- Hello, Protector



- Hello, Mediator.



- Protector, hasn’t it been such a short time since I was just a kid playing here?

The Mediator jestured at a hexagonal enclosure with a small red fence around it.



- I do remember this like it was yesterday, Mediator.



- Do you remember that time when I climbed the playground fence, stepped upon “The Grass of Contrarians” and ran halfway towards the playground of Outgroup_2?



- Oh, I have seen quite a few children do that, Mediator.



- And you did not stop me, even though I was getting close to that other playground?



- I am merely concerned about safety of all children. A Protector of Outgroup_2 would have also seen you if got into any real trouble.



- EWW, you would trust that person?



- Not completely, of course, but we have broken a mealsquare or two once upon a time.



- Protector. I wish to go outside the city walls.



The Mediator looked him directly in the eyes. The Protector looked away from her and clenched his standard issue demon-slayer chainsaw machine gun.



- Mediator, why do you speak of this? That is OUT OF THE QUESTION.



- Why do you have such a reaction to this idea? Is this not the same as jumping outside the playground fence? We know that truly the liking of playgrounds is all relative, thus our liking of city walls much be relative as well. Truly there is no reason that liking the place where the city happens to be right now is true in the absolute sense.



- No, Mediator, it is not the same. For as you may know, you will not encounter the likes of Outgroup_2, you will encounter something far worse. There are demons outside the city walls. Inhuman monsters of terrifying powers, whose screams and clawing on the walls send the chills down the spines of the strongest Protectors.

The Protector looked grim. This brought back memories which he did not wish to encounter again.



- I believe that I can make myself less fearful of them, the same way that I have made myself less fearful of Outgroup_4 during our coloring negotiations.



- Mediator, I will give you the insight into the secret training of Protectors. We never train ourselves to become less fearful of what lurks in the night. We merely train ourselves to channel our fear into sprinting away as quickly as possible into the safety of the city. The fear of the demons is the only appropriate response to encountering them.



- Perhaps you simply do not understand their perspective



- I understand their behavior. There are demons who only wish to eat as much as possible, there are those who prefer to enslave people and make people worship them as gods and there are those who wish to tear you down to atoms and make paperclips. We have seen small demons in captivity and we studied them enough to predict some of them well. I understand them enough.



- But why do we take such an absolutist position, Protector? How could you claim with such certainty that a demon chewing on your insides to make paper clips is not in fact a being worthy of life. Why are you so quick on the trigger?



- I would not be standing in front of you to entertain this conversation if I was not quick on the trigger.



- The Outgroup_3 is clearly playing on the other playground, yet we can sometimes break mealsquares together. How can you expect the same thing not to happen when we meet those outside the city?



- Do you not remember what happened when the Nazism demon and the Communism demon broke into the city? Have you forgotten the terrors they have unleashed? It’s a real good thing they did not like each other. Do you not tell tales of this to every child?



- Have you forgotten the amazing negotiation that we did with Outgroup_4, when we put aside our differences? Was that not a feat of brilliant politics. Would you be capable of this, Protector?



- I have not indeed forgotten of your accomplishments, Mediator. I gladly looked over the negotiations and I would not indeed be capable of such display of political skill.



- Then what if our failure to communicate with the demons outside is a matter of lacking political skill?



- I have a fear that you underestimate how different the demons truly are form us. Perhaps you over-estimate how different Outgroup_4 is from us.



- How dare you suggest that? Outgroup_4 clearly paints their fences in ugly green instead of beautiful red, I assure you, we are very different. What kind of fences do you think the demons prefer?



- Probably the ones they can impale you with.



- Why would they want to do that? Only Outgroup_5 wants to do that and only sometimes, are you saying that they will behave just like Outgroup_5? Why pick Outgroup_5 and not Outgroup_2 or even us, InGroup_1?



- It’s not that demons are like Outgroup_5, it’s just that Outgroup_5 is the most far away Outgroup from us, but they demons are a lot farther.



- Have you thought about what they think of us, keeping them outside our walls?



- They would probably think we are very tasty and are made of a lot of very conveniently placed atoms.

