>>@KEBECHET | TO: @ALL.

[agogenpc]

By now, you may have noticed some among your number missing. I can assure you they are being well taken care of with what supplies we have in this time of war.

Our struggle here is drawing to a close. I presume both sides would like to avoid further loss of life. The Empire-- the Regency, as you call us-- certainly would. I myself grow weary of slaughter, especially this senseless murder of my soldiers.

This can be ended. I do not have the credentials necessary to surrender. You do. Call off this useless struggle. Your people will be returned to you.

Of course, if you have questions, I beg you to ask them while we have the time. This transference into your network will not last for long.

[ooc Discuss surrender here! Threadjacking welcome.]

Comments

[northerndragon]

Start thinking that way and you'll end by destroying all the living on any world. Even yourself.

I don't play at anything, Kebechet. What do you think you know about me? About any of us?

[It may be that the answer is "a lot," or it may be that Kebechet is hazarding a guess and waiting for Jon to confirm or deny it.]

[millimeter]

right
and what's stopping you from putting him on the line anyway?
i've dragged noct into plenty of selfies before it's not exactly hard

[agogenpc]

I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me; we are at war, and I'm not conversant in... whatever language that was. What is a selfie?

[mylawn]

Not sure we're in a position to do so.

1/2

[millimeter]

are you serious

2/2

[millimeter]

it's where you take a picture of yourself, dude
and anyone else who gets hauled into the frame with you

@QUICKSILVER; private

[millimeter]

it's not even an offer
they don't care about us surrendering
why wouldn't they prove everyone's still alive if they REALLY wanted us to do it?

[hakanai]

Clean hands? Don't be foolish. No side of a war can claim to have bloodless hands and I as a strategist certainly do not possess them. Nor do I doubt that COST has done their fair share of bloodletting considering what must be done to preserve history as it is currently shaped; maybe they will even ensure that the deaths of my lost loved ones happen in the future in the same violent ways that they happened.

But I have yet to hear even from the mouths of your agents why the Regency's definition of peace is a good thing. They merely insist that it is. Countering the reality of your own brutality with the brutality of your enemies is hardly a good argument for swaying others onto your side and all in all is a poor strategy.

Unless, of course, you don't actually care to do so and merely wish to damage morale.

[cutlery]

I see. Is that why the approach so far has been rather conservative, relatively speaking? Not that I am complaining, mind you, but I have been surprised by it.

Though which of the two sides is "right" is hardly for me to judge, I would guess that they do at least think so. Belief is hardly dishonesty.

[mylawn]

I hope we don't get you in trouble.

[dipolar]

I have to.

Lie to yourself if that's what it takes for you to believe it.

@ENTERTHEDRAGON

[ryuji]

Yo, Kebeshit. Bet you're feeling pretty high and fuckin mighty right now.

We ain't ever gonna surrender. And when we find you, man, you're gonna eat those words and pay for what you're doin to our friends

@BALLISLIFE

[raisedbybirds]

Limited time spent in our network sounds like much more of an inconvenience for you than it does for us.

[neutronium]

Ah, so you have gained all necessary information from them already.

Or were able to gain nothing.

I am glad you have made that clear.

[gerechtigkeit]

[Scant days. Which means more than one. He'll take it. If there's a way to try and rescue this group without succumbing to the Regency's demands, he's going to try and find it.]

That's enough, though I'm surprised you're allowing us to take that long.

[prizeneck]

hah
same to you

[circumspector]

I'll try not to bite.

[circumspector]

We might just do that.

[circumspector]

If I had to guess?

Two things - information being the first and foremost. Even if it's garbled, you can learn things about us from people not willing to talk... depending on how hard they're willing to push them. That's the most important.

Secondly... to degrade us, humiliate us, break our moral. This? This is gloating. This is rubbing our faces in it. I've seen it before, a thousand times.

[circumspector]

[ Her fingers flicker, curled around her gun where she's sat at the moment. Deep, deep breath in. ]

I'm tired of lying. I'm so sick of watching this - some half-baked attempt at degrading us at our friend's expense. I know better than that. Ask me anything else, Hei, and I'll do it, just... not that.

[ Roland wouldn't have, Lillith wouldn't have. Now wasn't the time though, it's as much as needed to be said. ]

Tell me when you're clearing the bodies, I'm coming to help.

[dipolar]

That's their choice, to feel like that. If our team is letting this - of all things - degrade them, then they're weak and they were always worth ignoring.

I don't have any pride to lose. I will consider them alive and I will do what it takes, even if I have to prostrate myself, to have them returned.

(it's bigger than him. he, who warned no one of the inevitable abductions. if they're dead, he deserves to be too.)

Achilles and I are taking care of it. Stay at your post, you're doing good work there.

[circumspector]

You two are going to do something stupid that puts everyone at risk, aren't you?

[dipolar]

I was going to do that anyway. (help achilles or save noctis on his own, his meaning isn't very clear. but that's intentional.

because for once, hei refuses to butt heads with his comrade, something that may be a symptom of the exhaustion he's trying desperately to hide in a tight curl of shaking fingers into fists. or the respect achilles has earned in sharing his goal, finally taking one of his offers. leaning against a split rock that looks far too uncomfortable to rest against, hei's eyes drift shut.

rare, that sleep should come so swiftly, but it's not without fever dreams and a cold sweat matting cropped bangs to his forehead as a weakened body tries to stave off illness.)

[dipolar]

No. That'd be illogical.

We're gathering the dead and leaving them respectfully laid out for Kebechet's team to retrieve them. I will bring the weapons and ammunition I find on them to the tunnels.

[circumspector]

They're rubbing our faces in it, as far as I can tell.

They just want us off guard.