[PRP] Just what is happening? (Maebe, Jude, Ariane)

[Pales]

Jude was not in the best of spirits considering power was out in the dorms and everything else that was going on. Morale was always a low point on him for the most part but at least he could still read the books he owned. That is what he was doing currently as he sat outside the dorms, within the sunlight, reading Pride and Prejudice. The book was well loved by him, it showed by the way the pages were dog-eared and the paper cover was all bent out of shape, as of yet he wasn't able to bother himself to try and get a new copy at any time.

He turned to the next page after he pushed up his reading glasses and continued to read. Jude was sort of waiting around for Ariane to come hang out or drag him off to do something, but he was also waiting for anyone to also come along and entertain him.

Jude did not seek entertainment. Entertainment came to Jude.
 

[Dragain]

Ariane would rather swim 10 laps in an Olympic sized swimming pool than to read a book. Especially a book like Pride and Prejudice. Ugh. It sounded like a book that students might be forced to read for class. What she knew about the book came from what she had seen in its movie adaptation, as well as the odd comic regarding its plot floating around on the internet... When she still had freedom to do whatever she wanted on the internet, anyway.

"Oooh, Mister Judy," Yes, his entertainment had arrived, and was now looking over his shoulder at the book, one arm resting on the top of his head, "Enjoying your read?"  

[Nio Love]

Maebe had just hopped out of the doorway when she heard the person who'd been a ways in front of her, call out Mister Judy with such fervor, that she immediately assumed she was about to try and seduce someone. When she looked up, it was a woman with Jude. And she did not want to see anyone seduce anyone - but she definitely did not want to see Jude try to deal with seduction.

So she turned around and started hopping - literally - back towards the door.  

[Pales]

Jude felt Ariane pretty much perch on his head with her arms. It was lucky for her that he had a strong neck so he could take the weight without much complaint, "Always do," he grinned just a little bit as he slid his glasses off and then closed his book. "Bored to death yet?"

Then he saw Maebe, "Hey Bunny Rabbit, where are you going? Don't want to meet my," there was a small pause. Mostly cause Jude was not used to using the term when it concerned Ariane, "My girlfriend...?"

Jude always awkward.

Might as well introduce his duckling to his girlfriend to see if Ariane'll let him keep said duckling.  

[Dragain]

"Even if I am, I can't say so," Ariane replied with a laugh, grinning down at Jude as she did her best Caelius impression, "If you have time to read a story book or be ******** bored, you have time to be on duty at a station." It wasn't a very good impression, but she hopefully got the message across.

Hearing the word girlfriend from Jude was weird. Really weird. Actually, the idea of her being anyone's girlfriend was weird. She should start getting used to it though.

"Bunny Rabbit?" She echoed, raising an eyebrow as she turned to look at the girl at the doorway; she looked like she had just seen something not meant to be seen. And cannot be unseen. Straightening up, she grinned, "The name's Ariane."  

[Nio Love]

Hop. Hop. Hop.

Maebe flinched when she got caught, turning around and smiling sheepishly. "Uhhhhhhhh." Was she.. supposed to say yes to that question? Because the answer was definitely no. Meeting new people.. wasn't.. really.. her forte.

She stood where she was, rather awkwardly grinding her foot into the floor, and waved her hand at the woman who introduced herself. "Hey. I'm Maebe." Was this acceptable interaction? She looked at Jude as if to say can I go now?  

[Pales]

There was a look from Jude as he caught the look from Maebe. The look was clearly a telepathic, 'No little duckling. I didn't have a choice when I first joined and so now you don't either.'

Jude liked to share suffering.

"Come over and hang out with us a sec. What are you going to do? Hang out in the dorms and do nothing?" Jude asked with a raised eyebrow as he waved at Maebe to come over, "Besides, I told Ariane about you. She's been interested in meeting you."

It wasn't meant to guilt as much as he was trying to get Maebe within a circle of comrades she can know that she can trust the next time she was in a mission and he couldn't help her.

Jude might have purposely neglected to warn Maebe about Ariane's desire to grope butts, or it was on accident. It really depends on how one looks at it when the time comes.  

[Dragain]

"Could you maebe be that Maebe? Soooo I finally get to meet you," Ariane's grin widened as she walked over to the trainee, slung an arm around her shoulder, and led her towards where Jude was; she basically left her with no escape route, the way she liked it, "Jude had told me so much about you. Good things."

Thankfully, Ariane's butt-groping hand would only work on males above a certain age. Specially, above the age of Gale. So Maebe is going to be spared from the horror.

For now.  

[Nio Love]

Maybe be that Maebe. So it begins.

Maebe flinched when Ariane pulled her over, and she slumped a little, looking from one to another. Jude was talking about her? He didn't have any good information, what good things could he have said? She freaked out during her first mission? She was a sarcastic little twit?

Maybe these were good things. Maebe didn't know.

"Yeah, that's.. me, I guess." She looked at Jude skeptically, trying to decipher what kind of things he could have been talking about, before looking up at Ariane.

"He didn't mention you."

Nor did he mention how frank and ill-equipped Maebe was at social skills.  

[Pales]

He gave a small snort, he pointed his glasses at Maebe, "Objection. I mentioned I had a girlfriend. I just didn't say what her name was," It was during the small parts when he managed to get rather grumpy with Maebe during the mission.

"I told Ariane that I made friends on the last mission I was on. Your name came up because you didn't make me have to cause you to disappear under mysterious circumstances." Jude said pointedly as if Maebe should be thankful that he didn't just shove her overboard. You're welcome, by the way.

"Plus missions aren't the best time for me to be mooning over my girlfriend and whining about the fact that she isn't with me," He made a face at the thought. Sorry Ariane, there was no chance that he's going to tattoo your name on his butt anytime soon.

It also didn't help that Jude was a rather private person about his relationships.  

[Dragain]

"Judy. I like this trainee, so you may continue to keep her," Ariane laughed, keeping a firm grip on the girl's shoulder; it seemed to her that if she were to let go now, Maebe would just dash off. Run away like a rabbit, and dive into her burrow to hide.

"Between you and me," She was leaning towards Maebe's ear, and had lowered her voice even though she was still loud enough for Jude to hear her every word, "Jude's not a very social creature. For him to have made a new friend is an achievement. You're an achievement. Anyway, I'm not surprised Jude didn't mention me~ I wouldn't mention him either."

That was just how they roll.

"So, what sort of first impression did Jude give you? You could maebe tell me," She was very eager to find out. Also trying to find ways to make all the maebe puns.  

[Nio Love]

This was weird.

This was soooooooooooo weird.

She laughed nervously when Ariane approved of her, but the laughter died pretty quickly and she definitely did check to see if she'd loosened her hold. Which she hadn't. Darn.

It did feel kind of empowering to be considered an achievement - so long as she wasn't a conquest. But, she could sympathize with Jude's ineptitude, which was probably why she'd made friends with him in the first place. "He uh, he was very helpful. And patient, I guess. I'm not very good at this Hunter stuff, yet."

Admitting that was a hit to the ego she wasn't ready to take.  

[Pales]

If Jude felt this was a weird moment it didn't show on him. He actually seemed pretty damn relaxed, even more relaxed than when Maebe had first met him. He tucked his glasses away into a pocket of his uniform jacket, and did the same with his book. Where they went nobody knew.

"You'll get better with training and as you get used to everything." Thankfully Jude has dutifully kept Maebe's not-quite-a-secret-but-still-a-secret fear of the dark to himself. Thinking of that fear - he sort of settled a gaze on Maebe for a second, "You been dealing well with the outages and stuff? You good with the rations?"

He sort of moved to stand up and stretched his arms over his head, "Ariane and I were pretty lost on our first days, but she handled it better than I did. Something about her friendly disposition," he waved his hand at Ariane a bit vaguely.

Opposites attract?
 

[Dragain]

"Hunter stuff takes a while to get used to, unfortunately," Ariane sighed wistfully, holding Maebe even closer, "Not everyone can become as Caelius as Caelius overnight. You're only human." For some reason, it felt important to remember that.

"This time next few months, you'll be harassing trainees the same way you are being harassed now," The hand gripping onto Maebe's shoulder loosened just a tad, just enough for her to pat her on the shoulder, not enough for her to wriggle out of the conversation just yet, "You really came at a bad time though. More things had been happening recently~" In her days, they didn't have power outages and rations till that insanity phoenix screwed them over.

Also, what friendly disposition.  

[Nio Love]

If Ariane weren't right there, Maebe would have punched Jude in the stomach. Except - the only reason why she wanted to punch him was because someone else was there, so she wouldn't have punched him at all...

It was a paradox.

So instead, she gave Jude a serious glare for mentioning things she did not want mentioned, and sullenly nodded her head. "I'm okay. I'm fine. I've been taking walks." Lots of walks, in fact. All walking, all the time. She hadn't actually gone back to her dorm since the outage, and she'd slept - or napped - in places with windows.

She got by.

"Rations suck." That was how good she was with them. She liked the idea of harassing trainees one day, though. "How long is all of this going to last? Does this happen a lot? Maybe they should get a new provider." Clearly, ExcaliComcast wasn't living up to it's full potential.