Ellie quickly grabs her tray of food before heading to the table, trying to listen in on the argument.
: ...Truth be told, I don't remember what she looked like.
: Hold on, I think I have a picture.
: Oh? You got a picture of Nagato on your phone, huh?
: It's from when she, Tippy, an' I went shooting. Why, what were
you thinking?
: If I told you the truth would you punch me?
: Probably.
: I think I'll pass.
: Smart man.
Pansar gets out his phone and shows two pictures to the rest of the table.
One with just the three of them sitting by a rock, and another with them posing around a general-purpose truck that looks like it was shot a thousand times and then blown up. Morten has one foot up on a burned-out wheel rim and is holding a heavy machine gun at right shoulder arms; Tippy is pointing her rifle off to one side and making a comically exaggerated expression of determination; and Nagato is leaning against the body of the truck, grinning and holding up a handgun nearly the size of her head.
: Man, what is going on with your face?
: It's called a smile, Virvel, it's what I do when I'm not around you. Take notes, you could use some practice on yours.
:
I'll keep that in mind.
: I do
not look like her.
: I see some resemblence.
: They look nothing alike.
: No, I see it too, mostly in the nose and the hair.
: No no, first off, Coma's at least a head taller than her. Second,
that person is proportioned like an actual human being,
this one's got less curves than a Nighthawk.
: Ha!
: Wow, okay. And you wonder why I ignore you.
: I'm just saying, she doesn't look like a shoebox with limbs. Look at your jaw! It's almost as square as mine!
Cualli follows along behind him, not walking as quickly as she used to, but still keeping up. She grabs a plate and puts a bit of food on it, then takes a seat with Elu at an empty table and stares down at her food for a few moments, mentally talking herself into eating what's in front of her. Even though the food itself isn't bad, it might as well be a grey slush that's on her plate with how reluctant she is to eat it.
It's less effort to eat it than it is to refuse to eat it and argue with Elu and draw more negative attention to yourself. Finally convincing herself, Cualli starts mechanically moving her fork to her mouth. She can't taste anything and doesn't even feel like chewing, but she forces herself to anyways. You'll only feel worse if you keep starving yourself.
The engineer from before sits across from you about a minute after you sit down.
: Hey, uh, sorry about the other guys earlier. It looked like they were giving you a hard time.
Poll