Nod. "Where you're from bisexual people are oppressed? ...why?"

"Oh, it is actually anyone that isn't heterosexual, heteroromantic or cisgender. I guess polyamorous people too? Felix is that too. Most people have a religious basis to justify their prejudice. But a lot would tell you: bisexuals are disgusting, they just are."

"Does it matter whether you - sorry, not the point. I think you're right not to trust us. The Anitami government will absolutely kill every red in that district rather than risk one of them running around with powerful magic. You can think that that shouldn't be true, that it's horrible, that it suggests we can't be trusted. But that won't save the red. The only way to save the red is to come up with a viable alternative and help us be convinced it's adequate. The red will realize that, which is why I think if we have an email we can work something out."

"Can I get like, I don't know, one fucking hour? Do you realize this is literally the first conversation I ever had?"

"You can have an hour."

"It's not literally an hour that I want, but like... this is even less my decision to make than it was to Felix." Sigh. "I should get a name. And talk to Isel, maybe. I should get name suggestions from Isel."

"I expect she'll be right on out now that I'm not murdered."

"Heh. I would say I am sorry, but I think this entire storm and intimidation thing... is wrong, but is properly wrong. Like, it is not the best world we could leave in, but if you world is going to contain murdered innocents anyway then it should have scared politicians. But why should you listen to me? I don't even have a name."

"Scared politicians are worse at keeping people safe than not-scared politicians, in my experience."

"Gosh, I think we're out of luck in that regard then." He twirls a finger and the sky above flashes brightly.

"People are dyeing their children's hair and coaching them to lie about their names and sending them off to distant relatives in the hopes that they'll be spared when you get angry with us. Is that what you want?"

"Yeah, see that is the problem with not knowing Felix well enough. Or not knowing people who care about what he wants, I suppose." Sigh. "Tell them that evacuating the kids is ridiculously unnecessary and I don't want to put them - the children - through that."

"It's - somewhat reassuring - that you say so, but sometimes people mean well and then get worse when they're angry. If you are aiming to scare politicians then you should be aware a thing politicians do when scared is desperately scramble to arrange for their children to maybe survive."

"Yeah, children should not," thunder, "go through that. There is the issue that I am not sure you don't have a sniper too. It would be so annoying," he plays up a whine in his voice at the word, "if I died so soon after existing. Go through a very boring week. Wouldn't that be terrible?"

"We do have snipers. I think the plan was if you wanted to kill or demand the executions of fewer than a hundred people to let you and if you wanted more than that to kill you and try to come up with a plan."

"Huh, was execution the only possible demand that you thought? Like, I didn't had a plan before coming here, but I don't think killing people was part of it. I didn't risk stunning the cops. Felix doesn't have the proper skill so neither do I."

"Weirder demands are harder to plan for. Here when you conquer a country you usually execute the old leadership. Maybe let them flee, if they didn't drag things out."

"Huh. I think the worst thing I would want would be to maybe humiliate whoever was responsible, but even then..." he shrugs, "not cool, not proper. Not like the storm."

"What is the storm supposed to communicate, if not 'I can kill lots of people if you don't obey me'?"

"The storm is... the sad music during the funeral scene. Or the darkness framing the protagonist during a dark hour. The storm is... I don't think most of this city's population cares about the red massacre, in a sense the storm is both a replacement to their sadness and a symbol of their apathy. That yet don't know to mourn the pain of their red-haired brothers and sisters in this hour before dawn that is probably too many years to come. There is some bizarre hope this is like a historical signal if and when Fenris comes here in the future. He will learn about this day and set about to correct all the wrongs even the ones I committed." Shrug. "I told you it was dramatic."

" - okay."

"Hey, I have like eighteen years of mistakes that I never made. Have to catch up."

"I'm chalking it up to a cultural difference. You're telling people you're going to hurt them, and you know now that you're doing that, but that's a - side-effect - of communicating that our reactions are failing to measure up to the magnitude of our crime."

He rolls his eyes. "I don't intend the message to be that complex, actually. The only relevant bits... that I want people to know is... there is a wrongness in this moment. Notice it. I think I could make it... clearer? An actual message?"

"If you spell out 'something is wrong' in the sky people will take that as a threat."