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Sabine and Dunkirk—or “Howie”, it seemed. Selene scratched both of their names into her wall, so she wouldn’t forget. They appeared to know each other well enough, though she couldn’t have guessed which one was the superior, if either was. Howie had the gruff, commanding edge that she’d come to expect of MHA officers, whose stoicism was at once a weapon to be wielded against the Abberants, and a shield to guard their allies. But Sabine spoke with the casual candor that made Selene think she was high enough rank to get away with it. She supposed it could all break down in circumstances like this. Formality among Constellations wasn’t particularly rigid regardless, and it was refreshing, perhaps even a bit relieving, to see pilots who could both keep their cools and their senses of humor in the thick of an invasion. 

Sabine made a joke, and Selene giggled, partly because she found it funny, and partly because it was the appropriate thing to do. She enjoyed banter, though she was only recently starting to engage with it. A mere few years ago she’d had trouble differentiating jokes from truth, sarcasm from seriousness. Clarity and social awareness came to her in bursts, where she would realize how stunted her outlooks were and grow incredibly embarrassed, only to lose her grasp on the concept shortly thereafter and need things explained to her. But over time, and with more socialization, she trained that muscle back into memory. It was that sort of effort, and those results, that had helped get her approved for active duty in the first place. Nowadays most people only considered her weird in the same way that all Constellations apparently were, which to her was quite encouraging. 

“[color=8882be]Oh, I don’t know about that. I always leave my number, but they never seem to call,[/color]” Selene said wistfully, and added a wink of her own because it also felt appropriate.

Another joined them then, the hungry Constellation. She introduced herself as Rudis, or Rho Ophiuchi, so Selene committed them both to the wall just to be safe. 

“[color=8882be]Selene. Nice to meet you![/color]” she said to the imposing woman, with a smile, and turned her attention back to the pilots. “[color=8882be]I’m sure you two will manage to find your own fun. Like…crashing a house party![/color]”

That was a guess, of course. Selene had never been to a house party. Perhaps she could add it to her ever-expanding list of to-dos.