driftfleet | three ○ video / action

Entry tags:

three ○ video / action

Who: Caesar & u
Broadcast: Fleetwide!
Action: Iskaulit & waystations!
When: 8/17 - 8/22

I was just hailed by a shuttle on the way from the Tourist to the Iskaulit . . . I understand this has been happening regularly? Do we have any idea who these shuttles belong to? Or are people just racing strangers with no information whatsoever?

[He sounds moderately pressed about this. But an important thing to note about Caesar is that, while he acts mostly responsible most of the time, if you dare him into something hard enough, he will pretty much always do it.]

[When he isn't passive-aggressively complaining on the network, he starts hesitantly exploring the Iskaulit, poking his head into its empty rooms with the (fairly irrational) fear that he'll see one of the bugs around any corner. Eventually he'll get to moving a little bit more slowly, studying the way the ship is built, how it's different from the Tourist and the Marsiva and the other ships he's been on.]

[Later, he makes his way to the nearest waystation, which is, naturally, a huge disappointment. He can be found loudly sighing in pretty much any location on the station, but especially over the clothes, which are all a few sizes too small. And there are no backwards suspenders anywhere.]

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What's the matter? [He leans a little closer to the communicator, a challenging sort of grin starting to grow on his face.] Scared you might have fun?

No. I'm concerned you might crash us into the Marsiva.

[Don't you look at him like that, you motherfucker.]

[He legitimately would have no idea what you're talking about. And really, Caesar's resistance is just making it worse.]

Well then we'd find a new part of the ship we weren't allowed on before. But that's not gonna happen. I've won nearly every race since I started. I know exactly how to handle this thing.

Hell, I could probably start winning races with the Caprine herself if my crewmates wouldn't complain so much.

[Maybe he's aware of that. Maybe he's doing this a little bit on purpose. Maybe.]

Please don't crash your ship, either. You'd have to sleep in some other ship's kitchen and you'd never stop complaining.

What? Are you saying you'd let me have nowhere to sleep? [Joseph, you'd maybe sound more offended if you stopped smiling.] That's cold, Cici.

[....... WELL NOW HE'S DEFINITELY NOT LETTING YOU SLEEP ON HIS SHIP.]

Clearly you deserve it. [FREEZING FUCKING COLD.]

[He snickers that annoying mischievous and very self-satisfied snicker. It's the exact reaction he was fishing for. But he lets up for now. He doesn't want to make Caesar too angry too fast.]

So, are you coming or what?

Not if you're planning to call me that again.

I promise: no more calling you Cici.

[FINGERS ARE CROSSED BEHIND HIS BACK.]

[He knows this. He does. And yet.]

Fine, then. If it's that important to you.

Excellent! [Now the competitiveness is getting very apparent on his face.] Be ready in five minutes.

[He hangs up and will be by to pick Caesar up. ...Probably before five minutes.]

[Joke's on you, motherfucker, Caesar was born ready. . . . By which I mean he spent forty-five minutes getting himself to look this presentably ridiculous, but that was this morning. Now he's waiting in the bay and looks up when Joseph arrives with a bored expression.]

What took you so long?

[Joseph ain't bovvered by your bored expression in the least bit, Caesar. If anything, he's looking more smug because the harder you try to act like you don't care, he's pretty sure you do.]

Uh-oh. Are you starting to look forward to it? You know, if you watch me close enough, I'll let you have a turn flying it.

No, thank you.

[Very prim and polite. He does not want to be in charge of this mess at all. It's just that he has things to do. Stuff and things.]

I'll mostly be watching you to make sure you don't steer us into any planets we happen to pass.

Fuck you. [But he isn't even a little bit mad. He's still smiling and motions for Caesar to follow him back onto the shuttle.] You're gonna feel really stupid when you see how good I am.

[God, stop being so good-natured, it's super annoying. He sighs, long-suffering, and follows after, slipping into the front seat of the shuttle while wondering to himself how the hell he got talked into this.]

I'll honestly be grateful to get out of this with all of my limbs still attached.

[See how good he's being? He didn't say get out of this alive.]

[It's so much better. But, of course, because he doesn't make that particular joke, Joseph doesn't notice that restraint on a conscious level. He plops down in the pilot seat.]

Keep talking shit, Caesar. You're just gonna end up eating all of it.

[And Joseph does actually have a handle on operating the shuttle. Aside from the racing around, he has been committing himself to practicing every now and again. He hates hard work, but this is something he wants to do, not something he has to do. He can put the time into it and it's paid off. It's almost like he's been doing this his whole life.]

You really don't need to be that disgusting.

[But he is relaxing a little bit, now that he's getting some evidence of the fact that Joseph probably won't crash them before even leaving the the hangar. It stands to reason, probably; even Joestar-level incompetence can't withstand the mental adjustments of an augment glitch.]

[He does see, too, that Joseph has clearly practiced. But he's not going to mention that. Joseph's ego is already dangerous enough.]

[How dare you, Caesar. Flying is in his blood. You know, as far back as his father anyway. Point is, he'd consider himself a natural at this. The augment just gives him a leg up is all.]

[He looks over at Caesar with a crooked grin.]

Sorry, I don't know where the limit of what you'll put in your mouth is after the pigeon. [BECAUSE HE HAD SUCH A CHOICE IN THE MATTER??] Would you put that above or below the bug?

[The look Caesar gives him is so dirty it's buried underground.]

I don't want to hit you, Jojo, because I'd prefer we fly straight. But I will.

[He will turn this shuttle around, he swears to God.]

[Joseph tries hard not to laugh at the face he's getting. He purses his lips as tight as he would if he'd been made to pop a whole lemon in his mouth. But he snorts and then it's all downhill from there.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. [He shakes his head and gives more of his attention back to what he's doing.] You're so full of shit sometimes.

[It's going to be a few minutes probably until they receive a hail to start a race. So, Joseph, naturally, fills it with chatter, saying more or less whatever comes to mind without thinking much about it.]

You know, I'm serious, Caesar. If you ever wanna learn how to fly one of these things, I can teach you. It's not that hard. If I can do it, you can. I don't think you can technically take these things off autopilot yourself, but it could come in handy to know how.

[He's not trying to bring the mood down, but shit can happen. They both know that better than most people. At least most people where they're from.]

If I'm honest though, space is neat and everything, [he shrugs a shoulder,] but I think I like flying planes better still. I always loved 'em as a kid. I had a ton of toy planes and books about them. Not that I actually read them much. They were boring as hell, so I just liked looking at the pictures.

I probably get all of that from my father. He was a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, [he looks over at Caesar,] did I ever tell you that?

[It's true. He's completely full of shit. No matter how much Joseph irritates him, he's happy to be with him. More now, maybe, than before, even though there's no way to explain why, and he's perfectly (mostly perfectly) content to keep everything about the shift to himself.]

[The offer . . . he doesn't entirely know what to do with it. He's not wholly comfortable with the idea of flying one of these things, sure he'd feel entirely oh of his element. But talking with Ino made him think a little bit about taking advantage of opportunities when they're offered, when you're not confined by your own capabilities. Besides - he'd offer to teach Joseph how to use the weapons he's found himself able to use thanks to his augment. In fact, why hasn't he?]

[Well, that answer's easy, anyway. He's been very distracted.]

[He glances up when Joseph starts talking about - things Caesar didn't know, things he feels he should've. He finds he's able to envision Joseph as a child very easily, a big book on his lap, flipping through the pages in search of illustrations and the rare photograph. He can't imagine Joseph's father: there are too many gaps in his knowledge there, he has no idea what the man might have looked like, acted like, sounded like. But he can imagine Joseph idolizing him. Boys and their fathers are always boys and their fathers.]

You never told me that. [His voice is quiet, a little curious.] But I'd like to hear about him.

[Joseph would probably continue with or without prompting. But Caesar wants to be sure he keeps hearing his voice.]

Edited 2015-08-31 06:50 (UTC)

Ah, I never really knew him. I mean, I know him better than I do my mother, but he still died when I was a baby. Granny had a few pictures of him, but she didn't like to talk about him much. [Which may actually be half-true, so Joseph corrects himself.] I didn't really ask either. I think Speedwagon would say more if I ever asked even if Granny couldn't, but...I didn't.

[And it was more complicated than he could really explain as to why he never asked. On the one hand, Joseph never knew the man for himself and doesn't have any memories of his father that belong to him. It was easier in some ways to just not worry about it and be satisfied with as little as he was told. Besides, his grandmother always looked a little sad whenever the topic came up. Even as self-centered as Joseph can be, he never wanted his grandmother to be sad. On the other, the Joestar legacy has been hanging over Joseph's head possibly since before he was even born. Why would he want a part of that when he knows what happens? He doesn't want to die. He's not prepared to die. He doesn't want to be yet another, he just wants to be Joseph. Whatever that means, he wants to be that. And from that angle, it's even easier to look the other way and ignore his family's history as being selfish is something Joseph can be exceedingly good at when he puts his mind to it.]

Granny always used to say he looked a lot like my grandfather. [He's not sure if that's true or wishful thinking. He could see the similarities now between himself and the few pictures he has of his father, so it was certainly a possibility.] He was a lot more like my grandfather than I'll ever be, I know that for sure. Granny raised him to be a perfect gentleman. They always told me that he was the sort of person who'd go out of his way for other people, always did the right thing, and was really brave. That's why my mother fell in love with him, anyway. They were really happy together from what I've been told.

I used to think that was all just crap they'd tell me to get me to stop being such a brat since it's all stuff you'd assume a fighter pilot would be, but... But I don't know. [He shrugs a little. It was always a nice thing to aspire to. Even if he didn't want to be most of what his bloodline had decided he ought to be, that didn't stop Joseph from wanting to be that brave and that good a person as his father was always described to be.] It's a not a bad lie if it is one.

[He hesitates to say what he's about to next. He knows Caesar's feelings when it comes to Joestars and generally anyone connected to them. An open invitation to talk about what little he knows about his father isn't really the same thing as pointing out that he's been connected to the Joestars at least tangentially through Lisa Lisa's connection to them, whatever that connection may be exactly. But he presses forward because maybe Caesar will just think it's an abrupt change of topic.]

Caesar... How well did you know Lisa Lisa?

[He watches Joseph out of the corner of his eye, trying to seem as though he's focused on what's happening ahead of them. He's not, though, not even a little bit. It's - honestly kind of fascinating, Joseph talking about all of this. He's never been closed-mouthed about his family, exactly, but he only ever really talked about Erina and Speedwagon. Not his father, not his mother. Caesar wants to know all these things about him. He's not kidding himself, at this point. He wants to know everything about Joseph, even if that's all that ever happens. He wants to know him like he's never known anyone else.]

[When he smiles, he faces front very deliberately, sitting up straight in his seat.]

I don't think it was because of that. Nobody would be stupid enough to think talking up your father would change you into a gentleman. It's got to be true.

[His smile doesn't exactly fade at the mention of Lisa Lisa. Missing her is . . . different from missing his siblings. He knows she can take care of herself, is taking care of herself, and it's honestly a little insulting for him to worry about her. But he does regret not being there for her; he regrets leaving her behind, almost as much as he regrets leaving Joseph. She's been a part of his life for so long now, being without her is strange, confusing.]

Lisa Lisa was . . . hard to know. Every time I had questions about her past, she dodged them and then threw me into harder training. Which I didn't mind, it's just . . . I could read her moods, I could predict what she was going to say sometimes, but I could never really learn anything about her.

That's . . . I think that's part of why I never - with you. I got used to not talking about it.

[He glances sideways at Joseph, looking a little worried.]

Sorry. That's not a very good answer.

[Joseph shakes his head.]

Nah, it's alright.

[And then he falls silent because he doesn't know how to say why he was asking about Lisa Lisa in the first place without just saying it. Maybe it's really the only way. It certainly seems like it. Joseph's a little slow to start, words falling out first in uneven succession until periods find their way at the ends of his sentences rather than in the middle.]

I think. I think Lisa Lisa...knew my parents. Maybe. I don't know. She didn't say. She just said our roots were connected. [He lets out a breath.] Cars and Wham kept Lisa Lisa while I went back with Messina to get the stone. I was looking for it in her things and found pictures. One of them was recent and the other was 50 years old.

[That's not exactly how it happened, but Caesar doesn't need to know he was being invasive, nosy, and a teenage boy at the time. It'd just distract from the point anyway.]

The recent one was of Granny and the older one was Uncle Speedwagon, Granny Erina when she was pregnant with my father, and Straits holding a baby. She was that baby, the one Granny Erina rescued from the ship my grandfather died on. Straits raised her like she was his own, I guess.

[Which he now finds it incredible that Lisa Lisa managed to not say or do anything to Joseph when he turned up. She knew what he did, that he had been the one to kill Straits, and yet she said nothing until Joseph forced it out of her. And even then, it was calm. Neutral. Not as though she didn't care, but still without a lot of emotion behind it.]

Straits wasn't all that close to my family. I don't really have that many memories of him anyway until he turned up in New York trying to kill me. But Lisa Lisa is the same age my parents would be if they were still alive, so there's still a chance, I think. And she said we'd talk. After everything was finished.

I guess I was just hoping...

[Hoping something completely foolish. Of course Caesar doesn't know anything. Why would he? Lisa Lisa was an incredibly private person and she only spoke when she had to. It's not that she didn't care about people, she did in a much deeper fashion than Joseph ever would have predicted, but she was still reserved and focused on the task ahead. She was simply driven, bound by duty. Although where that duty comes from remains a mystery to him. Maybe that's what she was talking about.]

I don't know, [he admits after a long pause.] It seems like all of us are connected somehow. I just want to know what hers is to my family.

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i literally do not have an icon angry enough for this moment

u luv it tho, caesar

N O

(づ￣ ³￣)づ

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