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[lingeringhope]

[Hope's voice is clear and clipped.]

If you would like to leave a message, you may do so here. I can't promise to respond. I have many demands on my time, and this sort of thing is far down the list. Still, if you would like to, you may.

Comments

[lingeringhope]

Killing them will destroy them. I don't bring the monsters back to life - that would be a waste of energy. They're not capable of feeling emotions the way you are. However, the Door brings in new creatures regularly.

[So it's pretty unlikely that Will will kill them all. Wipe out one kind of monster, another will come along in a few weeks.]

[sonofacesius]

So what I'd be doing is more like population control. Keep the monsters at an acceptable number while the Door keeps bringing in more. Sounds like fun.

[Or at least training. He'd hate to end up back at Camp having lost all his hard won skills and reflexes from having not trained for gods knew how long. Will paused before asking, mulling the questions over.]

I assume you know about the beings that hijacked your network? Are the connected to the Door or are they separate?

[Will was assuming that Hope and the other Gods were like his own, and knowledge of certain things, but couldn't always act on them.]

[lingeringhope]

Yes, something like that.

[He nods, and an even more unamused expression crosses his face.]

We have been informed of their intrusion, yes. They have no connection to the Door.

[sonofacesius]

[That actually caught Will by surprise. He had assumed that like the Greeks, these gods knew certain things. Were able to be aware. He paused, trying to figure out how to phrase his question so he didn't offend Hope or get turned into a small helpful plant]

I mean no disrespect, but, are you not aware of all the actions around you? Or is it something specific about the Null that block you and your abilities?

[lingeringhope]

We don't bother watching everything you do, if that's what you're asking.

[That sounds both boring and time-consuming.]

In this case, they were able to break into our network without our knowledge.

[sonofacesius]

[See, that would be where Will might suggest reworking the network so they had a little clue if someone broke in. Not that it was his specialty, he knew that Olympus had things like that, but he assumed a lot of it was Hephestus' work. Maybe these guys didn't have an equivalent.

He smiled, since he liked Hope, and didn't want to offend him.]

Could I make a suggestion maybe? I don't know if it's possible, I don't know how your network works here or really anything about networks. But would it be possible to rig some kind of alarm system, so that if it happens again, you guys would know and be able to monitor what's going on?

[lingeringhope]

Since we do not know how they managed to break onto the network, that would be impossible. Normally we are capable of easily monitoring everything on it. Our first goal is to discover how they were able to.

[sonofacesius]

[Well there went that idea. Oh well.]

Understandable. Can I ask one last question? You guys, the gods here, are all embodiments of emotion right? That's why you get power from it, like we eat food.

Where I'm from, gods can be killed when what they stand for no longer exists or their seats of power are destroyed. In my world, Pan faded, when there were no longer enough Wild places in the world. But you guys, are emotion incarnate. So, you can't really die, right? Or fade?

Not that I'm planning on killing you guys.
[Will added hastily, because killing Gods is really, really bad. Unless they were like Kronos or Gaea or something. Unless he had Reasons. Like mass murder.]

I'm just trying to figure out how you differ from what I'm familiar with.

[lingeringhope]

We're not embodiments of emotion. Emotion is what powers us, but we are not representations of it. Without emotion to power us, we are far weaker and can be more easily killed.

[But you're dreaming if you're hoping for clues to how gods are actually killed, Will. Hope has had enough people threaten him to know better.]

[sonofacesius]

[Huh. That was interesting. Will didn't want to press his luck, but he was curious.]

If you're not emobidments of emotion, why are you named after them?

[lingeringhope]

Because you cannot communicate the way we do and would not be able to say our names. These are names that you understand.

[sonofacesius]

Oh

[Will shifted. That was a pretty good reason and explanation.]

Thank you for your time Hope, and for answering my questions.

And for not killing me.

[lingeringhope]

I do not kill.

[sonofacesius]

Well, thanks. I appreciate it. Or not being turned into a bottle of merlot or a swan or something.

[lingeringhope]

You are welcome, I suppose.