A visit to the slammer. [Anona!]

[Rhi-Rhi]

The utility closet was Arrow's old friend. She'd utilized it once, when she'd first arrived in the ATC, to escape from some bullies back when she'd been a nobody. Back before she'd started dating a higher level candidate who was buddies with a Pilot known for being dangerous. She hadn't anticipated needing it again. But ever since they'd gently, mutually broken it off and her ex had long since graduated, well...

It was open season, again.

The shy ones were always easy targets, and bullies tended to be cowards, but knowing that didn't help her much. Oh, sure, she'd grown a backbone since coming here--the drills and training and new reality of her world did that. She'd learned to fight back, and to talk back. But a backbone didn't do much good when it was three on one and you were smaller.

Thank goodness she was also faster.

And that's how she found herself locked in a utility closet.

Yup. Locked.

Oh, she'd escaped the bullies, all right. She'd dashed away and hidden herself in the closet, which had worked awesomely several months back. But this time they were onto her, for it was hard to hide from a psychic. She'd braced herself for a fight, prepared for them to drag her out--

And instead, laughing, they'd locked the damned door.

Their voices had long since faded down the hall as they headed off to the cafeteria for a lunch it looked like she'd be missing. With a groan, Arrow leaned back against the wall and slid down until she was seated atop an upended bucket, cleaning supplies scattered at her feet and two mops competing for space and insisting on leaning on her no matter how she rearranged them.

She let out another sigh, chin resting on her hand.

Maybe she could kick the door out?

That would be pretty cool, busting on out of captivity like that. What wouldn't be so cool was being found here. How pathetic was that?

Arrow waited several minutes, just to be sure the hall was clear, and then pushed the bucket out of the way so she could sit on the dusty floor and brace against the wall. Pulling her knees to her chest, she kicked out as hard as she could and then cursed as the impact went right through her, and the door didn't budge.

[Anona]

Thud!

Makayla stopped dead in her tracks, looking around.  She could have sworn she was the only one in the hallway, but that had been much too loud for her imagination alone.  Still, she couldn’t see anyone, so what could have made it?  Were there animals in the ventilation shafts?  It seemed absurd, sure, but not impossible.  Then again, there didn’t seem to be any such shafts nearby, just…

Her eyes came to rest on the closet door.  She’d walked past it without even noticing, too caught up in her daydreaming to take note of every nook and cranny.  Walking back towards it, she could definitely pick up a bit of choice language emanating from behind the sheet of metal, indicating that it was indeed the source of the sudden banging.

“Hello!  Someone in there?”

She wasn’t really sure why she asked.  Of course someone was in there, or else someone had left the radio on a rather vulgar station.  Her hand found the doorknob, and she began to give it a twist.  Was it okay that she was opening this?  What if someone was in there and didn’t want to be bothered?  Worse, what if more than one person was?  That would be awkward…

Luckily, before she could change her mind the doorknob caught in the lock.  Well, that was an interesting new development.  Looking down to see if perhaps the knob just had a kink in it catching somewhere, she was surprised to note that the lock appeared to be on the outside of this door.  How unusual… still, if the door was locked from the outside and there was someone within, it was at least a bit clearer what had happened.  Now without hesitation she unlatched the mechanism, pulling the portal open carefully lest something fall out.  Seeing the girl scrunched up on the floor, she tilted her head to the side with a small frown.

“Well, if you’re some sort of pest, you certainly are a kind I haven’t seen before…”

Despite the somewhat odd greeting, Makayla now smiled, leaning forward and offering her left hand to help the girl rise.  The angle made her hair (currently blonde with neon green highlights to match the stripe on her arm) slip over her field of vision a bit, bet she didn’t seem to notice or care, gaze intent on her new found classmate.

“If you’d like, I’m sure I can find somewhere more comfortable to sit.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

Erk! She'd been found! Arrow went dead silent at the sound of the girl's voice. Dead silent and completely still. Nope! No one there! No one but, uh, mops and buckets and cleaners. She even held her breath. Maybe if she was just quiet long enough, she'd be left alone, because how awkward would explaining this be? Even worse, she had no idea if this girl was one of them.

Unfortunately, it was too much to hope for.

Arrow braced herself as the girl fiddled with the door, and flinched as she heard it open. Okay. Get ready, Arrow. She took a deep breath and slid into a crouched position. It was fight or flight time--!

Fluorescent white light spilled into the dark space as the door swung open, and Arrow blinked up into the smiling girl's face.

"Pest...?" she repeated in confusion, but then she glanced down at the girl's offered hand. After a moment's hesitation, she clasped it and pulled herself out of the closet and to her feet. "Well, no, I mean, I try not to be! Heh. But uh, yeah! Somewhere not in the closet would be nice?"

She scratched the back of her neck. "Let's just pretend that didn't happen."

[Anona]

Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), Makayla wasn’t paying much attention.  Well, really wasn’t paying any attention.  As soon as the strange girl was back on her feet, before she was even done speaking, she seemed to completely forget about her presence.

She turned instead to examine the door and, more importantly, the lock.  Crouching down in the middle of the hallway, she clamped the edge of the door tightly between her knees to stop it from moving while she leaned side-to-side to get a better look.  An expression of deep concentration and confusion encompassed her features, and her left hand now gripped her chin and covered her mouth, it’s gloved right partner crossing her chest to cradle her left elbow.  Muttering to herself quietly for a moment, she eventually spoke up a bit, the level somewhere between conversational and continued introspection.

“It’s odd, isn’t it, having a door that locks from the outside… after all, the purpose of a lock is to keep something on one side from passing through, so this seems better designed for a holding cell than a closet… at least, installed in this direction of course… maybe if it were only key-accessible it would work fine, but for a manual…”

She trailed off again, and it was a solid few seconds before she stopped moving around to examine the thing.  When she did stop, she sat up straight for a moment, blinking a couple of times before turning her head to look back and up at Arrow.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you-… um, well were you talking to me?”

Not waiting for a response Makayla then stood, stretching is if she’d been hunched there for hours before rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet a couple times, looking around.

“Well, never mind, what’s said is said.  I suppose I should introduce myself.  My name’s Makayla, but you can call me Sparks if you like.”

Once again, she offered her left hand, this time for a shake, her right finding her pocket.  There seemed to be a tiny bit of a bow in her gesture, a small bend at the waist.  Still, she was smiling again, her eyes closed with the expression.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Aaand then she was being ignored, because apparently the door was super fascinating? Arrow stared at the other girl in bewilderment as the girl examined it and carried on some conversation with herself, and wondered if it would be rude to sort of edge away. She didn't want to miss out on lunch! Or, like, interrupt whatever serious business the girl was conducting with the utility closet.

She was still wrestling with indecision when the girl decided she existed again, and she jumped in surprise, startled out of her thoughts, when she was addressed directly.

"Oh, uh, ye--" Arrow started to say, but she was cut off by Makayla's introduction. Jeez! This one sure liked to talk!

But other than that, she seemed harmless enough. Eccentric, but harmless.

Arrow paused several seconds, just to be sure Makayla was done, before she decided to try and get a word in.

"I'm Arrow," she said with a smile as she took the girl's hand and gave it a friendly shake. "Arrow Archer. But, er, you can just call me Arrow. My parents had a weird sense of humor, heh."

She tilted her head curiously. "So...Sparks. Is that like a nickname or do you have like electrokinesis?"

[Anona]

Makayla giggled as Arrow did her best to explain away her somewhat bizarre name.  It wasn’t that she found the name itself funny, so much as the other girl’s attempts to explain it away seemed silly.  Makayla thrived on the oddities in life, after all, and to her the title seemed perfectly acceptable in its wit.

“Well, you have an adorable name, Arrow, and it’s nice to meet you.  As for me…”

She paused now, straightening up again as she looked to the ceiling, a tiny frown of concentration returning to her features.  The change was only momentary, though, and within seconds the girl’s smile had returned in force, yet again leading her to close her eyes for little reason.  Her hand now rose to scratch the back of her head, and a keen eye could pick up her blonde and green locks rising up a bit as the fingers moved through them.

“Both, I suppose.  I mean, it’s a nickname back home, but only because I’m an electrokinetic.  So… yeah, both.”

Slowing allowing her hand to drop back to her side, Makayla’s smile lessened a touch as she once more looked at Arrow.  Her own head tilted to the side as the other girl had done earlier, albeit at a more prominent angle, and after a brief pause she went on.

“So what is it that you do?  I mean, most everyone here is a telepath, so you probably are too, right?  Can you do anything else?  Not that, y’know, telepathy doesn’t sound like a really useful trick.  I was just curious is all.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Me? Oh, well, um, nothing really as impressive or anything as electrokinesis," Arrow said, lowering her eyes and fiddling with the hem of her uniform jacket. Telepathy was impressive to a non-psychic, but par for the course here, practically a requirement for entry! Among the ATC, it was nothing to really brag about, unless you were well above average, which she wasn't.

She glanced back up. "Just, y'know, yeah. Telepathy. But my other thing is empathy. Er, that is, everyone's got empathy, I mean I'm an empath! Reading emotions and stuff...oh!" She held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Don't worry! I got taught how to shield it and everything so, I mean, I promise I won't snoop on you! But uh, yeah! It's not as exciting as other things, it's more of a pain than anything and--sorry. I'm rambling, huh?"

With a sheepish laugh, she rubbed the back of her neck. "So...electrokinesis . I've heard that's pretty tricky."

[Anona]

Despite Arrow’s apparent disappointment with her own abilities, Makayla found the idea fascinating.  Shaking her head quickly when rambling was mentioned, she still held her tongue until her new acquaintance was done speaking.  Precluding her words with a shrug, the candidate once more stared off into space, this time towards the nearest wall of the corridor.

“I dunno, I guess it’s okay.  I hear that most people who can do it are really powerful, and it’s hard to control, but… well, I guess I’m just not as good at it.  I can’t do much more than make sparks, really.”

The electrokinetic’s bright blue eyes found their way back to Arrow at this point, looking at her intently.  She leaned a little closer, as if examining the girl for some sort of detail she may have overlooked, though her genial smile remained as constant as ever, making the gesture less threatening and more just odd.  Rolling back and forth on the balls of her feet again, it didn’t take long for the lull in conversation to pass.

“But you’re a telepath?  Really?  I mean, I know it’s supposed to be really common here, and empaths are supposed to be rarer and stuff, but… wow, I’ve never actually met someone like you to talk to before.  A telepath, I mean.  Aside from maybe some of the recruiters... It just seems like it would be so useful, knowing what everyone’s thinking and stuff.”

Now it was Makayla’s turn to laugh, her light giggle much less nervous sounding, even if it was still directed at her own lack of knowledge.  She leaned back, giving Arrow back the space she had invaded and then some, gaze once more flitting to a new spot on the ceiling.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t really get what the difference is between a telepath and an empath… I always just sort of assumed that emotions would be covered in mental interaction with anything other than a machine, but I guess that’s not right, right?”

Yet again Makayla’s view moved, meeting the other girl’s eyes for a moment to offer a slightly larger, reassuring smile.  Then she took a few steps, the clomping of her boots echoing down the hall as she moved to walk past Arrow.  Just as she might have passed, she stopped mid-step, as if just realizing that this would have carried her away from the conversation.  Turning enough to look at the girl from the closet once more, she spoke once more.

“By the way, did you want to go get something to eat?”

The question was appropriate, given the time.  Still, it might have seemed a little out of place, given that Makayla’s current direction of her step was leading away from the mess hall…

[Rhi-Rhi]

Arrow smacked her forehead. "Oh, shoot, that's right! We better head to the cafeteria now before we miss lunch! Jeez, how long was I in there?" she said, and started to head for it when she noticed Makayla was...totally heading the wrong way. She spun on her heel and grabbed the other girl's arm.

"Hey, it's, um, it's this way."

Maybe the other girl was new? Could be, but it could also be she was easily distracted. She was getting that sort of vibe from her, and it had nothing to do with psionics.

Turning in the correct direction, she started to lead the way, and figured now was a good chance to answer Makayla's questions.

"So, yeah, empath stuff...it's pretty different! I mean, they're connected, but...different, being able to read minds versus emotions. Like, thoughts are already weird--flashes of images and words that don't always make sense. It's really distracting when you're in a crowd. Sounds like a bunch of constant mumbling or whispering and sometimes screaming. Emotions, though, emotions are like...raw. It's both easier and harder to figure out emotions. Easier 'cause we all have the same emotions, you know? We've all been scared or happy or nervous. It's harder 'cause sometimes, you don't even know what you're own emotions are doing. And having a bunch of emotions in your head, a bunch that don't even belong to you..."

She glanced sidelong at Makayla. "Well, sometimes it's hard to figure out what's what. Is that what you're feeling? Or is that someone else? Ugh, sometimes I wish I had something else, but Adrian said it's pretty useful. Oh, he's another empath. A Pilot. Taught me how to do a little shielding, 'cause if you don't...yeah."

She gave Makayla a sheepish look, realizing then that she'd rambled a lot, and hoping she hadn't bored her. "Er...sorry. So. Yeah! Electrokinesis. Is it hard to shower?"

She blurted it out before she even realized what she was saying, desperate for a subject change as she was.

[Anona]

Were Arrow paying particularly close attention, she might have noticed that something wasn’t quite right when she grabbed Makayla’s arm to turn her about.  Her right arm had very little give to it, unusual for flesh and bone.  Either the girl was secretly more muscular than your average body builder, had some sort of metal plate hidden in her sleeve, or… well, something.  A keen eye would have also noticed a brief flash of emotion on the electrokinetic’s face, a mixture of surprise and possibly worry, though this look vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and as soon as she was turned about the girl deftly and subtly extracted herself from the light touch.

In either case, Makayla had had no qualms with the direction of their conversation up until this point.  She was always fascinated to learn something new, and as one of the only pilot candidates who was not gifted with telepathy she felt as if she were far behind her peers on such information.  Still, she took the change in focus in stride; her heavy steps beside Arrow never once faltering as she once more averted her gaze to ponder this new question.

“Hard to shower… you know I never really gave it much thought.  It’s surprisingly difficult to electrocute yourself, though, since you’re the source of the energy, which means the energy is always passing through you in some amount.  I’d guess even for really powerful electrokinetics hurting yourself isn’t particularly feasible…”

She trailed off, only to giggle a bit.  Her left hand (the one without a glove) rose to scratch the back of her head, and her blue-eyed gaze once more came to rest upon Arrow.

“Then again, that’s purely hypothetical.  Like I said, I’m not exactly the most juiced up electrokinetic you’ve ever met.  Even when I’m trying I’m lucky to squeak out enough power to fake a joy buzzer, so misfires aren’t a huge concern for me personally.”

At this point she trailed off again, though her eyes remained locked on Arrow’s face as she resumed staring at the girl intently for a while.  While she was well aware of the other candidate’s concern of rambling by this point, her own curiosity was insurmountable, leading her to return to the previous topic.

“So, you said something about shielding?  What’s that?  Do you mean, like, making it so you don’t have to hear things?  Or is it something like protecting yourself from other empaths?  Is it something a person without telepathy can learn how to do?”

[Rhi-Rhi]

The touch was so brief that Arrow hardly noticed the weirdness.  There was a second of thinking something was strange, not right, a sense of the flesh beneath her hand being too hard, but then Makayla pulled her arm away and Arrow went back to focusing on the conversation, listening as the other candidate explained that the hazards of being electrokinetic weren't as hazardous as she thought.

"Oh, gosh, that's good! I guess I just kinda imagined up the worst case possible scenarios back when the Pilots were talking about how it's like...the most dangerous ability or something," she said with a sheepish smile. "But that makes sense, otherwise you'd all be smelly. Or dead."

Wow, awkward. She pushed ahead fast, latching onto Makayla's question.

"So yeah, shielding! Um, I'm not sure how it works, actually!" Arrow said, lips pursed in thought and brow creased. "I mean, I know how it works. It's like...putting up a mental block, like a shield around your brain. Er, I'm not the best at describing this! But it works for other peoples' thoughts, and other peoples' emotions, so I don't have to hear them all the time, because that's an awful headache, especially around so much psionic energy. You can kinda filter in what you wanna hear, though, or lower it down when you need to. Gives me some peace and quiet!"

She tilted her head. "Not sure about people who aren't telepaths, though. But I mean, I'm just learning this stuff myself. I'd ask your mentor!" She paused, curiosity in her eyes. "Who's your mentor, anyway?"

[Anona]

Her mentor?  That was a surprisingly good question.  Makayla was soon frowning in concentration once more, looking away as she tended to do when she thought.  Who was her mentor?  Did she have a mentor yet?  Obviously, she knew she had to have one eventually, but was it supposed to be before she got here or after that she found one?  Eventually she looked back, a sheepish grin betraying the embarrassment with her response, and once more her ungloved hand scratched the back of her head, causing her hair to stand a bit on end.

“Am I supposed to have one already?  Truth be told I only got here, like, yesterday, so I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to be doing exactly…”

Despite this possibly startling revelation (well, possibly startling as far as she knew), Makayla wasn’t about to give up on their previous topic without a fight.  Explaining things was fun, but could be set aside for a later date.  Getting her to stop questioning her newly found source of information on telepathy, on the other hand, wouldn’t happen by a simple change in topic.

“Anyways, right, back to shielding.  I think I get what you’re saying.  It’s sort of like a firewall, right?  I mean, you’re keeping unwanted data out, but are able to adjust the setting to allow for more or less potentially harmful data to get through.  Does that sound right?  I guess it could be really obnoxious not being able to filter things at all… not something technopaths really need to worry much about, but I can imagine it still.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

Seemed Makayla was strangely keen on avoiding the whole mentor subject, so Arrow let it go without a fuss. Either that, or she was just more interested in the psionics subject--which Arrow could understand. Hey, that's what they were here for, right? Arrow had been just as pumped about it at first, until it had become every waking moment of her life. Nowadays, it was significantly less exciting.

"A firewall?" Arrow laughed, scratching the back of her neck. "I've never heard it described like that before, but yeah! Yeah, that's kind of exactly what it's like. Just...with emotions and thoughts!"

Then she blinked, a sudden thought striking her. "Wait. What do you mean technopaths don't have to worry about that?"

They had just reached the cafeteria, and she handed Makayla a tray and grabbed one of her own as she stepped into line.

[Anona]

Grateful for the helpful gesture, Makayla was quick to accept the tray from Arrow, offering a smile and a hint of a bow in return.  Careful to keep close to her new acquaintance so as to discover the routine for her first visit to the mess hall, her conversation continued mostly unaffected by their change in venue.

“Yeah.  Computers don’t really try to force information on you, and most if not all of them lack emotions, so you don’t have to worry about protecting yourself from overflow so long as you’re careful about what you access.”

It was at this point that Makayla’s smile became a bit more sheepish again, the smallest hint of color reaching her otherwise pale cheeks.  Making a quick glance around the cafeteria, it was only a moment before she continued on.

“I guess I sort of did forget to mention it directly… heck, I figure if I weren’t a technopath there’s no way I’d be here right now.  I’m not a very strong electrokinetic by any means, and even if I were I’m not a telepath, so without that.”

Another glance around.

“So, yeah, I guess I’m the new resident weird girl who talks to computers better than I do to people, but as long as I’m here I guess I don’t mind.”

Yet another glance around.  Even if Makayla’s speech patterns hadn’t changed too much since they arrived at the mess hall, her demeanor certainly had.  Constantly peeking back to survey the masses already there, her posture was much more… prominent, more in-your-face, more present.  Furthermore, while she was following Arrow’s lead very closely, she was also keeping a comfortable distance away, even partially removing herself from the line to keep her spacing from the people who had soon joined behind her as well.  As she looked out onto the crowd, a few more than usual looked back.  Still, it was to be expected, not only was she a new face but also a rather noticeable one given her neon green streaks in her hair.

“Say, Arrow… do you know what they allow us to wear for jewelry and stuff here?  I know we have to be in uniform, but can we have earrings and stuff too?”

The question seemed abrupt, and something about the girl’s tone seemed off, almost distant, but it was an understandable and seemingly harmless question… right?

[Rhi-Rhi]

Arrow listened to Makayla as she spoke, even as she moved down the line and selected her food. She grabbed an apple and some cantaloupe slices, some potatoes and baked beans.

"I dunno about better than you talk to people," she said, glancing over at the other girl. "You're talking to me just fine, aren't you?" Then, another glance her way as they moved down the line. What was she doing? She didn't even seem to be really paying attention.

"Hey, um, you should probably stick close, okay? You're gonna lose your place if you don't, people like to cut."

Putting some bread on her plate, she waited for Makayla to catch up. "Oh, uh, earrings and jewellery and stuff? That's fine, but only on your free days. Otherwise, you gotta take it out, and they will make you take it off if they catch you on a day where you're not supposed to be wearing it! It's one of those, 'it's a privilege' things, you know?"

[Anona]

“Hmm?”

To be honest, Makayla had only been half listening.  No matter how intent she had been on the topic, crowds had never exactly made her feel comfortable.  As much as she hated it, she was used to people staring, and this relative disinterest felt strange.  That would likely be solved within the next few days, one way or another.

Glancing back at Arrow, it was only a moment before the words clicked into place in her mind, and rather quickly she closed the distance again, once more seeming a touch embarrassed.

“Oh!  Right, sorry.”

Falling into place in line, Makayla took in the food choices.  Well, so far so good, this seemed well within her preferred diet for the most part, with more than enough here for one person to survive off of without much supplement.  Apples and cantaloupe made it quickly onto her tray, and while the potatoes were passed over for today she did take a small portion of beans as well, albeit a touch hesitantly.  It was a grey area in fruitarianism, but until she knew about possible nutritional additions she’d take them.  As she selected the foodstuffs, she nodded along with Arrow’s words.

“That’s really good to know.  Also, yes I’m talking with you fine, but I also found you in a closet.  You aren’t exactly in a position to make negative judgments about strangeness when someone saves you from starving to death next to a mop bucket.”

Finding herself a clean-looking cup and filling it with water, Makayla continued to follow Arrow more closely now, though once more her eyes were roving across the heads of her new classmates.

“Come to think of it, what were you doing in there, anyways?  Someone locked you in, obviously, but why?”

[Rhi-Rhi]

Arrow added some chicken to her plate, grabbed a glass of water, and then lead the way to an empty table. Setting her tray down and sliding into her seat, she noticed, curiously, that Makayla hadn't added any meat to her plate. In fact, she hadn't added much of anything but fruit. Her eyebrows raised; maybe she was just a picky eater? But being a finicky eater wouldn't get her very far, and would not go unnoticed.

Speaking of not going unnoticed...

"Uh..." Arrow poked her food with her fork. "Well, um, you know like how at school there's usually bullies? Yeah, there's bullies here, too." Leaning her elbow on the table, she looked at Makayla. "Higher stage candidates are the worst. They even take bets on who they think'll get trimmed! And like to haze you and stuff because that's just how stuff is, so you either take it and keep taking it or you stand up for yourself."

With a sigh, she took a bite of beans. "So that's what happened. Stood up to them, got in trouble, hid in a closet, and they, um, thought it'd be funny to lock me in."

[Anona]

Finding her own place across the narrow table from Arrow, Makayla wasted very little time before starting into her fruit bowl.  Slouching over her tray, she set about eating her fruit bowl first, watching her new comrade and listening intently as she ate.  The food was not particularly noteworthy, meaning that paying attention remained an easy task.  While she was mostly silent, the last comment about how exactly their encounter had been arranged did earn a small chuckle.

“Heh, well…” she took a moment to swallow her bite of fruit before continuing on.  “I suppose being locked in is a lot better than some bruiser deciding to take it out of your hide.  Plus it speaks wonders for the class that even your troglodytes have a halfway decent sense of humor.”

With another small chuckle and a shake of her head that caused her bangs to obscure her eyes slightly, the new candidate took another bite before speaking again.  Her tone a bit softer, the merriment mostly faded as she went on.  “Still, I’m surprised the pilots let that sort of thing happen.  Do they ever step in and do anything about the problem?”

[Rhi-Rhi]

Arrow didn't really see what was funny about the situation, but she had to admit that getting locked in a closet was better than the alternative.

She dug into her chicken. "Um, not really. They don't always have to," she said, taking a bite. "I've only really seen them step in when things got real violent. I'm talking more than just getting beat up. They don't really do anything about that, 'cause we're supposed to take care of that ourselves."

Huffing, she pushed her food around on her plate. "Doesn't seem fair, 'cause it puts some of us at an obvious disadvantage, but...I guess it makes sense. Teaches you to grow a backbone. And I guess maybe helps them weed people out." She paused. "Not just the people that'll crack under pressure, but the crazy ones, too. And forces you to work with people you don't like to get the job done, and...I dunno. Everything's a test! So they have their reasons."

She took another bite of food. "That's just my understanding, though. Uh...I kinda used to date a higher stage candidate? So that's just what I heard from her."

[Anona]

Makayla watch Arrow eat with a cautious eye, but didn’t comment on her dietary choice.  After all, she knew she was well into the minority when it came to avoiding meat, and it wasn’t some huge deal anyways.  Still, something about how... aggressively… her new acquaintance was attacking her meal seemed a bit odd, so she couldn’t help but keep an eye on it.

Listening patiently, more than happy to be learning about her new environment, Makayla quietly continued to nibble at her meal as she absorbed what the other candidate had to say.  The idea that the Pilots didn’t step in made sense, now that she thought about it.   Letting military recruits tussle with one another wasn’t exactly a new idea, and had a lot of historical success.  Plus, if any organization was capable of stepping in and breaking up conflicts between people of such supernatural dispositions, it was the Pilots.  In fact, she was about to say as much when Arrow mentioned her source.

At the last word, Makayla’s eyes widened for a moment, and she very nearly choked on the piece of melon she was eating.  Coughing, she set down her fork to pound on her chest a couple times with her left hand, mind racing.  It was certainly a very revealing statement.  Aedolis’s culture of general acceptance in matters of pleasure might mean discrimination against such orientations was nearly non-existent, but that didn’t make it a majority either.  The topic wasn’t particularly relevant, and given how little she knew about Arrow it was hard to tell if it would ever be important to know, but the tidbit would get filed away as “interesting” all the same.

Slowly recovering from her near death at the hands of her first meal on site, Makayla began to speak, fighting to bring her thoughts back to the current topic.   “Well-…”  She coughed once more, and then cleared her throat, blinking away the water from her eyes with a shake of her head.  “I suppose that does sound about right… history and stuff, very well-tested… but still…” Pausing intentionally this time, she leaned a little closer, her elbows on the table as she glanced around, fingers lacing together before her chin.  “If you ever need a hand, give me a shout.  I might be the greenest person here, but I'll bet I'm better than nothing at least.”

Makayla said this all with a strait face, apparently oblivious to the pair of (admittedly horrible) puns she had just made.