IC Inbox: cerealia

[shacklebreaker]

"You've reached Simon Blackquill. Leave a message if you are so inclined -- but be brief."

[ AUDIO | VIDEO | TEXT ]

Comments

Sorry for the delay!

[complices]

She was the one who requested this, actually. Would you really spoil her well intentioned gift so? I should hope not.

I cannot guarantee the glitches will stop. They are part of a larger problem that CERES is still working on fixing. I can guarantee that CERES is perfectly willing to reimburse anyone who is harmed during these events. Your safety and well-being is our priority after all.

no worries!

[shacklebreaker]

What is this larger problem CERES faces? And why, may I ask, was the previous CEO so negligent in his attempts to address it?

[complices]

As we've always said, it's the Flamines. Since the beginning, they've targeted CERES because CERES is one of the few out there in the universe with the ability to stop them. Cerealia is but one of our research colonies and of course, they do not like it. The glitches are a result of their distaste. Really now, have you not been paying attention?

Mr Vincere preferred to keep you residents in the dark. He was of the idea that this was safer for you all. Myself and Ms Recreare both believe differently.

[shacklebreaker]

Don't take me for some kind of dullard. I was simply unaware that technological sabotage was amongst the strategies employed by the Flamines, and that you were not referring to some other issue... It seems rather tame for a race with the ability to consume entire worlds.

I believe you and Ms Recreare have the right of it. We cannot guard ourselves against any imminent threats if we are oblivious to them. Knowledge is a vital blade to be used on the battlefield.

[complices]

Yet how can I not? We say we are under constant threat. We are also constantly afflicted by technological mishaps. There are no actual explosions ever in Cerealia. Put the logic together, Mr Blackquill. One would assume that the technological mishaps are part of the threat, wouldn't they? Especially when CERES is always apologizing and swiftly fixing these mishaps. What did you expect? People in masks and guerrilla warfare? How uncouth.

Exactly. I understand that you and some others brought here have a tendency to get yourselves into trouble but these aren't the front lines. If you are anything, you are refugees, and one does not put refugees to war, do they? I'm terribly sorry for the misunderstanding and we do appreciate the assistance given to the colony as a whole but recovering your data just to send you off into the slaughter... No, that's an unacceptable notion. Maybe I should update Mr Vincere's powerpoint, it seems everyone's under the wrong impression here.

Let me make this clear, since I at least owe you that much. In Cerealia, we research and we protect those who have been been recovered from their worlds. We have security in place to protect the colony from the Flamines but their forces are concentrated elsewhere, destroying other universes much like your own. They knock things down and our job is to put them back up. The job of exterminating them for good? That is someone else's.

[shacklebreaker]

Good grief. So saith a great playwright of my world: brevity is the soul of wit.

Your lexical diarrhea aside, who is tasked with destroying the Flamines, if not your lot?

[complices]

Ah. This is ... not the first time someone has told me this. My apologies. It's something I'm trying to work on.

Those still on Merui, of course.

[shacklebreaker]

Where and what, precisely, is Merui? Another planet?

[complices]

Merui is the planet CERES is from.

[ Mosley hopes you know it's taking a lot out of him not to word vomit, Blackquill. ]

[shacklebreaker]

Do those on Merui truly have the capability to destroy Flamines? Or is that, too, part of CERES' ongoing research?

[complices]

Of course they do. Of course it is.

[shacklebreaker]

What kind of weaponry would it take to destroy a Flamine? This is the first I've heard of it.

[complices]

Are you planning to build said weaponry, Mr Blackquill? I thought you were a prosecutor.

[shacklebreaker]

It is as you say, I lack the necessary skill. I'm merely curious as to what stands between us and utter annihilation via the Flamines.

[complices]

Us.