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[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.

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[Hope is far too kind for his own good. But it's something if he's willing to at least charge a much higher price.]

It might be advisable to insist on a public apology over the network as well. It serves the purpose of making the person known to those who want to keep you alive.

It would also serve the purpose of making people hate me even more.

[It's on the tip of her tongue to say that the gods do a stellar job of inspiring people to hate them all on their own, but a lady remembers her courtesies. Besides, she's okay with Hope.]

Ah, I suppose it might. Then aside from demanding a much higher price from them, I suggest using a very small amount of your power to produce an image of the person in question. Then show it to anyone who has reached out and identified themselves as someone who would prefer to keep you alive. In person. The Null have compromised your network, so it would be wise to not let them know who intends to protect you.

[Which is why she's here rather than sending Hope a text.]

That's not a bad idea.

[It would probably be good to be able to identify known opponents of the gods to those who choose to side with them. Hope is not exactly suited for war or subterfuge, but he has to try to survive regardless.]

I'll do that.

[She's attended court, fought in a war, and lived a mercenary existence for a large portion of her life. War and subterfuge are things she's good at.]

When the Null contact people again with a drop point for their weapons, you should have one of your fellow gods make a magical construct of you. Something like those constructs of our loved ones, once they were solid and visible to everyone, or the evil doubles.

[It's a little weird, giving a so-called god suggestions on strategy, but Hope is a peaceful individual, and they're not truly gods. Just powerful energy beings.]

It might be a good way to trick the Null into revealing more of their plan than they intend to, if they believe you have been killed.

I don't know if that would work, but it's something to consider. I can hope that we will be told when the Null do make that contact, since we're not able to see their communications ourselves.

[And there's no reason to think they'll always contact the whole city instead of individual people, after all.]

I thank you for your suggestions.

They told me they would contact me. I pretended to be willing to kill you to ensure that they would keep me informed.

[Hence the in person contact now. She's not very well going to reveal her hand where people might see her.]

They are intelligent creatures. Please be careful, I don't want you to put yourself in danger.

[That's actually rather sweet of Hope to worry about her safety, even knowing that some of it is self-serving on his part.]

I have dealt with dangerous and intelligent foes before, Hope. I have also fought and won when greatly outnumbered. My previous line of work was rather mercenary in nature.

I will admit that it's difficult for me to understand that way of life, but I can be appreciative of the skills it imparts nonetheless.

My way of life makes it easier for me to understand that nothing that's been done to produce emotion from us has been out of malice, and that helps me to see the bigger picture.

[Which is why she can see how terribly it would go if enough people chose to help the Null.]

I am positive that I can talk down one of the people who expressed interest in helping the Null, without him revealing my true intentions to the Null. I doubt I could persuade him to help you because he hates all gods - not just your kind. But he has dangerous abilities, and it's better if chooses neutrality over helping the Null.

I appreciate your understanding, as well. Few seem to have such an unbiased view of things.

[And it's super annoying.]

Is there anything that I can do to help you? I make no promises, but it would be good to know.

In all fairness to the other more biased residents, when I was brought here, I was fifteen minutes away from total oblivion. That does help me to keep an open mind about the situation.

[For beings that feed on emotion, and who are good at drawing out the emotions they need to feed on, they're terrible at understanding the longer term emotional consequences of the things they do to people. She can only guess it's in part due to their previous hosts being able to feel emotions at will.]

With him specifically, likely not. That hatred is almost...biological. It's an instinct. Any help he gives will be indirect. He will not fight the Null to protect you, but he will fight by my side.

[But since she's in an advice-giving mood, she will give what suggestions she can.]

For the community as a whole, giving us some choice in how we give emotion to all of you would help make people less resentful. People do not like feeling powerless. Many enjoyed the competition from months ago. I would suggest you do what you can to talk the others out of doing things that will endanger our lives, too. Particularly things like when those constructs of our loved ones were draining our life force. No matter how unbiased and reasonable one tries to be, it's quite difficult not to take something like that rather personally.

Edited 2017-09-14 03:24 (UTC)

I always try to talk the others out of anything that is likely to cause death. I'm not terribly fond of spending the power to bring you back. But it is an extremely emotional event, both for the one experiencing it and for the ones who care for them, so it's an easy well to draw from.

I am not the leader of my brethren. I can ask, [and complain, which he does often] but they don't have to listen. I am already doing what I can. I understand that to all of you it doesn't seem like enough.

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