Chapter Text
Joel is pretty sure that all airplane designers have dormice for dæmons. It is the only explanation, Joel thinks while he and Galina try to get her buckled into her airline seat. The flight attendant (who’s dæmon is some kind of small bird) had provided him with some mess of straps that is supposed to be used to secure large dæmons into airlines seats but looks like something from either a torture chamber or a sex dungeon.
“How the fuck does this work?” Joel says for at least the tenth time in the last two minutes.
“I don’t know but it definitely doesn’t go around my tail,” Galina whines.
“Fuck,” Joel says, pulling the whole thing off again, “how about in the event of a rough landing we just fucking die?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“How about not. How about we help you.” Aleksi says from behind him. Right, Aleksi is going to be sitting next to him once he stops taking up the whole row trying to buckle Galina in.
“Alright,” Joel sighs, untangling the contraption as best he can. Louhi climbs over the back of the seats until she’s on the armrest of Galina’s seat. Joel hands the thing to her.
It’s so embarrassing that Louhi has to do it. Grown adults and they can’t buckle their own seat belts. And it’s awkwardly intimate, like someone tying his tie or whatever. Of course, Louhi manages it in half the time of Joel’s useless attempts.
“Thanks,” Galina says to Louhi.
“Thanks,” Joel repeats to Aleksi.
“No problem,” Aleksi says, smiling at Joel as both of them sit down and buckle their own seat belts. “She untangles wires for me all the time. She’s got a lot of practice with that sort of thing.”
Joel just grunts in acknowledgement.
Take off is nerve wracking – not that anything goes wrong – it just is. This whole Eurovision thing is stressful. Joel’s constantly worried something will go wrong – forgetting a key piece of equipment, someone catching covid, someone injuring themselves, covid, airplane malfunction, covid – the usual, just worse than usual from how shitty the last year’s been and how this could possibly be a big break for them.
Once they’re in the air he manages to relax a little bit. He glances around. Galina is strapped in uncomfortably next to him. Aleksi, with Louhi in his lap with some sort of mini seat belt attached to his, appears to be dozing. Across the aisle Joonas is on his phone. Safiiri didn’t even get a seat and Joel even can’t tell if she’s secured. Tommi and Lemmikki take up the other two seats in that row. They’re asleep. Joel thinks Tommi must have taken something because he’s normally a nervous flier (not that he’d admit it.)
Ahead of them, Niko, Olli, and their dæmons are sharing a row with the head of delegation and his Siamese cat dæmon. They’re chatting but Joel can’t make it out over the engine noise.
Joel takes a deep breath of stale airplane air, made extra stale by his mask. Weirdly now he’s starting to feel tired. The engine noise and the sight of the others asleep or calm around him. He looks at Galina; she looks tired too so Joel closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep.