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suzie quatro

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Who: Suzie and YOU!
Broadcast: Fleetwide Video!
Action: On The Marsiva, newly arrived!
When: Afternoon, November 28th

[The view from the personal communicator broadcasting this particular message is — well, it's two things, really. One is that it's capturing a lovely, albeit partially-obscured view of the Marsiva, which also appears to be moving along at an ambling walking pace that's indicative of someone wandering around. The other is that whoever's responsible for this particular broadcast evidently missed the memo about appearing in it, because she's nowhere in sight.

All of which presumably adds up to the logical (and correct) conclusion: the communicator got shoved in a pocket and turned on by mistake, and here we are, granting the fleet an impromptu and oblivious tour of the Hospitality Deck and its sights and relative lack of sounds.]

...Helloooooo? Hello, perdonami! Um...if someone's there, I think there's been a...mistake...

[Wandering, wandering. Time to go look down the medical wing's corridor in search of human life, and be utterly disappointed.]

Hello? Someone in charge, can I speak with you, please? Someone? I can't be here right now, the boat's going to leave without me — it takes thirty minutes to get back, if I miss it I'll be stuck waiting a whole hour! I can't wait a whole hour, there's chores, the laundry won't get done if I'm not — I think I might've left the gas on, is someone theeeeeeeeere?

[The video meanders again; now we're over by the windows, evidently peering out into the void.]

Ohhhhhh, this isn't going to be good, if everyone comes back and I'm not there...

[A pause.]

Oh, no! Can Air Supplena even get phone calls or telegrams from outer space?!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Suzie.

[God.]

What were you going to do if it got worse?

Cae-sar!

[Hmph.]

I'm fine, it wasn't like that!

You're fine now, but you might not have been, and us countries away.

[Is this how you're honestly choosing to cope, dude.]

Did you find something to eat?

[HONESTLY . . .]

Well, now you know why I didn't tell you. Fussy!

[The mention of eating, though, reminds her that she'd seen something like that in her wandering around, so the scenery behind her starts to move gradually as she resumes walking back in that direction.]

I think there was something like that back in this big room, but I didn't stop — there's no one in it.

There might not be. The ship you're on, it's not as busy as the one you'll be on soon. At least not usually.

[He looks like he's sucking a lemon.]

I am not fussy.

You are fussy.

[Says the woman who spends twenty minutes fretting over shirt patterns.]

...They're going to send me somewhere else? ...Oh, right! To help repair the other ships.

[...]

...Which I...know how to do...

[Takes fussy to know fussy? He perks up, anyway. Panic delayed by another half-second.]

Just one other ship, usually. That's the one you'll stay on.

It's an augment. That's how you know. I have one, too.

...Which one are you and Jojo on?

[Obviously they are on the same one, because anything else is inconceivable.]

Am I going to be sent to one full of strangers...?

[Don't make it weird, Suzie.]

I'm on the Tourist, he's on the Caprine. Even if you get sent somewhere else, you can still come visit us if you want.

["If".]

Tourist...and Caprine. I can remember that. And I guess once I find out the name of mine, I'll tell you both right away, too!

[But by now she's just sort of eyeing him, just a little.]

...Ti senti ansioso, Caesar...?

[Mmm. This is the part where he would like to dodge, honestly. But he's learning things, slowly but surely. She can tell he's upset, even if she doesn't know why. Lying to her doesn't feel right, either.]

[He shrugs instead, an aborted, awkward movement.]

Worried about you.

[That was agonizing.]

[The absolute wrong thing to do here would be to cry.

It's tempting. The initial disorientation is fading and she's starting to grasp for real that this is it, whatever this is, it's something that's not just going to go away; no one is going to answer her no matter how much she walks around, and it's not all just a dream or a mistake, she's not just dozing off on the ferry back to Air Supplena or worse, knocked out on the cobblestones of Venice somewhere by mistake.

Whatever this is, it's happening, and she could've been all alone in a strange place and left to deal with this all herself, and she's not.

He doesn't need to fuss. And it does feel bad to see him worry, but there's comfort in the knowing that someone in this vast, foreign place already cares enough to in the first place.]

I'll be brave. Okay? Promise.

[. . . Damn.]

[Okay, well, this is fine. Not the best case scenario, which would be her safe at home. But it could be worse. This place . . . has done good things for him. Maybe it will be the same for her. Maybe she won't have to be brave after all.]

[After a moment of, it has to be said, looking kind of stunned (it's been six months, you can't blame him), he manages a smirk. A really good one, actually.]

Aren't you always?

[She laughs, softly, and makes sure he sees it before rapidly tilting the camera away from her face, like it's a mistake and she forgot to keep it pointed at her in her merriment.

She hasn't. Feigning it just buys her a much-needed second or two to swipe at her eyes with the back of her free hand before ending up back in view again.]

Not always. But when it counts!

[Mm. No, that's not fooling him, and it makes him frown a little, pinched and uncertain. At least she laughed. That has to count for something. A start.]

[. . . That's strange to think about, isn't it? Anything as a starting point. For so long he thought of things as pointless, one long endpoint, nothing particularly worth pursuing. But Suzie is very much alive. Acting in any other way seems, frankly, like an insult to her.]

It won't be so bad, anyway. Jojo's here, and Lisa Lisa. And the other people, they aren't so bad.

[He has made, like, three entire friends. The miracles of space.]

Madame Lisa Lisa too?!

[SHE HASN'T RUN INTO HER ON THE MARSIVA YET. WHY? BECAUSE WHAT IS TIME IN RP, THAT'S WHY.]

How is she? Is she okay? ...I never got to ask if she packed the lavender sachets in her suitcase when you left, did she mention those — wait, why would she mention those to you boys, ummm...

[All truth is crooked, time itself is a circle. Especially in Jojos.]

We didn't talk to her about any lavender sachets, Suzie. Other things, though. I think she's okay.

[It's honestly kind of hard to tell though? And he's still like. 15% mad at her about the thing.]

Then I'm — even better still!

[Because how could she not be, when all of the most important people in the world are safe and sound.]

Did...did she get her package back...?

[The one she, y'know. Mailed. With her own two hands. Or that someone did with her own two hands, anyway.]

[He can't help smiling at that. Suzie, you are not that covert, but you are really cute, so it's fine.]

Everything's dealt with, yes. Everything's fine.

[With one or two minor hiccups, but Joseph promised, didn't he? He promised. They're all going to go home.]

Good.

[It really is. It's the best news she could've possibly heard.]

...For me, you all only just left, but...I missed you already, so however long it took you to deal with it, you better not have kept me waiting too long.

[Mmm. Yeah. He's not going to be able to keep this from her for long, is he? He can tell already. Just the way she's looking right now - even if she's happy, happiness at the expense of the truth . . .]

Jojo saved the day. So it probably took a little longer than it needed to. But we'll all be home soon.

...Well. It's Jojo, so there's no helping it.

[And maybe later it will occur to her that reading the wording of those remarks very precisely leaves a certain big gap with only a question mark to fill it, but it's certainly not going to now — so over her head it goes.

It probably also helps that she's just discovered something equally unsettling to preoccupy her attention.]

...Um. Is this supposed to be food?

[Oh, yeah, that's a thing. He wrinkles his nose.]

It's horrible, isn't it? When we were all down on the Marsiva, I could cook, and if you're on a ship with an assigned cook there are better ingredients, but generally . . .

[So deeply offensive.]

[ITALIAN SENSIBILITIES FOODSTUFF RIOT]

It looks like wallpaper paste.

[Poke. Poke poke poke the mush.]

I think it could function as wallpaper paste.

[Suzie, be a dear and take over Atroma so we don't have to eat this garbage anymore? Thanks.]

I was able to pull things together for his birthday, at least. Although I think you could've made a better cake.

[Which means he wishes you were there. In Caesar language.]