driftfleet | 001 ✪ video/audio

Who: Jim Barnes
Broadcast: Fleetwide video + audio
Action: Iskaulit.
When: August 20th.

[ The video flicks on to a spacious room, spans it from left to right, then top to bottom. There's a door off to the right side, and the camera follows it to the adjoining room, similarly large. Again, left to right, top to bottom. Both rooms are spic and span, empty, with wooden floors. And then it switches to audio. The voice is brusque, but amiable, with a moderate Brooklyn drawl. ]

Nice place for a gym. There could be a dojo next door, so it's all in one place. I've got a few sandbags to hang up, and some mats we could use. There's a notice outside for schedules — I know a lot of you folks have been offering training. The room's big enough, and there's plenty more like it on this ship.

Anybody else interested?

[ Anyone wandering the Iskaulit or looking for Bucky after the broadcast will find him humming as he puts up the sandbags. He's dressed very simply in the ship's jumpsuit, with no left sleeve. The left arm whirs in tune as he works. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like what?

Loki. Entire bases wiped clean.

[ Sharply, ]

Whose bases?

My bases. My men. No warning, just annihilation.

[ He'd been dreading this, but he fiddles with his glove. ]

Do you know who you work for?

Hydra. Is that what you're waiting to hear?

[ The word doesn't still him like a gunshot. There are worse wounds. Jim studies Orion. ]

[ Quietly, ] Do you know what they stand for?

World peace, which is exactly what they've been upholding for decades now.

[and there it is. hydra has orion's world, and they've had it since the war ended.]

[ Still quiet, ]

Peace, or fear?

Peace. I'm the one in charge of keeping it.

You really are starting to sound like a SHIELD agent.

Order through pain.

[ This is neither here nor there. Jim shrugs. ]

HYDRA in my world is responsible for nothing but sowing chaos and terror in the name of freedom. Last I checked, that's not peace.

Then Hydra in your world is wrong, and fell away from their goal.

Somehow, I don't think they did.

[ He looks up and down at Orion (not Steve, he won't make that mistake again). ]

You didn't even have a name. Think about it. Is that what an army built on trust requires?

I was different.

You're walkin' an awful thin line, Barnes.

[not "jim", not this time.]

[ The distance has never scared him, nor the faint charge in the air, the promise of snowfall. ]

Think I'll stop?

I think if you wanted my trust, you wouldn't have pushed this far. You're not great at making friends.

[ With weariness, ]

Friends don't lie to each other. All I have for you is the truth. Whether you believe what I say is up to you.

Our worlds are different. Hydra has kept my world safe. I've kept my world safe. That's all there is to it.

[ Because you sound so convinced. Jim sighs. ]

Believe whatever you want.

I will.

[he starts grabbing candles out of the crate.]

Thanks for your help.

001 ✪ video/audio

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