video/action | I'VE BEEN BEDEVILED

[theroadwarrior]

Who: Max Rockaaaaaaatansky (At Age 22)
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Starstruck, or at the Iskaulit bars!
When: Today.

[Augment glitches really are a bitch and a half, aren't they?

Max wakes up — different. Young, fresh-faced, barely over into his twenties. He wakes up in a shuttle, and boy, his mind is reeling; this isn't home. This isn't home at all, it's something out of some old sci-fi movie on the television, something a buncha' jockeys'd muck around on smoking some seriously fucked up mull. He knows things, certain particularly strange things: like how to pilot this strange shuttle contraption, like how the parts work, how they purr. He knows not to damn well airlock himself, knows how to use the phone. This is a phone, right?

He steps out of the shuttle, an old crippled dog whines at him. Ah, a friend, his only friend in the world at the moment. He crouches down and rubs at the dog's ears, eyes still glued in wonder at the room around him.]

Ahhh, hey, old mongrel, hey. Don't suppose you've got any clue what's going on?

[A pause.]

Right. A dog out of something science fiction that speaks a lick of English would be a stretch. Atta boy. Alright, alright, sit. Thatta' boy.

[He pats the dog's chest, stands up, adjusts his jacket... which is clean, but it's... different, in some ways. Where's his damn sleeve? Someone take a switchblade to it while he was unconscious or what? He puts a hand on the gun at his hip, in the holster, wandering quietly through the corridors of the Starstruck. Nobody pay him any mind, he's just... y'know. Exploring. The augment's still a bit jacked up, so the information is sketchy at best, but he's getting bits and pieces about the place. Jessie and Sprog aren't here. That much is clear, and it concerns him the longer he wanders (and questions the thing strapped on his leg, what the hell).

He can be found just about anywhere, poking at the squared space food on platters, investigating the rooms, hell, even just running a hand along the wall of a shuttle, interested on how it works.

What the bloody fuck is all this, guys.]

[VIDEO]

[Somewhere during all that — a broadcast. Hey look, it's some young buck transmitting from the Starstruck, don't mind him.

His accent is certainly more pronounced. Less gruffy. In fact, it's downright high in comparison to Max's grumbles and mumbles. Clear. Legible.]

If someone told me I was gonna wake up on some slick spaceship, I woulda' told them they've gone troppo and put them under observation. Starstruck — fancy name, sure is good for any means of transport. But. Why'm I here? Where's Earth, and where's the next space-cab to get there? Don't tell me there's some big conspiracy I wasn't privy to — honestly, I'm having a helluva' time trying to come to terms.

I need to go back home. Or at least get to bring people back here with me. Hell, I'll take that; as it stands, I got too much waiting for me that I can't go leaving behind, but I could be willing to move to space if I get a few people for the ride. Otherwise... No thanks.

And he way I hear it, we're all stuck here until these Atroma give us a punch-card out. Don't suppose anyone could tell me where to find one, because while I'm dying to take one of these shuttles out for a spin, I'm not too impressed by being stolen away by a bunch of dickheads in astro-suits to get the opportunity.

... They even took my badge... Buncha' bastards.

[He blinks, still a bit dazed, like he's living in a dream.]

I'm gonna go grab me a heart-starter at the bar, think I'll need one or five.

[BRB GOING TO YOUR BARS ON THE ISKAULIT. Feel free to meet him there, he's not doing much but staring off into space in thought.

OOC: Max is younger Max (who has a family and is a cop yoooo) for 2 weeks thanks to an augment glitch! Enjoy the improved personality while you can.

Also don't make fun of my attempt to give him Mad Max Slang. Y'bastards.

Replies will be from theroadcop .]

Comments

action

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka is intricately attuned with the life force of her fellow Starstruck crewmates. Especially the ones she's attached to. Spending six months living together in a small ship, travelling through space, tends to have that effect. Where ever she is on the ship, so long as they're on the ship too, she can feel them. She feels when they're happy, when they're absent, when they're sleeping, when they're angry...

And she can feel when something feels distinctly not right. Suddenly, Max's energy signature no longer feels like Max anymore. At least, not the one she's familiar with. She runs down the hallway to his room, but pauses before knocking at the door. Of course he isn't there.

She runs down to the hanger instead, opening the shuttles one at a time until she finds the one he's in.]

Meathead?!

action

[theroadcop]

[Max jumps at the sudden noise, bashing the poor crown of his skull on a low spot of the shuttle — but instead of whipping around and threatening with a punch or pulling a weapon, he swivels around to stare at her with some surprise. He takes in that she's young, younger than him by a few years at the least, but... uh. The rest of her look is sort of what takes center stage. What a weird hat. What a strange tan. What interesting markings.

But by no means Max's idea of what an alien would look like.

He stares for a long moment, and then, in a thicker accent:]

... S'pose I'm a bit of a meathead.

action

[resnipstance]

Yeah you are!

[She grabs his face with both hands-- gently-- so she can turn his head this way and that, looking at it all over.]

What did you do to your hair? What happened to your face? I thought you hated shaving!

action

[theroadcop]

Whoa, whoa, you can take back your ten.

[He pushes back her hands, looking... not particularly worried about whatever she is now that she's coddling at him like an oldie.]

Bit young to be pinching cheeks and fixing hair, aren't you?

How d'you know me?

[That's the most unsettling sensation, that there.]

action

[resnipstance]

... Wait. [That gives Ahsoka pause. She sits backwards, hands dropping.]

You don't remember me?

action

[theroadcop]

[He pinches the bridge of his nose.]

You must... have me confused with someone else, yeah? I'm new. Just woke up here, actually.

I'd never even dream of being in space.

action

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka looks at him for a moment, confused.]

No... that's not right. People who have just woken up here wake up on the Marsiva. Always.

[She leans in close to his face again.] You look... younger.

action

[theroadcop]

Mar —

[He leans back, blinking, looking unsure as all getout.]

Okay, okay. Settle down. I'm not sure what's...

[He moves back a bit, pulling at the contraption on his leg; he plops down on the console and his hands travel to it, wiggling the straps. It looks like some kind of brace — futuristic a bit, in contrast to anything he's seen before. Max of course doesn't remember Tadashi putting it together for him in a past universe. Nor does he remember having to fix it again after falling into a mineshaft.

It seems he is well and truly a blank slate here.]

Still trying to figure out why this gizmo's strapped to my leg, hardly got half a mind to figure out the lump in my neck feeding me weird space facts.

... What d'you mean, younger?

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka squints.]

I don't know. You never told me your age. But... I would've guessed you were maybe late 30s? Early 40s?

But you don't look anything like that now...

[theroadcop]

[He'd be more polite, but honestly, between whacking his head, getting his cheeks touched on, and being... you know, in space. He's a bit frazzled.]

I'm telling you, you got me confused with someone else. I'm 22, and I've never met — whoever you are. With all due respect, I think maybe you've been stressing yourself gray, straining your eyes. Should probably take a breather.

[His eyes flick up to the... odd headpiece.]

... And you are?

[resnipstance]

... I'm Ahsoka. Ahsoka Tano.

And I'm not wrong.

[theroadcop]

Well — Ahsoka. You keep tellin' yourself that.

[He huffs a sigh, reeling it back in.]

Look... Sorry. It's been a weird morning. Could you point me in the direction of whoever's in charge here? I'd really like to straighten some things out, and I can't really do that while you're making my brain whirl.

[resnipstance]

You can talk to Peggy, if you want. She's the captain of this ship.

But if you want to talk to the people who kidnapped you here, I'm afraid you can't.

[theroadcop]

Peggy.

[He stores the name away, but quirks his eyebrow.]

What, not the chatty type?

Thought most kidnappers have a mouth to run 60 on.

[resnipstance]

Nope. They're not here. Physically.

[theroadcop]

Alright, well. Captain's a start.

[He seems like he's going to go, but --

Dammit all. He looks at her skeptically for a moment.]

You said you know me. What makes you even think that?

I don't remember you; I think I would've, seeing as how traumatic this all kind of is.

[resnipstance]

I can sense you. In the Force. You feel the same as Meathead, just... different, too. Like when you pick up an object, and then you look at it from a different angle. You know it's the same thing, but the perspective makes it look different from before.

[theroadcop]

... The force? That's what you're going with?

[Look, it's the patented Max Eyebrow Quirk.

Only the replies are 50x more lively.]

Sounds like something out of a comic book. I'm not looking to be hit with some zen power, here.

[... Are you nutso? Lord, she's as nuts as an acorn tree.]

[resnipstance]

[Increasingly unimpressed:]

It's the truth.

[theroadcop]

[What to think, that to think. In his world, he would assume she's a dero, some mad hatter on the street that's gone terminal themselves with something or another, someone who maybe visits those scarce soup kitchens. Or maybe some fib of a fortune teller. The Force. Sounds ridiculous.

... But he's in space. So. He bites his tongue, re-evaluates whether he wants someone from space proving him wrong somehow. He puts his hands up.]

Alright, the truth. Got it.

If you need anything while m'here, guess don't hesitate to call.

I'd introduce myself, but I guess you got that all figured up, don't you.

[resnipstance]

[Grumpily:]

Yeah. I do. Meathead.

[theroadcop]

[Not at all grumpily:]

Close. It's Max.

[resnipstance]

I know.

But meathead suits you better.

[theroadcop]

Alright, then, Horns; if I get a nickname, you do, too.

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

Kind of a strange choice in hat.

[resnipstance]

The word you're looking for is montrals. Not horns. And they're not a hat.