hadriel | First ☂ Voice

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First ☂ Voice

Hm.

[Sorrow's voice is slow and stern, easily authoritative without any pretense or false airs.]

It would seem that Hope has gathered the energy necessary to bring me back. I'm told that our new guests have had a say in it- if that is the case, then you have my thanks.

[There's a thoughtful pause before he continues.]

As a token of my gratitude, I have created an garden of food to lessen your burden on Hope. Both parties will benefit from its creation, and so I trust that it will be tended with respect.

It will grow as the week goes on and I return to my former strength. Do let me know if anything disagrees with your systems and I'll remove it.

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Why would you (as in a god, not you personally) intend that?

We are and we are not. Humans have a talent for developing tools to compensate for our fragility.

[ For example: Jaegers. ]

What does it require to operate the Door?

A man here has been counting the 'days' between when the Door opens and has done so, he says, from the beginning. It seems to be on a cycle that mirrors an Earth calendar. 30 days, 31 days, 31 days, 28 days, 31 days, 30 days. Why should your ancient artifact that unpredictably draws in chaotic beings follow the period of the moon orbiting the Earth, and the Earth orbiting its sun? I assume this planet is not Earth.

There is a reason, but I'm starting to believe that you are not simply wondering for knowledge's sake.

This planet is not Earth, you are correct. Why it follows Earth's calendar, I couldn't say. We've artificially adjusted day lengths for you in this cave; perhaps the Door has done the same.

Perhaps. I won't lie to you. Even if I would, I expect any attempt to disguise my motivations would be easily seen through. Of course, if we were to find the Door, my main intention would be to find a way to use it to send everyone back where they came from. We do not belong here.

While I am curious for knowledge's sake, I want also to use that knowledge. They aren't mutually exclusive reasons. All that said, unless the answer to that particular question would be useful to learning how to operate the Door, it was asked primarily for the former reason.

I've noticed, regarding the days. They're more uniform than they would have been with our sun. Two more questions that are primarily the former: Is there a sun outside of this cavern? Are the days as long there as they were here, before they were adjusted?

As for the Door, that's ridiculous, but I suppose that might as well be the answer. The man counting the days, he was interested in a date marker. Since the light's artificial and you're only guessing at what the Door's doing, I'd wager not, but I don't suppose you've any notion of what day in June it is?

I can respect all of your reasons, but some of them are at cross purposes with my own. To that end, I will not give you the answers you want.

There is a sun outside currently, yes. The days are different there than they are here. I was not around when humans first entered through the Door, but Hope tells me that the humans did not adjust to the previous cycle, so it was changed.

I don't know what a June is.

To that end. I suppose we cross on sending everyone to their own worlds. Would you have us stay here indefinitely? I am aware that your lot gains strength from our emotions. Putting aside my expanding list of complaints about this entire situation -- Is there any intention on your (plural) end to eventually send us off? Is there nothing we can do to expedite the process?

Please don't say 'feel things strongly' or something like.

I'd ask if you knew the name of the system or galaxy or where we're located in the universe, but it probably wouldn't mean anything. Why are we down here and not up there? Sheer ease of containment?

I doubt you'll care, but it's the sixth month of the Earth year. In fact, it may've been named for a god worshipped by an ancient civilization. Thank you, by the way.

Not indefinitely. Until we can find a suitable replacement, perhaps. I don't believe that the Door brings in enough of you to support a stable population and none of you seem to be interested in procreating anytime soon.

Help Hope revive the rest of us. Then we'll decide what to do with you.

Why are you thanking me?

Such replacement would have to be from a source besides the Door, I assume? If such a source is possible. Unless the Door brought in a species in greater numbers and/or that was (1) willing to procreate; and (2) reproduced at a quicker rate. I'd do the math, but suffice to say, waiting for either the Door or human procreation would take generations. The time may not mean much to you, but I doubt that interest would develop. Even if they become resigned, few will choose to bring life into a place where horrific events are regularly inflicted.

[ Never mind the unsettling, even unacceptable situation where the Door did provide a suitable replacement. Trapping another for their own freedom? ]

You might decide to kill us rather than deal with our discontent or the trouble of trying to send us back. If I chose to help, I'd like more of a guarantee. I suspect you cannot offer one.

For your patience in answering my questions.

Yes, most likely. It's clear that you humans are not going to be a long term solution to our absent host issue, nor do any of you seem to want to be. Understandable, as it seems you were not built for coexistence.

I'd promise not to kill you, but I have a feeling that my word carries less weight than my practicality, so instead I will ask: why would I kill you? It would serve no purpose. Even if we had a replacement for you, you would still continue to power us and you have no current way of becoming a threat to us. It would be far more beneficial of me to simply let you live out your lifespans.

Hope will disagree, of course. He wants to send you home- and I suppose I could cooperate with him, but the point is that you have no reason to fear for your lives from me.

Indeed, we barely tolerate one another.

[ Humans are mostly terrible, he agrees. At least some good comes out of it. Space exploration, the Jaeger Program, medicine, science as a whole. ]

Your practicality does much more than any promise, yet you speak for yourself. There are too many variables.

[ Though he has seemed honest to this point, he could be lying. They could develop a means of becoming a threat. The other gods might be less practical. Questions unanswered, information withheld. It would be easy enough to provide a Rosetta Stone for the library, but not so. What happened to the people before? What happens when all the gods live? And the residents, unintended but imprisoned all the same, able to breathe the air and speak the language even when Mr. Hope purportedly hadn't been prepared to feed them. The unpredictable Door taking mostly humans according to a human calendar. If it isn't, after all, Haven reconstructed.

How foolish to trust or to help.

And yet -- ]

Yet, there would be as many in any decision. When you speak of helping Mr. Hope revive the rest of you, does that, again, amount to 'feel hope more strongly'? Is such the only way to assist him? The difficulty, you must understand, is that most of us hope to be spared monthly irregularities and to escape. What is like to give us the most hope is precisely what you (plural) refuse to give: information to that specific end.

The counter may be as you said: help Mr. Hope and perhaps we go home. I have been here only sixteen days. I have only heard of what transpired previously. Working on that limited information, I cannot understand why so many take particular issue with Mr. Hope. However, they do, and given the circumstances, it isn't unreasonable to distrust the lot of you. It would be a hard sell.

There are indeed many variables. However, I'll say that hope works in many ways. Some of you hope to kill my companion- that hope powers him just as much as any other.

I want you to find hope and continue powering him, however, I see no point in lying to you to create hope falsely. I have told you that I could see the point in cooperating with Hope to send you home, but only after I have no more need of you. In order for me to have no further need of you, the others will need to be revived, as well as a way to supplement your loss. Then I could help Hope to send you home. That is my stance on the matter and that will not change.

I will not give you information that I do not trust your excitable minds with, nor will I lie to you in an attempt at manipulating your feelings. Whether or not you believe me reliable or trustworthy because of that is none of my concern.

As far as his standing, I haven't been here with you for long, but it seems your species as a whole responds better to tone than it does action. Someone gently being cruel to you garners a much more positive reaction than someone cruelly being gentle.

I intend less to attempt to change your stance and more to glean specifics as to how to reach that end. We do not disagree, it seems, that we may hope differently: some of us to kill the gods, some of us to escape, some perhaps to stay, some that they stay safe, or their loved ones do. For each hope, it is best kept alive and best fostered when given reason, some small sign of success, improvement, production. Some evidence that a god could be reached or injured, some evidence of the possibility of reaching the door, some additional safeguard against harm.

Thus, if some of us hope to leave and understand that the probability of doing so increases once the other gods are revived and we've assisted in supplementing, then the greatest source of immediate hope will be any concrete information as to how to help bring back your companions.

It becomes frustratingly circular, if the answer is simply, 'be more hopeful, then', but I suppose that's how your lot works.

I would suggest that not all of our minds are so excitable, yet I do not think you are wrong in your estimation of the species as a whole. We are frustratingly, stupidly suggestible to tone.

[ Seriously, he's never going to get entirely over the responses to Mr. Hope's post advising as to the safety of the temples. Given his short time here, he'd assumed Mr. Hope must have done something to warrant it (or general distrust, only he hasn't faith enough in the populace as a whole that they'd be hostile for that cautious reason, especially as everyone seems fond enough of Miss Delight), but nothing he's learned thus far has shed such light. Why are people so stupid? Why Miss Tua? ]

It is how we work. I implemented the garden to keep a burden off of Hope's shoulders- perhaps if your kind dies less often and requires less upkeep, kills the monsters he's keeping back, stops asking him for things- then he would be able to gather his power more quickly instead of giving it away in small bursts.

However, he has decided that this is the cost of housing your society, and so he bears it, and so he brings our companions back at a middling rate. Your kind has put forth some efforts to help him, I understand- a hospital to keep some of you from dying, a generator to supplement his energy- and I'm sure it's appreciated, but the drain is still evident.

You seem more reasonable than most. If nothing else, it's clear that humanity has a great variance between individuals.

Perhaps if some of your lot induced less dangerous events, we'd die less. It's rather inconvenient for us as well. In my world, it was believed at various times that offering items such as a good harvest, currency, or sacrificing fat animals, would at least honor gods. Obviously it would be silly to take a fruit from your garden and leave it in Mr. Hope's temple, and he provides most the other food, but is there anything to that? Or is it strictly down to feeding emotion and reducing the burden?

To that end, I know you weren't here for it, but I understand Mr. Fear opened the Door. What had Mr. Hope been doing before we arrived to gather power, to bring the rest back?

Well, evolution. Diversity tends to help a species survive.

Fear and Rage have put you in harm's way, and so they must have believed that their power gain was worth Hope's power loss from reviving you. That kind of trade could be acceptable depending on the circumstances, but it would be even better if you felt what was intended and then survived anyway. I don't suppose you have any control over that though.

The only thing you can grant to us that holds any meaning is power. Aside from that, you are functionally useless to us. Others may disagree. We each have thoughts and feelings separate from our allies, and so I suppose friendship, gifts, and action may be more beneficial to other gods. My only priority is supporting the them, which I will do by gaining strength from you. Therefore, you please me most when you are sorrowful.

That sounds like a question for Hope, not myself.

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