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I will do so. Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Yes. It would take a very long time, likely longer than one of your lifetimes, to even begin the process. We do not have the safety or the time for it, but if we were safe I could return another Hope to us. We could work together to find more, to restore our species.

[He is quiet for a moment.]

Some of us are gone forever, but not all.

( She mirrors his silence, perhaps unconsciously. There are others, but they're not these gods. Other Delights wouldn't be the Delight they've lost. Kate never could forgive her for what happened, for the death of a friend or the nightmare of those two weeks. (It'll be worse next time, whenever that is, she's sure, and — maybe, just maybe — it's a good thing that they've faced the Null once, that people have experience fighting these things...

Or maybe that's just the Hope talking. Who knows.)

Still. Knowing she's gone and not merely imprisoned is strange. Could the outcome have been worse? Certainly. But the finality is... odd. Nothing here has ever really been final. Not even people going home. )

...Hope you get to.

( And it's still so strange that Kate can truly say that she does hope for that, in the same way it was strange to hope that the Creatures back home would be able to experience a peaceful existence after Rosenberg died. She spent so much time and energy believing them the enemy, and now—

Well. Now she's here talking to one of them as easily as she talks to anyone. )

What about the Null? What would y'do with them?

[ For this question, Drake appears in person. Shortly after the move to the jungle planet he heads to Hope's temple, looking uncharacteristically nervous. It's an important question, a request he's still only like 90% is the right move, one that might not even be possible but he figures it can't hurt just to find out what would be necessary.

This has gone on long enough. He stands in the center of the temple and calls out. ]

Hey Hope? I've got a big ask I could use some input on, if you've got a minute!

[Hope appears, as he usually does when called, between one moment and the next.]

Yes? What is it that you would like help with?

[ That would be cause for startling if Drake wasn't expecting it -- since he was he just offers Hope a (still nervous) smile, and tries to figure out the best way to phrase this. ]

So you know I'm -- I mean, I've been sick since I got here. I really appreciate you managing it but the second anything happens to you, I'm a danger to everyone. I've been staying how I am even though I hate it just because most of the time it's not so bad, it might even be helpful... I'm stronger and faster and harder to hurt, but with how often I've become a liability instead I think... maybe I should face whatever's coming as a human, just in case.

What I'm saying is I want a cure. I know you've given people new bodies before -- like Lup, when she came back stuck as a lich? What's the price on this kind of thing?

I also hope so. It is what I most dearly wish for.

[The question of the Null is a different one, and he is silent again for some time before answering.]

I would wish that we could live together peacefully, as we once did. It is not in my nature to wish death upon anyone, especially after coming so close to it so many times. But I don't know how that could happen, and I know that none of my companions agree. Pragmatically, we must find a way to escape them for good or we must destroy them.

Me either.

( Admittedly, Kate is not the go to person for creative solutions in making a hive-mind of murderous robots back off. The pragmatic answer is easier, and it's hardly as though the Null have given her (or any of the city, if you asked her) a reason to try and keep them alive. )

Not sure how we destroy all of them.

( Sorrow's words of just how far the Null empire stretches still comes to mind. It's one thing to defend the city, to destroy the immediate forces coming for them, but there's a whole world of difference between that and destroying the source.

Maybe that isn't possible either.

... Well. She'll have to shelve that worry, leave it at the back of her mind. That's the kind of cynical, paralysing thought which spirals into what's the point arguments and stops action. And she doesn't want to go back to that, not now of all times. )

But we'll try.

( Before, the gods had each other and their people. Now they have... well. These people. These people from such vastly different universes that Kate can't even begin to count them, with powers and ideas at their fingertips that no one else has. Who knows what ideas may lurk in the minds of the other residents of the city? And, well, Kate has to believe they can do more than simply be food for the gods, that there's some sort of difference they can make in this fight, or every bit of effort they've exerted in these last few years would be pointless. )

Quite high. Human bodies are difficult for me.

[But regardless, he wouldn't refuse the request - particularly not when it's for such good reasons.]

I would ask the same of you as I did of her. Bring hope to six different people. How you do that is entirely up to you.

[ Drake nods, considering that... if it's doable or not, but at this point he's leaning towards "it's gotta be." He can find six people, figure out how to bring them hope. There's a reason he usually deals with Love instead, but he'll make it happen. ]

Okay. What's the process? Do I just come back when I think I've hit six? And is it a transformation or does this body have to die?

I don't know either.

[If Hope were anyone else, he might admit that the idea of their small band of allies defeating the seemingly endless Null forces might be hopeless. But he would never say that - indeed, he'd never even think it.]

But we have some power, at least, and for now we are safely hidden. We have time to plan and prepare.

We will try.

( A small band, but there are people here who have destroyed whole armies, rescued cities by themselves. People who have been fighting for as long as they've had the ability to throw a punch or pick up a sword.

So, yes, they'll try. And Kate? Right now, she'll let thoughts circulate in her mind, lapsing into silence until — with no seeming explanation — she snorts and shakes her head. )

... I was wrong about you, back then.

( So very wrong. And if you'd told the her who first arrived in Hadriel that she'd eventually be sitting here, wanting to make sure Hope and the others all made it out alive, she'd have told you to pull the other one. )

Yes. I will have received the power you create by then, and can do it at that time. As for your other question -

[Hope pauses for a moment, considering it.]

While I could try to do either, it's likely safer for you if your body dies. I cannot promise that any alterations I make to your current form would work as well as you might wish.

Okay. I'll check back, then.

[ The death part isn't an ideal answer but Drake nods again, understanding the reasoning. There's just no gentle or easy way to do it and he's pretty sure asking for help would be a mistake... he'll deal with it. He's a little more unnerved by the level of trust he's putting in Hope than the thought of dying, honestly. But the god has kept him alive for over a year and a half now, he's earned it. ]

Don't suppose you would handle that part too? I'd kind of make a mess of your temple doing it myself.

At the beginning, I think we all had a great deal of incorrect assumptions about each other.

[But Hope, standoffish as he might seem, has always been a bit of a soft touch. The people the Door brought here grew on him quickly, despite their continual dislike. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone to the lengths he has.]

I have learned a lot.

I would rather you not bleed out in my temple. I will take care of that part as well.

[Technically Hope can't kill, but this isn't quite that - so he can manage it.]

( Well, who can blame them, given the circumstances? No one asked for this, not even the gods. There was simply no other option. Something which happens all too often in people's lives. )

Like what?

( That humans have a serious coffee problem? )

I have learned that you are capable of both great kindness and great cruelty towards each other. Towards those who are not like you, cruelty is more likely, but kindness is still possible. You make decisions based mainly on your feelings, and will choose obviously bad options because of it, no matter how clearly foolish the choice is.

But you love deeply and you fight hard for the things that you love. That is admirable.

( You know, all of that is... absolutely, 100% fair. She can't even argue the bad decisions, even Kate can recognise how hypocritical she'd sound. )

Heard it said that people are scared of things that are different. ( A shrug. ) Never seen anything to disprove that.

( Back home, there's countless ways to see that in action. Ask a human what they think of superhumans, ask a superhuman what they think of creatures... Here? Here it was everything, when they first arrived. The gods, their surroundings. It was all different and wrong. )

Especially when you feel helpless.

That is an explanation, but it does not make it right. However, I suppose if we had been more like you, we would have been much more careful with the Null.

Didn't say it did.

( If anything, she's seen all the reasons it very much isn't right, but Kate bites her tongue on the cynical comment about how — if the gods had been more like humans — they'd probably try and subjugate the Null instead. No matter how true it is. )

Multiverse doesn't need more humans.

( Or superhumans. She can't be so sure whether it needs more of the non-humanoid ones, though. )

You aren't so terrible. What do you think it needs more of, then?

( Isn't that the question. A hum of thought leaves Kate's lips as she mulls it over. )

... Understandin'. People who can meet new things and not try to kill 'em.

( People who are better at dealing with both the new and their emotions better than humans are. )

[She's nervous about this. Horribly, horribly so. She's put it off as long as possible, trying to get answers from [Name], trying to figure out her own code, trying to find some hope, some possibility... but when the ship flies over, she knows she needs to do something. For once in her life, she's going to stand up for something that's right.

So she arrives to Hope's temple, soul jittering somewhere around in her throat despite the bravery she's trying to exude.]

Uhm... Hope? H-Hey, it's-- it's me, Alphys, I mean-- I need to talk to you.

[She almost apologizes for her presence- almost. But Alphys knows there's gonna be a lot more to feel sorry for shortly, if her fears are realized.]

That, I would agree with wholeheartedly.

[He sighs, quietly. An attempt to seem more human, perhaps, because of course this body doesn't need to breathe.]

Perhaps it is foolish to believe we can manage that, but I would like to.

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