2011-04-12 - Ascian: The Harem Anime Male Lead?

The cafeteria is somewhat busy today. There's a bit of a feast going on with the latest promotions having come in. Sure, to most it isn't exactly a big deal. But somehow, the one known as Ascian Luddite has gotten himself a tiny bit of a following by being a soldier who... well... cares about others and isn't a stonefaced person. The man is standing at the end of a table, and just chugs down a can of cheap beer, after which he gently places it down onto the table. A series of soldiers before him, seated, instead just smash the cans onto the table, trying to prove who is the most burly of them all -- which of course gets an odd look from the bluehaired martian.

"So, man, how does it feel to have risen in rank." One of them asks. Ascian scratches the back of his neck and gives a hesitant look. "I dunno. It doesn't /feel/ any different. But then, maybe it's just not sunken in quite yet." He chuckles. "To Lieutenant Luddite!!" the group cheers, and begin to yell for more beer. The framerunner wanders off to more quiet parts of the cafeteria and settles down in a corner - where a few people he didn't know were sitting - and waves over an attendant to order himself something sweet to drink. A honey tea. Not something he'd normally order, but it was a day of celebration, and he wanted to try something new, with these 'new' responsibilities.

A woman with prosthetic arms had been sitting at a smaller table by herself, reading through an old-style paperback copy of some novel or other while having several pieces of portable information technology set out in front of her, along with a plate of whatever nutro-slop the Divine Crusaders are issuing people and a saucer which has already been used as an ashtray. As she slides the tip of her fork into a sliced-up piece off the end of Sausage-Like Product, she looks up at the new arrival, blinking slowly, twice.

"Oh," she says, belatedly. "Hello. You're not the help, are you? I've a mess permit, hold on," and then she leans pendulously over to dig in her purse with her non-fork-having hand.

"So you have a command position now, Ascian?" A blonde says to Ascian as he orders something 'sweet' to celebrate. However, when he looks at her, she's not smiling. "Thankfully you don't have the red tape of the feddies."

Sneak, sneak, sneak. Seril is a ninja. The La Gian girl creeps up behind Ascian while he celebrates his promotion, her arms curled up to her chest, that long dark coat swishing around her knees. For such an awkward girl, Seril has no trouble avoiding various soldiers as they mill back and forth across the cafeteria, until she is quite close to him. Sneak, sneak, sneak. Seril is a ninja. So close, she silently lifts her arms, then leaps! Her arms wrap around the bigger man's shoulders and neck, her face peeking over Ascian's shoulder, "Gotcha! I heard the news, congratulations big brother!"

Ascian looks at the scientist lady, and cannot help but stare at the shoulders of Elenia, where he can see her prosthetics. In fact, he can't help but follow its details towards her neck, and the torc that surrounds it. His gaze is about to slip down, when Divada speaks up. "Ah, yes. So it would seem. I mean, it's only a lieutenant position, I don't really have my own squad or anything. But it's still... it's nice." He smiles. "And indeed, I don't have to deal with the EFA's red tape." Though he had no clue just how bad said red tape was.

He then turns towards the lady in the red dress again, this time just staring straight into her eyes - as to not make a mistake to be rude. Like letting his eyes wander. "No, no I am not." He raises a hand and waves at her to stop her from trying to find the mess permit. "You do know they have better stuff than that, right?" Ascian looks at what the lady is using at the moment. "Did someone pull a prank on you or something?" He tilts his head slightly, and is just about to say something else when suddenly...

FWOOMP! He suddenly has a set of arms hanging over his shoulders and neck, and a girlish voice squeeking into his ears. His entire expression suddenly brightens, as if a spell had been cast upon him, and he raises his hands to the back of Seril's arms and pats her for a moment, before turning about and trying to grab her by the waste, scooting his seat back, and trying to lift her to his lap. Sure, she's sixteen years old, and probably should not be sitting on a twenty-three year old's lap. But, weirdness is kind of a thing within the Divine Crusaders. "Thank you Seril." She had said she was his little sister anyhow. So it's harmless. Right? "I'm glad you heard the news. How have you been?" He sounds so... excited!

The two incoming women get given a jaundiced look by Elenia, who cannot help but think that if you smashed both of them together they'd still be younger than her. Her eyebrow twitches slightly, but her face remains impassive. She gives Ascian a somewhat gnomic look for a few long moments.

"I'm sure they have all sorts of special privileges I could ask for," she answers him, her lips pursing into a thin smile. "I don't feel I've any call to demand something I didn't earn." Then of course he's being glomped, and Elenia pulls out a cigarette case instead of whatever rations card she was about to pull out.

He's celebrating, Elenia thinks with mild irritation, but it doesn't reach her face as she opens the mostly-full case to offer it vaguely towards Ascian and his sister and the other woman. "Any of you? Help yourself."

Chuckling a bit, she nods to Ascian. "Congrats, Ascian. On your promotion, that is.' She then smirks at Seril as she pounces Ascian. "Seems others are happy for you as well, Ascian. As am I. Be careful, however." She says in a rather soothing tone.

"Ahh, counter-attack!" Seril mock-flails as she's pulled about, and just kind of hangs off Ascian while perched across his thighs, kicking a leg up, "Eee~, I'm in a really good mood right now, big brother. And I'm happy for you!" While seated like that, her blue eyes wander to the other women amidst the small crew Ascian had been celebrating with (willingly or unwillingly, such as it is), "Who are your friends?"

Blink.

With two fingers, Seril retrieves a cigarette when Elenia offers, holding it up to get a closer look at the white stick in what might be a mildly horrifying example of childlike curiosity, "What is it? It smells like my dad, but I've never seen one of these before."

Glancing up, she asks, "Can I eat it?"

Ascian doesn't seem to quite understand the look Elenia is giving him, and gives her a bit of a questioning look - her statement after that doesn't help much either. "I guess." Is the best thing he can offer. "But don't get too down on yourself - there's a big different between what you deserve, and what you feel you deserve. And whilst the latter isn't always the better one of the two, it can also get in the way sometimes."

His attention skips back to Divada, and it seems like his questioning look won't drop just yet. "Be careful?" He doesn't understand what he needs to be careful of. "You mean of all the things that are about to get dropped onto my shoulder, orrr?" He shakes his head a bit, to emphasize that he doesn't get it, before turning back to the red dressed lady. He waves his hand. "No thanks, I don't smoke." He says, and then watches as Seril suddenly picks out one of the white cancer sticks.

"Ah..." He quickly grabs for the cigarette and picks it out of her hand. "That's a cigarette - and not for eating. Some people smoke them -- that is, light them up with fire -- to calm down, or as a form of socializing. But it can be bad for the body - and makes your breath smell really icky." He lowers the level of his speech a bit when talking to Seril. But there's a good reason for that. "Maybe your dad smoked a pipe, or cigar?" He offers, and then neatly sticks the cigarette back into its pack, and kind of... OCD-like, makes sure it's in /properly/ at the same height as the others, nodding his head at Elenia. "Thank you for the offer though." He adds.

Divada only smiles to Ascian. "That's exactly what I mean, Ascian. Ship Captain to Lieutenant." She then starts to sit down near Ascian as she listens to the others, listening to Seril most of all...

"Don't, it's not good to eat," Elenia explains to Seril. "You hold it in your lips and suck air through it after you light it. You -"

Her expression darkens slightly then as she looks steadily at Ascian. She does not speak for several seconds after his word of thanks, with an air of doing so deliberately; then she closes the case with a little snap and lets the side of her lip quirk up. "You're quite welcome."

As she's putting it away, she continues, "It's actually interesting, historically, if you read about it, what's been considered a filthy habit and what has," she clinks the fork against the plate 'accidentally' on purpose, "not. Don't you agree, Lieutenant Luddite?"

TRUE FACTS:


 * The cafeteria is a shortcut across two different sections of the Earth Cradle.
 * The ASK-UC90 Flickerist is almost repaired.
 * Lethe Rusina is still wearing sunglasses inside like some kind of A Char.

Walking with a confident stride, the Shadow Mirror soldier better known as W18 walks into the cafeteria from one of those entrances rather than going all the way around the sizeable mess hall. She's fairly easy to pick apart from the regular soldiers in this military; if not due to the impressive length of her purple hair, the fact that a backless dress, thigh-high boots, and a short-cropped leather jacket is not exactly standard issue.

TRUE FACTS, SUPPLEMENTAL:


 * Lemon Browning has odd taste.

Lethe also seems to have something on her mind. It only takes up a miniscule fraction of her processing power, but the very fact that she's thinking about it makes her want to speak with the chief scientist of the Shadow Mirrors, rather than her immediate superior, W16. She has, actually spoken to her about it a little bit.

TRUE FACTS, EXTRA EDITION:


 * Echidna Iisaki dislikes things thinking.

"--Ah..!" But the smoke is snatched. Seril listens quietly, nodding slowly as if she understands it, "Well, he did have a pipe. It smelled weird, but kind of good. Maybe it was the tobacco he used." With one finger, she prods the beer Ascian had been drinking, "Now this I recognize, but this doesn't smell like the good kind." Shooting a look at the martian again, she folds her arms in an impressive pout, "If you're celebrating, you should drink the good beer!"

Wait, how does a naive girl from La Gias recognize the difference between cheap leftover macrobrew from last july and quality homemade microbrews?

Pause. Glancing to Elenia, the La Gian can't help but tilt her head aside. But, before she can ask what might be some annoyingly naive question: PURPLE HAIR. A similarly strangely-dressed nonmilitary girl raises a hand to wave cheerfully at W18 from her sisterly and totally platonic position on Ascian's lap, "Hi, miss Lethe!"

"I see. Well, I think I can deal with it. It seems I have have stress relief these days." He chuckles lightly and nudges his head towards Seril. "She keeps me busy, but it helps me get my mind off of things." Pause. "But, of course, work comes before fun. And she knows it." The framerunner shrugs his shoulders a little, and turns towards Seril. "What, my beer?" He looks at the can. "I actually don't like the fancy beers much. Too much alcohol for me, and too bitter." He puts the can down on the table and kind of 'nudges' it towards the middle of the table. "Supposedly I end up behaving strangely when drunk, so I try not to."

He pauses for a moment, just as Seril catches sight of Lethe, and he begins moving around a bit much with that hand of hers. He kind of leans back, so that his face is safe from the girl's flailing, and throws Lethe a glance as well. As much as she was an emotionless automaton - as far as he knew - she was still at least quite something to look at. Also, god, what was it with all the female ace-pilots around here in the Divine Crusaders? It made him feel kind of bad any time he looked at them, thinking they may see his gaze as something that was more than what it was.

"Hey, miss Lethe." As much as he'd promised he'd refer to Echidna as W-16, there was no such promise made to Lethe. Nor did Lethe /insist/ he use her numbered name. "Going off somewhere in a hurry?" Ascian inquires. "If you have time, why don't you join us?" He is about to continue that line of conversation when he turns back to Elenia who just loudly dropped a fork on her plate. He didn't know if she'd just done that on purpose or not, but it certainly attracts his attention. "Hrrm? Wha... oh." Right, she'd been talking to him. Concentrate.

"Yes. The world is a bit odd. I don't mind people smoking really. And there's been plenty of things out there like opiates that have been used for a long time, and have only recently become a big thing to say no against. But, I was raised as a soldier - to believe that smoking is bad for me." He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to override such an upbringing. Besides, I don't really like the scents much."

Elenia's track over to the unfamiliar purplehead, frowning slightly but in a mostly philosophical way. She puts the cigarette she had dug out earlier between her lips, adjusting the glove on her left arm to bare her ring finger, which she touches to the tip. This seems to effectuate lighting it, which keeps her occupied for a moment.

She sucks on the cigarette rather deeply, the tip of it glowing as she listens to Ascian speak and explain himself. She takes it from her lips, holding it with practiced nonchalance in one hand, and then exhales rather energetically while still facing Ascian and his 'little sister'.

"Oh, you do get used to it," she says. "With oncogenetic tablets and the occasional bronchial purge it's actually less bad for you than alcohol." Her eyebrows raise as she asks Seril then, "Are you from one of the smaller colonies, Miss...?"

/So much/ purple hair

Seril's voice is what draws her attention, the gynoid's head canting to look at the La Gian perched upon the Martian's lap. With the difference in age-- as well as the age of the young girl-- it causes her brows to furrow, though just barely masked by the sunglasses that are perched on her face. Something seemed... a little odd about that whole thing.

And man, some of these meatbags spend way too much time in the mess. They're going to get pudgy at this rate! Still, her first priority toward anyone in the building that holds any kind of rank /period/ pushes her toward a polite approach. "Hello, Miss Vaskell, Mister Luddite. Congratulations on your recent promotion. Do not betray Colonel Mauser's trust in you with this elevated position."

She sounds ... almost creepy and ominous with that one.

Slowly, her robotic gaze turns on Elenia, then the cigarette, but she says absolutely nothing about it. Instead, she spends a moment trying to search her memory to see if smoking inside the Earth Cradle is against the rules. Or did anyone actually care, these days?

"Hnf! Then maybe you should drink juice instead," Seril gives Ascian an elbow in the ribs, "I don't like beer much, but I know that good beer is better than cheap beer." Those big blue eyes blink twice at the idea of 'acting strangely', "Um... How strangely, big brother?"

Shifting her hands, the girl adjusts her coat and then tugs it down more snugly across her shoulders when she notices she's being ... *stared at* so intently by a smoking lady. "I'm not from a colony, I'm from a kingdom in La Gias." Her adjustment done, Seril folds her hands together, leaning lightly on Ascian, "I'm part of the royal family of Helena. My parents were the head priest and priestess of the Palace of Earth." ...So she's a princess. "..Oh! And my name's Seril! Seril Vaskell. Nice to meet you!"

"Ascian isn't my real big brother. I adopted him. Or he adopted me." Looking up thoughtfully, the girl taps her chin lightly with a finger, "I forget how it happened."

SUDDENLY, "How are you feeling today, Lethe?" it must be great to be so young and energetic.

Divada Kirador snerks at Seril. "Nice to have someone to look up to, isn't it?" She says softly as she drinks a bit of water. "I'd better get back to the Hammer. we should be getting another shipment of food and seeds to Mars."

Ascian kind of stops breathing when the woman blows the smoke into his direction, showing an inquisitive look by raising an eyebrow for a moment, then finally inhales a bit more fresher air when he believes it is safe. "Whatever you enjoy, miss...~" He didn't catch her name. "Sorry, I haven't properly introduced myself. The name is Ascian Luddite, from Mars - BAHRAM forces." He extends a hand, in case the woman would be so inclined to shake his. "As for the purging and the tablets. I like to keep medication low for myself. My physician keeps threatening putting me on drugs against halucinations and what not..." He pauses and shakes his head. "But she simply has no clue what she's talking about." The scars under his eyes pulse for a moment - a somewhat visible trait of Metatron poisoning.

Then suddenly, there is a strange feeling. He blinks, slowly tunring his head towards Lethe as she speaks and... actually seems to be talking somewhat... differently. Congratulations on his recent promotion? Perhaps he was just being a bit optimistic, but that sounded almost like progress in Lethe. But then, that whole feeling goes right on down when she tells him not to betray mister Mauser's trust. He nods towards her. "I will not betray his trust, miss Lethe. I can promise you that." He is a bit taken back by that tone she'd used.

But that darkness is quickly taken away when Seril pipes up. "Oh, oh fine, I'll just drink juice instead." He tells her, sounding amused. "As for how strange I behave. I dunno - it's not like it's been taped. And it seems I forget what happened afterwards." He shrugs his shoulders a little and pets the girl on the head. He looks at Elenia for a moment whilst Seril explains where she comes from, and who she is, and just chuckles - but doesn't comment until she reaches the point of telling her who adopted who. "I kind of unofficially adopted her. I don't think I have the right to do so officially until she's learned a bit more, or has gotten to a point where she can really make that kind of decision herself." What did he mean? He was already her 'big brother', what kind of 'official adoption' or 'decision' would she need to make. The others probably knew what he meant, but Seril might not understand.

The young framerunner then nods his head at Divada. "Thank you miss Kirador. I am glad you are taking care of my homeplanet while I am away. Thank you." He bows his head in sincerity. "I am sure the people there appreciate what you are doing for them." He doesn't say 'goodbye' quite yet.

Elenia regards Seril as if she just admitted to being from Aldebaran II. (Being from Mars is of course unremarkable these days. After all - right here!)

Elenia does hold out the hand without the coffin nail in it to shake Ascian's. "Weyland," she answers him, after his introduction. "I'm from Exeter." Her grip is slightly strange, if slightly buffered by the fashion pleather glove she wears that is hiding most of the terrible material of the implanted arms. She takes another drag off the cigarette, which she leans back slightly and blows up towards the nearby HVAC vent -- which may explain why she's sitting here.

She considers Seril and Ascian for a few long moments. There is a question that hangs in the air, from her perspective, well beyond that of the obvious one - it's almost as thick as the smoke she is generating. As she flicks some ash into her impromptu ashtray, she suggests, "Perhaps a refresher course? I've heard that the Zee- ahem, Neo Zeon has had to do seminars to acquiant some of their new recruits in how and what to expect when visiting the surface."

"I am in nominal condition, Miss Vaskell."

Or is that Priestess Vaskell? Or a princess, if her homeland is a theocracy? Whatever the case, she'll stick with the lowest common denominator for the time being. Lethe continues to look at her straight-on, arms at her sides and standing there much like a puppet still on their strings. "My Flickerist is nearly repaired following the Huffman Island assault. I will be combat-ready with it in short order."

And then Lethe turns slightly to face Elenia. "I am W-one-eight. Depending on the need, you may be able to call upon me for mission assistance or fire support."

Seril doesn't try to correct Lethe when she's called 'miss' Vaskell, so it's highly likely the girl doesn't even care about her title. "Oh, your robot is fixed up? Yatagarasu has been healing well from that engagement, too." Looking up, she considers, "It's probably fully recovered and ready to go out again..." A sidelong glance is given to Ascian, "Big brother, we should do an operation soon, before Yatagarasu gets restless."

She talks about her machine as if it were a creature. Which, while true, is still pretty unusual in a world where magic is fairly uncommon. A blink is given to Elenia, "Refresher..? But big brother has been helping me out pretty well. I'm not stupid or anything!" Using her hands, the girl tugs her coat down again, "The customs are just a little different... And I wasn't schooled very well back home either, but I'm learning on my own to prove I can do it."

When patted on the head, Seril closes her eyes with a little 'nyu~' noise, "Didn't I already make that decision? Or do you mean something else?"

When Elenia tells him that she is from Exeter, it is Ascian's turn to give her a slightly odd look. He shakes his head slightly. "I am not familiar with that name." He admits and withdraws his hand, opening and closing it a few times afterwards - and taking a glance at it. That'd been... weird - that handshake. He tries not to think about it too much. After all, he still didn't want to offend Elenia in any way. Ascian then turns his gaze back up and catches that considering look, and tilts his head ever so slightly at her to show that he is wondering about that look on her face. But when she then speaks of the Neo Zeon seminar, Ascian shakes his head. "I can teach her just fine." Sure, it was going to be a bit slower, but it worked. Neo Zeon simply had left... a bad taste, with Haman Karn going batshit crazy.

He quickly peeks back over towards Lethe, distracting his mind so that it wasn't going to try and drag up memories or head into flashbacks. Nope, she's back to talking about 'nominal condition'. "So in other words, you are 'fine' - as opposed to stating that you are in nominal condition, that'd be the better statement amongst your... non Gynoid peers." Ascian nods his head. Perhaps with that additional statement, she'd not try to tell him that Echidna would throw a fit. But then, there was the whole thing about the last W-bot leaving them because it got too human. Maybe he shouldn't. But he couldn't help but try. Lethe's robotic behavior gave him /goosebumps/.

Ascian ruffles Seril's hair for a moment, and smiles at Elenia. "See, she's fine. No worries, I will take responsibility for her." He moves his hands back to Seril's waist and pulls her up a bit further, since his legs were starting to fall asleep - not that he was going to tell Seril this. "Don't worry about it too much Seril - the decision thing. I'll tell you when I think you're ready." He smiles, then raises a hand to rub his chin. "Hrrm. Another engagement. Well, BAHRAM has nothing planned quite yet, but I can see what I can do. But didn't you say you wanted to try using something else? I've been trying to learn how to fly a Valkyrie instead." Though god, did that make him feel uncomfortable. He hated the damn flying deathtraps.

As for being used to machines being refered to as if they were alive. Ascian found this /entirely/ normal. But then, he's an Orbital Frame-runner. Though it's not magic in the basic terms of La Gias, it might as well be. Metatron is a rather strange material, and with all the junk they stuck into Amenthes, she's more alive than not it seems. At least she's not going around chasing anyone she calls an 'uncle'...

Elenia frowns slightly, both in surprise (gynoid? what?) and distaste (my God, she thinks, largely after Ascian's words). She gives him a slightly weaker smile as she takes another drag on the cigarette. Her attention goes back to W18.

"Well, whichever name you prefer to be called, it's certainly a pleasure to meet you," she says to Lethe. "Have a seat if you like, though I don't think I'll be in much longer. I haven't had much call for combat missions lately but I will certainly keep you in mind."

Then she cocks one eyebrow, continuing, "And what's this Gynoid business that the lieutenant is talking of? Forgive me, I've had my head stuck firmly inside of a rather tricky project these last few weeks."

Lethe takes a moment to stare a little more at Seril as she describes robots with healing factors. While it sounds strange, there actually are records of a necromancer reanimating the dead soldiers of the Balmarian occupation forces and either probing them for information or turning them into suicide weapons to use against them. The ethics of such an act aside, it doesn't sound /too/ terrible or strange to her, especially since Metatron-based technology can be fixed more or less by pushing more of the refined ore up against something broken.

"Understood, Mister Luddite."

After the invitation to sit, Lethe sinks down into the seat next to Elenia, smoothing her skirt before fully sitting down. She was only really on the way to check on her machine, so there's no real need for her to rush. Plus, if someone actually needed her, it would be as simple as getting a page over the PA systems or a call-up on the comm lines.

And then she looks at Elenia through those smoked wraparounds, her green eyes a little more visible at point-blank range. "I am not a human being," she says, lifting up her hand to slide them off. There's a certain emptiness in her eyes, as though the lights were on but no one were home. Still, she at least sounds better than she did even a week ago-- there's some hint of a conversational tone in her voice, a sign that something inside of her has evolved. She /is/ still in her learning stages.

Stages that Echidna wants to keep tightly controlled.

Seril hums a bit to herself in thought. Since Elenia doesn't address her any further, the girl doesn't pursue the scary lady's attention. Elenia and her freaky arms are very unsettling! She's not a racist! Robot arms are just scary to backwards country girls from magical medieval kingdoms. Instead, she regards Ascian's words with a tilt of her head and closed eyes, "I did wonder if I could learn to fly other robots, yeah... I looked in some of the cockpits and they look really, really hard to use compared to Yatagarasu. Which one was the valkyrie, again?"

Then again, Yatagarasu just interprets her movements and emotions as a form of control system. So much more sophisticated than Mobile Trace, and yet, so much more elegantly simple. If only it wouldn't try to eat anyone other than Seril who climbed into it.

Those blue eyes turn towards Lethe when the gynoid seats herself and states such a simple thing: Her lack of humanity. Seril hums lightly to herself, "Gynoids are...robots, right? I think that was what you said." Android, robot, machine, distinctly not human. Then again, there are those who wouldn't consider Seril human anymore either. Like Ascian's personal doctor. "It's okay, though! Even a robot can be a person." Since she's trying to be friendly, Seril awards Lethe with the most awkwardly fanged friendly smile she can muster.

Ascian really doesn't get why Elenia is suddenly giving him a distasteful look. He returns her a look, that obviously claimed 'what?'. He really didn't know. But that weaker smile does soften him up a bit again. And when her gaze goes back to Lethe, so does his. And he follows her all the way around the table, until she settles next to Elenia, who'd stated that she'd likely be leaving soon. He lets the Gynoid do the explaining. Partially because he didn't know quite as much as he wanted to know, and partially because it'd be rude to do otherwise. Or at least, so he believes. Of course, when those extremely dark sunglasses go down, Ascian can't help but stare at those green eyes. He blinks for a moment, then looks at Seril.

Suddenly, he found himself trying to remember what eyecolor Hera had - and what eyecolor Seril had. Seril's were... blue. Hera's were hazel, he thought to remember, and turns his gaze quickly onto Elenia. Also green eyes - but not as stark as those as Lethe, it would seem; but at least it made them more human looking in a way. The 'green' of Lethe's eyes always seemed to feel a bit... off to him. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"The Valkyrie." The framerunner then begins, but is interupted as finally the lady arrives with the tea he ordered. "Sorry for the wait." She tells him, and wanders off again. He takes it, blows on it, and then sips it. It's a good temperature, so he takes a quick few more sips, before placing it back on the saucer it'd come on. "The Valyrie, --" He begins again,

"-- is the airplane that turns into a robot. But you are right. All of the things out there probably look hard to use compared to your unit." Admittedly, he'd never looked inside of it, but he'd heard her talk about it enough to make a good guess. "You'd probably be better off in a non-drone Orbital Frame." Not a trace-suit Mobile Suit, he didn't think her body was well trained enough for that.

"And you are right, robots can be people too, though I believe a more proper term is android - or just what she is, a Gynoid." He bows his head at Lethe again. "So, miss Lethe, I was wondering. When we retreated from the Huffman Islands, what took you so long?"

"Fascinating!" Elenia says, and she sounds like she means it. She reaches up with her free hand to gently cup Lethe's jaw for a moment, turning her head a fraction of an inch to the side. This seems to satisfy some obscure curiosity of hers. "I had no idea such things were so advanced."

She takes another drag on the cigarette, before observing aloud as she looks at Ascian, "Don't you think you're really rather working at cross purposes with yourself, prying like that? Though I suppose you might just be making conversation."

"Hrrm?" The bluehaired framerunner raises an eyebrow and shakes his head slightly, apparently not sure what Elenia is refering to. And he says as much; "I don't know what you mean. Cross purposes? Prying?" Yes, he was just making conversation in general.

Seril suddenly swings her legs up above table level, then swings them down again, quickly hopping out of Ascain's lap and up to her feet with a billow of coat and black hair, "Hup~!" She quickly brings her hands up, tugging on the edges of her jacket to straighten it. "Well! I'll look around the mass production models and see if they'll let me borrow one! It can't be that hard, right?"

This can only end in tears

Turning around to face the ladies and gent, Seril bows quickly and repeatedly at the waist, awarding Lethe, Elenia, and Ascian each the same polite gesture, "I'll talk to you guys later! Bye-bye~!" There's a little wave too before the La Gian girl practically skips towards the hangers. She's in an otherworldly good mood today, for some reason.

Fingers lift her chin, and her head turns to the side. Lethe is quite obedient in this regard, allowing the turn and the close examination of the W-Number. The craftsmanship is virtually flawless to look at, as well as touch-- her skin feels authentic, even right down to the way it's connected to her face. There isn't a hair out of place or mis-planted in her head. There's even a slight degree of warmth, but it's hard to say if it's a true emulation of 'body heat' or just a clever way to vent whatever excess heat is built up within her body from head to toe.

Yet, for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second, Lethe Rusina wonders what it would be like to stand in Lamia Loveless' shoes. Did she undergo the same sort of scrutiny? After a pause, waiting for Elenia's close-up examination to conclude, she says, "Please ask Mistress Lemon Browning if you are interested in obtaining information. I do not have the authority to divulge the details of my creation."

"It is all right, Miss Weyland." Lethe turns her eyes toward Ascian. "After the loss of an arm and a leg, I was forced to crack, reprogram the firmware, and then use the computers to divert my remaining power supply to propulsion in order to escape from Huffman Island."

Elenia gestures with the cigarette, which makes little loops of smoke in the air. "Well I assume from how you're taking such pains to refer to her identity and nature, that you're trying to sort of get across a perspective, that being, presumably, that she's a person just like any other."

She glances at Lethe, adding quite amiably, "I mean of course no offense, dear, I don't know the slightest thing about you." Then back to Ascian as if she hadn't even noticed Lethe. "Regardless, you're leading from /there/ straight into a discussion on -- yes, have fun, dear," she tells Seril.

She lets Lethe explain what happened, taking another drag and apparently finishing out the cigarette, which she crushes on the previously littered saucer. After exhaling, she editorializes further.

"I imagine you're trying to make time with her, and I suppose I can't blame you for /that/, but I imagine you can just make a direct statement. Or even give an instruction, given your recent promotion." Her lips purse up in a small, perhaps slightly cruel smile. "Of course, that might not be what you find comfortable, and we can't help our tastes."

Ahh, it would appear that Miss Lethe has already found out the delicious creation of a 'lie'. Or at least omitting parts of the truth. Ascian, clueless of this fact however, doesn't realize this and just nods. He figured that Gynoids were incapable of such things. He even winces slightly. "I am sorry." Though she probably didn't care about losing those particular limbs. His head then turns back towards Elenia, and listens. He truly listens, but he still... doesn't get it. The young man raises his hand and scratches his head softly. "Excuse me, but I am afraid you are beating about the bush too much for me. What are you refering to when you say 'that' - it appears you are implying something." No, he is not the clueless harem anime male protagonist. But when one's mind is not on the subject of dating at all, those kind of implications appear to fall to deaf ears.

He then turns towards Seril and taps her back lightly as she hops off. "Don't get into one! Use a simulator instead!" He calls after her, /praying/ that she heard him. Ascian is a bit worried, and kind of wants to head on after her, but at the same time - she can handle herself. Or at least, so he tries to tell himself. "Be careful!" He tosses after her, before sighing and looking bath at the two ladies before him. He feels... well... a bit less comfortable around them. Especially with Seril gone - who normally lightened the mood. So, to distract himself from this fact, he enjoys a bit more of his tea.

"I mean you'd like to sleep with her," Elenia says, quite conversationally. She glances at Lethe for a moment, then back to Ascian. "I mean there's nothing /wrong/ with that, though I hope your, ahem, little sister won't be troubled by such a matter."

When Elenia states such a... a... /thing/, Ascian's face immediately turns red. He quickly looks at Lethe, then back at Elenia. "Ah..." The cup he holds in his hand kind of shakes, and he puts his other hand on his arms to get himself to calm down, before putting it back onto its causer. "Ahem..." He closes his eyes, breathes in slowly, then breathes out. Only then does he open his eyes again. "First of all, I don't believe miss Vaskell would be bothered by this." Woah, wrong priorities on correcting Elenia there.

"Second of all, as much as miss Lethe is attractive, that is not my intent. If anything, my only intent is to have her perhaps be a bit more human." He turns his gaze slowly towards. "That is, if you will permit as such." Oh right, she probably doesn't have the authority to give him permission for that. "But I guess that's up to miss Echidna." Who would thus never allow such a thing. She'd be just as likely to just kill him.

Seril flees, prompting Lethe to lift up her hand in a polite sort of gesture that could be taken as 'waving,' if her hand had made any effort to sway from side to side, or even do that little Queen Elizabeth twist-about that is so famous in the news archives of the Earth of yesteryear.

And sitting between the two sides of this strange conversation is Lethe, her gaze bouncing back and forth between the pair like a rebounding rubber ball. Wait, does Elenia mean /fraternization/ between /officers/?

She doesn't sound embarassed, but there's a certain element of weight in Lethe's words. "I believe such actions would be frowned upon, as they will disrupt morale. I believe you are also in a committed relationship with one of your own fellow officers, as well."

The fact she has been complimented based on aesthetics does not even enter her mind, right now.

"Frankly you should be less coy," Elenia says. "If I still had a -" She trails off with a little rueful chuckle, shaking her head.

"Well, I apologize for the imposition," she says, shifting as if to rise up to her feet and stretching; her back pops audibly as she sighs in some relief, putting her comm widgets and book back into her purse. "W-18, wasn't it? Be a dear and drop my tray off when you get up, would you?"

She sidles past Ascian, murmuring as she does, "Lieutenant..."

The purse is slipped over her arm then, and she walks with deliberate speed towards the transport loading dock, stage right.

"Yes, such actions would likely be frowned upon." Ascian agrees with Lethe, giving an acknowledging nod. "And you are correct. I am currently in a committed relationship with the one known as Hera Drake. So to start /such/ a relationship with another - especially someone I have no 'such' emotional ties to, does not fit me." He should probably stop putting such words into his sentences. Because people might get the wrong idea. Elenia then gets to her feet, prompting Ascian to bow his head towards her. "It was a pleasure to meet you." He caught on to what Elenia meant with 'if she still had a -', or at least, he figured he could get the gist of it. "There are surgeries for that." But then, she was quite a bit... robotic, so who knows in how far she was beyond fixing.

"Miss Weyland." When she sidles on past him, he shifts his head as to look up at her, before turning his attention to Lethe. "I guess that leaves just you and me, huh?" Talk about awkward. At least he had a conversation topic with the others. Now what. He kind of stares at W-18 for a while, pondering what to say, sipping on his tea now and again to seem as if he was still somehow actively interacting with her. It didn't help that he was a bit embarassed. In the end, the best thing he could come up with was; "Do relationships such as mine truly affect morale that badly?"

She's asked to do something that is ... not exactly her usual sort of job. But then again, it's hard to get Lethe to do anything that resembles complaining, so it works out for everyone in the end. The purple-haired gynoid gives a short nod of compliance. Lord knows if Echidna would scold her for doing tasks this menial. "Yes, Miss Weyland."

Her head tilts forward, staring directly across from the table and toward the rest of the expansive mess hall. She's both seeing everything and nothing; letting the activities by others in front of her be carried out and committed to memory while seemingly staring off into space.

"Negative."

She blinks. It's somewhat automatic. "A strong relationship and foundation between pilots can nurture a better working relationship. This can cause a boost of morale to individual members of a unit. However, this may also lead to neglect of one's duties or the other members of their own squad, resulting in a breakdown of relations with others. While a 'partnership' dynamic can be strong, it does not encourage unit cohesion."

"Negative huh?" Ascian mutters, raising an eyebrow for a moment. The way Lethe behaved, so... robotic. So automatic. What was going to be next, he'd open his mouth to ask a question, and she'd already have anticipated and answered it? Who knows. "A better answer would have been a simple 'no' there, or 'not really'." He adds, continueing on his little attempt to get the Gynoid to act a tad more human. He had a loooong road ahead of himself. "But you are right. If I put too much time into my partnership, it could indeed endanger unit cohesion. However, with the way things are at the moment, I don't see that happening." That, and Ascian was made to be a soldier. Job before fun and all that.

"Sooo." Quick, come up with another topic. He sips some more tea. It's almost empty now. "Would you like to learn to behave more human? Or are you just going to tell me that W-16 would not permit it?" He clearly implies that he wants an answer from Lethe - an opinion of her own. "It could benefit your relationship with the unit greatly, beyond the Gynoids, and improve both interpersonal and unit morale."

She doesn't answer Ascian right away-- Lethe does, however, give him a bit of an even-level stare that could probably look a lot more creepy than she intends. Giving him an honest answer is a dangerous thing. Honesty breeds insight and thought, which aids in breeding self-awareness... and with the history of the W-Numbers, self-awareness is very highly frowned upon these days.

"My language module is not perfect. I am still learning things about the way that people think and speak in order to better anticipate their needs. If my speech is irregular or bothersome-- or more human-- it is simply to aid me in making sure that interactions are smooth."

"W16's attitude is not without merit. Encouraging individuals such as myself to interact on a more human level would have an effect on what is occasionally referred to as the 'uncanny divide.' Humans that treat us as humans may not notice this fact, but to many that know that I, or my brother and sister units, are not human, it creates an air of unease and tension rather than smooth operations."

Of course, what Lethe says has some sense of truth behind it. But Ascian just can't seem to want to give up on teaching Lethe to act more human. Admittedly, the last thing he'd said was more of an excuse than anything - but he'd though it was at least a good excuse. Apparently however, as a reason, it was just not good enough. And that disappoints him. "I will just keep on trying to teach you the right words to use, I guess." Ascian replies.

"But I understand miss W-16's attitude. I've learned a bit more about the Gynoids, and the past occurrences of the more... human behaving ones. I can understand what they fear. But I am not certain that someone who learns to be emotional /has/ to end up changing sides. If that was true, there'd be nobody left in the Divine Crusaders." He gulps down the last bit of that tea and then grabs the ashtray which Elenia had requested Lethe to get rid of with one hand, and the saucer with the other.

"Anyhow. It was good to meet you again, miss Lethe." Pause. "I hope you don't mind me calling you miss Lethe before W-18, like W-16 does." All those numbers were driving him a bit batty. "Anyhow. I hope you'll think some more on what I've said. I will certainly ponder over your words. Morale is... such a fragile and strange thing. With the dynamic of so many different people amongst us, with such different goals and understandings of the way things are - I don't think that just such a small tension would be worth denying yourself some humanity for." And with that said, he bows his head again and weasels his way out from behind the table. "Walk with me if you so wish." Ascian keeps telling her to do things 'if she so wants' or things like that. He wanders over to the nearest bin and starts emptying the ashtray.