[video]

[mismanagement]

[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.]

Comments

[mismanagement]

[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.]

[watashinonamaewa]

[ 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?

[mismanagement]

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.

[watashinonamaewa]

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?

[mismanagement]

[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.