He didn't see it, did he? While it was no secret the school of Mecha Carta was one of the newest, most forthcoming havens of magic in the kingdom, Rose tried her best to hide her powers. Even though exposing them for practice and class would be inevitable, she remained cautious. Everything her grandmother had told her was coming true; her powers were that of which no one outside of her bloodline possessed. While summoning fire was an every day occurrence for mages, she feared causing an item to instantaneously vanish from existence would be seen as demonic; especially for someone with a minimal understanding of magic such as a pilot.

Taking a deep breath, Rose's shawl moved ever so slightly from her slim chest. Cautiously, her thin frame pivoted to meet her greeter. The man towered over her by several inches, and and his stature was that of nearly twice her size. His athleticism gave him a refined, older look; though Rose could tell under the sharp lines of his jaw he was quiet young. H-He looks like he means business. The heavy fabric of her dress shifted as she took a step back; a silent transition as her well-worn leather soles drifted upon the granite. The fragile girl glanced over her shoulder to ensure her retreat was clear, wishing to avoid another mishap.

'(S-Sorry)' her lips enunciated. Raising a tender hand to her neck, Rose checked to ensure the scarf covering her ghastly scar was still in place. Her eyes darted back and forth, only daring to maintain eye contact for a moment. '(My n-name-)' she lipped, using her hands to draw a picture of a flower with magnificent petals before signaling to her wine colored bonnet; '(is Rose.)'

Her head craned, gazing to see if she could afford another step back, planing her escape. Her movement revealed a small portion of the dark, jagged valley across her soft neck. Circling towards the man, she mouthed timidly, '(I-I'll go...)'

Mech-watching was so fun. Seeing new designs. Guessing at classes, capabilities, and oh yes, what they had under the hood. After years of the same old same old back home, maybe she'd get to finally see something new. Something revolutionary, something she'd never seen before. Something to fire up the imagination. Or at least entertain her. She'd settle for being entertained. Classifications was the easy part. The big fella she was walking past? Hammer. Too well-armored to be a Sword, and way too big for speed. Then there were two more...

"Epee? Epey? Epi?" Evan looked over slightly at United, as if looking for help. The Spirit, rather than offer help, gave what seemed vaguely like a shrug. Impossible to tell, given that it didn't have shoulders, but it didn't say anything either. So. "You know what I mean."

One of the unpronounceables was interesting, though. Not a standard humanoid. Didn't see many of those often, especially not combat models. Sometimes you saw them for certain farm jobs, but that was usually about it. Those were usually pretty specialized, too. Evan didn't think she'd ever serviced one herself, but her pops told her about some of the stranger models he saw in the catalog. The mechanic crept closer, once she was sure no one was looking, to get a better look. Reverse jointed legs, and there looked like some odd joints in the leg itself... Arms weren't standard, either. Looked more like repair tools. A lot like the welder she used to patch up the Titan, actually. Maybe a support machine?

Not that she really had time to take a closer look. This one was government issue, and some KAD engineers had noticed her poking around near it. Didn't look exactly happy about it, either. Best to beat a hasty retreat. Step back casually. One last look-over. Slow pivot. Walk leisurely away. Theeeeere's a good Evangeline.

Oooohhhhhh, a Sword-class. Definitely not a made-for-combat model, too rugged. Little bulky, here and there. If she had to guess, walked a little cocky if she had to guess. Kinda like a gunslinger. Wasn't converted from a farming mech, though. It'd been pretty heavily rebuilt, but she'd have been able to tell if it was a farming machine. This one wasn't KAD-issue, so she dared to sneak a little closer for a good look. Primarily blue. Kinda like the Titan, actually. Custom paintjob, and some emblems painted on... What'd that one say... Cry Havoc. Huh. Motto or name? Then again, that was a city on there, too. Hmmm. 'Cry Havoc' was probably a motto, then. Name had something to do with a city.

She was getting away from the point, though. She spied a cutlass and a shotgun, so it was armed a little light for her tastes. But with Spirits there was no way of telling for sure. Speaking of, United seemed a little more energetic around this one. Drifting closer to it, shifting around quicker than before.

"Something interesting, Casper? Huh?"

...

"Ignoring me 'cause of the nickname?"

Jericho slowly settled into the seat he'd claimed for a perch and nudged a second chair out from under the table. He drew his legs up towards him and rested his boots atop the surface, using the grip on their soles to pull the seat closer to him. One of his history books was then promptly tucked securely against his legs, balanced on his waist, to allow for hands-free reading. This was all done without staring at the objects he was shuffling about; he had tilted his head curiously to look at 'Rose,' and after his eyes roved over her scar, he politely turned back to her face without any change in expression.

Judgment was turning pages automatically, without his input. His right hand glided over pages, looking for something useful. Jericho himself tightened his mouth on one side; his eyes softened slightly and he shook the hair from his eyes, as if impatient with his bangs and with himself.

"Sorry to have startled you. And to have disturbed your reading." His mouth tightened again, as if it wanted to lift up on one end in a half-smile and then decided against it. "I won't move from this chair if you're not comfortable. But you have my word, I mean you no harm." His left hand tapped the cover of his open book quietly. "Only here to study."

United really wasn't being very helpful, so Sparr gave up on getting an answer from it pretty quickly. She was focused mostly on the MECH, anyway, not the Spirit's interest in it. She couldn't tell too much more from an external examination of the frame, and she reeeally wanted to get a look at the cockpit, but she figured that probably wouldn't be very appreciated. She'd finished looking over most of the machines in the hangar, too, so she wasn't going to accomplish much more.

She stepped away from the interesting MECH with a little reluctance, spared the Titan a glance to make sure no one was meddling with it, and headed for the hangar's exit. She hadn't explored the facility much, not yet, so she figured it'd be best to get to know the Institute.

Maybe meet some people. That'd be good.

The girl stood silently, still flustered at her mishap. Rose was a lot of things, but clumsy was not among them. She listened without sound as the muscular figure addressed her, kicked back for his reading pleasure. Breaking from her stupor spell, Rose backpedaled, dipping into the adjacent isle, just out of Jericho's line of site. How could you be so stupid?, she cursed to herself. The first real contact with another pupil of your schooling and you manage to make an utter fool of yourself. Rose let out a small, defeated sigh. How would she ever succeed if she could not bond with her fellow students, or at least try?

Looking up, she saw a small saving grace. The isle she had ducked down happened to contain the 'Home and Hobby' section of books, where the thin framed doll had originally been headed. Have to find something interesting quickly... Her leather clad fingers raced over the catalog of books for mere seconds before latching on to one, sparing not even a moment to read the binding. 'One Hundred and Three Ways to Cook Coyote'. A acute smile spread across Rose's face. A fitting book for a farm girl such as herself. After her accident, farm work for her was a rarity, but the call to defense from the local wildlife was of family-wide participation. Mother always used to turn the coyote pelts in to the local constables office and donated the meat to the poor house, but I guess it could never hurt to learn how to cook another meal.

Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Rose slowly re-appeared from the isle. Carefully, she made her way back over to the table that was still occupied by her recent run in. Sitting across from him, she folded one leg over the other in a lady-like fashion. Her strange, yet elegant fingers motioned to the book she had just retrieved, making eye contact for only a few seconds before darting her orbs away, opening the book and beginning to read.

'Chapter One: How to Prepare the Meat

While Judgment scavenged for any information relevant to its latest herald, Jericho spared a look at Rose and her book. A single eyebrow raised up amusedly when he noted what book she was currently reading, but he was more focused on whatever it had was that had turned the timid woman's nerves to steel. When he took a glance at the cookbook's title, he noticed that her eyes were on him, and met her gaze for several seconds curiously. At first he wondered if she was going to say anything to him, before he recalled her use of sign language earlier.

Slowly, briefly, his eyes made their way down her slim neck and towards the faint web of scars that--

Judgment closed his book abruptly, so sudden it made Jericho jump. With his free hand, and a slight sigh, he slid the worthless tome down the length of the table away from both of them and turned back to Roze.

Ignorant.

Judgment tended to think most things were ignorant - especially when it came to Judgment itself. Even Jericho. Especially Jericho.

Quizzing her vehemently on whether she knew what the history was behind his spooky black apocalypse glove was not the most charming way to go about a potential introduction. It was a simple human realization that Jericho could grasp, while Judgment - by virtue of being the spooky black apocalypse glove of the hour - had neither the intellect nor the tact to acknowledge. Instead, with only several books that had undoubtedly little to offer ahead of him, Jericho decided to turn to one of the few threads that he and Roze had in common for conversation:

"You'd be a mage then, correct?"

@Cherry_Shield

Cafeteria was easy. Just follow the smell. Probably not as good as what some of these rich assholes were used to, but it made her mouth water. Didn't smell quite as good as family cooking back home, but she could recognize the same notes. The smell of simple, effective seasons. Fresh but basic ingredients. Smells high in protein, low in sugar. Buuuut she did detect some dessert in there, too. Pie, she was pretty sure. Apple. Also very welcome. If the kitchen had looked any less guarded she might have infiltrated that, too, gotten a better look at what was for dinner. Always best to befriend the staff, too. You were nice to them and they tended to return the favor.

Dorms were obvious. And exactly as spartan as she predicted. Really spacious, though.

By her standards. She lived in a house that was more than half workshop. The workshop was bigger than the rest of the house combined. Necessary because, y'know, MECHs were big. But still. These dorms were bigger than her room, and probably about the same size when she considered she'd probably be sharing with someone else. Or multiple someones. She didn't have her room assignment yet, or she'd have been looking for it and her roomies. Still, the MCI didn't seem to have a very big class size yet; probably had to do with how new it was. KAD wasn't exactly an old concept, and an academy for it was an even newer one.

Which had a lot to do with why the MECHs in the hangar were pretty mismatched. Adapted construction equipment, farming equipment, and a few goddamn over-specced military-purpose prototypes designed by some engineer without practical knowledge... Yeah, a couple of those prototypes too. She'd reserve judgement until she saw them in action, but she was not impressed by their survivability.

Buuuut Evan was digressing from her point.

After the dorms she tracked down the med wing (exactly as extensive as you'd think for a military academy), and finally, she tracked down the library.

Now, she wasn't one for books.

But she spotted half a dozen technical manuals on MECH technologies thirty seconds after getting through the door. Maybe she'd even find some writings on United, this place was a hundred times more current with its texts than the library back home. Spirits, magic, MECHs... She could find a lot of reference material, here.

Excellent way to spend the time before that delicious dinner, if she said so herself.

And she did.