Entirely Too Much Max - A History and a Network Post

[tank_rockarms]

Max had fallen into one of those wormholes through time again. He found himself back in that Yellow-Comet place where he had been an apprentice for several months. This time, Max had spent a year there. He was pretty sure. It was hard to tell sometimes, but they went through four whole seasons, and Max had been there for all of them. He'd gotten a strange, sunburnt tinge to his face and forearms. But this time, rather than being gone from school for a day, he'd been gone for a month.

He'd spent a year in just doing the lowest jobs, until finally after a year of being the crappy apprentice, Max became a senior apprentice. The sort of apprentice who, in addition to sweeping up, pumping billows, and carting large amounts of ore around (Max was particularly good at that one), he was now trusted with learning the basic metallurgy involved in the simplest of smithing. In creating and casting molds, in striking with the smallest of hammers (Max was not very good at that one).

But he'd done it. He'd kept his head down, kept his nose to the grindstone, kept his temper in check, kept his... noun... prepositional phrase... Kept at it.

It had been humiliating, to be frank. Max was at least twice the size of anyone there. And the other people who were apprentices were all like 14 or 15. And some of them were ahead of him in rank and skill. It was very humiliating for Max.

But he needed that.

He was learning to not lash out at people around him when he was angry. But he still had a long way to go -- Max was an angry tank guy, after all.

He'd learned how to make nails. They had started out irregular and bad, but after a couple of months of practice (he couldn't move on to anything else until he perfected nails), they'd become pretty good nails. Not quite perfect - not quite as smooth as they should have been. They were square nails (all hand-cast nails are) but they were serviceable.

He'd asked another apprentice to write a note for him, because he didn't want Char to know they were from him. This was interesting because they didn't write in the same way as Max. Crazy pictogram moon script. So Max wrote it out and the kid copied Max's handwriting, so it was somebody with an uncertain hand copying bad handwriting. It looks like a 6-year-old wrote the note. The note just says: "For Char. Maybe you can use them for something."

The note is attached to a little paper package that has Max's 50 best nails in it. It is left outside of Char's room.


((tl;dr: Max went missing for a month. Max has a crazy-looking sunburnt look on his forearms and face. After being in some crazy fantasy Japanland for the last year, Max can now make nails, when provided with raw materials and a forge. He gave some to Char anonymously. ))

Hey, I'm real sorry I was gone for a month. I fell into a green warp thing and I didn't get back until now. Celibi or whatever. Slowpoke was in my cargo pocket so I had company anyway. If I missed out on anything we had planned, I apologize for not bein' here. Vinnie, I'm sorry I left you without a commander. Smash Fundamentals students, I'm sorry I left you without a teacher or a class or nothin'.

If somebody could fill me in on whatever's happened since I was gone, I'd appreciate it.