Joe leans back with a nostalgic grin and says, “You know, Nelly… we should’ve never worn those contact lenses in high school. We should’ve just stayed nerds — not try to disguise ourselves as cool kids.”
Nelly laughs, remembering the awkward days of braces, big glasses, and overstuffed backpacks. “Yeah,” she says, “we really thought we could fool them, huh?”
Joe smirks and gently nudges her shoulder. “My Heart,” he says tenderly — just like Screech used to call Violet in Saved by the Bell.
Nelly blushes, half amused, half touched. “You’re such a dork, Joe.”
He grins wider. “Exactly. Should’ve never tried to be anything else.”
Scene: A rainy afternoon on Commercial Drive, East Vancouver. Inside a cozy café filled with steam and the smell of espresso, Nelly Furtado and her sister Lisa Furtado sit across from G.I. Joe, who’s wearing a UN beret, and a special forces jacket with a Soldiers Without Borders patch.
Nelly:(leaning forward, serious) Joe… we don’t want to live under the gun anymore. Every time there’s another crisis, another war, another “operation enduring freedom,” it feels like the same cycle.
Lisa: Yeah. We don’t want a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand. We just want peace. Real peace.
G.I. Joe:(smirks, setting down his coffee) You girls sound like Neil Young lyrics. But you’re right. The system’s still built on bullets and branding.
Nelly:(nods) It’s like every politician talks about love and unity… then signs a weapons deal behind closed doors.
Lisa: And every protest turns into hashtags. Nothing changes.
Joe:(pulls a crumpled U.S. dollar bill from his jacket) See this? Everyone chases it. Fights over it. Worships it. But what if we flipped the script?
Nelly:(raises an eyebrow) What do you mean?
Joe:(grins) You don’t need guns to start a revolution. You need currency. I’m talking about good old-fashioned American Illuminati one-dollar bills—the kind with the pyramid and the all-seeing eye. Only this time… we stamp them.
Lisa: Stamp them? With what?
Joe: Your cause. Your link. Your truth. (He pulls out a red ink stamp that reads “referendumparty.ca”)
Nelly:(reading the stamp) Referendum Party?
Joe: Yeah. Direct democracy. Every bill becomes a message. A meme. A spark. You stamp the dollar, you send the idea. Every cup of coffee, every tip jar, every hand that touches it becomes part of the movement.
Lisa:(smiling now) Guerrilla democracy. I like it.
Nelly:(grinning) A money drop that actually means something.
Joe: Exactly. No violence, no fear. Just viral ideas. The people’s referendum.
Lisa: So… the revolution runs on caffeine and stamped singles?
Joe:(stands up, flips a dollar on the table) Hey, all you need is one. The rest is compound interest.
Nelly:(laughs) Sounds like the kind of campaign we could sing about.
Scene: A safehouse studio in East Vancouver. Rain hits the tin roof while Solid Snake sits cleaning his SOCOM pistol. Nelly Furtado and her sister Lisa Furtado are lounging on a beat-up couch, sipping herbal tea, surrounded by guitars, mics, and half-written lyrics on sticky notes.
Snake:(gravelly voice) Diddy’s “Vote or Die.” What a mess of a campaign. They called it a movement, but it felt more like a merch drop.
Nelly:(laughs softly) I remember that. Everyone wore the T-shirts, but nobody showed up at the polls.
Lisa: It was like trying to get people to do homework with a death threat. Fear’s a bad motivator.
Snake: Exactly. In combat, fear clouds judgment. Motivation has to come from purpose. Diddy’s mission had no real follow-up—no education, no ground network. Just shock value.
Nelly: He had the right instinct, though. Young people were tuning out. He just… didn’t speak their language.
Lisa: Yeah. He tried to drop a beat on democracy, but forgot to mix the message.
Snake:(nodding) Influence isn’t about noise. It’s about infiltration. You reach people one-on-one, quietly. Convince them their choices matter. Otherwise, it’s just propaganda.
Nelly: You sound like a campaign strategist.
Snake: I’ve seen too many missions fail because the team didn’t believe in the objective. Same goes for voting. No one fights for what they don’t believe in.
Lisa: So what—you think pop stars shouldn’t get political?
Snake: Not at all. I think they should lead better. Use the power of art. Not fear.
Nelly:(smiles at Lisa) Maybe we should do our own version. “Vote and Fly.” Inspire, don’t threaten.
Lisa: “Vote and Fly”? That actually sounds like us. Lift people up.
Snake:(half-smile) Has a better ring to it than “Vote or Die.” And no civilian casualties.
Nelly:(playfully) You can be our campaign strategist, Snake.
Snake:(lights cigar) Heh. Just don’t ask me to dance in the music video.
