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Post by physis on Jun 18, 2016 1:04:31 GMT
 Texas is one of the giants of the tech industries in terms of software engineering. If any company stood to suffer crippling losses, it was Oricon. Their main servers were on the Atlantic coast, but Oricon did invest significant amounts of money on expanding into the south.
And now many of their bright new talents are being brainwashed by a flaming bird deity. To make matters worse, Zahir chooses today of all days to descend into a pit of hallucinations. Sophia is not unsympathetic, but the best that she can do is gather the reports, read off the assets that Oricon stands to lose, and hope that the company consultant can help with the rest of the briefing. She is strong and tough, but she does not own this company. There are limits to how much she is willing to put herself forward for the sake of Oricon's assets.
The end of Pax Americana, however?
She leans forward to address the Chamber of Commerce. "How much of Texas has integrated into Phoenicia?"
tina
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Post by tina on Jun 18, 2016 4:34:01 GMT
A journalist, because they were one of the few that'd gone into Texas, looked around, and came back out seemingly un-brainwashed, answered, "All of it. Or none of it? It's more like Texas stopped. All the people there, they're talking about Phoenix now. They're talking about change, and they're bringing out the guns--I guess that's not anything new--and they're talking about making change. I don't think they're about Texas anymore, they're just Phoenicians now. You don't even see the Texan flag anywhere anymore, just the firebird flag."
Tina watches in the wings as the journalist is peppered with questions. She knows the journalist--a daring man that did genuine work, not a paparazzo by any means--and she knows he's usually irritated by interrogations such as this. Yet here he stands, answering to the best of his ability. He doesn't look irritated. Mostly, he's composed, but Tina can tell he's scared.
He's a man that's been shot at, kidnapped, threatened, and violated for working for the truth in the ugliest war zones in the world. Tina's not sure she's even seen him shaken.
After the journalist, an ambassador replaced the journalist. She had less to say, having only been escorted to speak to the Host and then escorted back out Phoenicia without much chance to look around.
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Post by physis on Jun 18, 2016 5:21:12 GMT
Sophia had been to Austin for a business conference once. It's exceedingly hard to believe that they would just give up their ... Texan ways for this Phoenix Force. It all sounds terribly exaggerated.
The next man on the stand is already talking about nuclear solutions. Sophia pinches the bridge of her nose. Thankfully, the arbitrator had enough sense to cut him short for the session's recess.
She shuffles out with the rest of them, and no talk of war leaves her lips. The Initiative had not even defeated the Phoenix on their own doorstep. What hope did they have against a fortified state?
They say that if you put a frog in boiling water and slowly turned up the heat, he would die without ever having left the flask. Perhaps that scenario was kinder.
Sophia walks to the water station and sees Libertina Berlitz. A self made woman, to be sure. She takes a cup of water.
"Miss Berlitz." She smiles, because the alternative is to acknowledge her own defeatism. "It's been a rather cheery start to the workweek, hasn't it?"
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