— audio, open.

[webshoots]

@ parker

Uh, hey. For anyone that's just arrived, my name's Peter and I've had the dubious honour of having been here since the beginning of this group, so if you've got any lingering questions about how, why and what, I can't promise I can answer them, but I can do a very good job at pretending I can answer them.

Failing that, if you haven't already seen them, there are a few guides on the tablet that cover what we've been through a little more succinctly, which—

[ followed by a pause and the vague sound of movement — for what it's worth, peter's outside, as evidenced by the sound of wind in the background. for the more observant, or perhaps those with super-senses (oy), it might sound as if peter's somewhere a little higher up. ]

—is actually kind of my point.

[ a beat. ]

What I'm getting at is: this isn't the first time we've been caught on the back foot by the spirits. I don't really want to get into whether their actions were right or wrong, or whether they're operating on a morality that we can't comprehend because that doesn't really matter. The point is what we've been doing hasn't worked, so maybe we need to rethink tactics.

—But does anyone else think it kind of weird how the importance of unity has been touted since the very beginning, and then suddenly we've got two different groups vying for our attention? [ a beat and a huff of breath that's almost a laugh. ] I'd say something doesn't smell quite right, but that might be tempting fate a little.

Comments

[pure_havoc]

[a soft, vaguely sarcastic laugh. They do agree, there] Certainly not. Her plan is to give up, to admit defeat, to flat out determine that not even the dead can do anything useful. But I should say that given how many resets have occurred, and how many years have passed, she has not yet managed to convince a single group to go her way. At least, not to any useful extent.

I can see how, given time, a community might eventually give in to despair. If years go by with no solution and only growing anxiety and depression among us, it can happen. She played her hand too soon.

[webshoots]

I mean, I get it. This isn't something I'd wish on anyone. [ a huff of a laugh. ] Well, maybe there are a couple of exceptions, but—. [ despite this not being video and despite the fact that cao pi can see nothing of where peter is or what he's doing, he does take a moment to wave a hand dismissively. he's absolutely tempted to name names of people he'd — not seriously — recommend for being stuck in a creepy death town with a time limit.

they've also kind of been there, done that, got the t-shirt. ]

My discomfort and my distaste for literally all of this doesn't trump the potential lives lost that come from letting the World Eaters win.

[pure_havoc]

Indeed. It seems we need to keep our focus on that and that alone. What is the worth of anything we do, any sacrifice we make or any monumental effort of heroism, if it does not result in stopping the World Eaters?

It is good to discuss this openly. I hope others listen.

1/2

[webshoots]

[ there's silence for a while before peter replies. although the topic's been touched upon briefly with bruce, albeit framed in a slightly different manner — about worth and about the useful spending of time. it's still not, peter thinks, that everything else is a waste of time — helping one another here, rescuing one another from the green-eyed spirits or whatever may not be universe changing or even always life-changing, but it's moment changing, and that's enough.

(well, not enough, but it's something.)

still. ]

Do you ever wonder if the rest of this is a distraction? The green-eyed spirits kidnapping half the town, the Wild Hunt turning up in the nick of time to help us rescue them. I don't want to sound cynical, but—. It's convenient, you know? We have this grand, universe destroying threat looming on the horizon, but every month, every six weeks [ "or so", he hasn't done the maths, but it certainly feels that way ] something happens to the town or to us.

—Or someone comes along who might have the answers, but despite us having a time limit, they arbitrarily decide that the time isn't right to tell us what they know. It feels like we're being set up to fail. [ punctuated by the convenient arrival of the wild hunt, and before that the night market. ]

[webshoots]

I feel like I don't say this enough, so for posterity I feel the need to point out that I really hate this place.

[pure_havoc]

[another soft and sardonic chuckle. He needed that. They all need that.]

At least it can neither be mistaken for heaven or hell. If it were hell, there should be a few gods floating around with the instruction sheet for how to pay our way out.

I am not so superstitious as to chalk up every coincidence as a deliberate distraction, but by the same token, it wouldn't be prudent to dismiss all of it. If the Wild Hunt had no hand in the spirits' action, they certainly had no problem taking advantage of it for their own gain.

[webshoots]

[ peter utters a noise of vague acknowledgement at the first remark — the one about this being neither heaven nor hell. he knows it's not, his conversation with solis had confirmed lingering thoughts and suspicious at least partially about beacon, and slightly more about them, as people.

if hell had gods or demons floating around — well, that was irrelevant, ultimately. (note to self: ask quentin beck sometime, maybe.)

wryly, then: ] Thinking everything's been orchestrated would be paranoid, even for me. But it's food for thought, you know? [ beat. ] I know, I know, conversations have been had with the spirits — conversations, quote-unquote, to a point — and the spirits don't understand death, which implies they're acting out of, uh, animal instinct, I guess. [ beat. ] Or it brings a whole new meaning to spiritism. Kardec's probably rolling in his grave.

—I'm just saying that if we've got two camps who've managed to survive multiple resets, I don't believe for a minute that we're the first people that have decided to try and talk with them. Maybe we've had the wrong end of the stick, maybe it's not previous resets that have influenced the spirits' actions towards us. [ intoned entirely with the verbal equivalent of a shrug. ] Maybe this is all the result of playing an incredibly long game. Robin did say that some of this is new to her.

[ for however much robin can be trusted, oy. ]

[pure_havoc]

Hm, yes. There was that. Without more direct answers from them, it's hard to know whether they've attempted to contact every group or just the ones who survive a certain number of months without being reset. For all we know the Keeper has never seen them for that reason.

We still need more information overall, from both camps as well as the spirits, but this development concerns me. It seems we no longer have the luxury of taking things at our own pace.