[video, backdated to 7-4]

[kneecaptain]

[ Bucky has the communicator on some sort of table, level. He's sitting down in front of it, evidently in a good mood. In the background, there's an old-timey looking radio playing. It cackles with static, but you can just make out a torch song. ]

I dunno how many of you know this, but it's a regular holiday where I'm from. [ He smirks, but doesn't explain. ]

Anyway, I got to thinkin', what better way to celebrate than me taking all of your money? Or… candy bars, or whatever else you got to stake. I'm flexible. I'll take 'em all.

How many of you know how to play poker?

[ The radio buzzes out, and Bucky hits it, once, hard. The sound comes to life again, now an official sounding broadcast. "The objectives of the Initative consist only in ruling by the sword, sowing the see of death and desolation until the take over power. They would then rule by the sword, that is their objective. We my therefore wonder how people who came with the confessed objective of shedding our blood, in our cities, can deceive the population by claiming to bring democracy and freedom. How can anyone claim to bring salvation—"

The broadcast dies. ]

Comments

permavideo!!

[kneecaptain]

It's called Independence Day.

[freewoman]

From what? [She knows very little about America.]

[kneecaptain]

A country called Britain. This place used to be the capitol.

[freewoman]

I've been told about Britain. Didn't know it owned others.

[kneecaptain]

Used to be, it was an empire. They got rid of most of that, though. Before I left, I mean.

[freewoman]

So the people that were here ruled your people until y'fought back. And you won.

[kneecaptain]

Yeah. We did.

Every year, there's s'posed to be fireworks.

[freewoman]

Those things? They light up the sky?

[kneecaptain]

Mostly gunpowder. Sometimes a little bit of magnesium, to pretty it up.

My name's Bucky, by the way.

[freewoman]

Gunpowder? What y'put in a gun to get the little bits o' metal to go. [She knows a little bit about it.]

Ygritte.

[kneecaptain]

Right, exactly.

Sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. [ He really likes guns. ]

[freewoman]

What's that?

[kneecaptain]

Mix it together, you get gunpowder. Boom. [ He makes a helpful explanatory gesture. ]

You're really not from around here, huh?

[freewoman]

Just figurin' that out now? [She stands out here, and she knows it.]

We've no guns where I'm from and metal is precious as it is, poorer steel than the south.

[kneecaptain]

Well, none of us are, right?

A lot of things're missing here. But not weapons.

[freewoman]

It's them kind'a weapons we don't have.

[kneecaptain]

You wanna learn?

[freewoman]

I already know. Got someone t'take a gun for me when we were out west. Taught me how t'shoot.

[kneecaptain]

Yeah? What'd you shoot at? [ His tone is genuinely curious, not demeaning. ]

[freewoman]

Cans out behind my camp. I'd hunt, but nothin' worth eatin' here.

[kneecaptain]

Wonder how long ago that all died off.

[freewoman]

It ain't dead out there, just poisoned. Y'go far enough out, y'see patches o' fresh grass. Ain't much though. What they did t'the land... wasn't theirs t'do it to.

[kneecaptain]

It's nuclear fallout, right? They might not've meant to.

[freewoman]

[There's a moment when she just stares at the screen. No one has really explained what happened.]

People use that word, but it don't mean anythin' t'me.

[kneecaptain]

A while back— a long time ago, I guess— there was a war, and they made these big bombs. You could level a city with 'em. But they didn't just level the buildings, they left a sickness everywhere. So the war ended. And for a while everyone was afraid to go to war again on account of those damn bombs.

But it's not just bombs. You can use the same idea to get electricity, power. But sometimes that goes wrong, too, and the sickness leaks out.