Quest 262

[primrosella]

[Filtered AWAY from the Deities | Attempted Unhackable]

The word "harpy", it's Greek--it comes from a word I can't quite recall, harpa-something, I think, but it means "to snatch", and that's where "harpy" comes from: it means "that which snatches". Which I suppose means they're scavengers of a sort, and rather a bit like vultures in their own way

Comments

audio ][

[oshutup]

The metal presents a particularly troublesome difference even if it is, mostly, only the one.

As to the stranger - I haven't, but then I admit I don't keep as close of an eye on the network as others.

audio ][

[primrosella]

It does make things quite a bit more difficult, it's true. And they seem to like metal well enough, besides, if they're building themselves nests of it.

Do keep an eye out, won't you? It...seems as though there ought to be one, somehow, and I can't help but keep checking to see if there is.

audio ][

[oshutup]

Considerably harder to dispatch, at any rate.

I will. Though, why is it you think there ought to be one in the first place?

audio ][

[primrosella]

But sooner or later we'll have to. Something's got to be done about it; we can't just let them alone forever.

The last time the barrier came down, there was someone--an architect. And last year when we had the trouble with the sheep, there was a shepherdess. And now there are harpies and it just seems like...there ought to be someone behind it. But if there were, they ought to have shown themselves by now, oughtn't they?

audio ][

[oshutup]

Certainly not. [ And he'll er tactfully leave out the bits about how he has already taken a few out, if with a fair amount more effort than he would have had to had these been the more run-of-the-mill style harpies - his context for which might raise more questions than settle them of course.....right. ]

I suppose. But then the deities seem to like us to keep guessing. I'd half expect they might not show themselves even if there were such a person or entity - just to throw us off.

audio ][

[primrosella]

...Do you think they're evil, the harpies? Of course they're monsters, but...I don't know. They seem evil, don't they? [Because it's so much easier to justify something when it's combating evil. SO much easier.]

No, I suppose that's true. That would be the sort of thing they'd do, you're absolutely right.

audio ][

[oshutup]

[ He pauses. That's...never a pleasant thing to have to consider too closely when one's 99% certain that evil or not these things are hurting civilians and in one second or the other the civilian could be Lucy or Rosella herself, anyone Peter cares about and then there's the larger picture. There are individuals here fending on their own - with no one like Rosella or Peter to call specific friend. It's as important to oust this threat for them as the people they do know.

And indeed it's easier if they're evil, if they're things one is sure can't be reasoned with either which way. ] Honestly? I don't know, but they've attacked without provocation. I think even if they aren't evil, they've given us cause to retaliate.

audio ][

[primrosella]

[She's quiet a long moment, and then there's a soft exhale of breath, as though she'd been holding it without quite realizing it. It was such a simple question that had put the idea into her head--will you kill them?--but then it compounded into questions upon questions, all exacerbated by the fact that she's been feeling the stress of the omens beginning to bear down on her, and it's making her even more distracted than she ordinarily would be.]

Yes, that's very true. We have the right to defend ourselves, as much as anyone else. We didn't attack them first, and we didn't ask them to come here to bother us. That's all true.

audio ][

[oshutup]

But I take it you've some misgivings about it still?

[ He's closest to the word gentle as Peter can get - which is in fact quite close - but there's a distinction between gentle and coddling; Peter does not particularly think coddling does anyone any good, nor that a person like Rosella would stand for it anyway. What's here in his tone is a sort of I can see why, shaped with different words, a sort of I can see why, and I suppose there might not be a 'right' stance on it, only that we must do what we must, sometimes and we won't always understand it.

In other ways, less immediate, life-threatening ones, Peter has not come to terms with this really much at all, but those ways are quieter, private worlds of thought. ]

audio ][

[primrosella]

In the things I've been reading, harpies are usually depicted as servants. They carry out someone else's will. Which isn't to say they're any less evil for doing it, but...

[A pause. It's such a strange thing to think of, but she's a bit all over the place lately, what with everything that's been going on.]

They remind me a bit of some creatures I met once, the henchmen of an evil witch. She had them under a spell, and when it broke, they were really very kind underneath, and had only been evil because she'd enchanted them into it. It's not that I think these ones are the same way, but something a girl said to me...

[She goes silent again.]

I just wish they'd leave, without us having to kill them all.

audio ][

[oshutup]

[ Again he pauses. ]

It seems to me that it is as possible that they aren't anyone's servants, but that the barrier was to keep things out as much as in, things out I mean that, specifically, the deities can't control.

It's only a theory, flawed I admit since the last time we had none of them, but considering the way it's happening now, I suppose what I'm getting at is this: I think we'd all prefer it if we could just send them off, but in the cases where we can't, I only hope you wouldn't judge yourself for it Rosella.

I think there isn't anything wrong about defending the life you've got, though it's terrible circumstance when the opposing side is...er...a little grayer than black or white.

[ Cue Peter, older brother facet cameo also known as When Peter Actually Cares About you for His Own Personal Reasons... ]

There's nothing particularly righteous about it, but again, if we must, we must.

[ Sometimes, it's not that simple, but it has to be treated that way anyhow. ]

audio ][

[primrosella]

It'd explain why they haven't done anything about them, at least. If all they can do is keep a barrier up to keep them out...that would fit, yes.

[But mentioning lives--and more importantly, defending them--is a particularly touchy subject when it comes to Peter, since she's far from forgotten how he once lost his own to preserve hers. She's never liked violence, no matter the form, and the days of fear and blood and battle surrounding the City are beginning to wear her thin.]

Better still if we can find a way to get the barrier back up once and for all. We're certain to have no peace until we find a way to manage that, at least.

audio ][

[oshutup]

The barrier will be fixed again - with our help or without I imagine, truly, but I've some idea that if we're to band together in this then it would be raised sooner. One can hope, at least.

audio ][

[primrosella]

It's better than sitting around feeling helpless, at least. Even if some of us are more helpless about the whole thing than we might like to admit.