✪ ) video

[kneecaptain]

[ So here's Bucky, with his pale face and dark hair, treating this thing like it's a walkie-talkie and not a laptop. ]

Awhile back— it must've been months ago— someone told me the UE was mixing up people's minds. Erasing them. Filling them up with lies and propaganda.

The person who told me that is gone, now. A lot of people are gone now. So I wanna know if anyone else had intel on this.

[ He pauses, and presses his lips together. He looks like he's gonna say something for a while, before he says it. ]

Yeah, if you need to know, I want to stop 'em. [ He smiles when he says that last bit, white as something out of the reels. ]

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

Had, or still has? I mean, who was the person you used to know?

( It's a chronic problem, these come again, leave again people. )

Whoever it was, they told you that had to do with the drugs, too? It's all part of how things run normally in the UE territories.

[kneecaptain]

Emma Frost. [ He'd liked her, but did he ever really know her? ]

It's pretty common. Drugs and brainwashing, I mean. Makes it easier.

[whatsupcroc]

Frosty! Yeah, she was one of the three who helped walk Dick through the whole mind maze, haze, craze after we kidnapped him. I hear he's been doing okay with the Initiative, though? Which is good...

( And weird. )

Anyway, yeah, it would make it easier, right after having direct control. She must have told you about the AI too? How things are run in the UE? It's all kind of tied together in a great big mess. Bariyan's been over there before, and so has someone named Nathaniel, I think. I've seen him post about bringing samples of the drug back from when they'd gone. Bariyan's lending a few friends of mine the boat he used to get across the channel.

[voice]

[highfrequency]

Sounds like they need to be stopped, but...

[His sighs, dropping this train of thought.]

Lies and propaganda, huh? Someone told me the United Earth is run by a military AI.

[voice]

[kneecaptain]

Yeah, I heard that too. But the people aren't robots.

Not all of 'em, anyway.

[voice]

[highfrequency]

Mm.

They don't have to be robots, though. If they have nanomachines they could still be controlled by an AI. They'd get lies and war propaganda fed directly into their brains.

anonymous / text

[gevurah]

By yourself? [ She doesn't think so DON'T PROVE HER WRONG THOUGH, BUCKY... ]

[kneecaptain]

I'm asking for help, aren't I?

[gevurah]

Can never be too sure here.

[ encrypted ]

There's a man named Bariyan who has been out there. Had a run-in with soldiers while saving a boy.

[video]

[fantasticforcefields]

This is the first I've heard of it, but it's the first I've heard of a lot of things.

[Sue Does Not Approve.]

[kneecaptain]

Well, yeah. You just got here.

[ But he implicitly trusts Sue, due to her being Sue. ]

[voice]

[anklets]

[This is the first she has heard of Exsilium's foes rooting about heads where they oughtn't be, and it has just familiar enough a sting to it that Lenalee can't simply let it pass her by.

tense ]

Such things ought to be stopped. I'd like to help, if I could.

voice

[kneecaptain]

I… probably can't do it alone.

[ But he'd definitely try. ]

video;

[scalded]

[ Zuko wasn't around for that, but hearing that that was going on... ]

They can do that?

[kneecaptain]

That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom of.

But yeah, it can be done.

audio

[draconic_historian]

Acually, it was the Initiative that was mixing up people's minds. It caused something of an uproar.

To their credit, they fixed it as soon as they could, but it was still rather disturbing. I think they're still working on fixing their time machine to avoid something like that from happening again.

audio

[kneecaptain]

No, that was something else.

This was permanent.

video

[fintastic]

See, this is what I keep telling people! The UE is no good!

video

[kneecaptain]

I don't think anyone likes 'em.

We just see a lot more of the other guys.

video;

[sonofabyte]

It would be necessary to run a state like theirs.

video;

[kneecaptain]

It's not necessary. But yeah, maybe it's easier.

[onemoredeath]

You sound like you've spoke this speech before. [a pretty boy, all softness and carefully maintained appearance and a slight accent but not exactly someone that was here for the fighting.]

Or you have stole it from an action movie.

[kneecaptain]

Nah, I was always crap at the speeches. [ And he hasn't seen a movie in forever. ]

→ audio; private

[controlledvariable]

[There are only initials attached to her tablet, and she's not sure whether Bucky will recognize her voice as Batgirl's or Stephanie's, but.. with the trip to the UE planned, her interest is piqued.]

How are you planning to stop them?

audio, private

[kneecaptain]

I'm… still figuring out the details.

[ He is action guy, not plan guy. ]