action.

[theroadwarrior]

Who: Max and the crew of the SS Starstruck and any visitors.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Max is sick after falling into a frozen lake. He is insufferable about it. he's been awful active for an antisocial dude
When: January 8-9th-ish.

[After a rather disappointing day of nearly freezing to death thanks to big ugly creatures, hallucinations, and generalized know-nothingness of an arctic terrain, Max is confined (at last) to a bed aboard the SS Starstruck. Well, partly. A slight fever and a sneezy, lethargic exposition is apprently not enough to keep him pinned down.

A sick Max is even more insufferable, turns out.

It's just — difficult for him to explain in words, what being still does to him. It's one thing to sit in a driver's seat, or even a passenger's seat, and to get out and feel your ass and legs numbed after hours of going on and on until the guzzoline runs dry. At least you can see the open world whizzing passed you.

But a bed. For one thing, Max hasn't slept in an actual bed in... He's not sure how many days. Not counting the rare occurrences, he's not even sure he's slept in anything more than a car's reclined seat since he first began his journey on the dystopian-gone-apocalyptic roadways. This is torturous. He's fairly sure Peggy and Nami and Furiosa are out to get him for sure. As it turns out, no-nonsense women are still far and beyond his greatest weakness and adversary. He's been shed of his bulky uncomfortable jacket and left in his mid-sleeve shirt, and in that way he's looking like an paradox: the most comfortable discomforted man in the galaxy.

So yep, when people aren't looking, he's getting up and wandering back into the cargo holds, where he had originally spent most of his time. In fact, one could probably board a shuttle and find him passed out asleep in the driver's seat, swaddled up in blankets. And still with a mildly sour disposition. Be careful waking him, he swings sometimes.

He only wanders to the main control room, where the crew would pilot their ship, when it's empty enough. Otherwise, he'll dip into the kitchen and eat, because being sick back home didn't mean avoiding food; if you were needing sustenance and it was there, you had to keep going, force something down to keep your strength up. Max was fairly good at it.

Unlike... you know. Being horrible at staying put.

On the bright side, he doesn't consider returning to the planet?

Not yet, anyway.]

Comments

[resnipstance]

Well... I can do that, but last time I checked the same wasn't true for humans.

[The kettle boils, and Ahsoka grabs two mugs and some tea she bought when she went planet-side. She might not be able to cook, but tea at least is not outside her capabilities.

She walks over to where Max is sitting and puts one of the mugs in front of him. All business:]

... Careful, it's still hot. Don't burn yourself.

[theroadwarrior]

[He shrugs.]

I eat lizards right off the sand. It's pointless to make a camp in hostile territory.

[Humans can eat anything, if they have no options.

He looks at the tea with some level of distrust.]

Everyone here seems to drink nothing tea.

[He's so hyperbolic... or is he? Peggy's on board, after all.]

[resnipstance]

Tea's good for you. Besides, this one helps with fever and upset stomachs.

[theroadwarrior]

[Huh. He looks into the swirling little brew with a frown, but it's not unconvinced. With the deterioration of most all things medically advanced, the wastes often have to resort to natural remedies. They're simply harder to find than most, is all.

He still doesn't taste it yet. He really should make sure it's not poisoned, but then he remembers that's an old habit that he'd almost broken in the last place he'd stayed.

Hmmmmm.]

What's in it.

[resnipstance]

Apple. Honey. Cinnamon. Ginger.

It's not the best combination, but it works. Plus, it tastes better than some of the other options.

[theroadwarrior]

[Scoff. Right. Other options.

He's drank piss before out of desperation, he can imagine.]

None for you?

[Drink some so I can feel less unnecessarily paranoid.]

[resnipstance]

What, do you think I've poisoned it?

[On second thought, as soon as she says it, she can feel the paranoia radiating in the Force around him in waves. Oops.]

[theroadwarrior]

[Ahh.]


Mmm... Old habits.

[He's not sorry about it, exactly, but he feels it's an adequate explanation.]

[resnipstance]

...

[She sighs, pours herself some tea into the second mug and takes a good, long drink.]

[theroadwarrior]

[He takes just the slightest sip in response.

And then places it down for what is likely a lengthy moment.]

... Don't think you would. Prob'ly, anyway. [But the way his brain's wired, it's just not suitable for trust like a normal person's should be. He sniffs, sinuses a mess.] Not used to being around, mmm. This many people for so long.

[If he's being honest. About himself, anyway. He doesn't do that much.]

[resnipstance]

Yeah, I guessed as much.

Even without the cold you still sound like you haven't spoken to anyone in like a year.

[theroadwarrior]

[Wow, rude. But slightly true.

He'd only re-found his voice recently, just months ago. And it had been a very, very long time since he'd really used it. Spoken to people. Conversation, discussion, a real place to use that muscle, which is horribly atrophied and a shell of what his accent used to be. Furiosa and the wives, now that's where it began. And then it ended with him going to other worlds, go figure.

He takes another slight sip of tea.]

Not many people worth talking to in the desert.

[resnipstance]

Oh-- you come from a desert planet?

[theroadwarrior]

[Oh. Well. He might as well say it outright; it's not like his world has ever been the thing he's tried to hide. It's new territory, because everyone back home knows exactly what their world is, duh. He holds up the cup and seems to think on it a moment.]

Hmm. Wasn't always desert.

But I guess so.

[resnipstance]

Huh. My old master comes from a desert planet too. That's Anakin. He doesn't like to talk about it, though. Something something sand is the worst. Or something.

[theroadwarrior]

[wow]

Hmm.

... For a master, he doesn't sound like he's mastered anything.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka laughs.]

Don't misunderstand. Anakin is my old master, but he's also like an older brother, too. Poking fun at each other is just what we do.

It'd be a mistake to judge him based on my teasing. He's a hero in his own right, and the strongest Jedi in a thousand years. I owe him a lot.

[theroadwarrior]

[Huh. Max wouldn't know what it feels like, to have an older or younger sibling type. Not yet anyway, not that he can think of. He doubts he ever will. No brothers or sisters in his life. And no room for that. Instead he aims his focus on the whole Jedi thing, looking rather unimpressed. A what now?]

Jedi. Never heard of them.

[He would hardly put any stock into the Force, though he's got his own sort of aura about him that you Jedi are so in tune with: damaged property here, sure, but he's on the side of good. Even with some of the questionable shit he's done to survive -- he still isn't malicious by any means.]

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka sips her tea again for a moment. After she lowers her mug:]

I'm starting to realise most people here haven't, no. It's... strange for me, to be honest. Where I'm from, there isn't a person in the galaxy who hasn't heard of the Jedi.

We're-- they're [she still makes that slip up from time to time, but she recovers quickly and moves on as if she didn't even notice] an intergalactic order of peace keepers. They mediate disputes, protect the weak and those who can't defend themselves, and aim to stand in the way of injustice and corruption.

[theroadwarrior]

[Hmmmm. Max very bluntly gives his opinion on that:]

Won't last long.

[See, very blunt. He looks at the contents of his cup.]

Can't protect forever. Too much bad in the world — in the universe. Someone will become what they defend against, that corruption or injustice [or turning psychotic] and it breaks down the whole system, falls down from the inside out. You're better keeping away from that kind of thing, before it happens.

[He's literally just feeding back what his experience was as a cop.

Tragically.

He doesn't sound like he's trying to be an ass — he's just saying it as if fact.]

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka falls silent at that, and looks away. Normally she'd bristle, get defensive, but... honestly, Max is only voicing what she already knows in her heart to be true. And it's written on her face. Ahsoka is easy to read, like that.

She drinks her tea silently, mulling it over.]

... To be honest ... I think it's already started. It's why I left.

[theroadwarrior]

[He nods approvingly.]

You're already on the right track, then.

Better to drift away before it falls down, than be in the shadow of the speeding wreckage. [Max did not do this, however. He was smashed under the inferno that toppled over. Didn't leave nearly fast enough.] It's hard day to walk away.

[But at least you're alive enough to walk at all.]

You can't protect everyone. If you're lucky, you can protect a few.

[resnipstance]

More importantly, I can help the people who need it.

Jedi are supposed to defend those who need it, regardless of their allegiances. But now with the war on, it's always "You can't go there, it's illegal" and "You can't protect that person, they're an enemy!"

People on planets that are aligned with the Republic are already getting plenty of help! Meanwhile, people on neutral planets are suffering for the crime of refusing to pick a side! The Republic and the Separatists alike won't trade with them or offer them any aid, so their economy and military strength is in the toilet. That attracts pirates who are looking to take advantage of the situation. Then you've got more war refugees fleeing to them than they're equipped to handle. Tie it all up in a bow, and you've got a recipe for planetary-wide poverty and unrest, which then results in domestic terrorism and political chaos!

[Her voice gets more agitated as she goes; it's clearly something she feels strongly about.]

The neutral planets are a mess! All because they wanted to remain peaceful! And the Order isn't allowed to help them. It's wrong.

[theroadwarrior]

[He just watches her patiently, drinking his tea, as she goes through her dramatic monologue. Poor Ahsoka. At least Max is a good listener. He raises his eyebrows when she stops, though, as if to ask if she's done.

You seem to have some feelings you need to get out more often, child.]

[resnipstance]

[She pants slightly after finishing...]

I. ... Sorry.

I guess I felt more strongly about that than I realised.