driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Sara
Broadcast: Video!
Action: On the Marsiva // The Twin Roses
When: Now!

[ The feed starts with Sara adjusting the camera and pursing her lips, then flashing a waxy smile that doesn't go anywhere near her eyes ]

Hi, so, I'm going to need you to go ahead and let me out of here and return me to my ship. I mean, we could do this the long way, but you really, really won't like that. It will be long. And painful. Possibly over days. The thing I'm going to assume you didn't realize about me before you decided to make this incredibly idiotic move is that I don't take kindly to cages. They're not really my thing, and I have a particular prejudice against the people who want to put me in them.

But hey.

[ She puts her hands up in a conciliatory manner ]

Maybe I'm reading this entire situation the wrong way. Just come and get me, we'll talk, and I won't even break your fingers for it. Promise.

Okay? Okay. Chop chop!

[ She rolls her eyes, sighs, and switches off the camera ]

****

[ some time later, Sara shows up in a burst of confetti on The Twin Roses. Hi friends! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She seemed casual, which meant one of a handful of things: she'd done something like this before, she wasn't easily shaken by being kidnapped into space, or she was really good at bullshitting. Worth further investigation, for sure. He jotted something else down, though anyone glancing at the paper would find glorified scribbles, not from bad handwriting, but from what was obviously a personal shorthand. Take the boy out of thirteen, can't take the paranoia out of the boy.

She leaned up against the bar and he shot her a smile he'd used to make capitolite women giggle and swoon.]

Yeah? I'll have to take your word for it. [He knocked his knuckle to his glass of water.]

I saw your post the other day. Settling in?

[ she's not the giggling or swooning type, but she sips her martini and keeps her face friendly ]

As best as can be expected, I suppose. I'm still not sure this is the weirdest situation I've been in.

And here I thought you were being economical. But water's probably a smarter choice.

[He files that away too. Good to know. His smile turns more into a smirk, less charm, but more him.]

I'd love to hear some of the weirder things if 'kidnapped by unknown power and forced to be on reality television' doesn't make the top.

[He nods to the water.] Lets me keep my head. [In more ways than one.]

If I buy a couple rounds, will you regale me with some of your death-defying, mystical, stories? Maybe starting with your name?

I figured out how to drink and keep my head in college, but I get it.

Sara. Sara Lance.

[ extends her hand to shake ]

And only some are death-defying and mystical.

[Bucky shakes her hand and indicates to the bartender that he’s picking up Sara’s drinks.]

Bucky Barnes, nice to meet you.

Do you come from Earth?

[It seemed common enough, maybe half the fleet seemed to originate from some version of it.]

Yep. I'm 100% human. I think Barry decided to call our earth Earth-1, but I don't know if that's just a him thing.

What about you? You look pretty human to me, but I know better than to make assumptions.

'Earth-1' very original of him. [He smirked.]

Human, yes. Earth, no. Panem was the country, don't know about the planet, but from what I've seen, Earth and Human don't always go hand-in-hand, so who knows.

Who knows. I had nothing to do with it.

Human is a good start. Haven't heard of Panem; what's it like?

[ she sips her drink, casual in her curiosity ]

Hell. But it's home. And getting better.

[He said it casually, like it wasn't a big deal, but the tightness of his grip on his glass betrays him to anyone observant.]

There was a war right before I got here, against the government that was killing kids and torturing people for asking questions. We won, but I don't get to see how things are going. So- [He brings his glass up and tips it as though in a toast before bringing it closer to sip.] -I have to hope: better.

That sounds barbaric. Really, really horrible.

[ she tilts her glass out of habit, but she does seem a bit horrified ]

I have a friend from a place like that. He was imprisoned because of who he loves.

[He still wasn’t used to hearing it, but he never wanted it to stop, either. ‘Barbaric,’ ‘monstrous,’ ‘inhumane,’ it was all of those things and no one could say a damn thing about it. Even living in Thirteen, no one talked about it, it was just accepted that everyone agreed it needed to be stopped. Then again, it wasn’t thier children, was it? It was easier to pretend it was just another symptom of the problem and move on instead of think about or acknowledge it.

And yet, what she says sends clear confusion across his face.]

For who he loves? How can anyone be imprisoned for that? Who would care enough? It’s not like it’s anyone else’s business.

[He came from a place where tyranny ran supreme...and yet, never had anyone dictated who someone could or couldn’t love. Hell, in the Games, love was even better. It sold.]