Hadriel IC Contact.

[einselective]

[If you think a time-traveller wants to deal with voicemail you would be very much mistaken; her mailbox is intentionally full at all times with dummy messages. But you can reach her directly if she's answering the phone at that point in time...]

Comments

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance is quiet while she talks, listening, and it isn't too difficult to guess she's talking from some sort of personal knowledge of experience. The pauses in her story only make that more clear.

It also explains why she's taken the stance she has and he can understand that better, even if he still disagrees. But he's an empathetic person in general, and the explanation only makes him feel for her more; he's quiet for a short time after she finishes, deciding on the best way to respond.]

I understand why you would have... More specific reason to be concerned than many others would.

[And that entire idea of that sounds horrible, and even though this isn't the same situation--and Marian mentioned that--it's surely similar enough that her emotional reaction makes plenty of sense. Besides, it's not like he's one to talk about drawing similarities between situations and not handling them quite as well as he should because of it.

He's quiet again for a few seconds before speaking once more.]

I think what you told me earlier, about trying to find the Door, is the best course of action we have. It would not only save those who have worlds to return to, but potentially allow for a way to stop anyone else from being brought here.

[No one has to die who wasn't going to already, and the spread of damage that Marian is worried about could be stopped. Then the Null and the gods could kill each other to their hearts' content; he'd rather they didn't, but he's far more concerned about the innocent people caught up in this than the issues of the beings who caused them to be. And he thinks that from what she's said, despite the way she's been presenting things, Marian also cares about the individual people involved as long as the big picture is considered too.]

[einselective]

Frankly, I'm not optimistic about our chances, with limited knowledge and equipment to work with. Even the parasites themselves seem to have a very poor understanding of its workings. We can't even be sure it's a physical thing that beings like ourselves could handle... or that the parasites couldn't simply appear and whisk it away from us if found. So don't count on it.

[It should go without saying that despite that, she'll keep working on it. What else is she going to do?]

[lifetothefullest]

Optimistic or not, it's still better than the alternatives.

[Failing wouldn't make anything worse than it already is, so as far as he's concerned it doesn't matter if it's optimistic or not. Besides, he's seen people get out of hopeless situations through long shots before, and has done so himself as well.]