Video

[mightthinkthat]

[ Francis is at his chair in his 'traditional' office in his dark suit. Shit has gone down, people. It's time to remind people of steadiness and stability. Unlike Kitty, he is utterly calm, even possibly annoyed. ]

Ladies and Gentlemen and assorted others, why don't we all take a collective deep breath and remember that, like Ms. Jones said, that most of Russian is filled with yak herders and the poor unfortunates who managed to upset both the Russian mafia and the secret police and are currently trying not to freeze to death. And besides that Russia and Siberia are really rather large.

This is fear and as our resident expert [ Hey, Crane. ] will be sure to point out to us all, fear is our most natural instinct and our greatest weakness at a time like this.

As much as I enjoy rousing speeches about joining the army or treatises on the sweet sound of a bullet flying by you, all of this is premature.

We don't know where our people are yet and while you may not trust the government and have good reason to not do so, do remember that even if they intend to use us as cannon fodder, they certainly don't want the Russians to be able to.

We will find our people. And we will get them out. And if you want to try less than orthodox means to do so, I won't get in your way.

In the meantime, I'm posting a list that I will update as I get more information. With thanks to Kitty once again.

[ Added is this text file: ]




Billy Kaplan
Agent Texas
Ray Kowalski
Richard Campbell Gansey III
Ronan Lynch
Cosima Niehaus
Miles Naismith
Dick Grayson
Iron Bull
Carl Grimes
Elsa Brandt
Lucifer
Tadashi Hamada
Dipper Pines
Haen Hithiel
Norman Osborn
Roxas
Barnaby Brooks Jr
Stanley Pines
Bart Allen
Harley Quinn
Ripley
Jaime Reyes
Karen Starr
Kuroba Kaito
Newton Geiszler
Max Caulfield
Cisco Ramon
Perry
April Ludgate
Anavha Hasaria
Karkat Vantas
Dave Strider
Julian Day

Comments

[mightthinkthat]

Thank you.

Nothing wrong with being a yak herder. Apparently it has good wool and milk and well, if your father and his father and his father did it, I can hardly tell anyone they should give it up and get an office job.

[medalsome]

No, that's... that's fair. I just wasn't sure if I heard that right.

[Now he was going to spend a few minutes later today googling what a yak is.]

I don't know if we can disregard their abilities so easily if they've still managed to steal so many of our fellows away. It's true we shouldn't be afraid, but we can't be overconfident either.

[mightthinkthat]

No, but it's important to remember that Russia is a dictatorship and so doesn't in the least bit care about what its citizenry thinks about this matter.

Even the soldiers are one step away from being sent to the gulag.

Not that I'm encouraging you or anyone else to let them off the hook, but we are dealing with a complicated matter and going off with unchecked vengeance in our hearts is not the way to approach this situation.

[medalsome]

Yeah... Got it.

[Gulag. Another word to look up later.]

That I can definitely agree with. Being highly emotional in any sort of combat situation only gives your enemy an advantage.

[mightthinkthat]

And they already have that.

[medalsome]

[Joaquin is quiet a moment, his lips a thin line under his mustache.]

... I won't lie and say I'm not worried about some of the people on that list, but until we know where they are and have a good strategy there isn't any use worrying. I don't think we really have to worry about the hostages being killed, but I-

[He swallows and takes a deep breath.]

If we find out they've done anything detrimental to them after they've been rescued, I don't think there will be much holding back when it comes to retaliation on the imPorts' side.

[mightthinkthat]

Then we'll deal with that when it occurs. The longer this goes on, though, the more likely the worst case scenario will happen. The Russians aren't stupid - they've understood what they've done and its consequences, no matter what they might protest later on.

They are the worst at playing innocent and it's not from lack of practice.

Right now their trump card is the fact that we don't know where the imPorts are being held. That won't keep. We must keep sharp, but there are plenty of opportunities ahead of us to guide this away from the worst case.

[medalsome]

I really don't know much about international issues beyond what my own country experienced back home, so I'll take your word for it. [He definitely trusts Urquhart to be honest about this kind of thing.]

Yeah. Yeah, I doubt anyone is giving up on finding them; so far, everyone has been so determined to work towards that, and it's only been one day! I'm sure... things will work out.

[mightthinkthat]

We'll make it work out, some way.