Rondo in the Endless Sky
Chapter 2: The Island of Hellhounds
"Well just from reading over this more, I can already tell Ange'll be one to sort out." Alain leaned back against the table he was sitting at alone within the mess hall of Arzenal, muttering with a pen between his teeth as he was looking over Ange's file yet again, though this time on Wyvern's terminal device, while on the table next to the empty food tray was a note pad with various words in his at the very least legible handwriting scrawled onto it, all of it being the marked down personality traits on Ange's file, lined to Alain's personal interpretation of those traits.
"Raised in the royal family" equating to "Spoiled rotten favorite child" being chief among them.
"Being raised in the royal family means that there's no doubts she didn't think any better of the Norma than any other typical Mana Human." Alain muttered, turning back around and tapping his pen on the notebook as he set the terminal down. "And she'll definitely be in denial about her status as a Norma. She's gonna get hazed hard and fast if she has an attitude about it. Ugh, just my rotten luck I guess."
"Yet you don't sound very troubled by that idea. You wouldn't be smirking if you weren't." Wyvern pointed out, Alain snickering as he closed the notebook and set the pen down.
"I'd be lying if I said you're not at least somewhat right. But I don't know her full personality, so I'll decide if she deserves it or not once I meet her later. I'll admit I was maybe a bit too hard back in Misurugi. That was just some Schadenfreude though." Alain said, and he let out a sigh when he heard a particular hum from a voice he knew well enough to find grating on his ears. "What do you want Zola?"
"You know just when I arrive! If I didn't know better, I'd say you know it's me because of affection. But I suppose the Ace of Aces doesn't consider me worth that, huh?" The woman who sat in front of Alain had both an air and look of being a good few years older than the young man, a curtain of blonde hair pulled back at the bangs save for a thick strand in front of her face. A wily smile and narrow blue green eyes, ones that were looking at Alain in an elder's way of looking down at a junior.
"Again, what do you want? Or are you just hear to rib at me like you usually do?" Alain's tone was flat, choosing instead to look at the terminal device instead of giving Zola the courtesy of actually looking at her directly.
"Ah do you have to be so cold? I mean you are going to be attached to Garm for a while, from what I was told." Zola said, Alain moving when she shifted to get into his field of vision. "I simply wanted to check in. You rotate squads so often when you're not mysteriously gone for so long every month, some of us feel like we hardly get time with you in the sky."
"If this is gonna lead into you coming onto me again, I politely, as usual, hard pass." Alain muttered, turning and keeping his back to Zola, though the woman just stood up and shifted to the other side of the table. "Personal space Zola. I prefer mine to not be invaded. Just keep things professional, got it? And try not to get handsy with the rookies this time."
"Ah but where's the fun in that? And besides, they're too young for anything more than some playing around. Even I have standards you know?" Zola said, Alain slapping her hand away as she reached at him. "So cold right now. And yet I hear you can be so warm in other circumstances."
"When will you get I'm not into you?" Alain sighed as stood up and pocketing his notebook. "Well, it was pleasant as always to talk to you Zola, but I've got some other things to do before training today. I'll have your back up in the skies, but on the ground, please cut the come ons."
"Ahahaha, well at least that means we'll be seeing each other again." Zola cooed, laughing again when Alain simply flipped the bird at her as he left. Though he didn't get far from the cafeteria hall before someone rammed into his shoulder. Alain hardly budged, but he did click his tongue as he heard a snicker.
"Whoops, sorry, didn't see where I was going." A voice with nothing but sarcasm in it, Alain sighing as he shook his head, a stilted look on his face.
"Ahhh… you always know how to welcome me back Hilda." Alain turned on his heel with a smarmy smirk of his own on in return. The one who'd so brazenly chosen to shoulder shove him was a girl with extremely long red hair tied up into twin tails, bangs falling before violet eyes. He'd dare call Hilda pretty if not for her her typical attitude towards him. "Always so warm with you."
"Well not like you're much better." Hilda said, cocking her hips to the side as she put one arm below her chest. "Of course I think enough girls here have other stories. Honestly I'm not sure you do much else besides work on that para-mail and stay in that bedroom with whatever girl decides to waltz in."
"The Wyvern is not a para-mail." Wyvern said, Alain pocketing the terminal.
"Ahaha, well not like there's much else to do here." Alain replied, not dropping the smirk. "Can only play around in the arcade so much before you get too used to it all. Gotta break routines up a bit somehow. But speaking of not much better, what else do you do eh Hilda? Can't imagine much, considering you seem content to let Zola keep that leash on you."
"I would say go get fucked, but you'd probably plan for that." Hilda shot back, a bit of a harder slant to her voice than before.
"Well it's not wrong." Alain said, pocketing his hands and leaning forward enough to bring him to Hilda's eye level. "Not my fault I'm pretty as hell. And who am I to be that cold eh? No shame in taking a willing partner if she offers."
"And you're as insufferably cocky as ever." Hilda hissed, shrugging as she clicked her tongue and turned on her heel. "Whatever, not my problem. Also if ya' don't mind, how about you give it to Salia extra hard hmm? Our Lieutenant needs to loosen up a bit, in more ways than one."
"Hah, if only you knew." Alain sniped, Hilda flipping him off as she left, Alain cackling as he turned and left himself. "She's always fun to snipe with."
"As far as I can tell she seems to dislike you quite a lot." Wyvern remarked, Alain shrugging.
"That's not really the point." Alain said. "Besides Hilda and I haven't gotten along since we were kids. She's always hated me… for some reason. Don't really get it sometimes. Meh."
"It does not seem particularly healthy to keep up such a relationship. Though I could say much about that when it comes to Arzenal." Wyvern said, Alain shrugging again.
"Whatever. Let's just get to the hangar. I got touch ups to do." Alain's gait stayed casual. This was all normal. As far as he was concerned, this kind of atmosphere was home to him, both the good and the bad. He didn't dislike it one bit.
The sounds of Arzenal's hangar was always abuzz during the day. When other squads were out on flights, the mechanics were working on the machines. Some in their robot modes so that they could have limbs removed and repaired, or other more sensitive parts like head-unit components more easily tinkered with, easy enough to do considering the size of the para-mails meant the heads were the size of a small vehicle in their own right.
Other mails were in their flight modes, being tested from the opened cockpits to make sure parts moved as needed, as well as things like weapon mounting and such. Some were being transitioned between modes to make sure the mechanisms weren't stiff or slow.
There were plenty of models, and most showed to have the same base to them. But as was Arzenal tradition, pilots could personalize their machine, so even ones with the same visible base had unique looks due to extra parts or paint jobs, along with other decals and marks.
And rather than under the main hangar, instead out on the open stretch of the upper launch layer, the Wyvern was crouched on the ground in robot mode. Alain was seated in the cockpit, his fingers on a keyboard he'd drawn out from it's console, tapping away as he checked different things, the information showing on his visor. Compared to his rather lackluster writing talent, Alain's fingers moved rather deftly across the keyboard, not a single tap off measure or missed.
"Hmm… nothing abnormal. Mei's check says nothing was wrong despite the lighting strike that hit ya', so that's good." Alain said, a flick of the keyboard's track pad casting the window in his vision aside. "No oddities in the drives aside from what's been there for ages. They're running as good as ever… Wyvern is this thing really over 30 freaking years old?"
"Much older even. This platform was made with the best technology of the time. My record storage may be corrupted due to drive deterioration, but that much I know even without them."
"Gotta hand it to those old worlders, they sure as hell knew how to make machines of war." Alain hummed, lifting up his visor. "Not that we know much about them. Doesn't help that the mana humans destroy most of those ruins and pilfer the tech in 'em. Makes some of my scouting really damn hard!"
"We simply must take what we can. It does seem those kingdoms are intent to eradicate any trace of the old world."
"No shit! They act so peaceful but that's only a façade. Human nature is human nature. They just act like they're above it. It's annoying." Alain set the keyboard aside and clambered over the console, sitting on the opened hatch of the cockpit and letting the sea breeze pass over, his hair wavering in the wind as he took in a breath, leaning back until he was laying down on the hatch, his legs hanging off the edge as he spread his arms out and shut his eyes. "I may prefer the sky, but the smell of the sea is about as relaxing."
"Please don't fall asleep on the hatch when I need to return the frame to the hangar." Wyvern said, Alain waving an arm up and letting it flop back down.
"I won't! Just lemme lay in the sun a bit, it's relaxing. Today feels nice, so lemme enjoy it aight? Run some self-diagnostics or something. I might just nap for a bit before I gotta run off to the simulator room later."
"… there he is! Heyyy! Alain, you're not sleeping, are you?!"
"Rosalie, don't shout if he is!"
"Ah, right. Sorry!"
"Maybe not." Alain let out a groan as he sat up, looking downwards. Looking up from the ground were two more Norma, one girl with short red-orange hair and blue eyes, the other with more concealing light blue hair braided over one shoulder and red eyes. In order, Rosalie and Chris, two other members of Garm squadron. "Hey there! What're you two doing out here?"
"Looking for you, what else?" Rosalie said, Alain clambering down from the hatch. "We've got nothing to do before training and we're bored!"
"And here I thought Zola was gonna keep you bunch locked up all morning. She not in the mood today?" Alain said, a bitter edge in his voice. Certain memories of childhood for them came to mind, ones that annoyed the hell out of him no thanks to hindsight. Most of them involved Zola to some degree or another.
"We're uh… off the hook for now." Chris said, Alain sighing.
"If that's how you'll put it. I may not like her but, meh. But seriously how long are you just gonna put up with her crap at times?" Alain's remark made both the girls flinch, his hand on his hip, and he waved Wyvern off when the mech's hand moved and held up a finger. "I'll keep bringing it up as much as I need to."
"Come on, she's not that bad!" Rosalie said, Alain looking at her with a raised brow. "I-I mean sure there was that one time but, c'mon, she hasn't tried since!"
"I still hold it against her, and will continue to do so to the end of time." Alain said, giving a sigh. "Not like I can stop her even if I wanted to. Seniority beats out kill-count in that regard. Annoying as it is."
"Again come on, it's not so bad. Zola's plenty nice in some of her own ways. She's just super competitive. Besides, not like there's other older pilots who don't hate your guts." Rosalie said, Alain tilting his head back as his look went strained. "Bad time to bring that up?"
Not that what she said wasn't true. To say Alain was universally liked in Arzenal was a stretch. Of anything there was only a couple other squadrons besides Garm that liked working with him on a general level. A bunch of the other captains didn't like him one bit thanks to still being rather young by comparison, but the fact his natural talents and powerful machine let him rise in the ranks so quickly didn't help matters one bit.
Of anything it's why his "Ribbon" nickname existed. Some people wanted something more insulting to call him so they came up with something like that.
"I appreciate that you try Rosalie, I really do." Alain said, putting a hand on Rosalie's shoulders.
"Ahhh, now I just feel worse when you say that!" Rosalie whined, Alain snickering as he stepped back when she tried to swipe his arm away.
"Well, either way." Chris said. "Jasmine got some new games in for the systems. Wanna have another go at high score runs?"
"You already have all the high scores on my stuff Chris. How much more do you wanna bang my ego up huh?" Alain said, faux dramatically turning away, Chris chuckling as she knocked him on the shoulder. "Though I might just get lucky this time. Cause I've been practicing!"
"You beat that one score yet? The one above your own by one point?" Chris asked, Alain making a grumbling noise. "You haven't huh?"
"Shut up." Alain muttered, folding his arms. "I will eventually though, bet!"
"You won't."
"Try me!" Alain snapped, though the expression he had was a casual, playful smirk, Chris chuckling again. Which followed up with Rosalie pulling the shorter girl into a hug.
"You need to smile like that more often Chris, it's cute!" Rosalie said, Chris grumbling. "You hardly ever do that around anyone else. You need to stop being so sullen otherwise."
"I'm not being sullen!" Chris shot back, waving an arm. "And let me go Rosalie, you're holding too tightly!"
"Ahahaha, you two are as close as ever." Alain said, tapping Wyvern's leg. "Wyvern, pop the terminal out will ya? I'll be heading off with these two."
"Whoo! We can brag about hanging out with Alain now!" Rosalie cheered, releasing Chris, who sighed as she rubbed her shoulder.
"He rotates between all the squads though." Chris pointed out, Rosalie flipping her hand. "Though I mean we do have the perk we're some of his oldest friends."
"Will you two not talk like I'm not in front of you?" Alain said, catching the terminal from Wyvern as the device popped out of the cockpit. "Now, what games are on the menu today huh?"
"We've got a new FPS and fighter on the list." Chris said, Alain already cracking his knuckles. "So it'll be even ground. Get ready to have your tail whooped!"
"I've also gotten another controller in, so Rosalie can join us on the FPS. You cool with that?" Alain tilted his head to Rosalie, the girl giving a thumbs up.
"You got it!" Rosalie said, the shirking back when she saw the gleam in the other two's eyes. "… I have a bad feeling about this now."
"You should."
The simulation room of Arzenal was probably one of the larger facilities of the base aside from the hangar. Long from end to end with high ceilings and holding a total of twenty simulators lined ten across from one end of the room to the other. The simulators were cockpit blocks of older para-mails that had long either been rendered unusable or simply retired from use due to age, rigged up with necessary components such as a side panel where one could set the simulation data to be used and view what the one inside was doing.
A space at the far end of the room had some extra room to it, with chairs currently stacked near the wall and a dark, large screen dominating that section of the wall. It was usually used by captains to explain plans for new formations or tactics during simulated training, or display certain things such as various pilot's data and other uses. It didn't get much use as it was, and dust was starting to gather on the monitor.
And in the room, Alain had decided a perfect place to nap would be on top of one of the simulators. Considering he was well and used to sleeping inside of his machine's cockpit the fact of the matter was Alain could fall asleep just about anywhere and in seemingly any position no matter how potentially precarious it was.
Like for example the top of a simulator a good two and a half meters off the ground where a tumble would make for one hell of a wake-up call.
Thankfully for Alain he was not a heavy sleeper in the slightest, mostly because if he were that'd be a death sentence of a particular, unspeakable kind. The-admittedly rather loud sound of the door to the simulation room being thrown open was enough to jolt the teenager from slumber. Rather than bother to get down, Alain just yawned and readjusted as he watched the members of Arzenals 1st Troop, Garm Squadron, enter.
The group consisted of Zola, Salia, Hilda, Rosalie, Chris, Vivian, and Ersha as the current members. Though along with them were two younger girls barely into their teens, Coco and Miranda. Now as opposed to Alain, the typical Arzenal pilot was kitted out different.
All of them wore pilot suits of various colors, which as it went all tended to match the colors of their piloted machines for those who had ones to call their own. The only real oddity of this kind of thing was the fact the suits weren't exactly all covering, leaving areas like the pilot's inner thigh, navel, and cleavage bear. Granted that was more a stylistic choice due to the summer season, and the full suits got stuffy to wear around during practice at this time of year. Set across their shoulders and also hooked to the waist of the suits were white segments of flexible, plastic plates that also carried a holster for the standard issue handgun and combat knife, with boots of a similar material on their legs. The "elites" of the squad all had raised visors that matched the suit color along its frames, while the clear, glassy visor was currently, of course, inactive. The two rookies rather had the version that was a full helmet, sans a mouth cover.
All in all it made Alain, who's gear when piloting was the same that he wore around the base, his heavy flight jacket, fatigues, so on, stick out a good deal. And considering how the Wyvern was it demanded he make use of the unique visor currently lifted up to his forehead as opposed to the usual one. He chose then to also sidle behind a section of the simulator where he wouldn't easily be seen.
Not that it took long for any pre-training chatter to die down and for the pilots to get into line, as not even a minute after their arrival, the door opened again. Jill strode into the room, in tow behind her being Ange, the glum looking blonde in the blue accented personnel uniform. Alain knew for a simple fact that, due to her age being much older than typical for Norma on arrival, the teenaged girl had been run through a crash course on just what it was Norma did at Arzenal… how much she'd paid attention to that, he'd soon find out no doubt.
"Salute the commander!" Zola's barked order followed into the lined up girls all assuming the standard Arzenal salute, stiff at attention and two fingers at an angle to the forehead.
"You handle the rest, Zola."
"Yes, ma'am!"
As Jill turned and left, the woman took a glance to the right, smirking as she saw Alain camping behind the simulator and keeping just out of view of the others. The dark-haired young man shot the woman a glance as she passed, but she dared not give away that he was already present. Granted anybody who knew Alain would know this room was one of his more frequent hideaways when it came to napping.
And that was mostly everybody.
"Welcome to the First Squadron of Death. I'm Captain Zola." Zola approached Ange and got right into the girl's face, but all Ange did was keep her gaze locked ever so slightly downward, not even looking Zola in the eye. Though stoicism turned into a yelp when Zola shoved her forward while at the same time coping a feel on Ange's bottom. "Lieutenant, introduce her. Now, as for when our extra is gonna be here as well…"
Alain promptly clicked his tongue as he folded his arms. Zola's tone told him she already knew he was present and just hiding away for a bit. He at least sidled around to the other side of the simulator so that he was closer to the others than Zola. He'd prefer to keep as far away from the woman as he possibly could after all.
"I'm Lieutenant Salia." Curt as expected by Alain, Salia then gestured from herself and to the other members of the squadron. "These are our assault fighters, Vivian and Hilda. Rosalie is our light artillery…"
"Are these all Norma?" Ange spoke amid the introductions and the responses of the others. Her tone was outright cold as ice as she looked over the pilots, looks ranging from surprise to outright disgust at how she phrased that. And Alain just wasn't going to have that.
"Yeup! And "these" are also your new wingmates. Like it or not Princess, you're gonna have to get used to it and the fact you're one of them." Alain stepped out from his hiding place more out of impulsive need to respond to that than his own will. He looked at Ange with clear ice in his eyes and his voice was just as frosty. The blonde girl however, looked clearly shocked to see him there.
Obviously, the idea of a male Norma must have sounded impossible to her, a girl raised thinking Norma were female only.
"W-What the… a boy, here?" Ange muttered, Alain folding his arms as he scoffed.
"Yeah, so what? I guess I should introduce myself though: I'm Alain, Captain and sole member of the Independent Vanguard Squadron, Mobius. If the name doesn't suit you, then feel free to use my TAC names, Blaze or Mobius One, your choice. I'm also gonna be attached to Garm for the next while to boot. So, you'll be seeing a lot of me."
Alain's statement came with a few reactions from the Garm members. For the most part, general elation at knowing he was being attached to them this time around, though Hilda, unsurprisingly, didn't seem at all pleased she was stuck with him for more than just her own choice times to needle at him. Salia for one looked a bit relieved he'd stepped in like he did, because Alain's presence immediately changed the air in the room.
"But hey, we're all Norma here!" Vivian, ever the chipper one however, spoke up and extended a hand towards Ange, the too kind for her own good girl happily grinning at the new arrival. "So let's be good friends, yeah?"
"I am not!" Ange, as Alain expected yet again, immediately denied such an idea though. "I am the Empire of Misurugi's First Princess, Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi! I am in no way a Norma!"
"But you can't use Mana, right?" An obvious reply from Vivian.
"Th-The Light of Mana just doesn't reach this far is all. In the State, I assure you…" Ange said. Nobody, obviously, bought that excuse and gave Ange various looks of disappointment at such a flimsy response to that question. Alain though, instead chose to actually laugh, which made Ange look at him as he had a hand near his face.
"Doesn't reach this far huh? Try telling that to our Overseer. She can use Mana just fine even as far from the main continent as we are now. Even you have to know a claim like that is absolutely bullshit." Alain folded his arms as he sighed, Ange just giving him a glare. He'd obviously already found himself nowhere near the blonde girl's good graces. "Deny it all ya' want Princess, you're no different than the rest of us here."
"Hahaha! Well for once I actually agree with Alain on something!" Even Zola found that funny, the woman leaning a hand on her waist as she chuckled again and put a hand to her face. "Dammit Commander, you sent us a crazy one! She's not even aware of her situation. She's defective."
"So the defect is being condescending?" Rosalie said, Chris giving a snide chuckle with a hand near her mouth.
"Oh, ouch. What a burn." Chris mused, Ange gritting her teeth as she glared at the two.
"You're the defects-OW!" Ange was cut off when Hilda stamped on her foot, the girl wincing as Hilda's heel ground in.
"Know your place, Princess… heh, I think we've already got her new name. Lucky you, you haven't even been here a week!" Hilda's growl turned into a smirk as she grabbed Ange by the shirt. Nobody went to try and stop the rough treatment. Hilda had just beat the ones who would have done it to the punch more than anything. But, also leave it to Ersha, the mother hen of the bunch, to calmly put a hand to Hilda's shoulder.
"Come on people, let's leave it there." Ersha said, Hilda looking back at the older girl with a raised brow.
"Huh? We need to smack the delusion out of ugly bitches like her!" Hilda also had Rosalie and Chris nodding in agreeance with her.
"True but…" Alain had to chuckle when Ersha agreed to that sentiment as well. Despite her nature Alain knew well enough Ersha could be as harsh as anyone else on Arzenal if she wanted to. She was definitely much worse when they were kids, that much was for sure.
"Ange isn't that ugly." Leave it to Vivian though, to make a comment completely missing the point of the earlier statements entirely. And another thing that got Alain to chuckle behind a hand in an attempt to control any laughter. Hilda otherwise was going off about Ersha always being too soft with newbies.
"Salia, you work with Alain and take care of her. Teach her everything." Zola though, spoke above that all and barged her way back into the conversation. Hate her as he did, Alain had to admit Zola was still one of Arzenal's better captains, with charisma that easily got people behind her when she was actually doing her job and not being… well, herself. Such as her complete defiance of personal space as she casually put an arm over Ange's shoulders, an easy feat for the woman as she towered over Ange, the only person taller than her in the room being Alain. "Be kind to the promising newcomer everyone. We're all Norma here."
Though of course, Ange glared at Zola as her teeth ground again, the woman's face nothing but smug as she looked at the girl. No doubt she was already having thoughts in her head about how she would play around with this "fresh meat" now thrown in front of her. Yet her air almost immediately changed as she moved away from Ange and stood straight, going right from "total bitch" to "serious commander" in an instant.
"All right, we're starting training. Ersha, Rosalie, Chris, come with me. We'll be doing long ranged attack patterns. Salia, Vivian, Hilda, you're training the whelps. Alain is also here to assist us in whatever training we do, so don't be surprised if he jumps in like he always does. Actually try to see him coming for once!" Zola's barking got immediate affirmatives and line ups.
And while the others split off to do as ordered, Salia and Alain were left with Ange, who was still in place as she grumbled to herself in an inaudible tone.
"This way, Ange." Salia started off first, though of course, the former princess stood defiantly.
"Nobody may give orders to royalty." Ange yet again tripped Alain off to laugh, which earned him a cold glare from her as he walked up to her.
"Royalty doesn't mean a thing here on Arzenal. Got it?" Alain said. Ange then decided it would be an opportune time to take a swing at him. Alain though, smoothly dodged the punch and caught Ange by the wrist. He wrenched her arm behind her back while also drawing out his knife, pressing the dull edge to Ange's chin. The girl's eyes were wide at how quickly that had all happened. "Now now, don't be feisty little puppy. Word of advice: Your flight lead's word is law. If they say something is black, it's black. If they say it's white, it's white. Act the renegade while we're up in the air and you could get yourself and your wingmates killed. And let me say, if anyone here dies because of you refusing to get it through your head, we will take it out on you if you survive, got it?"
"Alain you're being too nice. If you're going to threaten someone, use the edge of your knife, not the flat." Salia said, Alain shrugging as he released Ange and pulled the knife away, twirling it between his fingers before returning it to the sheathe. Meanwhile Ange looked like she was trying not to panic from that incident. "But, he's not wrong. Now let's go."
And now in the locker room, Alain was seated on the bench while Salia rummaged through a currently unused locker. Ange was standing there silently, but looking back at Alain with clear confusion on as he continued to tap away on the Wyvern's terminal device. Salia pulled out a rather worn looking rider suit from the locker, bouncing it a bit before holding it out to Ange.
"Here's your rider suit. Get changed."
"Ugh…" Ange's face twisted into a grimace as she saw how many gaps were in the cloth. Of course what she didn't know was that this barely there patch of cloth was just the basic one-fits-all skeleton of a full rider suit. "That's too scandalous for me… and are those… bloodstains?!"
"It belonged to someone else. They got shot down." Salia turned the suit over and pulled off the nametag in the suit as Ange looked at it. Salia looked at Alain as she set the tag aside, sighing as she held the suit out again. "Look, it's all we have for you right now. You can fill it out with extra material or padding later. Or if you don't wanna use someone's old kit, just buy a new one later. Just quit whining and get changed so we can start your training."
"Okay but why is he in here?"
"Why would he not be?" Salia's tone was as much a question as Ange's. If anything all that did was confuse the blonde more for a moment. She looked to Alain, who just gave her a flat look like even he thought that remark was stupid. Ange however, wondered just what was wrong with them that Salia wouldn't even question Alain being in the same room as them if she was going to get changed.
"Ugh… whatever. But I am not going to wear that! I would rather be naked!"
"Ohhh?" Salia looked at Alain as he started chuckling, a smirk on his face as he leaned on a hand. "Well?"
"I mean if she'd rather." Alain said, laying down with his arms behind his head.
And moments later, Salia had stripped Ange down and shoved the completely nude girl out into the hallway, Alain laughing as Salia slammed the door behind her as Ange tried to lunge back into the room. Of course it wasn't even a second later that Ange's yelling and pounding on the door sounded. Though the two pilots decided to give it a moment before Alain let her back in, Ange stumbling in and collapsing to the ground. Her face was beet red and she was breathing heavily. Alain couldn't wipe the smirk off of his face as he snickered.
"You'd rather be naked, wouldn't you?" Salia held the suit out again. Ange sucked in a breath between her teeth and grabbed the item. Alain hummed as Ange fiddled around with the suit, chuckling to himself as he leaned against the wall.
"Lemme guess what you're thinking: "Oh, they're just like the people back home said! How barbaric, crude, and violent!" Hah!" Alain couldn't help but mug at Ange as she looked at him with a glare. Clearly he'd been spot on with his guess about her thoughts on all of this. "Soo… how long as you going to just mess with the suit eh? I mean don't mind me, I'm just enjoying the view."
Ange flinched. She felt equal parts suddenly embarrassed but also desperate to throw something at Alain as he chuckled. Salia shot a look at him but the young man just shrugged as he decided now to actually be a bit polite and cover his eyes.
"But seriously, what are you doing?" Salia asked, Ange shuffling in place a bit, looking back with a sheepish gaze.
"Help me, please."
"Huh?! You've never put on your own clothes before?!" Salia looked taken aback as Ange looked forward, a small mutter of "yes" from Ange affirming the question. Salia sighed and put a hand to her head. This was not something that she was used to at all. "Man, you're worse than a kid."
"Actually I think a kid is better than her." Alain quipped, Ange too embarrassed by the situation to do much more than grumble as she avoided the two's looks. "What kind of handful did you just throw our way Jill? Geez…"
