2011-03-22 - Fraternization Between Officers

A few days had passed since the last meeting between Ascian and Seril, and things had happened. That is, things had happened for the bluehaired framerunner. In a recent struggle in space, the Amenthes had been forced down to earth by a shockwave of explosions. And whilst the young man had come out fairly well, he had not been unscathed. His left arm, which he luckily did not favor, is wrapped in bandage, and his head what almost looks like a bandage-styled eyepatch over his left eye. Somehow, he always managed to get that eye hurt through the effects of reversed Metatron flow; the reason why it was also slightly lighter.

And while normally, on the NUT base, they would have restricted him to the medical ward. Here, in the Earth Cradle, they were used to soldiers like him ignoring such orders or requests. Not to mention, he was with BAHRAM. People that used Orbital Frames, to them, were both a variable mystery and known to heal at different paces than normal humans - even if by just a small factor. But, wounded and now in a regular military uniform, green and covered with a patch that claimed BAHRAM's insignia, the bishonen youth is walking the halls of the Earth Cradle's living quarters, until he finds a recreation room where he finally sits down on a bench.

There's some other folks present, who are talking amongst themselves until Ascian arrives. "Hey Ensign Luddite, long time no see." One of them comments. Ascian is forced to turn his head all the way to actually see who was talking to him, since they were to his left. "Oh, hey." He didn't know the man's name. "Heard you earned King Gore's respect a few days ago. That's pretty bad-ass. I mean, not many humans get compliments from the guy." The random Divine Crusader soldier comments. This brings a smile to Ascian's face. "I was just doing my job."

As it would turn out, Seril is perched alone at one of the rec room tables that is ... to the left of the entrance, which would explain why she went completely unnoticed at first. And, in turn, she doesn't notice Ascian at first because she's buried her face in a book. Holding it open with one hand, she chews on the end of a cheap SpaceBIC ballpoint pen absent-mindedly. Her fang-like canines are doing quite a number on it -- as the six or seven severely mangled pens littering the table can attest.

The book is titled 'Learning to Write'. The scratch paper in front of her is scrawled messily with various letters and short words. Anyone in the rec room can attest, she's been here since at least yesterday and doesn't seem tired.

Hearing Ascian's voice and name causes Seril to glance up with a soft noise vaguely reminiscent of her confused 'Nyu?' catchphrase. Spying the blue-haired frame runner, she promptly ducks her head back into her book with a little blush, ( Crud! I haven't learned it yet..! )

She arranges her papers quickly with one hand, then lays the book down on them face-down so the cover isn't showing. Only then does she raise her hand and wave, "Hey, big brother! You went and got yourself hurt already?"

'Hey, big brother!' Ascian turns his head about. 'You went and got yourself hurt already?' Ascian's visage comedically turns to stone, and a sword carrying those last words are /stabbed/ through him. Ascian cracks into two pieces.

The men present start laughing, looking at Ascian, but he knows that they mean well. Well, most of them anyhow. "So. She's only here for a week, and you already took up the position of a Big Brother?" Some of them tease him. The framerunner throws them glances, before turning his attention towards Seril. With her hand going up in the air, it is not hard to pick the girl out. "Yes. I guess I did." The young man puts up an honest smile at the girl, not commenting on how he got hurt - which immediately gets a 'whoooa' from those present. They weren't used to Ascian actually /smiling/.

The bluehaired bishonen gets right back off of his seat and wanders up to Seril, quickly glancing at the papers that are laying on the table before her, and catches the fact that the books at turned about. He doesn't bother to try and read the /sides/ of the books however. "Hey kiddo, how're you this afternoon?" He inquires, and moves a hand to pet her on the head - as how he's greeted or interacted with her quite a couple of times now. "What are you up to?" He tilts his head and then looks at the books in a more obvious way, so she can tell what he is refering to.

Seril is hilariously oblivious to how gravely she just embarassed her friend in front of EVERYONE. But hey, it seem Ascian struck back with the power of happiness. When he comes right over, she quickly ensures her papers are neatly tucked away and then presses her hands down on the book with her fingers laced together, in a half-hearted attempt at hiding it. But, it's right in front of her, maybe she just sits like that? "I'm doing great, thanks! Um," She glances down, then up at the wall clock, "..Oh, it's already after noon? I've been here longer than I planned." Raising a hand, the girl rests it on the back of her neck with a laugh, "I should probably eat something, huh~..? I missed lunch because I was so busy." She hesitates, her hand lowering, "Um.. Just doing some learning. Yatagarasu isn't quite done healing yet, so I thought I'd try to be productive and try to learn a few things."

The men kind of turn their heads towards Seril and Ascian, quite surprised by this kind of... normal interaction. A few whisper amongst them: "I dunno what is more creepy. Him talking about his Orbital Frame, or him acting... /normal/." One claims, which causes another series of laughter. Ascian, however, entirely ignores the laughter and keeps his attention on the book whilst the girl moves around the paper and then places her hands onto it. Sure, he caught it, but he won't comment. Just in case it is something embarassing. After all, he knows girls need their romance novels. That's an age-old fact.

"I'm glad." Ascian's eyes catch hers for a moment, as she claims to be doing great, before he steps back. After all, with her suddenly sounding rushed, like she needs to be somewhere, it causes such an automatic reaction. "Oh. Well, ehhh. Want some company for dinner?" He offers. "I can treat you to some of the more expensive food, if you want. I know you are a new arrival and all, so I don't know how you are doing on your salary and all that."

There's a little blink out of Seril, and she leans aside to peer around Ascian at the other troops as they poke fun at his expense. She turns her eyes to him, and notes how he just ignores it, so the girl just shrugs. If it doesn't bother Ascian, there's no reason why it should bother Seril, right? Her eyes light up when he mentions food, "The expensive stuff is the good stuff, isn't it?"

She leans back, patting herself over until she produces a small collection of silver coins, stamped with the royal seal of Helena. With a little frown, she counts them, "My salary from the Crusade hasn't kicked in yet, so I only have what's left of my allowance before I left home..." Glancing at the ceiling, she hums, "And most of that went into these new clothes..." She closes her eyes, bonking herself on the head a few times with both hands, "Stupid, stupid! I need to be better with money!"

"The expensive stuff is /usually/ the good stuff." Ascian admits, then adds to clarify; "It all depends on your tastes and your diet.". The young man's smile widens slightly, and his eyes show a little more life, when Seril's eyes light up. It always made him happy that he could make this girl happy. It always made him happy that he could make /anyone/ happy really, but Seril was a special case. She actually blew more 'life' into him. He takes another step back, the observes the silver joins. Whilst their print had no value, the silver itself should do well on the market. But that was not important right now.

He observes the girl bonking herself on the head, talking about her problems with handling money. "It's alright. You can depend on your big brother for money for a while. And if you want to learn how to handle money better, I could help." That would be, by taking her money and giving her an allowance. "Though admittedly, your begin pay is rather low. So don't worry too much about having spent it on clothes. If you want, we can always go shopping for more. It's not that big of an issue." Though, admittedly, Ascian had only gone shopping very few times, and that was for men. That is, himself. He had no clue what girls actually /liked/.

"Come on." He moves his head towards the other end of the hall. "Let's go get us some food." He extends a hand back towards Seril, so she could hold his hand if she so desired.

The girl seems kind of pathetic about the fifteen or so coins she's presented. And it's entirely likely that whoever she bought that coat from ripped her off. She hesitates, and her expression changes, "Wait, I'm missing one!" She glances about, then lifts her book and papers. Finding nothing, she dives under the table. There's an "AH HAH!" and then a noisy bonk that makes the coins and pens jump. This is, naturally, followed by an "Ow..!" She pulls herself up in front of her chair, placing the coin down, "Sixteen!" With a hum, she collects the coins and deposits them back into their pouch, then slides this inside her jacket. A bit more carefully, she picks up a messenger bag from its spot hanging on the back of her seat and shovels her papers and book into it. Her concern for the mangled pens is considerably less, as she seems intent on just leaving them, "Okay!" The bag is zipped shut, "I think I can teach myself to be better with money, but I'll keep that in mind! It might be fun to go shopping anywa-" She pauses when her stomach growls, her face turning red. Trying to laugh it off, she nods, "Y-yeah, let's get some food!"

A chuckle comes from Ascian, as well as the rest of the soldiers there, as she searches and eventually finds that sixteenth coin. It's a good laugh, one that shows that she is quickly becoming 'family' amongst the Divine Crusaders, simply thanks to her behavior. "Yep, sixteen." Ascian muses, looking at that last coin, before quickly glancing at those books whilst she is hiding under the table for a moment, reading their titles, before turning his attention towards Seril herself again. Another laughter quickly follows as her stomach gurgles. "Go on kid, go eat!" Some of the men comment. "Take care of your big brother! He's good folk!" Another chants. "Let's go then." Ascian himself finally speaks again, and guides her towards the mess hall.

Their trip takes them past Ascian's room, but it gets ignored by the young man himself. He didn't need to be there. "How have you been sleeping?" However, it did remind him of the last time she'd come to his room - and his offer to join him in his room if she had more bad dreams. "Are things a bit better?" They continue on their way to the actual mess, and settle down in one of the corners near the end. Ascian had grabbed two menus with the more pricy items, as well as two with the normal selection. He puts them all on the table and props them up slightly to start looking through them. "If you don't know what something is, just ask."

Seems Seril didn't know how to read very well, or write at all, because every book there is how to do one or the other. A quick glance at the papers under the book is enough to see she's been practicing her lettering. It must be because of that request that she send a letter home. Thankfully, Seril is entirely oblivious to this as the look took place while she was under the table.

She follows along to the mess hall, waving over her shoulder at the various troops, "I will! Bye~!" No idea why they thought it was so funny when she called him her big brother. "To be honest... I haven't slept since yesterday." She doesn't sound tired or depressed though, "I got so wrapped up in what I was doing, I lost track of time~.." She brings her arms up, folding her hands behind her head, "But I'm feeling really pumped for some reason, not tired at all!" Seating herself, she hums at the menu for all of about *two seconds* before she sets it down and points, "This looks good."

Ascian took in the fact that she was trying to read and write. And he realized that it was very likely she was doing due to him, because he asked her to write that letter. There was a pang of guilt, but it quickly subsided as he convinced himself that this was a skill she would need to learn one way or the other. And when they finally are in that mess hall, he just smiles at her as she tries to figure out what to eat, as well as her talking about 'being wrapped up' in what she was doing. "Well, try to get at least about seven to eight hours of sleep a day. But if you say that you are feeling pumped, I won't tell you that you are doing something wrong. But do your brother a favor and sleep tonight?" Ascian requests kindly.

"How come you are feeling so pumped though?" He asks, before leaving that question out there to float as she points at a big looking steak. "Think you can eat all of that on your own?" He offers. "Either way, it's fine with me. Want any side-dishes with that. Applesauce, caramel candied apples, fries...?" Ascian continues to offer whilst reaching into his pants for his wallet and taking out a plastic credit card - and putting it next to his plate on the table for when the waiter came by.

"Oh, no. Just the meat will be fine I think," Seril asserts. "I think it comes with these potato things," She lifts the menu a bit to peer at the selection, "If they're anything like the potatos back home, then they'll be tasty~." Leaning back a bit, she hums thoughtfully, "I dunno... Maybe because I'm happy with what I've been getting done." Somewhat sheepishly, she admits, "I haven't started on that letter yet.. I'm still working on how to write it." "I didn't want to bother you, since it looked so easy," She awards the young man with a toothy smile, "It's a little harder than I thought it would be, but I think I'm doing okay!" She closes her eyes thoughtfully, then, when her sleep habits come up again, bobbing her head lightly from side to side, "Hm.. I'll try.. If I'm not tired though, I'll just be laying in bed wide awake though."

"Alright." Ascian nods agreeingly as she says that just the meat and potatoes will be fine. He looks at her sifting through the selection once more - and leans on his hand - elbow on the table. One could almost mistake him for a boyfriend, or someone who has a crush. But it's quite innocent really. He's just happy. "Working hard on learning how to write and read then, huh? Well, I could tutor you if you want." He realized that he kept offering her things, and it begins to slowly dawn on him that he may be coming across as pushy.

That feral-toothed smile does catch his attention for a moment. He couldn't help but notice it. "It's quite alright you know. But if you think you're doing okay, all I can do is cheer you on." The young man does wonder about her sleeping patterns when she comments. "Hrrm." She did come from La Gias. "Do what works best for you then. I forgot that you're not from here, so your body may be different." That comment gets a few looks from people sitting nearby. Another thing that could be misinterpretted, and luckily something Seril would not catch. Or so Ascian presumed.

"Then I will have..." A waiter suddenly comes by. Within a few moments, Ascian has ordered for both himself and Seril - and orders her something called a 'strawberry milkshake', after which the man wanders off. "I ordered the shrimp linguini." Pause. "Basically, a white sauce over pasta with shrimp in there." Oh god, please know what pasta is.

Seril blinks once. She didn't mean to blurt out that she didn't even know how to do what..is evidently a super common skill around here. Her cheeks get a bit red, and she fidgets with her coat's edges a little, "Ah, well.. I'm doing okay with it, so I'll just take the cheering on then." She puffs lightly, then pushes her bangs aside behind an ear, "I feel kind of bad, it seems like I'm always getting help from you. So this is something I want to take care of on my own." She smiles a little, "To show... mostly myself.., that I don't need help all the time."

She hears milk, and this mysterious shake part on the end of it. In her head, it's almost possible to *see* how she's trying to figure how shaking milk has anything to do with strawberries. After a bit, the girl just shrugs. Maybe Ascian will show her, or she can get her own. Seril just leans forward on an elbow, "You said it yourself, I'm still human. I just just want something juicy." He describes his own order, and she closes her eyes again with that thoughtful look of hers, "Hmm... I never got to have pasta back home.. Papa kept calling it a peasant dish, but I liked it anyway."

Hera wasn't sure where Ascian went too, she actually had to ask where the young man had run off too, but soon she was to find him, and find him..

..with another girl?!

Those almond hazel eyes narrow slightly as the former thief quickly ducks behind a pillar. She gently looks past the pillar trying to observe just what was going on. She just stood there and stared.

Hera this evenings was also wearing a tight tank-top, a pair of jeans with cuts in the knees, and a pair of buckle boots; She looked a bit grunge like, but now that 'grunge look' was turning into maybe 'these boots will soon be booting out someone'.

With Ascian, completely unaware that he is being stared at from behind a pillar, He chuckles along with Seril like as if they were some kind of couple. Perhaps Hera was thinking right now that Ascian liked younger girls. After all, with Seril at sixteen, Hera at sixteen, and him at twentythree, that was not that strange of a decision to come to. "Cheering you on it is. I realized just a few seconds ago that I was perhaps pushing too much on you to begin with." The young man nods. "I believe you can do it though - you seem like a smart girl." Compliments. Those were always good to give out.

The young man then turns his head for a moment, to see where the waiter went off to. They're still not back, so he reasserts his attention ton Seril. "Hey. I'm human too, and juicy things are great. I love steak as well, I was just feeling like some fish today." Technically seafood, not fish, but he didn't really care that much. about specifics at the moment. He's glad she knows what pasta is though. "If you want, I'll let you have some of my pasta - if you didn't get to eat that much when you were still living in Helena."

And then finally the waiter comes back. He puts a chocolate shake before Ascian, and a strawberry one before Seril - and /two/ straws are put into each. The waiter didn't know what the relationship between the two was, so he was playing it safe. Hera might misunderstand though. "Dinner will take a bit." The waiter comments, and wanders back off after dropping two rolls of silverwear.

Seril is completely oblivious to Hera's jealous girlfriend eye lasers. She shifts in her seat some, then removes her messenger bag and hangs it on the back of her chair, "Thanks, big brother. I guess we both thought the same thing, huh?" The girl grins brightly, "But it's okay! If I do need help, I'll ask for sure. It's nice to know it's there if I do need it."

Her outfit is a little mix of 'gothic lolita' with more modern trends, given her longcoat has those ruffles on it, which probably isn't helping Ascian's case in this bit of mistaken relationship-dentity. She blinks when a drink is set in front of her, "But I didn't.. Oh! You got me a treat, didn't you?" Seril nods once to the waitor, then hums at the framerunner, "It's okay. If I know they have it here, I can ask for some of my own later."

At this point, she rests her hands on the cup's sides, and immediately seems to regret it. With a yelp of surprise, she retreats her hands from it, "--Cold!"

The young adult girl watches this display. Her hands gripping onto the pillar's backside as her lips curl into a snarl almost. She quickly ducks back behind the pillar, probably getting a few looks by some people who may be sitting and eating.

Hera then looks at her hands and then watches the waiters go to a from the kitchen. She then stares at one female waitress for a long time before a dark smile crosses over her lips. "...ok then.." She says softly, before suddenly the female Orbital Frame pilot makes her way.

Part 1: Take out waitress and hide her while she is KOed.

Part 2: Take up act as waitress.

Part 3: Deliver food to Ascian's table.

Part 4: Ruin it ALL for HIM!! BWAHAHAHA!!

Getting a thank you from Seril gets the girl another happy smile. "So we did. And you are welcome." A nod of his head emphasizes that he enjoys doing so. Then a chuckle. With the girl suddenly realizing that milkshakes are cold, he can't help but be a but amused. Realizing that may be rude, he quickly tries to excuse himself; "Ah. Sorry. I should have warned you. Milkshakes are cold." Ascian nods at her, then continues on giving her a key bit of information. "So drink it slowly. Unless you want a brainfreeze." Pause. "You don't want a brainfreeze."

He then reaches for his own drink and begins slurping on his for a short bit, before letting it go again. "And you can have a taste of mine if you want. It's like a cold Chocolate Milk. Only a slightly bit different. If you want, I can ask for Whipped Cream - I think it's good on that." The young man then raises his hand at 'a female waitress' who comes his way. He didn't really look very well, he just waved her over, before turning back towards Seril.

"So, I was wondering. Does Yatagarasu talk to you outside or your mech?" And just after asking this, he realizes that the waitress he'd called over is standing right behind him. "Oh, waitress." He turns his head half-way, but still has his eyes locked on Seril. "I'd also like some whipped cream?" Why... why did he suddenly feel like his body's temperature dropped by a double digit number?

Seril shakes her hands. Maybe she's more sensitive to cold than normal. Then again, she's pretty resistant to heat, and wasn't she saying it was chilly in the base? THEN AGAIN she was drinking icy cold milk the other day, so who the hell knows. "I think I'll try this without it, first." But it must be a little funny watching the girl try to make use of the straw without touching the glass with her hands. She squeezes her eyes shut and ... well, tries to drink it at all. The infamous thickness of good milkshakes stands defiant.

"Muh..! How do you drink this?" Leaning back, Seril pokes the cup, then shakes her hand again, "It's so thick, I only got a taste. It's very good though." Blink. She glances up, "Does it.. Sometimes." Glancing down, she uses the straw to poke at the thick cream of her shake, "It's a lot quieter though, than when I'm inside it. So I can tune it out if I don't want to listen."

Beat

"Wasn't our waiter a guy?"

The female waitress just smiles sweetly. She then slowly reaches for the can of whip-cream, "Of course sir..." Her voice said--

That may be Ascian's only warning..

Then with an evil grin on her lips, easy with narrowed pupils, and a near evil look of doom. There was whip-cream all right, but it was all over both of them as she yelled loudly, "How dare you!! I Trusted you!! You go on a date with some other woman! Leave without me knowing where you went! I oughta KILL YOU!!"

Vindictive much?

"Basically, you have to use a specific manner of sucking on it. Just suck /really hard/ on it. Or wait a bit for it to warm up." Ascian replies, unaware of the innuendo in that statement. He then continues to listen to Seril speaking of the 'god' within her machine. Amenthes didn't talk to him outside of the cockpit. But then, Duat did -- but only through his datapad. "That's got to be annoying." He mutters. "Even if you have to ignore it. I wonder - what does it actually say?"

And then suddenly. Time seems to move slower. Wasn't our waiter a guy. He moves his head slowly towards Hera. 'Of course sir'. He recognized that voice! And as his eyes finally connect with Hera, he can already see the white stuff come flying towards his head.

Time speeds up again.

Ascian is suddenly covered in whipped cream. Blinking at Hera. Confusion as she yells at him. Date with another woman? Leave her without her knowing where he went. He blinks again. Those words, he doesn't seem to understand them. It's almost as if she might as well be talking some unknown variant of a La Gian language or something.

Then suddenly, he realizes what just happened. His head turns red. People go entirely quiet. They seem to believe Hera's side of things.

"I... this... this isn't what it looks like..." Ascian finally manages, just sitting there, looking at Hera like a deer in the headlights. Stunned.

Seril's reaction to being sprayed with whipped cream is far less... shocked, and more in the realm of 'oh god what is happening'. The event happens, and she lets out the most terrified of all shrieks. Trying to rise to her feet, her legs get tangled in the chair and - chair and all - the girl tumbles to the floor.

"My milkshake is attacking me! My milkshake is attacking--!" pause, "...whipped cream?"

It seems she didn't even realize the source of the attack was the 'waitress'. Blinking dumbly up at the other girl, Seril sheepishly raises a hand and waves a few fingers, "Um..hi.. Did big brother make you angry? What did I do?"

Hera stops with the whipcream, but she is still smiling. Her eye is twitching. Then when a waiter tries to grab her arm, she suddenly bonks the whipcream can against the waiters head. "Stay AwAy FrOm ME!!" She yells out, before her eyes shift over to Seril. They suddenly narrow. "..Ascian doesn't have a little sister.. he has a twin.."

Then those eyes shift over to Ascian, before she lungges at him, going for the shirt on his chest and probably knock them both down. "YOU CHEATING BASTARD!!"

"The fact that Hera is still /smiling/ and has that eye twitching probably only helps to unbalance Ascian's perception at the moment. In many ways, he has no clue what is going on right now. There's a moment where he thinks he is safe when she goees after the waiter, and the people in the background are starting to yowl and dog-whistle at Hera. "You show him girl!" A couple of them call out. But some, who know what is going on between Seril and Ascian, are remaining dead silent.

"I didn't cheat on you! Really!" The stutter in that sentence probably did not help him, and soon he has Hera suddenly lunging at him. With one arm bandaged up, and his left eye still bandage-eyepatched up, he can't really defend himself. The chair goes flying elsewhere, and Hera and Ascian end up on the floor - Hera on top. Ascian's head doesn't hit the ground, because he was naturally trained to raise it, but then he finds Seril laying on the ground as well at the opposite side of the table's legs.

"S... she is right. She's my little sister now." He is looking at Seril as he says this, and then turns towards Hera. "Really! You've got to believe me." But the exasperatedness in his voice isn't that convincing.

"He's telling the truth!" Seril insists from where she landed. She takes a moment to right herself, just sitting on the floor and wiping her face with one of the table napkins. After she's done (as good as it'll get, anyway), she drops the napkin to one side, "He felt sorry because I had no one to count on. He's not my boyfriend."

Bringing her hands up to her chest, she clasps them, "Please don't fight, I didn't think I was coming between anyone..!"

Hera just sits there on Ascian, before she glances over to Seril, then back at him. She snarls softly before she gets up. "...you two.. come with me." She says now /very/ calmly, "..lets talk.. outside.." She then starts to make her way out.

Echidna Iisaki is the master of appearing behind someone when they least expect it, be it for a completely benign purpose or for a formal, important reason. Or just when it's appropriate to scare the living bajeezus out of someone! In /heels/ no less. But... Lethe Rusina is not W16.

She walks with purpose, the heels of her rubber-sole boots making less of a click-clack and more of a clunk-clomp, the length of her purple hair settling as loosely as the overcoat worn down to her elbows, like a shawl. Clutched in her hand is a data-pad with an attached stylus clipped to the top, and... well, W18 is /not/ dressed like an officer or a grunt, around here. Unless leather shorts have become the standard for pilots.

"Mister Luddite," she starts, but then tilts her head almost inquiringly. Hera may call for them to leave, but she both ignores her presence and looks down at him through translucent black sunglasses before bending forward and reaching down to hook her hand under the young Martian's arm. With almost no visible effort, she tugs, aiming to pull the BAHRAM pilot back up to his feet.

She is /strong/, by the way.

"Mister Luddite," she says, perhaps completely violating his personal space as she offers him the clipboard, "There is a shipment of Metatron Ore in the delivery bay. I have been ordered to have a BAHRAM officer sign for it."

/Then/ she looks down at Seril, her head tilting again. In that utterly monotone voice she has, she looks back at the blue-haired man. "Has there been damage to the chairs?"

A few men nearby suddenly mutter as Seril puts her hands to her chest. "Moooeeee." Whilst another few grumble. "Damn lucky bastard." Ascian on the other hand, is thinking none of those things. All he can think about right now is how he is currently the most unlucky guy in the world for this misunderstanding to have taken place. He is glad that at least Seril is trying to defend him.

His eyes turn back to Hera, and he winces a bit before that snarl of Hera's. Scary scary. He's glad that she is getting off of him, and finally lets out a long breath of air. But her so very calmly claiming that they need to talk outside, only seemed to make his breathing thinner... when suddenly! He feels his good arm being pulled on, and the sudden pull has him standing on his feet before he knows it.

He blinks.

It takes him a moment to realize what just happened, before he turns around to look at Lethe. "Ah, miss Rusina." He replies to her greeting, blankly staring at W-18. "/God damn/ lucky bastard." He hears a few men mutter behind him. And this comment causes his gaze to trail, moving up and down, giving the female the once-over. A slight blush appears on his face, but immediately disappears when Lethe then turns entirely business on him again.

"Ah. Metatron?" He takes the datapad without questioning it and looks at it. It's indicated where he needs to sign. Like a drone or zombie, he just picks the pen up and signs it, and offers it to her. Then she asks about the chairs. "Chairs?" Blink. He turns around. They weren't broken, but simply had fallen over. "I..." He is too dumbfounded and confused to actually head after Hera right now.

Seril blinks once, glancing around at the various other patrons when her inadvertant cuteness is fawned over. After a moment, she just looks forward and cants her head to one side with a "Nyu?" The girl shifts herself, then rises to her feet and picks up her fallen chair, tapping it lightly on the floor, "It's not broken.. I was just surprised and fell over."

Glancing up at Hera, the girl smiles hesitantly, "But... what's there to talk about? Big brother is just showing me how this world works." She glances down, fidgeting with the edges of her coat, "Since I came from La Gias... A lot of this is new to me. It's awful nice of him to help me."

Oh, it's Lethe to the (almost) rescue! "Hi, miss Lethe."

Hera then glances over her shoulder gently. She doesn't say anything before she then just continues to walk. Poor Seril, she had to meet Hera on the worse case; Hopefully first impressions wont make a lasting thing.

The situation better explained to her now, Lethe gives a short nod. They were startled and managed to fall over. That doesn't explain the way that he's now /wearing/ his food. It isn't a human custom that she has ever heard of before, but what does she really know about matters of culture? Well, aside from the fact that this means Ascian's clothing...

"Understood. Mister Luddite, please remember to change your clothing before the shift change to avoid disciplinary action."

Taking both the stylus pen and the datapad back, Lethe clips it into the slot at the top while tucking the hand-held computer under her left arm. Her head cants again, this time to look at some of the soldiers around the mess hall with a cool, analytical stare.

"Hello, Miss Vaskell. I apologize if I have disturbed your meal."

Ascian watches as Hera stops for a moment, then continues on along. He turns towards Seril. "I'm so sorry." He offers to her. "She's normally not like this. I promise. Please don't think badly of her." The young man tries to appologize for his girlfriend's behavior. "I forgot to tell her about me taking you in as my sister. I figured I'd get the time when I'd meet her one-on-one." Bad idea apparently.

The young man then bows deeply towards Seril, again to appologize, before he turns to Lethe. He bows at her too, then quickly grabs a napkin and cleans off his face - so that he was not going to get 'disciplinary action'. Scary. Again he turns towards Seril. "You can have my milkshake too... and my steak. this may take a while." And he's seen running after Hera. A random person nearby Lethe chuckles and looks at Ascian, whipping his hand forwards and voicing: "Gwwwapsssssh!" (Boy be whipped)

Hera has left. And Ascian follows after her quickly, making his apology. With a little frown, the befanged girl watches him go and considers his words. After a bit, she raises her hands and bops a fist into her palm, "That must be his girlfriend!" ... "Oh wow, I think I really messed something up for big brother..." It takes a moment for her to regain awareness of her surroundings, and she's mostly left with a bunch of guys she doesn't know.

Oh, and Lethe.

Seril raises a hand to rub the back of her head a bit uneasily, "You didn't disturb anything, that girl is just .. I think she misunderstood how I know mister Ascian. I'm not feeling very hungry anymore, anyway..."

A ... girlfriend? A term of endearment, a word that characterizes the casual or deepening relationship between two people. Isn't fraternization of officers against regulations, as well? Lethe tilts her head forward after a moment passes, then looks down curiously at the spills.

Then she sticks her finger in a few of the droplets on the table, then sticks her finger into her mouth. Didn't she say that she was a robot just a few days ago? The movements are far too academic, careful to actually be some kind of desire... Lethe's finger, now clean, lowers back down with her hand to her side. "Classification: Confection."

The gynoid turns a little bit to fully face Seril, pulling off her sunglasses again so she can look down at the La Gian girl clearly. "Understood. I will have your table dealt with."

Seril blinks confusedly at Lethe, her head slowly canting to one side with an empty-headed, "Nyu?" The use of long words like 'classification' and 'confection' go right over her head, and it's pretty obvious. After a moment, she shakes her head and comes back to herself, stooping to collect her messenger bag. Rather than looping it over her shoulder, she just hugs it to her chest lightly, "Th..thanks, miss Lethe. I'm going to clean up and get back to what I was reading." She pauses, then bows lightly, "Um.. So, have a good day!"