Understandable. Preparing for the Null and those who might help them would be a higher priority. I suspect I may not be the only person who pretended to be cooperative in order to gain further information from the Null, but I have no idea who was sincere versus who was pretending.
[Well, she can think of one person who'd be sincere, but she's confident in her ability to talk him down.]
On that topic, how do you plan on handling the matter of people who are sincerely willing to help the Null? Obviously you want to protect yourselves, but being too heavy-handed about the consequences would be unwise.
You are ultimately at our mercy, but as the Null are electing to attack us through you, it makes you a liability. The more you fear us, the more willing you are to side with them. Something will have to be done- but what remains to be seen.
[Well...]
Perhaps we'll poll the crowd. [He says it... maybe a tiny bit sarcastically. Is that even possible? Is the corner of his mouth quirking up right now?] That always seems to get positive responses.
Oh my, do I detect a glimmer of a sense of humour? I think I may faint from the shock.
[She's amused, either way. At least Sorrow isn't under any delusion about the gods' public relations ratings.]
More seriously, I would suggest revoking their network access, monitoring them, and refusing to transact with them. It may seem tame, but sending them home only reduces the amount of people you can take emotion from and it rewards bad behaviour. Punishing them severely only turns the population against you further, whereas showing mercy when the Null would show none gives you a chance to improve people's perception of you, even if the improvement is only minor.
I'm not able to 'send them home' in the first place.
[He corrects, gently.]
But I'll take your suggestions into consideration. What you've said is reasonable and helps me to understand what your people want out of this. I appreciate the candidness.
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[But it's an interesting thought.]
I'll keep that in mind. It isn't exactly a pressing concern at the moment.
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[Well, she can think of one person who'd be sincere, but she's confident in her ability to talk him down.]
On that topic, how do you plan on handling the matter of people who are sincerely willing to help the Null? Obviously you want to protect yourselves, but being too heavy-handed about the consequences would be unwise.
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[Surprisingly enough.]
You are ultimately at our mercy, but as the Null are electing to attack us through you, it makes you a liability. The more you fear us, the more willing you are to side with them. Something will have to be done- but what remains to be seen.
[Well...]
Perhaps we'll poll the crowd. [He says it... maybe a tiny bit sarcastically. Is that even possible? Is the corner of his mouth quirking up right now?] That always seems to get positive responses.
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[She's amused, either way. At least Sorrow isn't under any delusion about the gods' public relations ratings.]
More seriously, I would suggest revoking their network access, monitoring them, and refusing to transact with them. It may seem tame, but sending them home only reduces the amount of people you can take emotion from and it rewards bad behaviour. Punishing them severely only turns the population against you further, whereas showing mercy when the Null would show none gives you a chance to improve people's perception of you, even if the improvement is only minor.
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[He corrects, gently.]
But I'll take your suggestions into consideration. What you've said is reasonable and helps me to understand what your people want out of this. I appreciate the candidness.