Notes

Jeff, Savior of the Universe

New York already hated this meeting. He might not have any actual shit to do, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to have to deal with Florida and his shenanigans. Nobody would! He can't see why anybody - other than Louisiana, basically Florida but on less cocaine - would tolerate him. At all.

Florida's tried being friends in the past - or whatever he could refer to as "friendship", as New York thought the endless rat pellets were more of a mocking thing than a kind thing - and New York has never appreciated it. New York doesn't appreciate anyone ever trying to become his friend; he's a loner and he likes it that way, because he realizes that everyone's dependence on human interaction is something he doesn't need. Sure, he's got the big-ass city and all that, but in reality his tolerance for any human being - mortal or not - that crosses his path is close to zero.

He'd kind of thought he and Gov were similar in that regard. Sure, Gov is a dumbass and New York hates him with a passion only rivalled by Texas (though New York will never admit that, of course, as Texas' big ego would take another boost and New York will not under any circumstances deal with any more of Texas' Texas-ness), but all throughout the kid's 200 years of living, he'd never seemed dependent on others. Maybe it was the fact that Pennsylvania forced him to sleep outside, maybe it was the fact that none of the OG states gave the guy a chance to be someone outside of work; who knows, all New York cares about is that Gov seemed just about as good as he was in realizing that they didn't need people to survive.

That was, until Gov got that bond with Louisiana. New York wasn't quite sure what that story was all about, he knew that one meeting, Louisiana was acting all weird and suddenly, all the states knew that Gov had actually made a genuine bond with one of them. Not all that flimsy crap they've all gotten used to from the fed (New York thinks some of the states presumed it was because he wasn't meant to get close or form strong connections with them, actually), but a genuine, emotion-transmitting bond with Louisiana of all states. And sure, he and the rest of the states might've teased him just a bit about it, but New York knew from then on, he was alone in his under-reliance (perfectly fine reliance, actually; he doesn't need anyone, and he's perfectly fine on his own) of the human race.

Since then, Gov's connection with the two states he seemed to have hated the most grew. It was a weird thing to witness. Or, well, not witness, because a lot of the shit they did happened with just the three of them, but calling Gov to tell him to get something done or to inform him that something had either gone wrong or he finished something had been a completely different experience. A few times he didn't even pick up - which was something he never did; he always made sure he could answer a call, even if it was in the wee hours of the morning - and the times he did he sounded a lot more... bored, than usual. Usually, Gov took to his job without inflection, with no clear remorse for not having any time to do the "human" part of "human personification", but even though New York had no clear evidence saying so, he believed Gov was actually bored and tired of his job. He got complaints from Carol and the rest of the NE, Carol about how Gov is returning things later than normal and the NE about how they were getting complaints from Carol. New York had been about ready to murder Gov for making him have to answer the phone about two more times than he'd like to in a day, when he'd gotten kidnapped.

Yeah, yeah, boohoo Gov gets kidnapped. Honestly, he kinda deserved it. Not for the reasons he got kidnapped, of course - being held captive and unable to teleport to be used to figure out immortality is not fun, not that New York had any experience with that - but he's a dick and left New York all alone on this island of self-isolation and -

Whatever. Gov got kidnapped, and Louisiana and Florida were very... different. New York isn't quite sure what exactly they did - he's not particularly close to them (he doesn't want to be) and he wasn't going to get into their business like that - but apparently they did something that tore their connection apart. Or caused Gov to react in a way to rip their connection apart. Either way, New York got to see some actual remorse on Florida's face, and he loved it. The jackass gets karma; what's not to love? Louisiana was still calm - he's just like that - and tried to work along the rest of the states to figure out where the fuck their Government has disappeared off to, while Florida was all jittery and nervous and honestly looked like he was about ready to blow something up.

Then something happened during a meeting, and the two of them snapped off with hopeful, angry looks.

New York wasn't sure what happened after that, other than that Gov got back okay, Florida was right back to his normal self, and Louisiana was very, incredibly flirty with Gov any chance he got. They slowly got softer and softer and honestly the meetings seemed more like Florida and Louisiana trying to serenade Gov and Gov not hating it (although he was still very exasperated and tried to keep them on track, which obviously never worked), and New York was pretty confident that they were dating. It was weird, considering Florida kept doing that whole "I Am Chaos Incarnate" and Louisiana followed right along, but it wasn't the weirdness thing New York's witnessed. He doesn't stick his nose in their business (unlike some, cough cough California), so he can't confirm the suspicion, but from all the flirting and times he's caught Looks and Touches he's pretty sure.

Which brings us to today. It brings us to this fucking meeting, that New York wants zero fucking part in. Fuckity fuck fuck.

It started off with Louisiana refusing to help him with a stupid gator (croc), and then the Buckeye and Mitten duo got into yet another stupid argument and New York was about ready to just leave when the entire meeting gets interrupted by a loud, LOUD notification from Florida's phone.

"Florida, didn't I tell you to turn your notifications off?" Gov sighed, turning to the state.

"Probably," Florida hummed, swiping on his phone a few times. Before Gov can continue the meeting, though, Florida's face lights up and he stands, interrupting once again. "Gov, the - Daniel!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Gov asked.

"Yeah, what about 'im, sha?" Louisiana questions.

"We've been waiting forever - oh, come on," Florida urges, and he grabs Louisiana's arm before teleporting away.

"Um, what was that about?" California demands.

Gov blinks a few times, before his eyes widen and he stands. "Oh my goodness, how could I forget! Okay, okay - " he glances around the Table, tapping the wood anxiously, "meeting's end, okay? We can continue later." With that, he teleports away, leaving the Table Room quiet.

"All this fuckin' time, I've wanted to end meetings," New York says to the silent room, "But Gov gets a few boyfriends and suddenly he cancels any times he wants? Fuck this."

"I'm sorry, BOYFRIE - " California and Texas' exclamations are cut off by New York teleporting away, entirely Done with all of them.

Ridiculous. Fucking ridiculous.