The Lunch Special Today is...

[shinigamikitsune]

It was finally lunch time when Romeo had finished his extra assignments and work outs that his mentor had given him. They didn't add too much extra to his routine, but the work outs were helping him build up his muscles, now he did have a bit of strength to him.

But now it was lunch, and he was starving. Romeo stood in line patiently to gather his meal, humming happily to himself. Once he was through the line he looked for a place to sit. He scanned the room to see if there was anybody he knew, though he really didn't know many of them so far.

Part way through his search, his eyes landed on a mostly empty table with a certain person sitting at it. He grinned and made his way over to the other candidate. Poor Val, still in the wheelchair. He wondered how long his mentor was going to make him stay like that.

He set his try down, and sat right next to the other. "Hello Val-i-kins, how are you doing today?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Val had parked himself at the end of a table, since it was easier that way considering his current 'ride', as he not-so-lovingly called his wheelchair. Some ride. They hadn't even had the decency of giving him an electric one. Oh no, this thing was run on pure arm-power.

If there was one positive to all this (and Val hardly considered it positive) it was that his arms were getting stronger from working that old wheelchair and he could feel the difference. His arms didn't tire as quickly as they used to, and he thought he could see some more muscle definition there. Well, that probably wasn't all the wheelchair's doing; he had been working put as much as he could and hitting the weights; just because he was crippled didn't mean he got out of workouts.

Which was just wonderful. His legs were mangled and shriveling up from lack of use, but damned if his arms wouldn't be ripped. He felt doomed to look lopsided...

He was mulling over that when a familiar voice rang in his ears and Val looked up in surprise--before his expression melted into a withering one. Oh. Him. The annoying one--and he had apparently decided to keep him company. Joy.

Val grimaced at the nickname and started pushing his food around in irritation, fork scraping the plate, and shot the other candidate a glare. "I was fine before you called me that."

[shinigamikitsune]

"Ah, not so big on the nicknames, hmm?" If he noticed the glare, he didn't seem to show it. Then again he was so use to all the glares his father had given him over the years, that he'd somewhat become immune to them, or just knew how to ignore them.

He was going to make some comment about the wheelchair needing something like racing stripes painting on it, but then decided not to. Val was probably tired about people making comments about his chair.

"So how is the food today?" Deciding to go that direction, since he saw how Val was playing around with it. "Does it have that cardboardy after-taste, or something?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Val shot Romeo a sidelong look. Still present, and didn't look like he was ready to leave any time soon. He looked about as parked as he was...and Val couldn't find it in himself to tell him to get lost.

Not because Romeo wasn't annoying him. No, Val had been in a perpetually bad mood since, oh, he found himself confined to a wheelchair. He felt isolated among the candidates, exposed; he was the 'bad example', the living, rolling reminder of What Not To Do. He wasn't deaf, neither physically nor psychically; he heard what other candidates were saying, heard the pity or the smugness, heard some candidates placing bets on whether he'd pass or not. At one point, when he'd first come here, Val had wanted nothing to do with his inferiors and had been convinced--convinced!--that he'd get to go home. Why not? His father had pulled strings before.

But his father couldn't pull him out of this one.

And as the reality of his situation sank in, and he started to accept it, and started to accept that these people were the company he'd be keeping for the rest of his life...

Alright, so he'd started to feel lonely.

Right now, a little irritation for the sake of company was better than isolation.

Val stabbed his fork into a piece of lettuce. "Mm," he agreed. "Cardboard with a hint of plastic. The salad was obviously prepackaged and the meal nuked. I can taste its packaging. But I guess it could be worse. Always could, right?"

[shinigamikitsune]

Romeo grinned a little. It appeared that he had been correct in avoiding talking about the chair. He'd heard all the gossip and rumors floating around about it, and was rather sick of it all. One would think that they'd find something better to obsess over, rather than Val in his chair... but he supposed that wouldn't happen until somebody else made a fool of themselves.

"Always," he said with a grin, getting back on track with the conversation. "Could have been like breakfast... that gray lumpy mush, and those powdered scrambled eggs that they always manage to somehow make runny," he shuddered a little, remembering all too well just how slimey they felt going down.

[Anonymous]

One downside to being a shifter was that Finaa burned through calories fast. And the more she shifted, the more Finaa had to eat. On the plus side, she never had to worry about getting fat. Finaa paused, looking down at herself. Well, she wouldn't get fatter. It was strange, as she could just shed some of that weight, but, well, this was her form and that had become important to Finaa.

Piling her tray high, she desperately wished for some real food. She needed to beg Shiloh for takeout again soon. While she missed having her BFF around everyday, getting access to real food made the time apart easier to bare.

Glancing around, Finaa didn't see Rhys, which sucked, but her eyes did land of Val's blond head and she brightened. Heading over, her excitement lessened when she realized he was sitting with that annoying kid from the library. Lovely. Though maybe without Rhys around to antagonize him, he wouldn't be so bad?

Finaa plunked her tray down across from Val and beamed, "Hey Val. How's it going?" Her eyes slid over his frame and she lifted one eyebrow, "I see someone has been working out. Very nice."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Val grimaced at the mention of runny eggs and stared down at the meal he was currently working on. Slowly he lowered his fork. "Don't remind me," he said. "Not now. I'm trying to eat and now the dressing looks wrong, thank you."

That was when a familiar, large-breasted plunked herself across from him, and of course Val's eyes went straight for the twins. They were how he initially recognized her, because truth be told, boobs like those were unforgettable. "Hi," he answered back, still staring, but after a moment he managed to peel his eyes away and look at her face. "Oh. Hello..." What was her name again? Started with an F...

But then she complimented him and saved him the awkwardness, and he managed a smile and flexed one arm. "Working this chair will do that," he said, and glanced down at her breasts again before looking back up. "It's old and you kind of have to fight with it."

[Anonymous]

"It's Finaa." Finaa grinned, amused by Val's thoughts. Oh, sure, it was a little offensive, but when you had H-cups, you got used to it. And it wasn't like they had much of a meeting before. Honestly, it was cute, and it was always nice knowing someone was attracted to you.

"Well, I'm still impressed! I like a man with strong arms." For a number of reasons, though she let the dirty one touch on her voice, "Too bad about having to fight with the chair though. That sucks."

[shinigamikitsune]

Romeo quieted down when Finna came to join them. He wasn't entirely sure what to think about her, mostly because he'd only seen her around Rhys. Though he wasn't surprised when Val's attention was turned fully to the older candidate. He just gave a little sigh through his nose, then moved his salad around with his fork some, listening as it seemed the two knew each other already.

[Anonymous]

Erin quietly got his lunch and quietly ignored the tenative and not so tenative feet that collided with his ankles in an attempt to trip him. So far none were successful, though there was one that hit hard enough to give him pause as he pulled out of the line and looked for a place to sit. He wasn't deaf psychically and could hear the rather malicious thoughts from minds unable to shield thier own - most of the centered on the man in the wheelchair and quite a few were jealous of the attention he seemed to be getting from the girl with the huge breasts.

He was sure he did not want to be associated with a man like that, but there wasn't any other table that the was likely to be safe sitting at - and none nearly so deserted as to have one to himself. Shielding his thoughts from easy listening by covering them with a blanket 'fuzz' consisting of a list of the various drugs and tests the scientists had done to him before the long sleep, Erin causiously made his way over to the table.

He stood just a couple feet away from an empty chair and, keeping his head down, asked quietly, "May I sit here?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Finaa. Right. Was on the tip of my tongue," Val said, hiding his embarrassment--because even if she hadn't read his thoughts, he guessed he'd been stumbling over his words enough to make it obvious that he'd forgotten. Damn.

At least she didn't seem too bothered by it!

He was still reveling in the talk of his strong arms and thinking that maybe this wheelchair thing had a couple hidden perks (like being eye-level with most girls' tits and building strong arms) when another voice cut in, making him pull his eyes away from Finaa and swivel around to look.

Rudely, he stared. He couldn't help it. That was some mark the guy had on him...

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Sure." What was another person? It already looked like he was gathering quite the crowd, and it wasn't like he owned the table.

[Anonymous]

"Yeah. Yeah. Sure. You know the best way to pick up a girl isn't to forget her name and forget to look her in the eyes." Finaa made an upward hand gesture, "My face is actually up here." She wasn't angry, her expression amused for the most part.

The new arrival was a little startling. That large red mark on his face was hard to not stare at, but Finaa tried to keep eye contact with him, "Of course. I don't mind at all. My name is Finaa. What's yours?"

[shinigamikitsune]

At least Romeo was one male that Finna didn't have to worry about staring at her boobs all of the time. While they were huge, he at least gave her the benefit of the doubt that no woman would want them that big if she were smart... and if they were part of her natural form, then why should she feel as though she had to change it.

He was about to go off on some tangent, with his mother's voice ringing in his head that he shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, when a new voice was directed towards them. When he looked up to see who the voice came from, his ears perked up. If anybody were bother to pay enough attention to him, they would soon discover that the best way to tell what mood he was in, was by his ears and tail. No matter how he tried, he just couldn't condition them to do what he wanted.

Right now he was curious, and rather thankful that his mother's words of wisdom had rolled around in his brain just moments before, otherwise he might just be outright staring at the newcomer. Instead he scooted over in order to make room for the guy. "Sure... I'm Romeo, by the way."

[Anonymous]

Erin watched Romeo scoot over, then let his eyes drift to the seat next to the catboy. He set his tray down and slowly pulled the chair out to place it equidistant from the two people to either side of him. After carefully sitting down just on the edge of the chair - for the fastest time standing up and moving away should he need to - he looked to them all and offered a small, polite smile.

It was because they were all staring at his face. At his mark. The girl, Finaa, was trying not to. But he'd gotten enough of the treatment already that he could tell exactly where all the eyes were falling. They probably couldn't even see the smile for the field of discolored skin they concentrated on.

"I am Erin, Pilot Candidate Stage One," He replied softly with a small nod in greeting to each now that he was seated. "It is a pleasure to meet you Romeo Everard, Finna al Jarn, and  Val Mynatt." Maybe it wasn't actually a pleasure, but it was certainly the polite thing to say.

He knew the last names of the higher stage pilots only because they'd given their first and the small PDA/phone he'd been given upon entrance that was currently in his off-hand supplied the rest based on the facial images his own sight supplied in combination. Val he knew from the stories and the thoughts and the fact that the kid was crippled for talking back to a Pilot. That was hard not to know or be aware of even if he'd only been there a relatively short time.

"I hope I am not interrupting you conversation. If you wish to continue without including me, I will not be offended. I am fine with eating in silence."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Val slowly arched an eyebrow an Erin, then cast a confused look at the other candidates seated at the table. He'd met some strange candidates around here--you know, like catboys and whatnot--but Erin was starting to pull ahead in the race for weirdest candidate. Or at least most socially inept, apparently. He wasn't sure whether to take that 'don't worry about including me' line as fact or passive-aggressive woe-is-me crap.

And Val knew passive-aggressive woe-is-me crap.

"Uh. Okay..." he said, then gave a snort. "Well, that's not awkward at all."

[Anonymous]

Finaa blinked, not quite sure what to say to that. Val, while being rude, had kind of summed it up. That was a very awkward thing to say. But Finaa wasn't about to let that stop her, "Well, um, did you want to talk with us? You are welcome too. Or not, if you don't wanna."

[Anonymous]

Erin looked at them with slowly blinking eyes, realization that he'd somehow offended them coming to him. He hadn't meant to. He dropped his head  a fraction as he tried to figure out what was wrong with what he had said, brows scrunching while he went over his own words. He finally concluded that he truly did not understand.

So he lifted his head once more and smiled in that polite manner he had been taught, "I would not mind joining in. What is the topic of discussion?"

[shinigamikitsune]

Romeo arched a brow at Val... so it seemed that Erin had managed to step on his toes. Then again, considering the state the other boy was in, it probably didn't take much. When in a situation like this, it was best to ignore the awkwardness. After all, a situation was only awkward if you made it that way.

Seeing his chance to join in again, he grinned brightly and leaned over to sling an arm around Erin's shoulders as though they'd always been best buds. "I don't rightly remember... but I do know that our dear little Val was doing a poor job of hiding the fact that miss Finaa's natural endowments had rendered him brainless for a moment."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Val shot Romeo a sharp glare. "Oh, hah hah," he said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, that's hardly an interesting topic of discussion."

[Anonymous]

Finaa frowned, a little irritated at Romeo, "Well, uh, that wasn't really necessary. Shall we just get this out of the way then? I have huge tits." Reaching up, Finaa jiggled them, expression irritated, "People stare. End of story."

It had been fun flirting with Val, but now Finaa just felt insecure. The first thing and often the only thing people seemed to notice about her was the tits. Sure, she liked them well enough, they were a part of her and she had learned to accept what she looked like, but it just felt like every time she met people, they just wanted to talk to her breasts.

"We good? Alright then. Erin, we were mostly getting to know each other. So you came in at a good time. How are you liking the ATC so far?"