exsilium | [video] -- backdated to yesterday (5/22) because of ooc cat-herding >

[Greetings, Exsilium. It's Sue Richards, in her white and black Fantastic Four costume, sitting in the DITR offices. She looks tense, but composed. Guess who drew the short straw on responding to this whole mess?]

Hello. I'm Susan Richards, of the Department of Initiative-Transport Relations.

[She's good at reading from a teleprompter, but this is obviously not extemporaneous.]

On behalf of the Initiative, we would first like to extend our condolences and apologies to those affected by yesterday's events--

[Sue stops, and her expression darkens.]

--No. You know what? I'm not reading this. I'm not making excuses for them.

[Oops. Sue just went off-script, and her spokesperson persona drops in favor of what she's really feeling, a simmering, controlled anger.

There's a strangled noise of outrage offscreen from Saul, but it's rapidly cut off.]

Thank you, Medusa.

Not at all, Susan.

[Sue takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders, and addresses the camera again. This is no longer someone playing the role of a bureaucratic functionary. This is the woman who has stood against gods and won.]

We just watched a world die. Some of us died ourselves.

We've been conscripted to fight a war that the Initiative tells us could come to our homes at any time. It's already come to theirs--and now, to Elmer Albatross'. The Initiative is desperate, and it's a desperation I understand. If my world is threatened--and it has been before, many times--I will do nearly anything to save it. I can't speak for others, but if the Initiative had asked, I would have helped gladly.

Desperation is an explanation, not an excuse. No matter how understandable the Initiative's motives, they've still wronged us, and I don't blame anyone here for not trusting them, or for being outright furious. I'm angry myself.

Unfortunately, United Earth is worse. First we were told, and now we know that they have the capability and willingness to destroy a civilization of billions. We might be able to find the right point in time to avert what just happened--I know a little about time travel myself, and I've seen such things done before. However, even if we can't manage to save that world, there are an infinite number of universes, some of them our own, that could be targeted next.

The Initiative is due a reckoning. I acknowledge that. But if United Earth isn't defeated first, that reckoning will come in a form none of us will be happy to see...if we even live to see it. I'm not asking any of you not to be angry. Be furious. What I am asking is, for the time being, that you to point your anger where it will do the most good--at United Earth.

My colleagues and I fully intend to take the Initiative to task for what a fiasco this turned out to be, from the security breach that caused it to the mismanagement of the response. This cost Adam Jensen his free will and ultimately his life. It also cost the lives of an untold number of people on Elmer's Earth. This cannot happen again. We Transports have an enormous amount of experience--in technology, in government, in logistics, in war--that's going to waste while we're shut out of the decision making.

The Initiative made this our war when they brought us here. Now they need to let us determine how to fight it.

Thank you for your time.

[Well, someone might not be working for the DITR after this.]

[OOC: Pink is Medusa. Medusa and Saul appear courtesy of Ammay and Heather. I'll hit up all the replies, but your comment might also get answered by any member of the DITR. Even Saul after Medusa lets him go.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Even if I had a list of names, I wouldn't be at liberty to disclose it. But I imagine more than a few people wanted something like what was offered. A chance to go home — people like you and I aside, who wouldn't want that?

People with cushier lives here than they get at "home."

Was your planet destroyed too?

No. I just don't see any point in going back.

[It's an honest enough answer, really. People want him dead back home. The UE wants him dead here. In which of those locations can he come back from that...?]

I wouldn't call it cushy, though.

I wouldn't feel the need two pull out the "my planet sucks worse than thith one" card tho much if everyone jutht believed me when I thaid things are not tho bad here.

You have to consider where some of these people come from, though. I mean, the mess here is so much worse than anything I've handled back home that I'm still having problems believing that anything could suck more. But you can't take that shit personally. Impossible as that sounds.

I've learned to accept human entitlement issuesth ath a genetic fault.

[Oh whoops spoilers he's an alien.]

Edited 2013-05-24 07:23 (UTC)

[And Saul's learned to accept that non-humans are kind of dicks, but hey, he's not gonna say that. Everyone has their faults. Or something.]

Do you have any other questions about all this?

I suggest, since you're certain the Initiative will listen to you more now, that you start looking for time travel expertsth. And I don't mean jutht going on the network and going "Tho who knowsth how to make a clock go backwardsth."

... There'th two people I know of that have fixed situationsth like thith. I know the Initiative says they can't control who comes in or not, but if you thee anyone by the name Aradia Megido or The Doctor wind up here, they're your best bet for getting thith torn fabric of multidimensions at least sort of fixed.

That'th it.

Great. I'll keep their names in mind — thanks.

You wanna go ahead and apologize to Sue, now?

Nah.

[video] -- backdated to yesterday (5/22) because of ooc cat-herding >_>

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