voice;

[priceoffreedom]

[There a click on, and the clear sound that someone is there, but there's a pause, like maybe someone is making sure.]

Is this broadcast going through?

I think I got it-

Hello, Tranquility, my name is Steve Rogers.

I'd like to be directed to whoever is in charge of Security, if that's not too much trouble. And I'd like to know if it's possible to see out into space. Are there any windows on board?

[Annnnd a pause, and a fumble.]

Is it off?

[And then another pause.]

Sorry, excuse me-

[And NOW it's off.]

Comments

[ex_heightens219]

[ this is a difficult question, steve, sorry if it takes her a minute to work out how to answer. ]

Sometimes during jumps, people go back to wherever they came from. For some people -- my parents, for instance -- that does mean death, but it doesn't have to. I know someone whose partner had to go back to averting the end of the world.

[priceoffreedom]

[There's a moment-]

I'm sorry about your parents.

[And he really is. Losing his mother had been rough on him, he wouldn't have managed alone, he realizes now.]

I'm just happy that I can be of some help.

[ex_heightens219]

It's alright. Sad as it is to say, I've pretty much gotten used to it now.

[ oh, this is getting weird, she shouldn't have said anything. jenna and ric have been on her mind all month but she shouldn't go blabbing about them to strangers. moving on! ]

That's the way I look at it too. Things may be terrible for me, but at least I'm helping people. I like being able to keep people safe.

[priceoffreedom]

What year are you from?

[This is turning out to be the most important question that he has!]

goddamnit steve the tvd timeline is so weird i'm not sure.

[ex_heightens219]

2011. I'm guessing you're a little earlier than that?

He likes to ask the difficult questions

[priceoffreedom]

1945.

[A pause.]

I already heard we won the war.

well i for one do not appreciate it

[ex_heightens219]

[ elena is not as surprised as she could be -- when a guy like robb stark is your... whatever robb is (surrogate uncle figure? something like that? who the hell knows) you kind of get over shock over people from different times. ]

We did! Hitler committed suicide and we won in the European theatre, and then I think it was just a couple months until we dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is there anything else you want to know about what happened after that?

[priceoffreedom]

We dropped an atomic bomb?

[He says it like he's not quite sure what that means, but he has a feeling Stark is behind it, somehow]

What exactly do you mean by an atomic bomb?

[ex_heightens219]

[ OH DEAR. ]

Um... I haven't been in a history class in a while, so I'm not sure I can explain properly, but an atomic bomb happens when you split atoms, I think? Uranium is involved, I'm pretty sure. Also plutonium? They're radioactive and really destructive, I think at least 200,000 people died because of the two bombs, and then a lot of people got cancer afterward from the radiation.

Like I said, I haven't been in a history class for a long time, I'm not entirely sure I'm explaining it right.

[priceoffreedom]

200,000 people died, because of a bomb we dropped?

200,000 civilians?

[Oh no.]

Or 200,000 soldiers?

[There is, in fact, a difference. Steve doesn't like the idea either way, really, but one group volunteered for war and the other group didn't.]

Have you heard of a man named Howard Stark?

i feel so bad I'M SORRY STEVE

[ex_heightens219]

I think it was mostly civilians. The cities were militarily significant, but they dropped them in the middle of the cities and the blast radius of an atomic bomb is huge.

[ elena doesn't even know she's talking to captain america and she feels terrible relaying this news, wow. ]

No, I have no idea who that is.

AHAHAHAHA oh my god he's gonna brew over this for days

[priceoffreedom]

And this was in Japan.

[Pause.]

I'm sorry, I do believe you, this is just-

[Isn't this why he took the plane down? To keep this from happening on American soil?]

Thank you for telling me.

the best rp story i will ever tell: THIS ONE TIME ELENA GILBERT BROKE CAPTAIN AMERICA'S BRAIN

[ex_heightens219]

Yeah, the Germans had surrendered months ago, but the Japanese refused. They spun dropping the bombs as a way to get the Japanese to surrender, but a lot of people think it was just to show off to the Russians and scare them with our new weapons.

[ is she making it worse? she's probably making it worse. ]

Um. I'm sorry if I upset you, I -- kind of hadn't realized you wouldn't know. I was thoughtless, I'm sorry.

ELENA

[priceoffreedom]

The Russians? We're allied with the Russians.

ELENA GILBERT RUINS EVERYTHING: THE THREAD

[ex_heightens219]

[ UM. holy shit how has she dug herself this deep this fast. ]

I am so sorry that you have to learn about any of this from me, I barely went to class my last two years of high school due to extenuating circumstances. Okay, as far as I can remember, during the war things were tense with Russia because of them being communists and us being... not communists, and once we knew we were going to win, we figured that Russia would be the next big threat, so... We wanted to detonate the atomic bomb to show off our fire power and discourage Russia from coming after us. Which kind of worked, but there was the Cold War, so not really.

I'm cracking up oh my god this is the best and the worst

[priceoffreedom]

[Silence for a long, long moment.

Long, long moment.]

Great.

i am laughing so hard you have no idea.

[ex_heightens219]

[ PLEASE DON'T HOLD HISTORY AGAINST HER STEVE SHE WAS JUST THE MESSENGER. ]

I'm really sorry?

[priceoffreedom]

For telling me?

You don't have anything to be sorry for.

[ex_heightens219]

Well you just -- you seem upset. I should have realized it would be upsetting news.

[ oh god does he even know what they were doing to jewish people elena does not want to have the responsibility of telling him about concentration camps PLEASE NO ]

[priceoffreedom]

[He doesn't say wouldn't you be upset if you found out that you died to prevent something that America then did to another country, but he's probably thinking it.]

War isn't pretty. I'm not proud of everything the army did.

[ex_heightens219]

It probably would have helped to hear it from a more knowledgeable source. My dad was a history teacher, but he was sent home this jump. Sorry you were stuck with me.

[ one of the aforementioned parents who died, yes. who wasn't even actually her father or related to her in any way, except he was for all intents and purposes her dad for about a year, so. dad. plus her real dad tortured vampires and elena's not too happy about that. ]

[priceoffreedom]

I'm sure that someone on board can help fill in any gaps.

[Really, he does't sound angry, or upset. Well, maybe a little upset, but it's not upset at her.]

[ex_heightens219]

I hope so. That was the bare bones of what I know, and I'm not entirely certain it's accurate. I can -- oh! Two of my friends were alive then, I can see if they can help?

[ please let her fix this steve. please. ]

[priceoffreedom]

You have friends who were alive then?

Yes, all right.

[He is expecting very old people, now.]

[ex_heightens219]

Yeah, my ex-boyfriend and his brother. They've lived through everything interesting since the Civil War, if you have any questions about history you should ask them.

...well, ask me to ask them. Stefan's... not people-friendly at the moment and Damon can kind of be a dick.