1 - Open as the Wasteland

[iamawaited]

Who: Nux and you!
Broadcast: Hello world!
Action: All around the Marsiva!
When: July 26

Video

[This video is either going to be very interesting or very boring to viewers, depending on who's watching. It opens on a blue eye in a very pale face, with some kind of dark makeup smudged around it. The eye tilts crazily to one side, then the other. The camera pulls back to on a second identical eye, a scarred nose and cheek -- then further still to reveal a mouth crossed from end to end with vertical scars, like skeletal teeth.

The boy -- it's definitely a boy, or really a young man -- squints at the camera, and then the image tips to the side again and jerks wildly back and forth as he bangs the communicator against the nearest surface and brings it back up to his eye with a curious sound. After a moment, he seems to give up looking for whatever it is he wants from it and puts it down, leaving the camera staring at the ceiling.]

Action

[He had done the same when he'd awoken. He'd opened his eyes on the cleanest, shiniest surface he's ever seen, and thought, chrome. Then it had hit him all at once: the rig, Capable, Rictus...

...Valhalla...?

Not like any Valhalla he's ever imagined, he'd thought when he'd sat up and taken a look around -- that was when he'd spotted the little machine with its blinking red light.

Now, he abandons it and starts exploring his surroundings closely. There's information trickling into his brain, but it's a lot to take in all at once. The room alone is a lot to take in all at once: real beds, glaring bright lights, equipment he's never seen before, the huge night sky out the window.

Eventually, he finds his way into the showers, blinking when he spots the tap. Guzzoline? Mother's Milk? He turns it and jerks back in surprise when liquid starts spraying out onto him, turning the tap off again quickly. His eyes widen when he licks his scarred lips: water. He wrenches the tap back on and turns his face up to the shower head, taking a few greedy gulps of aqua cola.

Eventually, he'll tear himself away again and resume his exploration, not seeming to care about the fact that he's soaking wet, or that the already-faded white-and-black war paint is running from his bare, scarred torso.]

Comments

[kill_switch]

[She takes a deep breath and lets it out in a huff, looking around them.]

It's a ship. In space. [Her augment told her so. How it's all possible, she's even less sure.] Apparently there are a few other, smaller ships. Typical warparty formation.

[iamawaited]

[It should surprise him, but somehow, it doesn't; somehow, he already knows all of that is true. He blinks at her, then turns and looks back at where he just came from.]

Is this the Organic's ship?

[kill_switch]

Doubt it. It's too clean. [Everything is too clean. It's unsettling.]

Have you been around? What have you seen?

[iamawaited]

[He nods his agreement as he turns back to look at her -- he's never seen anything this clean before. He's never even imagined anything this clean before. But he's also never imagined--]

Water. [He brightens.] Did you see? There's a tanker full of it back that way!

[kill_switch]

[She cocks her brows at him. She knew about the drink dispenser in the cafeteria, but that in a different direction from what he's motioning.]

They seem to have an excess of it. Show me.

[iamawaited]

[The idea that he's making himself useful already seems to please him. Look at that -- only a little while here and he's already showing Furiosa something new.]

Come on. This way.

[He turns and starts jogging back towards the showers, waving her along with him. When they get there, he nods towards the tap.]

You see? It comes out up there. [He points to the shower head.]

[kill_switch]

[She already knows he has the capability to be useful and can be trusted. She follows without hesitation, at an easy lope to keep pace with his enthusiasm.]

[Furiosa slows as she walks into the shower, looking at the showerheads and wondering why anyone would put a spigot so far up.]

what is this for? [It can't be for drinking, not when they have a dedicated machine for it.] Is this for bathing?

[iamawaited]

[Nux looks back at her with the blank expression of someone who has never in his life actually done that. Not anything more than a quick scrub with wet sand.]

I got a drink out of it.

[And also wet, but that was really more of a side effect. He glances down at his still-damp clothes and hitches at his belt.]

[kill_switch]

Looks like you got more than that. [She sees those wet pants, Nux. She turns the knob and puts her hand under the spray. It had to be for bathing. Interesting that it would be so open and unguarded like this. She turns it off.]

Do you want to know where to find the drinking water?

[iamawaited]

[He's not really still thirsty, but it's tempting to reach out and take more when she turns the tap on. What if it stops working, or whoever's behind it turns it off? You will resent its absence, he thinks, remembers, and stops himself. The Wives had hinted that water addiction might not be real, but the voice of the Immortan is still hard to shake from his mind.

And then she says drinking water and he looks at her, blinking owlishly. Had she really meant that, about bathing?]

Other water?

[kill_switch]

[Furiosa was more aware of the distinctions than most, admittedly, but here it seemed they could all benefit. She turns and motions for him to follow, taking an easy pace pace back towards the cafeteria.]

They must have an excess of it, if they leave it unguarded so.

[iamawaited]

[He follows at her heels, looking all around as they enter the cafeteria.]

It's so-- shiny in here.

[Except he doesn't mean shiny shiny; he's too unsettled for it to be a good thing. Where does it all come from? he wonders. Enough water to have two different kinds. All this metal and machinery. Bright lights in the ceiling.]

[kill_switch]

[She cants her head back at him with that tone. No, it's definitely not the comforting kind of shiny.

But maybe this will lift his spirits; she plucks a cup from the dispenser and brings it over to the nozzle, pushing it in so it feels with crisp, cool water, and then finally takes a deep drink of it herself.]

[Separate water for bathing a drinking. Available at any time. Without someone else controlling the faucet.]

[iamawaited]

[He's not sure he believes that last part -- surely someone must be on the other side, someone who could turn it off again? -- but the fact of it at all is pretty astonishing. He watches her drink, then mimics her actions: the cup, the nozzle, the water. He wets his scarred lips, then takes the rest at a swallow, so fast that he ends up coughing.]

Maybe--

[He coughs again, harder, then shakes his head as he rubs at the sore spot in the center of his chest. For better or worse, he has experience with not being able to breathe. He continues, hoarsely:]

Maybe they use one of 'em for the engines, too.

[kill_switch]

If I could check out the engines I'd know.

[One area that so far she hasn't been able to locate, sadly.]

[iamawaited]

[That's such an odd concept that it doesn't even occur to him at first, much like the idea of water for bathing only. How can anyone work on a vehicle without being able to crack into its engine?]

Why can't you? Where are they?

[kill_switch]

I haven't found them yet. [ She finishes her water and resists refilling it. She's had enough for now, and even if she realizes it's not going anywhere it's still a conscious effort to remind herself of just that. She sets the glass down.]

We're on the biggest rig ever kitted out. It's guts have to be somewhere.

[iamawaited]

Yeah.

[He looks around the cafeteria, as if a hatch will magically appear in front of his eyes. Instead, he sees the food dispenser.]

What's this one do?

[He squints at one of the buttons.]

Van-illa?

[He knows... van? The rest are equally incomprehensible, though he doesn't bother trying to read himself into a headache after the first couple. Seems as good a time as any to start pushing things to see what they do.]

[kill_switch]

[Furiosa had read about things long lost, but things like the abstract concept of ice-cold anything had been a mystery to her. She looks at the off-white sludge that dispenses from the machine with a furrowed brow, for the moment putting the stub of her left arm out to hold Nux back.

Likely, it's harmless, but she's not even sure what it is. With her right hand, she dips a finger into it, sniffs it, then tastes it. It's cold, and once she gets over that, she realizes how sweet it is. She's not sure she's sold on it, but it's so entirely different than anything she's ever tasted that she's taken off guard for a moment.

She eases up from Nux, leaning forward to read the rest of the tags.]

Ice Cream. Chocolate ... Strawberry ...

[iamawaited]

[If Furiosa were anyone else -- save, of course, the Immortan himself -- Nux would protest the way she pushes him back. He belongs to Furiosa now, though, and he lets her take the first stab at the mystery goop, watching her face closely. Her expressions never give much away to begin with, but he really can't tell at all what she thinks of the stuff, so he sticks his finger into the sludge and then into his mouth, too.

And then he lets out a low, startled sound, because it's totally unlike anything he's ever tasted, too. He pulls his finger back out and stares down at his hand, wrinkling his nose uncertainly. He... thinks he likes it...?]

Ice cream?

[He jabs at another button at random -- spicy chili -- and watches the protein gel emerge from the dispenser. He does the same basic test -- this time, his eyes widen a bit. It actually tastes more like home, on the rare occasion he really gets something to sink his teeth into: something preserved to keep from rotting in the heat and spiced into oblivion to mask the taste.]

Hey-- hey-- try that one.

[kill_switch]

[It even looks like home. She dips her finger into it and tastes. It's sharp and pungent, and immediately reminds her of searing winds and scorching sands. She gives a small, crooked smile.]

Guess it's not so bad.

[iamawaited]

It's just-- here. Food.

[Food from a machine. Water on demand. He doesn't know what to make of any of this. He looks to her as if she'll have an answer; in their brief but meaningful acquaintance, she's typically the one that's got them.

Although he did save the war rig in the mud that one time.]

Is there somewhere to put it?

[Hoard it, he means.]

[kill_switch]

[She frowns slightly, looking around. There were some trays and bowls, but nothing really for more long-term storage.]

Don't see anything. [Doesn't mean they couldn't come up with something. Furiosa is going to make a circuit around the cafeteria and take a look at everything.] Doubt we're meant to take it out. [That right there might be the price for having it available like this.]

[iamawaited]

[He lets out an irritated little grunt, directed not at her but at whoever made that decision. He doesn't like that at all, and he decides that it's not going to stay that way. It shouldn't be too hard to cobble something together. Not with all these parts right here.

He grabs a couple of bowls and trays and sits down at a table, examining them for a moment. Then he reaches into one of the many pockets on his BDUs and--

--stops, frowning. He fishes around for a moment, then tries another pocket, then one of the pouches on his utility belt with increasing alarm.]

My knife's gone!

[kill_switch]

[She's looking around for materials too. Tableware? Cups? Nux's exclamation wrests her attention away and she looks over with a frown. A warboy wouldn't just lose an item like that.]

Did you have it when you arrived here?