2010-05-01 - Pascal's Pancake Pandemonium

 Pascal Ambler transmits, "Hello! I hope it is alright if I borrowed some space in the Argama's kitchen. And, um, some flour and powdered egg. That is, I am making pancakes for whoever wants them..."  Tanith O'Gasmeter can be heard barreling through the door /before Pascal is even finished talking/.  Pascal Ambler transmits, "-Oh, hello!"  Tanith O'Gasmeter transmits, "Yo!"

Pascal, as cheerful as he tends to be off of the battlefield, really hasn't had a lot of chances to get to know his comrades in Katharon yet. He spent his first few weeks hiding out, feeling awkward about his ex-Zeon status and, well, other secrets, and afterwards simply didn't have many chances. But he's a gregarious type who really does want to be friends with the people he's serving alongside, now that he's determined they are not a bunch of psychopaths under a common banner who happen to work with his girlfriend. He's a bit wary of well-meaning psychopaths after his time with Zeon, after all.

He also, it seems, is a good enough cook that he can make fluffy, delicious pancakes out of the dehydrated egg product, cheap flour and powdered milk availible on the AEUG ship. They're almost like the real thing, in fact. He's frying some of them up in the kitchen right next to the mess hall, his black hair tied back in a ponytail, and whistling like a dork as he does. He looks like a rather average teenager, minus the long hair and the fact that his irises have a peculiar red ring around them.

You know who doesn't look like an average teenager?

Here's a hint: she wears an AEUG uniform of questionable moral fiber, a leather jacket with cheetah-print panels on it, a cowboy hat, and her bangs completely preclude any glimpses of her eyes. Also, she doesn't even have a normal /name/. The answer, of course, is Tanith O'Gasmeter, who after all her time recently spent in an AEUG training camp is seriously /all over/ some pancakes. "Yo!" she calls as she bursts in like a fright train. "Am I too late for pancakes?!"

She is the first to arrive.

Unlike some others in AEUG, Denzel Hammer is almost never seen out of a /pristine/ uniform. Sure, it's a custom uniform designed solely for Glory Star, which consists of...three people...but it's still a uniform. Of course, being seven feet tall and made of muscle, Denzel can make a uniform /work/. Of course, he also doesn't look like your average teenager.

Perhaps because he is thirty-four.

Denzel is, at least, off-duty so there is no nonsense with salutes. Instead, he ducks under the doorframe, stretching. "Man, it's good to be back on this ship. We actually have a /gym/." The lack of a gym on the TDD-1 kept Denzel from maintaining his perfect workout record for twelve months straight. It was very disappointing. "Smells good in here."

>>Mirai, Days bleed into weeks and weeks bleed into months. How long have I been at this, now? I can't even remember, every minute without you and the children might as well be counted in infinities. I miss you. It's hard to write these things without being able to be specific. We're orbiting a place and for now, things are moderately calm. Battle is always on the horizon. Amuro has gotten into one of his moods again, I'll have to snap -- or slap -- him out of it. The usual. We've gotten a new navigator. Time will tell if she's worth the effort. One of the newer crewmen is making pancakes. I miss yours. Love, Bright.<< END TRANSMISSION

"I'm glad my ship meets with your approval, Denzel." Captain Bright says from behind, having arrived just seconds later. Though the rest of you slackers are off-duty, the commander of this boat projects anything but. He stands straight, shoulders out and his grey-and-red togs crisp as the day he got them. He motions to the rapidly forming line by where Pascal flips hotcakes and offers a faint nod of his head. "Why don't we get you something to eat and you can tell me all about your adventure against the new Psyco Gundam from the other day."

LIKE TWO MONTHS AGO OR SOMETHING

Rondo Ghina Sahaku: "Ah ah ah ah! Judau Ashta, you vill show Pascal Ambler avound ze Argama and help him vith adjusting to Kazaron! Or I vill suck your blood!" Judau Ashta: "Yeah okay whatever."

Judau Ashta's Actual Thought Process: "Man draculas are less cool in person. I wonder if I can get this Pascal dude to find the chicken--"

FIVE MINUTES AGO

Judau is snoring at his desk; his radio has been left on after a heated debate with Torres over the uses of calculators in making dirty words during. The radio crackles on with a soft and on instinct he knocks it aside with an incoherent 'i'll shtudy shpashe hishtory ladah, leinuh--' when a distinct voice comes through.

'I am making pancakes for whoever wants them...'

Judau's eyes widen. He immediately shoves his chair backward, leaping onto his feet with a fevered pitch. Quickly fussing his tangled, knotted mess of black hair into something even less comprehensible, Judau proceeds to fling on his red jacket and nearly topple over his jeans as he scrambles towards the door.

"Shit!!" he shouts, as if on the dawn of realization.

"I forgot to give him a tour! DON'T SUCK MY BLOOD--"

NOW

Judau Ashta bursts into the mess hall looking like a crazed and dissheveled homeless person. His hand is outstretched towards Pascal, as if to stop him from whatever he's doing.

"H-hey! Passball, wanna have a tour of the Argama--" he begins to ask two months late before his nostrils flare.

"--oh hey, are those pancakes? "--you can COOK?!"

In the hangar bay of the Argama there is, right now, a machine very rarely seen in these parts: The MSZ-006C1 Zeta Plus C1. Its pilot, depending on who you ask, is either 'on very detached duty/secret mission' or 'dead'. His name is Lyle Dylandy. He is, most definitely, /not/ the Gundam Meister codenamed Lockon Stratos, as can be seen by his lack of an orange Haro (currently at a Celestial Being supply base where the C1 is normally stored for a rainy day, babysitting the Cherudim) or a Celestial Being flightsuit or uniform (both of these are currently stowed at that same base). Instead, he wears his AEUG uniform, which is to say a casualed up EFA one, though he at least left sleeves on his. What sort of weirdo has no sleeves on their uniform? That's some kind of... Bad thing. "It's nice to see things never change around here," Lyle says as he, too, enters the mess hall, having come from where he was definitely not providing Amuro Ray or anyone like that with confidential reports about Celestial Being's recent activities (Sumeragi, drunk; Meisters, absent; Feldt Grace, kind of creepy) and such, because that would be something a spy would do. And Lyle Dylandy is just... A Karaba pilot. Yeah, that's the ticket. But seriously, he's pretty sure Judau has some kind of brain damage.

Calvina walks into the room a few moments after Tanith and Denzel. The silver-haired, tall woman frowns as she walks forward, grey eyes scanning the room for a moment before stopping on Pascal. Their chef, she thinks; it may be for the best, though, because space consumables can get sickening to eat. She sigh, holds back from Tanith -- the clothing scares her, a little -- and she pauses as Bright speaks up.

She swallows, and speaks. "This smells good," she says. She pauses, as she sees Lyle enter. Her jaw slackens, slightly. Lockon Stratos, Gundam Meister for Celestial Being, man whose full title must be thought out and said aloud at all times, is here too?

Pascal, hair tied back, is still flipping pancakes when folks start coming in. Tanith and Judau's RAPID APPROACHES take him by surprise, however, and he almost flips a pancake on its side-but avoids what would be such a SHAMEFUL move for the son of a chef. "H-hello!" He speaks up with a voice rather heavily accented in French, though his English is improving, at least. "Yes, there's some already, help yourselves! I tried to find real syrup, but, um..."

There is a bottle of maple-flavored SYRUP on on the table, along with the usual mess hall plates and forks ready at the counter. "Judau, hi! If it's okay, I'll, uh, take a 'tour' later, though I already..." He stifles, and takes on an expression of mild indignance. "Of course I can cook! My father and mother ran a resturant."

Pancakes remain fluffy.

He stops and, despite being off-duty, awkwardly salutes (with his spatula) when Denzel and Captain Bright show up. "Uh, sirs! Help yourselves, no? I'll just be...well, I thought I would make some, since things have been tense here lately, and...and I was in the mood for pancakes, and it's hard to make just /one/ serving of pancakes, you know? You too..." Lyle's name escapes him, so he just gets addressed as You Too.

Cagalli is a little later to approach the pancake train than the rest, mostly because she has only recently gotten back up to the Argama; indeed, the frequency with which she has to make trips up to space or down to Earth is a little disorienting. Nevertheless, she /does/ get there on time for pancakes, still wearing her flight suit. The helmet, at least, has been abandoned.

"Oh man, this smells /great/," Cagalli remarks aloud -- and loud/ly/, at that.

What happens when Tanith and Judau both surge to the front of the queue is that Tanith shoulder-checks Judau out of the way to get pancakes while he's busy being an idiot or something.

Although at least this time he's not dressed as Girl Michael or something.

"Hey sweet thanks I'll take ten," Tanith says, overloading her plate with both pancakes and syrup hastily -- but weirdly not messily. By the time she turns around and sees Bright, and this Denzel guy whose voice she recognizes from the radio and holy /crap/ is he huge, and is that /Cagalli Yula Athha/, oh god--

Tanith salutes her superiors reflexively.

Of course, she has an entire dry pancake hanging out of her mouth as she does this.

Denzel may not have gone into saluting madness /immediately/ on entering, but Bright Noa is Bright Goddamn Noa. You salute him if you have any brains. Denzel has any brains, and so he salutes. "Yes, sir! I'll give you a full report once I've got my plate." Denzel returns Tanith's salute as he heads for the pancakes, caollecting a plate and several pancakes. He'll probably be back for seconds. He is, after all, made of huge.

He pauses, glancng around the mess hall. Well, this is a grand collection of pilots. And Judau. He stares at Judau for a moment before turning to Bright. "Sir, do you want my report now, or would you prefer I wait until you get your own meal?"

Setsuko Ohara does not belong here.

Well, technically, there is nothing stopping her from coming in, but it's a social gathering and Setsuko is usually kind of awkward at those. She usually doesn't say a lot. It's a source of occasional debate whether she's actually shy or just quiet.

She, like Denzel, is in a Glory Star uniform, except it is the girl's uniform, which has one very significant difference. Also like Denzel, she brings herself up to a salute as soon as she enters, crisp and precise and very well-practiced.

"Ensign Tanith, tuck in that flapjack." Bright's eyes pass over the young navigator as he briefly nods to acknowledge her salute. His sight continues cruising along until he glimpses Judau, where all of a sudden everything turns red and there is the most peculiar whistling in the background.

Whee-whoo-whee-whee-whoo, whee-whoo-whee-whee-whoo. WAH-WAAAAH, WAH-WAAAH, WAH-WAAAH. God damn, cover your ears people at home.

Captain Bright narrows his eyes, little furrows of disapproval reaching past the corners. You could swear that he just breathed 'motherfucker' sotto voce. But he doesn't because he is all business, 24-7.

He probably thought it, though.

"Thank you, Mister.." Bright smoothly transitions to Pascal, the possible murder-by-samurai-sword of Judau left entirely to imagination as he pauses for a moment to remember the name. "..Pascal, was it? I'm sure you've gotten your fair share of warm greetings, but welcome aboard and thank you for applying your culinary skills. I'm sure you'll make for many happy people, and stomachs, today." He'd reach over and pat the pilot on the shoulder, but this is a foodline damn it. "It can wait until we've gotten a table, Denzel," he smiles briefly as he supplies his plate with steaming pancake excellence.

"Uuuuuh," Judau says elegantly as he starts to register his surroundings. Right, pancakes. He's making pancakes. Which means that he's too busy for the tour. Which means Judau is obviously not responsible for not having given him a tour until now. Which means--

"Yeah sure, whatever!" Judau Ashta says cheerily, waving a hand through the air. "Just uh -- don't tell that dracula dude, okay?

"Though maybe he's in hibernation on space Transylvania already..."

Judau, still tired, lets his thoughts drift as if to imagine the very notion of a castle floating through space (which is what space Transylvania would be). This is why when he is abruptly shoulder checked he doesn't even remotely see it coming, instantly losing his balance. Arms flailing in a desperate attempt to keep balance, Judau ends up barreling directly into Tanith.

Whether this was by accident or skill certainly does not stop the fact that Judau is definitely swiping Tanith's plateful of pancakes in the same gesture.

"/I'll/ take ten! Heh heh!" Judau chuckles in triumphant arrogance as he swipes a fork, stabs it into the mess of pancakes, and lifts like three whole fluffy disks of cake into his waiting, gaping mouth -- only to pause as he notices -- FEELS the ominous presence of Bright Noa out of the corner of his eye. His spine stiffens as if by instinct.

"E-heh-heh-...heh?" A long, awkward pause commences as maple-flavored SYRUP hangs precariously in a thick droplet from Judau's pancakes.

"'S-sup Bright."

A tall figure in what appears to be star league uniform fatigues, albeit with a suspiciously obvious rank marking makes his way from the distant vehicle bays. Logan is leaving the repairs to the specialists, and he admits, he enjoys the hustle and bustle again even if it feels odd. There has always been something about his katharon associates that puts him off, or maybe its more he assumes he will put them off. The scent of food that wasn't skinned and caught that morning drew him towards what was certain to be the mess... He slowly steps in, insinuating himself towards the rear of the line, pausing for a moment to produce a cigarette and light it.

"Lyle," the definitely not a Gundam Meister says, when Pascal clearly doesn't know who he is; despite this, the Karaba sniper and/or spy flashes a casual grin to show that there's no hard feelings. He doesn't get out to the Argama very often, for a variety of reasons (secret identity) and the last time he did, it ended up with him having to pilot the D-Defenser for Kai. Which is why, this time, he brought the C1. Just in case. /Just in case/. "Getting quite the crowd in here, huh?" Dylandy wonders, of nobody in particular, as he glances around. Weird girl with weird hair, Judau, Bright... Cagalli, somehow... Really tall guy in a uniform Lyle's never seen before, small girl in the same... It's mostly people he doesn't recognise, which again has something to do with the rarity of Lyle's presence on this ship. "Hey, hey," Lyle asks of the nearest person - probably Cagalli. "What's with the Serious Squad?" He gestures, vaguely, at Denzel and Setsuko. This is called 'information gathering'.

"Lyle! I am Pascal," the chef introduces himself, speaking a little faster than usual because he's been practicing his English. Pascal, a Newtype, is totally oblivious to the shot of RAAAGE shooting from Bright to Judau. Because he is sort of a stupid Newtype, to be honest.

"Dracula...dude?" The French teenager just lets that pass, shrugging, and also baffles a little at Denzel's HUGE MANLY HUGENESS. He's still a bit short, and the long hair doesn't exactly add to his own 'manly' image. Calvina also gets a spatula-wave in greeting, and he actually grins when BRIGHT NOA compliments his skills. "Uh, thank you, sir...! I just thought, you know, if I could help...um...have as many as you want...!" If Tanith and Judau don't take all of them. Thankfully, he's still working over that frying pan. He's probably had his own serving already.

"Cagalli...!" He seems maaaybe a little TOO happy to see her, and addresses Cagalli Yula Attha perhaps a bit TOO casually, but greet her he does, calling her over. "You did get in alright, yes? No trouble out there?"

As he cooks, he keeps producing new fresh pancakes. Most of the mixes around here are for cooking in bulk, though somehow he's able to make these actually quite palatable. He doesn't see Setsuko or Logan yet, but the line itself is rather self-explanatory.

"Uph, phr!" Tanith replies to Bright, her salute ending just as

/son of a bitch he is stealing her food/

"HPH!" Tanith cries, still holding a pancake with her mouth. "GPH PHR NN, UPH-HL!" She yanks her plate away. It's weird being yelled at by someone with a pancake in their mouth -- it's weirder when this person has eyes that cannot be seen by conventional means that don't involve x-rays.

The rest of the group is momentarily forgotten as Tanith is about to try and whap Judau upside the head, but her hand stops like an inch away when Pascal delivers his super-happy 'Cagalli...!', causing Tanith to look over Judau's shoulder -- this much is obvious, because she's craning her head. Suddenly, she tears the flapjack away from her mouth, hurriedly chewing what remained there as she splats the freed portion onto her plate.

Lyle? Calvina frowns at that. "I thought you were someone else," she says aloud, standing behind Dylandy. She looks at Pascal for a moment, though, when he says that loudly -- and thn sighs and shakes her head. Before she can do anything else, though, she sees Tanith spit half of a pancake out onto a plate. Her face scrunches up, and her lower lip drops halfway down into a grimace.

The expression on her face says, in a word, "gross!"

She quickly looks away and grabs a plate from the counter, and puts a light amount of maple syrup on it. She takes her fork, and starts to neatly cut it, before leaning back against the wall.

Denzel nods, and then goes to claim a table. He has found that when he claims tables, few argue. As he does, he turns, looking at the entrance. "Ohara! Good to see you here." Denzel likes to encourage his pilots to engage in social activities. Not that one of the two /needs/ the encouragement - but then, the one who's just entered needs twice as much, so it balances out.

He pauses, turning to stare at Tanith and Judau. He looks between them for a moment, and then glances at Bright Noa, raising an eyebrow. This looks like it may need an intervention, but on the other hand...well, on the other hand, Judau appears to have absolutely no idea what he is doing and may not be responsible for his own actions.

The Princess of Orb jogs over toward the food line, with a big smile on her face. "Nothing major," she says. "I'm still a little tired out, but... nothing huge." She says, "I'll have two." Ten is a little too many, but one is /clearly/ not enough.

When Tanith abruptly tears a pancake out of her mouth, she can't help but glance over a little; she doesn't seem to have the same immediate, visceral 'gross!' reaction that Calvina does, though. Maybe it's because she /also/ eats like a disgusting pig. That, or because it's likely to distract either Bright or Judau from the other, and that can be universally agreed on as something good.

"Judau," Bright answers calmly, acknowledging the young pilot with a nod of his head. Given the intensity just moments earlier, this might be polite. "Before you escort Pascal anywhere, make sure you balance those pancakes out with some fruit and milk. Pilots aboard my ship are to keep up their strength with well-rounded nutrition, is that understood? Cagalli," he greets the princess while saying nothing about how Judau looks like a hot mess.

"And make sure you get yourself a change of clothes before you sashay around the corridors, too, Judau." Oh wait, he just did. Gundam pilots. Every year, younger and dumber. Space Jesus help us all.

Tray in hand, Captain Bright walks over to where Denzel has set up his big eatin' shop. He's got a short-stack of pancakes atop his plate, complemented with some utensils and a napkin because that is how men eat. The maple-flavored syrup earns a minor scowl, though. In war, one must make sacrifices. Why must that sacrifice be real, honest-to-goodness maple syrup? "Alright, Denzel," says Bright as he settles down into a chair. "This is an all-new Psyco Gundam, right? What can you tell me about its capabilities? Or better yet, who might be piloting it?"

Judau Ashta visibly grouses. Each of Bright's words hit him like a hammer of not-fun-ness and each one makes the young man's face contort a little bit more. By the time that Bright is done, he looks something like this:

>%B

"Yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it. Don't talk to me like you're my dad, it's creepy. Geesh--"

Judau's awkward and tense feeling of impending doom is cut fortunately short as he feels the plate of pancakes slip from between his already syrup-encrusted fingers. First surprised, then angry, Judau shovels /all three/ of the pancakes he managed to stab into his mouth and jabs an indignant and sticky finger directly at Tanith.

"DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL, THAT'S RUDE!" Judau means to shout. What he actually says is:

"DNNT SHLK WIFF UHR BOWF FFU, DASH RUUUEE!"

The emotional impact and delivery remains unaltered, though, and that's what counts.

He is about to berate Tanith further when her halting mid-abuse causes some sort of domino effect. He too seizes up, but for different reasons. Tanith cranes her head, looking over her shoulder. He might be curious as to why, except that he sees--

--/opportunity./

Judau's own head cranes. A slight tilt downward, a brief lilt up. His head comes dangerously close to Tanith's as pancakes half-hang from his mouth. His eyes are quite clearly peering upward as he continues shifting his head, as if trying to find a good angle to peer at Tanith's face. His eyes widen as if on the dawn of revelation.

"Aah--"

He gulps, and his eyes widen for an entirely different reason as food goes down the wrong pipe. "Gk!" Suddenly clenching his throat, Judau lets out a strangled gasp, lashes about, and loses his balance-- and collapses with a resounding CRASH.

"Uh."

This is the fringed-and-cheetah'd young navigator's response to Judau Ashta getting, like, all up in her face. Is he trying to...

/oh god he is trying to neo-lady-and-the-space-tramp me/

Tanith suddenly pulls away and-- 'Gk!'

When Judau goes down, Tanith O'Gasmeter is quick to react:

"Oh my god you drama queen I didn't even /touch/ you! What is-- oh, wow, that's a pretty good trick, but I'm not falling for-- uhhh oh jeez pretty sure you're not supposed to turn that color--"

Briefly panicking, Tanith goes down after Judau to scoop him up and start performing the Neo Heimlich Maneuver. Her hat falls off in the process.

The entire display is just...

They are /here/. Dignity is /there/.

As wackiness happens, Lyle is distracted because somebody is potentially able to blow his cover, here. Blue-green eyes blink in surprise, and the Irish sniper looks back over his shoulder at Calvina; he recognises her, from the beach, right. But... "Oh?" he wonders, grinning lopsidedly. "Like who? Maybe I just have one of those faces." Shrugging a bit, the tall - but not, like, Denzel tall - young man shakes his head in a 'what can you do?' sort of a gesture. "Hopefully you mistook me for somebody handsome, charming and famous." And not... Lockon Stratos, who is most definitely somebody else. The sniper tosses a casual salute to Pascal in response of his own introduction, before moving to get some pancakes of his very own. Pascal is now all right in his books, because anybody who makes him food is all right by Lyle Dylandy. Once he's got his food, though, Lyle makes a second attempt at a Gather Information check, this time by going right to the source; he flashes a grin at Setsuko, trying to be friendly. He has no idea what 'Glory Star' is, and he really... Doesn't like not knowing things.

"Well, sir, I have some good news." Denzel carefully applies syrup to his pancakes. "The Psyco - well, it lived to its reputation. Princess Athha's unit was taken out before we could take it down - and that was with two units pounding on it. But, as you can see, we recovered the princess afterwards, despite the attempt to kill her by the Psyco's pilot. I'd like to commend pilot Sunny Holland for her actions officially, though - thanks to her, we took down the Psyco and prevented Cagalli from being killed..."

Denzel pauses. "And, in addition, we took a captive. The pilot of the Psyco Gundam, along with the machine's arm. As far as I am aware, she's still being held about the Tuatha de Danaan, though I was not able to debrief with Colonel Testarossa to receive a name. All of our pilots performed admirably in the battle, and we accomplished our objective - we've got a good load of supplies and we took out the base, despite the Psyco, the pilot known as Mister Bushido and the GaoGaiGar."

Denzel cuts off some pancake, eating it. "We didn't expect them to pull out all the stops on us, but once we took down Psyco and drove off Bushido, I was able to get them to stop shooting at us - no point in risking the deaths of our pilots when we'd made it so the Federation couldn't win." He valiantly attempts to ignore Judau and Tanith. It's not easy, and it's not going especially well.

"Hello, sir," Setsuko says, still holding the salute - and then eventually she relaxes, lowering her arm. It's a very, very slight 'relaxes'. She still looks tense as hell.

It does not help that there are antics in here that she is not very well-equipped to deal with. Nobody is dying of choking, which is good, because she doesn't /actually/ know how to do the Heimlich. "Um," she says, not really able to get out much more.

Even Pascal is paying a bit of attention to the Tanith and Judau fracas with a raised eyebrow, so distracted that he almost burns a pancake. Which would be too much of a dishonor for one of the few skills in life he /doesn't/ need his freaky-ass robot for. "Are, um..." He leans over to Cagalli, who gets served right away, speaking in a low tone. "Are they /alright?/ Do they know one another or something?"

He doesn't interfere in the Heimlich, but he does sort of wave at them both. "...Do you need some milk?" He is pointing to the vending machine labeled MILK

"NO, THANKS, BUSY SAVING THIS GUY!" Tanith calls back.

Logan Hallis watches the various bits of chaos with a slow, sad smile, before he peers ahead at the pancakes before him, eyeing the distant prospect of syrup.. He taps away some of the ash from his cigarette onto the floor, exhaling smoke with a soft sigh, "Aaah."

"Actually, just for someone who couldn't control his Haro," Calvina says to Lockon. She flashes him her best shit-eating smile. The young woman shakes her head and steps up, taking a bite of her pancake -- only with a fork and considerably more carefully than Judau or Tanith did. She looks at Judau -- and watches -- and then she starts staring.

What are they /doing/? Is that how to stop someone from choking? She frowns and puts her fork down on her plate.

"Do, um, do you need help?" she calls out to Tanith.

Cagalli gives Bright a brief nod back, saying, "Bright," shortly before everything goes to Hell. She turns and just stares directly at Tanith and Judau as things rapidly become impossibly embarassing, dimly hearing Pascal out of the furthest corner of her perception. At first, she doesn't even respond; eventually, she turns and gives him a vague, "Huh? I, uh... don't... know?"

Quietly, she takes her pancakes, blinking a few times. "I... don't think so? I think she's new or..." She handwobbles, saying, "... something." What is even happening now. What is this.

Bright Noa listens carefully to Denzel. His eyes move from the man only when he wants to cut into his short-stack with his fork before lifting it up to his lips. One napkin is already tucked into his collar, the other on his lap. There's no messing up his uniform. Once Denzel is done speaking, he earns a nod from the Captain. "It's an excellent idea. I'll put one through when I get back to the bridge. We're going to need to make sure that arm is analyzed as thoroughly as possible, though it's a shame all we got was an arm. What happened to the rest of the suit, if you managed to take its pilot? Destro---"

It isn't Judau about to die that stops Bright. It is the fact that he just -heard- ash being intentionally tapped on his -ship-. How does one hear -ash-, you might wonder? They say that a captain and his ship are one and the same. When one is pricked, the other bleeds. Yadda yadda, some touchy-feely nonsense later and really, he just saw it out of the corner of his eye.

Setting his jaw, Bright pulls the napkin from his collar and tells Denzel, "Excuse me," as he rises up from his chair. "Mister Pascal!" he calls out as he launches away from the table, heading toward Judau and Tanith as he points clear in Logan Hallis's direction. "My apologies for interrupting your most excellent way to win brownie points with the rest of this team but get this idiot a dustpan and broom. He is soiling -my- ship and he's just -lucky enough- that one of my pilots is choking to death that I can't walk over myself and smack him."

Bright comes to a stop, pushing aside anyone who might be crowding around to watch Tanith slam her fist into Judau's stomach. He'll wait for the next precious couple of moments before needing to intervene. It also puts him in the way of getting puked up on if Judau gets pukey.

Pascal holds up a dustpan and broom, with a hapless, deer-in-headlights expression. A red-eyed deer in headlights.

He is just THAT PREPARED.

Actually, no, that's not it at all. He spilled some flour and pancake mix on the floor earlier, and while he's hardly a neat freak, he's heard enough about Bright to know when to clean up a mess before it's found. Besides, what if the chicken got into it?

"GHHK! GRKKL!!" Judau heaves out indignantly as Tanith scoops him up. His limbs are flailing, his face is blue. He looks like he is about to explode in rage. If his air was not completely cut off at this point and he was not experiencing some overwhelming pain from multiple sources, he would probably have some choice words to say as Tanith starts punching his abdomen. Instead, all he has to say is this:

"HURR!" -Whud-. "HUKK!" -Whud-. "HUHH--"

With that last impact, Judau suddenly forcefully expells the air from his lungs with a wet cough. Chunks of pancake go flying, potentially right in the way of the ANGRY BRIGHT NOA. The whole thing is an unholy mess. Judau's lungs feel like they're on fire, but he barely notices. He has /priorities./ First of which:

"GUH!!" Judau gasps as he bodily jerks away from Tanith. At Pascal's friendly suggestion, Judau springs towards the vending machines, putting his mouth directly underneath the MILK spout and shoving /down/ on the lever. Guzzling down the liquid like a madman, the green-eyed youth only stops with an abrupt series of coughs as he slumps down against the side of the cabinet, breathing heavily.

Five seconds pass. Judau looks up and -- noticing everyone else -- awkwardly rubs the back of his head. He doesn't really notice the white droplets of milk dribbling down his lips as he offers a brief and much-too enthusiastic laugh.

"... Oh, wow, those're some tasty pancakes! Ha ha ha ha... haaaaa...!" he finally manages, after his lungs stop feeling like they are going to burst into a raging inferno.

"The milk tastes kinda sour, though."

Logan Hallis looks up as Bright seems to become agitated. The comments regarding him, specifically 'this idiot' seems to elict a deep chuckle from Logan as the cigarette dangles from his lips. As Pascal produces the dustpan and broom, he looks over at the boy and smiles, "Ah good. Looking out for your team, quiaff? Thanks so much for doing the cleaning up for me, son." He does begin looking around for a place to put his ash for future reference though, "...ashtrays...ashtrays...hrm..."

In the aftermath of Judau's whirlwind rampage, Tanith is left standing there. In the shadow of Bright Noa. Who may or may not have half-swallowed pancake on him.

"Um," Tanith says, slowly -- very slowly -- reaching down and picking up her hat. Her eyes remain invisible, but her mouth is a very quiet, tiny frown as she realizes that

/oh god everyone is watching/

Setsuko Ohara is, in fact, watching.

And judging.

She looks horrified.

"The suit wasn't destroyed - after it got taken down, the pilot ejected to try and strangle Cagalli. Oh, of course, sir." Denzel turns to watch the chaos, shaking his head, as Bright deals with it. He turns to try and catch Setsuko's eye. "Ohara, don't worry - this sort of thing does /not/ happen every time we get free food." He pauses, glancing at Judau, and then adds, to himself, 'Hopefully.'

Pascal's the only one NOT watching all of this in horror, because there's a sudden realization that he just let Logan push a chore on him.

There is an eyebrow-twitch.

It's true, Lyle is also watching the whole thing, except rather than some sort of look of disgust or horror, the definitely not a Gundam Meister is just enjoying some pancakes. In fact, he watches with a sort of casual but definite focus, as if appreciating the show that goes along with dinner while he chews delicious pancake, enjoying the light, fluffy texture of the 'cake itself, and the interplay with the sweet flavour of the maple syrup. He hardly seems taken aback at all by the increasingly surreal situation developing in the middle of the mess hall, for some reason. Probably because he's seen worse. Oh, so much worse.

"...."

Bright makes that slight jerk of his fanny -- you know the one? Where you try to move but you already know the futility of it all, so you still remain in place. Half-swallowed pancake splatter across his chest and lap, with the occasional bit of spittle hitting his chin. Bright's lips press together in a thin line, taking his splattering like a goddamn man. He stares at Judau, keeping it on him as the youth breaks off for some milk before turning back to look at Tanith. He shakes his head faintly before he clasps the girl's shoulder. This non-verbal communication for 'good work,' albeit his hand retreats when he feels the material of Tanith's jacket. Ecch.

Bright lets out a sigh as he glances down at his ruined uniform. Sigh. "-CHEW- next time, Judau...!" he calls out afterwards, giving the boy a pass by virtue of nearly dying. Unfortunately, he's the only one who gets one.

"Being aboard Argama is a privilege, not a right," Bright starts to talk as he slowly turns his sight on Logan. "You maintain that privilege by treating it and its crew with respect, as its continued and smoothly-run operation is vital to the cause. Since you've already started off by -disrespecting- Argama, you're going to take it upon yourself to clean up the mess you've thoughtlessly made without shifting it onto someone else, in order to rebuild what you've just broken. And should you, in your finite wisdom decide to give me lip about it, I'll remind you that the only thing seperating Argama from Side 7 right this moment is hard vaccuum. And pressure suits are, indeed, a privilege only awarded to those who maintain their respect to Argama. Mister Pascal, leave the broom and dustpan for this ... 'gentleman'.. and return to your pancakes with Argama's gratitude."

"Oui," Pascal immediately answers, saluting. With the hand holding the broom. This goes as well as one might imagine.


 * thunk*

He turns a bit red, sets the broom and pan aside and turns back to the pancakes before he does something else awkward.

Logan Hallis takes another long draw, smiling as he takes the dustpan, "...respect for the ship and its crew? That I can understand..." He taps his ash directly into the dustpan, as he squats down to sweep up his prior ashes, "...I wasn't even certain of this ship's name, to be honest. I was just glad to get to avoid freezing my ass off for a while."

Having finished cleaning up his little bit of nowhere, he places the aforementioned dirt into the nearest thing resembling a rubbish bin. "And the name, 'Captain,' is Logan. Star Colonel Logan Hallis."

He does peer back, attempting to see if there are any pancakes which are not in a semi-digested state available for consumption.

There are plenty of pancakes left, though Pascal himself has taken a break from the griddle. He can only go on for so long. Instead, he's leaning on the counter, watching things and trying to get to know people based on, well, watching.

Bright squeezes Tanith's shoulder and that makes the caramel-skinned girl smile, even if it's a muted, 'aw-shucks' kind of smile. She then realizes that thanks to Judau /she no longer has any food/, and -- she doesn't really want to get back in line -- and she's never going to use that MILK dispenser ever again in her entire life...

Putting her hat back on, Tanith goes to sit down. She ends up next to Setsuko, because that's where there was an open space, and that sort of thing just happens. "Hi!" she says, forcing her cheeriness a bit, to make up for...

...the unpleasantness.

Looking from Setsuko to Denzel to anyone else at the table, Tanith goes from 'looking cheery' to 'looking a little embarassed' to 'looking a lot embarassed,' as charted entirely by her mouth, which is really the only thing her expressions can be judged on.

"...I'm not, uh, retarded, or anything," Tanith feels the need to note, tactfully. "Like, I mean, that whole thing just now, like -- I'm not -- that kid, the one who wears dresses, he -- uh, he might be ret -- shooouuullld I just go find another table?"

Cagalli is more than a little displeased with Logan's disrespect of the ship, but doesn't dress him down; after all, the Captain is better and more qualified anyway. Turning her attention back to Pascal, Cagalli says, "... sorry about that," with a kind of awkward expression on her face.

Finally deciding to sit down with her pancakes, Cagalli decides to take up a seat near the relative newbies, conveniently also passing directly in front of Tanith. "... I... don't really know what just happened," she says. "Do you, uh -- mind if I sit down?"

Denzel Hammer shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. Happens to everyone eventually." He grins briefly. "Besides - no one got hurt, so now you've got a story to impress your buddies in the barracks."

"Well... you did... stop him from choking to death," Calvina says to Tanith. She frowns, despite that. "I suppose that's good."

"I /was/ chewin'," is about all that Judau can manage to mumble at Bright. His indignance in his voice is only slightly mellowed out by how hoarse it is.

Slowly pulling himself back up onto his feet, Judau awkwardly and painfully clears his throat. He has enough self-awareness to grap a fistful of napkins and inelegantly wipe the milk from his mouth before he walks back towards the mess hall tables. He looks towards Tanith helpfully as she starts talking about retardation, and squints.

"Punchin' someone in the stomach's not how y'do neo-CPR," the Newtype points out helpfully with a bright smile.

He flops down into a seat opposite Tanith at this point. He seems like he is about to divert his attention to the others at the table for some horrifying reason or another before he remembers something. Something Leina shrieked at him at least a hundred times in the last month-- "But, uh... thanks for the help an' all."

Bright Noa nods to Logan. "I understand. My apologies that your military chose to elevate someone with such poor situational awareness and reading comprehension. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone within Katharon who will be able to provide remedial education. Carry on, Mister Logan." He gives his jacket a tug at the bottom, past his belt where it splits apart.

Who's house?

Captain Bright's house.

I said, who's hoooooooouse?

Captain Briiiiiiiiight's house.

Martiiiiiiiiiiin. Martiiiiiiiiiin.

Moments later, an AEUG crewman appears carrying a replacement jacket. "Captain Bright, sir!" Remember what he said about situational awareness? Gold.

"Denzel, what're the odds that the Psyco Gundam is where it was left?" Bright asks as he changes jackets. "I'm sure it's been recovered by now, but I'll ask anyway even if there's a slim chance."

"It's alright," Pascal adds to Cagalli, shrugging. "It's all...interesting! I mean, as long as people are enjoying themselves." He thinks they are, at least. "And no one got into a fight or anything. And I managed to use up all of the leftover batter, so we did not have to waste anything, you know?"

There is something the Newtype is aware of.

Something is behind him.

A very.../chicken/ something.

Logan Hallis hrms, "We more or less promoted ourselves, that might explain it, Captain." He procures a few flapjacks, and some syrup...or to be honest, procures a small ocean of syrup with a few little flapjack rafts and makes his way to an empty table. He sits, eating slowly while watching the others talk and carry on, taking slow drags in between bites, and says nothing.

Tanith seems to have some confidence restored by people not, you know, denying her claims of mental faculties, and she flashes an awkward smile. She looks back over her shoulder at Logan and Bright, and winces just a little, before turning back around to see --

--Cagalli! "Oh, uh, there's a seat here!" Tanith says, suddenly, maybe a little too excitedly, slapping the seat a little too roughly. Her elbow almost bumps Setsuko in the process -- Setsuko on one side, this empty seat on the other -- but just barely avoids it.

Then her head turns to regard Judau and the excitement fades. "Yeah, uh... well, like, one, okay, don't steal my food, because now I'm totally going to steal yours sometime and you can't /legally/ do anything about it, and two, no problem. I mean, it'd kind of suck if it was half my fault you died." Tanith shrugs, sounding a little uncomfortable with that last thought. "But, uh, that was the Neo Heimlich -- we had to learn it at my last job. Like, okay, I worked as a courier," Tanith says, and suddenly she's picked up steam and the story is off and rolling, complete with hand gestures. This might be dangerous, because, well, can she even /see/ with that hairstyle? What's to stop her from making one jerky movement too many and accidentally socking Setsuko? (Aside from Denzel, that is.) "So like when I got promoted to hoverboard, and ha ha it wasn't really a promotion because they totally made me /buy/ a board /from/ them and it was /so/ much it wasn't even /funny/, but no, anyway, I had to do all this training for stuff like that. Because apparently every now and then someone on a board would like, be going too fast in the open air and like open their mouth and some litter or a pigeon or /something/ I don't know would get them right in the mouth and kind of get in there enough to, you know? I mean that never happened to me /thank Jesus/ but I totally heard all these /stories/, like one guy thought 'okay, I'll cover my mouth with a scarf' because I guess he thought it looked cool to have the scarf tails, you know, all flapping in the wind behind him and it probably /did/ look pretty cool but seriously it was maybe the dumbest idea ever because I heard it took him all of /two/ gigs -- that's what we called each run, a gig, or sometimes a run, but -- anyway this guy is going on one of the shortcuts through an alley and the scarf catches on a power line and he just gets /yanked/ off of his..."

Tanith's story just keeps going on and on and /on/ until someone stops her.

Pascal says nothing.

The chicken says nothing.

"Well, sir..." Denzel glances at Tanith, tapping her on the shoulder. "Ah - why don't you just give the summary?" He turns back to Captain Noa. "I would put the odds at near zero, sir. We'd have tried to take the whole thing, but there was limited space on the Tuatha, and we only had room for the arm. I'd expect the Federation's already retrieved the rest of the Psyco - it's too expensive to leave sitting around, especially since Trailers know where it was. They'd had mercenaries hired for the battle, sir - if the Federation didn't take it, I'd say that the Trailers salvaged it..." He smiles. "And the odds of the Federation letting a weapon like that go to /mercenaries/, well."

Bright Noa rubs his chin in thought. "Didn't think so. Hrm." He considers briefly before nodding, "Alright. Let's see if Colonel Testarossa won't mind a rendevouz so we can see what's going on with the new Psyco Gundam and its pilot. You've done well, Denzel, and I'll be sure to post commendations to you and your team. However, you -did- neglect to file your after-action report and that's a poor habit to pick up. I'll be expecting better out of you next time, understood?"

"Of course, sir. I apologize - it was my responsibility and I failed to accomplish it. In the future, that won't happen." Denzel nods contritely.

"Uh -- thanks!" Cagalli says, sitting down next to Tanith, trying her best to sound only minimally awkward about it. "I -- think." Finally getting to actually eat her pancakes, Cagalli listens to Tanith go on and on and on in entirely too much detail, trying to be as polite as she can about it; after about a minute, she just resigns herself to considering it white noise and eating her pancakes.

Thank God for Denzel.

Suddenly aware of his surroundings, Judau blinks his large green eyes as he looks up at Cagalli now settling in at the table. He looks bamboozled as he scratches the back of his head.

"Oh, uh, hey, Cagalli," he says as casually as he might greet one of his crazy junkyard friends.

"... hey wait when the hell'd you get here?"

His words drift. This is helped by the tidal wave of words that overflow from Tanith's lips before he can even try to debate the Laws of Space. His mouth hangs open slightly as Tanith keeps going, and going, and going. About ten seconds in his eyes glaze over and his expression just goes blank, as if he had abruptly had his brain wiped.

"... Hey, Cagalli, why aren't you helpin'--" Pas pas pas Pas-all? Paswall? Pass-baw? Pas "--cal, Pas/cal/ -- why aren't you helpin' Pascal make the breakfast? Aren't you guys like goin' out or somethin'?" Judau, believing 'helping cook food' to be a prerequisite of 'dating' at this point in time, looks sidelong to gesture at Pascal. "I mean maybe you suck at cooking or somethin' but--"

And then he sees it: the chicken.

Green eyes widen. Judau abruptly abandons the conversation and the table by scooting his seat out and slowly inching away from it, moving several feet from the counter. He looks to Pascal. Then the chicken.

"Psssst," he hisses as softly as possible in Pascal's direction. "Don't freak out or anything, but look behind you--"

Judau is half-crouched like some sort of pathetic tiger on the prowl. The intention is clear as day:

He's going to pounce the chicken. "I..." Cagalli starts, thinking back to the last time she cooked. "... Trust me, this is just, uh, better for everyone," Cagalli finally says. "You don't want me coo --" And instantly Judau's interest has very clearly and completely gone away. Cagalli just frowns, saying, "... okay then." God, it's like he's five.

"It's okay," Pascal insists (rather quickly at that,) "I don't mind! I can do it just fi--huh? Behind me...?"

He slowly turns around.

"Bukaw."

He is silent for a moment as THE ENEMY stares him down and takes one, two, three steps back and out of the way. The chicken turns, slowly, to face Judau.

Its old nemesis.

Denzel's comment does indeed give Tanith pause, and once the momentum from her rambling is gone, the entire thing just collapses and stops. Listening instead of talking for a change, Tanith hears -- okay, Bright and Denzel, talking military stuff, probably don't want her eavesdropping -- Judau and Cagalli talking, how does Judau even know Cagalli, maybe Cagalli does work with like special ed kids as part of being a princess--

And then Judau's gone and Tanith really doesn't know what's going on.

So she turns to Cagalli! "Uh, hi!" Tanith chirps. "Um, I know your sister." Pause. "Well not like /know/ know, I mean it's not like we're old friends or anything, I mean, but, no, yeah, I met your sister the other day and -- yeah. Do you -- come to the Argama often?"

Tanith is just awkward and nervous because /it's actually the Princess of the Orb Union right there aaaa/ and doesn't even realize that what she asks might be...

...misconstrued.

Calvina hears the chicken buckaw.

She looks sideways at Lyle Dylandy, then ahead at Cagalli and Bright. Then, slowly, she reaches her hand down to her side. "That damn bird," she mutters, quietly. "That must be how I got bird shit on one of my jackets in a spaceship."

She quietly throws off a leather strap on her holster, and then pulls out her nine millimeter sidearm. She cocks the weapon back, and then holds it out -- like she is doing nothing wrong -- gangsta style, aiming it calmly for the bird.

"I have this, Mister Ashta," she says. Then, she shouts. "SHIT ON MY LEATHER JACKET, HUH!?"

Bright Noa returns to his seat to finish his rapidly-cooling pancakes. Somehow, he misses the existence of a chicken in the Mess Hall. He's tucked that napkin back down his collar and he's just about to tuck into those sweet pancakes when all of a sudden, Calvina shouts something about her leather jacket. With jaw agape, Bright stops and stares at Calvina. It begins!!

Logan Hallis carefully gathers amounts of the syrup on a mere suggestion of a remnant of a pancake. he does peer up at the chicken and Pascal and returns to his eating. "...get too attached to them, and it gets awkward around time for plucking and roasting."

'Bukaw.'

Judau Ashta snorts. His green eyes narrow.

"Bukaw this, you feathered, hollow-boned--"

The mystery of how Judau knows birds have hollow bones when he abjectly refuses to learn anything about anything goes unsolved when he begins to leap. This is also, conveniently, when he hears the cocking of a gun.

'I have this, Mister Ashta.' As if in slow motion, Judau's head rotates as he sees the barrel of a gun pointed at the chicken. His eyes snap as wide as dinnerplates in the grip of a mortified expression while he flies through the air, still aimed at the chicken that now has a DEADLY WEAPON pointed at it.

"OH MY GOD DON'T SHOOT ME YOU'LL SHOOT THE CHICKEN"

Somewhere in there, some wires get crossed.

Eager to talk to anyone who isn't Judau Ashta, Cagalli opens her mouth to answer Tanith -- and Calvina promptly draws her firearm and begins threatening the chicken. Now, on the one hand, this is Calvina; on the other, this is Cagalli, who knows a little about how to not die when firearms are involved.

Almost on reflex, Cagalli grabs Tanith by the shoulder, firmly but not /too/ firmly pulling her down under the table with her with a hissed, "Shit -- get down!"

It is unclear if this overshadows the awkwardness or makes it way, way more pronounced.

Well, let's see.

Because how it goes down is like: Cagalli grabs Tanith. Tanith lurches. Goes 'whuh--'. Hat falls off, under the table. Tanith goes 'My hat--'. Leans down to try and catch hat. Fails. But Cagalli is still pulling even as Tanith is pushing herself down. Momentum upholds.

And this is how, under the table, Tanith O'Gasmeter ends up with her face in Cagalli Yula Athha's lap.

For like two seconds, anyway, before Tanith suddenly jerks up and bashes her head off of the underside of the table with a 'WHAM.'

"Ow--!"

"Uh--WAIT!"

For once, Pascal's Newtype reflexes trigger, he hits the deck as fast as he can, and thus doesn't get shot. He would ordinarily interfere to help, but this is /crazy,/ seriously. As for the chicken.

"buKAW." It cannot fly, but it can jump up pretty high and flap, thus eluding the grip of Judau. It then starts running on top of the Newtype thorn in Bright's side and dashing out of the kitchen, kawkawkawing the whole time.

And then, like a feathered ninja, it is gone.

Calvina starts to squeeze a shot off at the dreaded chicken, looking (sideways) down the length of the barrel. The sight moves over the feathered demon, and then -- she sees Judau leap in front of the gun and the chicken out of her sight, save for a brief moment where she could have shot them both.

She sees it skitter away, and lowers her pistol. Her eyebrow twitches; her upper lip does the same, as she looks down at the Gundam pilot.

She shakes, unhealthily.

"You /idiot/!" she hisses at Judau, shaking her gun at him -- albeit without pointing it at him. "I almost had that damned bird!"

"Calvina, holster that sidearm!" Captain Bright shouts. Generally he approves of dangerous objects being shook in Judau's direction.

When he's on the battlefield, that is.

Definitely adds to the awkwardness.

Cagalli awkwardly starts to squirm away from Tanith shortly before she herself attempts to extract herself from the growing awkward moment; she winces as she sees Tanith /completely fail/ at this one, however. "I -- oh jeez, are you OK?" she asks, as things start to calm down again. "Sorry, I just -- didn't want us to have our heads up there if bullets started actually flying, and, uh, wow, that /really/ sounded like it hurt and, uh --"

"Huh? No, my head doesn't have a lot of give to it, I mean, there's not a lot, of um, giving in my head, that, wait, no, I meant, I, uh -- give -- head -- WAIT NO--" Tanith's eyes would probably be wide with panic and awkward terror. If anyone could see them.

"Uh... it's... cool," the teenage navigator says, finally figuring out a sentence that can be said without much effort or thought. Her hand grips the back of her head. "Ow," she mumbles, again. "But, uh... my... name's Tanith? Nice to... meet you, I mean, well, it could have gone... your sister was telling me about you and, uh, wow your lap was warm, I -- wait, what, no, I think... I think I might have a concussion."

Tanith ruminates on this for a moment. "Hey, do you laugh as weird as your sister does?"

Logan Hallis sits at his table, his only reaction to the potential gunplay and poultricide being the sound of knife and fork against the plate.

Pascal is immediately paying attention, once he's got his head off of the floor. Then he coughs, turns a little red and tries to pretend what Tanith said was NOT why he suddenly was paying attention. "Are you two alright...?"

Fortunately for the chicken, Judau has other things on his mind than 'crushing it under his weight.'

Like not dying, that is a little important.

Judau's hands flail through the air violently roughly one second before he crashes into the countertop. As if the act could somehow protect him from a bullet being shot at him, Judau continues to flail, going to far as to cover his face with his arms before he rebounds roughly off the counter. A strangled "OH MY GOD-- AGH-- DON'T SHOOT-- OW-OW-OW-OW--" escapes the Newtype's lips when the chicken's taloned feet claw along his back and push it right out of the kitchen.

A second passes. Judau, sprawled over the tabletop, peers at the shaking gun. He also looks towards Bright. He considers the situation, and also the gun.

"Yeah, well, -I- was gonna get the bird, but then--"

He looks back at the gun again.

"-- then I decided to keep tryin' to get the bird??" And in a rare moment of something faintly resembling prudence, Judau leaps off the counter and proceeds to bolt past -- particularly fast as he gets to where Calvina is -- towards the mess hall doors.

"DON'T WORRY PASCAL I'LL GET THAT DAMN BIRD--"

You hear that, Pascal?

/You're complicit now, forever./

Calvina reddens, when she realizes that she just flipped out and Bright had to yell at her to make her come back to reality. The pistol flips in her hand, and slides down smoothly into the holster. "Y-Yes, sir!"

She looks after Judau, though, and /scowls/.

"...." Bright is silent as his tongue runs over his teeth. "..Where do I find these Gundam pilots," he softly murmurs in askance. Where indeed.

Cagalli is not so awful with people as to be unable to interpret Tanith's incredible awkwardness and word-stumbling; instantly, she sits up a little straighter, slowly pulling herself back up from the awkward position of 'under the table.'

"I, uh -- well --" she starts, sitting up straight as a board once she settles into her chair and trying her best not to do anything that could even remotely look like a prurient interest in Tanith even by accident, "I don't think so? She's always been very unexpressive."

She proceeds to eat her pancakes as ravenously as possible without just burying her face in them, because what else is she even going to do.

Logan Hallis stands up, having finished his plate, and walks into the nearest head...carrying the plate with him. Disturbing or not, he emerges a few moments later, with a plate which has apparently been cleaned. He places it near the other piled plates, and retakes his seat, producing a lighter and igniting a second cigarette. "...place sure is lively."

Tanith grabs her hat and also creeps out from under the table. She looks at Pascal for a long moment -- or, points her face toward him, anyway, and the redness that seems to grow behind her dark-freckled cheeks is probably sign enough that she is looking at him. "Yeah, uh... no, we're... we're good," Tanith says, rubbing the back of her skull again.

As Cagalli eats and eats, Tanith sheepishly says, "Well, uh, hey, listen, you should... tell your sister to laugh more, or something, because... because it wasn't until after I actually said it that my brain told me that that's a totally weird thing to say to someone. I think I should... probably go lay down." Tanith puts her hat back on, carefully, not wanting to aggravate a bump that may or may not be forming. She rubs her face for a second. Her jaw. Her mouth.

"So, uh, yeah, it was nice meeting you, Cagalli," she says, nodding to Cagalli, "and, uh... Pancake... Dude." That nod was to Pascal. Then, after maybe a second too long during which she may or may not be staring at Cagalli (who can tell?!), Tanith gets up and starts moving to leave.

Pascal waves towards the departing Tanith, staring a little in mild confusion, and then goes to sit down at the table with his own plate of pancakes. Of course, the fact that he probably had pancakes for himself before everyone else got here, too...well, he didn't learn to cook without developing a fondness for eating.

He is a little bit irritated by something. "Is Pascal really such a hard name to say...? I was named after a philosopher! He was famous! For...things!"