(no subject)

[takeabow]

Who: anyone
Broadcast: video, fleet-wide
Action: First Breath
When: now!

[ The broadcast is short and to-the-point. Nova's not really one for belaboring something, but she's also bored and curious. For those who have met her before, she looks a little more well-rested than she has lately, her long hair in a neat braid ]

I know there are some people from Aather here, but I'm curious—I mean, if you want to talk about it—has anyone else had their memory... messed with? Taken away and given back? I guess you wouldn't know if it had just been taken away... Or, I don't know.

If you haven't had something like that, do you ever just get new information? I don't think I'm explaining this right.

[ she looks mildly annoyed and ends the video ]

Comments

[takeabow]

Yeah, because how would they know? That happened to me, though. Not remembering someone who knows me. Not remembering the place where we were supposed to be together.

[theroadwarrior]

Maybe you haven't been there yet.

[He says it casually, as if discussing what to have for dinner.]

Maybe they've already gone. N'you haven't.

[takeabow]

...I don't like thinking about it like that.

[theroadwarrior]

But we need to.

It's strange, but... Mm... Possible.

[takeabow]

I know, people come from all over. It's just weird. I have plans, after this.

[theroadwarrior]

Plans to go home? Or leave elsewhere?

[Because Max could make plans for either tbh.]

[takeabow]

I'm going to get my sister and then find somewhere else to live.

[theroadwarrior]

[Huh.

He's not going to outright tell her that's the most wishful thinking ever, but.]

She's not here?

[takeabow]

No, she's back at home.

1/2

[theroadwarrior]

[theroadwarrior]

How do you plan to go back and forth?

[takeabow]

I got here somehow, didn't I? And I have friends I met at Aather who can move around wherever.

[theroadwarrior]

Mm, without much choice.

... Seems like hopeful thinking.

[He's not trying to be a total buzzkill; the desert just made him one.

... Mostly.]

[takeabow]

Well what else am I supposed to do?

[ she's a little irritated at his pessimism ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Welcome to Max, his pessimism is what happens when you're alone in a craptastic world for twenty plus years. Not recommended. Max looks like he's about to give his answer — which is undoubtedly not a very nice one — but then he stops, looks at Nova with something that may be second thoughts.

He sighs through his nose, scratching the back of his head, a tic more than anything.]

Hopeful thinking... Not, um. Always a bad thing.

[Begrudging, an attempt to be... kinder. Sort of.

He's trying.]

[takeabow]

...It's the only thing I have.

[ she's....a little desperate ]

[theroadwarrior]

Wouldn't say only. You're — alive. S'long as you're alive, you have your hope.

And you have...

[He huffs, motions at — everything. If he's trying for a pep talk, it's obvious he rarely gives them with his own brand of strained optimism.]

People, here to help.

[takeabow]

I know. But I still want my sister.

[theroadwarrior]

[...........

He sighs.]

... Wanting'll drive you crazy, especially if you can't have what you want.

You don't want that.

[takeabow]

You don't know what I want.

[ she's a teenager and she sounds like it ]

[theroadwarrior]

Don't need to know someone to guess they'd rather not go crazy.

[so unfazed]

Shouldn't hope for the future when you can't predict who'll be in it. You'll lose yourself.

[takeabow]

So, what, I shouldn't hope for anything?

[theroadwarrior]

[Now that is the current conundrum Max faces, himself.

He hopes for nothing, for himself. As far as he's concerned, hope turns. It always turns. Turns rotten, and that's why he errs on the side of caution every single time his human heart tries to turn to hope. But hope is what Nux spoke of, that they had it. Was it hope that brought them to the Citadel?

It wasn't enough to bring them all. And he thinks that, regardless of their victory... the girls, Furiosa, they've still lost very precious people in that fight. People from their past and present, no longer a vision for the future. Redemption, that's one thing. But hope... Max hasn't been sold on it. Considered it, but never put it into practice.]

Hope is fragile and easy to break... Life and hope, they don't work very well together. If at all.

You can hope... but it won't shield you from the fallout.

[takeabow]

I'm not stupid.

[ geez. maybe her life story wouldn't impress him, but she's embittered. prim is the little bit of light she's held on to throughout the whole thing. If she can't keep her safe, then what was everything for? ]

[theroadwarrior]

[He doesn't need her life story. She wants to go home against all odds, pluck up her sister, and run away. From danger, he can only assume. And that? That's too familiar, from a lifetime ago. He glances at her carefully.]

Never said you were.

Just too hopeful.

[And that isn't good, as far as he's concerned.]

You made second plans, in case you can't?