driftfleet | i start it up, turn it over like a general MINGLE

[Did someone say eating? There is a simple fact of life, and that fact is that if Suzie is coming to visit, there is an 85% chance that Suzie is also bringing something edible with her, and it appears that what she's come up with today is something that smells like chicken soup with potato dumplings, hot and in a thermos that she clearly found on the planet, if the cheerful salt shaker pattern is any indication.

She's also a little sniffly, and bundled up accordingly against it, but she's definitely looking like she's on the mend; the medicine she's been given is doing its job, so she's at least well enough to go visiting instead of remaining bedridden.]

Jooooooooooooojo!

[Joseph turns in his seat, resting an arm on the back of his chair when he hears that chipper voice. He's grinning wide just for her. Well. Mostly for her. Let's not pretend like the prospect of food doesn't also put that smile on his face some. But he's always got a smile for Suzie, that's just a given.]

Well, well! Look at who's vertical again! [He points a finger at her.] You are feeling better, right?

[Because so help him, he will carry you off to bed to rest, Suzie Quatro. Don't test him.]

A little! My ship medic had some medicine that's from the planet, it's supposed to help a lot. I think it helped that he got to it right away, so it could start working...

[Well, anyway. She offers him up the thermos, smiling back with faintly chapped lips beneath, indeed, a slightly red nose.]

But I've been having plenty of soup, and I made extra! So I brought some for you, since I was coming to visit.

You're so thoughtful.

[Joseph leans over to take the thermos, but not before giving Suzie's forehead a kiss. He's just checking her temperature. Ssshh.]

That's why you're my favorite girl.

[Truly, this is the the nature of Life Around Tall People™ a long angle of reach for kisses like that, like it's effortless.

When he draws back, she's got her lips pressed tightly together, and it's pretty obviously because she's hiding a smile.]

Jojo!

[That sure is a token protest that is actually protesting nothing at all.]

Haha, wait until you taste it, then we'll see if I'm your double favorite. I think it came out pretty well...

[Oh yeah, he's really convinced that she's going to file a complaint with someone about that forehead kiss. It's clearly going to be bothering her for weeks now that he's done that. He'll think about what's done and try to make amends when she's ready. Until then though, he's unscrewing the cap on the thermos.]

We'll just have to see, won't we?

[Joseph gives it a quick smell first--because what's better than the smell of chicken soup--before taking a sip. He makes a thoughtful noise, putting on a very good show of contemplating the taste and where he'd place it. He doesn't hold back on his opinion for very long however as Joseph quickly bursts out into a wide grin.]

Nice! [He gives her a thumbs up with a wink.] Perfect as always, Suzie Q!

Good! That's what I like to hear!

[And with that as her cue, she proceeds to settle in, shifting position so he doesn't have to twist around just to look at her. Evidently she's figuring on this being longer than just a passing visit.]

I made some other things, too, for a new friend of mine who'd never eaten real food. So I've got lots of recipes I've figured out by now, that don't look or taste like paste at all. It's not like home, but it's about as close as I can get.

[She'll hear no complaints out of Joseph. Now that she's looking and sounding much better, she can stay over here on the Caprine as much as she likes. Oh but now he's pouting some.]

Now I'm just jealous you're over with Lisa Lisa instead of with me all the time. We had a cook over here for a while, [he crinkles his nose,] but she's kinda weird and nowhere near as good as you or Caesar.

[Otherwise, Nightingale is lovely. Just odd. And trying to pass something that wiggles as chicken, which is super not okay. But outside of those things, Joseph actually really does like Nightingale.]

Our crew keeps changing up, but we haven't had a cook since. And actually, Mal and I are the only ones still here from when I first go here, but now we've got two robots, a really nervous kid as our lab person, and some punk who's also a pilot.

[It's only the last person on that list that gets any noticeable shade though. How dare...]

Mm, I know one of your robots! He was on the Marsiva at the same time as me. He has a teacher like Madame Lisa Lisa, too, who he says is just as great and powerful. So maybe you'll get along, since you're both students like that...

[She hums a little.]

Well, you know you can come to visit me whenever you want, right? Even if I'm asleep! Because I'm always happy to see you.

[Maybe they will get along, maybe they won't. Joseph goes back and forth when it comes to Elecman, but it could just be that he happens to be an asshole of a robot. Who knows?]

[He does make a face though as he's taking another sip of soup.]

Suzie, I'm not gonna come over when you're asleep. [You silly.] But I'll be sure to come over and bug you as much as I bug Caesar during the day, okay?

[Hmm, there it is again. It's more obvious now, when she knows to listen for it — it was like that in other conversations, too, you and Caesar, me and Caesar. And it's not just Jojo, either; when it's Caesar, it's so often the two of them, sooner or later mentions of Jojo will just naturally arise, because it is natural, isn't it?

She's not immune, either. Jojo and me and Caesar makes three.

It does, doesn't it? That's...something to figure out how to express, certainly, before this particular encounter is through.]

You could. I'd wake up for you, just like you'd wake up for me if I needed you, right?

[...]

Or Caesar. We'd both wake up for Caesar, huh...?

Mm.

[And that's about all Joseph will say about it as far as waking up for Caesar is concerned. He's done it countless times. He'll do it countless more times if he has to; though he actually tries to circumvent it altogether most by just heading on over to the Tourist and spending the night there anyway. Caesar seems to sleep through most of the nights Joseph's there or else he doesn't wake Joseph up and just stays close to him until he can fall asleep again. But he's not going to just say that.]

[It's not that he's trying to...hide what he has with Caesar or trying to deceive Suzie, but he's really not sure how to approach it. Everybody here on the Fleet doesn't really care or they ended up figuring it out before Joseph or Caesar could for themselves.]

[But he doesn't know what Suzie will think about it and he also doesn't know what Lisa Lisa will think. (And what Lisa Lisa will think also matters because Suzie will definitely tell her sooner or later. She couldn't keep a secret like that from her and Joseph wouldn't ask her to.) Normally? He wouldn't care what other people think. It's not really any of their business. But if Suzie or Lisa Lisa more or less vanished because of something like that...]

[Joseph puts it out of his mind immediately.]

But it's more important that you get all the sleep you can. Not just when you're sick, all the time. You got a lot to do in a day for your ship and Lisa Lisa, right?

Mmhmm, I do. Sometimes Captain Robin gets a little out of hand, but I can usually fix up anything that goes wrong without too much trouble.

[Does his silence on the topic mean "Don't worry, I'll take care of it", she wonders? Maybe he doesn't want her to fret over it; that'd be a Jojo-like thing to do.

But she hesitates a little, looking down at her hands, and ultimately decides to make one more try at it, as diplomatically as she can.]

...He told me he had a nightmare the other night. He came over to sit up with me, but...we ended up talking about that, too. About how you're going to take us both to New York someday.

[Joseph makes a face at the mention of Robin. He can't help it. That guy really pisses him off and he's more or less refused to give Robin a second chance. But the look disappears almost immediately when Suzie starts talking about Caesar's nightmares. He's silent for a long moment because he's actually surprised that Caesar mentioned them to her. Caesar told the truth about dying to her, he knows that much. But he didn't know he mentioned the nightmares ever or talked about them in any sort of detail.]

Yeah, he has nightmares a lot. We've talked about them before.

[Joseph's unusually quiet in saying this and appears almost like he's distracted. Instead, he's looking for a distraction, eyes moving over to his controls even though everything is currently set to autopilot so there's nothing for him to do while he sips at the soup. It's never easy dealing with Caesar's nightmares, but that first night had been the hardest. It wasn't just Caesar's shit that they had to try and start sorting through, but Joseph's, too. In some ways, Joseph's still just as avoidant about it as Caesar is, they just go about it in different ways. Well, and Joseph finds a way to push Caesar into talking about it for a little while before offering up enough distraction that Caesar can get to sleep. Joseph doesn't need that because he's good at distracting himself. Those are the differences.]

[But just like that, it's gone again. Joseph is focused back on Suzie and he's got a dimmer smile than before, but a smile all the same.]

That probably made him feel better. He makes me talk about New York sometimes after he's had a nightmare. He'll sometimes fall asleep right in the middle of asking me another question about it.

[She manages a little laugh, sweet and light, but she's watching him more than closely enough to see that this is making him uncomfortable. And that in turn makes her feel terrible, really it does, because the last thing she wants is to take a happy moment and turn it into a bittersweet one — not least of which because she knows this is what they count on her for, more than anything, is to do the exact opposite. It brings them relief when she's gentle and merry, because she's a distraction from the heavy things they carry with them. She knows that. That's why, when she can make them smile, it's the best thing in the world.

But she needs to know. For more than just herself, she needs to find out.]

It sounded like you've talked about it a lot. I thought it'd be selfish to ask, but you two had already counted on bringing me along, so I was worried for nothing.

[She goes quiet again.]

Jojo...what's it going to be like, when we go to New York...? I don't mean all the things we'll see and do. We'll see the Liberty statue and meet your granny and eat dinners out and stand on the tops of tall buildings...but what I mean is, once we've had our fun together doing those things in an afternoon...then what? You've...you two, you've talked about that, too, isn't that right?

I...

[...don't know. He can't make himself finish that sentence. Instead, he sighs, sitting back and slouching a little in his seat.]

Suzie, you gotta understand something. When we first got here, I could barely get Caesar to want to take advantage of any of this. I mean, he'd go along with it if I dragged him along or pushed it, but he didn't want to really do anything or to talk to people or make friends or anything. He didn't see the point since back home he's...you know.

[All this time and Joseph still won't say it. He won't say Caesar's dead when he's very clearly not, when he's still so alive. Joseph looks out the front window, out at the stars, the planet below, and the rest of the Fleet drifting around them.]

I promised myself I'd bring him back home way before I ever made it to him. I waited to say anything to him because I knew he wasn't ready and if I did, he'd just brush it off or get pissed at me for thinking like that.

[It was actually something he still worried about even when he decided to take the chance and tell Caesar. He was so, so relieved when Caesar accepted it, when Caesar put his belief and trust in him against everything else that life has likely ever taught Caesar. When Joseph thinks about it, he's done a lot of impossible things and he'll go on to probably do some other pretty impossible things before it's his time, but none of them will be quite as important or as remarkable as pushing past Caesar's pessimism to give him real hope.]

You know him, Suzie. He's not good at having hope. He's worse at letting himself want something. He didn't let himself want New York right away. He had to want what's here in front of him first. So yeah, I've thought about it. I've thought about it a lot. But I think he's still having to tell himself it's okay to want New York, I don't think he's thought about much beyond that. [Joseph looks at Suzie again with a light smile.] Not yet, anyway. Fortunately though I've got my favorite girl to help remind him it's okay to want things, right?

...I think he's starting to think about it.

[It's hard to listen to all this, of course. Hard to imagine Caesar holed up somewhere, spiraling downward into a melancholy he couldn't even muster the will to try to shake. That's not the Caesar that comes immediately to her mind's eye at all; it's the exact opposite of the lively, charming Caesar she always envisions when she hears his name.

But she's glad to be talking about it with Jojo. Glad in part because he's willing to share this with her, and glad because she can contribute to it, too — because of course, she sees things he doesn't, she hears things he couldn't. When it comes to trying to protect Caesar, Joseph is the best ally anyone could ever have, but it's a relief that she can sometimes pull her own weight toward that goal, too.]

I don't think he'd say things to me if he didn't believe them. He wouldn't lie to make me feel better, not about this...and whenever he's trying to cheer me up, he always says you're going to take us home. I believe in you too, as much as he does.

[She glances down again, looking at her hands.]

...What I'm trying to ask is, what does that mean, that I'm your favorite girl? Does it mean you and Caesar, you're going to fight over me?

What? [Joseph frowns a little, letting his head tip to one side.] Why would we fight over you?

[Hold please. Joseph has to think about what he just said. Give him a second...]

[...]

[And there it is!]

[Abruptly Joseph jolts forward with a look of horror about what he maybe accidentally implied and absolutely did not mean.]

Wait! That's not what I--! What I meant to say is--! [He laughs, a little nervously, trying to smooth it over with an earnest smile.] You knew what I meant, right?

[A second is a long time for an impression to settle in. And the truth is, she's a little anxious already, mustering up the nerve to open up and put her suspicions out there like this, so when Joseph says why would we fight over you, her kneejerk reaction is relief, because the last thing she wants is a fight, certainly not between the two of them and certainly not over her.

...It's the world's most short-lived relief in the world, because even though her faith in Joseph is powerful enough that she doesn't begin to entertain notions that he doesn't care about her, why would we fight over you is still a string of words that's hard to hear from anyone, and goes straight to some of those deep-seated insecurities that she always tries her best to keep hidden away under wraps.

But they've stayed under wraps for a reason, and when he rockets forward in his abject horror, she's just as quick to shove a smile onto her face as he is, and her laugh comes so easily that you'd never guess that she didn't really think it was funny at all.]

...Haha, you're...so silly! Of course I know what you meant. You're right, I don't know why I even thought of something like that...

[change the subject change the subject change the subject]

Mm, and like I said, you can definitely count on me! No matter what, making sure Caesar's full of hope is the most important thing, so I'll definitely...I'll definitely do everything I can to help him believe that, absolutely...

[Joseph looks a little relieved when she laughs, slouching a little more back into his seat. But something nags at him and he doesn't entirely believe it. Mostly because that was a shitty thing to say even if he didn't mean it that way and she knows it. It's still a shitty thing to say and he's immediately reminded of that time he upset Ino. Suzie's just not like Ino and going to show any unpleasant feelings. She'll hide it under a smile.]

[Like the one she has right now.]

[Way to go, he thinks, bitterly.]

Good, good... [he says, absentmindedly, clearly in thought. He perks up when a thought occurs to him. He screws the lid back on the thermos, setting it down on the floor next to his chair. Grinning at her, Joseph motions for Suzie to come to him.] Hey, Suzie, c'mere.

[She's relieved things have continued right along. Keeping her smile in place would be difficult, she thinks, but the distraction will make that easier. And...for a second, she almost wants to gently deflect the request, find some excuse to stay where she is, but in the end she reminds herself that fought-over or not, these boys still mean more than anything to her, and being petty about it...

Well. If she stubbornly nurses hurt feelings, then she'll miss out. So there's no sense in clinging to that, is there.]

Over here?

[So she gets up and makes her way carefully over, watching the thermos to ensure that she doesn't accidentally kick it as she approaches.]

No, no. [He grins.] Over here.

[Well, at least one of them is being careful because Joseph sure as heck isn't when he hooks her by the waist with an arm to pull her into his lap. He only keeps his arm there (therefore holding her) long enough to lean forward and switch off the autopilot.]

It's a little hard to learn how to pilot if you can't even reach the controls.

Hu— oomp!

[WELL, THIS IS HAPPENING. And after that obligatory little shriek of surprise, she's tempted to squirm while his arm stays around her waist, but then it occurs to her that maybe squirming wouldn't be the brightest of ideas while she's actively in someone's lap, so she goes the opposite direction and tries to hold very still, instead.

LIKE A LADY.]

P-Pilot? Jojo! I-I'm not a pilot, I'm an engineer, I can't just— w-what are you doing, who's flying the ship now?!

[SAVE HER]

[Joseph shouldn't laugh at her panic, but he can't help it.]

Sure you can! I've been teaching Caesar a little bit here and there, and I offer to teach anybody in my crew just in case. It's much easier than flying a plane, so I bet you'd pick up on it fast.

[Joseph reaches around her to the controls.]

Besides, since you're an engineer, you should get a feel for it on this end of things, too!

I don't know how to fly a plane eitheeeeeeeeeeeeeer!

[Look, this is her cue to just huddle down and make herself small and let Jojo fly this ship because evidently Suzie is envisioning an eventuality where, like.

She touches a lever and the entirety of space explodes, probably.]

Don't let us crash don't let us crash!

i start it up, turn it over like a general MINGLE

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