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

Did you say Iskaulit

[namisan]

[Nami finds his face familiar to say the least, and a measuring glance as he walks into the Space Bar is enough that she's reminded of a younger Max or Tuck. But that's the problem. Apparently face-snap is a new thing around here-- FDR with that other guy on the network, Max and Tuck-- that she just shrugs and writes it off the moment she thinks it.

New guy, right?

She smiles cheerfully as he approaches the bar.] Hey, new face.

[theroadcop]

[New face, that's much better, okay. He takes a quick seat at the counter, offering a little smile. While he's not in the most jovial of moods, he can at least appreciate a nice barlady offering him anything other than some confusing statement (thanks guys). He glances around the bar.]

Hey, barkeep. Don't suppose you have something for me up there?

[namisan]

[And the accent is totally different, so she smiles lazily.] Depends on your preference, but we've got a variety. Beer? Something harder? Something sweeter?

[You look like a beer drinker tbh.]

[theroadcop]

[He pats the counter, as he considers it.]

Well... Think maybe I'll let you choose, and we'll just see. You're the expert here, and I've got to admit, just about anything with alcohol in it will do right about now.

[JUST FUCK ME UP, 'KEEP.

no i'm kidding don't outright kill me with booze but give me the booze]

[namisan]

Well, we'll go with beer to begin with. [Because everything about you screams Australian laid back and not much inclined to the other options. But she'll pour him a glass of the stronger stuff they have around the place, at any rate.]

Here. Space alcohol. [So dry.] Five credits.

[Lookit my arbitrary pricing, just assume it's a good price for beer okay.]

[theroadcop]

[FIVE CREDITS. Here, have ten. He had a lot of credits stuffed away on his person, for some reason. Strange, huh. :| He takes a swig of the stuff, and the burn is exceptionally hideous, but he'll take it with relative stride, because he's from a dystopic world where the beer is awful. Also he's Australian. Obviously. We've established.]

Oh, that's good. Bad-good.

[He clicks his tongue against his teeth, nose wrinkling, but he settles with it and goes for another drink.]

Been needing this today; it's been... [His eyes track in a wide circle, like he can't quite believe he's sitting in here.] ... wild.

[namisan]

[Babyface, you are totally in Nami's good books for that tip wow. Some other people with your face could stand to be that generous.

....shuddup.] I don't blame you. First interdimensional kidnapping? [She grins cheerfully at him.] Are people space travellers in your world, or were you double-whammied like me?

[theroadcop]

[He shakes his head.]

There was a few. Space-travellers, anyway. But usually it's a handful of people cluttered together for months and months at a time, s'far as I know. Not very many people ever got the chance to go into space.

[And he figures that nobody will ever go to space again, with things the way they are. Unless they can pick the country up -- the world up -- and rebuild. He's not gonna deny that as a possibility; there's gotta be something to all the effort people like Goose put into the system.]

Double-whammied is a good way to put it, though. Triple-whammied, even.

What sort of world is yours like?

[.......... Hard to believe he's even asking this kind of question.

Fucking weird, okay.]

[namisan]

[Oh, she's passingly familiar with that type of time period. A bunch of people seem to be at that point. Weird.]

Well behind yours. We're still in the Age of Pirates. Deep sea travel by ship, rare ability for flight. Definitely no space, except for one delusional guy who tried. [She hopes you choked to death, Enel.] I guess at least you could grasp the concept of space. We've got people who are from... centuries before it's possible, I think.

[theroadcop]

[... Wow. That's wild.

His eyebrows are raised so high in his curiosity, okay.]

Ahuh... I've heard. People from way, way back. Folks from all ages.

That's really something, huh? How do you suppose they do it? The Atroma.

[namisan]

No clue. It's definitely above my pay grade. The last place I was stuck at made more sense, even if it was even more baffling--

[Pause at that. She peers at him.] Anyone told you that yet? That there are other places like this?

[theroadcop]

Not yet, no.

...

Does that mean you're gonna tell me yet another crazy thing?

[namisan]

[You poor guy.]

Would you prefer I get you drunk first? Might be easier to hear.

[theroadcop]

... Honestly, it's tempting. But my job requires I handle stress well, I guess.

Go ahead, lay it on me.

[namisan]

[Pfft.]

Compromise, then. You can drink while I explain. [She grins impishly.]

You ask people here, about half will give you a story of having come from some other place they just "fell into", or were kidnapped into, or whathaveyou. I came from a placed called Adstringendum, myself. Mixed bag of people just like here, but the premise was completely different.

Same weird rules, though, so they're connected somehow.

[theroadcop]

[Oh, he's drinkin' alright, don't you fret.

And he is not enjoying what you are telling him. Like. At all.]

You mean people can fall from one to another?

[Nami please. Please. This is weird.]

What, do some people just bounce from world to world endlessly, or something?

[namisan]

I haven't met anyone who's been to more than two of these places altogether. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the Atroma just does their talent scouting at a lot of weird places.

...a lot of people go within a month or two. [Some stay for years. Let's not say that.] So maybe you'll go home soon.

[theroadcop]

Within a month or two? What, are they too boring?

[He huffs.]

I could be plenty boring.

[namisan]

What, a cute guy like you? [She grins.]

Sadly I don't know if what we think is boring is the same for them. There's plenty of folk who keep to themselves and they're still here.

[theroadcop]

Damn. Guess there's no winning there.

But hey, at least people can wipe the memory clean with a little of this.

[He shakes his bottle.]

[namisan]

That's what it's good for. And in good company, too. [She smiles.]

I'm Nami, by the way.

[theroadcop]

[With a slight smile, he offers a hand to shake.]

Max Rockatansky.

Good to meet you, Nami.

1/2

[namisan]

[Oh, what an interesting name. She starts to shake his hand.]

That last name sounds like a mouthful. But at least you're more sociable than the last--

[namisan]

[theroadcop]

..... What?