7th November 2012
Roughly 10:58 GMT -5
Okay, new Americanan, and I've got no idea what he represents. He
looks like Uncle Sam, though his hair's a little longer and… More dishevelled? His smile is a little more manic as well, giving the discordant impression that he heard a hilarious joke not too long ago and is about to share it with me.
"Who, then?
"
"Boy, ah am disappointed. The way Boss Smiley's been carrying on about you, ah thought you'd have me all added up the moment ah stepped down from that there chair."
"One of his favourites, then. Or an aspect of him?
"
"Ah suppose you
could say that we're all aspects of him. And we get along well enough. Never been one for changing things that aren't broken, though ah am not averse to doing some breaking."
He hesitates for a moment, regarding me curiously.
"Perhaps the issue is one of a difference in culture on the other side of the Atlantic. Allow me to illuminate the matter."
He takes his hat off his head and
taps the stovepipe. It immediately inverts, the horizontal bars being replaced by vertical stripes and the ring of stars moving to the rim. He looks at it for a moment, smiling, then puts it back up upon his head.
"That clear things up for-."
"Johnny Reb. How have you outlived your country?
"
"A people, a political community, are not defined by lines on a map, boy. Elsewise, every nigger born in the country would be the equal of every white man. It's culture. And while I will admit that I have taken a licking, I'm going to hang on until the final bell."
He glances behind me as The Brass fires its remaining cannons, a colossal pillar of dust and rubble erupting from the ground!
"People are impressionable creatures. Tell a lie often enough and they forget the truth. Even when the truth is written down plain as day." He reaches up to tap his hat with his right forefinger. "There are still folks today who say this was about freedom from the Federal Government, as if slavery wasn't guaranteed under the constitution. That's where The Brass's chains come from, in case you were-"
CLANG!
"-wondering."
Chains!
"Ah seem to recall hearing that you aren't entirely of pure stock yourself."
Warning!
Yes, yes, I know.
I'm wrapped in chains from top to bottom. I can still see out through the gaps, but I focused too much on Johnny and lost sight of-! Can't just slide out as there isn't physically enough space, except-. Ring, can my armour stand the pressure these chains are applying?
Armour can withstand highest demonstrated chain pressure.
Which would make sense as the chains slaves wear aren't supposed to actually
kill them, they're supposed to bind and suppress them. Drop construct armour and make my environmental shield skin tight.
Compliance.
Clank!
"I see you know your place."
It's
uncomfortable but
survivable. And the drain has… Stopped?
No, but it is reduced.
Extrude a rope under my right foot. Is the additional drain measurable?
Yes. One hundred eighteen-. One hundred sixteen-.
Got it, drill down.
Compliance.
Try and find a corridor. If you can't, send it towards the Memorial through the ground. Show me what it's seeing.
Compliance.
Not a lot, and then… We're through. Tunnel, some lighting, lots of worms moving with a purpose, some carrying things while others are just sort of oozing over the equipment. Equipment leading toooo…
Oh no.
Leading to Uncle Sam, strapped to a gurney, chest bare and with the left side… Cut open. Tubes of… Something, are being fed into it and flow from it. Not sure what's happening
there but I doubt that it was done with friendly intentions.
So, objectives: free Uncle Sam and have him beat the stuffing out of Johnny Reb. Can't do much else about Boss Smiley in this regard. Then… Get out, with Uncle Sam's help.
Ring, plug into the tubes going
in and find out what they are.
Compliance.
The chains holding me part slightly, freeing part of my helmet. Johnny Reb walks closer, some sort-. That's a branding iron, and the brand is red hot.
"Been a good long while since ah've gotten the opportunity to use one of these on a living man."
Glowing red iron is… Probably not going to go through my armour, but it's magical and I shouldn't assume things. The worms don't really have
eyes, and-. Plug in
there-.
Blood and powered kaahuite. Where did he get that-? They're pumping blood mixed with solid pieces of evil
into him. Because that makes it count as
his blood? Blood type…
A Positive, naturally. Install filter and disintegrator.
Compliance.
"I've been branded before.
"
"Then you're used goods, boy. Can't get full price for yah!"
"Slavery violates the Thirteenth Amendment.
"
"But you must remember that ah'm cut from a different cloth, and that Article One Section Nine of the
Confederate Constitution describes things rather differently. Doubled down in Article Four in case somebody forgot."
"Alright, but I don't understand why that makes you align with Boss Smiley. By the standards of the time there wasn't anything particularly corrupt about owning people.
"
Blood is flowing back into Uncle Sam's body and I think it's time to rush the final stages.
"Corruption is a
tool, boy. Boss Smiley opposes change that he doesn't control. Why would ah want to change a perfect civilisation? Why would ah want less control?"
"So… Just to check, you
aren't part of the magical reflection of the United States of America? You're separate?
"
"You'd best believe it, boy. Now-."
"Then I have no reason to leave you alive.
"
Construct chains lash out below us, worms dragged to the side of the room as a construct chirurgeon quickly and carefully removes the outflow in Sam's heart. His eyes start focusing almost at once… Yes, low blood pressure, best leave the in tubes in for a moment. No easy way to get rid of kaahuite but I can work on that later. Blood pressure… Normalising, that'll have to do. Tubes
out heart
sealed chest
closed.
"And how exactly-?" His eyes dip down. "Your feet are glowing, boy."
He
lunges, brand burning into the armour of my helmet as I redirect a construct upwards from below, and smile at him.
"So are yours.
"
Construct hands punch up through the pavement and drag him down!
