[video] @runningfree [open]

[shookthesky]

[The message opens with a video. The audio is plagued with static and the picture stutters and fuzzes out occasionally, like the file's been corrupted in the upload, but it's still a video.

Pluto sits in her wheelchair in the foreground, and behind her is a large mess hall lit up with electric lighting. The cafeteria tables are packed with a few dozen people—a careful observer might be able to spot Alistair, Sypha, and the other Night Market vendors among their ranks. It seems most of the station has turned up to listen to whatever Pluto's got to say.]

Hey hey, fools. Miss me?

[She grins at the camera, flashing a peace sign.]

I hear the Wild Hunt paid y'all a visit, made their little plea, "oh, help us end the world!" What a crock of shit.

It ain't fair that they get to swoop in and play hero like it's gonna do their cause any good. You'll notice we never asked anyone to commit to shit. We were happy just helpin' out and working together! But now those cave-dwellers went and changed the game, so seems we gotta step up and make our own offer.

Here's the deal: why should we let the World Eaters decide our fate? You wanna deprive future lost souls of a second chance? Makes way more sense to fight back and build ourselves a new home than to, what, lay down and die? Fuck that!

The Wild Hunt wants you to be weak and they're all dressing it up like it's for the greater good, but who gives a shit? If you're that upset about this second chance being "unnatural" or whatev, g'head and off yourself. We don't got room for weaklings on my team.

And why's that, you ask? 'Cause we got a plan of our own to take down these World Eaters. I ain't broadcasting it until I know who I can trust, but catch me at the next Market visit. We'll talk. Hell, maybe you can figure it out already. You guys are lil smarty-pants, I've heard.

So! Seems to me like y'all got a choice to make, huh? You side with them, or you side with us. Feel free to play it safe and stick yourself in the middle if you seriously need more convincing, but if you sign up with the Hunt? Don't come crawling to the docks looking for our help. You made your choice, fam.

My signal's only gonna hold up for a minute or two here, but I'll be back in a couple weeks when the Market visits again. Hold your applause 'til then, yeah?

I'll see you soon, gang. Watch yourselves, in the meanwhile. Later.

[The crowd behind her erupts into whooping and cheering as Pluto signs off, and there's a brief moment where she starts to laugh and wheels on the Market to behave, jeez, I'm tryna send a professional message here!, and then the feed ends.

Pluto won't be able to respond to this message! You're all welcome to chatter amongst yourselves like on a bulletin post for now, and Pluto will be around at the next Night Market visit to answer all the questions you probably have.

Oh, and check out the mod announcement we've just put up to accompany this post!]

Comments

[audio] @kingofwei

[pure_havoc]

[choosing voice over text because he just needs everyone to hear his sarcasm]

And here I thought being dead would save me from faction wars. What joy.

@Grandmaster

[paletteswap]

It never ends.

[pure_havoc]

Clearly. Well, grandmaster, do you have any tips for weathering this development? Aside from 'don't do anything stupid.'

[paletteswap]

Don't do anything stupid was going to be my first suggestion, the second is don't be hasty.

I did not anticipate spending my afterlife in continuous warfare just as I did in life. It seems it can never be avoided.

[Kuai is so done with everything right now.]

@daylit; voice

[sunborne]

Oh. Mood.

[pure_havoc]

[please excuse ancient lack of slang man...]

...I'm sorry, what?

[sunborne]

[ oh. right.

hmm- how to explain it? ]

It's, um, a way to agree with someone because you know what they're talking about. Like, 'Yeah, you've got that right.' [ does that make sense? he hopes it does. ]

@scientia; voice;

[reigniter]

So this is what we fall to? What happened to the grand "we should all work together" plan? Now we stooped to this- making clans as if we're in high school.

What petulant behavior- I've seen five-year-olds behave in a more mature way.

I will be taking no part in this. You all need to grow up and start taking things seriously.

[His voice message ends there. If there are any comments, he'll respond via text.]

@KingofFishing; voice;

[starless_sky]

Uh... yeah. What he said. Why are we splitting up, I thought we were a team. Aren't we all in this together in death? I mean... we're all alone too but... shouldn't we show solidarity?

[reigniter]

After months of being preached at that we have to work together and find a solution, divide into "gangs" is the last thing I expected.

[starless_sky]

Right. We're a team, aren't we? All of us. Why would we split up? Or can peace not be found even in death?

voice; @bacura

[mellowyellow]

Dude, don't put this on high schoolers. Us impressionable youths got it from you chumps.

[So there.]

[reigniter]

Rest assured you didn't learn this from me. And from whoever you got it from needs a serious lecture.

[mellowyellow]

The history channel.

[It's not a lie. Masaomi even themed his color gang on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Yellow Scarves Rebellion.]

@Ultra_Magnus; voice

[legalcy]

Unfortunately, many large societies fall into divided camps in times of crisis. For this reason, we have governmental systems to allow us to work together towards a common goal while adding deterrents to working without approval from the rest.

Unfortunately, no one has yet designed a set of laws to guarantee conflict will never arise.

[One day...one day there will be no more societies torn apart by disagreements.]

If you wish to make progress, you will have to speak with both parties and negotiate a compromise. This isn't something we can ignore.

[reigniter]

We are not a large society here, there is barely over fifty people here. Not yet, at least. We should be working on stopping becoming one.

From the moment we stepped in Beacon, we were threatened with a reset if we do not work together.

Now what? "If you're not with me you're against me" - how does that fall under working together? I appreciate the help offered by both sides but this is ridiculous. Our job is to stop World Eaters, not to play gangs.

[legalcy]

It is a concern, but what we should first consider is a method in stopping the World Eaters. That is, if you believe we have a chance of fighting them off. Someone who believes we should all die for the sake of Beacon is bound to disagree on principle with one who believes we should thrive and develop networks.

Unfortunately, I was not involved in politics and can't explain how factions form. Speaking as someone who worked in law, this is an inevitable consequence of two powerful camps, the numbers of which we do know. There are fifty of us living in Beacon, but how many enemies will we make if we do not tread carefully?

[Disappointed, but not surprised is his feelings on all of this.]

We can still work together to find a solution before this breaks out into violence.

Voice, @Stone

[scarsolderthanyou]

We were told to work together by Robin. These are two different people, Kimiko and Pluto. Don't go blaming the kid in the lighthouse for what they have to say.

Are you really that surprised that the two isolated groups have their own ideas and want to recruit from the public group? And that the kid who's able to talk to all the time wants us to work together?

The only surprise I've got here is that it took this long for private factions to start introducing themselves.

[reigniter]

I am not blaming Robin for this at all; I am very well aware she cannot do a thing from the Lighthouse.

I am calling these grown people childish. They have been here for such a long time already and they couldn't find common ground, and now we get dragged into their war atop of everything else we have to do. Robin told us to get along, threatened us with a reset if we start going off of handle. Isn't this exactly that? This separation is going to cause a huge problem for us.

I do not know what their goal is, but they should drop it if they wish us to help with World Eaters.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Uh-huh. I see that. And being lectured by you is obviously gonna change their minds, when they've been at their separate goals for decades.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Robin knows all about it, and would've warned us if it was something we'd be reset over.

[pure_havoc]

I understand your frustration, Master Ignis. But if level heads can prevail, it may not come to that.

[reigniter]

I sincerely hope so. We do not have time to solve someone's war, we have plenty of danger to handle as is.

voice; @lonk

[sublimebeast]

Whoa, whoa, what's happening?

And...was her picture moving or am I nuts? How'd she do that?

[pure_havoc]

Yes, that was...odd. But I recognize one of the people behind her as someone offering technological work during the last market. Perhaps they have better technology after all, and would only offer it to us at a market price.

[sublimebeast]

I'd kinda like us to be able to do that...

Looks like it'd be better for showing people new places we discover.