Fifth Blood

[speakveryclearly]

[Unusually for this network user, the transmission is purely Audio. A great deal of transports will of course recognize the voice as belonging to Kanaya Maryam. Strangers will hear a fifteen-year-old female, naturally rather mature and composed, doing her best to sound even more so. She speaks crisply and briskly with no mercy, like the distinctions between American and British English are to be stalked into a dark alley and shot in the back of the skull.]

The armageddon that occurred in the world of Elmer C. Albatross isn't the only one that's ever occurred in paradox space, you know. Just ask Asuka Langley Soryu or Rei Ayanami or Shinji Ikari. Any of them can tell you that the end of a world is always at least as ugly a thing as what happened on May Twenty-First. Anyone who escaped the planet Alternia before the meteors struck can reiterate the sentiments that Exsilium is a far better alternative to no planet at all. For many of us, Exsilium is our home now and we'll fight literally to the ends of an Earth for its sake.

I know not all of you feel that sort of debt to the Initiative. You do want to go home, this isn't your war, it's their fault. That's really too bad. Because if we let the United Earth have their way and don't develop Initiative in both senses of the word, we're all going to be post-apocalyptic refugees before long. We come from dozens of worlds. Would you like to take arms with the Initiative to fight against the reckoning, or watch each one meet the same fate Elmer's world did?

[An open question, Exsilium.]

Comments

voice

[affections]

( Ouch. Jules winces when she stumbles across this one. And typically, she tries to evade serious things as much as possible, because they're all so raw and painful. Running is her preferred modus operandi.

However, one could say her world is already post-apocalyptic, so she feels like she almost has to make some sort of response. )

Your phrasing is certainly compelling. I don't think anyone would want to try and argue with it.

( As upbeat as she can manage, and always so very polished, so very English. A beat: ) You're right. I think some people might need a little more time to digest. I realise time is of the essence, in these sorts of situations, but um-- they might still be rather in shock.

voice

[speakveryclearly]

[Kanaya pauses not for a long time but notably. The network ID and voice, both, of a stranger... who is Jules? We just don't know. Maybe she's friends with Collette. That girl is everywhere.]

That's a good point. I don't expect any of us to be jumping back into the fray immediately. However, after hearing complaints about how this had happened at all, entirely ignoring why and in what context... I felt strongly compelled to provide a counterpoint.

permavooiiccee

[affections]

Definitely. We... ( A pause, for breath, which is the only break in what seems like an otherwise entirely chipper appearance. ) Everything has its contexts, doesn't it? It's so dangerous to ignore that.

( For example, if someone happened to eat people but only because they have to in order to keep from turning into a terrible monster that would kill more people. That is certainly important, in terms of context. Imagine hearing that versus hearing someone just ate people for fun.

Perhaps it is best that she managed to filter that thought out before it became words. )

It might be good if people had... I don't know, something to try and take their minds off it. Something to refresh them a bit, you know? Remind them Exsilium doesn't give us only horrible things, but that we're really a community, here. We have our home worlds, or some at least, but this is also-- it might not be home, but we're all here for a reason.

( She's just blathering, and sometimes it means she makes little to no sense. What is coherence. )

Like a community barbecue, or something.

( Seriously, Jules. Her head just dropped into her hands because why, self. )

voice

[needsteaplz]

[While Saori would normally have video on by default, she changed it voice. The last thing she wanted anyone to see was her shaking from everything that happened lately. A god afraid? Yes, but it wouldn't stop her from doing what needs to be done.]

Tch. Why is that even a question? Of course I want to fight.

It's not just for my home world. I was stuck in another one prior to here and despite its cons, I want it to be saved. For some of those people I left there, it's their only way to have a life and be happy. No one deserves their world being destroyed and the UE must be stopped.

voice

[speakveryclearly]

Oh. I didn't even consider how one's status as a two-time interdimensional kidnappee could play into this situation. [She's nonconfrontational - in fact, if anything, a little positively biased towards "Saori" (whoever that is, she has no information at this point other than adult and probably Japanese lady) given this common trait.] We're a noteworthy minority of the transport population, aren't we? Double the potential destruction, I guess.

voice

[needsteaplz]

Yes, and that makes me even more determined to undermine them.

[As common as a Japanese lady was, there was something else beyond that for. Though that was for another time. ]

The funny thing is, when I first arrived there, I technically died in my home world. I quickly grasped onto it as my second chance and live the life I couldn't. Through some rather complicated events, I bounced between my home world and the other. I knew I could do more for both worlds despite how small I am. Now that there's multiple worlds at stake, I don't think I could ever leave here without knowing they will be safe from harm.

Audio;

[satsujinki]

What they shouldn't be doing is toying around with science like that. They should turn off their machine and wait for us to just disappear.

That would be the responsible choice and one that would keep other universes from getting invaded like that. It's because the Initiative made the idiotic choice of laying bread-crumbs that this happened.

[Audio]

[speakveryclearly]

I'm sorry, Shiki, have you still not once heard the part where I explain that there are transports who would much rather stay than vanish? You have a point about the Troll Pandora's Box that was opened, but it can't be shut.

p[Audio]

[satsujinki]

I don't care if you guys appreciate what they've done for you--so far as I know, what the Initiative's done that hurts us is a million times worse!

That isn't fair! They mess with technology they should never have touched in the first place and it leads armies to slaughter people who would have otherwise never been exposed to that! Why should we trust people who contribute to that kind of planet-wide genocide!? So what if they saved a city? They let an entire world get decimated because they don't know a thing about what they're doing!

video;

[bittertears]

I've never been one for simply remaining idle, especially when so much is at stake.

[Video]

[speakveryclearly]

[Kanaya veeeeeery subtly puts a very casual filter onto this thread. Not an actual attempt at encryption - she's not capable of that - but enough that another network user couldn't read this by default.]

I knew I could count on you, Alice.

[Video]

[bittertears]

Of course. There's still much more than can be done.

Voice

[redheadcarrier]

Why are you using me as an example?

Voice

[speakveryclearly]

[Instant guilt.]

Because you know more about what actually constitutes an apocalypse than anyone I've ever met? [FLATTERY!!] For the record I didn't mean to imply you were actually open to questions, the use of the verb ask was purely rhetorical, that might not have been clear...

Voice

[redheadcarrier]

That doesn't mean you get to tell everyone!

voice

[imusntrunaway]

[His voice is a little irritated.]

Please don't mention my name. I don't want to be asked about... something I didn't go through.

voice

[speakveryclearly]

You didn't?

[She had not expected this.]

[permavoice]

[talenteddog]

You've reached much the same conclusion I have, it seems. Even for some of us who technically have worlds to return to, we may not wish to, and in that case, one world is as good as the next. If we can be of some good here, all the better.

The question that follows, though, is how to organize those who will fight, who can fight, before they're needed again. From what I see, even the attempts at organization are disorganized.

[speakveryclearly]

[You can almost hear her s h r u g.] I've never seen an attempt at organization succeed here, there's a reason I didn't make one. It's my belief that such change would have to come from the Initiative if at all.

voice;

[payback]

Some have their hearts set on not cooperating, I think.

voice;

[speakveryclearly]

I know. But a girl can hope.

[fortissimos]

It's stupid. People shouldn't need a reason to help out.

[speakveryclearly]

That's what I thought at first! Don't you people have this concept called "altruism"?

[ text ] please pardon my lateness I HOPE THIS IS OKAY

[reassures]

What happened to the worlds of the three people you mentioned?

SQUISHES FACE TOGETHER IT IS NEVER TOO LATE FOR NILL

[speakveryclearly]

They All Come From The Same World And Actually Really Do Not Want To Share The Details As It Turns Out
But That World Totally Ends
Badly