Boombox had never really known Skateboard, but they’d always been acquaintances.
To some extent, at least.
The skater was heartfelt, a kinder sort. More generous. Spent most of his free time helping others & those in need, always sharing a part of his heart with those he deemed needed it most. Boombox mostly remained in his own lane, producing his music out on the streets of Splintered Skies. He was a bit of a prodigy there, all for his upbeat EDM music, but surprise of surprises, even the idolised had a person he looked up to.
Skateboard, of course.
Skateboard… was a bit of an outcast. Even Windforce, for all her preaching, didn’t like him. Rumours began to pop up one day that Skateboard was bound to be exiled off of Splintered Skies due to his history with the faction, something along the lines of that he’d never truly been a part of the floating city. Of course, Boombox was devastated to hear this sort of news, even if it was just rumours for a while…
It kickstarted his confidence to finally greet Skateboard properly, instead of admiring him from a safe distance.
He approached the skateboarder one late afternoon, when he’d spotted the man sitting alone outside a cafe, silently sipping some water.
“Hey! Skateboard, right?”
“Yes, that’d be me.”
“So… you’re that guy that helps out the needy, right?”
“I’m more known for my skateboarding tricks, but …yeah. I do that too.”
Skateboard’s faint smile made Boombox’s visor flicker a little.
“So, not much of a coffee person, no?”
“Mm. No. I don’t care much for caffeine. It overstimulates me far too fast.”
“I have that same problem too.”
Their conversation had been mild, but appeasing. At least to Boombox’s standards; he hardly really spoke with anyone to a genuine level. He felt a slightly pang of disappointment in his heart when he realised what he & Skateboard may have might turn out the same.
But then, early one morning, as Boombox was passing by an alleyway, he heard a commotion coming from within.
“Leave, boy. You have no place on this land.”
“B-but my home is here—!”
“Does it look like I care? Be gone, boy. Before I have to exile you myself.”
Boombox instantly dashed down the alleyway, quickly picking up the two voices as being Windforce’s iconic tone & Skateboard’s oddly timid one. He froze to a halt when he saw the scene; Windforce & a couple of her goons surrounding Skateboard, whom was rapidly backing away into an unsealed edge of the floating island, clearly intent to push him off, or throw him off themselves.
“Hey! What’s going on here?!” Boombox cried.
Windforce spun round to face him, her expression darkening.
“It’s none of your business, music boy… unless you’d rather go with this traitor?”
Boombox flinched internally at Windforce’s bitingly venomous tone; she clearly wasn’t in the mood for any banter right now, & the last thing that Boombox needed was to provoke—
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I would. If you’re going to exile him, you’ve gotta throw me off the island, too.”
Windforce just chuckled darkly at Boombox’s avid retaliation; snapping her fingers in the air for her two goons to start closing in on Boombox, too.
“Very well then.”
… Well, the last thing he’d remembered back up in the sky was being grabbed by two of Windforce’s most prized guards, then promptly being flung off the face of the floating island alongside Skateboard. He yelled in fright as any normal person would do, but Skateboard was oddly silent as he fell with him. For a moment, Boombox thought that Skateboard had fainted, but no; instead, his eyes were narrowed in a sense of concentration, his skateboard still clutched to his side despite the situation.
Boombox passed out right around then.
He came to again in a garbage dumpster, coincidentally lounging back against a few lumpy trash bags thrown in the dumpster. He groaned as he struggled to wake back up, his vision blurry as he tried to make out the blurry figure looming above him, as well as their voice…
He tried to reach up to try to physically touch the person to make sure they were real.