Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tuck rearranged himself in his seat, idly reaching behind him to maintain contact with Heidi. He sought her hand, and once he found it he laced his fingers through hers and sort of held her hand over his shoulder. It was probably kind of awkward for her but he didn't really think about it too hard.

Settling his eyes on Mimsy, Tuck looked a little lost.

"Maybe order her some food," Tuck suggested to Kostya helpfully, "an' somethin' to drink. Orange juice." Sugar was good for people going into shock, right? ******** if he could remember.

"With some vodka in it."

"Life then?" Ami said boredly. "Welcome to the division then. Try to stay on H's good side. Not that I've seen his bad side. Only rumors~" That was cheerful.

< Ask him- >

Completely ignoring Junpei, Ami said, "Have you ordered yet?"

Ian got a slight grimace. "Watch out for Feng. I'd have a restraining order on him if I could." She sighed and took a sip of the water that was set out. Stupid Feng.

Facing the whole group that had joined them, Ami squinted and asked, "Do any of you ... know the captain? Or why we were invited here?" She looked at the friendly man at the head of the table. He looked innocent enough, and yet ...

Harland filed away all their names for further use; his memory, at least, was always functioning at its best. At least his memory couldn't get nauseous.

Harland, yet again, forced thoughts of defecating dead men out of his brain and tried to focus on food: what did he remember about being a child, with these menus? Did he remember any of these dishes? He hadn't heard of most of them, but he recognized some of the ingredients enough to know what he'd likely eat.

"I'm not sure I could handle the grease," Harland admitted. "But at least now I have my drink," he said, gesturing to the Manhattan he'd gotten somehow. He picked it up and took a grateful sip.

Then realized what he'd really like is water. A lot of water.

Something touched her hand and Heidi blinked. The last time she had just let someone take her hand she'd been written on with a bloody pen, she did resist for that brief second it took for her to realize it was just Tuck. Heidi smiled and squeezed his hand as he took hers and laced their fingers together, not minding the awkward position he was putting her arm in for now. In fact the girl changed how she was sitting to try and make it less uncomfortable, she had no intention of taking her hand back.

"Oh? You probably eat healthier than I do~." She glanced down at the menu. Oh! Bacon! And...oh that was the fish Maebe had been talking about. She finally caught a waiter, asking for a refill on her drink and giving him her menu choice. Finally. "You seemed pretty at home at that uh..thing...earlier. Have you done that before?"

"The project that is being mentioned where your partner is relocated is a new one. You are paid for testing, as each trial with your partner in that project gives us more information to making stronger prototypes without any complications that might need fixed. There are several departments who will pay for testing on many projects from time to time. You can always come by my department to ask." He would be working on testing his own projects in the future and, for that reason, did not warn the new guy about fine print or undisclosed details concerning risk.

He took another sip of his wine.

Kostya squinted back and forth between Lucky and Tuck, unsure of whose side to take.

And then he remembered that Lucky was fond of the C word, and as much as he attempted to be neutral in his judgements of character, something told him Lucky did not have Mimsy's best interest in mind. he physically turned in his seat to avoid looking at the gentleman. Kostya would call him a gentleman because it was more polite, and he didn't want to teach Syntax any bad words. So the gentleman would get ignored, and all his advice, too.

Kostya looked at Tuck with the saddest face he could muster.



"Can ...can you tell vaiter? Vodka seem very good, da."

Marcus took the hand offered, giving it a shake. "Marcus Hasan. Moon hunter. And yeah Ian and I uh- we met a while ago." A slight hint of awkwardness was cast the older man's way. "It was enlightening to say the least. It's nice to meet you Dorian. My wife will probably spoil you at some point- and speak of the devil." Cass's arrival had him relaxing immediately, finding a chair to pull out and offer to her before sitting next to her, reaching out to run his hand over her own out of habit.

"And I hope Dakota is behaving himself." This to Candace, followed by a look to Quinn, and his question, "Oh yeah. It actually gets more disturbing when they go silent really. Best advice is trust them but never fully. Not if you think that they might have other... motivations than just keeping you alive."

Ami got a shrug followed by a stumble.

"Oh s**t- well. Cass this is uh, Ian. The uh, cousin I mentioned. " Casually in passing awkwardly.

"I'm just hoping we actually get a nice meal. A real five star meal, that would be something."

[ enter ]

Foooooood. Being in Gale's room had made her forget how hungry she'd gotten--probably because the ice cream had been churning in her stomach most of the time. The lights lit Stormy's eyes up as she crossed into the room, still holding Gale's hand. "Holy..." Everything was shiny here! And busy too; maybe they were a little late...But she wasn't bothered by punctuality at this point, not when she felt flooded with a content feeling of things, for once, going alright.

She passed Gale an excited look and pulled him in along with her, scanning the tables for familiar faces. It sort of looked like people were going in by division, but...Stormy wondered if they allowed wiggle room. Or if there was even literal room to wiggle in. Spotting Candace, she squeezed Gale's hand and slipped away, her way of saying he could follow without saying he had to. "Miss Candace!" she called, weaving through the crew to give the hunter a hug from behind. "Ahhhhh, Miss Candace you look so pretty!"