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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

[controlledvariable]

I get it, I do. [Almost gently, because yeah, she hates mind control, too.

But...]

But we don't know enough about these drugs, we don't know how the United Earth might retaliate to one liberated town. Are we going to be able to set up a defence force to keep them safe?

[She sighs, audibly, and unseen rubs at her brow]

I hate the idea of not doing anything, but I also hate the idea of going in thinking we're helping and making things worse for these people.

[Maybe it's a sore spot, because it strikes a chord with what she tried to do in the gang war. Like she knew better, like she could help, but all she did was get hundreds of people killed.]

[kneecaptain]

But we do.

We're in the one liberated town. And the Initiative's been set up here for centuries, right? That's a defense force. They keep bringing new people in. That's a defense force too.

We got someone working on the drugs.

And I dunno 'bout you, but I'd rather die knowing myself than live forever without a clue.

[controlledvariable]

It's not about me dying.

[Filed under: things vigilantes aren't allowed to care about.]

But the way I see it, we liberate one town and either have to ask peole to go there and defend it, from an entire government that's shown to be perfectly willing to drop bombs on people. Or we ask an entire town to relocate here, which just has so many logicistic issues I don't know where to start.

[There's another little frustrated sound, and it can probably be assumed she's pinching the bridge of her nose.]

I think-- [she pauses, trying to figure out her words, but she's thinking of what Ellie's home is like, and that's helping her with ideas.] There's got to be a resistance over there already, right? I think maybe we should try to be lending our support there, instead of going in on our own and possibly fucking things up really badly.

[Which would of course mean making contact with said resistance, if there is one, but Steph thinks that's possible.]

[kneecaptain]

What government isn't willing to drop bombs on people?

[ He squints, invisible. ]

You're talking about this like I've never done it before.

[controlledvariable]

[Okay that makes her flinch, especially after her conversation about Chemo and there's a bit of a pause before she says anything.

Eventually:] Have you? I mean, something that's really like the situation we've got here?

[kneecaptain]

I fought with the German and French resistance.

I was there when they liberated Paris.

Extractions, small-scale ops. Yeah, I've done that.

sorry about being so slow

[controlledvariable]

Because nazis are exactly like enhanced humans controlled by an AI, ruling over citizens who are so drugged to the gills they can't think for themselves.

[It comes out kind of harsh, and she regrets it, instantly following up with:]

Sorry. Shit, I'm sorry.

[Way to be an asshole, Brown.]

I just-- I don't think it'd be the same, here.

no worries :')

[kneecaptain]

The Nazis didn't use drugs. But they had weird magic rituals turning people's brains funny, so I figure it's not far off.

I was an Avenger, too. [ He's leaving out all the intense KGB mind control experience because welp. ]

[controlledvariable]

What. [It's not an actual question, because she heard what he said, she just needs to take a moment to process it.] I'm pretty sure the Nazis back home didn't have weird magic rituals.

[Just putting that out there, this conversation is fast becoming confusing.]

And I have no idea what an Avenger is. Aside from the obvious.

[Being... someone who avenges, but she has a feeling the name means more than that.]

[kneecaptain]

It's sort of the big cape team. Where I'm from. I didn't pick the name.

And… I mean, I know the Nazis tried to keep some of that stuff a secret. But I figured the giant robots were pretty obvious.

[controlledvariable]

Ours are called the Justice League.

[Which... sounds a little nice than Avengers, in her opinion.]

We didn't have anything like that. World War Two was just fought between baseline humans, no magic or robots or superpowers.

[kneecaptain]

That doesn't sound like any fun.

[controlledvariable]

I don't think fun is the point of war.

[Cutting him some slack since he's a veteran, but still.]

[kneecaptain]

It was a joke. Those aren't against the Geneva Convention, y'know.

[controlledvariable]

It's been a while since I've read the Geneva Convention, sorry.

[Now she might be joking. Or just... apologising in her own way.]

[kneecaptain]

They took out the joke ban in 1929.

[controlledvariable]

I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

[She has no idea what happened here.]

[kneecaptain]

Right. Good.

[ Awkward pause. ]