#joseph002

Suraj sat down opposite of Joseph with an awkward smile on their face, they were pretty sure they smelled like fries and oil and hamburgers, wondering what else they had touched over the past hours that might generate the idea that they worked in a fast food restaurant - which they did, but that wasn’t the point. “Hi,” they said, trying to hide how apologetic they felt. Which they shouldn’t. This was about their movie, which they wanted to make… then why did they feel like they should apologise for it. “Did you get anything to drink already? Else I can go to the back and get you something.”

Carina was nothing if not punctual. To say she was dreading lunch would be too harsh of a word, but she was almost certain the vote would come up. It hung over the crew’s heads, tinging every task they completed with a sense of wrongness. Some wanted to talk about the vote, some wanted to brag. Carina wanted to forget it happened at all. She wanted to ignore the fact that the majority of her crew thought that completing the mission was more important than their lives, than the experiments that had already been done. Though she wasn’t a scientist, she too had the drive to always be seeking more knowledge. This drive, however, didn’t lead her to wanting to know what species was sending them threats. In the eyes of her crew, it may be cowardice, but she also thought it was somewhat smart. 

No matter what had happened the day before, she wasn’t going to keep her lunch companion waiting. It took her only a few moments to collect her plate of space food, the meals looking more and more unappetizing by the day. With her plate in one hand and a mug of tea in the other, she settled herself at the table she shared with Joseph. The woman couldn’t help but think the message disturbed even the most peaceful of relationships she had aboard the Argo. 

They didn’t often communicate much besides a polite hello, a nod of the head when they sat down, both of which Carina exchanged without much fuss. However, yesterday they spoke more than they had in the four years previous. She knew very little about the man sitting across from her, even if they shared a table in the mess hall most days. Of course, it wasn’t time for her to quiz him about his past, as she wasn’t sure she would want to answer his questions. If he even had any. 

“How are you?” she finally asked once about half of her meal was gone. There was no obligation to talk; she knew yesterday had been an anomaly in every sense of the word. She was honestly curious, however, and figured that not everything the message touched had to change for the worse.