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[ Taking place post-mission, after Accelerator's death, and on the basis of these threads as well as his own conversation with Jayce. Harold can't be sure this is the right course of action or even that it was one of them that killed Accelerator, but he can't just sit around while he waits for him to come back to life. ]

I apologize for the abrupt nature of this communication, sir, but it is my hope that I can resolve a difficult situation with you. You may already be aware that your vassal (if that is the correct term) was tortured and killed by Accelerator on the mission before the last, while many of us were affected by the anomaly on the other Earth. Although I do not attempt to defend or offer justification for his actions, I believe that he would not have committed them in his right mind. He was killed at the end of this last mission in a manner that makes me believe it was possibly retaliation for his actions against Sleipnir. Are you able to confirm or deny this?

[He is not fully surprised that one would conclude Sleipnir had something to do with Accelerator's death, after all, Sleipnir had reported the very thing to him. He is surprised, however, to have Harold reach out to himm like this. Surprised, and suspicious of the intent.]

You are correct in your assumption of my awareness for what transpired betwixt Accelerator and my Lord Commander on Earth.

Your conclusion of Accelerator's character is one that aligns well enough with my own observation. However, ere I grant you the answer you seek, I would seek my own.

What justice do you intend towards the one responsible?

[ Well, that's cautiously encouraging. And Harold can answer with total honesty: ]

None. I'd like to negotiate a cessation in hostilities.

Very well. We are of the same mind. Accelerator's debt has been repaid, and your shrewd deductions lead you to the truth of the matter. You need not concern yourself with further acts of aggression from Sleipnir, so long as your own behave in kind.

Any act of retribution will meet a swift end by my hand, regardless of the perpetrator. We need not court a senseless war within our gaol.

[ That's so much easier than he was expecting that it takes a bit for the reply to come. Harold is steadying his breathing and waiting for his hands to stop trembling to resume typing. The fog had done a number on his mental state, and if nothing of serious consequence had happened to him during it, it was only thanks to John locking him in the library.

Having spent the past night staring at Accelerator's gradually warming corpse has not helped him any. ]

You can be assured I've taken steps to ensure it does not happen again from Accelerator. Can you say the same for the rest of your compatriots? He was attacked back on Earth after killing Sleipnir by someone who sought revenge then. This was the second such act.

[While Barnabas was certainly mentally ravaged by the fog's effects, he's uniquely granted a twisted form of ataraxia that has since returned to him with the dissipation of the fog. Though his mind does linger on the events, his emotions have been arrested in a state of unnatural calmness, and so he is not burdened by experiences such as feelings. At least he isn't in most cases.

This can be a blessing or a curse, it can make him supremely reasonable or supremely cruel in his clinical and utilitarian approach to conflict. It depends wholly on which side of an issue one may stand on—either with him or against him.

Harold just so happens to be on his side with this matter.]

None shall act out of line again.

[He's fairly sure that must have been Mythos, and he will deal with him accordingly.]

[ Harold is indeed feeling fortunate that is the case, because he hadn't made any assumptions it would be. What he saw of Barnabas's network presence -- and Jayce's description -- had made him sure that Barnabas would be making up his own mind on the matter.

It reminds him very much of dealing with Elias in a particular way, someone who had once been an enemy and grown into a friend that had explicitly given his life to save his. Right until the end Harold hadn't been totally comfortable with that association, but Elias hadn't cared about his feelings -- he'd always been ruthlessly incisive, and done what he wanted according to his own values. Elias was from the beginning a rational actor, but not a cold one. (It hurts like a fresh burn to realize that he will never get to find out where their friendship could have gone next.)

Harold doesn't know how far the similarities extend here, but he thinks acting as if some kind of otherworldly god-inhabited (?) king is a notorious crime boss probably won't serve him wrong. So he doesn't question his methods and he doesn't second guess him, only takes him at his word. Who he was a decade ago, before Nathan's death and before John, before meeting and losing Elias, would never have been able to do this. ]

Thank you. I appreciate the rationality and I agree with your sentiments. If we have enemies here it should not be with one another. If nothing else, our inevitable resurrection makes it quite pointless -- just Sisyphus climbing the hill with only his own stubbornness driving him up it.

[In contrast, many would describe the Last King as cold and some others would not call him rational. However, these perceptions come from an extremely surface level understanding of the man, but that is by design—to keep his goal inscrutable. His intense, stoic exterior does not lend itself to the impression of warmth, nor is it welcoming, and while his decisions at times might align with what seems to make immediate sense for most, he has been known to act in ways that defy explanation. Destroying long held allegiances for little reason beyond what most might consider a whim.

It is far from that, however.

Yet, as they are all bound here in Etraya, their primarily goals shared, such secrecy is needless. At least in part where his actions further their efforts towards Salvation. If he had any reason to believe that slaughtering his fellow Etrayans would save his world, then he would do it without question. Yet, he has been given the impression that peaceful cooperation is the path they must tread, and thus does he seek to maintain that.

Even should he have need to act as a hanging sword above their heads.]

Agreed. Our continued cooperation is more like to assure us victory. To war from within is to promise our very undoing. I will see to it that those of Valisthea are reminded of this. Though it does bring to question the matter of maintaining order in Etraya as a whole.

It is within the nature of man to unfailingly turn upon one another, just as waves crash upon themselves. Should we seek to still these waters, or simply watch our own shores and hope that others likewise comply?

[ Being a highly rational but extremely warm person himself, Harold is sensitive to perceiving the difference in others. The Machine was developed on that premise: teaching her to care was what made her ultimately work, but he still required her to make supremely rational decisions. Taking the long, long view means that so many things that are emotionally fulfilling turn out to be petty distractions that cause downstream consequences. Ultimately, you have to decide which matters more.

On rare occasions, the emotional reality weighs out over the consequences... but both he and the Machine allow that extremely sparingly, and formerly, not at all. ]

I disagree with the premise of competition in survival among sentient beings regardless. If we have moved beyond being animals then there is no reason to continue to act like we are. In a universe as expansive as this, we are not competing for limited resources or survival amongst one another. That there will always be violence doesn't give us the right to act preemptively, however. I suspect anything organized and public would cause enough outcry to defeat the purpose. But I would agree that I am not content to let violence happen unchecked among us. A case by case response with known allies may be the best we can hope for.

[Emotion has been something long deemed a corruption in the mind of Barnabas, it taints and corrodes the spirit, and with its bedfellow desire, it serves as the root of suffering. Even that which brings one joy has its disproportional cost—to the self or to others. Happiness holds its toll in despair, and so one must cut themselves free of such bondage ere it serves only to drown them and the world in the inescapable abyss that is the self.

As such, he does not value the plight of individuals much at all, least of all their emotional whims or worries; his eyes ever fixed upon the whole. However, he is no fool and he knows that illness of any type—of the body or spirit—is wont to fester and spread if left unattended. If he must trim the flock to secure their safety and survival, then he shall, but a shepherd cannot heed every pointless bleat or else he may miss a greater danger in his excessive doting.]

Our immediate resources may not be scarce, yet we are held captive like beasts and made to compete for survival all the same. Such competition lays not betwixt those within Etraya itself, but those without. Of this, I am certain.

Our numbers are few, thus establishing a ruling body will seem purposeless to many. Yet, it may service the populace should they be made aware that there are those which they can turn should danger arise. It would like as not stay the hand of would-be assailants if they are left to question their ability to act without consequence.

[Barnabas kept control of his nation through the threat of execution to the disloyal, after all.]

I am not so easily convinced to buy into the narrative we've been given. Echo may want to make this a competition, but there's nothing inherently making it that way. I'm playing along because I won't risk my whole world for the sake of my own petulance, but I have no intention of sanguinely accepting our captor's perspective, either. As for establishing a kind of on-call list, that's a fantastic idea. That could really be all that's needed as an effective deterrent.

[ And he would be the logical one to organize it. Unfortunately. That will require so much talking to people... maybe he could convince Aurora to let him do it anonymously... or would that be more trouble than it's worth? Would no one trust it in that situation? Ugh. ]

If nothing else, I know we have several doctors and magical healers here, and some of them may not mind having their services publicly known. If I'm to be the one maintaining such a directory, however, I'd want to vet them beforehand. [ No one's using something he maintains to take advantage of people. Harold would rather wear his summer camp cargo shorts again. ]

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