Question for Death:

Why didn’t you fight more optimally in your battle with Fourth Fist?

Answer:

I was juggling a lot of things in that fight.  I had to make sure they didn’t get away, that I didn’t look weak to the locals, that I broke their Link, that I got Haunter’s gift… That’s not really a good excuse.

The truth is that I became incredibly angry while talking to Haunter.  She reminded me of a time and a class of people that I thought I’d gotten away from, and I got really sloppy.  I was more focused on showing off how easy it was for me to win, and how stupid Haunter was than I was on actually getting around to winning.

I would have sobered up and fought better the instant it looked like they had any chance against me, of course, but I was taken out in just one shot, from a weapon that I didn’t have any clue they had.

Question for Zeus

Why did you hold back the strongest Gods for so long in your war with the Union?

Answer:

By all accounts our ancestors were great at wars.  I respect that legend.  I remember hearing stories about great battles involving tens of thousands of soldiers, and it kind of scares me to think that the people who are on the other side of this war know the truth behind those legends.

I am destined to be the victor, of course, but it has always seemed to me as though striving really hard at things is the best way to make sure that nobody misread the prophecies.  The old council thought that they were destined, before we all realized those prophecies were about me.

I don’t want this war to turn on who is better at fighting.  I don’t want there to be any way for me to lose, no matter how many mistakes I might make.  I want to bring so many powerful Gods that they don’t have any chance at all.

Question for Answerer

How is your gift different from Predictors?

Answer:

He has, as far as I understand it, a future sight that it instant and continuous, but focused entirely on his own welfare.  It is as though he was using my gift constantly, but always asking ‘how will I get hurt?’.

I, by contrast, don’t always see the future.  I have to exert my gift in order to do so.  I ask a question, about the future, and I see the answer.  “How will Prevailer’s next fight go?”  “Who will win, the Union or the Pantheon?” and so on.

My power isn’t continuous, so if someone else acts on future information between my checks they could catch me off guard.  Predictor doesn’t have that problem.  But he can’t see anything that isn’t related to his personal security, while I can see anything I think to ask about.

There is actually a Pantheon member who is kind of on the opposite pole from Predictor.  She asks a hypothetical, and then falls asleep and spends as long as she likes in that world.  She can inhabit a world where they successfully kill Her, and do all the research she wants on how that went down.

Her biggest problem is that her gift is basically always going to be invalidated.  She operates on the years timeframe, while I am asking questions daily or hourly, and Predictor is going even faster than that.

There is actually something of an unofficial precog sorority based around taking out anyone who might otherwise get a precognitive gift before they undergo the Process.  We all benefit the less of us there are, after all.

Question for Adder

You seemed like a reasonably kind person.  How did you spend your life working for Her?

Answer:

A long time ago I had a thought that stuck with me.  I visualized the years that our race had left as a number, floating up in the air.  Then, for the rest of my life, I tried to do things that would make the number increase.

That held true even if those things seemed cowardly, or cruel.  I helped Her.  I served Her.  I did unconscionable things.  The man that I was in my youth would have spat at my feet, or, if I could have gotten away with it, punched me out.

I don’t really have any defense against that.  I can only return spite for spite.  Those who call me a collaborator I name fools.  Those who condemn me for my manifold crimes I condemn in turn for risking our kind’s future.

As to whether I was right or wrong I can only offer this.  While I lived that number did not reach zero.  I hope that you do just as well.

Question for Prevailer

Why are you so terrible?

Answer:

Fuck you.