Music Box (Patreon)

A close-up of Max's music maker thingy.

But what does it do, exactly? What does it sound like? Music is hard to draw, it turns out, especially if you're like me and you know very little about music, so I figured I should take a moment to explain.

Like almost everything technological in Kuserra, the Music Box is broken. Whatever its original function was is forgotten and who knows how it was originally intended to work. What Max has managed to figure out, however, is how to hook it up and power it so that it manages to make noise out of other connected noise boxes (which the Ancestors would know as speakers).

Depending how the mess of cables inside the case are connected together, the noise that comes out of this box is basically just a mix of white noise and feedback loops, and Max can adjust several elements of these sounds by the use of the box's dials and switches. Through his own skill alone, Max can make music out of the noise, playing the board skillfully, almost like an instrument. This means that if he's not actively adjusting those knobs and tapping those buttons, the sound coming out of the box is probably just solid, constant noise.

On average, music in Kuserra tends to be not very good. There are performers and entertainers, even in a place like Kuserra, but they often rely on improvised instruments and unpracticed vocals. That's part of what sets Max apart. Not only is he a gorgeous dancer, not only does he sing beautifully, but when he gets behind his Music Box no one in Kuserra has ever heard anything like the music he can make with it.