Casted

Chapter 1: Times Are Hard for Dreamers

T/W: Homophobic/Transphobic slur

"So we are going to have around a hundred deliveries today. Half of our fliers will have to be doing this. Putang ina — Mga tarsiers pala 'to. Maybe two fliers can work on one. Very sleepy yet requires a lot of care and effort if we're going to want to deliver them successfully..."

J.P. sat in the middle of what was commonly known as the Common Room of the top T.O.T.S. fliers, typing away on his Fly Pad. There had been new deliveries to keep track of everyday, and Captain Beakman couldn't do it all by herself. She was growing old and still had a daughter to take care of, while he was relatively young and handling everything well. Or so he kept telling himself everyday.

   "Don't you ever look away from that Fly Pad?" Ava said, sitting onto a couch in the Common Room with a glass full of chocolate milk. Life as a Super Duper Flier was definitely tough on her, but she liked spending time to take well-spent breaks for relaxation.

   "But what if everything goes wrong if he doesn't do that?" Bodhi asked with a nervous voice, before turning towards the busy stork, "Though you should honestly really take a break. There are a bunch of worse stuff that can happen due to stress." Bodhi sighed as he sat on the couch across Ava, holding his crocheting needle and setting down his own glass of hot milk.

Lucky was curled up on the floor below him, staring up at the ceiling, bored as hell. His father getting promoted was definitely great, but that barely did anything to him. If anything, he was more bored than ever before, but he didn't let his father know.

   "Alright, sige na nga. Five minutes. But K.C.'s going to need the data on the babies before 6:00p.m.," J.P. said with his French accent, closing his laptop with a sigh. It did clash when he spoke in Filipino, but he was trying to learn his mother's tongue. He stood up from the office chair he had been sitting on and stretched. He had to admit he could be way too busy with his work sometimes, but who could actually blame him? He didn't rise to the top by being idle, and if he were to settle down now, he'd rise no higher.

   J.P. tucked his Fly Pad under his wing as he looked for a place to sit. He ended up going for the padded sitting chair that was a few metres away from the little corner where he would usually do his work. He winced slightly at the uncomfortable and hard back of the chair, but decided he could survive with that.

"Jean." Ava said with a groan. J.P. looked up and shot her a glare. He was not named Jean only for a reason. He ignored her and walked over to the nearest mirror, passing by Bodhi and bumping into his glass, causing the hot milk to spill all over the wool and stork, causing him to let out a short scream.

"I'm so sorry!" J.P. said, immediately pulling open the drawer underneath the table and using a napkin he found to wipe it all. Wiping spilled milk wasn't exactly something he ever imagined himself doing on a busy Tuesday, but he would feel guilty if he didn't.

"好呵— 對不起! It's alright..." Bodhi said. J.P. could feel the other stork already feeling awkward, especially when he slipped into Chinese. What else would one feel when someone else is cleaning a mess near them? He quickly finished up the cleaning, hoping to not send the stork into one of his common attacks.

   J.P. took a deep breath as he stood up and continued to walk the remainder of the distance towards the mirror on the other side of the room. He adjusted the feathers on his head. It had been years since it last looked good. Stress was finally catching up to him.

   "J.P., please go to Captain Beakman's office!" Paulie said through the speakers with his signature squawk. J.P. smiled tightly as he started walking out of the room.

   "There it is again. Stop wasting your breaks," Ava said. J.P. narrowed his eyes. Easy for her to say. Being a Super Duper Flier was definitely much easier.