(video.)
[River is sitting atop a high pile of cushions on a crate - her throne - and wearing a nice crown. A very nice crown. Actually, some of you might recognise it as Azula's Fire Lord crown. She is grinning a little too smugly and looking as regal as a dishevelled girl can.]
There's been a shift in power. Changes in the system of government. [She taps the crown.] I overthrew the community and I'm Queen now. It's okay, I'm a benevolent ruler. You can have cake and bread. A misquotation, but you can have them anyway. We're going to build a new society.
But it's still a monarchy and you still have to listen to me. [She smiles cheekily - but after a moment of sitting there frozen, it starts to slip, and something takes a serious turn in the mood.] Because they... There's punishment for bad little ones who won't listen or talk or jump when they say jump, [she snaps it, nearly shouts,] they'll loop pretty ropes around our brittle bones and snap, and we can't get rid of corporal punishment, oh no. No, it's too deep, too deep in the roots and if you want to take them out you have to take the whole tree - but it's all connected, if you take the tree out it's going to die and we'll, we'll all--
[She's trembling slightly. Her hands are shaking more violently. She's muttering to herself, fast and low.]
There's something, there was, [she sways to the side a little and her head turns dazedly - then she sits bolt upright and her head snaps back to the front.] Something was lost in the exchange. Conservation of energy, the law of equality, you can't get something for nothing. It was...
Medicine. I lost... There was a cure. Simon's. I can't find it. It puts the cotton back in my mouth. Is there a lost and found?
There's been a shift in power. Changes in the system of government. [She taps the crown.] I overthrew the community and I'm Queen now. It's okay, I'm a benevolent ruler. You can have cake and bread. A misquotation, but you can have them anyway. We're going to build a new society.
But it's still a monarchy and you still have to listen to me. [She smiles cheekily - but after a moment of sitting there frozen, it starts to slip, and something takes a serious turn in the mood.] Because they... There's punishment for bad little ones who won't listen or talk or jump when they say jump, [she snaps it, nearly shouts,] they'll loop pretty ropes around our brittle bones and snap, and we can't get rid of corporal punishment, oh no. No, it's too deep, too deep in the roots and if you want to take them out you have to take the whole tree - but it's all connected, if you take the tree out it's going to die and we'll, we'll all--
[She's trembling slightly. Her hands are shaking more violently. She's muttering to herself, fast and low.]
There's something, there was, [she sways to the side a little and her head turns dazedly - then she sits bolt upright and her head snaps back to the front.] Something was lost in the exchange. Conservation of energy, the law of equality, you can't get something for nothing. It was...
Medicine. I lost... There was a cure. Simon's. I can't find it. It puts the cotton back in my mouth. Is there a lost and found?