[center][h1][color=96EACE]Joseph[/color][/h1][/center]

When the sea plane finally touched down at St Florian, Joseph could honestly say that he was happy to see the end of the flight. He was pretty sure he had left an imprint on the armrest with how hard he'd been gripping it, internally screaming from the second they left Castleburg. While outwardly he had managed to avoid making much more than a quiet whine, or the occasional miniscule whimper when they hit turbulence, he was pretty sure that the fact that he'd gone pale the moment the journey started and was only just beginning to regain any colour to his skin now that they were safely on the ground might've done some damage to the cool, laid back reputation he'd been cultivating the last year or so. But now that they were on solid ground, he could finally breathe easily. No more flying until the end of the vacation, which would be fine because they'd be going back to work, where they'd be [i]expected[/i] to be stressed out.

He was content to follow the others without much commentary as they were shown around by the greeter, only really reacting when she handed him the envelope holding the key for his hut. He had to admit, he generally considered himself to be more of a forest and mountains guy than a beach guy, but this place was actually pretty damn beautiful. Looking out at the ocean, the water looked almost completely clear, which was pretty great considering the fact that water he couldn't see the bottom of settled nicely into his list of greatest fears right next to flying. Even the sun was nice, but that was probably just because he wasn't wearing a bulky jacket anymore, the trusty outfit of nearly six years having been ruined beyond repair in the fight against Winterfall. Instead, he wore a nice, potentially even [i]trendy-looking[/i] hawaiian shirt the Hag had forced him to buy instead of a new jacket, alongside a nice pair of green shorts and sandals. Much like with the aforementioned shirt, the Hag had smacked him over the head when he described his plans to embarass everyone by wearing them with socks, claiming that he was 'thirty years too young to bear that burden'. So in the end he was dressed uncharacteristically appropriately for the environment, and despite his expectations, found himself surprisingly happy with the results!

The idea brought a small grin to his face, as he finally managed to calm down properly from the flight. It only faltered slightly when he actually looked at the key for his room.

[color=96EACE]"The Manatee Hut, huh?"[/color] He mumbled to himself, looking at the small design of the creature hanging off the keychain. [color=96EACE]"Can't wait for [i]those[/i] jokes to start."[/color]

Thankfully, he was on the fitter side compared to the vast majority of his fellow lazy bastards, so they'd have to find something other than his gut to make the manatee comparisons to.

Whatever his colleagues might say though, he was more interested in hanging out with them than he was in unpacking at the moment. The hut was nice, and the idea of getting a not-so-brief nap in before the dinner later on was more than a little tempting, but he'd been a little less social recently than he was before the coup, and he felt like it was about time he started making up for it. It wasn't really an intentional thing either, he'd just had a lot he needed to work on, specifically the contents of a small, plainly wrapped package currently sitting on the bedside table. Honestly, it was actually meant to be Jamie's birthday present, but Seraph's coup and the subsequent time he'd spent stuck in hospital kept him from getting any further than the planning phase until it was nearly too late. So instead, he'd given her a placeholder gift in the form of copious amounts of chocolate, with the plan of giving this one to her when it was finally finished.

Well, he'd finished it just a few days ago, so now it was just a matter of finding the right time to give it to her. Hopefully without all the smartasses that made up his colleagues around to tease him about it too. That led him to decide on doing it on the vacation, where the only real smartass he could think of was Tom, who would probably be distracted hanging out with Grace to make fun of him. A perfect plan, except for the fact that his own nervousness at the idea was proving to be [i]way[/i] more of a barrier than his snickering coworkers [i]ever[/i] could.

He had time though, and he'd be able to calm himself down enough to find the right moment eventually. Right now, he'd just spend time like he normally would, and try to rid himself of the stress he'd been feeling the last couple of months.

Stepping back out into the sunlight, he quickly caught sight of Jamie, who was currently talking with that one new guy who seemed to hang around Starbright a lot. His name was... Chad, he was pretty sure... Oh well, whatever his name, he'd been meaning to talk to the guy for a while anyway, see if he could potentially poach him away from Starbright to become his cool mentor instead. The guy had probably forgotten who he was, if he ever even knew in the first place, but Joseph was [i]pretty[/i] sure they'd seen each other enough for him to realise he wasn't just some stranger approaching them. Probably.

[color=96EACE]"Hey, Jamie! Chet!"[/color] He called as he walked over. [color=96EACE]"You guys got any plans on what to do yet? Because I don't really have any ideas except sleeping, or waiting for Starbuster to finish unpacking so I can obliterate him in beach volleyball."[/color]

[@canaryrose][@Duoya][@Jumbus]