Giana scowled as a portal opened next to her, stepping away to avoid any light shining through as Chris and the others walked in. “What do you wa-ulp!” She cut off with a gulp as a gigantic Dragon head pushed through the portal after them.
Laikiana shifted uncomfortably for a moment before letting out a huff of annoyance. “Can you not make this portal any larger?” She asked in annoyance. “I feel like I'm wearing a collar. Dragons do not wear collars.”
“I could, but it isn't worth the headache.” Chris replied. “As in doing it would literally give me a headache, and I'm not doing that to myself just so you'll feel a bit more comfortable.”
Laikiana let out a low growl, huffing again. “Could you at least raise it higher so I'm not lying on the ground?”
“That I can do.” Chris nodded, anchoring the portal to her. “There, it'll move with you now.”
Laikiana frowned, moving her neck around while her head remained in exactly the same position in Chris's world. “This feels weird. But better, thank you.”
Chris gave her a thumbs up. “No problem.”
“Why is there a Dragon here?!?” Giana finally composed herself enough to ask.
Laikiana sniffed. “I'm a Dragon. I can be wherever I like.”
Greg chuckled. “She's a friend, and she's helping us plan our approach with the Damir.”
Giana froze. “The Damir? You- you found them?!?”
Greg paused. “Did we not tell you that? We found them like a week ago. By the way, your grandpa says hi.”
“My- you-” Giana grimaced. “So, you're going to hold me as ransom?”
“Ha! No. No, what we want you to do is help us convince your people that humans are capable of living perfectly well without their help. I've got them pretty much convinced that the system can replace humanity as a source of ability energy, but they've gotten it in their heads that it's their duty to watch over them, that somehow without the Damir, humans would devolve into barbarity.” Greg explained. “We want your help convincing them that isn't the case, if you're up for it.”
Giana blinked. “You're- giving my people the system?”
“Probably.” Greg nodded. “Though the more bullheaded they are about humans being… Well, sub-human, the less inclined I am to actually give it to them.”
“Good thing that's my decision then, not yours.” Victoria rolled her eyes. “The system will at least keep them from feeding on the humans, even if they won't free them.”
“Would it?” Chris cocked his head. “It isn't like they're mutually exclusive. Why switch when you could just do both and grow even faster?”
“Because if they do that, I will make it so that the only thing the system will allow them to do is become human.” Victoria growled.
Greg sighed, rubbing his temple. “The Damir give me such a fucking headache. The urge to just bust open a mountain and see what happens is strong.”
“You can't!” Giana protested.
“Oh believe me, I very much can.” Greg grumbled. “But I won't. You know, as long as you can help us convince the Damir to stop being stubborn little shits.”
Giana hesitated. “I'm- I'm not sure what I could say that would be any more effective than your arguments. I can yell that humans are capable of living on their own all I want, but it will be meaningless if they're surrounded by humans who need to depend on them just to survive. If you want people to see the humans as their equals, you need to show them humans who can be their equals, and… I'm not sure they exist.”
“Oh, come on, we know you've been getting close to Erica.” Greg nudged her. “You don't think she's capable of being your equal?”
Giana sighed. “She is, but-” She turned to Laikiana. “Would a Dragon ever consider someone like me an equal? A curiosity, a useful tool, maybe even a friend, but- there's no equality when one party can break the other without even trying.”
“There is if you don't have your head shoved up your own ass.” Andrew rolled his eyes. “By that logic, my only equals would be these idiots! And maybe the Immortals… and maybe some gods or demons? You know, people who have authority within their own World. But still, basing equality on shit like that is maladaptive. Recognizing that everyone has something of value to contribute to the world is why humans are making AI and deep dive VR, while y'all are still wallowing in serfdom.” He glanced at Laikiana. “Or, no offense, savagery.”
“None taken.” Laikiana grinned. “Dragons pride themselves on their savagery.”
“It is the responsibility of those with power to wield it in such a way that it supports the people around them, not oppresses them.” Victoria commented. “Otherwise everyone suffers. Or at least stagnates.”
“I think we should forget about equality.” Chris shook his head. “In any situation involving two or more people, there will be someone who is better, and someone who is worse. It's inevitable. The issue isn't acknowledging that fact, it's deciding that because you're better, those who are worse have nothing to contribute. Your contribution of ten doesn't diminish another's contribution of five or one.”
“There's also the idea-” Greg began.
“Enough!” Giana exclaimed. “I get it! Power isn't everything! Fine! But how the fuck am I supposed to convince the rest of my people of that?!?”
“In my experience, a practical example is often best.” Laikiana offered. “Make it about them. I'm sure a few centuries of slavery would give them a different perspective on things.”
“You can't enslave my people!” Giana protested.
“Again, we can, but also again, we won't.” Greg shook his head. “Alright guys, come on, how do we defeat bigotry? And why is it all we fucking deal with lately?!?”
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“Depends on the bigotry, but with people who at least want to think of themselves as kind, there's been some success with passive resistance.” Victoria offered. “Usually focused around emphasizing the inherent cruelty involved, because people generally don't want to be cruel, they just don't see that what they're doing actually is cruel.”
Greg scowled. “That sounds slow. I don't want slow, I want this thing done!”
“Bigotry isn't the type of thing you solve overnight.” Victoria rolled her eyes. “I mean look at the Doppelgangers in the City! Humanity has every reason to accept them, but it's still taking everything we have just to keep the City from imploding! All we can do is remove the reasons to perpetuate the bigotry and slowly work to resolve it. And the way we start is by giving them the system and sending Giana to champion human rights.”
“And we connect everyone we can to my world.” Chris added.
“Honestly, between your world and the system, we can probably just make all the humans, or at least a bunch of them, strong enough to match the Damir and solve things that way.” Andrew offered.
Victoria frowned. “Empowering slaves has a history of going… poorly.”
“They'll be connected to Chris. If they try to do anything too bad, he can just yank them into his world.” Andrew pointed out.
Greg groaned. “That's still going to take a while.”
“If you had a way to selectively weaken the Damir, you could force them to depend on the humans. It's hard to feel superior when someone is literally keeping you alive.” Laikiana suggested.
Greg paused. “If I could get my smoke into them, I could drain their en- er, vitality or whatever we're calling it.”
Giana groaned. “Would you please stop considering ways to torture my people?!?”
Victoria snorted. “Your people kidnap and enslave others. A little torture might be good for them.”
“And this wouldn't really torture them, just make them really, really tired.” Greg added.
“It also isn't about torture, it's about forcing the Damir to reevaluate their perspective on humanity.” Chris added. “That doesn't happen without a little discomfort.”
Andrew sighed. “I'm honestly thinking we should just forget it and take the humans away. Racism is a pain when there aren't any legitimate differences between people, let alone when one race has obviously superior abilities. Making it a non-issue entirely seems like the easiest solution.”
“The problem with that is there are going to be a bunch of humans who don't want to leave.” Victoria sighed. “Forcing them to leave when they don't want to is shitty, even if the situation they're in is shitty.”
“I know, but anything else we do is just-” Andrew began.
“Wait.” Chris raised his hand, stopping Andrew. “I think we've been looking at this wrong. We've been seeing the Damir and the humans as two separate entities that we're supposed to mediate between. They aren't. They are a single nation that has the right to treat its people however it wishes. Our job is only to keep them from continuing to kidnap people from Earth. We will of course give them the system and make sure they have access to my world, but other than that, they're on their own.”
“Okay, now that I can get behind.” Greg commented.
Andrew frowned. “But they did kidnap these people from Earth, right? Doesn't that mean they're separate?”
“No, Chris is right.” Victoria muttered. “Well, sort of. There's the humans that are here because there's nowhere else to go, but all we need to do is give them a way out and they'll leave, so problem solved. The issue we've been having is the humans who want to stay and… well, if they want to keep being slaves, that's really their choice, now isn't it? Plus, the fact that the humans can leave at any time would force the Damir to treat them better if they want them to stick around… and even if they do kidnap someone, we can just take them right back to Earth. Essentially, once we give people enough options, oppression is basically impossible.”
Andrew paused. “I suppose that makes sense…”
Giana blinked. “So… you'll leave my people alone?”
“We might keep arguing with them, but we won't do anything to try and force them to change their minds.” Victoria shrugged. “Though we are going to ensure that all the humans have access to the system and Chris's world, and if they try to stop us… Well, I'm not sure what we'd do, but I can imagine it'll be very nice.”
Laikiana huffed. “All that talk and you've decided to basically do nothing? I would have thought people with your abilities would be more exciting.”
“I know, right?” Greg sighed, shaking his head. “It's the problem with the whole power equals responsibility ideology. The more you have, the less you can just fuck around with it. I guess that's why gods are usually portrayed sitting around doing nothing. Because anything they could do would just fuck things up.”
“So then what are we going to do?” Andrew asked, scratching his head.
“Spread the system and my world, watch out for anyone trying to start a war, and do what we can to increase our influence.” Chris shrugged.
“Okay, but how are we actually going to do that?” Andrew rolled his eyes. “If we aren't going to be doing anything with the Damir, Jo is handling the Elves, and Dichonius and Erica are dealing with things in the City, how are we supposed to grow our influence?”
“If growing our influence requires us to get involved in politics, I quit.” Greg grumbled.
“I think we should see what spreading the system and Chris's world does.” Victoria commented. “I can't imagine that wouldn't increase our influence somehow. You can already see that my influence is higher than the two of you, if only by a little, which can probably be explained by the system spreading in the City.”
“Okay, but then what do Greg and I do?” Andrew asked.
Victoria raised an eyebrow at him. “What am I, your mother? Figure it out for yourself.”
“If I don't have to deal with the Damir, I'm just going to focus on learning how to fight from Laikiana. Maybe learn a bit more about Dragons. Oh, and go see those psychic whatchamacallits! And the Dwarves, cause they probably have some interesting crafting techniques. And fuck it, I'll go to Russia and learn how to do the squat dance. Ireland too. And possibly New Zealand.” Greg listed off.
Victoria paused. “I never did finish college…”
Chris tapped Andrew on the arm. “We're turning Gaia human. And then Beth and I are starting a family.”
Andrew frowned. “I- guess I could do some exploring?”
“I guess that means we have this World pretty much settled, right?” Victoria cocked her head. “It was really just the Elf King causing issues, and now that he's gone, everything is pretty much stable.”
“I guess?” Andrew agreed hesitantly. “I mean, I wouldn't say it's good yet, but yeah, it's stable.”
“Outstanding.” Greg clapped. “Then I am out of here! Come on Laikiana, let's get back to sparring.”
“We'll take you back to the Damir as well.” Chris commented, turning to Gaina.
Giana blinked. “You- you will?”
“Sure, why not?” Chris shrugged. “There's no real reason to keep you. Plus you can help us spread the system. And my world if you'd like, but I'm not forcing it on you.”
Giana frowned. “I'll- think about it.”
“Also, can you at least try to get your people to give up the whole slavery thing?” Victoria added. “As much as I agree it's your issue and not something we can force you to stop, the institution… irks me.”
Giana nodded. “I can do that, yes.” After spending so much time under Chris's control, even if he hadn't actually had her do anything, she had a much better understanding of the humans' plight.
“Thank you.” Victoria smiled, turning back to the others. “Anything else we need to do?”
“Not that I can think of.” Chris shook his head.
“Alright, then let's get to it.” Victoria clapped her hands for emphasis. “Our influence isn't going to grow itself.”