hadriel | [video]

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[video]

[The video shows Maketh and Henry sitting next to each other. Maketh’s uniform has been ironed half to death, all of the angles sharp enough to cut, and she quite possibly has never looked so professional in her life.]

Hello, Hadriel. Many of you have been patrolling and protecting the city on your own. It’s time to make that official. We have taken one of the unoccupied buildings to serve as a headquarters and would invite anyone and everyone who wishes to help to come and sign up. We are going to start patrolling on a schedule, with regular reports and check-ins. It appears that we’re going to be stuck here for a while, so we ought to do this right.

We are also looking for anyone willing to teach self-defense to the civilians. Speak to myself or Henry Percy if you are interested.

[Henry wears full plate armour, of late fourteenth century craftsmanship. There is assurance in his posture throughout Maketh's address. He speaks only after she has said all that needs to be said.]

The strength of any community is bestowed in part by its unity. To that end, we aim to make a worthy contribution. Soon those who seek assistance may easily avail themselves of ours.

[Attached to the message is a map, with the location guard headquarters marked.]

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Have you been in a situation like this before?

As soon as possible, if you can. I look forward to working with you.

Pretty similar to this actually. And my groups have been very small. Myself and my partner mostly. Four at our best.

[ It stings to think about Killy, Domochevsky and Iko when she knows where they are and what they must be dealing with by themselves. ]

I'll be available this evening. Shoot me a message when you're ready and I'll come meet you.

Interesting. You're not the first.

Excellent. Come over whenever you please. I imagine I'll be there all night.

[So. Much. Paperwork.]

Thanks, Maketh. I'll see you later tonight.

[ A small wave before she hangs up.

It's later than she expects when she finally gets to the headquarters. She's careful not to startle anyone who may be still up this late while she searches for Maketh. ]

Hello?

[The building they've picked for headquarters is relatively intact, though dusty. Maketh can't imagine what it was used for previously. A warehouse of some sort. Either way she's found a desk and some filing cabinets, all dragged over into a corner, and marked off a space for hand-to-hand combat training, soon to be covered in mats.

In the meantime, she's surrounded herself with self-inflicted paperwork. Someone must create the rosters and the patrol guidelines and then the filing system for the field reports, and it all must be done now. But, for better or worse, Maketh thrives under pressure and enjoys this sort of detail work.

It's almost midnight and she's on her fourth cup of coffee when she hears the voice. Maketh rubs her eyes and stands.] Cibo, hello. I apologize for the mess.

[ The building feels like home. Old and weathered. She's surprised it's as cleaned up as it is to fit Maketh's needs. ]

Don't apologize. Seems like I wasn't the only one working late.

[ She eyes the piles of paper, wondering how detailed Maketh expects all this to be. Which isn't a bad thing at all. Only that paper just seems so inconvenient to maintain. ]

You definitely look like you could use some help.

[ It's a wonder why humans work themselves far beyond their limits for simple things. ]

Or at least a nap?

[Maketh straightens her coat with a sigh. Already there's so much to be done, much more than before, and so far no one else has stepped forward to help with the paperwork. Perhaps it doesn't matter. But it can't hurt if they're organized. Who knows how long they'll be stuck here?] I've had too much coffee to sleep now, I'm afraid. But I'd welcome the help. What can you do?

I was once Head Scientist to a major corporation. Though I specialized in actual scientific projects, I had a hand in some administration.

[ Cibo steps over to the desk to skim over the papers. Quite the workload for one person. ]

I'll file what's completed to clear some of this away for you.

I--really? [Maketh blinks, refocusing.] That's wonderful, actually. Once I'm finished with this, I'd like to discuss some matters with you. What was your specialty?

Bio-engineering. Mostly.

[ She answers absently while reading a page. Then she looks to Maketh with her full attention. ]

I'm sorry. You did mean my science, right? I have several other skills than that.

Is that what you want to talk about?

[Maketh nods, wishing she'd thought to request this meeting at a more reasonable hour. She'll focus, though. She'll make herself focus.] I wanted to ask your opinion about some aspects of Hadriel. I've discussed them with several individuals with...well, who have magic. If you could share any theories about how any of this mess works, then perhaps we can better defend against it.

You're talking about the gods, aren't you? I'm still not sure if I believe that. Then again, I don't come from a place where magic or religion exists.

[ Cibo shrugs. She takes a few papers to examine them before organizing them into the cabinets. Then continues anyway. ]

They act like A.I. gone rogue. When I questioned them, they didn't react much like A.I. at all. Though sometimes it can be difficult to trick them into exposing themselves. I could go into the details of how they do it and why, except I'm not sure it's going to help.

Or I could be entirely wrong and they might be a more advanced tech than even I could understand.

[Maketh exhales slowly.] My world has both. I'm thinking it might be a combination of the two - or, as you say, a technology so advanced that it can be passed off as magic.

In your world, how would you deal with such an A.I.?

You, uh... [ Maketh isn't going to like this answer. ] Typically you don't.

In a perfect world you find the sever they may be embedded in and shut them down at the source. But they are very powerful in their realm and tend to make that task nearly possible. So it's best to just get far away as fast as possible.

[ Clearly not an option in this hell cave, she knows. ]

And that's only when one is in control. Here there are several. It's not what I would normally consider an ideal situation.

[Maketh frowns, considering.] Do you think it matters that they seem to be at odds with each other? Whatever Fear intends, the others are trying to stop him.

Could go either way. [ She takes another small stack of papers to idly file away. ]

On one hand, if they successfully extinguish Fear then there's one less 'god' to worry about. On the other, he may lash out back at them and it'll make things even worse.

We just have to keep playing our part to get them the results they need. I think it's all we can do right now.

[Maketh nods slowly.] Whatever is decided, they need us. Not just to reach their ends, whatever those may be, but to survive. And if our lives have value, then we can leverage them. One way or another.

[It's only a matter of determining how.]

[ The papers stop in her hands. Cibo isn't about beating around metaphorical bushes. ]

They need results. They don't need us specifically. I'm sure we're expendable in this experiment.

[ And not that she's trying to shoot down Maketh's idea, so here's trying to make it work. ]

They do seem fairly responsive to our requests and discussions. We may be able to make deals and compromise what we do for them. Maybe somehow work them against each other until only one is left?

I'm not certain that's true. [Maketh rubs at her eyes, frowning. The problem with her theories is that she has nothing to back them up with but a logic she's not certain applies. There's too much she doesn't know.] They've brought several of the same people back more than once, sought out people from the same world - and of all the infinite possibilities, they manage to pick individuals from worlds that share commonalities. Small things, perhaps, but they add up.

Of course, I still don't know what that means.

[Not yet, at least. Maketh sighs, dropping her hands.]

That's a possibility. Aside from Fear, none of them seem particularly clever.

Honestly didn't think about what similarities we may have. We all seemed so randomly chosen that I didn't bother to look for what was the same. Unfortunately no matter what we come up with is going to be based on assumption, isn't it? Since it doesn't seem they're very willing to tell us what's going on...

[ She feels a little more open-minded. That she could help work this from a different angle now. ]

But we may still be able to figure out that leverage you mentioned. If we assume that each god had some hand in choosing their best candidate from each place, that would provide them with their respective emotion best, that would definitely mean we have some value to them. They even brought creatures from some of our realities in order to help trigger those emotions, right?

[Maketh nods, dropping her hands.] Unfortunately, there's nothing to stop them from lying to us. Half of the intelligence I've gathered is supposition.

That -- that's true. Some people more easily feel -- fear, or rage or even joy, due to their life experiences or personal physiology. I've heard of conditions were individuals were unable to experience fear at all. And if the Door happened to drop a sociopath or someone with that particular condition into our midst, I imagine that might change things. Not that such a person wouldn't experience emotion, of course, but it would be...different. I posed this question to Rage not so long ago and she didn't seem to understand. Which leads me to believe that whatever they fed off before, they weren't human. Not entirely, at least.

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