driftfleet | A WORD FROM YOUR SPONSORS: TREAT YO' SELF (or don't)

Who: Max Rockatansky
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: SS Starstruck
When: Lately, idk. Today??

[The feed opens up rather oddly, but then, Max almost never posts anything. So that in of itself is weird. The video catches Max wandering back and forth in the cargo bay of the Starstruck — apparently working on some minor damages to one of the shuttles. Likely a piloting gig, considering how much he'd been out of the ship and making chips on the side. He looks like an oil monkey right about now, black grease on his forehead and a general unkempt-ness about him from his time without bothering to trim his hair at all, in any way. Who has time for that crap? Not Max.

He makes a confused sort of sound off the screen, and then stops in front of the table that the feed is streaming from with a... box? It appears to be a new arrival, a confusing thing that Max can't figure out the original delivery time on. The label on it, if you turn your head, appears to say:

TO: ~~MEATHEAD~~
~~BUTCHER~~
~~MR. SURVIVALIST~~
~~PILOT TWO~~
~~FOOL~~
~~POUTYLIPS~~

FROM: YOUR SPECIAL SPONSOR!

Max clicks the metallic locks on either side and with a HISSS, the box opens. What could be inside...?! Hell if he knows. He stares unimpressed at the giftbasket crammed full of... particular hygienic products. Shaving cream, razors, body spray, shampoos —]

[The name, of course, is actually just generic, changed just slightly from their Earth counterpart. XES is clearly more sensual than AXE. Not that Max is familiar with any of them anyway, but still. He continues his unimpressed stare as an electronic voice emits from said box. It kind of sounds like SIRI. Also something he is not familiar with.]

"Congratulations on your sponsor gift! Mysterious quiet type, what a sale! Here's a little something on behalf of sponsors watching; maybe a little self-maintenance is just the trick to make the lady viewers—"

[Max calmly shoves the box off the table, out of sight, with a great clatter.]

No.

[Can he get back to work now, that was a waste of his life he's not getting back. If you'll excuse him, he'll be going back to his next line of work: shoving non-perishable cans of food into one of the supply closets with the grim expression of a man who's Lumberjack Slam arrived to his table at Denny's cold. All while continuing — such a rebel — to smell like a sweaty human car engine.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah. Everything about what these people do is unhelpful.

[A dry snort.]

Typical.

[Max leaves the comment as it is for a moment too long, but he's at least replying?]

You're new.

[Groundbreaking conversation, Mr. Rockatansky.]

[Dezel won't judge, he's rarely one to even talk to people. Of course, being invisible tends to tank your social skills.]

Yeah. Been here for two days. ... Something tells me I'm gonna be here for a while.

[A noise of confirmation:]

Mmm.

[You sure will.]

People rarely leave quickly. Give it a few months.

[A non-committal hmph.]

I don't care much either way. I've got nothing for me there.

[A pause.]

How long have you been stuck here?

Not long.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

Was somewhere else in space for a while.

There are other places like this?

[He sounds perturbed.]

Mm, yeah. Before I woke up here, I was crash-landed. Planetside.

Edited 2016-02-07 02:03 (UTC)

So you had to survive.

[That sounds like balls, man.]

[yup]

Same as usual.

You could probably teach some of these kids how to live on a little. It can't all be rosy here.

Rosy enough.

[He motions dismissively.]

The other adults, ahm. Are better with kids.

[That's not to say Max hates kids or anything; he actually has a horribly big soft spot for them, but he's also used to kids who are already hardened by life in the desert. Kids who Get It. And... even then, his manners and kid gloves are terrible.]

People might depend on you when things go south. And things always go south eventually.

[He's not an optimist.]

Ah. You're probably better than I am. Kids scream when they see me.

[That's a scary thought. People depending on him.

What a horror story possibility.]

Don't see why they would.

[Not spoken to make the guy feel better; he just genuinely doesn't understand why.]

That's nice of you. [He almost sounds amused.] To most people, I'm invisible. So when children see me and others don't, they think I'm a ghost.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

Are you?

[He chuckles softly. There's nothing mean in it.]

I should be dead. Does that count?

[There's a thoughtful silence.

He's more curious than sympathetic when he speaks, though.]

Should be?

I was dead. Then I woke up here. Guess I got better.

[................]

You got better.

Weird way of saying it.

I don't know how else to explain it. Atroma did something to me, and now I'm alive. [He shrugs invisibly.]

... Hmm.

Saw someone else like that. Burned alive back home. Woke up alive and whole.

[Wow Max tell him more about horrible shit god.]

I was impaled, then I turned into energy and dissipated. [He's totally used to horrible shit, look at this.] Our lives and deaths are at their hands. Can't say I enjoy that.

[Huh.]

Is death the better option?

[Not that he's saying it isn't. He's just curious.

He won't mind dying, whenever that is. He just isn't supposed to until someone tears his life out of his cold dead fingers. His whole being just tells him to survive. More than an animal than a person -- he has no reason to want to continue on, but it's simply hardwired now.]

[A thoughtful pause. Now that he's alive, there's at least something he can do to help his friends here. But... it also puts a lot of pressure on them.]

That's not for me to decide.

[Because if he had the power to decide, he wouldn't be here.]

I'm just not comfortable with the power they have. They could wipe us out in an instant; we deserve a fighting chance.

audio;

theroadwarrior - 2016-02-26 09:46 (UTC) - Expand