Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[thespaceopera]

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]

Comments

[mylegacy]

[What. Pouting. So much pouting. He leans against Joseph's shoulder and sulks, reaching out to brush the puppy's nose with the tip of his finger. This dog is the only one who has not Betrayed him yet.]

Suzie . . . don't gang up on us!

[ragazzina]

Eep!

[And there she goes again, with her little squeaks; suddenly they are a matryoshka doll of puppy and girl and young man, all piled atop of one another.]

Well, I asked her who's the best-looking, of course!

[BEHOLD: THE GOLDEN PUPPY OF DISCORD. LET THE FAIREST WIN ITS FAVOR.]

[nextlineis]

[Joseph lets go of Suzie with one arm and covers Caesar's face with his hand, but he doesn't push him away because the moment Caesar starts leaning on him, Joseph leans back. Attention whores gotta attention whore though.]

Obviously she picked me, right?

[mylegacy]

Obviously she didn't.

[This is not going to go well at all, everyone is doomed. He shakes Joseph's hand off his face. If that doesn't work, fuck you, he'll lick it.]

[ragazzina]

Of course not, she picked me!

[She laughs, nuzzling against the puppy's fluff before turning to watch the...whatever it is that these two are doing with the hands and the faces and the possible licking.]

It'd be a perfect tie otherwise!

[nextlineis]

[Joseph is not moving his hand at all. Not even once licked. He doesn't say it directly, but he shoots Caesar a look that is clearly asking what his plan was there. Have you met him? Who got grossed out when they had water spit in their face? Caesar or Joseph? He just ignores it and keeps his hand there. But his attention moves back to Suzie when she gives her answer.]

She's got good taste then, doesn't she?

[mylegacy]

[Ugh. Awful. This time he grabs Joseph's wrist and wrenches his hand back, twisting it around to settle at his waist. Then he twines his fingers companionably in Joseph's hair and yanks hard. Asshole.]

She has very good taste. Which means she'll probably like Suzie better than you, Jojo.

[ragazzina]

Mm, mmm, I'm really glad you're around now, Cloudy! I need a lot of help keeping these two boys in line, just look!

[Just look indeed. This is their trio in a single image: Suzie comfortably cuddles an actual puppy, while literally two inches from her Joseph and Caesar have resorted to hair-pulling.]

[nextlineis]

[Honestly, Cloudy is just so happy to be here right now. Look at her. Don't worry about the two idiots behind you, Suzie.]

Ow! [Joseph's hand leaves Caesar's waist almost immediately to start trying to pry his fingers out of his hair while trying very hard not to shift around too much in order to avoid disturbing Suzie and the puppy.] Let go!

[mylegacy]

No.

[So serene. He is immovable. Just try it. But try it without upsetting Suzie.]

Maybe you should train her, Suzie. Jojo needs some work.

[ragazzina]

[WOW IS SOMETHING GOING ON BEHIND HER BECAUSE RIGHT NOW HER SOLE CONCERN IS THIS ADORABLE PUPPY, HOT DAMN.]

Nooooo, she's not mine! She's Jojo's, so he gets the fun and the responsibility.

[nextlineis]

[Joseph's life is suffering and he gives a small growl of frustration (to which Cloudy is naturally Alarmed! about at first before getting distracted with trying to give Suzie's chin more sloppy kisses). He wants to agree with Suzie and reward her for it, but the hair-pulling is the worst right now. So uno momento por favor. He'll get to you in a second, Suzie. He turns his head as best he can and starts trying to butter Caesar up with kisses to his cheek.]

Why are you trying to dump all the work off on Suzie anyway? You're going to help, too, you know. It's not like I can just leave her on the Caprine when I come to your ship.

[mylegacy]

[Damn, Joseph, that is the oldest trick in the book.]

[. . . and it works immediately. He stops pulling and finger-combs Joseph's hair back into order, leaning his head against his temple.]

Mm, how do you train a dog? Is it like babies?

[ragazzina]

You can't take her in Caesar's room.

[Suddenly, Suzie's voice comes adamant, and her words urgent.]

Not where the six-headed monster statue is! It'll scare her.

[nextlineis]

[Joseph start grinning the moment he feels Caesar's fingers go lax in his hair. All according to keikaku. But the moment Suzie suddenly pipes up, he frowns a little in confusion.]

The what? Oh. That thing. [Joseph snickers and looks over at Caesar.] I still can't believe you didn't toss that out the airlock or something with the spiders.

[He looks back at Suzie with a smile, kissing her on the forehead since he doesn't feel like trying to compete with Cloudy for anything lower than that, thanks.]

If the weird foot-eye thing he gave me--[oh wait, he's not supposed to shit-talk it as per the rules]--that I love [yes, Joseph, everyone is so convinced] doesn't freak her out, then the statue I got him isn't going to bother her. Besides, she's a brave dog, aren't you, Cloudy?

[Cloudy's natural response to being spoken to is, of course, YES I AM DOG levels of wriggling and tail wagging.]

See?

[mylegacy]

Why would I toss it out the airlock? It was a very thoughtful present.

[ho you know he doesn't back down]

[except when he does BUT ANYWAY]

Has she seen the foot-eye thing? Suzie, have you seen it? It's very wonderful. [That's so mean.]

[ragazzina]

[God bless Cloudy, who is already perpetually here for her in her time of need, being so cute and so full of licks that the horrors of these boys and their inexplicable fascination with grotesque art are blunted and dampened by comparison.

Human kisses are still vastly superior to dog kisses, though, and it shows when Joseph's finds her forehead, from the way she melts a little and leans a little more securely against him.]

I'm more worried about it seeing me. Do you mean it has eyes for feet, or feet for eyes? Mmm, I don't even know which of those would be worse...

[nextlineis]

[Cloudy has got your back, gurl.]

Neither. It's just... [Joseph takes his hand off Caesar's waist a moment, using his hand to at least vaguely shape it out for her.] It's a foot, right? Then just above the ankle here is a gigantic eyeball.

[He wraps his arm back around Caesar.]

Don't worry, I have it pointed in a particular direction. It won't look like it's looking at you.

[Namely it's pointed so it's staring at Mal while she's hanging upside down to sleep because he's a wonderful first mate and Mal is truly #blessed.]

[mylegacy]

[Neither Mal nor Suzie deserve this boy nonsense. This is unfair. Certainly Cloudy, who has never committed any sins, doesn't deserve it. So what the fuck.]

[Not that Caesar's complaining in particular, because snuggles. He closes his eyes and chooses to blissfully ignore everything other than listening to the two of them talking and the dog wiggling around excitedly.]

Mine's pointed at the wall in my cabin and she still doesn't like it.

[ragazzina]

[THE LOOK. THE LOOK THAT CROSSES HER FACE, JOSEPH JOESTAR.

...

IT'S A FOOT WITH AN EYEBALL IN PLACE OF A LEG, JOJO.]

It sounds like someone broke their real sculpture and just glued together a bunch of other broken parts, instead.

[Suzie "Tim Gunn" Quatro is Concerned™.]

I don't know which would be worse, having to look at a foot-eye or having it looking at you.

[nextlineis]

She doesn't? Ha! I knew it wasn't that bad. We really should have had her be the judge about which one was the weirdest.

[Only because Joseph's pretty sure he would have won and wouldn't be stuck with a foot-eye in his room. But it is what it is at this point. Joseph looks back down at Suzie in his lap.]

Look, I'll be sure to cover it up with a blanket or something before you come into my room, alright? Promise. You can just pretend it's a globe or something.

[mylegacy]

A globe of the eyeball planet.

[#HELPING]

[ragazzina]

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Caesar!

[#Apparently Not Helping]

Don't say that, there might really be one and the fleet might take us there next! I don't want to go to an eyeball planet!

[She leans a little more emphatically against Joseph. For his efforts in attempting to alleviate her concerns about eyeball feet, he will for the duration remain #blessed.]

[nextlineis]

[Joseph makes a face at Caesar because seriously? What is wrong with you? He holds onto Suzie just a little bit tighter when she leans on him more.]

Don't worry, Suzie. I'm pretty sure there could never be an eyeball planet.

[mylegacy]

[nyohohohohohoho]

No, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. But there could still be a globe of it.