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Joseph blinked and spluttered, choking on his own drool for a second as he woke up in the nice, quiet, hidden corner he'd found for himself in one of the lower levels of H.E.R.O. One. After a brief, unsettling moment where he was forced to genuinely consider the possibility that he may actually suffocate then and there, he eventually managed to cheat death once again. Truly, the life of a superhero was fraught with peril.

Looking down at his wrist, he grimaced a little, the holographic face of one Hugo Powers telling him that he needed heroes to help him with something at the... Oh right, that festival was today, wasn't it? Sounded like fun. Also sounded like somewhere the hag would be too grumpy and elderly to go to. [i]Even more[/i] appealing! Looking back down at the tiny hologram of his boss, he listened as Powers asked them to go over in an actual professional, polite way, far more than the usual, which tended to just be the man barking at him to 'get off his lazy ass and do something'.

Which was exactly why he decided not to go. 

If he went now, it'd ruin the hilarious dynamic they had going right now! What would he do if he accidentally Pavlov'd the guy into thinking he'd be able to get Joseph to do stuff by treating him with actual [i]respect?[/i] Disgusting. Horrible. A future he had to avoid at all costs.

No, instead, he stumbled up from the basement, blinking again as he stepped out into natural light, and once he'd adjusted, made his way out of the building. Initially, he'd just been planning to get to his trusty scooter and go back to his place, hopefully without the hag jumping him in the process, and maybe getting some extra runic arrays ready for later. However, as he actually made it out the door, he couldn't help but notice there was actually a rather large group of people standing out on the beach. On closer inspection, these people appeared to in fact be [i]new[/i] people, likely fresh recruits.

He took a second to weigh up his options. On one hand, he could go back to the shed he called his home, likely get yelled at by the hag for whatever reason she decided amused her the most, and then proceed to lock himself inside and bleed himself half to death to write [i]even more[/i] runes than he already had prepared. On the other, he could stick around here, meet these new folks, and act as a representative for what life in H.E.R.O. was [i]really[/i] like...

The decision took him all of five seconds. Honestly, it was the [i]responsible[/i] thing to do.

[color=96EACE]"Nah, should be fine, I reckon..."[/color] He asked as he approached the group, only catching the part where the girl with the apple got worried about eating it in front of the [i]fungal[/i] man. [color=96EACE]"Apple's a fruit, and that guys a mushroom. They aren't even actually plants, pretty sure..."[/color]

He nodded to Emily.

[color=96EACE]"Duff."[/color] He said, pretending to be a normal, tolerable human being for once, rather than the horrible example they both already knew he was probably going to be. [color=96EACE]"Guessing these guys are new hires, right? Exciting stuff!"[/color]

He sent her a quick thumbs up, knowing full well that to anyone who knew him, the gesture was the [i]opposite[/i] of reassuring, despite probably looking relatively normal to the other attendees.