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Lydia's face brightened with every word out of the girls mouth, and she couldn't help but lean down to be more at face level with her, hands going to just above her knees. "Oh no no no, I was completely in your way I am so sorry!" She exclaimed, still smiling brightly through watery, squinting eyes.

"SHOELACE! Haha, that's so funny!" She let out a wild giggle. "Shu though. Shu is such a pretty name!

The young woman's confusion was apparent, and Lydia was about to open her mouth to clarify when she pointed at two of the others that were further away, blurred shapes that Lydia glanced towards, before looking back at Shu.

And that was when pathetic puppy eyes began.

And she was rewarded with head pattings and cake offerings! Lydia's grin widened. This was going quite well, she thought!

"Yes I--" She started, before a new person approached, one that was also in a white jacket like...well, like pretty much all of the approaching shapes were. His words were a surprise, and she blinked at him before straightening up from her head pats.

And then she stared at him for a time because...well, because he was absolutely gorgeous for one, but Lydia found that she felt that way...about pretty much every male of her species. But it wasn't just that. The bright colors in his hair caught her attention, as well as his accent and...and...

"RAPTORS! HA!" She said, loudly and with much enthusiasm. "That is really funny. You're really funny. Actually, it was dragons, I think, and quite possibly many other creatures! Isn't that exciting? I can't quite remember it all, but it's there!" She raised an index finger to tap the side of her head, through incredibly disheveled curls of hair that were barely being held back by an elastic scrunchy.

And then he was speaking in a different language, and it was one that she recognized, and actually knew! Somewhat. Well...enough to know what he was saying, which elicited more soft giggles and snorts from behind a hand that she clamped down over her mouth.

"Je n'ai pas d'autres vêtements! This is it!" She gestured to what she was wearing which...well, he was right, it looked like it all might fall off of her at any moment.

She then leaned towards Shu a little, to whisper much too loudly in her ear. "He's really cute. Are all the men here really cute?"

Marcus hissed, legs nearly bucking as the pain shot up his body. Human or not, hunter or not, a knee to the testicles was painful, and even with a moon's ability to have a naturally greater pain threshold?

Marcus still had to grab and resist cursing up a storm.

"Cute."

"It's dumb as s**t," Leslie deadpanned, stifling a yawn. It was probably just because it was seven in the goddamned ******** morning, but he sure felt like a dormouse, still. "And don't call me bud, do I look like a ******** redneck? Jesus."

Another stifled yawn.

"Leslie," the Mist said, and began steering them dutifully away from the ...whole...family reunion thing, rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath the while ******** if I know why you woke up so damned early, but it means you don't get a weapon, which sucks s**t for you. You probably will later, unless you die in there, which happens sometimes, but hey, good luck and s**t."

That was about all he was offering, it seemed.

"Anyway. The only reason I'm gonna put up with you is for the money, sooo, don't expect a ton of s**t from me. If you have specific questions, I probably don't ******** know, but hey! Worth a shot I guess."

Helpful.

"Sorry bud," he said. It was less of him being cheeky and snarky, and more of him just being a tad dumb and stuck in a habit. "Er, right, sorry."

He followed the scrawnier boy away from the rest of the group, listening and trying to follow along. Weapons? Dying? Great, its a good thing nothing serious or heavy was going down, for a moment he thought he'd need to be worried! Leslie didn't make much more effort to clarify, leaving Wyatt just as much in the dark.

He had a lot of questions, but only one of them seemed to take any level of priority at that time.

"Uh, so first thing, is there anywhere we can get a drink?" he asked hopefully.

Noemi shoved Milo's face away again.

"You....should stay over there. No hugging, si? you keep hugging to yourself." She scooted further down the bench and looked around, quickly people were actually filing out of the room or paired with someone from the pods. It almost seemed she'd be lucky enough to escape from Milo AND the room of people when-

"Ah...That chica looks like she needs help...." Well damn it, now she was stuck. Nervously lacing her hands together, she scooted BACK to Milo. "What should we do?"

Hanna was standing off to the side of the room, looking every part of the wallflower. It was weird to be in this in-between state. If she were just truly fresh from the pod, then she would feel comfortable not knowing what the hell was going on. How could anyone expect her to? But it was a little unsettling to remember this place and some of these people, but to feel so disconnected from it. She hated feeling uncertain, and ever since she had come back to her senses, that was the dominant feeling in her.

She was so lost in her head that she didn't notice the two people clomping toward her down the bleachers until one yelled in her direction. First, Hanna looked at her shoulder, assuming they were talking to someone else, but when the Sunhunter kept eye contact with her and thrust a plate of food out, she realized the "yo" was for her.

"Oh, hi," she said, glancing down to the food that back to the face of the unfamiliar boy. "No thanks? Just ate." Was he offering? She didn't know.

Clearing her throat, Hanna decide to act like she knew what she was doing. "So, uh, can you believe about that pod malfunction? Crazy." Pause. "Do you think they'll put everyone back in?" she asked. It would probably be the source of several panic dreams for her in the coming days -- Caelius and company storming into her room and forcing her back into the pod to die.

Or whatever.

The shocking red of the other girl's hair stood out against her dark skin. The lilt of an accent was in her voice, and judging by her jacket, she was Mist. But her face drew a blank for Hanna. This was not someone that she knew from before. In any case, Hanna didn't like the idea of being seen as fragile.

"Not fragile, nope," she said. "I mean, I did come out of a pod recently -- but I was coming out of it for the second time so that barely counts, right? I mean it shouldn't count because I already have a faction and a weapon, and I already know basic stuff. So what if I am confused by insanity titans and Merlin and Excalibur leaving and these months and months without power while I was just comatose in a pod? So what if I have only seen, like, ONE person I know and everyone else is a total stranger and the size of the Hunters has like quadrupled? Or that I didn't even know we had so many rooms in the dorms and that I didn't even get to operate a golem and now all these people who arrived after me are doing way better than me and that makes me feel really stupid --- but I'm not stupid, I'm not, OKAY?"

Hanna took a breath.

Well, if she was trying to look cool, calm, and collected, she had failed miserably. All of her feelings had come bubbling out, probably out of fear of her own second awakening being a mistake.

She cleared her throat. Shuffled awkwardly. "Um, I used to be active like three years ago." Another throat clear. "But I got," she lowered her voice, "repodded. And I just woke up for the second time... maybe 24 hours ago." Golden eyes slid to the other side of the room -- basically anywhere except the faces of Milo and Neomi.

Maybe it was because they had shared that ridiculous dream together, or maybe it was because she was best friends with his brother's boyfriend, but either way, Maebe Grace Bertrand was something of a mystery to Alistaire, and something of a puzzle - a puzzle he was absolutely determined to figure out.

Figure out, and then break back apart. The smile on Alistaire's face matched the one on Maebe's; cool, calm, and simple, showing nothing. "I seem to recall some other things that do that as well," he said lightly before his gaze swept towards the one she'd introduced as Cee. "Perhaps," he said evenly. "I am not a babysitter, however."

The catlike smile had returned to his face, and he did not miss Maebe's invitation, or the way she looked at him. "Well. How very...spirited of you, dearest, you always did know how to sink to the lowest bottom of the barrel, now didn't you?"

The dig at her was slightly overshadowed by the arrival of someone Alistaire was unfamiliar with, but knew from his research into Ian's life here at Deus so far. His eyes flashed with mirth, and he did nothing to stop Marcus' intervention, merely stood by and watched.

Cee's scream made him wince, however, and he said, in a mildly disgusted tone of voice, as he finally shifted his body between the two girls and Marcus, "How vulgar. You said your name was Marcus Hasan, was it not?"

A grin, cold and not quite reaching his eyes. "My name is Alistaire," he said. "Alistaire Rahal-Nazari. I'm Ian's brother, when he admits it; which, as I've learned recently, means that you're my cousin."

He waved a gloved hand. "But I'm afraid introductions and reunions and all that sappy disgusting stuff will have to wait until after I've finished talking with Miss Betrand and her friend here."