First ☂ Voice

[thirdreturned]

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.

Comments

[thirdreturned]

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.

[verinumeri]

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? ]

[thirdreturned]

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.

[verinumeri]

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.

[thirdreturned]

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.