lingeringhope | ic inbox

[She shows up at Hope's temple, slipping in swiftly and discreetly. She makes sure no one else is there before speaking. Hope is probably aware of her being there already.]

Apologies for not using the network to offer my suggestions, but I think it unwise to do so when the Null have compromised it twice. Especially when I want them to think that I'm willing to cooperate with them.

['Subtle' is not a trait most of the gods are very good at, so she tries to take a direct and fairly businesslike approach with them.]

That being said, a few of the suggestions made were reasonable.

[Hope appears, as he usually does. He can't be aware of everything happening in the city all the time, but he can at least keep an eye on his temple.]

Yes, I thought people were very helpful, both intentionally and unintentionally. Did you see anything that stood out to you?

[He's more interested in her opinion than he is some others - she's proven herself to be intelligent and level-headed.]

Making an effort to not frighten people, and further working to develop an alliance with all of us were good suggestions. Having some of us involved in the investigation was also a good one. Dr. Sweets would be a good choice for questioning people. From my observations, he seems to have a genuine interest in keeping the peace and benefitting the community as a whole.

[She smiles slightly.]

The suggestion of plying us with treats was not a bad idea, either. The feast was quite good.

[She's only half-kidding. The community's opinion of the gods was the highest when the gods gave them a week of nice things.]

I have a suggestion of my own, although this suggestion is for how you might persuade people not to side with the Null rather than how you might investigate them.

I do not know Dr. Sweets well, but I will keep your recommendation in mind. I agree that the rest were all good suggestions - and I am pleased that people enjoy it when we attempt to provide them entertainment.

[Since they're so negative most of the time.]

I am interested in suggestions on that point. Many of you are unmoved by the idea that you would be committing genocide, or even seem to favor it.

People have been taken out of their worlds, trapped in a cave town, and regularly have their emotions manipulated in order to feed the beings who activated the artifact responsible for bringing people here. Add in the monsters and the threat of the Null wiping us out for nothing more than being a food source and...well. People are going to be unhappy about that. Even those of us who are willing to listen, consider your situation, and don't hate you, still do not enjoy the things that are done to take emotion from us. Replicas of our loved ones stealing our life force energy was especially cruel.

[She can look at things from Hope's perspective, too, but sometimes she thinks that in his concern over his people's survival, that he's neglecting to take a clear look at why so many people here have a problem with the gods.]

My suggestion is to show us what your society was like before the Null turned on you. Fear described a collaborative society. Show us that society. Show us your art and music, show us how you interacted with your previous hosts. Then show the Null turning on everyone.

[It's one of those things that she thinks the gods can do pretty easily with their powers based on the things that they have done already, but it will involve a lot of dredging up of bad memories. However, that's the thing that will likely do the most as far as changing people's minds.]

In showing us the truth, you are keeping your word as far as being more open with us, and you let people see another side of you that no one has been privy to thus far.

That is... an interesting suggestion.

[And not one that Hope had even considered before. The memories are painful, very painful, especially for him. But he can see where she's coming from.]

I will have to speak to this others. This isn't something I could do alone.

[On a practical level, that's more suited to Tranquility or maybe Confusion's powers.]

If you choose to take my suggestion, make sure you make an announcement to everyone in advance that you will be sharing your memories from the past with us, and tell us when.

[Because otherwise people might miss it or think they're hallucinating rather than seeing something that would answer a lot of questions.]

I also recommend emphasizing in a general announcement to everyone that once you are able to revive your previous hosts, none of you will need to feed on our emotions.

I will do that.

Though while I do understand people want more assurances about being sent home, I believe announcing that would bring demands of a timeline, or a request that I do so immediately. I think it would cause more strife than good.

Oh, I was not suggesting that you make announcements about sending us home. My suggestion was to resssure people that you will have no need to do anything dramatic to influence our emotions anymore, because you will have a steady supply from willing participants.

[And this is where she's going to try to spell things out a bit more from Hope, because she gets the impression that the gods don't completely understand the amount of enmity some of their actions inspire.]

With the competition, we influenced each other's emotions, but not to the point that anyone struggled to control themselves or lost control of themselves. No one likes not being in control of their own feelings and actions.

Unfortunately, I cannot make that promise. I have no control over what my fellow gods do, and if I said we would do nothing more to influence emotions in that way, I would be the one blamed when one of them decided to.

[He gets annoyed over it, too. People are always dying, then he has to bring them back.]

We have no leader. I can ask them to do things, but they don't have to listen - and often, they do not.

Then I suggest you bring that suggestion to them and ask them to commit to it. People do not mind the individual deals between us and your kind because they are a mutually agreed upon arrangement, and those who have no desire to participate can avoid them.

[She's going to be somewhat firm about this being an important point. The gods seem to not understand the damage manipulating people's emotions does in the long term, perhaps because they don't experience it, and their previous hosts didn't, either. So she's going to push it as an issue of free will, in the hopes that perhaps that will get through.]

Out of curiousity...do you think there is some possibility that one of your fellow gods could be leaking information to the Null?

[She can't see why they'd do something so suicidal, but it might explain a few things.]

I can tell you already that they will not agree to it. Some of them might - Tranquility, Delight, perhaps even Love. Some of the others have no interest in what you might want. There will be no consensus on this.

And of course none of us would do something like that. Our lives are the ones on the line - we will all die if the Null find us.

[She's not entirely convinced, but there are some things Hope's flexible on and others he's fairly adamant about, so she won't push that point too forcefully. Instead, she takes a different approach.]

I saw Tranquility mention a plan to try talking to the Null that got voted against. What were some of the other options proposed?

Our options are the same as they have ever been. Continue running, turn and fight, look for another solution, or let them kill us. Tranquility's suggestion was not one that we could take.

Did whoever suggested looking for another solution happen to suggest other possibilities?

[There's a possibility that one of the gods is overestimating their own capabilities for dealing with the Null and enacting their own plan without the knowledge and consent of the others. It's an idea she wants to build up to slowly, by asking the right questions and getting Hope to think about the situation.]

That wasn't a suggestion, exactly. Those are all options that we have all known of for a long time. It seems that you think we recently got together, had a discussion, and came up with plans - that isn't what happened. We discussed the investigation, and during that Tranquility brought up speaking to the Null again. Our other options were not discussed. We have gone over them many times.

There is a more indirect way of combating them, although it would take some information gathering and you would likely need to involve at least a small elite team of your current hosts to do it.

[She's fine with offering Hope logical suggestions. She's the one with the combat experience, and it never hurts to be on pleasant terms with the god who resurrects everyone. Hope is actually fairly pleasant once one gets to know him a little. He just needs to work on his public relations skills a LOT. So do most of the gods, really.]

In order to produce more of their kind, they must have factories to build more. Find out where those factories are, and destroy them. If possible, capture one Null and determine exactly how it communicates with the others. Then spread misinformation to all of them. If you are fortunate, you could feed them false information about your whereabouts, lure a large number of them to an uninhabited place, and then destroy that.

I believe there are flaws with those plans - mainly, it requires putting ourselves in danger. We've already done that with Rage and Delight, we'll need to process the information from them before we send anyone else out.

I am not saying they are bad plans, simply that they are not something we could currently take action on. Not in the situation we are in. I will mention them to Sorrow, as thoughts for the future.

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