video; @s.carter

[whatsapineapple]

[It opens a bit too close on Sid's face as he frowns in concentration. His face brightens up as he realizes its working and he backs up, grins and waves.]

Greetings, fellow inmates! Or whatever we're calling ourselves. I'm Sid Carter and I have an announcement to make.

THIS!

[He holds up an unopened cigarette packet, and then brings it closer to the camera so that the price (and tax) are visible. The tax is pretty dang high. As he pulls it back, his face is almost comically grim.]

Is daylight robbery. And I won't stand for it. And if you won't stand for it, either, and wanna come talk to be about it, maybe get a solution, then you can-- [He pauses, and looks a bit confused, before going on.] Well, they said you can talk privately, too, on this thing. So you can do that.

Or you can come find me. I'm staying on the 12th floor and I'm working at the Fiery Chariot Car Service (Hell of a name, that).

[He grins broadly again.]

And that's that! Sid out.

[He ends the video.]

Comments

[whatsapineapple]

[Sid is incredibly outraged at this. How very dare they.]

That's cobbler's. Do they tax drink, too?

[aeturnus]

They tax pretty much everything, and alcohol is definitely one of them.

Just saying, this is a weird hill to pick your battle.

[whatsapineapple]

I get here, I see the shops and what they've got, and know I can buy as much of it as I can afford, and I think "Hurrah! I've come to the land of opportunity!"

And then I go to restock on fags. It's like a nightmare!

[aeturnus]

Oh, you have all the opportunity you could ever want. For sure. You're just arguing about the fact that it costs you extra money to breathe poison into the air for other people to inhale... which is weird.

Better option: find a program, quit that shit. Save your money for something else if it's that important to you. You're not getting both here.

[whatsapineapple]

It is not bloody weird! It is bloody normal, is what it is!

And you're acting like a bloody twat!

[How dare you go around acting better than him, and making moral judgements over innocuous things. Jerk.]

[aeturnus]

[ What's even funnier is that Cain has no personal stake in this whatsoever. He thought he'd be helpful but now it's just... funny? Yes. Funny. ]

I tell you it causes cancer. You say that's bull and shouldn't be regulated so heavily because you want to have everything at once. And I'm the twat?

[whatsapineapple]

I don't want everything at once, I want cigarettes at a normal price! Why the hell should they be regulated? They weren't even regulated during the bloody War!

Why in hell should they be regulated here? I can get bloody cancer in twenty years or so if I want. And everyone else can put up with it.

[aeturnus]

Because they didn't know better during the war. It's a pretty new thing. Understandably, a lot of people either put up with the knowledge and pay up or quit when they can't or don't start in the first place.

That's what I'm saying. You can get cancer all you want, but this stuff affects other people. We all share air.

[whatsapineapple]

There's plenty of bloody air! And I'm from bloody London, so anyone who complains can piss right off, 'cause they've got nothing to complain about!

[aeturnus]

What's London got to do with it? "My problems are bigger than your problems"?

[whatsapineapple]

Means if I survived the London air, than they can survive a piddling bit of tobacco smoke.

[aeturnus]

Just like you can survive some extra taxation.

[whatsapineapple]

I'd survive better with the money I bloody lost.

[Because, see, money can be exchanged for goods and services. Like food and clothing and housing (though apparently that's taken care of).]

[aeturnus]

Lost how?

[ Because if he means by spending it, Cain's going to continue to have no sympathy. ]

[whatsapineapple]

Stolen by the bloody government that's trapped me here.

[You idiot.]

[aeturnus]

... via taxes. Did they not offer you a job?

Also, it might just be the party line but you know they don't have control over that, right?

[whatsapineapple]

Unfair taxes.

And that's what they say, sure.

[aeturnus]

Disagree, but we've been over that.

And you don't know either way yourself.

[whatsapineapple]

Either way, it's picking on a man when he's down.

[aeturnus]

You're the one trying to stage some kind of coup over taxes. There's been studies proving that those taxes do actually work as a deterrent, too.

[whatsapineapple]

THERE IS NOTHING TO BLOODY DETER!

I'm so sorry.

[aeturnus]

Oh my god.

[ He's laughing now. ]

Ask around sometime. Read a book. Hell, read the pack you have. Right now. Bet it says what I've been saying.

He's ignoring him now!

[whatsapineapple]

[Forever. For now, anyway.]