[open]

[bachido]

Who| Kubo and whoever wants to meet Kubo!
What| The performer is out and about, getting to know his new audience.
Where| Crew Quarters, the Habitat Deck, any public spaces where a wandering minstrel might meet music . . . mappreciators.
When| Whenever
Warnings/Notes| n/a



There was a LOT of land to wander here, a lot of seasides and mountains giving way to cities like nothing Kubo had ever seen, and he'd seen a Temple of Bones protected by a skeleton demon, a Garden of Eyes lurking under a long lake. There were whole rooms of thrumming metal and strange noises and smells, people who . . . perhaps weren't stranger than anyone he'd ever met, but not everyone had met celestial monsters and cursed humans.

Kubo was enthralled by all of it.

The chance to play for a new audience, so completely outside what Kubo had ever seen before, was exciting. He had plenty of tales that he was prepared to launch into for, say, the entertainment of the villagers back home, but this audience was so new, it paid to get a feel for them a bit before starting. They wouldn't yet drop what they were doing to listen when he started to play, and he'd have hated for someone to miss out on the beginning of a story just because they didn't know they were about to hear one.

As he explored, looking for people, Kubo played his shamisen. Though he played with less intensity than he typically performed, the lively notes were crisp and confident and two sheets of paper followed him as he walked, folding and unfolding themselves into animals, dancers, warriors in competition, moving like living creatures abstractly illustrating the music.

The boy in the red beetle robes looked around for eyes to catch, and for the glint of a flying coin or two - he wasn't putting on a real show yet, but it paid (literally) to keep a sharp eye out.

Comments

[bleventeen]

Mabel's mad dash from the crew quarters toward the simrooms had been pretty uneventful up to that point. Sure, there was ducking, dodging, and a complete lack of the pedestrian etiquette one might expect from legionnaires. But, at least she was finally going to the appropriate place to bounce her hamster ball off the walls.

Until she was stopped in her tracks by the sight of Kubo, of course.

Mabel's list of important traits in potential boyfriends was a long and diverse one, but there were so many of those things being paraded in front of her at that very moment.

Mysterious... Check.
Musician, especially one who plays an uncommon instrument... Check.
Hair over one eye... Check.
Not making out with puppets... Check.
Not being Gideon... Check.
SOME KIND OF MAGIC ART... CHECK!

It was enough to make her actually squeal with excitement before she rushed after him.

"Hi, I'm Mabel," she started rapidly as soon as she caught up, "I LOVE your music, and your magic paper! I'm a musician, myself."

Sort of?

"Are you new here? Have you been on any dates yet?"

[bachido]

"Hi!"

Kubo's paper figures - currently a sprightly stag and a frustrated hunter - landed on his shoulders in wait as he paused his playing. His excitement at seeing Mabel, while not quite at the level of her excitement perhaps in general, was still clear. He smiled widely, his bangs flicking aside as he turned to return her greeting, revealing the eyepatch underneath.

"It's nice to meet you, Mabel. My name is Kubo. I'm a storyteller."

Her volley of questions and compliments just made him grin wider. "Thank you," he said, looking at Mabel still with the fascination of a boy who'd never met a person from outside his culture before. Her clothes were different, her face was different, her manners were different, but her energy was delightful. And catching. "I love your hair," Kubo said, exchanging compliments. He'd never seen anyone with hair so light without being grey. "But it's not magic paper," he said, plucking a note that had his hunter standing at attention, his deer lifting a hoof in preparation for flight - "it's paper magic." He strummed another short tune and both figures unfolded themselves snappily. "I use them to tell my stories."

That she was a musician was all the better! She could tell him where the best performing was.

"So, where's the town center? Where does everyone go to watch performances?" he asked. He wanted to get to know the rest of his audience as soon as possible.

Only one of her questions went over his head. "I only woke up here a little while ago, so I don't know -" he admitted. "What's a 'date?'"

[bleventeen]

Mabel pulled her hair over one shoulder, and actually began to wring it as she gave what she thought was an alluring laugh. Sure, there was the fact that an intense karaoke skill probably didn't qualify one as a musician in the eyes of most, but he complimented her hair! And he hadn't run!

"Oh I know the best place to perform!" She exclaimed, finally releasing her hair. "In the cafeteria everyone will be stu-- Wait wait wait! You don't know what a date is?!"

How could her luck have been better? He had to be single, unless...

"You're not married to any beautiful sea creatures, are you?" she asked somewhat suspiciously. "Because, if not, I can just show you what a date is! It's romantic and fun, and two people fall in love forever by the end of it."

[bachido]

"Married? Me? No!" Kubo laughed suddenly at the thought. He was far too young for marriage, and a penniless street performer besides. One day marriage might become his quest, but as the son of a highly unlikely and tragically doomed, yet deeply loving, romance, he was content to let that quest be off in the future.

His laughter went down to a slightly wistful smile. The most romantic story he knew involved two people meeting in a battle to the death. If someone could teach him a few romantic stories that were less about fleeing from deadly relatives and more about fun, he'd be grateful to them. "Mabel, I'd be honored if you'd show me what a date was."

He tried to decipher her whisper, but it had come out a little too fast. "What was that?"

[bleventeen]

"Nothiiiiiing!" She answered, gleefully rolling her eyes to one side. Maybe that was information better left for the second date. Y'know, after the love happens.

"Don't worry! I'll make sure you have the best first date ever." She stared off for a moment, already planning. "I'll have to go to Earth first to get some things... But first, I can show you where to perform! It's this way!"

She pointed excited in the direction of the mess hall before leading the way.

[bashfulbibliophile]

So. Wow.

This futuristic world was absolutely overwhelming with all the technology available, and Mary's spent a lot of her time just exploring the immediate areas around the quarters. There's so much to see, she's not quite ready to go too far until she gets familiar with home base, so to speak.

Even so, the sound of music gets her attention, and she follows it to find Kubo. However, once she gets close, the music takes a backburner as she spots his paper creatures. She fixates on them, but stands a comfortable distance away. After all, it's only polite!

[bachido]

Kubo caught the stare, returning a brief look to Mary before grinning.

"Good afternoon!" he called, less focused on the strict etiquette of distance. He stopped playing and walked quickly closer to the girl, his origami aids unfolding and flying into the sleeves of his robe without his playing. "My name is Kubo. I'm a storyteller. Where do people go to listen to stories around here?"

[bashfulbibliophile]

It's not terribly polite, but Mary's focus stayed on the paper animals, at least until they disappeared. There was a very subtle bit of disappointment on her face before the kid introduced himself.

"Ah, hello - I'm Mary, and..." She glances around, and gets a very obvious reminder how out of the loop she is here. "I honestly do not know. I've just arrived here very recently, and this place is incredibly different from my home. I do not know if they have anything here like a library, or a town square."

[bachido]

Kubo's ability to read his audience had been honed by years of needing to read his audience if he wanted to eat, and also wanted his mother to eat, that day. He ran a tune up the neck of the shamisen again, and the paper came back out. A high-spirited horse trotted along the ground between him and his audience, tossing its paper mane.

"What's a library?" Kubo asked, as he played to keep the horse prancing.

[bashfulbibliophile]

While she was generally reserved about her interests to strangers, someone who was actually encouraging it got a reaction out of her - Mary's face lights up when the horse appears, and she stoops down to watch it for a moment, but his question makes her look up with surprise. It doesn't last long, though, and an expression befitting someone who greatly enjoys teaching takes over.

"It's a place filled with books, where people can go and read them - or borrow them to read at home or elsewhere. Sometimes people tell stories there, from the books that are there. Not all of them are stories, but a great deal of them usually are."

[unrecovered]

The last thing Wash expects to hear in the hallways is music, let alone something decidedly acoustic. He follows the sound to its source - because what *else* is he going to do today - and finds it to be a kid with an instrument that hasn't quite decided whether it wants to be a guitar when it grows up.

The interesting bit is the paper following the kid, folding and unfolding and moving in time with the music. There's no way that's a coincidence.

So he stops where he is and leans against the wall, keeping an eye on the kid. Something's bound to happen; in the meantime, he can ruminate on just how hard he's going to punch the Time Trapper for continually dragging kids into an interdimensional war.

[bachido]

Kubo spotted the man and gave him a nod and a smile in greeting, the nod tossing his bangs aside and exposing his eyepatch. It was a friendlier greeting than Kubo would have given if he knew Wash were entertaining less than enthusiastic thoughts about the kingly status of his shamisen, but not by much.

"Good afternoon!" he called. It felt like afternoon, even if maybe, there technically was no afternoon in space. He ran his fingers up and down the shamisen's neck, the orange and blue papers darting around in their stag-and-hunter shapes before unfolding, and transforming into birds that spiraled up overhead.

It wasn't showing off if it functioned as advertising.

"Are you new here too?" Kubo asked. Maybe not, judging by how unenthralled the man looked, but he must have been new here at SOME point.

[unrecovered]

Wash nods back. It's impossible to miss that eyepatch, but he doesn't comment, especially when there's more interesting things to look at.

"Not really. I've been here for a bit." He pushes off the wall and heads a bit closer to the kid, hopefully not enough to spook him. "I'm guessing you just arrived."

[bachido]

"You'd be right," Kubo confirmed. Totally unspooked, he played a tune that unfolded his birds and slipped them back into his pack before walking closer to meet Wash halfway. "Does that mean you know where the market is, here?"

His stomach had started rumbling about five minutes ago, but there hadn't been anyone around back then to give Kubo directions to any place to get food.

[unrecovered]

Okay, the kid had to have brought that power from home. There's no way he'd have that much finesse with it otherwise.

Market isn't a term Wash is expecting to hear, and he tilts his head a bit. "Kind of. What do you need?"

[notthatjason]

Jason was slowly getting better at finding his way around to the various places on the ship. He'd managed to successfully make it back to his Crew Quarters 9 out of 10 times and the Mess Hall was a lot easier since if he got close enough he could always just follow his nose.

However, he still got turned around occasionally because this place was just THAT big. He was currently trying to figure out how to get to the gym again and he must have taken a wrong turn because he was currently facing the Habitat Deck entrance. He actually hadn't visited this deck either yet, but he really wanted to get some training in before a mission came in.

He was just about to turn when he heard a twanging, sharp sound in the distance. It was close, probably just around those trees that were in the biome he was on the threshold of. Jason debated leaving it but his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to check it out. He hadn't heard that instrument before, though in some respects it reminded him of a banjo. Of course, he was terrible with instruments -- it wasn't like he was a child of Apollo or anything.

Jason came through the trees and paused at the sight of a boy, only a few years younger than him, playing the instrument as he walked. It wasn't the boy's appearance that gave him pause, it was the dancing paper behind the boy -- shifting from a pair of birds dive bombing each other into a pair of warriors with swords clashing in battle.

"Wow, I've never seen anything like that before," Jason said. And that was saying something, because Jason had seen a lot.

[bachido]

Kubo looked up with a friendly grin. "Only my mother and I ever did magic like this back in my home," he said. His grandfather and aunts did magic, sure, but it had been such awful magic. "I never expected to meet more people who had magic." He chuckled at his change in fate, still playing as he talked. The two birds unfolded themselves and joined into a spider larger than the two warriors, who suddenly abandoned their dual to defend against the giant beast.

[notthatjason]

So he was used to this ability, Jason made a mental note of that. It made sense, since he played the instrument so well and didn't seem at all interested in his own paper play. Jason was though, and was more than willing to forego training for a bit to learn more.

"I'm not sure everyone here has magic exactly. Or at least, they probably won't call it that," Jason said. His gaze was drawn back to the paper creations fighting. He couldn't help but smile at the display, it was just too fun not to.

"So you can make them do anything? What did you do with this kind of magic back home?"

[bachido]

"Why not?" Magic didn't seem like a bad term for being able to do extraordinary things, like make paper dance and . . . whatever else people did here. "Do you call your power something else?"

Kubo brightened, playing a quick tune. A red sheet of paper popped out of his sleeve in time to the notes, and struck a pose with his sword.

"I'm a storyteller. I use them to tell stories of the Mighty Hanzo, the greatest Samurai warrior of all time." His grin widened. "My father."

His pride couldn't have been clearer. Even after all these years of having to figure out how to end the incomplete stories his mother had told, after his single story in which all Hanzo's adventures had come to a true end, telling them still brought him joy.

"They're pretty good stories," he said, happily. "About revenge and adventure, fighting monsters and embarking on quests - the people back home liked them pretty well. I'll see pretty soon if the people here like them as well."

He couldn't imagine that they wouldn't.

[notthatjason]

"Well, for me, it's because there's a specific goddess that does that and her children use magic. The rest of us just have abilities we inherited from our parents," Jason explains. What they do might be considered magic by some, but to Jason there's a difference in magic like what Hecate's children and some other demigods can do and the lightning and wind he manipulates. "A lot of people just refer to what they can do as powers or abilities. I guess it doesn't really make that big of a difference really since it boils down to the same thing...but still." Magic just had a different flavor to it in Jason's mind.

Jason realizes as the conversation continues he might need to get comfortable. He leans against one of the nearby trees and watches as Kubo strums out a tune and continues to manipulate the paper. It's pretty clear that Kubo has his interest, as Jason has always been into stories of heroes. Usually they were in comic books, but the idea of a Samurai warrior sounds cool. "Sounds interesting. Of course, some of the people here have fought monsters and been on quests too. You might have to be pretty creative to keep them interested." Although clearly he's not talking about himself, he's already interested. It's kind of fun to compare stories, though he's not sure he can make his as entertaining. After all, he's not a professional story teller.

[onei]

Although the crew quarters were available - and perhaps a bit more convenient to the rest of the ship - Ina had taken up residence on her bit of the habitat deck, where she'd been able to get as close to a piece of home as she was likely to find in this world. She'd had it made over in the image of Ueda Castle and a bit of the surrounding lands, and everything was deliberately old-fashioned, with not a machine in sight. She didn't even have those odd sonic showers of theirs installed, because she couldn't imagine how anyone felt clean without even touching water.

But the one thing it always lacked was the people, and sometimes it felt a bit lonely - so she was quick to notice the strains of music coming from somewhere outside as she was getting dressed from the bath. It couldn't be...

It was enough to draw her outside, wearing a yukata and still toweling her hair dry, and she stopped to stare when she saw Kubo, clearly surprised. "So I did hear a shamisen!"

A little bit of familiarity that she didn't have to arrange for herself was quite welcome.

[bachido]

Ueda Castle had drawn Kubo's attention as surely as his shamisen drew Ina's. It looked so like Hanzo's fortress, but even grander, even if his father's castle hadn't been half-destroyed and overgrown. He'd meandered around the perimeter, hesitant to go inside a place so grand and so clearly taken care of -

But then the lady of the house called to him, and he looked up to spot her at the window. "Hello!" he called, brightly. "Do you have use for a storyteller?"

He ran a tune up the neck of the shamisen, and paper flew out of his pack to fold into a red samurai warrior that stood on his shoulder.

[onei]

A samurai, in red - that hit something in her a bit harder than she expected, made her think of Yukimura rushing towards the defensive lines around the Tokugawa camp, and she blinked back a few sudden tears even as she smiled and waved him towards the gate.

"I'd be glad for any company. They did a wonderful job of replicating the castle here, but it's not the same without the people."

[bachido]

Thrilled, Kubo trotted for the gate.

He could probably imagine the inside of his father's fortress before it had been half ruined, after exploring this one. He waited eagerly to be let in.

He bowed politely when the lady of the house opened the door. "How many people lived here?" he asked, enthusiasm rolling out of him. "Were there samurai warriors to protect it? Did they stay here with their families?"

[onei]

He was enthusiastic, wasn't he? It was refreshing, after things had long been so somber around the castle. Nobuyuki had told her once that she'd brought light to their home, but she had to admit that even she hadn't been able to keep spirits up so well after the Sanada clan had been split down the middle.

Someone new, once again, might bring some light to these halls.

She stepped aside to let him inside, considering where to start. He seemed impressed...perhaps the main hall? "Once, there were two thousand soldiers garrisoned in Ueda. And their families, and some other townspeople, of course." You couldn't maintain a castle town with warriors alone.