open | an alenroux press release

[sterngaze]

[A couple weeks after the conclusion of the Exalt Oracle trial, a communion message goes out to all Kenos’s shard-bearers — at a brisk mid-morning hour for Springstar residents, and evening for those night owls in Highstorm. Surely an agreeable enough time for all, yes? The voice will be familiar enough to anyone who listened in on the ambassador talk a Kenos month ago; it’s Liem, mayor of Alenroux Meridian’s resident straight man.]

Greetings, everyone. I have some updates to share regarding efforts to make Alenroux fully and safely inhabitable, which I hope you will be pleased to hear.

Last month, prior to the events surrounding the Oracle, a contingent of Springstar military overseen by several shard-bearers launched a multi-pronged expedition north into Alenroux’s forests, in order to locate the source of the monsters that continue to infest the woods. While I’m sure those of you who frequent Alenroux will have noticed that the flow of especially dangerous, augmented creatures mostly died off after the dismantling of Aetós’s underground facility, we have not been able to expunge the general monster population from the forest despite ongoing efforts, so this was an attempt to remedy that.

These expeditionary forces succeeded in locating three separate cornerstones and portals that were previously disgorging monsters. At this time we think it likely that they were connected to the timestream in some way that allowed creatures from other worlds to come through, but the portals themselves proved extremely hazardous to life attempting to breach from this side. All three have now been destroyed, and while we cannot say with certainty that there are no further portals out there, we are optimistic that this will allow the danger to those living in Alenroux to be further reduced by the joint forces still stationed there.

If you have further questions, you may direct them to me, or to Hayame, Akua Sahelian, Keitaro Miura, Gray, Byleth Eisner, Link, Kim Dokja, or Dee. [He means D.]

Comments

[warmare]

Do you have a complaint, Amos Burton?

About tactics used in battle?

[Is she on speaking terms with Liem right now? Maybe not. But does she lay out the return accusation in actual words, as he had? ... No. (If she did-)]

[baltimores]

Hey, I'm not the one jumping into people's heads after the fact.

[ Does it matter that this was actually a kind of vital public service announcement... not really, no. He'll still gladly shoot the messenger if they warrant it, which, like, Liem does, in his mind. Doesn't matter if the battle is over; what happened still happened. ]

[warmare]

Just because this announcement was made available to all shardbearers did not mean you needed to turn your mind to it.

You had the choice to reject it.

[Unlike her, when he had grabbed a hold of her foreleg and cast that spell.]

Do not open the doors and then curse your guest for the news they bring you of making Alenroux a safer place. Did your Zenith ambassadors not make a great show of pretending to care about that place?

[baltimores]

A show? You think Alenroux isn't important to us? The place our fucking food comes from? Get off your—

[ A beat. Oh. Get off your high horse doesn't really work with her, does it. ]

Get over yourself. You don't own the place. Pretty sure a lot of people there aren't appreciative of you acting like you do.

[warmare]

Maybe Alenroux is important to you. Maybe it's important to some of your shard-bearers. But I know for a fact that it was nowhere near as important to your sacred witch as everyone wants to act now.

Centuries Alenroux belonged to Highstorm, and yet the histories record not a single concentrated effort to remove the monsters or make it habitable for the people working there.

So I wonder what was actually valued about that place. It certainly didn't seem to be the food or the safety of the citizenry.

[And people thought she'd be a bad ambassador? Hah!]

[baltimores]

[ He bristles at her disparagement of Yima, the sensation of hackles rising inadvertently communicated to her. The audacity is staggering; it's also a clear reminder of how divided they will be, because Amos wouldn't dare talk shit like that. He is capable of admitting to his limitations, of understanding that there are some things that may be beyond him, and being okay with that.

Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly make for a good argument. Amos can be at peace, but he can't convince others to follow his logic to join him there. ]

Just because you don't know what her reasonings are doesn't mean it wasn't the right path to take.

[ And that'll just have to do. ]

[warmare]

[Hey. She usually calls Yima "the sacred bitch", is this what she gets for being polite????]

Honestly, I would love to hear them.

Let us have her clear this up once and for all, and there will be no need to appoint ambassadors from amongst us to debate back and forth about Alenroux like useless old men.

It is partially for answers to that question that I went on this expedition in the first place. Just because I did not find the answer this time does not mean I will give up searching.

You know how to find me if Yima decides I need eliminating before I find it.

[Whatcha thinking... tacos?]

[baltimores]

[ That is not being polite!!

And, before Liem so rudely blocks him from his PSA, >:(, ]

Sure. I'll tell her to get right on that for a Meridian.

[ Don't hold your breath, Hayame; he's got far more important things to discuss with her the next time he sees her than trying to soothe a Meridian's gripes.

... But yeah, tacos sound amazing actually. He could go for those; an increasingly rare Springstar excursion for him, but the variety they have there just can't be beat. ]

[warmare]

For all of us. Let alone Zenith's reputation.

[Zenith would be the one that looked like failed caretakers, like callous keepers who had let Alenroux be ruled by monsters without even bothering to try and help. And while Hayame certainly doesn't mind that...

All it does is hurt their image further the longer Yima doesn't just provide an answer, something that should hardly be difficult for someone not hiding something. That's on them.

... But yeah. Tacos. Sometime. Once she gets over the Fear spell. (He had said... he was sorry.)]

[baltimores]

[ Pretty clear there are some people it's just not worth trying to improve Zenith's reputation with. Their minds are already gonna be made up. Sacred witch... He's rolling his eyes again.

But hey, yeah, tacos. Whenever she wants to go get some, he'll probably perk right up and answer. Why not, right? As long as he isn't actively being triggered, he gets over past traumas pretty easily. No reason why it shouldn't work that way for others! ]