decision, rather than one made foolishly and in haste. And thank you, all of you, for everything that you have done. None of these options would have been possible if not for your hard work and ingenuity. You have accomplished incredible things and given us a chance when we had none.

Poll #22106

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

View Respondents

What shall we do?

View Answers

Use the Door to remove the Null
2 (6.5%)

Use the Door to move ourselves
2 (6.5%)

Upload a program to alter the Null
9 (29.0%)

Upload a program to destroy the Null
18 (58.1%)

Comments

[restinglichface]

[It's times like this that Lup's abrasiveness really shines through.]

dont
just dont
if i hear another person say its just fine to fuck with someones head instead of just outright killing them
ill fucking lose it

[sciencelizard]

im sorry i just
i asked what
theres
i know someone
a null someone
they think itd be better to rewrite them

[restinglichface]

so they get to speak for all of em?
hows that fair
hows that right

[sciencelizard]

i dont know theyre
theyre at least one of them
isnt it better if they have more of an idea
if they could be happy


i dont know no one speaks for them but im so scared
at least
code can be changed if we make a mistake right
you cant fix death not really

[restinglichface]

[it's only because it's alphys, because lup knows how difficult this is for her, that she doesn't snap off immediately

that doesn't mean she'll stand down. not a chance. but she won't be a total bitch about it either.]

alphy

i get it
im not saying its easy
this shits never easy

but i need to keep everyone safe
i need to keep u safe

[sciencelizard]

but who speaks for them
what would happen if only the gods made the decision to them
what if they didnt know any of us and they spoke and they didnt
want to

i dont know
did they get feelings and
it was just them that felt that compassion
or theyre all screaming to be let out
how do i
how does anyone live with the idea that it could have gone better in a world where we had more time

[restinglichface]

i wish it had gone better
u know i do
killing em all isnt something im hyped for

but they killed kids
tried to kill u
my brother
basically everyone in this damn place i care abt

and i cant believe that erasing someones identity is better than killing them

[sciencelizard]

[That's something that weighs on her, too. Would it be better if the amalgamates were dead? If they never had to endure what she did to them, the confusion and pain, the demise she wrote for them...?

She can't 100% say. If she had the choice to do it over, Alphys would have never attempted it in the first place. But that's not an answer, to this question or that.]

it is simpler to
just do this
i wish we had more time so we could figure out
i dont know something

i guess we already had a lot of time though
time i shouldve used to figure this out
im just

humans tried to kill all monsters without ever knowing us
i cant be that i
cant be that kind of person ever
do you think this is different?

[restinglichface]

alphys

it is different
i promise it is

what happened to the monsters in ur world was an unnecessary attack
it was humans making an enemy they never needed to make
this is defense
this is abt protecting us
not abt killing a bunch of helpless victims

i know ur friend is different
but we tried to reach out to the null before
we were ready to make deals with them
to hear em out
to side w em even
and they went for an all out attack

us fighting back however we can isnt what happened to u before

[sciencelizard]

i
i guess i just

do you really think its worse
to be a different person
than to die never knowing

i guess i really am just being selfish
it would be easier on me if they were rewritten because i wouldnt have to worry about if they were really good or not but
not better on them
just taking advantage of it so i didnt have to think if i did the wrong thing

<private>

[restinglichface]

i know it is
i know it

it happened to taako

<private>

[sciencelizard]

[It's easy enough to make sure anything is encoded, at least on her end-- which she's sure to honor. This is obviously sensitive.]

i
i didnt know im
so sorry
you got him back though right
hes ok now?

[Suddenly, everything Lucretia said to her makes so much more sense.]

<private>

[restinglichface]

i got him back yeah
but saying hes ok doesnt really fit
its bigger than that

he had his brain fucked with
not sure u ever come back from that fully
even with his memories he still feels it

somedays are just worse than others

<private>

[sciencelizard]

[There's a delay until she responds, trying to find the right words.]

im so sorry its
youre right
unless we had a plan or

i think even if we did have a plan we cant just do that
even if it would make me feel better
its not about me and. my life yknow


i wont be able to be the one to do it though
its selfish but i
i cant kill them all

<private>

[restinglichface]

you wont have to do it alphy
i promise
i wont let you

<private>

[sciencelizard]

thank you
thank you im
so sorry

i need to go theres
lots to do

see you ok