#moddy's post

It wasn't even a funny joke.

By Jax's standards, it was a cheapshot, an off-handed comment that he made on impulse about some random thing.

He didn't know if it was just the mood in the air or maybe what he said was actually a real knee-slapper, but either way, he was met with bells.

At least, that's what he thought at first.

Clear, dreamy ringing that filled his ears like church bells. It slowed the world around him as the digital leaves in the trees swayed gently, and everyone around him became a blur of motion. The sun shone brighter, so the air was warmer like standing by a fireplace on a cold day. His body was heavy, like he could just collapse into the grass under him and lose his breath, but at the same time, he also felt light like a weight was just lifted off of his shoulders.

Then, Pomni took a breath.

It snapped Jax out of his little trance, looking back at the jester whose shoulders shook and whose face was split with an uncharacteristic, toothy smile. She was laughing, attempting to collect herself from what was apparently the greatest zinger that she had ever heard.

And like a sickness, those giggles and gasps infected him, tugging his usual grin back onto his face after her laughter took him off guard. He gave a small chuckle, suddenly feeling the victory of making the ironically somber jester throw her head back in a cackle and express such joy with her entire puny body. She gripped her sides and took quick inhales and exhales, attempting to placate her case of the giggles.

He didn’t even realize nobody else was laughing, either regarding them with unimpressed glances or not at all.

Caesar felt a tug on his sleeve, pulling his attention from screws and metal pieces and microships to the man on his right, looking at him with an exhausted expression.

“I’m bored.”

“Hm, that’s unfortunate,” Caesar replied, just vaguely sympathetic.

It was the same way that he’d respond to Rex during the Project days where the little boy would approach him with wide eyes and a ball in his arms. Depending on the workload and Caesar’s general mood, whether that boredom would be satiated that day was a coin flip, so to speak.

It was no different here where Caesar knew, in that moment, he’d have to make a similar decision. Fútbol or coding.

Gatlocke not-so-subtly reached a hand across, trying to slide away his workspace. He was staring at Caesar with an expression that Gatlocke wouldn’t call pleading but moreso telling. As in, he was TELLING him to entertain him somehow.

“I’m working,” Caesar objected, evenly, as he picked up his hand away from his unfinished pile of washers, bolts, and sheet metal. He was jostling everything.

“But Caesar,” Gatlocke groaned, “It’s been hours since I’ve gotten here! Surely, you could use a break.”

“You’ve only been here for thirty minutes,” He glanced at a nearby clock just to be sure. It wouldn’t have been the first time that he’d lost track of time within the windowless confines of his lab by himself. Thankfully, Gatlocke’s constant presence had kept him more aware of the time, usually.

“Yet here I am, fully bored.”

“And what exactly do you propose I should do with my spare time?”

Caesar: ambidextrous????

Caesar was not quite sure how he got here.

But he had to admit: the view was amazing.

While he was never one for geology as much as he was for other sciences, layered, almost uniform mountains of rocks never looked more interesting than at this moment.

At this hour, the sun was just about to touch the horizon, filling the sky with a lazy stack of gradient of reds and oranges while the ground exploded into a sea of cooler colors from blues to purples to greens. Rays of the sun still shone on the peaks of rocks, revealing the red and brown stones still there, standing tall and unmoving. It went on for what seemed endlessly. Every single color that was able to be detected by the human eye could be found here amongst these layers of sediment.

It was wholly fascinating how it was also all entirely naturally formed. The shapes of the peaks altogether didn’t form anything flat or categorical as it had its own order, undetermined by human influence.

Decades and centuries of simply existing.

Of course, it wasn’t as if Providence headquarters wasn’t built on a cliff’s edge, surrounded by similar formations of rocks, and maybe if he looked outside during sunset, he may get a similar experience as this one.

But he usually doesn’t unless he’s made to.

And here he kind of was, sort of against his will.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?”

Caesar turned away from the landscape to face Gatlocke who laid a metal hand on his shoulder.

“The sunset, I mean, not yours truly,” the pirate gave him a knowing look, waving his free hand, loosely, “It’s a close competition, though, I’ll admit it.”

Caesar: Remember how excited he got when he found out he could drink two Caprisuns at once