fierce as fire and sweet as fruit (closed)

[closerift]

Who: Cecily, Kate, Alphys, Ignis, Jo, and Lucretia
What: Trying to formulate a plan to get the Door working for good...in some capacity.
Where: Lucretia's house
When: 4/2
Warnings: n/a

Well, what do we do now?

[ The Inquisitor plants a hand on her hip, raising her brows to look expectantly around at the group. ]

I think a start would be to decide whether or not we're trying to destroy the Null, or to...not do that. [ She continues, gaze drifting to Alphys, after which she offers a faint, somehow apologetic smile. ] Does anyone have any thoughts about that particular issue?

Comments

[dedikated]

( Isn't so much of this universe they've found themselves plunged into a mystery? They've survived here for years, perhaps even thrived in a way, but they're still strangers to it, nothing more than toddlers in the greater scheme of things. Kate frowns and runs her fingers across the grain of the wood, again and again, as though the movement will spark some answer to everything they're questioning.

... It doesn't, of course. )

Think we'd even have the time?

( It was a half-cocked idea in the first place, a slim sliver of a hope that they could somehow sort this all out with one well-placed contagion, but the pressure of everything that happened in the transfer — Delight's death and the effects thereof — makes time feel so much shorter. What time do they really have? )

[closerift]

It's difficult to say. Maybe, if we had some sort of distraction.

[ Maybe if people were more or less sacrificed to fight with the Null and to slow them down while the plan to spread an infection began, but...

The Inquisitor is very quiet, nails biting into the palm of her hand. ]

Whatever our plan, there will be...casualties. The Null are too strong for us to think otherwise.

[madamdirector]

[ Lucretia sets her jaw grimly. ]

As I understand it, Hope is the one who...well, he's the reason death doesn't really stick here.

If something were to happen to him during the battle...

[ She knows what had happened to Delight. Whether the "gods" are really gods or not, they're not unkillable. ]

[sciencelizard]

[She nods along with Cecily and Lucretia's responses, still not really having a good answer to Kate's question. She has a gut feeling it's just not going to work, and even if it did, she isn't sure she can be responsible for that. Is that any better, though? If she let it happen and it caused them pain, whether or not she's the one who pulled the trigger?

(Yes, she thinks. Yes. Because it wouldn't be her, and she doesn't like the kind of person that makes her.)]

Well, uh, last time the Null came in, Sorrow uh... died. To s-stop that from happening, actually. They were trying to kill Hope so he couldn't bring anyone else back. No matter what happens, we can't let them kill Hope, or... well, a lot is uhm. Unfixable, I guess.

[But that still doesn't help, really.]

Okay, so... what are the things we want to uhm, investigate? M-Maybe we can make a list and ask Hope?

[dedikated]

( Distractions... It's an ugly thought, but a practical one. The kind of thing that has Kate's gaze flicking off to the side. There's no real way out of this that won't involve a compromise, a less than ideal undertaking.

But that's war, isn't it? )

If it's realistic to infect the Null in the time we have. ( That's what it boils down to, at the end of it all. If such a thing is realistic, feasible for them to manage. If doing so would even allow the virus to pass through the population of Null in time to save the city. ) I can ask Sorrow about The Door.

[closerift]

Whatever our plan ends up being, I think I'm best used guarding Hope. Wouldn't be the first time I've died for that prick.

[ She makes a show of sighing, but there's definitive resignation in her expression. Kate has connections with the Door, with Sorrow. Lucretia has obvious magical talent and seems wise enough to inspire others with leadership. Alphys is close to Name, can manage each and every 'technical' aspect of their possible mission on her own.

The Inquisitor? Well. She can do what she can do. ]

We've got a better sense of what we need to do now though, I think. At least a little.

[madamdirector]

I can help with a distraction, if it comes to that. Buy us some time, maybe.

[ What good is all her magic, if she can't do that?

Lucretia glances between the others, expression sober. ]

What else? Is there anything else we need to ask Hope?

[sciencelizard]

[She nods along to the descriptions, taking out her phone and opening up a message. Her thumbs fly as she types, dexterous and incredibly quick as her claws tap tap tap across the screen.]

Okay, me, look into Null p-programming. Kate, Sorrow and the Door. Cecily, protecting Hope. Lucretia, we're going to need people uhm, fighting some of the Null anyway, like-- keeping people safe who can't fight while we do whatever we have to. Would that work?

[Alphys is looking up and down from her phone, still note taking.]

We can also investigate the i-inter-dimensional properties of the Door, too? Not that I think it would be safe to just uh, put them somewhere else, because that could just kill them anyway but uh. M-Maybe?? Someone said it earlier. Does that uh, go under Door stuff?

[dedikated]

( That is some impressive key work. Kate can't type nearly that quickly. But impressed observations aside, she needs to think about this. )

Aye. ( She can talk to Sorrow about it, but more importantly— ) Not my area. I'll talk to Newt.

( She's pretty sure he'd enjoy something like this. )

[closerift]

All right. [ Cecily sighs, grateful for at least the beginnings of a plan. For a strong team. ] I'm not so sure I know enough about "interdimensional properties" to help in that regard, but I'll act as the object of your experiments if that could help.

[ Really, she's here to give 110% to this cause. ]

And, agreed: Newt would be a good resource for all that.

[madamdirector]

[ Guess who's definitely picturing a giant newt right now. It's fine. ]

Of course. I can help with defense. And offense, too, if necessary.

...I might also be able to offer some insight on the Door's...interdimensional properties? At least... [ She shrugs, a little helplessly. ] I don't know if that's anything like the interplanar system. But I can take a look.

[sciencelizard]

[Lucretia you won't be the first and you probably won't be the last. Alphys records all of this dutifully in her phone, copying the action item list into individual texts she fires off to everyone there.]

Okay! Cool, uhm, we c-can look into all that, and I think there's stuff to work with here.

[She's hesitant to be hopeful about anything for an oncoming war, especially under the circumstances, but she wants to try. She has to try.]

Is everyone, uh... is that good? For now? At least it's something to work on...

[closerift]

I think so. [ She glances around at the rest of the group, though, brows furrowed. ] We've got a lot to think about, and...to work on, honestly. It's going to take time. Time that we may not-...

[ Cecily sighs, tapping a finger against her leg as she trails off. ]

...Anyway, we can meet again - soon, I think? See what our next steps should be, and how best to bring this to the attention of the others?