Starstruck March Mingle Madness!

[theroadwarrior]

Who: People aboard the Starstruck, visitors and crew alike.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: SS Starstruck
When: The month of March!!

[Just your typical monthly mingle.]

Comments

[theroadwarrior]

Mmm, not quite. Jukebox's a little different.

I've got a vinyl record player.

[He motions to it with a lazy hand.]

It plays a record at a time, n' you gotta manually put the record on instead of pushing buttons to pick. [A pause, as he sorts out his thoughts.] Jukebox's are... bigger, got more records to play inside 'em.

[shamisens]

So this one can only play one song?

[ Maybe technology can't fully replace an actual musician. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Depends. Some vinyl records have many songs on 'em, mostly from the same singer.

They're outdated, though. Cassettes replaced 'em. Could play sixty minutes, give or take.

[He shrugs.]

Technology in my world froze there, though. Eroded.

[shamisens]

How come? What happened?

[theroadwarrior]

[Easy to talk about, history. Not his own, but of the world. Or the rotten core that's left, for the most part.]

War... Famine. People.

A, ahm, breakdown of — everything.

[shamisens]

That's a lot of everything.

[ For Kubo, his world broke down on a personal level. For everyone else . . . life goes on. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Lot of nothing, now.

[Life goes on for hardly anyone. The world broke down for anyone unfortunate enough to breathe air and drift through hot sand. His expression seems a bit distant, as if he's drifting away from Kubo and the ship and the space around them.]

Good to value what you have.

Could be ash and bone tomorrow.

[shamisens]

[ After a long pause. ]

Do you value it when you keep yourself alone?

[theroadwarrior]

[He glances at him, eyes a bit dark, lost in the past.]

I wanted to be alone, so I had nothing to lose.

It's up to you if you want the same. There's a price either way.

[It just depends on what hurts less.

... Things are different now, anyway. But. If he returns home... he'll be himself.

The wastelander.]

[shamisens]

I don't think I could live like that.

[ It would be insulting. Kubo knows what his parents gave up, what they believed in. If he went the opposite way, he'd be spitting on everything they loved. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Either way, better for you to have people around.

Still salvageable f'you break.

[Spoken casually, as if talking about a broken down car.]

[shamisens]

. . . Do you think you're salvageable?

[theroadwarrior]

[His eyebrows raise, as if Kubo is asking an obvious question.]

Probably not.

But I'm good junkyard scrap for people t'use.

[shamisens]

[ That seems kind of contradictory. ]

Doesn't that mean other people think you're salvageable at least?

[theroadwarrior]

Mm...

[How to explain that isn't in car terms. Maybe junkyard isn't helpful enough, because salvaged pieces from a car isn't exactly a salvaged car.]

When a dog dies, s'not salvageable, right? But its body gives back to the earth. I think — some parts of me are still good. To give back.

[He rubs the back of his neck, glancing away.]

Not that dramatic, though.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo scrunches up his face. ]

Yeah. I wouldn't want your dog to hear that.

[theroadwarrior]

He licks his ass daily.

I don't think he cares.

[shamisens]

You never know. Animals can sense that kind of thing.

[theroadwarrior]

[He rolls his eyes.]

Point still stands.

[He licks his lips, hesitates.]

Don't believe I can be fixed. But maybe... [He seems to have a really, really hard time admitting it; he looks at the ground, and his head sort of sways uncertainly on his neck, like this trying to not sound sappy or invested.] I can help with the spare parts I got, sometimes.

[shamisens]

[ Kubo is vaguely bemused by Max's sheepishness. ]

We're all spare parts sometimes. You've just got to find the right match.

[theroadwarrior]

[Snoff. A snort and a scoff, obviously.]

Guess so.

Can at least pilot and collect cans.

[shamisens]

Why cans?

[theroadwarrior]

Food cans.

...

Can recycle them into weapons or metal scrap, too.

[DUH KUBO THEY'RE SO IMPORTANT!!!]

[shamisens]

[ Duh right back at you. ]

I don't know anything about cans, remember? I only saw one because you showed me. My world doesn't have anything like that.

[theroadwarrior]

Mm, well. Think about bladed weapons.

[You got those, okay, that's something.]

F'you have cans and a means to do it, you can make bladed weapons. They're made of malleable metal. Good for keeping things in, too. Or making bombs out of. Sometimes f'you got enough, you can flatten them into tiles for, ahm... rooftop shingles.

[Or use 'em to modify car parts...]