Video

[tergiversant]

[The video feed this morning has multiple purposes. Initially it was a simple test, to see if the illusion he'd cast broadcast to the network. It failed, instead, showing a young looking man sitting in the Observation Deck on the moon, face half obscured by his fan. But mostly, this is for information. His tone is arrogant and movements slow and measured.]

I wish to pose two queries to thee.

Firstly, I wish to know what of the enemy thou hast unearthed below. I hath read accounts of war and organization, accounts of those of less human appearance treated within the tenants of fear. Leaving aside such debates upon the validity and consequence of tampering with what hath passed in the mires of one's regret and defeat, tis a great number of conversations upon the future and past, but a dearth of those of the present. I assume such, that thine situation remains bleak, and that the project vile and untoward may have continued... But little of the new face of our enemy.

This world, which hath changed so wild and bitterly from the squalor and civilization it had boasted... do we still have a capable enemy who still strikes at our worlds afar? What sayeth the people below?

Tis true, to attack boldly is suicide. Tis true, spying without knowledge as a guard is suicide. However tis true, to jab wildly at the past at an enemy we dost not understand ... tis foolishness and absurdity. Tis possible we may not have a war that concerns us.

Corrections of this, these assumptions, art most welcome.

[He pauses, folding his fan to tap it at his chin.]

Secondly, tis thus: I desire to speak with one most practiced in the art or pedagogy of science. I hath researched soundly the foundational elements and request to employ an expert in 'chemistry' and 'genetics.'


(OOC NOTE: Rufus Barma is a ridiculous creature who speaks in deliberately archaic mannerisms! BUT, if OOCLY you'd like a plain English version, just mention it in the subject line!)

Comments

Video

[veratrum]

[Did Liam pay attention to anything Rufus said? Of course he didn't.]

Oh, it's you! You haven't died, that's good.

[Liam, please pay more attention.]

[tergiversant]

T'would only be natural, to best an assumption with a wilder one.

[The tone does NOT match the quasi-forgiving words.]

[veratrum]

[Not pictured: Liam giving one single solitary fuck.]

I was a little worried, you know. You seem like the kind of guy who'd get into something over your head looking for answers, right?

Audio

[maddeninghatter]

[ His initial inclination is to mock and dismiss Lord Pea-Brain, except for the inconvenient fact that he is asking all of the same questions Break has been asking himself — and a number of other people, too.

Urgh. ]

Lord Barma, I think people with the knowledge you seek might be able to understand you a little better if you didn't —

[ Emily chimes in: ]

TALK LIKE A TOTAL TIT!

Video

[tergiversant]

[Had he been off in some wild manner, he would have been first to gleefully shred his statement. His jab only earns an unseen smile over the video feed.]

Reduced to attacking the manner rather than the meat, Hatter?

[maddeninghatter]

[ Ugh.... he's going to keep arguing until absolutely forced to agree. ]

"Manner" is essential, as our merry band of mutineers learned the hard way. They had the right idea, I think you'll agree — but shutting off the gravity and taking hostages was precisely the wrong means of convincing everybody.

That idea being, of course, that the interests of our few remaining Initiative members are not the same as ours.

video.

[unmasking]

[Well, that's an interesting assumption, and one he hasn't seen anyone make yet.]

I don't think anyone's actually checked to make sure that the UE is a problem—you're right about that. But as for a direct attack, people seem opposed to that because of what happened last time.

video

[tergiversant]

Quite. I hath heard of such endeavors and arrived here amongst its aftermath.

The power that was leveled is near unimaginable to mineself and not one I wish to trifle with.

Still, t'would be wise to assure ourselves they still have it, without illiciting another such ... demonstration. To simply ask those who live within this world and history might be so simple as to be overlooked.

video

[unmasking]

I think our best bet would be to find a university library. They have the best history books, and we can see what's there. That's if the information isn't controlled, but if we get to a private selection, it could work in our favor.

video;

[retraced]

D-Duke Barma, what are you still doing on the moon-?

[Let's just clear that from the air before he actually addresses any of those points that the duke has made.]

video

[tergiversant]

The world hath changed, with it, the likelihood of a shuttle launch.

T'would seem unaccountably hasty to leave regular food, regulated warmth and distance until the workers hath cleared a suitable accommodation.

video; locked to the museum's guests

[senseandcecilbility]

[Kevin has been quietly watching this conversation with increasing trepidation. It seems the time for hot cocoa and ugly sweaters is drawing to an end, isn't it? It is a pity. They were so close to finally getting rid of the penguins.

After some thought and no little hesitation, he reaches for his tablet and focus the camera on his own polite albeit forced smile.]

Your Grace, if I may say so, every so often servants are better positioned than their masters to collect information .

[He also wishes to inquire why Mister Break is so irked, but he is too shy and cannot find the words. All he can do at this point is volunteer to do what he has been doing for the last decade or so.]

Re: video; locked to the museum's guests

[tergiversant]

[Duke Barma doesn't answer immediately. The fan folds, returning to a pocket in one of his sleeves and he sets his chin upon the back of one gloved hand and spends some long, possibly uncomfortable, moments studying the screen.]

Perhaps we should speak at length, Mister Cecil.

video

[colur]

When you put it that way, we've nothing to do but kill ourselves.

video

[tergiversant]

Hardly such.

Should a terrible enemy remain, tis best to know it. In knowing, cometh power.

Should it not? Our time is best spent upon seeking a return from whence we came.

[video]

[highfrequency]

[It takes him a couple minute to sort through this archaic speech.]

Pretty sure the United Earth Empire is still out there.

[video]

[tergiversant]

Tis exactly such knowledge I seek. Prithee tell, what hast thou found in the barren cold?

voice;

[resolve]

[what the fuck is this

SPEAK ENGLISH, BRO

But from what she can parse of the speech (mostly the part about "do we still have a capable enemy"), because it is something that made her stop and think:]

They don't know we're here. That's why we haven't seen them. [... Or is it? It's the simplest explanation. But then again, the Capitol left District 13 alone for 75 years because it couldn't afford an attack.]

Video

[tergiversant]

Couldst thou say the same of the monsters that lurk in a child's closet, or slink beneath a bedframe?

Perhaps they art not even enemies, and hold no ill will.

Perhaps they sharpen their blades at this moment, preparing a true strike again.

We know not which.

I postulate to thee, if they remain so fierce an enemy, wouldst they not notice the come and go of a shuttle to the moon in an area so struggling for necessities?

voice; I'm very sorry

[totallytrustworthy]

[There's one lengthy little pause before she starts:]

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.-- Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Video

[tergiversant]

[There is no doubt in his mind that he is being made light of, but at the same time, the verse catches his attention, and he does not interrupt her, mulling thoughtfully over the poetic words.]

Perhaps so dire, though what ye hath taken to poetry to relate, another has voiced. And still I refute it... I stay not alive of the fear of death, nor contemplate the pains of this inevitable.

Might I inquire of the source or are ye, so skilled in verse as to compose.

video

[observingfate]

Good morning.

[Huey didn't bother to smile. He felt like he had no need to for this gentleman. However, his expression was calm and lacked any ill-will.

It's ttly a-ok and safe to talk to Huey!!!!1!]

I don't have much interest in your first point so I'll allow others to comment on it, but I could possibly assist you with the second if you've got an interest.

video

[tergiversant]

[He stills, looking over the man responding with lidded interest.]

A burning one, there is little knowledge that doth not prove its use in time and opportunity.

Science itself seems a foolish weapon to go without in such a world.

video;

[individualist]

[That archaic manner of speaking certainly takes him back. How nostalgic.]

So your cooperation would no longer be a guarantee, should the United Earth no longer pose a threat to your world?

Re: video;

[tergiversant]

Tis as ye spake.