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[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

voice

[kneecaptain]

I… probably can't do it alone.

[ But he'd definitely try. ]

voice

[anklets]

People shouldn't try alone, not if they have comrades to help.

[ she holds herself back from more than that ]

How were they erasing minds? Do you know?

voice

[kneecaptain]

They have drugs that help.

voice

[anklets]

[




oh

Nothing near as disturbing as Road's destructive puppeteering. But... scarier, somehow.]

Drugs.

voice

[kneecaptain]

Other stuff, too, I bet. I'm tryin' to figure it out.

voice

[anklets]

If they could make such a drug once, surely they could again.

voice

[kneecaptain]

Oh, I know they're mass producing the stuff. I meant… treatments that'd help the drugs along.

[ Boy howdy he doesn't actually want to talk about this. ]

voice

[anklets]

[And she no more than he does. Curls her fingers and brings them down on her knees, frustrated. Torn. This is not her world. These are not all people she needs to defend.]

We can stop them.

voice

[kneecaptain]

We're damn well gonna try.

voice

[anklets]

Do you have any idea how to begin?

voice

[kneecaptain]

[ He pauses. ]

Someone's tracking the drug, I think.

And we can get our own intel. The Initiative doesn't care if we leave the city, and they hate these guys, too.

voice

[anklets]

[ smoothly ] Of course they do.

[Therein lies the reason they know of the UE at all.]

But somehow I feel the United Earth must be less lenient of who they let in and out, especially if they've the resilience to make it through the wastelands to their doors.

voice

[kneecaptain]

Nah. They think we're all dead. There's no one left to let in.

voice

[anklets]

Surprise is not always the best tactic, if that is what you are considering.

voice

[kneecaptain]

It's usually a pretty good one.

I don't wanna waste it.

voice

[anklets]

[There's a brief silence, wherein Lenalee seeks out the name attached to his broadcast. Names mean business.]

Mister Barnes, it will be wasted all the same if something goes wrong.

voice

[kneecaptain]

Yeah, but it's gonna be a waste if we don't do anything with it, too.

[ There's a grin in his voice. ]

I'll be on my best behavior.

voice

[anklets]

[Not in hers. With gentle exasperation:] I'm afraid I don't know for myself what your best behaviour is, so forgive me my scepticism.

voice

[kneecaptain]

If I was gonna go in without talking about it, I wouldn't've made this post.

voice

[anklets]

[Ah...

heh.

She supposes she must relent on this.]

A start, then.

voice

[kneecaptain]

We have to make one, somewhere.

voice

[anklets]

..And what are you going to do if you can't get the information you need from those who are still here?

voice

[kneecaptain]

Get it from somewhere else, I guess.

voice

[anklets]

The natives? Or the UE themselves?

voice

[kneecaptain]

Wherever I hafta go.

There's a lot of exiles here, right? Not all of 'em are wired in to the Initiative.