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

[fantasticforcefields]

[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.]

Comments

/video

[fantasticforcefields]

[Sue is amused by the "black and white" comment, given the new-style Fantastic Four uniforms.]

It's the sort of thing it's understandable not to realize until you're faced with it.

[curatesecrets]

Yeah. You certainly can't fully prepare anyone for much of anything. Something's always bound to go overlooked. Especially when you're dealing with uprooting someone to an entirely different world. Job training, alone, is full of oversights. I can only imagine.

But ... [something else she says gives him pause]

This man you mentioned, this Adam Jensen. That's a name I hadn't heard before. What happened to him?

[fantasticforcefields]

[Sue's small smile of camaraderie dies away at the more serious topic.]

His cybernetics were compromised by the UE and used to control him. He was killed in what amounted to a berserker frenzy, taking several people with him in an explosion, and the Initiative's been unable to revive him.

[curatesecrets]

[Artie's eyes widen in horror]

He ... am I hearing this right? They turned him into a living bomb?!

[fantasticforcefields]

I'm not sure if it was an addition to his cybernetics, or if they just ["just"] overloaded the power systems in his existing implants.

[So, "yes," apparently.]

[curatesecrets]

[as someone who's died in an explosion, himself, Artie cringes. he's no cyborg, but he's pretty sure that the feeling is much the same. only, for this guy, there's no Phoenix, nothing to pull him back together from ashes and dust. and even that wasn't enough. they had to destroy a whole world, too?! he pushes his glasses up onto his forehead and scrubs his hands over his face]

Poor guy.

I'd ask where the hell we go from here, but ... that's ultimately not really our call, is it...

[fantasticforcefields]

[Sue's only ever died in Onslaught, and We Don't Talk About That.]

We're not entirely without leverage.

[And Sue is as stubborn as a barn full of mules.]

[curatesecrets]

Oh, really? Is that the sort of thing I can ask about, or do I need clearance from -- [what was her name, come on, Artie - aha] Medusa?

[fantasticforcefields]

[Sue's too polite to outright snort at the idea she needs permission from Medusa to do anything, but she does smile a bit.]

They need us to fight their war. Did your world have Vietnam?

[Specifically, what happens when you fight with an army of unwilling conscripts.]

[curatesecrets]

[he nods - then slowly a grim smile spreads across his face as he realizes what she's saying]

We did, yes. And I think I get your meaning.